Immortal-Seeking Lineage and the First Unraveling of the Mystery

Li Yan was stunned after hearing this. "Divine Sense... there's actually something this miraculous?" But then he felt speechless again. His room and his teacher's room were only six or seven zhang apart. Didn't that mean that whatever he did or said in his room, his teacher could know?

The old man smiled faintly and continued, "Once Divine Sense reaches a certain level of power, it can be used to kill directly. A powerful cultivator need only send out a strand of Divine Sense to kill invisibly, even slaughtering whole swathes of living creatures weaker than himself in an instant. In short, Divine Sense will continuously grow stronger along with one's cultivation. After reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, several strands of Divine Sense can form a Divine Thought. Divine Thought is even more powerful. You can only slowly explore and learn these things in the future." The old man's tone had already begun to drift into something distant and ethereal.

"After I emerged from seclusion, I waited in the sect for around a hundred years, yet no one from the four sects returned. At that time, I had already reached the Early Body Integration Realm. Though I had gone out in search of a successor during the Spirit Transformation and Void Refinement Realms, I had found no one. There were still more distant places I had not visited, so I delayed no longer and set out once more to seek a successor for my sect.

"But once I left, five or six hundred years passed. I crossed several vast continental regions, searched through a thousand mountains and ten thousand waters, deserts and extreme wildernesses, yet still failed to find a successor. In the end, I shattered the void and came to the Mortal Realm, hoping to gain something here.

"I searched through the Mortal Realm for another two hundred years without finding anything. Then, on one occasion, I received news of a hidden place in the Mortal Realm where people with spiritual roots might be more numerous. But that place lay at the furthest edge of the Mortal Realm. According to the information, even when great powers from the Immortal-Spirit Realm had searched this world for spirit veins in ancient times to establish inheritances, they had failed to found a sect in that region.

"As for why, no records had been preserved. The only records stated that the weather and spiritual energy there were the finest in this world, and that there were quite a few people with exceptional spiritual roots. Yet to reach that place, one had to traverse a long and perilous road plagued by strange crimson lightning tribulations. Its danger was something even the Immortal-Spirit Realm had never seen before. It was said that one needed at least the power of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm to pass through.

"After considering it again and again, I still decided to go take a look. My sect's lineage could not be lost in my generation. But before leaving, I placed a strand of Divine Thought inside an immortal artifact jade box. This jade box could preserve Divine Thought without dispersing for tens of thousands of centuries, and it could sense whether humans within several thousand li possessed spiritual roots. And now, I am that strand of Divine Thought. My true body has already gone to that nameless place." The old man looked at Li Yan as he spoke.

By this point, Li Yan had gone numb. He had encountered far too many miraculous—or rather, bizarre—things today. Now that the old man claimed he was merely formed from a strand of Divine Thought, then so be it. It was not impossible. Thus, Li Yan was no longer surprised and merely listened in silence.

"But I overlooked one matter. Operating this immortal artifact jade box also continuously consumed the power of Divine Thought. At first, I remained inside the jade box and controlled it as it flew across this continent in search of a successor. Another thousand years passed this way, yet I still found no suitable successor.

"Then I realized that if I continued searching like this, my Divine Thought might be exhausted and vanish into nothingness after several hundred thousand more years. So I conceived a method: I transformed the jade box into an ancient jade-slip book and remained inside it, allowing some cultivator to find the book. He would surely regard it as some immortal treasure or spirit artifact. Of course, they would never be able to unravel the secrets within this book."

As the gray-robed old man said this, a powerful confidence appeared on his face. Even though he was not the true body, merely a strand of Divine Thought, he still believed that no one in this world could recognize the secrets hidden within the jade-slip book he had transformed.

"Since they obtained this jade book yet could not peer into its mysteries, they would cherish it all the more. The safest way, naturally, would be to carry it with them. On one hand, that would let them study it whenever they wished; on the other, treasures were safest when kept close at hand.

"Then they would continuously carry me from place to place, while I merely needed to follow them and search different regions. I would no longer need to expend additional Divine Thought to control the immortal artifact jade box. Thus, this transformed jade book passed from one cultivator to another. Some were killed, and the book fell into the hands of the next cultivator. Others carried it for centuries before sitting in meditation until their paths ended and their bodies perished, only for treasure seekers to find it again.

