Myriad Demons Co-Cultivation Spirit Transformation Art

After parting ways with Green Snake, He Sheng went straight back to where Kou Xiang'er was hidden. Seeing that she was safe and sound, he did not wake her. Instead, he took out several storage bags.

First were three azure storage bags, containing the Lower River Branch's goods, which Kou Xiang'er had sorted into categories.

The first held spirit stones, slightly more than the previous accounts had listed—just over ten thousand.

The second held spiritual materials, too numerous to count, most of them first-rank materials, with fewer than twenty second-rank ones.

The third held dharma artifacts, two hundred and thirty-eight in total. Most were mid-grade dharma artifacts, since the Lower River Market's main clientele consisted of Qi Refinement rogue cultivators.

For the Lower River Branch, low-grade dharma artifacts were cheap and offered limited profits, while high-grade ones were too expensive for rogue cultivators to afford. Mid-grade dharma artifacts were naturally their main sellers.

Thus, low-grade and high-grade dharma artifacts were both relatively scarce.

As for top-grade dharma artifacts, there were only two. One was the Owl Dragon Banner, the so-called treasure that anchored the Lower River Branch's shop.

The other was an order sent over from another branch. Wu Feng had already forged it, but the other branch had not yet come to collect it.

"The proceeds are more or less what the previous accounts calculated. If I want to quickly turn these dharma artifacts into spirit stones, I can only sell them at a brutally discounted price.

"And I'll need the right channel. Who knows whether the Celestial Sea Commerce Association's dharma artifacts bear special marks? I can't have them come knocking the moment I sell them."

The dharma artifacts from the Lower River Branch, combined with those from the He Family's secret treasury, left He Sheng with more than two hundred dharma artifacts on hand. Liquidating them was a major problem.

Not to mention that Wu Feng's and Elder Xu's storage bags each contained several dharma artifacts as well. However, both were Foundation Establishment cultivators, so theirs were naturally mostly top-grade dharma artifacts.

At that thought, He Sheng took out a storage bag threaded with gold and edged in silver, along with a black jade ring. The former was Elder Xu's storage bag, while the latter was naturally his beast-controlling ring.

"This Elder Xu was quite wealthy. He had around three hundred mid-grade spirit stones, along with several thousand low-grade spirit stones.

"With this, the spirit stones in my possession have already exceeded two hundred thousand. Once I liquidate the dharma artifacts and spiritual materials, I should have enough to buy a Golden Core Formation Pill.

"If I can also find the other portion of resources Ji Yunlai hid away, it will be enough to cover the cost of forging a Nascent Dharma Treasure."

There were quite a few items in Elder Xu's storage bag. Aside from spirit stones, there were also large quantities of pills, though most were used to feed spirit beasts.

There were not many dharma artifacts: two top-grade dharma artifacts and one high-grade dharma artifact.

There were also plenty of miscellaneous odds and ends. He Sheng swept them roughly with his divine sense, and one item caught his attention—a handwritten record.

He Sheng drew out the scroll. It felt rather heavy in his hand, unlike ordinary paper, more like something tanned from the hide of a demon beast.

The entire scroll was a deep, dark cyan, with faint, fine golden patterns flowing across its surface, carrying an indescribably mysterious air.

"<Myriad Demons Co-Cultivation Spirit Transformation Art>?"

Those large characters were written on the cover of the record. When He Sheng opened it, the opening thesis made his breathing catch!

"Those who practice Technique Divine Abilities use techniques to approach the divine. Comprehension is the foundation; Artistic Conception is the key.

"..."

The thesis was only a little over a hundred words, yet it resolved the doubts in He Sheng's heart.

First, this secret art's thesis plainly explained what a Technique Divine Ability was.

A so-called Technique Divine Ability was the cultivation of a certain high-level spell to its utmost limit, comprehending a unique "Artistic Conception," thereby entering the Dao through technique and gradually deriving a Divine Ability Embryo from it.

But comprehending an Artistic Conception was unimaginably difficult. Only those with exceptional comprehension could achieve it.

Yet this <Myriad Demons Co-Cultivation Spirit Transformation Art> took another path, creating the method of "Life-Borrowing Joint Cultivation."

The core of this method lay in finding a high-level spell similar to a certain demon beast's innate talent, then using that innate talent as both reference and support for joint cultivation between human and beast.

The demon beast's innate talent became a "crutch" for the cultivator's cultivation of Divine Abilities. Leaning on that crutch, the cultivator could directly cross the most difficult stage of comprehending Artistic Conception.

By relying on the demon beast's innate talent, one could first advance a spell into a Transcendent Art, then derive it into a Divine Ability Embryo.

"In other words, in traditional Technique Divine Ability cultivation, Artistic Conception is a necessary prerequisite for cultivating a Divine Ability Embryo.

"And through the Clear Ripple Water Control Art, I comprehended the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm. I have already fulfilled the prerequisite for cultivating some kind of Divine Ability Embryo!"

