[Great Secrecy Radiance Concentration] [Name]: Xu Zhi. [Arts]: Little Scarlet Dragon Sword Manual (major mastery—Ten Steps, One Kill); Green Satchel Medicine Manual (major mastery); Land-Escaping Art (intermediate mastery); Baleful-Falling Talisman (beginner); Crystal Flame Talisman (beginner); Water-Splitting Talisman (beginner); Ghost-Seizing Talisman (beginner); Blood-Slaughter Talisman (-) [Cultivation]: Qi Refining, sixth level (Three Qi Illumination of the Spirit Art)
So Senior Brother's Blood-Slaughter Talisman hasn't reached minor mastery. He hasn't even attained the beginner stage. No wonder he bled so much that day.
Chen Heng looked at the words on the golden book and silently took stock.
As the saying went, arts had three degrees of mastery, and immortals had five ranks.
Those three degrees were minor, intermediate, and major mastery.
But to make the distinctions more precise, Chen Heng had insisted on adding a beginner stage before minor mastery.
It felt rather neither fish nor fowl, but since he alone could see it, he simply let it stand.
These Mind Images of others are actually no different from real people. Just what rank of treasure is the Golden Cicada? A Dao artifact? Or has it already entered the legendary ranks of immortal armaments?
Still, the name of this Dharma Realm clearly belongs to Buddhism, doesn't it?
Across the nine provinces and four seas of Xudu Heaven, Daoism flourished while Buddhism waned.
He had heard that Buddhist lineages still existed in Western Su Province, but they amounted to no more than a stray cat or two. Year after year, Thunderclap Manor, foremost among the unorthodox schools, oppressed them until they could barely lift their heads, subjecting them to endless humiliation. They could hardly be mentioned in the same breath as the Eight Orthodox Sects and the Six Demon Sects that ruled Xudu Heaven.
If he wanted to explore the profound mysteries within the Golden Cicada and the One True Dharma Realm, he would probably have to wait until his divine abilities reached major mastery, then venture into the boundless reaches beyond the heavens to seek traces of the great Buddhist traditions.
Chen Heng tossed the object in his hand into the air, and the golden page once again hovered above Xu Zhi's head.
Finding the sight rather amusing, he stirred his thoughts and concealed the golden book again.
This was the Dharma Realm's second function.
Besides simulating his own Mind Image, it could also simulate the Mind Images of others in the outside world.
And with the [Great Secrecy Radiance Concentration] within the Dharma Realm, it could reveal every cultivation art and spiritual scripture they practiced, exactly as they were in their real bodies outside.
Once the One True Dharma Realm successfully simulated someone's Mind Image, no matter how much that person concealed or how deeply they schemed,
before Chen Heng, they would have no secrets and nowhere to hide...
The ability to simulate others' Mind Images meant that Chen Heng was not limited to arduous solitary cultivation. He could also duel with those Mind Images to hone his skills.
No matter how gruesomely his own Mind Image died, his real body would remain unaffected. Combined with the rule of "one day in the real world, ten days in the Dharma Realm," it was equivalent to having someone feed him practice moves day and night without stopping.
Better still, these Mind Images would never tire, never complain, and could neither die nor be destroyed.
That made them all the more precious.
After killing someone else's Mind Image, I can randomly obtain the origin spirits it scatters, which record all the cultivation arts and spiritual scriptures that person has learned... Unfortunately, that's no use with Senior Brother's Mind Image. Even if it drops an origin spirit, it won't help.
Of the Little Scarlet Dragon Sword Manual and the Green Satchel Medicine Book, one was Xu Zhi's family inheritance and the other the fruit of his own insights. Chen Heng had already obtained the original texts of both.
As for the Three Qi Illumination of the Spirit Art listed under cultivation, that was the Mysterious Truth Sect's foundational method.
Although the Three Qi Illumination of the Spirit Art could be cultivated all the way from Qi Refining to the Purple Mansion, the true qi it produced was merely "ingot-gold true qi," of the middle grade within the third tier.
Despite ranking near the top among the lower three tiers of true qi, it was still lower-tier true qi.
Nor did the art impose any particularly demanding requirements. Any disciple of the Mysterious Truth Sect who attained Embryonic Breathing Qi Sensation could request instruction from the Elder Office at any time, without obstruction.
As for those beginner-stage talisman arts, they hardly bore mentioning. They were commonplace goods.
Chen Heng inwardly regretted it. If he could simulate the Mind Image of a disciple from an immortal sect or great clan, he would no longer have to fret over a Qi-Refining Method.
