【FOUR: What the Holy Son said makes some sense, but advancing to beyond-mortal is more for the self. On the path of cultivation, if you don’t advance, you fall back. Breaking free of the mortal body is what we cultivators dream of. Besides, Holy Son, if you advanced to beyond-mortal, would you still be troubled by having too many confidantes and not enough strength in your waist?】
Th—this… Li Lingsu stared blankly at the Earth Book fragment. He was persuaded.
That’s right. If this Holy Son reaches the beyond-mortal realm, they won’t be able to drain me dry. But the Heaven Sect’s Supreme Detachment from Emotion is far too difficult, and once one comprehends the Dao, love and desire are almost completely severed, leaving only pure and empty heart.
Mm, perhaps I can focus on martial arts instead!
If I cultivate martial arts to fourth rank, I can still handle the women at home. Besides, the Earth and Heaven Society is powerful. Number One, Huaiqing, is the ruler of the Central Plains, so she absolutely has the resources to support me to fourth rank.
Master, it isn’t that your disciple is unfilial, it’s that this martial path is too tempting… Li Lingsu silently made up his mind. For now, he would toss Heaven Sect cultivation to one side and stubbornly devote himself to martial arts.
A fourth rank martial artist could already achieve “fuck until the sun comes up”.
【TWO: Wouldn’t it be easy if you switched to the Human Sect’s cultivation method?】
Li “Lady Flying Swallow”; “Daoist Lanlian” Miaozhen gave a suggestion with no real sincerity.
I just don’t want to follow the Human Sect’s path, that’s why I don’t cultivate Daoist methods… Chu Yuanzhen felt that Number Two simply didn’t value him as a companion and was fobbing him off.
【NINE: If you won’t cultivate the Human Sect’s method, then don’t expect karmic fire to burn your body.】
When it came to Daoist matters, Daoist Jinlian, Lanlian, and the Holy Son were the professionals. If even they had no solution, then there really was no solution.
Chu Yuanzhen has taken an unconventional path. Unless he opens up a brand-new cultivation system, advancing to beyond-mortal would be harder than climbing to the heavens… The Earth and Heaven Society members shook their heads helplessly.
Seeing that no one replied for a long while, Chu Yuanzhen sighed.
I’ll have to figure it out myself after all.
But he was unwilling to give up, so he sent another message:
【FOUR: Ningyan, do you have a way?】
Xu Qi’an looked at the message, his thoughts racing.
The core shouldn’t be karmic fire. karmic fire only provides the “driving force”. The core of nurturing intent is drawing in ‘emotion’. So as long as one obtains emotion and transforms it through nurturing intent, karmic fire isn’t necessarily required…
After pondering for a moment, he suddenly had an idea.
【THREE: I do have an idea!】
His message lifted the spirits of the Earth and Heaven Society members, and Chu Yuanzhen fixed his gaze on the mirror without blinking.
【THREE: As long as there’s a channel that provides large amounts of “emotion”, that should be enough. It doesn’t have to be karmic fire. Am I right?】
【FOUR: Yes.】
【THREE: Does the Daoist sect have any such method?】
【NINE: No.】
Daoist Jinlian answered for them.
【THREE: But the Heart Gu can. The Heart Gu can communicate and share the emotions of living beings, thereby achieving a manipulative effect. A beyond-mortal Heart Gu can even forcibly create empathy.】
He gave the Earth and Heaven Society members a detailed explanation of the Heart Gu’s abilities.
【THREE: What do you all think?】
Completely feasible… No one understood his own cultivation method better than he did. Chu Yuanzhen was instantly excited.
【TWO: You’re still the one with the most crafty ideas!】
Li Miaozhen sent back with feeling.
This was her indirect way of approving the solution.
【SEVEN: Though the boost in intensity is inferior to karmic fire, it is indeed a path of self-improvement. If I remember correctly, a life Gu is best planted at birth. At your age, I don’t know whether it’ll work.】
That question needed a professional to answer.
【FIVE: It can work, but there is a certain amount of danger. Mm, roughly a seventy per cent chance.】
Not even ninety-eight per cent. Brother Chu is doomed… Xu Qi’an silently mocked.
【FOUR: That’s enough.】
【ONE: Is that a seventy per cent chance of failure or success? Number Five, you’d better make yourself clear.】
Huaiqing played it safe.
【FIVE: Naturally a chance of success.】
After business was done, Lady Flying Swallow asked:
【Xu Ningyan, what have you gained overseas?】
Xu Qi’an sent back:
【I’m on Mermaid Island.】
Mermaid Island?! Chu Yuanzhen’s heart stirred, and he sent a message:
【You mean merpeople with human upper bodies and fish tails? I’ve read records about merpeople in ancient books before. I always thought they were just legend.】
【FIVE: Are merpeople tasty?】
Lina asked with intense anticipation.
