A deserted island.
The evening sun sank toward the west, casting a red glow across the sky as crimson tides battered the shore.
A streak of light shot forward like a falling star, paused slightly over the deserted island, and then angled downward. In a flash, it plunged into the dense woods at the island's center, revealing a figure carrying a black coffin on his back.
It was Qin Sang.
After retrieving his avatar, he had picked a direction and flown nonstop for a day and a night. Certain that he was finally safe, he had landed on the island to rest for a moment and examine his spoils along the way.
Qin Sang glanced around, guided his ebony sword to excavate a cave beneath the roots of an ancient tree, laid down several warding and concealment restrictions, and slipped inside.
Quiet returned to the deserted island.
Inside the cave dwelling.
After a brief period of meditating to adjust his breath, Qin Sang took out two mustard seed bags and laid them before him.
They bore the seals he had hastily placed on them. With a wave of his hand, he broke the seals and emptied out their contents.
At first, he did not pay attention to the stone platform; after searching around, he failed to find the grand treasures he had imagined.
There were, however, over a dozen Beast King Banners. Qin Sang set them alongside the ones he had obtained previously, intending to study them closely later—perhaps he could replicate an entire set.
There were also plenty of spirit stones, medicinal pills, spiritual materials, and the like, all of which he put away together.
Both the black-robed man and the dwarf were Core Formation stage cultivators from a prominent sect of the Witch Clan. With their high status, their wealth was extraordinarily vast.
With these items, combined with the astonishing harvest from killing Black Snake Mountain's fourth disciple earlier, he would not have to worry about cultivation resources for at least the decades leading up to the opening of the Hall of Seven Kills.
However, after pondering it carefully, Qin Sang realized that before long his cultivation realm would stagnate. If he only tempered his physical body and nurtured his external incarnation, the expenditure would not actually be all that great.
Next, Qin Sang beckoned with his hand, drawing a jade slip into his palm, and eagerly inspected it.
The jade slip contained two parts.
One was a cultivation method called the *Yuanchen Register*.
The other was a Daoist art named the *Thunder Command Art*.
"The Thunder Command Art..."
Qin Sang's heart stirred, and a glimmer of delight surfaced on his face. "This Daoist art must be that terrifying lightning art the Douniu Peak cultivator unleashed before."
The *Thunder Command Art* had left a deep impression on him. Danger had loomed on every side back then; the five of them, all Core Formation cultivators wielding the Heavenly Cold Fierce Wind Array, had their formation forcibly shattered by the lightning despite being so far away. Its residual might had still been terrifying enough to destroy his Gold Glow Armor. Thinking back on it even now left him shaken.
Had the Heavenly Eye Butterfly not possessed an innate divine ability to control lightning, he likely would not have escaped so easily.
The fact that the lightning was laced with astral fiend power had also piqued his curiosity for quite some time.
However, the *Thunder Command Art* was not something Qin Sang urgently needed. He skimmed through it, and then carefully examined the *Yuanchen Register*, a look of disappointment spreading across his face.
It was not what Qin Sang had anticipated.
The true heritage of Douniu Peak was not a cultivation method, but this immensely powerful Daoist art. The *Yuanchen Register* seemed more like a method sought out or created specifically to assist in cultivating the *Thunder Command Art*.
There was no intrinsic connection between the two.
The *Thunder Command Art* was an independent legacy. Perhaps there had originally been a matching cultivation method that had been lost for some unknown reason, making it impossible to cultivate on its own, which was why they had procured the *Yuanchen Register*.
Qin Sang had seen similar situations more than once, so he was not surprised.
The *Yuanchen Register* was quite a mediocre method.
Its sole redeeming feature was that practicing it helped resist the invasion of fiendish qi into the body and dissipate fiendish qi within.
The true essence of the Daoist art was to harness astral fiend power to command the might of lightning, which was why it was named the *Thunder Command Art*. Precisely because of this, when Qin Sang was struck by the lightning, he had sensed the bizarre phenomenon of astral fiend and lightning coexisting.
People delighted in the dreamlike splendor of the stars of the heavenly circuit, yet feared the chaotic, sinister astral fiend.
