Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 530 Innate Spiritual Treasure
The term "Lingbao" is exactly what it sounds like: a magical artifact that has acquired spiritual power.

Spirituality is the decisive factor in determining whether anything in the world can cultivate itself.

For example, tables, stools, and chairs do not possess any spirituality, so even after many years, they are ultimately just inanimate objects.

Trees, flowers, and grasses, though ordinary mortals, possess a glimmer of hope for spiritual cultivation because they have spirituality.

Perhaps under certain special conditions, they can absorb spiritual energy and embark on the path of cultivation. Throughout history, there have been many such examples in the cultivation world.

Examples include Nine-Bend Ginseng and Thousand-Year-Old Dragon Beard.

It was originally just an ordinary plant such as ginseng and yam, but by chance it embarked on the path of cultivation. Nourished by the essence of the sun and moon and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, it grew into the Nine-Bend Spirit Ginseng and the Thousand-Year-Old Dragon Beard, and finally transformed into human form.

It is worth mentioning that spirituality is not the same as intelligence.

Intelligence is possessed only by living animals, such as cats, dogs, snakes, rats, and insects.

There is a long way to go from spirituality to wisdom, but this has nothing to do with whether one can practice spirituality.

Only a few sentient beings can cultivate themselves. Similarly, for sentient beings to embark on the path of cultivation, they do not need to be enlightened to have their intelligence awakened.

Many spiritual beings are those who unknowingly cultivate themselves before their spiritual wisdom is awakened.

For example, the Nine-Bend Spirit Ginseng and the Thousand-Year-Old Dragon Beard, in a state of ignorance, relied on their instincts to absorb the essence of the sun and moon and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and had already embarked on the path of cultivation. After experiencing the baptism of time, they gradually awakened their spiritual intelligence.

As far as magical artifacts are concerned, the most direct effect of magical artifacts that have acquired spirituality is that they are more powerful than ordinary magical artifacts.

Lingbao (a type of magical artifact) is further divided into innate and acquired types.

Innate spiritual treasures refer to magical artifacts that are born with spiritual power.

Acquired spiritual treasures are magical artifacts that develop spirituality through deliberate human cultivation and, if they are lucky, are born with spiritual qualities.

The Qiankun Mountain and River Map is an innate spiritual treasure, and it is a combat-type item.

The golden futon is an acquired spiritual treasure, and it is of the auxiliary type.

The mural that Song Xian saw in the hall was actually a projection of the Qiankun Shanhe Tu (Map of Mountains and Rivers).

The world experienced after entering the mural is a projection space created by the Qiankun Shanhe Tu (a Chinese painting depicting mountains and rivers).

His current location is inside the Six-Winged Vajra Ghost's body, which is a self-contained world with only one entrance and exit connected to the Qiankun Mountain and River Map projection space.

The Six-Winged Vajra Demon is not a demon tamed by Master Tiantong. In fact, it is a supernatural power that can summon a fake body of the Six-Winged Vajra Demon through a magic array and enter its body.

Because it is a self-contained little world, it can isolate itself from all prying eyes from the outside world.

The reason why Master Tiantong was so cautious was that he not only projected the Qiankun Mountain and River Map, but also summoned the Six-Winged Vajra Ghost after entering the projected world, and came to this more secluded place.

He was worried about attracting the pursuit of the Nascent Soul stage experts from the Muhe Grassland, because he had already caused a celestial phenomenon when he entered that spatial node.

If news of this strange phenomenon reaches the ears of Nascent Soul stage cultivators in the Muhe Grassland, it might attract them.

Each spatial node can only guide one person to the legendary immortal realm, after which it will collapse.

Therefore, for cultivators in the Nascent Soul stage, the secret of spatial nodes must never be exposed.

Once leaked, it will inevitably attract powerful figures from all over to vie for it. These Nascent Soul stage experts are all regional overlords, with countless cultivators under their command willing to risk their lives for them.

For example, the major sects of the seven kingdoms at that time had several Nascent Soul stage experts stationed there.

Upon learning this news, they might unite and launch a large-scale attack on the Mukh Grassland to seize this spatial node and bring it under their sphere of influence.

Therefore, if news of the strange phenomenon reaches the ears of a Nascent Soul stage expert in the Muhe Grassland, and they come to investigate and discover this spatial node, they will know that another Nascent Soul cultivator has arrived on their territory and entered the inner room, and they will definitely find this person.

At that time, Master Tiantong was already seriously injured. If he were found by a Nascent Soul stage expert from the Muhe Grassland, he would definitely choose to kill him to prevent the news from being leaked.

