Immortality Starts With Ignorant Heart Sword Art

Chapter 273: Shadow of the Ancient God

Making a vow to the heavens is borrowing from the divine, and the consequences of not being able to repay it are severe.

In this situation, why did Zhong Cang make a vow?

Naturally, it was because he was in a hurry.

Zhong Cang did not forget that the main purpose of imparting the secret technique Heavenly Heart was never to benefit the world or repay the Cloud Firmament Sect, but to gather the insights of others and elevate himself.

And in the process of imparting the technique, others comprehending it, and giving back to himself, the Twelve Melodies of Jade Heaven Tower is the only connection between these three.

Therefore, its importance in Zhong Cang's heart is extremely high.

The echoes of this technique can reflect how much Zhong Cang will gain tomorrow.

In order to maximize his benefits, it is most profitable to elevate the Twelve Melodies of Jade Heaven Tower to the 5th realm Grandmaster before imparting the technique.

Of course, if someone were by Zhong Cang's side, they would find that his prayer to the heavens was not to directly elevate the technique to the 5th realm Grandmaster, but to elevate it to the 4th realm perfection.

This is to borrow less.

In the Immortal Cultivation World, reaching perfection in a technique will encounter a bottleneck, and breaking through this bottleneck is necessary to enter the next realm.

Although breaking through the bottleneck only requires a bit of proficiency, this bit of proficiency requires extremely high comprehension and opportunities.

There is a saying from a previous life that best describes this situation: "Genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration."

But that 1% inspiration is more important than the 99% perspiration.

And breaking through the bottleneck is that 1% inspiration.

Therefore, the difficulty of elevating a technique from perfection to breakthrough is comparable to cultivating a master-level technique from scratch to perfection.

If Zhong Cang relies on the power of the vow to break through the realm, he would need to borrow at least twice the amount of merit.

On the other hand, if he only cultivates to perfection, the amount of merit Zhong Cang borrows would be minimal.

"Buzz..."

While Zhong Cang was contemplating, a strand of consciousness from the heavens was also searching for his information.

-The heavens are impartial, but they are not a charitable organization, and not everyone can borrow power from the divine.

And even if one can borrow, the borrowing limit varies for each person.

There is no doubt that Zhong Cang is qualified, and his borrowing limit is extremely high.

Therefore, in an instant, the heavens responded to Zhong Cang.

"Moo..."

Because he maintained a state of unity between body and mind, the Twelve Melodies of Jade Heaven Tower also involved the cultivation of the divine soul through sound waves.

This caused the response from the heavens to not manifest in the outside world, but instead a violent, strange, and distorted sacred sound resounded within Zhong Cang's divine soul.

"Moo!!!"

The moment this sound rang out, Zhong Cang's consciousness sank.

When he opened his eyes again, Zhong Cang found himself trapped in a special historical illusion.

In this illusion, there was an observer who relied on special instruments to observe the changes in the stars and try to observe the future trajectory from the changes in the stars.

But when he projected his consciousness into the void to observe using the instrument, there was an unexpected "boom..." sound.

A vast and magnificent, yet distorted and bizarre grand shadow slowly emerged from the void and gradually disappeared.

The figure was too vast, and its form had an indescribable feeling of being unobservable.

Under the filter of historical shadows, Zhong Cang only felt that the figure was boundless, both sacred and terrifying, both distorted and uniquely beautiful.

The roar when it leaped out was even more divine, captivating, like the most wonderful music in the world.

But upon closer listening, it was layered and repeated, like billions of people whispering evil murmurs in one's ear.

In short, it was a distorted and bizarre figure full of contradictions.

Yes, Zhong Cang's impression of that great shadow ultimately remained as distortion.

Although he had seen it, Zhong Cang couldn't describe the specific appearance of the monster with words, and he couldn't even form a specific image in his mind.

This made Zhong Cang somewhat regretful.

But soon, regret turned into palpitations, and Zhong Cang became even more aware that the historical projection bestowed by the heavens did not allow him to see the form of that great thing, not because of his incompetence, but for protection.

That great shadow only leaped out from the void and returned to the void, during which it didn't care about everything around it and didn't make any attacking movements.

But just this ordinary passing by drove the observer who witnessed everything mad.

His soul couldn't bear such pollution and became somewhat crazy.

- He truly witnessed that great shadow without the pollution hidden by the heavens.

This made the distorted and great shadow become clearer and more profound in his consciousness, and as a result, the observer's mind was filled with only that distorted and sacred figure.

And the distorted sound that was vague in Zhong Cang's ears became even clearer in the observer's ears.

From that special distorted sound, he created a method of sound cultivation. Due to the torment of the great shadow and the distorted sound day and night, the observer had gone mad and worshipped that great shadow as a divine being.

And the sound cultivation he created naturally became his imagined divine sound bestowed by the heavens, named the Twelve Melodies of Jade Heaven Tower...

Seeing this, Zhong Cang narrowed his eyes and confirmed one thing - the waters of this world were deep!

But before Zhong Cang could continue watching, with a "bang," the historical fantasy in his mind shattered like a mirror.

Then, his soul cleared, and Zhong Cang's consciousness returned to his inner world.

At the same time, the great shadow and the distorted grand sound gradually blurred in Zhong Cang's consciousness.

Soon, the great shadow completely dissipated from Zhong Cang's memory, while the distorted sound took much longer to fade away.

And the sound that was blurred by the Heavenly Dao, although it was much inferior to its original state, still gave rise to a tremendous amount of enlightenment in Zhong Cang's heart.

