Vol 2 Chapter 390: The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Divine Path, Cooperation Agreent
The Jiushan Realm was originally a place where the sky was invisible.
Not only in the mortal realm of Jiushan, but even when standing on the Nine Islands of the Heavenly Palace, one’s sight was enveloped by dense fog. The sun and moon were never seen on ordinary days, and there were no stars either.
But at this mont, sothing had changed.
Zheng Fa rose slowly, accompanied by the Sun and Moon Bell. Golden and purple lights blood simultaneously, intertwining brilliantly in the sky.
The once dense, pitch-black fog was illuminated by this light, instantly lting away like snow touched by the sun.
Looking up at the sky from the mortal realm of Jiushan, one saw only a clear expanse, with blue skies and white clouds.
The towering buildings on the Nine Islands appeared partially hidden or revealed atop the clouds, truly like palaces in the heavens.
The incense fire power surrounding Zheng Fa resembled seven-colored clouds, with multicolored gentle light shining on these buildings, making them even more magnificent—like a fairyland.
But in Zheng Fa’s eyes, this scene was very different.
He sat upright in the small courtyard, his mind faintly connected to this Yang Spirit body.
From his perspective, that incense fire power was actually a sea of divine consciousness!
Before this, Zheng Fa had never heard that mortals possessed divine consciousness. Naturally, he assud that only those with cultivation could generate divine consciousness.
But today’s scene shattered his understanding:
This colorful sea of incense fire was actually composed of countless threads of divine consciousness that even Zheng Fa found hard to perceive individually.
A single thread of divine soul was insignificant, but the Jiushan Realm now had hundreds of millions of people. Gathered together, this divine consciousness was vast and far surpassed Zheng Fa’s own.
“Incense fire Divine Path, so that’s how it is.”
Zheng Fa’s understanding of the essence of Divine Path cultivation deepened at once.
In the relationship between divine consciousness and cultivation, there was a paradox Zheng Fa had not realized:
Cultivators cultivate by using divine consciousness to guide spiritual energy. If mortals have no divine consciousness, how could they achieve this?
This scene proved to Zheng Fa that everyone has divine consciousness, but the divine consciousness of mortals is too weak to project outward;
even they themselves are unaware of it, let alone use it for magical power.
But the incense fire Divine Path gathers these weak divine consciousnesses together, producing a miraculous transformation.
In Zheng Fa’s perception, the Yang Spirit body at this mont could use this incense fire power as a substitute for divine consciousness.
Its divine consciousness was mighty, far surpassing an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator.
What surprised him even more was that the Sun and Moon Bell was the foundation of the Jiushan Realm. After the Yang Spirit body fused with the Sun and Moon Bell, it received the world’s blessing, and within the Jiushan Realm, it even possessed combat power comparable to Fusang Wood—aning that although this Yang Spirit body might only be a Nascent Soul outside, within the Jiushan Realm it could rival a wandering immortal.
“...The speed of the Divine Path is truly incredible.”
Zheng Fa stared at the Yang Spirit body, feeling that this was sowhat absurd.
It was important to note that his Yang Spirit body was originally only at the initial stage of Yang Spirit cultivation, yet upon just entering the Divine Path, its power had leapt forward so drastically.
Even knowing this Yang Spirit body was his own clone, he couldn’t help but mutter—cheating is shaful!
But this wasn’t the greatest advantage of the Divine Path, at least not the greatest advantage for Zheng Fa:
Dominating the Jiushan Realm alone couldn’t resolve his crisis.
Moreover, he wasn’t exactly lacking in the power of wandering immortals.
But since the Divine Path had ruled the Xuanyi Realm for an entire era, it was naturally not that simple:
He stirred his mind, and the Yang Spirit body slightly opened its eyes and looked up toward the Sun and Moon Bell.
The Sun and Moon Bell slowly floated down and rged completely above the Yang Spirit body’s head.
The Yang Spirit body opened its eyes, and the incense fire power around it surged and pressed against each other, gathering into a whirlpool.
In an instant, spiritual energy from nearly half of the Jiushan Realm surged into the whirlpool, flooding into the Yang Spirit body, causing its form to beco increasingly solid.
