The mountain stood in complete silence, its towering peaks concealed beneath a thin veil of mist, while spiritual energy flowed through the forests and valleys like an invisible river. Occasionally, the low growl of a yao beast echoed between the cliffs, followed by the rustling of leaves as some creature moved through the undergrowth, yet none of these sounds disturbed the tranquility surrounding the secluded Immortal abode built halfway up the mountain.
Deep within the abode, Lin Sheng sat cross-legged upon a jade meditation cushion, his breathing slow and steady as the spiritual energy within the chamber circulated according to a mysterious rhythm. Several formation plates had been embedded in the surrounding walls, their intricate patterns connected to the mountain's hidden spiritual vein, while additional formations stretched beneath the ground, forming an enormous network that gathered spiritual energy from the surrounding region and concentrated it towards the abode. The mountain's spiritual vein was only Rank 3, and under ordinary circumstances, its spiritual energy would have been insufficient to support a Golden Core cultivator's prolonged secluded cultivation, but Lin Sheng had employed his attainments as a Formation Grandmaster to modify the surrounding formations, forcibly raising the spiritual energy concentration to Rank 4.
Maintaining such an arrangement required a considerable expenditure of resources, but Lin Sheng had no intention of economising when it came to his cultivation. A stable cultivation environment could save him years of effort, and with his current wealth, there was little reason to endure the limitations of an ordinary Rank 3 spiritual vein when he possessed the ability to overcome them through formations.
After spending several years travelling through the Eastern Region, he had finally found a secluded mountain suitable for establishing a temporary residence, one far enough from the major cities to avoid unnecessary attention yet close enough to several spiritual veins that he could gather the resources required for his research. He had personally inspected the surrounding terrain before choosing the location, establishing layers of concealment formations and defensive restrictions that prevented ordinary cultivators from discovering the abode unless they happened to pass through the immediate vicinity. Even if someone accidentally entered the mountain, they would find little more than a stretch of ordinary wilderness, because the formations distorted their perception and concealed the unusual concentration of spiritual energy beneath the surface.
For Lin Sheng, this place was more than a temporary residence.
It was a cultivation ground where he could experiment without worrying about disturbing others, a place where he could refine his divine abilities and investigate the peculiarities of his cultivation without drawing the attention of powerful factions. His experiences in Zhenyuan City had already reminded him that the Eastern Region was far from peaceful, and although he possessed sufficient strength to protect himself against most Golden Core cultivators, he had no intention of allowing unnecessary conflicts to interfere with his progress.
At that moment, Lin Sheng's eyelids suddenly lifted.
A brilliant rainbow light erupted from his eyes.
The radiance swept across the meditation chamber, passed through the surrounding formations, and spread beyond the stone walls, illuminating the mountain slopes in a fleeting display of seven-coloured brilliance. For an instant, the mist hanging between the peaks seemed to acquire a faint iridescent sheen, while the spiritual energy flowing through the trees rippled as though a gentle breeze had passed through it.
The yao beasts roaming the mountain all paused.
A grey-furred wolf standing beside a stream lifted its head, its ears twitching as it stared towards the distant peak. Several birds resting among the branches abruptly stopped moving, while a horned deer grazing beneath the trees raised its head and looked around with an expression of inexplicable confusion.
Yet the disturbance lasted for no more than a heartbeat.
The wolf lowered its head and continued drinking, the birds resumed their movements, and the deer returned to grazing as though nothing unusual had occurred.
The rainbow light vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared, leaving Lin Sheng sitting quietly within the meditation chamber, a faint smile gradually forming on his face.
He had succeeded.
After an extended period of cultivation, he had finally condensed his third divine ability seed, the Rainbow Illusion Butterfly.
Lin Sheng slowly raised his right hand and examined his fingers, his gaze passing beyond his physical body and entering the depths of his Sea of Consciousness, where a newly formed seed floated above the spiritual foundation of his Golden Body cultivation. Unlike the Five Elements Profound Light and the Yin-Yang Treasure Robe, which possessed distinct characteristics that could be sensed even before their full manifestation, the Rainbow Illusion Butterfly was extraordinarily subtle, its aura shifting continuously between several colours until it became difficult to determine its true nature.
