After nearly a year, Tianyi finally stepped into the Immortal Scripture Repository. Considering the vast size of the Huang Realm, he should be thankful that it only took a year, but Tianyi couldn’t because, within the year, his soul would strengthen to the limit again and again at an astonishing rate due to his ever-perfected martial cultivation. He had a total of four embryonic clone souls now.
The place was still the same as before, not much changed. Tianyi walked through the numerous jade slips, searching for his target. According to his understanding, the Thirty-Six Heavenly Constellation Art shouldn’t be on the seventh floor but the eighth at the very least, ut didn’t he also similarly find the Lotus Soul Ascension Art on the seventh?
Tianyi had to strain his face muscles to from twitching upon finding his target. The location was different than where he had discovered the Lotus Soul Ascension Art, in the middle of the techniques related to stars, not a hint out of place. Picking it up, Tianyi accepted the knowledge within the jade slip. Instantly, Tianyi felt himself lose sense of his surroundings, but, unlike when he accepted the Lotus Soul Ascension Art, the time taken to absorb the knowledge was much shorter. As Tianyi expected, the jade slip had shattered in his hand.
Time to pay another visit to Sect Master Xia
Sect Master Xia showed a flabbergasted expression upon hearing that he found the Thirty-Six Heavenly Constellation Art on the seventh floor of the Immortal Scripture Repository.
“Little Tianyi, are you sure that there was nothing wrong with the Thirty-Six Constellation Art?” Sect Master Xia couldn’t help but ask in worry.
“I wanted to ask Sect Master as well. Nothing seemed wrong to me, but that’s perhaps my realm is too low.” Tianyi said. “Should I speak it word for word on what I learn?”
Sect Master Xia nodded. Tianyi began to speak of the cultivation method recorded in the jade slip. With each word spoken, Sect Master Xia’s eyebrows rose higher until the end, where it nearly touched his hairline.
“Is there something wrong?” Tianyi asked, seeing Sect Master Xia speechless.
“You remembered it quite well,” Sect Master Xia finally said after a moment of silence.
“Memorizing it all wasn’t that hard.” Tianyi shrugged. He didn’t see why it was so shocking.
“Little Tianyi, do you know why Immortal Realm techniques are recorded in jade slips?” Sect Master Xia asked.
“Isn’t it because it would take too long to write it down and read it from a book?” Tianyi said.
Sect Master Xia shook his head. “That is part of the reason, but the more crucial reason is that they can’t be transported by mere words. I’m surprised you were able to transcribe the techniques into words that don’t resonate with the Dao.”
When one reached a certain realm or understanding of the Dao, when he speaks of it, his words would resonate with the Dao. The words disappeared, and thoughts and intents would be directly transmitted.
“But didn’t Immortal Ironword’s inheritance have books too? Wait…” Tianyi paused as he tried to recall the books in the upper level of Ironword’s pagoda. Compared to the books on the lower floor, the words were a bit strange. Tianyi continued to recall his experiences, and he realized that what was transmitted into his head weren’t words but pure thoughts. His shock must have shown because Sect Master Xia chuckled in amusement.
Tianyi coughed into his fist. “Sect Master, is there a problem with my method?”
“Absolutely not. To be able to explain the techniques purely using words is a testament of your comprehension ability.” Sect Master Xia said.
After hearing that, Tianyi felt much better. Perhaps he was actually a great genius to be able to shock Sect Master Xia like that.
“Sect Master, have you discovered the truth behind the reason why the Lotus Soul Ascension Art was on the seventh floor? It seems strange that both techniques would be on the seventh floor when they shouldn’t.” Tianyi asked, coming to the main point of his visit to the Sect Master.
“Unfortunately not. I cannot find any evidence of anyone deliberately placing it there. The most plausible explanation is that one of the custodians there placed it there by accident.” Sect Master Xia explained.
Tianyi inwardly rolled his eyes. “Is that so? Those old fogies should probably retire if they can make a mistake like this.”
Sect Master Xia felt his lips twitch as he heard Tianyi’s words. The custodians of the Immortal Scripture Repository were all immortals, so there was no way they would go senile and make such a rookie mistake.
