Chapter 418: Chapter 417: The Qingyuan Heritage, the 4th Origin
The desire to survive of the phantom Giant was indeed strong.
To put it precisely.
He was really a coward.
Seeing Li Jing and Jiang Yini controlling the sky, his gigantic body quickly shrank to the height of a normal adult, transforming into a handsome-looking young man kneeling in mid-air.
Li Jing clicked his tongue with dissatisfaction as he observed the changes in the phantom giant before he even approached it.
His dissatisfaction was not unjustified!
Seeing him on the verge of reaching the Ninth Realm, the person’s will to survive had reached such an extent that he hesitated to make his next move. If he made a blind move just to level up, what would distinguish him from an evil cultivator?
Li Jing had always had his principles.
Jiang Yini looked oddly at the phantom Giant, who had boasted of being invincible at the time of his appearance, behaving so cowardly.
Upon approaching the young phantom that the Giant had transformed into, Li Jing and Jiang Yini first looked down at the ground.
Underneath the mountain bag that had been flattened by a sniper’s bullet, there was a deep, bottomless black hole.
A mere explosion wouldn’t have caused such an effect.
After all, Li Jing’s shot was horizontal, not vertical, so while it was normal for it to create a hole in the ground, it shouldn’t have made it so deep.
Obviously,
The bottomless black hole existed originally, just covered up by the mound and the ground.
From a high vantage point, all they could see was darkness.
This hole was evidently not ordinarily deep.
After withdrawing their gaze, the two exchanged a silent glance, and Li Jing looked at the young phantom who was kneeling before him. The more he looked, the more uneasy he felt. Finally, he asked flatly.
"So, what are you? A Ghostly Evil Beast?"
Upon hearing the question, the young phantom was slightly startled and looked up curiously.
"The junior doesn’t know what the senior’s Ghostly Evil Beast is, but I think the senior should be able to see that the junior is only a remnant soul at the moment."
A remnant soul?
Li Jing paused.
Jiang Yini also frowned.
The Soul, the concept was prevalent in the present world.
The concept of a remnant soul was also naturally there.
However, there hadn’t been any scientific basis for these concepts thus far.
In Immortal Learning, the soul has long been taken for granted as the alias for one’s Primordial Spirit.
This was a unique concept of the Orthodox Immortality Path in Longyu.
The so-called Orthodox Immortality Path, also known as "Divinity Cultivation" in the distant past, focused on the Primordial Spirit.
On the one hand, the Orthodox Immortality Path itself was primarily about the Primordial Spirit.
On the other hand, according to the ancient texts that were available for research, from beginner to forming the Yuan Infant and then to evolving the Primordial Spirit, the Orthodox Immortality Path essentially involved cultivating based on the soul.
Simply put,
The Yuan Infant formed by an Orthodox Immortality Path cultivator was transformed from the soul, and the next level up was the evolvement of the Primordial Spirit to a degree where the Primordial Spirit could leave the body, a state previously known as Spirit God’s Departure.
According to records in ancient books,
Some powerful ancient cultivators could persist in the mortal world as a remnant soul for a very long time following the destruction of their physical bodies or even after their deaths, until the remaining energy was completely consumed.
However, to present-world cultivators, this remains a myth.
For those who have reached the Sixth Realm and if the Primordial Spirit escapes before a major change or death, it is indeed possible to survive for a while, or even continue to live by possessing someone else’s body through some rather vicious secret methods.
But the idea of lingering in the world as a remnant soul does not exist.
Without a body, the Primordial Spirit can only survive for seven days at most.
Some scholars speculated that this was somewhat related to the "seventh day after death" in the Longyu civilization.
The young phantom in front of them was definitely more than just seven days after death.
Simply,
Earlier, when Li Jing mentioned the "Ghostly Evil Beasts," his confused expression clearly showed that he didn’t know such creatures existed.
This guy was undoubtedly an antique that had not seen the world for a long time.
Was he...
truly a remnant soul?
While frowning, Li Jing had a thought, and his eyes turned golden.
