The Evolved Illusory Resemblance Art

The jade slip was murky throughout, displaying a frosted texture, and its surface radiated a faint glow, as though wrapped in mist.

Shi Yu gently cupped the jade slip in her hands and caressed the intricate patterns on its surface, sensing a constantly shifting aura emanate from within that sent a chill through her mind.

She pressed the jade slip to her forehead, closed her eyes, and focused her mind, slowly spreading her divine sense over it.

Earlier, she had only sent her divine sense inside for a brief check of the technique's details. Now that she wanted to receive the full technique transfer, it proved far from simple.

Bypassing the superficial information on the surface, a shield-like barrier appeared before her divine sense, blocking her completely outside. When her divine sense touched the barrier, it was like a stone sinking into the sea—it failed to stir even a ripple, slowly submerging into it and disappearing.

Shi Yu took a deep breath, calming her heart without rushing. She focused all her thoughts on the jade slip, condensing her divine sense into a thin thread, and continued pouring it into the barrier.

Though she didn't know the exact tier of the 《Illusory Resemblance Art》, still...

“The higher the entry requirement and the thicker the barrier, the more extraordinary the technique must be.”

Shi Yu's soul had been tempered over time; in terms of soul strength alone, she was likely not much weaker than a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator.

Under the continuous influx of divine sense, she gradually felt a subtle resonance between her soul and the jade slip. Faint lines began to flicker on the barrier, yet beyond that, there was still no significant response or feeling of breakthrough.

Not daring to slacken in the slightest, Shi Yu continued pouring in her divine sense.

This persisted for a full hour, until a sense of weakness crept into her divine sense, warning her that she couldn't hold on much longer. Shi Yu knitted her brows slightly, her expression turning solemn. The strength of this barrier was truly beyond her expectations.

Just as her thoughts wavered, the barrier—which had shown little response until now—suddenly uttered a crisp sound like cracking jade.

In an instant, the runes upon the barrier lit up one after another, interweaving into a brilliant display of flowing light that shone intensely within her divine sense's perception.

Shi Yu's spirits lifted, a hint of joy appearing on her face. Gathering her strength, she consolidated her divine sense and poured every last drop of it into the barrier. With this surge of robust divine sense, the barrier gleamed brilliantly as golden threads spilled out and spread across the entire surface before it shattered with a loud crash.

Crisp cracking sounds rang out incessantly.

When the barrier completely dissolved, a dazzling golden beam burst forth. Everywhere her divine sense reached was enveloped in this golden light, inflicting a stinging, burning pain.

Shi Yu tightly focused her mind, enduring the agonizing, unstable pain in her divine sense to behold the core at the end of that golden light. Densely packed runes flickered like a sea of stars, merging into a vast torrent of power that surged toward her.

Shaken to her core, Shi Yu felt the endless potential contained within that energy and opened her mind to accept it.

“Ngh!” A surge of information flooded her sea of consciousness. In an instant, a dull, splitting pain tore through her brain, as if she were being forcibly stuffed with knowledge beyond her current realm, bringing with it a suffocating, drowning sensation.

Her chest heaved violently, and her fingers gripped her sleeves tightly as she endured the excruciating pain.

Fortunately, this sensation did not last long and dissipated after a few breaths.

As the sharp pain receded, Shi Yu felt as though all her strength had been drained. She collapsed limp onto the ground, a trickle of blood leaking from the corner of her mouth, cold sweat drenching her forehead.

“This 《Illusory Resemblance Art》 is formidable indeed.” After lying on the ground for a long moment, Shi Yu barely recovered a bit of strength. She touched her throbbing head with trembling fingers and let out a helpless sigh.

Never before had she experienced such a violent reaction when learning a technique.

Her life scale flickered into view, glowing intermittently. Shi Yu stroked the scale and murmured in response, “I'm alright.”

After resting for quite a while, she finally scrambled to her feet.

The technique within the jade slip had been fully absorbed by her soul, leaving the jade slip dull, lusterless, and rough. Now, reviewing the technique required nothing more than focusing her mind.

Closing her eyes to examine it, an endless illusory world unfolded before her. She felt as though she stood in a grand, ancient world, before source runes formed of countless golden specks of light.

“This technique was actually written in source runes.” From the looks of it, 《Illusory Resemblance Art》 undoubtedly possessed an ancient heritage.

Since Shi Yu was proficient in the Talisman Dao, reading and deciphering source runes presented no difficulty for her.

