Wanfa Daojun, starting from the Little Cloud and Rain Technique

Chapter 481 Native Gold

Unexpected changes were to be expected, and Ji An felt a great weight lifted off his shoulders.

The most terrifying enemies are those that lurk; those that have already revealed themselves are nothing special.

As the Yin Soul Beast appeared, it unleashed a soul attack. Ji An felt as if a huge spike was piercing into his sea of ​​consciousness, and the intense pain forced him to clench his teeth.

For cultivators, the moment when the Yin Soul Beast unleashes its attack is the most dangerous.

The pain in the soul prevents cultivators from casting spells for a short time, and also weakens their control over spiritual artifacts.

If the Yin Soul Beast can seize this opportunity to break through the cultivator's defenses, then it will be dangerous.

Fortunately, the stronger one's spiritual power, the less damage one receives when attacked, and the sooner one can recover.

The Yin Soul Beast's claws gleamed with a dark light; in its eyes, the matter was settled.

During this period, it has ambushed three cultivators without fail, devouring their flesh, blood, and souls, and its strength has greatly improved.

It could sense that the enemy before it possessed an unusually abundant life force, and its soul exuded an alluring fragrance, far surpassing the quality of its previous prey.

If it then devours the flesh, blood, and soul of the other party, it will reach the critical point of transformation.

Ji An, of course, had no idea what the Yin Soul Beast was thinking. If he did, he would only laugh at it for being too young and naive.

At this moment, his soul was injured and he was unable to move, but how could his many second-level defensive measures be easily broken?

The moment the Yin Soul Beast appeared, the Wuji Apricot Yellow Banner rippled with thousands of golden flowers, and countless shimmering spiritual lights, like yellow particles, instantly filled the passage, like endless quicksand hindering the enemy's advance.

This top-grade spiritual artifact, which will be refined into a natal magic weapon in the future, is very reassuring. It can currently provide three layers of defense.

The outermost layer of gold flowers is the first layer, serving as an early warning system and the first round of protection.

The second layer of defense is the evolved rolling yellow sand. The sand spins rapidly, which can deflect incoming attacks and also has a strong suction force, greatly reducing the speed at which enemies enter the range of the magical artifact's defense.

The third layer of defense is the Earth Spiritual Armor covering the body.

It can be said that his current defensive methods are simply not something that enemies at the Chaoyuan stage can break through.

Unless an extremely powerful soul attack completely cripples him, it's uncertain whether a Golden Core cultivator has that ability; at least, a Golden Core cultivator in the early stages doesn't possess such power.

In fact, if Ji An were to fully activate the Wuji Apricot Yellow Banner, the Yin Soul Beast would not have had the chance to rush to his side.

The Yin Soul Beast can become ethereal, but it doesn't completely disappear; it's merely invisible. This invisibility is quite advanced, so much so that even Ji An, with his eyes that can see through the mist, couldn't detect it.

However, no matter how clever the concealment is, it cannot escape the Qi of the Wuji Apricot Yellow Banner. As long as the spiritual artifact is activated to produce more golden flowers, it can only force the Yin Soul Beast to show itself.

However, there's no way you can guard against thieves for a thousand days if you're a thief for a thousand days.

If the Yin Soul Beast continues to pursue him from a distance, he must devote his energy to constant vigilance, so he deliberately uses himself as bait to lure and kill it.

The Yin Soul Beast's speed decreased drastically as it became stuck in the yellow sand. Instinctively realizing the danger, it immediately wanted to retreat and prepared to turn around and leave, but its movements were slowed down by the suction force of the yellow sand.

At this moment, Ji An also recovered from the soul attack. He turned around and saw what the Yin Soul Beast looked like.

It looks like a leopard, but it has no hair, its skin is like a toad's, and it has a black, cone-shaped horn on its head.

The eyes are yellowish-brown, and the pupils are light blue vertical pupils.

When their eyes met, Ji An immediately felt a chilling aura rise in his mind. Even looking into the eyes of the other person had the effect of attacking his soul.

That's enough!

A cold glint appeared in Ji An's eyes. He parted his lips slightly and unleashed a mental roar.

This soul-attack technique has an awkward aspect: it can only be launched from the front.

At the same time, the Flaming Banner appeared off the ground, spewing out fire elemental energy that transformed into the shape of a phoenix.

After the mental roar was unleashed, a phoenix cry like fireworks exploding rang out, and the dim passage was illuminated by crimson spiritual light.

Immediately afterwards, the Flame Banner leaped forward, and the tail feathers that appeared flashed with four colors of spiritual light: red, yellow, blue, and white.

The Yin Soul Beast was hit by the double soul attack technique and felt as if thunder was exploding in its brain.

Its cold eyes reflected the phoenix's flamboyant figure, but its body didn't have time to transform from solid to ethereal, and it absorbed all the attacks.