Not long after, Tianyi left the Buzhou Immortal Court Hall where Sect Master Xia resided. His visit this time was a probe to see if there was really someone aiding him in the background. Half of him didn’t believe Sect Master Xia didn’t know the truth, but another half suspected it was someone that even Sect Master Xia can’t defy or far above in power. And the only person Tianyi could think of would be the Concealed Emperor resting in Buzhou Immortal Sect’s forbidden ground.
At this point, he was pretty sure the one aiding him was the Concealed Emperor, but that didn’t help him at all. He had no authority or reason to meet the Concealed Emperor. And frankly, Tianyi didn’t want to confront the Concealed Emperor at this time. As usual, he was far too weak.
Tianyi smiled self-depreciatingly. To others, he was the son of the Grand Elder Xi, who looked on from above the clouds. And in terms of cultivation, he far surpassed those of the same realm, but he still felt too weak.
When he returned to Jade Peak, Tianyi immediately returned to his mansion. He sat inside his cultivation chamber and closed his eyes. Earlier, he had comprehended the Thirty-Six Heavenly Constellation Art, but now he was merging it with his cultivation method.
The Thirty-Six Heavenly Constellation Art was a spiritual cultivation method, while the Seventy-Two Earthly Asterism Art was a martial cultivation method. Since they shared the same origin, he should be able to use the Thirty-Six Heavenly Constellation Art as an inspiration for his martial method.
The Thirty-Six Constellation Art allowed the cultivator to turn his spiritual core into a map of the stars, a star chart. The cultivator would engrave the stars into his spiritual core and then formed them into constellations. With each constellation engraved, the cultivator would be able to induce myriad changes as if he had cultivated numerous cultivation methods.
There was one aspect that surprised Tianyi, and that was the stellar avatar relationship to the cultivation method. If you could form a stellar avatar, then it would greatly boost your cultivation. It was an increase in all aspects: speed, strength, qi generation, and even comprehension of the Dao.
Did the Immortal Court nourish their disciples who cultivated the Stellar Heavenly Scripture with that pagoda? If so, why did they add the murals? Or was it only added after?
That question only lingered in Tianyi’s head briefly. He had more important things to worry about. Before, Tianyi used the numerous stars of his Heavenly River Stellar Avatar to discover and open over three hundred and sixty acupoints. It allowed him to reach the peak of the Acupoint Opening Realm. But Tianyi discovered that his method was flawed. His body was a cosmos, what use were acupoints? Or more correctly, all the stars could be considered an acupoint. If that was the case, then he would have over a million acupoints!
After recognizing this fact and remedying his martial method, Tianyi felt his control of the cosmos increase. He could summon even more true qi of chaos now. As if he didn’t already have enough. Along with the constellations he had learned in astronomy class, most of them blurry memories they may be, Tianyi formed several Chinese constellations imparted with the art.
Ordinarily, a cultivator would not be able to engrave all the constellations described within the art, and, as such, they had to carefully choose which constellation they would engrave upon their spiritual core. But Tianyi didn’t have that problem.
First of all, Tianyi didn’t form a Constellation Spiritual Core, so it was unknown if he could successfully engrave the constellation upon his spiritual core. Second of all, Tianyi was merging the Thirty-Six Heavenly Constellation Art into his martial method that was created based on the Spring Autumn Scripture. And third, Tianyi had the Heavenly River Stellar Avatar. He could directly replicate the constellations.
Tianyi’s integration of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Constellation Art into his martial method was very successful, almost too successful. It was as if he was simply assembling a puzzle instead of creating a new cultivation method. There was no difficulty at all. Compared to the time he created the martial method in Tianwei Island, his speed was even faster! Just to make sure, Tianyi double-checked and even triple-checked. But he could not discover anything wrong.
Sometimes, being too successful would only bring unease. This was doubly so for Tianyi since this concerned his future accomplishments.
