"I've checked all the poisons now. It seems certain that the varieties containing incense essence all stink."
Over the past few days, Li Ling had repeatedly made and consumed incense, raising the strength of his divine sense to around fifty pounds. He felt he had finally begun to amount to something.
But that was not all he had done. He had also studied the poisons obtained from Elder You of the demonic path, along with a cultivation art called the Ten Thousand Fiends Poison-Transforming Art.
Those poisons had different effects, but Li Ling was interested in the varieties that contained incense essence.
That incense essence had played no small part in his ability to kill Elder You that day.
The art was an introductory text on the Netherworld Sect's poison path. Disciples of both the Yellow Springs Sect and the Corpse Immortal Sect could cultivate it, refining different toxic properties according to their circumstances and preferences.
What made it especially profound was that it could not only blend spiritual materials, but also incorporate Spirit Essence and be activated through cultivation. It was a poison-path divine ability that transformed poison baleful intent, allowing the tangible and intangible to give rise to one another. It was remarkably flexible and convenient.
It also seemed connected to the Baleful Refining Chapter of the Three Treasures Demon-Refining Art he had obtained earlier, representing a deeper level of application.
But such research could not be completed overnight. After a moment's thought, Li Ling poured lamp oil into the pit and lit it with a firestarter.
These were infected zombie rabbits. He could not let them escape or allow beasts in the forest to dig them up and eat them.
His experiments had now reached a stopping point, and he had no immediate use for them. Burning them clean away was the best option.
Once that was done, Li Ling spent some effort filling in the pit and burying all the ashes. Then he retrieved the divine statue he had confiscated a few days earlier from a crack in the rocks.
He had now fully confirmed that it was a statue of the Great Lin River God.
Rather than lighting incense and making offerings, Li Ling placed it on a flat rock nearby. Following an Incense-Prayer Method recorded in the demonic cultivator's notes, he entered a meditative trance and communicated with it through his mind.
In the unseen depths, his thoughts rose like a wisp of smoke into a mysterious, unfathomable void beyond description.
This was a special realm he had discovered recently. His earlier conjecture seemed to have been confirmed: somewhere between heaven and earth, there really was a place where incense essence could accumulate.
Li Ling had considered venturing inside to investigate, but found that he simply could not.
Perhaps because he was using the statue as a medium, a vast and imposing spiritual field blocked his way, preventing his spirit body from entering.
Or perhaps this was not a space in any true sense, possessing neither boundaries nor distance.
For the moment, Li Ling could not determine its nature. The items seized from the demonic cultivator offered no explanation.
But his mind could communicate with it, and that was enough.
After some time, Li Ling's thoughts sank deeper and deeper into it. Suddenly, he heard countless prayers like murmured dreams, lingering around his ears and tugging at his soul.
As waves of spiritual power surged outward like a tide, the entire void seemed to resonate. Li Ling seemed to see a grand spectacle of countless people holding feasts and boat races along the great river's banks, offering sacrifices to the River God.
Incense, candles, and paper money burned. Countless gossamer strands of incense essence gathered into a torrent, merging into the void like vapor rising over the riverbed.
The scene shifted. Suddenly, fierce winds howled and rain poured down. Amid the Shimmering River's roar, boundless waves swallowed houses and farms.
When the flood receded, devastation lay everywhere. Drowned livestock and people lay exposed in the wilderness, with rotting flesh and white bones scattered all around.
Then he saw a blazing summer day. On the river embankment, a group beat gongs and drums as they carried a bright red bridal sedan toward the water.
An old man dressed like a shaman, with a painted face, a skirt, and a tall hat, shook his body as he danced around the sedan. Soon, gongs and drums thundered, firecrackers burst, and suona horns blared together.
The people knelt prostrate, leaving only laborers to carry pig heads, ox heads, sheep heads, and other sacrificial offerings and dump them into the water.
Before long, the bridal sedan opened, revealing a woman in a bright red wedding dress and bridal veil. Her hands, feet, waist, and abdomen were all bound tightly to a chair.
Several laborers stepped forward, grasped the chair legs, and lifted it together.
With a splash, the woman and chair sank into the river.
What exactly are these? Projections of history, or collective memories formed from the minds of all living beings?
Whatever they are, opening this realm has some inexplicable connection to the method of incense prayers and wishes.
Li Ling had already spent several days studying it. This was not his first time seeing these scenes, but they still shocked him.
The most reasonable conjecture was that this was the Great Lin River God's divine kingdom.
Immortals had grotto-heavens and blessed lands, Buddhas had Buddha realms, and gods naturally had divine kingdoms.
For gods born of faith in particular, this was practically standard.
