97: Chapter 97 Cultivation Novels Have Deceived Me Again

Anomalous Code Name: Shituolin Swamp.

Rank Judgment: Beyond Province Rank.

Initial Record Date: The seventeenth year of Da Zhou Zhenghe...

Xie Feng originally held an extremely serious attitude, preparing to break it down line by line. The words on the silk fabric were small and dense, and Wenren Jingming's voice was steady; combined together, the effect was comparable to hypnosis.

He had looked at it for less than half a cup of tea, and the three pupils of his left eye began to drift in three different directions. The Night Demon was clearly completely uninterested in this gadget, feeling that it was far more boring than watching Xie Feng hold his cold crystal blind staff upside down to smash a Formless Spawn in Ranhuo City.

Xie Feng still forced himself to continue reading. Wenren Jingming noticed that Xie Feng's gaze was beginning to scatter, so he raised his voice slightly and pointed his hand at a few core entries on the silk fabric that were bolded with cinnabar.

"This rule is the most important among all the rules. The rule coverage of Shituolin Swamp is extremely massive, and it exerts direct binding constraints on Cultivators below the Fifth Realm. In other words, once Cultivators below the Fifth Realm enter its rule-affected area, they must obey all entries without any exemption. Those above the Fifth Realm can partially resist it by virtue of their own Spiritual Qi density, but it is only partially."

Zuo Ciyuan had said that above the Fourth Realm was the divergence of immortals and mortals. From then on, every single tier was a difficult barrier, and every Realm would undergo a qualitative change. Without great talent, great bitter cultivation, and great Opportunity, it was extremely difficult to change.

Xie Feng finally came back to his senses when he heard this rule.

"The Fifth Realm is a strange checkpoint. Once a Cultivator reaches the Fifth Realm, the Spiritual Qi within their body can begin to differentiate into the Five Elements." He casually muttered a sentence of Zuo Ciyuan's teachings, and then signaled Wenren Jingming to continue downward.

Wenren Jingming acknowledged and continued to unfold the silk fabric.

Whenever he reached a place that needed to be supported by charts, he would slow down the pace to let Xie Feng read carefully.

As Xie Feng spread his spiritual power perception over the silk fabric and read further down, a certain caution buried in the ruins of Cangyun City and Ranhuo City in his mind was reactivated bit by bit.

The rule system of Shituolin Swamp reminded him of those high-ranking Great Old Ones in the cthulhu mythos who needed to be sealed with specific rituals and sequences.

This anomaly was the same; the power of their existence usually could not be suppressed by simple spiritual Seals, and multiple chains at the consciousness level must be used to deprive them of their mobility.

Previously in Ranhuo City, he basically relied on forcibly pushing out the power of the Great Old Ones to settle things, but now he was facing something completely different.

A fall into the pit, a gain in your wit. Zuo Ciyuan was right; if he hadn't even figured out the basic framework of the Nine Provinces, how could he play chess in the future?

Therefore, even if the rules were useless to Xie Feng this time, Xie Feng still had to bite the bullet and learn them.

Time slowly slid from morning to noon, and from noon to afternoon.

Wenren Jingming had already changed a pot of tea, and Xie Feng had also flipped the silk fabric to the last few pages.

Fortunately, Xie Feng was also someone with a cheat. Magic urged the three eyes to rotate, activating the flash of the mark.

Scanning ten lines at a glance, never forgetting what is seen.

Most of the content on the silk fabric had already been imprinted deep within his consciousness. When Xie Feng finally finished reading the last section of rule annotations, closed the scroll, and pushed it back in front of Wenren Jingming, Wenren Jingming looked at Xie Feng.

"Memorized it all."

"Does Young Master really want to go down? This kind of risk..."

"The risk is indeed very large. We are going to reinforce the Seal, not to fight it. This time I will remember the lesson."

Wenren Jingming did not try to persuade him further; he merely locked the bone-plate scroll back into the wooden box, stood up, and straightened his cuffs.

