Li the Old Daoist Pays a Visit

Now that he had resolved the spiritual power circulation routes and spiritual power attributes, he still had no clue whatsoever about the second element of a cultivation technique—its divine abilities.

Although the cultivation techniques in the Treasure Pavilion all came with divine abilities, and he could simply copy them wholesale, he found those divine abilities far too weak to catch his eye.

What was more, those divine abilities did not suit his Ten Extremity Physique.

Divine abilities were the most complex part of a cultivation technique. Long Xuan had hit a creative wall and could not proceed any further.

So he simply skipped this part for now and began working on the third element of the cultivation technique.

The third element was its supporting spiritual arts. There could be one supporting spiritual art or several; there was no limit to the number, so long as they perfectly matched the cultivation technique.

Long Xuan naturally would not create only one supporting spiritual art for the Ten Absolutes Scripture. But time was limited, so creating one first would be enough for the early stages. He could create a second and third once he had more time in the future.

As for inspiration for spiritual arts, Long Xuan had far too much of it. Having read so many anime and novels in his previous life, he had ideas in abundance.

When creating a spiritual art, one first had to eliminate abilities that were impossible to achieve, such as spatial abilities, time abilities, and those powers capable of destroying heaven and earth. There was no point even thinking about them.

Spiritual arts were limited to abilities achievable through transformations of spiritual power. The more terrifying an ability was, the less likely it could be created through spiritual power transformations alone.

Therefore, one absolutely could not think that the stronger a self-created spiritual art was, the better. That would only leave one accomplishing nothing.

There were extremely, extremely few abilities that could be cast through spiritual power transformations. They were by no means easy to think of.

Furthermore, a supporting spiritual art had to be one hundred percent compatible with its cultivation technique, fully exploiting the technique's characteristics and perfectly bringing out its greatest power. It was not enough to casually think up any usable ability.

And the first supporting spiritual art was best related to offensive ability.

That narrowed the range even further. There were not many directions left for his thoughts to wander, and precisely because there were so few choices, Long Xuan quickly came up with an idea.

Since this was a five-element cultivation technique that had never appeared in this world before, the spiritual art that perfectly complemented it should ideally use all five attributes at once. That was the technique's defining characteristic.

A spiritual art capable of simultaneously using all five kinds of spiritual power would be a combination technique. Even if Long Xuan had not been the first to create such a multi-attribute spiritual art, there surely could not be many of them in this world. And such a combination technique would most likely be stronger than a single-attribute spiritual art.

His idea was to gather spiritual power in his palm, make it spin at high speed while continuously compressing it, ultimately forming a compressed ball of rapidly rotating spiritual power. He would then throw it at an enemy and attack them by detonating it.

If it were spiritual power of only one attribute, this move might not be very powerful, and it would be a universal spiritual art anyone could learn.

But Long Xuan possessed spiritual power of all five elements. If he injected the five kinds of spiritual power into the ball, allowed them to complete a great five-element cycle, then rotated and compressed them before throwing it at an enemy, just how great would the explosive power be?

Long Xuan could not estimate it, but he expected its offensive power would certainly not be low.

Moreover, this spiritual art was absolutely perfectly compatible with the Ten Absolutes Scripture. Both were five-element attributes that had never appeared in this world before, capable of perfectly mobilizing five different powers. Their compatibility was unquestionably one hundred percent—it was practically tailor-made for this cultivation technique.

Long Xuan nodded in satisfaction. The power of this move definitely would not be lacking. This was it!

The principle behind this spiritual art was exceedingly simple, so simple that it would not take many words to write it into a spiritual art.

The only difficulty was that it demanded extremely high control over spiritual power from its practitioner, as well as powerful soul force.

As an alchemist, powerful soul force was a basic requirement for Long Xuan. Controlling fire also required extremely fine spiritual power control. He fully met both conditions.

Thus, it took Long Xuan very little time to develop this spiritual art. He completed it in just one month.

