Taiyin Scripture

A white cloud veiled the moon's lovely face, and the moon strained to spill its silvery light from its edges.

The result was a stunning scene beyond words. Even the stars vied to cast their faint glow.

Lin Yiqing opened his eyes. Before him lay a mountain cave frozen solid in ice.

This was one of the chain reactions caused by the appearance of the Greater Yin Qi. The Mysterious Light Orb had sealed off the surrounding space; otherwise, the phenomenon might have been even more astonishing.

He was just about to stretch and loosen his limbs when a foul stench hit him in the face.

The Greater Yin Qi had transformed and enhanced his constitution while expelling the impurities he had acquired after birth. Now, his body was coated in a layer of greasy black grime.

"Ugh..."

After a bout of dry heaving, Lin Yiqing hurried out of the cave and found a nearby stream to jump into and wash himself. For someone who liked to keep clean, this was nothing short of a disaster.

In the bright moonlight, Lin Yiqing looked at his reflection in the stream and froze. Staring back at him was a little boy with features so perfect they seemed almost unreal.

This body had already been exceptionally handsome, but after being cleansed by the Greater Yin Qi, he looked even more beautiful. His features had become more perfectly defined.

His large eyes seemed to hold the sun, the moon, and the stars, shining with extraordinary clarity. Paired with his already handsome, sword-like eyebrows, he looked as if he had been sculpted by heaven itself.

"It would've been even better if I weren't a little boy."

Looking at himself in the water, Lin Yiqing couldn't help thinking that. His body was still young, only twelve or thirteen, though the transformation had made him quite a bit taller.

After tidying himself up, he returned to the cave and took an old book from his Universe Bag, laying it across his knees as he read. A bonfire burned beside him, casting enough light to see by.

The yellowed pages gave off a musty smell, and their edges curled slightly upward. The book's outer wrapping was torn and incomplete, with what remained hanging crookedly, its surface covered in fine lines like a spiderweb.

"Third-rate cultivation manual: Lesser Red Sun Scripture."

Cultivation manuals and martial arts were different. Martial arts brought out the full power of one's Yuan Power, while cultivation manuals strengthened Yuan Power at its very source.

Struggles over cultivation manuals had never ceased on this continent, from ancient times to the present.

Having read the original story, Lin Yiqing knew that the entire Lin Family possessed only one third-rate cultivation manual: the Green Origin Technique.

But he and Lin Yun had unexpectedly found another third-rate manual while exploring this cave dwelling.

That alone would have been enough to get him killed without a trace if word had leaked out before. Even experts in the Heaven Origin Realm would have been drawn to it, while he was only in the Body Tempering Realm.

After breaking through to the Earth Origin Realm, he could finally cultivate using a manual. Fortunately, he had obtained the Lesser Red Sun Scripture earlier, and now it could finally come in handy.

After reading it carefully, he had a general understanding of the Lesser Red Sun Scripture.

Put simply, a cultivation manual was a special method for guiding and tempering Yuan Qi.

The Lesser Red Sun Scripture, for example, could open six hidden meridians throughout the body. These six meridians extended all the way to the skin.

Once he resumed cultivation, he would be able to draw Yuan Qi directly from the world through his skin. His cultivation speed would be far more than twice as fast as absorbing it through his nose.

It was said that some first-rate manuals could even generate vortices in the body's meridians, allowing one to cultivate at all times. That glimpse alone showed how terrifying they were.

At the same time, he couldn't help sighing over how difficult it was for ordinary people to obtain a cultivation manual. Even Lin Dong, with the entire Lin Family behind him, could only cultivate a third-rate manual after reaching the Earth Origin Realm.

Yet the prodigies of great factions could usually obtain their own manuals as soon as they were able to cultivate Yuan Power. One step ahead meant being ahead at every step. On the path of cultivation, there was no room for the slightest slack.

Lin Yiqing sat cross-legged on the ground and formed a rather profound hand seal. The Yuan Power in his body immediately stirred, then surged toward the first meridian described in the Lesser Red Sun Scripture.

Lin Yiqing's talent was already among the very best. He quickly grasped the tricky parts of the manual, so cultivating it posed no difficulty.

The Yuan Power that had fused with the Greater Yin Qi was exceptionally domineering. The Lesser Red Sun Scripture would normally produce Yuan Power as scorching as flames, but after his transformation, it had turned into an icy force capable of freezing all things.

As Yuan Power poured into the meridian, he felt it meet with resistance. This sealed meridian was like uncultivated mountain land—extremely difficult to open.

Faced with the blocked meridian, Lin Yiqing's stream of Yuan Power cut into it like a blade, but it was soon exhausted.

Another stream of Yuan Power immediately surged forward, like the foolish old man who moved mountains, tirelessly breaking ground on the mountain.

After wave upon wave of effort, Lin Yiqing's Yuan Power was soon depleted.

