The Mysterious Fox Worshipped the Moon, Studying Arts at Xuanjia

After leaving that place, Ao Ding cast the Thousand-Li Marsh Spirit Spell and summoned a group of Qingji.

When he asked about the origins of that Spirit Market, the Qingji were aghast.

"Exalted immortal, you-you didn't go there, did you? That place was originally built by some Qi-Seeding cultivators, and it falls far short of an ordinary Spirit Market. They're extremely hostile to outsiders, too. Spirits like us aren't allowed anywhere near it. The views they hold there... are worlds apart from the orthodox teachings of the immortal sects."

Seeing that all the Qingji shared this attitude, Ao Ding abandoned the idea of questioning them further.

He sat in the carriage, taking in the scenery on either side as he traveled toward the Country of Xuanjia.

He had to admit that, compared with the "Yin Road," which covered ten thousand li overnight, the Qingji traveled only a thousand li a day. Even by changing teams, they could barely manage three thousand.

That night, Ao Ding stopped at a Qingji way station.

The Qingji here did not choose spirit trees for their way stations. Instead, they carved houses from stone, which stood like shrines in corners beside the roads.

When the Qingji's little carriage stopped at the stone house, several white-haired old Marsh Sprites were waiting inside to provide them with fruit juice and meals.

"Let's not travel at night. We'll rest here."

"All right!" The Qingji took off their little hats and happily went off to rest.

Ao Ding sat inside the stone house, leisurely sipping fruit juice.

Suddenly, he caught sight of a patch of silver light outside the window, and his interest stirred.

Ao Ding walked out of the stone house, his body gradually growing larger.

Gazing into the depths of the forest, he could vaguely see a shaft of silver light descending from the moon, stretching from the high heavens into the dense woods.

"Is this... someone absorbing moonlight essence?"

Ao Ding looked with his left eye. Suddenly, a Qingji jumped onto his shoulder. "Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp!" The little fellow gestured nonstop.

"Oh, you mean those fox charmers are worshipping the moon? Is there a fox immortal's residence here?" Ao Ding felt an inclination to pay a visit.

Moon worship was one method by which spirits cultivated.

Those who cultivated, whether human, demon, god, or ghost, could all draw upon the sun's essence and the moon's radiance. The essence of sun and moon existed throughout the world, a power with wondrous uses for all living beings. But compared with the overbearing essence of the sun, demon spirits preferred moonlight. Thus, they had a dedicated "moon-worshipping ritual."

"Chirp, chirp!"

"I'm not allowed to watch? Then never mind."

Ao Ding made no move, merely sitting cross-legged where he was and looking with his left eye.

He had not used his left eye today anyway.

His left eye opened, and golden-azure true light pierced heaven and earth, laying everything within a hundred li bare.

At the center of a moonlit lawn, a little ink-black fox lay on the ground, slowly inhaling and exhaling toward the sky.

The True Person's Eye could see drops of silvery moonlight essence condensing on the fox's tongue before the Mysterious Fox swallowed them. As the moonlight entered the fox's body, the inky color of the fur gradually faded, and fresh white hairs grew. Before long, however, all those white hairs turned black again.

"Hm? This Mysterious Fox seems to be under the influence of some power, forced to change the color of its fur?"

After quite some time, the Mysterious Fox laboriously spat out an inner core the size of a thumb.

"Ah-this fox has a good foundation. The inner core has five hundred years of refinement. No, seven hundred? Eight hundred?"

Yet judging by age, this fox was no more than a hundred years old.

Was it the influence of that power? Or was it due to the purity of the fox's bloodline?

As he watched, a bank of dark mist suddenly rolled across the sky, and howls rang through the mountain forest.

"A wolf?"

Ao Ding looked at his hand. The wolf-head mark on his right palm seemed to be growing somewhat hot.

Right, another old friend from the Nethermoon Wolf Court?

Ao Ding reached into the Purple-Gold Pouch at his waist and took a wooden spear in hand.

The Wolf-Slaying Spear.

"My good friend, hurry along to the next world!"

Ao Ding hurled the wooden spear, activating the Swift Wind Spell and Light-Splitting Spell upon it.

The wooden spear soared like a dragon, turning into a cloud of golden light that shot a dense barrage of light spears toward the distant woodland.

The demon wolf had caught the Mysterious Fox unprepared and had only just snatched the inner core when three thousand spears of light fell from nowhere and pierced its body, sending flesh and blood flying.

The Mysterious Fox hurriedly retrieved the inner core in its mouth and cautiously looked around.

"Cultivate well." Laughter rang out from the air.

