"Nascent Soul stage… Nascent Soul stage… the methods are unimaginably strong, but this is only the initial step into the Nascent Soul realm!"
As Li Yan muttered to himself, his thoughts suddenly stirred. His originally bright, shining eyes suddenly became dull, and the vitality in his entire person plummeted in an instant.
At the same time, a black light flickered above Li Yan's head, and a golden little person, just over an inch tall, appeared. The golden little person's appearance was identical to Li Yan's; it was the Nascent Soul he had just condensed.
The golden little person's sharp eyes glanced around. The next moment, in the direction his gaze fell, another golden little person appeared, also identical to Li Yan. Just as the two golden little people looked at each other, the golden little person above Li Yan's main body slowly dissipated, revealing itself to be just an afterimage.
Then, in the large chamber, without any spatial fluctuations, a dozen identical golden little people appeared in an instant. Only after the last golden little person to appear remained motionless for two breaths did the rest of the golden little people disappear one by one.
The golden little person's body floated in the air. After rubbing his chin with his hand, a satisfied smile appeared on his small face. Then, his figure suddenly disappeared again, and Li Yan's main body, which had been sitting cross-legged, trembled slightly. His somewhat dull eyes quickly regained their clarity.
"The speed of a Nascent Soul's instantaneous movement far exceeds my expectations. Not only is there no sense of spatial fluctuation, but it can also reach any desired location in an instant with just a thought. With such an escape method, unless the opponent has a special divine ability or a deep understanding of the rules of heaven and earth, how can they possibly capture the spatial anomaly? Indeed, after reaching the Nascent Soul stage, it's hard to even get killed.
It was really lucky that I was able to kill Dongli Qing back then. Fortunately, I used all the potent poisons I could, so that his Nascent Soul couldn't escape. Otherwise, the clues I exposed would have been enough to doom me and Senior Sister to eternal damnation!"
Li Yan recalled the feeling of his Nascent Soul moving just now, a mixture of surprise and joy. Although many cultivators knew that after reaching the Nascent Soul stage, the most powerful life-saving method was instantaneous movement, they only knew of it. Without experiencing it firsthand, one would never understand the true power and meaning of a Nascent Soul's instantaneous movement.
Li Yan's Nascent Soul was not yet stable. After his cultivation stabilized, his Nascent Soul would be able to instantly go anywhere he wanted within a thousand li. However, a Nascent Soul's instantaneous movement could not be tried casually. Once the Nascent Soul left the physical body, many techniques that relied on the physical body to be cast would become unusable. It was also the most vulnerable time for a Nascent Soul cultivator.
However, the core area of the Malevolent Spirit Sect was tens of thousands of li in size. Li Yan still planned to find a time and area to test it out after his cultivation stabilized. Although the hearts of people in the cultivation world were more unpredictable, Li Yan still trusted Wei Zhongran. What's more, there was also that "Martial Uncle Gu." If these two wanted his life, one could easily get close to him, making it impossible for him to defend against; the other was an existence that could crush Li Yan at will.
Li Yan also thought of another, better place to test it: the "Wheel of Life and Death" in the secret realm, which was the "Five Elements Dao-Defiance Pearl" controlled by Ping Tu. As an artifact spirit, even though Ping Tu's strength had greatly diminished, he could still open up a space of any size inside, enough for Li Yan to test.
"Instantaneous movement… instantaneous movement…"
After muttering these words, a thought stirred in Li Yan's heart.
Following that, his Divine Sense once again entered his Sea of Consciousness. The moment the illusory figure appeared, his mental power probed towards the sea surface below. Amidst a golden light, his gaze directly locked onto an area.
'Sure enough, a follow-up manual for this cultivation method has also appeared.'
"Stealthy Night Art." Li Yan had actually overlooked this cultivation method before, because after he reached the Golden Core stage, the other cultivation methods all had subsequent manuals, but only "Stealthy Night Art" did not. It was still the same manual that had appeared in the Foundation Establishment stage. Although Li Yan's realm had improved, making "Stealthy Night Art" more profound, Li Yan felt that this set of cultivation methods should be more than that. This made him check it every time he advanced even a small realm, but it was always fruitless.
Previously, because Li Yan was concerned about whether a new cultivation method would appear behind the golden light, he had directly focused his attention on the latter half. Just now, the Nascent Soul's ability to teleport made him think of concealment. Whether it was the vast majority of the Malevolent Spirit Sect's cultivation methods or the Gui Water Immortal Sect's cultivation methods, they mostly focused on using skill to overcome strength, and were even better at assassination.
