Longzang

Chapter 113 The Toad That Wants to Swallow the Azure Sky
Compared to the methods used by Taichu Palace in setting up its secret treasures, Lanshen Palace's methods are incredibly crude.

Wei Yuan grumbled as he walked into the secret passage. At the end of the passage was a stone door, thankfully without any traps or mechanisms; it opened easily with a push, revealing a hall behind it.

The underground hall was not large. In the center stood a stone the size of a water vat, and at the far end were three statues of deities. The central statue was of a male cultivator with a kind face and quite handsome. To his left was a female cultivator, naturally charming; to his right was a little girl who looked only five or six years old, fair and lovely, but she was holding a white snake in her hand.

The entire stone house was filled with the power of incense and prayers, so thick that it had turned into wisps of ash mist that kept churning.

Based on the information, the male deity statue should be Yun Xihe, the founder of Lan Shen Palace. The two people on the left and right are not recorded in the information, and Wei Yuan guessed that they might be Yun Xihe's family members.

So Yunxi and his disciples set up a sect, made themselves gods, and had their followers and the common people worship them as gods.
Wei Yuan thought to himself, "Is Yun Xihe crazy? Does she still want to try to become a god through physical means?"
The path of incense and deity has many mystical aspects, but achieving physical godhood is definitely more harmful than beneficial, and once you leave, there's no going back. This point is explained from different angles in classes on Qi and destiny, Dao foundation, and techniques. In any case, none of the disciples of Taichu Palace who have taken these classes would want to pursue this path.

Yun Xihe, who is supposed to be from the Taichu Palace, why would he do this? Could it be that he wasn't paying attention in class and was secretly reading a storybook the whole time? That doesn't make sense. In the Taichu Palace, you can't even visualize a storybook in your mind, let alone openly take it out; the teachers would catch you immediately. Their spiritual senses are far stronger than the students'.

The teachers had many ways to discipline their students. For example, Senior Sister Ji would directly whip their primordial spirits. No matter how strong your physical body was, you would be in excruciating pain, but it would only hurt, without causing any real harm. That's why those muscle-bound guys in the Mingwang Hall were most afraid of Ji Liuli.

However, Wei Yuan's clear understanding of incense and deities was all thanks to the intensive instruction he received in class. And this intensive instruction only began in Wei Yuan's generation. Previously, each temple taught independently, and students mostly learned from their own teachers. On important days, the grandmasters would give large lectures, regardless of whether the students could understand them.

But human abilities have their limits, and even the most skilled teacher cannot know everything. Take Zhang Sheng, for example. He is knowledgeable about history, both ancient and modern, and innovative in swordsmanship, even capable of pioneering new paths. But his knowledge of feng shui is mediocre, his understanding of poisons and curses is superficial, and he is completely ignorant of calculating the orbits of major stars.

Wei Yuan now realizes that the benefits of intensive instruction are truly immeasurable.

After criticizing the founding patriarch of the Lan Divine Palace, Wei Yuan looked around the room again. He saw nothing else; the incense table in front of the three statues was unremarkable, with nothing unusual about it. Some books were placed on the incense tables and shelves on either side. Wei Yuan picked them up and flipped through them, discovering they were all cultivation methods and techniques related to incense and deities. These methods contained many blood sacrifices and animal sacrifice rituals, looking bloody and eerie.

Wei Yuan's gaze finally settled on the large rock. The rock was unremarkable, except that its surface was riddled with countless tiny pores from the daily incense offerings. Wei Yuan instinctively wanted to avoid the rock and examine other areas, but a thought suddenly struck him: "Why do I always avoid looking at it?"

Wei Yuan felt a chill run down his spine. These past two days, he'd been fishing every day and engaging in a battle of wits with Yun Feifei, making him quite sensitive to luck and willpower. Such a large rock was there, yet he'd repeatedly ignored it; clearly, he was being influenced by something, just as Yun Feifei and her junior brother had subconsciously ignored Wei Yuan.

At that moment, Wei Yuan activated the Heaven and Earth Madman technique, adding a wisp of luck to himself. He had already stepped over the stone, but after the luck was added, he stopped and turned around. Now, in his eyes, the stone was vastly different.

Looking at it again now, one could see that the stone was covered with a grayish-black aura, appearing as if swarms of insects were crawling around on it. This grayish-black aura was also seen moving in and out of every tiny hole in the stone.

