Cultivation begins with earning spirit stones

Chapter 104 Eight Transformations of Profound Truth

The Creation System was activated, and the spiritual energy in the spirit stone was drawn out like a tide. The essence of the Hidden Eight Transformations Profound Truth Technique, which he had only just begun to understand, clearly appeared in his mind.

A series of profound and mysterious Daoist sounds resounded deep within my consciousness, explaining the method of inscribing and applying the Purple Heaven Flying Spirit Eight Transformations Jade Talisman.

"Soaring through the heavens and controlling the qi, rotating through the eight palaces, when seated one is with others, when standing one enters the room, covering my azure sky, protecting my divine dragon, reflecting my form, and penetrating the dark and mysterious."

Zhang Lin entered a profound state within the Daoist sound and began to inscribe the second jade talisman in the center of the starry river.

True Qi is like a carving knife, and spiritual awareness is like a fuse.

Every stroke of the rune requires precise control of true energy and guidance of spiritual awareness down to the millimeter.

The slightest deviation will cause the runes to shatter, and all the hard work of many days will be in vain.

However, the optimized jade talisman is more concise and refined than the original, conveying a sense of profound simplicity. All the key points have been optimized, greatly reducing the difficulty of engraving the talisman.

Zhang Lin also cultivated the Supreme Response Treatise, giving him a control over true qi far exceeding that of ordinary qi refiners at the peak of their cultivation.

An hour later, the second jade talisman was formed.

The talisman is made of jade and hangs quietly in the Milky Way. It is translucent and has a flowing spiritual light.

The talisman is engraved with an ancient seal character: 虚 (xu).

Zhang Lin opened his eyes, his forehead slightly damp with sweat, but his breathing remained steady.

Without pausing, he took out a Qi-restoring pill and swallowed it. Once his true energy was restored, he entered meditation again, listening to the voice of the Great Dao emanating from the darkness.

"The divine rabbit soars, announcing the arrival of dawn. It dispels the clamor and obscurities, opening up my clear spring..."

The second talisman was completed on the fourth day.

On the fifth day, the third talisman was completed.

"Eight hidden paths, concealing the earth and dancing in the sky, escaping with the six yin, manifesting in the jade wheel, riding a dragon and controlling the smoke, ascending to the imperial dawn..."

On the twelfth day at dusk, the last "Hidden Scenery Dance" jade talisman was completed, and the celestial sound of the Great Dao in the darkness came to an abrupt end.

In the quiet room, spiritual light flowed around Zhang Lin, and eight jade talismans in his dantian were connected end to end, transforming into a jade ring.

The jade ring is entirely blue-green, with eight talismans occupying one corner each. Each talisman is engraved with one of the eight ancient seal characters: Cang, Xu, Xiao, Wu, Ling, Jie, Hui, and Wu.

It hangs quietly in the center of the true qi galaxy, surrounded by 108 drops of liquid true qi, like stars surrounding the moon.

Zhang Lin opened his eyes.

He had not eaten for twelve days and had only survived on the fasting pills. His face had become somewhat thinner, but when he opened his eyes, eight faint talismanic lights flowed deep within his pupils before disappearing.

He looked down at the ground in front of him.

The two thousand spirit stones had been completely consumed by the system, turning into ashes. Only a few wisps of residual spiritual light remained, flickering in the air like fireflies, before gradually extinguishing.

Zhang Lin dusted off the dust on his robe and stood up.

The jade ring slowly rotated in his dantian, and an unprecedented feeling of fullness spread throughout his body.

Within the dantian, the Eight Transformations Profound Jade Ring rotates at a constant and slow speed, absorbing and releasing spiritual energy from heaven and earth with each rotation.

Although the throughput is small, its advantage lies in its continuous and never-ending flow.

Twelve days of carving talismans, twelve days of sleepless nights, constantly consuming spiritual energy and true qi, should have left him exhausted. However, after the jade ring was formed, the nourishing qi from that pure energy restored most of his energy.

He pushed open the door to the quiet room.

It was already dusk outside the courtyard.

As the sun sets, it paints Cuiping Peak in a golden-red hue.

Thousands of rays of light slanted down from the gaps in the clouds, falling on the pine forest, and each old pine was coated with a layer of dark golden halo.

The mountain wind blows, and the sound of the pines rustling in the wind surges from afar like a tide, turning into a long, soft murmur in your ears.

A thin layer of pine needles covered the stone slab, golden and bright, making a rustling sound when stepped on.

