Chapter 168: Chapter 87: Sect Competition? _1

At the courtyard’s secret realm, in front of the Natural Spirit Pool.

In the most Spirit Energy-rich part of the entire secret realm, Shen Yuan slowly circulates the “Purple Clouds Elemental Qi Refinement Method” to adjust his condition to its peak.

In the Spiritual Platform, the small sword transformed from the Sword Technique Seed of Divine Power, spins slowly around Shen Yuan’s False Primordial Spirit with the manipulation of his Divine Sense.

The outline of Shen Yuan’s False Primordial Spirit remains vague with the imprint of the Great Sun’s True Flames that are still present.

Even though Shen Yuan has used various means to restore his False Primordial Spirit’s condition during this period, the impact brought by the Great Sun’s True Flames still remains, constantly imparting traces of burn onto the False Primordial Spirit, much like a bone-deep affliction.

The small sword transformed from the Divine Capacity Seed stops spinning suddenly, and then a sword light is slashed out on the Spiritual Platform, mobilizing a large number of Divine Senses on the False Primordial Spirit at this moment, manifesting an even more vague human outline.

This is the Mind Incarnation, the most crucial step in the cultivation of the External Incarnation Technique.

The External Incarnation Technique is different from the method of creating clones. Its greatest advantage is that the External Incarnation can have the same Divine Skills as the body, but any injury or damage it suffers will not affect the body, because what is sown into the External Incarnation is just the Mind Incarnation of the body.

On the contrary, the cloning technique requires the division of the Primordial Spirit for control. Not only will the division of the Primordial Spirit damage one’s potential, but more importantly, there is a chance that the Primordial Spirit might acquire Spiritual Wisdom due to accidents after being separated for a long time.

In the history of the Cultivation World, there have been cases where a clone stumbled upon a secret realm and usurped the original body after gaining fortune. First, it defeated the original body, took over its home, then went on to sleep with the original’s Dao companion, stealing its magical treasures, and as a result, established a reputation for being a great cultivator.

If the original body had not managed to escape and expose the truth to everyone, no one would have known the truth of the matter.

Therefore, the External Incarnation Technique, even though it’s just a Profound Divine Power, is the most suitable Divine Secret Technique in terms of potential damage to oneself or safety considerations.

The only drawback is the need for rare and precious heavenly materials and earthly treasures as media for the External Incarnation.

Having detached the Mind Incarnation from the False Primordial Spirit, Shen Yuan only felt a little spiritually weak, which rapidly recovered under the replenishment of the abundant Spirit Energy.

His gaze fell upon the Life Origin Stone lying not far away, and Shen Yuan tried to control his Mind Incarnation to inhabit it.

Flowever, as soon as he tried to manipulate his Mind Incarnation out of the Spiritual Platform, the hazy human figure it had formed dissipated loudly, and most of his Divine Senses returned to Shen Yuan’s Spiritual Platform.

Seeing this, Shen Yuan couldn’t help but frown.

“The essence of the Mind Incarnation should be a byproduct separating the divine sense from their Primordial Spirit by cultivators who had reached the Refining Qi to Spirit Transmutation Stage.

Although I have the False Primordial Spirit as a support, it ultimately cannot be compared to a real Primordial Spirit.

Moreover, even the condition of my False Primordial Spirit is currently damaged. It is hard to use the Primordial Spirit Sword Control Method, not to mention detaching the Mind Incarnation.

It seems I should find some heavenly materials and earthly treasures to repair the injuries of the False Primordial Spirit first.”

Shen Yuan was very clear about this point, but finding heavenly materials and earthly treasures that could help the Primordial Spirit in the current stage was next to impossible to buy with Spirit Stones.

The scarce amount of natural Spirit Energy makes it difficult to sustain the birth of such precious heavenly treasures. Every time such a treasure appears, it is bound to be contended by various forces.

Because the valuable heavenly treasures that help with the Primordial Spirit hold the promise to allow those prodigies who have already reached the Qi Training Stage to make further progress, achieving Primordial Spirit and reaching the Spirit Transmutation Stage.

No matter how many Qi-training cultivators are below Spirit Transmutation, they can’t influence the real power dynamics. But a Great Cultivator of Transforming God can substantially impact the layout of a region.

