Starting Cultivation During a Trip

Chapter 250: Chapter 150: Target Evil Gods! Li Yishan’s Mom

Who can tell if within Profound Reversal lies true inversion; who truly knows the art of planting lotus in the midst of fire?

Once, when light and shadow had scattered, the words beside one’s ears yet remained—those were the years of cultivation in childhood, lessons imparted apart from Zhang Lingzong, a transmission of teaching through words.

”Mother...”

At this moment, Zhang Fan, scouring ancient secret scrolls and perusing Daoist Scriptures, beheld the utterances of forebears in cultivation, and suddenly a spiritual radiance burst forth within his heart, granting him a wondrous awakening; he recalled a special experience from his early years.

It was a unique technique transmitted by Li Linglong, passed from heart to heart, as if branded indelibly upon his very being.

It was neither a Daoist Divine Technique, nor a magic of killing and assault, but an unparalleled method for peering into the mysteries of life and destiny, allowing one to find vitality amidst the machinery of death, and perceive light even in the midst of countless tribulations.

”Heaven begets and heaven slays—this is the principle of the Dao. Reverse the methods of life, and let killing turn to life; invert the wondrous application, that lotus may be born in the house of fire!”

Zhang Fan’s Primordial Spirit departed from his body, and at once True Flame arose around him—Separation Fire blazed radiant, burning brilliantly, piercing up into the heavens with awe-inspiring majesty and terror.

”Who’s there!?”

At this very instant, within the office, He Ningyan, who had been discussing the investigation of the Three Corpses Primordial Pill with Ma Buting, abruptly changed her expression. She sprang to her feet, the teacup in her hand shattering in response.

Both her eyes widened, snapping toward the window—deep in those beautiful eyes surged an uncontainable astonishment.

”Senior Sister, what’s this...?”

Ma Buting’s brows quivered faintly, a grave look appearing upon his face as he too gazed upward, using Primordial Spirit Observation—therein he clearly glimpsed a pillar of Separation Fire shooting into the sky, ablaze with multicolored radiance. Such a manifestation could not be born save by a cultivator of the Profound Sect.

He Ningyan’s gaze sharpened into a line, but inwardly, waves billowed vast and tumultuous.

What she perceived, within that soaring pillar of Separation Fire, was a Primordial Spirit emerging—burning fiercely amid the True Flames, and in a mere instant, entering into extinction. This was the method of self-annihilation through killing one’s body and returning to death.

”Senior Sister, someone is setting themselves ablaze!?” An expression of utter disbelief appeared on Ma Buting’s face.

Who would dare, within the Jiangnan Province Daoist Alliance Headquarters itself, to incinerate their own Primordial Spirit with Daoist True Flame? This was a path toward death, a method of returning to heaven...

Is the Longevity Star eating arsenic, growing weary of his own lifespan!?

”Madman... Has this one succumbed to demonic deviation!?” He Ningyan’s gaze trembled with dread.

Daoist True Flame—majestic enough to break through ten thousand arts, righteous enough to subdue ghosts and gods; if even a trace touches the Primordial Spirit, doom descends, bringing slaughter.

This one actually summoned fire upon themselves, burning their own Primordial Spirit into annihilation before our very eyes.

Evidently, someone ventured in cultivating Fire Techniques and met with disaster, succumbing to inner demon’s fire.

”Daoist Fire Techniques are not so easily cultivated. Go, seek help—see if there’s still a chance to save them.” He Ningyan’s voice was heavy as cast iron.

Ma Buting, hearing her, promptly rose and departed the office.

Now, within the President’s office,

Lou Hechuan stood before the window, regarding that pillar of fire shooting to the sky—his aged features faintly shivering, eyes clouded with solemnity.

”Turn the gate of death to a gate of life; let not the portal of birth become the sign of demise. When one fathoms the reversals of killing intent, only then does one know that within harm abides the source of grace.”

As the Scripture of the Secret Talisman says: ’The living is the root of death; the dying is the source of birth. Grace is born of harm; harm is born of grace. If one emerges following the current, the gate of life becomes the gate of death; only when one returns against the current does the door of death become the door of life.’

Amid that blaze of Separation Fire, though the Primordial Spirit drew forth fire upon itself and immolated, within the ashes of death faint golden radiance flickered, concealing the phenomenon of a lotus—life remained hidden, yet unrevealed.

”The merit of returning to the source... the merit of returning to the source... This young one is truly an anomaly!” Lou Hechuan murmured in a low voice.

Rumble...

Zhang Fan’s Primordial Spirit sank deep, cast into the searing True Flame. Layers of ash sloughed from his spirit, borne on glimmering points of golden light.

Those golden points converged, and dimly, the illusory outline of a lotus flickered and waned.

His aura grew ever more fearsome; amid the scarlet incandescence, the tribulation of death was born, and within the golden light, vitality lay concealed. The vague and resplendent image of a lotus hovered between birth and non-birth, as if containing boundless xuanmiao. Should it ever truly condense, he would step into an unprecedented realm, opening a gate never before beheld.

”At such an age, to already begin comprehending the mysteries of the reversals between life and killing—truly, the younger generation is to be feared.”

In Lou Hechuan’s eyes, a brilliant radiance seemed to flicker. His expression turned complex; such talent was the mark of a hidden dragon. Even merely this moment’s realization of xuanmiao already swept away all the emergent talents of Jiangnan Province.

”Zhenwu Mountain... truly, its fate soars boundless.” Sensing the subtle change in that heavenly pillar of fire, Lou Hechuan fell into deep thought.

Now, at last, he faintly understood why Chu Chaoran, even as a Zhenren in old age, would still take such a disciple.

This youth harbored an immense latent power. Though obscure in reputation now, in days to come...

”Neither absolute nor perishing; in seventy-three generations, one respite... The Ancestral Master’s verse left at Zhenwu Mountain—could it be that the sect has passed the great tribulation, seized a heaven-defying fate, and will extend its incense for another five hundred years?”

Rumble...

At that moment, the surging blaze gradually subsided. As each measure of radiance waned, each wave of fluctuation withdrew. At last, tranquility returned—as if nothing had ever transpired.

”He has attained enlightenment.”

Within the library, Zhang Fan’s Primordial Spirit returned to his corporeal vessel. He felt light and ethereal, an inner clarity surging up from simply being.

”Killing turns to life; lotus is planted in fire...” Zhang Fan murmured, lost in thought.

The technique imparted by Li Linglong was truly the peerless method for perceiving life and fate, transforming disaster and crossing tribulation.

At this juncture, a strong intuition arose in Zhang Fan’s heart—if he could truly fathom the secret behind these eight words, ’killing turns to life, lotus planted in fire,’ he could shatter the barrier of Lowering True Fate in one stroke and ascend to the realm of High Skill.

”This trip was not in vain after all.” Zhang Fan laid down the ancient text in his hands, his interest in further reading having wholly vanished.

Though the Ten Thousand True Incense of the Wuwei Sect was not fated for him, at least now he had found a path, no longer lost and bewildered as before.