Longzang

Chapter 97 Quietly Watching You (Bonus Chapter 8)

After returning to his residence, Wei Yuan took out a copy of "The Myriad Manifestations of the Moonlit Night" and read it carefully from beginning to end.

This cultivation method can lead directly to the path of immortality, and its mysteries are boundless. Wei Yuan will gain different insights with each reading, although these insights may sometimes contradict each other.

The myriad forms of the Moonlit Myriad Phenomena are renowned for their ever-changing nature and are incredibly complex. The original cultivation method alone contains tens of thousands of words, and later generations of highly accomplished cultivators have added annotations, supplements, and interpretations. These powerful figures often disagreed, refuted each other, and left behind Daoist rhymes as proof. Therefore, including the parts where powerful figures argued remotely, the total amount in the copy is hundreds of thousands of words.

Wei Yuan was still holding one of the three supplementary volumes. The insights in the other two supplementary volumes were also different, and the powerful figures were arguing fiercely across the distance.

This is still a copy; the original doesn't have many comments, but it has a lot of Daoist rhymes. Firstly, most of the successive palace masters and deputy palace masters of the Taichu Palace leave Daoist rhymes, and those who cultivate to the level of Immortal Lord also leave their own Daoist rhymes on the original. These Daoist rhymes actually have no real meaning; they simply prove that they have seen this cultivation method, similar to someone leaving a "I was here" commemoration. The Taiyin Moonlit Myriad Manifestations Chapter is, after all, a masterpiece left by a previous Immortal Lord; leaving a Daoist rhyme on it is like stamping a famous painting with a personal seal.

Fortunately, each person's Daoist aura is unique; otherwise, that jade disc might not have been able to hold so many Daoist auras. Perhaps several more pieces would have been added next to it specifically to store Daoist auras, and the jade disc that would have stored the signed Daoist auras might have been much larger than the original.

With hundreds of thousands of words and numerous Daoist principles, even with Wei Yuan's powerful primordial spirit, it would take him a full half-day to memorize them all. As for fully comprehending them, that would take more than a year or two.

The Daoist principles left by the Immortal Lord in the original text were vast and profound, and Wei Yuan could only comprehend a fraction of them on his first attempt. The Daoist principles left by the various True Lords in the instance were completely different, some even contradictory. Wei Yuan's own comprehension differed from that of the True Lords; if it were an ordinary beginner, they would inevitably be overwhelmed.

The essence of this immortal technique lies precisely in the different understandings it evokes. The power of Taiyin is infinitely variable, which is why the Daoist essence left behind by each True Lord is different. The core of this technique lies in constructing a core within the sea of ​​consciousness using the power of Taiyin, thereby drawing upon the primordial energy of heaven and earth. The Taiyin core can take many forms, but a full moon is generally considered the most superior. After the core is constructed, a seed of Dharma form must be planted within it, gradually absorbing the foundation of the Dao and transforming into a Dharma form.

Every time Wei Yuan read this passage, he had a question: could his Dao Foundation really be absorbed by the Taiyin Core? But Wei Yuan was just a novice on the path of cultivation. Since the Immortal Lord had said that it could be absorbed, he would just assume that it could be absorbed.

This cultivation session was Wei Yuan's first since entering the Foundation Establishment Realm, and it was conducted without the aid of any elixirs. In fact, there are specialized elixirs for Foundation Establishment cultivators, but Wei Yuan could no longer afford them. Not only Wei Yuan, but also the scions of families other than the Seven Clans and Thirteen Noble Families couldn't afford them. However, the Creation Temple, knowing full well that everyone couldn't afford them, refused to lower the price, which was truly inhumane.

Before starting his cultivation, Wei Yuan focused his mind and asked himself: What is the purpose of cultivation?
The answer is simple and clear: expand territory and exterminate foreign tribes.

Wei Yuan settled down in the specially equipped cultivation room, quickly immersing himself in the world around him. His Dao Foundation began to circulate, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, then converting it into Yin energy according to his cultivation method, and finally constructing his core.

