Different Laws (Bonus Chapter for Silver League Leader Dongfang Yushan)

As they spoke, Shuobing wasted no time. The immortal artifact in her hand flashed again. The male immortal's expression turned exceedingly ugly, and he spun around to flee. But another sudden change arose. Beneath Shuobing's feet came a low buzz, and an exceedingly thin streak of blood-red light, like crimson moonlight from the heavens, flashed and vanished as it pierced into Shuobing's silver radiance!

With a swish, the blood light was like a heavy drop of red ink falling into water. Shuobing's silver radiance, even her ice-colored wings, were dyed red in an instant!

Looking at where the blood light had shot out from, a female immortal figure slowly stepped forth from somewhere within the Sword Diagram space. Though silver radiance obscured her, her smile was plainly visible.

"Hahaha!" The male immortal who had just been preparing to flee now stopped and burst into laughter again. "Immortal Prefect, it truly wasn't easy to ambush you!"

"Of course it wasn't easy..." Shuobing's silver radiance contracted as she said coldly, "Did you think I spent all these years in Helan Que for nothing?"

No sooner had she finished speaking than a huge boom rang out. Beside the female immortal who had just appeared, an identical pillar of cold azure light tore through the air and struck at her chest. The female immortal was greatly alarmed and hurried to dodge, but at this point, how could she possibly evade it?

With a puff, blood light blazed brilliantly.

"You..." The female immortal stared in equal disbelief at a nearly transparent Nascent Soul only several hundred zhang away, and at the immortal artifact in its hand identical to Shuobing's. She did not know what to say!

"Give me your life!" Shuobing roared. Together with the Nascent Soul, she raised her immortal artifact, preparing to attack the female immortal.

"How dare you!" The three male immortals were horrified and lunged forward without a second thought.

The instant the male immortal moved, the ice-colored Nascent Soul immediately reached out and grabbed Shuobing. Wings nearly a hundred zhang long suddenly sprouted beneath its previously bare arms. With one spread of those wings, the ice-colored Nascent Soul and Shuobing shot into the night sky like meteors. Within moments, only their backs could be seen.

"This..." The three male immortals stood dumbfounded, while the female immortal snapped, "Why aren't you chasing them?"

As she spoke, two female immortal figures likewise turned out from midair where Shuobing had been standing before. Their faces were expressionless; it seemed these two female immortal avatars had also been preparing to ambush Shuobing.

"Fine, fine!" The three male immortals answered in unison. The male immortal with red Sword Light waved his hand and retrieved the Sword Diagram above his head. "No matter. I injured her just now, though it's a pity she concealed it from me. I already planted a hidden trick on her. She can't escape..."

The female immortal looked at the male immortal with red Sword Light, then at the male immortal with yellow Sword Light, and nodded slightly. "That would be best..."

Xiao Hua did not dare go far. On the first day, he only searched within a hundred li. Yunmeng Marsh was called a "marsh" because it contained too many wetlands. Everywhere Xiao Hua looked that day, there was water. Most of the immortal creatures within a hundred li hid underwater, and since Xiao Hua still could not use water escape, he naturally gained nothing. Yet over the course of that day, six suns rose in succession: Jiaotu Sun's fiery yellow, Guijing Sun's golden yellow, Yanxi Sun's fiery hue, Tengshe Sun's silvery white, Shuquè Sun's glazed gold, and Crimson Sun's scarlet red. In a single day, they transformed the strange spectacle of the marsh six times, leaving Xiao Hua, newly arrived in the Immortal Realm, crying out in delight.

At the same time, Xiao Hua learned that among those six suns, aside from Tengshe Sun's silvery-white sunlight, which caused no harm to his Nascent Soul Body, the other sunlight was harmful to varying degrees. Shuquè Sun's glazed gold in particular was like ten thousand arrows piercing his heart when it shone upon him; he could not endure it for even a moment. Fortunately, when Shuquè Sun rose, Xiao Hua happened to be standing not far from a cave, allowing him to escape disaster.

Though he had escaped disaster inside the cave, that glazed golden radiance seemed to be everywhere. Even when Xiao Hua activated the Pearl Shirt and set the Mitian Ring in motion, the sensation of being pierced by swords remained, only greatly weakened. By now, Xiao Hua also knew that the Mitian Ring could not help him resist the assault of sunlight and moonlight radiance.

