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Chapter 48: Yang Wood Mixed Essence Art, Void Crossing Ninth Layer
🕑 Added 2024-12-09 16:40:58 +0000 UTCLooking at Wuxin's conflicted expression, Gu An felt like laughing, but his years of acting experience helped him hold back.
Gu An's expression changed continuously—first in shock, then relief, and finally turning into a look of tension.
Seeing his senior brother’s changing expressions, Wuxin felt more embarrassed but didn’t regret revealing the truth.
Since their last heart-to-heart, Wuxin had come to see Gu An as his closest confidant, and he believed there should be no secrets between them.
"You must not speak of this to anyone, or I won’t be able to protect you!" Gu An said seriously after taking a deep breath.
Wuxin nodded solemnly, recalling the earlier battle, and feeling a shiver run down his spine.
Curious, Gu An asked, "Were you able to recognize the person from earlier? What realm were they in?"
He wanted to gauge the depth of Qianqiu Pavilion.
Wuxin scratched his head in thought before speculating, "I didn’t see their true face, but they must be at least Nascent Soul realm. Their movement technique was so fast that it feels like Core Formation cultivators couldn’t move like that."
Gu An froze.
This foolish boy...
Gu An sighed. "You say your father doesn’t care about you, but see? He even sent someone to protect you."
"He doesn’t care for me, more likely he just doesn’t want me to disgrace him. Or maybe the person sent was coincidentally on a mission near Tai Xuan Sect," Wuxin guessed, still feeling no warmth toward his father despite the situation.
After a few more instructions from Gu An, the two of them went downstairs.
Gu An didn’t let the disciples clean the courtyard but kept the scene as it was, intending for Wuxin to report the incident to the Law Enforcement Hall the next day.
All the disciples in the valley had witnessed the battle earlier, so there was no way to keep it hidden. Reporting it to Tai Xuan Sect in advance was the best course of action.
Gu An stood before the pill furnace left behind by Qiu Qianli, observing the liquid inside. He couldn’t tell what pill was being refined, but decided to leave it untouched and let Tai Xuan Sect make the judgment.
That night.
Gu An went to the Eight Views Heavenly Cave as usual, fed some lamb to Sky Dragon, and then pulled out Qiu Qianli’s storage pouch.
He emptied the contents and then destroyed the pouch.
It had to be said that Divine Transformation cultivators were truly wealthy. The sheer amount of spirit stones and spirit energy pills was staggering.
He carefully sorted through the items, burning anything useless to prevent anyone from tracking him. The magical artifacts, too, had Qiu Qianli’s imprints erased, turning them into ownerless objects.
Finally, he was left with a letter and a blank piece of paper that could only be read using divine sense, and only by someone in the Divine Transformation realm.
After inspecting it, Gu An learned the reason behind Qiu Qianli’s arrival—he had come for the Innate Dao Talisman.
Qiu Qianli’s mission was to assist the Wan Yin Sect agents who planned to steal the Innate Dao Talisman.
Aside from Qianqiu Pavilion, Wan Yin Sect had also infiltrated many spies into Tai Xuan Sect. Since Qiu Qianli was responsible for assisting them, it was clear that the one coming for the talisman had to be of considerable strength.
Demonic spies truly were everywhere!
How many people, like him in the past, were forced into such situations beyond their control?
Gu An sighed inwardly, then stood to inspect the herbs in the Eight Views Heavenly Cave.
...
The next morning, Wuxin, along with Tang Yu and Su Han, went to the Outer Sect to report the incident. Gu An instructed the remaining disciples to continue their daily tasks—tending the sheep, weeding, and watering the herbs as usual.
By noon, Wuxin and the others had returned. They had traveled so quickly because they had ridden on a Core Formation cultivator’s artifact, a large redwood fan that carried dozens of people, including Ye Lan.
After landing, Gu An walked over to greet them.
Leading the group was a Law Enforcement Hall elder named Murong Ying.
[Murong Ying (Core Formation Third Layer): 268/503/908]
Murong Ying was tall, with a handsome face framed by black and white hair. His presence exuded the authority of someone in a high position.
