Chapter 17 – Officially Entering the Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture

After completing his visualization, Mu Lin, rubbing his head, saw Zong Xiu heading out the door. Seeing this, he quickly followed.

“Brother Mu, is something the matter?”

Noticing Mu Lin approaching, Zong Xiu paused briefly.

Mu Lin nodded in response. “Brother Zong, do you know where I can find a Blackwater Profound Serpent? The cultivation method I practice is related to it, and I’d like to see one.”

Hearing this, Zong Xiu raised an eyebrow and smiled.

“If it’s just for observation, you don’t actually need to see a real Blackwater Profound Serpent.”

“??? What do you mean?”

“We Qi Refiners can produce Image Stones and Image Talismans. Using talismans and magical artifacts, we can replicate images of the Blackwater Profound Serpent. Observing through an Image Stone is much easier than witnessing it directly.”

After saying this, Zong Xiu seemed to recall something and added with a chuckle:

“Oh, right, Brother Mu, let me remind you—aside from ordinary observation, some Master Grade artifact forgers can also craft Spirit Diagrams. When observing a Spirit Diagram, your divine soul can enter the diagram, allowing your spirit to possess and personally experience the abilities of spirit beasts or demon beasts.”

Upon hearing this, Mu Lin’s eyes lit up.

“Where can I find such Spirit Diagrams? At the Dao Palace Shop?”

It was no wonder Mu Lin was excited—personally experiencing it could save him countless efforts.

In fact, originally, with Mu Lin’s divine soul, he wouldn’t have been able to visualize powerful spirit beasts. But if a Spirit Diagram allowed him to experience it firsthand, that might no longer be the case.

Unfortunately, his hopes were soon dashed.

“The Dao Palace Shop, backed by the imperial family and aristocratic families, does indeed have many treasures. However, they won’t bring out the truly valuable items.”

Before Mu Lin could feel disappointed, Zong Xiu offered another hint.

“The Four Seas Pavilion encompasses all things. Rumor has it that their headquarters possesses a Myriad Spirits Diagram, which not only contains the essence and images of demon beasts and spirit beasts but also includes divine diagrams of fallen deities.”

At this point, Zong Xiu fell silent.

But Mu Lin understood why, despite Yan Yunyu having only a second-grade Spirit Root talent, so many people surrounded her.

For Qi Refiners, wealth truly is of utmost importance.

“Thank you for the reminder, Brother Zong.”

Due to mental fatigue, Mu Lin didn’t chat with him further, nor did he immediately consider seeking out Yan Yunyu. After casually eating a bowl of Spirit Rice meal, he returned to his residence and took a short nap for an hour.

Once he felt refreshed, he got up.

Then, opening the window, he began cultivating directly under the moonlight.

Unsurprisingly, this time he was practicing the Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture.

As an Earth Grade High Rank cultivation method, the Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture had demanding requirements. First, Mu Lin could only absorb lunar essence.

Second, and most importantly, the energy circulation pathways of the Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture were extremely complex.

The Blackwater Profound Serpent Mortal Shedding Art only required spiritual energy to form an ouroboros-like loop ∞ within his body.

In contrast, the spiritual energy circulation pathway of the Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture vaguely resembled a human form.

All the major meridians in Mu Lin’s body were involved in this human-shaped pathway.

As a result, practicing the Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture once was six times more difficult than the Blackwater Profound Serpent Art.

Such intricacy made it challenging for ordinary people to succeed, and Mu Lin’s first attempt ended in failure.

Fortunately, the current Mu Lin was different from before.

His powerful divine soul allowed him to precisely manipulate spiritual energy, guiding it through his body with fine control.

Moreover, multitasking allowed Mu Lin to simultaneously observe the spiritual energy circulation diagram in his mind (the Jade Scroll had engraved the cultivation method information of the Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture into his Divine Soul, but this was merely memorization, not comprehension; during cultivation, he needed to attempt to understand the method information in his mind) while using triple the attention to meticulously manipulate the spiritual energy circulating within his body.

Having a reference and, most importantly, a powerful Divine Soul, this finally allowed Mu Lin’s cultivation of the Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture to proceed smoothly.

Soon, he completed his first full cycle of circulation, and faint traces of life-nurturing qi (in a mist-like form) appeared within Mu Lin’s body.

After completing one cycle, information about this cultivation method also appeared on the Proficiency Panel.

【Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture, 1st Realm Entry Level (1/360)】

“The proficiency cap for entry level is already 360, so high—nearly three times that of Mindscape – Sky Burial City and the Blackwater Profound Serpent Mortal Shedding Art.”

