The Dao Seeking Sect's Scripture Pavilion held even more cultivation techniques than the imperial palace of the Great Xia Dynasty.
Techniques from ancient times to the present, as well as those penned by past generations of sect elders, were all preserved within its walls.
Here, Lu Yang even found the Pure Yang Art practiced by Meng Jingzhou.
Compared to Lu Yang's situation, Meng Jingzhou's technique was far simpler. Generations of seniors blessed with the Bachelor Spiritual Root had already paved a broad and smooth highway for him. As long as he followed this path, the finish line was the glorious Tribulation Transcendence stage.
However, Lu Yang had no idea whether that paved path was still usable for Meng Jingzhou, given that he had shattered the lower limit of those predecessors and pioneered the Double Bachelor Spiritual Root.
"Why is it so thin?" Lu Yang wondered. What he held in his hands detailed the cultivation methods for two major realms: the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages. Even if the prose was concise and packed with profound meaning, it shouldn't be this thin, right?
He opened the manual, only to find a single sentence written inside:
*Keep it up! Don't lose your boyhood virginity; your cultivation has only just begun!*
Lu Yang: "..."
True enough, there was no shortage of Bachelor Spiritual Root cultivators who had reached the Body Integration stage or even the Tribulation Transcendence stage. Compared to those seniors in the upper realms, the Golden Core stage was indeed merely the starting line.
*So for your Bachelor Spiritual Root lineage, as long as you keep your virginity intact, you can just keep cultivating indefinitely, is that it?*
Lu Yang had heard that one senior of the Bachelor Spiritual Root had endured countless hardships to reach the Tribulation Transcendence stage. To celebrate lavishly, he booked out every brothel in the Imperial City and indulged himself for an entire month, single-handedly driving up the spending threshold of the imperial capital's brothels.
This was what one might call retaliatory spending.
The Bachelor Spiritual Root was different from Buddhism.
Buddhism focused on extinguishing desire; beauties were merely skeletons draped in pink flesh, passing clouds not worth longing for.
The Bachelor Spiritual Root, on the other hand, could not eliminate this desire at all. In fact, the craving grew stronger as one's cultivation realm advanced. In the face of this, practitioners could only exercise restraint and endure. Once pushed to their absolute limits, it wasn't impossible for them to start seeing a skeleton draped in pink flesh as an attractive beauty.
Lu Yang also came across a rather peculiar manual called the Body Sacrificing Art. As the name implied, it was a technique centered on sacrificing one's own body, derived from the philosophy that all things originate from nature and must ultimately return to nature.
Since everything originated from nature, why not return oneself to nature?
To practice this technique, one had to sacrifice a part of their body in exchange for formidable cultivation talent and swift advancement in realm.
Consequently, those who practiced this technique were often blind or mute, their bodies left mutilated and battered. Some went so far as to reduce themselves to near-empty husks.
The method was somewhat extreme, yet it had not crossed the line into demonic arts.
One of Lu Yang's senior brothers practiced this very technique.
During the Qi Refinement stage, he had sacrificed his appendix. At the Foundation Establishment stage, he had sacrificed his body fat. At the Golden Core stage, he had sacrificed his hair. At the Nascent Soul stage, he had sacrificed his eyesight, leaving him a nearsighted fellow who wore glasses.
"All things originate from nature and must ultimately return to nature... What a familiar phrase. Immortal Suiyue once told me something similar. He said that all things have their rise and their fall, and both prosperity and decline are nothing more than fleeting flashes to nature.
"Only by emulating nature and returning to simplicity and truth can one preserve eternal power.
"Immortal Suiyue's words resolved an issue that had troubled me for a very long time. Moved by inspiration, I authored the Immortal Art and attained the Dao to become an immortal."
"Fairy, with how brilliant you are, there was actually a problem that could trouble you?"
Hearing Lu Yang praise her so, the Immortal Fairy beamed with joy. But on second thought, she felt she ought to maintain some dignity before him and not look overjoyed at mere flattery. Pouting her lips into a modest smile, she said:
"Even though this immortal's talent is unique across all eternity, unmatched even by the likes of Immortal Ying Tian, I still encountered difficulty on the threshold of immortality."