After hearing Gu An's account of the incident, Murong Ying nodded slightly and said, "You handled it well. We’ll conduct a sweep of the area and won’t allow any demonic cultivators to remain hidden."
Gu An immediately expressed his gratitude.
The Law Enforcement disciples didn’t converse much with the valley’s disciples. They went straight to Xiao Chuan’s courtyard, where the sight of blood on the walls and ground left them all on edge.
Murong Ying approached Qiu Qianli’s pill furnace, looked inside, and quickly furrowed his brows.
On the other side.
Ye Lan approached Gu An, comforting him.
Gu An had sent Wuxin to request her assistance, knowing that with her influence, it would be easier to enlist the help of the Law Enforcement Hall. As soon as she heard of the incident in Xuan Valley, she had wanted to rush over.
After about half an incense stick’s time, Murong Ying took the pill furnace and, after a brief call to his subordinates, led the Law Enforcement disciples away.
Watching them leave, Zhen Qin couldn’t help but ask, "Is it really over, just like that?"
Gu An had never expected the Law Enforcement Hall to solve everything. As long as the incident was reported, that was enough. He didn’t want to be suspected of being a demonic spy.
"They’ll investigate. You just need to trust your Aunt Ye," Gu An said with a smile.
Zhen Qin, hearing this, found it reasonable.
Still, the Law Enforcement Hall's indifferent attitude left her feeling agitated. She silently vowed to become an Outer Sect disciple as soon as possible.
While Qiu Qianli was just a minor disturbance for Xuan Valley, to Gu An, it served as a warning.
How many times had Xuan Valley faced such dangers already?
This wouldn’t do!
He needed to raise his cultivation further!
...
In the blink of an eye, seven days passed.
That night, Gu An quietly left Xuan Valley and ventured deep into a forest a hundred miles away.
Sitting down, he opened his attribute panel and locked his gaze on Divine Wood Pure Yang Technique.
Time to upgrade the technique!
He immediately invested 10,000 years of lifespan.
Ultimately, Divine Wood Pure Yang Technique underwent a breakthrough, evolving into Yang Wood Mixed Essence Art, reaching the state of Flawless Mastery.
To his delight, Yang Wood Mixed Essence Art had also awakened a divine ability.
Gu An quickly activated the Lifespan Barrier and immersed himself in the technique’s inheritance.
After half an hour, the transmission ended, and Gu An now understood the intricacies of the divine ability.
This ability was called Yang Wood of Ten Thousand Miles, which allowed the cultivator to inject spiritual energy into the earth and summon the Yang Wood. This wood would spread across the land, absorbing the life essence, spirit, and even spiritual energy of living beings. As long as the caster had enough spiritual energy, they could cover a range of up to ten thousand miles.
A truly overbearing ability—Gu An loved it!
Turning his attention back to his attribute panel, Gu An decided to raise his cultivation to the ninth layer of the Void Crossing realm. However, he held off on breaking through entirely, concerned that the disturbance might be too large. Besides, he only had a little over 20,000 years of lifespan left.
He first invested 1,000 years of lifespan, successfully reaching the fourth layer of the Void Crossing realm. So far, so good.
But after investing another 1,000 years, his cultivation only advanced to the fifth layer.
In the end, it took a total of 7,500 years of lifespan for his cultivation to reach the ninth layer of the Void Crossing realm.
With 13,000 years of lifespan remaining, Gu An decided to stop for now.
As the spiritual energy of heaven and earth flowed into his body, he took time to reflect on the mysteries within. After all, he couldn’t always rely on lifespan alone to improve—he also needed to build his own understanding of cultivation.
The spiritual energy coursed through his body, gathering on his Golden Core, producing more spiritual power, which then nourished his muscles, bones, and Nascent Soul, steadily increasing his cultivation.
Even after reaching the Void Crossing realm, a cultivator's Golden Core remained within their dantian. Now that Gu An had reached this realm, he could better understand the importance of the Golden Core.
This led him to think of the Golden Core Path mentioned in Taoist myths.
