Chapter 580 - 60: Continuing Cultivation
The Mountain Peak Dao Field.
In the quiet courtyard, Wang Ping was using a Divine Technique Formation along with the Pocket World Mirror to link with a puppet’s consciousness, allowing him to listen in on that morning’s assembly at the Chu Kingdom Court.
That day’s assembly was quite dramatic. High-ranking ministers from every department had submitted memorials accusing Li Dui, commander of the Imperial Guard, of plotting a rebellion.
The Emperor, however, did not seem to heed their words. He fined each minister who had submitted a memorial six months’ salary and even issued a decree to publicly encourage Li Dui. That very afternoon, Li Dui tendered his resignation, but the Emperor, of course, refused to accept it.
One could only say that anyone able to stand in the Imperial Court was an excellent actor.
Wang Ping observed only up to the point where Li Dui submitted his resignation. ’This Li Dui is an incompetent fool,’ he thought. ’The arrow is already on the bowstring; he has no choice but to fire. And yet he’s still hesitating like this. I fear his entire clan will be exterminated in the blink of an eye!’
It was highly unlikely there would be any further surprises in this matter.
So, Wang Ping turned his full attention to the next step of his cultivation. Yet, after opening the glowing panel, he became lost in thought, hesitating to proceed.
"What are you hesitating for?" Yu Lian asked.
"Whenever I think about continuing my cultivation, the Luck-Borrowing Talisman gives me a bad feeling." Wang Ping summoned the Luck-Borrowing Talisman. Gazing at the patterns etched upon it, he took out a pair of divination blocks and cast them.
Holy Trigram!
He cast them again. Still a Holy Trigram.
After three Holy Trigrams in a row, Wang Ping picked up the divination blocks and stared into space.
Yu Lian severed her connection to the believers within the Divine Technique Formation, then rode a small cloud to land on Wang Ping’s shoulder. "You always divine for yourself," she said. "Why not try divining about others this time?"
At her words, Wang Ping’s eyes lit up with understanding. His gaze fell upon the chessboard-like information grid within the Pocket World Mirror in front of him, and he cast the blocks once more.
Yin Trigram!
He cast again. Another Yin Trigram.
After three Yin Trigrams, Wang Ping furrowed his brow.
"Does it mean a great upheaval is coming to the world?" Yu Lian asked.
"Yes. In other words, my cultivation itself won’t be the problem, but the world is about to go through a massive change. But what does that have to do with me? Why would it affect the Luck-Borrowing Talisman?"
Wang Ping couldn’t understand.
As he spoke, he shut down the Divine Technique Formation and the Pocket World Mirror, once again falling into thought.
"What does a great upheaval in the world have to do with us?" Yu Lian asked the same question, but her intent was entirely different.
Hearing her, Wang Ping put away the Divine Technique Formation and rose to his feet. He walked out of the courtyard and ambled through the lush gardens, unconsciously making his way to a pavilion at the edge. The scenery below the mountain was a world of difference from what it had been when he first began his cultivation.
"I suppose I’ll just have to try it."
After murmuring this to himself, Wang Ping took Yu Lian and teleported to an underground cavern.
The Gathering Spirit Array in the cavern automatically activated upon Wang Ping’s appearance. Dense Wood Spirit Qi rapidly spread out from the center, which was a naturally formed Wood Spirit Vein arranged beneath a cloud bed.
Wang Ping sat on the cloud bed, extending a hand to feel the presence of the Wood Spirit Qi. Yu Lian lay quietly on his shoulder.
After a while, Wang Ping retracted his hand and gently stroked Yu Lian’s head. She responded by happily nuzzling against his palm. In that moment, his own humanity felt exceptionally vivid. He then sat down properly, cross-legged, and in the blink of an eye, entered a meditative state to begin his routine Qi Cultivation.
Time slowly passed.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye. At the Chu Kingdom Court, someone once again brought up the matter of Li Dui’s rebellion, this time presenting a mountain of evidence. The Emperor flew into a rage and decreed that Li Dui and his entire family—more than three hundred people—be thrown into prison. In the aftermath, several thousand others were implicated.
