Tai Xuan Dao

"The <Tai Xuan Scripture>! Is it the one by Jin or the one by Li? Let me see it!"

Li Fan was shocked and in a moment of panic, he tore off a large chunk of flesh and bone from his right arm, along with his shoulder blade.

Fa Ding stared at the horrific wound, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted, foaming at the mouth.

Li Fan wasn't about to let him off the hook. He grabbed Fazhi and slapped him twice across the face to wake him up. "Hey! What are you pretending for! You're Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, how can you be so fragile! You think you're so tough? Trying to fool me!"

Fa Jing was jolted awake, his lips trembled, and he burst into tears. "Senior Brother, Senior Brother! I know I was wrong! Please forgive me! I just brought you here to pay respects at the mountain gate, I didn't mean anything by it!"

Li Fan patted his face, "Oh, you took me to pay my respects at the mountain gate, so what did you do wrong?"

The official's eyes darted around, "Is it because I offended your beloved concubine! I truly didn't expect you to take a liking to that witch; I was blind! I won't do it again!"

"You dare insult me, you son of a bitch!" Li Fan kicked Fazhi in the chest, sending him tumbling head over heels into a pile of corpses. "Stop trying to fool me! You think I don't know what you're up to? Trying to test my abilities, huh? Fine! Fazhi! Show some guts! Come on! Don't say your senior brother didn't give you a chance! Draw your sword energy!"

Fa, coughing up blood, picked up his splattered intestines and stuffed them back into his ripped stomach. "Senior brother, I really know I was wrong. Just tell me what you want, how am I supposed to guess if you don't tell me? Stop messing with me, okay...?"

So Li Fan darted to Fa Jing's side again, coldly wiping the blood from his face with Fa Jing's hand. "Junior brother, don't be so polite. It's just a bit of fun. At worst, your senior brother promises you that if we get serious and accidentally kill you, we can just call you back."

Startled by Li Fan's sudden appearance, Fa Jing nearly choked on his own blood. He could only cry and force a smile, pleading, "This isn't even the real deal... and the Corpse Dissolution technique can't be used like that! Master, my cultivation is hard-earned, and I haven't reached the point of breaking through yet! Please, senior brother, spare my life!"

Another corpse-dissolving technique? And it doesn't seem to be just physical dissolution; it appears to be used during a breakthrough? Speaking of which, the manifestation did mention Wu Lian's resurrection, where he almost had a chance to attain enlightenment. It seems the methods of the Death Gate Dao, or the Tai Xuan Dao, are truly extraordinary. And that Da Hui in the tomb, he's already a Dao Lord, right? Goodness, if he breaks through, what will become of him!

Li Fan glanced at the sobbing, clutching-his-intestines-covering legal representative.

This guy is such a coward, he didn't fight back at all. He wanted to see the invisible sword energy again when they met.

Li Fan wasn't a born bully or a sadist. Seeing his opponent fall to the ground and surrender, he felt that killing him outright wouldn't be as satisfying. So, he put on a smiling face and said to Fa Zheng, "Junior brother, let your senior brother take a look at the <<Tai Xuan Scripture>>."

"The <Tai Xuan Scripture> is a secret, direct lineage technique, far too profound for me to cultivate... but it's in the scripture pavilion! It's in the scripture pavilion!"

"Stop wasting time! Get up and lead the way! First, we need to retrieve the <<Tai Xuan Scripture>> and the inheritance of Nine Yin Mountain! Then we'll go see your master!"

Li Fan was kicked and punched by Fa Zhi, making him howl and cry as he scrambled ahead to lead the way.

They flew out of the Cemetery Forest the same way they came, and the masked monks, as usual, put down their meat-cutting knives and worshipped. They didn't question them because of their pitiful appearance; perhaps they thought it was some kind of spiritual practice...

The two flew on the wind and arrived at the front of the mountain, landing in front of a Seventeen-story Treasure Pagoda.

A sweeping monk with eyebrows that drooped to his chin like cricket antennae looked up and saw the descending light. He quickly clasped his hands and bowed, "Greetings, Grandmaster! Eh? What's wrong with your face...?"

"Get out of the way!" Fa Dong, his face streaked with blood and tears, clutched his disemboweled belly with his remaining left hand. In a fit of rage, he kicked the seemingly reclusive sweeping monk at the entrance of the Scripture Pavilion, sending him flying into the flowerbed, lifeless. Then, he quickly put on a smiling face and bowed and scraped as he said to Li Fan, "Senior brother, please come in. This is the Inner Mountain Scripture Pavilion."