The original grayish-white incense and prayer energy on the three statues turned into a rich grayish-black aura, which then flowed like water towards the stone, circled around several times, and then flowed back to the statues.

According to the art of observing qi, the color of incense and prayers is grayish-black, indicating that most of the people making the wishes are in a state of sadness and despair, their bodies are empty, and their wishes are filled with corruption, annihilation, cruelty, and hatred.

"This formation..." Wei Yuan's heart stirred. He carefully observed the flow of the gray-black willpower and gradually made a guess: "It's using the willpower of decay to erode and polish. Is it trying to erase the mark on this stone?"

Wei Yuan walked to the stone and pressed down. The gray-black willpower immediately surged, fiercely resisting Wei Yuan's hand. Wei Yuan exerted more force, and the last wisp of advancement luck in his sea of ​​consciousness suddenly disappeared. Countless streams of pure energy shot out from Wei Yuan's hand, completely dispersing the gray-black energy entwined on the stone.

Wei Yuan's hand finally landed on the stone. His vision blurred, and suddenly an entire world rushed into his consciousness!
A scream suddenly echoed in Wei Yuan's sea of ​​consciousness. The scream was extremely painful and frantic, and at the same time, countless chaotic pieces of information were thrown out of his sea of ​​consciousness. The scream covered an area of ​​a hundred miles, and countless stones on the ground within that area shattered, even causing some tiny cracks to appear on Jade Mountain!

With a thud, Wei Yuan knelt down, clutching his head in his hands, writhing on the ground in pain.

Another scream echoed in his mind, and more cracks appeared on Jade Mountain. However, Wei Yuan had already discovered the source of the scream: a gray figure, seemingly bound to something, was emitting screams of extreme pain.

In a moment of desperation, Wei Yuan didn't have time to think things through. He immediately used all his strength to flip his Dao Foundation, preparing to use the power of the continent to suppress the gray figure.

The mainland remained completely still.

How could this be moved by human power? Wei Yuan is the first person in history to be unable to control his own Dao Foundation.

However, wherever Wei Yuan's mind went, a gale arose from the edge of the continent, sweeping in from all directions and reaching Jade Mountain in the blink of an eye. At this time, the gale had transformed into a wind wall that stretched from the ground to the sky!

These gusts of wind were the power of Wei Yuan's entire Dao Foundation, pressing down on the gray figure. The figure struggled desperately, but the invisible ropes binding it seemed even stronger, making it impossible to break free. The little remaining fortune in his sea of ​​consciousness was all integrated into the wind wall, greatly increasing its power. Countless gusts of wind enveloped the figure, compressing it layer by layer, finally transforming it into a gray sphere that landed beside Jade Mountain.

Wei Yuan slowly stood up, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, a wave of fear washing over him. Now he understood what the incense and prayers had been eroding: within this stone lay a divine thought of extremely high status. From the scattered information, Wei Yuan knew that the divine thought's physical form had actually perished thirty thousand years ago. Having been dead for thirty thousand years, and then eroded by Yun Xihe's incense and prayers for hundreds of years, the divine thought's scream could still damage Wei Yuan's foundation, demonstrating its exceptionally high status.

Wei Yuan endured the lingering pain in his primordial spirit and sorted through the information scattered in his sea of ​​consciousness along with the scream of his divine sense. He finally realized that the original body of his divine sense was actually an immortal in his previous life!
The immortal had perished for unknown reasons, leaving only a wisp of divine consciousness within the stone. This consciousness was filled with the immortal's agony and madness before his fall; any ordinary cultivator who approached it would perish. Had Wei Yuan not possessed unparalleled Dao foundation, a powerful primordial spirit, and the protection of his depleted fortune, those two screams would have been enough to shatter his sea of ​​consciousness.

At this moment, the stone revealed its true form. It was light blue and translucent, with countless scenes floating and sinking within it, as if it contained countless specific and miniature worlds.

From the scattered information, Wei Yuan also learned about the origin of this stone.

Ancient Boundary Stone - Azure Abyss!

In this era, the boundary stones issued by Taichu Palace and other immortal sects are all crafted from a single piece of Void Stone, and can generally be upgraded to the third rank. Top-grade boundary stones are made from special Void Stones, possessing various mystical properties, and can be upgraded to the fifth rank. Qingming, however, is made from a single piece of Void Stone, refined by immortals. It can be upgraded to the seventh rank.

