There's something wrong with me

Chapter 202: Successfully Deciphering Nascent Soul

The Emperor pondered, also looking at the State Preceptor beside him who had his eyes slightly closed, and said respectfully:

"Master, is there really such a person in this world? Someone who can achieve Spiritual Sense deployment covering an area of twenty li?

You have read many ancient texts; within the past few thousand years, has there been such a Gold Core person?

Could Mr. Wujiao, Zuo Ci the Heavenly Master Zuo, achieve this when they reached Gold Core Consummation?"

"This..."

The State Preceptor thought for a moment and gave this answer,

"As a monk, I do not lie. Answering Your Majesty, this old monk does not know.

But I do know that during the Battle of Chibi, Heavenly Master Zuo was able to borrow the East Wind for Marquis Wu Zhuge, burning Cao Cao's tens of thousands of talisman warships and tens of thousands of cultivators."

When the State Preceptor spoke of this matter, his heart felt regret.

Because that battle burned away the foundation of a large number of cultivators and instantly destroyed many sects with single lineage inheritances, creating a cultivation gap in the world.

Heavenly Master Zuo also regretted that matter deeply and finally cut off his heart and passed away.

Otherwise, with Heavenly Master Zuo's thousand-year lifespan, he could have lived until now.

At this very moment, it was only a little over four hundred years since the Three Kingdoms period.

Zhang Family Head was born in the late Three Kingdoms period and was also a survivor.

At that time, it was a world-shattering great war, similar to severing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, a duel between great cultivators that 'cut off the path of cultivation for later generations'.

Cultivators who could step into the Nascent Soul stage, such as Marquis Wu Zhuge Liang and the Great Teacher of Virtue Zhang Jiao, all died during that period.

Among them, the most mysterious method of borrowing lifespan with the Seven Star Lamp was also cut off at that time.

But it was precisely Zhuge Liang's Seven Star Lamp, that secret method of borrowing heavenly lifespan, that caused cultivators to flourish during that period.

In the early Three Kingdoms period, there was actually only Foundation Establishment.

It was Zhuge Liang and a group of cultivators who deduced the Gold Core.

Because 'borrowing lifespan' itself is modifying DNA telomeres, and through telomere modification, deducing the Gold Core is a natural occurrence.

Zuo Ci, on the other hand, borrowed from Mr. Zhuangzi's "Carefree Wandering" and achieved enlightenment in a single day, stepping into the Nascent Soul stage.

Zuo Ci's thought, like Carefree Wandering, was all about pursuing freedom and transcending the mundane world.

But although the cultivator inheritance at that time was cut off, the aftermath of the great war also carved out the territory of Great Xia, sweeping away the foreign races on the entire Eastern Continent.

That is why the Shang Dynasty possessed eight hundred cities, basically spread throughout the entire Eastern Continent.

These are secret histories.

They were compiled by the State Preceptor from historical documents.

"Even Master doesn't know?"

But the Emperor knew that the State Preceptor was knowledgeable about astronomy and geography, and understood much about matters from ancient times to the present.

Usually, if there were any cultivation problems, the State Preceptor could easily help him understand them.

But now, just asking a very ordinary question about Spiritual Sense deployment, the State Preceptor couldn't give a definite answer?

'The State Preceptor actually doesn't understand?' The two people in the hall were actually also curious about the State Preceptor's answer.

And at this moment, when they heard the State Preceptor's words, they instantly realized, just like the Emperor, that this Qingshan Daoren could no longer be judged by common sense.

At this moment, the main hall was somewhat quiet.

The three, including the Emperor, were astonished in their hearts, and the more they thought about it, the more they felt that this Qingshan Daoren was somewhat 'monstrous'.

The State Preceptor, on the other hand, was filled with anticipation, feeling that this young world-shattering prodigy might be able to reverse-engineer the secret of the Nascent Soul.

He even prepared to go to the national treasury to retrieve the original copy of "Carefree Wandering".

Although he also knew it might not be very useful, because everyone's thoughts are different; Heavenly Master Zuo could gain enlightenment from the book, but this prodigy might not.

Furthermore, this book was truly just an ordinary book, an ordinary original copy of Carefree Wandering.

