Jing Qian had never imagined that the world contained so many methods for refining Life Patterns.
Compared with the accumulation inside Book Mountain, the inheritances of Pure Yang Heaven and Yanfu Dao were far inferior, not just by a small margin, but by several orders of magnitude.
Over the course of ten days, Jing Qian comprehended over five hundred thousand Life Patterns:
White-Fang rank: more than 320,000
Azure-Wing rank: more than 150,000
Blue-Blood rank: more than 20,000
By the time he reached the Violet-Pupil rank, only around 1,000 remained.
These Life Patterns covered the five great categories:
Living Beings, Mountains & Seas, Spirits & Ghosts, Spiritual Treasures, and Primordial Qi.
A truly comprehensive collection.
The research process was full of twists and turns, and the mental ups and downs were dramatic.
Because Jing Qian exerted every ounce of effort to deduce and summarize the deeper meanings hidden behind these Life Patterns.
He faintly sensed that the true laws of the Great Dao were buried somewhere within them.
Yet each time he felt he had seen through the underlying logic, a Life Pattern would appear that completely overturned his conclusions.
As the scope expanded further and further, he eventually gave up his earlier naïve ambition.
With his current cultivation, he still lacked the foundation to grasp the true essence of Life Patterns.
Even so, merely studying this immense body of knowledge gave him massive gains.
His soul and divine consciousness doubled once more, reaching another astonishing level.
The Sumeru Dao Stele replenished much of its missing foundation during this process. Its transformation was now within reach.
More importantly, Jing Qian discovered several key Life Patterns which, after his calculations, proved even more compatible with his system than those he had originally planned.
The remaining gaps in his Destiny Slots now had perfect candidates.
For the final pieces of his cultivation system, he naturally intended to select only the very best.
After finishing the many library floors devoted to Life Patterns, Jing Qian continued upward.
Starting from the twenty-first floor, he entered the section concerning Dharma Forms.
Emperor Egao had extracted and compiled all knowledge and techniques related to condensing Dharma Forms from countless inheritances, filling seventy floors.
These Dharma Forms were intimately connected to the Life Pattern knowledge below.
From fifty-some ten-thousand Life Patterns, when freely combined, they gave rise to over a million different methods for refining Dharma Forms.
They included categories such as:
flowers and birds
insects
fish and dragons
beasts
spirits and ghosts
spiritual treasures
mountains and seas
and more.
These records contained not just the methods for condensation, but also techniques, experience, and insights, a vast and all-encompassing repository.
For Jing Qian, this knowledge was immeasurably valuable for understanding and refining his own Saintly Form.
He focused on it even more intensely.
As his divine sense and clarity of thought continued rising, his reading speed soared without pause.
The more he studied similar types of knowledge, the faster he grasped their interconnections.
The Six-Path Reincarnation Three-Life Eye on his brow grew increasingly agile and mystical under the flood of knowledge, drawing closer than ever to perfect refinement.
In the mortal world, the Great Sun True Flame burned steadily.
On Book Mountain, Jing Qian was like a general winning battlefield after battlefield, conquering one library floor after another.
In his sea of consciousness, the Sumeru Dao Stele quivered restlessly, almost alive.
The precious knowledge of this world, especially cultivation knowledge, was a mysterious and potent nourishment to the Dao Stele.
Once that nourishment surpassed a critical threshold, the Dao Stele would undergo a new qualitative evolution.
The knowledge inside Book Mountain was far more than the Dao Stele required.
Once Jing Qian completed the Dharma Form section, the Dao Stele's inner space sealed itself for the third time.
This evolution would take at least a month to gestate.
At this point, it had been half a year since he left Hunzou Island.
He let out a long breath of relief and returned from Book Mountain into the mortal world.
The Dingyuan drifted along the Heaven River Waterway. Under Mo Pin'er's control, it had wandered through several upper continents.
She had never traveled far before, and this was a rare chance to satisfy her curiosity while Jing Qian was in seclusion.
Once Jing Qian emerged from his retreat, she obediently steered the ship toward North Up Pass.
As the Dingyuan descended from the Heaven River and touched down on land, the first grand pass of the Ying Pagoda Realm came into view.
The divine pass, North Up Pass, was not a normal physical checkpoint.
Although situated between the divine realm's territory and the Dread Continent, it perfectly separates the two.
