Chapter 233: The Secret of Void Attainment, The Mystery of the Fall
Whoosh!
As the Myriad Spirits Banner unfurled, a figure of light and shadow slowly emerged. Seeing this, Lu Yang hurriedly stepped forward and bowed. “Junior Disciple Lu Yang greets the Patriarch.”
“…No need for this.”
Patriarch Nether Whisper narrowed his eyes slightly, then smiled. “I have finished organizing the memories of that Dao Sin and the theory regarding the Rank 1 Supreme True Qi.”
Strictly speaking, he was now merely the Banner Spirit of the Myriad Spirits Banner, and Lu Yang was the Banner Master. He had no way to defy Lu Yang, yet Lu Yang was still willing to treat him with the respect due to a Patriarch. He found this quite agreeable, feeling that going into seclusion for Lu Yang’s sake had been worth it.
Thinking of this, Patriarch Nether Whisper immediately separated a strand of his divine sense.
Lu Yang took out a jade slip and guided the divine sense into it. He circulated his spiritual power to process it for a moment before he began to examine it. What met his eyes was a vast expanse of scripture.
Its name was—The Primordial Golden Palace Jade Book!
Did my world-shocking wisdom actually figure it out?
A look of pleasant surprise appeared on Lu Yang’s face. He immediately swept his divine sense over it, but then he froze.
The good news was Patriarch Nether Whisper had actually comprehended something.
The bad news was he hadn’t comprehended much.
“According to my deduction, if one refines Qi according to Perfected One Primordial’s method, the resulting True Qi is indeed flawless. It could be called the best in the world.”
This wasn’t strange. After all, Perfected One Primordial’s concept was insane—using Golden Nature to refine Qi! This was equivalent to taking a step that should only be taken at the Perfection of Foundation Establishment and placing it at the Perfection of Qi Refining. The True Qi cultivated this way would naturally be a higher-dimensional strike against any other True Qi; there was simply no comparison.
“However… that is all there is to it.”
Speaking to this point, Patriarch Nether Whisper shook his head. “The quality of the True Qi is beyond doubt, but as I said before— it has quality but lacks stature.”
Stature was the key to cultivation!
Qi Refining ascends to Foundation Establishment, and Foundation Establishment ascends to a Golden Core. If your stature does not rise, then no matter how much your quality or quantity increases, it is not worth mentioning to those in a higher realm.
“In terms of True Qi quality, the Rank 1 Supreme True Qi envisioned by Perfected One Primordial is absolutely perfect. Under the same cultivation level, a cultivator who cultivates Rank 1 Supreme True Qi would have spiritual power at least ten thousand times greater than one with Rank 3 True Qi! You could say they could crush their opponent just by blowing a breath. At first glance, it seems no different from Foundation Establishment.”
“However, this is just a facade.”
“If the two were to really fight, a Foundation Establishment Perfected One —even the weakest one who did not achieve a Perfect Foundation Establishment —could still easily crush you to death with a single finger.”
Hearing this, Lu Yang raised a question. “Then how should one achieve Foundation Establishment with Rank 1 Supreme True Qi?”
“…I don’t know.”
Patriarch Nether Whisper fell silent for a moment, then shook his head. “Perfected One Primordial provided a method for Golden Nature Foundation Establishment, but after my deductions, I confirmed it is unusable.”
“Something seems to be missing in the middle.”
“But I don’t know what it is. After all, up until now, I have only ever come into contact with Rank 3 techniques. I have never seen what a Rank 2 True Art looks like…”
As soon as these words were spoken, Lu Yang slapped his forehead. He immediately circulated his divine sense and took out the fragment of the Rank 2 True Art he had extorted from Perfected One Miaoyin—the Qian Heaven Primordial All-Governing Divine Method. “Patriarch, I got my hands on this recently. Please take a look; could this provide you with some inspiration?”
“…Oh?”
Patriarch Nether Whisper paused. He took the technique and glanced at it. His expression froze, and his previous nonchalance gradually turned serious.
After a long time, he finally exhaled a deep breath of turbid air.
“Harvesting External Qi to Refine the Spirit… So that’s it! So that’s it! External Qi… Yes, one must use External Qi! If there is nothing to seek inwardly, naturally one can only seek outwardly!”
A look of enlightenment suddenly dawned on Patriarch Nether Whisper’s face.
He then looked at Lu Yang and said in a deep voice, “Use every means possible. You must obtain the Qi Harvesting Secret Method of this Rank 2 True Art. This is the most critical part!”
Lu Yang looked curious. “Qi Harvesting Secret Method?”
“Correct!” Patriarch Nether Whisper nodded and explained, “I am certain that this is the greatest advantage Rank 2 True Arts have over Perfected One Primordial Rank 1 True Arts!”
“Perfected One Primordial failed to calculate this, most likely because he had never seen a genuine Rank 2 True Art… A single sentence is worth more than ten thousand books! He was missing just this one sentence! That man’s talent was indeed peerless, no less than mine, but sadly, like me, he was born at the wrong time…”
Patriarch Nether Whisper lamented for a moment before looking back at Lu Yang.