He had only just entered the Earth Origin Realm, and his reserves of Yuan Power were still meager. He had opened only a short section of the meridian, and only then did he realize how difficult cultivation could be.

He took out and swallowed one of the Third-Grade Spirit Herbs he had acquired in a trade. Then he formed the hand seal again and continued refining the herb to break through the meridian.

The powerful medicinal energy transformed into Yuan Power and continued battering the section of the meridian. With this added support, after a long while, the meridian was finally opened.

The moment it was fully unblocked, Lin Yiqing found that he could sense the Yuan Power between heaven and earth much more clearly. A faint suction also came from the skin along the meridian, drawing the free-floating Yuan Power of the world into his body.

Feeling his cultivation efficiency improve considerably, Lin Yiqing couldn't help beaming. With this boost, reaching the Heaven Origin Realm was only a matter of time.

Just then, the Mysterious Light Orb deep in Lin Yiqing's sea of consciousness trembled faintly. His vision suddenly went black, and the scene shifted. Everything in the cave seemed to turn into streams of light, blindingly bright.

When he could see again, he had appeared in a world that seemed to be chaos itself. There was no time, no space, and even his thoughts seemed frozen.

"Buzz... rrrumble..."

Streams of chaotic energy flowed wildly, carrying a force that seemed capable of crushing the heavens. Lin Yiqing was horrified to his core. In that instant, he felt like a drop of ink falling into the ocean, about to vanish into nothingness.

Then a hazy, clear light pierced through the chaos and cleaved open heaven and earth. From it, Yin and Yang were born!

At the center of heaven and earth, a mysterious light orb appeared, radiating a gentle, clear glow. Within this chaotic world, it became the supreme and sole existence.

A wisp of hazy light slowly shone down on Lin Yiqing. Only then did he recover, and his frozen thoughts began to flow again.

Then a strange sight unfolded. Not far in front of him, streams of white light suddenly gathered, taking the shape of a figure identical to him. It was quickly formed.

"What's going on?"

He cautiously backed away a few steps. He knew that these events were probably caused by the Mysterious Light Orb radiating chaotic energy, but the scene before him was still terrifying.

Strangely, the reflected figure didn't attack him. Instead, it sat cross-legged in front of him. The bones and muscles within its body gradually turned transparent, as if it were showing him something.

Lin Yiqing walked closer to inspect it. Golden lines then lit up throughout the reflected body, and the white light and gold lines combined to reveal a complete map of the human meridians.

"Is this the route Yuan Power follows in a cultivation manual?"

Lin Yiqing's expression turned grave. The golden lines before him were clearly moving along a particular course.

Part of the route appeared to be from the Lesser Red Sun Scripture he had been cultivating. He couldn't help feeling excited. He had a hunch that he was about to make a great discovery.

"Good heavens—the twelve main meridians, the eight extraordinary meridians, the twelve divergent meridians, the fifteen collaterals, and all those tiny hidden meridians. This manual can cultivate a total of fifty-five meridians!"

A first-rate manual—and without a doubt, a high-tier one. Even though Lin Yiqing had already guessed that this was the route Yuan Power followed in a cultivation manual, seeing it with his own eyes still left him shaken.

Lin Yiqing took a deep breath to steady himself and hurriedly memorized the routes Yuan Power followed. At the same time, he formed a startling guess.

The Mysterious Light Orb might be the reason he had come to this world.

Whether it was the mysterious Origin Qi Vision, his extraordinary affinity with the world's Yuan Qi, this improved cultivation manual, or even that wisp of Greater Yin Qi, everything was connected to the mysterious orb that radiated a hazy, clear glow.

What exactly was the origin of this Mysterious Light Orb?

As soon as Lin Yiqing had memorized the improved version of the Lesser Red Sun Scripture, the world shattered like a mirror, and the scene before him returned to the cave.

Looking around, Lin Yiqing found himself still sitting on the ground beside the bonfire, his hands still in the same cultivation seal as before. The wood in the cave had barely burned at all. His heart pounded like waves surging against the shore.

Such a wondrous power was truly beyond belief.

Lin Yiqing immediately began cultivating the Lesser Red Sun Scripture, now improved by the Mysterious Bead.

"This can't be called the Lesser Red Sun Scripture anymore. Taiyin Scripture would be more like it." Lin Yiqing silently grumbled.

He was deeply astonished by the domineering power of the Greater Yin True Essence. In terms of Yuan Power quality alone, it was probably unmatched.

Among cultivators at roughly the same level, apart from powerful experts who also cultivated first-rate manuals, probably no one else could withstand even one of his attacks.

The gray-white Greater Yin True Essence flowed through his body. Vaguely, Lin Yiqing could feel that every place it touched was being quietly strengthened. Gentle currents warmed and nourished his meridians, bones, and muscles.

The benefits of a first-rate cultivation manual were gradually becoming clear.