Sang Jinghe left, and soon returned.
With him came news of Fu Chaosheng's recent situation.
The date of his return was drawing near, but the exact day remained unknown; Fu Chaosheng still had many loose ends to tie up in his Northern Sea business dealings.
In particular, concerning the righteous and demonic factions, acting as a mediator in their war had been far from a casual matter of dining and entertaining—it involved extensive cooperation between the Tianyuan Commerce Alliance and both paths.
In fact, this made it quite apparent that although the Dao Sect's commerce alliance in the Northern Sea was nominally co-governed by four great elders, First Elder Shen Wandou clearly held a superior status.
Shen Wandou had no need to run about toiling away outside; he only had to stay in Shenyuan City, their headquarters, overseeing the big picture.
Unlike Fu Chaosheng and the other two, who rarely enjoyed leisure and spent their days traveling abroad.
The reason for this state of affairs was not merely cultivation realm; it was also tied to the "family background" behind them.
The Fu family had declined, supported on the surface only by Fu Chaosheng and the newly advanced Nascent Soul cultivator Fu Qinglan.
Even if the Shen family was not among the forefront of the so-called thirty-six great clans, they possessed other clansmen who had attained the Nascent Soul stage many years ago, boasting deep and formidable foundations.
This disparity manifested in how Shen and Fu acted externally: one lived in leisure, while the other toiled endlessly.
This was not a matter of the capable doing more, but of the weak bearing the greater burden.
Luo Chen had no desire to probe into the details. Upon learning that it would still be some time before Fu Chaosheng's return, he suppressed the urgency in his heart and devoted all his energy to his own cultivation.
Tempering his soul with the power of tribulation lightning was perilous; a single misstep could easily wound his spirit and exhaust his soul, so he had to exercise careful moderation.
He continued taking the Great Soul Pill on a monthly basis, directing the brunt of his focus to his daily cultivation.
Based on the progress bar on the attribute panel, he made an approximate assessment of his current cultivation speed.
The result, however, astonished him.
Even though the Great Perfection Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture was merely serviceable at this stage, so long as he had the support of an ordinary fourth-order spiritual vein, he could completely advance to the next realm—the second layer of the Nascent Soul stage—within ten years!
If aided by the potent medicinal efficacy of the Hongyuan Pill, taking one every half-month and refining it slowly, that speed might even shorten to seven years, six years, or even half that time!
Such a result completely overturned the common sense of all cultivation realms prior to Nascent Soul.
Shouldn't cultivation in the Nascent Soul realm be far more arduous?
Wasn't the sudden doubling of one's lifespan cap meant precisely to accommodate long, grueling cultivation?
Luo Chen was thoroughly perplexed.
"Could it be due to my Fire Spirit Body?"
"Yet who among those in the world who attain the Nascent Soul stage does not possess exceptional aptitude and unyielding willpower? Yet when they seek to advance by a single minor realm, the time required is measured in decades, or even centuries."
"Particularly those who were advanced in years upon breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage—many spend their entire lives without ever touching the threshold of the late Nascent Soul stage."
Even after scouring vast amounts of ancient texts, Luo Chen remained unable to find an answer.
This made him realize that without the guidance of a renowned master, the legacy of a great sect, or exchanges with peers of the same realm, even bitter cultivation behind closed doors would leave him knowing what happened without understanding why.
Thus, Luo Chen conceived the idea of conferring with fellow cultivators of his realm.
Currently, quite a few Nascent Soul True Persons lingered in Shenyuan City, many of whom sought to join the Tianyuan Dao Sect and seize the chance to leave the Northern Sea.
However, Luo Chen had no intention of forging deep ties with those people; instead, he set his sights on Zhou Yunshen.
It was not about taking advantage of an honest man—anyone capable of reaching the Nascent Soul realm and establishing a great clan was anything but "honest" or simple.
Rather, it was primarily because they shared history.
Thanks to these tangled connections, Luo Chen taking the initiative to seek advice would not cause annoyance, but would instead bring them closer together.
