Chapter 218: Under the Sea

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Daoist Huanzhen was surprised as he did not expect that for someone like his headmaster to give praise to this new Junior Apprentice-Brother of his and to think that he was comparable to Shen Lian. His curiosity arose.

Huanzhen smiled and said, “He must be excellent if he is complimented by you, Honored Master. I wonder where he is. We should meet.”

Yuming the Honored Celestial said, “He only joined five years ago and now he is already at the doorstep of Huandan. I am afraid that he is going through the stages too quickly, so I am asking him to make the fire for Junior Apprentice-Brother Dengfeng.”

Huanzhen could not help but look surprised, “He can already help to make the fire for Uncle-Master’s elixir cauldron. How can he get such mana in five years?” Daoist Dengfeng had the most mana among the five Zhenrens due to Taiyue Real Shape Incantation. He was an expert in alchemy. Most elixirs in Guangqing were made by his elixir cauldron. To make use of the cauldron and light the fire required a huge amount of mana. To Daoist Dengfeng it was an easy task, but not so much for others.

If one could stay put, one could benefit from the fire of the elixir cauldron because the essence of fire could help cultivate mana for the future. It was a difficult and amazing task at the same time.

Yuming the Honored Celestial said, “He has a huge lot of fortune. After he entered the mountain a few days, he managed to find a thousand-year-old meat excrescence. After he ate it, his mana grew as if he was traveling a thousand miles a day. However, as the effect of the elixir remains in his body, it is harmful in the long run, and hence I asked him to make the fire with Dengfeng to make the effect of the elixir into one with himself.”

Huanzhen then started to feel his questions were answered. There were all kinds of spiritual materials in the world, and since the ancient times, there were even spiritual fruits which could help the cultivators to extend their lives after consumption. There were even medicine to allow one to live forever or elixirs which could help in spiritual intelligence. With the aid of those, even the commoners could become celestialists.

Back then external alchemy was still popular and a lot of cultivators were spending their entire lives to look for the spiritual medicine to make elixirs which could help them attain Dao. However, as more and more people were looking for it, external alchemy began to decline after the raw materials became scarce.

For the Xuanmen sects, the only way to go was to achieve Huandan internally, with a clear mind. It was also crucial to maintain the life of the Daoist sect.

While Guangqing had five Zhenrens, Qing Xuan did it better in this aspect.

There were forty Zhenrens in Qing Xuan’s history, the highest among the four Daoist sects. If not because of the incident that happened at Qing Xuan which affected the previous chief, Zhang Ruoxu, Ziling’s student, Biyun and Yan Xu, eight or nine out of ten could have achieved Dixian.

Including Ziling, the old folk which was guarding Qing Xuan, and the missing Immortal Zhenren could account for a total of six Dixian, which was more than Guangqing.

Thinking about the new Junior Apprentice-Brother, he began to feel there was hope for the sect to grow even stronger. With one or two Dixian, they could then become one of the four Daoist sects and cumulatively after a few hundred to a thousand years, their wealth would not be worse than Qing Xuan anymore.

Huanzhen said, “It has been a while since I last met Uncle-Master Dengfeng. I should visit him after this, and to meet the new Junior Apprentice-Brother. What’s his name?”

“Qingwei,” Yuming the Honored Celestial replied.

At the same time, at one of the peaks of Mount Taicang, there was a young man who was setting up a formula at a Daoist courtyard. The mana formed into Qi which was then pumped into the fire of the cauldron. He accidentally sneezed and it almost put off the burning fire.

At the stoned steps far away, a Daoist sat crossing his leg – it was Daoist Dengfeng. When he heard what happened, he opened his eyes and said, “If you ruin the elixirs in this cauldron, I will make you do this for another five years.”

The young man’s hands did not stop with the formula, and he replied cheekily, “Uncle-Master, you are underestimating me. I can multitask. It must be because just now someone was talking about me. Just half a day more and this cauldron of elixirs will be completed. If you claim that I don’t have any contribution in this, you should at least appreciate my effort. Are you going to give me some, Uncle-Master?”

Daoist Dengfeng sneered and said, “I’d only give this cauldron of elixirs to you if you first return me what you have stolen from me over the past five years.”

The young man laughed, “In the beginning, I didn’t know anything and it is only after I ate those elixirs that I have the energy to work for you.”

Daoist Dengfeng almost laughed because of how cheeky he was, at the same time he was thinking about how shocking Qingwei’s ability was. Regardless of the elixirs, once he ate them, they were all digested easily and turned into his cultivation experience. Such talent was akin to the reincarnation of the holy deities.

Daoist Dengfeng had tried fortune telling to understand the young man’s background, and he knew that he was as clean as a paper. For at least three generations, he had never stepped foot in Dao, else Daoist Dengfeng would not be so comfortable with him.

