Chapter 22: Immortal-Seeking Lineage, Beginning of the Mystery's Unraveling
After hearing all this, Li Yan was momentarily dumbfounded. He understood the gray-robed elder's meaning, didn't that imply that anything he did or said in the room could be known by his teacher? That door had absolutely no use at all.
But the gray-robed elder gave Li Yan no time to dwell on it.
"When divine sense becomes powerful enough, it can be used to kill directly. A powerful cultivator only needs a wisp of divine sense to kill someone without leaving a trace.
Once one's cultivation reaches a certain stage, divine sense can further condense into an even more powerful divine intent. These are things you will slowly come to explore and understand in the future.
After I emerged from seclusion, I waited in the sect for a hundred years. The four branches still gave no sign of return. At that time, I had already reached the early Unity Stage. Though I had previously gone out to seek a successor during the Soul Transformation and Void Refinement stages, I found no one.
So I went out once more to seek a successor for my branch. That journey lasted five or six hundred years, still without results. In the end, I shattered the void and descended into the Mortal Realm.
I searched in the Mortal Realm for over two hundred years, again to no avail. But it was then that I received a piece of news: somewhere in the Mortal Realm, there was a hidden place, where people were said to have a higher likelihood of developing spiritual roots.
However, that place was extremely remote within the Mortal Realm. According to the information, even during ancient times, great experts from the Spirit Realm failed to establish sects there. As for why, no records remain.
Only that it was recorded as the place with the richest spiritual energy in this realm, with many individuals possessing superior spiritual roots. But to reach it, one must pass through dangerous zones, such as strange red tribulation lightning.
The level of danger was said to be unseen even in the Immortal Spirit Realm. It was rumored that only someone with Tribulation Transcendence Stage cultivation or higher could pass through. After much consideration, I decided to go have a look.
The Dao lineage of our sect could not be allowed to end in my generation. But before I left, I left a strand of divine intent in an immortal artifact, a jade box.
This jade box could preserve a divine intent for a million years without dispersing. It can also detect whether there are humans with spiritual roots within a radius of several thousand li. Right now, I am that strand of divine intent. My true body has already gone to that unknown place."
The elder looked at Li Yan as he spoke.
At this point, Li Yan was already numb. He had encountered far too many miraculous or rather, bizarre things today.
Now this gray-robed elder was saying he was merely a strand of divine intent. Well, if he said so, then so be it. Li Yan was no longer even surprised, he just quietly listened.
"Perhaps because my cultivation was already too high, I overlooked a small matter, a very crucial one at that.
Using this immortal jade box required a continuous expenditure of divine intent. And this strand of mine had not undergone any special refinement, so it could not cultivate on its own.
At first, my divine intent drove the jade box to fly continuously across this continent in search of a successor. Just like that, over a thousand years passed and still, I found no one.
By then, I realized that such uninterrupted driving of the jade box consumed far too much divine intent. If this continued, perhaps in another 500,000 to 600,000 years, the intent would be completely exhausted.
But my true body was already far away, so I had to find another method. I transformed the jade box into an ancient jade slip in the form of a book, and remained hidden within it.
Afterward, I allowed this book to be found by a cultivator. Of course, no cultivator in this realm could possibly unlock the secrets within it.
Since they had obtained this jade book but could not decipher its mysteries, they would naturally treat it as a treasure. The safest course of action would be to carry it with them at all times.
On one hand, this would allow them to study it whenever they wished. On the other, a precious item is safest kept on one's person.
Thus, they would carry me with them as they moved, and I could continue searching different regions without expending extra divine intent to move the jade box.
In this way, the transformed jade book was passed from one cultivator to another. Some were killed, and the book was obtained by the next; some carried it for hundreds of years until their death, and it was found again by treasure seekers.
And so, carrying the transformed jade book, they passed through region after region of the Mortal Realm. In this way, tens of thousands of years slowly passed. I found quite a few people with mixed spiritual roots, but still not one suitable successor.
By then, I found my divine intent had already been depleted by sixty to seventy percent. At the same time, I could sense that my true body had not yet found a successor either and it had not perished.
There is a connection between my true body and me. If it had perished, I would know. If it had found a successor, I would also know. It seems my true body must be trapped somewhere and unable to return. Otherwise, it would have come back already.
Therefore, I had to continue the search for a successor. But according to the previous method, this divine intent could probably only last another 300,000 to 400,000 years. So I had no choice but to think of another solution.
And that was to put the main divine intent into a dormant state, reducing consumption. I would split off a weaker strand of divine sense to roam outside the main intent and act in its place to scan and search.
But it was only a weak strand, and to reduce consumption, it could only scan an area of about 100 li around itself, and it had no offensive power. But this was the best solution available.
If that weak divine sense detected someone matching the requirements, it would awaken the main divine intent. The main intent could then assess the candidate's character and transmit its memories.
But that weak strand could only survive for about a thousand years before dissipating. So before it dispersed each time, it would awaken the main intent and pass on everything it had seen and heard in those years then it would vanish into the world.
At that point, the main divine intent would split off another strand, then return to sleep. In this way, although the main intent would gradually weaken, the duration of the search could be extended."