Such were worldly ways: at times, people were quite eager for others to come ask favors of them.
After briefly settling his clansmen, Zhou Yunshen had also begun making frequent visits to the Nascent Soul cultivators in Shenyuan City, and when presented with Luo Chen's invitation, he gladly accepted.
"The daily cultivation of a Nascent Soul cultivator?"
Hearing Luo Chen's question, Zhou Yunshen looked rather astonished.
Luo Chen did not evade the topic, stating frankly, "I started as a rogue cultivator without sect teachings, so I know very little of this common knowledge. I gave it little thought before, but the more frequently I cultivate, the more perplexities arise. Thus, I must trouble Fellow Daoist to enlighten me."
Zhou Yunshen hesitated momentarily, but seeing Luo Chen's thirst for knowledge, he offered an easy smile.
"Very well. It is hardly some core secret art anyway, merely a few reflections from experience."
After smiling, his expression turned solemn.
"Before that, please release your Nascent Soul domain and make contact with mine."
Luo Chen nodded. With a thought, his internal Nascent Soul cracked its eyes open, its aura penetrating outward from the purple palace to draw upon heaven-and-earth spiritual energy.
He did not incorporate his Void Melting technique, merely exerting his Nascent Soul domain to its fullest.
Instantly, a vast expanse of fire-attribute heaven-and-earth spiritual energy surged forth, coalescing above Mount Xiaoqiong into a crimson cloudscape that looked like sunset glow ablaze.
At the same time, two distinct streams of spiritual energy—blue and green—rushed forward, forming another Nascent Soul domain.
When the two collided, the fiery clouds were forced into a steady retreat in a single instant.
From this alone, the immense gap between the two became evident.
The two domains separated as quickly as they touched. Luo Chen praised, "Fellow Daoist's cultivation is profound; I am far from your match!"
To his surprise, Zhou Yunshen was even more shaken within.
In that direct collision, he had felt how remarkably solid Luo Chen's domain was, and how massive an amount of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy it drew.
Though it fell short of his own, it was far beyond what an ordinary first-layer Nascent Soul cultivator could muster.
Naturally, he did not show it on his face.
Retracting his Nascent Soul domain, he asked, "Did you notice anything peculiar in that?"
Luo Chen was startled. What was peculiar? Wasn't it just a simple collision of domains?
Yet immediately afterward, he seemed to realize something.
In that direct collision, besides the ambient spiritual energy drawn from the world, there was also the inherent magic power of the two cultivators.
Yet in his perception, while Zhou Yunshen's magic power was indeed robust, the difference between them was by no means like night and day.
The reason his domain had collapsed so easily was, in truth, the joint effect of magic power and heaven-and-earth spiritual energy.
Luo Chen hesitated. "A pure comparison of magic power between us... does not seem so vast?"
Zhou Yunshen smiled. "As expected of the Desolate Hermit, who attained the Nascent Soul realm as a rogue cultivator—your comprehension is superb, discerning the whole from a single detail."
"Please speak plainly, Fellow Daoist!"
Zhou Yunshen stowed his smile and said gravely, "For us cultivators, when it comes to pure magic power alone, unless dealing with a late Nascent Soul Great Cultivator, the difference between individuals is not that great. The reason why different realms produce such marked disparities in battle is simply that the process of leveraging external spiritual energy with magic power magnifies the disparity many times over.
"Battles between Nascent Soul cultivators are no longer simple clashes of magic treasures or exchanges of blows; they primarily manifest in leveraging the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
"Whether it is a Nascent Soul domain or a True Artifact that communicates with external spiritual energy, both are embodiments of this mechanism."
Frowning, Luo Chen carefully pondered those words.
If interpreted through his customary quantified mindset, it would be roughly one, two, three, four, five, six to represent the quantity of magic power at each layer of the Nascent Soul realm.
Between one and two, the gap was indeed modest; even between one and five, or one and six, it remained within a reasonable range.
