I Studied Abroad in the Modern Times-Chapter 390Book 2: : The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Divine Path, Cooperation Agreement
Vol 2 Chapter 390: The Strengths and Weaknesses of the Divine Path, Cooperation Agreement
The Jiushan Realm was originally a place where the sky was invisible.
Not only in the mortal realm of Jiushan, but even when standing on the Nine Islands of the Heavenly Palace, one’s sight was enveloped by dense fog. The sun and moon were never seen on ordinary days, and there were no stars either.
But at this moment, something had changed.
Zheng Fa rose slowly, accompanied by the Sun and Moon Bell. Golden and purple lights bloomed simultaneously, intertwining brilliantly in the sky.
The once dense, pitch-black fog was illuminated by this light, instantly melting away like snow touched by the sun.
Looking up at the sky from the mortal realm of Jiushan, one saw only a clear expanse, with blue skies and white clouds.
The towering buildings on the Nine Islands appeared partially hidden or revealed atop the clouds, truly like palaces in the heavens.
The incense fire power surrounding Zheng Fa resembled seven-colored clouds, with multicolored gentle light shining on these buildings, making them even more magnificent—like a fairyland.
But in Zheng Fa’s eyes, this scene was very different.
He sat upright in the small courtyard, his mind faintly connected to this Yang Spirit body.
From his perspective, that incense fire power was actually a sea of divine consciousness!
Before this, Zheng Fa had never heard that mortals possessed divine consciousness. Naturally, he assumed that only those with cultivation could generate divine consciousness.
But today’s scene shattered his understanding:
This colorful sea of incense fire was actually composed of countless threads of divine consciousness that even Zheng Fa found hard to perceive individually.
A single thread of divine soul was insignificant, but the Jiushan Realm now had hundreds of millions of people. Gathered together, this divine consciousness was vast and far surpassed Zheng Fa’s own.
“Incense fire Divine Path, so that’s how it is.”
Zheng Fa’s understanding of the essence of Divine Path cultivation deepened at once.
In the relationship between divine consciousness and cultivation, there was a paradox Zheng Fa had not realized:
Cultivators cultivate by using divine consciousness to guide spiritual energy. If mortals have no divine consciousness, how could they achieve this?
This scene proved to Zheng Fa that everyone has divine consciousness, but the divine consciousness of mortals is too weak to project outward;even they themselves are unaware of it, let alone use it for magical power.
But the incense fire Divine Path gathers these weak divine consciousnesses together, producing a miraculous transformation.
In Zheng Fa’s perception, the Yang Spirit body at this moment could use this incense fire power as a substitute for divine consciousness.
Its divine consciousness was mighty, far surpassing an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator.
What surprised him even more was that the Sun and Moon Bell was the foundation of the Jiushan Realm. After the Yang Spirit body fused with the Sun and Moon Bell, it received the world’s blessing, and within the Jiushan Realm, it even possessed combat power comparable to Fusang Wood—meaning that although this Yang Spirit body might only be a Nascent Soul outside, within the Jiushan Realm it could rival a wandering immortal.
“...The speed of the Divine Path is truly incredible.”
Zheng Fa stared at the Yang Spirit body, feeling that this was somewhat absurd.
It was important to note that his Yang Spirit body was originally only at the initial stage of Yang Spirit cultivation, yet upon just entering the Divine Path, its power had leapt forward so drastically.
Even knowing this Yang Spirit body was his own clone, he couldn’t help but mutter—cheating is shameful!
But this wasn’t the greatest advantage of the Divine Path, at least not the greatest advantage for Zheng Fa:
Dominating the Jiushan Realm alone couldn’t resolve his crisis.
Moreover, he wasn’t exactly lacking in the power of wandering immortals.
But since the Divine Path had ruled the Xuanyi Realm for an entire era, it was naturally not that simple:
He stirred his mind, and the Yang Spirit body slightly opened its eyes and looked up toward the Sun and Moon Bell.
The Sun and Moon Bell slowly floated down and merged completely above the Yang Spirit body’s head.
The Yang Spirit body opened its eyes, and the incense fire power around it surged and pressed against each other, gathering into a whirlpool.