“What is this...” Elder Yu seed to have seen sothing, his eyes wide open.
“Incense fire is divine consciousness, so naturally it can be used for cultivation,” Zheng Fa stated his guess, making Elder Yu’s expression even more shocked. “We cultivators use divine consciousness to guide spiritual energy into the body. Now, because of this incense fire power, the Yang Spirit body’s divine consciousness is worlds apart from before. The range of spiritual energy it can absorb is naturally incomparable.”
In the small courtyard, Senior Sister Zhang and others exchanged glances, all expressing admiration.
Everyone understood what this ant—it could be said that the Yang Spirit body would never lack spiritual energy in future cultivation, only insight into the Great Dao!
“This is even stronger than your Heaven-Earth Crucible thod.”
Elder Yu, after holding back for a while, couldn’t help but sigh.
Zheng Fa nodded in agreent.
The Heaven-Earth Crucible thod was certainly effective, but it had not broken the limitations of divine consciousness.
After all, the Jiushan Ancestor could only enhance the density of spiritual energy in the surrounding space, whereas this incense fire power expanded the spiritual energy absorption range of the Yang Spirit body by ten or even a hundred tis.
More importantly—the spiritual energy the Jiushan Ancestor could provide was limited.
When Zheng Fa was at the Nascent Soul stage, the Jiushan Ancestor, who was at the Nascent Soul stage himself, was naturally a super-large capacity charger. But now that Zheng Fa was at Nascent Soul, the spiritual energy from the Jiushan Ancestor could only be said to barely suffice.
If Zheng Fa’s strength increased further, the Jiushan Ancestor’s usefulness would diminish:
It might help solve urgent problems in battles of magical arts, but it wouldn’t make much difference during cultivation.
From what it looked like, the Divine Path thod didn’t have this problem. The stronger the incense fire, the wider the divine consciousness of the Yang Spirit body, and the more spiritual energy it could absorb.
“This Divine Path thod is so strong,” Elder Yu exclaid, but then frowned, “Yet the Heavenly Venerate died;
there must be so great flaw...”
Zheng Fa nodded slightly, looking at the Yang Spirit body. He saw its gaze sotis confused, sotis joyful, and at tis showing a ferocious grin, and he couldn’t help but sigh softly.
...
“Was it who taught it?”
Immortal Li frowned and pondered deeply. He felt he wouldn’t forget such a significant matter, yet the spiritual energy fluctuations on Zheng Fa now did bear so traces of Taishang Dao.
“Doesn’t that an... it hard Zheng Fa?”
“Hard Zheng Fa?” Head Seat Mingde was stunned, but seeing that the elder Nascent Soul cultivator was nodding, he was even more puzzled: how could teaching Taishang Dao’s secret transmission to Zheng Fa be considered harmful?
Immortal Li touched his forehead and sighed, “The incense fire power seems like a cultivation treasure but is actually dangerous. The thoughts of all living beings are poison for cultivators.”
Head Seat Mingde asked in surprise, “What do you an by that?”
“After the Dao Venerable created the Yang Spirit thod, the Divine Path rose rapidly. This thod cultivates extrely fast and soon beca mainstream in Xuanyi,” Immortal Li shook his head. “But this thod eventually declined. The problem lies in the thoughts of all living beings.”
The elder continued:
“The Ancestor was right. Living beings are ignorant. Their everyday thoughts are complicated, even filthy. Since Divine Path cultivation benefits from incense fire, it must also bear these thoughts.”
“Therefore, Divine Path cultivators’ hearts are filled with the desires, greed, and ignorance of their believers...”
“But the more believers they have, the stronger the Divine Path cultivators beco, and the more thoughts there are—like drinking poison to quench thirst.”
Head Seat Mingde felt numb listening to this and finally understood why the Ancestor said he had hard Zheng Fa.
“This...”
“Zheng Fa uses the Divine Path thod probably because he wants to quickly counter Lu True Immortal,” Immortal Li frowned, “but for the Divine Path to reach great success is as difficult as ascending to the heavens. If anything goes wrong, Haori Mountain might not even need to intervene...”