It did not radiate an overwhelming force.
It did not produce a terrifying physical pressure.
Nor did it possess the obvious destructive characteristics of a divine ability that could unleash an enormous quantity of elemental energy.
Instead, its presence was almost imperceptible, resembling a faint ripple that appeared whenever spiritual energy passed through his Sea of Consciousness. Yet Lin Sheng understood that the seemingly inconspicuous nature of this ability was precisely what made it dangerous.
Once the seed had fully settled, he could fuse it with his Golden Body and advance his external cultivation from the early stage to the middle stage of Rank 4.
That breakthrough would strengthen his physical foundation once again, bringing his already formidable body closer to the limits of the Golden Body Realm, but the value of the Rainbow Illusion Butterfly was not limited to the increase in cultivation it could provide. Its true significance lay in the kind of attack it allowed him to perform, one that targeted an opponent's spiritual foundation directly rather than relying on the destruction of their physical body.
Lin Sheng's expression became thoughtful as he recalled the information he had gathered about the divine ability's origins.
The Rainbow Illusion Butterfly was believed to originate from an ancient yao beast that had existed during the Ancient Era, a creature whose bloodline possessed extraordinary spiritual characteristics. Unlike yao beasts whose powerful bloodlines manifested through enormous bodies, terrifying physical strength, or the ability to manipulate the elements, the Rainbow Butterfly had followed an entirely different evolutionary path, concentrating its innate abilities upon the spirit and consciousness.
It was said that a mature Rainbow Butterfly could infiltrate an enemy's Sea of Consciousness without producing any noticeable disturbance, passing through the barriers of spiritual perception before attacking the True Spirit directly. Its methods were so strange that even powerful cultivators who possessed extraordinary physical defences could fall victim to it, because the Rainbow Butterfly did not need to break through their flesh or exhaust their spiritual Qi. As long as it could enter their Sea of Consciousness and reach their True Spirit, it could inflict damage that was extremely difficult to recover from.
An ordinary cultivator might possess a powerful body, a formidable cultivation base, and several defensive divine abilities, yet those advantages would become considerably less meaningful if their consciousness were invaded before they had an opportunity to react.
The upper dantian was a particularly dangerous weakness.
Although many cultivators understood the importance of protecting their spiritual foundation, not everyone possessed an effective defensive method capable of resisting attacks that targeted the Sea of Consciousness. Some relied on the natural strength of their spiritual sense, others used protective talismans or specialised divine abilities, while a few possessed treasures that could shield their True Spirits. However, such protections were neither universal nor infallible, and a cultivator who encountered a spiritual attack without having prepared any means of defence could suffer devastating consequences.
Facing a Rainbow Butterfly without proper protection for one's upper dantian was therefore little different from allowing a hidden assassin to approach one's most vulnerable point.
Unfortunately, yao beasts possessing such extraordinary bloodlines had long since disappeared, and the Rainbow Butterfly was no exception. The descendants that remained in the present era were merely distant offshoots of the ancient bloodline, possessing less than one per cent of its original power. Although some of those descendants still displayed unusual spiritual abilities, the difference between them and their ancient ancestors was enormous, and none could reproduce the terrifying methods recorded in the surviving accounts.
The Rainbow Illusion Butterfly divine ability, however, preserved a portion of that ancient inheritance.
Lin Sheng could condense his spiritual awareness into a single strand of rainbow light, compressing his mental perception until it possessed an extraordinary degree of cohesion before launching it directly towards an opponent's Sea of Consciousness. Because the attack was concentrated rather than dispersed, it could penetrate certain forms of spiritual defence with considerably greater efficiency than an ordinary mental assault, and if the target failed to respond in time, the sudden invasion could severely injure their True Spirit, disrupt their control over their cultivation, or leave them temporarily incapacitated.