Xu Qi’an raised his head and glanced at the soft and lovely Queen beside him, thinking that merpeople were so adorable, why would anyone eat them?
【THREE: The merpeople are exquisitely beautiful, every one of them a rare beauty, especially the mermaid queen. She’s gentle and delicate, mild and lovely, truly astonishing…】
【SEVEN: This Holy Son feels that the opportunity for my Supreme Detachment from Emotion lies on Mermaid Island. Your Majesty, please grant me a flying boat artefact. I’m going to sea.】
Hmph, this mermaid sounds just like another Xu Lingyue… Li Miaozhen curled her lips.
【ONE: I look forward to Silver Gong Xu bringing back a mermaid concubine.】
【THREE: Your Majesty jests…】
What you’re saying makes me sound like some lecherous good-for-northing.
Your Majesty’s retreat to advance is quite the move… Chu Yuanzhen saw through Huaiqing’s tactic.
…
In the capital, in a large two tiered courtyard.
Li Lingsu ended the group chat, put down the Earth Book fragment, and gathered all the confidantes in his household into the main hall.
The room was filled with warbling beauties, each with a different charm, slender and voluptuous alike.
The Holy Son had good taste. The confidantes he had chosen were all strikingly beautiful women with vivid personalities.
Among them were the widow Chai Xing’er, the mature beauty from Wanhua Tower, the three women from when he had raised the rebel army, and Wenren Qianrou, who had opened a branch in the capital…
After a long period of adjustment, they could now coexist in preliminary peace, at least on the surface.
Li Lingsu gave a cough and said:
“Ladies, from today onwards, I’m abandoning the Dao for martial arts. For the next while, I’ll be living a pure and abstinent life.”
The beautiful mature woman from Wanhua Tower said softly:
“How long does Li-Lang plan to abstain for?”
“Until I advance to fourth rank, then it’ll be lifted,” Li Lingsu replied with a serious face.
No matter what, I’ll let my little brother have a rest first and nourish the essence that’s running dry by the day.
After hearing this, all his confidantes nodded in agreement.
Th—they agreed just like that? Li Lingsu was instantly overjoyed. He thought to himself that this Holy Son had trained them well, and each one had become considerate and understanding.
Chai Xing’er said gently:
“Li-Lang is currently at Bronze Skin and Iron Bones. One more step and it’ll be Transforming Force. The most important thing in Transforming Force is control over the body, and actual combat is the quickest shortcut to mastering it.”
Hearing this, Li Lingsu suddenly felt something was wrong.
Chai Xing’er looked around at the assembled sisters and smiled:
“If we sisters pool our resources, we should be able to hire seven or eight fourth rank experts to spar with Li-Lang.”
Wenren Qianrou gave a faint nod:
“Starting today, we’ll begin real combat. It ends when Li-Lang advances to fifth rank.”
Li Lingsu opened his mouth and asked in a small voice:
“What if I’m never able to advance?”
His confidantes looked at him expressionlessly. Their silence gave him the answer, beat him until he reached Transforming Force, dead or alive.
“Ac—actually, there’s no need for abstinence. It won’t get in the way…”
Li Lingsu said with a dry laugh.
…
On the boundless ocean, beneath an eternally unchanging palette of colours, Xu Qi’an stood at the bow. At the stern, the fox spirit lay dozing on a soft couch, her fluffy nine fox tails draped over her shapely body like a blanket.
But that also left those long legs, enough to make any man lose himself, completely exposed beneath the sunlight.
Between the two of them stood the mermaid queen Zhenzhu in human form.
After listening to Xu Qi’an’s description, the mermaid queen conveyed her thoughts by mental transmission:
“Following the route given by the queen, six hundred li south of Mermaid Island lies the Arsu Archipelago. In the language of gods and demons, Arsu means ‘the invincible one’ or the ‘unbeaten’.”
“The invincible one?”
Xu Qi’an felt that the name was asking for trouble. It didn’t sound simple.
The mermaid queen gently transmitted her thoughts:
“Legend says that the Arsu Archipelago was formed from the body of a three-headed giant from ancient times. That giant pursued the Undying Bird, and the two fought from land into the sea. In the end, the three-headed giant was no match for the Undying Bird and died of thirst in the boundless ocean.
“His body floated upon the sea, and his flesh became the archipelago.”
True or not, when gods and demons die, can they become ‘heaven and earth’? I’m a first rank martial artist myself, and I certainly don’t know any such ability. Or is this some unique trait of gods and demons?
Xu Qi’an listened while nodding.
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