The bottom eight layers enshrine Buddhism scriptures, the middle six layers house the temple's talismans, and the top three layers contain the temple's secret teachings. Senior Brother, having received instruction from the Master, obtaining the * <Tai Xuan Scripture> * will naturally be effortless. Junior Brother, due to my physical condition, will not accompany you upstairs."

Li Fan glanced at the lifeless sweeping monk. The gatekeeper was also a Golden Core Perfected Realm at the peak of his cultivation, possessing formidable external martial arts skills, yet he was killed with a single kick. Although Li Fan could have done the same, the scene would have been a complete mess. This is quite interesting.

So he smiled at Fazhi and said, "Junior brother, you've got quite a temper, huh? What, you want to show off your skills to your senior brother? You think you can pull this back?"

With a forced smile, Fa Zhang said, "Senior brother, you really like to joke. They're not people of our generation, how could they pass through the Xuanmen? Um, could you perhaps use my hand..."

"By the time I come out, you'd better have gathered all your fellow disciples so everyone can meet." Li Fan smiled, glanced at Fa Ding, tossed his severed arm back to him, and walked into the Sutra Tower with his hands behind his back.

"Thank you, Senior Brother!" Having regained his right hand, Fading breathed a sigh of relief, quickly took out a bunch of medicine bottles to treat the wound, and sat cross-legged on the spot to repair his body.

Li Fan entered the tower. The first eight floors contained Buddhism scriptures and texts, which were rather uninteresting. The middle six floors contained martial arts and body-refining techniques, as well as secret manuals for internal energy cultivation, and some general cultivation methods. If one could obtain one or two of these Cultivation Method, even an ordinary mortal could acquire considerable skills and venture into the martial world. If one mastered all of them, one could probably reach the cultivation level of a temple abbot Jue Ming, which would be slightly stronger than an average independent cultivator.

The top three tiers of the pagoda contain the secret scrolls of the mountain gate, which are the cultivation methods of Buddhism rogue practitioners such as Tantric Buddhism, Iron Buddha Temple, and the Corpse Forest Protector. The Cultivation Method here are similar to those in the Ink Bamboo Mountain Scripture Pavilion, and are also true Cultivation Method using specially made Jade Slip Magic Treasure, requiring corresponding aptitude and comprehension to access and practice. Among them are introductory Cultivation Method of the Tianzang Sect, but they are clearly not the true transmissions of the Tai Xuan Dao.

Actually, there are stairs for the first fourteen floors, and the top three floors require passing through corresponding magic arrays and barriers, but the seventeenth floor is the top, and there are no other paths above that, but it is obviously not where the Daoist scriptures of Tai Xuan Dao are located.

It seems that the law, that bastard, has been hiding something again, leaving things unclear and unexplained.

However, this was no challenge for Li Fan. He used the Si Nan to find the general location, and between the two rows of bookshelves on the sixteenth floor, he found a window that had been sealed off. Then, using his Gu Guan Method, he "observed" through the window a black door leading to nothingness.

It is the Xuanmen (mysterious sect).

It's the special passage he once used, guided by the Golden Silver Treasure Tree, leading to the illusion of Yuntai Peak, which requires the soul to leave the body to travel there.

Just as Li Fan was about to set off with his Gui Xu Nascent Soul, Daoist Qiongqi in the Divine Court stood up and bowed.

Li Fan then understood something, nodded his Gui Xu Nascent Soul, and sat back down. This time, he used Daoist Qiongqi's Nascent Soul Stage to leave his body, holding the <Great Evolution Diagram> given by Da Hui, and stepped into the door.

On the other side of the gate was a Daoist temple symmetrical along the central axis. Li Fan stood inside the gate, with the gate plaque behind him. Beyond the gate was a void of mystery, with a howling wind overhead. The walls on both sides of the temple were directly against towering cliffs, as if the entire temple had been moved by magic and hidden in a crevice in a valley.

Could this be the Tai Xuan Temple? Being inside a Daoist temple doesn't dampen my spirits; perhaps I'm still on Earth?

Just to be on the safe side, Li Fan checked the system's mood.

Because I fought near the Gate of Life and Death the entire time, I had some killing energy replenishing my mood. My mood has already reached 5.6k/21k, and with a charge of 20k/21k, I can almost do another lottery. With such a strong mood, there shouldn't be any major problems.

