Chapter 1522: Winter Ends, Unaware of the Year
A short while later, Li Yan went to find Feng Hongyue. After a brief explanation, he also gave him a considerable amount of Spirit Stones and medicinal pills.
Having done all this, Li Yan returned to his training chamber once more.
From this point on, Li Yan threw himself into his cultivation. However, he did not cultivate the Saintly Soul Transformation Art. Instead, he began to practice the Qiongqi Purgatory Art.
Three years later, a series of booming rumbles echoed from within Li Yan’s tendons, membranes, and bones. Above his head, a fairly distinct black shadow appeared in tandem with the sounds.
It was a monstrous beast, shaped like a tiger and resembling an ox, with fur like spines and a pair of wings. It had red fur and golden eyes, its appearance exceedingly fierce and savage.
The moment this black shadow appeared, it revealed its ferocious nature, letting out a silent roar towards the heavens.
The multiple layers of formation restrictions in Li Yan’s training chamber seemed to be struck by an invisible ripple, blurring and distorting.
This beast was none other than the peerless ferocious beast, the Qiongqi!
The Qiongqi Purgatory Art had transformed from mortal to divine in a single day, finally breaking through to the seventh layer. Li Yan had now completed the dual Spirit Transformation of both Dharma and Body.
If one were to include the soul cultivation from his special Dharma cultivation, he was already a triple Spirit Transformation cultivator.
The rumbling inside Li Yan’s body lasted for a full hundred breaths before it slowly subsided into silence.
Without pausing, Li Yan then began to formally cultivate the seventh layer of the art…
Another two years passed, and he finally stabilized the Qiongqi Purgatory Art at the seventh layer!
Simultaneously, an art called “Break the Prison” appeared within the seventh layer. This art was the ultimate method of breaking all restrictions with force, a veritable nightmare for Dharma cultivators and Talisman cultivators!
However, in those two years, while Li Yan was stabilizing his realm, he had only managed a cursory understanding of the Break the Prison art. The cultivation method was exceedingly obscure and difficult to comprehend.
For the time being, Break the Prison could only be set aside by Li Yan. This was something outside of his plan.
With this, the first stage of his planned cultivation was complete!
After sitting cross-legged in meditation for three days and readjusting his physical state, Li Yan resumed his cultivation. This time, however, he still did not cultivate the Saintly Soul Transformation Art.
Instead, he began to practice the external avatar art that Donglin Tingyue had given him—Parting the Flowers and Brushing the Willows.
The passage of time once again became like flowing water. For a cultivator, the years felt like just yesterday and today, so brief it was like the blink of an eye…
Twelve years later, inside Li Yan’s training chamber, the seated and meditating Li Yan’s body suddenly stirred slightly, and three figures stepped out from within him.
The moment these three figures appeared, they rapidly solidified, and the aura of the cross-legged Li Yan began to drop precipitously.
The three figures stood behind Li Yan. They all looked identical to him. The three figures glanced at each other, and a knowing smile appeared on each of their faces.
In an instant, it was as if Li Yan had gained several twin brothers, making it difficult to tell which one was the real Li Yan.
The three standing Li Yans suddenly spoke in unison.
“Go!”
Then, each of them raised a hand and formed a hand seal. In an instant, a Fireball Art, a Giant Rock Art, and a Piercing Spike Art were all cast.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!”
The next moment, three rays of light shot out and instantly struck the formation restrictions in three different directions. The formations here were capable of defending against the attacks of a Spirit Transformation cultivator.
Amidst three loud bangs, the entire training chamber erupted in red, yellow, and golden light, causing the formations to shake violently and flicker unsteadily.
The seated Li Yan sensed this, and with a thought, the three figures once again stepped forward, moving towards him.
The moment their feet touched the body of the seated Li Yan, the three figures blurred and vanished without a trace.
Simultaneously, the aura on the seated Li Yan’s body surged dramatically before returning to calm.
The seated Li Yan then carefully inspected his surroundings for a while before a smile appeared on his face.
‘I’ve finally cultivated the Parting the Flowers and Brushing the Willows art to the minor success stage. I wonder who created this technique; it is truly profound.’
‘I can now split into three avatars, and their auras are completely identical. Due to the fusion of Essence Blood, even I find it difficult to tell the real from the fake.’
