Chapter 117: Re-entering the Spirit Sea

As soon as Duan Rong entered the Spirit Sea, he first looked up toward the Cangqiong!

Above the dome, that infant light-shadow was wrapped in a cocoon layer as thin as a cicada's wing, floating in the sky as if sleeping within a mother's womb, emitting a milky-white fluorescence!

Duan Rong watched that infant light-shadow, his gaze like that of a pilgrim, clean and bright...

Duan Rong watched the infant light-mass for a while, then a thought stirred, and his gaze shifted toward the southeastern sky...

In the Cangqiong there, hung a patch of weapon afterimages he had devoured!

Duan Rong searched for a long time, but did not find the Mo Dao he had devoured in the Martial Arts Arena before entering the Spirit Sea!

"Could it be..."

The Cangqiong was as clear as glaze, unobstructed, and under the illumination of the fluorescence emitted by the infant light-shadow, it looked even more limpid!

"It's not in the sky, perhaps it is... on the earth!" Duan Rong's gaze hardened.

After all, those unabsorbed Tree Spirits were all rooted in the Black Earth...

Duan Rong circled the center of the Black Earth, searching with his eyes, and sure enough, he found it!

Right there on the earth below the weapon afterimages in the southeastern sky, a Mo Dao was stuck!

That was not an afterimage, but a Mo Dao that looked as if it had solidified!

Even more bizarre was that the Mo Dao was emitting thick mist like black smoke...

The mist emanated from all parts of the Mo Dao's blade, billowing and almost shrouding the entire blade within it...

Once that thick mist was emitted, it mixed into the thin mist floating and rolling in this space, merging into one, and continued to churn incessantly...

"What is this?"

The state of the Weapon Spirit in the Spirit Sea was clearly beyond Duan Rong's expectations.

Duan Rong's heart jolted; he suddenly thought of something, and he reached out his hand to grab at the rolling mist before his eyes!

How could one grasp intangible mist?

His palm was naturally empty...

Duan Rong stared blankly at his own palm, his heart suddenly brightening; he turned his head to look at the Black Earth, toward the Tree Spirit Light Sea in the southwest!

From this position, separated by the rolling thin mist, the light sea gathered from cyan ghostly light was only vaguely discernible...

The Tree Spirit emitted cyan light threads, while the Mo Dao's Spirit Tool emitted mist, the same kind of thin mist that filled this world...

They were fundamentally different!

The thin mist churning in this world was his own thoughts...

The so-called process of digesting and absorbing a Weapon Spirit after devouring it was the process of turning the Spirit Tool into mist and merging it into his own thoughts...

However, the Tree Spirit's light threads were a different kind of existence!

It seemed to be a basic energy body that constructed this space!

Thinking this, Duan Rong looked up at the Cangqiong, at the infant light-shadow emitting white fluorescence!

This infant light-shadow and the Tree Spirit's light threads should be things of the same origin!

It was precisely because of this that the infant light-shadow could absorb the Tree Spirit's light threads!

Duan Rong also thought that the original cultivation method of the Womb Treasury Sutra was actually to use the figures of the Four Great Wisdom Kings to extract light threads from the mist floating in this world!

In other words, the cultivation logic of the Womb Treasury Sutra was actually to compress and extract that kind of energy light thread that could enhance Mental Power from the thoughts he gained through his understanding of all things in the world!

Duan Rong's gaze suddenly became profound and yearning!

Because he realized that the Womb Treasury Sutra was truly too marvelous!

And human Mental Power was actually the manifestation of the origin of the Spirit Sea, a fundamental talent!

And this kind of Spirit Sea origin originally had no possibility of being enhanced at all!

The Spirit Sea was vast and vigorous, profound and infinite, and how could the origin power hidden behind the Spirit Sea be shaken by human strength?

But, although the Womb Treasury Sutra cultivated slowly, it had after all pried open this origin power!

At this moment, Duan Rong could understand more deeply how difficult it was to enhance Mental Power, and how heaven-defying the opportunity he had obtained was!

This Womb Treasury Sutra was so marvelous, who exactly created it?

And those four Wisdom Kings standing between heaven and earth, what kind of deities were they?

Duan Rong suddenly discovered that this Jiuzhou World was not as simple as it appeared on the surface; in reality, it hid many secrets that ordinary people could not come into contact with!

If he hadn't relied on a fortuitous opportunity to obtain the Womb Treasury Sutra, he would have had no chance to understand these things at all; even the lord of a county, Shen Yanliu, did not have this qualification!

