Lo Jik wasn't quite done in this trip to Immemorial Desolate Grotto-Heaven. Earlier, he spent a few days completing his goals. Chen Jiu regaining her consciousness was a surprising yet fortunate turn of events. Lo Jik preferred Chen Jiu over Xin Cheng even if they were the same person at this point. Her awakening allowed Lo Jik to learn the secrets of dual cultivation, where he spent three days adjusting his killer moves. This three days in Immemorial Desolate Grotto-Heaven meant nearly five days in his human path blessed land, where thousands of clones worked harmoniously. Lo Jik's progress was swift. Lastly, he wanted to deal with two of this grotto-heaven's issues.
This grotto-heaven still housed Immemorial Desolate Immortal's 'corpse' that was stuck in the process of becoming an immemorial desolate core beast. Furthermore, this grotto-heaven still suffered from tribulations. It had the necessary strength to deal with most tribulations but Lo Jik no longer dared underestimate these tribulations despite the ingenious formations in the grotto-heaven using the strength of the immemorial desolate core beasts to defend against the tribulations.
Dealing with both the issues required Accumulation Immortal Gu since he did not possess any theft path immortal gu worm.
He could finally get rid of these troubles.
Well, the easiest thing to do with the Old Man Desolate's main body's corpse would be to destroy it. But it was a huge waste to do that. Lo Jik inherited this grotto-heaven and the essence of Core Beast Formation, but he did not inherit any of Immemorial Desolate Immortal's methods. Immemorial Desolate Immortal had a great formation path attainment and was capable of designing formation charts meant to refine outstanding immemorial desolate core beasts. The four immemorial desolate core beasts in the grotto-heavens were all extremely powerful and resourceful. The same was true for the many ancient desolate core beasts and desolate core beasts. Lo Jik wanted to absorb all of Immemorial Desolate Immortal!
It was possible to do with theft path and dream path methods that were further strengthened by Accumulation Immortal Gu.
He appeared before the human-sized cocoon shaped as a dark-grey egg. A grand formation surrounded the egg, imprisoning it. Old Man Desolate observed everything from a distance, ready to strike at a moment's notice.
Earlier, Lo Jik had sent several craftsmen clones to this grotto-heaven. It wasn't only to prepare for refining Undefeated Refinement Cauldron but to also study this egg and glean more of its secrets.
Lo Jik activated several theft path gu worms. There were Steal Thoughts, Steal Memories, Steal Will, Disguise Will, and many other gu worms. The recipes for all these gu worms came from Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable's inheritance. All these gu worms were theft path gu worms with wisdom path effects. For instance, Steal Memories could safely steal the target's memories without hurting them, unlike the usual soul-searching method. However, doing so will permanently remove said memories. He carefully activated Accumulation Immortal Gu before releasing a phantom hand from his body. The phantom hand looked extremely exquisite and life-like. It moved according to Lo Jik's will and shot into the grey-white egg.
The hand returned from the cocoon after a few minutes. Its fist was clenched tightly as if holding something important.
Lo Jik couldn't help but exhale after seeing this.
'Steal Memories killer move is a success. As observed, this egg has defenses against formation and wisdom path but not theft path.'
The hand entered Lo Jik's mind and shrank rapidly. It did not open right away.
Resting his mind for a while, Lo Jik slowly activated another immortal gu worm.
Light shimmered and transformed into the dreamer immortal clone.
It acted without any other prompts after acquiring Lo Jik's Accumulation Immortal Gu Worm.
Countless dream path gu worms flew around Accumulation Immortal Gu before covering the human-sized cocoon in a dream-like fog. The original multi-colored fog soon experienced a profound change. It moved and shifted in a peculiar manner, transforming into a disk-like light-grey silhouette.
Lo Jik and the immortal dreamer clone both sighed in relief.
'Success. Dream Creation is a success!'
Lo Jik not only stole Immemorial Desolate Immortal's memories but he also transformed his untouched attainment into a dream realm!
Hundreds of mortal dreamer gu entered the dream realm. They all possessed dream path killer moves and started exploring the dream realm. The immortal clone observed everything and ensured things did not spiral out of control. After all, dream realms were still dangerous.
Finally, Lo Jik controlled the theft path killer move to release the memories at a consistent pace. Countless wills inside Lo Jik's mind flowed like a massive tide, consuming the memories and interacting with it.