In an instant, spiritual energy from nearly half of the Jiushan Realm surged into the whirlpool, flooding into the Yang Spirit body, causing its form to become increasingly solid.
“What is this...” Elder Yu seemed to have seen something, his eyes wide open.
“Incense fire is divine consciousness, so naturally it can be used for cultivation,” Zheng Fa stated his guess, making Elder Yu’s expression even more shocked. “We cultivators use divine consciousness to guide spiritual energy into the body. Now, because of this incense fire power, the Yang Spirit body’s divine consciousness is worlds apart from before. The range of spiritual energy it can absorb is naturally incomparable.”
In the small courtyard, Senior Sister Zhang and others exchanged glances, all expressing admiration.
Everyone understood what this meant—it could be said that the Yang Spirit body would never lack spiritual energy in future cultivation, only insight into the Great Dao!
“This is even stronger than your Heaven-Earth Crucible method.”
Elder Yu, after holding back for a while, couldn’t help but sigh.
Zheng Fa nodded in agreement.
The Heaven-Earth Crucible method was certainly effective, but it had not broken the limitations of divine consciousness.
After all, the Jiushan Ancestor could only enhance the density of spiritual energy in the surrounding space, whereas this incense fire power expanded the spiritual energy absorption range of the Yang Spirit body by ten or even a hundred times.
More importantly—the spiritual energy the Jiushan Ancestor could provide was limited.
When Zheng Fa was at the Nascent Soul stage, the Jiushan Ancestor, who was at the Nascent Soul stage himself, was naturally a super-large capacity charger. But now that Zheng Fa was at Nascent Soul, the spiritual energy from the Jiushan Ancestor could only be said to barely suffice.
If Zheng Fa’s strength increased further, the Jiushan Ancestor’s usefulness would diminish:
It might help solve urgent problems in battles of magical arts, but it wouldn’t make much difference during cultivation.
From what it looked like, the Divine Path method didn’t have this problem. The stronger the incense fire, the wider the divine consciousness of the Yang Spirit body, and the more spiritual energy it could absorb.
“This Divine Path method is so strong,” Elder Yu exclaimed, but then frowned, “Yet the Heavenly Venerate died;there must be some great flaw...”
Zheng Fa nodded slightly, looking at the Yang Spirit body. He saw its gaze sometimes confused, sometimes joyful, and at times showing a ferocious grin, and he couldn’t help but sigh softly.
...
“Was it me who taught it?”
Immortal Li frowned and pondered deeply. He felt he wouldn’t forget such a significant matter, yet the spiritual energy fluctuations on Zheng Fa now did bear some traces of Taishang Dao.
“Doesn’t that mean... it harmed Zheng Fa?”
“Harmed Zheng Fa?” Head Seat Mingde was stunned, but seeing that the elder Nascent Soul cultivator was nodding, he was even more puzzled: how could teaching Taishang Dao’s secret transmission to Zheng Fa be considered harmful?
Immortal Li touched his forehead and sighed, “The incense fire power seems like a cultivation treasure but is actually dangerous. The thoughts of all living beings are poison for cultivators.”
Head Seat Mingde asked in surprise, “What do you mean by that?”
“After the Dao Venerable created the Yang Spirit Method, the Divine Path rose rapidly. This method cultivates extremely fast and soon became mainstream in Xuanyi,” Immortal Li shook his head. “But this method eventually declined. The problem lies in the thoughts of all living beings.”
The elder continued:
“The Ancestor was right. Living beings are ignorant. Their everyday thoughts are complicated, even filthy. Since Divine Path cultivation benefits from incense fire, it must also bear these thoughts.”
“Therefore, Divine Path cultivators’ hearts are filled with the desires, greed, and ignorance of their believers...”
“But the more believers they have, the stronger the Divine Path cultivators become, and the more thoughts there are—like drinking poison to quench thirst.”
Head Seat Mingde felt numb listening to this and finally understood why the Ancestor said he had harmed Zheng Fa.
“This...”
“Zheng Fa uses the Divine Path method probably because he wants to quickly counter Lu True Immortal,” Immortal Li frowned, “but for the Divine Path to reach great success is as difficult as ascending to the heavens. If anything goes wrong, Haori Mountain might not even need to intervene...”