The Core Formation realm might only be the foundation, with the real wonders of the Golden Core revealing themselves at higher stages of cultivation. Just like spiritual roots, Gu An felt that cultivating a single root would eventually hit a bottleneck.
Immortal beings, with their limitless powers, couldn’t possibly rely on a single elemental attribute.
The Nascent Soul and Golden Core were similar. The Nascent Soul, a manifestation of the soul, allowed a cultivator to transcend the limitations of their mortal body.
Gu An planned to see if he could merge Yang Wood Mixed Essence Art with other elemental techniques in the future. His goal was to create a Five Element technique that perfectly matched his First-Class Five Element Spiritual Roots.
Two hours later, Gu An had reached the ninth layer of the Void Crossing realm. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth had been drained from the surrounding area, likely causing another disturbance in the Outer Sect.
This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Tai Xuan Sect would certainly be more vigilant, increasing the pressure on demonic spies. This, in turn, would improve the chances of Ji Xiaoyu successfully transcending her tribulation.
Gu An sighed to himself—he had, in a way, helped her.
...
As expected, the next morning, while leading his disciples through their exercises, Gu An saw numerous high-level cultivators flying over Xuan Valley. His disciples were also chatting about the spiritual energy disruption from the previous night.
From the first layer to the ninth layer of the Void Crossing realm, the amount of spiritual energy consumed rivaled, if not exceeded, the amount required for advancing from Nascent Soul to Void Crossing. The Outer Sect had now faced two such massive disturbances, surely leaving them overwhelmed.
Gu An wasn’t concerned about being caught, though—he planned to continue accumulating lifespan.
Now, it was time to focus on the development of his medicinal valleys!
With the autumn wind blowing through, Xuan Valley remained a world unto itself.
After the Qiu Qianli incident, the valley’s disciples had become even more dedicated to their cultivation.
A month passed quickly.
One day, Gu An was sitting under a tree, studying the Ziwei Formation Manual, with the White Spirit Mouse napping beside him, now plump like a fat dog.
As he read, Gu An absentmindedly stroked the White Spirit Mouse, thoroughly enjoying the peaceful moment.
Suddenly!
Gu An seemed to sense something and looked up in the direction of the Inner Sect.
He felt the powerful aura of Void Crossing cultivators—there was a battle!
It seemed Ji Xiaoyu had successfully formed her Golden Core, and now the demonic spies were making their move, engaging in a fierce fight.
Gu An couldn’t help but think of Jiang Qiong, hoping she wouldn’t act recklessly. With her Nascent Soul first-layer cultivation, trying to steal Jie Xiaoyu’s Golden Core would be a daunting task.
The Inner Sect was far from the Outer Sect, so the disciples in Xuan Valley couldn’t sense the battle. They continued their cultivation as usual.
By nightfall, Gu An could still feel the lingering battle aura from afar, evidence of how intense the fight was.
A cold wind blew in from outside the window as Gu An sat at his desk reading. From outside came the sound of footsteps.
"Senior Brother, may I come in?" Wuxin’s voice called out.
"Come in," Gu An replied.
Quickly, he swapped the The Adventures of the Green Hero in his hands for the Hundred Herbs Manual by Cheng Xuandan.
Wuxin entered, closing the door behind him. Approaching the desk, he saw the Hundred Herbs Manual in Gu An’s hands and felt a deep admiration, his resolve hardening.
With a senior brother so diligent, Wuxin was determined to help him.
Gu An looked up and asked, "What’s brought you here so late?"
Taking a deep breath, Wuxin said, "Senior Brother, you’ve been stuck at Qi Refining Ninth Layer for a while now, haven’t you?"
Gu An raised an eyebrow. What was he getting at?
Was Wuxin dissatisfied with his status as the top disciple and now eyeing the position of Valley Master?
Then, Wuxin continued, "Actually, Senior Brother, I’m a prodigy. But I’ve been cultivating a secret art that suppresses my cultivation, allowing for explosive growth later. This art has the profound ability to alter one’s destiny!"
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