Chapter 76: Anxious Waiting

These past two days, Wei Yuning had spent in constant unease.

Profound Wind Master and a group of experts had already set out.

The news came from Uncle-Master Hongzhi.

Although Hongzhi was already at the Illumination stage and could be considered an expert in the cultivation world, this expedition was against an immortal realm champion, so Hongzhi's level of cultivation was insufficient, and thus he too had stayed behind.

Within the sect, those who knew of this plan to hunt the immortal envoy were, apart from Wei Yuning and Hongzhi, all absolute high-ranking members. Qiu Hu counted as an unexpected insider, but given her status, Wei Yuning trusted she would not spread such matters carelessly.

Equally anxious as he was Hongzhi.

By the morning of the third day, no news had yet arrived.

Today was the day the immortal envoy would come to the sect; barring any surprises, he would arrive at Cloud Concealment Sect before noon.

Wei Yuning had not slept all night; apart from cultivation, he silently counted the time.

After the dream imprisonment last time, Wei Yuning had no choice but to awaken the visualization construct—the "Pseudo-Realm Butterfly"—within his body once more. Fortunately, the visualization construct had not continued to cause trouble, and his cultivation during this period had gone quite smoothly.

The purpose of a visualization construct was originally to help cultivators better gather spiritual Qi, and it was completely under the master's control. However, for Wei Yuning, as long as the visualization construct did not cause him trouble, that was already good enough.

Whether the golden ancient pine or the "Pseudo-Realm Butterfly," both were troublesome masters.

The golden ancient pine was already peculiar enough, having actually become a separate divine sense entity. And the Realm Butterfly was even worse—though it relied entirely on its master's body for spiritual Qi nourishment, it lacked any sense of its role as a visualization construct, and when angered, even confined its master.

Fortunately, he now possessed an innate spiritual body and could practice from time to time at points where heaven-and-earth spiritual Qi gathered, so he did not lack spiritual Qi, and thus his cultivation progress had not been delayed.

The spiritual Qi of physical Foundation Establishment was essentially evenly distributed throughout the body, while the spiritual Qi of divine sense Foundation Establishment was essentially gathered within the dantian. The two forms of cultivation each followed their own course while simultaneously complementing each other. This was also the benefit of dual cultivation of body and divine sense.

The essence of cultivation was to use the physical body as a boat and divine sense as a sail, to cross the river of fate, ultimately breaking free from the bindings of fate and reaching the other shore of immortality.

There were thousands upon thousands of Great Daos, but their ultimate goal was invariably immortality.

Those cultivation methods that only strengthened combat prowess but were of no benefit to immortality could all be called demonic cultivation.

Physical cultivation also trained divine sense, and divine sense cultivation also trained the physical body; it was just that the two had different emphases. Dual cultivation of body and divine sense was something every cultivator dreamed of, but limited by aptitude, even single-path cultivation was exceedingly difficult, and dual cultivation was even harder than ascending to heaven.

On the path of cultivation, every realm had a lifespan limit. Advancing to the next realm as quickly as possible before the great limit arrived was the most important matter. Therefore, choosing divine sense cultivation, which progressed more rapidly, was the natural choice for the vast majority of cultivators.

A "pseudo-innate spiritual body" like Wei Yuning's, which nearly ignored the obstacles of minor realm cultivation, was the optimal physique that every cultivator envied.

If he were an infant whose divine sense had not yet formed, someone within Cloud Concealment Sect might even have designs on him. Theoretically, this kind of body was the best target for possession by cultivators who had no hope of tribulation and ascension.

However, his divine soul was already formed, and he was a formal cultivator, so possession would be extremely difficult to succeed. Because as the body's original divine soul, one held an absolute advantage in battles of divine sense—the original soul possessed the ability to "make whatever one thinks come true" within the divine sense world.

