A flash of light.
When he reappeared, Wu Ming had already returned to the main temple space.
However, the surroundings now radiated brilliant rays of light through swirling clouds, and the vast gate of the main temple stood majestically before him.
“Huh? What is this…”
Wu Ming suddenly realized that his current location was no longer the lower realm’s main temple space, but rather directly before the celestial palace atop the Nine Heavens!
Arriving here, that faint mysterious connection with the main temple deep within his consciousness made him even more acutely aware of a brilliant radiance—seemingly eternal, transcending all realms across countless eons!
“Could it be…”
Wu Ming stepped forward, approaching the towering gate of the main temple like a tiny ant.
Placing both hands on the doors, he pushed with all his might!
Boom!
The temple doors seemed to tremble slightly, yet appeared unchanged.
“Hmph… As expected… there’s still something missing…”
His eyes gleamed with sharp insight: “I can clearly sense resistance… Is it insufficient authority, or something else?”
After several attempts yielded no result, Wu Ming, ever composed, immediately ceased his efforts. With a mere thought, he turned his gaze inward to examine himself.
A glowing screen materialized, displaying his personal information:
[Reincarnator ID: Gengshen 69]
[Name: Wu Ming]
[Attainment: Human Immortal Fourth Stage Cultivator, Martial Cultivation Master]
[Equipment: Tiangong Ring, Black Gold Ring, Su Hou Pearl]
[Title: Master Temple Controller]
“The National Preceptor status was merely a position-based enhancement; once I left the Fusang World, it immediately reverted…”
Wu Ming silently nodded.
Unlike the Celestial Preceptor, the title of National Preceptor was merely an honorary title. Although it could rival an Earth Immortal within the Fusang World due to the continuous blessings of the national fortune and land energies, once outside the Fusang World, how could such miraculous power persist?
“However, by changing worlds, I no longer receive fortune supplements, but the karmic entanglements have also been severed. It’s a trade-off.”
Wu Ming opened his celestial eye and observed his aura. Though no longer as radiant as when he held the title of National Preceptor, most of the karmic threads and causal strands had indeed been severed, proving that escaping to another world was indeed effective.
“The remaining threads are insignificant, with no further replenishment—they can be easily dispelled.”
While the National Preceptor could harness national fortune and land energies to create supernatural abilities, at his peak even forcing Earth Immortals to retreat temporarily, such power came with heavy karmic entanglements, attracting numerous calamities and adversities.
Yet even heavenly tribulations were merely manifestations of the Fusang World’s heavenly will—how could they possibly follow him into other worlds?
Without that limitation, the residual karmic energies could easily be purified through the cultivation of a true cultivator’s status.
Looking inward at his internal fortune, he saw a thick red aura, stable as a mountain, interwoven with faint threads of yellow energy, causing his heart to leap with joy.
“With Yoshitsune unifying the provinces of Izumo and Aki, becoming a daimyo of a million koku, and successfully marching on Kyoto to become the ruler of all under heaven, I have gained considerable benefits…”
The thick red aura signified the solidification of his true cultivator status, while the mingling yellow energy represented his impending breakthrough to the peak of Human Immortality—the rank of Celestial Preceptor!
“With such an omen, once I return, merely sitting in meditation and cultivation will naturally lead to attaining the rank of Celestial Preceptor. And furthermore…”
Wu Ming flipped his palm, and the Su Hou Pearl appeared, radiating intense golden-green energy, within which a purple serpent coiled—resembling an eight-headed, eight-tailed beast, with a green head and black body, occasionally wreathed in clouds.
“Before finally leaving the Fusang World, I managed to reap great rewards, using the Ba Snake’s ability in conjunction with my National Preceptor status to siphon off a significant portion of Yoshitsune’s new dynasty’s fortune… Just this single act will likely shorten the dynasty’s lifespan by several decades…”
Recalling the furious expression of Susano-o as he failed to catch up, Wu Ming couldn’t help but smile: “That deity was quite stingy. Considering the price paid for aiding him in defeating two noble deities and assisting Yoshitsune in unifying the Fusang World, this tiny bit of dragon essence was already a bargain…”
Within the Su Hou Pearl, the fortune energies continued to shift, blending various sources—both the dragon essence of the Tōshō Great Deity and Yoshitsune’s founding fortune, as well as the mixed serpentine and draconic energies.
“Regardless of external transformations, the essence of this fortune remains unchanged. Only within the Fusang World does it manifest as the Yamata no Orochi…”
Wu Ming lightly touched the Su Hou Pearl.
Roar! Roar!
Amidst the dragon-like roars from the heavens, the ever-shifting serpent burst outward before reforming into a small cyan-purple snake. Its scales shimmered, its eyes glowed with a violet hue, and a tiny single horn crowned its head.
A hornless, single-horned serpent is called a “Qiu”!
This was a Qiu dragon—the primal form of a蛟dragon. Ancient sayings held that a snake transforms into a python after five hundred years, and a python into a Qiu dragon after another five hundred.
“The fortune manifesting as a Qiu signifies an abundance of dragon essence… Indeed, it’s mainly derived from Yoshitsune’s founding fortune…”
Wu Ming stroked his chin, contemplating when he might refine the Su Hou Pearl again to purify the fortune energies, making them his own Celestial Preceptor’s sustenance.
“Master Temple, time to settle the tasks!”
With a thought, numerous glowing screens appeared around him, displaying Wu Ming’s experiences in the Fusang World.
