*Crack*
*Crack*
*Crack*
Hairline cracks on a blood-red crusted figure spread and widened, exposing the fair skin underneath. The structure trembled and even the cauldron shook. The cracks widened and spread throughout the layer of crust.
*Boom*
Ju Lin exerted great strength as shards of the crust and shattered cauldron flew out in an unadorned cave. The fragments pierced the cave walls and ceiling as weakness assaulted her in the next moment, making her knees buckle and her body weightless.
*Whoosh*
She felt warm as Lo Jik enveloped her in a blanket and helped her down without falling.
"M-Master…" She whispered, a smile forming on her lips. "I did it…" She giggled weakly. She would have been unable to smile so gently without Lo Jik's discreet support keeping her soul and mind from cracking due to extreme pain. He nodded approvingly.
"You did good. I'm truly proud of you, Little Lin."
Ju Lin's smile widened with satisfaction. She closed her eyes, muttering softly.
"You know, master… for a moment… I felt like Desolate Ancient Moon…"
She fell unconscious, leaving Lo Jik dumbfounded.
Desolate Ancient Moon?
He blinked before realizing what she meant.
According to the legends, Northern Dark Ice Soul and Desolate Ancient Moon continued their journey after the former gave his elder sister her new meaning of life.
<<<>>>
Northern Dark Ice Soul awakened his elder sister Desolate Ancient Moon, and the two again asked for advice from Cognition Gu on how to save their father.
Cognition Gu said: "Humans, Cheng Bai Mountain has disappeared, who knows when it will form again. I am also not clear on other ways to bring your father back to life. But no need to be dejected, you can try asking Wisdom Gu. I am its mother; wisdom is the crystallization of cognition."
The student surpasses the master, the things Cognition Gu did not know, Wisdom Gu might not necessarily be unknowing of.
Under Cognition Gu's directions, Northern Dark Ice Soul and Desolate Ancient Moon found Wisdom Gu.
Wisdom Gu had somewhat of a connection with Ren Zu, back then Ren Zu had used Rules Gu and Regulations Gu to capture it. But it was able to escape in the end.
At first, Wisdom Gu was not willing to help Northern Dark Ice Soul and Desolate Ancient Moon.
But seeing that they were introduced by its mother Cognition Gu, it reluctantly said: "Oh humans, I can show you the right path. But I need remuneration, one of you need to hand over your middle age to me."
"I will give my middle age to you." Desolate Ancient Moon immediately replied with no hesitation.
She was awakened by her little brother Northern Dark Ice Soul and had been bestowed with the meaning of her life which was to bring her father, Ren Zu, back to life. Thus, she replied immediately without the intention of passing it to others.
Northern Dark Ice Soul was not able to argue with his sister and could only let her offer her middle age.
This meant, once Desolate Ancient Moon's youth had passed, she would directly skip middle age to reach old age.
But to save her father, she did not have many misgivings.
Wisdom Gu obtained Desolate Ancient Moon's middle age and gave her directions: "In the center of the Golden Desert in the west, there is a still Blue Sea with no ripples, as flat as a mirror. That is the source of all living beings, all lives in the world originates from there. And in the depths of the Blue Sea lie many Life Gu shining upon all living beings. You need to infiltrate the sea, catch a Human Shaped Life Gu and bring it to shore. This Human Shaped Life Gu can bestow your father a new life. But remember, you cannot spend over fifteen minutes in the sea, otherwise you will be assimilated by the sea."
Wisdom Gu added another sentence in the end: "It is extremely difficult to find Human Shaped Life Gu. Only a person who has truly comprehended the truth of life can do it. If you are not able to do it, don't blame my solution for not being easy to use."
Desolate Ancient Moon wanted to ask something, but Wisdom Gu quickly flew away and did not give the siblings any chance to make inquiries.
Desolate Ancient Moon and Northern Dark Ice Soul travelled an arduous journey through the Golden Desert and arrived at the center of the desert where they saw the Blue Sea.