Against an opponent whose cultivation was comparable to his own, the ability could become a decisive weapon.
A moment of disrupted perception was enough to create an opening in a life-or-death battle, and if the attack inflicted serious damage upon the enemy's True Spirit, even a physically superior opponent might lose the ability to maintain their techniques. The resulting loss of control could be fatal when facing someone capable of exploiting the slightest weakness.
Of course, the ability was not invincible.
A cultivator with sufficiently powerful divine sense, a specialised defensive treasure, or a suitable spiritual protection method could resist the invasion, and someone whose spiritual foundation vastly exceeded Lin Sheng's might even suppress the attack before it reached its intended target. Nevertheless, a divine ability did not need to defeat every opponent by itself to be valuable. It only needed to create an advantage that could be exploited through the other methods at his disposal.
Lin Sheng had already possessed considerable destructive power.
His Golden Body could deliver terrifying physical attacks, the Five Elements Profound Light could interfere with gathered spiritual energy, and the Yin-Yang Treasure Robe provided a defensive method that complemented his existing foundation. What he had lacked was an effective means of directly attacking an opponent's spiritual consciousness without relying upon his innate natal flame.
Now, that deficiency had finally been addressed.
He leaned back slightly and allowed his perception to settle upon the newly formed seed, carefully examining its structure while ensuring that the surrounding spiritual energy remained stable.
There had been a reason he chose a spiritual divine ability rather than another ability that primarily strengthened his physical body.
Although another physical divine ability might have increased his strength or defensive power, the improvement would not necessarily have been significant enough to justify the time and effort required to condense and fuse another seed. His Golden Body was already exceptionally powerful, and his physical foundation had reached a level at which most Golden Core cultivators would struggle to injure him through ordinary attacks.
What he lacked was versatility.
His mental strength was already enormous, and he possessed a strong foundation for spiritual techniques, yet his available methods for directly attacking an opponent's consciousness remained limited. Aside from his innate natal flame, he had few reliable means of exploiting that advantage, and relying upon a single method in every serious battle would inevitably restrict his options.
The Rainbow Illusion Butterfly was therefore an excellent choice.
It allowed him to turn his mental strength into a more specialised form of offensive power, complementing his physical combat ability without forcing him to abandon the advantages he had already developed. In a confrontation with another Golden Core cultivator, he could use his physical strength to pressure the opponent while waiting for an opening to launch the rainbow light, and if the enemy concentrated their attention upon defending against his direct attacks, the spiritual assault could arrive at the moment they least expected it.
More importantly, the ability would reduce his dependence on his innate natal flame.
Lin Sheng's gaze gradually became more serious as he considered the flame residing within his mind.
His innate natal flame had always been an extremely powerful weapon, particularly against Yin entities and creatures whose existence depended upon Yin Qi. However, as his cultivation deepened, the flame had begun developing characteristics increasingly similar to a spiritual flame from the Immortal Cultivation world known as the Sun True Fire.
The resemblance was not merely superficial.
Both possessed an extraordinary Yang nature, and even a wisp of Sun True Fire was said to be sufficient to attract the attention of beings whose cultivation had surpassed the Nascent Soul Realm. Such a flame was far too conspicuous to use carelessly, especially when Lin Sheng was already attempting to conceal his background and avoid drawing the attention of powerful cultivators.
His innate natal flame was not necessarily identical to the Sun True Fire, and he had no intention of making that assumption without further investigation. Nevertheless, the similarities were concerning enough that he preferred not to release its full power unless circumstances genuinely required it.
After all, a cultivator who revealed a treasure capable of attracting the attention of powerful beings could easily invite trouble far beyond what the treasure itself was worth.
The Rainbow Illusion Butterfly offered him another option, one that could be used without producing the same conspicuous fluctuations as his innate natal flame. Although it required careful control and could be resisted by suitable defences, its subtlety made it particularly useful when he wanted to end a battle quickly without revealing the true depth of his foundation.
Lin Sheng nodded to himself.
This divine ability had been worth the effort.