But for lesser demons, a cultivator's divine soul was a tonic; they could directly devour it and then occupy the other party's body. Of course, it was not so easy for lesser demons to devour a divine soul either—the opponent had to be an ordinary mortal with extremely low divine sense strength, or if it was a cultivator, the demon had to have thoroughly subdued the opponent and reduced their divine soul to an unconscious state.

However, as a physical Foundation Establishment cultivator with a Yang Spirit physique, Wei Yuning was innately suppressive of evil things. An ordinary lesser demon would most likely become his tonic instead.

In the legends of the cultivation world, in certain worlds, there were tragic and heroic instances of all cultivators converting entirely to physical cultivation in order to resist demon invasions and protect their own worlds.

Through this period of accumulation, as the night passed, Wei Yuning's divine sense cultivation realm had just barely entered late Foundation Establishment, and the spiritual Qi mass within his body had begun to become sluggish and dense.

At this moment, a knock on the door suddenly sounded.

"Come in!"

The person who entered was Steward Hongzhi.

Wei Yuning leapt to his feet.

"Uncle-Master Hongzhi, is there news?" he asked urgently.

Hongzhi's expression darkened. He shook his head and said, "I haven't received any news either. I thought you would have received some!"

"Me? How could that be!" Wei Yuning said, puzzled.

"Uncle-Master Xuye went too, and he's relatively familiar with you, isn't he?" Hongzhi chuckled, though his tone carried an unmistakable hint of sourness.

It was no wonder—Wei Yuning had only been in the sect for a few months, yet his network of connections was almost on par with Hongzhi's. Even Patriarch Daomin knew of him, and moreover, he was a disciple of the sect's old scholar, Elder Taichong.

In recent years, Taichong had devoted himself to studying the sect's cultivation system and had put forward many pertinent suggestions. The patriarchs all held Taichong in high regard. As Taichong's sole disciple, Wei Yuning's future status would surely rise accordingly.

"Senior Xuye—wasn't he at the Integration stage?" Wei Yuning said.

"Before the battle with the fellow Daoists of Divine Martial Gate that day, Uncle-Master Xuye taught us a new method, which he called the 'Dao of Void and Solid'! It's a pity you weren't present, but I happened to gain some insight that day. Since there's nothing else to do, I can explain it to you." Hongzhi did not answer Wei Yuning's question, but instead brought up another matter.

Hearing this, Wei Yuning immediately perked up—Uncle-Master Hongzhi was about to lecture on the Dao.

In matters of cultivation, most relied on self-realization; even between master and disciple, the process was rarely explained in detail. As a senior cultivator, Hongzhi's insights would certainly be of great reference value to Wei Yuning.

First, Hongzhi recounted in detail the process of Xuye's lecture that day, and finally, began to speak of his own realizations.

"That day, Uncle-Master Xuye said that the 'Dao of Void and Solid' is also the 'Dao of Twin Birth,' but in the end he stopped short, as though this Dao was more than just that. However, because this method could produce a brief time stoppage, I had a bold idea!" At this point, Hongzhi suddenly paused.

He looked up toward the ceiling of the cave, his expression solemn.

Wei Yuning had been listening with rapt attention; seeing this, he also looked up at the pitted roof, but discovered nothing.

"Uncle-Master, what's wrong?"

Hongzhi snapped out of his daze and looked at Wei Yuning. After a few seconds, he said, "Do you think the future you could see the present you?"

"This…" Wei Yuning was so startled he could not speak.

"What's going on? Is Uncle-Master Hongzhi going to discuss the theory of relativity with me? The key is, as a bad student, apart from knowing how to write the mass-energy equation, I know nothing else!" His eyes darted about, but he did not know how to answer.

"I originally didn't believe this either. However, the lightning chain attack that Uncle-Master Xuye demonstrated merged attacks from two different times into one, which is equivalent to the future you and the present you merging into one to unleash a single attack. If this method could be applied without limit, there could be countless future selves striking simultaneously alongside the present self…"