Chapter 233
Chapter 233
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: [Unknown]
Chapter Title: Innate Golden Palace Jade Scripture
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“Whoosh!”
As the Myriad Spirits Banner fluttered, a figure of light and shadow slowly emerged. Lu Yang hurried forward upon seeing it and bowed.
“Junior Disciple Lu Yang pays respects to the Ancestor!”
“No need for such formalities.”
Ancestor Tingyou narrowed his eyes at the sight, then smiled faintly. “I’ve finished sorting through that Dao Fiend’s memories and the theory on Great Vehicle First-Grade True Qi.”
Strictly speaking, he was now the banner spirit of the Myriad Spirits Banner, while Lu Yang was its master—he had no way to resist Lu Yang. Yet Lu Yang still treated him with the respect due an ancestor, which pleased him greatly. He felt that this seclusion for Lu Yang’s sake had been well worth it.
With that thought, Ancestor Tingyou immediately separated out a strand of divine sense.
Lu Yang took out a jade slip and sent the divine sense into it. After circulating his magic power for a moment to refine it, he began to examine the contents. What met his gaze was a vast expanse of scriptures.
Its name—*Innate Golden Palace Jade Scripture*!
Had his earth-shattering wisdom truly led to a breakthrough?
Lu Yang’s face lit up with delight. He swept his divine sense over it, then froze.
The good news was that Ancestor Tingyou had indeed comprehended something.
The bad news was that it wasn’t much.
“According to my deductions, refining Qi by the methods of the Perfected Being Xiantian would indeed produce flawless True Qi—the finest under heaven.”
This wasn’t surprising. After all, the Perfected Being Xiantian’s concept was utterly mad: refining Qi with metal essence! It was like advancing to the Foundation Establishment stage at the Qi Refining completion, making any other True Qi inferior by dimension, with no room for comparison.
“But... that’s all there is to it.”
Here, Ancestor Tingyou shook his head. “The quality of the True Qi is beyond doubt, but as I said before: it has quality without rank.”
Rank was the true key to cultivation!
Qi Refining ascends to Foundation Establishment, Foundation Establishment elevates to fruition—without raising rank, no amount of quality or quantity mattered to those of higher realms.
“In terms of True Qi quality, the Great Vehicle First-Grade True Qi envisioned by the Perfected Being Xiantian is perfect. A cultivator with it at the same level would have mana at least ten thousand times that of Third-Grade True Qi! A mere breath could crush the opponent. At first glance, it seems no different from Foundation Establishment.”
“But that’s only on the surface.”
“In true combat, even the weakest Foundation Establishment Perfected Being—not even a flawless one—could crush you with a single finger.”
At this, Lu Yang raised a question.
“Then how does one achieve Foundation Establishment with Great Vehicle First-Grade True Qi?”
“...I don’t know.”
Ancestor Tingyou fell silent for a moment, then shook his head. “The Perfected Being Xiantian provided a method for metal-essence Foundation Establishment, but my deductions confirm it’s unusable.”
“Something’s missing in between.”
“But I don’t know what. After all, I’ve only ever encountered Third-Grade methods. I’ve never even seen what a Second-Grade true art looks like...”
At these words, Lu Yang slapped his forehead. He circulated his divine sense and produced the Second-Grade true art fragment he’d extorted from Perfected Being Miaoyin: *Kan Heaven Primordial Unity Subduing All Heavens Divine Method*.
“Ancestor, I got my hands on this recently. Might it offer you some inspiration?”
“...Oh?”
Ancestor Tingyou blinked in surprise, took the method, and glanced at it. His expression froze, his initial casualness giving way to seriousness.
After a long while, he exhaled deeply.
“Gathering outer Qi to refine the spirit... So that’s it! Of course! Outer Qi—yes, outer Qi! With nothing to seek within, one must seek without!”
Enlightenment dawned on Ancestor Tingyou’s face.
He turned to Lu Yang, voice grave. “Do whatever it takes to obtain the Qi-gathering secret art from this Second-Grade true art. It’s the most crucial part!”
Lu Yang looked curious.
“Qi-gathering secret art?”
“Exactly!” Ancestor Tingyou nodded and explained. “I’m certain this is the greatest advantage Second-Grade and First-Grade true arts hold over Third-Grade ones!”
“The Perfected Being Xiantian couldn’t deduce it, likely because he’d never seen a true Second-Grade inheritance. One sentence from the real thing outweighs ten thousand volumes! He was a genius unmatched in the world, no less than me—but like me, born in the wrong era.”