Perhaps, the Jiuzhou World was far more profound and terrifying than what it was currently showing Duan Rong!

After all, Xiangu County was just a small, remote county town with blocked news and scarce resources.

He had to go out!

Through the cultivation of the Womb Treasury Sutra, the curtain of the Jiuzhou World was finally lifted a corner for Duan Rong...

Duan Rong also raised for the first time the ambition to explore the Jiuzhou World!

The core of this world's secrets was held in the hands of the Sect!

Next year would be the Taiyi Sect's once-every-three-years opportunity to recruit disciples!

If he could find a way to get a spot to participate in the assessment, he would have a chance to become a Registered Disciple!

Duan Rong now possessed both the Womb Treasury Sutra and the Devouring Artifact Spirit, two major bugs, so he was undoubtedly a monster himself!

He was still quite confident about becoming a Registered Disciple; the crux was how to get a spot!

This matter had to be put on the agenda early, prepared for in advance, and he had to find an opportunity to inquire about it!

After Duan Rong made up his mind, he withdrew his thoughts and prepared to cultivate the Womb Treasury Sutra!

He sat cross-legged between heaven and earth, with his five hearts facing the sky!

He held the mantra and formed the seals!

As Duan Rong's hands quickly formed seals, he began to chant in his mouth!

Muffled rolls of thunder rumbled across the horizon!

The churning, thin mist suddenly paused, then, like silt in water, settled rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye!

After a few breaths, a layer of thick, grayish-white mist had spread across the Black Earth!

Duan Rong sat cross-legged amidst this thick mist, his brows tightly furrowed, his hands rapidly shifting before his chest; the hand seals he formed were even more complex and arcane...

Suddenly, four colossal divine shadows standing tall enough to reach the heavens emerged, slowly transitioning from ethereal to solid!

The Four Great Wisdom Kings appeared once more in the Spirit Sea!

The moment the divine shadows of the Four Great Wisdom Kings solidified, the infant light-shadow above the firmament seemed to be summoned, its light flickering in waves...

Duan Rong's lips moved rapidly, murmuring incantations...

The four divine statues, their faces ferocious, suddenly had their divine eyes light up, sweeping divine radiance everywhere, and then, opening their great mouths wide, they began to whale-swallow the settling mist...

And after the mist settled, the cyan light-threads floating between heaven and earth suddenly seemed to be attracted, gathering toward the infant light-shadow in the sky...

At the same time, the Tree Spirit Light Sea in the southwest of the Black Earth also rippled, wisps of cyan ghostly light rising like a school of fish and surging toward the horizon...

Duan Rong sat there cross-legged, feeling waves of joy coming from the infant in the sky...

Countless light-threads accumulated around the infant, who was wrapped in a light cocoon as thin as a cicada's wing...

The light-threads transformed into layers of light cocoons, wrapping the infant up layer by layer...

Duan Rong sat there, watching the changes in the light cocoon...

At first, the blurry light-shadow of the infant could still be seen...

But gradually, the infant could no longer be seen...

There was only a milky-white light cocoon...

It started as a seed-kernel shape, slightly pointed at both ends and bulging in the middle; slowly, as the light cocoon accumulated, it gradually turned into a sphere...

And it grew larger and larger...

I do not know how much time had passed when, suddenly, the cyan ghostly light of the Tree Spirit Light Sea abruptly stalled and stopped rising...

At almost the same time, the mouths of the four divine statues stopped whale-swallowing the grayish-white mist...

Everything came to a halt, and between heaven and earth, there was absolute silence...

Only the massive ball of light in the sky emitted a milky-white fluorescence...

"This is... what happened?"

"... It stopped?"

The next moment, Duan Rong's heart suddenly stirred. "The first level of the Womb Treasury Sutra is complete!"

Duan Rong stood up, invigorated; he looked up at the massive ball of light above the firmament, feeling like a devout believer standing on an altar, gazing up at a deity...

That massive ball of light hung there, like a Star Body...

Yes, a Star Body!

A spherical Star Body emitting milky-white fluorescence was suspended right there in his Spirit Sea!

Duan Rong tried to sense the infant hidden within the Star Body, but the infant seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep, with no fluctuations of consciousness...

It was as if that infant had awakened its consciousness solely to devour the light-threads and form this Star Body!

Once its task was complete, it fell into a deep sleep, just as if it were in a womb...

(End of chapter)