Starting Cultivation During a Trip

Chapter 68: Chapter 68: Primordial Spirit Ink, from the Three Corpses

The night was deep, and the mountains were silent, with only the sound of cicadas suddenly becoming restless.

The Shen Family Mansion, the inner hall.

Incense swirled, wafting around the array of ancestral tablets on the shrine. In a modern city, having such a temple dedicated to ancestors was already a rarity.

”Only because each holds the true earth, does the Golden Core have a chance to return...”

At this moment, a deep and aged voice echoed softly, causing the candlelight to flicker.

Shen Xiangrong had just entered the door and heard this, immediately standing respectfully to the side, no longer speaking.

”Wonderful... truly wonderful... the Daoist elixir words are truly indescribably wonderful...”

The aged voice spoke again, carrying a sense of long-lasting savor.

Intention stops as earth, stopping at the kidneys as Wu Earth, stopping at the heart as Ji Earth. The conjunction of these two earths is true intention, like the earth itself, calm and immovable, with not a single thought arising, suddenly revealing the mystery of the Golden Core’s return.

”What a pity... the greatest sorrow of humanity lies here, as the heart monkey is hard to subdue and the Yima hard to rein in... how can one truly realize the Path of Infinite Pure Yang?”

The aged voice spoke again, carrying a sense of desolation and melancholy.

”Grandfather, you have sat in contemplation in the mountains for twenty years. Your skill has deepened, with thoughts no longer following, and you have grasped the true intention. It may not be impossible...” Shen Xiangrong looked towards the depths of the ancestral hall and couldn’t help but speak.

”Thoughts no longer follow, and you have grasped the true intention?”

Before he could finish speaking, the aged voice interrupted once more.

”Cultivation itself is the greatest obsession.”

With these words, Shen Xiangrong fell silent, seemingly chewing over the profoundness contained in the sentence.

”The Dragon and Tiger Taoist Talisman... has that person been found?”

At this moment, the aged voice changed tone sharply, becoming extremely piercing.

”Not yet... there were too many people in the Refining Talisman Temple at that time, it was really...”

”It must be found!”

Before Shen Xiangrong could finish speaking, the aged voice interrupted again, with a tone that became heavy and chilling.

”The Dragon Tiger Zhang Family... it’s been eighty years since the incense was last rekindled. I must confirm if this lineage has truly been cut off...”

”Grandfather, this lineage on Dragon Tiger Mountain has been passed down for so many years. It’s inevitable that some techniques leaked out. Even if someone is proficient in the Dragon and Tiger Taoist Talisman, it may not necessarily be someone from the Zhang Family...”

Shen Xiangrong couldn’t help but speak. He couldn’t understand why his grandfather, after retreating to the mountains for twenty years, with excellent Qi cultivation, would be so disturbed and unsettled by merely the name of the Dragon Tiger Zhang Family, as if it were a heart demon.

”You don’t understand... you don’t understand...”

”You’ve never seen someone from the Zhang Family... so, of course, you wouldn’t know...”

The aged voice spoke again, carrying a sense of heaviness.

Shen Xiangrong fell silent. He knew that his great-grandfather had apprenticed at Dragon Tiger Mountain in his early years, practicing Daoist skills. At that time, his grandfather also lived on the mountain for a while, and perhaps had encountered people from the Dragon Tiger Zhang Family.

”Arrogant... arrogant...”

The aged voice seemed to squeeze out from between clenched teeth.

”Even with such a temperament, capable of dominating the Daoist sects...”

”No...”

Before Shen Xiangrong could speak, the aged voice denied it.

”It’s not the pretentious arrogance, nor the proud isolation arrogance...”

The so-called lofty view, with distinctions of high and low, but the people of the Dragon Tiger Zhang Family...

”Seeing everything as empty, forgetting themselves and the world... in their eyes, it seems even they themselves do not exist...” The aged voice turned urgent, even somewhat envious.

”That innate sense of the Dao and talent makes others have to bow their heads before them.”

The aged voice clenched with resentment. He could never forget that childhood experience, no matter how hard his father worked, no matter how hard he persevered... he could never catch up with those people.

He struggled for half a lifetime, putting all his efforts into achievements that couldn’t even reach the starting point of the Zhang Family people.