What Wei Yuan didn't expect was that although only a very small part of the vast land could be manifested, it could use all of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth when absorbing it!

Wei Yuan's mind was clear and untainted by worldly dust. He sat upright on the spiritual vein and then took a deep breath towards heaven and earth!
Inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale...

Wei Yuan suddenly froze, as if trapped in a vacuum; the intense feeling of suffocation forced him to awaken from his meditation. All the spiritual energy of heaven and earth around him had vanished!
The spiritual energy is gone? How could this be? This is the Primordial Palace!
Wei Yuan looked around in confusion. He was still sitting in his cultivation room in the cave, on the same futon woven from Ice Heart Grass. His residence was a cave reserved for Foundation Establishment disciples, each cultivation room built on a spiritual vein, with a spiritual energy concentration far exceeding that inside the Empty Valley Azure Pavilion. Outside, blessed land sects might only have one or two such cultivation rooms, and even in cave heaven sects, only elders and core disciples could enjoy them.

The principle of Taichu Palace is to provide basic cultivation conditions for every disciple, so the cave dwellings of Dao Foundation disciples are all similar. Even Zhang Sheng's dwelling isn't much better than Wei Yuan's. However, Taichu Palace doesn't prevent disciples from using external forces. For example, Bao Yun simply demolished and rebuilt her cave dwelling.

So the cultivation room should be fine, but Wei Yuan felt that he had only taken a small breath of spiritual energy, and there was no spiritual energy around him at all. Even the spiritual veins had dried up! Wei Yuan probed the futon with his divine sense, went deep into the spiritual veins, and explored further and further. He explored for more than a hundred feet in one breath before he felt that new spiritual energy was flowing along the spiritual veins like a trickle.

As long as there is still spiritual energy, it seems that the spiritual vein is not malfunctioning. Wei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, closed his eyes and calmed his mind until the spiritual vein was full again, and then took another breath into the air.

Suck suck suck suck...

The mountain, dotted with Daoist caves, suddenly trembled. The Spirit Gathering Array, which maintained the mountain's spiritual energy concentration, transformed from invisible to visible, appearing like a giant bowl covering the entire mountain. However, the array was now flickering and trembling violently, showing signs of collapse!

One after another, figures flew out of the cave, including several who had been in seclusion. Everyone was shocked.

"What happened? Why is there no spiritual energy?"

"I just checked with my divine sense, and the spiritual veins are all dried up!"

"Someone is attacking the mountain??"

Inside the quiet room, Wei Yuan had only taken half a breath when it caught in his throat again, leaving him no choice but to wait helplessly for his spiritual veins to replenish. At this moment, a huge full moon had appeared in his sea of ​​consciousness, hanging high above the land, silently illuminating the endless desolate earth.

Seeing the full moon, Wei Yuan finally felt relieved.

The cultivation method described how difficult it was to build the Taiyin core, how to construct the structure, how to stabilize the framework, how to accumulate and refine it, and so on. But now it doesn't seem that difficult. I only took two and a half breaths, and the top-level Taiyin full moon appeared.
However, Wei Yuan thought about it again and understood the good intentions of the ancient sages. They were probably afraid that future generations would find cultivation too easy and become complacent, so they described how difficult it was to scare the younger generation and make them more diligent in their cultivation.

While waiting for his spiritual energy to replenish, Wei Yuan had nothing to do, so he observed the full moon and discovered that the full moon was also observing him.

A striking shadow, both familiar and strange, loomed within the full moon. Before he had established his Dao foundation, Wei Yuan could not see it clearly, but now that the full moon was several times larger, so too was the shadow. It was evident that it was slowly surging, as if it possessed its own life and thoughts.

It appeared to be at the center of the full moon, but in Wei Yuan's perception, it seemed to connect to another world, unfathomable.

For a fleeting moment, Wei Yuan suddenly caught a thought in the shadow of the moon. This feeling was utterly absurd, yet undeniably real. Its thought was:

I'll just sit here and quietly watch you bounce around.

(End of this chapter)