But since this prodigy possessed such 'terrifying strength', what else in the world could he possibly care about?

The State Preceptor couldn't think of anything, and also felt that perhaps only this somewhat legendary book might make this prodigy look at it with high regard?

"Your Majesty, may this old monk retrieve the book?"

The State Preceptor thought of it and immediately acted, looking at the Emperor at this moment, "This old monk wishes to borrow the miraculous book 'Carefree Wandering' and visit Qingshan Dao Friend in Heng City."

"Master!" The Emperor, who usually agreed to everything the State Preceptor asked, did not immediately agree this time, but instead said cautiously:

"Qingshan Daoren has such strength, Master... do you want to see him? Safety..."

"Qingshan Dao Friend is definitely not an evil person." The State Preceptor said with certainty, "Look, in the past few decades, we have never heard the name of Qingshan Daoren.

And a few days ago, Qingshan Daoren emerged from the mountains and prayed for rain and blessings for the people.

Such a person must be a virtuous and highly accomplished individual!"

'That's true...' The Emperor, reminded by the State Preceptor, also recalled the rumors about Qingshan Daoren, which these two had also brought back.

Roughly, Qingshan Daoren had been living in seclusion in a mountain village and teaching the villagers cultivation methods.

These were all 'people he had never met', yet Qingshan Daoren taught them without discrimination.

Such great virtue and great kindness indeed matched what the State Preceptor said.

Even if this Qingshan Daoren had some ulterior selfish motive and wanted to use this to gain fame or something else, the deeds themselves were good deeds.

'Judging by deeds, not by heart' is the reality of what is happening now.

It's like a person who thinks about dominating the universe every day, destroying and absorbing all civilizations, but what he is doing now is the good deed of praying for rain for the people; then this person must be a great philanthropist, a truly virtuous and highly accomplished individual.

This is beyond dispute.

And so.

The State Preceptor didn't delay, and the Emperor didn't stop him.

Soon, the State Preceptor took the book and headed towards Heng City, preparing to invite Qingshan Daoren Zhang Feng to the imperial court.

The Emperor even thought of a title for him in a short moment: 'Teacher of the World'.

It wouldn't count as a rank, because everyone in the entire court would be his disciples.

The Emperor was very resourceful; he felt that a rank was too common, but the official position of Teacher of the World was quite good.

...

While the State Preceptor was on his way.

Heng City.

After Zhang Feng finished organizing the cultivation data here, he went to the lakeside on the third day to see his lovely fiancée.

Arriving above the lakeside.

Looking from afar in the sky, after seeing her diligently cultivating, Zhang Feng did not disturb her.

He strengthened the array again.

After Zhang Feng glanced at her a few more times, he left.

And now, Zhang Feng felt that he was probably 'stuck deep in the mud' of the swamp of love.

Because he would think about her when he had nothing to do, wanted to see her, and then actually came over to see her.

This itself was not right.

Then, from another perspective, Little Carp loved him so much, yet under his coldness, she couldn't see him for several decades along the way.

He really didn't know how she endured it.

No wonder when she saw him at that time, she was like a consort in the cold palace, with deep resentment, speaking with the tone of a consort from a palace drama.

Thinking to himself.

Zhang Feng turned back to the lakeside, increased his magic power again, and set up the largest restriction array within his capabilities.

This would ensure that when he left, his fiancée would not be disturbed by others.

Unless the other party's realm was higher than his.

But according to the recorded data, as well as the words of the Prefect and others in the past few days, and the words of some cultivators in the city.

Zhang Feng was certain that he should be first, because the 'non-mainline top ten tasks' mentioned in the text were completed more than ten years ago.

Now that his strength had increased several times, if he still wasn't first, then there was a problem.

However, cultivators have lifespans of several hundred years.

His knowledge of lifespan was also relatively weakened.

Perhaps when he reached other higher worlds with figures who were several thousand years old, he might be at a disadvantage.

Precisely because of this, Zhang Feng cared greatly about the collection of big data and the establishment of a cosmic empire.

Because these crystallizations of the wisdom of all living beings and civilizations might be something others didn't have.

The reason why humans are humans, not rigid machines.