Everyone exchanged glances, understanding why Immortal Li was so concerned.
Taishang Dao wanted Zheng Fa to stop Lu True Immortal from ascending to Golden Immortal. Zheng Fa must not die—yet now he cultivated the risky Divine Path method. If something happened, wouldn’t Taishang Dao’s efforts be wasted?
He looked at the sky, troubled: “Why didn’t I just keep my mouth shut?”
Just then, a crow’s cry came suddenly from the horizon.
A golden crow, bathed in flames, flew toward Zheng Fa in the sky.
Flames gathered behind it, like a long tail feather. Attached was a car frame of red gold color, upon which stood a large sun canopy.
The golden crow swept across the sky and landed before Zheng Fa.
Zheng Fa stepped onto the carriage, which transformed into a giant sun and flew through the sky, carrying Zheng Fa away without a trace.
Those in the Jiushan Realm felt an inexplicable surge of great joy in their hearts, including Nascent Soul cultivators like Head Seat Mingde who had come from outside.
While everyone was still uncertain and surprised, Immortal Li spoke: “The Divine Venerate takes his place;the sun and moon order is set. With this Divine Path method, Zheng Fa has truly succeeded.”
Hearing this, everyone didn’t know whether to be happy or sad for a moment.
Immortal Li thought for a long time and seemed to come to a decision: “Wait here for a moment. I will go have a talk with Zheng Fa.”
...
Seeing Immortal Li suddenly come to see him, Zheng Fa was also somewhat puzzled.
“Alliance Leader, is the Divine Path method you practice?”
Seeing Zheng Fa nod, Immortal Li sighed with regret: “Then I suppose you have also felt the troubles of this incense fire power.”
Zheng Fa’s expression also held some lingering fear.
The distractions within the incense fire power were truly countless.
Some wished for spirit stones to fall from the sky.
Some thought of big mansions and living in large houses.
Even more extreme were those who wished for ascension in a single day, eternal life, and thousands of fairy maidens.
There were also hidden evil thoughts in people’s hearts that were usually unseen but laid bare within the incense fire.
The Yang Spirit body, immersed within, was like drowning in a sea of desire, occasionally on the verge of losing its mind.
Fortunately, with the Divine Art of Unifying Three Purities, although he could also sense these desires, he merely felt like he was reading a book unrelated to himself.
But the Yang Spirit body was deeply afflicted, and Zheng Fa could only occasionally awaken it.
If Zheng Fa himself cultivated the Divine Path method, he would probably regret it too late now.
Immortal Li shook his head and sighed: “It’s my fault.”
Zheng Fa was stunned. He trusted Immortal Li much now and had been observing the Yang Spirit body, but hadn’t heard the discussions of Immortal Li and others.
So he didn’t quite understand what Immortal Li meant.
“Enough...” Immortal Li was silent for a moment, then explained his purpose, “Actually, it’s not completely without solutions.”
“Hm?”
“My predecessors in Taishang Dao also cultivated the Divine Path method long ago,” Immortal Li explained, “and after their improvements, this Divine Path method has two ways to slightly avoid these flaws.”
Zheng Fa was surprised to hear this.
Then Immortal Li said directly: “The first is our fundamental Taishang Dao legacy, which I cannot pass to you.”
“Fundamental legacy?”
“Yes, the Taishang Forgetting Passion Scripture was created by the Dao Venerable. Though it is not a Divine Path method, it greatly suppresses the desires of living beings.”
Zheng Fa suddenly looked at Immortal Li, probing: “Forgetting?”
Immortal Li nodded slightly, seemingly unwilling to say more, then added: “The other method is not a secret and is very suitable for you, Alliance Leader.”
Hearing this, Zheng Fa became interested: “What method?”
“The Tongtian Method.”
Zheng Fa looked puzzled, then heard Immortal Li explain: “Tongtian means the Heavenly Monument Realm you speak of. Our Taishang Dao legacy calls it Tongtian. The Dao Venerable once said the Heavenly Monument is the boundary marker of the Immortal’s Tongtian realm.” 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
Hearing this, Zheng Fa was shaken inside but kept his thoughts hidden and asked, “So the Tongtian Method is...”