Everyone exchanged glances, understanding why Immortal Li was so concerned.
Taishang Dao wanted Zheng Fa to stop Lu True Immortal from ascending to Golden Immortal. Zheng Fa must not die—yet now he cultivated the risky Divine Path thod. If sothing happened, wouldn’t Taishang Dao’s efforts be wasted?
He looked at the sky, troubled: “Why didn’t I just keep my mouth shut?”
Just then, a crow’s cry ca suddenly from the horizon.
A golden crow, bathed in flas, flew toward Zheng Fa in the sky.
Flas gathered behind it, like a long tail feather. Attached was a car fra of red gold color, upon which stood a large sun canopy.
The golden crow swept across the sky and landed before Zheng Fa.
Zheng Fa stepped onto the carriage, which transford into a giant sun and flew through the sky, carrying Zheng Fa away without a trace.
Those in the Jiushan Realm felt an inexplicable surge of great joy in their hearts, including Nascent Soul cultivators like Head Seat Mingde who had co from outside.
While everyone was still uncertain and surprised, Immortal Li spoke: “The Divine Venerate takes his place;
the sun and moon order is set. With this Divine Path thod, Zheng Fa has truly succeeded.”
Hearing this, everyone didn’t know whether to be happy or sad for a mont.
Immortal Li thought for a long ti and seed to co to a decision: “Wait here for a mont. I will go have a talk with Zheng Fa.”
...
Seeing Immortal Li suddenly co to see him, Zheng Fa was also sowhat puzzled.
“Alliance Leader, is the Divine Path thod you practice?”
Seeing Zheng Fa nod, Immortal Li sighed with regret: “Then I suppose you have also felt the troubles of this incense fire power.”
Zheng Fa’s expression also held so lingering fear.
The distractions within the incense fire power were truly countless.
So wished for spirit stones to fall from the sky.
So thought of big mansions and living in large houses.
Even more extre were those who wished for ascension in a single day, eternal life, and thousands of fairy maidens.
There were also hidden evil thoughts in people’s hearts that were usually unseen but laid bare within the incense fire.
The Yang Spirit body, imrsed within, was like drowning in a sea of desire, occasionally on the verge of losing its mind.
Fortunately, with the Divine Art of Unifying Three Purities, although he could also sense these desires, he rely felt like he was reading a book unrelated to himself.
But the Yang Spirit body was deeply afflicted, and Zheng Fa could only occasionally awaken it.
If Zheng Fa himself cultivated the Divine Path thod, he would probably regret it too late now.
Immortal Li shook his head and sighed: “It’s my fault.”
Zheng Fa was stunned. He trusted Immortal Li much now and had been observing the Yang Spirit body, but hadn’t heard the discussions of Immortal Li and others.
So he didn’t quite understand what Immortal Li ant.
“Enough...” Immortal Li was silent for a mont, then explained his purpose, “Actually, it’s not completely without solutions.”
“Hm?”
“My predecessors in Taishang Dao also cultivated the Divine Path thod long ago,” Immortal Li explained, “and after their improvents, this Divine Path thod has two ways to slightly avoid these flaws.”
Zheng Fa was surprised to hear this.
Then Immortal Li said directly: “The first is our fundantal Taishang Dao legacy, which I cannot pass to you.”
“Fundantal legacy?”
“Yes, the Taishang Forgetting Passion Scripture was created by the Dao Venerable. Though it is not a Divine Path thod, it greatly suppresses the desires of living beings.”
Zheng Fa suddenly looked at Immortal Li, probing: “Forgetting?”
Immortal Li nodded slightly, seemingly unwilling to say more, then added: “The other thod is not a secret and is very suitable for you, Alliance Leader.”
Hearing this, Zheng Fa beca interested: “What thod?”
“The Tongtian thod.”
Zheng Fa looked puzzled, then heard Immortal Li explain: “Tongtian ans the Heavenly Monunt Realm you speak of. Our Taishang Dao legacy calls it Tongtian. The Dao Venerable once said the Heavenly Monunt is the boundary marker of the Immortal’s Tongtian realm.”
