A curtain of rain veiled the lush verdure outside.
“Used it all up again?”
Luo Chen asked with his eyes closed.
Without waiting for an answer, he added, “You will have to wait two days for me. When I’m done, I’ll go hunt another mirage beast.”
At this moment, he was in the middle of unraveling a key restriction on the Penglai Octagonal Pavilion.
As the inherited True Artifact of the Penglai Immortal Sect, the pavilion contained exceedingly intricate restrictions that formed an array of formations, partitioning its internal spaces to ensure that the medicinal herbs within did not interfere with one another.
These formations were obscure and difficult to decipher; even Han Zhan had only unraveled a tiny portion back then, granting Luo Chen temporary control.
During his years on Longyuan Island, Luo Chen had tried to unravel them entirely, but fell far short.
Now that he had an abundance of free time, he resolved to undo the restrictions completely and refine the artifact for his own use.
Half a year had passed, and Luo Chen had conquered the general structure of another fourth-rank formation, getting a solid grasp on its complex composition of restrictions. In two or three more days, he would be able to unravel it entirely.
By then, he would likely command roughly eighty percent control over this True Artifact.
Not only that, but he could also master the fourth-rank spatial formation connected to its spatial restrictions.
It had to be said that unraveling the pavilion’s formations and restrictions brought Luo Chen boundless benefits!
This True Artifact was a multi-element magic treasure involving diverse formations and restrictions, the most prominent and numerous being spatial restrictions and spatial formations composed of them!
Luo Chen estimated that if he could decipher all of them, he might even master the means to construct teleportation arrays.
At the very least, he had already mastered a Lesser Teleportation Formation!
While he was immersed in undoing the restrictions and breaking down the formation, a soft “Mm” reached his ears, followed by: “Could I come with you this time?”
Luo Chen opened his eyes and looked at the woman standing gracefully at the cave entrance. After three consecutive bouts of deep cultivation, she had grown noticeably slender, her cheeks hollowed somewhat.
At this moment, pursing her lips, she looked at him timidly.
“Come if you wish,” Luo Chen said placidly, then closed his eyes again to concentrate on refining the small octagonal pavilion before him.
The one who had plotted against him was Fu Chaosheng, not Fu Qinglan.
The passage of time had cooled his anger; he would not vent his frustration on an innocent party without reason, even if the matter originated because of the woman before him.
***
Three days later.
Luo Chen set out once more, arriving at the familiar plain where he usually set up formations to lure mirage beasts.
Fu Qinglan followed behind, watching in person as he placed the Heavenly Mechanism Pill bait and laid out the formation.
For some reason, she noticed his formation-laying technique seemed even more practiced than before.
In particular, the Lesser Teleportation Formation beneath the Heavenly Mechanism Pill was so subtle that one would miss it without close scrutiny.
With all preparations complete, Luo Chen sat cross-legged again and closed his eyes to rest his spirit.
Of course, he was not truly idle; his mind was constantly turning over the contents of the Wither-Bloom Dao Scripture.
In his view, this self-created cultivation art still had considerable room for improvement, especially as repeated cultivation sessions revealed areas that could be further refined.
It was ever thus with superior cultivation arts.
After creation, they required ceaseless additions and revisions until pushed to their absolute limits.
Luo Chen did not know where the limits of the Wither-Bloom Dao Scripture lay, so for now he took it step by step, doing his utmost to bring it closer to perfection.
Fu Qinglan stood nearby, gazing at him blankly.
Unlike their previous outing, when they could sit in the fresh breeze shelling beans, drinking wine, and chatting merrily, now they were as distant as strangers.
She wanted to find a topic of conversation, but his unapproachable demeanor made it difficult to take the initiative.
The stifling atmosphere made her feel as though she were standing on a mountain of blades.
The wait for a mirage beast to arrive dragged on longer and longer.
One day, two days...
Without realizing it, more than half a month had slipped by.
Finally, a mirage beast arrived.
It was a great white bull.
With spiraling horns atop its head, it came galloping out from the rugged peaks and plunged straight into the formation.
Then Luo Chen struck.