"When will Young Master set off? This official will arrange for people to prepare the passing talismans for the periphery of the Seal."

"No rush. In any case, I cannot work for free for the Emperor's family. Dragging it out for two days is fine; let me see if I can achieve a Breakthrough in the Fourth Realm first."

"Then this official will await Young Master's news."

Xie Feng pushed open the black iron door of the Hall of Archives, and the Centurion was indeed still leaning against the base of the alley's wall.

This person probably spent all his time waiting to guide the way for him, except when sleeping and going to the latrine.

Xie Feng was already used to it, and he hoisted the cold crystal blind staff onto his shoulder: "Centurion, I want to see Your Majesty, right now."

The Centurion glanced at him. Xie Feng followed him through the gravel path on the west side of the Imperial Garden, turned a few corners, and entered the extremely small warm pavilion on the west side of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

Emperor Zhou Weixi was still sitting on the low couch, pinching a memorial in his hand, with two plates of pastries placed on the low table in front of him.

He raised his head and saw Xie Feng enter, putting the memorial aside. His tone remained that of casual chatting: "I heard that you looked at case files in the Hall of Archives for a whole day, and Wenren Jingming told me that you never forget what you see. You've worked hard."

Hiss... Why does it feel so honorable? How can this emperor be so... No, no!

Xie Feng sat down without taking any pastries, going straight to the point: "Your Majesty, I agreed to the matter of going down to reinforce the Seal. But before going down, I want to achieve a Breakthrough in the Fourth Realm first. Relying on this eye to fly around every day is definitely not a good thing."

Xie Feng tapped his right hand gently on the edge of his left eye socket, without naming the Night Demon.

Xie Feng truly did not want to rely on the Night Demon anymore. He understood cthulhu-style things better than anyone else; the more he contacted and relied on them, the bigger problems would arise. Even if he had to rely on something, he would rather choose relatively friendly ones like Yog-Sothoth and Tsathoggua, and would no longer want to have any entanglement with Nyarlathotep's Incarnation.

"So what can I help you with?" Emperor Zhou Weixi picked up his tea cup, "Beloved subject, speak freely."

"Heaven And Earth Treasure, the kind that can break through a Bottleneck after eating it. Your Majesty also knows that I am a person from beyond the heavens; the system inside my body is somewhat different from the Nine Provinces cultivation system. I am currently stuck at the Peak of the Third Realm, and the barrier has cracked a seam, but I cannot push it open by myself. If there are suitable Spirit Medicine, such as Ganoderma or humanoid fleeceflower, Your Majesty can reward me with a few stalks, and I will take them back to refine and try."

Emperor Zhou Weixi held the tea cup and looked at him for a long time.

It was not surprise, nor dissatisfaction, but a seriousness carrying a trace of bewilderment. What Xie Feng just said seemed to have touched upon a very fundamental blind spot in his cognitive system.

Emperor Zhou Weixi put down the tea cup: "What is a Heaven And Earth Treasure? Whether it is the Ganoderma you mentioned or ginseng, they are all medicinal materials from the imperial hospital in the palace. They are fine for promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis, nourishing Qi, and replenishing blood, but eating them directly cannot increase cultivation. I have never heard of anything that can make a person Breakthrough a major Realm just by eating it."

"The Spiritual Qi of the Nine Provinces is not piled up by external objects, nor can it be directly poured in. What difference does that make from forcibly pouring water into a leaking wooden bucket? As for extraordinary encounters on the immortal path..." He paused, "It's not that they don't exist; notes and insights left by predecessors, ancient classics surviving in Sects, and anomalous case files sealed away in the imperial Hall of Archives to this day are themselves Opportunities."

"However, how can one make progress by imitating antiquity? The times are moving forward, and only new Cultivators can research new Cultivation Techniques and create better ways to Cultivate, right?"

"The spirit plants and Immortal Plants you spoke of, even if given to you, would you eat them directly?" Emperor Zhou Weixi looked even more bewildered, "Eat them directly? Wouldn't that kill you?"