Divine Transcendence

Chapter 79: Heretical Soul Cultivation

Yuan Ming spent less time on beast taming books than he had estimated. After returning the books, he began to pace in front of the bookshelf, selecting some new content to read.

When he came to the category of "Geography Records," Yuan Ming stopped and looked around the bookshelf for a while before finding a book called "Land Records."

This book was larger and thicker than the others, with a different cover made of hard wood, carved with a hollow map.

Yuan Ming opened the "Land Records" and started reading, only to find that the first page was folded.

He unfolded it and found that it was as big as three pages of a book, with a map of a vast territory drawn in black and red lines.

It was not exactly a topographic map, as the upper half of the map only showed rough outlines of the regions without any terrain markings.

The lower half, however, clearly marked various terrains. The mountains, valleys, and rivers were vividly depicted.

However, Yuan Ming’s gaze was fixed on the simplified map at the top third of the page.

The reason was simple. Near the edge of the map, there were two large characters marked as "Central Plains," which was Yuan Ming’s vague memory of his hometown, the place he wanted to return to but didn’t know where to go.

After carefully examining it, he found that the one-third map was obviously incomplete, only roughly marking parts of two countries: one called Da Jin, which had the same name as the country of the little emperor he saw when he lit incense, and the other called Xi Yue.

These two countries were adjacent to each other and bordered the Ten Thousand Mountains like a flood dragon. On the other side of the thick and sturdy mountain ridge marked by the black lines was the Southern Border.

The topography of the Southern Border was outlined in more detail, including not only mountains and rivers but also the territories of some countries and powers similar to countries.

After searching for a while, Yuan Ming finally found the location of Bi Luo Cave.

After comparing it carefully, he was surprised to find that Bi Luo Cave, which seemed vast in size, was insignificant compared to the massive Ten Thousand Mountains.

The entire territory of the Southern Border was even more unimaginably large.

After looking for a while, Yuan Ming tried to find a route from the Southern Border to the Central Plains but found nothing.

"It’s not easy to return home when the world is so vast." Yuan Ming sighed.

At this moment, he remembered something and began to search on the map. After a while, he finally found a small mountain peak the size of a grain of rice and saw the small characters "Green Robe Mountain" marked next to it.

That was the hometown mentioned by Ha Gong and his last concern before he died.

Yuan Ming planned to go there after settling down in Bi Luo Cave. It would be relatively easier to go to Green Robe Mountain than to return to the Central Plains.

After looking at it for a while, he put aside his complicated thoughts, folded the map, and started reading the book.

Most of the records in this book were about the various mountains and rivers in the Southern Border, mixed with many legends and stories about immortals and monsters, which were bizarre and unknown.

Since most of the places were unfamiliar to him and he had never been there or heard of them, he quickly lost interest after reading for a while and put the book back.

Then, he deliberately looked for several other books on geography, hoping to find more information about the Central Plains. Unfortunately, the descriptions inside were scarce and couldn’t provide him with much information.

"It’s really hard to find books about the Central Plains in the Southern Border." Yuan Ming put the last book back on the shelf and continued to pace, wanting to see what other categories and contents were available.

After a few steps, he arrived in front of the "Cultivation" category and stopped.

Yuan Ming randomly picked up a book from the shelf and glanced at the cover. It was written in Southern Border characters: "Introduction to Cultivation," which immediately caught his interest.

It was unexpected for him to embark on the path of cultivation. As a beast slave trapped in the Ten Thousand Mountains, no one had taught him the basic knowledge of cultivation.

After becoming a named disciple by accident, no one had answered his questions or guided him. Yuan Ming was lacking in this kind of knowledge.

He returned to his seat and opened the book, starting to read it carefully.

After reading for a while, Yuan Ming frowned and thought to himself, "So, cultivation, cultivators, and different types like Body Cultivation, Qi Cultivation, and Soul Cultivation are not the same."

According to the content in the book, Body Cultivation focused on cultivating the physical body, practicing body-refining techniques, and emphasizing the tempering of skin, fur, muscles, bones, and internal organs. The goal was to make the body as powerful as a magic weapon, relying on oneself rather than external objects in battles, and having strong survival abilities.

Qi Cultivation, on the other hand, focused on accumulating and refining spiritual energy from the heavens and earth, storing it in the dantian and meridians, and releasing it with corresponding techniques. This could give cultivators unpredictable abilities, and when reaching higher levels, they could even move mountains and fill seas.