“In essence, it uses incense fire power to temper the Tongtian treasure,” Immortal Li explained. “Our Taishang Dao predecessors found that Divine Path cultivators combined with Tongtian treasures can temporarily maintain their true nature through these treasures.”
“Moreover, once the Tongtian treasure grows, the Divine Path cultivator’s cultivation also strengthens, allowing them to endure stronger incense fire desires.”
Zheng Fa immediately thought of the Heavenly River Method. It seemed the idea of using treasures to maintain true nature really originated from the Divine Path.
Immortal Li added: “This method is actually not rare.”
“Hm?”
“The rare thing is the Tongtian treasure,” Immortal Li smiled. “There used to be many Tongtian treasures, but now there are far fewer. In this era, the only known existing Tongtian is in the Jiushan Realm.”
This made sense:
No matter how precious a secret method was, if it couldn’t be cultivated, it was useless.
Zheng Fa couldn’t help but feel some anticipation. Although he was not afraid of the incense fire desires like others, that didn’t mean the Yang Spirit body didn’t need this method.
The incense fire desires affected cultivators in every aspect:
Most severely, they easily caused cultivators to lose their true nature.
Besides, cultivators’ daily practice was easily disrupted by these thoughts. The Yang Spirit body found it difficult to meditate and cultivate.
It could even be said that the advantage of the Divine Path method was almost endless spiritual energy, while the disadvantage was having to dance with inner demons every day, making true cultivation impossible.
Therefore, Zheng Fa’s biggest problem now was how the Yang Spirit body could cultivate.
“But I must also remind the Alliance Leader,” Immortal Li continued, “this is not a fundamental cure. To advance the Tongtian treasure requires extremely strong incense fire power, and the desires a cultivator bears grow even stronger.”
“Our Taishang Dao predecessors discovered that even with the advancement of the Tongtian treasure, it can only temporarily suppress the suffering caused by the desires of living beings. Over time, the cultivator’s heart and character will be affected by incense fire power, making recovery difficult.”
“Therefore, this Tongtian Method can only delay the time before one descends into demonic paths. The Divine Path method... is not a Great Dao method.”
Immortal Li thought for a moment and revealed a secret: “Later, within our Taishang Dao Tongtian, there were no more ordinary mortals.”
Hearing this, Zheng Fa silently thought: he didn’t actually care about the incense fire desire’s suppression, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want the Tongtian Method!
From Immortal Li’s words, Zheng Fa deduced one thing: when the Tongtian treasure advanced, Divine Path cultivators could also advance. In other words, this was a quick advancement method for the Divine Path.
In the case that the Yang Spirit body’s cultivation was disturbed by incense fire thoughts, this method was even more suitable for Zheng Fa who wanted rapid strengthening.
Perhaps others feared the incense fire power and wavered, even selecting Tongtian residents to purify incense fire thoughts to some extent.
But Zheng Fa was not afraid!
He cupped his hands toward Immortal Li and said, “Thank you for your reminder, Immortal.”
“No trouble. I won’t give you this method for free,” Immortal Li smiled, then suddenly wore a troubled expression. “To be honest, this is also my fault...”
Zheng Fa was even more puzzled seeing Immortal Li so self-reproachful and could only sigh:
Immortal Li may not seem very clever, but... he’s a good person.
...
Soon Zheng Fa learned the price of the Tongtian Method.
In the reception hall of Zheng Fa’s small courtyard, two rows of wooden chairs were arranged.
Several high-level members of Jiushan Sect and a group from Taishang Dao sat on opposite sides.
Zheng Fa held a jade tube and after burning an incense stick, handed it to Senior Sister Zhang beside him.
Immortal Li asked, “What does the Alliance Leader think?”
“I generally agree to these terms,” Zheng Fa said, recalling the contents in the jade tube. “Regarding the matter of resisting Haori Mountain, our positions are aligned, so naturally I’m willing to cooperate.”
The conditions set by the Taishang Dao’s Ancestor Xuanding basically boiled down to two points:
One was to resist the unified front of Haori Mountain.