Although He Sheng still did not understand the distinctions between Technique Divine Abilities, Fate Divine Abilities, and the like, with Ye Shaochen's example before him, he knew that the power of a Divine Ability Embryo must far surpass anything ordinary.

"It seems I need to settle down as soon as possible and put the cultivation of artifact forging and the Divine Artifact Treasure Vase Forging Method on the agenda. After all, only when my divine sense has been substantially strengthened will the Clear Ripple Water Control Art have hope of advancing further."

As that thought flashed through his mind, He Sheng carefully studied the <Myriad Demons Co-Cultivation Spirit Transformation Art> again.

This secret method had clearly been created specifically to bypass the requirement of comprehension, a shortcut for cultivating Technique Divine Abilities.

Yet its limitations were equally obvious. After all, one needed a specific innate talent that matched a spell in order to cultivate it. The record only documented seven Divine Ability Embryos that could be cultivated through the method of "Life-Borrowing Joint Cultivation."

"From this secret method's detailed explanation, Artistic Conception's profundity still far surpasses that of a mere Transcendent Art.

"Life-Borrowing Joint Cultivation is almost mechanical cultivation. It uses a demon beast's innate talent to cultivate a specific Transcendent Art, then follows a fixed path to derive that Transcendent Art into a certain Divine Ability.

"But the profundity of Artistic Conception goes far beyond that.

"Take my Subtle Ripple Intent Realm. Not only can it enhance divine sense and cultivation methods,

"When combined with an escape art, it becomes a Transcendent escape art like Subtle Ripple Water Escape. It can also cultivate an offensive Transcendent Art like Water-Gathering Break."

In He Sheng's eyes, Artistic Conception was more like some kind of conceptual divinity, while a Transcendent Art was merely one form in which that conceptual divinity descended and manifested.

"Artistic Conception is so rare. It seems Brother Piao's comprehension is quite high."

He Sheng had originally believed that he had comprehended the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm because he had invested enough cultivation time into the Clear Ripple Water Control Art. But according to the <Myriad Demons Co-Cultivation Spirit Transformation Art>, comprehension was an indispensable condition for grasping Artistic Conception.

That at least meant the hardware of Brother Piao's body was exceptionally well-specced.

Naturally, He Sheng would not believe that his own comprehension had played a role. When he had previously used the Time-Reversing Water Clock to comprehend the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm, he had only just transmigrated here and was utterly in the dark about this world.

The Time-Reversing Water Clock must have cultivated according to the hardware specifications of Brother Piao's body at that time.

He Sheng carefully studied the seven Divine Ability Embryos recorded at the end of the <Myriad Demons Co-Cultivation Spirit Transformation Art>, memorizing the required spells and compatible demon beast innate talents one by one.

"It seems the firelight Elder Xu released through that Three-Colored Tail-Plumed Rooster should have been the Transcendent Art, Crimson Fire Mystic Light, which serves as the prerequisite for the [Crimson Sun] Divine Ability Embryo. But its mastery was still insufficient.

"According to the <Myriad Demons Co-Cultivation Spirit Transformation Art>, when cultivated to its limit, a Transcendent Art's power can exceed the scope of talisman treasures and reach the level of a Nascent Dharma Treasure that has been fully refined."

However, when cultivating a Transcendent Art through Life-Borrowing Joint Cultivation, bitter cultivation alone was not enough to reach the upper limit of its power. The key lay in developing the demon beast's bloodline.

This was also the key to cultivating a Divine Ability Embryo, and another limitation of this method.

"At the very least, it must possess a superior mystic-grade bloodline, with its bloodline awakening exceeding eighty percent, before there is hope of using Life-Borrowing Joint Cultivation to cultivate a Divine Ability Embryo."

To initially cultivate a Transcendent Art, the demon beast's bloodline awakening had to exceed thirty percent.

To raise a Transcendent Art's power to its upper limit, its bloodline awakening had to reach at least fifty percent!

"Limitations are limitations, but if resources truly were not lacking, and the corresponding demon beast could be raised, wouldn't even someone at Foundation Establishment Early Stage possess offensive power comparable to Foundation Establishment Late Stage?!

"And that would only be a Transcendent Art brought to its upper limit.

"What if one directly cultivated a Divine Ability Embryo, something a step beyond that?"

Ye Shaochen's figure surfaced in He Sheng's mind once more. He increasingly felt that cultivation in this world was far more than simply sitting in meditation and refining qi.

"I wonder whether, if I cultivate the <Myriad Demons Co-Cultivation Spirit Transformation Art> with the Time-Reversing Water Clock, I can ignore the requirements for demon beast bloodlines?

"If it works... wouldn't I be able to quickly master a Divine Ability?"

A thought suddenly arose in He Sheng's heart, and he immediately grew wildly excited, setting to work at once to test it!