Junior sister, I really need to control you

Mu Xiaoyu raised the black stone in her hand, and the poisonous miasma and white fog in front of her dispersed further.

"Indeed, this black stone has the effect of suppressing poisonous miasma."

After thinking for a moment, Li Yinsheng walked to Mu Xiaoyu's side and gently patted her shoulder: "Let's go in and take a look together, and continue following the scent of peach blossoms."

As he spoke, a large cloud of yellow smoke billowed out of the brass incense burner, enveloping him and his junior sister.

Although this black stone can dispel poisonous miasma, it's still better to be prepared for both possibilities.

However, the unexpected event he had guarded against did not occur. After letting his junior sister continue searching for the peach blossom fragrance, they ventured deeper into the white mist, but the black stone possessed a remarkable ability to suppress the poisonous miasma.

Within a radius of one zhang (approximately 3.3 meters) centered on it, not a trace of poisonous miasma could exist.

After a stick of incense had burned, Li Yinsheng and Mu Xiaoyu suddenly felt their vision clear as the white mist vanished without warning.

Mu Xiaoyu was startled, but Li Yinsheng remained calm.

Unlike the black stone, this white mist could not completely block divine sense, so he kept his divine sense fully open while walking through it.

Therefore, he was very clear about what was happening around him and the path they had taken.

Despite understanding the situation clearly, he was still quite surprised by what he saw.

At this moment, he and his junior sister were in a mountain gorge. Sunlight shone in from the top of the gorge, so it was not dark.

At the end of the canyon stands a peach tree that is as thick as two people can hug, but less than two zhang tall, covered with peach blossoms, and the stream at their feet flows around the tree.

The peach tree, whether it is its trunk, leaves or blossoms, is scattered with a faint fluorescent glow, making it look quite extraordinary.

In front of the peach tree, there is a stone altar, and to the side of the altar stands a stone tablet.

Li Yinsheng looked up and saw that the stone tablet was inscribed with ancient characters that he couldn't understand at all.

Moreover, both the stone altar and the stone tablet clearly show signs of age.

"There really are peach trees..."

Mu Xiaoyu also sensed something was wrong, and subconsciously took two more steps closer to her senior brother, grabbing the hem of his clothes.

"Senior brother, something's strange here."

Li Yinsheng explored the surroundings with his divine sense and found that apart from the peach tree, the offering table, and the stone tablet, this place was just an ordinary canyon with nothing else.

He carefully recalled the knowledge in his mind, and suddenly a flash of inspiration struck him.

The Xuanzhen Temple's Sutra Repository contains many records of experiences and observations left by predecessors over the past few hundred years. Some are personal experiences from their travels, some were exchanged from other Taoist temples, and some are even hearsay.

When Li Yinsheng felt tired from his cultivation over the years, he would read these records of his experiences as a way to relax.

Therefore, from a certain perspective, he could be considered erudite, but he himself did not know how much of this knowledge was true, how much was exaggerated, or how much was fabricated.

Anyway, he just read it as a story for fun, and didn't care whether it was true or false.

And what he saw before him now happened to match a record he had read.

"A hidden place, inhabited by spirits, with an altar before the spirit, and a stele in front of the altar..."

Li Yinsheng asked in surprise, "Could this be a sacrificial spirit left behind by the legendary ancient cultivators?"

"Spirit offering?" Mu Xiaoyu asked curiously. "Senior brother, what is spirit offering? And what are ancient cultivators?"

Li Yinsheng organized his thoughts and began to explain.

"The cultivation world has a long history, numerous sects and traditions, and the path of cultivation has evolved many times. Therefore, the current cultivation methods are quite different from those of ancient times."

"Most cultivators in the world practice the mainstream methods of today. But those ancient methods from who knows how many years ago have not all been lost."

"Therefore, those cultivators from ancient times were called ancient cultivators."

"But there are also a very small number of cultivators who still practice using ancient methods in this era."

Mu Xiaoyu seemed to understand but not quite: "Then, senior brother, are modern cultivators more powerful, or are ancient cultivators more powerful?"

"Is that even a question?" Li Yinsheng shrugged. "If ancient cultivators were so powerful, why were they such a small minority?"

"That's true." Mu Xiaoyu nodded.

"However, I don't know much about ancient methods..."

At this point, Li Yinsheng mentally complained, "And all the information comes from those idle chatter and anecdotes within the sect."

"Then what was this spirit sacrifice you mentioned earlier, senior brother?" Mu Xiaoyu asked again.

"Although the ancient method is not as good as the current method, which is why it was eliminated, it was the mainstream cultivation method in ancient times. It has been developed for countless years and still has some advantages."

"Therefore, there are still some cultivators in the world who practice ancient methods."

“These cultivators are few in number, and even fewer like-minded people, making it even more difficult to find suitable successors,” Li Yinsheng explained. “Therefore, unlike modern cultivators who value the master-disciple lineage, ancient cultivators prefer to leave their legacy and opportunities in various places.”

"If you encounter a cultivator who has inherited these opportunities, you may be able to obtain the methods of ancient cultivation from them."

Li Yinsheng shook his head and said, "However, it is said that many of the ancient cultivation methods are not very useful to modern cultivators. They are like chicken bones, with only a very few being relatively practical."

"Moreover, compared to current cultivation methods, the ancient cultivation path does not place as much emphasis on innate talent, but rather on fate and destiny."