Immortal beasts were mostly active at night. Xiao Hua lay in ambush nearby, hoping to make some gains, but regrettably, after waiting half the night, the Osmanthus Moon had already risen high, and he had yet to see any immortal beast worth mentioning.

"Perhaps because the Roaring Beast is here, all the immortal beasts nearby have been slaughtered. It seems that if I want any gains, I should wait until my injuries improve a little, then head somewhere farther away!" As Xiao Hua returned empty-handed beneath the stars and moon, he could not help making plans inwardly.

After returning to the cave, Xiao Hua sat cross-legged and did not go out for several days. This time, however, his injuries were rather severe, especially Yuanzi's palm strike before leaving. Thus, several days of quiet cultivation brought no particular gains.

Over the past few days, Xiao Hua also tried using the cultivation methods from the mortal world to heal his injuries. But just as he had anticipated, the laws of the Immortal Realm differed from those of the mortal world, and mortal-world techniques could scarcely draw upon Immortal Spiritual Energy. As for the cultivation technique Xu Zhi had left behind for scattered Nascent Souls, Xiao Hua did not know whether Xu Zhi had altered it or whether it was due to the laws themselves, but cultivating it was far less smooth than in the Four Great Continents. For a time, Xiao Hua felt utterly at a loss and could only contemplate the flames of the Sacred Lotus Seed, hoping to find some useful information within them.

This day, Xiao Hua opened his eyes from meditation. Looking at the scattered Nascent Souls around him, he frowned. "This won't do. Without a targeted healing technique, without healing pills, without a suitable cultivation technique, who knows when my injuries will heal? Eh? Th-this... what is going on?"

In the midst of his frustration, Xiao Hua suddenly discovered that there was no erosion from sunlight or moonlight radiance inside the cave.

"Strange!" Xiao Hua hurriedly rose to his feet. His eyes shifted a few times before he discovered the anomaly. Earlier, when Xiao Hua had entered the cave to lure the Toad Faced Toad out, he could feel the erosion of sunlight and moonlight radiance in the front half of the cave. But after Xiao Hua entered the deepest part of the cave, he had instead forgotten about it. The more than one hundred scattered Nascent Souls had remained inside as soon as they came out, suffering an almost negligible amount of erosion from sunlight and moonlight radiance.

Xiao Hua flew outward for a distance. Outside, it was Shuquè Sun, the one Nascent Souls feared most. Xiao Hua began to feel the pain of swords piercing through him. Flying farther out, the pain grew even worse. Yet when Xiao Hua retreated to the vicinity of the Toad Faced Toad's nest, the pain actually vanished.

"Wrong, wrong, absolutely wrong!" Xiao Hua shook his head vigorously. He had previously avoided Shuquè Sun's glazed golden light in a cave more than a hundred li away. At that time, even hiding in the deepest part of the cave, he had still suffered unbearable pain piercing his heart. There had been no particular difference in the distance between the two places.

"What is the reason for this?" Xiao Hua thought as he looked up and down at the stone walls around him. Needless to say, there had to be something unusual about this mountain rock.

Yuanzi and Jing Sheng had said clearly that the Toad Faced Toad would not remain anywhere without treasure. Yet Yuanzi had found no treasure, which had left him somewhat puzzled. Later, the Roaring Beast appeared, and Yuanzi mistakenly believed the Toad Faced Toad had remained here because the Roaring Beast was laying eggs in this place. Now, it seemed there should be a treasure within these stone walls.

If he knew where within the stone wall the treasure was located, Xiao Hua could simply use the Ruyi Scepter to smash open the wall and take it. But since even Yuanzi had used his Spirit Body to search and still detected nothing, this treasure had to be hidden with extreme secrecy. Xiao Hua did not think he could find it easily.

"Perhaps I can try the Eye of Delusion Breaking?" Xiao Hua pondered inwardly. He immediately raised his hand and slapped his brow.

With a swish, as Xiao Hua's palm touched his brow, several layers of patterns suddenly emerged on his formerly smooth and unmarked forehead. Some were golden yellow, some dark green, some silvery white. As the patterns slowly shifted, faint Buddhist light began to seep forth. Then an eye-shaped mark appeared, silver radiance flickering from it as though an eye had opened.