Ordinary weapons are of no use to Great Cultivators of Transforming God. Even if it’s a large-scale missile, as long as they are not in the center of the explosion, a Great Cultivator of Transforming God can easily avoid damage.

Even after giving birth to the Primordial Spirit, cultivators at the Spirit Transmutation Stage can sense threats in the dark. Even if a nuclear bomb is dropped, they can easily escape dozens of miles away with a single teleportation, evading the threat.

It’s safe to say that when you reach the Spirit Transmutation Stage, you’ve truly transcended mortal limitations.

Even during the prosperous era of cultivation thousands of years ago, Great Cultivators of Transforming God were capable of maintaining peace and order in a region.

The value of the heavenly treasures related to the Primordial Spirit can be imagined from this.

Upon thinking of this, Shen Yuan temporarily gave up on his practice of the External Incarnation Technique, retreating slowly from his Spiritual Platform.

Just then, the rich Spirit Energy within his body had reached its limit under the operation of the Mana cycle.

Like a dam releasing floodwaters, a large amount of mana saturated with Spirit Energy gushes down.

Shen Yuan was surprised to find that his cultivation had actually broken through to the Late Stage of Qi Transformation easily during the process of practicing the External Incarnation Technique.

But after some thought, Shen Yuan understood why.

It has been a month since Shen Yuan broke through to the Middle Stage of Qi Transformation and went to Yunfu Market.

In this period, other than healing and meditating daily, Shen Yuan has spent most of his time studying the Gods Purging Divine Power and the External Incarnation Technique, deliberately slowing down his cultivation speed to accumulate energy.

But the Natural Spirit Pool is in the courtyard’s secret realm, and with the return of the Spirit Energy Tidal Surge, the concentration of Spirit Energy in the Natural Spirit Pool is still increasing.

Being in such an environment, Shen Yuan simply allowed the “Purple Clouds Elemental Qi Refinement Method” to operate on its own, and it was enough to accumulate a large amount of mana for himself. The breakthrough was a matter of course.

Operating the “Purple Clouds Elemental Qi Refinement Method” to calm the surging mana that was several times that of the same level, Shen Yuan gradually adjusted to the changes that came with entering the Late Stage of Qi Transformation.

After stepping into the Qi Transformation Stage, it was not just a simple increase in the capacity of mana, Shen Yuan slowly began to perceive the existence of something called “Elemental Qi” between heaven and earth.

This is one of the elements of heaven and earth, and also the source of Qi Refinement practitioners.

What Shen Yuan needs to do now is to try to capture the Elemental Qi in the world by rotation.

Once he can truly perform Elemental Qi Absorption, Shen Yuan can step into the Refining Qi to Spirit Transmutation Realm, becoming a true Qi Refinement practitioner.

This process is not difficult for cultivators who have sect inheritance. The “Purple Clouds Elemental Qi Refinement Method” that Shen Yuan practices includes the valuable Elemental Qi Absorption inheritance of the Falling Clouds Sect.

What Shen Yuan needs now is to push his mana derived from the Qi Transformation Stage to its peak, making it easier for him to capture the existence of Elemental Qi, and thus capture the opportunity for Elemental Qi Absorption.

This process could be as short as a month or as long as half a year. Once Shen Yuan finds the way, endless new possibilities would open up.

With his realm stabilized, Shen Yuan was about to attempt his first attempt at Elemental Qi Absorption.

The first attempt was only a crude practice. Shen Yuan did not expect to complete the process of Elemental Qi Absorption in one go.

Just then, the long-gone system prompt suddenly sounded in Shen Yuan’s ear.

Shen Yuan froze, hastily exited his cultivation state, and activated the system interface.

Since the last time he had racked his brains to complete the main quest and was rewarded with promotion to “Sect Founding Ancestor”, Shen Yuan no longer held any expectations for this rigid Artificial Intelligence System.

Looking at the rewards that Shen Yuan had received, except for techniques like “Purple Clouds Elemental Qi Refinement Method”, the seemingly least useful grotto residence token had surprisingly brought him the most gains.

This made Shen Yuan much clearer about the unpredictability of the Artificial Intelligence System itself and began to consider whether he should complete each of the subsequent main quests.