Yet once combat was involved, it could not be compared through simple addition and subtraction.
A magic power magnitude of one essentially leveraged only one unit of heaven-and-earth spiritual energy.
Yet a magnitude of two leveraged at least two, or perhaps three, four, or even more.
Under these combined conditions, one times one would be smaller than two times two or two times three.
If the gap between realms expanded further, one times one would be vastly inferior to five times five, five times six, seven, eight, and so on.
This was precisely why, without employing Void Melting just now, his domain had been thoroughly outmatched by Zhou Yunshen's.
Deducing backward, when he had encountered Blood Nightmare Moluo or Sky Splitting Stream Master previously, his domain had actually been at a disadvantage, and he had relied entirely on Void Melting, his self-created secret art, to bridge the gap.
Following this line of thought, Luo Chen asked a few more questions.
"Before the late Nascent Soul stage, there is no insurmountable gap in magic power, and the real difference lies in leveraging heaven-and-earth spiritual energy?"
"Correct."
"Are there ways to narrow this gap?"
"Naturally. High-tier spells, innate divine abilities, secret arts, special physiques, and the True Artifacts we commonly wield can all do so! As for specifics, that varies from person to person."
"May I venture to ask, was that your full strength just now?"
"Haha, this old man is getting on in years; exerting full strength would strain my bones and sinews. Besides, didn't you hold back as well, Hermit?"
The tangential topic ended there.
Luo Chen returned to the original subject, though his confusion only deepened.
"When we cultivators advance our realm, the most fundamental change is the increase in magic power. Since the difference in magic power between each realm is not that large, why does the cultivation of Nascent Soul cultivators routinely take a hundred years for a single minor realm?"
Zhou Yunshen pointed toward the heavens and said matter-of-factly, "The higher the realm, the stronger the magic power, and the more heaven-and-earth spiritual energy one can leverage. But the more spiritual energy one leverages, the greater the backlash, and the easier it is for a cultivator's Nascent Soul to lose its sense of self and become assimilated by heaven and earth. Therefore, the more aggressively we strive to advance, the more cautious we must be, constantly combing through our magic power without the slightest carelessness."
"Yet isn't there still the purple palace barrier?"
"Haha, does Fellow Daoist not know that the purple palace barrier derives from the evolution of the spiritual root?"
Luo Chen froze, then experienced a sudden epiphany.
For humans to cultivate immortality, spiritual roots were required, yet "spiritual root" was merely a collective term, naturally divided into three parts:
one at the tip of the tongue, one at the dantian, and one at the sperm chamber or womb.
The former influenced one's sensitivity to external spiritual energy and absorption efficiency; while there were crippled individuals with missing limbs in the world, high-realm cultivators who had severed their tongue root were exceedingly rare.
The latter was less critical, requiring only that one's primordial yang or primordial yin remain intact before Foundation Establishment.
The most vital was the dantian.
As one's realm grew higher, the dantian continuously transformed—from initial opening to forming an ocean, and ultimately giving birth to the purple palace.
Thus, when examined closely, the purple palace was indeed a product of the spiritual root's evolution!
Zhou Yunshen was explaining the most fundamental matters, and the principles were plain and simple.
"The fewer spiritual roots one possesses, the easier it is to accurately perceive the corresponding elemental attributes of spiritual energy and absorb them, making cultivation speed naturally faster.
"That is why Heavenly Spiritual Root cultivators, who possess a single spiritual root, are hailed as the darlings of heaven and earth.
"Yet that applies only prior to the Nascent Soul realm!
"After reaching Nascent Soul, when the spiritual roots evolve into the purple palace, the fewer roots there were, the smaller the purple palace, and the thinner its barrier. While seemingly more attuned to heaven and earth, how would one dare fully merge into heaven and earth?"
Zhou Yunshen smiled as he looked at Luo Chen and asked, "You must have heard the most widespread lore in the cultivation world regarding the cultivation speed of Heavenly Spiritual Root cultivators?"
