Chapter 859
Innate Spiritual Eyes, 4th-Order Puppet
On the rippling Crescent Lake, dozens of Qi Refining cultivators, armed with weapons, piloted small boats, their faces tense as they stared intently at the sky, as if ready to risk their lives in a battle at any moment.
By the lakeside, women, children, and other children had all gathered and were riding unicorns covered in scales, quickly moving into the deep mountains. More and more Qi Refining cultivators emerged from their houses, their eyes filled with fearless determination, as if even if they were all bound together and self-destructed, they wouldn't be able to harm a single hair on a Golden Core cultivator's head.
Seeing this, Song Changsheng didn't think they were overestimating themselves; on the contrary, he was somewhat moved.
The Song family back then were just like them. Even knowing they were facing an invincible enemy, they would still fight with all their might until they shed their last drop of blood.
I'd rather die standing than live on my knees.
Such a spirit, such a family, even if they are wiped out, as long as their bloodline remains in the world, they will eventually be able to make a comeback.
"What brings you three to block my path?" Song Changsheng asked calmly, his hands tucked into his sleeves. His gaze was indifferent, and his aura was faint. If it weren't for the fact that he was walking on air, he would have looked like an ordinary mortal.
The three Foundation Establishment cultivators dared not be careless in the slightest. Walking on air was a privilege reserved for Golden Core cultivators. They originally thought that some enemy had come to their door, but they never expected that it was actually a Golden Core cultivator.
It's obvious that this is a misunderstanding. They are just a small Foundation Establishment clan that barely survives in this mountain lakeside. What merit do they have to provoke a Golden Core cultivator?
The elder at the late Foundation Establishment stage was the first to react. He quickly gestured for everyone to put down their magical artifacts and respectfully bowed, saying, "We were unaware of your arrival, Master. We apologize for any rudeness or offense we may have caused."
He bowed his head, bent over, spoke humbly and timidly, and his full head of white hair stood out starkly in the sunlight.
They are not lacking in courage to die, but in critical moments, as the clan chief, he can also break his pride for the sake of his people.
"No need for formalities. I came uninvited, what crime have you committed?" Song Changsheng waved his sleeve, and an invisible force lifted the other party's bent back.
Seeing Song Changsheng's kind demeanor, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief and cautiously inquired, "May I ask your esteemed title, Master?"
"Knowing too much is not a good thing for you. I am just here to take care of some business. I did not intend to disturb anyone. If you had not discovered my whereabouts, this misunderstanding would not have occurred."
In fact, there was something else Song Changsheng didn't say: he had disguised himself before coming so that they wouldn't see his true face, otherwise he wouldn't be speaking so calmly.
As high-ranking members of the family, they were not fools. They could all hear the hidden meaning in Song Changsheng's words and broke out in a cold sweat. They quickly shut their mouths and dared not ask any more questions. But Song Changsheng's next words made them nervous again.
"I deliberately concealed my aura. With your cultivation levels, you should not have noticed anything. Who is it that has seen through my methods?"
"She is a junior member of our clan. She is naturally more sensitive to power. Just now, she sensed the surging magical power in the lake and thought that a powerful demon beast was coming from the underground river at the bottom of the lake. That's why she disturbed the Venerable Master. Please forgive her offense in consideration of her youth and ignorance, and because it was an unintentional act." The clan leader's voice was dry as he tried his best to exonerate her.
"So she's a gifted person." Song Changsheng scanned the crowd of cultivators gathered on the shore and quickly spotted a pretty young girl. At such a young age, her cultivation was only at the second level of Qi Refining. Even in the lowest-level Qi Refining families in the borderlands, her talent would be considered quite poor, let alone in the Eastern Heaven Cultivation World where spiritual energy was much more abundant.
Her appearance and talent were not outstanding; she would have been an inconspicuous figure in a crowd. However, her eyes were like amber, and she had rare vertical pupils that emitted a strange radiance.
A barrier had been placed over her eyes to disguise her as normal, but it couldn't fool his eyes.
Clearly, these people were lying. The reason the girl was able to detect his presence was entirely due to her peculiar eyes—a natural spiritual eye, a remarkable talent. No wonder they seemed so nervous when he asked about it.
Although he was exceptionally gifted, his cultivation aptitude was extremely poor. Not only did he possess four spiritual roots, but his meridians were also naturally narrower than others, causing his cultivation to be as slow as a tortoise crawling.
