As Shi Yu approached with her spiritual sense, lines of information flowed over her like running water.
This technique was divided into three layers: Soul Tempering, Soul Transformation, and Dao Union. Each layer required using one's own divine soul as a guide, supplemented by a specific guiding method, to burn and temper the divine soul with secret power, allowing it to condense and sublimated through pain and reshaping.
At the end of the technique's opening description, it even mentioned that if one could master all three layers—Soul Tempering, Soul Transformation, and Dao Union—one would achieve immortality and invulnerability.
It was truly profound beyond measure.
After reading the introduction, Shi Yu's expression turned somewhat playful.
If this technique were truly as powerful as described in the opening, how could Master Lu Yue so easily hand it over to someone else?
They certainly didn't share that kind of friendship.
“Where's the catch?”
Raising an eyebrow, Shi Yu continued reading down. Only after finishing did she understand why Master Lu Yue had given up on this rare and precious technique.
“It's an incomplete fragment.” She fell into thought, feeling a hint of regret.
“Although the missing parts aren't numerous, they all cut off at key points, making it impossible to cultivate.”
Shi Yu knitted her brows. “If I forcibly try it... a divine soul technique is different from ordinary cultivation methods. Going astray would likely cause immediate death.”
Faced with such consequences, anyone would think twice and shrink back.
No wonder Master Lu Yue was willing to give it up. He undoubtedly harbored intentions of setting a trap for her. After all, he and his daughter had suffered a setback at her hands, so it was impossible for him to bear no grudge.
Although it was a pity, it made sense; had there been no problem with the technique, she would never have had the chance to see it today.
Shi Yu pondered for a moment.
Her background and foundation relied entirely on auxiliary arts like artifact refining, alchemy, array formations, or talismans.
Supported by these skills, she could rapidly accumulate cultivation resources without having to live as frugally as ordinary rogue cultivators. Her cultivation speed could match those of disciples from sects and cultivation families, or even outstrip them slightly.
However, constrained by how quickly her spiritual sense drained and how slowly it recovered, it was never enough. Whether refining artifacts or concocting pills, she frequently had to pause to rest.
For low-tier artifacts and pills, stopping to rest before continuing had little impact.
However, for higher-tier artifacts and pills, the process had to be performed continuously without interruption. Halting midway would disrupt the flow of Qi, leaving failure as the only outcome.
Constrained by her spiritual sense, many of her methods could not be employed.
This 《Soul Tempering Art》 was a rare divine soul technique, and she did not want to let it go easily.
“Can the primal chaos space deduce and complete it?” Remembering the wondrous effect of the Fate-Tapping Bell on techniques, Shi Yu's eyes lit up, and she decided to give it a try.
The information recorded in the jade slip directly entered her divine soul, making memorization easier than usual.
Shi Yu memorized the entire 《Soul Tempering Art》 and eagerly submerged her spiritual sense into her Purple Mansion, but she saw no new specks of light forming around the Fate-Tapping Bell.
“It doesn't work?”
“It must be because divine soul techniques are especially unique.” She slightly knitted her brows, feeling a bit disappointed.
Since it couldn't be cultivated, Shi Yu didn't dwell on it either, avoiding unnecessary anxiety and frustration.
Just as she was about to put the jade slip away, her eyes caught the paper on the table, and her heart stirred.
“Could the two... be connected?”
She had just cleared her train of thought and understood how to deduce the imagery directed by the source runes on the damaged talisman, but she hadn't had the chance to test it yet.
Shi Yu had a faint hunch that the damaged talisman might be related to this 《Soul Tempering Art》.
“Master Lu Yue said he obtained the damaged talisman by chance in a secret realm and spent several years studying it to decipher its hidden message...”
“Willing to spend so much effort means there must be something on the damaged talisman that attracted him.”
“Something that could drive a talisman master to search so painstakingly... might be precisely related to this 《Soul Tempering Art》.”
This line of reasoning was not without merit.
