Chapter 221: Second Calamity

Xu Jing, Tai Xu City

At this time, Zhang Jian's yin spirit had already stepped into this magnificent divine city.

Tai Xu City corresponds to the second calamity of the yin spirit realm, Tai Xu Chan Xin, and this calamity also comes from the Nine Netherworld Underworld.

After retrieving the soul imprint, the yin spirit is complete, but it will also be entangled by the deep-seated obsessions of countless lifetimes within the soul imprint. Under the provocation of calamity qi, it will pollute one's Dao heart, the yin spirit, triggering the Nine Netherworld Burning Heart Calamity.

However, this calamity is no obstacle for Zhang Jian.

He cultivates the righteous qi of heaven and earth, not relying solely on the Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart, but rather filling himself with knowledge, walking the path of perceiving the essence of heaven and earth.

In the vast sea of classics, he not only comprehended numerous Dao arts, but his own Dao heart has been tempered a thousand times, becoming extraordinarily resilient.

After stepping into Tai Xu City, Zhang Jian proactively triggered the Nine Netherworld Burning Heart Calamity.

Zhang Jian saw for the third time the special phantom of the Nine Netherworld Reincarnation Grinding Wheel descending. In the six-sectored wheel, at this moment the third sector opened, and a wisp of formless dark light, like a flood, passed through a position-linked connection, entering from the soul imprint into the depths of the yin spirit's essence, stirring the myriad past-life memories within the soul imprint.

And a power similar to demonic qi penetrated deep into the yin spirit, attempting to manipulate it, giving rise to various heart demons, splitting his yin spirit, dividing it into numerous separate entities.

But at this moment, light flowed around his yin spirit like diamond, and the Nine Netherworld Burning Heart Fire could not exert its effect. Instead, Zhang Jian treated the various manifestations that arose as an illusion.

For example, he saw that in one life he was a beggar, crawling in the cold wind, begging, and even suffering bullying from nearby vicious beggars, ultimately freezing to death in the cold wind.

Another example: in one life he was a snake catcher, wandering through deep mountains, and one day he "encountered" a great beast in the mountains and died an unnatural death.

Also, when fortune smiled, he became a local official, serving one term with integrity as clear as water. Though he never held power to sway the court, he also gained peace and joy, surrounded by descendants, completing his hurried life.

Among them were also several lifetimes where he obtained cultivation opportunities, either becoming a demonic creature or joining the ranks of heterodox practitioners.

There were also high cultivators of the Dao!

Most of the accumulated grudges and vengeful spirits from these lifetimes were born from these people's hands.

But in a moment, they all turned into dreamlike bubbles and merged into the depths of Zhang Jian's yin spirit.

The various obsessions were eliminated, and they seemed to transform into a special form of nourishment, allowing Zhang Jian's yin spirit origin to also grow slightly.

Furthermore, having undergone the tempering of the Nine Netherworld Burning Heart Calamity, Zhang Jian felt that the texture of his yin spirit secretly underwent a change, as if he had shaken off part of the entanglement of the Nine Netherworld Reincarnation Wheel, completely severing the residual poison of reincarnation.

Henceforth, even if he cannot attain the Dao, with this yin spirit reincarnating, future cultivation will proceed much more smoothly.

At the same time, as these past-life memories dissipated, Zhang Jian naturally comprehended a divine ability, called Yin Spirit Great Small Like-Intention.

Able to change the size of the yin spirit!

Such a divine ability is better than nothing.

Having smoothly passed the second calamity, Zhang Jian did not continue to assault the third calamity of the yin spirit, Heart Monkey Mind Horse.

In fact, his speed in passing calamities is already extremely fast.

Two calamities per year, if spread abroad, would astonish many cultivators.

Ordinary yin spirit venerables must be extremely cautious when facing each major yin spirit calamity, usually polishing their preparation for a hundred years, or even several hundred years.

Even those with heaven-defying talent need decades of accumulation, then multiple attempts to explore and test the strength of the Void Realm calamities, before they can complete this process.

