Translator: AnubisTL
"Master..."
The soft, ethereal voice echoed through the air, sending a jolt through Li Qing, who had been examining the two skeletons in the Yellow Springs River.
"Jing'er?"
Li Qing instantly recognized the gentle voice. He whirled around, desperately trying to locate its source.
But to his dismay, even when he extended his divine sense to its maximum range, he detected nothing unusual.
"Jing'er, where are you?!" Li Qing called out in a deep voice, yet he remained unable to pinpoint the voice's origin.
Finally, after an agonizingly long silence, Lin Jing's faint, ethereal voice drifted through the air once more:
"Master... I'm at the Netherworld Stone Tablet..."
The voice faltered, abruptly cutting off before she could finish her sentence.
Still, Li Qing had heard the words "Netherworld Stone Tablet." He immediately recalled the ancient stone tablet standing at the source of the Yellow Springs River.
Within the entire Yellow Springs Holy Sect's mountain gate, only that ancient tablet matched the description of the Netherworld Stone Tablet.
Without hesitation, Li Qing's figure flashed through the air, and in moments he stood before the stone tablet.
Inscribed upon it were the words: "The Place of Rebirth in the Yellow Springs."
"I didn't notice it before, but now that I examine it closely, this tablet possesses the same ability to block divine sense detection as the Yellow Springs River Water!"
Li Qing murmured to himself, then reached out to stroke the ancient stone tablet.
Suddenly, he felt a faint tremor in the spirit fire within his body.
"Boy, the aura of Great Yin True Water has reappeared, far stronger than that of the great river outside!"
"I suspect there might actually be a small amount of Great Yin True Water inside!"
The Profound Yellow True Flame immediately warned Li Qing. Hearing this, Li Qing's expression turned serious, realizing that the stone tablet was far more complex than it appeared.
Boom!
Li Qing unleashed several heavenly spirit fires from within his body, attempting to refine the stone tablet and uncover its secrets.
But he soon discovered that his usually infallible spirit fire techniques were utterly ineffective.
Faced with this ancient, weathered stone tablet, the flames failed to refine it, instead dissolving and extinguishing upon contact with its surface.
How extraordinary!
Withdrawing his spirit fires, Li Qing frowned in contemplation, pondering the mysteries hidden within the stone tablet.
"This stone tablet was likely forged from a combination of Great Yin True Water and Yellow Springs River Water, possessing the properties of both spiritual waters."
Only the Great Yin True Water, a miraculous substance capable of extinguishing all earthly fires, could withstand the scorching flames of heavenly spirit fire. Li Qing quickly grasped this crucial insight.
However, when he continued his attempts to refine the stone tablet using his vast mana, his efforts remained futile.
After exhausting every method he could devise, none proved effective, deepening the frown on Li Qing's brow.
Finally, Lin Jing's ethereal voice echoed once more:
"It's the inscription."
The inscription?
Li Qing paused, pondering aloud, "Does this mean I must cast myself into the Yellow Springs and enter Rebirth?"
But after a long silence, Lin Jing's voice remained silent, as if submerged.
Though the Yellow Springs River flowed nearby and Li Qing's fleshly body was exceptionally robust, he hesitated to plunge recklessly into its depths.
After prolonged contemplation, Li Qing still couldn't decipher how to activate the stone tablet.
Ultimately, he decided to scoop up a handful of Yellow Springs River Water to test it—not with his fleshly body, but by drawing the water out using his mana.
Boom!
Li Qing channeled his vast and profound true essence, attempting to draw forth the Yellow Springs River Water. But he soon discovered that the water was as heavy as a mountain, its mass fused into a single, impenetrable entity, utterly impervious to his mana's attempts to restrain it.
Given Li Qing's current cultivation level, he could easily evaporate even the widest river, causing it to dry up completely.
At that moment, the Profound Yellow True Flame offered a timely suggestion:
"Why not try contacting it with your divine sense? Legend says the Yellow Springs River is a river that purifies all yin spirits."
Li Qing's lips twitched slightly, finding the suggestion somewhat unreliable.
However, he quickly devised a more cautious approach: he would split off a strand of his divine sense, house it within a corpse puppet, and then use the puppet's divine sense to touch the Yellow Springs River.
That way, even if something went wrong, he would only lose a corpse puppet and a strand of divine sense—a minor loss that wouldn't cause him any real harm.
With this plan in mind, Li Qing immediately retrieved a Second-Tier Corpse Puppet from his storage pouch.
He split off a strand of his divine sense, housed it within the puppet, and then slowly maneuvered the puppet toward the Yellow Springs River, carefully scooping up a handful of Yellow Springs River Water.
