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

Lu Yinlin stood there for a long time, then suddenly turned into a wisp of green smoke and disappeared without a word.

He had decided that he must ask Duan Rong about the origin and cultivation method of the supreme secret technique of the Faxiang School.

But not now. Duan Rong is clearly engaged in genuine cultivation at this moment. He cannot be interrupted. Lü Yinlin decided to wait until he finished cultivating before asking him any questions.

Lu Yinlin left without a word, but Chu Wushang did not leave, because he too felt a kind of spiritual nourishment here, which was clearly very beneficial.

Chu Wushang sat there cross-legged, just like Wei Yan.

But as soon as he sat down, the raging flames burning around Duan Rong on the altar suddenly went out, and the next moment Duan Rong opened his eyes and let out a long roar.

The whistling sound was like tearing silk, echoing throughout the valley.

The chanting in the pavilion immediately stopped.

When the chanting stopped, the procession surrounding the altar also came to a halt.

The artisans and guards all had devout expressions. They no longer left in a chaotic manner like birds and beasts, but lined up neatly and placed their robes and ritual implements in the pavilion.

Chu Wushang watched as the ritual in the valley came to a halt and couldn't help but sigh. He glanced at Wei Yan beside him and saw that Wei Yan was still sitting there cross-legged, his body seemingly being pierced by a sensation, his shoulders trembling slightly.

Chu Wushang decided to come first thing tomorrow morning, as he wanted to fully experience the cleansing effect of the ritual on his soul.

From then on, Chu Wushang came every day and stayed on the mountaintop from morning till night.

A month later, in the late afternoon, Duan Rong suddenly let out a long howl.

Jiang Hanyan was slightly taken aback, and then stopped chanting.

At this moment, everyone in the valley, as well as Chu Wushang and Wei Yan on the mountaintop, stared blankly at Duan Rong.

Because Duan Rong always stopped the ceremony at dusk, but this time he stopped it at Shenshi (3-5 PM), which everyone found unusual.

Duan Rong stood up from the altar, looked at everyone, clasped his hands and said, "Thank you all for your hard work. This matter is now settled. The cultivation in this valley will come to an end for now."

By this day, Duan Rong had fully mastered the techniques of the four-layered Great Vajra Mandala.

The craftsmen and guards were taken aback upon hearing this, and then their faces showed disappointment. When they first arrived, they complained every day, blaming themselves for being unlucky to be conscripted. But after three or four months, everyone felt the benefits, and many people even experienced varying degrees of improvement in their sleep and chronic illnesses.

When Duan Rong suddenly called a halt, they were somewhat disappointed.

The craftsmen and guards put the ritual implements and clothing back into the pavilion. Duan Rong left behind more than twenty guards, who then packed the ritual implements and clothing into boxes. He then ordered the guards to carry the boxes back to the Judgment and Clan Affairs Department and store them in their own rooms.

There are three more levels of practice behind the Great Vajra Realm Mandala. Although we can't find them now, if we obtain them one day, these magical artifacts might still come in handy.

Jiang Hanyan had already left with her twelve female disciples, and the guards had also left. It was now dark in the valley.

Duan Rong turned his head and looked towards the mountain peak in the southeast of the valley. He knew that Chu Wushang and Wei Yan were still there. Duan Rong transformed into a black streak and landed on that mountain peak.

Chu Wushang looked at Duan Rong, his eyes flashing with a complex expression in the darkness, and said, "Duan boy, why was that ritual-like ceremony you performed in the valley able to nourish our souls?"

This question had been weighing on Chu Wushang's mind for over a month. Although he felt it every day, he couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried.

Duan Rong touched his nose and said, "Mr. Chu thinks too highly of me. How could I possibly know the answer to that question? Surely Mr. Chu doesn't think I created this ritual? To be honest, even I didn't expect that you observers could have such a profound experience. I can only say that this ritual possesses many incredible and wondrous aspects."

"Unbelievable?!" Chu Wushang murmured, savoring the word.

“Yes,” Duan Rong said. “Inconceivable means incomprehensible. Inexplicable means unclear.”

Chu Wushang was stunned. So this meant he shouldn't ask any more questions.

Duan Rong said, "Mr. Chu, I need to leave for a while."

Chu Wushang asked, "How long have you been gone?"

Duan Rong said, "I don't know. About a few years. It's about cultivation."

Chu Wushang nodded. Duan Rong confirmed that the medium was miasma, and only the Miao villages in the deep mountains of the Nine Provinces had miasma that lingered all year round.

