Chapter 96: Killing

Several hours later, the Blue Beard Daoist finally left the Xuanzhen Abode.

Standing at the entrance of the abode, Lin Yuan was deep in thought.

The Blue Beard Daoist had come to the Xuanzhen Abode to discuss a deal with him.

As his cave mansion was about to be opened, the Blue Beard Daoist had invited many friends. However, the spiritual vein he’d found was polluted by a lot of turbid energy. Recalling that Lin Yuan possessed the Heaven-Unity Mystic Light, he had decided to come in person.

As payment for purifying the turbid energy in the spiritual vein, the Blue Beard Daoist promised to gift Lin Yuan a collection of his own treasured rare copies from the Daoist Canon.

Before leaving, he left five rare copies of the Daoist Canon as a deposit!

Lin Yuan didn’t refuse this offer.

Cultivators of the Earth Immortal Lineage were best at shaping and transforming spiritual veins. This held great value for Lin Yuan’s cultivation of the Inner Landscape Blissful Realm technique.

Deep in thought, Lin Yuan swept his gaze around the abode. A cold smirk flashed in his heart. He turned and went back inside the Xuanzhen Abode.

Half a month later.

In a quiet room of the abode, Lin Yuan sat thoughtfully on a meditation cushion.

The “Scripture of the Elephant River Dao” wasn’t hard to master. With Lin Yuan’s foundation, he completely grasped its essence within half a month and seamlessly integrated it into his “Taixiao Dao Ming Scripture”.

As one of the Chengyuan Immortal Sect’s secret “Four Methods and Four Formulas”, the “Scripture of the Elephant River Dao” struck Lin Yuan as extremely complex and too difficult to understand.

Especially the two Path-Completion Methods it contained, along with the refining methods for five Life-Bound Treasures, were incredibly profound.

The two Path-Completion Methods were the “Ten Thousand Appearances Existence-None Fixed Void Mystic Light” and the “Profound Origin Protective Mystic Light”.

That “Ten Thousand Appearances Existence-None Fixed Void Mystic Light” was no different from the Yin-Yang Mystic Light Lin Yuan himself had comprehended. The “Profound Origin Protective Mystic Light” was a water-element method, which didn’t suit Lin Yuan’s own cultivation technique.

The five Life-Bound Treasures that could be refined were: the Elephant River Profound Origin Pearl, the River-Luo Talisman Seal, the Yin-Yang Spirit-Slaying Sword, the Elephant River Yuan Spirit Banner, and the Yin-Yang Qiankun Diagram!

Among these five Life-Bound Treasures, the Elephant River Profound Origin Pearl, the River-Luo Talisman Seal, and the Elephant River Yuan Spirit Banner, like the Profound Origin Protective Mystic Light, belonged to the Profound Origin method.

Only the Yin-Yang Spirit-Slaying Sword and the Yin-Yang Qiankun Diagram corresponded to the Yin-Yang methods.

Lin Yuan instinctively wanted to discard the three Profound Origin treasures. But then he hesitated; an idea came to him.

Those three Profound Origin treasures should be a perfect match for the Heavenly One Water Mother Divine Rune.

After all, with his talent, cultivating an additional Profound Origin method wouldn’t take much time. Refining one more Profound Origin Life-Bound Treasure might even prove useful in a critical moment.

However, there were three Profound Origin treasures, and his energy was limited.

Lin Yuan looked over the three refineable Life-Bound Treasures. After a while, his gaze lingered on the Elephant River Profound Origin Pearl and the Elephant River Yuan Spirit Banner.

These two treasures were relatively simple to refine. But in Lin Yuan’s eyes, they were too one-dimensional.

The Elephant River Profound Origin Pearl could be refined into twelve separate pearls. Each pearl contained the power of a water-element Grotto-Heaven. Not only were they extremely potent weapons when striking enemies, but with the combined protection of all twelve, his magic power would become seemingly endless.

Refining this treasure required spirit pearls cultivated for over ten thousand years. Even with lower standards, millennium-old spirit pearls were necessary.

Forget ten-thousand-year spirit pearls; even millennium-old ones were exceedingly rare and extremely valuable, far beyond the reach of ordinary Scattered Immortals.

However, this didn’t trouble Lin Yuan, as he was currently quite wealthy.

But Lin Yuan preferred offensive Life-Bound Treasures; he had no interest in being a punching bag!