The Eye of True Vision.
Open.
Looking through this eye, his expression became strange.
The extremely buggy Eye of True Vision allowed him to see through the nature of all things.
At this moment.
The young phantom was not a Ghostly Evil Beast, indeed he was a remnant soul.
More precisely,
he was a severely deficient Ninth Realm Primordial Spirit, extremely weak.
Under the gaze of the Eye of True Vision, Li Jing was more certain.
If nothing unexpected happened or he didn’t get nourished, the young phantom would disappear from the world within no more than three years.
Li Jing took an immediate interest in the young phantom.
Under the scrutiny of the Eye of True Vision, the incomplete Primordial Spirit of the young phantom resembled that of their Orthodox cultivators, but there was a hint of pure energy that was neither Spiritual Qi nor a breath of the Immortal Spirit in his Primordial Spirit’s power.
Obviously,
this pure energy was the secret to his Primordial Spirit being able to persist in the world as a remnant soul for so long.
He was undoubtedly practicing the Orthodox Immortality Path.
But it was very different from the Orthodox Immortality Path in Longyu, and even significantly different from the Orthodox Immortality Path that was once prevalent in Da Xia.
As he was pondering, Jiang Yini next to him saw his eyes turn golden and expressed her doubt.
"Li Jing, your eyes..."
"Don’t overthink, my eyes are just the result of the transformation of my Sky Eye Technique after my cultivation level has improved."
Li Jing responded softly.
Jiang Yini was stunned to hear this.
She knew that Li Jing had the Sky Eye Technique.
She also knew that Sky Eye Technique had self-growth.
But she didn’t know that Sky Eye Technique would transform.
After fluttering her beautiful eyes a couple of times, Jiang Yini silently nodded.
This was something Li Jing would not lie to her about.
She might as well accept it as the metamorphosis of his Sky Eye Technique...
Being someone who had reached heights that were beyond her reach, she didn’t have the means to verify that.
There were quite a few in the Eighth Realm.
But not everyone could reach this level.
Only heaven knew if there were other Eighth Realm cultivators who practiced the Sky Eye Technique besides Li Jing, whom could she go to verify this with?
This way.
Li Jing stared at the phantom of the young man.
"What is this Qingyuan Immortal Palace you mentioned earlier?"
"It’s the ruins of the sect where this young disciple used to belong."
The phantom of the young man honestly replied, then continued.
"If I’m not mistaken, it’s been a hundred thousand years since the destruction of my sect."
A hundred thousand years!?
Li Jing frowned.
Jiang Yini sucked in a breath.
If this phantom of the young man isn’t bluffing, the Qingyuan Immortal Palace he once belonged to is even older than the "ancient times" recorded in the present world.
To put it bluntly.
This isn’t something surprising.
The descendants of the ancient gods who survive in the Chongyuan Holy Realm, if traced back to their era, it may not be just a simple hundred thousand years.
The intelligent alien species found in other Secret Realms have all existed for at least tens of thousands of years from scratch.
But they are, after all, alien species.
In comparison to those who have survived for tens of thousands of years, living within Secret Realm Spaces, it’s unclear when the traces of ancient humans started appearing, but generally a bit later.
The phantom of this young man they’re looking at was undoubtedly a human in his previous life, and a very powerful cultivator of the Orthodox Immortality Path.
If this news is thrown back to the current world, it would definitely make a big headline used to captivate attention.
A hundred thousand years ago on Blue Star, humans were just apes with slightly higher intelligence, and only truly became humans after later evolution.
Maintaining a confirmative attitude, Li Jing spoke up.
"Let me confirm, were you a human in your previous life?"
"Human?"
The phantom of the young man was stunned for a moment, then seemed to understand something and said,
"This disciple was naturally human in previous life. But back then, humans called themselves the Human Race, not ’humans’."
Upon hearing this, Li Jing raised his eyebrows and turned to Jiang Yini to pass on a thought transmission.
"It seems like I’ve accidentally unburied an ’ancient cultivator’ that only exists in myths. There’s a chance we might also attain ancient cultivation methods that only exist in myths."
