Chapter 246: Mysterious Maiden Sword Art, Spiritual Roaming of the Heavenly Book

Deep and secluded, the stream water steamed with clouds and mist.

Xu Qing used the water as a curtain, arranging a square-inch space at the bottom of the ravine to block external eavesdropping.

Laws are not lightly transmitted; the Dao is not cheaply sold.

Yuan Gong privately engraved the Heavenly Book, allowing the fox demon to learn the Nine Heavens Secret Arts, which caused this great disaster; since then, he never again entertained the idea of spreading the Dao to the world to make it flow through the ages.

As the saying goes, sweet dew does not nourish rootless grass, and wonderful methods only ferry those with fate; if laws are lightly transmitted, it is like giving a knife to a three-year-old child, and the consequences will be unpredictable.

Now that Yuan Gong saw Xu Qing and Xuan Yu were so understanding and possessed merit, he felt his karmic connection lay with these two.

In an era of great calamity, encountering people with such virtue and capability is not easy.

Xu Qing did not know Yuan Gong's thoughts; he only tried his best to appear harmless to humans and beasts, at least ensuring he learned the divine abilities and spells before the other party discovered anything amiss with him.

It was just that the Yuan Gong before him was merely a stone statue, an incarnation of incense; if the real Yuan Gong were present, whether his Heaven-Deceiving Art would be effective was truly hard to say.

After all, immortals like Yuan Gong, who have rebellious bones growing at the back of their heads, are all masters who act against heaven; even if the Lord of Heaven wore robes, they would dare to lift them up to see what color the underwear inside was.

Xu Qing, a weak zombie who did not even qualify as a Flying Zombie, if he truly encountered these lawless masters, would be no different from running around naked.

Heaven-Deceiving Art? They would strip even your underwear off!

Fiery Golden Eyes, Heavenly Eye divine abilities, and the like—Xu Qing was far too familiar with them!

Beneath the deep ravine, doubly isolated by the water curtain and the Dharma Realm, Yuan Gong felt the pure thought-force transmitted from the Baosheng Temple, and his impression score of Xu Qing rose significantly.

At their first meeting, he only thought the other was a benevolent person with a chivalrous heart who hated evil as an enemy.

Now, situated within the Blood Lake Dharma Realm, Yuan Gong finally realized that the other was actually a virtuous scholar with great vows and great perseverance!

"Among the three hundred and sixty types of the Dao Character Gate, cultivating any yields a true fruit; which one do you wish to learn?"

"Could it be that Elder Yuan is proficient in all three hundred and sixty types of Dao Character methods?"

Yuan Gong smiled and said, "I am neither the Dao Ancestor nor a sage; what virtue or ability do I possess to be proficient in all three hundred and sixty laws? I am mostly roughly familiar with one or two, and deeply practiced in only two or three out of ten; altogether, I have mastered only seventy or eighty categories. Where does this talk of complete mastery come from?"

"I ask you these things merely to know the direction of your heart, and whether it aligns with what I have learned; if it happens to match, then we have a karmic connection; if it does not..."

"..."

Xu Qing remained silent for a long time.

They say immortal fate is hard to seek; indeed, they do not deceive me.

He had endured countless hardships, eliminated demons alongside Xuan Yu, and brought the good karma formed seven years ago to meet Yuan Gong here.

Having finally touched upon immortal fate, just when the transmission of laws was about to occur, a trial still awaited him.

Xu Qing's thoughts raced; when he saw Xuan Yu beside him, he suddenly devised a countermeasure.

"Senior, this junior knows neither cloud-soaring techniques nor escape mysteries; if I could learn a divine ability for travel..."

Hearing this, Yuan Gong instead breathed a sigh of relief; seeing Xu Qing hold back for so long, he had thought the other wanted to learn the method of longevity.

If that were the case, he would truly find it difficult to transmit.

It seemed now that this young man was not only bright and upright in heart but also very generous in his conduct of affairs.

If it were someone more greedy, they would likely be chasing after the wonderful methods of longevity without letting go.

"The art of flying and soaring through clouds will be naturally comprehended when one achieves immortality and attains the Dao; like your current state, the cloud-soaring you can learn are merely minor arts of controlling wind and driving mist."

"Then are there any other methods suitable for escaping... or traveling?"

Xu Qing asked with humility.

Yuan Gong did not answer directly, but instead said, "The Bai Yun Cave's Nine Heavens Secret Book consists of two volumes: the upper volume has thirteen pages, detailing the Thirty-Six Heavenly Gang Transformations, while the lower volume has twenty-four pages, detailing the Seventy-Two Earthly Sha Transformation Methods. I once had a monk disciple who rubbed impressions of the twenty-four pages of the Heavenly Book from the Bai Yun Cave and learned the Earthly Sha divine abilities; among these abilities was a travel method named the Pot-Heaven Method."

