Chapter 21: Power and Legacy of the Five Immortals Sect
The Five Immortals Sect still remained elusive like a divine dragon, its head seen but never its tail, eldom appearing in the world.
"A powerful immortal art must have a powerful root cause. Above, it also mentioned to you the several types of spiritual roots: mixed spiritual root, mysterious spiritual root, earth spiritual root, Profound Spiritual Root, Sacred Spiritual Root, and Variant Spiritual Root.
We are called the Five Immortals Sect and are divided into the Guishui Immortal Sect, Yimu Immortal Sect, Dinghuo Immortal Sect, Jitu Immortal Sect, and Xingin Immortal Sect, which respectively correspond to the five elements with the most sensitive resonance.
For example, the Yimu Immortal Sect cultivates immortal arts specifically created for the wood attribute, so those who are particularly sensitive to wood spiritual energy are best suited for cultivation; the Dinghuo Immortal Sect corresponds primarily to fire-attribute immortal arts.
However, the Five Immortals Sect does not require the Sacred Spiritual Root. Instead, one must simultaneously possess all five elemental attributes in order to cultivate."
At this point, the gray-robed elder paused his words for a moment.
"Mixed spiritual root?"
Although Li Yan was still shrouded in confusion about many things, he nonetheless understood a bit, and couldn't help but feel puzzled.
"This man's words are really strange. He previously said that Sacred Spiritual Roots are the strongest among cultivators, and now it sounds like he's saying mixed spiritual roots are the best for cultivation?"
"The mixed spiritual root. This is the greatest secret of the ancient Five Immortals Sect. It's just that, although what we require is someone with the mixed spiritual root constitution, it must not be an ordinary mixed spiritual root.
A mixed spiritual root, of course, means one that can sense all five elements, metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. But we not only need someone who possesses these five elemental attributes, these five elements must also be aligned in the strength order of the mutual generation cycle.
The Five Elements' mutual generation cycle is: water generates wood, wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, and metal generates water, thus endlessly generating in a continuous cycle.
Therefore, within the cultivator's body, the five elemental attributes must also be arranged in the order of strength according to the mutual generation cycle.
For example, in the Xingin Immortal Sect, the main element is 'metal.' Then the cultivator's internal elemental sensitivity must be in the order of metal, water, wood, fire, earth.
The strongest resonance with heaven and earth spiritual energy should be 'metal,' followed by water, wood, fire, and earth. If any later element in the sequence is stronger than the previous one, then one cannot cultivate the immortal arts of the Xingin Immortal Sect.
Similarly, in our Guishui Immortal Sect, the order of spiritual resonance with heaven and earth should be water, wood, fire, earth, metal, decreasing in strength accordingly. Only then can one cultivate our sect's immortal arts.
This is the greatest secret of our Five Immortals Sect, and also the biggest difficulty in seeking a successor to our legacy!"
The gray-robed elder revealed the secrets of the Five Immortals Sect to Li Yan.
Among ordinary cultivators in the mortal world, perhaps only one in a hundred thousand could be found, even considering all types of spiritual roots.
And among this extremely rare group, to then select out one with a mixed spiritual root, whether even one in a million could be found was still uncertain.
And finally, to find among this filtered group someone whose five elements aligned in the order of mutual generation… the probability was self-evident.
Seeing the somewhat enlightened expression on Li Yan's face, the gray-robed elder felt slightly reassured. He didn't have much time left and only hoped Li Yan could understand as much as possible.
"Therefore, although the techniques of the Five Immortals Sect can be considered unrivaled in the cultivation world, the number of disciples in every generation is nearly nonexistent, pitifully few.
Every time the legacy must be passed on, it takes immense effort to find the next successor. Every generation is basically passed on to a single individual, or just a few.
On one hand, one must pursue the Great Dao. The time spent on cultivation is relatively short at the beginning, but later, each closed-door meditation session might last several decades or even centuries. For us, that passes in the blink of an eye.
Therefore, aside from cultivation, the time spent searching for a suitable successor must often be concentrated in specific periods. As such, in the eyes of the world, it naturally appears as though we seldom appear.
As for why we don't openly recruit disciples, it was attempted in ancient times, but with little success, and it would even risk exposing the secrets of the Five Immortals Sect.
We use divine sense to scan low-level cultivators, which is much more covert and reliable. Divine sense is a type of mystical ability for cultivators. Without using one's eyes, one can see through walls and houses to observe everything clearly.
That teacher of yours is just a low-level immortal cultivator. His cultivation is negligible. Although he also possesses divine sense, he cannot see through whether others possess spiritual roots.
So, he must use other low-level means to detect whether someone has spiritual roots."
"My teacher is an immortal cultivator?"
Li Yan was shocked in his heart. The legendary immortals were actually this close to him. What he was thinking already showed on his face.
The gray-robed elder noticed Li Yan's thoughts.
"The matter of that little cultivator, if there's time later, I'll tell you more.
The Five Immortals Sect rarely appears before the world because our disciples are few in number. In the cultivation world, the weak are prey to the strong. Without sufficient power, going out would only mean courting death."
Therefore, before becoming powerful, the disciples of the Five Immortals Sect must either conceal themselves and lay low or remain in seclusion for bitter cultivation.
