Long Xian moved swiftly, returning to the hall after only a brief absence with a white-glazed ceramic jar cradled in his hands.
Stepping inside, he approached the Heavenly Master's dais, set the jar down, and said, "Heavenly Master, this disciple has brought it."
Heavenly Master Lu reached out and drew a jade-white medicinal pill from the jar. Loosening his fingers, he left it hovering in midair.
"My Xuan Sect possesses exquisite methods for nurturing and cultivating protector spirits," he said. "Shortly, I shall have them delivered for you to examine at your leisure. However, training a protector spirit has always required no small amount of effort. Lest their personal cultivation be hindered, the forebears of the Xuan Sect concocted these Ming Pills. When ingested by a protector spirit, they temporarily unlock spiritual lucidity, sparing one the need for constant supervision. Even so, such an endeavor inevitably drains one's mental energy in the end. As for how to balance the matter, you may weigh it for yourself, honored guest."
With that, he returned the pill to the jar and flicked his horsetail whisk, wafting the ceramic jar over before Chen Chuan's seat. "This jar of Ming Pills is a gift for you, honored guest."
Chen Chuan glanced at it, mulling over Heavenly Master Lu's words, and gained some understanding of the item's purpose.
It was likely a method left behind by Xuan Sect predecessors for beasts and birds to cultivate. Yet beasts and birds certainly could not read written words, which was where these Ming Pills came into play—they enabled the creature to intuitively comprehend the spiritual intent embedded within the text on its own.
Spiritual intent could be instilled directly into its brain and body, but beasts and birds were not human after all; typically, they simply grasped whatever fraction they could manage.
Still, with a master guiding it from the side, one could achieve twice the result with half the effort. It was just that doing so inevitably demanded far more mental energy. Whether it was worthwhile came down to individual choice.
He had no intention of doing that himself. Instead, once he obtained the relevant technique, he planned to toss it to Chaoming along with the Ming Pills and let it train on its own.
Chaoming was exceptionally clever. Previously, when utilizing mutated tissue, it had figured out what to do merely from watching a few screen demonstrations. Now, with such an aid to support it, it likely would not have much trouble understanding.
If Chaoming could achieve a breakthrough, aside from anything else, it would be equivalent to gaining an absolutely trustworthy ally who could assist him with many matters in the future.
He looked toward the dais and offered his thanks to Heavenly Master Lu.
Heavenly Master Lu gave a smiling nod, drew the red round stone toward himself through the air, and lightly tapped it with a finger. The round stone tumbled in midair, turning crystal-clear and translucent.
Then, with another sweep of his whisk, he returned the object to Chen Chuan.
Chen Chuan took it into his hand. Whereas it had originally been icy cold, it now felt pleasantly warm, as though he were cupping a mass of liquid. Most importantly, that lingering scent of Ikus was completely gone; its bloodline influence had evidently been thoroughly stripped away.
By this point, noon was approaching. Heavenly Master Lu intended to entertain his guest, so he gave word for the attendants below to lay out plates of exquisite vegetarian fare unique to the sect. Even Chaoming was summoned inside, where food and drink were specially arranged for it in a corner of the hall.
Across the lands of Yingzhou, mutated plants were abundant. Over the past centuries, the Tianji Sect had interacted extensively with the First People and had taken in many First People converts, so the upper echelons of the sect drew their diet primarily from mutated plants.
What was served this time had been meticulously selected from the Tianji Sect's finest stores, each dish possessing its own pedigree. Normally reserved for honoring distinguished guests, such delicacies were entirely unobtainable in the outside world.
Chen Chuan tasted the food and found the flavor remarkably fine. Even someone of his stature could sense the extraordinary energy and nutritional value packed into the vegetarian fare; the Tianji Sect's reserves of such provisions were likely limited as well.
Because the Tianji Sect had just weathered a crisis, many matters within the sect still required attention. Thus, once the luncheon concluded, Heavenly Master Lu departed to attend to official business, leaving Real Man Long Xian in charge of hosting Chen Chuan.
Real Man Long Xian accompanied Chen Chuan on a stroll around Tianji Peak before arranging an elegant, quiet residence for him near the Tianji Hall.
Chen Chuan rested there briefly, admiring the scenery for a while, before heading down from the Tianji Great Hall alone. He walked the grounds of the previous battlefield, locating one by one the weapons scattered about after the defeats of Irose and the others.
As Throne martial artists, most of the armaments they wielded were realm-melded weapons capable of merging into their force fields. Once they were battered into defeat and their force fields collapsed, these weapons were left behind on the ground.
During the battle, he had lacked the time to gather them, but he had kept them in mind even while speaking with the Heavenly Master. Looking now at the weapons of varied designs floating around him, he could not help but nod in satisfaction.
He thought to himself that upon returning, he would definitely have to open up an additional trophy room in his collection exclusively to house these spoils.
While items could also be stowed inside the fissure, that realm was ultimately beyond his full control. Ordinary everyday supplies were fine to store there, as losing them was of little consequence and they could always be replaced, but if these treasures went missing, they could never be recovered.
After admiring them a while longer, he called for Chaoming and returned to Tianji Peak.
Stepping into his quarters, he saw scrolls of aged scriptures neatly arranged on the table.
He walked over, picked them up, and browsed through them. They all detailed cultivation methods for avian protector spirits, and they had clearly been carefully curated to suit Chaoming's needs.
