Chapter Seventy-Nine: Cultivating the Dharma Form
“Do you know who he is?”
Watching the departing figure of the Night-Moon Sparrow, Lu Wanshan asked the Venerable Lingxu.
A sixth-tier Snow Hawk King could still escape with its life beneath Bai Di’s sword. A grandmaster of the Hollow Void Realm transformed into the Night-Moon Sparrow possessed the same ability.
Once freed from the suppressing force of the Mountain-and-River Seal, this Night-Moon Sparrow—already comparable to a sixth-tier demon beast, and at the height of the sixth tier beneath the moonlit dark—unleashed its speed to the fullest. Even Lu Wanshan and Lingxuzi, both grandmasters of the Hollow Void Realm, could not catch up.
So when they saw the Night-Moon Sparrow flee, the two grandmasters made no attempt to pursue.
Instead, they turned to discussing the other party’s identity.
“Not yet,” said the Venerable Lingxu with a shake of his head.
Just now, he and Lu Wanshan had joined forces, one using the Illusory Void Realm Painting and the other the Mountain-and-River Seal, suppressing the Night-Moon Sparrow together.
Yet this human powerhouse, transformed into the Night-Moon Sparrow, was not only extraordinarily strong, but also deeply cunning.
Feigning to have been deceived by the Illusory Void Realm Painting, it suddenly broke free, then slipped out from under the Mountain-and-River Seal’s suppression.
As a result, neither of the Hollow Void grandmasters could keep him here.
Because only a few moves had been exchanged, even though the Venerable Lingxu had lived for more than four hundred years, he still could not discern the man’s style, nor even grasp his true strength.
Still, though he could not be certain, the Venerable Lingxu had some guesses of his own:
“Among the known grandmasters in the world, there are only a little more than twenty. Even if there are hidden ones, there can be at most another handful.”
“After ruling out those who could not possibly be here, and could not possibly have reached the Hollow Void Realm—”
“this man’s identity is actually not that hard to guess.”
Grandmasters were the supreme force in this world; to become one was naturally exceedingly difficult.
Though the human world had six or seven hundred million people, and in the course of centuries it was impossible to count how many generations had come and gone—
the number of grandmasters alive at any one time had always hovered around twenty.
Even during the chaotic final years of the Qin, when the three supreme grandmasters Xu Zu, Bai Di, and Jing Di appeared one after another, the number of grandmasters alive at the same time never exceeded thirty.
So after excluding those who could not possibly be here and could not possibly have reached the Hollow Void Realm, the identity of the so-called Night Emperor was actually not so difficult to infer.
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Lu Wanshan naturally understood this as well, and from the Night-Moon Sparrow’s dharma form, he saw even more.
“The Night-Moon Sparrow is a kind of Dragon Sparrow. From some excavated ruins, we know that in ancient times, there once existed a Xia Dynasty, and the royal family at that time possessed Dragon Sparrow bloodline.”
“The person with this Night-Moon Sparrow dharma form may well have inherited from ancient Xia, awakening the Night-Moon Sparrow bloodline.”
The Dragon Sparrow was a divine beast; like the true dragon, no one had ever seen its true form.
However, its bloodline descendants were extremely widespread.
Many bird-type demon beasts—such as the Night-Moon Sparrow, Great Wind Sparrow, Azure Cloud Sparrow, Water Cloud Sparrow, Fire Cloud Sparrow, and others—carry a trace of Dragon Sparrow blood.
“The inheritance of ancient Xia!”
Frowning, the Venerable Lingxu said:
“Gu Yufei of the Azure Cloud Sect was said to have been favored at birth by a feather-shaped spiritual treasure, and because of that became the youngest grandmaster of the present age before the age of forty.”
“More than twenty years ago, Xiexu went south into Qingzhou and once met Gu Yufei, who possessed a spiritual treasure.”
“According to his account, this poor Daoist suspects that the spiritual treasure was likely handed down from ancient Shang—”
“a hereditary spiritual treasure of the royal house at that time!”
“This man who calls himself the Night Emperor is said to be on excellent terms with Gu Yufei, and there are even rumors that they have children together—”
“Could it be that these heirs of the ancient dynasties have already joined forces?”
The history of this world was in fact not very long; the written record stretched back only about ten thousand years.
But from excavated ruins, people discovered that as long as tens of thousands of years ago, there had once been an incomparably powerful age.