And if one wants to search for a sect successor and must stay outside for a long period, one must at least reach the Unity Stage. If one's cultivation is too weak and one stays outside for too long, the probability of falling is very high, especially since there are many enemies coveting the Five Immortals Sect.
Our five branches cannot afford such accidental deaths, all because we are far too few in number.
Disciples of the five branches are so difficult to find, and with the changes of the vast world, the Five Immortals Sect began to slowly decline. By the time it reached my era, once we cultivated to the Late Soul Transformation Stage, we began to go out in search of successors.
Although our cultivation wasn't very high, thankfully the immortal arts we cultivated were powerful. Within the same realm, few could be our match. Killing them was like slaughtering chickens and dogs. Even when facing three to five cultivators of the same realm at once, we could still prevail.
Even against an enemy one major realm above us, it wasn't impossible to kill them."
At this point, a look of pride appeared on the face of the gray-robed elder. On his withered face, a faint domineering aura even emerged. Clearly, he took immense pride in the immortal arts he cultivated.
"The reason we chose to go out and search for successors during the Soul Transformation Stage was, first, because we had no other choice, disciples were too hard to find. Second, because even in the Spirit Realm, cultivators at or above the Unity Stage rarely showed themselves. They spent most of their time in closed-door cultivation.
But even so, the Five Immortals Sect continued to decline. The special 'mixed spiritual root' required by the Five Immortals Sect is extremely difficult to find. Sometimes we are forced to traverse vast regions and continents, even crossing into different realms to search for suitable disciples.
Precisely because of this, encountering stronger enemies or unpredictable spatial turbulence was something bound to happen.
And so, some of the experts from our five branches who went out in search of successors never returned once they left. They may have already perished outside. The number of our disciples has dwindled further and further."
Speaking of this, the gray-robed elder's voice lowered slightly, a desolate look on his face, as if caught in a moment of remembrance.
Li Yan naturally didn't dare interrupt, and the gray-robed elder soon continued.
"A million years ago, I was the only one left in the Guishui branch. At that time, the other four branches had no news at all, presumably, they had already passed on before me."
A trace of sorrow and sentimentality appeared on the elder's face, as memories and emotions began to well up in his heart.
Although there were occasionally disputes between the five branches in the past, they had always relied on each other since ancient times, closely connected like branches from the same root, cultivating together and roaming the world together.
Through the long years, they had come this far together. Yet now, upon waking, all was gone like a fleeting dream.
When Li Yan heard the words "a million years ago," his face once again showed disbelief. Could someone really live for a million years?
How could such a thing not be utter fantasy? And yet someone stood before him saying it out loud. Somehow, he found himself starting to believe it. This thought rising within him startled even himself.
The gray-robed elder only paused briefly. When he looked again at Li Yan, a hint of comfort appeared in his heart.
"Over a hundred thousand years ago, I went into seclusion for a hundred years. When I came out, the other four branches were already deserted, the buildings overtaken by wild grass.
Only Fairy Ning Ke of the Yimu Immortal Sect left behind a jade slip!
She said that after leaving seclusion, she had already reached the Void Refinement Stage. She waited for seventy years, but received no word from the other three branches. Seeing that I also had not emerged from seclusion, she too went out to search for successors. But after that, we never had any contact again."
The gray-robed elder's expression dimmed. At this moment, his figure became even more blurred than before, though Li Yan, caught in an ongoing internal storm, did not notice.
Hearing all this, Li Yan opened his mouth, as though wanting to speak, but then felt it improper to interrupt the elder's narration at this moment. Yet how could the elder not notice? He immediately looked toward Li Yan.
"What I just told you, what do you not understand?"
Li Yan hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"What is a jade slip?"
Hearing this, the elder was momentarily stunned. Then he gave a self-deprecating laugh.
"Hehehe… I forgot, you know absolutely nothing about the cultivation world."
Everyone he had encountered before had basic knowledge of cultivation. Concepts like these were common knowledge. But Li Yan was someone who truly knew nothing.
"A jade slip is like the books you mortals use. It is a special kind of jade material, very hard to damage. Unlike books made of paper or bamboo, the characters, images, and sounds recorded within a jade slip can only be inscribed using a cultivator's divine sense.
As long as the jade slip is not destroyed, its contents can be preserved forever. I mentioned divine sense to you earlier, divine sense not only substitutes the eyes, but can also replace the ears for listening.
You have already begun cultivating divine sense, but it's still extremely weak. It has no tangible form yet and cannot be projected outside the body.
Generally, divine sense can only be released externally starting from the third level of the Qi Condensation Stage. The maximum range it can cover is about five zhang, depending on the strength of one's cultivation technique. The more powerful the divine sense, the broader the range of what one can see and hear.
That Strategist Ji is at the third level of Qi Condensation. He can already project his divine sense outside his body.
This means he doesn't need to use his eyes or ears, he can sweep his divine sense across a certain area to observe what you're doing and saying. In fact, it may even be clearer than using eyes or ears."
As he said this, the gray-robed elder looked at Li Yan with a faint smile, one that was neither truly a smile nor entirely mocking.
(Chapter End)