Chapter 1501: The Two Statues (Part Two)
However, the results of Li Yan’s recent test allowed him to draw a more definitive conclusion. It was just that this conclusion left him deeply disappointed.
Based on this conjecture, there was simply no way for him to leave the Earth-True Domain.
But with a moment’s thought, it was all to be expected. These statues had been brought in by the Soul-Suppression Palace; they hadn’t originally appeared here.
It was no different from him bringing any other object in from the outside world. How could it possibly grant him the ability to break through this realm’s shackles?
A cascade of questions made Li Yan’s head ache. He closed his eyes again, and when he reopened them a moment later, he once more infused the jar with his Soul Power.
This time, Li Yan’s gaze fell upon the statue of the martial general. He carefully observed the changes in its form when the beam of light appeared…
After a hundred breaths, Li Yan shook his head in resignation. Apart from the beam of light shooting from the Heart-Protecting Mirror on its chest, the martial general’s statue showed no other changes.
And so, he turned his attention to the Earthen Jar itself.
The same three familiar patterns adorned its surface. The chip in the rim of the jar was still there; it hadn’t vanished after being struck by the beam of light, nor had any new patterns emerged.
‘When I infused it with Soul Power, the three patterns flickered slightly, but that was all. There were no other changes.’
‘The beam of light hit the rim and vanished almost instantly. What use could such a reaction possibly have…’
As Li Yan pondered this, he looked at the chipped area. But a chip was just a chip; nothing remained.
Then, his gaze shifted to the inside of the jar. The bottom was still as empty as ever.
But as Li Yan’s eyes swept across the interior, he suddenly froze. On the inner wall of the jar, a dense cluster of characters had appeared at some unknown time.
Li Yan was certain these characters had not been there before.
The dilapidated Earthen Jar had once been quite filthy. When he first began to study it, he had personally and meticulously cleaned away the grime. He knew the state of its interior better than anyone.
“What is this?”
Li Yan was startled. Had the dilapidated Earthen Jar been damaged? This jar was of great importance to him.
Li Yan was still hoping that he could one day return to the lower realm, go to the valley of the Strategist’s Manor in the Great Green Mountains, and use this very jar to explore the bottom of the pool again.
Li Yan hastily examined it. The space inside the jar was cramped, and the characters were exceptionally fine. A mortal would probably only be able to see a small, sunlit portion by holding it under the midday sun.
Moreover, the characters were extremely faint. Even with Li Yan’s eyesight, he had to concentrate intently just to make out a portion of the script.
“This seems to be… some kind of cultivation manual?”
Li Yan squinted, trying his best to discern the words. He could only make out a few characters here and there, and they were disjointed, failing to form coherent sentences.
Then, Li Yan discovered that as he watched, the characters were slowly fading away. In a short while, they would likely vanish completely.
‘It was the beam of light!’
Li Yan’s mind worked quickly.
A thought flashed through his head. So many characters had suddenly appeared on the inner wall of the Earthen Jar, and they seemed to have been triggered by something to manifest.
Then, as he watched, they began to fade and disappear once more. This immediately brought a possibility to mind.
Of all the various tests he had just performed, only one action was different. The answer was almost too easy to guess.
Without any further hesitation, Li Yan channeled Soul Power from his hand and poured it into the jar. At once, the Soul Power within the dilapidated Earthen Jar surged in response.
Li Yan’s gaze was fixed firmly on the jar’s inner wall, where the characters were still fading.
In the next moment, a beam of light shot forth from the Heart-Protecting Mirror on the martial general’s chest above, striking the chipped rim of the jar directly.
The beam of light flashed once and then vanished.
But as Li Yan looked at the inner wall, his eyes suddenly brightened. Just as he’d suspected, after that beam of light struck, the characters that had become exceedingly faint instantly became sharp and clear again.
Li Yan quickly focused his gaze and began to read carefully.
This time, after reading only a few lines, his body jolted, and a soft sound of astonishment escaped his lips.
“Eh? This… How is this possible?”
Then, Li Yan eagerly read on, line after line.
By the time he had read all the characters, the revealed script had once again grown faint, slowly beginning to disappear.
Li Yan raised his head and looked back and forth between the two statues, his gaze shifting from left to right as he began to mutter to himself.
“There are so many soul cultivation methods, yet I just happened to practice this one. And these two statues… Yang Pos and Yin Huns… Yang Pos and Yin Huns, one civil… one martial, also representing yin… and yang. So that’s what it means!”
“But isn’t the origin of this cultivation method said to have been an accidental discovery by the first-generation old Sect Master? This is clearly a cultivation method belonging to the Hellsoul Clan, or even the Soul-Suppression Palace itself…”
At this moment, Li Yan’s mind was once again filled with questions. He had already had more than enough doubts for one day.
The characters inscribed on the inner wall of the dilapidated Earthen Jar were none other than the “Saintly Soul Transformation Art.” He, too, possessed an incomplete manuscript of this very art.
However, it could only be cultivated to the late-stage Nascent Soul Realm, as it only contained the manual for cultivating the Three Huns and two of the Pos. Beyond that, the cultivation method could not advance.
Yet, the text that appeared on the inner wall of the dilapidated Earthen Jar contained the cultivation manual for one Hun and all Seven Pos, though it was missing the manual for two of the Huns.
But if this was added to the cultivation method Li Yan already knew, it would form a complete cultivation method for the Three Huns and Seven Pos.
However, as Li Yan read to the end, he realized that this was still an incomplete manuscript, just a more comprehensive version.
Combined with the method for cultivating the two Huns he already knew, this art would allow Li Yan to cultivate all the way to the late-stage Spirit Transformation Realm.
But Li Yan was certain that the highest level of this cultivation art did not stop at the Spirit Transformation Realm.
The characters of the cultivation method inside the jar were inscribed from the bottom up. By the time they reached the rim, a section was missing due to the chip, leaving some characters behind but losing all those in the gap.
Based on the remaining fragmented characters, it was impossible to deduce the rest of the cultivation method.
By judging the height and arrangement of the text for each cultivation level, Li Yan could roughly guess that the missing portion contained at least the manual for the Void Refining Realm, and perhaps even the Body Integration Realm.
As for any higher-level cultivation methods, judging by the height of the jar’s rim, they were either never inscribed or had not yet been created.
A cultivation method is, after all, created by predecessors. The realm to which it can be cultivated depends on the creator’s talent, their own strength, and their imagination.
Some people might only have a Golden Core Realm cultivation, yet they could still create a cultivation method that surpasses their own realm. It would simply require constant verification and revision in its later stages.
But the cultivation method before him had been created at least to the Void Refining Realm. As someone who cultivated the “Saintly Soul Transformation Art,” Li Yan knew just how formidable this method was.
It could augment the power of spiritual arts. If it weren’t for the fact that the incomplete version was so difficult to cultivate, this method would absolutely be considered a legacy art, used to safeguard an entire sect.
And as a legacy art for a sect, how could the Soul-Suppression Palace have possibly lost it and allowed it to become an incomplete manuscript? And yet, the statues before him were clearly connected to this very art!