Chapter 37: Cultivating the Divine Technique
He said, his body bursting with an even stronger hatred, gritting his teeth and saying: "I have been meditating here for a hundred years. Just as I was about to make the crucial breakthrough in my cultivation of the Eight Trigrams Divine Technique, someone suddenly broke into this place and launched a sneak attack on me while I was in the midst of dividing my spirit. This caused me to fail in my division of spirit and left me severely injured. As he prepared to deliver the finishing blow and steal my technique, I used my last ounce of strength to self-destruct with seven of my divine spirits, severely injuring him as well. However, I was too weak to pursue and kill him, allowing him to escape. After his departure, my physical body also collapsed, leaving only this one heavily injured true spirit of mine. I had hoped to use the Cultivation of Spirit Technique to recover once more, but alas, my injuries were too severe, and there was no longer any possibility of recovery. I could only struggle to maintain my current state and hide here, all in the hopes of finding a suitable successor. But this wait lasted for nearly two hundred years without anyone meeting my requirements appearing, until over a decade ago when a man with two infant girls arrived at this place. His innate talent was not bad, having reached the middle stage of Body Integration by the age of one hundred, but he still fell short of my expectations. I opened up the illusion array and allowed him to enter, so that when my time came, I would have someone to pass on my technique to. Then I continued waiting for the next person, until your arrival."
Upon hearing this, Gu Yun's mouth was already agape. Eighth divine soul, seven strands of original soul self-detonated. What is going on? He knew about the concept of divine souls splitting, as his master had once told him that when a cultivator reached a certain realm, their original soul could split into two: one being the main original soul and the other being the original soul's clone. The clone would need to find a suitable treasure or body to merge with in order to cultivate an external incarnation. This external incarnation would possess all of the original body's abilities and could even cultivate on its own, essentially becoming another version of oneself, albeit without independent thoughts. If it merged with a high-grade magical artifact or a stronger existence's body, the incarnated soul's strength would surpass that of the original body, and in critical moments, it could even block fatal attacks for the original body. It was as if the cultivator had gained an extra life and a powerful helper, which is why many cultivators in his master's era had a strong external incarnation. However, since the original soul was the foundation of a cultivator, only one external incarnation could be created; any further splits would damage the original soul, potentially leading to severe setbacks or even complete destruction. And yet, the person before him possessed seven strands of original souls and was preparing to split an eighth, which was simply too astonishing.
Looking at Gu Yun's shocked face, the man with a hint of pride on his face said: "This is where my Refining Divine Technique is powerful. The eighth divine soul that was split out by my original divine soul is not the limit. My Refining Divine Technique can infinitely split out divine souls. Of course, danger and pain are definitely going to be there, but in my opinion, these are all worth it."
The man's next sentence sent Gu Yun back into a daze. "Eighth-level divine sense is not the limit, infinite divine sense can be divided infinitely," these two sentences lingered in Gu Yun's mind for a long time. After a while, Gu Yun finally came to his senses and excitedly asked the man, "Please tell me if I can cultivate your Divine Sense Technique, are you willing to pass on this ultimate skill to me?" How could Gu Yun not be excited? With infinite divine sense division, if he found a good treasure and merged it with his primordial spirit, refining it into an external incarnation, while he himself led a group of incarnations stronger than him to fight against others... the terrifying scene made Gu Yun's imagination run wild. As for the danger and suffering he mentioned, compared to the increase in power, Gu Yun thought it was worth it. His increased strength had always been accompanied by danger and pain, and over time, he had grown accustomed to it.
Seeing Gu Yun's current state, the person nodded in satisfaction and said: "That's right, from the moment I saw you for the first time, I had this intention. Your primordial spirit is much more condensed than that of a cultivator of the same realm, and your spiritual sea is no less than that of a high-ranking cultivator who has transcended tribulations. It seems that you have had some extraordinary encounters in the past."
Gu Yun nodded, also convinced by the man's means. Just one glance and he knew his own yuan shen situation, even his spiritual awareness could be seen. And what he said next was even more beneficial to Gu Yun.
Ancient Cloud nodded, and the man continued: "Although your primordial spirit is more condensed and powerful than others, you don't even know how to use its power. Otherwise, that mid-stage cultivator wouldn't have been able to make a fool of you like that."
Gu Yun's face suddenly turned red, in his original thinking, as a cultivator who had escaped the mortal realm, being able to hold his own against a mid-stage cultivator was something to be proud of. But in other people's eyes, it meant that he had the strength but couldn't bring it out. So, he quickly asked this person for guidance on where the problem lay, he wasn't someone who couldn't listen to advice. Not knowing is fine, once you know there's a problem, you have to solve it quickly.