So Li Fan walked in through the mountain gate, and the first room at the entrance, the Lingguan Hall, made him frown.

The Guardian Spirit Official in this palace actually has three heads and six arms, a human Head-Snake, a blue face and fangs, and fleshy wings on its back. At first glance, it almost looks like Revered Heavenly Demon. But when Li Fan went up to take a closer look and touched the snake's tail, he breathed a sigh of relief. This was not a stone statue; it was just dirty because it was covered in too much dust. In fact, it was just a physical body with the primordial spirit separated from the body.

... This seems even more wrong.

Li Fan probed the body's meridians and was surprised to find that it was actually alive! Moreover, it seemed to have human meridians inside, while the other organs and claws were created using magical power!

No way, could it be a change in the Tai Su Dao? But I didn't sense any malevolent energy.

The main reason is that Li Fan's primordial spirit is currently separated from his body; otherwise, he would definitely cut off a piece of flesh to taste what it's like.

In front of the spirit official's shrine was a stone box, sealed with talismans, covered in dust and had been sealed for a long time.

Li Fan tried to open the box, but it was sealed with a talisman and he couldn't even lift it. He guessed that this item was not meant for him, so Li Fan didn't linger and went straight into the Daoist temple.

Passing by many Daoist palaces and side halls, many of which contained sealed physical bodies, each with a stone box in front of it. Some were still sealed with talismans, while others had been opened, revealing that the stone boxes likely contained things like inherited Cultivation Method.

Li Fan didn't linger and walked straight into the main hall after passing through the inner courtyard. Usually, the main hall of a Daoist temple is dedicated to the Profound Maiden, a fairy Immortal Palace to the Immortal Venerable, and a divine sect to the Divine Lord. Since the rogue cultivators of Ink Bamboo Mountain couldn't afford to offend any of the three, he worshipped them all.

This Tai Xuan Dao is really something else; upon entering, you see that the main altar is completely empty, with only a calligraphy scroll hanging on it.

The inscription above reads "the Way".

Li Fan stopped at the entrance of the main hall. Although he still found it hard to believe, he had no choice but to accept it now.

The Death Gate Dao and the Tai Xuan Dao of Supreme Mystery are truly ancient sects!

These ancient sects generally refer to those that existed before Profound Maiden Mysterious Maiden attained enlightenment and the establishment of the Xuanmen sect, contemporaneous with or even older than the Immortal Venerable. However, their most significant difference from the current Xuanmen sect is that they don't cultivate immortality; they cultivate the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth!

Li Fan knew very little about the specifics of their lineage. After all, the history of the Three Great Sects was already quite long, and even the Profound Heaven Sword Intent himself couldn't explain his own family's affairs clearly. Li Fan simply didn't understand what these ancient sects, the Tai Xuan Dao, were all about, or how they had fallen into the form of a demonic sect like the Death Gate Dao.

However, to be fair, Mo Shan is also an ancient sect in some ways, and now it can be considered a heretical sect...

Regardless of what later generations might do, once he arrived at their territory, Li Fan still treated them with utmost respect, bowing three times to the calligraphy scroll. Only after seeing the <Great Evolution Diagram> scroll in his hand emit a white light did he step into the main hall.

The white light shone on the table in front of the character "Dao," and four stone boxes appeared on the previously empty table. Three of them were sealed with talismans, but only one box opened when exposed to the light, revealing the bamboo slips inside.

Li Fan took it out and saw that it was indeed the <<Tai Xuan Scripture>>. Was it really that simple? Wasn't it said to be full of traps and countless dangers? Could there be other true teachings? Or does this Qiongqi Dao Body also have some kind of affinity with the Tai Xuan Dao?

Forget it, I've got the <Tai Xuan Scripture>, but where is the Nine Yin Mountain's inheritance?

Li Fan held up the scroll and searched by the light. Although he could see many hidden stone boxes on the empty shelves, it seemed that he had no chance to find them. They were like the moon in the water or a flower in a mirror, as if they were projections from a parallel world. He could neither touch them nor open them.

After searching for a while without finding a solution, Li Fan had an idea. He then began to practice his sword techniques and activate the Ruyi Sword Scripture. Sure enough, after a short while, he faintly heard a clanging sound coming from outside the hall.

Li Fan followed the sound out of the main hall and looked for the palace on his right. The sound was coming from a separate Daoist palace.

