Chapter 96: Sorting Out Unfinished Matters and Another Guest Visits the Mountain [4k]

Cangmang Mountain.

The city surrounding the mountain.

Flowers hang like carvings, leaves resemble inlaid jade.

Moss grows after the rain, its green hue charming and lovely.

Jade stamens are engraved upon the craggy stones, clustered in bunches, trembling and swaying; new branches sprout before the weeping willows, rocking and fluttering, with a faint fragrance permeating the air.

On the dense pine and bamboo, lanterns sway, stars and dots of light falling to the ground with a tinkling sound.

Mist and clouds fill the air, from outside to inside, as if draping the entire Daoist field in a light, orange-red gauze.

When the wind blows, gently lifting a corner, a joyous atmosphere emerges, unstoppable, gushing forth like a spring.

The various demons under Fang Longye's command, from the commanders at the Yuan Immortal realm down to the foot soldiers at the Primordial Spirit stage, are all beaming with joy.

No matter what they are doing, they all appear to be shaking their heads, smiling incessantly, and walking with brisk steps.

A joyful flavor permeates the entire Daoist field.

The reason is quite simple: having witnessed the projection of Fang Longye's majesty on the Douzhan Tai earlier, the previously somewhat chaotic demon city was reorganized at the fastest possible speed, appearing orderly and well-disciplined.

Taking advantage of this momentum, Fang Longye bestowed upon these demon immortals and demon masses a large quantity of divine pills refined from various demons using the Refining Immortal Pot as a reward.

Even the few True Immortals at the top, and Luming of the Yuan Immortal realm, received additional rewards, whether in the form of divine abilities or Dharma Treasures, each according to their merit.

The entire Daoist field is naturally filled with joy, overflowing in all directions.

Within a courtyard.

Bright light flashes; pavilions, flowers, and trees are bathed in a breeze that comes of its own accord.

Winding, deep, and crystal clear.

Over a dozen small houses are arranged horizontally, making the courtyard appear somewhat cramped.

A small house beside several peach trees is not large, its interior empty and spotless.

There is almost no decoration, save for a wooden couch and a table and chair—that is all.

A figure wearing armor is sitting cross-legged on the couch, meditating and cultivating.

With red eyebrows and hair standing on end, and a monkey tail behind, he bears quite a resemblance to a Saiyan; he is the clever red-haired ape from before.

Unlike other demons who finished their shifts and gathered in groups of three or five to drink and eat meat in celebration, he returned to his residence to cultivate diligently as soon as his shift ended.

Yuan Hong looks inward at the divine pill in his belly that he is constantly refining, secretly delighted.

A continuous stream of energy fills his entire body, being refined bit by bit, and even more specks of Dao principles linger in his heart, bringing him enlightenment.

With the help of this divine pill, he is not far from the Loose Immortal realm! Unlike other demons who only received divine pills commensurate with their own cultivation, he is, after all, of the same clan as the King of Macaques, and Fang Longye naturally showed some extra care for the monkey demons under his command to express his gratitude.

As one of the few monkey demons under his command, Yuan Hong naturally received special treatment in the distribution of divine pills, receiving one refined from a Loose Immortal demon.

"But compared to that old green ape, this is nothing!" Thinking of this, Yuan Hong stops his cultivation and opens his bright red eyes.

He sighs, his face full of envy.

When the King of Macaques visited earlier, Fang Longye, while hosting him, naturally had his subordinates pay their respects as a matter of etiquette.

Considering the King of Macaques' monkey heritage, in order to build rapport, he specifically summoned the old green ape with the highest cultivation among his monkey demons to come and pay respects.

This old green ape at the Loose Immortal realm naturally profited greatly as a tool in this situation where both great demon kings were intent on drawing closer to each other.

Not only did he receive a high-grade Dharma Treasure from Fang Longye, but he was also taught a Yuan Immortal realm cultivation technique and a Great Strength divine ability by the King of Macaques.

It truly made all the demon subordinates below envious.

Especially these monkey demons, including Yuan Hong.