Simply put, to fight Haori Mountain together.
There were also detailed clauses about intelligence sharing and mutual watch and assistance, all revolving around this.
Thinking of intelligence sharing, Zheng Fa glanced at Immortal Li with a meaningful look: “I didn’t expect Taishang Dao to value Tongjian so highly.”
Immortal Li smiled.
Zheng Fa reflected silently that he had only met great cultivators limited by their knowledge, but never truly foolish ones.
The broadcast of the Dao Fruit war seemed to have shown Taishang Dao Tongjian’s capabilities and guessed Jiushan Sect’s intelligence ability.
Mentioning intelligence sharing now, they might really want to take advantage.
Zheng Fa even guessed that Taishang Dao secretly harbored some caution toward Tongjian.
Seeing Immortal Li silent, Zheng Fa shook his head and thought the agreement was fairly reasonable.
Taishang Dao was important to Jiushan Sect for several reasons:
One, to withstand the pressure from the four sects, especially the pressure brought by Xie Qingxue.
Most importantly, with Taishang Dao’s presence, Zheng Fa felt Jiushan Sect was truly safe:
Although Haori Mountain now had only one True Immortal, he also feared the shameless interference of Leiyin Temple. Having Taishang Dao reduced this worry significantly.
In this respect, their interests were almost perfectly aligned.
The other main clause was about trade.
Senior Sister Zhang put down the jade tube, looked at Immortal Li, and asked, “Magic tools and spiritual talismans exchanged for pills?”
Immortal Li nodded and smiled: “Our Taishang Dao pill path is unrivaled in Xuanyi. Your alliance has some magic tools and spiritual talismans that are... quite unique.”
It was clear that Immortal Li had thought hard and finally found a word of praise.
This was not to belittle Jiushan Sect, but for Taishang Dao, especially for a wandering immortal like Immortal Li, Jiushan Sect’s current pill refinement and artifact forging were indeed only somewhat distinctive:
Madam Xuanhua was still in the late Nascent Soul stage and hadn’t reached Nascent Spirit yet, so she naturally couldn’t forge spirit tools.
For Taishang Dao, especially for wandering immortals like Immortal Li, these magic tools and treasures were rather low-end.
Immortal Li added, “Oh, they can also be exchanged for the Tongtian Method. I forgot to include that.”
Zheng Fa and Senior Sister Zhang exchanged a glance, showing some hesitation.
Honestly, this trade agreement was quite fair.
The Taishang Dao’s Ancestor Xuanding seemed like a perfectionist;many products even had precise prices, sometimes down to half a spirit stone.
Zheng Fa roughly looked it over;the prices were close to market prices in Xuanyi and no one was at a disadvantage.
Immortal Li seemed embarrassed and quietly said, “I can give you a discount on the Tongtian Method, but for other things...”
He paused and said, “Ancestor Xuanding is very serious. Every spirit stone in the sect is accounted for and can’t be moved casually.”
Hearing this, Head Seat Mingde and others nodded in agreement.
Ancestor Xuanding probably wasn’t extravagant at all.
Many of the products in the catalog were Jiushan’s exclusive magic tools, which Head Seat Mingde liked to buy before.
And because these items were rather low-end, Taishang Dao disciples might not want to earn such hard-earned money.
In other words, this agreement did not harm Taishang Dao’s interests and could supplement their magic tool demands.
Ancestor Xuanding must have carefully selected these items, showing no intention to let Jiushan Sect get any cheap advantage.
Zheng Fa thought for a moment and nodded to Senior Sister Zhang.
Senior Sister Zhang understood and said, “Jiushan Sect has two questions.”
“Please speak.”
“Can the product catalog and prices be changed later?”
Immortal Li laughed: “Of course.”
Seeing Senior Sister Zhang’s face show some disappointment, she asked again, “Then how many of these items do you want?”
Immortal Li was stunned and looked confused, apparently not understanding the question’s meaning, and asked, “What?”
“How many of these magic tools or spiritual talismans do you want?” Senior Sister Zhang spoke slowly, then asked expectantly, “Is there an upper limit?”