Pushing open the door, I found that the shrine in the palace was empty, the statues were missing, and the stone boxes in front of the shrine were also empty, with nothing inside.

Upon entering the hall, Li Fan discovered that even with the white light emanating from the <Great Evolution Diagram> scroll, most of the bookshelves in the hall remained empty, with only a few stone boxes on them. The tinkling sound was coming from one of the boxes, accompanied by the Ruyi Sword Scripture.

Li Fan stepped forward to examine it and indeed found that the talismans affixed to the box were relatively new. Moreover, when he reached out to peel them off, they were easily removed. Inside the stone box, however, there was no jade slip, but a thin piece of iron wrapped in a blood-stained garment. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the blood-stained garment contained many scriptures written in tiny characters.

If I'm not mistaken, this is the broken sword and legacy of a disciple of the Beichen Sword Sect.

Li Fan bowed to the broken sword, then held up the blood-stained robe in both hands and glanced at it. The robe did not bear the inscription "Shadowless, Formless, Traceless, and Formless Sword Qi," but rather "<Beichen Qi Sword True Formula>." At first glance, it seemed to be a collection of many Cultivation Method, but upon closer inspection, Li Fan understood that this was the original introductory cultivation Cultivation Method of the Ancient Sword Sect before Xuan Tian improved the "<Ordinary True Essence Sword Transformation Guide>."

At first glance, the general outline reveals nine sword qi cultivation methods, allowing for the simultaneous cultivation of qi and sword. Each qi sword has a different method for forging and refining qi, and each corresponds to the later <Nine Luminaries Sword Scripture>.

Previously, Zhou Chengxue mentioned that there was a difference in the training methods of the Beichen Sword Sect's ultimate techniques: Qi Sword and Sword Qi. Li Fan, following the teachings of Profound Heaven Sword Intent, felt that the sword should be trained first, then Qi, to overcome all obstacles and move forward without hesitation. However, judging from this volume, all the previous leaders of the sword sect before Xuantian had chosen the path of Qi first, then sword.

This is not surprising. Judging from the Cultivation Method of Qingcheng Mountain and Penglai Mountain, most Xuanmen practitioners are Qi Refinement Stage. The <<Beichen Qi Sword True Formula>> is itself a superior Qi cultivation method. Only Xuantian, a self-taught individual without formal education, created the unexpected <Sword Transformation Guide>, which can actually combine all nine Qi into one!

However, the <Qi Sword True Technique> is not an outdated and useless version. Xuan Tian's <Sword Transformation Guide> also made some compromises in order to achieve the unity of the nine swords. It is probably because the aptitude and energy of the disciples of the outer mountain side sects are limited, and they would practice the unity of the nine swords in a mess. Of course, it is also to prevent them from being too distracted. Therefore, many special sword energy transformation methods derived from the basic Qi sword recorded in the <True Technique> have all been deleted and removed.

For example, the <Qi Sword True Technique> mentions that a senior sword master fought with a demonic expert and comprehended a method of using the five elements of Divine Hardness, Purple Radiance, Profound Dark Underworld, Crimson Fiend, and Return to Dust to transform into a self-contained cycle, giving birth to the Qi of Heaven and Earth. Thus, he developed the <Qiankun Sword Technique>, among which the Qiankun Flying Dragon Sword move is the most practical and widely circulated...

Well, this 'master of demonic cultivation' probably wields one of the top three sword techniques in the world during the Golden Core Stage...

Furthermore, the "Sword Qi of No Shadow, No Form, No Trace, and No Shape" also mentions that this method is even more bizarre, requiring the simultaneous cultivation of the four techniques of the Sun, Moon, Rahu, Ketu. Moreover, when drawing the sword, one must use the two energies of the Sun Rahu during the day and the two energies of the Moon Ketu at night in order to achieve true no shadow, no trace, no shape, and no shape.

Unfortunately, this <<Beichen Qi Sword True Formula>> is only an incomplete copy. The blood-stained clothes clearly show signs of being torn and cut. Although some of the Nine Qi Sword cultivation methods are still intact, many special sword qi refining methods are incomplete. It is unknown whether they were lost or divided up by those fake monks of the Tai Xuan Dao.

Li Fan glanced through it and memorized the Cultivation Method of the "Incomplete <Beichen Qi Sword True Formula>". He then put away his blood-stained clothes and broken sword, turned around and walked out of the Dao Palace, heading straight out of the mountain gate and back to the Tianlong Mountain Scripture Pavilion.