In the Hall of Divine Conference, Tang Jie trembled, and then his eyes lit up. “The Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art? An interesting idea, and there’s no harm in trying.”
He wrote out a line of characters in the air that swiftly faded away into streaks of flame. Not long afterward, two texts containing the Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art arrived in his hands, from the Azure Dragon and Lithos Dragon respectively.
In the Yan River, Tang Jie’s eyes twinkled as he received the information, and he swiftly memorized both versions.
The different sources meant that the versions were different, but not enough to matter in Tang Jie’s eyes. His situation was already different from those of the Immortals of the Court of Myriad Domains, so rather than do exactly as instructed, he needed to extract the essence and find his own path, just as he had always done.
Thus, these two different but correct versions of the Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art were an important reference, allowing him to more precisely find what he needed.
Interestingly, as he studied the Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art, he found that the line of thought behind it was rather similar to his current situation. In essence, the Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art was a method of destruction and recreation in order to break through a bottleneck that was previously impossible to overcome. And this breakthrough method happened to be nurturing a Seed of Life within the body, which would absorb energy from this body and achieve perfect harmony with it. From there, one would recreate the body and gain a new life.
It was the same idea Tang Jie had come up with after the original body’s death, with only a few details different, so similar that Tang Jie couldn’t help but be stunned.
Was it just a coincidence? Or was it meant to happen this way?
But regardless, since Tang Jie had done all this, the original body could be reborn. The only difference here was that the Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art required ten thousand years of hibernation, and the accumulation and transformation of ten thousand years meant that one would immediately break through upon exiting hibernation.
This didn’t mean that he couldn’t grow, only that the method would be different.
The greatest advantage of growing within was that one would inherit every last bit of one’s power and resolve all of one’s innate flaws from the root, allowing one to break one’s shackles and ascend.
Growing outside lacked these inconveniences, and the method of absorption was rather crude, even producing a lot of waste. The original body’s corpse had the power of a peak Violet Palace expert, but if Tang Jie absorbed it all, he would only barely reach Violet Palace. In addition, the effects of the recreation would be weaker, and one had to deal with all the risks of the outside world.
But where there was loss, there was gain, and vice versa. The disadvantage of the ten thousand years of hibernation was that one essentially gave up on any opportunities on the outside. This was giving up all risk to achieve safe development, which was why ascension would take so many years.
Such a long hibernation was out of the question for Tang Jie. He was always one who sought risk over slumber, advancement over stability.
There were countless resources in the outside world, and Tang Jie was more willing to treat the entire world as his womb, so this change was to his benefit.
The only problem was that he was in the Nether Domain.
The Nether Domain had no resources to offer, and even the spiritual energy here was thin.
As he was thinking this over, he suddenly remembered something.
Before his ascension to Violet Palace, he had gone to the Seven Absolutions Sect to fulfill his obligations. At that time, in order to challenge him, Wang Juemie had entered the Nether Domain with his real body, seeking the Dao from the Yellow Springs.
The Dao Seeking Yellow Springs Scripture!
This mantra had been developed by an ancestor of the Seven Absolutions Sect who had journeyed into the Nether Domain. Despite his many years within that realm, he managed to survive and even grow stronger. When he returned, he said that while the Nether Domain was the land of the dead, it contained many ghost- and soul-related substances that were extremely rare in the mortal plane. He also developed the Yellow Springs Dao Seeking Scripture, which allowed one to cultivate in the Nether Domain by converting ghost energy into living energy. 𝐑áŊỌ𝖇ΕS
But while this mantra was powerful, it was not part of the orthodox path, and there were few Nether Domain resources in the mortal plane with which one could cultivate it. Thus, the Yellow Springs Dao Seeking Scripture became a curiosity, with few people learning it. It was only when Wang Juemie used it to break through that its might was put on display.
Even so, Wang Juemie had not cultivated this scripture to the apex, and after he used it to power himself up, he quickly abandoned it. But Tang Jie saw a lot of potential in it.
Thus, he decided to use the Yellow Springs Dao Seeking Scripture as his starting point, with a plan to combine it with the Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art and the Parting Classic to create his own cultivation method.
He had already become habituated to developing his own methods. It was just that this had mostly been done by his avatar, with the original body following the path of body cultivation and pure strength. Now, Tang Jie had to do it for the original body, and he was merging the secret art of the Martial Lord with an Immortal Art of High Antiquity—a feat which could be considered unprecedented.
Tang Jie immediately contacted his avatar.
In the Hall of Divine Conference, after receiving the message, the avatar Tang Jie got in touch with the Seven Absolutions Sect, asking for the Yellow Springs Dao Seeking Scripture.
With his current status, the Seven Absolutions Sect naturally didn’t dare to refuse. However, Tang Jie didn’t abuse his power, trading for it with some of the arts he had personally developed. Value-wise, they were the equal of the Yellow Springs Dao Seeking Scripture, and even better in terms of practicality.
The reborn original body received the scripture and set about researching it. As expected, he found that its author had a deep understanding of the Nether Domain, and this art had effective means of absorbing the energy of ghosts.