There was no need to scrutinize the written text itself; the crucial element was the spiritual intent infused within them.
Once he verified that every scroll contained it, he set them down, summoned Chaoming over, produced the round stone purged of all impurities, and had Chaoming swallow it.
After gulping it down, Chaoming appeared pleasantly intoxicated, as though it had drunk wine. Its body temperature spiked, and it looked thoroughly drowsy, shambling over on its own to settle into the nest prepared for it beside him.
Chen Chuan estimated that this transformation would take roughly two to three days at the quickest, or seven to eight days at the longest. If all went smoothly, there was a strong likelihood it would step into the overlimit tier.
In that case, he would simply wait out these few days. If any issues arose, he could consult the Heavenly Master again.
He stepped outside, instructed the attendants at the door not to disturb the bird, and sought out the deacon in charge of the area, stating that he wished to visit the scripture library.
The deacon had already received instructions and respectfully led the way, escorting him into the scripture library.
The entrance of the library was utterly unassuming, consisting of merely a modest doorway. Yet pushing the door open revealed a vast, well-like chamber, illuminated by the radiant glow of thousands of lamps. Most of the lantern fixtures were shaped like birds and beasts, lively and dynamic.
The scripture niches were chiseled directly into the mountain rock, spiraling upward tier upon tier, with books, scrolls, and tablets lined up along them.
After Chen Chuan entered, the overseer approached to inquire what manner of books he wished to inspect.
Learning that he sought cultivation methods, the overseer led him along a spiral staircase to one side, bypassing numerous shelves laden with Xuan Sect religious and esoteric ritual texts. Moving aside a stone door, the overseer lit the lamps for him:
"The works here are all sect treasures, divided into ten vaults designated by the Heavenly Stems. This is the Jia Vault; to the right lies the Yi Vault, followed by the Bing Vault, and so forth. You may browse at your leisure, honored guest. Should you require anything, you need only call for me."
Chen Chuan voiced his thanks and walked in alone. With ample time on his hands, he first consulted the catalog to the side, picking up and perusing volumes that piqued his interest one by one.
After a rough initial pass, he found that many of the methods collected in this vault were meant for the Visage of the Divine. Many were bamboo and wooden slips; while they appeared voluminous, the number of characters they could carry was far less than that of paper books.
Nevertheless, the contents of the slip-scrolls carried profound meaning in succinct words, possessing a mystic cadence of their own.
Since this was not his primary objective, he browsed briefly before departing for the Yi Vault, only to discover that the texts stored there were also geared toward the Visage of the Divine.
He examined them one after another, finding that the Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding vaults were all related to the Visage of the Divine. The Wu, Ji, Geng, and Xin vaults contained scriptures on the Visage of the Aberrant, along with a vast number of visualization charts. The brushwork of each painting was exquisite, rendering forms and spirits with lifelike vitality; upon closer inspection, the immortals, deities, and demonic beasts in the paintings seemed almost alive.
He did not linger there either, proceeding to the final two vaults, where he finally discovered scriptures on the Visage of Man.
Examining them closely, he noticed that the Visage of Man scriptures differed from those preceding them; they formed no unified system. Most had clearly been gathered from elsewhere, consisting of ancient tomes alongside treatises authored by figures from more recent eras.
This was only natural, for the Visage of Man focused primarily on cultivation of the self. Any reliance on external faith was deemed a facade, inherently conflicting with religious sects.
Even if one could cultivate certain secret transmissions of a sect, once deeper, more advanced applications were involved, respectable lineages were exceedingly scarce.
Yet it was not as though no one in the Xuan Sect had walked this path. Several ancient Xuan Ancestors of the sect had done so, advocating self-verification of the Dao and leading others to place faith in the self rather than worshiping external beings.
This archaic tradition grew increasingly rare in later generations, and the few figures who occasionally emerged were almost all founders of their own sect branches.
To his surprise, he found that the texts handed down by these figures were preserved here, though it was evident few people ever opened them.
His interest instantly piqued. Drawing out one of the scrolls, he flipped through it. Although it expounded on cultivation, it was heavily interwoven with religious terminology and inscribed in seal script. Had he not previously studied numerous such classical texts and practiced Xuan Sect methods himself, he would hardly have been able to decipher half a line.
Due to the sheer density and obscurity of the text, he spent an entire afternoon merely skimming through this single volume.
It detailed an esoteric combat transmission, and according to its descriptions, truly mastering it yielded formidable might.
However, cultivating it required the aid of a unique esoteric cult material, which might not even be obtainable in this era.
Even if it could be found, he had no intention of practicing it, as bringing such a technique to completion demanded an enormous investment of time and energy.
Moreover, he did not believe modern techniques were inferior to old methods. For instance, the secret transmissions of the Purist Faction had undoubtedly drawn upon the strengths of forebears while incorporating numerous modern advancements.
Techniques such as the two grand forms and the Pure Spiritual Light could be continuously deepened through practice. He had yet to fully master even those; unless an art was exceptionally unique, there was no reason to be overly greedy.
Besides, his primary purpose today was to seek a method that could help him elevate his realm and glimpse upper-tier power. These secret combat transmissions could be set aside for later consideration.
And so he laid it down and continued searching slowly. After leafing through dozens of volumes, he finally found the manual he needed.
Chapter 1333