“The so-called ‘Harvesting External Qi to Refine the Spirit’… ‘External Qi’ does not refer to ordinary Qi, but rather… Beyond the Heavens! Outside the World! What you must harvest is the Qi from Beyond the Heavens!”
“Harvest the Qi from Beyond the Heavens to nourish and refine the soul.”
“Only by completing this step will the refined True Qi have a directional referent—not pointing toward a Dao Fruit, but pointing toward the specific world realm where the Qi you harvested resides!”
Patriarch Nether Whisper’s train of thought became clearer, and his voice grew more urgent.
“Use the harvested Qi from Beyond the Heavens to draw in the corresponding Dao Fruit located in that other world realm—one that does not exist in this world—and manifest it in this world…”
“This is Void Attainment!”
“Otherwise, if everything you have comes from this Heaven and Earth, how could you possibly attain a Dao Fruit that does not exist in this Heaven and Earth?”
Boom!
As his voice fell, a thunderclap streaked across the dome of the sky. It seemed to be born merely from the collision of clouds, yet it also felt like some kind of warning issued by Heaven and Earth!
Patriarch Nether Whisper immediately fell silent. After a long while, he spoke faintly, “That is why Rank 2 True Arts and Rank 1 True Arts are so rare, to the point that almost no one knows of them… Because world realm are not so easily found. We aren’t talking about small world realm, but a world realm truly guarded by mighty figures, where Dao manifests in the world!”
Such World Realm were not something a Golden Core Perfected Lord could capture with a casual wave of their hand.
If one were to truly encounter one, it would inevitably result in a protracted great war! Lasting a hundred years or even a thousand years would be normal. Even a Perfected Lord might fall!
“So it is like this…”
Having received Patriarch Nether Whisper’s answer, Lu Yang’s eyes flickered with light. He had already made a decision— turn Perfected One Miaoyin into the primary target of this operation!
At any cost!
Even the Perfected Lord’s mission could be postponed. He had to find a way to obtain the original copy of the Qian Heaven Primordial All-Governing Divine Method from her hands!
“Speaking of which, this place…”
Just then, Patriarch Nether Whisper looked around and revealed a look of amazement. “A collapsing Blessed Land? Did that Chong Guang fail?”
“The Patriarch sees clearly.”
Lu Yang praised, then looked tentatively at Patriarch Nether Whisper. “When Perfected One Chong Guang was alive, he said that the [Overturned Lamp Flame] inexplicably rejected him.”
“He just didn’t know the reason.”
“I wonder if you, Patriarch, can see any clues?”
Hearing this, Patriarch Nether Whisper gave Lu Yang an annoyed look. “What do you take me for? A Perfected Lord?”
“That was a Grand Perfected One of the Saint Sect! He was much wealthier than I was back in the day. If even a figure like that couldn’t see clearly or explain it, how would I know!”
“After all, at least he still had the chance to attain golden core, whereas I…”
Speaking of this, Patriarch Nether Whisper’s face suddenly revealed a hint of gloom. However, he quickly regained his composure and actively changed the subject.
“But speaking of failing to to attain golden core, Perfected One Primordial was somewhat similar to him.”
“…What?”
Hearing this, Lu Yang was momentarily stunned. He then realized that back when they dealt with the Dao Sin, he had also obtained memories related to Perfected One Primordial.
However, since it wasn’t Lu Yang who personally took action back then, but rather Chen Xin’an acting on his behalf, there were inevitably some omissions.
On the contrary, Patriarch Nether Whisper, being a Banner Spirit like Chen Xin’an and frequently communicating within the Myriad Spirits Banner, was much clearer about Perfected One Primordial’s life experiences.
“What Perfected One Primordial sought back then was [Eternal Flowing Water].”
Patriarch Nether Whisper recalled for a moment and said, “But the result was exactly the same as Chong Guang. The [Eternal Flowing Water] inexplicably rejected him, and as a result, he failed and fell.”
“Until his death, he never figured out the reason.”
“Otherwise, with his lofty ambition, he was even thinking of ascending to the Dao Fruit, and after attesting to become a Perfected Lord, he would reverse-engineer his Rank 1 Supreme True Qi to completely perfect it…”
Patriarch Nether Whisper’s narrative plunged Lu Yang into deep thought.
Perfected One Chong Guang attested to [Overturned Lamp Flame].
Perfected One Primordial attested to [Eternal Flowing Water].
The reasons for both failures were highly similar. Lu Yang absolutely did not believe this was a coincidence; there must be some hard-to-detect factor at work here…
In a trance, Lu Yang felt as if he were touching a thin veil.
Intuition told him that as long as he pierced through this thin veil, he could touch the truth. Yet, when he delved deeper, he felt lost in the clouds, finding it elusive and hard to grasp.
And just at this moment.
Clang—!!!
A sword cry from beyond the clouds interrupted Lu Yang’s thoughts. Looking into the distance, he saw a brilliant sword light speeding toward his direction!
(End of this chapter)
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