Wet viviparity

Chapter 993 Thatched Cottage, Cause and Effect
Zhao Mingyan gritted his teeth. He thought his honest words would lower the other party's guard and gain some trust, but he didn't expect that the other party would respect him even more and treat him as someone who could be completely manipulated.

"Your Excellency should consider this carefully. If I were to intervene, we could still save face. But if my Zhao family were to actually invite a deity here, everything would be beyond repair."

Furthermore, the deity wouldn't believe that my Zhao clan is incapable of restraining that powerful and malevolent god at Yunyu Temple, or that we are unable to resist the influence of Lingxuzi's lineage from Taiping Mountain.

"Dog Guardian, what do you think?" Ji Ming asked.

After pondering for a moment, Inugami said, "A fight is a way to earn respect and build one's reputation."

"Haha, that's exactly what I wanted."

"Arrogant! Do you think I don't know the true nature of a deity like you? You were born with some special advantages, but now that you've reached the difficult stage of cultivation, how much of an advantage do you have from your innate blessings?"

As for cultivating the "Six Jia Spiritual Flight Strategy Essence" of our sect, with your current level, if you were to try to possess a corpse and return to the human realm, cultivating in accordance with our sect's true methods step by step, who knows how long it would take to achieve profound results in refining your physical form.

Ji Ming didn't speak. The slender light and shadow that had formed on his palm dissipated, and his six hands began to fly around. This action startled Zhao Mingyan, who flew around the room in a panic. Only when he saw that the righteous god was not angry but wanted to destroy his Yin spirit did he calm down.

Three pairs of palms clung to the void, facing each other, gripping a line in the void, as if there were an invisible crack in the door there.

Then the three pairs of hands began to pull on both sides, as if prying open a door. A gap was opened, and a surging, eerie wind and mournful cries rushed out from the gap.

"go!"

Ji Ming uttered a single word, and then he, along with Quan Shougong and Zhao Mingyan's human head lantern artifact, disappeared from this place, passing through the gap and arriving at another location.

"Where is this?" Inugami asked.

Before Ji Ming could reply, Zhao Mingyan, still in a daze, said, "One of the Three Passes of Yin and Yang, Golden Rooster Mountain."

Zhao Mingyan looked worried. He blinked his bright eyes and looked around. There was not a single blade of grass or tree in the mountains, only the iron-colored stone pillars that were jagged like beaks.

When the cold wind blows through the stone crevices, one can hear intermittent chirping, which at first sounds like chicks chirping, but gradually becomes the clucking of an old pheasant. There are also streams of dark spring water seeping out from the crevices of the stones, meandering along the mossy patterns to form streams. The water is murky yellow and exudes a chilling aura.

Staring at the faint light of dawn peeking through the edge of the eastern mountain shadow, Zhao Mingyan added, "This is the Daoist temple of Lingxuzi, the old immortal Pleiades Star Official."

Both Pleiades Star Lord and Ancestor Gan Xiong were powerful backers of Ling Xuzi. Zhao Mingyan could understand why Ancestor Gan Xiong would give Ling Xuzi unlimited support, but why Pleiades Star Lord, a minister who had lost two masters, would provide such strong support? This was something the Zhao family could not understand.

Ji Ming was also looking around at Jinji Mountain; he hadn't been here much before.

His supernatural ability can open a path between the Yin and Yang realms, but unfortunately, the resistance between the two realms is very great, making it unsuitable as an emergency escape method in combat.

Moreover, if one comes to a sacred place like Jinji Mountain, without the permission of the master of the place, even if he has great supernatural powers, he is helpless. The mystery here cannot be explained in a few words. It involves the practice of "residing in a famous mountain to be in accordance with the Taoist practice" in the six realms.

Ji Ming led the dog-guarding servant, carrying a lantern with human heads, to the side of a dangerous cliff.

Here stands a thatched cottage, its frame made of old bamboo and its roof covered with yellow thatch. Red vines hanging from the eaves gently tap against the lintel in the cold wind, giving it an eerie and dilapidated feel. There is no door panel in front of this cottage, only half a piece of indigo cloth hanging there, its surface stained with watermarks and dirt, winding like a centipede.

Seeing that the righteous god was very familiar with this, Quan Shougong and Zhao Mingyan became even more convinced that his cultivation of the true method was not a temporary measure, but a far-reaching plan, and that he had arranged this cultivation site in advance to avoid being disturbed by the outside world.

"Since he has already won over Uncle Zhao, why did he have to drag me along here?"

Dog Lord was lost in thought. He wasn't worried about his own safety, after all, he was already quite old. His predecessor, and even the one before him who inherited the Dog Yuanfu, had long been ordered to commit suicide by the major clans of the sect, so that the successor could inherit the Yuanfu and maintain the stability of the scattered disciples.

He will only live a few more days because of this accidental event.

Now his only worry is that Jiang Shiliu outside might do something foolish while he's away.

Although the righteous god promised him that as long as he devoted himself to the cause, he would not interfere with Jiang Shiliu in any further way, he knew that a brilliant strategy sometimes only required doing one thing right, and the rest would be propelled by unpredictable and unfortunate fate, which could achieve the goal.