Is that humans can create their own strengths even when they lack them.

Thinking.

Zhang Feng also completed the arrangement of the array.

Looking through various spiritual eyes, on this gigantic array covering the entire lakeside, structures of multiple attributes were mixed together.

And in the mutual generation of attributes, gathering wind first converged the elemental attributes between heaven and earth.

Then, gathering gold and gathering water were combined to enhance the water attribute.

After enhancement, by analogy, gathering water generated gathering wood.

Wood generates fire, fire generates earth.

Gathering earth finally transformed earth into yin earth according to Lin Daoyou's corpse dissolution method from the Warlord world, condensing into 'Sha' type techniques.

This also caused all talismans to input vast spiritual energy into 'Sha'.

Sha energy primarily governs 'yin attribute' killing, which is difficult to guard against and eerie.

Zhang Feng also had a deep understanding of Sha energy, and now used it as his main attack.

The yang attribute, on the other hand, was 'Thunder'.

Extremely strong and extremely yang, he could also use the fire attribute to try and generate thunder, but he wasn't very proficient.

Moreover, his fiancée was water inclined towards the yin attribute, and even more so, a gentle and weak little girl who was half a step into the Gold Core stage; how could he protect her with the yang attribute Heavenly Gang Righteous Thunder method?

That was for eliminating demons, not protecting them.

He didn't know Yin Thunder yet, and hadn't studied related knowledge.

Thinking to himself, when he saw that everything was in order.

Zhang Feng sat on a cloud, recovering his spiritual energy while watching his fiancée under the water.

"Gurgle gurgle..." She would occasionally blow bubbles in the water, but shortly after, she transformed into the appearance of a graceful woman and looked up at the sky.

At the same time, a clear and ethereal voice came from under the water,

"I sensed the array fluctuation, husband, is that you back?"

'...' The single word "husband" almost made Zhang Feng fall off the cloud; wasn't calling him that before getting married a bit inappropriate?

At least for this era, it seemed a bit inconsistent with traditional etiquette.

If it were modern times, it would be casual.

Just the address 'wife', Zhang Feng thought about it for several seconds but couldn't bring himself to call her that.

"Yes, just reinforcing the array."

Zhang Feng ultimately chose the cold persona of a cultivation master, "Cultivate with peace of mind, do not be distracted..."

He hadn't finished speaking.

Splash—

The water surface rippled open, using the water flow as a ladder upwards, Little Carp happily rushed towards Zhang Feng.

The moment Zhang Feng saw Little Carp, perhaps it was the difference in status, or perhaps it was the long period of contemplating love, causing the fake to become real through the Visualization of Spiritual Mind.

For a moment, Zhang Feng looked at the rushing Little Carp, watching the soft light of her clothes in the water mist, and paused.

Not until Little Carp, looking as if she had gotten her way, flew up to the hundred-meter-high cloud and threw herself into Zhang Feng's arms.

Only then did Zhang Feng realize that he had just been ambushed under the spell of love.

"Husband!" Little Carp lifted her head from Zhang Feng's embrace and looked at his face, her large eyes full of confusion. "Did you miss me?"

How should he answer this question?

Zhang Feng felt very awkward and swept his Spiritual Sense across a radius of twenty miles. Only when he saw that there were no Opening Spirit people or animals nearby did he nod.

"Yes."

Zhang Feng didn't know what else to say, but he felt her body was so cold.

"Are you very cold?"

After saying that, Zhang Feng really wanted to hit himself. What kind of questions were these?

She was a water-attribute spiritual energy, so she was bound to be cold.

"Husband, you are so warm." Little Carp, however, didn't mind the grammatical errors, or rather, she didn't care at all. She just quietly held Zhang Feng like this.

A few seconds later, she suddenly buried her little head in Zhang Feng's embrace again and said cautiously, "Husband, don't leave me anymore. I missed you so much."

'It's over.' This thought flashed through Zhang Feng's mind.

Because for a moment, he really didn't want to leave.

Even now, the thought of 'not wanting to leave' was circling in his mind.

And when the sweetness of love arose in him, his inner demon was no longer infinitely suppressed, but completely disappeared.