Lo Jik closed his eyes and sat besides his immortal dreamer clone.
<<<>>>
"Huh? Where am I?" Leylin opened his eyes in a carriage. The carriage shook every now and then. Looking around, he found himself surrounded by several other children.
"What did you say?" One of the kids grinned. "Did sleeping affect your memory? Your words aren't making any sense!"
Leylin remained quiet. He was a great scientist in his home world and invented a new technology known as an A.I. chip. However, an accident resulted in his death and he awoke in the body of a young child. Earlier, he blurted things out in shock. But the children around him spoke a completely different language. Shocked, Leylin forcefully maintained his calm while musing how easy it would have been for his A.I. chip to deduce the language and translate everyone in his vicinity.
*Blink*
As if awakened by Leylin's thoughts, a translucent screen filled his vision. Others could not see this screen.
It was the status screen created by his A.I. chip!
'It actually followed me after my death! Others in my study would go crazy if they discover this result.' Leylin blinked and mentally commanded his A.I. chip to translate everyone in his vicinity. This chip was extremely intelligent and boasted a cutting-edge self-learning technology.
Stuck in a child's body, Leylin did not have much to do. He followed other children and entered this 'sect.'
Unfortunately, he only possessed a D-grade aptitude. The sect may have awakened his aperture but they did not accept Leylin as their disciple and had him return to his village.
<<<>>>
'An A.I. chip…' Lo Jik narrowed his eyes. He wasn't the only one whose soul was tampered by other forces. This Leylin was the same. Others believed that otherworldly demons did not possess any power from their home worlds.
'This itself is the reason for my current plight.' Lo Jik recalled the earlier beast tide. 'If only there was a way to make the world forget everything about me.' He shook his head and glimpsed.
The first layer of the dream realm was already gone while Lo Jik felt his attainment rise slightly. He was a formation path grandmaster and needed a lot of true meaning to bridge the gap between himself and a great grandmaster. But just this initial amount of true meaning would have required him to sacrifice more than a hundred rank 5 formation path gu worms.
<<<>>>
Where ordinary gu masters would fall into depression after being rejected by a sect, Leylin had a mature mindset. What's more? He possessed an A.I. chip. He started secretly scanning everything through his chip after he returned to his village. The gu world interested him greatly. He was a man of science and curiosity was his greatest trait. One odd evening, Leylin encountered a strange event. An insect stuck on a tree started glowing softly.
'Could this be gu refinement?' Leylin wondered. He was a gu master but had no gu worms. His aptitude was the lowest of the low. Nobody accepted him into their organization but that was fine. Leylin knew this much of suppression wouldn't keep him down for long. After all, there was a solution to every problem. Instead of feeling greedy at the discovery, Leylin patiently recorded everything about this process.
After a while, Leylin carefully caught the gu worm but he couldn't refine it. Wild gu worms also had their will. This gu worm was just refined in nature and resisted intensely. Leylin's own reserve of primeval essence was not enough to refine this gu worm and he had no additional primeval stones for support. So, he had to let the gu worm go.
The next day, he caught several insects of the same species and explored the forest. His chip had not only recorded the entire process, but it had also analyzed the entire event alongside the surroundings within which the gu worm was refined. Since then, Leylin tried replicating the same event.
He failed countless times. Some insects would be eaten by other predators, and there were times when odd natural events would ruin the insects' surroundings. It took Leylin three years of dedication to finally repeat the same event.
He carefully managed the surroundings and watched an insect transform into a gu worm.
He did not rush to refine this gu worm. He was still a gu master with pitiful aptitude. However, he was mesmerized by the act itself.
'So, the world can refine gu worms when certain conditions are met. I only helped maintaining these conditions. In essence, I created the perfect environment for this gu worm to refine itself.'
Leylin laughed.
'I can use the same environment to refine many of this rank 1 gu worm!'
And so he did. Three years of 'cultivation' resulted in Leylin discovering aspects of formation path others would take decades to understand and appreciate. The A.I. 'chip' in his soul proved to be of great assistance as Leylin started 'refining' rank 1 gu worms and caught them. However, he only sold one of these gu worms to different merchant groups that visited the village. He was cautious and unwilling to paint a target on his back.