Upon receiving this thought transmission, Jiang Yini had a bizarre expression on her face.
An ancient cultivator, this is indeed a myth.
Ancient cultivation methods, on the other hand, are mostly based on recent human imagination, with no scientific evidence to show they once existed.
The issue is that the historical evolution of human civilization on Blue Star only lasts so long, and before that, it was the era of prehistoric creatures like dinosaurs.
The so-called prehistoric times, in the eyes of modern humans, is basically nonsense.
Yet, the presence of this phantom of a young man is making everything seem not so nonsensical anymore.
It seems that there really was such an ancient time...
A rupture in the historical timeline?
Jiang Yini’s heart was trembling.
Civilization of the human race once had a rupture, leading to the fall of a once prosperous human history, leading to a complete separation of eras.
This hypothesis was proposed several years ago by historians and scholars of ancient civilization, but it has not been confirmed to date. Their evidence is only limited to various myths that have been passed down in the world.
After pressing her lips together, Jiang Yini quietly sent a thought transmission to Li Jing.
"This remnant soul seems quite cowardly. Scaring people is your strong suit, why don’t you try to scare his cultivation method out of him?"
Li Jing nodded upon receiving the thought transmission, and looked at the phantom of the young man.
"Your sect has been destroyed for a hundred thousand years, and the inheritance has apparently been cut off. But you are still alive. I am giving you a chance now to continue to pass down the legacy of your sect. Would you be willing to entrust me with the sect’s inheritance?"
The phantom of the young man looked up upon hearing this.
His desire to survive was stronger than ever. He scrutinized Li Jing for a moment, changing his previous cowardly manner, then took a good look at Jiang Yini and said,
"To be honest with you, my remnant soul isn’t complete, and has been declining over the years. It’s now barely surviving and will soon perish. I can’t remember exactly what happened in the past, only vaguely remembering that the destruction of the sect has something to do with the Western religions. The only thing I remember is my task of ensuring my own existence in this world, hoping that one day when the Immortal Palace emerges, I can find a destined person to carry on the legacy of the Immortal Palace."
Upon saying all that, the phantom of the young man suddenly changed his tone.
"Sadly enough, neither of you are the destined ones for my Immortal Palace. If I were to be precise, it is not yet time for the Immortal Palace to emerge. In my fragmented memories, I remember that before the sect was destroyed, the founder of the Immortal Palace had already predicted the coming of a great disaster and calculated when the destined person would appear. According to that prediction, there will be a significant event in the near future that will change the course of history on this land. A month later, when things start to get back on track, the destined person will appear. By that time, the Immortal Palace will emerge."
Hearing the young phantom men’s explanation, Li Jing and Jiang Yini looked at each other in astonishment.
They didn’t believe this prediction nonsense.
Could people from a hundred thousand years ago calculate what was going to happen a hundred thousand years later?
But ironically, they had to believe it at this moment.
Not to mention the fact that the young man’s phantom coming from a hundred thousand years ago is already incredible enough, the prediction of the founder of the Immortal Palace really was... insanely accurate...
Isn’t the event that’s going to change the course of Da Xia’s history just happened in the past few days?
Li Jing himself was the instigator.
Then, this ’a month later’ is also very precise.
According to the customs of Da Xia,
When the emperor dies, if there is a designated legitimate heir, there is normally a period of one month mourning for the late emperor. The heir would then ascend to the throne after the ceremony.
Besides the custom,
After Xia Qianqian is appointed by Li Jing, further chaos in Da Xia for another month would be inevitable.
With the help of Longyu and the Northern God Country, getting back on track within a month is not a problem.
Next is the more important point.
It wouldn’t take too long after a month for the forces of the present world to slowly withdraw from the Heavenly Saint Land as the closing time of the Secret Realm Passage approaches.
If the Immortal Palace emerges at that time,
Most of the current world’s people won’t be able to interfere...
Looking back.