The previous affection was not yet love; only this unconscious surrender now was the true completion of emotion.

Then the problem arose.

Love was something more terrifying than the inner demon.

At least when the inner demon was present, he didn't care; he could still cultivate while dealing with it.

But this love...

Zhang Feng looked at the quiet Little Carp in his arms, looking at the happy smile on her face.

How could he go back and cultivate like this?

He had to find a way.

...

In the end, Zhang Feng still left.

He used spiritual energy illusion techniques to replace his real body and extricated himself from her embrace.

When she reacted, she pouted her little mouth angrily again.

Zhang Feng was already twenty miles away.

Then, looking at her sadness from afar, Zhang Feng was actually reluctant to leave, and his heart ached faintly. It was a real physical and illusory pain.

The physical pain was proof from experiments that a person's heart really hurts when they are in love.

But the illusory heartache, amidst the sorrow of such a separation in love...

Perhaps Zhang Feng, in the true sense, had gathered all seven souls, and at this moment, he truly felt the existence of the 'soul'.

It was truly a substance that belonged to oneself but could not be observed.

It clearly existed in the heart and could be felt.

But it just couldn't be observed.

Only the Gold Core, which also belonged to the fourth dimension, seemed to see the soul fluctuating in his heart.

In this large-scale emotional fluctuation, and in the completion of the seven souls' emotions...

The Gold Core was combining with the soul.

The talisman structure belonging to the Gold Core was also slowly changing in subtle ways.

Zhang Feng knew that when it finished changing, it should be the legendary 'Nascent Soul' realm.

And in the remaining time, if he could break through, Zhang Feng felt it would be normal, because he had actually been cultivating his mind for hundreds of years.

A sudden enlightenment, one step to Gold Core, followed by Nascent Soul.

Both were in the fourth dimension, inherently of the same origin in terms of dimension, making interconnected breakthroughs easy to achieve.

If he didn't break through, Zhang Feng also felt it would be normal; after all, it was all accumulating foundation.

Zhang Feng's true goal was not the level of his realm, but rather how far his knowledge of spell structure could go within the realm he could reach.

Just like now, even if he only had Qi Refining, as long as he was given a certain amount of time, he could still achieve 'calling wind and summoning rain' within a 'three-mile radius'.

And by using this 'calling wind and summoning rain' formation, he could then hand it over to the Data Center.

It could not only be made into a weather weapon to improve the weather in a certain area.

It could even be further optimized to create better spells, or deepen their effect, ultimately indirectly deepening his own knowledge base.

The more foundation he had, the more talismans and cultivation realms he could deduce.

This was his true strength, a strength that could be taken to various worlds and applied to his real body.

As he pondered, Zhang Feng felt his mood improve greatly, and the sadness of love also lessened significantly.

It seemed that learning was the nemesis of love.

Zhang Feng suddenly also thought of a saying, 'A beautiful woman may not be yours, but the knowledge you learn is certainly your own.'

Zhang Feng felt this saying was quite good. Then, seeing his fiancée return to the water and being protected by his formation, he also left this place with peace of mind.

Because now, his beautiful fiancée was truly his own.

...

Just as he arrived at Heng City, Zhang Feng discovered that there was a great cultivator in the prefecture.

Looking from afar, it was the State Preceptor.

Zhang Feng knew him, because his image described by some cultivators was completely similar to this 'old abbot' wearing a袈裟 (kasaya).

Moreover, Zhang Feng had also investigated his background.

He was actually a Buddhist, but he also cultivated the path of cultivation.

Buddhism was also where he joined before cultivating.

Afterward, he had no intention of distinguishing his identity, so he allowed Buddhism to use his name to build large temples everywhere.

This was also considered repaying some 'karma'.

Because it was after joining Buddhism that he left the mortal world and came into contact with cultivation.

Theoretically, this was a great karma.

But in reality, he should have only a superficial understanding of some Buddhist doctrines.

After all, there was no Heavenly Dao in this world, so karma didn't exist.

But such adherence to his original intention and not forgetting his roots also made him a good person.

While contemplating, Zhang Feng flashed into the mansion.

At this moment.

The State Preceptor was standing in the main hall, holding an 'invitation' and a copy of 'Zhuangzi (逍遥游)'.