But he had never even heard of such a person, let alone seen one with his own eyes.
Still, though this Dharma Realm's ability to simulate Mind Images is miraculous, it isn't omnipotent. It can only bring cultivators of the same realm into the Dharma Realm, not copy everyone into it without restraint... I managed to simulate Senior Brother's Mind Image for two reasons: first, he had no wariness toward me; second, he shed a great deal of blood while teaching me to draw the Blood-Slaughter Talisman... Without either of those, I could never have been so fortunate.
Even now, recalling it made Chen Heng shake his head.
A few days earlier, because the Earth Abyss was full of demons and ghosts, Xu Zhi had come over in high spirits specifically to teach him how to draw the Blood-Slaughter Talisman.
The blood and qi of the human body were supremely forceful and yang in nature. Before some newly born demons and ghosts could feast on a human, they first had to find a way to foul that blood and qi.
A Blood-Slaughter Talisman made from blood was even stronger.
Once struck, weaker demons and ghosts would immediately crumble to ash and smoke, their souls scattered into nothingness.
But Xu Zhi was not skilled at making talismans and had not even reached the beginner stage with the Blood-Slaughter Talisman. He shed a great deal of blood for nothing, until Chen Heng finally could not bear to watch any longer and hastily called a halt.
"Senior Brother, I trust you've been well."
Chen Heng looked at the expressionless Daoist and cupped his hands. "Have your wounds healed completely?"
The Daoist made no response. His expression remained wooden and empty, like a clay figure or a wooden carving.
Knowing that this Mind Image had no emotions, Chen Heng paid it no mind. With a faint smile, he swept his sleeve and said,
"Please go on ahead, Senior Brother. Once I comprehend embryonic breathing, I'll meet you again."
With that gesture, Xu Zhi's figure gradually receded into the void, growing indistinct and fading like a patch of water beneath the sun.
Chen Heng raised a hand to his temple and tapped it lightly with his fingers. Those long fingers, which had played the zither since childhood, had joints like jade-clean and delicately graceful, like an ink painting of singular beauty.
With this in hand, I've secured a good half of the four essentials-methods, companions, land, and wealth. The opportunity to attain the Dao is about to appear.
Within the Dharma Realm,
he could, first, adjust the flow of time and remain undying and indestructible; second, copy others' Mind Images and, after killing them, obtain their cultivation arts and divine abilities.
Even ancient books and scriptures would not have dared describe such an extraordinary treasure.
"Beyond the fear of life and death, the spirit finds its own fulfillment. Heaven and earth are one finger; all things are one horse. Forgetting both the traces and that which leaves them, one becomes boundlessly at one with transformation, with nothing beyond one's understanding. This is the sign of first entering true contemplation."
He softly recited the key formula of life-and-death embryonic breathing.
Chen Heng lifted the sword resting across his knees to his neck. He had bought it recently; though it was made of ordinary iron, its edge was quite keen.
After gazing at it for a moment, Chen Heng slashed decisively.
Squelch-
A thin crimson line appeared across his throat, widening continuously.
Blood gushed like a spring.
Elsewhere.
From the jade-blue celestial palace atop clouds ten thousand fathoms high came strains of zither music, softly chiming and pleasing to the ear, like pearls falling onto a cloud platter or flowing water striking a deep pool. Flutes and konghou harps joined in, their melodies layering over one another, their lingering notes curling through the air.
"Aunt, it's been quite some time, hasn't it? Thirty years? To think you would come all the way from Shangyu to Little Sweet Mountain. I'm positively overwhelmed by the favor."
On the Black Crane Cloud Couch, the master of the Mysterious Truth Sect, who looked like a young man, lounged with his legs sprawled. Two beautiful girls in gauzy robes stood beside him holding large silver platters, occasionally offering him spirit foods and fruit.
"Little Jian, you're treating me like such an outsider, speaking so coldly to your aunt!"
The beautiful woman answering him giggled. Her ripe, voluptuous body shifted in playful reproach, making her splendid Rainbow-Robe Feather Garment seem to ripple with jagged waves of gold.
"Have you forgotten? When you were little, no one in Shangyu doted on you more than I did."
The beautiful woman licked the corner of her lips, her nutmeg-colored nails lightly tracing the jade table before her. "If the ancestor hadn't forbidden it, I would very nearly have practiced dual cultivation with you..."
Thank you to Book Friend 20200414171619762 for the 200-point tip, to Dreaming Back to Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing for the 100-point tip, to Book Friend 160706065335874 for the 100-point tip, and to Spirit of Frost for the 100-point tip.
Please send some monthly votes~
Before you continue