He allowed the seed to continue stabilising while he shifted his attention towards his other cultivation realms, and the moment he examined them carefully, his brows drew together slightly.
Something was wrong.
His meditation realm had continued progressing, though the rate of advancement had slowed considerably as he approached the boundary of the first layer of the Spiritual Platform Realm. This was not entirely unexpected, because each step closer to a major bottleneck required a more refined spiritual foundation, and the difficulty of advancement naturally increased as the realm became more profound.
Even so, his progress in the other areas of cultivation had slowed far more dramatically than he had anticipated.
His internal martial cultivation, which had previously advanced through the absorption and refinement of the Five Elements Essence contained within spiritual Qi, had almost come to a standstill. Under ordinary circumstances, the acupoints within his body should have attracted the relevant essence as he circulated his cultivation method, gradually refining it before using it to strengthen his foundation.
Now, however, the process had become strangely inefficient.
The surrounding spiritual Qi was abundant, and the Rank 4 spiritual environment created by his formations should have been more than sufficient to support his cultivation. Yet his acupoints seemed unable to attract the Five Elements Essence naturally, as though an invisible barrier had appeared between his body and the spiritual energy of the Immortal Continent.
If not for his inner acupoint formation and the attraction field produced by his Golden Body, he might have suspected that something had gone wrong with his acupoints themselves.
Those external methods forcibly drew the relevant essence towards his body, allowing him to continue cultivating despite the unusual resistance, but they were clearly compensating for a problem rather than resolving it. Without their assistance, his internal martial cultivation would have slowed to the point where even the abundant spiritual energy surrounding him could not produce meaningful progress.
The problem extended beyond his acupoints.
Lin Sheng turned his attention towards his Qiankun Pseudo Domain, whose comprehension had remained at 3% for an uncomfortably long time.
At first, he had attributed the stagnation to his decision to devote most of his attention to the Rainbow Illusion Butterfly. The state of emptiness was exceptionally useful when comprehending divine abilities, and he had deliberately concentrated his efforts upon condensing the third seed rather than dividing his attention between several different objectives. Since his time and concentration were limited, it was reasonable that his comprehension of the Qiankun Pseudo Domain had received less attention.
However, that explanation no longer seemed entirely convincing.
Even without relying upon the state of emptiness, his comprehension should not have remained completely stagnant for so long. His understanding of Qian Heaven and Kun Earth was already substantial, and the fusion of the two principles had provided him with a foundation that was far from ordinary. Although advancing the Qiankun Pseudo Domain would inevitably become more difficult as its comprehension deepened, he should still have been able to make gradual progress through ordinary meditation and repeated experimentation.
Instead, every attempt seemed to encounter an invisible obstruction.
It was almost as though his understanding could no longer interact naturally with the laws of the Immortal Continent.
Lin Sheng slowly opened his eyes wider, the faint rainbow radiance within them fading as his thoughts became increasingly focused.
He had already tested his Golden Body cultivation.
That path still worked.
His physical foundation continued to strengthen when he refined the appropriate resources, and the condensation of divine ability seeds remained possible so long as he possessed sufficient comprehension and the necessary foundation. The problem appeared to affect his martial cultivation and the comprehension of his martial concepts far more severely than his other paths.
That distinction was important.
If the problem had originated from his own foundation, he would have expected his Golden Body cultivation to suffer similar difficulties. If his acupoints had been damaged, the inner acupoint formation should not have been able to draw the Five Elements Essence through them so effectively, and if his comprehension had genuinely reached its limit, the state of emptiness should not have allowed him to condense the Rainbow Illusion Butterfly seed so smoothly.
Yet the results pointed in a different direction.
His Golden Body cultivation continued progressing, his meditation realm advanced slowly but steadily, and his divine ability comprehension remained functional, while his internal martial cultivation and Qiankun Pseudo Domain had nearly stopped advancing through ordinary means.
The difference was too pronounced to dismiss as coincidence.
Lin Sheng's expression gradually became solemn.