Its true status was far beyond that of any ordinary upper-continent pass.
In truth, North Up Pass was an official outpost of the Wuji Celestial Dynasty, and additionally the station of the Celestial Army.
Across the Northern Egao Imperial Wuji Heaven, nearly every realm contained one such celestial stronghold.
These passes were the essential mechanism by which the Wuji Celestial Dynasty governed its territories.
The North Up Pass of the Ying Pagoda Realm was guarded by Su Zhao, the Heaven-Granted Privy Guard Senior General.
He was a direct-line celestial officer of the dynasty, a proper fourth-rank Spirit Officer, equivalent to a mid-tier noble rank.
One step above him was the upper third-rank Grand Spirit Officer sequence.
Within the entire realm, regardless of personal strength or cultivation, his political status was second only to Emperor Ying Kun.
This was the highest authority within the realm.
North Up Pass typically did not intervene in local affairs, and because the Ying Pagoda Realm was home to two Dao Ancestor legacies, its situation was special.
Thus, Su Zhao's name was seldom heard within the realm.
However, Jing Qian was not unfamiliar with Su Zhao.
After he visited Book Mountain, people had mistakenly believed he belonged to the Su clan.
To understand the reason, he had studied The Official Chronicles of Privy Envoy Su, gaining some insight.
Although Lord Su Jin had fallen three thousand years ago, nearly all male descendants of the Su bloodline within the Wuji Celestial Dynasty had been wiped out.
His youngest branch of the family, because of internal strife, had been forced to flee outside their homeland. Though most were killed or crippled by the Heaven Demon Child's curse, a small number somehow survived.
And part of this surviving branch happened to reside on Jiangzhu Island.
Back then, on Jiangzhu Island, the Su Clan and the Jing Clan worked hand in hand, jointly developing and managing the island.
The two families had extremely close ties not only due to aligned interests, but also because they intermarried for generations; their bloodlines were deeply intertwined.
Jing Qian's current body's birth mother and grandmother were both Su women.
Given such ties, calling Jing Qian a member of the Su Clan wasn't far off; it could hardly be considered a misunderstanding.
Furthermore, after learning all of this, he used his Three-Life Eye to search throughout the entire realm for surviving blood relatives.
He discovered that the only two remaining relatives were both living inside North Up Pass.
One was the powerful Star-Seizer General Su Zhao, and the other was someone with whom he had once shared a profound encounter, Su Min'er.
This firm-hearted woman, who forged a Spiritual Construct from an elder's corpse and battled fiercely against the Green Lantern Spirit, not only survived but also began new cultivation within North Up Pass.
For Jing Qian, this was naturally something that pleased him.
However, he did not intend to acknowledge them. With his current cultivation and foundation, he no longer needed to involve himself in such karmic entanglements.
He had come to North Up Pass for an entirely different purpose.
He walked into the mighty pass with Luo Tian beside him. Despite its imposing grandeur, the pass did not restrict mortal traffic.
On both sides of the colossal fortress lived many mortals, forming a surprisingly bustling settlement.
Blending into the crowd, they walked calmly toward the Dread Continent (Juzhou) side of the pass.
At some point, a skinny old donkey quietly appeared beside them.
Jing Qian said:
"Master Niu, take me into Dread Continent. I've advanced to Spirit-Subduing and want to practice against a few major demons."
The skinny donkey replied:
"Master Preceptor, every cultivator in the realm saw your sword strikes when you slew the Kunpeng."
"You now possess at least one-character Dao-Stele combat power. In the entire Ying Pagoda Realm, only Wuchang and the Angler can exchange a few moves with you."
"In Dread Continent, there is a second-rank old monkey demon with decent strength."
"But its Dao Stele is only freshly established, its cultivation is merely equal to the Kunpeng."
"As for the other demons? Not even worth your attention."
At the second rank, a cultivator's strength was measured by the degree to which their Personal Dao Stele manifested on the Immortal Qi Mountain.
A third-rank Patch-Heaven cultivator advanced to second rank by using their Immortal Spiritual Qi and accumulated foundation to project their source-soul onto the Immortal Qi Mountain and erect a blank Dao Stele.
This granted them an immortal anchor, true qualitative evolution.
Thereafter, all cultivation effort revolved around carving their Dao Stele.
A second-rank cultivator, while comprehending the Dao and accumulating Immortal Qi, would carve strokes of their personal name onto the Stele.