Hearing this, Zheng Fa was shaken inside but kept his thoughts hidden and asked, “So the Tongtian thod is...”
“In essence, it uses incense fire power to temper the Tongtian treasure,” Immortal Li explained. “Our Taishang Dao predecessors found that Divine Path cultivators combined with Tongtian treasures can temporarily maintain their true nature through these treasures.”
“Moreover, once the Tongtian treasure grows, the Divine Path cultivator’s cultivation also strengthens, allowing them to endure stronger incense fire desires.”
Zheng Fa imdiately thought of the Heavenly River thod. It seed the idea of using treasures to maintain true nature really originated from the Divine Path.
Immortal Li added: “This thod is actually not rare.”
“Hm?”
“The rare thing is the Tongtian treasure,” Immortal Li smiled. “There used to be many Tongtian treasures, but now there are far fewer. In this era, the only known existing Tongtian is in the Jiushan Realm.”
This made sense:
No matter how precious a secret thod was, if it couldn’t be cultivated, it was useless.
Zheng Fa couldn’t help but feel so anticipation. Although he was not afraid of the incense fire desires like others, that didn’t an the Yang Spirit body didn’t need this thod.
The incense fire desires affected cultivators in every aspect:
Most severely, they easily caused cultivators to lose their true nature.
Besides, cultivators’ daily practice was easily disrupted by these thoughts. The Yang Spirit body found it difficult to ditate and cultivate.
It could even be said that the advantage of the Divine Path thod was almost endless spiritual energy, while the disadvantage was having to dance with inner demons every day, making true cultivation impossible.
Therefore, Zheng Fa’s biggest problem now was how the Yang Spirit body could cultivate.
“But I must also remind the Alliance Leader,” Immortal Li continued, “this is not a fundantal cure. To advance the Tongtian treasure requires extrely strong incense fire power, and the desires a cultivator bears grow even stronger.”
“Our Taishang Dao predecessors discovered that even with the advancent of the Tongtian treasure, it can only temporarily suppress the suffering caused by the desires of living beings. Over ti, the cultivator’s heart and character will be affected by incense fire power, making recovery difficult.”
“Therefore, this Tongtian thod can only delay the ti before one descends into demonic paths. The Divine Path thod... is not a Great Dao thod.”
Immortal Li thought for a mont and revealed a secret: “Later, within our Taishang Dao Tongtian, there were no more ordinary mortals.”
Hearing this, Zheng Fa silently thought: he didn’t actually care about the incense fire desire’s suppression, but that didn’t an he didn’t want the Tongtian thod!
From Immortal Li’s words, Zheng Fa deduced one thing: when the Tongtian treasure advanced, Divine Path cultivators could also advance. In other words, this was a quick advancent thod for the Divine Path.
In the case that the Yang Spirit body’s cultivation was disturbed by incense fire thoughts, this thod was even more suitable for Zheng Fa who wanted rapid strengthening.
Perhaps others feared the incense fire power and wavered, even selecting Tongtian residents to purify incense fire thoughts to so extent.
But Zheng Fa was not afraid!
He cupped his hands toward Immortal Li and said, “Thank you for your reminder, Immortal.”
“No trouble. I won’t give you this thod for free,” Immortal Li smiled, then suddenly wore a troubled expression. “To be honest, this is also my fault...”
Zheng Fa was even more puzzled seeing Immortal Li so self-reproachful and could only sigh:
Immortal Li may not seem very clever, but... he’s a good person.
...
Soon Zheng Fa learned the price of the Tongtian thod.
In the reception hall of Zheng Fa’s small courtyard, two rows of wooden chairs were arranged.
Several high-level mbers of Jiushan Sect and a group from Taishang Dao sat on opposite sides.
Zheng Fa held a jade tube and after burning an incense stick, handed it to Senior Sister Zhang beside him.
Immortal Li asked, “What does the Alliance Leader think?”
“I generally agree to these terms,” Zheng Fa said, recalling the contents in the jade tube. “Regarding the matter of resisting Haori Mountain, our positions are aligned, so naturally I’m willing to cooperate.”
