Chapter 61: The Seven Sacred Sites of Beidou (I)

The inheritance of Zhuofeng reappears.

The head of Taixuan Sect gave a direct order, asking each peak to select elite disciples to join Zhuofeng.

As soon as the head master's decree was issued, disciples from all peaks were eager to try, and some wanted to join Zhuo Peak and practice Zhuo Peak's supreme way, or even the legendary immortal arts.

The masters of each peak sent dozens of disciples with excellent talents to be selected by Li Ruoyu, the master of Zhuo Peak. At this moment, everyone seemed to have no prejudice against each other.

However, compared with other main peaks with hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of people, sending only dozens of disciples to Zhuo Peak seemed a bit stingy.

In fact, it is not that they are unwilling to provide Zhuofeng with more disciples, but they are well aware that in order to practice Zhuofeng's scriptures, it requires a high level of talent and state of mind from the disciples.

What happened next also proved this point.

The disciples sent by various peaks, like those disciples who had previously taken advantage of the opportunity at Zhuo Peak, almost none of them could comprehend the true meaning of Zhuo Peak.

However, Li Ruoyu still accepted them as his disciples. After all, as a main peak, it would be inappropriate to have no disciples.

As a member of Taixuan Sect, the restart of Zhuofeng is something the headmaster is happy to see, and strengthening Zhuofeng is also Li Ruoyu's unshirkable responsibility.

If there is anyone who has understood the true meaning of the Zhuofeng Dao, it is probably only Mingshui from Lingyao Peak. Except for Ye Fan and Li Zhi, both of them saw the true meaning of the Zhuofeng Dao by cheating.

However, as a core disciple of Lingyao Peak, Mingshui was not sent to Zhuo Peak to practice by the master of Lingyao Peak.

That day, after Mingshui and Li Zhi returned to Lingyao Peak, they went into seclusion directly.

The unexpected opening of the divine treasure of the heart allowed her cultivation to leap to the peak level of the Taoist Palace Secret Realm. She only needed to replenish her vital energy to push the Taoist Palace Secret Realm to the perfect state.

Perhaps if Mingshui is given another two or three years of accumulation, she will be able to open the third secret realm of the human body and improve her cultivation to a level comparable to those genius disciples. By then, she will be the backbone of Lingyao Peak and a seedling with the hope of entering the secret realm of Xiantai.

The master of Lingyao Peak couldn't bear to part with such a precious disciple. After all, the fighting power of the disciples of Lingyao Peak was generally not strong. Only by using the higher realm to crush the lower realm could Lingyao Peak achieve good results in the competition among the peaks of Taixuan Sect.

Although Mingshui may not be as old as those young geniuses who have opened three secret realms at the age of about 20, when Mingshui's cultivation is improved to the Four Extreme Secret Realms, it will be enough to rank among the top ten core disciples, which will greatly help to improve the status of Lingyao Peak in Taixuan Sect.

In more than two months, the new round of competitions among the peaks will begin.

By then, the rankings achieved by the disciples of each peak in the competition will have a great impact on the distribution of benefits among the peaks in the next cycle.

The outside world's disturbances and various calculations did not affect Li Zhi's life.

Perhaps his external age of just over six years old was not enough to make him a party to any dispute.

It allowed him to enjoy the carefree life that only children can have.

He didn't even participate in the subsequent competitions among the various peaks, and didn't even show up.

After returning to Lingyao Peak from Zhuo Peak that day, Mingshui chose to go into seclusion immediately, and Li Zhi also returned to his cave and began to go into seclusion.

Carefully comprehend the scriptures of the natural way obtained from Zhuofeng, as well as the secret of the word "all", one of the nine secrets.

He only gave Zhuo Feng's "Natural Sutra" a cursory reading and put it aside. The artistic conception of the natural way did not seem to match the longevity technique he was practicing.

It did not have much reference value for his longevity skills, but it had a great influence on the "Compendium of Materia Medica" inherited by Lingyao Peak.