Each additional stroke represented a significant increase in strength.
A complete character marked an enormous breakthrough, even greater than the leap from third rank to second rank.
To advance from second rank to proper first rank, one must carve a fully resonant Dao Title onto the Stele.
This was a grueling, long-term effort. Many second-rank cultivators exhausted all their foundation upon advancing and spent thousands of years unable to carve even a single stroke.
Among the second-rank beings in the Ying Pagoda Realm:
The old Kunpeng, though the earliest to achieve Daohood, had the weakest foundation.
Only two lonely strokes marred its Stele, truly the weakest of the rank.
The Six-Eared Macaque of Dread Continent had practiced for less than three thousand years but surpassed the Kunpeng, carving half a character.
The Wuchang Ghost Emperor and the Dragon-Fisher had carved at least one complete character, making them far stronger.
What awaited Jing Qian in the future, the Blood River and the Three Poisons were likely even stronger, perhaps having carved second or even third characters. Their exact strength was unfathomable.
As for Jing Qian, by using his Saintly Avatar perfectly fused with the Yin-Extreme Immortal Sword Embryo, he wielded the power of a proper first-rank sword embryo. His combat ability matched the blank-tablet Kunpeng, which was already astonishing.
He said:
"Master Niu, didn't you see that I brought a Kitchen King Sect friend along?"
"Look among your old friends and acquaintances. Whoever tastes best, take us to visit them."
"Friend Luo's culinary skills are unmatched. We'll gather some mountain delicacies."
The old white ox immediately grew spirited.
He said:
"There's a Mushroom Spirit in West Mountain, third rank. I don't know what technique it cultivates, but it's red and glossy, and smells delightful."
"We can catch it and stew a fine pot of soup."
Luo Tian chimed in from the side:
"That's the spirit! Everything from the sea is too fishy. A couple of days of vegetarian dishes will clear my stomach."
Jing Qian mounted the donkey, pointed forward, and said:
"Then let's go."
"First stop Red Umbrella Mushroom."
The two men and one donkey swayed their way out of the pass toward Dread Continent.
As they walked, they listened to Master Niu recount the ancient history of the realm.
The old ox revealed his true bovine form and said:
"Our Ying Pagoda Realm was originally called Juluo Continent, once a proud Sea Realm."
"It was one of the few beast-dominated realms in the Northern Heaven."
"But later, descendants of Pure Yang and Yanfu escaped from the Middle Heaven of the Daoyuan Universe and settled here."
"The two factions slaughtered nearly all great demons, divided the realm among themselves, and absorbed most of its original power, causing the Sea Realm to fall to a Mountain Realm."
"This angered the Empress, who nearly exterminated both lineages."
"Since then, the two Dao-Ancestor lineages have been stationed here, imprisoned in all but name."
"Compared with the demons of Dread Continent, the Ying Clan were latecomers."
"That's why the mountain-ghost and demon clans here retain the foundation of a Sea Realm."
"Their bloodlines and cultivation traditions are excellent."
"For countless years, no shortage of second-rank great demons have ruled here."
"I'm old and have some old friendships in Dread Continent. Master Preceptor, don't get carried away and wipe out all my acquaintances."
"We've been drinking and feasting together for many years. There's friendship there."
Jing Qian nodded:
"Don't worry, Master Niu. I'll follow your arrangements."
The old ox continued:
"After we slaughter the Mushroom Spirit, we'll go find the Old Pear Tree."
"That tree must be seventy thousand years old and is also third rank."
"It's accumulated only thirty-something Ancient Root Pears, no ordinary fruits."
"It's said that if you eat enough of them, even your Life Measure may increase by a qian."
"We'll join forces and uproot the whole tree."
As he spoke, the ox swayed his head, drooling at the thought.
With Jing Qian leading, prey he'd never dared dream of was suddenly on the menu; what incredible fortune.
"And there's more!"
"I never realized it before, but looking from a new angle, Dread Continent is full of delicacies!"
"Oh, right, Master Preceptor, now that you've advanced to Spirit-Subduing, when will you use the Sword-Grinding Cliff?"
Jing Qian thought for a moment and said:
"Give me another month. I must finish one critical cultivation first."
He needed to see how the Sumeru Dao Stele would transform.
...
In the Heavenly Capital Star, within one corner of the High-Tower District, stood a spear-shaped tower.