……

On the Observation Heaven Platform, Zhang Jian had just passed the Tai Xu Chan Xin calamity not long ago, and only after more than ten days did he see the Pure Bright Daoist, but at this time the Pure Bright Daoist's condition startled him.

"National Preceptor, what is this...?"

Zhang Jian gazed at the Pure Bright Daoist; before him, the Pure Bright Daoist appeared emaciated and withered, his whole body desiccated. Ordinary cultivators could see that the Pure Bright Daoist suffered severe loss of essence and blood.

"Being able to preserve one's life is already fortunate!"

The Pure Bright Daoist bore some traces of having survived a calamity; his eyes were now somewhat cloudy, and when mentioning this journey, he still felt somewhat gloomy.

This time, when he went to the northern lands, he encountered the Black Blood Daoist of the Blood Slaughter Sect. Although he was not a true primordial spirit person, he activated the remaining foundations of the Blood Slaughter Sect, actually drawing him into an underground palace, where various magical concoctions were brewed and refined. Fortunately, he had prepared enough magical instruments to support himself until the arrival of the Yellow Crane Daoist; otherwise, he might not have escaped this time.

But even if he escaped, his foundation had already been severely damaged.

Zhang Jian also saw that the Pure Bright Daoist's condition was not good, but this matter had little to do with him.

"Since the National Preceptor has returned, the blessed land shall be returned! I too may consider my task completed and withdraw!"

Zhang Jian's face at this time was calm.

For any cultivator, the Observation Heaven Platform is a blessed land, but for him, wherever there are books, that place is a blessed land for cultivation.

Upon hearing this, the Pure Bright Daoist nodded and said: "Pure Bright thanks the Observant God Watch on behalf of Mr.!"

"No problem!"

Zhang Jian smiled slightly; this matter, the Pure Bright Daoist had already paid compensation, and now he returns the jade intact to Zhao, which can also be considered having a beginning and an end.

……

When leaving the Observation Heaven Platform, the next day Zhang Jian directly returned to the Literary and Martial Institute, and reported back to the Dean Huang Liangzhong, completing his onboarding.

Dean Huang Liangzhong had already received the news; this Dean Huang wore a face full of smiles, and he was extremely pleased with Zhang Jian's return.

Without Zhang Jian, the progress of his compilation of the《Great Qian Complete Book》had slowed down considerably.

Seeing the compilation progress lagging, Dean Huang Liangzhong saw it with his eyes and felt anxious in his heart.

Dean Huang Liangzhong is not someone without ambition; he is not yet old, still under the age of knowing one's destiny. If the compilation progress slows, it would mean that his most precious ten or so years of life would be wasted on such tedious compilation work.

Although the Literary and Martial Institute is pure and noble, he has to be cautious all day long, carefully serving the Emperor Jingwu Tianzi and dealing with various senior ministers, inevitably still having to endure resentment.

He more hopes to achieve success early, receive generous rewards from the emperor, and then he will still have time to display his ambitions.

And this requires an able assistant like Zhang Jian to complete this great undertaking in advance!

……

Deep in the imperial palace, Zhang Jian at this time stepped out of the Southern Study, his gaze sweeping toward the Northern Study and Eastern Study.

He had already visited the Northern Study several times; there, most are ordinary martial arts methods, with only a few rare scriptures. Zhang Jian found them of little help to himself.

On the contrary, it is heard that the Eastern Study contains the imperial used Buddhist scripture tower, and the scriptures stored inside are far more precious than those in the two major scripture towers of the south and north.

Zhang Jian also felt curious about this.

However, the Eastern Study is in a restricted area of the palace; Zhang Jian had previously avoided suspicion and deliberately kept a low profile. Although he had obtained the tally, he had not yet entered it.

But by now, he no longer cared about these things.

With each step, he passed through the sentries of the heavy guard, yet he took a stride into the palace.

The location of this harem was clearly more fragrant with powder and perfume than the side of the Literary Arts Institute, and from afar, Zhang Jian saw rows of palace maids swaying like blossoms.

These palace maids seemed to have rarely seen a minister enter the harem, each one with astonished faces.

As if they had discovered some strange new monster!