This suspected divine kingdom seemed to concentrate a kind of divine incense power, which also contained incense essence.
It was an incense essence unlike any he had seen before, golden throughout and manifesting as a phantom dragon resembling a golden sculpture. When it merged into his soul, his entire mind seemed to hallucinate, producing those images and sounds.
As Li Ling pondered, the incense essence continued to pour toward him like spiritual energy filling the sky, bringing an endless stream of voices and thoughts.
"May the winds and rains be favorable, and may our kingdom prosper and its people know peace..."
"Rain... rain... please, let it rain soon!"
"Stop raining, stop raining! Even the mountains are about to be submerged!"
"Quick, get to shore! The boat's going to capsize! Grandfather Dragon King, spare us..."
"With the River God's blessing, we'll surely make a fortune this year..."
The wishes of countless beings and their interwoven emotions were like hundreds upon thousands of mingled scents.
Without distinction between good and evil, beauty and ugliness, fragrance and stench, refinement and vulgarity, every facet of worldly life appeared here.
The void seemed filled with the pungent scent of incense, candles, and paper money, blazing with masculine heat like a raging fire.
Over ten thousand years, countless worshippers had spared no expense in offering sacrifices and prayers, accumulating a staggering, almost immeasurable amount of prayer power. If he cast caution aside, opened his mind, and swallowed it in great gulps, he could probably strengthen his divine sense at tremendous speed, perhaps even developing the magical power normally found only at Foundation Establishment.
But Li Ling did not rashly do so, because he had discovered that this incense essence seemed to possess a special effect: it could infect the mind!
Just as Spirit-Communing Incense focused on strengthening spiritual perception and Spiritual Consciousness, Cloud-Producing Incense condensed cloud fiends, and Returning Soul Incense spread its scent for a hundred miles, this essence had its own particular quality. It could immerse a person within it, and one careless moment would leave all five aggregates lost in delusion.
When that happened, even his sense of self might disappear, assimilated into the Great Lin River God revered and worshipped by countless believers!
The inexplicable hallucinations that appeared every time his mind communicated with this realm were clear proof. Li Ling was deeply wary of them.
The divine path may not be a good Dao path for an immortal cultivator!
Of the five ranks of immortals, celestial immortals stand highest. Only celestial immortals can attain the Great All-Encompassing realm and enjoy true longevity and freedom.
Although my unusual gift lets me practice Incense-Feeding Soul Tempering, and becoming a god through incense offerings is the most obvious shortcut, that doesn't mean I have to take that road.
Better to worship oneself than a god. Since I refuse to worship gods, why should I have the common people worship me?
Besides, accumulating incense and fire prayer power for countless years and hearing people's prayers and wishes every waking moment might twist my mind until it becomes entirely divine!
The divine path had advantages, but also flaws.
For a mortal, becoming a god was certainly an outstanding opportunity. For an immortal cultivator, that was not necessarily so.
Ultimately, it was merely one option worth considering.
The divine path in this world also had one fatal problem: the gods who were truly free and favored by the great Dao of heaven and earth were natural gods like that wicked flood dragon, not gods born later from faith.
The path of becoming a god through incense offerings was still in its budding, burgeoning stage and had yet to truly develop.
That was only to be expected. With the immortal path at its height, it was perfectly reasonable for the divine path to be suppressed.
Moreover, demonic cultivators were already studying the Incense Prayer Method, using the Spirit-Communing Incense he made to increase the efficiency of prayers. Without such deep resources or suitable conditions himself, why should he waste his efforts on it?
From the beginning, Li Ling had believed that consuming incense directly was purer. Having no need to beseech gods or worship Buddhas, and no reliance on the prayer power of living beings-that was true freedom.
Still, as the saying goes, things reverse when pushed to their extremes. Refining small amounts of this substance and exploiting its properties for cultivation could temper my soul and make it tougher.
Perhaps I could siphon off a little of the incense essence here as cultivation resources...
Could those demonic cultivators be planning the same thing?
Suddenly, an idea occurred to Li Ling.
There really was a fair chance of that.
But he quickly gathered his thoughts and stopped dwelling on it.
He had brought out the statue this time for another purpose.
This is a key, a bridge...
Throughout my repeated investigations over the past few days, I've sensed signs of others contacting this realm. If I'm not mistaken, they're those demonic cultivators.
They must communicate with this realm to steal incense power or accomplish something else. Since I've nothing better to do, I'll lie in wait here. Let's see how long you can hold out!
An unknown amount of time passed. As Li Ling honed himself against the illusory scenes, he suddenly sensed what seemed to be a gateway opening on the far side of the void. A phantom image emerged within the unseen depths.
