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Fire Jade Hairpin sparkled brightly, and looking at it, the image of a pure and beautiful Face appeared before her. She gazed at herself quietly, wearing a sweet smile, like a clear mountain spring flowing gently through her heart...
Uncertain how much time had passed, Li Hong reluctantly placed the Fire Jade Hairpin back into the Cosmic Bag, letting out a long sigh as that enchanting figure sank into her heart's lake. In the next moment, Li Hong was seriously contemplating the matter of seclusion.
Cultivators possess unwavering willpower. For ordinary people, clearing their chaotic thoughts from their minds to return to a state of focus and tranquility is quite difficult, but for cultivators, this is basic training. Li Hong had already mastered this. After thinking for a while, he decided to practice the Divination Technique first.
Currently, Li Hong only remembered one Divination Technique, which he had seen and noted down in Temple City: the Soul Searching Technique.
The Soul Searching Technique consists of five layers, progressing step by step. In fact, it is somewhat unfair to describe its utility solely with the name Soul Searching Technique, as each layer has its own effects, and soul searching is just one of them.
According to the preface of the Soul Searching Technique scroll, when mastered to its fullest extent, it can "guide lost souls to resurrect the dead and seize souls to create Walking Corpses." This means that the Soul Searching Technique can transfer a soul into a dead body, making it appear as if the dead have come back to life. It can also forcibly extract a soul from a living person's body, turning that person into a Walking Corpse. This represents the ultimate control over souls.
The simplest is the first layer, which utilizes one's powerful Divine Consciousness to enter the target's mind and understand their thoughts. The second layer controls the target's thoughts; the third layer begins to control their actions; the fourth layer involves imprinting a soul mark—once imprinted, the target will never dare to betray. The final layer is what is mentioned in the preface: "guiding lost souls to resurrect the dead and seizing souls to create Walking Corpses," which involves methods of soul transfer.
This Soul Searching Technique complements the "Summoning Technique" and "Beast Taming Technique" found in the Six Spirit Salty Ritual. Although "Summoning Technique" deals with Yin Spirits and "Beast Taming Technique" pertains to spirit beasts, while the primary target of Soul Searching Technique is humans, this distinction is not fixed. Both Yin Spirits and spirit beasts possess thoughts and souls; thus, anything with thought and soul can be subjected to the Soul Searching Technique.
The Soul Searching Technique also addresses certain shortcomings of "Summoning Technique" and "Beast Taming Technique." For instance, even if one successfully summons a Yin Spirit, they may not understand its thoughts well enough and could face backlash in an instant. At this point, the first layer of "Soul Searching Technique" becomes very useful for uncovering the thoughts of the Yin Spirit, revealing their true intentions until one can control their thoughts and actions. However, the fourth layer cannot be applied to Yin Spirits, as their souls are incomplete; imprinting a soul mark deep within them could lead to unknown variables and is quite unsafe.
The "Beast Taming Technique" can also be used in conjunction with "Soul Searching Technique." One can begin using "Beast Taming Technique" while simultaneously employing "Soul Searching Technique" to determine a spirit beast's thoughts and understand its current state of mind. This allows for control over them and even enables one to imprint a soul mark deep within their souls. In this way, spirit beasts would never betray their master and would be readily available within effective range. With the aid of "Soul Searching Technique," one could maximize the effectiveness of "Beast Taming Technique."
After carefully studying the first layer's incantation for a while, Li Hong realized that while it might take others thousands of years to cultivate it successfully, it posed no problem for him at all.
The reason was simple: mastering the Soul Searching Technique requires an exceptionally strong Divine Consciousness, just as with the requirements for the Six Spirit Salty Ritual.
This is because a person's thoughts arise from a profoundly mysterious place in their mind that is deeply hidden; only they truly know what they are thinking inside. Even if the other party is just an ordinary mortal, it remains quite challenging for a cultivator to probe into their thoughts. To achieve this requires an immensely powerful Divine Consciousness, strong enough to penetrate deep into their thoughts and soul.
Li Hong quickly mastered the first layer of the Soul Searching Technique, but he was currently troubled by the lack of a test subject, making it impossible to know the effectiveness of the first layer.
