Chapter 43: 043 Part 2

Yan Luo already harbored murderous intent. Hearing this, she didn’t care about anything else. Lifting her magical power, she chanted an incantation and attacked Wei Mingyi. She was a true disciple of the Pure Clean Sect and cultivated its Earth Tier technique, Ink of World Purification, having formally started just before entering the Eternal Cosmos Heavenly Realm. Now, she immediately brought this technique into play.

The so-called “World Purification” meant: any path not my own is filthy. Learning a technique, the divine abilities within depended entirely on personal comprehension. After Yan Luo began, the first ability she mastered was “Condemn with Pen and Spear.” Now, as she cast the incantation, ink splashed everywhere. Several ink-men manifested like titans, and the words themselves were “scriptures” to condemn a person.

Wei Mingyi raised an eyebrow.

The Pure Clean Sect’s so-called world purification and Great Dao true words were summarized by others in just two words: “Slander Path.” When facing such divine abilities, one couldn’t afford to retreat even half a step. The moment a crack appeared in one’s mind, the moment one started doubting oneself according to those “scriptures,” the Dao Heart would lose its perfection. The final result would be “guilt and fault.”

The ink-men’s voices swirled around, accusing her of not considering the future of the Master-Disciple Lineage, of failing to see the bigger picture, of being selfish and self-serving, of causing great harm… Every word fell upon her mind like a mountain, like swords and axes.

Wei Mingyi clicked her tongue.

She also had an Eight-Word True Words—

“None of your damn business” and “None of my damn business.”

She raised her hand to form a seal. The Nine Words Dao Seals burst out with brilliant golden light, slamming towards the heart-executing words of the ink-men. A heaven-shaking explosion rang out. Golden flowers and black smoke churned together, exploding in mid-air and drawing a long curtain of golden rain. If the divine ability of the Ink of World Purification couldn’t attack the heart, it became a pure contest of strength against strength.

A vast shower of golden flowers swept down, and the inky blackness was instantly routed, wisps of black smoke drifting in the wind.

Yan Luo stumbled back two steps. She stared at Wei Mingyi in disbelief, clearly not expecting the other’s Dao technique to be so powerful. Earth Tier techniques were superior scriptures, some not inferior to Heaven Tier techniques. With the power of the Ink of World Purification, even without a successful heart-attack, it should have had the advantage in a direct clash. After all, a person without a sect or school—where would they get a superior technique? At best, a Profound Tier technique.

One look at Yan Luo’s expression told Wei Mingyi what she was thinking. The Nine Provinces’ hierarchy had been fixed for too long. Everyone was a template: origin, bloodline, Dao techniques were all pre-ordained. This made the thinking of cultivators equally rigid. When they encountered an “accident,” they floundered and showed their inadequacy.

But for Wei Mingyi, this was perfect.

The opponent’s contempt was her opportunity.

She was afraid Yan Luo would flee in defeat and was just wondering if she should feign exhaustion to lure her in when Yan Luo’s face turned extremely ugly. Amidst the disbelief came fury and recklessness. With a loud shout, ink spread everywhere, instantly covering several miles like a black cloud. A thin curtain of ink hung in the air, and trails of ink dripped down, forming black talismans tinged with red.

These talismans came from another scripture of the Pure Clean Sect, the Scripture of Salvation. But with Yan Luo’s cultivation, she couldn’t execute it. She was merely using a “treasured ink” as her life-bound artifact, and the scriptures embedded within it were left by a Pure Clean Sect ancient sage.

Wei Mingyi stared at the dripping talismans. These were best at disrupting the mind. She formed a seal and struck out with an Unbinding Seal, one of the Nine Characters Seals. The matching incantation was the Pure Tranquility, Natural Non-Action, Non-Defilement Incantation, which inherently had a self-purifying effect. Wei Mingyi wasn’t afraid of the chanting in her ears. She smiled faintly. “Daoist, why are you reciting this Scolding Scripture to me? I won’t learn such things that dirty the ears and eyes.”