"Excellent!" Xiao Hua was overjoyed and raised his gaze toward the four walls.

"Th-this..." After looking for a while, a strange expression appeared on Xiao Hua's face. After several low cries, he shot through the air, heedless of the most powerful glazed golden light raging outside.

"Heavens, so that's how it is!" Once he flew out of the cave and turned back to look, understanding appeared on his face. He laughed. "So that's how it is! The treasure guarded by the Toad Faced Toad is this mountain itself! It's just that the treasure is too large, and it is covered by Yunmeng Marsh's fire rain, so ordinary methods cannot detect it!"

"Mm, perhaps the unique Gilded Fireballs around this mountain are also due to that treasure!"

Perhaps due to his excitement, Xiao Hua had ignored the heart-piercing pain earlier. Now that he had learned the truth, the pain surged in like a rising tide.

"Heavenly Dao!" Xiao Hua lifted his head and looked at the glazed golden light that had begun to dim. With a bitter smile, he said, "How much longer do you intend to torment Xiao?"

Xiao Hua had forgotten that what he had opened was the Eye of Delusion Breaking. The world and sky before this eye now took on another appearance: a hazy grayish white, like mountain shadows, thick and heavy. Amid that grayish white, countless tiny sparrow-shaped golden lights fell densely.

"So this is the Immortal Realm?" Xiao Hua was utterly stunned. He thought to himself, Why is it different from what I saw in the mortal world?

However, Xiao Hua could not spare the time to think further. He hurriedly flew back into the cave. At the very instant he entered it, Xiao Hua suddenly came to a realization. The thought that had flashed through his mind earlier finally became clear, and Xiao Hua nearly burst into laughter. "Hahaha! Xiao understands now! The cultivation methods used by Mortal Immortals of the Immortal Realm rely on the physical body to open meridians within the Nascent Soul. Xiao's Nascent Soul naturally need not open meridians again. Then why can't Xiao let the Nascent Soul cultivate Immortal Realm techniques directly? After all, the hundred meridians of Xiao's Nascent Soul are all open, no different from those of an ordinary cultivator!"

But when Xiao Hua eagerly sat cross-legged, silently recited the formula for the Bone Cleansing Technique, and began circulating Immortal Spiritual Energy, he discovered that the Immortal Spiritual Energy could not be moved at all. Xiao Hua clearly sensed it, yet it was as heavy as ten thousand jun.

"Could it be because I have no Emanated Thought?" Xiao Hua stopped, baffled.

Xiao Hua had, after all, once stood at the pinnacle of the mortal world. He had created cultivation techniques himself and altered the techniques of others. After pondering bitterly for a long while, he roughly found a line of thought.

"It's still the laws! This Bone Cleansing Technique is based on the physical body, and the laws followed by the physical body differ from those of the Nascent Soul. Although Xiao's Nascent Soul is activating the Bone Cleansing Technique, in actual appearance, it is like when Xiao practiced martial arts as a child—a fancy stance with no substance."

"Though Xiao's Nascent Soul Body is a Starry Sky Nascent Soul and has undergone transformation through tribulation lightning, the laws forming this Nascent Soul Body remain chaotic within. What sunlight and moonlight radiance truly attack are those fragments of laws belonging to the human world. Unless I use Spirit Cleansing Liquid to clear away those law fragments, even if Xiao can cultivate, his Dao foundation will surely be unstable."

"Therefore, what Xiao can do now is still to first find some healing pills he can take, so the more than one hundred scattered Nascent Souls can heal. As for Xiao himself, he can likewise only maintain his present Immortal Power. Once he finds a suitable cultivation technique, he can soar into the sky in a single leap!"

P.S.: The new book is now up. Fellow Daoists who enjoy this book, please subscribe and support it on Qidian, cast a recommendation vote, add it to your collection, or give a reward. Thank you for every form of support!!

Thanks to fellow Daoist Dongfang Yushan for the Silver League, and thanks to Nuolunxi Watchmakers for becoming a league leader. This is Tanhua's first bonus update for the new book, dedicated to you all. Once it goes premium, the true bonus-update mode will begin...