A large pot flew in from somewhere, and the demon wolf on the ground was drawn into the oil-filled pot.

"Thank you for saving me, benefactor."

The Mysterious Fox kowtowed repeatedly, then hurried into the undergrowth and vanished.

As the sun rose in the east, the Mysterious Fox ran back to Third Aunt's home.

After hearing what had happened during the night, the white fox, whose five large tails swayed casually, mused, "The demon wolf you saw should have been a spirit from the Nethermoon Wolf Court. They... have been searching for something on Liyun Continent. But a few years ago, the Wolf Court caused too much trouble and angered a True Person. Their entire lair was burned clean. Our household needn't fear them."

Quite apart from the distant relatives of fox immortals like them who had established numerous Demon Courts in the Western Wilderness and become queens of many Demon Courts, how many fox immortals here in the Central Wasteland had become cultivators' concubines? And their Tu Household was nobility among foxes.

"As for that benefactor you mentioned..."

Third Aunt Bai considered it, then instructed a maid to investigate.

News soon arrived.

"Oh, a human cultivator passing through-the Profound Gang Upper Realm, preparing to seek a master in an immortal sect?"

She lowered her head and pondered for a while. Without saying much more, she merely told the maid to keep an ear out for news.

"If he wants to enter an immortal sect, our household might be able to offer some help. But there's a severe drought in the south right now. Your uncle and your parents are all there, helping the immortal sect with disaster relief, so we shouldn't disturb them lightly. Let's watch for now. If he truly needs it, we'll send them word."

"Mm." The Mysterious Fox nodded repeatedly, silently taking the matter to heart.

Ao Ding continued toward the Country of Xuanjia.

Near noon, Ao Ding entered the pine forest and arrived before the immortal tree.

Without drawing attention or alerting the Jiaxia Kingdom, Ao Ding merely crouched before the anthill and carefully examined its activity.

Under his left eye's scrutiny, the recent circumstances of He Wenchang and the other two consorts were laid bare.

Over these three years, they had enjoyed great respect in the Jiaxia Kingdom. Under their leadership, it had even fought two wars against the Jiashang Kingdom, gaining the upper hand through human intelligence. Now, all three were called Guardian-of-the-Kingdom Consorts. Wang Mao had suffered some bad luck three years earlier, repeatedly getting injured for unknown reasons. But after the ruler stepped forward to "exorcise evil," his bad luck disappeared.

"Was it because of that matter involving the Wang Household? Did the ruler dispel his misfortune by linking him to the kingdom's destiny? It seems the ruler really does like this son-in-law..."

Ao Ding looked deeper into the anthill, and his expression suddenly turned somewhat peculiar.

Hmm... I don't understand, but... I'll respect it.

Ao Ding would not gossip about the romantic affairs within the royal family that were unfit for outsiders' ears. As long as those involved had no objections, that was enough.

"But... those three really are living comfortably..."

Watching the three of them, he thought back to the withered-stump Spirit Market he had visited not long ago.

Perhaps... perhaps those at the bottom had their own ways of living?

But Ao Ding was utterly unwilling to live that way.

He had already forged his Dao resolve, setting his ambition above the heavens: to brand his own mark upon the highest heaven of this world.

After checking on He Wenchang and the other two, Ao Ding focused on studying the immortal tree before him.

Looking at the immortal tree now, he could discern something of its obscure Taiwei True Seals.

"A secret art of the Golden Court Sect... You three, get ready."

Ao Ding lightly tapped the Primordial Truth Mirror. Inside it, the three children looked solemn as they jointly conjured a mirror to reflect the Golden Court Immortal Restriction he saw.

Heavenly light in myriad colors flowed across the mirror's surface. One Taiwei True Seal after another was forcibly translated into Three Heavens Great Grotto True Seals, becoming mysteries of the Great Dao that Ao Ding could understand.

"Dharma realms... grotto-heavens, innate Dao domains... So that's how it works."

Ao Ding raised his wooden staff and gently pointed at the ground.

A stone house slowly rose. Then towers, terraces, palaces, and pavilions appeared at his feet.

Yet these buildings were all mundane objects. Even when he had previously taken a shortcut by using spirit wood to build little houses for the Qingji, those houses had only reached the second grade of buildings in the Immortal Nest Nine Palaces Scripture.

Under its nine-grade classification, the third grade, the spirit terrace, signified the Jade Tower Realm.

"Open!"

With Ao Ding's shout, the buildings carved with dragons and phoenixes before him all dispersed, leaving only a mass of brilliant light.

It resembled a spirit terrace, yet was indistinct, possessing its spirit but no visible form.

"Still a little short."