Seeing the thoughtful manner of the young man’s phantom earlier, it seems that the features and identity of the destined person have also been predicted.
This matter...
Is beyond extraordinary.
"Li Jing, maybe we should let this one go?"
Jiang Yini’s transmission came, and then another transmission.
"This Qingyuan Fairy Palace is very mysterious, and it is clear planning to choose a person from Da Xia to inherit their legacy. For such a strange event, we might not believe it, but we shouldn’t disrespect it."
Upon receiving such a thought transmission, Li Jing grinned.
It was clear to him that Jiang Yini, like him, was a typical atheist.
Her words made sense.
When encountering strange events, you may not believe them, but it’s best not to disrespect them.
Had this happened when I was still weak, my attitude might have been the same,
But things are different now.
I’ve accepted both new gods and heavenly demons, what’s a hundred-thousand-year-old Qingyuan Immortal Palace to me?
If I, Li Jing, want this lineage of the Immortal Palace, so what?
Could it be that the founder of the Immortal Palace would come out of his coffin to stop me?
If you really have the ability, give it a shot!
Staring at the youth’s phantom with a serious face, Li Jing raised his hand and clicked his fingers.
A scorching arc of Yang Thunder, carrying the rules of Heavenly Punishment, shot out. It brushed past the youth’s phantom and in the blink of an eye reached a far distance.
"Do you think we’re fated to meet?"
"..."
The youthful phantom.
"..."
Jiang Yini.
"Answer my question."
With a smile on his face, Li Jing looked amiable.
Upon hearing the voice, the young phantom turned his head, revealing a forced smile on his serious face.
"Of course, the elder and the youngster like me are fated to meet! And it’s an unbreakable bond! The Immortal Palace came to the world before its time because of the elder’s explosion, how can that be considered unfated? If we don’t talk about other things, the elder disrupted the plans of our ancestors..."
Before the youth’s phantom could finish speaking, another arc of Yang Thunder carrying the Thunder Punishment Rules brushed past his scalp, shocking him into silence.
Seeing Li Jing’s impatience, the youth’s phantom bowed and nodded obsequiously.
"I misunderstood before. Both the elder and the fairy are the people fated with our Qingyuan Fairy Palace. The heritage should be handed over to both of you."
"..."
Jiang Yini.
This youthful phantom is groveling so much, it’s unbearable.
His conformist ability is off the charts.
They had him guard the Immortal Palace’s heritage, waiting for a fated person. I’m afraid the people of the Qingyuan Fairy Palace had been blinded.
However, Li Jing doesn’t see it that way.
This youthful phantom was probably a very reliable and powerful disciple of the Fairy Palace. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been entrusted with such an important task.
However, due to his remnant soul and memory loss, his nature has changed.
Shaking his head secretly, Li Jing stretched out his hand.
"Hand it over."
Upon seeing this, the youthful phantom blinked, carefully explaining.
"Elder, you may have misunderstood. The heritage of the Fairy Palace is not in my hands, but imprinted within the palace itself. If you wish to get the heritage, you need to join me at the Stele of the Fairy Palace and comprehend it yourself."
Comprehend it yourself?
Li Jing frowned.
If it was a secret technique, he could take shortcuts.
But if it was to comprehend cultivation skills...
He did not have that much time, nor did he have that much talent for comprehension.
From the looks of it, this heritage might...
After a moment of silence, Li Jing turned to Jiang Yini.
"Shall we go down and have a look with him?"
"Hmm."
Jiang Yini nodded.
She was not that greedy.
But under the premise that the youthful phantom was so compliant, there was a chance to get the heritage of the Fairy Palace. This could not be missed.
Let’s go down first, spend some time trying to comprehend it.
Upon hearing Jiang Yini’s response, Li Jing turned his head.
"Lead the way."
"Okay, please follow me, elder!"
The youthful phantom complied in a very straightforward manner, his shape moving as he dove down.
Seeing this, Li Jing followed.
...
Not long after the youthful phantom descended into the hole, Li Jing and Jiang Yini followed him deep underground. Finally, at a depth of about 10,000 meters, they saw a vast and well-preserved magnificent palace.