Such disparity planted a seed in his young heart.

”What a pity, the Heavenly Dao favors the weak, not the strong... with the great tribulation of the Daoist sects, this lineage is also finished...”

The aged voice changed again, as if heaving a sigh of relief, yet that obsession seemed not to have dissipated.

”I don’t care if that person today is from the Zhang Family or not, dig them out for me...”

”I want to show him... how our Shen Family can surpass them...”

”Grandfather...” Shen Xiangrong felt a pang in his heart, glancing towards the inner hall through the flickering candlelight.

A creaky sound came from a dark corner.

”I’ve seen it already; the Profound Mirror Treasure Talisman hasn’t been affected. With that secret technique, in three days, this treasure can be completed.”

Following the voice, a withered old man on a wheelchair slowly emerged. His skin was like bark cracked from excessive sun exposure, seemingly ready to peel away with a breeze. With his breathing, the skin swelled, smoothing out the cracks, and as he exhaled, the skin returned to its wrinkled, dried state.

”Grandfather, your talisman is used up.”

Shen Xiangrong raised an eyebrow, looking at Shen Yinfeng’s abdomen. A bright yellow talisman was pasted there, painted with eerie patterns resembling an inflated belly, with a ghostly face on it. Tiny fleshy tendrils extended from the talisman, digging into Shen Yinfeng’s flesh like claws.

At this moment, if viewed with Primordial Spirit Observation, it could be seen that those tiny tendrils plunged directly into the body, entwining with Shen Yinfeng’s abdomen, and half of his lung had already turned black.

”This Lung Storage Talisman is indeed useful, but it consumes too much of the Primordial Spirit.” Shen Yinfeng shook his head and with a single motion, tore off the dim talisman...

Instantly, a viscous black liquid dripped down, emitting a foul stench. The patterns on the talisman dimmed instantly, with a tortured howl gradually fading away.

”Primordial Spirit Ink, truly profound,” Shen Yinfeng said coldly.

Raising his hand, a new Lung Storage Talisman flew out from his palm, adhering to the original spot. As tendrils pierced in, accompanied by the sound of a woman weeping, he exhaled a long breath of turbid air, his skin swelling, shedding quite a few dead skin flakes.

The lungs govern the skin and hair, affecting the openings of the human body; thus, human respiration is closely linked with the opening and closing of the skin.

Five years ago, Shen Yinfeng was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer, yet he survived thanks to this Lung Storage Talisman.

This talisman wasn’t particularly difficult to make; the only precious component was the need for living Primordial Spirit as ink.

Shen Xiangrong remained silent, knowing that this method had been passed down from the ancestral page of the Celestial Book, even the method to refine the Profound Mirror Treasure Talisman was recorded on it.

Earlier, Shen Yinfeng said that if the secret technique is used, it can be completed in three days... that secret technique is using Primordial Spirit as ink.

The glory and goal of the Shen Family, spanning three generations, was about to be realized at this moment, and any price was deemed worth it.

Shen Xiangrong, orphaned at a young age, was raised by his grandfather, instilled with the teachings and aspirations to perfect the Profound Mirror Treasure Talisman as supreme.

This moment truly arrived, and he was more excited and eager than anyone else.

”The Primordial Spirit is indeed the most wondrous thing in the world...” Looking at his grandfather, gradually recovering strength and vitality, Shen Xiangrong couldn’t help but inquire.

”Grandfather, now that the Profound Mirror Treasure Talisman is about to succeed, can you tell me who exactly was that extraordinary person who left the Celestial Book with our Shen Family?”

Eighty years ago, Shen Xiangrong’s great-grandfather left Dragon Tiger Mountain and encountered that extraordinary individual, which changed his entire life’s destiny.

This was the greatest secret of the Shen Family, and now perhaps only Shen Yinfeng still knew.

”His name...” Shen Yinfeng pondered briefly before responding.

”He was once the greatest expert in the world...”

”The greatest in the world... the greatest in the world... could it be...” Shen Xiangrong’s expression shifted slightly, as if he had guessed something.

”Three Corpses Daoist!” Shen Yinfeng murmured softly, uttering that name.