The old pine tree's branches appeared even more vigorous in the setting sun, its gnarled branches as solid as cast iron, remaining motionless no matter how the mountain wind howled.

Zhang Lin walked to the edge of the stone platform, facing the sea of ​​clouds. The mountain wind blew in his face, making his robes flutter.

Songtao Residence offers an extremely wide view.

Standing on the edge of the stone platform and looking down, you can see the scenery below halfway up Cuiping Peak.

On the mountainside, the lights in several outer courtyards have been lit up one after another.

At the junction of Cuiping Peak and Furong Peak, faint points of spiritual light can be seen in the direction of Qianzhangyan Market. These are the glows of spirit stones and magical artifacts on the stalls.

Further away, the main peak of Danxia, ​​guarded by eight peaks, is only a majestic silhouette in the twilight. The Danxia Palace on the mountaintop is bathed in the last rays of the setting sun, its golden tiles reflecting a dazzling light.

Zhang Lin withdrew his gaze and silently calculated the time.

Today is the twelfth day.

There are 18 days left until the deadline in January.

The Eight Transformations Technique has been partially mastered. Next, it is necessary to find a secluded place to test the method and truly make the techniques in the jade talisman usable by ourselves.

Magic is not something you can learn just by carving a talisman. It's like alchemy. You can memorize the formula by heart, but you'll never know how to control the heat until you've actually refined a few batches.

However, to test the method, a spacious, deserted place is needed.

The wild valley behind the mountain would be a good fit.

-----

The next morning, Zhang Lin pushed open the door and went out.

He didn't disturb anyone and went down the path behind Cuiping Peak alone.

This path is different from the bluestone path leading up the mountain. The surface is unpaved, just a narrow dirt path worn into it by the disciples who come and go to gather herbs.

On both sides of the earthen path, wild grass reached his knees, and dew was still wet, dampening the hem of his robe, which was then instantly absorbed by the robe.

After walking for about half an hour, the terrain gradually lowered, and the mountain walls on both sides narrowed, forming a long and narrow valley.

The valley is filled with jagged rocks and overgrown weeds, with a shallow stream meandering through the valley floor, its waters gurgling softly.

The surrounding mountain walls are covered with vines, and occasionally a few weathered rock paintings are visible among the vines. The lines are simple and ancient, and the original appearance is no longer recognizable.

Zhang Lin stood at the valley entrance, his spiritual sense sweeping across a radius of fifty feet.

unmanned.

This wild valley is quite far from the main road of Cuiping Peak, and the disciples rarely come here to gather herbs, making it a perfect place to test the magic.

He stepped into the valley and stopped in front of a blue stone about half a person's height.

First transformation: Concealing one's form and hiding one's shadow.

With a thought, the jade talisman in Zhang Lin's dantian, engraved with the character "藏" (zang, meaning to hide), suddenly lit up.

A slender and precise stream of true energy flowed from the jade talisman, flowing along the meridians into the body's surface, outlining a complex array of runes on the skin.

This array is completely different from the third-order Concealing Breath Technique. The Concealing Breath Technique is to compress and suppress one's aura, while Concealing Form and Shadow is to manipulate the flow of spiritual energy within a foot around the body, allowing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to bypass one's body, just as a stream flows around pebbles.

His figure gradually faded from the outside in, first the edges of his robes became blurred, then his limbs, and finally his torso.

A few breaths later, only an empty, rocky beach remained.

If a cultivator were to scan this place with their spiritual sense, they would only detect a rock, a clump of wild grass, and a wisp of mountain breeze, but no one.

Zhang Lin looked down at his hands.

In his own perception, his hands still existed, and his sense of touch, hearing, and sight were all normal.

But to the outside world, he has completely "disappeared".

He tried to take a step forward.

As the soles of my feet touched the ground, the sand and gravel sank slightly, but the rune array on my body circulated in sync, eliminating the ground vibrations caused by my footsteps.

Silent, breathless, formless.

This is a stealth technique; when combined with a third-tier concealment technique, it can evade the divine sense detection of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

These are the original words in the scroll. Only now, having experienced it firsthand, does Zhang Lin realize that these words are true.

He remained hidden, slowly walked to the stream, bent down and scooped up a handful of water.

The stream flowed through his fingers, the sound of the water remained, but there was no reflection on the surface.

The next instant, he withdrew his magic, and his figure suddenly appeared by the stream, the water in his palm splashing down.

The first transformation, completion.