Selling two rank 1 gu worms gave him enough primeval stones to refine one of these rank 1 gu worms.
Rank 1 Fresh Leaf Gu. It was a wood path gu worm that could rejuvenate yellowed leaves.
'Outstanding… outstanding! How does a gu worm function? How can it produce such effects?' Leylin wondered before noticing a strange notification on the status screen of his A.I. chip.
Scan the gu?
'It can scan gu worms?' Leylin didn't act immediately. 'Why didn't it scan all those gu worms before? Could it be related to me? Since I refined this gu worm, it's connected with me, allowing my chip to scan it.'
He finally agreed and the A.I. chip took a few minutes to scan the gu worm.
'What are these markings… is this the internal structure of a gu worm? It's quite different from an ordinary insect.' Leylin blinked before smiling. 'I've seen these marks before. A.I. chip scanned a few of these marks when I refined this gu worm in nature. These marks would often disappear after a single gu worm is refined, forcing me to locate another suitable location. I wonder what they're called.'
Leylin had many benefits but he lacked proper guidance.
<<<>>>
'So, this A.I. chip is like an extremely outstanding information path immortal killer move. It could sense dao marks in the nature but not the gu worms itself. Why is that?' Lo Jik was different from Leylin. He knew many things and soon realized the truth.
'Will. Wild gu worms have a wild will. Meanwhile, a refined gu worm has a gu master's will. A.I. chip being connected to the soul could scan everything about a refined gu worm due to Leylin's will residing inside it, but could not scan wild gu worms due to Heaven's Will…'
Lo Jik's expression darkened as he thought of Heaven's Will before snorting and observing the dream realm.
The dreamer clones had already explored two more scenes. Lo Jik gained a lot of formation path true meaning.
<<<>>>
Leylin worked his way up. Obtaining one gu worm and scanning it opened a whole new world for him. Now, he did not merely observe the gu worms being refined in nature. Realizing that these strange marks in the nature caused this transformation in the gu worms, he scanned every little thing, including what the insects ate. He found out that even eating had a profound effect on this refinement.
He failed several times but gained significant research results. It wasn't long until he used the same insect to refine a different gu worm. He achieved this by feeding the insect different things. This tiny change snow-balled into a completely different result.
Leylin left his village with a merchant group after a decade of cultivation. The more he scanned things, the better his A.I. chip could connect the dots and help him refine better gu worms. But he was mesmerized by the fact that one could achieve different results by manipulating the environment itself.
It didn't take long for him to realize that this was the essence of formation path. After all, being part of the merchant group allowed him to meet all sorts of people. But traveling the gu world also exposed him to its dark ways. And these ways stirred something inside Leylin.
He was from a world regulated by plenty of manufactured laws and regulations. However, the gu world represented the law of jungle. One could wish to be merciful as well as demonic!
Leylin… he found himself leaning towards the latter. He was not an innocent man. Developing a technology like A.I. chip in his home world was not without its own set of failures, several of which cost him human lives.
So, Leylin scanned humans. He experimented on them. The gu and humans had a mysterious connection.
Everything about this world tickled his fancy.
As Leylin started understanding different 'meanings' of those mysterious marks, he started to understand the very essence of gu cultivation. Cultivating gu worms was not about the insects but these marks inside them. Everything was about these marks.
<<<>>>
'This A.I. chip is a great tool for assistance. I'd drool over this treasure if not for Dreamer Gu.' Lo Jik sighed deeply. Still, attainment was one thing and the speed of deduction was another. Leylin's A.I. chip grew better at scanning and analyzing as Leylin's attainment in formation path rose. A.I. chip also improved in its function when Leylin cultivated his soul.
It had been hours since Lo Jik started going through Leylin's memories. He catalogued all these projections of dao marks. All of it was valuable. Leylin's methods were superb even if he grew more indifferent to life.
He glanced at the shrinking dream realm before diving back into the memories.
<<<>>>
As expected, Leylin rose through the ranks.
His pace might be slow but he eventually became a gu immortal. He was no longer as confused about the world and realized the truth about the dao marks.
However, advancing to rank 6 awakened another obsession in him.
'Amazing! There is such a thing in this world? My A.I. chip is connected to my soul and is a part of my will. That's why I can only scan the gu worms I personally refine. Other gu worms have wild or other gu master's will. To think A.I. chip would record so many things when conversing with heaven and earth!'
