"Ah, don’t be afraid. I’m actually just a very weak old man, with only a few years left to live," the old man kindly reassured.
"Now, the internal cycle is insufficient, wanting to leave is understandable, but it’s quite unexpected that you managed to reach this level.
As for the higher levels..."
He paused.
"They are no longer effective; there’s no need for you to go there."
"What do you mean by no longer effective?" Zhang Rongfang asked.
"It means they’re useless, disconnected. This Taoyuan, originally, was meant for communication and exchange of consciousness, intelligence, and martial arts among various interactive zones.
The first three levels can no longer be contacted, naturally making them inaccessible." The old man replied.
"Then what about you? Why are you still here, what do you eat?" Zhang Rongfang asked again.
"I neither eat nor drink, and I won’t die," the old man laughed again. "As for why I am still here, it’s because if I go out... I will die."
"Die?" Zhang Rongfang frowned.
"Do you think that outside you could use various techniques as freely as just now? Impossible."
The old man laughed heartily, "Think about it, how could it be so easy in the world to move matter with consciousness? Even if you, an ordinary person, tried with all your might to stare at an embroidery needle, staring for a whole day wouldn’t make it move an inch with sheer will."
Zhang Rongfang fell slightly silent, watching the old man continue to speak to himself.
"Young man, there are some words I didn’t even say to the previous guy. I’ll just give you some pointers here.
The divine and Buddhist abilities you saw are merely natural manifestations of consciousness and spirit honed to the extreme in the interactive zones.
Our bodies couldn’t withstand the increasingly severe celestial light, but what if we used another body? Who knows, it might just work?"
The old man chuckled warmly.
"Thus, the interactive zones began to establish. Thus, the Chana Tower was erected. The strongest spirit, the strongest body. Combined... should definitely leave that endless celestial light... "
The voice gradually lowered, and the old man’s tiny eyes grew brighter.
Zhang Rongfang wanted to ask more, but the old man’s body slowly, automatically turned semi-transparent and just vanished before his eyes.
’A pure consciousness body?’ he frowned deeply.
If gods and buddhas are beings composed of consciousness joined with a spiritual line, then the old man just now, as a pure consciousness body, could neither eat nor drink and vanish into thin air before him.
These could all be understood.
Hovering in midair, after some thought, Zhang Rongfang didn’t remain any longer, as he had gathered enough clues for today. It was time to go back and process them.
He flapped his wings and dove downward.
*
*
*
March, Year One of the New Calendar.
The Great Spirit stabilized; turmoil across the regions subsided, and the remnants of various sects fled to West Yi under the protection of the White Ten Sect fleet.
Zhang Rongfang personally led the team, along with experts from the Human Immortal Temple’s Celestial Character Institute, to the overseas quest.
Seeking the Soul Buddha relics and eliminating the last remaining forces.
West Yi Kingdom.
Varied foreign spire-roofed houses spread along the hillside by the seaside, all the way upward.
Colorful bricks and tiles, yellow, white, blue small flowers, plump elder ladies speaking fluent local West Yi language that was hard to understand, biting pipes, sprawled on deck chairs, resting.
This is the largest port in West Yi, Mosibis.
Soldiers from the kingdom’s guard responsible for patrolling, eating grilled skewers on the beach, carelessly discussed which girl from the bonfire acrobatics last night had a hotter figure.
Fishing boats and military ships harbored separately, with small figures incessantly moving back and forth on board.
At this moment, the sky was clear, and the sunlight gentle.
Seagulls flapped their wings and soared, constantly letting out strange calls.
Suddenly, a slight vibration sound came from the distant blue horizon.
Whoo.
Whoo.
Whoo...
The sound was remarkably rhythmic and growing louder and closer.
"What’s that?"
"A sea eagle?"
"Seems like it’s heading toward us?"
The people at the harbor turned their heads in confusion toward the sound.
In sight, above the blue sea, a black and red dot swiftly approached.
As the distance closed, the dot’s size rapidly enlarged.
When even ordinary people could make out its silhouette, the vast majority of people in the harbor were stunned.
Even those who hadn’t noticed were tapped awake by their companions to witness the rapidly approaching figure.
It was a man with enormous bat wings, black hair, and a red robe.
Flying in the sky, he was diving straight down towards them.
The rhythmic sound of whooshing was clearly the giant bat wings behind the black-red humanoid flapping continuously.
With each flap of the bat wings, massive gusts of wind surged forth.
The collision between bat wings and the sea breeze, ordinarily so arrogant and ferocious, now lay obediently subdued before this man.
Whoosh!
Finally, the bat-winged figure soared past above the harbor amidst a cacophony of screams, cutting through a vast urban area and rushing straight towards the inland.
Soon, he decelerated and came to a halt above a splendidly decorated white cross chapel.
The gods and buddhas dared not show themselves anymore; the world could no longer stop him.
’If not for my subordinates disguising identities for the investigation, I wouldn’t have discovered that the original site of the Soul Buddha’s temple was right here, directly beneath this White Ten Sect chapel,’ Zhang Rongfang mused slightly.
’Let’s see what we can harvest here,’ Bai Lin agreed.
Lately, she had a feeling.
A feeling that Zhang Rongfang might suddenly disappear anytime soon.
This feeling came quite inexplicably, but she firmly believed in it, so much so that she began watching quietly.
Hiss.
