In the Pure Land, a dharma idol denoted a spiritual fruition. Many golden body dharma idols of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were already close to the Scenery Command realm at the moment of inheritance. Had Wei Yuan been willing to accept the dharma idol of the Great Joy King Buddha or the Great Sun Tathagata back then, he would have counted among the strongest even among Scenery Command cultivators, despite remaining merely in the Dharma Idol realm. In the parlance of the Pure Land, this class of dharma idol was termed a "golden body" to distinguish it from ordinary dharma idols.
There was another group within the Pure Land who could never become reincarnated vessels and had no golden body dharma idols to inherit. They had no choice but to diligently cultivate Buddhism step by step, making them little different from ordinary cultivators.
Yet when it came to the sheer diversity of Dao Foundations, nowhere in the world could rival the Palace of Grand Beginning. Its Hall of Myriad Manifestations was far more than an immortal treasure meant for display; it possessed the power of heritage transmission. Many newly initiated disciples gained enlightenment regarding their own fortuitous opportunities within that hall, ultimately cultivating Dao Foundations similar to those recorded there. Theoretically, as long as Wei Yuan's Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains remained within the Hall of Myriad Manifestations, someone in future generations might succeed in cultivating it as well.
Once they formed their dharma idols, their manifestations naturally varied wildly. Every generation saw the emergence of unprecedented dharma idols. Yet no matter how rare or bizarre, they still struggled to match the golden body dharma idols passed down generation after generation in the Great Baohua Pure Land.
Yanshi did not press for further details. Instead, he produced an array chart and handed it to Wei Yuan, saying, "This array chart is a treasured heirloom of the palace, a legacy left behind by a former vice palace master. You do not need to understand it too deeply. Just place it wherever you or Liuli reside and cultivate, then drop three droplets of essence blood onto it to activate it."
"Three droplets of essence blood?"
Both Wei Yuan and Ji Liuli possessed extraordinary talents. Having attained the Scenery Command realm, their cultivation demanded utter flawlessness. Their total count of essence blood was strictly limited, making even a single droplet an immense loss. An ordinary Scenery Command cultivator possessed only twelve droplets of essence blood in total. Once depleted, it replenished excruciatingly slowly, typically at the rate of one droplet every several years.
Requiring three droplets just to activate made the array's cost staggering.
Yanshi nodded. "Three droplets is merely for activation. To an ordinary cultivator, three droplets would severely wound their vitality, but the two of you possess different talents. Liuli has ninety-nine droplets of essence blood in total. Originally, she had one hundred and eight, but through repeated pursuits and assassinations, it dropped to ninety-nine. How many do you have?"
Wei Yuan immediately circulated a secret sect technique, checked, and then checked once more.
Yanshi's brow furrowed slightly. With his status and attainment as an immortal, he faintly sensed something was amiss.
At last, Wei Yuan let out a long breath and said, "This disciple's essence blood was originally one hundred and eight as well..."
Yanshi nodded. "Mhm, one hundred and eight is quite a lot... Originally??"
Wei Yuan said, "There are quite a few living creatures, immortal herbs, and spirits residing within this disciple's mindscape world. Some of them can augment essence blood. So..."
Even Yanshi was taken aback. "Then how many do you have now?"
"Three hundred and sixty-one droplets," Wei Yuan answered, as though stating the most ordinary trifle.
Yanshi let out a snort and said at once, "Open your sea of consciousness and let me take a look!"
Wei Yuan naturally could not refuse. He opened his sea of consciousness. The moment Yanshi's divine sense brushed against Wei Yuan's sea of consciousness, before he could even enter, an endless sea of sword light abruptly filled his vision!
He froze in an instant, only to see an incomparably sharp streak of sword qi hovering before him! Yanshi was naturally familiar with this sword qi; how could he fail to recognize the Fourth Generation Palace Master's sword intent?
Yanshi then glanced to his left and right, only to see the surrounding void split into black and white. Though he felt no overt killing intent, he felt his very status and authority faintly suppressed!
This gave Yanshi no small shock. Though he had not achieved perfection, he was by no means weak among the contemporary immortals. To actually be suppressed in status by a Scenery Command cultivator was utterly inconceivable.
*Could it truly be the yin-yang twin qi?!* Such a thought actually rose within Yanshi's mind.
With Xihe's sword qi in front and Yin-Yang blocking him from behind, their unwelcome sentiment was plain as day. Fortunately, Yanshi was a crafty old fox himself; his skin was hardly thinner than Wei Yuan's, and he withdrew as if nothing had happened.
Wei Yuan found it odd and asked, "Palace Master, why did you stop looking?"
Yanshi appeared lost in thought, replying slowly, "Looking or not makes no difference. I naturally have no reason to doubt you. Let me think... your abundance of essence blood happens to suit several secret techniques preserved from earlier generations. Ah, here..."