The flames engulfed it, and the skin and muscles hit head-on instantly melted in the high temperature.

Before it could recover from the soul attack, a three-foot-long silver flying sword suddenly appeared and wrapped around its neck.

Then it saw its field of vision rotate and change, and it saw a familiar headless body.

Darkness surged in like a tide, and consciousness gradually faded away.

Its sturdy body was insignificant in the face of the extinction aura emanating from the gold shop.

Ji An saw the Yin Soul Beast turn into ashes from the outside in, and a look of melancholy appeared on his face.

Whether it's a ghost or a ghost beast, it will turn to ashes and disappear after being killed. Although he has killed a lot of ghosts these days, he has gained nothing.

Unless you encounter an individual that is nurturing a soul crystal, there is no point in exterminating the spirits.

Having successfully conducted the entrapment operation, Ji An activated the Soul Nourishing Pendant. This one-time use spiritual artifact could be manipulated through its internal array to quickly extract the mysterious substance from the Soul Nourishing Pendant, thereby accelerating the nourishment of the soul.

Given the strength of his soul, he did not suffer much damage from the attack and will recover after resting.

However, the most important thing at this moment is to understand the mutual generation of the five elements; everything else must take a backseat.

He turned his head, and the Flaming Banner, which was off the ground, quickly shrank and merged into his body, concealing his merit and fame.

The Wuji Apricot Yellow Flag was activated at full power to protect the entire passage and prevent external interference.

Two soft sounds, one after the other, came from behind me, like hearing two small stones fall outside in the quiet night.

Ji An frowned slightly, turned around and looked at the figure, his eyebrows suddenly rising.

"It wouldn't be a bad thing to have a few more of these lovable spirit beasts!"

On the ground lay a pale blue, luminous crystal the size of a fingernail, and a three-inch-long beast horn, shimmering with dark light.

Although he had never seen it, he understood that the crystal was a soul crystal, but he had no idea what the beast horn was.

However, only the good things survived; otherwise, they would have all turned to ashes.

This was the first time his efforts hadn't been in vain, and Ji An smiled; it was a good omen.

He used his object manipulation technique to grasp the two spiritual objects in his hands.

The Soul Crystal felt icy cold to the touch, like holding a block of ice at an extremely low temperature. Even with his physical abilities, he couldn't help but shiver. However, the sensation in his sea of ​​consciousness was very comfortable, and his injured soul seemed to have recovered somewhat.

"it is good!"

Ji An held the Soul Crystal tightly in his hand, playing with the black beast horn for a while, but found he couldn't recognize what it was or what its use was. He put the beast horn into his Void Realm space, enduring the coldness brought by the Soul Crystal, and put it away after his soul's injuries had completely healed.

Ji An then lowered the output power of the Soul Nourishing Pendant's magic array. Although this method could quickly restore the soul, it would cause a high level of damage.

With all the unfavorable conditions gone, Ji An took a deep breath and walked to the place where the spiritual energy conflict was most intense, feeling the changes up close.

Perhaps it was the pleasant mood brought about by the acquisition of Soul Crystals that made him feel his mind was very active and sharp.

The Earth element is divided into two types: Wu Earth and Ji Earth. However, both Wu Earth and Ji Earth share common characteristics.

When Earth is exposed to Fire, it becomes Dry Earth, which is called Wu Earth. It can form a solid dam and support all living things on Earth. When it is nourished by Water, it becomes Ji Earth, which can nourish all things. It can also accommodate all spirits in the netherworld and is the final destination of all spiritual beings.

While the Metal element might result in the complete separation of Geng and Xin metals, the Earth element would not, due to the shared heavy and substantial nature of Wu and Ji earth.

Ji An carefully sensed the characteristics of the metal element that had been nurtured, and found that it had a strong aura of severity and sharpness. He then quickly concealed his sharpness.

He nodded slightly. On the surface, this was Earth (己土) nurturing Metal (庚金).

This phenomenon can be understood as the generation of Yang from Yin, with Yin Earth nurturing Yang Metal, which itself conforms to the changes of Yin and Yang.

However, what exactly is this aura of Kan water that's escaping? From my direct perception, there's no transformation of metal into water involved.

Could it be the aquatic aura emanating from the River Styx?
This is possible, because he heard the intermittent sound of the tide in the passage.

However, earth and water are mutually destructive, and these two elements should not be mixed together, let alone be so closely intertwined.

Ji An scratched his head, feeling a headache coming on. If it weren't for this black aura, he felt that everything he had seen would be easier to explain, but at this moment, he was plunged into serious self-doubt.

He tugged at his hair, let out a soft sigh, and then took a deep breath, exhaling the rising restlessness in his heart.

The current situation is like doing math problems in a past life; the reason it seems difficult is because he doesn't know how.

Ji An calmed his mind and waited for his spirit to return to peace before releasing his divine sense to continue quietly sensing the changes within the spiritual energy.