Suddenly, several slender arrows hit the blood mist ignited beside Zhang Rongfang.
What appeared as a thin blood mist, in fact, had an increased density, effortlessly blocking these feeble arrows.
The arrows were deflected and fell to the ground.
Zhang Rongfang couldn’t be bothered to talk. Two bullet-like drops of blood rebounded back.
Then he spread his arms wide open.
Countless streams of blood surged from the empty ground beneath him, rushing into the White Ten Sect temple, which appeared ancient and exquisite, but was actually just an empty shell.
Bang bang!!
The blood flowed like tendrils, breaking through doors and windows, pouring inside.
Soon, amidst the terrified screams of the surrounding residents.
The entire church slowly tilted, dyed with a layer of blood from inside out.
With a muffled crash, the church collapsed, destroyed into ruins by the internal blood.
Zhang Rongfang’s figure remained unmoved, slowly descending to the ground, where the bat wings on his back retracted into his robe.
He stepped forward, walking toward the center of the church ruins.
As he passed, all the blood automatically dispersed, revealing the clean ground.
The blood not only destroyed the church, but also cleaned the surroundings.
’Underground.’
He raised one hand.
The ground cracked open into a large hole, revealing a staircase that extended unknowably deep below.
A rotting, musty smell wafted up from the depths of the stairs.
Hiss.
Countless streams of blood automatically surged in, quickly covering the walls and floor of the staircase with a layer of blood film.
Zhang Rongfang walked in slowly and soon came out holding a black scroll.
The scroll was embroidered with a headless lotus-seated Buddha.
He opened it on the spot to take a look.
’Prajna Wuxin Nirvana Buddha Cultivation. It’s the Cultivation of Literature left by the Soul Buddha. It claims that when cultivated to the extreme, I am the Buddha, and the Buddha is me.’
’These types of things usually have a depiction of the real form of the related deity for you to see,’ White Scale immediately responded.
Zhang Rongfang flipped directly to the end, where there was the same headless Buddha pattern.
’Is headless its real form?’ Zhang Rongfang asked in surprise.
’Probably not, most likely it’s incomplete. The face has been forgotten,’ White Scale replied regretfully.
’Wait, there’s something here.’ Suddenly, Zhang Rongfang pinched the last page of this cultivation technique, where there seemed to be a hidden compartment.
With a flick of his finger, the compartment tore open, revealing an item inside.
It was a thin sheet of paper, folded into thirds, hidden within the last page compartment.
’Great Extinguishment Nirvana.’
The large characters on the surface immediately caught Zhang Rongfang’s attention.
He unfolded the contents inside.
On it was recorded a mysterious martial arts true imprint.
It’s a special secret technique that can be used after unlocking the final form.
It claims to induce the most tragic memories in an adversary by using special sound waves, and if exposed for an extended period, the adversary will develop thoughts of self-extinguishment, perceiving everything in the world as illusion.
In simple terms, it’s a hypnosis-like technique that hypnotizes people to death.
’Since it can awaken tragic memories, then by altering it slightly, it should be possible to awaken other memories. Extending from this, perhaps I can use this to find a solution to deal with Yue Shi.’
A flash of inspiration sparked in Zhang Rongfang’s mind, and he immediately conceived an idea.
He put away the sheet of paper, flapped his bat wings, and rapidly soared toward the sky.
*
*
*
Time passed slowly.
Great Spirit, using the Human Immortal Temple as the vanguard and Qiankun Daoist as the spearhead, charged directly into the Western nations.
Without any deities or Buddhas to stop them, the nations mobilized experts to attempt a defense, but they collapsed at first contact, like sandcastles meeting a tide.
In less than half a month, West Yi was pacified, and Human Immortal Temple, along with other top experts from Great Spirit who arrived subsequently, continued to move on to the other lands and islands.
Meanwhile, Zhang Rongfang returned alone to begin a secluded cultivation of the Great Extinguishment Nirvana true imprint secret technique.
He aimed to fully comprehend it before creating the secret technique he desired.
April.
Inside the Human Immortal Cave.
Zhang Rongfang slowly floated out of the Blood Pool, looking at the usable attribute points that had reached a hundred again.
He occasionally returned to soak in the Blood Pool, which shortened the time considerably.
Nevertheless, the previously hesitant choice eventually had to be confirmed.
Floating on the surface of the Blood Pool, he closed his eyes, looking at the attribute panel before him.
Examining the three branches above.
’The Ultimate Creature.’
’Ancient Fierce Beast Jiuying.’
’World Serpent Jörmungandr.’
The first required only fifteen talents. Moreover, he already possessed several, avoiding the need for duplicates.
The second required fifty-seven talents.
The third looked highly enticing. However, the densely packed list of talent requirements unfolded like a massive spider web, also intimidating.
Upon a rough count, Jörmungandr required at least one hundred and thirty-four talents to be combined to activate the final bloodline.
’Forget it, I’ll take what’s tangible for now.’ Zhang Rongfang finally made his decision.
He lightly touched the first option with his mind, conveying his confirmation.
Instantly, the choices following Super Regeneration slowly disappeared, leaving only the option for The Ultimate Creature.
’The Ultimate Creature: By gathering all contacted genes, talents, abilities, and systems, you will gain unparalleled adaptability.
The true ultimate creature varies with the environment.’
Adaptability?
Zhang Rongfang squinted slightly, feeling unimpressed.
But having chosen it, there was no need for regret.