Chapter 88: The Substitute Heaven Patrol Dao, The Method of the Body Outside the Body

The Wraith-Ghost Secret Realm stood empty.

Everyone was slaughtered clean by Patriarch Tingyou during the soul usurpation, and as the Jin Dan sword qi descended, Patriarch Tingyou was smashed to pieces by the sword qi.

At this moment, only Lu Yang remained in the Wraith-Ghost Secret Realm.

However, the Jin Dan sword qi did not strike down; instead, it returned to hover above the Secret Realm, continuing to lie in ambush, swallowing and spitting out the primordial energy of heaven and earth, seemingly never to dissipate.

Yet Lu Yang's expression showed not the slightest relaxation; on the contrary, it grew as heavy as possible, for he clearly felt that a karmic thread within himself had been locked onto by the sword qi. In other words, once the sword qi erupted, even if separated by ten million li, it could still sever his head with a single strike!

"Is it because I took the inheritance of the Wraith-Ghost Dao?"

Lu Yang glanced at the soul thoughts of Patriarch Tingyou that he had gathered; if he abandoned these thoughts, perhaps he could break free from the sword qi's karma.

"But... I insist!"

A Foundation Establishment soul, and the soul thoughts of a former great demon leader and sect master—this was not comparable to the soul of the Ancestor of the Yun Family from the previous life.

After all, the soul of the Yun Family Ancestor had been whitewashed by the True Person of Yin Mountain.

Whereas the soul thoughts of Patriarch Tingyou contained a full thousand years of his experience, including supernatural powers, cultivation methods, and even various secrets regarding Foundation Establishment!

"I accept this karma!"

With a thought, Lu Yang immediately rode a beam of escape light and vanished from the spot, then casually constructed a cave dwelling nearby and immediately began seclusion.

Several days later.

Inside the cave dwelling, Lu Yang opened his eyes; before him lay the thoughts of Patriarch Tingyou, but now these thoughts had been fully refined by him.

During this process, he also gained a deeper understanding of Patriarch Tingyou.

"This person truly deserves the title of a genius of heaven."

Lu Yang sighed, then picked up one of the thoughts; unlike the others, this thought shone with brilliant light and possessed more spiritual nature than the rest.

It was because what was recorded in this thought was not the memories of Patriarch Tingyou, but his last will.

As the saying goes, a cunning rabbit has three burrows; although Patriarch Tingyou was confident that the soul usurpation would absolutely not fail, he had also prepared contingencies and preparations for the eventuality of failure.

This last will was his contingency; in it, he explicitly stated that he would preserve the inheritance of the Wraith-Ghost Dao in the most complete form within the thought memories; if he died and Lu Yang survived, this inheritance would be given to Lu Yang, thereby continuing the lineage of the Wraith-Ghost Dao.

Of course, there were conditions.

To obtain this inheritance, Lu Yang must bind the karma of the Wraith-Ghost Dao, rebuild the Wraith-Ghost Dao's mountain gate in the future, and cultivate a Foundation Establishment practitioner for the Wraith-Ghost Dao.

Otherwise, the soul thoughts would only self-destruct.

Just as Patriarch Tingyou had stated earlier, his lifelong pursuit was to continue the Wraith-Ghost Dao; he absolutely could not let the Wraith-Ghost Dao perish in the hands of this sect master.

Therefore, whether living or dead, he had considered everything.

He even explicitly stated in the thoughts that as long as Lu Yang accepted the inheritance, he had a method to allow Lu Yang to rapidly possess the combat power of the Foundation Establishment realm in a short time!

How could Lu Yang refuse this?

"First, take the benefits; anyway, even if the karma of the Wraith-Ghost Dao is heavy, it is a matter of this life; what does it have to do with me in the next life..."

Patriarch Tingyou, the last sect master of the Wraith-Ghost Dao.

He was also the person with the highest talent in the history of the Wraith-Ghost Dao; he successfully reached Foundation Establishment at a young age, and then in just over two hundred years, he combined "Shang Zhang," "Kun Dun," "Chongguang," and "Chi Fen Ruo" with the numbers of the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiends, Yin and Yang, to achieve perfect Foundation Establishment and seek the position of "Wall Earth."

Alas, heaven envied the talented.

Just at this moment, a True Person from the Yuchu Yushu Jiange had taken the lead, attaining the fruit position of "Wall Earth," instantly cutting off Patriarch Tingyou's path to the Dao.

How could Patriarch Tingyou, how could the Wraith-Ghost Dao, accept this?

However, Patriarch Tingyou truly lived up to his genius; he actually stubbornly researched another path and created the method of 【Yanmo Hall】.

Eight Foundation Establishment practitioners, manifesting as Black and White Impermanence, Civil and Military Judges, Ox-Head and Horse-Face, and Day-Night Wandering Gods, finally presided over by him, could falsely hold the Golden position and temporarily manifest the Golden Core fruit... This was originally something like a fairy tale, but with the help of a third-party force, Patriarch Tingyou successfully achieved it.

Yet it was this achievement that brought calamity upon the Wraith-Ghost Dao.

That Golden Core True Lord who attained "Wall Earth" sat in the Yuchu Sword Pavilion and, from tens of thousands of li away, struck out a sword, declaring the total extermination of the Wraith-Ghost Dao.

"..."

The more Lu Yang read, the more his heart trembled; finally, he abruptly closed the memory thoughts, daring not to look further, not even daring to continue deep thought, and decisively chose to stop there.