Moreover, Qingming started directly from the second tier, and could immediately cover a hundred miles of land and sky.

Wei Yuan finally understood the general cause and effect of the whole incident. A certain immortal from a previous era wanted to expand his territory and painstakingly crafted the immortal artifact Qingming, but he was later besieged by a powerful enemy and perished. On his deathbed, the immortal instructed Qingming to escape to the heavens, where it eventually landed.

Tens of thousands of years later, the human race's territory gradually expanded to this area. Yun Xihe discovered Qingming while traveling and training, but instead of reporting it to his sect, he wanted to keep it for himself. Although Yun Xihe had already achieved the Dharma Aspect, this immortal treasure was beyond his ability to swallow, and the divine thoughts of the immortal lord within it left him helpless.

Wei Yuan's Dao foundation is unparalleled, his sea of ​​consciousness boundless, and his primordial spirit already comparable to a Dharma body. Furthermore, he possesses celestial fortune. Even when faced with a divine thought that had been worn down by incense offerings and vows for hundreds of years, he still had to expend a great deal of fortune to finally suppress it. Hundreds of years ago, Yun Xihe faced the divine thought of a fully-fledged Immortal Lord, which would have been annihilated at the slightest touch.

In Yun Xihe's era, fortune was just beginning to manifest, and those blessed with such fortune were quite rare. According to the records of the Taichu Palace, Yun Xihe likely didn't possess much great fortune, only a bit of personal luck. Wei Yuan now understood why Yun Xihe had suddenly chosen the path of incense offerings and even physical ascension to godhood. He probably wanted to use the power of incense offerings to replace fortune, wear down the divine will of the Immortal Lord, and then make Qingming acknowledge him as its master.

However, for reasons unknown, he passed away at the age of fifty, leaving the foundation of Lan Shen Palace and the ancient boundary stone to his descendants.

Having understood all this, Wei Yuan placed his hand on Qingming and attempted to establish a connection according to the method described in the scattered information from his divine sense. Activating the Ancient Realm Stone was completely different from the current method; it required first constructing a corresponding array within the sea of ​​consciousness, and then activating it through the array. This single step alone could stop the vast majority of those at the Foundation Establishment stage and a small fraction of those at the True Person stage. Back then, Yun Xihe neither knew how to activate the array nor dared to directly confront the divine sense of a Celestial Lord, so he could only slowly wear them down with incense and prayers.

Fortunately, although the activation array left behind by the Immortal Lord was complex and somewhat incomplete, Wei Yuan had learned the principles behind it in class. Interestingly, the principles of ancient array formations were mainly taught in the history class "General Knowledge of the Immortal Path," taught by Feng Chutang. Now, based on what he had learned, Wei Yuan easily completed the array and activated Qingming.

A flood of information rushed into his consciousness, and Wei Yuan was taken aback after just one glance.

Boundary Stone Azure Nether: Can be promoted to the seventh rank, currently at the second rank.

Characteristic 1: Unknown.

Mystery 1: Unknown.

The second mystery: incompleteness.

The third mystery: blank space.

This Azure Netherstone has one unique characteristic and three wondrous features! The Life-Generating Stone and Infant Fire Stone that Wei Yuan saw in the Hall of Merit—the Life-Generating Stone had only one function, and the Infant Fire Stone had one unique characteristic—both could only advance to the third tier, and even then, they required 500,000 merit points. But the Azure Netherstone's last three descriptions use "wondrous," not "characteristic" or "function"!

Information regarding the crafting of treasures like Boundary Stones uses very precise terminology. Function is function, characteristic is characteristic, and wonder is wonder. A characteristic is a significantly enhanced function, while wonder can be seen as a function amplified many times over and undergoing a qualitative change.

Its properties are mysterious and unknown because Qingming has not yet recognized a master, so Wei Yuan doesn't know its specifics. Although Wei Yuan has the ability to activate the formation, Qingming is a celestial object, and normally there is still the major hurdle of recognizing a master.

Qingming was created by an immortal and possessed its own spirituality from birth. It then accompanied the immortal's divine thoughts for tens of thousands of years, and now it has become naturally divine. To make it recognize its master, one must gain its approval.

Wei Yuan only made a slight attempt before being clearly rejected by Qing Ming, who also showed disdain. Her decisiveness was no less than that of a wealthy young lady encountering a down-on-his-luck suitor, or a swan meeting a toad seeking a marriage alliance.

(End of this chapter)