Its ashen-gray shaft rose into the sky, and its spear-tip was made entirely of glass.
Inside the room at the very top, two female generals clad in plain battle armor were sparring intensely.
Both wielded long spears, moving as swiftly and fluidly as wind and dragons, sharp, smooth, and precise.
They knew each other extremely well. Although neither gave an inch, neither could wound the other, and they even had enough leisure to carry on a conversation.
"An Clan sent an invitation. Their young lady wants to meet the 'young master' of our family."
"But since when do we have a young master?"
"Elder sister, don't tell me you secretly gave birth to a child with some wild man?"
"Bah!"
The older sister spat and replied:
"I sent someone to investigate. There's a golden-robed young lord on Book Mountain, an excellent scholar."
"And he displays the same Su Clan spiritual radiance as us."
"I checked our ancestral records thoroughly."
"He can only be a descendant raised by Su Zhao of the Ying Pagoda Realm."
Her younger sister asked:
"Su Zhao? Can he even withstand the Heaven Demon Child's curse?"
"With such a deadly sterility poison, if he weren't protected by a proper fourth-rank Spirit Officer, he would've died long ago."
The elder sister said:
"Little sister, you should go have a look. What if there really is hope?"
"The Three-Paths Goddess had deep ties to the Sightless One. Perhaps a method to cleanse the curse was preserved within Yanfu Dao."
"The An Clan wouldn't lie. This is our greatest lead."
"If we find a suitable descendant, the next round of selection will be a heaven-sent opportunity!"
The younger woman nodded, not refusing.
…
Inside North Up Pass, Su Min'er awoke and discovered the donkey was gone.
She searched the entire courtyard. The donkey, usually too lazy to leave its pen, had vanished without a trace.
She called over her stupid dog and asked:
"Dogzi, sniff around. Why did the donkey disappear?"
The spirit hound replied:
"Don't worry, little master. That old donkey has the craftiness of a monkey demon; no one can get the better of him!"
As it spoke, it activated its divine sense and sniffed intensely.
"Hm?"
The hound sounded surprised:
"Little master, the donkey's scent disappears shortly after entering Dread Continent."
"But that's not the strangest part!"
"Beside the donkey, there is one aura I find rather familiar."
"Master, do you recall years ago when you had me run to Hunzou to search for your kin?"
"One of the scents next to the donkey feels somewhat similar to the aura you gave me back then."
"Though heavily changed, completely different by now"
"Another person would never detect it… But it cannot escape my nose!"
Su Min'er's face changed instantly.
If she had any lingering regret in her life, it was the disappearance of her elder brother, the thorn forever lodged in her heart.
Back then, her brother led the Green Lantern Spirit away at the critical moment, granting her the chance to survive until help arrived.
But by the time she recovered and sent the hound to search, her brother had vanished without a trace.
Over the years, her cultivation progressed smoothly. She reached seventh rank and awakened a high-grade Longevity Life Pattern, gaining long life.
But whenever she thought of her brother, she would imagine what heights he might have reached if given the same generous resources.
Now, hearing this sudden news, even if hard to believe, she dared not abandon hope.
"My brother… entered Dread Continent?"
"I smell him, yes. The scent is faint, fleeting, but unmistakable."
This lazy dog, useless in everything except eating, possessed an extraordinary sense of smell granted by a unique Heaven-Given Fate.
It had managed to detect even the faint trace left behind when Jing Qian briefly activated his Saintly Manifestation.
"Come, we must see my great-grandfather!"
…
Deep within Dread Continent, two men and one ox stared at an enormous Mushroom Spirit, utterly shocked.
Before them swayed a massive red-capped mushroom demon, towering as tall as a hundred-story building.
Jing Qian looked at the sky-covering Red Umbrella Mushroom, and the Six-Path Reincarnation Three-Life Eye on his brow rippled.
The mushroom's surface was covered in profound patterns perfectly matching a Violet-Pupil–rank "Mother Fungus" Life Pattern he had just comprehended, confirming his recent studies.
"Old Luo… how do you even stew a mushroom this big?"
"Daozi, don't doubt the culinary mastery of the Kitchen King Sect. As long as you haul this mushroom over, I know exactly how to prepare it. I guarantee perfection."
Jing Qian stopped hesitating. Facing this colossal, terrifying demon
He struck without delay!