Li Yan had also obtained a cultivation method for concealing his aura before, "Tidefall," which he had cultivated together with Zhao Min. This cultivation method, combined with "Stealthy Night Art," had made Li Yan's ability to conceal his aura and hide his movements even more outstanding, and had even significantly improved his assassination ability. For this, Li Yan paid more attention to his auxiliary attack methods.
In his Sea of Consciousness, Li Yan saw two more lines of small golden characters behind the original "Stealthy Night Art" cultivation method. He quickly looked over…
A moment later, Li Yan finished reading the manual.
'So, it only adds a method of integrating the inner and outer five elements' aura on the basis of the original manual. If I succeed in cultivating it, how can its wondrous uses be compared to before? At that time, my aura will be the external aura, and the flow of the five elements in the outside world will be my own stealthy movement. How many people will be able to see through the truth…'
An incense stick's time later, in the cultivation chamber, Li Yan let out a long breath.
After completing all his investigations, Li Yan finally knew his general situation now, and it was a result that filled him with great joy. It was a long time before he slowly calmed his agitated mind and entered into cultivation and meditation!
One day a year later, the door to Li Yan's cultivation chamber suddenly opened, and Li Yan, dressed in a green robe, slowly walked out. Just as Li Yan stepped out, the doors to two rooms on either side also opened instantly, and two figures flew out from inside.
Li Yan looked at Qian Ji and Zi Kun flying in front of him and couldn't help but smile. He had just sensed that these two demons hadn't gone out. It seemed they hadn't been out for at least half a year.
"Oh, why haven't you been out?" Li Yan asked with a smile.
"Young Master, has your realm stabilized? We thought you would stabilize your realm in half a year, but seeing that you didn't come out, we simply cultivated while waiting, so that you wouldn't be unable to find anyone when you came out with something to do!" Qian Ji quickly replied. He and Zi Kun glanced at each other, their gazes filled with respect when they looked at Li Yan. This was somewhat different from before. To be precise, it should be a look of reverence.
The feeling Li Yan gave them at this moment was that of an ordinary mortal. Not to mention any magical power fluctuations, even the surrounding spiritual energy seemed to be isolated from him.
Once a cultivator had some small success in their cultivation method, others could see that the spiritual energy around them would be slightly different in their Divine Sense. Especially when a high-level cultivator looked at a low-level cultivator, they could see that the spiritual energy around them would change with each breath, even if the cultivator was not actively meditating.
When Li Yan was still in the Golden Core stage, even if he concealed his cultivation, Qian Ji and Zi Kun could still more or less sense the slight difference in the flow of spiritual energy around him. But now, the two demons felt as if they had returned to the time when they were at the Foundation Establishment stage, and Li Yan had just advanced to the Golden Core in the "Falling Star Valley."
But because they had signed a contract with Li Yan, they still had a different feeling from back then. They felt that even if Li Yan didn't use the blood contract to kill them, their life and death were still in his hands, to be extinguished with a wave. The two demons were very afraid of this in their hearts.
Li Yan nodded upon hearing this. "My realm has stabilized!" This time, in his short cultivation session, he had only circulated the Nascent Soul stage's "True Scripture of Gui Water" cultivation method to stabilize his realm. He hadn't had time to practice the other immortal arts. Once he started cultivating those immortal arts, Li Yan didn't know how long it would take. Ten years, twenty years would pass in the blink of an eye.
So, after his realm was stable, he still planned to come out for a few days. After talking with Zhao Min and his master, he would continue his seclusion.
Li Yan then swept his Divine Sense and a look of astonishment appeared on his face. He found that in the entire Little Bamboo Peak, only Fourth Senior Sister's aura was in the main hall. The other auras were just some low-level disciples of the sect.
"Why is only Fourth Senior Sister's aura on the peak?" Li Yan asked the two demons with a puzzled look as he withdrew his Divine Sense.
The moment he withdrew his Divine Sense, a deep voice sounded in his mind. "Your realm is stable? Then come over." It was Wei Zhongran's voice. Only then did Li Yan sense a slight fluctuation of magical power from Wei Zhongran's courtyard. Li Yan knew that it was his own Divine Sense scan just now that had alerted Wei Zhongran. He didn't know if Wei Zhongran's courtyard had its restrictions activated, or if his master's cultivation was deeper than he had expected, as he hadn't discovered the other's aura before.
"Oh, Young Master, it's like this…" Qian Ji was about to answer when Li Yan waved his hand.
"Alright, Master has summoned me. You two go and cultivate first. You've been cultivating your killing aura in the sect for a long time. You need more time for quiet meditation to improve. Although your main bodies are demonic beasts that excel in physical strength, the combination of movement and stillness is the way of the Great Dao!"
