Chapter 697
The rich aroma of incense enveloped him like a seven-colored glow, swirling around his body.
With each breath, the purple figure's aura grew increasingly powerful. Even the venerable Ming De, who had transcended to a state of spiritual disintegration, felt as if a great mountain weighed upon his heart, making it hard to breathe.
"Master," the old man murmured, gazing up at Zheng Fa's face, "didn't you say you hadn't passed on any secret teachings? Then how can this method of gathering incense and spirit resemble that of our Tai Shang Dao?"
"It wasn't me who taught it!"
"Could it be that he figured it out on his own in just a few days?"
Li Shangxian hesitated, pondering for a long time. "Perhaps... it was me who taught it?"
(End of this chapter)
**Chapter 484: The Superiority and Inferiority of Divine Paths, Cooperation Agreement**
The Nine Mountain Realm was a place where the sky was never visible.
Not only in the mortal realm of Nine Mountains, but even in the heavenly palace of the Nine Islands, the view was shrouded in thick mist, with no sight of the sun or moon, let alone the stars.
But at this moment, things began to change.
Zheng Fa rose with the sun and moon bell, golden and purple light bursting forth, illuminating the air in a dazzling display.
The once impenetrable white fog, thick enough to obscure one's hand in front of their face, melted away like snow under the sun at the touch of this light.
From the perspective of the Nine Mountain Realm's mortals, the sky appeared clear, a vast expanse of blue dotted with white clouds.
The towering buildings on the Nine Islands emerged and vanished among the clouds, resembling celestial palaces.
The power of incense surrounding Zheng Fa resembled a rainbow, casting colorful, soft light upon these structures, making them even more resplendent, as if they belonged to a fairyland.
Yet, to Zheng Fa, this scene felt entirely different.
Sitting in a small courtyard, his spirit subtly connected with his Yang Shen (Sun Spirit).
From his perspective, that power of incense was, in fact, a vast ocean of divine consciousness!
Zheng Fa had never heard that mortals could possess divine consciousness; he had always thought it was something that only cultivators developed through their practice.
But today’s scene shattered that understanding:
This vibrant sea of incense was actually a collection of divine consciousness strands, so subtle that even Zheng Fa found them hard to perceive.
A single strand of divine consciousness was insignificant, but with billions of people in the Nine Mountain Realm, when gathered together, this collective consciousness far surpassed Zheng Fa's own.
"So this is the power of the incense divine path," Zheng Fa thought, gaining a deeper understanding of the essence of divine cultivation.
There was a paradox in the relationship between divine consciousness and cultivation that Zheng Fa had never realized:
Cultivators needed divine consciousness to guide spiritual energy, but how could mortals, lacking divine consciousness, achieve this?
Now, this scene proved to Zheng Fa that everyone possessed divine consciousness; it was just that mortals' consciousness was too weak to manifest, so they themselves were unaware of it, let alone the power of spells.
However, when the power of incense gathered these weak strands of consciousness, miraculous changes occurred.
In Zheng Fa's perception, the Yang Shen could now utilize this power of incense to replace divine consciousness.
At this moment, the Yang Shen's divine consciousness was so robust that it far exceeded that of an ordinary transformation stage cultivator.
What delighted him even more was that the sun and moon bell was the foundation of the Nine Mountain Realm. After merging with the Yang Shen, it gained the realm's blessing, giving it a combat power that could rival the Fusang tree—meaning that while the Yang Shen might still appear as just a transformation stage cultivator outside, within the Nine Mountain Realm, it could stand shoulder to shoulder with scattered immortals.
"…The speed of the divine path is truly astonishing."
Zheng Fa gazed at the Yang Shen, feeling somewhat incredulous:
To think that his Yang Shen, which had only just entered the Yang Shen stage, could achieve such rapid advancement in power upon entering the divine path.
Even knowing that this Yang Shen was merely a projection of himself, he couldn't help but think—this is cheating!
But this was not the greatest benefit of the divine path, at least not for Zheng Fa:
Being powerful within the Nine Mountain Realm wouldn't resolve his crisis.
Moreover, he didn't lack the combat power of scattered immortals.
However, since the divine path had ruled the Xuan Wei Realm for an era, it was certainly not that simple:
With a thought, the Yang Shen slightly opened its eyes, looking up at the sun and moon bell.
The bell slowly descended, merging into the top of the Yang Shen, becoming one with it.
The Yang Shen opened its eyes, and the surrounding power of incense surged like waves, compressing and gathering into a vortex.
In an instant, a significant portion of the spiritual energy from the Nine Mountain Realm rushed toward this vortex, flooding into the Yang Shen, making its form even more solid.
"What is this…?" The elder seemed to have realized something, his eyes widening in surprise.
