Chapter 585: Chapter 286: One of the Nine Treasures! Discovering Xuanmiao in the Tai Sui Palace
The true flame boils as if refining gods, a glittering figure stirs the heavens and earth.
It was seized to forge fortune, the Innate Spirit Embryo sits within the Profound Sect.
"Essence of heaven and brilliance of earth, fortune thus is formed... You truly are anomalies amidst this swirling Red Dust."
Jiang Wansui gazed at the figure in the firelight, his eyes growing solemn, unable to help but sigh.
In the blazing firelight, that terrifying figure stood wholly erect, well over two meters tall, resembling a human, arms hanging past the knees, its entire body bristling with coarse fur, yet undying in the flames.
The Innate Spirit Embryo, this one is precisely the Innate Spirit Embryo enshrined by White Crane Temple.
When Jiang Wansui was a child, he saw it once upon entering White Crane Temple; so many years have passed, yet the terrifying presence has not waned. Their lifespan far exceeds that of humans, demons, or spirit monsters of the mountains.
"Us?"
From the firelight, the terrifying figure spoke coldly in a soft voice: "You humans say, ’two make a company, three make a crowd...’"
"Existences like me are fewer than a handful in this world—where is there an ’us’?"
The Innate Spirit Embryo is truly rare. It seizes the fortune of sun and moon, steals the creations of heaven and earth.
Their tribulation is greater than that of becoming a demon.
Since ancient times, how many famed mountains and great rivers, dragon veins at life’s end, have cultivated for a hundred, even a thousand years, birthing but a single seed, an embryo... Yet how many can truly be born into the world?
Precisely for this reason, Innate Spirit Embryos are solitary, true anomalies of this earth, drifting through time, and rarely meeting kin.
"Why did you come to me?"
From within the firelight, the terrifying figure rumbled, his heavy voice even more soul-shaking than the Daoist Thunder Skill.
"Without great cause, you would never come to me."
"You are indeed perceptive," Jiang Wansui said gravely.
"Heh heh, little wretch, I’ve eaten more copper pills than you’ve eaten salt." The terrifying figure grinned widely.
In the present age, the only one daring to call Jiang Wansui ’little wretch’ was this being before him.
"Has Chu Chaoran left Zhenwu Mountain?"
At that moment, the terrifying figure suddenly shifted his tone; in the firelight, his frosty eyes turned even colder, and he subconsciously touched his chest, where a shocking scar flickered faintly into view.
That scar seemed to possess life, breathing, writhing.
The terrifying figure snorted coldly; a violent aura surged, barely suppressing it.
"Speaking of which, that fight with him was many years ago. The Pure Yang Infinite Realm—I still wish to test myself against it once more."
"He will not leave Zhenwu Mountain, and I am not here because of him," Jiang Wansui shook his head, revealing the purpose of his visit.
"Just now, I received news—a mountain in Chang’an has birthed an Innate Spirit Embryo."
"Hm!?"
Within the firelight, the terrifying figure uttered a soft exclamation, then after a brief pause, shook his head.
"It has not matured; the little one came into the world prematurely. By normal pace, another twenty years would be needed to mature."
"Innate Spirit Embryos—tribulation is too great. To enter this muddy Red Dust, how can it be easy?"
Jiang Wansui heard this, falling silent; clearly, he believed this judgment.
After all, the embryo at Toad Treasure Mountain is but just an embryo; being of like kind, it can naturally be sensed.
If it truly were birthed, things would be different.
"Though only an embryo, its fate is already formed. Your Daoist Sect has many techniques to hatch it into form..."
At these words, the terrifying figure’s gaze tightened slightly, a faint stream of golden light flickering within.
"Of course, when your Daoist Family attains such a treasure, you most love refining it into an Outer Body Incarnation..."
"This is truly the finest body acupoint beneath the heavens."
The human body is, after all, but a mortal shell. Even upon attaining the Celestial Master Realm, Returning to the Innate, there remain deficiencies—how can it compare to the Innate Spirit Embryo?
Thus, in ancient times, if Daoist Sect experts discovered an Innate Spirit Embryo, the most supreme use was to erase its consciousness, seize it with Primordial Spirit Possession, and make it their Outer Body Incarnation.
"This is my greatest worry," Jiang Wansui said in a low voice.
"Whose hands did the embryo fall into?"
"Vacuum Refining Form!" Jiang Wansui’s expression darkened as he spoke the name.
"Vacuum Refining Form... tsk, tsk, another inheritor of that lineage has emerged..."
Within the firelight, the terrifying voice spoke coldly, "If I remember, the previous practitioner of Vacuum Refining Form was a disciple of your White Crane Temple..."
"Ancestor Master Changqing!" Jiang Wansui said firmly.
That was a grand expert from three centuries past, a disciple of White Crane Temple famed throughout the world.
"That’s right—him... Back then, he, too, sought an Innate Spirit Embryo—Vacuum and Subtle Existence, Qi-Transformed Spirit Embryo—so as to take that last step, to fulfill Pure Yang Infinite..."
"Sadly, he did not have such luck; how could the Innate Spirit Embryo be so easily found?"
The terrifying figure’s speech bore a trace of mockery and disdain.
"This one’s fortune truly defies heaven, that she actually managed to find it."
"What do you think are her chances of success?" Jiang Wansui asked.
Within the firelight, the terrifying voice paused in thought before judging.
"Less than thirty percent!"
"That high?" Jiang Wansui pondered silently.
"You are still as ever, eager to strangle all danger in its cradle, ever seeking to grasp every variable in your hand."
A cold, drifting laugh sounded; that wanton gaze swept over Jiang Wansui.
"If she gains the help of the Innate Spirit Embryo, her chance of success could rise further."
At this, Jiang Wansui’s brows raised, looking toward the rising firelight.
"Almost impossible."
"Indeed..."
"The one at Dragon Tiger Mountain has long since perished, I naturally will not help her either..."