[The world you have experienced is the Fusang World. Task evaluation in progress…]
[Main Task: Blood Battle—Completed!]
[Side Task: Unification—Conquered Izumo, earned 100 Major Merits!]
[Total Merits Earned: 100 Major Merits!]
…
“It seems the Master Temple only counts my conquest of Izumo Province. As for Aki Province and the rest of Fusang afterward, since Yoshitsune took over, they weren’t counted…”
Wu Ming furrowed his brow.
He now understood that his current state was quite unique—half reincarnator, half controller. The intricacies of this status required further exploration.
“Just like now—I can only choose to return to the Great Zhou, but cannot actively traverse the myriad worlds. I may still receive tasks, but I can completely refuse them or modify their content to some extent. However, I cannot generate new tasks myself…”
The authority of a Master Temple Controller seemed to have touched the core, something even the current Master Temple couldn’t fully explain—Wu Ming would have to figure it out on his own.
“With my current authority…”
A gleam flashed in Wu Ming’s eyes as the Master Temple’s shadow appeared in his consciousness. Guided by that mysterious connection, his hand reached out and touched the glowing screen.
Under his influence, the screen flickered and changed, and the final total merit value began to skyrocket.
From 100 Major Merits to 200! 500!! 900!!!
Finally stabilizing at 100 Celestial Merits.
“With my current authority, I can boost the reward tenfold at most?”
Wu Ming stroked his chin again, then pulled up the exchange list and did the same.
“And the cost of exchange can be halved at most!”
Meaning that if a certain technique or treasure originally cost 100 Celestial Merits, Wu Ming could obtain it for just 50.
“Even though I am the Master Temple Controller, and even if I completely control the Master Temple, I still cannot freely exchange items… After all, the principle of cosmic balance applies. Even the Master Temple requires energy to generate these items…”
This was evident from the Temple’s urgent need for the essence of worlds.
“This Master Temple… Could its recruitment of reincarnators and assignment of tasks actually be a competition to determine the ultimate ruler?”
Wu Ming furrowed his brow: “But if this process continues constantly, it must be consuming enormous amounts of energy. Even with the essence of worlds, it might struggle to keep up…”
Now viewing the Master Temple almost as his own possession, he naturally felt some concern, then gave a wry smile: “But worrying about the Temple’s well-being is worrying about myself. Even though I’ve gained a bit of control, becoming its true master will surely require many more trials!”
He continued scanning the exchange list, shaking his head: “Pity… pity…”
For Wu Ming now, the items on the Minor Merit list were beneath his notice. The only ones of real value were those on the Major and Celestial Merit lists.
“Since ancient times, cultivating both nature and destiny has been the true path! ‘Might’ and ‘merit’ go hand in hand! ‘Might’ refers to one’s cultivation level, while ‘merit’ refers to magical power. In this regard, reaching the rank of Celestial Preceptor is within my grasp, and I have fortune energies to supplement my power—surpassing the elixirs on the Major Merit list by countless times! As for other external weapons, they’re somewhat redundant for me…”
Wu Ming shook his head. The items on the Major Merit list no longer interested him. What truly attracted him were those on the Celestial Merit list!
Unfortunately, the glaring “unavailable” labels beside each entry left him quite disheartened.
“I lack neither magical artifacts nor treasures… For offense, I wield the Five Elemental Thunder; for storage, the Tiangong Ring; and for defense—though my robe was destroyed—I acquired that turtle shell, from which I can forge a new one, surpassing my original Five-Colored Robe by countless times…”
Cultivators are self-sufficient, capable of forging their own magical artifacts and talismans without relying on external sources.
After some contemplation, Wu Ming shifted his gaze to the cultivation techniques section: “After the Celestial Preceptor, the Human Immortal Scroll is already complete. It’s time to study the Earth Immortal Scroll…”
The “Huangting Yinfu Jing” he had obtained was a silver-sealed jade scripture, a celestial treasure, but it only contained the Human Immortal Scroll, and even that was quite incomplete.
Through the Master Temple’s exchange list, he learned that beyond the Human Immortal level lay the Earth Immortal!
“An Earth Immortal follows the principles of heaven and earth’s rise and fall, takes the sun and moon’s cycles as a guide, extracts lead and adds mercury to refine golden essence at the crown, returns jade nectar to the cinnabar, refines form into energy to gather the five energies toward the yuan, unites the three yang energies at the crown. When cultivation reaches perfection and form is forgotten, the fetal immortal naturally transforms. Yin is completely dispelled, leaving pure yang, and a body outside the body emerges. Transcending the mortal shell, one ascends to immortality, surpassing the mundane to become a sage. Refining form to dwell in the world and attain immortality, becoming a leisurely immortal upon the land—hence the name Earth Immortal.”
Wu Ming flipped to the Earth Immortal Scroll section of the “Huangting Yinfu Jing” and read the description, sighing involuntarily.
[“Huangting Yinfu Jing—Earth Immortal Scroll”, Earth Immortal cultivation method, requires 2000 Celestial Merits for exchange! (Unavailable)]
“Even with my Controller authority, reducing the cost to just 1000, I still don’t have enough merits! And even if I did, the Master Temple can’t provide it anyway…”
Staring at the large “unavailable” label, Wu Ming felt a sense of helplessness bordering on despair.
Just then, his eyes flickered, and another glowing screen appeared:
[Consume 2000 Celestial Merits to simulate the “Huangting Yinfu Jing—Earth Immortal Scroll”! Proceed with simulation?]
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