The Blue Sea was so beautiful that nothing more beautiful than it could be imagined.
Just like Wisdom Gu said, even strong winds could not cause the slightest of a ripple on the Blue Sea.
With the soft golden sand surrounding it, it looked like a deep blue gemstone embedded on this golden cloth.
The siblings infiltrated into the depths of the sea and sure enough found large numbers of Life Gu packed together in the sea depths.
These Life Gu were like blue gems. But they were of different sizes and shapes.
Some looked like a colt; some like a tiger or leopard; some like an eagle or dove, while some like a snake or flood dragon.
The siblings were dazzled from the sight. They saw all kinds of Life Gu from flowers, birds, fishes, insects, beasts, Snowmen, Hairy Men and all other shapes, except the Human Shaped Life Gu.
Helplessly, the siblings could only get out of the sea and back to the shore.
The moment they had left the Blue Sea, a Deer Shaped Life Gu Northern Dark Ice Soul had been holding, let out a soft light before jumping on the sand and turning into a fawn.
This was the birth of a life!
The siblings looked at this sight in wonder, with their eyes wide open.
Only when the fawn had hopped far away, the elder sister Desolate Ancient Moon suddenly comprehended: "No wonder Wisdom Gu flew away immediately after speaking and did not let us question it. I have understood the truth of life."
"The truth of life, what exactly is it?" Northern Dark Ice Soul quickly asked.
Desolate Ancient Moon pointed at this Blue Sea in front of them and asked in return: "Tell me, if we were to really find a Life Gu, a human shaped blue gem, and we bring it back, what will it transform into?"
Northern Dark Ice Soul thought for a moment and replied: "It should be like that fawn and turn into a real active life form, right?"
He suddenly looked distracted.
Desolate Ancient Moon looked at him with a smile: "It seems you have also understood. We are these life forms. We were formed from Life Gu! We, ourselves, are human shaped blue gems!"
Northern Dark Ice Soul completely understood, where did humans come from?
Wisdom Gu had already made it clear before: This Blue Sea is the source of all living beings, all lives in the world originate from here.
Humans, naturally also originated from here.
Their father Ren Zu was once a blue gem in the depths of this sea. By some opportunity and coincidence, it was able to come out from the sea and form a zestful life form that roamed the world, surviving with difficulty and reaching this stage.
But humans were the spirit of all living beings, so how many human shaped gems could there be in such a large sea?
It was definitely extremely few, and it was very possible Ren Zu was the only one.
Searching for a small blue gem in such a vast sea, how big of a project was this!
This was innumerable times more difficult than Desolate Ancient Moon looking for the only Success Gu in Cheng Bai Mountain.
"I know a method which can get us a Human Shaped Life Gu quickly." Desolate Ancient Moon suddenly said.
"What method?" Northern Dark Ice Soul had a bad feeling.
Desolate Ancient Moon smiled: "That is… I will go into the bottom of the sea and assimilate with this Blue Sea, returning back to a Life Gu."
Although Desolate Ancient Moon had transformed into a monster, she was intrinsically a human.
The essence of her life had not changed.
Since she was a human, once she was assimilated, she would form a human shaped blue gem like Life Gu.
This speculation was not wrong.
No wonder Wisdom Gu said: But remember, you cannot spend over fifteen minutes in the sea, otherwise you will be assimilated by the sea.
Wisdom Gu's words did not have any superfluous words.
Wisdom Gu had also said: If you are not able to do it, don't blame my solution for not being easy to use.
One could analyze from this sentence — it was extremely likely there were no human shaped blue gems in the Blue Sea. If the siblings were not willing to sacrifice themselves, they would not be able to obtain Human Shaped Life Gu. As such, don't blame me, the Wisdom Gu, if you are not able to do it.
"No, you can't sacrifice yourself like this, elder sister." Northern Dark Ice Soul immediately dissuaded.