Looking at the spiritual art in his hand named Five Elements Jade, Long Xuan felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

The Five Elements Jade he had created from scratch was divided into four forms according to several circulation methods of the five-element theory.

First Form: Mutual Generation Cycle. It possessed the greatest endurance; the Five Elements Jade it unleashed came in an unbroken stream, with powerful lingering force.

Second Form: Mutual Return Cycle. It possessed the greatest attack power; the Five Elements Jade it unleashed was unstoppable, surging forward with overwhelming momentum.

Third Form: Mutual Overcoming Cycle. It possessed the greatest explosive force; the Five Elements Jade it unleashed could inflict explosive damage, with immense power.

The final form was called Extreme Jade. It was a Five Elements Jade unleashed using only a single attribute. Though each had its own distinctive traits, their power was comparatively weaker.

This was the first spiritual art he had created entirely from nothing according to his own ideas. It was all his painstaking effort. Though it was exceedingly simple, its power was quite extraordinary.

In the illusion realm, he had easily blasted the Qian Clan's Treasure Pavilion until it was riddled with holes, which was enough to prove its power.

That was while his realm was still low, his spiritual power sparse, and his mutated spiritual power consisted of only two fused attributes.

Once his spiritual power in the future was composed of the five great mutated spiritual powers—Blazing Flame, ...—who knew just how overbearing this move would become?

Long Xuan was thrilled beyond measure. The only thing that dissatisfied him was that he still did not know how to design divine abilities for the Ten Absolutes Scripture.

He was unwilling to draw inspiration from the divine abilities of ordinary cultivation techniques, yet he did not know how to turn the divine abilities conceived by his imagination into reality through words. Sitting in his chair with a face full of gloom, he found this creative block truly painful.

"Little Friend Long? Are you in?"

An elderly man's voice came from outside the inn door.

Long Xuan knew this voice well. It belonged to Old Daoist Li, the man who often set up his stall beside his.

If the gu Old Daoist Li refined had not been so impossible to guard against, forcing him to counter it with microscopic vision, Long Xuan might not have refined the Eye of Heavenly Secrets so early.

Without the Eye of Heavenly Secrets, who knew how long his self-created cultivation technique would have been delayed? Thinking about it that way, Long Xuan really ought to thank him.

"You can find me even when I'm staying at an inn. Your information network is quite impressive."

Long Xuan helplessly opened the door, welcomed him in, then shut the door again.

This Old Daoist Li was overly familiar with people and loved currying favor with him. Long Xuan had not expected that even after hiding in an inn, he could still be bothered by him. He had no idea how the old man had found him, and could only feel helpless.

"Don't put it like that. You make it sound as though I specifically investigated your whereabouts."

"Who in the entire market doesn't know that you, the masked hero, keep coming here? There are even rumors outside that you have your eye on that young miss of the Qian Clan. Otherwise, why would someone with a Household of his own come to this inn every day? Do you have too many Spirit Stones to burn?" Old Daoist Li teased.

"Utter nonsense! There's no such thing! This is slander—they're defaming me, they're defaming me!"

"Which turtle bastard started this rumor? How could they fabricate lies and sully a man's innocence?"

The instant Long Xuan heard that such rumors were spreading outside, his expression changed completely. His defenses were utterly shattered.

"Why are you getting so worked up? Everyone loves beauty. I'm not going to laugh at you."

"Speaking of which, ever since Qian Jinjin stopped wearing her veil, that peerless face of hers has captured every talented youth. Plenty of people admire her; you're hardly one more than she can handle. There's nothing embarrassing about saying it." Old Daoist Li wore a teasing grin.

Long Xuan was tired. Let it all be destroyed. He could not be bothered explaining. Explaining was covering up, and covering up was proof. He might as well not explain at all—besides, he could not explain it clearly anyway.

"Enough. No one visits a temple without a reason. Get straight to the point and tell me why you came. I'm very busy and have no time to listen to your gossip."

Long Xuan cut off what he was about to say and asked directly.