At this moment, everything felt incredibly thrilling.
Shui Miao could hardly believe his eyes. Could it really be true that the elven beauty had used the energies of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements to help him conceive a child?
Had life truly just been born?
This was simply too miraculous!
“Huh?”
Suddenly, Shui Miao noticed something strange—those tiny hands that had been moving now stopped again.
Immediately afterward, some of the elven beauties cried out in despair…
“How could this happen?”
“The child is dying! Why? Why is this happening?”
“No! Master, please save them!”
Shui Miao quickly moved closer, pried open the stone, and saw that the child inside had started to darken and rot away, its spiritual energy dissipating rapidly.
“How could this happen?”
Shui Miao’s mind raced. He immediately withdrew from the meditative state and sent a mental message to Bufa.
Bufa reacted instantly, teleporting Shui Miao out of the protective talisman and, after learning what had happened, he turned his eyes thoughtfully, slightly excited as he muttered to himself, “So it’s exactly as I suspected. The world of one’s inner realm exists between reality and illusion—it doesn’t truly belong to the Three Realms. Precisely because of this, new life cannot be born.”
“Elder, what exactly do you mean?”
Shui Miao was confused.
Bufa hurried to explain, “You see, throughout the Three Realms, wandering souls are everywhere. When a life is conceived, some of these wandering souls enter the baby’s body and gradually develop into the three souls and seven spirits. Only then can the child truly come to life. However, there are no wandering souls within your inner realm. Therefore, those children are merely manifestations of spiritual energy, lacking the three souls and seven spirits—life cannot truly begin. Even if they initially appear alive, it is only because you have given them a fragment of Yang soul.”
Shui Miao now understood. This was how the three souls and seven spirits came into being.
Still worried Shui Miao might not grasp it fully, Bufa continued with an example, “Take a human pregnancy, for instance. The local city gods will register the pregnancy and notify the ancestral spirits of the family. These ancestral spirits can then purchase wandering souls for the child to inherit. If the family’s ancestors have enough money, they might buy a soul with excellent talent and virtue to reincarnate. Once the child is born and the three souls and seven spirits fully integrate, the child will have a strong birth chart, growing up to be capable, intelligent, and virtuous. Of course, before reincarnation, these wandering souls drink the Meng Po Soup and forget their past lives.”
With such a clear explanation, even a fool could understand.
Shui Miao shook his head in frustration, “But Elder, why can those treants live? Aren’t they also living beings?”
“You’re mistaken!”
Bufa chuckled slightly, “You’re still so young. Those plants are low-level life forms—virtual life created by absorbing the Yin-Yang and Five Elements’ spiritual energy. For them, as long as there’s spiritual energy, they can survive. So under your will and immortal power, they naturally reproduce. The elven beauties transformed the trees into treants because they carry elven essence within them.”
Now everything made sense. After a pause, Shui Miao calmed himself and asked, “Elder, then how come you can have so many descendants?”
“I’m a magic treasure. I captured many souls inside me, and they were transformed into living beings. Actually, you could try it too—capture some wandering souls to create life. But you should choose only pure and virtuous souls. Inferior souls will only cause trouble. Better to have none than a bad one. Oh, and you should also obtain some fetal energy, or else the child might die young.”
“Fetal energy? Isn’t that something innate? How do you get it? Why would the child die?”
Shui Miao was clueless, but lucky for him, Bufa was a patient teacher.
Bufa sighed inwardly, thinking he’d brought this upon himself. Training someone so inexperienced would indeed require a lot of explanation.
As they slowly soared above the vast Rakshasa Marsh, he explained, “Fetal energy is a special primordial energy produced when Yin and Yang unite. It’s quite profound. Your essence contains Yang energy, but you gave your essence directly to the elven beauties for them to absorb. Without the later infusion of your immortal energy, those children wouldn’t have been born at all. You should have merged directly with them face-to-face—that way, fetal energy would have been naturally generated, saving you from expending your immortal energy.”
“Uh…”
Shui Miao was speechless. What Bufa meant was that he should have physically united with the elven beauties!
This was clearly an awkward topic to discuss with a senior cultivator.
Shui Miao quickly changed the subject, asking where Bushang had gone.
Bufa told him that Bushang had been sent to summon the eldest senior apprentice out of seclusion. With the eldest apprentice’s help, their chances of breaking the ancient tomb formation would greatly increase.