In that era, people mainly refined bloodline and cultivated dharma forms, establishing one dynasty after another.
Among them, ancient Xia, ancient Shang, ancient Zhou, and others were the most famous and powerful of the known dynasties.
The methods now passed down for refining bloodline and cultivating dharma forms could all trace their origins back to them.
These people with special bloodlines also had a natural basis for joining forces.
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“Join forces? What would they be trying to do?”
“If you say they want to revive the path of dharma-form cultivation, I’d be the first not to believe it!”
Hearing the Venerable Lingxu’s words, Lu Wanshan raised his brows and said.
Although the ability displayed by the Night-Moon Sparrow had been extremely formidable, even suppressing them both for a time—
that was only because its innate divine power was exceptionally strong, and because it had appeared so suddenly.
Otherwise, either of them alone would have had the power to contend with the Night-Moon Sparrow.
“Dharma-form cultivation requires special bloodlines!”
“Leaving aside the fact that after so many years of breeding, most people in the world no longer have any special bloodline, even if they do—”
“these dharma-form cultivators, who possess only a few special abilities and are merely a little stronger than demon beasts of the same rank, could never challenge the standing of martial grandmasters!”
Speaking with some contempt, Lu Wanshan clearly looked down on so-called dharma-form cultivation.
After all, those who cultivated along the dharma-form path, though stronger than demon beasts of the same rank due to differences in intelligence—
still mostly could not escape the limits of the dharma form they cultivated.
Such experts might have a few advantages in certain respects, but compared with grandmasters who condensed a domain and manifested all manner of phenomena within it, they were still far inferior.
Otherwise, the more than one hundred fourth-tier and higher demon beasts would not have been suppressed all this time by a mere two dozen human grandmasters—
martial cultivation held an absolute position of advantage in this world.
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“Challenge the standing of martial grandmasters?”
“Brother Lu really has a way with jokes—”
“How could such a thing possibly happen?”
Laughing heartily, the Venerable Lingxu said.
As the master of the Taixu Sect of Youzhou, and with the grasslands nearby, he had a deeper understanding of dharma-form cultivators—
the totem tribes of the grasslands mostly followed the dharma-form path.
Because of that, the Venerable Lingxu understood the advantages and disadvantages of this path more deeply than Lu Wanshan did.
However, this was obviously not the time to argue the superiority of dharma-form cultivation over martial cultivation. After a laugh, the Venerable Lingxu said to Lu Wanshan:
“This poor Daoist means that these people who cultivate dharma forms are likely using this as a bond to connect with one another.”
“So we need to pay closer attention to their movements!”
Lu Wanshan nodded slightly.
“Of course.”
“I’ll give the orders for this matter.”
“As for issues concerning them, I hope the noble people of Taixu Sect will communicate more with the Great Jing court.”
This time, the reason he spent the favor left by King Hun Tian to invite the Venerable Lingxu out from Taixu Sect, aside from fearing the Night Emperor’s appearance and wanting absolute certainty, was mainly to use the Night Emperor’s name to strengthen ties with Taixu Sect.
Before the great age soon to arrive, he intended to protect himself as much as possible.
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The Venerable Lingxu naturally understood Lu Wanshan’s intention, and he had the same plan.
Otherwise, he would not have wielded the Illusory Void Realm Painting and gone to such lengths on this trip.
“Brother Lu’s suggestion is excellent. How could I possibly refuse such a thing?”
With a great laugh, the Venerable Lingxu said:
“On this outing, though this poor Daoist did put in some effort, I have finally repaid the Great Jing Lu clan for the favor of King Hun Tian slaying the Golden Wolf King—”
“from now on, I shall be light as a feather and unburdened!”
Amid his laughter, he drifted away.
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Lu Wanshan watched the Venerable Lingxu’s receding back and let out a soft laugh. Ignoring the Heavenly Flame Venerable and the others lurking nearby, he put away the Mountain-and-River Seal and then unfurled his entire domain—
the glacier beneath his feet instantly turned into surging primordial qi.
All of it had been gathered by the Snow Hawk King’s transformed sixth-grade snow lotus for concealment and protection.
After dissolving it, Lu Wanshan condensed the primordial qi together, lifted the two men, Lu Sheng and Murong Yu, and departed leisurely, just as the Venerable Lingxu had.
The other grandmasters, seeing this, could only leave in helpless frustration.
Thus, the struggle triggered by the sixth-grade snow lotus finally came to a complete end.