Chapter 5: The Art of Shaking the Gods

"Master, your disciple still has a question." Ji Ning had always remembered that he had refined eight hundred jin of liquid essence without reaching his limit.

"Speak," said Immortal Diancai.

Ji Ning quickly said, "Your disciple previously cultivated the 'Water Source Manual' and has refined a total of eight hundred and eighty jin of liquid essence. According to the 'Water Source Manual,' refining eight hundred jin of liquid essence should establish the foundation for a Celestial Immortal, and further refinement should quickly reach the limit. Yet my Zifu still hasn't reached its limit. Why is this?"

"Oh?" Immortal Diancai smiled. "Haha, cultivators all worry that their Zifu can't hold enough elemental power, that their foundation isn't solid enough. Yet you complain that your Zifu holds too much."

"No," Ji Ning quickly said. "I'm just puzzled why I'm special."

Immortal Diancai smiled. "Because your body is a divine demon's body! Ordinary divine demon body refinement is one thing, but the divine demon body cultivated by the legendary supreme divine demon body refinement technique, the 'Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens,' is truly perfect, no less than that of a powerful divine demon born from heaven and earth. It's only natural that the Zifu lake opened within such a divine demon body can hold more elemental power."

"Oh," Ji Ning suddenly understood.

"In fact, the more顶尖 the qi-refining technique, the more solid the foundation. It may take longer at the Zifu and Wanxiang stages, but later on, it will be much easier," said Immortal Diancai. "There are also some techniques at the immortal rank that are even better than the 'Water Source Manual.' Some require refining over a thousand jin of liquid essence at the Zifu stage. The more powerful the technique, the more elemental power it can hold." Immortal Diancai looked at Ji Ning. "You should be happy."

"Your disciple understands." Ji Ning now fully comprehended. "May I ask how much liquid essence I need to refine to reach Wanxiang?"

The Immortal Diancai pondered for a moment, then said, "It is indeed rare for a disciple cultivating the Crimsonbright Nine Heavens Diagram to also practice the Water Source Manual... Let me think. Hmm, I estimate you'll need between sixteen hundred and two thousand catties of primal liquid."

Ji Ning took a deep breath.

"The Crimsonbright Nine Heavens Diagram is truly the foremost technique," said the Immortal Diancai, looking at Ji Ning. "You should put more effort into it."

"Mm," Ji Ning nodded. "Then I'll head to the Scripture Depository."

"Go ahead," the Immortal Diancai nodded, then closed his eyes.

Ji Ning withdrew.

Once outside, he boarded his boat and broke through the air, heading straight for the Scripture Depository.

...

Inside the Scripture Depository.

Ji Ning went directly to the second floor, the 'Techniques' floor.

"I originally had two hundred black-white pellets left, gained six hundred from the Debate Hall battle, and was awarded two thousand by the academy for stepping into the Dao of the Sword. That makes two thousand eight hundred in total." Ji Ning carefully searched among the countless bookshelves lined with books.

He was searching for the thirty-six sword technique manuals recorded on the beast-hide scroll his teacher had given him.

"Really cheap."

"This first volume is only thirty black-and-white pellets."

"This one is even cheaper, just ten black-and-white pellets."

"This one is expensive, actually costing a hundred black-and-white pellets."

Ji Ning moved like the wind, his gaze sharp as lightning, sweeping over the vast array of sword technique books time and again, quickly picking out those thirty-six books. The cheapest of these thirty-six books cost only ten black-and-white pellets, while the most expensive cost a hundred. But they were of all kinds—some were cunning sword techniques, some were domineering sword techniques, some were swift sword techniques...

"Amidst such a sea of sword techniques, my teacher personally selected these thirty-six for me, tailored to my needs. One can imagine how many sword technique manuals he must have perused." Ji Ning marveled inwardly.

Clearly, to become a powerful sword immortal,

reading a great number of sword technique books was also very important.

"Not bad, this sword technique suits me even better than the Two Forms Azure Fire Sword." After acquiring them, Ji Ning flipped through them, and his eyes lit up at once.

...

After selecting the thirty-six sword technique books, Ji Ning came to a long table. On the table lay five abridged manuals: "Heavenly Body Expansion," "Three Heads and Six Arms," "Thunderclap Divine Eye," "Ten Thousand Poison Stingers," and "Blazing Heart Eye."

"Divine abilities." Ji Ning pondered. "I still have two thousand two hundred black-and-white pellets left. Should I choose a divine ability or a mind-manipulation technique?"

Techniques for wielding the mind were even rarer than divine abilities.

There were only three: "Mind-Shaking Art," "Mind-Charming Art," and "Mind-Destroying Art."

Both divine abilities and mind-manipulation techniques were highly attractive to Ji Ning; he wanted both.

"If only I could choose freely." Ji Ning gritted his teeth.

He shot a fierce glance at the five divine ability abridged manuals, then turned and walked straight to another long table where the mind-manipulation techniques were displayed.

On the table lay three golden books.

Without the slightest hesitation, Ji Ning picked up one of the golden books, then promptly and decisively left the Scripture Depository Hall.

...

As soon as he walked out of the Dao Canon Hall, the tall, burly guardian in armor outside glanced at Ji Ning. "Made your choice?"

"Yes, here you go." Ji Ning handed it over directly, but couldn't help glancing back at the Dao Canon Hall.

Divine abilities.