It was truly envy, jealousy, and hatred! "It's still a matter of cultivation; if you don't become an immortal, you're nothing." Yuan Hong brushes away his turbulent emotions, his mind becoming incomparably clear.

He will not wallow in self-pity or resentment toward others; ultimately, it is his own strength that prevented him from seizing this opportunity.

Ordinary people say that the old green ape had good luck, sitting in his cave while fortune fell from the sky.

But he understands that this opportunity and good fortune are also due to the old ape's Loose Immortal cultivation.

Regardless of the past, the old green ape is now the number one monkey demon under the Great King.

If your strength is insufficient, when opportunity and good fortune fall, you cannot even catch them.

"Unceasing cultivation is the true path!" Yuan Hong looks through the bright window toward the towering Motian Cliff.

"One day, I will stand out from this wretched demon city, rise straight above the Yunxiao, be personally appointed as a general by the Great King, and establish an immortal legacy for this Cangmang Mountain!"

With red clouds rising, the red ape puts aside his thoughts and throws himself back into cultivation.

Motian Cliff.

Longying Cave.

Fang Longye sits cross-legged in his secret cultivation chamber, with auspicious clouds and clear light appearing above his head, seven-colored Divine Light and auspicious mist permeating the air.

The phenomena of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning move with the black and white dragons within the auspicious clouds, intertwining incessantly.

"Mastering Five Thunders is indeed a Great Divine Ability suitable for the dragon race; after only a little practice, I have easily mastered the basics. Compared to that 'Rotating Creation' which is like a Heavenly Book that I cannot even understand, it is truly a world of difference."

Of course, he also understands that comparing an offensive divine ability like Mastering Five Thunders to a divine ability like Rotating Creation is simply laughable.

His previous thought that he could master Rotating Creation by relying on the Creation Divine Fire obtained after melting the Lotus Lantern from another world now seems arrogant and truly ridiculous.

What kind of divine ability is Rotating Creation? It is the supreme Great Divine Ability that creates something from nothing, can transform the essence of things, and can create all things.

Cultivated to the end, one can easily overturn the original laws of the universe and redefine new laws.

It is definitely not something he could have mastered by relying on a bit of divine fire as he previously thought.

As for why such a divine ability is equivalent to something like 'Seeing Through Barriers' which is easy to master.

It is purely because there is a difference in the difficulty of entry. Seeing Through Barriers is a Great Divine Ability that progresses step by step, from easy to difficult; in the final stage, its profoundness is no less than Rotating Creation.

If one really wanted to trade a divine ability like 'Mastering Five Thunders' for Rotating Creation, one would have to gather four or five divine abilities of the same level.

Do not think that just because they are all listed in the 'Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations' summarized in his past life, these divine abilities have the same value and power.

Riding the clouds and driving the mist—no matter how one looks at it, it cannot compare to Flying Body Tracing!

Currently, as far as Fang Longye knows, the entire Honghuang does not have concepts like the Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations or the Seventy-Two Earthly Transformations. Divine Abilities naturally exist, but no one has specifically categorized or summarized them.

Moreover, beyond these Divine Abilities, there are countless unique Divine Abilities in existence; some, in terms of power, far exceed the ones summarized and categorized in his past life.

Setting aside the self-mockery in his heart for his previous rash words, Fang Longye continued to ponder the trades and exchanges he had made after his period of seclusion to sort through his many gains. For the "Mastering Five Thunders" Great Divine Ability sent by the Yu Rong King, he had traded for the "Whip Mountain and Move Stone" Divine Ability via the Equivalent Balance.

It was not that he hadn't considered using these Great Divine Abilities to trade for other Great Divine Abilities from different worlds, such as the Thunder Emperor Treasure Technique from the Perfect World or the thunder-type Great Divine Abilities from the Immortal World.

Such cross-world trades of Great Divine Abilities would certainly bring him no small amount of Merit and Luck.

The key was that he was still far from the point of needing to enhance the power of a single Divine Ability; for him at present, Mastering Five Thunders was enough.