"Of course, they could never open the secrets within this book. But people were like this—the more unattainable a thing was, the more precious they considered it. And so, they carried the jade book across one region after another of the Mortal Realm. Another long million years passed. I found quite a few people with mixed spiritual roots, but still no suitable successor.

"At that time, I discovered that the power of my Divine Thought had been weakened by sixty or seventy percent. At the same time, I sensed that my true body had likely not found a successor either, nor had it perished. There was a connection between my true body and me. If it perished, I would know. If it found a successor, I would know as well.

"Presumably, my true body had become trapped somewhere and could not free itself. Otherwise, it should have come looking for me. Therefore, I still had to continue searching for a successor. But by the previous method, this strand of Divine Thought could probably only endure another two or three hundred thousand years. I had no choice but to find another way.

"That was to let the main Divine Thought fall into slumber and reduce its consumption, while splitting off a weaker strand of Divine Sense to drift outside the main Divine Thought and scan in its place. But it was only a weak strand of Divine Sense. To reduce consumption, it could only scan an area of roughly a hundred li and possessed no offensive power. Yet this was already the best solution.

"If this strand of Divine Sense scanned the person I sought, it would awaken the main Divine Thought. The main Divine Thought could then assess that person's character before passing on the memories. But this strand of Divine Sense could only remain intact for around a thousand years before collapsing. Before each collapse, it would awaken the main Divine Thought and transmit everything it had seen and heard over those years. Then it would disperse between heaven and earth, and the main Divine Thought would split off another strand of Divine Sense before continuing its slumber.

"Of course, this would slowly weaken the main Divine Thought as well, making it increasingly feeble. But it could extend the time spent searching." The old man recounted everything in an unhurried manner. Li Yan said nothing, but inwardly he marveled at the formidable abilities of cultivators. A mere wisp of thought could survive in this world for a thousand years. How could mortals possibly imagine such a thing?

"Thus, several hundred thousand more years passed. During that time, I again found many people with mixed spiritual roots, but none were what my sect required. Around fifty years ago, the jade book fell into the hands of a Gold Core Realm cultivator. Once, while traveling abroad, he encountered an exceptionally formidable enemy.

"He exhausted every divine ability he possessed before escaping the pursuit, but by then his injuries were extremely grave. Even the Gold Core inside his body stood on the verge of collapse. He barely managed to fly back to his cave dwelling, intending to recover there, but the moment he arrived inside, his path ended and he died.

"Fourteen or fifteen years later, a Foundation Establishment Realm junior cultivator accidentally discovered the cave dwelling. With his meager cultivation, he should have been unable to discover it at all. Even if he had stumbled upon it by chance, he could never have broken through the cave-protecting grand formation of a Gold Core Realm cultivator.

"However, when the Gold Core Realm cultivator returned to his cave dwelling, he only opened an entrance to the formation. Before he could activate its defenses again, he had already died. And so, a junior cultivator managed to barge inside. The little cultivator gained quite a few benefits there, including this book. Naturally, he became so overjoyed that he forgot himself and searched every corner of the cave dwelling with even greater abandon.

"But joy turned to sorrow. He accidentally triggered and activated the cave dwelling's defensive formation. Fortunately, he was extraordinarily quick-witted and fled at once the instant he sensed something was wrong. Had he been any less decisive, the formation laid down by a Gold Core Realm cultivator would not have been something he could endure.

"Even so, the junior cultivator was struck by the formation during his escape. When he emerged, he was not only barely breathing, but even the clothes on his body and his Storage Pouch had been blasted apart. As for a Storage Pouch, you can understand it as an immortal storage item—a small pouch that can use immortal arts to hold objects of varying sizes according to its grade. You can look into that later.

"Speaking of which, perhaps this was simply the fate of that junior cultivator. The cultivation world had always been like this. Opportunities were often accompanied by danger, and danger often foretold death." As the old man reached this point, the face within his blurry figure had already begun to fade from view.

Li Yan looked at the old man's indistinct face and figure and thought, Is this the dispersal of Divine Thought he mentioned just now?

"After the junior cultivator's Storage Pouch was blasted apart, apart from the book transformed from the jade box, a jade slip and a paper book protected by immortal arts remained intact. However, the immortal protection on that paper book was shaken apart and erased when the Storage Pouch exploded. Not long afterward, the junior cultivator too returned his soul to the underworld.