Although he wanted to bring his father back to life, he did not want to sacrifice his own sister.
"I need to do it. The meaning of my life is to bring father back to life." Desolate Ancient Moon replied tranquilly.
Northern Dark Ice Soul suddenly could not say anything.
It was him who gave this meaning to Desolate Ancient Moon's life, and Desolate Ancient Moon was living for this. In other words, if her father could not be brought back to life, there would be no meaning in her life. Then what would be the use in continuing to live?
As long as she sacrificed herself, she could bring her father back to life; this was the greatest meaning of Desolate Ancient Moon's life!
"Humans originally were gems of the world. It is only that whether the gems are bright or not require us to polish them. Every effort we make, every choice we take, are all polishing each of our gems."
"And humans can only obtain life by sacrificing life."
Desolate Ancient Moon leisurely spoke before sinking into the Blue Sea.
Northern Dark Ice Soul tried his best to stop her, but he was not able to. Desolate Ancient Moon had become a monster with incomparable strength, and he was not her match.
After fifteen minutes of time, Desolate Ancient Moon was assimilated by the Blue Sea and turned into a human shaped blue gem.
But this blue gem was not of a healthy human shape but a badly damaged, less than half a proper human shape.
This was because Desolate Ancient Moon had given her 'middle age' to Wisdom Gu.
Humans, in the process of understanding what life was, would often have already used up half of their lives.
Northern Dark Ice Soul held this blue gem with tears in his eyes, and left the Golden Desert.
He did not have any of the happiness of success, but instead sank down into extreme remorse.
From a certain perspective, it was him who had killed his elder sister.
<<<>>>
Lo Jik gently stroked Ju Lin's forehead, staying by her side as she rested.
'I picked a good disciple, eh? To her, the comparison with Desolate Ancient Moon was more likely a jest. The pain caused her to think about many random things. But she would realize her observation was not far from the truth if she spent more time following this line of thought.'
'I was using Ju Lin as a material. How is it any different from Desolate Ancient Moon using herself as a material and successfully reverse refining herself into a Life Gu?'
Lo Jik was in a slight daze. He followed this loose thread, feeling there was something at the end of this train of thought waiting to be unveiled. Countless theories and research results flashed in his mind. The derivation thoughts in his mind rose like a tsunami and crashed into each other.
He thought about his assault on Yin Yun again.
This was just a practice. In reality, Lo Jik was scheming against Lang Ya Blessed Land.
'Yin Yun's foundation cannot even be compared to the number of dao marks within Lang Ya Blessed Land. So, I cannot just rely on dream path mortal killer moves. Furthermore, the foundation of dream path killer moves is dream path dao marks. But how can I gain dream path dao marks without dealing with the conflict of dao marks?'
He didn't sigh or feel dispirited. There was something about Desolate Ancient Moon being refined into Life Gu that inspired him.
In reality, it was not just his human path great grandmaster attainment at play. Lo Jik would have needed a lot of time to reach any meaningful result if not for his understanding of almost all the paths reaching grandmaster level. He thought about this event from perspective of every other path—refinement, sword, poison, transformation, human, dream, painting, luck, and more!
All along, he had a grand ambition of cultivating three paths. Human path was meant to assist in keeping the dao marks of the other two paths from conflicting. His foundations were rooted in strength, human, and refinement paths.
Now, Lo Jik thought about something else.
His clones.
Especially—Wine Drinker Immortal Gu.
Lo Jik activated the gu and turned it into a clone. He deactivated the gu and reverted it into a gu worm.
But what happened behind the scenes?
Immortal gu worms hosted fragments of the great dao. Their composition and number of dao marks far exceeded a mortal gu worm. Comparing the dao marks composition of Wine Drinker Immortal Gu and Wine Drinker Gu would be like comparing a high-resolution quality image to a low-resolution image which would become blurred and pixelated once its size was increased to the same level as the high-resolution image. However, using both the gu worms achieved the same effect. Lo Jik activated them again. He got an immortal level clone and a mortal level clone. He deactivated the gu and reverted them into a gu worm.