And so, about fifty years ago, the jade book was obtained by a Core Formation Stage cultivator.
Once, while traveling outside, he encountered a powerful enemy. He exhausted all his divine abilities just to escape with his life, but by then he was already severely injured, the Dan in his was on the verge of collapse.
He barely managed to fly back to his own cave residence, but before he could begin healing and recovery, his Dao dissipated and he died.
Fourteen or fifteen years later, one day, that cave residence was accidentally discovered by a small-time Foundation Establishment cultivator. Based on his meager cultivation, he ordinarily shouldn't have been able to discover it.
However, that Core Formation cultivator had died before he could activate the protective grand formation upon returning to his cave, and so the small-time cultivator barged in and obtained quite a few benefits.
Naturally, that included the jade book. He couldn't help becoming arrogant and began to recklessly search every corner of the cave.
But in the end, his joy turned to disaster. He accidentally triggered the protective formation of the cave. That little cultivator was extremely quick-witted, upon sensing danger, he immediately fled.
Even so, despite his decisiveness, a formation set up by a Core Formation cultivator was not something he could withstand. During his escape, he was still struck by the formation.
By the time he emerged, not only was he on the brink of death, but even the clothes on his body and his storage pouch had been destroyed.
A storage pouch, well, you can just think of it as a container used by immortals to store things. It can store items of various sizes using immortal arts. You can explore the specifics later.
After the storage pouch was destroyed, aside from the jade book, what remained was a jade slip and a paper booklet protected by immortal arts.
The protective immortal art on the paper book was also shaken apart and dissipated during the explosion of the storage pouch. Not long after, that little cultivator too passed away and returned to the underworld.
And so, I continued slumbering, waiting for the next 'fated person' to come across this jade book.
Several years later, one day, a black-robed mortal suddenly arrived at this place and obtained the jade book, the jade slip, and the now-unprotected paper book from beside the small Foundation Establishment cultivator's corpse."
As the gray-robed elder said this, a faintly strange smile appeared on his already-blurred face.
Li Yan thought for a moment and said to the elder:
"That person must be my teacher, right?"
The elder's blurry figure nodded and said,
"Correct. That person is your current 'teacher', Strategist Ji."
When he said the word "teacher," he deliberately emphasized it, with a hint of amusement in his tone.
Li Yan naturally picked up on the elder's sarcastic implication. There was clearly something suspicious about this so-called "teacher" of his. He could vaguely guess it had something to do with himself, but he still didn't know exactly what.
"Your 'teacher' is not some mundane martial sect member from the so-called 'Woodshadow Sect.' That was just a name he made up on the spot, a fictional sect. In truth, he belongs to the Immortal-Seeking Lineage."
Li Yan couldn't help but interject at this point:
"What is the 'Immortal-Seeking Lineage'? Do they search for immortals?"
"You're not far off. No matter how hidden cultivators are, for the sake of passing on their legacies or for other reasons, they inevitably have to interact with mortals, just like you today.
Therefore, mortals yearn to enter cultivation sects and obtain the path to immortality.
In the beginning, it was just a few scattered individuals going deep into the mountains, seeking immortal fates, hoping to encounter an immortal who would take them in as a disciple.
But deep mountains are full of monsters and ghosts. Often, before these people could find their immortal fate, they were already devoured by beasts or perished at the hands of evil spirits.
Clearly, that was not the outcome these hopeful cultivators wanted. So they began to group together to seek immortality, helping each other when they encountered dangers.
Although the results were better than before, the casualties were still high.
Later, martial artists from the secular world joined them, some were hired as escorts, while others joined of their own accord, seeking stronger power.
Over time, some of them, those with spiritual roots actually did find cultivation sects and became disciples, learning immortal arts.
There were also those who discovered dead cultivators' techniques or cave dwellings. If they happened to have spiritual roots, they too could embark on the path of cultivation.
Naturally, this greatly encouraged others. Many stopped involving themselves in worldly affairs, and focused entirely on training martial arts, hoping it would allow them to explore deeper into unknown lands.
They did not live among mortals or wander the martial world. They focused solely on the pursuit of immortal fate. Thus, few in the mundane world even knew of them. Cultivators call them the Immortal-Seeking Lineage. That Strategist Ji is one of its inheritors."
After hearing all this, Li Yan thought to himself:
"I wonder why my teacher lied to me about being from the 'Woodshadow Sect'? What was he trying to hide?"
He still couldn't figure that out.
"After Strategist Ji obtained the jade book, the jade slip, and the paper book, he naturally treasured them. That paper book and jade slip were actually one set of immortal techniques, called 'Dark Night Cyan Curtain Technique.'
The paper booklet recorded how to sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, along with the incantations for the first three levels of the Qi Condensation Stage. The jade slip contained the techniques for levels four through ten. It appears to have been a beginner-level cultivation method used by disciples of a certain immortal sect.
The reason for this design was because beginner cultivators have divine sense that is too weak and cannot be projected outside the body. Only after reaching the third level can they unlock a jade slip.
So the first three levels are usually recorded in paper form, with immortal arts used to protect the book. Ordinary mortals and low-level cultivators, even if they obtain it, will be unable to open it."
(Chapter End)