If the problems with her meridians are not resolved, even the most gifted person will be useless, because she simply cannot break through to the Foundation Establishment stage.
As we all know, there are three major hurdles to overcome in order to break through the Foundation Establishment stage.
The expansion of the meridians is extremely crucial. Only when the meridians are "wide" enough can they absorb enough spiritual energy to complete the transformation; otherwise, the result will be death and the dissipation of one's spiritual energy.
Even ordinary cultivators need to rely on Foundation Establishment Pills to protect and expand their meridians. For someone like her with naturally narrow meridians, even with Foundation Establishment Pills, she would still fall far short of the level of a normal person. To break through to the Foundation Establishment stage would undoubtedly be a pipe dream.
"He's a promising talent, but..." Song Changsheng thought to himself, feeling a pang of regret.
If it weren't for this flaw, he would still be very willing to bring the other party back to the Song family for training. Even if a person born with spiritual eyes cannot become a strong person, they can still leave behind a powerful eye technique in the end.
But this time the situation was too special, and even he wasn't sure.
"I have robbed them of their opportunity this time, so consider it repayment for this karmic debt..."
Song Changsheng took out a blank jade slip from his pocket, inscribed a method into it, and then handed it to the three people, saying: "Those born with spiritual eyes are one in ten thousand. It would be a real pity if they stopped at the Qi Refining stage."
If she were to cultivate according to the methods described here, her physical defects could be slowly improved, but the process would be extremely painful, and the chance of returning to normal would be only one percent.
As the saying goes, success depends on human effort. The final result will depend entirely on how hard she works. As long as she can break through the Foundation Establishment stage, her future achievements will definitely surpass those of you.
You can decide for yourselves how to proceed.
Furthermore, you'd better forget that you saw me today.
As soon as he finished speaking, Song Changsheng vanished without a trace in front of everyone. By the time the others realized what he had said, he was nowhere to be found.
The old patriarch held the jade slip in his hands as if it were a priceless treasure, and said in a trembling voice, "Thank you for bestowing this treasure upon us, Master. The entire Beigong clan will never forget it!"
"Bei Gong, that's quite a rare surname," Song Changsheng murmured softly, then transformed into an inconspicuous streak of light and headed towards the last hiding place...
This last hiding place is not only the furthest from the Chen clan's territory, but also the one with the largest storage capacity and the highest security.
Song Changsheng had high expectations for it from the very beginning.
If any descendants of the Chen family still exist, the probability of finding them in that place is the highest.
Over several dozen hours, Song Changsheng traversed almost the entire Eastern Heaven Cultivation Realm, finally arriving at a desolate mountain range located on the border of the Eastern Heaven Cultivation Realm. This place could be described as the most primitive place in the entire Eastern Heaven Cultivation Realm, sparsely populated and the last habitat left for demonic beasts.
It's called a habitat, but it's really just a deliberately designated area where demonic beasts are kept for low-level cultivators to practice on. The Song family did the same thing in the Cangmang Small World.
It's truly unexpected that the Chen family would place their last resort in this location.
According to normal human thinking, the farther the better, just like the Song family directly opened a cave in the East China Sea, which is the safest way.
“This should be it.” Song Changsheng arrived in front of a lush, low hill and groped to press the waist token of the True Lord of Reincarnation onto a smooth stone wall. In an instant, the originally hard stone wall softened and “swallowed” him.
Upon entering the mountain, a powerful aura instantly locked onto him.
Song Changsheng calmly surveyed his surroundings, then frowned slightly and said, "The protective formation is still there, but I haven't detected any human cultivators. Could it be that no bloodline of the Chen clan has survived?"
He had originally thought he would have a chance to deal with that spirit body, but now it seems he was overthinking it.
A five-tiered killing formation, integrated with the entire mountain, is almost undetectable unless one enters the mountain's interior. Even a Nascent Soul True Monarch could withstand it to some extent.
If all else fails, one can escape into a small world. As long as the spatial passage is severed, even a Nascent Soul True Monarch would have little chance of recovery.
For the survivors of the Chen family, this was absolutely the best refuge.
If it can't be found here, it almost means that the Chen family's bloodline has been cut off, and naturally, the soul of the Reincarnation True Monarch is out of the question. There is still some regret in my heart.