Shui Miao learned that Bufa’s eldest senior apprentice was named Buyi, the greatest expert among the Dwarves, already five thousand five hundred and six years old! Buyi had fought in two Heavenly Wars. To protect the interests of the Dwarves, he once single-handedly killed several Heaven Sovereigns who sought to plunder the Dwarves’ wealth, shaking the entire Immortal Realm.
Since then, he had been in seclusion.
Before entering seclusion, Buyi had specially instructed Bufa to seek out and cultivate talented clan members. Bushang followed this instruction, but Dwarves are naturally simple and content, with very few possessing the aptitude for cultivation.
Bufa saw in Shui Miao a straightforward personality, clear distinctions between gratitude and resentment, and a deep sense of loyalty and righteousness. Thus, he took a liking to him and specially sent Bushang to summon the eldest senior apprentice to help cultivate Shui Miao. Originally, he hadn’t wanted to disturb the eldest senior apprentice, but Shui Miao’s unique inner realm left him no choice.
In Bufa’s memory, most immortals he had encountered cultivated only one or two types of spiritual energies.
The more mixed one’s cultivation, the more difficult it was to advance.
Of course, there were exceptions—some cultivators who practiced all five elemental energies and Yin-Yang, but eventually abandoned some of them. Without sufficient Five Elemental Stones, one’s cultivation would stagnate, which was an extremely painful experience.
However, Bufa was not worried about this.
The Dwarves’ wealth was sufficient to cultivate ten Shui Miaos into supreme experts.
“Elder, how much farther is it?”
Shui Miao had asked all his questions and learned what he needed to know. Seeing that the Rakshasa World was still an endless expanse, he couldn’t help feeling anxious—how much longer would they keep flying?
“Almost there. Beyond this marsh, deep in the Ten Thousand Mountains, lies the ancient tomb.”
As Bufa spoke, he suddenly accelerated.
After about half a day, the two finally flew out of the marsh and saw a vast plain. On it stood countless black structures, even a massive, awe-inspiring city. Crowds of ghosts and monsters moved busily along the ground.
Further ahead, in the mountains, many more ghosts roamed.
The deeper they flew into the mountains, the more strange and terrifying creatures appeared. In the sky, many skeletal birds emerged from the clouds, some as large as airplanes. Most startling of all were the enormous bone dragons wrapped in dark energy, twisting and turning in the stormy clouds.
“Shui Miao, we’re approaching the most prosperous area of the Rakshasa Kingdom. Humans like you are extremely rare treasures here. To them, you’re like a legendary delicacy, the kind of ‘Tang Monk flesh’ humans speak of. Be careful.”
As Bufa spoke, a bone dragon suddenly shot out from the clouds, opening its massive jaws and charging straight at them. Bufa’s eyebrows twitched. He raised a giant bell in his hand, and with a few clear rings, the bone dragon froze mid-air, as if struck by a paralysis technique.
“Elder, what kind of treasure is that bell? Why can it stop it?”
Shui Miao was extremely curious and quickly asked.
Bufa, now accustomed to explaining things to Shui Miao, replied, “This is called the Soul Confusion Bell. All beings in the Rakshasa Realm are souls. They fear spiritual attacks the most, and the best way to attack spiritually is through sound. Among all sounds, the sound of bells is the clearest and most pleasant. Once they hear it, they become entranced, as if listening to beautiful music.”
Shui Miao was amazed. So music was the ultimate treasure in the Rakshasa Realm!
Seeing Shui Miao silent, Bufa continued, “Actually, the same applies to ordinary ghosts in the human world. They are also spiritual beings and are highly sensitive to sound. For example, Taoist corpse handlers use bells to guide the undead. Similarly, wind chimes are used to summon wandering souls. And exorcists often use copper cymbals, striking them to create sharp sounds that scare away evil spirits.”
This made perfect sense to Shui Miao.
He mentally noted the importance of musical instruments and cymbals.
Shui Miao thought that these things might also affect immortals. He decided to keep such treasures in mind for future use.
“We’re almost there. Do you see that tallest mountain over there?”
Bufa pointed to a dark, distant place.
It was an enormous, gloomy mountain, surrounded by thick black mist, looking extremely eerie and sinister.
“Halt!”
“The Five Yin Mountain has been sealed by the Three Holy Sects of Rakshasa. No outsiders are allowed!”
“What? There’s actually an immortal here!”
“Quick! Stop them! Don’t let them escape!”
Suddenly, Bufa halted mid-air.
Dozens of bizarre, monstrous figures with fierce auras surrounded them, weapons in hand, exuding a violent and aggressive aura, clearly ready to attack at any moment…
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage