Chapter 202: The Secret of Empty Verification, The Mystery of the Fallen (Fourth Update Supplement!)

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

As the Myriad Souls Banner unfurled, a figure of light and shadow slowly materialized; seeing this, Lu Yang hurried forward, bowed respectfully, and said, "Junior disciple Lu Yang pays his respects to the Patriarch!"

"No need for such formalities."

Seeing this, Patriarch Ting You narrowed his eyes slightly, then smiled and said, "I have finished organizing the memories of that Daoist Devil, as well as that theory on Mahayana First Grade true qi."

Although strictly speaking, he was now the banner spirit of the Myriad Souls Banner while Lu Yang was its master, meaning he had no way to resist Lu Yang, Lu Yang was still willing to treat him with the courtesy due a patriarch, which he found very satisfying; he felt that secluding himself for Lu Yang's sake this time had truly been worth it.

Thinking thus, Patriarch Ting You immediately projected a strand of spiritual sense.

Lu Yang took out a jade slip, infused the spiritual sense into it, circulated it with magic power for a moment, and only then began to examine its contents; what met his eyes was clearly a vast expanse of scriptural text.

Its name was—The Primordial Golden Gate Jade Book!

Could it be that my world-shaking wisdom has actually deduced this?

Lu Yang's face lit up with delight; he immediately swept it with his spiritual sense, then froze—the good news was that Patriarch Ting You had indeed deduced something.

The bad news was that what he had deduced was not much.

"According to my deduction, if one refines qi using the Primordial True Person's method, the resulting true qi will indeed be perfect, worthy of being called the finest under heaven."

This was not surprising; after all, the Primordial True Person's hypothesis was nothing short of insane, using golden nature to refine qi! This was equivalent to taking a task meant for the perfection of Foundation Establishment and placing it at the completion of Qi Refining; the true qi cultivated thereby would naturally deliver a dimensional strike against other true qi, making any comparison impossible.

"However... that is all there is to it."

Speaking thus, Patriarch Ting You shook his head: "The quality of the true qi is beyond doubt, but as I said before, it possesses quality but lacks status."

Status is the key to cultivation!

Qi Refining ascends to Foundation Establishment, Foundation Establishment ascends to attain a fruit position; without an elevation in status, no matter how much quality or quantity increases, it amounts to nothing in the eyes of those at higher realms.

"In terms of true qi quality, the Mahayana First Grade true qi envisioned by the Primordial True Person is absolutely perfect; under equal cultivation bases, a cultivator who has formed Mahayana First Grade true qi possesses magic power at least ten thousand times greater than one with Third Grade true qi! One could say a mere puff of breath would crush the opponent; at first glance, it seems no different from Foundation Establishment."

"Yet this is merely superficial."

"When the two truly clash, a Foundation Establishment True Person, even the weakest one who has not achieved perfect Foundation Establishment, can still easily press you to death with a single finger."

Hearing this, Lu Yang raised a question: "Then how does one establish a foundation with Mahayana First Grade true qi?"

"... do not know."

After a moment of silence, Patriarch Ting You shook his head: "The Primordial True Person provided a method for establishing a foundation with golden nature, but after my deduction, I confirmed it is unusable."

"Something seems to be missing in between."

"But I do not know what it is; after all, until now I have only encountered Third Grade cultivation methods; I have never even seen what a Second Grade True Art looks like..."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yang immediately slapped his forehead, then circulated his spiritual sense and brought out the fragment of the Second Grade True Art he had extorted from True Person Miaoyin, The Qian Heaven One Yuan Unifying All Heavens Divine Art: "Patriarch, this is something I recently acquired; please see if it can offer you any inspiration?"

"... h?"

Seeing this, Patriarch Ting You was momentarily stunned; he took the cultivation method, glanced at it, and then his expression froze, his previous nonchalance gradually turning into seriousness.

Long afterwards, he finally exhaled a deep breath of turbid air:

"Gathering external qi to refine the spirit... So that is it! So that is it! External qi—yes, it must be external qi! When nothing can be sought inwardly, one must naturally seek outwardly!"

A look of sudden enlightenment flashed across Patriarch Ting You's face.

He then looked at Lu Yang and said in a grave voice: "By any means necessary, you must obtain the qi-gathering secret technique of this Second Grade True Art; this is the most crucial part!"

Lu Yang looked curious: "A qi-gathering secret technique?"

"Indeed!" Patriarch Ting You nodded and explained: "I am certain this is the greatest advantage Second Grade True Arts and First Grade True Arts hold over Third Grade ones!"

"The reason the Primordial True Person could not deduce it is most likely because he never saw the true transmission of a genuine Second Grade True Art; a single sentence of true transmission is worth ten thousand volumes of books! It was just that one sentence that was missing! This person's talent was truly unparalleled, no less than my own, but alas, like me, he was born in the wrong era..."