If the Reincarnation True Lord can truly live out his second life, he will be the greatest contributor. He is a powerful True Lord comparable to the Jade Cleansing True Lord, and he has a very high influence throughout the entire Southern Continent.
If they can reach an agreement with him to protect the Song family during his period of weakness, then the Song family will essentially have secured a powerful patron. Even if something unexpected happens when he breaks through to the Nascent Soul stage, the Song family will be able to safely overcome the difficulties under the protection of the Reincarnation True Monarch.
Song Changsheng made many efforts to ensure the survival of the Song family, but this was definitely the most direct and effective approach, after all, it was a world where the strong were respected.
Faced with the debt of gratitude for regaining his physical body, he would almost certainly not object to this small request, even in his weakened state.
Unfortunately, the divine soul that the Reincarnation True Lord sealed away could not be found, so it was all just wishful thinking.
"I hope the resources in this little world will bring me some surprises."
Holding the waist token, Song Changsheng slowly moved forward under the lock of the fifth-order killing formation. At the end of this road was a tall altar made of rare white jade, with a bronze human figure several meters tall standing at each of the four corners of the altar.
According to the memories obtained from the evil puppet, these are not decorative bronze sculptures, but four powerful puppets.
It is said that each of these four puppets possesses power comparable to a Golden Core cultivator. They were crafted by a fifth-level Celestial Craftsman from the Ji Clan of Tianshui during the Chen Clan's most prosperous period, using a large amount of rare spiritual materials. They were specifically created to guard the entrance to the small world.
This shows how much the Chen family valued this place back then.
Based on the timeline, these four puppets have existed for tens of thousands of years, and have undergone at least a dozen reforgings during that time.
Song Changsheng's first target here was these four puppets, which were four Golden Core level combatants.
The Song family currently only has one Golden Core cultivator, which puts them at the bottom of the cultivation world in terms of numbers. However, if these few more are added, the landscape of the cultivation world in the Great Qi will be rewritten.
In his eyes, the value of these puppets at this stage far exceeds that of the resources stored in the small world.
However, the facts seem to differ somewhat from the intelligence he possesses.
These puppets had clearly not been repaired or reforged for a long time; the patina was a full foot thick. If Song Changsheng hadn't known this beforehand, he would have found it very difficult to associate them with fourth-tier puppets.
He had seen quite a few fourth-tier puppets during the Five Academies Grand Competition, and had even personally destroyed one. There was no comparison between the two.
Song Changsheng tried to activate the puppets by activating his waist token, but after trying for a long time, there was no response at all.
This is no longer a matter of disrepair; the energy within these puppets has been completely exhausted.
This is a bit troublesome.
The power that a Golden Core cultivator can unleash is known to all.
The energy source capable of powering a fourth-tier puppet is naturally no ordinary thing.
If Song Changsheng remembered correctly, the energy core needed to power a fourth-tier celestial warship was the same as that needed: the [Deep Sea Celestial Crystal]!
Throughout his cultivation journey, he had only seen this treasure once, and that was among the legacies left behind by True Monarch Yu Shu.
He intended to keep it to prepare for the future development of fourth-tier celestial ships, but unfortunately, due to the issue of allocation principles, he had to choose the treasures that were most beneficial to the Song family at the time and give the [Deep Sea Crystal] to Luoxia City.
The Deep Sea Crystal can only be used to power large objects such as celestial ships or fourth-order puppets. Its uses are not very wide, and it is generally not needed by most forces and independent cultivators. In theory, it should not be very competitive.
Unfortunately, the quantity is extremely limited, and it can only be produced in specific mineral veins deep beneath the ocean. Most of it is controlled by the sea race, while the human race only controls a very small portion of the resource points, resulting in extremely limited production. Therefore, it has always been a case of high price but no market, with supply falling short of demand.
The output is already low, and priority is given to supplying the top-level master craftsmen and powerful forces. Most of the time, those below can't even get a sip. This is a rare commodity that is hard to buy even with spirit stones.
The piece left behind by True Lord Yu Shu was taken from a sea creature lord during his travels in the East Sea.
Without energy, these four puppets are no different from four lumps of scrap metal; they can be melted down and used to forge magical artifacts.
"I wonder if the Myriad Manifestations Palace still has any in stock. Even activating just one would be helpful," Song Changsheng thought to himself.
He will eventually need to go into seclusion, and a fourth-tier puppet is enough to handle most potential crises...
...(End of chapter)