"Thus, I continued sleeping, waiting for the next 'fated person' to obtain this jade book. One day a few years later, a black-robed mortal suddenly came here and found the jade book, jade slip, and paper book that had lost its immortal protection beside the dried bones of that Foundation Establishment junior cultivator." The old man paused, and a strange smile could vaguely be seen on his indistinct face.

Li Yan pondered briefly, then said to the old man, "That person was my teacher, wasn't he?"

The old man's blurry figure nodded. "That is correct. This man was precisely your current 'teacher,' Strategist Ji." When he said the word "teacher," he deliberately emphasized it, his voice carrying a trace of amusement.

Li Yan naturally heard the mockery in the old man's words. There was undoubtedly something wrong with his "teacher." He could only vaguely guess that it concerned himself, but what exactly the problem was remained unclear.

"Your 'teacher' was not from any secular martial arts sect called the Wood Shadow Sect. That was merely something he said offhand—a sect that existed only in empty fantasy. In truth, he belonged to the Immortal-Seeking Lineage."

When Li Yan heard this, although he had already guessed from the old man's expression that his "teacher" had secrets, he had never expected even the sect to be nonexistent, nor that Strategist Ji was not a martial artist. Greatly surprised, he asked, "What is this 'Immortal-Seeking Lineage'? A lineage that seeks immortals?"

"Hehe, you are somewhat right. After those cultivators from the ancient Immortal-Spirit Realm came to the Mortal Realm and established many cultivation lineages and sects, tens of thousands of years passed. Some people in the secular world gradually learned of these matters and longed to enter those lineages or sects, hoping to gain the chance to cultivate immortal arts and obtain the path to longevity.

"At first, only scattered individuals went into the deep mountains seeking immortal fortune, hoping to find immortals and gain their favor enough to be accepted as disciples. But the mountains abounded with demon beasts and ghosts. Often, before these people found their immortal fortune, they had already become food in a demon beast's belly or souls beneath a ghost's claws.

"This was not the result those who hoped to cultivate immortality desired. Thus, they gradually gathered together and sought immortal fortune jointly. When they encountered demon beasts or ghosts, they could watch out for one another. Although the outcome was much better than before, the casualties remained immense.

"Later, martial artists from the secular world joined them. Some had been hired by them, while other martial artists joined resolutely after hearing of immortals, seeking greater power. With their addition, the likelihood of death fell drastically. And so, they searched great rivers, vast mountains, and treacherous waters, bitterly seeking that sliver of immortal fortune.

"Eventually, some among them who possessed spiritual roots truly found immortal sects and entered them, learning immortal arts. Others found the immortal arts or cave dwellings of dead cultivators. If they happened to possess spiritual roots, they too stepped onto the immortal path.

"This further stirred their confidence. They simply stopped concerning themselves with worldly affairs and practiced martial arts together, so that they could venture deeper into more distant unknown lands. They did not enter the world or roam the martial realm. With single-minded devotion, they pursued only immortal fortune. Thus, few ordinary people knew of them. Cultivators called them the Immortal-Seeking Lineage, and Strategist Ji was an inheritor of that Immortal-Seeking Lineage."

After hearing this, Li Yan thought, Why had this teacher of mine lied and claimed to be from the Wood Shadow Sect? This was what he still could not understand.

"After Strategist Ji acquired the jade book, jade slip, and that paper book, he naturally liked them. But he did not know that this was also an immense stroke of fortune for him. The paper book and jade slip were originally a set of immortal arts called the Black Night Curtain Green Technique.

"The paper book only recorded the method for sensing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, which was the entry point to immortal cultivation, as well as the formulas for the first three layers of the Qi Condensation Realm. The jade slip recorded the cultivation formulas for the fourth through tenth layers of the Qi Condensation Realm. It should have been used by some immortal sect as an introduction to the Qi Condensation Realm.

"It had been designed this way because those who had just begun cultivating possessed Divine Sense too weak to leave the body. Only after cultivating to the third layer could it leave the body, allowing them to open the jade slip. Therefore, the first three layers were generally recorded in paper books, then protected with the sect's immortal arts. Ordinary mortals naturally could not open them. Some books had such powerful immortal protection that even Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators could not open them.

"As for Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators and above, even if they had the ability to break the protection, they had no interest in doing so. They were already people capable of founding sects and establishing lineages. How could they care for such low-grade introductory techniques? Besides, even if they cultivated them, paper books generally contained only the first three layers. What use would they be?"