After saying this to the two demons, Li Yan's figure flashed and disappeared. His voice still echoed in the two demons' minds. Upon hearing this, the two demons quickly bowed. Although they were also of a higher bloodline level among demonic beasts, compared to the truly top-ranked noble bloodline demonic beasts, there was still a huge gap. For example, the top fifty demonic beasts in the world could not only reach the second or third rank upon birth, but they could also continuously improve by just sleeping and eating, without any need for special cultivation.
Qian Ji and Zi Kun still needed to cultivate continuously. But in recent years, they had mostly been cultivating their physical bodies, and hadn't spent much time in meditation. Li Yan could see that their physical bodies were now approaching the peak of this realm, but their magical power was somewhat lacking.
The next moment, when Li Yan appeared in Wei Zhongran's courtyard, he saw the main hall's door was open, and Wei Zhongran was sitting there, looking at him with a smile.
"Greetings, Master!" Li Yan quickly bowed, his attitude the same as before.
Wei Zhongran nodded. At this point, it was also acceptable for Li Yan to call him Senior Brother. In the cultivation world, the so-called respect for teachers was more revered in the mortal world. Therefore, in the vast majority of sects in the cultivation world, masters would not easily impart all their knowledge to their disciples, for fear of being surpassed by their disciples and then being killed by them.
However, there were also some sects that still adhered to the principle of respecting teachers. On Little Bamboo Peak, although there were no explicit rules, this lineage had always valued mind-nature more when choosing disciples. Thus, there were figures like Li Wuyi. Li Yan was naturally the same. What's more, taking a step back, Wei Zhongran was his future father-in-law. Would he really dare to call him "Senior Brother"? It was estimated that if Zhao Min heard it, she would kick him until he was crippled.
"One year, a stable aura. Very good!" Wei Zhongran had already scanned Li Yan. This time, Li Yan had not used any aura-concealing techniques when he came out of seclusion. Who in the entire sect didn't know that he was at the initial-stage Nascent Soul realm now?
And Li Yan was also surprised in his heart. He was sure that his Divine Sense hadn't scanned his master's aura just now, and it wasn't because the other party had activated any restrictions. Even at such a close distance, he could only slightly sense some aura fluctuations.
'Master is indeed a strong person among the initial-stage Nascent Soul. My Divine Sense is almost equivalent to that of a mid-stage Nascent Soul, but I still sense so little.'
This pair of master and disciple were sizing each other up. Li Yan also knew that once he concealed his aura, Wei Zhongran would likely have difficulty detecting him as well.
"Sit down and talk!" Wei Zhongran pointed to a chair beside him. He had also been cultivating just now. In his samadhi state, his aura was close to non-existent. But when a Divine Sense swept over, especially when he felt a strong Divine Sense of the same level, Wei Zhongran immediately woke up from his samadhi. He then followed the Divine Sense and found that Li Yan had already come out of seclusion!
Li Yan didn't say much and sat down at the side.
"You were asking those two demons about the situation on the peak just now, weren't you? It's actually quite simple. Your Eldest Senior Brother and Second Senior Brother are both in seclusion. Third Senior Brother hasn't returned. Only Wangqing is lazy, and with her delivery imminent, she is holding down the fort in the main hall alone."
"Oh, so both senior brothers are in seclusion, and Fourth Senior Sister is about to give birth. That's truly joyous news. Then Eldest Senior Brother must still be in his last seclusion!" When Li Yan returned a year ago, he was in a hurry to form his Nascent Soul, so he didn't know that Miao Wangqing was pregnant. When he had scanned with his Divine Sense earlier, he had also seen Fourth Senior Sister with her belly high and swollen, but he hadn't had time to go to the main hall.
A cultivator's pregnancy was not necessarily ten months like a mortal's. Because of their powerful magical power, they had already embarked on the path against the heavens, and it was very difficult to have children. Influenced by the rules, the gestation period could not be inferred by common sense.
A year ago, Li Wuyi was in seclusion. Thinking about it now, he must have been in seclusion all this time. Otherwise, with Fourth Senior Sister in this condition, how could he continue to be in seclusion?
"Hehehe… you're wrong. Your Eldest Senior Brother came out half a year ago, and then he went into seclusion again. It's not just them. Now, most of the Golden Core cultivators in the sect are either in seclusion or have gone out for training. Even Min'er is in seclusion, so you probably won't be able to see her this time you come out."
Wei Zhongran's gaze swept over Li Yan's body, and then he said lightly.
"This… Master, has something happened?" Li Yan felt that there was a hidden meaning in Wei Zhongran's words. He was talking about Golden Core cultivators.
"What else could have happened? Isn't it because you successfully formed your Nascent Soul!" Wei Zhongran looked at Li Yan with a smile.