Lu Yang nodded. Ascending to immortality was the ultimate goal of a cultivator, so it was completely understandable that the Immortal Fairy had met with obstacles. "Was it about how to condense a Dao fruit?"
"It was about *which* Dao fruit to condense."
Lu Yang: "..."
"Back then, this immortal had many choices. I could have condensed a Tribulation Responding Dao fruit like Immortal Ying Tian, or a Void Dao fruit that commanded the profound mysteries of space, or a Time Dao fruit similar to Immortal Suiyue's. But I wasn't quite satisfied with any of them. I felt none of those Dao fruits reflected this immortal's true standard.
"Originally, according to my progress, I was supposed to be the first to become an immortal. Immortal Jiuchong and Immortal Suiyue would both have had to step aside. Alas, I ran into a dilemma when choosing my Dao fruit and couldn't decide which one to condense.
"It only held me up for a tiny moment. Truly, just a tiny bit." The Immortal Fairy pinched her thumb and index finger together to emphasize how brief it had been.
Lu Yang had no idea how long her "tiny bit" actually was—whether it was days, months, or years.
Given that the Immortal Fairy brazenly claimed she was only sixteen years old, Lu Yang had zero faith in her concept of time.
"And then Immortal Jiuchong, Immortal Suiyue, Immortal Ying Tian, and Immortal Kirin all became immortals one after another, leaving me behind." At this point, the Immortal Fairy scrunched up her nose, clearly indignant at their behavior.
"Only after the last one, Immortal Kirin, had ascended did Immortal Suiyue say those words to me. Greatly inspired, I finally condensed the Immortal Dao fruit that made them all green with envy!"
The Immortal Fairy boasted proudly; this was the Dao fruit she took the greatest pride in.
To thank Immortal Suiyue for his guidance, she had specially prepared a full spread of fine dishes for him. Immortal Suiyue had been moved to tears, weeping uncontrollably while babbling about how he deeply regretted everything.
Lu Yang fell into thought. Immortal Suiyue's words held deep mystery, but with his current modest cultivation, he could not fathom the profound truth within.
If such hidden profundity were spoken plainly through another's mouth, its impact would be greatly diminished.
He committed Immortal Suiyue's words to memory and continued examining the techniques.
Aside from commonly available techniques, the Scripture Pavilion also held arts that differed slightly from those found outside, penned by Lu Yang's senior brothers and sisters.
While they could not compose entirely new systems from scratch, innovating on existing foundations was well within their abilities.
For example, the Great Sun Dharma Body Art that Lu Yang was currently browsing involved contemplating the sun and feeling the power contained within it, enabling one to condense a Great Sun Dharma Body capable of incinerating all things. During the day, the power of the Great Sun Dharma Body peaked; once the sun set and night fell, its strength would diminish somewhat.
A senior sister had modified this technique slightly, authoring the Lunar Dharma Body Art. By contemplating the moon, one condensed a Lunar Dharma Body that was gentle as water and possessed tremendous restorative capability.
Even more importantly, the two arts were mutually compatible. One could switch between the Great Sun Dharma Body and the Lunar Dharma Body at will, deploying the Great Sun Dharma Body by day and the Lunar Dharma Body by night.
And that was merely the first layer, which could only be practiced at the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages.
Upon reaching the second layer, one could summon both the Great Sun Dharma Body and the Lunar Dharma Body simultaneously. Known as the Sun and Moon Shining Together, its power would double.
Upon reaching the third layer, the Great Sun Dharma Body and Lunar Dharma Body would fuse into one, condensing a new form: Taiji Transmuting into Dao. It combined the advantages of both dharma bodies, boasting peerless offense and defense.
Lu Yang was completely captivated by this technique, finding it terrifyingly formidable.
Back on the first floor of the Scripture Pavilion, he had seen a technique called the Sun Gazing Art. At the end of the manual, it noted that upon reaching the Golden Core stage, one could proceed to the second floor to learn its follow-up techniques, the Great Sun Dharma Body Art and the Lunar Dharma Body Art.
At the time, he had never imagined the follow-up techniques would be this monstrous.
"The senior sister who created this is incredible. Who is she?"
Lu Yang glanced at the author's name: Yun Zhi.
He looked up and realized that, without noticing, he had wandered into the legendary Yun Zhi Section.
Chapter 340