The conditions set by the Taishang Dao’s Ancestor Xuanding basically boiled down to two points:
One was to resist the unified front of Haori Mountain.
Simply put, to fight Haori Mountain together.
There were also detailed clauses about intelligence sharing and mutual watch and assistance, all revolving around this.
Thinking of intelligence sharing, Zheng Fa glanced at Immortal Li with a aningful look: “I didn’t expect Taishang Dao to value Tongjian so highly.”
Immortal Li smiled.
Zheng Fa reflected silently that he had only t great cultivators limited by their knowledge, but never truly foolish ones.
The broadcast of the Dao Fruit war seed to have shown Taishang Dao Tongjian’s capabilities and guessed Jiushan Sect’s intelligence ability.
ntioning intelligence sharing now, they might really want to take advantage.
Zheng Fa even guessed that Taishang Dao secretly harbored so caution toward Tongjian.
Seeing Immortal Li silent, Zheng Fa shook his head and thought the agreent was fairly reasonable.
Taishang Dao was important to Jiushan Sect for several reasons:
One, to withstand the pressure from the four sects, especially the pressure brought by Xie Qingxue.
Most importantly, with Taishang Dao’s presence, Zheng Fa felt Jiushan Sect was truly safe:
Although Haori Mountain now had only one True Immortal, he also feared the shaless interference of Leiyin Temple. Having Taishang Dao reduced this worry significantly.
In this respect, their interests were almost perfectly aligned.
The other main clause was about trade.
Senior Sister Zhang put down the jade tube, looked at Immortal Li, and asked, “Magic tools and spiritual talismans exchanged for pills?”
Immortal Li nodded and smiled: “Our Taishang Dao pill path is unrivaled in Xuanyi. Your alliance has so magic tools and spiritual talismans that are... quite unique.”
It was clear that Immortal Li had thought hard and finally found a word of praise.
This was not to belittle Jiushan Sect, but for Taishang Dao, especially for a wandering immortal like Immortal Li, Jiushan Sect’s current pill refinent and artifact forging were indeed only sowhat distinctive:
Madam Xuanhua was still in the late Nascent Soul stage and hadn’t reached Nascent Spirit yet, so she naturally couldn’t forge spirit tools.
For Taishang Dao, especially for wandering immortals like Immortal Li, these magic tools and treasures were rather low-end.
Immortal Li added, “Oh, they can also be exchanged for the Tongtian thod. I forgot to include that.”
Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang exchanged a glance, showing so hesitation.
Honestly, this trade agreent was quite fair.
The Taishang Dao’s Ancestor Xuanding seed like a perfectionist;
many products even had precise prices, sotis down to half a spirit stone.
Zheng Fa roughly looked it over;
the prices were close to market prices in Xuanyi and no one was at a disadvantage.
Immortal Li seed embarrassed and quietly said, “I can give you a discount on the Tongtian thod, but for other things...”
He paused and said, “Ancestor Xuanding is very serious. Every spirit stone in the sect is accounted for and can’t be moved casually.”
Hearing this, Head Seat Mingde and others nodded in agreent.
Ancestor Xuanding probably wasn’t extravagant at all.
Many of the products in the catalog were Jiushan’s exclusive magic tools, which Head Seat Mingde liked to buy before.
And because these items were rather low-end, Taishang Dao disciples might not want to earn such hard-earned money.
In other words, this agreent did not harm Taishang Dao’s interests and could supplent their magic tool demands.
Ancestor Xuanding must have carefully selected these items, showing no intention to let Jiushan Sect get any cheap advantage.
Zheng Fa thought for a mont and nodded to Senior Sister Zhang.
Senior Sister Zhang understood and said, “Jiushan Sect has two questions.”
“Please speak.”
“Can the product catalog and prices be changed later?”
Immortal Li laughed: “Of course.”
Seeing Senior Sister Zhang’s face show so disappointnt, she asked again, “Then how many of these items do you want?”
Immortal Li was stunned and looked confused, apparently not understanding the question’s aning, and asked, “What?”
“How many of these magic tools or spiritual talismans do you want?” Senior Sister Zhang spoke slowly, then asked expectantly, “Is there an upper limit?”
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