‘More importantly, I can control them with different elemental Spirit Powers, which makes the power of the arts they cast even stronger!’
Parting the Flowers and Brushing the Willows, upon reaching the minor success stage, could split into three avatars; at the mid-stage, it could create six; and at the great perfection stage, nine.
These avatars were formed from the main body’s Essence Blood and magical power, so the weakness of this art was that the main body’s strength would decrease after the avatars separated.
After Li Yan created three avatars, the strength of each was only at the Late-stage Nascent Soul, but his main body’s strength could still be maintained at the Initial-stage Spirit Transformation.
However, at this point, he was only equivalent to an ordinary Initial-stage Spirit Transformation cultivator, no longer at his peak strength.
But as Li Yan’s cultivation deepened, even if his Parting the Flowers and Brushing the Willows art remained at the minor success stage, the strength of his future avatars would increase in sync with his realm. Furthermore, after the avatars separated, the main body’s strength would not drop as much.
Moreover, with Li Yan’s current strength, if he cast the art and only summoned one avatar, that avatar’s realm could also be maintained at the Initial-stage Spirit Transformation.
The profundity of this art lay in the fact that after an avatar was depleted, it could be replenished with external items right before its body was about to dissipate.
As long as the Essence Blood existed, although it couldn’t meditate and cultivate, it could use items like Spirit Stones to replenish its magical power, allowing the avatar to maintain its combat strength.
But it was precisely because of this major drawback—the inability to cultivate independently—that the avatar was constantly consuming its own magical power at every moment.
However, the good outweighed the bad. Due to Li Yan’s familiarity with controlling the five elements, the strength of each of his avatars had already surpassed the inherent limitations of the art itself, allowing them to possess true, single spirit root attributes.
This made the arts cast by the avatars much more powerful than those of cultivators at the same level. With this art, Li Yan now had another important life-saving method for future escapes.
After testing it repeatedly a few more times, Li Yan was quite satisfied with the art. The second stage of his planned cultivation was finally complete.
With this done, Li Yan’s third stage was to begin cultivating the Saintly Soul Transformation Art. His goal was to cultivate sixty percent of the Power of the Cold Moon.
And this round of cultivation lasted for another fifty-odd years…
During these nearly seventy years, none of the three, Mu Guyue included, came out of seclusion.
A period of several decades was merely a single session of enlightenment for them. Mu Guyue, for example, had long since reached the peak of the Late-stage Nascent Soul.
It was just that ever since she ascended to the Immortal Spirit Realm and had to start repaying her debt of Spirit Stones, she had never had the time to cultivate in peace, constantly rushing between the Heavenly Demon Prairie and the market.
Later, after being drawn into the Earth-True Domain, she was forced to hide everywhere just to survive. As a result, her cultivation had only progressed through minor realms.
This left many of her insights in a hazy state.
However, even with time on her hands now, Mu Guyue still did not try to seek out those insights during these decades. Instead, she was cultivating the soul cultivation method Li Yan had given her.
She knew clearly that in the Earth-True Domain, the use of soul power was far too important. After her Divine Sense was suppressed, she could only rely on her magical power.
So, with such an opportunity now, she was certainly not in a hurry to break through to the next realm. At present, that held little significance for her.
Even if she successfully broke through to Spirit Transformation, so what? The only means she could employ here would still be casting arts driven by magical power!
She didn’t know what kind of situations she would face in the future—would she leave Li Yan, or would she have to accompany him on missions?
But regardless of which it was, she no longer wanted to be suppressed by soul cultivators, to be left with no other option but to endure their soul art attacks head-on.
Moreover, being able to practice a soul cultivation method was something that would make anyone in the outside world green with envy, and it would also enhance her own strength.
Even if she didn’t advance to Spirit Transformation for the time being, once she could cast soul arts, coupled with her own strength, she felt she would have the ability to face even a bizarre Initial-stage Spirit Transformation soul cultivator in a direct confrontation, no longer forced to flee in panic.
Therefore, for nearly seventy years, she cultivated the soul cultivation method relentlessly.
The souls of the Black Demon Clan were inherently strong to begin with. Coupled with the tempering she underwent during Great Master Lan’s tests, after about seventy years, Mu Guyue had cultivated the soul cultivation method to the Initial-stage Nascent Soul.