Could it be that martial cultivation is incompatible with the Immortal Continent?
The thought had crossed his mind before, but until now, he had lacked sufficient evidence to take it seriously. After all, the Immortal Continent possessed abundant spiritual energy, countless cultivation resources, and natural laws that allowed Golden Core cultivators to comprehend divine abilities and advance their cultivation. It would have been strange if martial cultivation alone were fundamentally unable to progress there.
However, his own experience was beginning to suggest that the problem might not lie in the abundance of spiritual energy, but in the relationship between martial cultivation and the underlying laws of the continent.
His acupoints were not ordinary apertures that merely absorbed spiritual Qi, and his martial concepts were not simple techniques that could be strengthened through repetition alone. Both relied upon a particular relationship between the cultivator and the surrounding world, and if that relationship differed between the Martial Continent and the Immortal Continent, the same cultivation method might not function equally well in both places.
Lin Sheng's eyes narrowed as he recalled the limitations of martial cultivation on the Martial Continent.
The martial artists there had spent countless generations developing their techniques, refining their bodies, and pushing their understanding of Martial Intent towards ever-greater heights. Yet despite their efforts, internal martial cultivation remained trapped around the Astral Gang Realm, while martial concepts struggled to advance beyond the extreme of Martial Will.
There were undoubtedly other factors involved, including the limitations of inheritance, the difficulty of comprehension, and the resources available to different factions. Nevertheless, the repeated appearance of similar bottlenecks across generations suggested that the problem might be deeper than a lack of talent or effort.
Perhaps the Martial Continent possessed conditions that naturally supported martial cultivation, allowing martial artists to refine their acupoints, strengthen their Qi-Blood, and comprehend Martial Intent until they approached the limits of their world. The Immortal Continent, on the other hand, might possess laws more suited to immortal cultivation, allowing cultivators to gather spiritual Qi, form divine ability seeds, and condense Golden Cores while making the advancement of martial cultivation considerably more difficult.
If that were true, the stagnation he was experiencing would finally make sense.
It might also explain another question that had bothered him for some time.
Why had his Golden Body cultivation failed to condense its first divine ability seed quickly while he was still on the Martial Continent?
At the time, he had attributed the delay to the difficulty of comprehension and the limitations of his available resources. Those explanations had not been entirely wrong, but they might not have been sufficient. If the Martial Continent's natural laws were fundamentally more compatible with martial cultivation than with immortal cultivation, then the reverse might also be true on the Immortal Continent, where certain aspects of his martial foundation could encounter invisible resistance despite his superior resources and cultivation environment.
The possibility was worth investigating.
Lin Sheng leaned back against the meditation cushion, his fingers lightly tapping his knee as he considered his next move. He did not intend to abandon his current cultivation simply because he had encountered an unusual obstacle, nor would he rush to declare his theory correct without conducting further tests. The Immortal Continent still offered him many opportunities, and his Golden Body cultivation was advancing well enough that he had no reason to leave immediately.
Nevertheless, if his hypothesis proved correct, remaining here indefinitely might place an unnecessary limitation upon his future progress.
He needed to return to the Martial Continent.
There, he could carefully examine whether his internal martial cultivation resumed its normal rate of advancement, whether his acupoints once again attracted the Five Elements Essence without assistance, and whether his comprehension of the Qiankun Pseudo Domain could continue beyond its current stagnation. If the results differed significantly from those obtained on the Immortal Continent, he would have a much stronger basis for determining whether the problem originated from the laws of the two continents rather than his own foundation.
Of course, there was no need to rush.
He still needed to complete the fusion of the Rainbow Illusion Butterfly seed with his Golden Body, and he also had to ensure that his cultivation remained stable before undertaking another long journey. Furthermore, the Eastern Region was currently far from peaceful, and travelling between the two continents without adequate preparation would introduce risks that could easily be avoided through patience.
Lin Sheng closed his eyes again, his breathing gradually returning to its previous rhythm as the formations surrounding the meditation chamber began gathering spiritual energy once more.