"Fate?" Mu Xiaoyu asked, puzzled.

“For example, this peach tree in front of you is one of the ways that ancient cultivators passed down their knowledge, called ‘spirit worship’.”

Li Yinsheng pointed to the peach tree: "It contains the legacy left by ancient cultivators. The cultivation method is called 'Ancient Method,' and the spell is called 'Ancient Spell.'"

"As long as you offer sacrifices, you may receive the inheritance."

"Maybe?" Mu Xiaoyu grasped the key point.

"Uh... according to the ancient texts I've read, well, the texts record that ancient cultivators placed more emphasis on fate and destiny, so the more expensive the offerings for spirit worship, the better..."

"The offerings required for spirit worship are extremely varied and there is no pattern to them. Only by offering the right offerings can one obtain the ancient methods or techniques."

Mu Xiaoyu looked surprised: "Wouldn't that mean we'd have to try them one by one, for a very long time?"

Li Yinsheng shook his head: "The number of times you can offer sacrifices is limited. If you offer too many sacrifices and still can't find suitable ones, then the tradition in the spirit will disappear."

"Huh? But didn't the ancient cultivators leave behind sacrificial spirits to leave behind a legacy? Can this really be left behind?" Mu Xiaoyu's face was full of "I don't understand".

"That's why I say the ancient cultivators paid more attention to fate and destiny," Li Yinsheng shrugged.

"I guess according to their thinking, if they have worshipped the spirits until the lineage disappears, then it means that the person who comes in is not a suitable successor."

Mu Xiaoyu was dumbfounded.

"So, there's a reason why ancient techniques are almost lost and ancient cultivators are on the verge of extinction," Li Yinsheng said, patting her head.

Mu Xiaoyu nodded in agreement.

She immediately looked disappointed: "Does that mean that we've finally found this place, but we might not get anything at all?"

If the offerings are unsuitable, the spirit will disappear after several attempts.

Even if the offerings are suitable, the ancient cultivator's legacy might not be useful.

This is just a case of giving people false hope!

Li Yinsheng wasn't too disappointed; he was more puzzled.

Although the thick white miasma can block divine sense to some extent, its effect on the divine sense of a true person is rather limited.

This small hill is not far from Xuanzhen Peak. Over the years, it seems that no one has ever discovered it.

Ordinary disciples cannot penetrate the poisonous miasma with their divine sense, nor are they skilled enough to move within it, so they may not be able to come here.

But Xuanzhen Temple has produced many true masters over the past few hundred years. Didn't the predecessors explore the area around their own home?

However, thinking about it, he was also a real person. If his junior sister hadn't obtained that black stone from the brain of that black-scaled python, and hadn't been able to smell the peach blossom fragrance that he couldn't smell, then he, as a real person, wouldn't have been able to find this place.

He doesn't seem to have much right to criticize his seniors.

That being said, from a certain perspective, Mu Shimei's nose could probably be considered a kind of innate talent, right?

How can someone who can smell things that even real people can't smell not be considered to have innate talent?

Unfortunately, this talent is of little use for cultivation, or rather, for improving one's cultivation level.

Chapter 47 Ancient Technique: Dragon and Tiger Devouring the Earth

Before the ancient peach offering ceremony, Li Yinsheng looked at the stone offering table and stroked his chin.

Although according to the records in the Xuanzhen Temple, even if the correct offerings are made to the spirits, the ancient methods and techniques obtained may still be of little use.

But since we're already here, there's no harm in giving it a try.

However, the offerings are related to fate and have no set rules. So what offerings should be made?

"Junior sister," he said after a moment's thought, "why don't you try putting that stone up there?"

Mu Xiaoyu nodded and placed the strange black stone she had been holding onto the altar.

The peach tree swayed slightly, and the faint fluorescent light surrounding it dimmed a bit.

There are no further changes.

"Hmm?" Li Yinsheng was somewhat surprised. "Could it be that this stone is not the correct offering?"

He asked his junior sister to take the black stone back, pondered for a moment, then took out a Taoist scripture from his Qiankun bag and placed it on the offering table.

The spiritual light emanating from the ancient peach spirit dimmed slightly once again.

Li Yinsheng retrieved the Daoist scriptures.

According to the ancient records, practitioners of the temple valued the concept of affinity. If one could not offer the correct offerings after multiple attempts, it would prove that the person had no affinity, and the lineage would disappear on its own.

"Judging from the changes in this sacrificial spirit, it seems that as long as the offering is wrong once, the spiritual light on its body will dim a bit. I estimate that when the spiritual light completely dissipates, the inheritance inside will also disappear."

"Our predecessors were right; this spirit-offering ritual probably won't last many times."

He shook his head, but there wasn't much disappointment in his tone.

In any case, most of the legacies left behind by ancient cultivators are not considered good things and may not be truly practical.

In terms of the transmission of cultivation methods or spells, the Xuanzhen Temple's scripture pavilion can be described as all-encompassing.

This ancient peach offering was a chance encounter; the ancient cultivation tradition within it is neither something to be overjoyed by, nor something to be saddened by.

Since he had no psychological burden, Li Yinsheng was too lazy to dwell on anything. Seeing that the black stone and the Daoist scripture were both wrong, he took out a few items he carried with him from his Qiankun bag and put them on.

First, there was a yellow talisman obtained from someone's Qiankun bag at Huanghe Temple.