In reality, these clones had dao marks!
Martial Artist was as strong as a beast emperor because it also had strength path dao marks. But where did these dao marks come from? Lo Jik did not refine their bodies, right? He did not use beast strength phantom gu on Martial Artist Gu.
These dao marks came from the gu worm itself.
In the case of Wine Drinker Immortal Gu, the wine drinker clone boasted an empty aperture and could utilize immortal gu worms and immortal essence. Its body also had a lot of food path dao marks! The number of food path dao marks did not exceed the dao marks forming the fragment of the great dao inside the clone.
Lo Jik's gaze sharpened. He was getting closer to something.
He proceeded to activate and deactivate the clone gu worm constantly before noticing another peculiarity.
Wine Drinker Immortal Gu was a human path immortal gu worm cultivating food path. It had dao marks of both the paths with human path acting as the main path and food path acting as the sub-path or secondary path.
Where were the human path dao marks once the clone activated successfully?
'Human path dao marks are actually transforming into food path dao marks.' Lo Jik tallied the dao marks count. It still had sparse human path dao marks, but the majority of dao marks on the clone's body were food path dao marks.
Lo Jik frowned. For some reason, he felt he had taken a step back compared to his earlier progress. He realized this line of thinking was incorrect… or rather, even if he followed this aspect of the gu worm, the result won't lead to any satisfaction. He closed his eyes for a moment and regathered his composure.
He activated and deactivated the gu worm. This process became similar to a trigger to let him retain this mood. He followed his intuition and comprehended things for a few hours. He even refrained from breaking this wave of understanding by entering his blessed land using Anywhere Door immortal killer move to accumulate achievements through Hu Mei Er.
After a while, Lo Jik started activating other gu worms.
He used Martial Artist and Monk Gu. These gu worms were two sides of the same coins for strength path. He activated a few other strength path gu worms such as All-Out Effort, Strength Qi, Self Strength, and more. The process was smooth and simple despite using this new killer move for the first time. He then proceeded with several human path gu worms, even including Aperture Puncture Gu. Lastly, after revisiting all the gu worm used in the killer move, he activated a rank 6 immortal gu worm.
It flew in his second aperture gracefully. It looked like a ladybug. Its head was pitch-black and round. However, its body was translucent and looked empty.
Rank 6 Fake Aperture Immortal Gu Worm.
Lo Jik deduced recipes for Fake Mind Gu and Fake Soul Gu Worms using this immortal gu worm. This was one of Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable's creation, allowing a gu immortal to activate it and plant empty pockets in their targets. These pockets were profound and spacious despite no more than a dot within the target's body, like an aperture. One could store immortal gu, immortal essence, and many other gu worms within this pocket!
Lo Jik activated this unnamed immortal killer move. He instilled his green grape essence one by one. The killer move finally worked after Lo Jik spent five beads of green grape essence.
*Whoosh*
Lo Jik suddenly felt empty... weak.
All the strength path dao marks on his body were instantly attracted to one spot. It was a between his chest and abdomen and far from his first and second apertures. Another pocket of space appeared within Lo Jik's body due to this mysterious killer move.
Lo Jik observed the situation.
He had never felt so weak and exhausted before. In reality, he had also stopped sleeping everyday since he obtained his physique. His body remained in peak physical condition and a few wisdom path gu worms could be used to refresh the brain and keep it from getting lethargic. But the loss of dao marks related to his strength path extreme aptitude made him experience a deep exhaustion.
Lo Jik quietly activated a few healing gu worms. He did not use Self-Reliance. Instead, he used healing gu worms from rule path, metal path, poison path, water path, fire path, and others.
Surprisingly, there was no conflict of dao marks!
He freely used gu worms of other paths despite 480 human path dao marks because the latter had a non-conflicting nature.
But he soon frowned.
