Immortal Master, Spirit-Seizing Great Art
Liu Yi carried Little Yellow from the brothel toward the medical clinic. As he passed through the center of town,
He suddenly saw a dark, surging mass of people ahead. More than a thousand of them had packed the street so tightly that not even water could have flowed through.
Every face was feverish, and they shouted, "Immortal Master, see if I have the talent to cultivate!"
Hearing their cries, Liu Yi turned toward the sound and saw a cultivator in a dark blue Daoist robe hovering in midair at the center of the crowd.
He frowned slightly and thought to himself, This person doesn't look like a disciple of the Heavenly Revelation Sect.
Who knows where this Rogue Cultivator came from? He actually dares to test mortals for cultivation aptitude so brazenly. He really doesn't know whether to live or die.
The Jin State is the Heavenly Revelation Sect's territory. Recruiting disciples here in large numbers without permission is an open challenge.
If he's discovered, death is the only road ahead of him.
At that thought, Liu Yi shook his head and paid the man no further attention. He turned and continued toward the clinic.
Just then, a voice suddenly rang out. "You there, mortal carrying the dog, stop at once! I, this Immortal Master, have business with you."
Liu Yi paused in surprise, then quickly realized that the man was speaking to him.
He turned around with a puzzled expression and narrowed his eyes at the Immortal Master flying toward him, thinking to himself:
What does this cultivator want with me? How baffling. Could he have seen that I have a Spirit Root?
But that can't be right. Judging by his presence, he's only just broken through to the Golden Core Realm, and his realm is very unstable. It looks as though he raised his cultivation through some special means.
With that little cultivation, he shouldn't be able to tell that I have a Spirit Root. Besides, I never heard of anyone in the Heavenly Revelation Sect having such an ability.
And I've restrained my presence now. I look like an ordinary person.
Before Liu Yi could puzzle it out, the Immortal Master had flown up to him.
Looking down from above, his gaze arrogant, he regarded Liu Yi as though he were an ant.
"Mortal, that dog looks quite spirited. Present it to me at once!"
Liu Yi's gaze instantly turned cold. He understood at once: the Immortal Master had seen that Little Yellow had awakened intelligence and wanted to take him away.
"Immortal Master, he's just an ordinary local dog I keep at home. There's nothing special about him. If you want a good dog, I can help you buy one."
"Cut the nonsense. I want the dog in your hands. Hand it over, now!"
The Immortal Master looked at Little Yellow, a faint smile on his lips.
He had never expected to encounter a dog demon in this little mortal town.
And he could obtain it without any effort.
He would be a fool to pass up something free.
He could kill it and make a dog-meat hotpot to improve his meals.
The onlookers erupted, their fawning cries rising one after another:
"It's your good fortune that the Immortal Master has taken a fancy to your dog! Why haven't you offered it up yet?"
"Immortal Master, if you want dogs, I'll get you a hundred right away!"
"Doctor Liu, ten taels of silver. Sell me the dog, and I'll give it to the Immortal Master!"
Little Yellow sensed the ill intent in the Immortal Master's gaze and heard the crowd demanding that he be handed over.
He immediately began barking furiously, his fur bristling as he bared his teeth and glared at the Immortal Master with hostility.
Liu Yi shot a fierce glare at the people shouting for him to hand over the dog and thought to himself:
Damn it, how did I miss these bastards when I was looking for people to test my techniques on? I'll put them in my little notebook for now. When I need them later, I'll have them make a contribution.
He reached out and gently patted Little Yellow's head, soothing the agitated dog, then put on a broad smile and said to the Immortal Master:
"Since you like Little Yellow so much, Immortal Master, how would I dare refuse?"
"But could you also check whether I have the talent to cultivate? I want to be like you, Immortal Master, able to fly and even live forever without growing old."
As he spoke, he carried Little Yellow forward a few steps and made as if to hand him over.
Just as the Immortal Master, his face wreathed in smiles and full of arrogance, reached out to take Little Yellow,
Liu Yi suddenly struck like lightning. He seized the Immortal Master's wrist and yanked him toward himself, while hurling Little Yellow into the distance.
His freed right fist instantly gathered a fierce, powerful force. With the power to tear heaven and earth apart, it smashed toward the Immortal Master's head faster than a thunderclap.
