A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Duan Rong leaned against the railing, sitting on the altar, letting the warm afternoon sun shine on him.

He lay there with his eyes half-closed, looking rather lazy, occasionally taking a bite of a fruit.

Duan Rong wasn't just putting on a show for Chu Wushang and Wei Yan. Although he could barely withstand the spiritual pressure from the four mountain statues, his soul was exhausted after two days of continuous cultivation, and he really needed to rest.

Duan Rong leaned back there, ate a few fruits, and then began to snore softly.

On a mountain peak in the southeast of the valley, Wei Yan's eyes flickered slightly, and he asked in surprise, "That kid is asleep?"

Chu Wushang looked down at the mountain fruit that Duan Rong had given him, his face cold.

Duan Rong slept for just over an hour before suddenly waking up. After eating a few mountain fruits, he sat cross-legged in the center of the altar and quickly resumed his cultivation of the Fetal Treasury Sutra.

On that mountain peak, Chu Wushang and Wei Yan continued to use their divine senses to surround the altar, observing Duan Rong. Both of them were very curious about how long it would take Duan Rong to reach the eighteenth level of the Embryonic Realm.

In their eyes, Duan Rong was a monster.

In Chu Wushang's view, Duan Rong accomplished the fourteenth to seventeenth levels of the Womb Sutra in just over twenty days.

In Wei Yan's view, Duan Rong, at such a young age, had already achieved the seventeenth level of the Womb Treasury Sutra, and was the first person in a thousand years to cultivate the Womb Treasury Sutra here. The immense spiritual pressure of these four mountain statues was not something anyone could withstand.
The entrance test for outer disciples only requires the use of incense offerings to draw down spiritual pressure, which is enough to test all the outer disciples of the sect. Not to mention someone like Duan Rong, who used the Womb Treasury Sutra to form hand seals and draw the divine images of the four mountain statues into his spiritual sea of ​​consciousness. This is not something that ordinary people can withstand!
Their observation of Duan Rong at this time was partly out of curiosity and partly out of greed.

Although the Womb Sutra is incredibly profound, it is also extremely difficult to master. This is the drawback of this secret method. However, this drawback seems to be nonexistent in Duan Rong's case.

The two inevitably wondered if Duan Rong had some kind of method, and whether they could use it.
In particular, Wei Yan only has a hundred years left to live. If he can make some breakthroughs in the Womb Treasury Sutra and with the increase in spiritual power, he might also be able to break through his realm. Then he can temporarily retract the foot that was stepping into the coffin.

Two days later, late at night, the bright moon hung in the sky.

Duan Rong, who was sitting cross-legged in the center of the altar in the valley, suddenly opened his eyes, and a misty fog rose around him.

The cold dew of the past two days was instantly evaporated.

At this moment, the cold moonlight illuminated the altar. The black jade box where Duan Rong sat cross-legged was empty; the five pieces of brain-shaped ice inside had all been swallowed by Duan Rong.

Under the cold moonlight, Duan Rong suddenly transformed into a black beam of light and shot towards Chu Wushang and Wei Yan.

Duan Rong drew a line and landed on the peak. He looked at Chu Wushang and Wei Yan standing on the edge of the cliff and bowed, saying, "Mr. Chu, Senior Wei."

Chu Wushang's expression remained unchanged.

Wei Yan couldn't hold back any longer. He looked at Duan Rong with some impatience and asked, "Boy, have you already mastered the eighteenth level of the Womb Sutra?"

Duan Rong replied, "Yes."

Although the two already had a vague idea of ​​the answer, after all, Duan Rong had already swallowed all five pieces of the Nine Nether Hound's brain ice. But when they heard Duan Rong confirm it himself, their breaths still hitched slightly.

Chu Wushang remained calm, standing there with an icy expression. Wei Yan, however, had already lost his composure, and greed was now evident in his eyes.

Wei Yan asked, "Boy, how did you do that?"

Duan Rong was silent for a moment, then said, "I can't explain it clearly either, but... the Ancestor knows."

Duan Rong invoked the name of their ancestor, Lü Yinlin, and Wei Yan immediately fell silent.

In fact, with Duan Rong's mastery of the power of seventy-nine laws, even if Wei Yan had malicious intentions, he would be no match for him. However, he had already seen through Wei Yan's greed, so he used the name of the ancestor to remind him, also hoping to save himself some trouble.

Under the cold moonlight, Duan Rong could feel the solidified greed in Wei Yan's eyes receding like the tide.

Duan Rong then clasped his hands in a fist salute to Chu Wushang and said, "Mr. Chu, I need supplementary medicine for the nineteenth level and beyond."

While in the thatched hut, Chu Wushang mentioned that he would ask him for the supplementary medicines needed after the nineteenth level of the Fetal Treasury Sutra.

Chu Wushang stood there as still as a deep pool and a towering mountain, unmoved.

Although he appeared calm on the surface, he couldn't help but feel emotional after witnessing Duan Rong complete the eighteenth level of the Fetal Treasury Sutra in less than five days.