Little did they know that the mighty powers of heaven and earth were myriad, every one of them mysterious and formidable, with no distinction between good and evil. To heaven and earth, immortal cultivators were merely slightly larger ants than mortals; fear simply stemmed from the unknown.
While others feared the astral fiend like a tiger, brilliant forebears among both humans and demons had sought to master this power, carving out two entirely different paths.
*Heavenly Demon Metamorphosis* drew upon the astral energy of the heavenly circuit to temper the body and took the astral fiend to refine the bloodline, sublimating step by step all the way to the Heavenly Demon realm.
The *Thunder Command Art* used the astral fiend to command another mighty power of heaven and earth, giving rise to a pinnacle Daoist art in one stroke.
Unfortunately, humans were not uniquely blessed like demon beasts, and hidden dangers lurked within the Daoist art. When cultivating the *Thunder Command Art*, it was exceedingly easy for the astral fiend to invade one's origin soul, after which it would be difficult to eradicate; going mad was only a mild consequence, leaving no choice but to seek ways to resolve it.
The Landou Sect had sought out the *Yuanchen Register* hoping to eliminate this danger, but they had presumably failed in the end, or the Douniu Peak lineage would not have been abandoned.
Neither the *Yuanchen Register* nor the *Thunder Command Art* made any mention of astral essence infusion. It seemed this path was a dead end.
Still, after racking his brains and scheming for nearly a year, his gains were quite substantial.
He had thwarted his enemies' plot, vented his resentment, and obtained a cultivation method and a Daoist art useful to him.
The method, of course, was the *Yin-Yang Heavenly Dipper Secret Art*.
With the jade Buddha protecting him, Qin Sang did not fear the astral fiend, so the *Yuanchen Register* held little value for him.
Among the cultivation methods Qin Sang had encountered over the years, aside from great legacies of extraordinary origins that blazed unique trails like the *Origin Soul Sword Nurturing Chapter* and *Heavenly Demon Metamorphosis*, the one that impressed him the most was actually the Landou Sect's Yin-Yang branch's *Yin-Yang Heavenly Dipper Secret Art*.
When he formed his core, he had congealed fiend and refined astral qi through a twist of fate to achieve Core Formation; because of those two wondrous substances of heaven and earth—Heavenly Astral Qi and Earthly Fiend Qi—his comprehension of the Dao of Yin and Yang was deeper than that of others.
Yet the *Yin-Yang Heavenly Dipper Secret Art* condensed the Yin-Yang Armor and cultivated Yin-Yang Qi right from the start of the Daoist path. His avatar had received the first layer of the *Yin-Yang Heavenly Dipper Secret Art*, and it truly was marvelous; in ancient times, it must have been a great orthodox Daoist heritage.
One could imagine that cultivating this method would be of immense help in forming a core.
Yet the Yin-Yang branch had declined to such a state, making Qin Sang suspect that the senior who had created the subsequent parts of the method might not have grasped the original work's true meaning, causing his interest to wane considerably.
Even so, the Yin-Yang Armor could conceal the Buddha's light, resolving a small concern.
What delighted Qin Sang most was naturally the *Thunder Command Art*.
This divine ability possessed astonishing power. While others dared not cultivate it out of fear of the astral fiend, he had no such worries whatsoever. Furthermore, he was simultaneously cultivating *Heavenly Demon Metamorphosis*, which would aid him in practicing this Daoist art.
If he could master the *Thunder Command Art*, it would undoubtedly be a devastating weapon with power surpassing even the Star Conch. Once he broke through to the late Core Formation stage, it might even serve as his capital to contend against a Nascent Soul Patriarch.
As long as *Heavenly Demon Metamorphosis* broke through smoothly and he dual-cultivated both magic and the physical body, attaining strength on par with the late Core Formation stage would not be difficult.
Qin Sang had self-awareness and would not lightly provoke a Nascent Soul Patriarch, but worldly affairs were unpredictable, and the Hall of Seven Kills was fraught with uncertainty; no one could say what the future held.
Qin Sang read through the *Thunder Command Art* several more times, etching the Daoist art deep into his mind. After pondering it thoroughly, he confirmed there were no issues and that he could certainly cultivate it.
Chapter 907