: Where Did the True Scripture Go?

2024-08-10 Author: Gu Zhenren

Ning Jiufan took the initiative and suggested, "Fellow Daoists, why not come to my place for some tea first?"

"Very well, very well," Zheng Danlian nodded.

Ning Jiufan looked at Zhu Xuanji: "Divine Constable, the previous alliance agreement was made somewhat hastily. Shall we discuss it over tea?"

Zhu Xuanji smiled slightly: "Then I must trouble you."

Ning Zhuo sat cross-legged on a cushion, surrounded by layers of floating clouds.

The magical tool, the Tornado Spinner, was pressed close to his chest, rotating slowly.

Under the tool's effect, a tornado formed within the dantian energy sea in his middle abdomen.

The tornado swept up the surrounding spiritual energy, absorbing it before continuously grinding and refining it within the whirlwind.

A large amount of impurities were destroyed, and the impure parts were cleared away, leaving behind a more refined portion.

Ning Zhuo was currently at the peak of the 8th level of Qi Refining. His energy sea was vast, and his spiritual energy was abundant.

He continuously activated the tool for a while before the sensation in his middle dantian felt somewhat relieved.

He originally had ten parts of spiritual energy; after refinement, only six parts remained.

Of course, these six parts were still somewhat impure, just significantly less so than before, and could be further refined.

"But this requires me to find other methods. Relying solely on the Tornado Spinner tool can only achieve this much," Ning Zhuo was well aware of this.

The growth and refinement of spiritual energy, corresponding to quantity and quality, are issues cultivators inevitably face and must continuously address throughout their lifelong cultivation.

Ning Zhuo cultivated all three seas—essence, energy, and spirit. The situation with the energy sea in the middle dantian was still the best, as he had the Tornado Spinner tool available.

For the essence sea and spirit sea, he could only use the crude method of continuously consuming blood energy and spiritual sense, then operating his cultivation techniques to generate new blood energy and spiritual sense for refinement.

"I should buy some Pure One Pills," Ning Zhuo thought.

This type of pill is the most classic and popular for refining one's cultivation.

It applies to all three treasures: essence, energy, and spirit.

It works on any of the three dantians, performing the corresponding refinement.

Ning Zhuo diligently practiced for quite a while, until he felt slightly irritable, before stopping the three main techniques.

He took out the Five Elements Measuring Ruler, separated his five-element spiritual energy into five single elements, and continuously practiced the Five Elements Mutual Generation and Restraint technique.

Since obtaining this technique, he had constantly practiced it. The amount of practice devoted to it was the greatest among all his techniques.

Ning Zhuo's progress in this area was visibly noticeable.

After practicing the technique for a while, Ning Zhuo turned back to cultivating the three main techniques again.

After several such cycles, Ning Zhuo felt his body had reached the limit of technique operation and finally truly ceased cultivation.

He also stopped practicing the Five Elements Mutual Generation and Restraint technique, put away the Floating Cloud Handkerchief, and hid a Cloud-Concealing Bud in his mouth, displaying the aura of the third level of cultivation.

He left his residence, accompanied by four former manager guards at the Foundation Establishment stage, and went to the Ning clan territory.

"I want to consult some典籍," Ning Zhuo arrived at the Secret Library.

The Ning clan's main library was open to the public, while the Secret Library was a higher level, accessible only to the clan's elites.

Ning Zhuo certainly qualified at this point.

He entered the Secret Library and browsed around. The four Foundation Establishment guards accompanying him all showed strange expressions.

This was because the典籍 and secret records Ning Zhuo was翻阅 were all related to dual cultivation.

"Hahaha, Young Master Ning Zhuo is already sixteen after all."

"Yes, he's growing from a boy into a man."

"But, thinking back, I started reading these when I was eleven."

The four Foundation Establishment cultivators privately transmitted messages.

Ning Zhuo consulted for several hours, then left the Secret Library with a furrowed brow, lost in thought.

On the way back to his residence, sitting in the carriage, he pondered the entire journey.

After this consultation, he had a deeper understanding of dual cultivation.

"The most mainstream method of dual cultivation is the union of yin and yang."

"Men host yang, women host yin. The convergence of yin and yang generates the power of the two polarities, which can transform the human body and elevate cultivation."

"But this method has significant drawbacks."

"Just as Boss Sun said, because one uses another's energy during cultivation, it leads to impurity in one's own energy."

"If one doesn't want to affect their foundation and future, they must refine their energy, removing the other's energy."

"Thus, after dual cultivation, one must undergo a round of refinement. Without good methods, when the gains from dual cultivation are small, it might even be worse than solitary cultivation through hard work."

Ning Zhuo also learned that the convergence of primal yang and primal yin achieves the best dual cultivation effect.

However, in this case, the other's energy almost penetrates to the bone marrow and cannot be completely removed. It's best to wholeheartedly continue down this path and form a Dao companion partnership with the partner.

"No wonder so many people become Dao companions!"

"However, once a Dao companion dies, the other party's cultivation suffers a significant negative impact."

"The risk is too great!"

"It's simply not worth it."

Ning Zhuo would rather cultivate alone than exchange his primal yang for temporary rapid progress, only to bury a huge hidden danger for the future.

"My previous dual cultivation was just a shallow convergence of yin and yang energy; it's fine."

"The acquired energy from others can be completely eliminated with sufficient effort."

"Additionally, dual cultivation with nature, achieving communion between heaven and human, is also a method with relatively little foreign energy."

When cultivators draw in the energy of heaven and earth, absorbing the yang energy of the sun and the yin energy of the moon, it falls into this category.

"Even with heaven-human communion, one still needs to refine themselves."

"Is there a method that allows me to dual cultivate with myself? This way, there would be no need for subsequent refinement at all."