Upon first seeing this, Mu Lin was somewhat astonished.

  But soon, he realized that the other two methods actually relied on external forces.

Mindscape – Sky Burial City drew upon the power of Sky Burial City, while the Blackwater Profound Serpent Mortal Shedding Art utilized the bloodline power of the Blackwater Profound Serpent.

Consequently, the difficulty of those two methods was actually slightly lower.

In contrast, the Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture purely relied on the cultivation method itself to achieve Earth Grade High Rank power, so it being more difficult was only natural.

“Hmm?!”

Due to distraction, Mu Lin’s cultivation method circulation deviated slightly, causing his cultivation to fail immediately.

Seeing this, Mu Lin dared not slack off any further and immediately devoted his entire body and mind to cultivating the method.

This session lasted for the time it takes two incense sticks to burn.

In the end, Mu Lin completed six full cycles of the Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture, increasing his method progress by six points.

“Too slow. Six points per cultivation session means 360 points would take 60 days—two months.”

Taking two months to advance a cultivation method from entry level to proficient is actually not slow.

Fundamental cultivation methods are inherently more difficult to cultivate than other things, and Mu Lin was cultivating the Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture, which possesses Earth Grade High Rank special abilities without relying on external objects, making it even more challenging.

For ordinary people, it would take at least a year, or even two to three years, to cultivate this method to proficiency.

Compared to them, Mu Lin could already be considered a genius.

However, the world is not only filled with ordinary Qi Refiners. Those from prominent families or individuals with exceptional talents could advance a cultivation method to proficiency within a month. Unwilling to fall behind, Mu Lin began contemplating other methods.

Yet, after pondering for a while, Mu Lin realized that while he could think of methods, he couldn’t implement them.

“In this world, there are spiritual materials and treasures that stabilize meridians, such as Earth Marrow. The Earth Marrow Elixir, primarily formulated with it, can permanently enhance the meridians’ carrying capacity.”

“Stronger meridians would allow me to cultivate more times, but the Earth Marrow Elixir costs hundreds of Spirit Stones—something I simply cannot afford!”

With a sigh, the disheartened Mu Lin did not rest. Instead, taking advantage of his still-energetic state of mind, he began folding paper palaces and courtyards.

This was preparation to obtain some good items from that Eldest Young Mistress, Yan Yunyu.

“Lowering my dignity and shamelessly flattering her—I’m unwilling to do that. But as a worker, exchanging artwork for money is nothing much.”

With the intention of using the palace garden in his hands to exchange for something, Mu Lin folded the paper with great care.

However, after the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn, looking at the palace garden he had folded, Mu Lin frowned.

The palace garden he folded was not bad. Using the memory of a Suzhou garden as a template, his creation featured flowers, grass, rockeries, and maidservants.

His Master Grade skill ensured that the paper palace garden was not only lifelike but also carried the charm of the Jiangnan region.

“Still, although this palace garden is good, it is only about the same as the previous Paper Tower Ship. Without the initial sense of wonder, delivering it like this might satisfy that Eldest Young Mistress, but it certainly won’t earn me any extra Spirit Stone rewards.”

After frowning and pondering for a while, Mu Lin stopped folding paper. Instead, he picked up the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone commonly found at home and began writing and Painting.

He planned to combine calligraphy and Painting with Paper Folding techniques to create a true Artwork.

Of course, Mu Lin’s writing and Painting were not solely for making money.

During these days, whenever he had free time, he would also study the Paper Crafting Scripture. As a result, he clearly understood that the foundation of the Paper Crafting Scripture was folding plain paper and breathing life into it to activate the Paper Figure, enabling it to move and fight.

However, humans are never satisfied.

Beyond the basic version, the sages of the Paper Crafting Lineage had also considered whether it was possible to enhance the abilities of Paper Figures beyond the foundation.

Through long exploration, they had indeed found some methods.

One way was to replace the material of the Paper Figure with superior spiritual materials.

Sealing the souls of vengeful ghosts or demonic monsters onto the Paper Figure was another method to enhance the power of the Paper Figure Technique.

In addition, there were methods like nurturing with essence blood, nurturing with internal organs, and Paper Figure Curses, among others.

Among these, inscribing Talismans and Formation Runes onto the Paper Figure was also a means to strengthen it.

Mu Lin’s writing and Painting were laying the foundation for his future work in drawing Talismans and inscribing Arrays.

(End of Chapter)