I Cheated While Cultivating

Chapter 315: Chapter 35: Daoist Heavenly Realm

Yan Shouyi’s tone in his urgent message was very hurried.

Therefore, Zhou Heng and Cheng Jianjian did not deduce further and directly returned to Taihua Mount in Yong State via the starlight bridge of the Purple Tenuity Palace.

Afterward, the two went to the Golden Top of Jade Void Peak together.

“Senior brother, what’s going on?” Zhou Heng asked, puzzled.

“I’ve seen Elder Martial Uncle.” Cheng Jianjian gave her respects.

“Hmm,” Yan Shouyi nodded lightly, his gaze drifting towards Yuzhou as he said, “There is something hidden there related to ancient immortals and buddhas. On the surface, Jia Ye Temple is spreading its doctrine, but in reality, it is investigating the situation.”

“Ancient immortals and buddhas?” Zhou Heng was startled by the words, his expression becoming grave as he asked, “Immortals and buddhas from the Ancient Mythological Era?”

“That’s right,” Yan Shouyi nodded and continued, “It might be a pure land, a world unto itself. I’ve heard that during the Ancient Mythological Era, Yuzhou belonged to the Buddha Sect and a great power from the Buddha Sect created a pure land.”

“Is Jia Ye Temple aiming for that pure land?” Zhou Heng exclaimed with astonishment, “Senior brother, do you know what level of pure land it is?”

The essence of a Buddha Sect’s pure land is similar to that of the Taoist Cave Skies, both created at Heavenly Third Rank.

In Taoist cultivation, though, the Cave Sky is merely a transitional phase at Heavenly Third Rank. When reaching Tao Second Rank, cultivators focus on nurturing their Tao Seed, whereas the Buddha Sect continuously perfects their pure land, making it stronger and stronger.

Therefore, the Taoist Cave Skies are generally at the level of Heavenly Third Rank, while Buddha Sect’s pure lands could be at Heavenly Third Rank, Tao Second Rank, or even Divine First Rank.

“The workings of fate are unclear; I can’t see the truth,” Yan Shouyi said, shaking his head slightly. “I can only discern that the essence of that pure land is above the Heavenly Third Rank.”

“Tao Second Rank, even Divine First Rank?!” Zhou Heng’s eyes widened; he had not thought that Yuzhou would conceal such a treasure.

—A masterless Cave Sky or pure land is undoubtedly an extremely important treasure.

“It’s still unknown for the time being,” Yan Shouyi did not confirm, then his gaze swept over Zhou Heng and Cheng Jianjian as he said, “I’ve called the two of you back because I don’t want you to be affected.

“If Jia Ye Temple really opens that pure land, I fear that the Buddha’s light might envelop the entire Yuzhou. By then, all the common people of Yuzhou might be converted into followers of the Buddha Sect.”

“Then we should stop them,” Zhou Heng said without hesitation.

“No, I won’t stop them,” Yan Shouyi disagreed, shaking his head and speaking solemnly, “If a high-level pure land can indeed be opened, our world will gain a greater hope.”

“What about the common people of Yuzhou?” Zhou Heng’s brows furrowed.

“Is Elder Martial Uncle thinking of abandoning the common people of Yuzhou in exchange for the power to resist the evil gods?” Cheng Jianjian asked with a slight frown of her willow brows.

Forcefully converted followers of the Buddha Sect don’t simply undergo a change of faith; they fundamentally alter their human nature, devoting themselves to the Buddha Sect heedless of life and death.

This is essentially the same as losing oneself, no different from a walking corpse.

How numerous are the common people of Yuzhou?

If they were all force-converted into Buddha Sect followers due to the opening of the pure land, becoming walking corpses, it would be no different from killing all the common people of Yuzhou.

To obtain the power to resist evil gods in this manner… What does that amount to?

Sacrifice one state to save the world?

“No, senior brother, you wouldn’t do that,” Zhou Heng suddenly shook his head, smiling. “This kind of compromising and deciding the fate of others is not in your character.”

“What if I truly wished to do so?” Yan Shouyi said with a smile.

“Will having one more Tao Lord, or one more Divine First Rank, truly guarantee holding back those evil gods?” Zhou Heng countered with a question.

“Hmm, indeed so,” Yan Shouyi nodded, his smile becoming even broader. “Of course, I wouldn’t abandon the people of Yuzhou; that is my hometown, the place that raised me.

“However, the pure land must be opened. I will take a Unique Divine Weapon with me to Yuzhou. Before Jia Ye Temple can act, I will convert that pure land into a Taoist Heavenly Realm.”

It is said that Divine First Rank powers can extract Chaos Qi from the void, employ great powers to create and shape worlds, and thus create star systems, bringing worlds into existence, which are known as ‘Heavenly Realms’.”