Suddenly, Yan Luo's figure popped into his mind. Yan Luo was full of lies; her words were often a mix of truth and deception, making it hard for him to judge. If he used the Soul Searching Technique on her, wouldn't that allow him to discern whether she was lying or telling the truth?
Thinking this way, Li Hong felt a slight thrill of excitement, but then he quickly felt embarrassed.
She was a girl, and regardless of whether her words were true or false, she was at least his savior. Moreover, she was one of the few in the Immortal Sect who believed he wasn't a traitor. He prided himself on being straightforward; how could he stoop to such a despicable act as prying into a girl's thoughts?
With that thought in mind, Li Hong decided to put away the Eight Formation Flag and stepped out of the stone cave.
The sky was just beginning to brighten. This place was located in the southern part of Central Plains, and it was deep autumn. While most people would feel the chill in the mountain breeze, Li Hong found it refreshing and comfortable. His Divine Consciousness expanded from himself, allowing him to perceive the movements of countless insects and animals vividly.
About four or five hundred feet away in the grass, there was a nest of rabbits.
The rabbits were nibbling on dew-covered Autumn Grass, their ears perked up in alertness as they occasionally raised their bodies to look around. At the front was the largest Gray Female Rabbit.
Li Hong stood at the entrance of the cave with his hands behind his back, remaining still. His Divine Consciousness suddenly enveloped the largest gray rabbit, sending out a part of it that quickly pierced into the rabbit's skull.
The large rabbit seemed to sense something and startled into a high jump instinctively. However, it suddenly froze again, displaying a dazed expression on its face. Its front paws were raised high against its chest, no longer eating grass, standing still like a statue.
Li Hong followed the mental incantation and focused on sensing where there were weak energy fluctuations in its brain. A portion of his Divine Consciousness formed a fine line that probed into that area within the rabbit's skull. After a moment, his Divine Consciousness settled there. Then Li Hong began to sense the rabbit's thoughts.
At first, Li Hong felt nothing at all; it was an empty sensation as if he were touching nothingness, with no response for quite some time.
Feeling slightly disappointed and about to withdraw his Divine Consciousness, he suddenly felt a stir in his heart—a faint and extremely fearful awareness came from that end of his Divine Consciousness. It was indeed the "thoughts" of that large rabbit.
Success. Li Hong chuckled and withdrew his Divine Consciousness.
With a thud, the large rabbit collapsed in the grass, startling the other rabbits, which turned and fled, tumbling into their burrows.
Li Hong gestured, and the rabbit slowly floated towards him, landing gently on the ground. After taking a glance at Li Hong, the rabbit let out a bitter smile. Its body was soft and it stared with wide eyes, seemingly scared to death.
After a moment's thought, Li Hong picked up the rabbit and walked towards the mountainside.
Yan Luo was not in the small wooden house. Li Hong placed the rabbit at the door and turned to leave, soon returning to the stone cave where he was in seclusion.
********
Northern Grain of the Heavenly Harvest.
Since the Celestial Sect Alliance breached Heavenly Grain, it had completely lost its former glory. This sect, which once produced an entire Sect Master, had now become a puppet dependent on the Nine Major Sects of the Immortal Sect, or rather, a puppet of Xuan Xuzi.
Initially, Qiu Mingzi killed his fellow disciples who defected, leading to Heavenly Grain being attacked by the Celestial Sect Alliance, earning him great merit. He was originally a spy planted by Xuan Xuzi in Heavenly Grain; after this incident, Xuan Xuzi naturally promoted him to the position of Master of the Grain in Heavenly Grain. Qiu Mingzi became the new generation Master of the Grain.
Under Xuan Xuzi's instructions, Qiu Mingzi led the Celestial Sect Alliance to Southern Valley of Heavenly Grain. The Southern Valley Master was originally Qingqinzi, who mysteriously disappeared, leaving no leader. For this Southern Valley that lacked an Ancient Celestial Field and only cultivated ordinary herbs with little strength, it was effortless for the Celestial Sect Alliance to take control.