In the past, the Pure Clean Sect had often relied on their “loquacity” to bully Daoists of the Master-Disciple Lineage, shaming them so much they couldn’t lift their heads. Meeting such an unruly Wei Mingyi, Yan Luo was furious. Blood veins showing in her eyes, she roared, “Those who can be saved are human; those who can’t are ghosts! I’ll refine you!”

Watching Yan Luo erupt in rage, Wei Mingyi revealed a mocking sneer. She activated the Wind and Rain characters from Six Classics Unrolled. Instantly, a great wind rose, and large raindrops pierced through the ink trails, crashing down. Having reached Integration with the Daoist True Words, Wei Mingyi had grasped “combination techniques”: Wind empowering Rain. Forming seals with pouring rain, how could Yan Luo counter?

She could have used this technique from the start but had feared Yan Luo would escape. Now, however, Yan Luo was unreservedly unleashing her magical power, making it difficult to pull back in an instant. She likely wouldn’t be able to flee.

Wind raged, rain poured.

The descending droplets gathered mid-air, coiling like a water dragon. Wei Mingyi pointed at Yan Luo, and the water dragon, with a roaring whistle, transformed into a Solitary Drill Seal and struck out.

Yan Luo tried to dodge in haste, but the water dragon, carrying the transformations of the Nine Palaces, shifted in reality and illusion. What she dodged was merely the afterimage. In an instant, the water dragon, carrying the force of ten thousand jun, smashed onto Yan Luo’s back. Even if she’d cultivated a bronze skin and iron bones, she couldn’t withstand it, let alone having never tempered her body. Yan Luo lurched forward and vomited a mouthful of blood.

Not letting up, Wei Mingyi flicked her sleeve. The water dragon spiraled, even darker than the ink flows, and hammered down on Yan Luo’s body. Sensing the crisis, Yan Luo hurriedly took out her Reception Talisman and activated it, willing to take the hit to do so. But a gust of wind howled, and the talisman at her fingertips was swept away by the gale. As she frantically reached for it, an unending barrage of Dao Seals slammed down.

Wei Mingyi looked at Yan Luo expressionlessly, wantonly unleashing her surging magical power.

There were no obstacles nearby. As long as she finished this person off, she could restore her magical power using the Penglai Purple Qi.

“You… you dare—”

Wei Mingyi caught the Reception Talisman, glanced at Yan Luo, who was on the verge of death, and said indifferently, “Are only you allowed to kill me?”

With another scoff, she summoned the Qiankun Pouch, flicked her finger, and burned the remains to ashes.

After finishing, Wei Mingyi carefully examined the cheat item’s display and found a cave with no hindrances to hide in.

Lang Fengya had reminded her: if you obtain Penglai Purple Qi, either return immediately or use it right away. And Wei Mingyi did just that. Though Lang Fengya likely thought she lacked the ability to compete for Head Champion and advised her to secure the benefits first. She, however, had considered it further. Although the final victor’s ranking considered the amount of Penglai Purple Qi, her First Layer Realm cultivation made it hard to reach the end.

Spirit veins and cultivation resources limited her realm. Progress in Chongyuan Sect had been somewhat slow. But what about under the nourishment of spiritual energy comparable to a Heaven-rank Spirit Vein? Combined with Penglai Purple Qi, could she rapidly break through to the Second Layer Realm? Based on her experience, going from First Layer to Second Layer wasn’t difficult. It was just an accumulation process. The key was the “qualitative leap” when crossing major realms, like moving from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core: the “Condense Pill Seed” stage. Once the Dan Seed was condensed, the Golden Core formed naturally, but that was something to consider after leaving the Eternal Cosmos Heavenly Realm.

After a day of rest to restore her magical power, Wei Mingyi didn’t leave her hiding cave. She pored over the “notes” copied onto the Jade Slip. Current cultivation methods were almost entirely monopolized. Although there were master-disciple inheritances, Chongyuan Sect didn’t share a single scripture. The manuals she’d looted were without a system; apart from alchemy, everyone cultivated their own path. The guidance they could offer was limited. She wondered if she could find anything useful in these predecessors’ notes.