After Duan Rong finished speaking, he clasped his hands in a salute to Chu Wushang and Wei Yan, and then transformed into a streak of black light and disappeared.

Chu Wushang stood there, not stopping Duan Rong from leaving. The patriarch, Lü Yinlin, hadn't instructed him to take Duan Rong there as soon as he finished his cultivation. Perhaps even Lü Yinlin himself hadn't expected that Duan Rong would leave the sect immediately after completing his cultivation in the valley.

Chu Wushang stood atop the mountain, his expression solemn, his eyes still reflecting a deep contemplation.

Wei Yan glanced at him and said, "He already said he can't figure it out or explain it. What are you still thinking about?"

Upon hearing this, Chu Wushang glared at Wei Yan and said coldly, "What do you know?!"

After Chu Wushang finished speaking, he transformed into a streak of black light and disappeared.

Wei Yan was so angry that he jumped up and down, spat on the ground, and said, "You don't even understand birds!"

Duan Rong flew away from the valley and returned to the Lü family residence. He bid farewell to Xiao Yu and Lü Qingzhu and then left the sect. During the three or four months of cultivation in the valley, Duan Rong often returned to the Lü family residence at night. However, he would often go into the dense forest in the middle of the night to devour the spirits of ancient trees to replenish the tree spirits consumed in his spiritual sea of ​​consciousness. Afterward, he would wait on the altar to begin a new day of cultivation.

To Duan Rong's surprise and delight, the first level of the Great Vajra Mandala technique, from the twenty-second to the twenty-fifth level, could actually increase his spiritual power by two levels.

This was something Duan Rong hadn't anticipated.

It seems that tens of thousands of years ago, Master Ci'en of the Faxiang School chose to hand over the first twenty-one levels of the cultivation method because the Great Vajra Mandala cultivation method underwent a qualitative improvement starting from the twenty-second level.

Because the further you go, the more difficult it becomes to improve your mental strength.

Having reached the twenty-first level, one's divine soul is already quite powerful. At this point, one must advance to the next level, and the actual increase in power would be terrifying.

However, the Great Vajra Mandala, with its four levels from the twenty-second to the twenty-fifth, allows each level to increase one's spiritual power by two levels.

All I can say is, it's terrifying.

Duan Rong had tried before. He couldn't even devour the spirit of a statue with four thousand years of incense offerings, but with his current level of spiritual power, he could devour the spirit of a statue with ten thousand years of incense offerings.

The reason he was so eager to leave the sect was that he wanted to see just how far this artifact spirit, which had been absorbing incense offerings for ten thousand years, could help him grow. Advance to the Nascent Soul stage!?
Perhaps it can reach the late stage of Nascent Soul?
Upon thinking of this, Duan Rong suddenly dismissed his unnecessary thoughts. He had seen the spirits of ancient statues and artifacts in the deep mountains of the Miao village, which had been incense burning for thousands of years. Although he couldn't devour them, he remembered that the devouring effect seemed to contain the words "power of laws".

But he had forgotten what it was exactly, because at that time, the spirit of the statue with ten thousand years of incense offerings was still very far away from him. He couldn't even devour the spirit of the statue with four thousand years of incense offerings.

However, anything related to the power of laws is unlikely to reach the late Nascent Soul stage. This is because the Nascent Soul realm is no longer governed by the power of laws. The power of laws is a power attribute of the Cavern Realm.

High in the sky, Duan Rong flew like a shooting star towards the moon, heading towards the deep mountains of the Miao village.

At 9:00 AM, he suddenly stopped abruptly at a certain point in the sky.

This place is over a thousand miles away from the deep mountains of the Miao village.

Duan Rong stopped here because the area below was familiar to him.

Tongbai Mountain, Guanhe River.

The Guanhe River flows mightily, passing through the Tongbai Mountains and crashing against the banks.

Duan Rong stopped because he remembered that there was a Dragon King statue at the bottom of the Guan River that had been worshipped for four thousand years. At that time, he had explored the statue, but because his spiritual power was not yet able to devour the spirit of the statue that had been worshipped for four thousand years, he had to give up.

But now that we've come this far, we should make up for the regrets of the past.

It was the hour of Si (9-11 AM) in the morning. Duan Rong, worried that there might be people on both sides of the riverbank, transformed into a wisp of green smoke and descended from the sky, flying towards the turbulent Guanhe River that was crashing against the bank between the two mountain peaks.

Duan Rong remembered that the Dragon King statue was located between those two mountain peaks.

A wisp of smoke disappeared into the rushing river, without even a splash.