Compared to physical cultivation, this book clearly advocates the path of magical cultivation. Although the physical body is relatively weak, the ability to cast spells and control objects is endless, with diverse attack methods. It also allows for self-improvement through means such as activating and wearing magical instruments, and refining medicines. Often, both offense and defense are more comprehensive.

The third major category mentioned in the book is soul cultivation, which is given very little coverage.

Regarding soul cultivation, the author of this book seems to have obvious discrimination, stating that it neither cultivates the body nor practices magic, but focuses on the refinement of the power of the soul, which is a heresy in cultivation.

The term "heresy" is a very derogatory assessment.

Later, the book does provide a brief description of the methods of soul cultivation, but the explanations are somewhat mysterious.

For example, it is mentioned in the book that when soul cultivators reach a certain realm, they can control soulless corpses, manipulate them to walk and jump like living people, and even attack and fight.

"That silver cat, who exactly is it?" When Yuan Ming saw this, he couldn’t help but recall the scene where the silver cat controlled the corpses to attack in the cave of the Human Demon King.

Regarding soul cultivation, the book also describes abilities such as astral projection and soul searching.

Among them, the description of astral projection states that when soul cultivators reach a certain level of cultivation, they can separate their souls from their bodies, travel thousands of miles in the wind, and even attack others in the form of a soul body, killing them from afar.

What interested Yuan Ming the most, however, was the ability to search souls.

With this ability, soul cultivators can forcibly invade others’ sea of consciousness, freely search and probe their memories, and even forcibly alter or erase their memories.

"If I had this ability, could I recover my own memory?" Yuan Ming wondered to himself.

As he continued to read, Yuan Ming gradually understood that although soul cultivation has its unique aspects, it also has fatal flaws.

Compared to the other two systems, the conditions for soul cultivation are more stringent, and the cultivation process is more dangerous. Even with the guidance of orthodox soul cultivation methods, it is easy to lose control.

In minor cases, one loses their sanity and becomes a fool, in severe cases, the soul disperses, and there is no chance for reincarnation.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat. He seemed to have not encountered such a situation so far, and he didn’t know whether it was good luck or because the Death Moon method given to him by the silver cat was special?

Looking back, his current cultivation was hindered, progress was slow, and he didn’t notice any risk of losing control. On the contrary, he felt that this method could alleviate the backlash hidden danger left by his previous cultivation of the fur technique, which was his main motivation to continue practicing.

Yuan Ming even felt that perhaps this was an exaggeration of the author’s prejudice against soul cultivation, and he was somewhat dismissive.

You should know that the fur technique is still his important reliance in battle. Before he gets better means to defend against the enemy, he does not plan to give up, and the Death Moon method is naturally indispensable.

Later, Yuan Ming intended to find more information about soul cultivation, but unfortunately, there was no content specifically about soul cultivation, and some were mixed with other content.

But these contents are not only scattered and mixed, but even contradict each other, making it difficult to distinguish between right and wrong, true and false.

However, there is one point where these materials are surprisingly consistent.

That is their attitude towards soul cultivation. The better ones fear and avoid it, the worse ones consider all soul cultivators to be heretics, and say that seven or eight out of ten soul cultivators are evil cultivators, and those who do not take the evil path are less than 30%.

Based on his previous judgment, Yuan Ming neither agreed nor disagreed with this, only recognizing that the methods of soul cultivation were mysterious and involved the matter of soul memory, so he decided to further practice the Death Moon method.

After returning the last batch of materials he got, Yuan Ming stretched lazily. Just as he was about to find some more materials to read, a middle-aged man in a steward’s costume came down the stairs, shouting, "The hour of Xu is approaching, the library will be closed soon."

Only then did he realize that he had unknowingly spent most of the day reading in the library.

He didn’t leave immediately, but took a quick look around the first floor until the hour of Xu before reluctantly leaving.

...

The next afternoon, Yuan Ming went to the Executive Hall.

With his current knowledge and extraordinary memory, as well as his familiarity with the fire marten, he naturally passed the initial approval of the managing steward and received the task of looking after the fire marten.

Then, according to the guidance of the task, he went directly back to the Fire Refining Hall to find the Third Cave Master.

The courtyard where the Third Cave Master lived alone was located in a quiet bamboo forest on the back mountain, with a very tranquil environment.

After asking a few fellow disciples, Yuan Ming found the way there, but before he could reach the bamboo forest, he ran into Chen Wan halfway.

Apart from the Third Cave Master who had three inner disciples, the other elders mostly had only one inner disciple, or none at all.

On weekdays, these inner disciples mostly served by their masters’ side, receiving instruction at any time. Chen Wan was no exception, so since joining the sect, Yuan Ming had rarely seen her.