<<<>>>
Lo Jik's eyes snapped open.
'The fuck! It's possible indeed. But letting such an A.I. chip directly collect data on Heaven's Will only serves to expose you.'
As Lo Jik expected, Leylin's life turned extremely difficult after this event. But the Fickle Consort Immortal was quite glad because he too studied all the results Leylin's A.I. chip recorded from Heaven's will.
<<<>>>
Leylin cut out a sorry figure. His life was never the same after he became a gu immortal. His A.I. chip and experiences made up for his lacking aptitude during his advancement and he formed a medium-grade blessed land. He did not have adequate heaven qi and earth qi to refine immortal gu worms. However, he had successfully become a rank 6 formation path gu immortal.
Unfortunately, his breakthrough disturbed a secluded wisdom path expert. This expert had been refining a crucial immortal gu worm.
One could only expect his rage once this refinement failed at the last moment and he instantly pinned the blame on Leylin.
Leylin, however, possessed the A.I. chip. He scanned and realized that the failure of gu refinement had caused a terrible backlash and injured this expert a great deal. Undeterred by this gu immortal's fearsome attitude, he quickly escaped, leaving the wisdom path gu immortal howling bitterly.
This wisdom path expert started scheming and caused Leylin a lot of trouble. It didn't take long for both of them to become mortal enemies. However, the enemy was a rank 7 gu immortal. Meanwhile, Leylin was a rank 6 gu immortal with no immortal gu worm. Refining an immortal gu worm was a costly affair and even Leylin couldn't guarantee success with his A.I. chip. Using the method he learned as a mortal—to create a formation and letting the environment refine the gu—was also not feasible. The amount of immortal materials needed to achieve this was enough to attempt refining rank 7 immortal gu ten times instead.
However, Leylin had long understood the truth about the gu worms.
Gu worms were a carrier of the great dao.
Mortal gu worms hosted dao marks. And immortal gu worms hosted unique fragments of the great dao.
These gu, in essence, were insects.
Living beings.
Why could an insect carry such fragments of the great dao but no other living beings? Why is it that the dao marks on a gu immortal's body was meant to support a blessed land instead of replicating a gu worm's effects? If a gu worm could be used to refine the body and implant passive effects, why couldn't one achieve this stage directly?
This line of thinking was the same as Lo Jik's method of directly refining the effects of gu worms on the body.
It wasn't strange that Leylin had ideas from different paths despite being a formation path gu immortal.
Formation and refinement paths dealt with other paths the most. Gu immortals of this dao studied other paths to refine different immortal gu and construct immortal formations.
Leylin followed this idea but soon felt dissatisfied by the result.
He lacked immortal gu worms the most.
Even if he could refine something similar to passive killer moves on his body, these were all inflexible. Meanwhile, an immortal gu worm could be used in different killer moves and achieve several different effects.
The threat of his enemy forced Leylin to desperate measures.
You see, this wisdom path expert had great connections and many gu immortals chased after Leylin to curry favor with the wisdom path expert.
Leylin did not get any free time to conduct research. Fortunately, his A.I. chip kept scanning and analyzing in the background.
Worse still, he was chased after by many desolate and ancient desolate beasts. It was as if he was their number one enemy.
Leylin ended up in several life-death battles with such beasts and even captured a few of them.
And he soon developed the Core Beast Formation.
The idea was to transform desolate beasts into something similar to an immortal gu worm.
The characteristic aspect of an immortal gu was the fact that the fragment of the great dao inside the gu produced certain effects without dissipating. Unfortunately, no matter how he researched, Core Beast Formation could not refine desolate beasts into immortal gu worms. The formation, however, did create core beasts. Core beasts possessed cores made from dao marks. These cores resembled the fragments of the great dao and wouldn't dissipate over time, but they could not be activated by Leylin using immortal essence.
Cores, in essence, were just slightly better passive killer moves. The benefit of Core Beast Formation lay in the fact that Leylin did not need immortal gu worms to create these immortal killer moves. He used mortal gu worms and desolate beasts to achieve this state.
These cores acted like the core beasts' natural abilities.