The familiar fire phoenix manifested once again, battering the beast apart with heavy wounds.
Thick clouds and mist churned and dispersed across the plain, yet this time Luo Chen did not immediately use the Hunyuan Cauldron to seal and capture it; instead, he cast one spell after another.
The fire phoenix, flame dragons, the Qingyang Great Handprint... he even tested Senluo Fire Hell twice, though it had little effect on mirage beasts.
Under his continuous bombardment, the white bull repeatedly reformed and shattered, its roars echoing ceaselessly.
Watching this, Fu Qinglan clenched her fists.
Unaware that Luo Chen was using the beast as a living target to hone his spell proficiency, she saw only his seemingly pointless slaughter of a fourth-rank mirage beast that offered no real resistance.
Those spells were dazzling and magnificently potent.
Yet every cast drained magic power.
How was such meaningless behavior any different from venting rage?
*In the end, he is still angry with me!*
Amid her inner torment, Luo Chen finished off the white bull without her noticing when.
He stood quietly on the plain, frowning slightly as he surveyed the shattered cliffs and peaks around him.
Something lingered in his thoughts, but before long, he took flight, ready to head back.
After flying a few hundred meters, he suddenly turned back.
“Are you planning to stay here?”
Snapping out of her daze on the ridge, Fu Qinglan gasped softly and hurried to catch up.
Seeing her absentminded state, Luo Chen frowned.
“This will be your fourth mirage core. Do you have any confidence in finding a lead?”
The woman parted her lips slightly, then lowered her head in aggrieved silence.
Luo Chen shook his head and sighed.
“If you don't mind, tell me about the difficulties you encounter in your cultivation. Two heads are better than one, and through discussion, perhaps I can offer some advice. If you can comprehend law intent sooner, I can also leave the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven earlier.”
“Of course, if the Tianyuan Dao Sect has rules against it, you need not speak.”
Fu Qinglan hesitated.
Yet after some thought, she slowly spoke up.
“I cannot find the source power.”
***
Still that mountainside halfway up the peak.
Luo Chen continued to stand guard outside, but this time he did not occupy himself with his own tasks; instead, he spread his divine sense, cautiously sensing something.
Fu Qinglan had not shared the specific cultivation method for comprehending law intent, as that was a core legacy of the Dao Sect.
However, she had outlined the general approach.
Heaven and Earth possessed spirit, but origin qi had no mind.
If a cultivator could locate the source power corresponding to a certain law, they could use it to grant consciousness to Heaven and Earth's origin qi, borrowing the world's might to manipulate it.
This was the secret of why Soul Formation experts could command worldly origin qi.
As for how to search for it, Fu Qinglan had described the general method.
One bore their divine soul within the Nascent Soul, merging into Heaven and Earth to search for the most suitable source power.
To put it figuratively, the Nascent Soul was a boat, the divine soul was a person sitting inside, fishing for treasure in the boundless ocean of Heaven and Earth's origin qi.
The spiritual opportunity was the very line tethering the person to the corresponding source power!
Earlier, when Fu Qinglan released her true Nascent Soul to swallow worldly spiritual energy in great gulps, she had not been cultivating at all; rather, in that process, she had been searching for the matching source power.
And this so-called source power, according to the records of the Tianyuan Dao Sect, was none other than the most fundamental and accessible manifestation of law intent!
*Fu Qinglan specializes in wood-attribute arts, so what she seeks is the wood source. Her Nascent Soul inhales wood-attribute spiritual energy, carrying her divine soul into the omnipresent sea of origin qi to search bit by bit for the wood source.*
*Such a search would normally be completely blind, relying on luck built over years of effort. But with the guidance of a spiritual opportunity, it gains a measure of feasibility.*
*Yet, is the meager spiritual opportunity within a single mirage core enough?*
Luo Chen observed her cultivation movements for several days in a row.
Gradually, insight stirred within him.
If he incorporated this method into the Wither-Bloom Dao Scripture, would it patch the shortcoming on his path to the Soul Formation realm?
And how, specifically, was this method put into practice?
Luo Chen was keen to test it.