The Immortal Master hastily circulated his spiritual power, trying to shake off Liu Yi's hand, but it felt as though an iron clamp had locked around him. He could not break free at all.
Seeing Liu Yi's fierce attack bearing down on him, he hurriedly prepared to raise a spiritual power shield and reached out to counterattack.
But Liu Yi's sudden assault was simply too fast, leaving him hardly any time to react.
The fist, packed with tremendous power, slammed into the Immortal Master's head in an instant.
With a bang, the Immortal Master's head exploded on the spot, spraying blood and flesh everywhere.
Warm blood splashed onto the dumbstruck onlookers, and the street that had been so noisy a moment ago fell deathly silent.
A squishy mage dared let an overpowered martial cultivator at the Peak of the Divine Sea Realm (Peak Foundation Establishment Realm) like me get close. If you didn't die, who would?
His expression calm, Liu Yi crouched and deftly searched the Immortal Master's corpse.
He soon found two books, Thick Earth Art and Spirit-Seizing Great Art, then stuffed all the gold and silver on the body into his robes.
Finally, he curled his five fingers into a claw and thrust them precisely into the man's Dantian, forcibly gouging out a Golden Core the size of a soybean.
When he was done, he took his time wiping the blood from his fingertips on the Immortal Master's clothes.
He slowly rose and lifted his eyes, sweeping his gaze over the utterly silent onlookers.
They recoiled as though struck by lightning, instinctively stepping back three paces in unison, their alarmed eyes full of fear and disbelief.
An innocuous smile appeared on Liu Yi's face.
"You all saw it. This Immortal Master was an impostor. Even an ordinary person like me could kill him with one punch. Don't let yourselves be fooled."
With that, he lingered no longer and turned toward the clinic.
Whether they believed him or not, he trusted that, in the face of death, they would all choose to believe.
The crowd remained deathly silent, and only after a long while did whispers begin to sound:
"An Immortal Master was beaten to death just like that? Am I dreaming?"
"He probably wasn't an Immortal Master. Otherwise, how could he have been killed with one punch? Doctor Liu was right. He was a fraud."
"I never imagined Doctor Liu was so strong. He smashed that fraud's head to pieces with one punch."
Liu Yi returned to the clinic, closed the door, and took out Thick Earth Art to study it.
It was an earth-attribute cultivation method that allowed one to cultivate to the Golden Core Realm.
He discovered that he could extract some of its content on forming a core and incorporate it into the Martial Scripture he practiced, using it to condense a Dao Seed and perfect cultivation in the Dao Seed Realm.
Setting down Thick Earth Art, he picked up Spirit-Seizing Great Art and leafed through it. After only a few pages, a look of surprise appeared on his face.
Only after he finished reading the entire manual did he suddenly understand.
The Immortal Master's mass recruitment of disciples in Green Mountain Town had been nothing more than a pretext.
On the surface, he had been recruiting disciples, but in truth, he had been taking advantage of the opportunity to test their Spirit Roots.
He had been secretly searching for promising talents with outstanding aptitude, intending to seize their Spirit Roots for himself.
No wonder the Immortal Master's presence had been so strange. It turned out that he had cultivated to the Golden Core Realm by using Spirit-Seizing Great Art to seize other people's Spirit Roots.
Spirit Roots were an innate talent people were born with, representing their affinity with Spiritual Qi of various attributes. They could neither be seen nor touched.
Yet Spirit-Seizing Great Art could forcibly extract another person's Spirit Root. It was truly an idea worthy of a genius.
But the methods of this cultivation method were far too cruel. Those whose Spirit Roots were seized would suffer the agony of a thousand cuts before dying.
Even so, the idea was truly earth-shattering. The person who had created Spirit-Seizing Great Art was unquestionably a genius.
Liu Yi even found himself wanting to speak with that person and discuss their insights into Spirit Roots.
More importantly, Liu Yi had gained a crucial inspiration from this cultivation method.
If he could put this idea into practice, the threats and pressure from cultivation sects might be greatly reduced in the future.
At the same time, if he could make the idea a reality, the rules of the cultivation world would be completely rewritten, and an entirely new era might begin.