Because he could clearly feel that as his understanding of the details of the extermination of the Wraith-Ghost Dao a thousand years ago became clearer, a karmic thread on his body became clearer; one end of this karmic thread connected to him, while the other end plunged into the great net of karma, like an abyss with no end in sight...

Damn it, that True Lord from a thousand years ago is still alive!

Lu Yang was one hundred percent certain that the other end of the karmic thread was that True Lord! The instant he learned the details of the matter, that True Lord would also learn of him!

"This is too damn ridiculous, what kind of broken place, broken place..."

After a long while, Lu Yang slowly calmed his mind, daring not to pursue the troubles of a thousand years ago, and instead began to study the inheritance left by Patriarch Tingyou.

Among them, besides supernatural powers like "Nine Heavens Du Lu Secret Demon Yin Thunder," the most critical was the 【Xuanming Lord Seizing the You Position】 that Patriarch Tingyou had performed; the Wraith-Ghost Dao's foundation was inferior to the Initial Saint Sect, and the entire sect possessed only this one supernatural power, yet Patriarch Tingyou had pushed it to its extreme.

After Lu Yang finished reading, his expression grew even more amazed:

"No wonder he said in his last will that he could help me obtain Foundation Establishment combat power..."

Xuanming Lord Seizing the You Position: if nine Foundation Establishment practitioners cultivated this supernatural power together and formed the 【Yanmo Hall】, they could falsely hold the Golden position with a Foundation Establishment body.

Of course, nine Foundation Establishment practitioners could not be found.

But if one settled for less, letting nine Qi Refining practitioners cultivate this supernatural power together, supplemented by a massive infusion of fortune, it could actually falsely hold the Foundation Establishment position!

The eight elders of the Tingyou Sect were exactly like this; Patriarch Tingyou passed down this lineage so that people would cultivate it with him, and the value of the eight Red-Clothed Wraiths was to build the 【Yanmo Hall】 with him; Patriarch Tingyou originally intended to immediately perform this method to achieve Foundation Establishment once he broke free.

Pity that heaven did not grant human wishes.

Of course, although this supernatural power was shocking to the world, it was not without drawbacks, for the foundation of this supernatural power was built upon the Wraith-Ghost Secret Realm.

"The so-called falsely holding Foundation Establishment is actually not truly breaking through to Foundation Establishment."

"It is transforming a region into an existence of the same rank as the 'Foundation Establishment Realm,' then governing that area, thereby displaying the might of Foundation Establishment."

This is not the path of refining the form to ascend.

"This is actually the concept of the 'Substitute Heaven Patrol Dao'..."

Lu Yang quickly recalled that when Patriarch Tingyou perfected this supernatural power back then, he received help from a third-party force and borrowed from their lineage.

Its name was—Tianwu Dao Court.

Located in the Eastern Jiang!

"Chen Xinan told me that the Eastern Jiang tradition is entirely different; cultivators of the 'Path of the Heavenly Inspector' do not ascend, but instead transform the existing environment."

"In the lands of Eastern Jiang, the Dao Court governs the world, titled Tianwu, commanding the hundred clans, building twelve positions to each perform their duties and rule the four directions; thus, beneath the Dao Court, one does not cultivate magic power nor learn divine arts, for those granted office have magic power formed of themselves and divine arts bestowed by heaven, those holding positions are equivalent to True Persons, and those ascending the great throne rank equal to True Lords."

Thinking of this, Lu Yang's brows furrowed deeper and deeper.

Different paths cannot be plotted together; he is already a cultivator of the Form-Refining Ascension Path, so even if he wished to switch to the Path of the Heavenly Inspector, it would be impossible.

"So if I use this divine art to form my Foundation, my future will be cut off."

If there were room for advancement beyond Foundation Establishment within Eastern Jiang, but the 【Yanmo Hall】 is merely a replica made by Listening-You Ancestral Master, then naturally there is no path upward.

This is only one of the side effects.

The other side effect is that since forming the Foundation relies on a specific region, one is also trapped within it; once the earth veins are damaged, the realm will fall.

"This method is not for me, though there is also a clever scheme."

Listening-You Ancestral Master's consideration was very thorough; foreseeing that Lu Yang would not wish to cut off his own Dao path, he specially prepared an alternative scheme for him.

"Great Avatar Universal Assembly Divine Method!"

Lu Yang's gaze burned; the effect of this secret method is very simple: it refines a living person into one's own Dharma-Protecting Deity, thereby allowing one to borrow that living person's merit, fate, and even retain their thoughts, while turning them into one's puppet without generating karmic ties with them.

"The avatars refined using this secret method are perfect for cultivating the 【Xuanming Prefect Capturing the Nether Position】!"

"And incidentally, pass the karmic ties of the Witch-Ghost Path's inheritance onto him."

"Even the nine Qi Refining Perfections required for cultivation, Listening-You Ancestral Master has arranged: eight Red Robe Ghosts plus myself, everything is ready."

Only the final step remains: a massive infusion of fate.

Thinking of this, a bold idea suddenly arose in Lu Yang's heart:

"... Yu Suzhen!"

If she can surpass Xiao Shiye and seize the fate of that colorful merit fish for herself, it might satisfy the requirements for constructing the 【Yanmo Hall】.

She herself could even be used to refine into a Dharma-Protecting Deity!

(End of this chapter)