She was different from Li Yan. In the past, she had always been attacked by Great Master Lan’s techniques. Facing Great Master Lan’s attacks, the only thing Mu Guyue could do was endure and fall unconscious.
Li Yan and Zhao Min, on the other hand, had already begun to imitate the attacks and defenses of those soul spirits back in the underground long alley. Their foundation was far stronger than Mu Guyue’s!
As for Feng Hongyue, several decades had passed with hardly any change for him. At his level of cultivation, his sole focus was breaking through to the Void Refining Realm.
However, he had been on the brink of death back at the Heavenly Mountain Garden. Although he was later saved by the female cultivator surnamed Yuan, it was no longer so easy to find that same insight for a breakthrough.
The time he needed for a breakthrough was simply incomparable to Mu Guyue’s; it had to be calculated in centuries.
Furthermore, Feng Hongyue’s state of mind was currently unbalanced. The reason was the soul imprint, a thorn in his heart that prevented him from achieving a state of mind as still as water.
He needed a long, long time to break through. Perhaps when he grew accustomed to the existence of the soul imprint, the process would accelerate.
But if one were to speak of the person with the most unsettled state of mind among the three, it would have to be Ting Lan.
In the beginning, after Mu Guyue gave her medicinal pills and Spirit Stones, she went into seclusion on her own and paid no further mind to her.
At first, Ting Lan only dared to stay in her own room. Even with the formation restrictions activated, her mind was still in turmoil, let alone able to cultivate.
She spent her days staring at the room where Li Yan was. The moment she saw him come out, she would tremble with fear, afraid that he would suddenly give in to his bestial nature, come over, and take her chastity.
But after Li Yan appeared a few times, he never once came to find her. He didn’t even cast a serious glance in her direction.
Later, Mu Guyue also began to have her refine some raw materials, saying that Li Yan needed them.
This gradually eased the fear in Ting Lan’s heart, and she started to believe that what Mu Guyue had said might be true.
But she still felt that she couldn’t easily trust a soul cultivator. Besides, how many of those male cultivators weren’t lecherous?
Especially when they could both enjoy carnal pleasures and absorb Primordial Yin to enhance their cultivation, they would be even less likely to pass up the opportunity.
Thus, after Li Yan stopped coming to find her, she began to keep a close watch on Mu Guyue’s room, wanting to see if that Li Yan would go to her.
And then, the two of them would engage in those sordid and filthy acts.
As it turned out, not long after, she really did see Li Yan go to find Mu Guyue. But the final result was that the two of them simply exchanged a few words with the door open.
Then Li Yan handed a Storage Ring to Mu Guyue and left directly.
And not long after, Mu Guyue came to find her, gave her some more medicinal pills and Spirit Stones, and then, after assigning her some tasks from Li Yan, disappeared completely.
Ting Lan continued to observe for another month or so, and when she found that no one else appeared in the courtyard besides herself, she finally believed what Mu Guyue had said before.
‘He’s actually a diligent cultivator. In that case, this person seems a bit abnormal, completely different from the male soul cultivators I’ve heard about.’
‘And after he brought Senior Sister Mu and me here, he’s basically just providing for our cultivation? What on earth is he after…’
Although Li Yan had assigned her refining tasks, the work was nowhere near as burdensome as what Great Master Lan had made her do. She could often finish in just a dozen days.
This was because Li Yan had no mind to spare for this, and coupled with his lack of understanding of Ting Lan’s capabilities, he had misjudged the tasks he assigned. Li Yan actually thought that those tasks would be enough to keep her busy for a while.
As a result, Ting Lan couldn’t help but start pondering again, as if she would feel uneasy if Li Yan didn’t do something to her.
Although Mu Guyue had explained to her that if Li Yan had other matters, they would truly be required to risk their lives.
Mu Guyue had even mentioned that the last time she accompanied Li Yan on a mission, she had almost died out there.
But all of this was, after all, just what Mu Guyue had said. Since Ting Lan had arrived, nothing major had happened.
Thus, Ting Lan continued in this state of turmoil for more than a year.
Finally, guessing that Li Yan had truly entered a state of cultivation and probably wouldn’t be looking for her to refine artifacts anymore, she at last managed to enter a state of cultivation herself.