Perfectly controlling a Proper First-Rank Spiritual Construct, the Saintly Manifestation, filled Jing Qian with boundless confidence.
Even a Second-Rank Kunpeng could not withstand his sword strikes, let alone this fragrant giant mushroom in front of him.
A violent surge of sword qi burst forth, spreading into a Grand Sumeru Sword Formation, effortlessly encasing the massive Red Zhaogu Mushroom within it.
Then, the Yin-Extreme Immortal Sword Embryo cleaved down with overwhelming sword light, carving a deep, brutal wound into the mushroom's body.
At the same time, Jing Qian flickered beneath the mushroom's colossal root, where the Pure Yang Sumeru Immortal Sword Embryo, concealing his presence, also slashed out.
All three Proper First-Rank Immortal Sword Embryos, empowered by Jing Qian's Sword Dao Heavenly Fate, unleashed terrifying might.
The enormous mushroom demon was chopped down instantly.
Had anyone ever heard a mushroom cry out?
Jing Qian was startled. The Mushroom Spirit's scream was unexpectedly sweet, like a drowsy baby waking up and calling for its family.
He gave it no chance to resist. The two swords alternated in a relentless assault, slicing through the Mushroom Spirit's internal Immortal Qi one strand at a time.
The Three-Life Eye of Reincarnation had long since detected its weak points. Every strike hit a key node, ruthlessly shattering its mana channels.
The towering Red Zhaogu Mushroom was chopped into pieces, completely slain.
Jing Qian's Saintly Manifestation remained spotless, consuming only a negligible amount of mana.
The moment he finished, Luo Tian hurried over. His Gluttonous Wok-Shovel opened wide, clamping onto the mushroom's remains and beginning to devour them piece by piece.
Jing Qian couldn't help but comment from the side:
"Old Luo, make sure you clean it thoroughly. If the three of us get food poisoning from this thing, it'll be embarrassing."
"Rest assured, sir. I won't tarnish the name of the Kitchen King Sect!"
Jing Qian shook his head, sat down with the old ox, and patiently waited for the mushroom feast to finish cooking.
Meanwhile, taking advantage of this rare idle moment, he stepped into Book Mountain again and resumed reading.
Above the Dharma Form section lay an even more massive body of knowledge concerning the Spiritual Construct.
This subject was so important to cultivation that it deserved encyclopedic treatment.
How many types of Spiritual Construct existed in the world?
Even someone of Emperor Egao's cultivation could not fathom the full list.
Behind the three great categories, Offering Seals, Outer-Moon Types, and Self-Seeking Roots, lie an interwoven ocean formed by countless divine constructs and millions of Life Patterns.
Each Spiritual Construct could sustain volumes of research.
Even for Jing Qian, this was a monumental undertaking requiring vast amounts of time.
He had already gathered enough knowledge for the Sumeru Dao Stele to evolve, so he did not rush. Instead, he savored the learning process.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and a pot of mushroom soup was finally ready.
Jing Qian awoke from his meditative reading and smelled an incredibly rich aroma rising from the red mushroom broth.
Without hesitation, he accepted a bowl from Luo Tian and drank it down in a few large gulps.
In the next instant, a vast illusion exploded through his sea of consciousness.
The world before him flipped upside down!
His Adam's apple was still bobbing, but the delicious broth had already transformed into countless fungal threads racing through his meridians.
The air shimmered; colorful ripples spread through his vision. His fingers seemed to melt, and red-capped spores surged beneath his skin.
The world changed into a mushroom realm, mushroom people, mushroom beasts, mushroom ghosts, mushroom immortals stretching to infinity.
Jing Qian's consciousness remained perfectly lucid.
He knew this vivid hallucination was merely the mushroom soup's unique spiritual effect, tempering his divine sense.
He treated it as an unusual experience rather than forcefully dispelling it.
He drifted through the mushroom world, light and airy, immersed in the strangeness.
Suddenly, a massive tower descended from the heavens, crushing the mushroom world into fragments.
Jing Qian snapped free from the soup's influence, only to discover something astonishing:
His Dao Stele space, previously sealed, had opened ahead of schedule!
This had to be the mushroom soup's boost to his divine sense.
This unexpected delight left Jing Qian with no hesitation. He immediately entered the Dao Stele space.
He could hardly wait to see what new abilities the Sumeru Dao Stele had gained!
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