Dharma King Xuan Yuan

The young man floated thousands of zhang above the ground without relying on any external force. White clouds drifted beneath his feet, yet he made no attempt to conceal himself with invisibility arts. He was bold to the extreme.

Rumble!! A massive airplane passed nearby. The young man stared blankly at it, then clicked his tongue in admiration. "Human wisdom truly reaches the heavens. They can actually rely on external tools to soar through the skies and burrow into the earth. I hear they have even been to the moon. Even this Old Ancestor would not dare attempt such a thing—the Nine Heavens Astral Winds could blow even immortals to death! Tsk, tsk!! No wonder we demons have declined. If our Demon Race had half the wisdom of humans, back then we would not have..." He muttered to himself, utterly unaware of the enormous commotion he had caused.

Space faintly distorted, and the young man descended into a mountain forest below. This method was clearly far more profound than Kunlun's Shrinking Earth Art. Holding the command flag in his hand, he searched in every direction, but Zhou Qing seemed to have fused completely with the earth and forest, without leaking the slightest trace of his aura.

The young man shook his head. "Could he be hiding? Impossible! How could anyone hide beneath this Old Ancestor's very nose? Hm? Since he is an inheritor of the Heavenly Gods and Demons Array, he must have some skill. Pity this Old Ancestor's power has yet to recover even half of what it once was. I had better not act too arrogantly. Otherwise, if I destroyed everything within ten li and killed him along with it, would that not be satisfying? Hmph. Number One said those so-called grandmasters were all at the late Spirit Transformation stage? Though this Old Ancestor's cultivation has been severely damaged and I am now merely at the early Return to Void stage, I can still fight three by myself. But if they add magical treasures to the mix, it becomes hard to say. The Celestial Master Sword, Dragon Tiger Treasure Seal, and Yu Su Ruler left behind by that mongrel Zhang Daoling of Dragon Tiger Mountain, as well as Shu Mountain's Purple and Azure Twin Swords—I would suffer greatly against those. Not worth it!"

At the mention of Shu Mountain, a flash of killing intent passed through the young man's eyes. "Did he think this would drive off this Old Ancestor's search? He truly underestimated the Dharma King Xuan Yuan of old." Speaking his former title aloud made him somewhat proud.

"Demonic Search of Heaven and Earth, Heavenly Vision and Earthly Hearing Great Art!" A barrage of crackling sounds erupted. An incomparably tyrannical divine sense, almost tangible in substance, spread in all directions from Dharma King Xuan Yuan's blood-red, flickering eyes. Trees and rocks within three zhang of him were torn apart and exploded one after another beneath that all-pervading divine sense.

Without stirring a shred of True Essence, he wielded such might through divine sense alone. Had any member of China's Daoist Sect witnessed this, their eyes would have bulged out of their sockets. Cultivators meditated and practiced qi day after day, painstakingly circulating the True Essence in their bodies, opening their meridians, and tempering their flesh—these were all external practices. So long as one possessed perseverance and could endure hardship, one could cultivate to a high realm. But methods of cultivating divine sense were not so simple. Talent, comprehension, and hard work were all indispensable. Of essence, qi, and spirit, divine sense was the most mysterious link—illusory and intangible, impossible to trace. The original purpose of cultivation was to seek longevity and eternal indestructibility. Yet the physical body was a tangible thing, and in the river of time, all tangible things would eventually turn to ashes and vanish like smoke. Thus, the great sages of old proposed methods for cultivating divine sense, seeking to cast off the body and allow divine sense to endure between heaven, earth, and the universe.

To become a sage through the flesh, or to seek eternity through divine sense—these were two utterly different ideals, yet they did not conflict with one another. Thus, the two paths of cultivation were passed down. Cultivating the physical body left tracks to follow and was easier to practice, while entering the Dao through divine sense was simply far too difficult and rarely brought success. Those lacking talent and comprehension often failed to even enter the gate after a lifetime of effort. Therefore, cultivators of the physical body vastly outnumbered those who cultivated divine sense.

Later, some people practiced both paths at once and gradually discovered that powerful divine sense brought immense benefits to the circulation and control of their True Essence, as well as their communion with heaven and earth's spiritual qi. Dual cultivation gradually became mainstream. Yet cultivation was inherently the way of celestial balance: where there was gain, there was loss. Though dual cultivation was beneficial, progress was extremely slow, balance between divine sense and True Essence was difficult to maintain, and breakthroughs in realm were hard to achieve. The benevolent saw benevolence, the wise saw wisdom. In ancient times, cultivation methods were far more numerous than in the present age. After the war of Investiture of the Gods, countless cultivation arts were lost, and this path of cultivating both became orthodox and was handed down. Few still understood the methods of divine sense cultivation.

Dharma King Xuan Yuan had originally been formed from a wisp of vital blood left behind by an ancient cultivator. That ancient cultivator had used his own vital blood as a medicinal catalyst and opened his furnace to refine pills. He refined them for decades, but just as the pill was completed, an enemy came to his door. He was beaten to death, and the pill was seized as well. Yet his enemy failed to notice that a wisp of vital blood remained unrefined within the pill furnace. Absorbing the spiritual qi released when the pill was formed, that vital blood gradually developed its own consciousness over tens of thousands of years, cultivated a human form, and obtained the ancient cultivator's divine sense cultivation art. In one leap, he became one of the foremost experts in the cultivation world of that era. Calling himself the Dharma King Xuan Yuan, he gathered half the Demon Race beneath his banner within a few years and raised the slogan of letting demons rule the entire mortal world. For a time, his momentum was unparalleled in a thousand years.

Yet the Demon Race had ultimately declined. How could Dharma King Xuan Yuan alone turn the tide? In the end, Ancestor Changmei, the foremost expert of the Daoist Sect at that time, invited fellow cultivators from across the land and fought Dharma King Xuan Yuan in three decisive battles at Shu Mountain. Finally, they laid down the Daoist Sect's killing formation, the Two Elements Dust Formation, trapping Dharma King Xuan Yuan within it before beheading him in one stroke with the Purple and Azure Twin Swords. From then on, the Demon Race declined completely and could no longer contend with humanity. They could only roam proudly through mountains and forests, far from human settlements, becoming true demons.

But Dharma King Xuan Yuan had been formed from vital blood and possessed a formless body. He transformed the Blood Condensation Pearl, which he had cultivated with his very life, into a true body and took the Purple and Azure Twin Swords' strike head-on. His divine sense fled overseas, where he found an island and cultivated in seclusion for a thousand years before recovering his true body. The venom of his resentment ran so deep that even emptying the waters of the Five Lakes and Four Seas could not wash it clean.

The Heavenly Vision and Earthly Hearing Great Art was an ancient secret technique, even more formidable than the Buddhist Six Divine Powers' Heavenly Eye. Without exceptionally powerful divine sense, it could not be performed at all. If any expert of the Daoist Sect were substituted, none could use it. Even if Old Daoist Ganji of Kunlun came in person, it would be futile. Once activated, within a hundred li, he could clearly tell even how many hairs grew on a fly's leg. It was truly an absurdly monstrous search technique.

Zhou Qing had concealed his body and aura through the power of talismans, but he still knew what was happening outside. He had thought it was merely a false alarm, that he had frightened himself for nothing. Who could have expected such a monstrous figure to truly appear? Seeing the young cultivator in a golden-yellow Daoist robe, he was horrified. When did I provoke such a monstrous person? His divine sense can actually condense into substance—this is far too terrifying! Even someone at the late Spirit Transformation stage might not be capable of it! Who is this man?

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