Flowever, to Shen Yuan’s surprise, the Artificial Intelligence System did not issue any new tasks to him after he completed the Master of All Cultivation Arts task.

Only until just now, when Shen Yuan successfully broke through to the late stage of the Qi Transformation realm, did he hear the system’s prompt.

“Could it be related to the breakthrough of the Qi-training realm?”

Thinking this way, Shen Yuan looked at the task content on the system interface.

System: Congratulations to the host for advancing to the late stage of the Qi Transformation realm!

System: While completing the Master of All Cultivation Arts task, the host has still been steadily promoting his realm, has become the most outstanding disciple… Sect Founding Ancestor of the sect.

However, not everyone in the sect agrees that the host can firmly hold this position, the host’s status is about to be challenged!

Shen Yuan was stupefied and subconsciously looked into the Courtyard Secret Realm.

The Courtyard Secret Realm where he currently resides is pretty much the whole basis of the entire sect.

Besides a fish, a cat, and a farming puppet, there was nothing else.

Shen Yuan’s mouth twitched slightly, and he couldn’t help but say to the Artificial Intelligence System in front of him:

“Not everyone thinks I can hold this position, may I ask, does this Falling Clouds Sect have any other ‘people’?”

The Artificial Intelligence System did not respond to Shen Yuan’s words, and the system interface in front of him popped up a message again.

Main task: Sect Competition.

In order to establish the host’s position in the sect, please participate in the Sect Competition, and get first place in the Sect Competition!

Completion Reward: Falling Cloud Sect’s True Heritage Secret Volume “Great Void Spirit Refining Technique”

Shen Yuan was somewhat dumbfounded.

Fie had considered subsequent main tasks, but they were all cultivation tasks and realm breakthrough tasks, similar to the tasks during the Essence Refining Stage.

The Sect Competition task that suddenly came up fully loaded cliche plots like familiar feelings of drama, arrogance beating, and causality inversion, which could be said to be the necessary path for transmigrated characters in Xianxia sects.

But the problem now is…

“There’s only one living person left in my Falling Clouds Sect, who are you asking me to compete with?

Are you going to get me to dig out my fellow disciples from their graves and have me run individually against them?”

Shen Yuan was entirely confused.

“Even if we make concessions, I go recruit a few disciples to train to compete in the Sect Competition.

But as the current Sect Master + Founding Ancestor of the Falling Clouds Sect, can I seriously compete against a bunch of my disciples?”

While Shen Yuan was stumped, an unexpected guest stepped into the old city district of Wenn City.

A girl who looked to be about seventeen or eighteen in slim shape, dressed in a blue palace dress, with silver white long hair draped over her shoulders, with indifference to life and death revealed in a pair of eyes.

As she strolled leisurely in this dilapidated old city district, she seemed to be completely out of tune with the world.

This immediately sparked discussions among the older men and women in the old city district.

“This girl is really pretty, it’s just that her teenagers’ white hair is a pity.”

“What nonsense are you talking about, you old country bumpkin? This is cosplay, which is liked by young people in big cities.”

“Indeed, you know more.”

The girl seemed oblivious to the surrounding discussions, and before long, she arrived at a delicate courtyard under the gaze of the old men and women, holding a token respectfully saluted the courtyard, saying:

“Sect Master’s abandoned disciple Gong Buyu, seeks an audience with Uncle Master Shen!”

The courtyard was silent, with no response at all.

The girl still bowed in salutation, looking serious.

After quite a while, a watching old woman finally opened her mouth:

“This young lady, this house has been vacant for several years, surely you’ve got the wrong place?”

The girl remained motionless, still maintaining the bowing salute posture.

Time slowly passed, and the gaze of the passing old men and women shifted from initial amazement to later pity for a fool.

The time went on till after nightfall, there was no light in front of the courtyard, still silent.

But the girl appeared to be very patient, even in the night unwatched by anyone, she still maintained the posture of salutation.

The sun rose in the old city district from the east, the door of the tiny courtyard behind the girl slowly opened, and a black and white kitten squeezed out from the door crack.

The kitten that slipped out of the house just looked up, and saw the girl in blue palace dress in front of it, brimming with confusion in its small eyes..