Duan Rong was enveloped in the power of laws. As soon as he reached the river surface, he released his divine sense to cover the surrounding area and instantly locked onto the Dragon King statue buried deep in the mud and sand at the bottom of the river.

Duan Rong appeared at the bottom of the dark river, his body surging with the power of laws. He could pass through mountains and rivers, let alone mud and sand. He reached out and placed his palm on the Dragon King statue.

The moment he pressed down, the power of law in his palm vanished, and a slippery, damp sensation came from his palm. Duan Rong thought to himself, "Reading the spirit."

The next moment, deep in the dark mud and sand of the riverbed, a set of data gleaming with an eerie light appeared before Duan Rong's eyes.

Artifact: Stone statue of the Dragon King

Spirit Rank: 23

Absorption Requirements: Host's mental strength is at level 23 (met)
Devouring effect: Four thousand years of incense offerings (deeply comprehend the complex laws of time).

Duan Rong looked at the data panel in front of him and thought to himself, "Devouring the spirit."

After the data panel in front of him disappeared and collapsed, Duan Rong raised his hand and turned into a wisp of green smoke that shot out of the rushing river.

The strange wisp of blue smoke emerged from the river, but instead of shooting directly into the sky, it flew diagonally into the depths of the Tongbai Mountains.

The wisps of smoke whistled through the mountains and forests, moving with ghostly speed, and soon arrived at a cliff face. There was a cave on the cliff face, and the wisps of smoke shot into the cave.

Duan Rong revealed himself inside the cave.

He had previously devoured a spirit in Tongbai County, and then carved out a cave deep in this mountain range to cultivate and digest the spirit. Now that he has come here again, he wants to digest and absorb the spirit of the Dragon King statue he just devoured in this old place.

As soon as Duan Rong entered the cave, he smelled a strange odor. He probed with his divine sense and found that there was a lot of feces and falcon feathers deep in the cave.

It seems that the cave he carved has become an eagle's nest.

"This guy knows how to pick a spot!" Duan Rong wasn't surprised. He chuckled and sat cross-legged near the cave entrance.

The moment he sat down, a force of law struck the entrance of the cave, and a cliff face appeared at the entrance, seamlessly merging with the original cliff face outside.

In the darkness, Duan Rong sat down and began to focus on the spirit of the Dragon King statue he had just devoured. As the spirit digested the artifact, some of the complex and varied power of the laws of time dissipated.

But this is all normal. Since it is a mixture of laws, it may not all correspond to the seventy-nine laws within his cave. The laws that do not correspond will naturally dissipate.

Sure enough, after some of it dissipated, the power of the laws entered his cavern and was absorbed by it.

The familiar cultivation scene reappeared.

Duan Rong felt somewhat relieved and quietly began to digest and absorb the information.

Suddenly, a cry of an eagle rang out from the valley outside the cliff, and a dark shadow flew into the valley like a dark cloud, circling around the cliff for a while.

After circling around for a while, the eagle landed on a huge rock somewhere, its iron-hook-like talons gripping a python whose belly had been pecked open.

The eagle perched on a giant rock, its eyes scanning the cliff face and then the valley. It was puzzled. Where was its nest?

The eagle, being an animal after all, paused for a moment, then devoured half of the python on the giant rock, before grabbing the other half of the python's carcass and flying away.

More than twenty days later, just as the first hint of dawn appeared in the eastern sky, and the tranquil valley was still shrouded in darkness, a figure suddenly leaped out from the cliff and shot straight into the sky towards the southeast.

That figure was Duan Rong, who had finished digesting and absorbing the spirit of the Dragon King statue. In the past twenty days, the power of more than ten laws in his mind's eye had increased to varying degrees.

That morning, Duan Rong flew into the deep mountains of the Miao village.

Duan Rong had already planned it out. He decided to start by devouring the spirit of the statue that had been burning incense for four thousand years. Once the four-thousand-year-old spirit could no longer increase the power of the laws within the cave, he would then devour the spirit of the five-thousand-year-old statue.

This is because it's not the same cultivation as before; these are artifact spirits that are one to three thousand years old. Such artifact spirits are practically everywhere in the deep mountains and villages of the Miao people.

However, as time goes by, the older the statue or artifact, the rarer it becomes.

In the Miao village forest, Duan Rong only saw one ancient statue spirit that was ten thousand years old. Of course, the Miao village forest was very large, and Duan Rong only explored a corner of it. However, he could not know how many ancient statue spirits there were.

Therefore, consuming in sequence will not result in waste.

Although searching and exploring is somewhat troublesome, it's still better than being consumed by chaos. (End of Chapter)