Lo Jik observed his first blessed land.
The mountains were shattering easily by the bandit giants. Loosing the effect of strength path dao marks started to negatively impact his blessed land. It still had some space, time, earth, wind, cloud, and light path dao marks that made this world, but the foundation was still strength path.
Thinking about it, Lo Jik activated another killer mover to reverse the effects of this isolation.
The empty bubble created by Fake Aperture Immortal Gu dissipated. It expelled all the strength path dao marks and carved them back onto Lo Jik's body again.
Lo Jik was reinvigorated.
His muscles screamed with joy as he exhaled lightly.
The blessed land stabilized.
'But... I'm on the right track.'
Lo Jik thought about the two killer moves he activated and deduced another one on the spot. Once again, the process was simple. He merely followed his intuition.
Lo Jik activated the same set of gu worms as before with some shallow changes. His expression soon changed. He stopped and all the mortal gu worms inside his blessed land suffered great injuries due to a backlash. Many were destroyed. Lo Jik also grunted in pain before healing himself. Thankfully, he did not activate any immortal gu worm, so they were undamaged.
He deduced the killer move again and restarted the activation process.
It was a smooth success this time.
A mysterious light shot out of his first aperture and transformed into a halo of milky white glow around Lo Jik. The strength path dao marks on his body followed this pillar of light and suddenly carved themselves upon the surface of Lo Jik's first blessed land. The pillar of light broke apart and covered his first immortal aperture like a fog. This fog was not fixed and slowly moved around the first aperture.
This time, the loss of the dao marks on his body did not affect his blessed land.
As expected, thought Lo Jik. He only had one body. The problem with dual cultivation was the fact that one body could only maintain so many varieties of dao marks. Even if Lo Jik became a gu immortal, this weakness remained.
His body had strength and human path dao marks. These dao marks were related to his two blessed lands. One was a strength path blessed land and the other was a human path blessed land. Since the dao marks were carved on his body, the dao marks of these two paths did not only affect their corresponding blessed lands but also each other's!
Human path dao marks on Lo Jik's body influenced his strength path blessed land, allowing Bandit Giants to display marginally greater spirituality. Meanwhile, his strength path dao marks exceeded human path dao marks by a significant number, so the influence of strength path dao marks on his human path blessed land was greater. The denizens of his human path blessed land were much stronger physically.
This wasn't a bad thing at all. Lo Jik was happy to see this.
But his ambition lay in dual cultivation. Or rather... his true desire was to cultivate all the paths. After all, he had great attainment in all the paths. It wasn't strange for him to desire the ability to cultivate any paths he liked.
So, how to deal with the issue of conflicting dao marks?
Lo Jik still did not have a great answer. The more he cultivated, the more he realized how profound Chen Jiu's method might have truly been. Perhaps... only becoming a great grandmaster in all the paths would help Lo Jik achieve this divine stage.
Regardless, he currently had a different answer to his problem.
If he could not solve the conflict of dao marks, he would simply avoid the problem altogether.
Lo Jik isolated strength path dao marks into his first blessed land, thereby restricting the influence of strength path dao marks to his first aperture alone.
This killer move was merely a by-product of his recent comprehension.
After a thought, Lo Jik activated another killer move.
This human path killer move used Wine Drinker Immortal Gu as the core alongside Taotie Stomach Immortal Gu and other food and human path gu worms as supplementary gu worms.
'I will name my earlier move... Fake Isolation. So, this new killer move shall be called False Transformation. Hmm, or rather, False Transformation—Food Path Variation.'
Hundreds of gu worms shone in his second blessed land. Wine Drinker Immortal Gu suddenly dispersed into several motes of light. There were thousands of these shards of light! They left Lo Jik's second aperture and carved themselves onto his body. His body brightened in the cave. Several lines—horizontal, vertical, and diagonal—flashed on his body. Some regions had sparse markings and some had dense cluster of these marks, like his stomach.