After sighing with emotion for a moment, Patriarch Ting You looked at Lu Yang:

"The so-called 'gathering external qi to refine the spirit'—this 'external qi' does not refer to ordinary qi, but to the heavens beyond the heavens! Beyond the realms! What must be gathered is the qi from beyond the heavens!"

"Gather the qi from beyond the heavens to nourish and refine the soul."

"Only by completing this step will the refined true qi have a specific direction—not toward a fruit position, but toward that heavenly realm from which you gathered the qi!"

Patriarch Ting You's train of thought became increasingly clear, and his voice grew more urgent:

"Use the gathered qi from beyond the heavens to draw over the corresponding fruit position located in other heavenly realms, which does not exist in this world, and manifest it within this world..."

"This is truly 【Empty Verification】!"

"Otherwise, if everything you possess comes from heaven and earth, how could you possibly verify a fruit position that does not exist within heaven and earth?"

Boom!

As his words fell, a thunderclash streaked across the dome of the sky; it seemed to be merely the collision of clouds, yet it also felt like a warning issued by heaven and earth itself!

Patriarch Ting You immediately fell silent; long afterwards, he spoke softly: "This is why Second Grade True Arts and First Grade True Arts are so rare, with almost no one knowing of them—because heavenly realms are not so easy to find; we are not talking about minor heavenly realms, but true heavenly realms guarded by great powers where the Dao and its laws are manifest!"

Such heavenly realms are not something a Golden Core True Lord can simply pluck down at will.

If one truly encounters such a realm, it will inevitably lead to a prolonged great war! Lasting a hundred years, a thousand years, is quite normal; even True Lords might perish in the process!

"So it is like this..."

Having received Patriarch Ting You's explanation, light flickered in Lu Yang's eyes as he made his decision: make True Person Miaoyin the primary target this time!

At any cost!

Even the True Lord's mission could be postponed; he must devise a way to kill her and obtain the complete version of The Qian Heaven One Yuan Unifying All Heavens Divine Art in her possession!

"Speaking of which, this place..."

Just then, Patriarch Ting You looked around and exclaimed in astonishment: "A blessed land in the midst of collapse—did Master Chongguang fail?"

"The Patriarch's insight is impeccable."

Lu Yang wore an expression of admiration, then tentatively looked at Patriarch Ting You and said, "Before his death, True Person Master Chongguang mentioned that 【Overturned Lamp Fire】 inexplicably repelled him."

"He simply did not understand the reason."

"I wonder if the Patriarch can discern any clues?"

Hearing this, Patriarch Ting You gave Lu Yang an annoyed glance: "Who do you take me for? A True Lord?"

"A Great True Person at perfection from the Holy Sect was far more magnificent than I was in my day; if even such a figure could not see through or explain this, how would I know!"

"After all, he at least still had a chance to seek gold, whereas I..."

Speaking thus, a trace of gloom briefly flashed across Patriarch Ting You's face, but he quickly regained his composure and proactively changed the subject:

"However, speaking of failure in seeking gold, the Primordial True Person was somewhat similar to him."

"... hat?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Yang was instantly stunned; only then did he realize that when he had previously dual-cultivated with the Daoist Devil, he had also obtained memories related to the Primordial True Person.

However, since Lu Yang had not performed the act personally back then but had Chen Chen Xinan do it instead, there were inevitably some omissions; conversely, Patriarch Ting You, being a banner spirit like Chen Chen Xinan and frequently communicating within the Myriad Souls Banner, knew more about the life and experiences of the Primordial True Person.

"Back then, the Primordial True Person sought 【Long Flowing Water】."

Patriarch Ting You recalled for a moment and said, "But the result was exactly the same as Master Chongguang's; 【Long Flowing Water】 inexplicably repelled him, resulting in his failure and demise."

"Until his death, he never figured out the reason."

"Otherwise, with his grand ambitions, he still hoped to ascend to a fruit position, become a True Lord, and then reverse-engineer his Mahayana First Grade true qi to perfect it completely..."

Patriarch Ting You's narration plunged Lu Yang into deep thought.

True Person Master Chongguang sought to verify 【Overturned Lamp Fire】.

The Primordial True Person sought to verify 【Long Flowing Water】.

The reasons for their failures were strikingly similar; Lu Yang absolutely refused to believe it was mere coincidence; there must be some imperceptible factor at play here...

In a daze, Lu Yang felt as though he had touched a thin veil.

His intuition told him that once he pierced through this veil, he would reach the truth, yet upon deeper contemplation, everything still felt shrouded in mist, elusive and hard to grasp.

And just at that moment.

"Zzzzt—!!!"

A sword cry from beyond the clouds interrupted Lu Yang's thoughts; looking out, he saw a magnificent sword light speeding directly toward him!

(End of Chapter)