Seeing Gu Yun's humble and inquiring expression, Wu Jinquan was even more delighted. He thought to himself that he had indeed not misjudged the person. This young man not only had exceptional talent but also possessed humility, making him a promising material for cultivation. His current state of mind could be inferred from his cultivation level; with an age of less than twenty, he already had such a profound understanding - it was no exaggeration to say that there were none like him in the past or present.
"Little guy, do you know what the yuan Shen and spiritual awareness sea are for?" He didn't wait for Gu Yun to respond before continuing, "The yuan Shen allows you to better control your own spiritual energy, making your grasp of techniques more precise, without wasting unnecessary energy. The spiritual awareness sea is the foundation of the yuan Shen's existence and a bridge that communicates with heaven and earth. Through the spiritual awareness sea, the yuan Shen can absorb energy from heaven and earth and add it to your attacks, making them even stronger. Just like in our battle earlier, if you could have controlled that one move better, the dragon shadow wouldn't have just deflected the opponent's sword energy, but would have scattered it. This isn't because your yuan Shen is weak, but because you don't know how to control that attack. This has something to do with your spiritual awareness sea; through it, you can control a portion of heaven and earth's energy at will. In this realm, everything is under your control. Normally, only cultivators who have passed the tribulation period can barely achieve this. But your spiritual awareness sea isn't what one would expect from a cultivator of your level. So, you can completely control a portion of heaven and earth; here, you are the controller, and your techniques are entirely under your control. Your opponent will be restricted in this realm, with their strength greatly reduced. However, since your yuan Shen is still relatively weak, this range only extends one zhang around you."
Gǔ yún bù kě zhì xìn de tūn le tūn kǒu shuǐ, yào zhēn de kě yǐ zuò dào xiàng zhè wèi qián bèi suǒ de nà yàng, nà zì jǐ qǐ bù shì yòu kě yǐ shí lì dà zēng. ránhòu yòu tīng shuō zì jǐ de jīng shén shì hǎi bìng fēi zhè ge jìng jiè de xiū zhēn zhě gāi yǒu de, zhè ràng Gǔ yún yǒu diǎn hǎo qí zì jǐ de jīng shén shì hǎi dào le shén me dà chéng dù, tā jiàng zhè ge yí wèn wèn le chū lái.
Wu Jinquan said, "The cultivation methods of the Xiuzhen world are all about cultivating spiritual energy, while the cultivation of the yuan Shen and the spiritual sea is passive and relies on the improvement of the realm. Generally speaking, before reaching the Jindan period, most cultivators are mainly strengthening their physical body and accumulating spiritual energy, and the increase in yuan Shen's mental power will not be too obvious. Once you reach the Jindan period, the spiritual energy in your body condenses, and at this time, cultivation will cause the yuan Shen's mental power to grow relatively quickly, slowly condensing into a tangible yuan Shen, which also marks that you have cultivated to the exit period. When cultivators reach the exit period, they can see their own spiritual sea through their own yuan Shen. At this time, the spiritual sea of most cultivators is generally only a circular space of one meter or more, and it will not expand to about three meters until after reaching the late stage of the exit period. By the time cultivators reach the exit period, they can already use the surrounding heaven and earth spiritual energy to form their own momentum to suppress their opponents."
Once the spiritual sea's size breaks through three meters, that means you've cultivated to the Congealing Phase. The spiritual seas of even late-stage Congealed Pupils are only about ten meters in size.
During the Tribulation period, cultivators' spiritual sea can reach a size of over 10 meters. When they reach a certain level, they can borrow the power of heaven and earth through their spiritual sea to form their own domain, which is what I meant by controlling a piece of heaven and earth earlier. Although it's just borrowing, in this domain, you are the temporary master, able to control everything within it at will. Of course, the consumption of spiritual energy is also extremely massive.
By the time of the Great Vehicle period, the spiritual sea of consciousness of cultivators had already broken through 100 meters in size and their control was even more powerful.
"After so many years of research, I have found that the stronger and more refined one's yuan Shen is, the more spiritual energy they can control. The speed of cultivation will be faster, and the power of the moves will also be stronger. The size of the spiritual sea of consciousness corresponds to the height of the cultivator's realm, and a spiritual sea of consciousness like yours is generally only possessed by cultivators in the Tribulation period. The bottleneck of the realm that cultivators encounter is just the expansion of the spiritual sea of consciousness. If you cultivate my Lian Shen Jue, you will no longer have any realm problems in the future, and your cultivation speed will be much faster than others. Moreover, with your current situation, cultivating my Lian Shen Jue will be even more effective."
It is said that with a loud noise, the heart moves. After that, all cultivation will not have bottlenecks. What kind of thought is this? To know, most cultivators are stuck because their realm cannot be improved, but the Refining Spirit Technique solves this problem. Imagine if people knew there was such a heaven-defying technique, what would the scene be like?