Luo Chen replied without hesitation, "Ten years to Foundation Establishment, a hundred years to Golden Core, two hundred years to Nascent Soul, five hundred years to... Soul Formation."
Toward the end, his tone grew hesitant, yet a sensation of profound illumination washed through his mind.
Coupled with his brief exchanges while traveling with True Person Langya earlier, the question that had plagued him for days was instantly resolved.
Unaware that Luo Chen had already understood, Zhou Yunshen continued his simple explanation:
"Those with a single spiritual root hold an immense advantage in the early stages. Even granting minor hiccups along their path, at most, their age upon reaching Nascent Soul is only around three hundred years.
"At such a young age, with a thousand-year lifespan limit, their time can be called abundant.
"Yet from Nascent Soul to Soul Formation, it takes a full five hundred years!
"The obstacle lies precisely in the fact that the purple palace barrier evolved by Heavenly Spiritual Root cultivators is far too thin, leaving them utterly terrified of aggressively rushing forward!
"At this stage, they dare not even consume too many cultivation-type pills. For pill toxins would damage the purple palace barrier, turning what was already a flimsy thatched hut into a drafty ruin leaking on all sides, leaving the Nascent Soul nowhere to shelter."
At this point, Zhou Yunshen could not help sighing with emotion.
Heaven and earth were fair, and the Great Dao treated all alike.
However many conveniences were granted in the early stages, just as many obstacles would be set in the later ones.
Conversely, if cultivation was fraught with difficulties from the start, once one attained high realms, the clouds would part to reveal the bright moon, paving the way for unimpeded progress.
His own aptitude was not poor; in terms of spiritual roots, he possessed dual spiritual roots, which was why he had managed to form a Nascent Soul at four hundred years old.
Yet over the subsequent four hundred years, he had walked on thin ice, his Nascent Soul once sinking into stupor and losing itself, leaving him trapped at the fourth layer of the Nascent Soul stage for many years.
This was one of the reasons the outside world believed he was only at the fourth layer.
Even though he later broke through the haze, he had only managed to advance two minor realms.
Now eight hundred years of age, relying on the remaining two to three centuries to break through to late Nascent Soul and assault Soul Formation was...
Zhou Yunshen looked at Luo Chen with a wry smile. He could sense how young the man was, and he knew that during the Myriad Immortals Association, Luo Chen had only been at the mid Golden Core stage.
To advance to the Nascent Soul realm so swiftly at such a tender age, he must possess a single fire spiritual root.
In the past, he would have viewed him as a sect genius and a pillar of a clan.
Now, however, he could only feel a twinge of sorrow for him.
Having surmounted the most difficult hurdle only to find even towering mountains ahead, his heart was likely filled with immense bewilderment and despair.
Taking the initiative to seek enlightenment today must have stemmed from this very reason!
Feeling Zhou Yunshen's pitying gaze, Luo Chen blinked. He offered no explanation, turning instead to other questions.
"Binding spirits, dispatching generals, and enslaving souls?"
"Regarding that, I actually know a thing or two."
"True Person Yuling of Wuzhong Valley is a good friend of mine; his Daoist title, Yuling, speaks for itself."
"He once shared a few tricks with me. After figuring them out, I integrated them into the Coral Sea's Blood Coral Array, with extraordinary effects."
"I can certainly recount a few, though these tricks vary from person to person. If you wish to apply them, you must weigh them carefully."
Luo Chen had not expected that a casual inquiry would yield such a pleasant surprise.
Lately, while researching puppetry, how to control the powerful spirit souls within puppets had left him somewhat at a loss.
The tips Zhou Yunshen shared from True Person Yuling offered him tremendous inspiration.
After their discussion concluded, Luo Chen personally saw him off.
The two strolled side by side down Mount Xiaoqiong.
As they prepared to part, Luo Chen suddenly asked, "Fellow Daoist Zhou, where do you plan to go in the future?"
"The future?"