Buzz!
In the next instant, Li Qing felt the strand of his divine sense abruptly detach from the corpse puppet. As for the Second-Tier Corpse Puppet itself, it plunged uncontrollably into the Yellow Springs River, as if drawn by some irresistible force.
Through the vision of this strand of divine sense, Li Qing saw his true form and the Second-Tier Corpse Puppet that had plunged into the Yellow Springs River.
Soon, the Second-Tier Corpse Puppet began to dissolve and evaporate, leaving not even a skeleton behind!
Li Qing was astonished. Why couldn't his corpse puppet's skeleton remain intact on the riverbed like other bones? Instead, it had disintegrated into ash in such a short time.
But he couldn't dwell on this for long. He realized that his strand of divine sense was being irresistibly drawn toward the Netherworld Stone Tablet.
As the powerful attraction intensified, Li Qing's divided divine sense materialized within an endless, pitch-black space.
"Master... I'm here. Jing'er misses you so much."
Lin Jing's weak, gentle voice echoed through the darkness. Soon, an ice crystal appeared within the void.
Inside the crystal, Li Qing finally saw his long-separated disciple!
"Jing'er!" Li Qing called out, his brow furrowing slightly. "How did you get trapped here?"
"I don't know either. I once found a token inscribed with the words 'Yellow Springs' in some ruins. Following the map I obtained at the time, I came to the vicinity of the Boundary River."
"But as I approached the Boundary River, I lost consciousness. When I awoke, I found myself trapped here."
Without the Netherworld Stone Tablet blocking them, communication became much easier.
However, Lin Jing was now frozen solid within a strange ice crystal, completely unable to move.
Li Qing tried to approach and rescue his disciple, but he quickly gasped in shock.
Even merely getting close caused his divine sense body to feel as if it were about to freeze. The aura emanating from the ice crystal was familiar—it was ice formed from the fusion of Great Yin True Water!
Or rather, it should now be called Great Yin Ice Crystal!
Faced with such an Immortal artifact, Li Qing was truly helpless. This was a miraculous water capable of suppressing all fires in the world, impossible to melt with ordinary spirit fire.
Unless he could subdue one of the legendary Immortal Fires, there was no way to deal with this extraordinary water!
"No, this isn't pure Great Yin True Water. Otherwise, my divine sense wouldn't be able to withstand it!"
Li Qing quickly discerned the truth. The ice crystals weren't composed solely of Great Yin True Water; they were formed by the fusion of this water with Yellow Springs River Water, which then froze.
Even so, Li Qing found himself in a considerable predicament.
"If it's not pure Great Yin True Water, then there might be a way out after all."
As Li Qing pondered, he recalled a supreme treasure he possessed: the Fire Spirit Pearl.
The five elements spirit pearls were natural treasures that formed the foundational rules of a world, and the Fire Spirit Pearl contained fragments of the Fire Dao's principles. Using it here might yield miraculous results!
But how could he bring the Fire Spirit Pearl into this place?
There was only one method: the Soul Refinement Scripture!
This mysterious classic secret manual contained a unique divine ability called Transforming Illusion into Reality.
Li Qing had never cultivated this ability, deeming it too impractical. He couldn't imagine any situation where it would be useful—until now!
"Jing'er, how much longer can you hold out?"
"I've thought of a way to save you, but it may take quite some time!" Li Qing's expression turned solemn. Cultivating divine soul-related divine abilities and techniques was notoriously difficult and time-consuming. He worried his disciple wouldn't be able to endure for long.
Fortunately, Lin Jing's condition wasn't as dire as he feared. Though weakened, she wasn't on the verge of vanishing.
"Master, go ahead. Though Jing'er can't escape right now, she's not so frail," Lin Jing's gentle voice echoed again.
Relieved, Li Qing nodded and directed his divided soul to search the dark space.
He soon discovered another ancient Netherworld Stone Tablet within the darkness—the exit.
As his divided soul touched the tablet, a dizzying sensation engulfed him, and he reappeared in the outside world.
The divided soul merged back into his main body. Li Qing, who had been waiting outside, slowly opened his eyes, now aware of everything that had transpired within the Netherworld Stone Tablet.
"Intriguing," he murmured. "They've fused Yellow Springs River Water with Great Yin True Water, then frozen it into ice crystals using some unfathomable method."
"Could this be some method of achieving immortality? By maintaining this state, it seems the fleshly body and divine soul can preserve their vitality for an incredibly long time, effectively freezing the decline of one's lifespan!"