This secret method is incredibly profound, and he also possesses the complete manual of the Womb Treasury Sutra. However, he finds it incredibly slow to practice, while at this very moment, a fellow is rapidly achieving mastery, level after level, right in front of you.

If this is tolerable, what is intolerable?
However, Chu Wushang suppressed his greed. He knew Duan Rong's importance in the patriarch's heart and understood the significance of someone like Duan Rong to the Taiyi Sect's inheritance. Moreover, he originally had a rather favorable impression of Duan Rong.

Chu Wushang suddenly flicked his sleeve, and three palm-sized porcelain bottles flew out and hovered in front of Duan Rong in the cold moonlight.

At that time, while Duan Rong was dozing off on the altar, Chu Wushang took the opportunity to return to the thatched hut and retrieve the three porcelain bottles from the secret chamber of the talisman array. He was certain that Duan Rong would soon reach the eighteenth level of the Fetal Realm.

Duan Rong's heart stirred, and he glanced at the three porcelain bottles floating in front of him.

The three porcelain bottles, roughly the same size but different colors—one brownish-red, one purplish-black, and one moon-white—all gleamed with a cold light under the moonlight.

Chu Wushang's slightly hoarse voice slowly rang out. "The moon-white one is the nineteenth floor. The purplish-black one is the twentieth floor. The brownish-red one is the twenty-first floor."

Duan Rong's eyelids twitched, and he immediately asked, "Mr. Chu, what about the twenty-second floor?"

Chu Wushang glanced at Duan Rong and said, "Didn't you read the manual? The cultivation of the twenty-second level doesn't require any auxiliary medicines!?"

Duan Rong's expression faltered slightly; he hadn't really noticed that. Chu Wushang had mentioned asking him for supplementary medicines after the nineteenth level, but he hadn't paid much attention to the later ones.

Cultivation is something one only studies in detail once they reach a certain level. Therefore, he genuinely didn't know that the twenty-second level didn't require auxiliary medicines.

Duan Rong bowed to Chu Wushang again and said, "Thank you, Mr. Chu."

After he finished speaking, he put the three porcelain bottles in his sleeve, and then transformed into a black streak, shooting into the dense forest beside the valley.

Chu Wushang and Wei Yan both frowned, and then they saw Duan Rong's figure appearing and disappearing in the dark forest in the cold moonlight.

After observing for a while, Wei Yan suddenly said, "Mr. Chu, this kid seems a bit strange!"

Under the moonlight, Chu Wushang suddenly turned his head and glared fiercely at Wei Yan, his voice hoarse like that of a demon. "If you still want to enjoy your old age here, don't even think about messing with him."

The threatening meaning in Chu Wushang's words was obvious.

Wei Yan couldn't help but shudder, then awkwardly laughed and said, "How dare I, Wei Yan, do so? How dare I?"

Chu Wushang then turned his head away, and Wei Yan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with lingering fear in his eyes.

Several hours later, Duan Rong returned to the altar in the valley.

Here, the bright moon had already set; it was the darkest hour before dawn. He leaned against the railing of the altar, eating fruit and dozing off. As he ate, he began to snore. When the first ray of sunlight pierced the valley, Duan Rong suddenly awoke. He rubbed his eyes, stretched, and then sat cross-legged in the center of the altar, entering into the cultivation of the Womb Treasury Sutra.

From that time on, Duan Rong never dozed off again.

The reason he needed to sleep was because the spiritual pressure from the four mountain statues was quite heavy, and his soul could barely bear it. Therefore, after cultivating for two or three days, he became extremely tired.

But after reaching the eighteenth level, the situation improved significantly.

After the four mountain-shaped deity statues entered Lingming's sea of ​​consciousness, his clear, glassy body and the celestial bodies ceased trembling. Continuous cultivation naturally caused some fatigue in his soul, but he could simply pause and rest while devouring the tree spirit; he no longer needed to sleep for deep rest.

Therefore, during his subsequent cultivation, Duan Rong would go to the mountains and forests every two or three days to devour ancient trees. He would then stop picking the fruits and, after devouring them, would directly enter the next round of cultivation on the altar.

Sometimes when Duan Rong returned from the dense forest, Wei Yan would ask him curiously what he was doing. Duan Rong would always tell him that cultivation was too boring, so he jumped around in the forest to clear his head.

In fact, Duan Rong was right. Although after reaching the eighteenth level, his soul strength was no longer a problem to withstand the spiritual pressure of the four mountain statues, his soul still needed to relax and recover after being under that pressure for two or three consecutive days.

It's perfectly reasonable for him to take this opportunity to jump around in the dense forest and clear his mind. He was simply taking the chance to devour the tree spirits and replenish the tree spirits that had been consumed in his spiritual sea of ​​consciousness.

Day after day, Duan Rong continued this monotonous and tedious cultivation life.

Wei Yan was originally responsible for guarding this place, so he naturally stayed here. Chu Wushang wanted to check on Duan Rong's cultivation progress, and he also needed to report Duan Rong's progress to the ancestor, so he also stayed here. In addition, this valley originally had a talisman array, but it was abandoned for a thousand years, and the talisman array was later removed.