A hint of disorientation crossed Zhou Yunshen's aged face, but it quickly gave way to resolve: "I must find a way forward for my Zhou family descendants. I intend to travel to the Central Plains and join the Dao Sect's Tiandi Peak. You likely share similar plans, so we can support each other when the time comes. After all, though the Central Plains appears to welcome experts from all under heaven, it is exceedingly xenophobic. If we do not huddle together for warmth, we might well be treated as expendable fodder."
Luo Chen smiled. No wonder the man had held nothing back earlier.
Repaying Black King's life-saving grace was one part, and the superficial nature of the shared experience was another, but his true purpose was to foster goodwill, making it easier to band together in the future.
Although Luo Chen had no intention of lingering long in the Central Plains, collaborating with someone whose background he knew well would undoubtedly be safer.
In that case, it was only fitting that he reciprocate the gesture.
With a flick of his wrist, Luo Chen handed over a storage bag.
"This is?"
Puzzled, Zhou Yunshen did not immediately accept it.
Luo Chen chuckled. "Inside are three low-grade defensive magic treasures—some crafted by my own hands, others acquired by chance. I heard that the Zhou family's talents suffered heavy casualties in the battle of the Coral Sea. Consider these gifts to your juniors for self-defense."
Zhou Yunshen hesitated. "I cannot accept a reward without merit. This gift of yours is a bit..."
"How can you say without merit? Our exchange earlier saved me countless detours. For a mere three low-grade magic treasures that are useless to me, I feel somewhat shabby offering so little. Besides..."
Luo Chen smiled faintly. "Back then, your Zhou family sent a batch of medicinal ingredients to aid my alchemy. At the time, I promised to tailor defensive magic treasures for your newly advanced Golden Core cultivators. Unfortunately, I fled to the Demon Sea later, and that promise remained unfulfilled. Today is merely making slight amends. I hope Fellow Daoist will not look down upon them."
With words spoken to this point, Zhou Yunshen no longer stood on ceremony.
Three magic treasures were truly not exceedingly precious to a Nascent Soul cultivator.
Yet defensive magic treasures were precisely what the younger generation of the Zhou family lacked right now.
Scarcely anyone was left; if more were lost, his old heart could hardly bear it.
"In that case, it would be churlish of me to refuse."
Zhou Yunshen smilingly accepted the storage bag and cupped his hands in farewell.
After he departed, the smile lingered on Luo Chen's face. Without channeling magic power, he walked slowly along the mountain path.
His confusion had been simple; the answer had actually been provided long ago by True Person Langya, but in terms too generalized, leaving him unable to see the forest for the trees.
Now, untangled by a veteran Nascent Soul cultivator like Zhou Yunshen, everything had instantly become crystal clear.
"My purple palace barrier appears to have been formed from a single fire spiritual root, but in reality, it was formed from the spiritual roots of all five elements.
"No!
"My spiritual roots were even elevated by the Spirit-Shaping Holy Spring in the Alchemy Hall of Mingzhao Heaven, making them incomparably superb.
"The purple palace derived from them has no equal under heaven.
"With the protection of such a purple palace, when cultivating, I need not worry in the least about the influence of heaven and earth upon me. Meanwhile, my Fire Spirit Body ensures flawless absorption of fire-attribute spiritual energy. That is why I can attain such rapid cultivation speed.
"Once my proficiency with the Hongyuan Pill increases and I refine medium-grade or even high-grade Hongyuan Pills, my cultivation speed could surge once again!
"Haha! All my life I was shackled by poor aptitude, squandering countless resources. Who would have thought that upon achieving Nascent Soul, I would instead leap into possessing the so-called aptitude of a genius? It truly is wondrous."
Luo Chen was in high spirits.
Consequently, after returning to the mountain, his progress in studying puppetry also advanced significantly.
A month later, having brought his condition to its peak, Luo Chen brought out the Hunyuan Cauldron.
With a thought, his divine sense locked onto the object inside the cauldron!
Chapter 732