Compared to the Elephant River Profound Origin Pearl, the Elephant River Yuan Spirit Banner represented a step up in attack power and could be considered both offensive and defensive. Yet, it still fell short when compared to the River-Luo Talisman Seal.

Even Lin Yuan, with his overly picky standards, couldn’t help but show a hint of delight when looking at the River-Luo Talisman Seal.

Once fully cultivated, the River-Luo Talisman Seal could transform into the River-Luo Grand Formation, which contained the secrets of the rivers. It was incredibly powerful; when unleashed, the vast forces of the rivers and Luo would sweep out. Mastering it would grant control over all the waters of a province.

But refining this seal required gathering the spiritual energy from many great rivers. At minimum, the spiritual essence from one hundred and eight great rivers was needed. Nowadays, Rivers and Luo throughout the provinces were overseen by River Gods.

This river spiritual energy was tied to the fortune of the waterways, intrinsically linked to the River Gods themselves. How could they tolerate others meddling in it?

Achieving this would be difficult, even for someone backed by an Innate Dao Lord.

However, for Lin Yuan, it was surprisingly the easiest task. He could travel to the Primordial World, where many great rivers still had no owner. Even for the ones that did, many Primal Gods didn’t fully grasp the intricacies of the Post-Heaven Divine Path and couldn’t completely control their domains. Stealing some of the river-luo spiritual energy wouldn’t be too hard for him!

A faint smile appeared in Lin Yuan’s eyes. Thinking of the other two Yin-Yang Life-Bound Treasures, he quickly made up his mind.

The Yin-Yang Spirit-Slaying Sword was an exceptionally powerful Flying Sword, but Lin Yuan already possessed the Heavenly River Gui Water Sword. He didn’t need another.

The Yin-Yang Qiankun Diagram was much more suitable for him.

Refining this treasure required Yin and Yang Qi. Not only did he possess Yin and Yang Qi, he also possessed Innate Yin-Yang Dual Qi.

With his plan formed, Lin Yuan decided to immediately begin refining the Yin-Yang Qiankun Diagram.

Cultivating this treasure had only two requirements: Yin and Yang Qi, and an understanding of the essence of Yin and Yang creation. These two things were precisely his strong suits.

Two months later, within the Xuanzhen Abode, Lin Yuan stood up tall. Immense joy shone in his eyes. By then, a treasure diagram had fully formed in his hand. It emitted dazzling black and white profound light. Inside it, the hazy shadow of an endless Yin-Yang Qiankun dimension could be seen. Countless Yin-Yang Qiankun forces intertwined within, forming a Taiji symbol. It pulsed with a boundless, vital energy, carrying a feeling of vast power that could sweep away and shatter anything.

It shared a trace of the wondrous function found within that ultimate treasure “Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate” belonging to the Dao Lord Taiqing. It truly was a supreme treasure, though only just recently completed.

With a slight thought, this Primordial Yin-Yang Qiankun Diagram transformed into a wisp of Innate Yin-Yang Profound Light and merged into his body, where he began gently nourishing it with his magic power.

Thinking about the matter the Blue Beard Daoist had requested, Lin Yuan calculated the time. His expression suddenly turned serious. The date for the Blue Beard Daoist’s cave mansion opening wasn’t far off. Any later, and that Blue Beard Elder would likely grow anxious.

Thinking it over, Lin Yuan summoned several oyster maidens of the abode and gave them instructions. After entrusting them to watch over the abode, he transformed into a streak of light and flew out of the Yuanling Heavenly Pool.

The Chengyuan Immortal Sect was originally near the southwest lands. However, there was still a considerable distance to the spiritual peak the Blue Beard Elder had found.

Lin Yuan’s speed was extremely fast. It wouldn’t take him too many days.

Three days later, while passing over a barbaric mountain village, Lin Yuan suddenly paused. He looked down to see a thick haze of miasma, crawling with poisonous insects across the mountains. In an instant, a billowing dark, miasmic light shot up. It swiftly transformed into a large formation that swept up towards him from below.

An ambush?

Lin Yuan reacted immediately. On instinct, he wanted to drive his flight light to break free from the formation’s power. But in the next instant, his eyes flickered with a cold smirk. He remained unmoving. Immense magic power surged within him. A pure sword light, cold enough to freeze an ocean, shot out. It slashed directly toward the depths of the formation.

“He took the bait!”

On a nearby mountain peak, two figures watched this scene. Knowing smiles spread across their faces, and their killing intent flared. They instantly activated the formation.