Duan Rong was cultivating on the altar, and his divine sense was entering his spiritual sea of ​​consciousness. At this time, he had little awareness of his surroundings.

If there were a protective array, it would be fine, but now that there is no protective array, even if Duan Rong achieves the Cave of Enlightenment Realm, he will still be in danger once he immerses himself in cultivation.

Wei Yan seemed unreliable, and Chu Wushang was really worried about leaving.

The difference is that Wei Yan only looked like a human being for the first few days. Later, after Chu Wushang warned him, he knew that there was no hope, so he started to give up and be reckless again. He would hug the wine jar every day and lie diagonally on the big rock on the edge of the cliff. He would occasionally use his divine sense to scan Duan Rong, who was sitting cross-legged in the valley, but most of the time, he was drunk.

Chu Wushang knew Wei Yan's character well, so he wasn't surprised by his behavior.

Fifteen days later, in the afternoon, Duan Rong suddenly opened his eyes on the altar. Although the sunlight was shining on him, his clothes still had a faint dampness from the cold dew.

As a mist enveloped him, Duan Rong pulled out a thin, yellowish-brown animal hide from his robes, unfolded the manual, and began to read it.

This action had been frequently performed by Duan Rong over this period of time, and Chu Wushang and Wei Yan had long since become accustomed to it.

Duan Rong looked down at the last piece of the manual, which was the twenty-second level of the technique.

The technique for the twenty-second level is clearly very special.

First, its cultivation does not require auxiliary medicines. Second, the length of the text in this layer of the Womb Sutra far exceeds that of other layers, almost three to four times the length of the text in other layers.

Although the scriptures were lengthy, Duan Rong only needed to glance at them once to memorize them completely.

He then put away the animal skin, sat cross-legged, and entered his spiritual sea of ​​consciousness.

The cultivation method of this twenty-second level is completely different from that of the previous Womb Sutra cultivation method; they are almost like different secret techniques.

Duan Rong needed to enter his spiritual sea of ​​consciousness to cultivate and ponder simultaneously. This was because the cultivation method for the twenty-two levels was quite complex and subtle, and it was difficult to fully understand it by simply deducing the scriptures.

After that day, he began to deduce and experiment within his spiritual sea of ​​consciousness.

As he deduced, he gradually came to understand some of the more profound parts. He realized that the cultivation of the twenty-two layers of the Womb Sutra no longer required the condensation of celestial bodies, and therefore no longer required the consumption of tree spirits.

This twenty-two-layered Garbhadhatu Sutra is based on the clear, crystalline body and the twenty-one celestial bodies surrounding it, undergoing state transitions, combinations, and transformations.

One method involves having twenty-one celestial bodies vibrate at different frequencies in some strange way...

The text describes forty-nine different states of the spirit, known as the Forty-Nine Transformations of the Spirit.

Some changes seemed easy to implement, but others were beyond Duan Rong's comprehension, not because the scriptures were particularly difficult to understand, but because he couldn't comprehend how those changes were accomplished.

Besides the Forty-Nine Transformations of the Divine Soul, the twenty-second floor also contains a lengthy description of the Divine Soul Technique.

Originally, Duan Rong didn't know what the forty-nine transformations of the soul were for, only vaguely sensing that they were very ingenious and had various mysterious structures.

However, he had a general understanding of the Soul Technique.

The Twenty-Second Layer of Divine Soul Technique has two aspects.

On one hand, there is the ultimate form of Yinghuo, which can induce tens of thousands of people into an illusion.

On the other hand, there is a new soul-devouring technique called the Heart-Devouring Seed.

This Heart-Eating Seed is woven from the soul into something called a Nightmare Seed. This thing is similar to a nightmare and can be implanted deep into a person's soul, where it slowly grows and ferments.

When a Nightmare Seed matures, it can completely change a person.

The person who has been planted with the seed of heart-devouring is completely unaware that they have been changed; their memories, experiences, and emotions are all controlled by others.

In other words, by weaving nightmare seeds, you can turn the person you want to control into whatever you want them to be.

Thinking of this, Duan Rong felt a chill run down his spine.

If Ancestor Lü Yinlin has already achieved the twenty-second level of the Fetal Treasury Scripture, does that mean that he is capable of refining and weaving this thing called Nightmare Seed?

Then implant this substance deep into the soul of another person.

Anyone who is implanted becomes a puppet that he can manipulate.

So, who in this sect would be his puppet?

Chu Wushang? Chu Qiushan? Zhu He?

Or are all the cultivators in the Cave of Enlightenment Realm of the entire sect his puppets?

Or perhaps, in the entire Taiyi Sect, only Lü Yinlin possesses a flesh-and-blood soul, while everyone else is merely a puppet.

What about me?
Duan Rong suddenly thought of this question that sent chills down his spine.

The person infected with the Nightmare Seed is unaware that they have been infected. How can they be sure they haven't been infected? (End of Chapter)