Ancestor Tingyou sighed for a moment before turning back to Lu Yang.
“The so-called ‘gathering outer Qi to refine the spirit’—‘outer Qi’ doesn’t mean ordinary Qi, but from beyond the heavens! Beyond the realm! It’s Qi from otherworldly heavens!”
“Gather otherworldly heavenly Qi to nurture and refine the soul...”
“Only by completing this step does the refined True Qi have a direction to point toward—not toward fruition, but toward the heavenly realm from which you’ve gathered the Qi!”
Ancestor Tingyou’s thoughts grew clearer, his voice quickening.
“Use the gathered otherworldly heavenly Qi to draw the corresponding fruition from another realm—one not of this world—manifesting it here...”
“That is ‘empty proof’!”
“Otherwise, if everything comes from this heaven and earth, how can you prove a fruition that doesn’t exist within them?”
Boom!
As the words fell, a thunderclap ripped across the vault of heaven—as if mere clouds colliding, or perhaps a warning from the world itself!
Ancestor Tingyou fell silent at once. After a long pause, he murmured darkly, “That’s why Second-Grade and First-Grade true arts are so rare, known to almost no one. Heavenly realms aren’t easy to find—not minor ones, but true realms with great powers residing, where the Dao manifests!”
Such realms couldn’t be casually captured by a Golden Core True Lord.
Encountering one would mean a protracted war lasting centuries or millennia—True Lords might even perish!
“So that’s how it is...”
With Ancestor Tingyou’s explanation, Lu Yang’s eyes gleamed. He’d already decided: Perfected Being Miaoyin would be his primary target!
At any cost!
Even the True Lord’s mission could wait—he had to find a way to squeeze her dry and obtain the original *Kan Heaven Primordial Unity Subduing All Heavens Divine Method*!
“Speaking of which, this place...”
At that moment, Ancestor Tingyou surveyed their surroundings and exclaimed in shock. “A blessed land in collapse—did Chongguang fail?”
“Ancestor sees true.”
Lu Yang praised admiringly, then tentatively asked Ancestor Tingyou, “Perfected Being Chongguang once said that ‘Covered Lamp Fire’ inexplicably repelled him.”
“But he couldn’t discern why.”
“Do you see any clues, Ancestor?”
Ancestor Tingyou shot Lu Yang an irritated glance. “What do you take me for? A True Lord?”
“The Primal Saint Sect’s consummate Great Perfected Being? Far grander than I ever was. If even he couldn’t see or explain it, how would I know!”
“After all, he at least had a chance to seek gold, while I...”
Here, a trace of gloom crossed Ancestor Tingyou’s face, but he quickly composed himself and changed the subject.
“But speaking of failed gold-seeking, the Perfected Being Xiantian was similar to him.”
“...What?”
Lu Yang froze, then recalled the memories related to the Perfected Being Xiantian he’d obtained from absorbing the Dao Fiend.
But since Lu Yang hadn’t done it personally—Chen Xin’an had—he’d missed some details. Ancestor Tingyou, being a banner spirit like Chen Xin’an, often exchanged insights within the Myriad Spirits Banner, so he knew more of the Perfected Being Xiantian’s life.
“The Perfected Being Xiantian sought ‘Endless Flowing Water.’”
After a moment’s recollection, Ancestor Tingyou continued. “But the result was the same as Chongguang’s: ‘Endless Flowing Water’ inexplicably repelled him, leading to failure and death.”
“He never figured out why.”
“Otherwise, with his grand ambitions—ascending to fruition, becoming a True Lord, then reverse-engineering his Great Vehicle First-Grade True Qi to perfect it...”
Ancestor Tingyou’s account plunged Lu Yang into thought.
Perfected Being Chongguang proving ‘Covered Lamp Fire.’
Perfected Being Xiantian proving ‘Endless Flowing Water.’
Their failures strikingly similar—Lu Yang refused to chalk it up to coincidence. Some subtle factor was at play...
In a daze, Lu Yang felt as if he’d brushed against a thin veil.
Intuition told him piercing it would reveal the truth, yet deeper probing left him lost in fog, elusive.
And just then—
“Zheng—!!!”
A sword hum echoed from beyond the clouds, shattering Lu Yang’s reverie. Looking out, he saw a brilliant sword light streaking straight toward him!