Li Yan was stunned to hear this. "Divine sense, there's such a magical thing." But then he felt a wave of speechlessness. His room and his teacher's room were only six or seven zhang apart. In that case, didn't that mean that whatever he did or said in his room, his teacher could know?
After a slight smile, the old man continued, "When divine sense is strong enough, it can be used to kill people directly. A powerful cultivator can kill people without a trace with just a single thought of their divine sense, and even instantly kill a large number of beings of a lower species than themselves. In short, divine sense will continue to grow stronger with the increase of one's cultivation. After reaching the Nascent Soul stage, several strands of divine sense can form a single divine will. The function of a divine will will be even more powerful. You can only slowly explore and learn about these things in the future," the old man said, his tone already starting to sound a little ethereal.
"After I came out of seclusion, I waited in the sect for about a hundred years, but no one from the four sects returned. At that time, I was already in the early Body Integration stage. Although I had gone out to look for a successor during the Spirit Transformation and Void Refining stages, I had not found one, and I had not yet been to some of the more distant places. So, I no longer delayed and went out again to find a successor for my sect. But this time, I was gone for five or six hundred years. I crossed several vast regional continents, searched through thousands of mountains and rivers, deserts, and extreme regions, but still did not find a successor. In the end, I shattered the void again and came to the Mortal Realm, hoping to have some success. I searched in the Mortal Realm for another two hundred years but still found nothing. But one time, I received a piece of news that there was a hidden place in the Mortal Realm where people might have a higher chance of being born with spirit roots. But this place was already in an extremely remote part of the Mortal Realm. I learned from the news that even in ancient times, when the great powers of the Spirit Immortal Realm were looking for spirit veins in this realm to establish their lineages, they had not succeeded in establishing a sect in that area. As for why, there were no records left. It only recorded that the spiritual qi there was the best in this realm, and there were many people with excellent spirit roots. But to get there, one had to pass through a long and dangerous road with strange red lightning tribulations. The level of danger was something that had never been seen even in the Spirit Immortal Realm. It was said that one had to have at least the magical power of the Tribulation Transcendence stage to pass. I considered it for a long time and still decided to go and see. My sect's lineage could not be lost in my generation. But before I left, I left a wisp of my divine will in an immortal artifact, a jade box. This jade box could preserve a divine will for tens of thousands of years without dissipating, and it could sense whether humans within a radius of several thousand li had a spirit root. And the me now is that wisp of divine will. My main body has already gone to that unknown place," the old man said, looking at Li Yan.
Li Yan was already numb by this point. He had encountered too many magical, or rather, bizarre things today. Now this old man said that he was just a wisp of divine will. If he said so, then so be it. It was not impossible. So, he no longer felt surprised, just listened quietly.
"But I overlooked one thing, which is that driving this immortal artifact, the jade box, also requires a constant consumption of the divine will's power. In the beginning, I was in this immortal artifact, the jade box, driving it to fly across this continent in search. More than a thousand years passed, and I still hadn't found a successor. But at this time, I discovered that if I continued to search like this, my divine will might be exhausted in a few hundred thousand years and dissipate completely. So, I came up with a method. I transformed the jade box into an ancient jade slip book. I would still reside in it and let this book be found by some cultivator. He would surely treat it as some kind of immortal treasure or spirit artifact. Of course, they would absolutely not be able to decipher the mystery of this book." As he said this, a look of strong confidence appeared on the gray-robed old man's face. Even though he was not the main body, just a wisp of divine will, he still believed that no one in this realm could decipher the secret of the jade slip book he had transformed.