Tianyi recalled that the Thirty-Six Heavenly Constellation Art was derived from the Stellar Heavenly Art like how the Spring Autumn Scripture was derived from the Timeless Heavenly Scripture and Spatial Heavenly Scripture. The ease of how he learned it and the Primordial Heavenly Scripture confused Tianyi.
Either he was a genius in all the Heavenly Scriptures, or the Heavenly Scriptures were originally a single scripture.
After contemplating for a while, Tianyi sighed. He should just try it cultivating his newly formed martial method and test to see if there are any inconsistencies or flaws. Tianyi wished he had a clone that cultivated the same art as him, so he could at least experiment without any danger to himself. Right now, he felt as if he was just a step away from creating the Soul Nourishing Realm segment of his martial method. However, the moment he created the finishing touches, so to speak, Tianyi snapped his head towards the ceiling. Or, more specifically, the sky outside his mansion.
“Shit.”
His newly revised martial method was perhaps too perfect. Once he started cultivating it, it was as if a powerless factory had powered up. Worse, it was fully automated, so he was incapable of stopping it. Tianyi hadn’t even prepared to summon a heavenly tribulation!
To others, it would have been a blessing for an automatic cultivation method, but right now, it was a hindrance to Tianyi. But there was no use crying over spilled milk. Tianyi could only grit his teeth and overcome the heavenly tribulation. Plus, this was a Soul Nourishing Heavenly Tribulation, so it shouldn’t be more powerful than his Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation.
Oh, how wrong he was.
Just the first strike tribulation lightning already surpassed the Nascent Soul Realm. Tianyi felt his breath halt as he experienced the power of a Unity Realm attack, but his cosmos martial body only trembled for a single second. Immediately, his body became covered in a silvery black film.
This was a new defensive method he created using the unique characteristic of his cosmos body and contained aspects of spacetime. Once the second bolt of lightning struck, it seemed to halt on the black film as if it was separated by a vast gulf. And the more time the tribulation lightning spent around the black film, the more distorted it became due to the different temporal rates of the black film.
Tianyi hadn’t decided on a name, so he just called it Spacetime Fabric for now.
But Tianyi didn’t have time to pay attention to the lightning right now because his cosmos had changed. It didn’t become vastly bigger or anything, but it felt different. It had changed, and Tianyi couldn’t find any accurate words to describe it. The stars were brighter and shimmered like jewels in the night sky. His five nascent souls who were nearing the limit of the Nascent Soul Ream had their limits increased. The quality didn’t change, just that their vessel changed. If his nascent souls were like a cup before, now it was a bathtub.
Tianyi could feel his cosmos nourishing his nascent souls. It was as if his soul was bathed in a pleasant hot spring, not it was even more pleasurable than that!
The changes were the result of him entering the Soul Nourishing Realm in the martial path.
Tianyi didn’t expect the limit of his nascent souls would increase, but thinking about it, it was logical. He had merged spiritual, soul, and martial cultivation methods, so it wasn’t strange, there would be a significant increase in the quality of his foundation. The quality of his realm could compete with the Unity or World Merging Realm!
However, that wasn’t the main point. He had entered the Soul Nourishing Realm without transcending his Soul Nourishing Heavenly Tribulation. Only after transcending their heavenly tribulation could a cultivator enter the next realm. But Tianyi defied that rule.
It was as if he no longer needed the Heavenly Dao’s acknowledgment to promote his realm!
No wonder the heavenly tribulation was so abnormal.
But Tianyi couldn’t be happy right now. His promotion wasn’t actually complete. Vast amounts of true qi of chaos were constantly being absorbed faster than it could be produced. In fact, the consumption was so large, Tianyi didn’t know whether he could sustain it till the end.
How laughable. The situation that forced him to run low on qi wasn’t external factors such as danger or an enemy, but himself!
But…
Tianyi glanced at the neverending bolts of lightning. By now, his room and the surrounding had already been completely devasted. Only he was unharmed in the immediate vicinity. Tianyi’s lips morphed into a grin.
