Chapter 77: First Glimpse of the World's Cultivation

"To be perfectly honest, I am Chen Chen Xinan, a disciple of the Yushujiange."

Upon the Myriad Souls Banner, Chen Chen Xinan appeared utterly sincere and spoke with righteous indignation: "In life, I was harmed by that evil cultivator Liu Xin; I hope this does not make a fool of me in your eyes, Daoist Friend."

"Oh?" Upon hearing this, Lu Yang narrowed his eyes slightly.

Young man, you are not being honest!

Compared to the other banner spirits, Chen Chen Xinan's condition was clearly problematic; it seemed he truly retained a degree of autonomy and could think normally.

He could even tell lies!

Looking at Chen Chen Xinan, Lu Yang grinned: "Daoist Friend, please calm yourself; I shall destroy this evil treasure that harms people immediately, so that all of you may return to the cycle of reincarnation."

"Wait, wait!"

Before Lu Yang could finish speaking, Chen Chen Xinan hurriedly cried out to stop him; seeing Lu Yang look over in confusion, he rolled his eyes, then sighed and said: "Daoist Friend, you do not understand; this treasure refines our true spirits. If you destroy it, not only will we be unable to reincarnate, but we will also be buried along with it."

—This was a lie.

In his previous life, Lu Yang had cultivated bitterly for a hundred years and had polished the Myriad Souls Banner until it gleamed; his understanding of it even surpassed Liu Xin's, and he knew its inner workings all too well.

Therefore, he saw through Chen Chen Xinan's lie at a glance.

But why was he lying?

Lu Yang's thoughts raced; logically, the banner spirits on the Myriad Souls Banner were no different from the dead, and being able to reincarnate was already a stroke of heavenly luck, so who could possibly escape that fate?

Could it be that this Chen Chen Xinan had some other method to return to life?

"Interesting."

Lu Yang smiled, then without any hesitation, asked directly: "Daoist Friend, you deliberately deceived me; is there some secret? I wonder if you might share it?"

At these words, Chen Chen Xinan immediately froze in shock.

In the flash of an instant, he had already thought of a reply, yet before he could open his mouth, he suddenly felt darkness fall before his eyes, and his consciousness grew hazy.

"You want to search my soul?"

Initially, Chen Chen Xinan remained calm; he quickly activated a divine ability to protect his mind and even prepared to fabricate a memory to fool Lu Yang.

However, the next second, his expression stiffened.

For he clearly saw a towering Golden Body, standing between heaven and earth, brutally crashing into his sea of consciousness, instantly suppressing all his divine abilities!

"Rank!?"

How is this possible!

As a true disciple of the Holy Sect, Chen Chen Xinan naturally knew quality, and Lu Yang, using the rank of the Sage Thief to suppress him directly, had no intention of giving him the slightest chance.

"Tell me, what are you plotting?"

Lu Yang chuckled lightly, easily grasping Chen Chen Xinan's sea of consciousness, and soon extracted streams of the information he desired from his memories.

The next second, Chen Chen Xinan's lips moved, and he spoke uncontrollably: "I cultivated a great divine ability called the 'Severing Thought Seeing My Heavenly Silkworm Secret Art,' which allows one to split one's spiritual sense to perform possession; I planned to deceive you first, then find a way to possess you, thus achieving rebirth."

"Interesting..."

Looking at Chen Chen Xinan, who was now sweating profusely, Lu Yang smiled lightly and continued asking: "For a banner spirit to devour its master is harder than ascending to heaven; how originally did you plan to possess me?"

"Very simple; I would transmit the 'Severing Thought Seeing My Heavenly Silkworm Secret Art' to you."

"This is a great divine ability; you could not help but be tempted."

"However, this great divine ability is extremely special; the cultivator must sever nine divided spirits from their own mind, then use a secret method to unify them."

"But I would not transmit the secret method for unifying the divided spirits to you."

"Therefore, once you cultivated it, you would inevitably split into nine different consciousnesses, each wanting to be the master; the result would be a struggle between the snipe and the clam, allowing me, the fisherman, to reap the benefit."

After hearing Chen Chen Xinan's description, Lu Yang felt somewhat tempted.

Suddenly, a thought stirred in his heart, and he asked again: "Are you truly Chen Chen Xinan?"

At these words, Chen Chen Xinan immediately fell silent, a look of struggle appearing on his face, yet in the end, he could not resist Lu Yang's suppression of rank.

"... trictly speaking, no."

"The real 'Chen Chen Xinan' is already dead; I am merely a divided spirit he once severed... but since he is dead, then I am Chen Chen Xinan!"

After hearing this, Lu Yang clicked his tongue in wonder; he was quite tempted by the great divine ability Chen Chen Xinan mentioned, the 'Severing Thought Seeing My Heavenly Silkworm Secret Art.' For according to Chen Chen Xinan's description, once this great divine ability was successfully cultivated, it could not only elevate one's rank but even allow one to condense 'spiritual sense' ahead of time, something only a Foundation Establishment True Person possesses!