As a result, in some legends, those of Divine First Rank are also referred to as ‘Heavenly Lords’, ‘Heavenly Masters’, or ‘Realm Masters’.”

“Senior brother, you seem to value this Buddha Sect pure land too much,” Zhou Heng remarked after hearing Yan Shouyi’s words, relieved yet somewhat worried. “You’re even taking a Unique Divine Weapon, it seems you’re determined to succeed.”

The existence of a Unique Divine Weapon itself is comparable to a Divine First Rank power. Although Heavenly Third Rank cannot unleash its full might, with a Unique Divine Weapon in Yan Shouyi’s hands and his strength, even a descending Tao Lord might not be his match.

“Hmm, determined indeed,” Yan Shouyi nodded, his voice grave. “The Zhou Tian Boundary Officers should have already convened. You must be aware of Yuan Zhenzi being sacrificed by the evil god of the Yunxiao Heavenly Palace.

“At this moment, my master is holding off an evil god, whose power has infiltrated due to that event, but is at a disadvantage. If we can secure a Heavenly Realm, we shall be able to completely block that evil god from entering.”

“Hmm, we’re aware of it,” Zhou Heng and Cheng Jianjian nodded, speaking in unison.

“The Zhou Tian Boundary Officers have indeed saved me a lot of trouble,” Yan Shouyi chuckled, then grew serious again as he said, “Junior brother, Jiang Jian, in the short time to come, I’ll likely be unable to spare any attention for you.

“Recently, Da Qi has become quite unstable, with numerous demon entities and ghosts proliferating, along with many evil spirits breaching the world’s barriers and descending. The three major evil paths are also stirring, and their initial targets will inevitably be the Zhou Tian Boundary Officers. You must be careful.

“Both of you possess extraordinary talent and have bright futures; you must not perish before you have fully matured. My suggestion is that during the time before I return, either you focus intently on cultivation, or choose the safest mode of travel, and always carry a Life-saving Talisman if you travel.”

“Senior brother, rest easy, I still have many methods for self-preservation,” Zhou Heng said with a light chuckle.

“Elder Martial Uncle, please be reassured. I may not excel in many things, but I have indeed diligently researched how to preserve my life for a long, long time,” Cheng Jianjian also said with a smile.

“Good, since that’s the case, I’m relieved,” Yan Shouyi nodded with a smile, saying, “Time is of the essence. I must head to Yuzhou now. When I return, I’ll check the progress of your martial paths.”

“Senior brother, just go without worries,” Zhou Heng smiled, “Come back soon.”

…

Yan Shouyi stepped into the void and left, vanishing after leaving the Golden Top of Jade Void Peak.

Now only Zhou Heng and Cheng Jianjian remained.

“Jiang Jian, what are your plans next?” Zhou Heng looked at the young girl beside him and inquired.

“Since Elder Martial Uncle has cautioned us to travel carefully during this period, it’s a good opportunity to try a new way of traveling,” Cheng Jianjian said with a light smile. “Do you remember my previous invitation?”

“Of course, I remember.” Zhou Heng nodded with a smile.

“Then let’s go.” Cheng Jianjian took Zhou Heng’s hand and then leapt straight down from the Jade Void Peak Golden Top.

…

Cheng Jianjian’s previous invitation to Zhou Heng was made after both had reached the Secret Six Rank, to go together to a world and complete a task.

But Cheng Jianjian had not disclosed any details about this world beforehand.

In front of the Divine Soul Star Gate of the Purple Tenuity Palace.

“This is a new world I’ve discovered,” Cheng Jianjian told Zhou Heng. “After becoming a Northern Dipper, during one of the tasks, I arrived at this new world where Techniques are the main mode of cultivation in the form of ‘ascension’.

“In this world, demon entities run rampant, ordinary people are completely helpless against them, and only cultivators who have mastered Techniques can contend with them and slaughter them, in order to maintain a fragile peace.

“For us, there are quite a few benefits to this world. The principles behind its Techniques actually correspond with Taoist Formulas, and could be adapted into Taoist Formulas extremely effective against slaughtering evil demons and spirits.

“Moreover, slaying demon entities also yields virtue energy, and if you kill something akin to Secret Six Rank, you can even collect a certain degree of merit energy. Ah, you know about merit energy, right?”

“Mmm, I know,” Zhou Heng nodded and replied with a smile: “That does sound like a good place. I just happen to need to collect merit energy to cultivate a Taoist Formula.”

“That works out then,” Cheng Jianjian smiled beautifully and then added: “Last time I investigated, and the strongest among them in the open should be equivalent to Sect Fifth Rank, although there could be those comparable to Absolute Fourth Rank, so we need to be a bit careful.”

“What about the flow of time?” Zhou Heng inquired: “If we descend with our divine souls possessing bodies, we’ll definitely need some time to recover our strength.”