Compared with this palace complex, the Sky Pavilion was completely inferior.
The vast palace complex revealed a strong presence of Spiritual Qi in every brick and tile. There were lotus pools everywhere in the palace complex, and each lotus pool was filled with a large number of purple lotuses.
Without a detailed look, it was obvious.
The palace was built with high-quality spiritual objects, and the lotuses planted in the lotus pools were all high-quality rare spirit medicine with a long history.
Upon witnessing this scene, Jiang Yini relayed a message to Li Jing.
"This Qingyuan Fairy Palace isn’t ordinary, we need to be careful. The phantom may be cowardly, but he might be playing dumb to eat the tiger."
While nodding, Li Jing was somewhat expectant.
What Jiang Yini reminded him of was exactly what he was looking forward to.
He was very expectant.
That the phantom was playing dumb to eat the tiger...
In the end, Li Jing was disappointed.
The youthful phantom honestly guided the two of them to an open area in the center of the palace complex. In the center of the open area stood a stele that emitted an unusual spiritual rhyme.
On the stele, four large characters were carved in an ancient script.
Looking at the shape of the characters, it was definitely the Qingyuan Fairy Palace.
The characters were somewhat different from the common script of the present world, but the shape was quite similar.
"Elder, fairy."
The youthful phantom landed and turned his head.
"This is the Heritage Stele of our Qingyuan Fairy Palace. The Qingyuan Mysterious Skill is all within these four characters. What you can comprehend from it depends on your fate. I cannot help."
"..."
Li Jing frowned in silence.
Upon seeing the Heritage Stele, he did not think that the youthful phantom was fooling him.
The perception of the Eighth Realm told him.
Indeed, this stele was extraordinary, and it contained some kind of power of rules.
But the current situation was somewhat awkward.
There was no even a mantra, just a stone tablet with four characters. How could he comprehend anything from it?
Glancing at the stele, Li Jing turned his head.
"Yini, it’s up to you."
???
Jiang Yini.
What does he mean by it being up to her?
What was he trying to imply?
Li Jing had just arrived and after looking at the stele for a moment, he immediately gave up on comprehending it?
While secretly feeling speechless, Jiang Yini did not waste time. She approached the stele and looked up to try and comprehend something.
The peculiarity of the stone stele, she could discern to some degree.
Its mysteries were hard to articulate clearly.
The phantom of the young man probably wasn’t lying—the heritage of Qingyuan Fairy Palace was hidden within it.
Watching Jiang Yini closely examining the stele, Li Jing stepped forward, a thought flickering in his mind as his eyes turned gold.
Without a chant, he had initially given up.
But why not give it a try, just in case?
As he activated the Eye of True Vision, Li Jing was suddenly taken aback.
He had just tried his luck, not expecting this "just in case" to become reality.
In the vision of the Eye of True Vision, the phrase "Qingyuan’s Mysterious Skill" in his sight turned into a long, sprawling text of ten thousand characters.
This extensive text was made up of one mantra after another.
Not only that.
He had also discerned that the power hidden within the stele wasn’t the Power of Rules, but rather a mysterious effect that could deepen a cultivator’s understanding.
This effect didn’t stem from intentional imprinting, but was inherent to the stele itself.
Such an effect...
naturally reminded Li Jing of a type of object that only exists in mythology.
The Enlightenment Stone.
Just as he made this guess, Jiang Yini at his side suddenly sat down cross-legged.
Li Jing caught on and turned his head—only to find that she had shut her eyes and entered a meditative state.
She had achieved enlightenment...
Just like that, in no time at all!
Quickly turning back, Li Jing stared at the stele.
This stele really did appear to be the legendary Enlightenment Stone!
Otherwise, how could Jiang Yini have had such a rapid comprehension?
Just when he thought of asking the phantom of the young man nearby, Li Jing suddenly noticed a change in the flow of his spiritual power.
What?
This left him utterly perplexed.