Beside him were three accompanying Gold Core cultivators, as well as the Prefect and others.

"Greetings, Senior Zhang!"

At the same time, the three cultivators and the Prefect and others, seeing Zhang Feng approaching, all bowed in unison.

The State Preceptor, however, suddenly froze, just standing there stiffly.

Zhang Feng glanced at him and saw that the invitation was inviting him to the court three days later, while the copy of 'Zhuangzi' was useless.

As for the State Preceptor's sudden freezing and his cautiousness, not daring to speak.

Zhang Feng also found it normal.

Because when his Gold Core and soul were merging, his aura was unstable.

The State Preceptor was also an ultimate master at the peak of Gold Core, capable of capturing a trace of his aura.

Therefore, it was inevitable that he would be afraid.

This was like a crushing force from a higher being upon a lower being.

The feeling it brought to the State Preceptor was a great terror from the spiritual level.

The State Preceptor was indeed feeling this way at this moment, not daring to move rashly, nor daring to perform a conventional greeting.

Even though he knew it was wrong not to greet, he just couldn't move.

To put it figuratively, Zhang Feng and his current state were like an ant seeing a person on a ground without small holes, and the person also saw the ant.

If this person wanted to step on this ant, the ant would definitely not be able to escape.

Then the ant's instinct would be to 'stay still' and 'play dead'.

And Zhang Feng was now this 'higher-dimensional person'.

In terms of science fiction, this was a 'higher-dimensional' attack.

In terms of Xianxia, this high-dimensional aura, which was also 'Dao Yun', was the leakage of the Heavenly Dao rule talisman's aura.

For example, when immortals preach the Dao, their Dao field is filled with Dao Yun.

At this moment, in Zhang Feng's opinion, it should be a 'partial unfolding' of the higher dimension upon the lower dimension.

If someone could see the higher-dimensional unfolding and comprehend the Dao Yun (talismans), then it was normal for their strength to increase relatively.

While contemplating.

Zhang Feng also looked at the cautious State Preceptor, this number one cultivator in the world. He seemed to have seen some of his Dao Yun, but he couldn't comprehend it.

Because his knowledge was too vast, the entire human civilization's foundation, like the vast warehouse of the Data Center, resembling the 'Heavenly Court'.

Plus the knowledge conclusions of all researchers, and the unified system of the people of the world.

It was like 'the shining stars of real humanity'.

Normal people couldn't read it clearly.

"Depart in three days."

Seeing that he couldn't see clearly, Zhang Feng didn't want to say more and went back to his seclusion.

However, the Prefect and others, seeing the State Preceptor so cautious and fearful, were a bit curious and even more confused.

As fellow peak Gold Core cultivators, and with the State Preceptor being the former number one in the world, he shouldn't be so afraid of Senior Zhang, right?

He didn't even dare to say a greeting?

Although they couldn't deny that Senior Zhang was very strong.

But in the eyes of the Prefect and others, Senior Zhang was gentle and amiable, without any oppressive aura.

Especially since Senior Zhang had already left now.

The State Preceptor still maintained his cautious stance.

They were very strange.

It wasn't until Zhang Feng had been gone for a while that the State Preceptor slowly relaxed.

Everyone was also strange, so they used Spiritual Sense to transmit their voices to each other and asked:

'Lord State Preceptor, is there something different about Senior Zhang?'

'Yes, Senior Wu...'

They asked curiously, and also knowing that the State Preceptor was kind, they dared to inquire like this.

At the same time, the Prefect was also puzzled,

'State Preceptor! This humble official sees that Senior Zhang has a gentle and pleasant demeanor, and when this humble official was near Senior Zhang, I also felt a sense of closeness and naturalness. Why are you... like this?'

'Alas...' The State Preceptor sighed slightly in response to everyone's questions.

'You are only at Foundation Establishment and early Gold Core, not yet at peak Gold Core, so naturally you cannot sense Senior Zhang's aura, which is why you feel close to Senior Zhang.

However, when this old monk observes Senior Zhang, what he sees are strands of unclear Dao Yun, and the celestial beings formed by the Dao Yun filling the sky.'