“The flow is ten times faster, so there should be plenty of time,” Cheng Jianjian said. “As for recovering strength, since I didn’t know the situation with the Divine Soul Star Gate before, the preparations I made were actually for the true body’s descent.

“However, those preparations can also be used to restore the strength of a possessed divine soul, but I’m not sure what to do on your end; that’s a bit troublesome.

“There are Laws suppression in that world, and many of our Martial Arts techniques are not very suitable. It’s best to cultivate Techniques of that world, but at the beginning, we probably won’t be together.”

“Mmm, unless it’s a precise individual descent, it’s not possible to determine the exact location. We can only limit the characteristics of the location,” Zhou Heng nodded and said: “Right now we don’t know much about that world, so we can’t do an individual descent yet.”

An individual descent through the Divine Soul Star Gate is the precise positioning of a specific corpse.

For this to be possible, the Star Gate must have a very comprehensive analysis of that world, with all sorts of detailed information; typically, only worlds that have been explored many times or that are inherently under the jurisdiction of the Constellation Map of Zhou Tian can do so.

As for newly discovered worlds like the one Cheng Jianjian found, although it’s possible to locate the world coordinates through the Star Gate, a comprehensive analysis isn’t feasible, which naturally rules out individual descents, at most only allowing for group descents.

“Hey, little martial uncle, actually I can do a precise individual descent,” Cheng Jianjian laughed and said: “I once entered an ancient tomb in that world, and inside was a young girl’s body lying in an ice coffin, which just so happens to be suitable for an individual descent.”

“There’s actually such a situation?” Zhou Heng was stunned; Cheng Jianjian’s luck was just too good, and one had to admit, some people are just naturally lucky.

That only left him to make his own choice.

Leveraging Cheng Jianjian’s previous rough understanding of that world, Zhou Heng chose an identity group that would make finding people relatively convenient and also defined the region.

The two also agreed on secret signals and a rough meeting place.

For ease of follow-up actions.

…

Moist, tight.

A feeling of being bound surged up, and his head felt as if it were engorged with blood.

Zhou Heng struggled to open his eyes and found himself tightly bound by ropes, suspended in mid-air like cured meat, surrounded by many other “people.”

To be precise, they should be called corpses.

The place reeked of a pungent, nauseating odor.

Zhou Heng barely focused his spirit and roughly determined that he must be in a dark and damp cave.

At the same time, he obtained some information from the remnants of the divine soul fragments in the corpse he had possessed.

This body was named Ye Long, a prince of Liang Country, one of the thirty-six states of the Central Plains, only nineteen years old, and the eleventh in line.

A month ago, Ye Long was noticed by an Immortal Master passing through Liang Country and was taken as a disciple before leaving the capital to follow this master to his cave dwelling for cultivation.

Little did he know that this so-called Immortal Master practiced an extremely sinister technique that used living people to create puppets, the more noble the person was in life, the more powerful the puppet that was forged.

Now, Ye Long’s “corpse” had already become one of that “Immortal Master’s” puppets.

“No wonder I felt that the flow through my acupoints was blocked; it seems it’s not just because I’ve just possessed the body and come back to life.”

Zhou Heng realized, chuckling bitterly to himself, “This group incarnation really put me in a fix, setting my preferences to the nobility of the Central Plains, and yet I end up in a corpse turned into a puppet. In the future, I should probably rely on individual incarnation instead.”

Originally, he had thought that by incarnating and becoming a member of the nobility, it would be convenient to mobilize various resources, making the search for Cheng Jianjian much simpler.

But he had never expected to become such a noble.

On second thought, it made sense. Nobles don’t die easily, and their deaths are often not due to common affairs. And since he had possessed a corpse, the previous experiences of the body were definitely not pleasant.

“Thinking about it this way, I feel much more at ease,” Zhou Heng comforted himself while also pondering, “The top priority is to escape and find suitable cultivation methods to restore some strength as soon as possible.”

Ye Long’s body had not cultivated at all, only possessing some puppet features, like a hard body and immense strength, which allowed him to exert quite ordinary power, at best comparable to a Ninth Rank Warrior in a scuffle.

The remaining memory fragments also contained no cultivation techniques, so Zhou Heng would have to find them on his own.

Tap tap tap.

Just then, footsteps echoed in the cave.

A skinny man in a black robe approached, his gaze glanced at Zhou Heng hanging in mid-air, and he sneered, “Boy, you’ve actually woken up and even freed yourself from my puppetry technique?!”

Simultaneously, Zhou Heng felt an invasive force targeting his spirit, attempting to take control of his mind.

“You are being attacked by the enemy Han Lin’s technique ‘Puppetry Technique'[Eighth Rank], but you are unaffected due to the strength of your divine soul’s will, gaining insight into this technique, proficiency +0.2.”