Because of rising threat, Leylin decided to use core beasts as cores of his immortal formations. They were more suitable than most immortal materials and the formations could be used to employ a core beasts' special ability.
Leylin's circumstances improved slightly after this breakthrough. He defeated several gu immortals and killed a few, causing his pursuers to pause and retreat in shock. He and the wisdom path expert entered into a conflict several times after that event. But Leylin was always in a poor state.
He realized his tribulations were simply too dangerous! He would have long died if he hadn't produced core beasts.
So, Leylin researched for a long time and developed a time path core beast meant to slow down the flow of river of time inside his blessed land. This also caused his cultivation to stagnate.
Disasters after disasters…
It was truly shocking how Leylin survived by the skin of his teeth.
Unfortunately, he had no way of dealing with tribulations entirely. He eventually killed the wisdom path expert and boasted a great number of core beasts. His obsession to collect desolate beasts prompted others to call him as Desolate Immortal and Ancient Desolate Immortal.
And soon the time arrived for his break through into rank 8.
Leylin knew he wouldn't survive. Other gu immortals in Central Continent also schemed against him due to his demonic reputation. Leylin could not employ any time path expert's help to completely stop the flow of time in his blessed land.
He would need to deal with the tribulation.
Somehow.
So, Leylin started preparing for his demise.
Who would want to die willingly?
Leylin schemed and used a wisdom path formation to tamper with his obsession. He further created an incomplete immortal gu house, leaving behind a part of his flesh, soul, and a copy of all his memories alongside his true meaning inside this incomplete core beast.
Since he knew he was going to die, Leylin left behind his true meaning to ensure that his eventual revival would not leave him without any attainment. After all, he did not know how to move his A.I. chip. It was likely that the A.I. chip would perish with him.
Unfortunately for Leylin, he also considered the worst-case scenario.
What if none of his plans work?
He battled a wisdom path great expert and killed him. Clearly, Leylin realized that plans did not work out the way they were intended all the time. How could his plans be infallible when a wisdom path expert's scheming failed to kill him?
So, he left behind his prized method.
Core Beat Formation.
While this was the result of a failure from replicating immortal gu worms, Leylin improved this formation to its limits. This core beast formation was superb and his greatest achievement.
<<<>>>
'And that is the gu worm I acquired from my trait.'
Lo Jik sighed emotionally after learning the entire story. The last of Leylin's memories faded alongside the wisps of the dream realms.
Inside the incomplete core beast cocoon remained an incomplete beast with clean consciousness and soul. Leylin did survive the tribulation since he had four immemorial desolate core beasts as a rank 7 gu immortal! This was different from what Old Man Desolate revealed, indicating how deeply the heavenly spirit was tampered during its creation.
Unfortunately, Leylin was terribly injured by the tribulation and died promptly after surviving the disaster.
His blessed land advanced to a grotto-heaven, but he could not experience this change.
Lo Jik opened his eyes. He just experienced hundreds of years' worth of memories.
More than that, he promptly digested all of Leylin's gains.
His formation path attainment skyrocketed!
Dream realms could not increase one's attainment more than a great grandmaster, or rather, the value of true meaning inside the dream realm could not exceed a great grandmaster. Lo Jik himself was a formation path grandmaster and Leylin's attainment far surpassed his own.
Digesting the dream realm with formation path attainment worth a great grandmaster alongside Leylin's memories allowed Lo Jik to reach a shocking stage—
Quasi-Supreme Grandmaster!
***
Alternate Title: Leylin as a warlock: Snake chad *Leylin as a gu master: Chopped liver*; Heaven's will do be opposing the way of warlocks; Warcock of the Gu World; Leylin entered nightmare-level isekai; Imma make a warlock of the magus world ff fr; Gu masters are mages; Rank 4 Mage Nuke vs Rank 4 Gu Master coughing baby; Warlock of the magus world: Mana radiation *Gu world af: Dao Marks*; One step from supremacy; Lo Jik about to become quasi-supreme in refinement path, too; Lo Jik: I'll major in human path! *Formation and Refinement path chuckling in the distance*; *Happy attainment noises*; Leylin: I'll scan the heaven! *Heaven's will: Look at this dude… lmao*; Leylin's next isekai is going to be I Shall Scan the Heavens; Leylin appeared and died… Tang San next?; *Crying in Quest Maker Withdrawal*
***
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