Mythical Cultivation

Returning to his residence, Wu Ming impatiently placed the prepared wood-attributed spirit stones on his chest. The mark absorbed the spirit stones one by one, leaving a pile of spirit powder in front of him. 601...908, 909, 910, 911, until a full thousand spirit stones were almost completely absorbed. Finally, the mark on his chest stopped moving, and the cyan mark was completely filled, emitting bursts of green light. Just as Wu Ming thought it was finally filled, something strange happened.

Wu Ming felt a suction force against his chest, and with a flicker of consciousness, he emerged into a chaotic state. Amidst the endless darkness, a palace stood before him. The palace was filled with a chilling, eerie aura, tinged with the vicissitudes of time. The world was eerily quiet, not a single sound could be heard, a deathly stillness.

Wu Ming was also stunned by the situation; the aura within the palace was truly too terrifying. He sat cross-legged, circulating his true essence through a full cycle, before finally calming his mind. Wu Ming knew the lotus seed mark on his chest had led him to this place. Perhaps this was his golden finger, or perhaps even his chance. Since he was already here, he'd better make the best of it. The plaque above the gate was engraved with large, unknown characters, unlike any Wu Ming had seen before. In his past and present lives, Wu Ming had seen at least dozens of scripts, none quite like them. Yet, Wu Ming clearly recognized the characters on the plaque: Eastern Emperor Palace. Could it be that the owner of this palace was called Eastern Emperor? Was this his palace? Since he didn't know, he decided to go in and take a look.

Wu Ming also released his spiritual sense to probe forward, but upon contact with the palace, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, stirring no ripples, no response. Since his spiritual sense was useless, Wu Ming quickly walked to the three-meter-high gate and pushed it open, resembling the mouth of an abyss. Without difficulty, the gate swung open with a gentle push, and bursts of light shone through the gap. Having encountered no danger or strangeness, Wu Ming felt a slight sense of relief. Entering, he was greeted by a magnificent hall, approximately ten meters long and wide, with several seats on each side. Directly above was a cloud bed. Behind the cloud bed, countless relief carvings of unknown monsters covered the wall. The ceiling was filled with tiny specks of light, illuminating the entire hall like stars.

The entire hall looked like a meeting hall. I wonder if it was left behind by the Eastern Emperor. Just as Wu Ming was still pondering, the cloud bed in front of him caught his eye. Somehow, Wu Ming was sitting on it. Wu Ming instantly felt his mind and spirit surge wildly, his spiritual awareness multiplying: thirty meters, forty meters...ninety meters, until it finally stopped growing at ninety meters. Remember, the spiritual awareness of a ninth-level Qi training cultivator doesn't exceed a hundred meters at most. Wu Ming, only at the fourth level, had already reached ninety meters. The most challenging aspect of a breakthrough in the Qi training stage is the growth of spiritual awareness. The so-called bottleneck, besides insufficient zhenyuan quality, is also caused by insufficient spiritual awareness. This meant that Wu Ming would no longer face bottlenecks before he reached the foundation building stage. This would save him at least several years in reaching the ninth level of Qi training. With continued diligent cultivation, he would reach the ninth level in a matter of years, and the foundation building stage wouldn't be far off.

This was merely a side benefit of the Cloud Bed. The moment Wu Ming sat on it, he understood its origins. Constructed entirely of mutton-fat white jade, it had been tempered by its previous owner's innate true fire. Its greatest benefit was to protect against all evil, calm the mind, accelerate the growth of the Primordial Spirit, and resist inner demons. However, Wu Ming hadn't yet achieved Primordial Spirit, so this only enhanced his spiritual awareness to a certain degree.

Several other items lay atop the cloud bed: a compass, a jade slip, and a jade tablet. Wu Ming first picked up the tablet and examined it with his spiritual sense. He understood its function, realizing it held the central control point for the palace. If he could refine it, he would become the future master of the East King's Palace. Wu Ming was overjoyed; possessing this palace was a pleasant surprise.

Then he put down the jade token in his hand, and checked the functions of other things. He picked up the compass and found that the compass could detect information and send people to any place. It was used by the previous owner of the palace to summon his subordinates, but unfortunately, all of them died later. He didn't know what use this compass had now, so he would check it again later.

Finally, there was a jade slip. No one knew what secret techniques lay within. Wu Ming used his spiritual sense to examine it, only to see a few large, unfamiliar characters, identical to those on the palace plaque. Although Wu Ming didn't recognize them, the meaning of the characters surfaced in his mind. The words "Innate Yin and Yang, Five Elements, Extinction Divine Light" appeared in his mind. This was a magical power of law. Although he had no idea what a magical power of law was, the name sounded impressive and powerful. Wu Ming was eager to learn it immediately, so he read the rest of the text, but found it completely incomprehensible. Wu Ming secretly speculated that his realm was too low, and that he would be able to read it once he reached a higher level. Since he couldn't learn it, he decided to keep the other two treasures for now.

Wu Ming first dripped blood onto the jade token, then began to refine it. After an unspecified amount of time, which felt like centuries, he finally refined the token. He now had a clear understanding of the entire palace's structure. The entire palace was crafted from the essence of the Five Elements combined with the Chaos Divine Stone, refined over and over again. While he didn't understand the specific materials, the description that emerged in his mind was this. The palace consisted of a main hall, four side halls, and a rear hall. The main hall was used for meeting guests and holding meetings, while the four side halls each served a purpose: alchemy, weapon refining, and magical power experiments. The rear hall was for rest, meditation, and cultivation.

The two rows of chairs below the main hall were for the former master's subordinates, primarily serving as a location guide, allowing them to find their way back to this spot no matter where they were. The stars radiating light overhead, illuminating the entire palace, were truly stars—star cores, three thousand six hundred in all. Wu Ming considered these star cores. Using them for illumination would be a waste of natural resources. If used as magical weapons, they would be unstoppable and would be instantly annihilated. However, the Eastern Emperor was more willful, using them for illumination. The difference in their realms was stark, and their perspectives diverged drastically. Wu Ming imagined that in the future, if he encountered an unbeatable foe, he could simply summon one of these cores and reduce them to ash. Unfortunately, this was destined to fail. He tried to activate the star cores, but they remained motionless. This was embarrassing. His cultivation was so low that he couldn't even activate them, and Wu Ming gave up on using them against his enemies.

After refining the jade token, Wu Ming picked up the compass and began refining it. After an unknown amount of time, he finally refined it. The compass was called the Star-Fixing Disk, and it could find any object and travel to any place through the owner's thoughts. Wu Ming first focused his mind and entered the Star-Fixing Disk, discovering a sea of ​​stars within. Countless stars twinkled within. There were thousands of stars as bright as the sun, tens of thousands more bright, and even fainter stars like countless grains of sand. These were all different worlds. According to the saying in his previous life: "One flower, one world, and as many grains of sand as the Ganges," this was probably the case.

He hadn't expected what he'd seen in ancient books from his previous life to be true. Could immortals, Buddhas, gods, and demons really exist on Earth? Wu Ming was filled with questions. If not, how could the ancients have recorded such things? He also wondered if Earth existed among the countless grains of sand in the Ganges River, and if he could possibly return. But no one could answer his questions, so he could only bury them deep in his heart, hoping that one day he would find his way home and the answers.

Without dwelling on this any longer, he tried the effect first. Wu Ming's consciousness wandered in the starry sky. A dim star attracted his attention. In a trance, his mind entered it, and what came into his sight was a continent full of desolate atmosphere. Although his perspective was above the continent, he still could not see the whole picture of the continent. In a few breaths, his perspective rushed into the thick distance, finally entered the continent, and then rushed into a body.