Wang Ping, deep in seclusion, no longer paid any mind to these events. As rivers of blood flowed outside Jinhuai City, he summoned the Heaven-Reaching Talisman to connect with Heaven, Earth, and the Cosmos.
This was the first time Wang Ping had used the Heaven-Reaching Talisman to observe Heaven, Earth, and the Cosmos since fully merging with it. He had long been aware of the Majestic Power of Heaven and Earth and the vastness of the Cosmos, yet he was still stunned by the scene that unfolded before him.
The vision of Heaven, Earth, and the Cosmos, connected through the Heaven-Reaching Talisman, was composed of innumerable green lines. Within the flowing Wood Spirit Qi, these lines appeared chaotic, yet they followed a certain order. The end of every line was a living being, each one surviving by depending on the life force within the Wood Spirit Qi.
These lines wove together to form a gigantic ’web’. To this ’web’, Wang Ping’s consciousness was as insignificant as a speck of dust in a desert. This ’web’ connected to the endless earth while simultaneously stretching out into the unfathomably deep Cosmos.
Wang Ping poured his consciousness into a line that stretched out into space. He instantly received a stream of information: he saw a single weed take root and sprout in the soil. With its birth, this thin green line came into existence within the Cosmos.
This is...
Wang Ping subconsciously looked at himself. The line connected to him was a massive, waterfall-like torrent, but it terminated at the Heaven-Reaching Talisman, not at the cosmic ’web’.
The dense Wood Spirit Qi around his physical body connected to the Spirit Veins within him, forming a dense network of tendrils. The Luck-Borrowing Talisman was connected to these tendrils, shielding his Spirit Veins from the probing of Heaven, Earth, and the Cosmos. However, it didn’t completely mask his aura. This was why every time he used the Luck-Borrowing Talisman, he had to expend his own life force to resist the cosmic probe.
"Is this what they meant in my past life by ’leaping beyond the Three Realms, existing outside the Five Elements’—a state utterly untainted, free of all worldly cares?"
Wang Ping muttered to himself as he withdrew the Heaven-Reaching Talisman.
He didn’t proceed to the next stage of his cultivation. Having observed the nature of Heaven, Earth, and the Cosmos, he now understood how to continue. It was simply a matter of using the Taiyan Talisman arts he practiced to completely hide his aura and Primordial Spirit within the Wood Spirit Qi.
This method was identical to the warnings mentioned on the glowing panel, but the idea had come to him subconsciously, not from consciously recalling the panel’s advice.
"What’s wrong?"
Yu Lian sensed Wang Ping’s emotions.
Wang Ping shook his head, recalling how he felt when he first began cultivating the Heaven-Reaching Talisman. Back then, he had only sensed the Majestic Power of Heaven and Earth; it felt as if a single thought from him could destroy or remake the entire world. But at the same time, his own humanity was being constantly compressed by that immense power.
Now that his Primordial Spirit had fully merged with the Heaven-Reaching Talisman, he understood the reason for that feeling. That ’web’ was composed of the life of every being in the Cosmos. By using the Heaven-Reaching Talisman, he could connect to this web at will; a single thought could alter the destiny of all creation.
However, his every word and deed would be imperceptibly recorded by the Cosmos. If he reached a certain threshold, he might be brought to a reckoning.
The only solution was to hide—to become one with the Wood Spirit Qi.
The glowing panel’s first suggested method was to attune the flow of qi in his Spiritual Body and Primordial Spirit’s Sea of Qi to perfectly match the Wood Spirit Qi. For a cultivator, this wasn’t difficult; it would just take time.
The second method was to use the Pocket World Mirror to hide inside, thereby shielding himself from the cosmic ’web’s’ surveillance, and then skip this step to proceed to the next stage of cultivation.
This was a shortcut, a last resort. Wang Ping had no need to take it right now.
The third method was to hold the Wood Spirit Origin in his mouth. Wang Ping couldn’t imagine the principle behind this method, so he decided to examine the Wood Spirit Origin first.