"What is Pot-Heaven? It means 'heaven within a pot'; although it contains the character 'heaven,' it actually refers to the Dunjia art of shrinking the earth and measuring the cave-heaven within the pot; it is an Earthly Sha divine ability, not a Heavenly Gang transformation."

Yuan Gong, who had originally intended to transmit an Earthly Sha divine ability to Xu Qing, deliberately changed his wording and spoke these meaningful words.

As he expected, the next moment Xu Qing asked, "This student wishes to learn the Heavenly Gang Transformations; I wonder if there is a similar travel method among them?"

Yuan Gong asked in surprise, "Why do you not ask me about the difference between Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha, but instead assume that Heavenly Gang is better than Earthly Sha?"

"..."

With such words, aside from the Du Ren Jing reward which divides Heaven, Earth, and Man with Heaven being the best, Xu Qing had also heard many tales about the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha.

Furthermore, Heaven is Yang and Earth is Yin, Heaven is noble and Earth is humble; how could he not understand such simple principles?

However, these words could not be spoken to others; Xu Qing blinked and smiled, saying, "This student heard Senior say that the monk senior brother rubbed impressions of the Nine Heavens Secret Arts from the Bai Yun Cave, yet uniquely did not learn the Earthly Sha divine abilities, and the wild fox demon who calls herself the Holy Lady, suppressed within the Bai Yun Cave, also never learned the Heavenly Gang methods."

"This student has no other thoughts, but simply possesses a bit of stubbornness; if others can learn something, a thousand identical things, this student does not wish to learn them; rather, it is precisely what others are unwilling or unable to learn that this student wants to try."

Xu Qing spoke clearly: I also have rebellious bones; we are the same kind of people, so just teach me those Heavenly Gang divine abilities!

This is called catering to someone's preferences.

Indeed, upon hearing these words, Yuan Gong's tone instantly relaxed.

"You do not know the severity within; all divine abilities and spells of the Heavenly Gang category act against heaven; they are forbidden laws among forbidden laws."

"Do you know why they could not learn the Heavenly Gang section of divine abilities from the Bai Yun Cave?"

"Because Heaven does not permit it!" Yuan Gong's gaze was like lightning as he looked at Xu Qing.

"Although your monk senior brother rubbed impressions of the Heavenly Books from both stone walls inside the Bai Yun Cave, only the twenty-four pages of the Earthly Sha Heavenly Book on the right wall retained characters; the thirteen pages of Heavenly Gang Transformations on the left wall contained not a single character."

Yuan Gong smiled and said, "This is Heaven Void, Earth Solid; although the Earthly Sha laws can command all sentient and formed things, they are therefore limited to transformations within the human world and ultimately constrained by the numbers of Heaven."

"However, the Heavenly Gang laws are different; these laws either equal or surpass the Heavenly Dao; like the Heavenly Gang laws I know, they are either divine abilities that destroy heaven and earth or those that open heaven and create earth; these are truly supreme methods capable of spiritually roaming the Heavenly Prefecture and suppressing the ranks of immortals by name!"

Xu Qing suddenly remembered his Heavenly Gang Axe Technique, which corresponded exactly to the thirty-six types of Heavenly Gang transformations; crucially, the first thirty-five forms of this axe technique had no names, only the final form, named 'Opening Heaven'.

"This student wants to learn exactly this!"

Xu Qing made no attempt to hide his intentions.

Under normal circumstances, Yuan Gong would absolutely not transmit the Heavenly Gang section of laws; even when his monk disciple had previously come to seek the Heavenly Book, he had not taught the Heavenly Gang methods.

The reason was simple: when the monk disciple came to seek learning and inquire about the Dao, he possessed no merit or fruit on his person; one could not judge what kind of person he was, knowing only that his heart was not bad and his desire for the Dao was sincere.

Beyond that, you had nothing else as a reference; no one could guarantee whether he would uphold his original heart in the future.

But Xu Qing was different; this person was very unusual; the Blood Lake Dharma Realm gathered the fortune of the human race, and Yuan Gong could see boundless merit hidden within; able to obtain such pure incense and thought-force under the influence of the Five Turbid Evil Worlds, if a flower blooming in such a turbid age were to wither due to a lack of methods to protect the Dao, it would be too pitiful.

Lord Yuan cherished talent, and since he was about to return to the Upper Realm, if no one remained to deal with the fox demon in Bai Yun Cave who wielded the Earth Fiend Divine Ability, who knew how many more would suffer its persecution in the future.

This was the sin he had committed in the past, which he must find a way to atone for, and Xu Qing's appearance had precisely given Lord Yuan a glimmer of hope.