After failing to awaken Li Haoran's memories of his first life—and taking the opportunity to repeatedly flaunt the wonderful news of his advancement to the Soul Formation stage—Lu Yang headed to the Scripture Pavilion in high spirits.
Li Haoran, meanwhile, hefted his hammer and struck exotic metal with thunderous clangs, determined to catch up to Lu Yang's cultivation pace as quickly as possible so that he wouldn't come strutting before him ever again.
Not long ago, Lu Yang had visited the Scripture Pavilion to study all kinds of lore regarding lightning tribulations in preparation for his breakthrough.
Unfortunately, though he had absorbed a great deal of knowledge, not a single bit of it had proved useful when the tribulation actually came.
As usual, Lu Yang flipped through cultivation manuals, attempting to draw inspiration from other techniques and adapt them for his own use.
Most Soul Formation cultivation methods emphasized two main aspects. The first was maximizing the capabilities of the Primordial Soul, such as projecting it from the body, having it engage in combat, and the like.
This held little value for Lu Yang; his Primordial Soul was virtually indistinguishable from a living person and possessed extraordinary flexibility, making deliberate training in that direction unnecessary.
The other area of emphasis was how to effectively commune with heaven and earth. This was uncharted territory for Lu Yang, and something every cultivator in the Soul Formation stage had to undertake.
The smoother one's communion with heaven and earth, the easier one's future advancements to the Void Refining and Body Integration stages would be, and the simpler it would become to establish rules later on.
The common method of communing with heaven and earth was to immerse oneself in nature—either in mountain forests far removed from the clamor or amidst the bustling mortal world. Blindly holing up behind closed doors simply would not work.
Lu Yang held a stack of manuals in his arms. These were all carefully selected Soul Formation-level techniques that might aid him in continuing his own cultivation method.
"No matter what anyone says, I can't let Eldest Senior Sister revise it this time!"
Lu Yang felt that as a Soul Formation cultivator capable of standing on his own two feet, he couldn't rely on Eldest Senior Sister's help for everything.
It was only a Soul Formation manual—a piece of cake!
Soul Formation techniques were far more obscure than those of the Nascent Soul stage. Many cultivators newly arrived at the Soul Formation stage had to pore over a single manual for days just to make sense of it.
Lu Yang, however, was different. Ever since he began cultivating, he had studied all manner of methods and long since developed an internal framework for deciphering techniques. Applying this framework to any manual allowed him to grasp seventy to eighty percent of it with ease.
Before long, Lu Yang collapsed onto the reading desk from sheer exhaustion.
"No good, there are still too many manuals." Although understanding them posed no difficulty, the volume of information packed within was immense. After reading five volumes in succession, Lu Yang felt dizzy, blurred-eyed, and thoroughly drowsy.
"Why don't you try having your Primordial Soul help read the manuals?" Immortal Fairy suggested.
"A Primordial Soul can do that?" When Lu Yang was studying the manuals, he hadn't seen any mention of using a Primordial Soul in such a fashion.
"This is the grand and illustrious Invincible Primordial Soul! How could it be on the same level as the Primordial Soul of some ordinary mortal?"
Lu Yang figured it couldn't hurt to try, so he summoned forth his Primordial Soul, which bore an eighty percent resemblance to himself. "Xiao Yuan, go find a couple of Soul Formation manuals to use as reference."
Not every manual could serve as reference material. For instance, techniques of the Bachelor Spiritual Root lineage held zero reference value. This was meant to test whether the Primordial Soul possessed discernment.
Before long, the Primordial Soul returned carrying a stack of manuals and handed them to Lu Yang. Lu Yang took a look—sure enough, they were all manuals that were useful to him.
Lu Yang casually picked out one book. "Take this and read it through."
The Primordial Soul obediently sat down to read, eyes fixed on the page in rapt concentration as it organized and analyzed the technique's content and principles.
When the Primordial Soul returned into Lu Yang's body, Lu Yang was astonished to discover that everything it had just learned had transferred into his own mind. The only flaw was that the mental exhaustion came along with it.