This strategy is especially effective on those who are unfortunate, and Jiang Shiliu, as a member of the Sanmen sect, is undoubtedly more likely to attract misfortune in an environment like the Zhenling Sect.

"Aside from information about his supernatural abilities, I know almost nothing about this righteous god," Dog Guardian thought to himself as he observed the environment inside and outside the thatched cottage, scratching his chin.

After hanging Zhao Mingyan's head lantern beside the plaque, Ji Ming flew into the thatched cottage. Inside, the blue brick floor was cracked, spider webs hung from the walls, and mushrooms grew in the crevices.

In the northeast corner stood a stone stove, its burner filled with cold ash, in which lay the unburnt remains of paper horses. Hanging on the west wall was a tung oil lamp, its flame dim and indistinct, illuminating the four walls, where the shadows of snakes and ants could be seen intertwined.

It was indeed a ghostly place, filled with eerie and malevolent energy.

After Quan Shou Gong entered, he took out a scroll of the "Six Jia Spirit Flying Strategy Essence Book" with talisman diagrams and explanations.

"No need."

Ji Ming said.

Inugami is very shrewd, but being too shrewd isn't good either; it always feels like he's harboring bad intentions.

However, if the cultivation of the true method proceeds as smoothly as I have predicted, the likes of Inugami will naturally continue to be obedient and docile.

Zhao Mingyan, who was hanging under the plaque, turned his head and peered inside through the tear in the curtain at the door. He seemed hesitant to speak, as if he didn't want to believe that the righteous gods could make much progress in the true law.

In the hall, Ji Ming's five hands landed on the ground, forming a lotus flower shape, while his sixth hand grasped the Chen Yun talisman.

The dragon of Jia Chen (甲辰) lies hidden in the abyss and moves in the sky. It can be large or small, rise or hide. It controls the wind and clouds, governs the rain and dew, and governs the vitality of the East.

This talisman is a replica of the Jia Chen Yuan Talisman, which grants the power to generate life, control clouds and rain, and command thunder and lightning. Logically speaking, if Zhao Mingyan possessed this talisman, he should not have suffered such a crushing defeat.

But what could he do? He was a coward. After his true form was destroyed by Ding Ruyi with the Buddha Head Subduing Demon Chisel, his spirit collapsed. He worried that Ding Ruyi would inherit his master's style of destroying the enemy's form and spirit. In order to protect his own Yin spirit, he suffered a final defeat.

With this talisman in hand, Ji Ming could communicate with the Yang energy of Jia Chen in the Six Jia, giving him a slight chance to replace the Zhao family in the True Spirit Sect.

However, Zhao Mingyan is right. If he wants to cultivate this true method, he needs a physical body. And like demons, he can use a corpse to return to life and cultivate into a human.

So, can a being of the Earthly Deity not cultivate?

Ji Ming had thought about this problem long ago and even consulted many elders.

This earth spirit is different from humans. It is uniquely blessed by heaven. At the beginning of its birth, it was formed by the disturbance of the primordial true qi under the influence of a forked spiritual mechanism. Therefore, there is no differentiation between form and spirit. The spirit is the consciousness of the body, and the body is the substance of the spirit. The two are originally one.

This unity of body and spirit may seem like a direct path to the realm that cultivators dream of, but this realm is a narrow and closed perfection, not the true path.

Because of this limited perfection, he can only be revered within the path. Once he leaves this path of supernatural powers, he is almost always trapped, and his potential is almost fixed in this area. This can be seen from the previous title of "God of the Perilous Path".

Getting back to the main point, the method of resurrection through possession is too slow, so he did not choose this method.

According to his idea, since the unity of form and spirit has already been achieved, why not do something that reverses cause and effect?

One begets two, two begets three, three begets all things.

Cultivators trace back in reverse order of creation. "All things" are in the process of refining essence into qi. Reversing back to "three" is the process of refining qi into spirit. Reversing back to "two" is the process of refining spirit into emptiness. Finally, reversing back to one is the process of refining emptiness into the Dao, which is also the ultimate result.

Since he has achieved a unity of body and spirit, even if this unity is a narrow and closed kind of perfection, can it still be regarded as a result?

The practice of turning effect into cause means understanding that he has already attained the fruit of cultivation, namely the wonder of the unity of body and spirit, and using this fruit as the fundamental basis and driving force for his cultivation practice.

In specific cultivation practices, reversing cause and effect manifests as the state of mind of an already accomplished being, guiding one's own cultivation from the beginning. In simpler terms, it means viewing oneself as someone who has already attained enlightenment and become an immortal, and now it's simply a matter of cultivating again. Such cultivation is naturally swift and without any obstacles.

According to the deduction, his method of reversing cause and effect is more applicable to physical cultivation than to Qi cultivation in alchemy.

Before he could begin his intensive study of the "Six Jia Spirit Flying Strategy Essence Book," Ji Ming needed to determine one thing: which type of elixir he should consume to refine his true form.

(End of this chapter)