Skipping over a pile of idle chatter, Wei Mingyi suddenly noticed an entry signed by someone called “Daoist Jing.” It described her own cultivation insights, with comments from several other Daoists below. It became apparent the insights were actually a Dao scripture she’d personally theorized, titled Ink of World Purification.

Wei Mingyi blinked, unsure what use this manual had. After pondering a moment, she searched for Ink of World Purification in the shop and immediately saw the notes below.

Earth Tier.

An inherited scripture of the Pure Clean Sect, authored by the ancient cultivator Daoist Jing.

Wei Mingyi: “?”

That technique Yan Luo used? The heretical scripture of “Condemn with Pen and Spear”?

Reading the comments from Daoists below, it didn’t sound like the same thing at all!

Wei Mingyi continued reading carefully.

Ink of World Purification: writing the heart with ink.

The ink traces became the heart’s traces.

The same scripture appeared differently to different people, just like the sword mark in Chongyuan Sect, which also changed according to the heart’s traces.

This Ink of World Purification was the most variable scripture of all. The Pure Clean Sect, limiting itself to those inferior divine abilities, had likely narrowed their path.

When predecessors annotated scriptures for later generations to learn, were they learning the annotated version or the original text?

Wei Mingyi considered for a moment, then continued browsing the traces left by other ancient sages. After a long while, her attention settled on the Song of Four Seasons and Six Qi. The winds, rain, brightness, darkness, yin, and yang described below—how did they so closely resemble Six Classics Unrolled? Looking further down, Wei Mingyi was speechless.

There was little on cultivation methods. The stone pillar recorded a magical duel between two Daoists. The loser, who studied Confucian scriptures, was very open-minded and conceded the name “Six Canons” to the winner. The winner, in a playful mood, renamed Song of Four Seasons and Six Qi to Six Classics Unrolled. Wei Mingyi then searched for Six Classics Unrolled and found it was a text held by Cloud Realm’s library. Cloud Realm didn’t care much for such things and hadn’t recorded the story behind the manual.

Very in line with the Aristocratic Family style: take only what’s useful, discard the living essence.

Wei Mingyi: “…”

Four seasons, six qi, five nodes. This scripture interpreted the transformations of celestial phenomena. It had nothing to do with “Six Classics Unrolled”! Reading a scripture required understanding its title, but this title was a fake. Song of Four Seasons and Six Qi was the straightforward and clear name. Like the Daoist True Words, it was a method of recording heaven and earth’s laws. Had she known the original title earlier, she might have already learned all six methods.

Wei Mingyi dazedly continued flipping, but there were no more useful clues.

After serious thought, Wei Mingyi found Ink of World Purification in the shop and spent all her remaining Talent Points to learn it.

Even though it was an Earth Tier technique, its upper limits were extremely high.

She couldn’t possibly defeat all the other Daoists alone; many of them were at the Third Layer Realm.

The top Aristocratic Families and the Master-Disciple Lineage’s Three Sects had a “non-aggression pact” of sorts. She had to find a way to make them fight among themselves.

Pure Clean Sect, was it?

Here she came.

The Pure Clean Sect enjoyed wagging their tongues, yes? But how did that uphold their founder’s principles?

No matter. Now, she would purify the world for the Pure Clean Sect.

Though not a Pure Clean Sect Daoist herself, she too possessed a pure heart.

If the Pure Clean Sect still had any conscience, they should be thanking her.

Learning a divine ability with Talent Points was a painless “enlightenment-style” infusion.

On the panel, Ink of World Purification appeared, along with a divine ability: One Stroke to Split the Heavens.

This ability would be the foundation for her use of this Dao technique.

“The Eight Trigrams,” Wei Mingyi thought, a vague understanding forming within.

Four Seasons and Six Qi, Five Elements and Eight Trigrams and Nine Palaces—the three techniques she had learned were subtly connected.

Observe the heavenly patterns above, examine the earthly forms below. Take form from heaven and earth, and emulate nature.

This was the Supreme Dao of Law.