Shi Yu decided to give it a try, using the Soul Tempering Art as a breakthrough point to interpret the damaged talisman once more.
Sure enough, with this line of thought and by cross-referencing the two, she continuously deduced and derived until she finally made some headway.
“This source rune doesn't mean 'tomb,' but rather 'forging.' Naturally, the adjacent rune connected to it doesn't represent direction either, but rather the path and structure of spiritual sense visualization...”
“Master Lu Yue said he obtained the damaged talisman by chance in a secret realm. It seems this jade slip was found together with it.”
The deeper she went into her deductions, the more amused and exasperated she felt.
The original owner of the damaged talisman was quite an eccentric individual with an endless array of tricks, intentionally leading people in the wrong direction and even setting up a decoy tomb as a cover to confuse others.
...
Three days passed in this manner, and Shi Yu finally completed all the deductions for the damaged talisman, restoring the full text of 《Soul Tempering Art》 in the process.
If Master Lu Yue knew that the complete 《Soul Tempering Art》 he had sought in vain had been fully deduced by Shi Yu like this, he would likely beat his chest in intense regret.
When Shi Yu looked at the jade slip again, the insights left by its original owner flowed smoothly without hindrance. After reading and pondering them, she gradually understood how to achieve entry into the art.
She immediately took a deep breath, sat cross-legged, and closed her eyes.
As her breath flowed, her divine soul gradually merged with the surrounding environment, sensing the breathing of the earth beneath her feet and the rhythm of life sprouting within the soil.
This feeling of interacting and connecting intimately with the living beings of heaven and earth brought a sense of peace and comfort to her heart.
However, this feeling did not last long. Soon, she felt her divine soul grow heavy, gradually sealed inside a closed, pitch-black, cramped space.
Her divine soul felt weighed down, as if falling into the Underworld.
Darkness surrounded her on all sides, suffocating her. An invisible pressure tightly enveloped her divine soul, as deep, heavy forces repeatedly crushed and ground against it.
This oppression differed from physical pressure; it felt as though it would swallow her soul whole, instilling a fear within her that she could not resist.
The agony stemming from the depths of her divine soul made it impossible for Shi Yu to even gasp for air. She felt her divine soul trembling violently, a profound sense of insignificance and helplessness flooding her heart.
The 《Soul Tempering Art》 used the elemental Qi of the worldly Five Elements to hammer and temper the divine soul. What Shi Yu was experiencing at this moment was precisely the heaviness of Earth among the Five Elements.
Shi Yu felt excruciating pain, yet she gritted her teeth and refused to stop, forcefully enduring the boundless darkness and oppressive weight.
Since it was soul tempering, it treated the divine soul as spiritual material, using heaven and earth as the fire to forge and hammer it—how could it possibly be easy?
Fortunately, amid this continuous crushing and grinding, her divine soul subtly grew more condensed and refined.
...
When Shi Yu opened her eyes again, she was soaked in sweat.
No one would ever want to experience such despairing pain a second time.
She slumped weakly onto the floor. Sweat seeped into her eyes, but she didn't even have the strength to wipe it away, merely drooping her eyelashes in exhaustion.
Only after a long while did she muster the strength to utter a single line: “Feels pretty good.”
“Master Lu Yue, I actually have to thank you.” Shi Yu tugged her lips into a smile. Though exhausted in body and mind, she couldn't contain her delight at her growth in strength.
Over the next few days, apart from drawing talismans and concocting pills, Shi Yu spent the rest of her time cultivating the 《Soul Tempering Art》, growing braver with every setback amidst the endless pain and never tiring of it.
During this period, she had Chen Er deliver the prepared Spirit Wandering Talismans to Jiang Qihe. On this day, Jiang Qihe visited her in person to inform her that the small-scale auction was fully prepared and widely known throughout the market city, merely waiting to open in two days.
After seeing Jiang Qihe off, Shi Yu turned her head to look back at the courtyard, knowing her remaining time here was short.
Rate on N.U.