According to the scripture, the Nether Domain lacked traditional resources, but ghosts were also a kind of resource.
Ghosts were formed from lingering souls that attached themselves to spiritual energy and were reborn.
The ghosts of the Nether Domain were born by attaching themselves to the energy of the Nether Domain. The kind of will and the type of energy decided the kind of ghost, but all ghosts had one commonality, which was that they contained the essence of Life within them. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to take form.
This was why ghosts, even though they symbolized death, were essentially beings of the Dao of Life. If not, how could the will of the dead survive as a wisp of a soul? It was all because that little bit of Life power was sustaining them.
Wang Juemie’s Only I Am the Truth was a powerful Life Dao Art precisely because it had been created while in the Nether Domain through all of that Life essence, also known as Soul Fire. Soul Fire was the finest resource in the Nether Domain, strengthening one’s lifespan and body. Like spiritual energy, it was multifunctional.
The Yellow Springs Dao Seeking Scripture recorded many methods of absorbing Soul Fire, and though the level of the creator meant that the scripture itself did not reach Tang Jie’s level, Tang Jie was experienced enough to be able to fill in any gaps and increase the efficiency. After that, Tang Jie simply needed to hunt down ghosts to make himself stronger.
But with his current level of strength, even the lowest level of ghost was rather exhausting, so he would have to continue absorbing energy from his corpse. Alas, he was so weak that he would feel full after only a short while and would have to rest to digest the energy.
Soul Fire wouldn’t have had this problem. Absorbing it would strengthen both his life force and his body, and even increase the rate at which he absorbed power from his original body.
Tang Jie couldn’t help but clench his fist at the thought.
He finally made up his mind and ordered, “Little Three, help me draw over a ghost. I’m going to personally take it down.”
“‘Personally’? But Father, your cultivation…” Little Three said in alarm.
Sitting on that shattered heart, Tang Jie sternly said, “To use the Yellow Springs Dao Seeking Scripture, I have to do it myself, without relying on others. I know I’m too weak, but that’s exactly why I need to absorb Soul Fire to get stronger. I can sense that I can’t hide here much longer.”
He looked up at the river.
Although this body had not entered the Dao, just the basic level of Dao comprehension was enough for Tang Jie to sense danger.
He had no choice but to take risks to get stronger faster.
Understanding what Tang Jie meant, Little Three nodded. “Yes, Father. I will capture a ghost for you.”
“‘Draw over’, not ‘capture’. It’s best if it has none of your energy on it so that it’s as pure as possible,” Tang Jie reminded.
Tang Jie’s cultivation was very weak while the nearby ghosts were rather strong, so Little Three had to go afar to find one for him. After some time and some distance, Little Three finally found a newborn wandering soul.
These newborn wandering souls had no abilities and were extremely simpleminded, but this made Little Three’s task all the more difficult. After a while, he finally found the trick, which was to use a pulverized soul as bait.
Alas, on the journey back, the wandering soul was eaten by another ghost, which made Little Three so angry that he tore that ghost to shreds.
In the next attempt, Little Three was much more careful, baiting over the ghost while also sweeping the area of other ghosts. Alas, this wandering soul also failed to reach the end, becoming entangled in a kind of ghost-eating grass.
Little Three had to find a new route that was as safe as possible.
But the third attempt was also a failure, the newborn wandering soul eventually losing its patience and going off on its own once it grew bored of that pulverized soul.
Little Three had to go back to the previous route, first wiping out all the ghost-eating grasses, then purging the area of any new ghosts, and then luring over another wandering soul.
This time, he finally succeeded in bringing the soul to the Yan River, and Little Three even cleared the nearby area of ghosts to ensure its safe passage. He had suffered quite a lot for this little thing.
At the river bottom, the wandering soul was wondering where its bait had gone when a person emerged from that giant corpse on the riverbed and rushed at it. Tang Jie gathered a ball of white light in his right hand and pushed it at the ghost’s head.
The wandering soul desperately struggled, but it ultimately failed to escape and ceased all movement. Its soul dissipated, leaving behind a black energy that disappeared into Tang Jie’s body.
This was that ghost’s Soul Fire, but it couldn’t be immediately absorbed, for there were many impurities like death energy mixed within. A special method was needed to remove the impurities, or else they would build up in the body and turn one into a zombie. There was one kind of powerful physical ghost in the Nether Domain that was said to have come about when a living person ate too many ghosts.
Tang Jie immediately circulated the Yellow Springs Dao Seeking Scripture, extracting the pure Soul Fire. Its Life power gradually merged with Tang Jie’s body, and he could feel himself growing stronger like he had taken one of the Parting Classic’s herbal baths.
Then, Tang Jie really did begin to use the Parting Classic to absorb the Soul Fire.
Finally, he used the Fake Sky, False Sun Immortal Art to modify his body and boost his potential.
He currently had to go step by step, but as he perfected this art, he would soon be able to refine and use this Life energy much more quickly.