These were all food path dao marks!
Lo Jik activated Scan the Dao killer move and noted the results.
'Almost 9000 food path dao marks. It's similar to the total of a rank 6 gu immortal's foundation as a peak expert.'
He swallowed thickly.
This was his answer.
If he couldn't cultivate all the paths at once... he might as well cultivate every path separately using one body.
'Hmm?'
He thought about something and observed his second blessed land. As expected, the sudden influence of 9000 food path dao marks caused several living beings inside the human path blessed land to feel hungry. Thinking about it, Lo Jik activated Fake Isolation immortal killer move for the second aperture. All the human path dao marks on his body safely retreated onto his second blessed land as a wave of isolating mist covered its surface.
Now, only his mind and soul had sparse human path dao marks.
'I can now act as a food path gu immortal!' Lo Jik gushed.
What did this mean?
He suddenly activated a food path killer move. Its strength far surpassed what Lo Jik could achieve as a strength path gu immortal!
'Indeed... the clones can transform into gu and human forms. But the underlying effect is the transformation of dao marks. Ancient Desolate Moon could reverse refine into Life Gu. A human shaped Life Gu can refine a human. So, what did it matter if this clone existed as its own entity or expressed its existence through me? When I use Wine Drinker Immortal Gu, I'm controlling it like an extension of my limb. But in this way, I'm not controlling the human version of the gu but its foundation of food path dao marks itself. I'm still controlling the gu, the only difference is the way I'm controlling it.'
Lo Jik thought about Dreamer Gu.
'Earlier, I planned on using Second Aperture Immortal Gu and ascending as a dream path gu immortal. Dream path is the future of the gu world. But its surprise factor will fall with time. I'm currently making use of dream path to catch my targets off-guard and supplement myself using their accumulations.'
'In time, other gu immortals will have great defense against dream path. They will no longer be as ignorant as now.'
'My desire of becoming a dream path gu immortal stemmed from this scheme.'
'Now I can use False Transformation to act as a dream path gu immortal! I just need to refine Dreamer Gu to rank 6. Meanwhile, the prospect of awakening a third aperture means I have to distribute my attention to three different blessed lands. That... is not optimal at all.'
Second Aperture Immortal Gu could only awaken a second aperture and not a third aperture. The aperture in Lo Jik's heart did not stem from the effects of this immortal gu worm but from Nina's trait. So, he could still awaken another aperture. All along, the thought of spending so much time managing three different apertures nagged at the back of his mind.
But False Transformation dealt with most of his immediate needs at once.
He observed this killer move further.
'This transformation is extremely convenient. Once used, I can forget about it and act as a food path gu immortal. The gu worms used for this killer move are also not required to remain active. The only immortal gu worm I cannot use is Wine Drinker Immortal Gu until I revert this transformation. It's the same as when I used this gu as a clone. While using it as a clone, I could not use the gu worm for other killer moves.'
'This means that Taotie Stomach Immortal Gu is also free.'
Lo Jik hummed.
He thought about several methods to maximize the use of this immortal gu worm.
***
Alternate Title: Peak rank 6 food path gu immortal; Following comprehension; Teaching Lo Jik new things accidentally; Learning from Ren Zu and his children; Ren Zu teaches insanity; Ren Zu's first son teaches inces— wait, what?!; Ren Zu's first daughter teaches suici— pause!; A fucked up family indeed; Desolate refines life; Life in desolation af; Creating several immortal killer moves; Avoiding the problem; The mysterious creator of Chen Jiu's dual cultivation method; Spectral Soul laughing in great grandmaster attainments; The advantages and disadvantages of a third aperture; Using dream path for current benefits; Imagine False Transformation: Dreamer Variation; The inner workings of clone gu worms; Lo Jik having the time of his life with dao comprehension moment *Hu Mei Er suffering from cock withdrawal for days in the second blessed land*; Hu Mei Er: Fuck your comprehension AND ME!
***
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