Ning Zhuo's idea was this: since dual cultivation with others has the side effect of foreign energy, then dual cultivating with himself would eliminate the side effect at the root, making tools like the Tornado Spinner or Pure One Pills completely unnecessary.

This is entirely feasible in theory.

Because normal individual cultivation is precisely "yang energy moves to generate yin, yin energy quiets to form yang," thereby achieving yin-yang harmony.

Males are primarily yang, with more yang energy than yin energy, using yang energy to produce yin energy.

Females are primarily yin, with more yin energy than yang energy, using yin energy to produce yang energy.

"Is there a method that allows me to extract my own yin energy, place it into a mechanical component, and let it operate through some technique to increase the yin energy."

"When I need to dual cultivate, I extract this yin energy."

"Since the yin energy originally comes from my body and is one with me, after dual cultivation, the refinement step is completely unnecessary!"

Ning Zhuo instinctively thought of mechanical constructs.

It must be said that the previous dual cultivation had given Ning Zhuo significant inspiration.

Combined with his earlier desire to create a Golden Core-level mechanical body for Yuan Dasheng to help himself achieve a breakthrough in demonic arts,

Ning Zhuo conceived a quite enticing mechanical design inspiration – a mechanical puppet that could help cultivators practice faster!

"The path with Yuan Dasheng can be considered successful."

"Using the flesh and blood voluntarily contributed by clansmen, and utilizing Yuan Dasheng's ability to perform the Demonic Blood Tendon Art, I can obtain a continuous supply of essence blood."

"After refinement, this essence blood becomes additional essence treasure cultivation for me out of thin air!"

"As for yin-yang dual cultivation..."

Ning Zhuo was still in the conceptual stage.

The biggest technical challenge lies in how to make the yin energy grow on its own!

"What if I create a puppet, refine its spirituality, and have it use the techniques it knew in life to increase yin energy?"

"If there's no suitable candidate to make into a puppet, I must search for a true scripture specifically for increasing yin energy."

"Won't work."

"I cultivate the three main techniques. If the puppet uses other methods to increase yin energy, and the yin energy isn't naturally grown, it will carry the nature of those other methods."

"If I absorb too much, I will still need to refine it."

"Unless..."

"I create a fourth set of techniques based on the three main techniques, specifically for increasing yin energy!"

Thinking of this, Ning Zhuo immediately shook his head.

Cultivation methods that simultaneously cultivate the three dantians are already very rare and precious. Based on his current understanding of yin-yang and the three main techniques, it was impossible for him to create a fourth set of techniques.

"This path is blocked." Ning Zhuo sighed and continued to immerse himself in thought.

Ning Jiufan, Zhu Xuanji, and the others were on their third round of tea.

Ning Jiufan, holding the mechanical demon general as a major bargaining chip, demanded that Zhu Xuanji promise – he would ensure the safety of the entire Ning clan. Even if they failed in the future struggle for the Molten Rock Immortal Palace, he would need to arrange for the Ning clan to migrate to another immortal city.

A wiser move by Ning Jiufan was to also bring the Zhou and Zheng families into the fold. Setting aside the mutual exchange of interests, Ning Jiufan hoped Zhu Xuanji would make the same promise to these two families!

Zhu Xuanji pondered for a long time, calculating the costs multiple times, before finally nodding with difficulty, agreeing.

Thus, the three Golden Core families, overjoyed, immediately signed a higher-level alliance treaty with Zhu Xuanji!

Zhu Xuanji, having paid a great price, finally obtained the mechanical demon general.

"Presenting this will definitely cause a qualitative leap, a飞跃, in my position within the Molten Rock Immortal Palace!"

"Alas, I've also made a big gamble!"

Zhu Xuanji was betting on himself winning.

This way, at the critical moment of competing for the Immortal Palace, he could gain strong support from the three major families. Afterwards, if he defeated the Meng family, he wouldn't need to arrange the migration of the Zhou, Zheng, and Ning families.

The mechanical demon general had a fierce, rough exterior, but its internal mechanisms were precise and rigorous, like a human body.

Due to severe damage in many places, the mechanism could not be activated.

Therefore, Zhu Xuanji's next important task was to repair it.

Once Zhu Xuanji truly held the mechanical demon general in his hands and carefully inspected it, his expression suddenly changed, his heart sinking.

He stared at a mechanical plate in his hand.

The Blood Path Diagram Plate!

"This mechanical diagram plate is completely smooth. There must have been a true scripture recorded here once."

"Where did the true scripture go?"

True scriptures are written through the infusion and inscription of true intent.

Compared to ordinary scriptures, they can perfectly transmit the scripture's mysteries and the original author's intended meaning, without any loss, into another person's mind.

The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao.

The expression through words and language is often quite vague and weak.

But true scriptures are not!

"Because true scriptures contain true intent, they can transfer on their own, as long as a more suitable host appears."

"Let me see..."

Zhu Xuanji activated his Heavenly Fund Golden Eye and also urged the Tracing Origins Art.

The next moment, he saw a scene from the past.

The battlefield was in chaos.

The mechanical demon general, controlled by the Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit, charged recklessly through the rolling horde of demon beasts.

Eventually, its weakness was exploited, and it was defeated and fell to the ground.

The Dragon Turtle Fire Spirit quickly retreated.

The mechanical demon general became war booty, passing through the hands of many apes. But none of them could comprehend the true scripture.

Until a certain young monkey, while playing, touched the mechanical demon general.

The true scripture on the diagram plate was触动, immediately transferring from the iron plate into the little monkey's body!

"Wait."

"This little monkey looks familiar!"

"Strange."

"Why do I have a vague sense of familiarity?"

Zhu Xuanji's face showed confusion.

(End of )