That's why he was so cautious. In the secret realm, he not only set up a projection of the Qiankun Mountain and River Map, but also summoned a six-winged Vajra ghost avatar to hide inside, so as to completely isolate himself from the prying eyes of external divine senses or supernatural powers.

In addition, Master Tiantong placed his personal belongings in another location within the secret realm, leaving only his two most precious spiritual treasures.

He was worried that the secret realm would be discovered by others while he was recuperating. Given his condition at the time, even if the attackers were only Nascent Soul cultivators, he might not be able to deal with them easily.

Therefore, he placed the items he was carrying in another location. In this way, if someone entered this secret space and found those valuables, they would naturally be overjoyed and leave satisfied.

Otherwise, if others find nothing, they will definitely search every place carefully and turn this secret space upside down.

He had already tampered with the valuables left outside, and once his injuries healed, he would be able to use a secret method to find the person who took the valuables and retrieve them.

.........

After taking the Qiankun Mountain and River Map, the Gathering Spirit Treasure Potato, and even the corpse of Master Tiantong, Song Xian returned to the entrance and exit of the passage inside the Six-Winged Vajra Ghost's body. At this moment, the black hole had disappeared. He put his hands together and once again used the Heavenly Revelation Gate Divine Power.

As spiritual energy surged in, a deep, dark passage slowly emerged.

He flashed into the inner room, and in the blink of an eye, he appeared in the projection space of the Qiankun Mountain and River Map.

Although he now possesses the Qiankun Mountain and River Map, he is still unable to control this magical treasure.

To use a spiritual treasure, one must reach the Nascent Soul realm and condense a Nascent Soul before the restrictions left by Master Tiantong can be lifted.

Therefore, he could not close the projection space of the Qiankun Mountain and River Map, but fortunately, he already knew how to leave.

After returning to the palace, Song Xian did not rush to leave, but quietly waited for Nice to arrive.

He already knew through the Qiankun Mountain and River Map that Nice was heading this way, and he also knew that Ap and Abu were not in the projection space.

If he still couldn't figure out what Ap and Abu were thinking by now, he would be incredibly stupid.

Clearly, all of this was a scheme orchestrated by the two of them.

They deliberately lured the three into this projection space in order to shake them off and search for the treasures left by Master Tiantong outside the secret space.

Abu lured all five people to the mural, then opened the Qiankun Shanhe Tu projection space by touching it. Afterwards, the two of them left separately to search for the treasures outside.

It's unclear where they got this information from, but unfortunately, they only knew one side of the story. They didn't realize that the valuables placed in the secret realm were just a piece of rotten flesh that Master Tiantong threw out to get the hyenas to leave.

After learning the truth, Song Xian felt a strange mix of emotions, a sense of betrayal.

He initially trusted Apu quite a bit, after all, Apu had brought him out of the secret realm left behind by Dong Xuanchen when he was unconscious, without taking advantage of the situation to steal his money or kill him.

I never expected him to do such a thing today. It really shows that you can't trust people's hearts. When it comes to interests, you can't trust anyone.

As long as the profits are large enough, conscience and morality are worthless.

After waiting for a while, Nice finally arrived, and both of them had already detected each other with their divine senses.

Song Xian took the initiative to go out and greet him, feigning surprise and delight: "Fellow Daoist Nisi, you're here too?"

Nice's eyes were wary. After experiencing the attack from the ghostly talisman incarnation technique, he clearly had doubts about whether the person in front of him was really Song Xian.

"Fellow Daoist Song, do you remember where we first met?"

"Yunlei Mountain".

Hearing this answer, Nice lowered his guard slightly and walked over to him: "I thought I was the only one who had fallen into this godforsaken place. What exactly happened? Has Fellow Daoist Song discovered anything?"

“I don’t know what’s going on either. If I’m not mistaken, we should have entered the world depicted in the murals in that hall. The scenery I’ve seen along the way is the same as that depicted in the murals. Since I remembered that there was a hall in the murals that looked similar to the hall we were in, I came to explore. Fortunately, I met you here.”

Nice nodded: "Fellow Daoist Song's thoughts coincide with mine, which is why I came here. So, have you found a way to leave?"

“I just arrived and haven’t found anything yet. Fellow Daoist Nisi, you’ve come at the right time. Let’s search together.”

The two returned to the palace together. Nis looked around, and Song Xian pretended to be searching. At this moment, the passage connecting the left eye of the six-winged Vajra Demon statue had disappeared.

The reason he didn't leave and waited for its arrival was to ensure that it hadn't discovered the secret of the Six-Winged Vajra Demon; he didn't want a second person to know about it.

Although he has already taken the jade slip left behind by Master Tiantong, there may still be clues he hasn't discovered.

(End of this chapter)