Cultivating an additional thunder-type Divine Ability from another world would not lead to a significant increase in strength for him, as he had not yet touched upon the cultivation of Laws; it was of little significance and might even lead to the problem of biting off more than he could chew.

Previously, he had lamented that he possessed a dazzling array of Divine Abilities but had not truly delved deeply into any of them. However, through his trial against the Yu Rong King, he understood that everyone's path is different.

Since he had such an opportunity to continuously accumulate in breadth, why was that not a form of advantage? Moreover, focusing on the present was the most important thing; he had to make up for the methods he currently lacked. He would not care about the lost opportunities to trade for items from other worlds for this sake.

Operating the "Whip Mountain and Move Stone" Divine Ability, which he had finally mastered with the assistance of his Seven-Orifice Exquisite Heart, he felt the rhythm of the Earth Veins in his own Daoist temple.

"This feeling is too wonderful!" Fang Longye couldn't help but praise aloud.

It was as if he were breathing in unison with those Earth Veins and mountain ranges, being nurtured and refined together between heaven and earth. He felt as if he were experiencing the very sensations and experiences that the mountains and rivers themselves were unaware of.

The ease and comfort he could previously only have with the help of the Earth Vein Lotus Root surged into his heart, even far exceeding it.

Now, with a single thought, he could easily move the entire Daoist temple, galloping across the earth without harming the Earth Veins in the slightest or damaging a single drop of spiritual energy.

The common saying, "The monk may run away, but the temple cannot," no longer applied to him.

Carrying a mountain to run away was no longer just a joke.

The gains were immense! And this was not even the end of it; his gains after the battle with the Chiyang Yaowang were also significant, and because all of the latter's cultivation and fortune had returned to him, there was much that could be used for trading.

In terms of Divine Abilities, excluding those that overlapped with his own, Fang Longye had obtained several new ones.

Gathering Beasts, Summoning Birds, Water Prohibition, Spitting Flames, and one Great Divine Ability—"Holding Mountains and Surpassing Seas."

Gathering Beasts and Summoning Birds were quite unique. Just by hearing the names, one knew these were two Divine Abilities for forcibly recruiting birds and beasts, generally used by demon kings to develop their own wings and claws.

However, they were only quite useful for cultivators who had just become Loose Immortals; after Gathering Beasts and Summoning Birds, one could easily create a batch of monster subordinates by casting the Pointing Transformation.

For Fang Longye, they were useless.

Not to mention the depth of his cultivation, simply by virtue of his ancestors' struggles, which had once created a pattern of ten thousand spirits bowing to the Cang, the Dragon Clan inherently possessed the ability to subdue all spirits.

He had no use for such Divine Abilities at all.

Water Prohibition, which seals the surrounding water vapor so that it cannot be utilized by others, was naturally a Divine Ability aimed at water-attribute monsters; as a fire-attribute demon king, it was reasonable for the Chiyang Yaowang to possess such a Divine Ability.

Just as another Divine Ability, "Spitting Flames," was almost a necessary auxiliary Divine Ability for fire-attribute demon immortals.

Spitting Flames was a Divine Ability with an extremely low floor but an extremely high ceiling; in the hands of different people, the effects could be as vast as the distance between heaven and earth.

What determined the power of this Divine Ability was entirely what kind of fire you spat from your mouth.

If it were ordinary fire, one could probably only be a wandering sorcerer, performing tricks in the bustling market to earn a living.

If it were divine fire, the power would naturally be astonishing; as long as one's cultivation was sufficient, a single breath of divine fire could make even a Golden Immortal suffer a great loss if caught off guard.

And just like the "Commanding Water and Fire" Divine Ability Fang Longye obtained after the Gourd Seed was melted into his body, the Spitting Flames Divine Ability could not essentially cultivate fire; it was an auxiliary Divine Ability for subduing fire.

As the saying goes, how can there be spitting without swallowing? The only difference was that it was not as powerful as the "Commanding Water and Fire" Divine Ability and could only assist a cultivator in subduing one type of spiritual fire.