“The 《Illusory Resemblance Art》 can manifest the form and power of all things. Its method is divided into three realms: Form, Charm, and Truth, each containing its own wonders.”

Shi Yu exhaled softly, her gaze sharpening as she read further, carefully contemplating the profound meaning behind each source rune.

Once the first realm was executed, one could use mind-Qi to condense the shapes of items one had seen or touched before. Though mere phantoms lacking solid substance, they could confuse an enemy's sight or conceal one's own tracks.

This was already a highly practical divine ability. Upon reaching the second realm, however, one could manifest not just the form of an item, but also its aura and charm, making it virtually indistinguishable from the real thing.

As for the final realm: “Those in this realm can turn mind-Qi into solid matter, bestowing the illusion with true real-world effects—fire can burn, water can submerge, swords can harm, leaving nothing impossible.” It was practically defiance of the heavens.

However, recalling how Uncle Mo had transformed ordinary Vitality-Restoring Pills into Lesser Longevity Pills that day—matching only their exterior appearance and aura while their underlying nature remained unchanged—he had likely only mastered the second realm.

This third realm sounded utterly incredible, faintly carrying the mysterious weight of natural law, and likely existed only in legend.

Having read through the entire manual, her soul was thoroughly exhausted, and her head throbbed painfully. Shi Yu gave up forcing herself to continue and collapsed onto the bed to rest.

She fell into a deep sleep, waking only at noon the next day.

Most of her divine sense had recovered, and the feeling of collapse had gradually faded, though she still felt somewhat drained and looked a bit listless.

“Thankfully, there are still a few days before the exchange conference... otherwise, in this state, President Song would definitely chew my head off.” She muttered to herself, scrambled off the bed, grabbed a quick bite, and then sank her mind into her Purple Mansion.

As expected, after she finished reading and memorizing the entire 《Illusory Resemblance Art》, a new point of light representing the technique emerged around the Yin-Yang Fate-Tapping Bell.

This newly formed point of light was exceptionally brilliant, like a scorching sun compared to fireflies when measured against the others.

“The 《Illusory Resemblance Art》 was already so powerful. Now that it has been perfected and evolved by the Fate-Tapping Bell, what has it become?”

Filled with curiosity, Shi Yu reached out toward the point of light.

Instantly, an unpredictable, boundless aura surged forth, dragging her divine sense into the now-familiar light-point space.

She looked around. Within the space, there was no sound, no color, no light, and no darkness—there was nothing at all.

Pondering for a moment, she tried executing the newly learned and still unfamiliar Illusory Resemblance Art. Unsure of what to manifest at first, she simply cupped her hands, focusing her thoughts on creating a Dragon Bamboo Fruit.

As the thought struck her, light converged in her palms, gradually condensing into a Dragon Bamboo Fruit.

Staring at the crimson fruit that appeared out of thin air in her palm, Shi Yu was filled with astonishment. After inspecting it for a moment, she brought it to her nose and took a gentle whiff.

“Whether in shape or scent, it's identical to a real Dragon Bamboo Fruit...” she murmured, then took a bite of the fruit.

A familiar surge of spiritual Qi flooded her—it felt identical to consuming a real Dragon Bamboo Fruit.

Startled, Shi Yu exited the light-point space and re-examined her actual physical body, only to find that the surging spiritual Qi had disappeared.

“That feeling was a simulation within the space.” Even more astonished, she calmed her mind and re-entered the space to try manifesting other objects.

Spiritual plants, spiritual materials, and other such items—by consuming divine sense to simulate them, as long as their tier was not excessively high, she could manifest them almost flawlessly.

Gradually, she confirmed her suspicion: Inside the light-point space, executing the Illusory Resemblance Art seems to push me straight to the highest realm.

At first glance, this seemed useless, as it only functioned inside this illusory space and held no effect in the real world.

However...

Shi Yu flipped her palm to manifest a pill furnace, then recalled the incomplete formula for the Extreme Devouring Pill, manifesting each of the spiritual plants recorded on it one by one. Among them were a few plants unique to this world that she had never seen, so she naturally couldn't simulate them from memory—those would have to wait until she encountered the actual plants in the future.

“Perhaps this can be used to test pill formulas?”

Her eyes sparkled with excitement. Based on the spiritual plants she already had and the effects of the Extreme Devouring Pill, she began pondering the missing components that might complete the formula.

As she thought, she manifested potential rare spiritual plants, lit the fire to warm the furnace, and began her alchemy trials.