"How about that? Impressive, right?" Immortal Fairy beamed with smug satisfaction. Back then, she had spent over a month exploring the uses of the Primordial Soul, and the more she researched, the more useful she found it to be.
"Make the most of it while you still can," Immortal Fairy kindly reminded him. "Once you reach the Body Integration stage, your Primordial Soul will merge with you, and you won't be able to use it like this anymore."
Thinking back to when she was in the Nascent Soul stage, she had taken quite a beating from her Invincible Nascent Soul. Once she reached the Soul Formation stage, she got her revenge for all of it.
"The Primordial Soul can help you cultivate and help you study—there are so many uses for it."
"It really is remarkable." Lu Yang nodded earnestly. His beatings during the Nascent Soul stage hadn't been in vain; his suffering had finally borne sweet fruit.
"Then go help me write the Soul Formation chapter of the Art of Illuminating the Heart and Seeing Nature." Lu Yang entrusted the Primordial Soul with a momentous task concerning his future destiny.
As for Lu Yang himself, he arranged three chairs against the wall, laid across them with his arms tucked under his head as a pillow, crossed his legs, and narrowed his eyes, thoroughly enjoying the tranquil atmosphere of the Scripture Pavilion in complete leisure.
"By the way, Fairy, how did you manage to strike that self-severing blow back then and sever the body bearing the rudimentary Extinction Dao fruit?" Lu Yang asked out of curiosity. Immortal Fairy truly seemed incredible—worthy of being the leader of the Five Ancient Celestials.
Earlier, he had heard Immortal Ying Tian praise her for this deed, bluntly stating that none of the other four could match her. It showed that Immortal Fairy was genuinely powerful and not just boasting; she truly was the head of the Five Ancient Celestials and the foremost of the Ten Ancient Beauties.
"Hmph hmph, naturally, I split myself into a Tribulation Transcendence body and a body possessing the rudimentary Extinction Dao fruit, and then used the Tribulation Transcendence body to sever the past!" Immortal Fairy tilted her chin up slightly, clearly feeling that her feat back then had been quite remarkable as well.
"Tell me, tell me! How did the battle go down?" Lu Yang grew excited. As expected of the Fairy! Even without a rudimentary Dao fruit, she could defeat a version of herself that possessed one.
"Well, this Immortal first cast the Art of Playing Dead and fell dead asleep. Then, I separated out the Tribulation Transcendence body from within, and while the rudimentary Extinction Dao fruit body was still playing dead—*snick!* Crisp and clean, I took her out!"
Lu Yang: "..."
*Why is this battle not quite what I imagined?*
Suddenly, Lu Yang shivered, seized by a sense of impending doom. He snapped his eyes open and saw Eldest Senior Sister leaning over, looking down at him while dangling his Primordial Soul from her hand.
"Junior Brother."
"Present!" Lu Yang jolted upright, sitting bolt straight with his hands neatly placed on his knees.
"Your Primordial Soul just came to me, begging for my help in writing your cultivation technique. Care to explain this?" Eldest Senior Sister's tone was calm, but knowing her as well as he did, Lu Yang could already detect the ill omen lurking beneath that placid surface.
Disaster!
Lu Yang glared at his Primordial Soul. *I told you to write the technique for me—why did you go asking for help?!*
"Uh, Eldest Senior Sister... if I said this was all the Primordial Soul's own doing and had nothing to do with me, would you believe me?"
Eldest Senior Sister continued to look at him in silence.
Lu Yang had no choice but to confess honestly that he had set the Primordial Soul to studying and writing the technique.
"An interesting Primordial Soul, capable of even studying cultivation manuals."
"However, Junior Brother, you must remember: the Primordial Soul is meant to assist you in learning techniques. You are the one in charge."
"Understood!"
"Also, Senior Fairy."
"Here! Girl Yun, were you going to ask this Immortal to supervise Little Yangzi? Rest assured, this Immortal guarantees he won't abuse his Primordial Soul." Immortal Fairy spoke with righteous dignity, exuding the stern aura of someone ready to uphold justice even against her own kin.
"No. I am saying you should stop helping Junior Brother cultivate. If this goes on, I fear Junior Brother's Primordial Soul will have its nature warped."
Chapter 973