From then on, both Northern Grain of the Heavenly Harvest and Southern Valley fell into Xuan Xuzi's hands. Qiu Mingzi obeyed Xuan Xuzi's orders completely and was essentially his puppet. However, Xuan Xuzi was not very pleased with this situation because the Ancient Celestial Field had closed off, preventing anyone from entering. Without access to the Ancient Celestial Field, Heavenly Grain was practically useless.
Currently, Heavenly Grain could only refine some ordinary Elixirs and relied on Xuan Xuzi's Southern Wilderness herbal map to gather herbs from Southern Wilderness. Initially feasible, this became problematic as something happened in Southern Wilderness; Demon Sect Monsters surrounded it completely, making it impossible for anyone to enter. Neither Heavenly Grain nor Immortal Sect could send anyone to gather herbs during this time. No one dared provoke Demon Sect now, so all groups sent to gather herbs quietly retreated. This resulted in a complete halt in Elixir production for Heavenly Grain; apart from refining some extremely ordinary low-grade Pudan like Pill of Starvation, nothing else could be produced.
Although Xuan Xuzi was very dissatisfied with this situation, he had no other options; he couldn't engage in conflict with Demon Sect again as that would expose Immortal Sect's current herbal sources. After much deliberation, he decided to remain inactive. Consequently, with no herbs to refine, all disciples of Heavenly Grain shifted their focus from alchemy to seclusion for cultivation.
The vast Heavenly Grain was eerily quiet, even the cranes on Medicine Peak seemed listless, neither flying nor calling out, lazily resting with their long red beaks tucked into their wings.
Everywhere was silent. Meanwhile, Master of the Grain Qiu Mingzi was drinking and chatting with several Elders who resided in Heavenly Grain at the Reception Hall.
His voice sounded quite lamenting: "Qing Yizi is stubborn and bewitched, making one mistake after another. A single lie requires countless lies to cover it up, ultimately leading to an irreversible path! We must take this as a warning."
Opposite him sat Xuan Chengzi. This Kunlun Elder, who was of the same generation as Xuan Xuzi and had always been highly regarded by him, wore a faint smile on his stern face and was quite friendly towards Qiu Mingzi: "Master of the Grain, he is he and you are you. The sect leader praises your character and holds you in high esteem. How can we speak of taking this as a warning? You are underestimating yourself, Master of the Grain!"
Rich and potent Herbal Wine flowed down Qiu Mingzi's throat like water, and he was already somewhat intoxicated. Leaning closer to Xuan Chengzi with hazy eyes, he whispered mysteriously: "Actually, what I mean by taking it as a warning is something else. You may not know this, but Qing Yizi's final fate was actually bestowed upon him by someone. And that someone is a woman! That's why I always say that beauty is something one should not touch; it must be taken as a warning!"
Xuan Chengzi immediately exchanged glances with Xuan Mozi and others across from him, surprised internally but maintaining a calm facade as he continued to probe: "I don't believe it. Qing Yizi has been cultivating for so many years and has served as Master of the Grain for many years; I've never heard of him wanting to marry a partner. Are you joking, Master of the Grain?"
"Haha," Qiu Mingzi chuckled mysteriously, "Others may not know, but how could I not? Qing Yizi has always had strange looks towards Qingqinzi; they often spend hours alone in the conference hall without anyone allowed in. According to Qingqinzi's disciples, this female master often goes missing for days at a time. Several times they saw her walking out from her senior brother Qing Yizi's room. Moreover, in recent years, Qingqinzi hasn't returned to Southern Valley at all; this nominal Southern Valley Master has never gone back but has been hanging around with Qing Yizi. Afterward, Qing Yizi's behavior became increasingly strange until he announced his departure from Immortal Sect to establish some Pharmaceutical Sect. Honestly, it was precisely because I found their actions disgraceful that I resolved to work with the sect leader! What does this imply? Isn't it that Qing Yizi was troubled by love and manipulated by that woman? Unfortunately, he ultimately lost his life while Qingqinzi managed to escape at the first sign of trouble. This woman is quite remarkable!"
Xuan Chengzi felt a storm brewing in his heart and suddenly recalled something important. He stood up abruptly, "Not good! The escaped Qingqinzi might be problematic!"
At that moment, a loud rumble echoed through the air, causing all five of them to fall to the ground.
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