Yanshi pointed a finger, and several secret tomes materialized before him. Handing them to Wei Yuan, he said, "Keep this technique for now."
Wei Yuan took them and saw the title on the cover: *Nether Heavenly Ghost Life Curse Technique*. Sweeping it with his divine sense, he discovered it was a shamanic curse art that utilized one's own fate and vitality as a primer to unleash a grand curse, cursing an enemy to death across empty space. Essence blood was one of the common materials used to activate such grand curses.
At the pinnacle of this technique—at the peak of the Scenery Command realm—unleashing a life curse with seventy-two droplets of essence blood as the catalyst was powerful enough to instantly plunge an immortal into the Five Decays of Heaven and Man.
"This..." Wei Yuan carefully put away the curse art, feeling as though it had been tailor-made for him.
Yanshi said, "The predecessor who created this curse art was one of the few vice palace masters in our Palace of Grand Beginning who held only a Scenery Command cultivation. Back then, to slay a mortal enemy of the sect, he ventured deep into the southern wilderness, synthesized everything he had learned, and created this curse art.
"After creating this curse, that senior only used it once. At the time, he possessed only sixty droplets of essence blood, but by burning his soul and sacrificing his sea of consciousness with a secret art, he produced another twelve droplets. Once the secret curse was unleashed, that senior passed into reincarnation, while that mortal enemy of the sect went into secluded cultivation and never emerged, ultimately perishing twenty years later."
Once Wei Yuan had stowed away the curse art, Yanshi steered the conversation back to the array. "This array is called the *Qilin Fortune Sacrificing Method*. The crux lies in the word 'sacrifice'; the essence blood serves merely as the spark to ignite it."
As Yanshi explained, Wei Yuan's expression turned somewhat peculiar. The primary function of this array was actually to bind a sacrificed object to one's primary soul.
If someone were to slay Wei Yuan's or Ji Liuli's avatars across the myriad realms and obliterate the true soul, there was a chance the sacrificed object would be obliterated along with it. When that occurred, the karmic backlash would no longer be limited to the meager price of an avatar; the exact extent would depend on the sacrificed object. The higher the status of the sacrifice, the more devastating the backlash.
In this way, whenever the Pure Land tried to wipe out avatars belonging to Ji Liuli and Wei Yuan, they would pay a price far greater than anticipated. While this could not entirely prevent the Pure Land from acting, it would drastically raise the cost of their strikes.
Since it involved a sacrifice, Wei Yuan's mind stirred, and the very first thing he thought of was the Desolate Realm's Heavenly Pillars... before shaking his head.
He reconsidered, thinking of that demonic cub in the Nether Cold Realm, but shook his head once more, feeling rather regretful.
Seeing that Wei Yuan was receptive and quick to learn, Yanshi was exceedingly pleased. He then offered a few veiled pointers, hinting that the human race's sacrificial methods were somewhat crude, whereas the Shaman Clan's techniques were noticeably superior in this regard. Although Strength Shamans were not renowned for spellcraft among the Shamans, their sacrificial arts were still superior to those of the human race.
Wei Yuan understood implicitly. After thanking Yanshi, he prepared to take his leave.
Just as they were parting, Immortal Monarch Yanshi suddenly remarked, "Your mindscape world possesses its own self-sufficient spirituality and forms a realm of its own. It is truly remarkable!"
Wei Yuan quickly expressed his thanks. Yet for some reason, while he usually rejoiced when praised like this, he couldn't shake the feeling that Immortal Monarch Yanshi's words carried a deeper meaning this time.
Upon returning to Qingming, Wei Yuan immediately threw himself into work, determined to make all the necessary arrangements before heading back to the Lu clan's ancestral grounds.
First and foremost was the era of the Great Dao Dispute. Wei Yuan intended to work from the ground up, directly dethroning the Pure Land from its position as the foremost in dharma idols. Some time ago, he had already assigned the task of enhancing the combat strength of Golden Core dharma idols. Now that several months had passed, the first batch of results was already out.
A hallmark of Qingming was that mathematics and theory always came first. A host of template Dao Foundation cultivators—who couldn't even advance to the mid-stage—put brush to paper and vigorously directed the cultivation of old monsters at the Dharma Idol realm.
Within several months, nearly a thousand articles had been published and iteratively refined. The final conclusions gave even Wei Yuan a slight surprise, covering almost every conceivable aspect of dharma idol combat, down to many subtle details that Wei Yuan himself had never considered.
These articles approached the matter from five major domains: Dao, law, technique, tool, and application, yielding a variety of different conclusions. For instance, focusing on the immediate present with the goal of maximizing the overall combat power of Qingming's dharma idols, the best entry point was through tools.
Yet taking the long-term view, the Dao took precedence.
With the theoretical groundwork laid, articles concerning dharma-idol-grade magic treasures had surged dramatically over the past two months. Wei Yuan reviewed them one by one, ultimately arriving at a conclusion: mass-produce magic treasures.
Chapter 1222