Ao Ding was not anxious. He sat on the ground, silently contemplating and studying the Xuanjia Immortal Tree.

Only after spending a full twelve days there did Ao Ding finally decipher the workings of this secret art of the Golden Court Sect.

He also came to understand the cultivation principles behind the Golden Court Sect Spirit-Realm Method.

"The Golden Court Sect excels at opening Dharma realms and spirit realms, but ultimately, it's a kind of inner-landscape method. They project the scene within the Niwan Palace outward, bringing it into resonance and harmony with heaven and earth. Then, with the aid of an imprint of great Dao true nature, they allow the Dharma realm to endure."

With this realization, Ao Ding's House-Building Technique advanced to the third grade.

Without the aid of any Dharma Artifact, Ao Ding closed his eyes and visualized a spirit terrace.

Once the inner landscape was formed, it naturally manifested in the outside world.

A square terrace three feet across, carved from white jade, appeared before Ao Ding.

When he sat upon it, threads of true qi flowed out of the spirit terrace, resonating with the true Gang within Ao Ding's body, then with the Xuanjia Immortal Tree and even this entire Dharma realm.

"The main body's control over spells has grown more skillful," Blue Child said softly inside the Primordial Truth Mirror. "He can try some of the higher-level spells now."

Sun Chen had taught Ao Ding many spells. Based on their power and the level required to cast them, Ao Ding had divided them into nine grades using the Immortal Nest Nine Palaces Scripture.

The third grade, the spirit terrace, was comparable to the Jade Tower Realm. These were no longer minor spells such as passing through walls or turning invisible, but proper methods for commanding the primal qi of heaven and earth.

Arts such as the Three-Qi Fire Dragon God-Burning Spell and the Five-Qi Tianyi Azure Qilin Spell transformed the primal qi of heaven and earth into birds and beasts, divine beasts and strange creatures. Only upon reaching this level could one be considered truly accomplished in spellcraft. With further study, those spirits and divine beasts conjured through spells could even give rise to genuine life-a phenomenon with a special name in the immortal Dao: "Spellcraft origin spirit."

Anyone capable of this was a True Person of the Dao of spells.

Ding-

As Ao Ding used the Immortal Nest Nine Palaces Scripture to resonate with the Xuanjia Immortal Tree, he happened to trigger the Golden Court Sect's restrictive arts and was recognized as "one of their own" by this system of Supreme Tenuity seals and talismans.

The Mysterious Jia Spiritual Treasury, which had once required the Jiaxia Kingdom to open it, now admitted Ao Ding with a simple push of his hand.

The steaming sweet spring was just as it had been before.

Ao Ding undressed and entered the water, breathing spiritual qi in and out while trying to locate the Innate Divine Spring.

Yet even after his left eye grew sore and his vision blurred, he still could not work out how to enter the Divine Spring.

"My realm is still too low. It seems I'll have to try my luck again on my next visit."

Casting aside stray thoughts, Ao Ding immersed his entire body in the water.

Abundant spiritual qi poured into his body through every pore.

Once, he had spent a day filling his reserves at the Qi-Seeding Realm.

Now, it still took just one day to replenish his magical power at the Profound Gang Upper Realm.

Ao Ding even took advantage of his time in the water to complete the second step of the Five Qis Returning to the Origin Glazed Art.

An azure Dao seed settled within his liver palace. Drawing upon the qi of the Xuanjia spirit tree, everything fell into place as naturally as water flowing into a channel, even sparing him the step of sensing the tides of heaven and earth.

"At this rate... I'm still nowhere near the spirit pool's upper limit."

Perhaps if I returned in the future at the Jade Tower Realm, I could replenish my magical power within a day as well?

But...

The fact that it could replenish my power without bursting my body meant this spirit pool's formation had specific restrictions that could detect the upper limit of magical power within me.

Then...

What if I modified it and removed those restrictions?

In the water, Ao Ding's thoughts kept branching out: lure an enemy into a trap filled with spiritual qi, then continuously inject spiritual qi into their body, just like the spirit pool.

Normally, it should stop automatically at a certain point. But with the relevant restrictions removed, spiritual qi would keep pouring in, and then-

Bang-

A brilliant firework appeared in Ao Ding's mind.

"Fireworks... Let's call this incantation the Fireworks Spell."

Inspired, Ao Ding immediately told the three children his idea.

"Copy out the Golden Court secret registers and do your best to decipher this pattern of spiritual power circulation. I'll have a use for it later."

What decent person treated self-detonation as fireworks?

Sensing Ao Ding's will, Yellow Child sighed softly, then joined his two companions in constructing a new spell system.