The previous four Divine Abilities were naturally set aside by Fang Longye, intended to be grouped with the other minor Divine Abilities he had obtained earlier.

In the future, he would trade quantity for quality to obtain a Great Divine Ability.

As for that "Holding Mountains and Surpassing Seas" Divine Ability, Fang Longye traded it for a "Subduing Dragons and Tigers" through the Equivalent Balance.

Subduing Dragons and Tigers, like "Holding Mountains and Surpassing Seas," was a Divine Ability that, once cast, allowed the practitioner to possess heaven-lifting strength.

Looking at it this way, it seemed inferior to a Divine Ability like "Holding Mountains and Surpassing Seas" that could carry mountains across seas!

In reality, "Subduing Dragons and Tigers" was similar to "Seeing Through Walls," both being Divine Abilities that progressed step by step, with their functions changing in the end.

Subduing Dragons and Tigers, when cultivated to the end, did not subdue physical objects like dragons and tigers, but rather the Yin and Yang represented by dragons and tigers, capturing the Kan and adjusting the Li, making Yin and Yang orderly and no longer chaotic.

It fit perfectly with the path he was currently cultivating.

Fang Longye did not care about the increase in physical strength after cultivation. What satisfied him was that, just after entering the threshold, the Yin and Yang Two Qis within his body had become several times more refined.

Previously, they were somewhat scattered and disorderly when attacking, but now, as the Yin and Yang Two Qis circulated, their sharpness and solidity were far beyond what he could have imagined in the past.

Striking at a low-grade Spirit Treasure, he could pierce through it instantly, unimpeded.

The furnace and grindstone manifested by cultivating the "Great Vehicle Yin and Yang Dragon Transformation Scripture" also became increasingly solid, as if they were real.

The light converged and the clouds ceased.

Fang Longye withdrew his aura and looked around, feeling that he had gained much more than in the past.

Lamps of Lotus Treasure hung on the walls, their lingering glow casting down, suffusing the surroundings into a beautiful, jade-like splendor.

"Time to come out of seclusion!"

Not only because there were guests visiting again, but also because he had already dealt with most of what he had previously obtained.

"The talismans and arrays I've accumulated are still not enough!" He sighed.

He had never traded the "True Explanation of Talismans" he had obtained earlier or the Taiji Divine Talisman he had received at the very beginning, as he wanted to save them to do something big.

He wanted to trade for the Primordial One Qi Taiqing Divine Talisman from the Shu Mountain world and the accompanying Two Instruments Weichen Array.

Originally, with the drawing method of the Taiji Divine Talisman, it would have been easy to trade for the drawing method of the Primordial One Qi Taiqing Divine Talisman from another world.

After all, this Taiji Divine Talisman taught by the great Hongyun originated from the Innate Spiritual Treasure, the Taiji Talisman Seal; it had that much foundation.

The key was that he did not want to trade for the drawing method, but to directly trade for the original divine talisman bestowed by Taiqing Laozi of the Shu Mountain world.

That was not so easy.

The Shu Mountain world was not that simple; they even had a Lingkong Immortal World!

Even if the Taiqing Laozi of the Shu Mountain world could not compare to the Hunyuan Saint of this Honghuang world, he could still be considered a great power.

A divine talisman personally written by such a great power was a treasure in itself, containing infinite power. Otherwise, how could it be used to help set up the Two Instruments Weichen Array? Naturally, it was not easy to successfully trade for it. Whether it was the talisman or the array, Fang Longye's current accumulation was not enough.

He bet everything, yet the option he wanted still did not appear.

Of course, Fang Longye was not anxious; it being insufficient was a good thing, as it showed that the Two Instruments Weichen Array of the Shu Mountain world was truly extraordinary.

Setting aside these thoughts, Fang Longye rose and left the inner cultivation chamber, and under the service of several Longnu, he changed his clothes and bathed, preparing to receive a guest.

Having washed away the dust from his body, Fang Longye arrived at the reception palace and saw a familiar face.

"Brother Fang, it has been over a decade; I have missed you terribly!"

The first chapter today~ (End of this chapter)