These enlightenments propelled the Twelve Melodies of Jade Heaven Tower to grow rapidly. In the time it took for an incense stick to burn, this tremendous amount of enlightenment elevated this cultivation technique to the level of perfection in the Fourth Realm.

"Hu..."

When reaching the state of perfection, Zhong Cang originally thought that the distorted sound would disappear along with it.

However, something unexpected happened.

The distorted sound did not disappear, but continued to echo in Zhong Cang's ears, providing him with a great deal of enlightenment.

"???"

"Why? Does the Heavenly Dao want me to break through? But I haven't borrowed so many things?"

"Could it be that the Heavenly Dao is engaging in forced transactions?"

This scene surprised Zhong Cang.

Fortunately, after calming down and carefully reflecting, Zhong Cang realized that he had misunderstood the Heavenly Dao.

Although for ordinary people in the world, and even for cultivators, the Heavenly Dao, which integrates all spirits and controls the laws of heaven and earth, is like the Haotian, the God, capable of almost everything.

However, obviously, the Heavenly Dao cannot see through Zhong Cang's attribute panel.

Therefore, it doesn't know that Zhong Cang has "Once Proven, Forever Proven" and "Heaven Rewards Diligence," which increase proficiency by 1 as long as there is enlightenment.

Because it didn't perceive it, it bestowed enlightenment upon Zhong Cang as if he were an unparalleled genius.

Normally, according to the calculations of the Heavenly Dao, after digesting the enlightenment, Zhong Cang should be able to elevate the Twelve Melodies of Jade Heaven Tower to the level of perfection in the Fourth Realm.

But the existence of the Heavenly Heart makes Zhong Cang's comprehension already belong to the level of a genius.

With this talent stacking attribute panel, Zhong Cang's comprehension has already surpassed the norm.

And this is not even taking into account Zhong Cang's ability to ignore bottlenecks and forcefully break through.

If we add this point, Zhong Cang's comprehension would be considered extraordinary.

...

"So, the Heavenly Dao gave too much."

This scene made Zhong Cang somewhat speechless.

After the sigh, Zhong Cang did not silently accept the benefits, but returned what the Heavenly Dao had bestowed upon him.

It's not that Zhong Cang didn't want to take advantage, but the Heavenly Dao is impartial and selfless.

This selflessness indicates that the magnificent Heavenly Dao will not specifically target Zhong Cang, but it also means that it will not specifically treat Zhong Cang well.

To the Heavenly Dao, one is one, two is two, without any middle ground.

Therefore, returning the excess part is a way for Zhong Cang to repay the merits he borrowed, and also to return a portion in advance.

"Buzz..."

Maintaining a state of unity between heaven and man, Zhong Cang returned the bestowed heavenly dao with a single thought.

At the same time, during the return, a strand of information was transmitted by the heavenly dao.

After Zhong Cang interpreted it, he knew that this time, he had only consumed one-third of the bestowed heavenly dao.

At the same time, he also knew how much merit he owed.

"Thirty... small merits!"

"It's not a lot, but not easy to earn."

Because everything in the world is part of the cycle of heaven and earth, it is impossible to obtain heavenly dao merits in the conventional sense of doing good deeds.

No matter how many evil people are killed, it will not have the slightest impact on the heavenly dao.

What can influence the heavenly dao is to comb the accumulated energy of the earth's veins or to transform barren mountains and deserts into spiritual places.

- Normally, deserts are also considered part of the cycle of the heavenly dao.

However, the growth of the heavenly dao requires the fusion of the souls of the heavens and the earth after the death of countless living beings.

Undoubtedly, the desert is a forbidden zone for life, with not many living beings, so although they do not consume the heavenly dao, they also do not gain much.

But if the lifeless forbidden zone is transformed into a forest, life will grow and multiply there. In this way, their spirituality after death will return to the heavenly dao and promote its growth. This makes the transformation of the desert a meritorious act.

"Wait, combing the accumulated energy of the earth's veins, transforming lifeless forbidden zones into places of life and reproduction can earn merits... The Dragon Race's layout within mountains and rivers, bringing clouds and rain, could it be that they are combing the accumulated energy of the earth's veins and accumulating merits!"

Thinking that the Dragon Race has been laying out for tens of thousands of years, Zhong Cang felt for the first time the profoundness and terror of the Dragon Race's heritage.

"No wonder the sects have never engaged in large-scale wars with the Dragon Race, only minor conflicts. It is indeed not a good choice to rashly go to war with them."

...

Transforming the desert into a forest is a method of accumulating merits.

And because the heavenly dao requires spirituality, and humans are the most abundant in spirituality and the easiest to reproduce among all natural beings, transforming the desert into a forest is far better than transforming it into farmland.

This method is indeed good, but Zhong Cang ultimately gave it up. He had a better method.

"The heavenly dao not only requires quantity of spirituality, but also quality. It is far faster to bestow the human race with cultivation techniques in the desert than to let them multiply naturally. With thirty small merits, I only need to elevate thirty Qi Refining cultivators to Foundation Building."

Of course, when choosing to teach humans, Zhong Cang cannot choose Qi Refining cultivators who already have the opportunity to reach Foundation Building. That is their own effort and does not count as Zhong Cang's merit.

Only by guiding cultivators who have only half the chance of reaching Foundation Building to successfully achieve it can Zhong Cang accumulate merits.

"It's not difficult. If everything goes as planned, I will be able to complete it tomorrow, and there may even be excess merits!"

"By then, I can choose a cultivation technique to pray for and improve."

(End of this chapter)