Li Qing's gaze instinctively drifted to the countless skeletons submerged in the Yellow Springs River. His lips twitched involuntarily as he realized his audacious theory might actually hold some truth.
He wondered if these remains, lying in the Yellow Springs River, were attempting to achieve a form of unorthodox immortality through this method.
After all, the world had entered the End of Dao Era. If freezing the decline of one's lifespan could allow one to survive until the spiritual energy revival, it might indeed be a viable strategy!
The more Li Qing considered it, the more convinced he became that this was the truth. The Yellow Springs Holy Sect had likely attempted to have all its high-ranking members endure the End of Dao Era together using this method!
But clearly, the plan had failed, perhaps due to some unforeseen accident.
The Yellow Springs River was currently unfrozen and showed no trace of Great Yin True Water. Had the Great Yin True Water leaked out and flowed into the Boundary River outside?
Of course, this was merely Li Qing's speculation. The exact truth remained unknown to him.
"However, it seems that the immortal cultivators of this world didn't simply resign themselves to fate during the End of Dao Era, when spiritual energy was depleted."
"The Yellow Springs Holy Sect's methods failed, but that doesn't mean all immortal cultivators followed the same path."
Li Qing recalled the Blood Lotus Sect Leader he had encountered in the Autumn Mountain Domain, the old woman he had seen in the Spirit Devouring Secret Realm, and the cultivator who had tried to seize his body on Tianliang Mountain!
Perhaps some powerful and unfathomable cultivators still survived in this world!
But now was not the time to dwell on such matters. Li Qing exhaled deeply, turned his back to the Netherworld Stone Tablet, and sat down cross-legged.
Here, he would continue practicing the Soul Refinement Scripture!
This was a crucial part of his plan for venturing into the World of Eternal Night. Cultivating this mysterious classic secret manual required neither heaven and earth spiritual energy nor consumption of his own mana. Even in the spiritual energy-depleted environment of the End of Dao Era, he could still strengthen his divine sense!
Before coming to the World of Eternal Night, Li Qing had intended to take advantage of the world's threefold time acceleration to focus entirely on cultivating this scripture of unfathomable origins!
"Observe the illusory calamities, nurture the tranquil spirit."
Time flowed relentlessly onward. During this process, Li Qing's divine soul continued to become more refined and powerful.
Li Qing's divine soul had already far surpassed that of cultivators at his level. Now, with the Mysterious Classic Secret Manual, he could specifically cultivate his divine sense, making his progress even more astonishing.
Before he knew it, Li Qing's meditative cultivation had stretched for sixteen years!
This was typical for Nascent Soul cultivators, where even a brief nap could span decades.
During these sixteen years, Li Qing's divine soul strength finally reached the mid-Nascent Soul realm.
Furthermore, he had successfully cultivated a basic soul dao divine ability recorded in the Soul Refinement Scripture. Overall, his cultivation progress had been quite remarkable.
This was the longest Li Qing had ever remained in the World of Eternal Night. The effects of the End of Dao Era were gradually taking hold.
He noticed his mana subtly diminishing, no longer as vast and potent as when he first arrived.
If he stayed for several more centuries without countermeasures, Li Qing would inevitably regress to a mere mortal, retaining only his fleshly body and body arts cultivation.
However, he understood this wasn't a true regression of his cultivation, but rather a suppression of his mana due to the End of Dao Era.
"The Great Dao of this world has truly been severed," he mused. "In just eighteen years, my mana has dissipated so significantly."
Li Qing couldn't help but click his tongue, though he wasn't truly worried. He could always return to Azure Cloud Peak to replenish his mana.
Unlike the cultivators of this world, he had a way out!
"Phew! I've finally achieved minor mastery of the Transforming Illusion into Reality divine ability!"
With a glint in his eyes, Li Qing activated the spell.
In an instant, his divine soul detached from his fleshly body and soared free.
Unlike the frail, ethereal souls of other cultivators, Li Qing's soul was as solid and refined as his true form, thanks to the Soul Refinement Scripture.
Moreover, his divine soul housed a nascent soul within it.
Li Qing even brought forth the heavenly spirit fires he had subdued, allowing his soul to interact with the material world—a true manifestation of soul's influence on reality!
Thus, Li Qing descended once more into the peculiar space of the Netherworld Stone Tablet, carrying the damaged Fire Spirit Pearl and the heavenly spirit fires within his soul.
Since his soul fragment had previously absorbed the essence of the Yellow Springs River Water, he didn't need to make contact again.
Leaving his fleshly body behind, Li Qing's fully restored divine soul once again entered this realm.
(End of the Chapter)
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