As he kept reading the True Diary, the later entries grew more and more bizarre.
By then, they were no longer simple words.
When the first passage of frenzied writing appeared, the words in the diary fell into a disorderly arrangement.
These jumbled words gathered together, gradually forming vague patterns.
There were three patterns in all, filling three entire pages.
One pattern seemed to depict a figure from behind, so tall it seemed to fill all of heaven and earth.
Yet the figure was shrouded in darkness, its back seeming to conceal countless horrors.
Li Qing focused intently, trying to discern what lay hidden behind it.
Through the haze, Li Qing suddenly glimpsed a scene that filled him with terror, his heart gripped by dread and revulsion.
Countless bones piled up in layer upon layer. Countless skulls lay heaped together, one stratum after another, like geological layers formed over the ages.
All of this was merely a hazy scene behind the figure, an outline sketched by the words.
An inexplicable pang of dread welled up inside him.
Li Qing quickly turned to the second picture.
He was afraid that something ill-omened might happen if he kept looking.
The second image showed a Buddha, whose outline was made up of countless frenzied words.
Looking closely, the Buddha seemed to be smiling as he held up a flower.
The black words seemed to glimmer with golden Buddhist light, illuminating countless worlds and gathering in the Pure Land.
But Li Qing's gaze was not fixed on the Buddha.
Instead, he looked at the Buddha's lower half.
It was a gigantic lotus, indistinct and blurred.
Looking closer, he saw that, within the haze, it was made of countless bizarre limbs—human, animal, and belonging to all manner of living beings.
They had fused together, each within the other, howling and crying out in despair, until they finally formed a Nine-Grade Lotus Throne.
The sight was so strange and horrifying that merely looking at it made Li Qing shiver, despair rising from the depths of his heart.
Li Qing looked at the third page. The third page of the Jade Tablet displayed yet another bizarre pattern.
Hidden within it was a strange being.
It seemed to have countless arms, like a demon god. Strange horns sprouted from its head, and bizarre scales covered its skin.
Its lower half seemed to be the tail of a giant snake.
But on closer inspection, it was no snake's tail. It was a tail formed from countless fused creatures.
Countless heads, arms, limbs, claws, and strands of hair had merged into one, forming a bizarre lower half that seemed to stretch on without end.
The upper half of this terrifying demon god had countless arms, each holding up an eyeball, a head, or some other strange creature's limb.
The three images represented a Daoist, a Buddha, and a demon god, as if pointing toward three different paths.
Li Qing could clearly feel that these images of the three paths held a terrifying power.
They seemed capable of corrupting a person's mind, leading them into madness and ruin.
Yet the Jade Tablet seemed to possess a wondrous power. Although it had shown him the truth, it had not truly put him in danger.
Li Qing slowly pulled his attention away and let out a long breath.
His heart pounded. Though the three images had not threatened him, the pressure they placed on his mind was unmistakable.
"My God, what the hell kind of world is this?"
"These cultivators all go mad in the end."
"Could it be because they came into contact with the unknown beings in those three images?"
"They can only describe them in frenzied words, and can never convey the true reality."
"If it weren't for the Jade Tablet, I never would have seen the truth hidden in those pages."
"If I drew these three images, they'd probably have an unimaginable power."
"But the moment I drew them, I'd probably be affected by that power too, fall into ruin, and turn into a monster."
A shiver ran through him, and Li Qing decisively abandoned the dangerous idea.
"This world is too dangerous. I have to keep my head down."
"I have to be extremely cautious."
"I must never rush to the forefront. If I can avoid trouble, I should. Who knows what terrifying being might be lurking behind it?"
"But as long as people cultivate in this world, some mysterious force seems to guide them into conflict with each other."
"I need to watch out for that, too."
All sorts of strange thoughts flashed through his mind.
Li Qing took a deep breath and cast aside his distracting thoughts.
Then he closed his eyes again and focused his attention on the Jade Tablet.
Five Qi Five Viscera Art (Art, Foundation Establishment)
Cultivation Method: Collect the five viscera of five kinds of living beings. Mix them with grains and cereals, combine them with dew collected by day, and grind them into juice. Write the Five Elements Incantation on a formation, sit within it, sense the essence qi of the five viscera, circulate it through the meridians, transform it into the essence qi of the five elements, and store it in the five viscera.
Innate Spell: Five Elements Evasion Technique, allowing one to move through metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
Cost: From then on, one must never eat viscera. Doing so will turn one into an anomaly.
Bone Forging Art (Art, Foundation Establishment)
Cultivation Method: Collect the bones of a hundred beasts and build a white bone altar in a place of yin energy. Recite the White Bone Incantation for three days and nights, sense the essence qi, and cultivate white bone essence qi.
Innate Spell: White Bone Divine Armor. The white bone essence qi transforms into armor impervious to blades and spears.
Cost: Every day at midnight, one's bones must ache for a quarter of an hour.
Vajra Art (Art, Foundation Establishment)
Cultivation Method: Take the hides, flesh, tendons, and membranes of five beasts—tiger, bear, wolf, leopard, and lion—and mix them with the mucilage of a hundred-year-old ginseng, a hundred-year-old lingzhi, a hundred-year-old fleeceflower root, a hundred-year-old snow lotus, and a hundred-year-old Solomon's seal. Write the formation and the Vajra Incantation, endure the agony of Vajra body tempering, and obtain Vajra essence qi.
Innate Spell: Vajra Body, impervious to blades and spears, water and fire.
Cost: One must endure physical agony every day.
Heart Clearing Art (Art, Foundation Establishment)
Cultivation Method: Take the brain of an ape, mix it with Heart-Clarifying Grass, Hundred-Heart Flower, and Marrow-Heart Fruit, and grind them into juice. Write the Heart Clearing Incantation on ritual cloth, sense the essence qi of the brain, endure the torment of illusions, and obtain Heart Clearing essence qi.
Innate Spell: Heart Like Bedrock, which steadies the mind and keeps one from being led astray by many illusions and anomalies.
Cost: One will sometimes experience hallucinations. If one responds to them, the mind will undergo aberration and gradually descend into madness.
Black Water Art...
Spirit Blood Art...
Martial Art...
Humanity's Overview Technique (Art, Foundation Establishment)
Cultivation Method: Take five kinds of hundred-year-old spiritual herbs, combine them with dew collected by day and night, and grind them together with one's own essence qi. Write the incomplete <Humanity's Fleshly Body Incantation of Ten Thousand Laws> and temper the five viscera, sinews, bones, skin, membranes, flesh, and brain to form myriad method essence qi. This art encompasses all methods and can fuse them, but remains imperfect.
Innate Spells
1. White Bone Blood Flame: Once it touches a target, it plunders the essence qi of their flesh, blood, and bones, reducing them to ashes in a short time.
2. Five Elements Evasion Method: One can evade through anything belonging to the five elements.
3. Five Elements Divine Armor Vajra Body: It can ward off the spells of the five elements and block blades, swords, spears, and crossbows. It can also turn various weapons aside. With the divine armor protecting the body, essence qi will never run dry and the Vajra Body will never break.
4. Five Viscera White Bone Heart Observation: It creates a white bone image of the five viscera within the mind, naturally defending against all kinds of illusions and resisting mental aberration.
Cost: None
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