"Since they have obtained this jade book but cannot pry into its secrets, they will treat it as a treasure even more. The most appropriate method is, of course, to carry it with them. On the one hand, it is convenient for them to study it at any time. On the other hand, a treasure is naturally safest when it is by one's side. That way, he will carry me and move continuously, and I only need to follow his movements and continuously search different areas, without needing to consume extra divine will power to drive the immortal treasure, the jade box. And so, this transformed jade book was obtained by one cultivator after another. Some of them were killed, and then it was obtained by the next cultivator. Some carried it with them for hundreds of years before they died and their dao disappeared, and then it was obtained by a treasure hunter again. Of course, they could never open the secret of this book. But people are like that. The more unobtainable something is, the more precious it seems. And so, they carried the jade book across one region of the Mortal Realm after another. Another million years passed like this. I found many people with a Miscellaneous Spirit Root, but I still did not find a suitable person. At this time, I found that the power of my divine will had also been weakened by sixty to seventy percent. At the same time, I also sensed that my main body probably had not found a successor either, and that my main body had not fallen. There is a connection between me and my main body. If he had fallen, I would know. If he had found a successor, I would also know. My main body must be trapped somewhere and unable to escape, otherwise he would have come to find me. Therefore, I still had to continue to find a successor. But according to the previous method, this wisp of divine will could probably only last for another two or three hundred thousand years. So, I had to think of another way. That is, to let the main divine will enter a state of slumber to reduce consumption, and to separate a weaker wisp of divine sense to roam outside the main divine will to replace the divine will's scanning. But it is just a weaker wisp of divine sense. To reduce consumption, it can only scan an area of about a hundred li, and it has no attack ability. But this is already the best solution. If this wisp of divine sense scans the person I am looking for, it will wake up the main divine will. The main divine will can then conduct a character assessment of that person and then pass on the inheritance memories. But this wisp of divine sense can probably only last for about a thousand years before it dissipates. However, before it dissipates each time, it will wake up the main divine will and transmit what it has seen and heard over the years to the main divine will. Then this wisp of divine sense will dissipate into the heavens and earth. At this time, the main divine will will separate another wisp of divine sense, and then continue to slumber itself. Of course, in this way, the main divine will will also be slowly weakened and become weaker and weaker. But this can extend the search time." The old man narrated this leisurely. Li Yan remained silent, but in his heart, he sighed at the powerful ability of cultivators. A wisp of thought could survive in this world for a thousand years. This was not something a mortal could imagine.
"And so, another few hundred thousand years passed. During this period, I also found many people with a Miscellaneous Spirit Root, but I still did not get the person my sect needed. About fifty years ago, the jade book was obtained by a Golden Core stage cultivator again. One time, when he was out traveling, he encountered a very powerful enemy. He used all his divine abilities to escape the pursuit, but at that time, he was already seriously injured, and the golden core in his body was on the verge of collapsing. He barely flew back to his own cave residence, wanting to recover in his cave. But just after he arrived in the cave, he died and his dao disappeared. It was not until fourteen or fifteen years later that this cave was accidentally discovered by a small Foundation Establishment stage cultivator. With his meager cultivation, it was originally impossible for him to discover this cave. Even if he had discovered the cave by chance, it would have been impossible for him to break the cave-protecting great formation of a Golden Core stage cultivator. But when this Golden Core stage cultivator returned to his cave, he only opened the entrance of the great formation and did not have time to activate the great formation's protection again before he died. And so, a small cultivator broke in. The small cultivator got a lot of good things here, and of course, this book. He couldn't help but get carried away and began to search every corner of the cave even more recklessly. But in the end, his joy turned to sorrow. He accidentally triggered the cave's protective great formation. Fortunately, he was extremely clever. The moment he felt something was wrong, he immediately fled. But even though he was so decisive, the formation set up by a Golden Core stage cultivator was not something he could handle. During his escape, the small cultivator was still hit by the great formation's attack. By the time he came out, not only was he on the verge of death, but even the clothes on his body and his storage pouch had been destroyed. Oh, this storage pouch, you can understand it as an immortal's storage item. It's a small bag, but depending on its grade, it can store things of different sizes through immortal arts. You can look into this later. Speaking of which, it was this small cultivator's fate. The cultivation world is like this. Opportunities are often accompanied by dangers, and dangers often mean death." As he said this, the face of the blurry figure of the old man had already become indistinct.
Li Yan looked at the old man's blurry face and figure and thought, 'Is this the dissipation of divine will he was just talking about?'
"After the small cultivator's storage pouch was destroyed, besides the book transformed from the jade box, a piece of jade slip and a paper booklet protected by an immortal art were also preserved. However, the protective immortal art on the paper book had already been shattered and eliminated in the explosion of the storage pouch. Not long after, the small cultivator also went to the underworld. And so, I continued to slumber, waiting for the next 'fated person' to get this jade book. A few years later, a mortal in a black robe suddenly came here and got this jade book, jade slip, and the paper booklet that no longer had the protection of an immortal art from the side of the small Foundation Establishment cultivator's bones." At this point, the old man paused, a strange smile faintly appearing on his blurry face.