He noticed that the black light was shrinking, and after about half an hour, the water-elemental light completely disappeared.

A moment later, the gestation of inspiration dissipated.

Ji An's face was solemn. He felt that he had gained some insight. Even without the appearance of the water-based spiritual light, everything he had realized could still be explained.

The Yin Earth's energy is intense, and Yang rises while Yin falls, so the energy becomes more concentrated. Then, Yin reaches its extreme and Yang is born, and Yang Metal is nurtured within the Yin Earth.

The nature of Earth is weight, bearing, and nourishing, while Fire generates Metal, which is the transformation of energy into a convergent state after reaching its limit.

To give an inappropriate example, he believed that water is a flowing liquid, wood and fire are gaseous substances that rise from the ground, and earth and metal are solid substances that gather together.

Influenced by the transformation of Yin and Yang, the nature of energy changes and flows, giving life to all things.

But with the addition of the Water Elemental Light, things became very complicated. He didn't know the role this variable played, and he had absolutely no clue.

Ji An shook his head vigorously; at that moment, he felt as big as a bucket.

This "mathematical problem" is currently beyond his ability. He has a solution approach, but he cannot confirm whether the answer he gets using his approach is correct.

Next, he needs to search the Spirit Realm again to verify his guess.

Ji An flew low on the Earth Cloud. The earth element was strong here, so he could use Earth Escape Technique.

However, there might be lurking spirits in the earth, and if he encountered a formidable opponent, it would be extremely disadvantageous for him. Therefore, he still chose to escape by riding the clouds.

A bend appeared ahead, and Ji An flew over cautiously, discovering a spiritual realm where the Earth element nurtured the Metal element not far ahead.

He narrowed his eyes, a cold smile appeared on his face, and his hand seals changed, releasing an explosive fireball.

This scene is very fake; it has appearances but no substance, and there are no changes in the five elements' energy. It must be that there are lingering spirits nearby who have discerned his thoughts and created the corresponding illusion.

The fireball, the size of a head, spewed white flames as it flew toward the Spirit Realm. Even a Foundation Establishment stage spell could unleash tremendous destructive power in his hands.

The fireball flew across the spiritual realm, seemingly passing through a phantom, before crashing into the rock wall with a deafening roar.

Flames flew everywhere, just like fireworks in full bloom.

The spirit realm vanished like a shattered soap bubble; it turned out it was all an illusion.

As the illusion faded, Ji An discovered that more than a dozen ugly ghosts had gathered together in a bizarre manner.

There are sheep with half a head, toads with three legs, and snakes with human heads and snake bodies.

The more spirits gather together, the stronger the illusion they can create. This is the first time Ji An has discovered a scene with a large number of spirits gathered together.

Without the slightest hesitation, he changed the hand seals, and his magical power surged from his dantian, flowing rapidly into the Heart Fire Palace along the immortal meridian.

The next instant, a crimson fire dragon with white flames burning on its body appeared in the passage.

The dragon's head is ferocious, and white flames also swirl around its horns. The scales on its slender body are just like real dragon scales.

As the domineering dragon roared, the fire dragon collided with the ghosts. Flames erupted everywhere, the ghosts screamed, and then turned into wisps of ashes and vanished into thin air.

If the enemy doesn't reach a certain level, they won't be a match for Ji An at all; his killing efficiency is comparable to that of a first-rate swordsman.

However, his defensive capabilities at this moment are much stronger than those of sword cultivators at the same level.

He felt that if he were to spar with Li Haoran again, the latter might despair. Sword cultivators are invincible? That's because they haven't met him yet!

As long as his armor is thick enough, he dares to even stroke the whiskers of a Golden Core cultivator.

This was just a minor incident, and Ji An continued riding the clouds.

Two days later, he finally encountered another spiritual realm that was just beginning to evolve from earth to metal.

This time, only yellow and white light shone; the light of the Earth element rapidly shrank, while the white spiritual light rapidly grew stronger.

It lasted only a quarter of an hour before all the strange phenomena disappeared and the spiritual realm vanished.

Ji An felt as if a thunderclap had exploded in his mind, dispelling all his confusion.

His original understanding was correct: water is not a necessary element for earth to generate metal; the existence of water is merely to inject energy into one's own earth element!

It was only because of the continuous replenishment that the last evolution of the five elements lasted so long.

"Water has ruined me!"

Ji An laughed heartily, his laughter filled with boundless joy.

As his conviction strengthened, the yellow flame layer of the primordial fire in his dantian expanded considerably, blurring the clear boundary between it and the white rock layer.

The spleen, the earth element, radiates spiritual light, and the Five Elements Circulation Meridian begins to operate again. Spiritual energy is inhaled through the mouth and nose and circulates rapidly within the immortal meridians.

(End of this chapter)