However, with so few observed samples, he dared not risk experimenting on himself.
Furthermore, he lacked spiritual opportunity to serve as that fishing line to angle for the source power hidden in the ocean of origin qi.
*I'll use Fu Qinglan as a specimen and observe her closely. Perhaps I can deduce the technique,*
Luo Chen thought to himself.
***
Half a year later, Luo Chen ventured out once more.
Fu Qinglan followed obediently behind him.
After their previous exchange on cultivation, their strained relationship had softened somewhat.
Luo Chen was one to hold a grudge, but he distinguished targets. The one who had truly put him at a disadvantage was Fu Chaosheng; toward Fu Qinglan, it was merely an aversion born of association.
Since she was willing to discuss even esoteric cultivation secrets with him, he naturally would not deliberately give her the cold shoulder.
In the basin surrounded by three mountains, the formation had been active for several days.
This time, nearly a month elapsed.
Unable to endure the wait any longer, Luo Chen fully engaged the formation, multiplying the range of the Heavenly Mechanism Pill's medicinal fragrance.
Originally, it covered only an area of a thousand li.
This time, it permeated several thousand li.
After this adjustment, Luo Chen did not have to wait long before disturbances arose among the mountains.
At his side, Fu Qinglan cried out in surprise, “They’re here—and it’s two fourth-rank mirage beasts!”
A giant python and a flying eagle.
One above, one below, they hurtled toward the plain beneath Luo Chen’s feet as if racing each other.
Luo Chen raised his eyelids, an unusual look in his eyes.
“They have come, but they are not the only ones.”
Before Fu Qinglan could comprehend his meaning, Luo Chen was already in motion.
The moment the two beasts entered the plain, they lost the scent of the Heavenly Mechanism Pill and flew into a frenzy.
Before they could search for the pill, a figure descended like crashing thunder.
Thunder Kick!
With a single kick, Luo Chen shattered the giant python beast.
Landing with a booming thud, his feet sank into the soil.
Then, lifting his head, he formed an incantation seal and cast a spell. A fire phoenix soared into the sky trailing a long meteoric tail, pouncing toward the flying eagle.
Not only that, the Cloud-Seeking Divine Claw descended from above, boxing the eagle in from top and bottom.
The two attacks converged, and the flying eagle shattered instantly under the heavy impact.
Billowing clouds and mist spread across the surrounding world.
Faintly, two figures seemed on the verge of reforming.
Yet as the formation Luo Chen had prepared beforehand activated, the clouds and mist surged into a small cauldron like a tidal bore.
They had no power to resist!
Watching the entire sequence unfold, Fu Qinglan could not help marveling at the sheer depth of Luo Chen’s strength.
Weak though mirage beasts were, their power still rivaled ordinary early Nascent Soul cultivators with few tricks.
Yet under Luo Chen’s hands, they crumbled upon contact.
Furthermore, restricted by the formation and that small cauldron True Artifact, they could not even deploy their formidable life-preserving escape arts.
They were no different from lambs to the slaughter.
*Two mirage cores at once—quite a harvest.*
*And this time, he didn't use the beasts to vent his anger. It seems he holds much less against me now.*
Just as these thoughts crossed Fu Qinglan’s mind, the dense clouds on the plain dissipated completely, revealing Luo Chen’s figure.
With one hand behind his back, he twirled the two mirage cores cradled in the magic power of his other hand.
Yet his gaze looked into the distant sky.
“Fellow Daoists, now that you’ve arrived, why hide your heads and tails? Could it be that you wish to play the oriole stalking the praying mantis?”
Taken aback, Fu Qinglan instinctively followed Luo Chen’s gaze.
Along the paths the mirage beasts had traversed, one stood on the left, one on the right.
On the left was an emaciated figure shrouded entirely in black robes, face hidden from view. On the right was a man sporting a gleaming bald head and a string of oversized prayer beads around his neck, his eyes piercing and bright, daring none to meet his gaze.
With just one look, the woman paled in shock and cried out involuntarily:
“Perfected Person Tianshan!”
“Wrathful Vajra!”
Chapter 755