He really wanted to get his hands on a few divine abilities, like the 'Blazing Heart Eye,' which also had the effect of a divine sense technique and was even more mysterious and unpredictable. But unfortunately, just the first volume cost a full five thousand black-and-white pellets. As for 'Thunderclap Divine Eye,' it could directly cultivate a third divine eye, storing the thunder and lightning of heaven and earth within it; with a thought, the eye could release lightning! Its power was equally terrifying.

"For me right now, I can't have both fish and bear's paw," Ji Ning sighed inwardly. "I have the divine ability 'Starseizing Hand,' which surpasses these other abilities by an unknown degree. Other divine abilities are more supplementary, making up for some of my shortcomings, but they won't increase my strength too significantly."

"This 'Soulshaker Art' could give me another trump card in a short time," Ji Ning thought.

The power of the Soulshaker Art had nothing to do with one's divine power or elemental power. It relied on the divine sense of one's soul! The stronger the divine sense, the greater the power of the Soulshaker Art. He himself was now at the level of divine sense, comparable to a Primal Daoist, and with the 'Nuwa Painting,' his soul was constantly improving.

Naturally, he had to learn a divine sense technique.

"You didn't choose a divine ability?" The guardian looked at Ji Ning's selection with some surprise. "Junior apprentice-nephew Ji Ning, although this 'Soulshaker Art' can be used as long as one has divine sense, other Wanxiang Adepts also have divine sense. At most, you can slightly affect a Wanxiang Adept. You're training in the 'Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Forms'; you should choose another divine ability."

Ji Ning smiled. How could this guardian know that his soul was at the 'divine sense' level?

"Just these," Ji Ning said.

"As you wish." The guardian had only spoken out of consideration for Ji Ning; since Ji Ning insisted, he said no more.

"The 'Soulshaker Art' costs two thousand black-and-white pellets; the others total six hundred black-and-white pellets." The guardian looked at Ji Ning. "I'll remove the seals on these sword technique books, and I'll fetch the original copies of the 'Soulshaker Art' and the Heaven-grade sword techniques."

...

Soon, after paying two thousand black-and-white pellets, Ji Ning returned to Northmyth Peak with thirty-six sword technique books and the 'Soulshaker Art.'

Back at Northmyth Peak, Ji Ning's heart itched with curiosity. He instructed that he was not to be disturbed unless something important came up, then went straight to the meditation chamber.

"Off to the meditation chamber again." Yun Lu watched Ji Ning, biting her lip, a hint of sadness in her eyes. "He won't even chat with me a little."

Meng Yan glanced at Yun Lu and chuckled inwardly.

He could clearly see that this Yun Lu had been trying to seduce Ji Ning all along. "Too bad, Ji Ning's Dao-heart is too firm; how could a temptress like you shake him?"

Inside the meditation chamber.

Ji Ning sat cross-legged and immediately opened the complete 'Soulshaker Art.' The book wasn't thick, and as he read carefully, he quickly understood... the so-called 'Soulshaker Art' was a very special technique for using divine sense. This single technique was worth as much as a divine ability.

"Soulshaker Art?" Ji Ning closed his eyes and began to meditate silently.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh~~~

Ji Ning's powerful divine sense began to emanate outward, covering the entire meditation chamber, and he started to attempt it again and again.

Failure, failure, failure.

Despite repeated failures, Ji Ning felt no discouragement. Each time, he discovered his own problems and managed to do better.

...

In the blink of an eye, Ji Ning had been cultivating in the meditation chamber for over half a month. Since he had long instructed that he was not to be disturbed unless absolutely necessary, it had been very quiet.

In the void of Ji Ning's sea of consciousness, a miniature Ji Ning sat cross-legged—his soul.

The soul sat cross-legged, forming seals before its chest again and again.

"Whoosh!"

A cyan seal barely held for an instant before dissipating.

Ji Ning calmly absorbed the experience and tried again. "Whoosh!" Instantly, a strange cyan seal appeared before the soul's chest. At first glance, it looked like some kind of character, but it was neither a Fiendgod character nor any script Ji Ning knew. Seeing this cyan seal, one felt surging waves crashing against the shore, wave after wave.

"Go." Ji Ning willed it.

The powerful divine sense released by the soul, with the cyan seal as its core, spread outward. Unlike the sweeping sensation of the past, it was like layered waves, rolling in all directions. It was easy to imagine that once it encountered a living being with a soul, this divine sense, like rolling waves, would instantly crash against that being's soul, just like waves hitting the shore.

"I've finally managed to condense the 'Soulshaker Seal,'" Ji Ning opened his eyes and revealed a smile. "But it's still far from the truly perfect Soulshaker Seal described in the book."

Ji Ning left the meditation chamber with ease.

When he reached the courtyard outside, the sky was a brilliant starry expanse—it was deep in the night.

Ji Ning looked up at the shining stars in the sky and smiled. "Next comes a long period of studying the Dao and comprehending sword techniques at the Black-White College. Only when I get my master's approval can I go out to train and temper myself."

...

Time passed.

Ji Ning and Mu Zishuo, the two new disciples, lived a calm and fulfilling life at the Black-White College. They immersed themselves in comprehension, studying sword techniques and the art of puppetry... and their strength grew imperceptibly. These two rough gems, under the polishing of the Black-White College, gradually began to shine with their true brilliance.

In the blink of an eye, more than three years had passed, and it was the height of summer. That year, Ji Ning turned twenty.