This point was especially crucial.

Because breaking through to Foundation Establishment is itself a process of transforming spiritual consciousness into spiritual sense, and if one transforms ahead of time, it provides immense help in constructing the immortal foundation.

"Senior Brother Chen, you died well."

"In this life, seeking you out was indeed the right choice!"

Love it or hate it, this thing called 'rank' is堪称 a tool for bullying the weak; otherwise, it would have been nearly impossible for Lu Yang to dig out so much intelligence from Chen Chen Xinan.

And now, with the加持 of rank, Chen Chen Xinan spoke with nothing held back and nothing left unsaid; Lu Yang even dug out the complete original content of the 'Severing Thought Seeing My Heavenly Silkworm Secret Art.' Only after accomplishing all this did Lu Yang withdraw his divine ability and look at Chen Chen Xinan, who had regained his autonomy but wore a ashen expression.

"... ou are a disciple of the Holy Sect, aren't you?"

After a long silence, Chen Chen Xinan finally spoke, his tone extremely firm: "Such conduct is something only a disciple of our Holy Sect would do."

Thinking of this, Chen Chen Xinan glanced at Lu Yang again, his tone complex: "You killed Liu Xin, yet you are not at the Reaching Heaven Cloud Sea; could it be that you also plan to betray the sect?"

At these words, Lu Yang's eyebrows immediately rose slightly: "... lso?"

Instead, Chen Chen Xinan tilted his head, looking utterly puzzled: "What is so strange about it? Given the sect style of the Holy Sect, disciples betraying the sect is a very normal occurrence."

"However, you should be the strongest one to date."

"It is simply inconceivable."

Speaking to this point, even Chen Chen Xinan found it hard to understand: "Disciples who are granted great divine abilities are usually branded with restrictions to prevent them from betraying the sect in the future."

"I was exempt from restrictions only because my father is the Peak Master of Senior Butian Peak, but why is it so for you?"

Lu Yang did not answer.

What Chen Chen Xinan said was not wrong; in his previous life, he had obtained the inheritance of a great divine ability by selling himself to the Sanhe Society, but that was a matter of the previous life.

What does that have to do with me in this life?

However, matters like 'I have opened' definitely could not be let known to others, so Lu Yang actively changed the subject: "Does Daoist Friend have any understanding of this world?"

Hearing this, Chen Chen Xinan froze: "The world?"

Lu Yang nodded: "To be honest, this is my first time traveling; I am momentarily unsure where to go, so I came to ask Daoist Friend."

"... o not go south."

After a moment of silence, Chen Chen Xinan spoke honestly: "North of the Great Dragon River is the territory of our Holy Sect, where all major and minor sects revolve around our Holy Sect; Jiangnan is where the Yushujiange holds the reins of the righteous path; aside from that, the Northern Frontier and Southern Barbarians are remote and desolate places with no powerful forces."

"If one must speak of it, only Jiangdong, Jiangxi, and the Overseas regions are somewhat presentable."

"Oh?" Lu Yang asked with a face full of curiosity: "Why do you say so?"

"Because the Daos are different," Chen Chen Xinan explained: "Whether it is the Holy Sect or the Sword Pavilion, Jiangnan or Jiangbei, what is cultivated is actually the 'Refining Form Ascension Dao.'"

"However, Jiangdong, Jiangxi, and the Overseas regions are different."

"Jiangdong cultivates the 'Patrolling Heaven on Behalf of Heaven Dao,' Jiangxi cultivates the 'Deep Joy Nirvana Dao,' and the Overseas regions are a blooming garden of a hundred flowers; although none compare to our orthodox paths, they possess considerable ingenuity."

As a true disciple and the blood relative of the Senior Butian Peak Master, Chen Chen Xinan's knowledge far exceeded Lu Yang's; as he spoke slowly now, he immediately unveiled a corner of this world for Lu Yang, especially the descriptions of Jiangdong, Jiangxi, and even the Overseas regions, which made one's heart race with longing.

However, very quickly, he reined in his thoughts and returned to calmness.

"... know where to go now."

The most urgent task was still to find secret methods to increase the probability of Foundation Establishment; the 'Severing Thought Seeing My Heavenly Silkworm Secret Art' was an unexpected surprise but could not disrupt his plans.

Places like Jiangdong, Jiangxi, and the Overseas regions were not urgent for the moment.

He planned to visit Skeleton Mountain once more.

"The Witch-Ghost Secret Realm... a place where the ancient Witch-Ghost Path left its inheritance; for those great sects, surely their so-called inheritance does not stop at the Qi Condensation realm, does it?"

In his previous life, before he could even enter the Secret Realm, it was already destroyed.

In this life, he would enter it ahead of time to see if there were any opportunities related to Foundation Establishment.

Moreover, the Witch-Ghost Secret Realm was extremely secretive and very suitable for hiding; 一 something happened regarding Yu Suzhen, if he hid within the Secret Realm, his safety would be even more guaranteed.

(End of Chapter)