"Incense is divine consciousness, so it can naturally be used for cultivation," Zheng Fa voiced his thoughts, his expression growing increasingly astonished. "As cultivators, we draw spiritual energy into our bodies through divine consciousness. Now, with the power of incense, the Yang Shen's divine consciousness is vastly different from before, allowing it to absorb spiritual energy on a whole new level."
In the small courtyard, Sister Zhang and the others exchanged glances, their expressions filled with awe.
Everyone understood what this meant—essentially, the Yang Shen would no longer lack spiritual power for cultivation; it would only need to grasp the principles of the Dao!
"This is even stronger than your Heavenly Furnace method," the elder finally couldn't help but exclaim.
Zheng Fa nodded in agreement.
The Heavenly Furnace method was indeed effective, but it hadn't broken the limitations of divine consciousness.
Ultimately, the Nine Mountain Ancestor could only enhance the spiritual energy density of the surrounding space, while the power of incense could expand the range of spiritual energy absorption for the Yang Shen by tenfold or even a hundredfold.
More importantly—what the Nine Mountain Ancestor could provide in terms of spiritual energy was limited.
When Zheng Fa was in the Nascent Soul stage, the transformation stage Nine Mountain Ancestor was like a super-sized power bank, but now that Zheng Fa had reached the transformation stage, the Ancestor's spiritual energy was barely sufficient.
If Zheng Fa's strength increased further, the Nine Mountain Ancestor would become less useful:
It might help in urgent situations during battles, but it wouldn't make much difference in cultivation.
However, the divine path didn't have this issue; the stronger the incense, the broader the Yang Shen's divine consciousness, and the more spiritual energy it could absorb.
"This divine path is truly powerful," the elder marveled, but then frowned. "Yet the Heavenly Sovereign is dead; there must be a significant flaw…"
Zheng Fa nodded lightly, watching the Yang Shen, which sometimes appeared confused, sometimes joyful, and at times even bore a sinister smile, and he couldn't help but sigh softly.
…
"Was it me who taught it?"
Li Shangxian furrowed his brow, struggling to believe he could forget such a significant matter, yet the fluctuations of spiritual energy around Zheng Fa did indeed carry traces of Tai Shang Dao.
"This… doesn't this mean I've harmed Zheng Fa?"
"Harmed Zheng Fa?" Ming De was taken aback, but seeing the old man nodding, he felt even more puzzled: how could passing on the Tai Shang Dao secrets harm him?
Li Shangxian rubbed his forehead, sighing, "The power of incense seems like a treasure for cultivation, but in reality, it's dangerous. The thoughts of sentient beings are like poison to cultivators."
Ming De asked in surprise, "How so?"
"After the Dao Sovereign established the Yang Shen method, the divine path flourished, and this method became the mainstream in Xuan Wei very quickly," Li Shangxian shook his head. "But ultimately, this method fell into decline, and the problem lies with the thoughts of sentient beings."
The old man continued:
"Master is right; sentient beings are ignorant, their thoughts and desires are complex and often filthy. Since divine path cultivation benefits from the power of incense, it must also bear the burden of these thoughts."
"Thus, divine path cultivators are filled with the desires, greed, and ignorance of their followers…"
"Yet the more followers there are, the stronger the divine path cultivators become, leading to an overwhelming influx of such thoughts, akin to drinking poison to quench thirst."
Ming De felt a chill run down his spine, finally understanding why the master said he had harmed Zheng Fa.
"This…"
"Zheng Fa, using the divine path, likely wants to quickly counter that Lu Zhenxian," Li Shangxian frowned. "But achieving great success in the divine path is no easy feat; if something goes wrong, it might not even require the Haori Mountain to intervene…"
The others exchanged glances, realizing why Li Shangxian was so concerned.
The Tai Shang Dao needed Zheng Fa to stop Lu Zhenxian from attaining the Golden Immortal Dao; Zheng Fa absolutely could not die—yet now, with him practicing such a risky divine path, if something went awry, wouldn't that mean the Tai Shang Dao's efforts would be in vain?
He looked up at the sky, distressed. "Why couldn't I just keep my mouth shut?"
At that moment, a crow's caw suddenly echoed from the horizon.
A golden crow, engulfed in flames, flew toward Zheng Fa in the sky.
Flames gathered behind it like a long tail, trailing a chariot of red gold, atop which was a great sun canopy.
The golden crow streaked across the sky and landed before Zheng Fa.
Zheng Fa stepped onto the chariot, which transformed into a great sun and soared through the sky, taking him away without a trace.
Those in the Nine Mountain Realm felt an inexplicable surge of joy in their hearts, even the transformation stage cultivators like Ming De felt the same.
As everyone was caught in surprise, Li Shangxian spoke up: "With the divine sovereign in place, the sun and moon are set in order. Zheng Fa has truly succeeded in the divine path."
Upon hearing this, the crowd was momentarily at a loss, unsure whether to feel joy or sorrow.
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