He saw a room with an offering table, where a woman in red held incense and bowed with a solemn expression. Before long, she inserted the burning Spirit-Communing Incense into the censer on the table.
Incense essence gathered, forming a force that opened a passage. An invisible field enveloped the entire room.
That woman was none other than Miss Lin, who had escaped last time!
I really found her. It's her!
Li Ling sneered inwardly.
You know nothing of the divine path's depths, yet you recklessly light incense and pray. How do you know whether you're contacting a god or a ghost?
If you dare use this Incense Prayer Method to steal the River God's incense power, then I dare use it to come find you!
You little wench, let's see where you can run this time!
In principle, once this passage opened, the other party should also have been able to detect Li Ling. But they were too far apart, and Miss Lin's innate divine ability seemed to sense emotions and spiritual fluctuations. It was all too easily disrupted by the collective will of living beings within the Divine Kingdom Domain!
Throughout these past days, Li Ling had been considering how to find Miss Lin and recalling their earlier encounter. In the end, he realized he would have to repeat his old trick.
This time, however, he did not need to find the beautiful concubine in that temporary palace. With the statue in hand and the Incense Prayer Method learned from his spoils, he could accomplish everything himself.
He immediately retrieved the Returning Soul Incense he had prepared in advance from the crack in the rocks. After lighting it, he guided its incense essence through the void and into Miss Lin's location.
After a little under a quarter of an hour, an unusual fragrance spread from somewhere more than two hundred miles to the east.
So that's where you ran off to!
Miss Lin noticed nothing throughout the entire process. Before long, she finished her incense prayers, and the image vanished.
But the Returning Soul Incense had already appeared there, allowing Li Ling to determine her approximate direction and location.
He did not set out immediately. She had only just ended the connection, and charging over now might lead her to suspect a problem with the Incense Prayer Method.
Better to guard against the one unlikely mishap than trust in ten thousand chances of success. Li Ling still had to prepare for a third ambush, or even a fourth and fifth. Keeping this loophole secret came first; he could also use it against other demonic cultivators in the future.
Besides, he had spent considerable effort cultivating today and was running short on time. He might as well make thorough preparations first.
He went to the Unusual Events Bureau to inspect its recent files and learn how matters had been progressing. He discovered that the bureau seemed to be planning a major operation to encircle and eliminate the demonic cultivators. Over the past half month, it had deployed frequently and fought many battles, adding quite a few new files.
Among them were reports that several portions of confiscated devil finger wood had accumulated, though they remained scattered among various branches and had yet to be gathered in the Royal City.
Such materials were of little use to the Unusual Events Bureau's personnel, so they were unlikely to withhold them. They would naturally send them over when the time came, and Li Ling was in no hurry.
Just then, however, Li Ling suddenly spotted a file mentioning Spirit-Communing Incense.
They've discovered it after all!
Li Ling leafed through the files and found that they had discovered Spirit-Communing Incense in several demonic strongholds. They suspected that incense workshops or merchants on the market had dealings with those cultivators. But the incense formula had already spread, and the immortal masters had specifically ordered increased production, so this proved nothing.
What truly interested them was the related Incense Prayer Method. They had also begun to suspect that certain demonic cultivators were taking the opportunity to conduct illicit worship and steal the Great Lin River God's incense and prayer power.
Perhaps their recent frequent deployments were connected to this as well.
Found it!
Suddenly, Li Ling's eyes lit up. He had found the intelligence he wanted concerning Miss Lin.
Let's see just who this Miss Lin really is!
Hm? She's actually a Sacred Scion with the bloodline of a mighty demonic cultivator? An innate Dao body, an innate divine ability... she truly is a favored daughter of heaven!
After reading the intelligence, Li Ling could not help feeling secretly startled. Fortunately, he had not acted rashly. Otherwise, he might have blundered into some secret treasure, formation, or expert's hands.
It turned out that Miss Lin's full name was Lin Rouniang. She was the daughter of two Core Formation elders of the Ghost Soul Sect. Her true backing, however, was not her parents but her ancestor: the Blood Sea Demon Venerable, a towering figure from the Netherworld Sect's Yellow Springs lineage!
In the cultivation world, anyone who could be called a Venerable or Patriarch was absolutely no ordinary figure.
There were exceptions, of course, when such titles were used because of blood ties or a lineage of inheritance, without reference to cultivation realm.
For instance, Yellow Cloud True Person was currently only at the peak of Core Formation. Li Ling, the Ninth Princess, and even most people in the Mystic Xin Kingdom called her Ancestor, but outsiders still recognized her only as an elder of the Skycloud Sect.
Such a favored daughter of heaven had clearly come here to gain experience, cultivate her arts, and advance herself. She would not be easy to deal with.