Why did the flow of spiritual power suddenly change?
Was it because of the heritage stele?
Just as he was wondering, a dialog box suddenly popped up in front of Li Jing.
"Fulfilled the conditions for the fourth origin activation, do you wish to proceed?"
At the same time, something seemed to have been sensed by the Smoke Eye inside his body, expressing its hopes.
"Master."
"....."
Li Jing.
This notification seemed to appear out of nowhere.
But it was clearly related to the change in the flow of his inner spiritual power.
This was not a surprise anymore, it was outright shocking.
Those numerous mantras, he could see them clearly with the Eye of True Vision.
The problem is he couldn’t understand these crooked, distorted ancient texts, and can only roughly guess a few words that looked similar to the Dragon Yu language based on their shapes.
He could not even understand the characters, let alone grasp their meaning.
The heritage stele of Qingyuan Fairy Palace was very peculiar.
However, the current pop-up was likely due to another cheat provided by his status bar.
The fourth origin, to activate it or not?
Was there any need to hesitate?
Hasn’t he seen that the Smoke Eye can’t wait any longer?
"Activate the fourth origin, Immortal item Smoke Eye has been changed to Lifebound Magic Instrument, controlling Qingyuan’s Mysterious Skill. Basic Rule Control, Water."
A notification popped up, and the Smoke Eye nourished within Li Jing’s Spiritual Platform, moved from his forehead to the kidney, or waist position.
Immediately, Li Jing became patient.
Like Linglong and Qingfeng, Smoke Eye had also become his origin, and the sudden increase in his spiritual power saw a qualitative leap in his abilities.
This...
To be honest, it felt somewhat odd.
He frowned as he reread the notification.
He had mastered Qingyuan’s Mysterious Skill?
Although the flow of spiritual power within his body had indeed changed, he couldn’t feel the change.
Moreover, he felt nothing about Rule Control either.
Even the status bar did not show "Water" under Rule Control.
Just as he was pondering, Li Jing suddenly shivered.
Could it be...
Would it be that the one who mastered Qingyuan’s Mysterious Skill and the rule was not him, but Smoke Eye?
As soon as this thought surfaced, Smoke Eye, the Spirit Weapon that had just become his fourth origin, appeared silently beside him, casually waving her hand to manipulate the surrounding water source, before returning it back to its place.
Upon seeing this, Li Jing was startled.
He had merely guessed, but Smoke Eye showed up immediately to confirm.
Could it be...
A Spirit Weapon can master cultivation methods and even control rules?
The phantom young man at the side was amazed to see Jiang Yini who was in deep concentration as if she had gained some insight. Suddenly observing the Spirit Weapon appearing next to Li Jing and causing such changes with a wave of her hand, he almost popped his eyes out.
"El... Elder, your... How did your... Spirit weapon acquire Qingyuan’s Mysterious Skill?"
Before he could finish, Smoke Eye glanced at him and turned to Li Jing.
"Master, Smoke Eye also doesn’t know what happened, but I seem to have changed somehow."
As she spoke, she then relayed using the spiritual connection between a Spirit Weapon and its user.
"Master, at its base, Qingyuan’s Mysterious Skill is a cultivation method. And since Smoke Eye is just a Spirit Weapon, it can’t be used for cultivation even if it has been mastered— at most, it can be used as a foundation for casting some Magic Skills. For now, Smoke Eye has no idea how to use this power. To be precise, Smoke Eye has not yet mastered any Magical Skills related to Qingyuan’s Mysterious Skill."
Hearing these words, Li Jing blinked and nodded in response.
"I understand."
Upon saying this, he crouched down, placing a hand lightly on the ground, allowing his mighty Primordial Spirit to connect with it and stretch out infinitely.
The phantom of the young man was stunned, not understanding what Li Jing was going to do.
Smoke Eye, however, fluttered her beautiful eyes twice. Generally not very close with him, she stood beside him as obediently as an agreeable young wife.
The next second.
Qingyuan Fairy Palace was gone...
!!!
The phantom of the young man.