The tribulation lightning that struck him next wasn’t destroyed. Rather, Tianyi destroyed its form and absorbed it. Since he didn’t have enough energy to fuel his promotion, then he’ll just use the tribulation lightning. Once again, Tianyi was treating the tribulation lightning as an energy source. The abnormal heavenly tribulation seemed to have become enraged at this and altered its tactic. After building its power for a while, nine chains formed of tribulation lightning ensnared and rooted Tianyi’s body. But the chains soon lost their shape and were absorbed by Tianyi.
“Come! I’ll take whatever you throw at me!”
Tianyi’s word’s further enraged the heavenly tribulation and, by extension, the Heavenly Dao. Bolts of tribulation lightning began to rain down upon Tianyi, but the power was actually equal to the first bolt, confusing Tianyi. But the unending source of power still made him happy.
Time passed as Tianyi continued to endure, or rather, absorb the free energy the Heavenly Dao was gifting him. He started to pay less attention to the outside and focused most of his attention on the changes in his cosmos. It was becoming more united over time as if he only practiced one cultivation method. Tianyi had even thought that perhaps this was his version of the Unity Realm but quickly discarded it. Although his cultivation had upgraded, he didn’t gain any new abilities as if he would upon entering the Unity or World Merging Realm.
Suddenly, the bolts of tribulation lightning stopped. Tianyi furrowed his brows and looked up. The tribulation clouds still hovered in the sky, not seeming to dissipate anytime soon. The heavenly tribulation wouldn’t be creating another tribulation giant, would it? Tianyi thought. And then it happened.
Like a warrior descending from heaven, nine bolts of tribulation lightning struck the ground around Tianyi, and nine tribulation giants appeared. But compared to the previous tribulation giants Tianyi faced, they were far more dangerous. All nine seemed to merged with heaven and earth, becoming one with it akin to a Unity Venerable.
Tianyi chuckled. If it was united with the world, didn’t he just have to disconnect them?
Soon, the immediate vicinity was covered in a black sphere much like Tianyi had done in the Earthsea Land. The Chaos Refining Formation was a formation and could be considered an extension of his cosmos body. Immediately, all nine giants seemed to grown duller as if they lost something important. Since the Chaos Refining Formation could be considered an extension of him, didn’t that mean it was also rejected by heaven and earth?
So what would happen if the tribulation giants were inside of it?
Naturally, it meant they lost the greatest advantage of a unity venerable! Of course, the tribulation giants couldn’t be considered true unity venerables, and his Chaos Refining Formation wouldn’t be as effective. After that, it was not difficult for Tianyi to restrain them. He just treated them as nascent soul grandmasters with unity venerable levels of qi. After absorbing the eighth tribulation giant, Tianyi successfully entered the Soul Nourishing Realm.
The ninth tribulation giant was essentially useless now, so Tianyi just destroyed it, but he still absorbed its energy. Tianyi could feel that he was utterly rejected by the Heavenly Dao, so he couldn’t absorb the spiritual qi at all to replenish his true qi.
When Tianyi took down the Chaos Refining Formation, the tribulation clouds were already closed to being dispersed. Earlier, when the Chaos Refining Reformation was still erected, it was being bombarded by stray bolts of tribulation lightning, but that was just more free energy for Tianyi.
With an unwilling last roar of thunder, the abnormal heavenly tribulation finally dispersed.
Tianyi cracked his neck, feeling it a bit complicated. Heavenly tribulations were supposed to be something to be feared, but for the current him, it was nothing special. In fact, he felt that he could even take on an Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation.
Okay, that was going too far.
As for why it wasn’t Transcending Mortality Heavenly Tribulation? The Transcending Mortality Realm, strictly speaking, wasn’t a separate realm from the Unity Realm. Instead, it was a unique stage representing the pinnacle of harmonization of heaven and earth. The peak of the Unity Realm was ninety-nine percent, and Transcending Mortality Realm was one hundred percent. Even though it was only the difference of one percent, the gulf between the two was incredibly vast.
Tianyi looked around and couldn’t help but feel his face cramp up. His newly constructed mansion was practically in ruins after only being constructed in a year. Perhaps he should just give up and live permanently at Jade Peak Palace.