Li Yan thought for a moment and said to the old man, "This person is my teacher, right?"
The old man's blurry figure nodded. "That's right. This person is your current 'teacher'—Strategist Ji." When he said the word "teacher," he deliberately emphasized it, and with a hint of playfulness.
Li Yan naturally heard the sarcasm in the old man's words. There was definitely something wrong with this "teacher" of his. He could only vaguely guess that it was related to him, but he was still not sure what the specific problem was.
"This 'teacher' of yours is not from some 'Woodshadow Sect' of the secular martial world. That is just a sect he made up on the spot, a fictitious one. He is actually from the 'Immortal-Seeking Lineage.'"
When Li Yan heard this, although he could guess from the old man's expression that his "teacher" had some secrets, to hear that even the sect was fictitious and that he was not a member of the martial world still greatly surprised him. He couldn't help but ask, "What 'Immortal-Seeking Lineage'? Are they looking for immortals?"
"Hehe, you are somewhat right. Since the cultivators from the ancient Spirit Immortal Realm came to the Mortal Realm and established many cultivation families and sects, after tens of thousands of years, some people in the secular world have vaguely learned about these things and yearned to enter these families or sects to have the opportunity to cultivate immortal arts and obtain the path of longevity. In the beginning, it was just some scattered people going into the deep mountains to look for their immortal fate, hoping to find an immortal and be taken in as a disciple. But the deep mountains are full of demonic beasts and ghosts. Often, before these people could find their immortal fate, they had already become food for demonic beasts or souls under the claws of ghosts.
This was not the result these people who hoped to cultivate wanted. So, they slowly gathered together to look for their immortal fate together. This way, when they encountered demonic beasts and ghosts, they could look out for each other. Although the result was much better than before, the casualties were still extremely high.
Later, secular martial artists from the martial world joined in. Some were hired by them, and some martial artists, in pursuit of greater power, resolutely joined in after hearing of the existence of immortals. With their participation, the probability of death was greatly reduced. And so, they searched through great rivers and treacherous waters, painstakingly looking for their own sliver of immortal fate.
Later, some of them who had spirit roots really found some immortal sects and also joined them, cultivating immortal arts. At the same time, some people found the immortal arts or cave residences of dead cultivators. If they also happened to have a spirit root, they also embarked on the path of immortality. This further aroused the confidence of these people. They simply stopped caring about worldly affairs, practiced martial arts together, so that they could go deeper into more unknown places. They did not enter the world, did not travel the martial world, and only wanted to pursue their immortal fate. So, few people in the secular world knew about them. They were called the 'Immortal-Seeking Lineage' by cultivators. That Strategist Ji is a descendant of this 'Immortal-Seeking Lineage.'"
Hearing this, Li Yan thought to himself, 'I wonder why this teacher of mine lied to me and said he was from the 'Woodshadow Sect'?' This was something he still hadn't figured out.
"After that Strategist Ji obtained the jade book, jade slip, and that book, he naturally liked them. But he didn't know that this was also his great fortune. The paper book and the jade slip were a set of immortal arts, called the 'Night Curtain Art.' It's just that the paper book recorded the method of sensing the spiritual qi of heaven and earth for initiating into the immortal arts and the incantations for the first three layers of the Qi Condensation stage. The jade slip recorded the incantations and techniques for the fourth to tenth layers of the Qi Condensation stage. It should be for the initiation of a certain immortal sect's Qi Condensation stage. The reason it was designed this way is that a new cultivator's divine sense is too weak to leave the body. One has to cultivate to the third layer before it can leave the body. Only then can one open the jade slip. So, the first three layers are generally recorded in a paper book, and then the sect's immortal art is added to protect it. Ordinary mortals naturally cannot open it. Some books have such strong immortal art protection that even a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator cannot open them. As for Foundation Establishment stage cultivators or higher, even if they have the ability to break it, they don't have the inclination. They are already people who can establish their own sects. Why would they care about these low-level introductory techniques? And even if they cultivate it, a paper book generally only has the first three layers. What's the use of that?"