In his opinion, the elixirs did no harm to him. It could quickly turn into cultivation experience, and it would not affect his Daoist heart. It did not matter to him that the elixirs were gone as Guangqing was still a Xuanmen sect who cared about cultivating the heart and would not treat elixirs as dangerous items.

It did not matter whether the mana was formed from the breathing of Qi of vitality, or from an external source. As long as the mana was pure and without any contaminants, it was fine.

The great part about Qingwei was that he was naturally a seed of cultivation. He had a pure heart and hence he did not have any worry in instability. He was also not a reincarnation of a deity, which was indeed odd. However, the world was huge and there were all kinds of oddities. For such talented student to join Guangqing sect was a sign of the rise of the sect.

Qingwei was indeed Yanxu. While his Free Form Incarnation was mostly broken by Ziling, but his state was not gone. Without the random evil Qi, his mana became more pure and flexible and he could even deceive Yuming the Honored Celestialist and Daoist Dengfeng.

Some of the techniques of Guangqing Celestial Sect were indeed comparable with Qing Xuan’s and the five immortal Zhenrens did not happen by chance. He had perfected Daoist Dengfeng’s Taiyue Real Shape Incantation. It was not below Qing Xuan’s powerful Unlimited Sea Martial Art. With the two formulas, they could be combined and possibly turn into an ultimate technique.

Yanxu, however, had no interest because of his own Free Form Incarnation. Once he succeeded in it, there was nowhere that could trap him and he would feel much freer.

What interested him about Guangqing Celestial Sect was the twelve men who achieved Powang. If he could turn them into his incarnation, he then could try the new formation. Even if he did not succeed in Real Shape Incarnation and was found by Ziling, he would not be afraid and could even have the confidence to beat his Uncle-Master. If he did not play with her, it would be a shame.

He also realized that the technique practiced by Yuming the Honored Celestial was indeed unique. However, with his ability, he could not tell what was the basis was. At this point he kind of missed Taiwei Pavilion and Zhang Ruoxu.

The passing on of Qing Xuan was not something that Guangqing, a new celestial sect could compare with. With the inheritance of the chief, one could benefit from the secrets of Tiandi Jian. The Taiwei Pavilion too carried a lot of secret records, and Shen Lian was lucky to pick up all these.

However, regardless of his guts, Yanxu dared not to return to Qing Xuan. If the old undead did not fall into the trial of Dao, he would not have the chance to leave. Currently, it was not Ziling who wanted to kill him the most, but that old man. Yanxu started to have a headache after he thought about these people. He only wanted to do something interesting but he could only blame these circumstances on his luck.

Those students which were turned into his incarnations had no chance to attain Dao and would die eventually anyway. Zhang and Biyun, however, were being difficult and hence they were affected.

Despite the thoughts Yanxu had, he still exported his mana steadily to let the fire burn brightly. Daoist Dengfeng commented that he was indeed a good material as he took work seriously.

With Yanxu’s performance, cultivating under Taiyue Real Shape Incantation would prove to be a smooth path once he reached Huandan. From then to breaking the whims would not be an issue. He just needed enough elixirs and he would get past it quickly and till then, Guangqing would have another top cultivator close to the deities.

As the kid did not seem interested in Taiyue Real Shape Incantation, Daoist Dengfeng would not force it.

If he knew Yanxu planned to take all of the twelve Powang cultivators including Huanzhen to be his duplicated incarnation, he would probably kill him right then.

There were two flowers blooming and each of them represented one thing.

It was the first time for Shen Lian to reach such depth of the sea. The underwater world was very different from the land. In the beginning, Shen Lian used Water Repelling Incantation to block out the world but when he reached several hundred feet deep, he gave up on that trick.

The pressure at several hundred feet depths was enormous. It was not bearable by the several ten thousand pounds of forces. As he went deeper, the pressure he experienced grew.

The water would not enter his body and hence the body would have to take on the pressure.

His Taixu Strategy’s mana was circulating in his body at a high speed to relieve him of the pressure he felt in his vessels. However as he dived deeper, the pressure was multiplying.

He kept going deeper and to an unknown depth, he was almost bearing the weight of a huge mountain. He could feel that all his acupoints and flesh were beginning to break down.

He still had some mana, but unfortunately, his body could not let out the unimaginable mana to counterbalance the pressure.

He never really studied the top strength training techniques, so while he had a tougher body than most cultivators, but compared to those who practiced “Jingang Body”, he was still far from it.

Shen Lian now knew the limit of his current body and hence he stopped resisting. His body became to shift shape and his blood and flesh were reorganizing. He looked more like a merman now.

It was a Daoist technique that involved the shift in the body shape and was rumored to stem from Tiangang Thirty-Six Techniques.

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