However, Li Zhi only practiced the "Compendium of Materia Medica" to the entry level and then stopped practicing it.

Therefore, the natural way has little meaning to Li Zhi today.

Perhaps when his realm is raised to a certain level in the future, Zhuofeng's scriptures will give him some insights.

Therefore, after the retreat, Li Zhi focused on practicing the secret of the word "all".

On that day, he viewed the process of the birth of the "皆" secret from the perspective of a bystander. He did not directly merge with Zhuofeng like Li Ruoyu and Ye Fan. Therefore, the "皆" secret did not turn into a seed of magical power and be planted in his heart.

He needs to practice and comprehend on his own.

Li Zhi was very much looking forward to this supreme secret technique which was said to be able to increase combat power three to ten times.

Not only can basic attributes such as strength, speed, and mana suddenly increase tenfold, but even spiritual awareness can be amplified tenfold.

This secret technique that seemed to be inconsistent with the law of conservation of energy made Li Zhi very curious. How was it done and what kind of magical power of law was behind it?

Li Zhi wanted to try whether the "all" secret could amplify his comprehension tenfold. If this secret method could amplify his comprehension tenfold, even if it was not tenfold, as long as it could amplify his comprehension threefold, the impact on the cultivators would be immeasurable.

Although insight is something that cannot be seen or touched, it is something that exists in every person.

Moreover, for a cultivator, comprehension is more important than physical fitness and is far more important than the so-called magical powers and secret techniques.

After two transformations that were like a complete rebirth, Li Zhi's physique has not only changed, but even his understanding has changed a lot.

Especially the second transformation accomplished with the blood of the Green Emperor made Li Zhi feel as if he had been enlightened. When practicing the "Innate Longevity Skill", he no longer had the occasional feeling of powerlessness that he had experienced before.

Instead, I felt like a college student solving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems for an elementary school student.

At the same time, it also made Li Zhi understand the benefits of undergoing a complete transformation in the initial stages of practice.

Compared to other holy bodies, Ye Fan's holy body is particularly powerful, perhaps because he underwent four transformations in the secret realm of Lunhai. (Twice he took the holy medicine in the ancient forbidden land, once he used the blood of the Green Emperor, and once he underwent nine transformations in the realm of the other shore.)
Ordinary cultivators, if they do not have a miraculous opportunity, can only undergo nine transformations, which is equivalent to a complete rebirth, after their cultivation reaches the other shore realm.

Now, Li Zhi's cultivation has been elevated to the Divine Bridge realm due to refining the Xuanhuang essence and the water of the divine spring, and he has already completed two complete transformations. His abilities are no longer inferior to those of other geniuses, and he is far ahead of ordinary cultivators.

But he still wanted to undergo a third transformation in the Divine Bridge Realm.

That is to say, every small realm in the Wheel Sea Secret Realm undergoes a complete transformation.

The changes that this transformation brings to the monks are by no means as simple as one plus one equals two.

It often shows an exponential change effect.

Because every transformation is based on the previous one.

就好比1、2、4、8、16和1、2、3、4、5之间的差别。

The gap is very small at the beginning, but as the number of transformations increases, the gap between the two will be magnified to an extremely exaggerated level.

Li Zhi believed that even a mortal body without any special features would become extraordinary after several transformations in the early stages of practice, and would be no weaker than any Taoist body.

Ye Fan’s classmates who successfully survived seemed to confirm this speculation. Their achievements in the future would be no weaker than any cultivator with a special physique.

Except for Ye Fan, everyone else is a mortal.

Their first transformation was when they came out of the ancient forbidden area. They used their life force as fire and underwent an alternative transformation that was like a rebirth. However, due to the lack of sufficient replenishment of life essence, their transformation seemed to have little effect.

However, as their cultivation level increased, those few people who broke into the Immortal Palace and obtained great opportunities, after undergoing a second transformation, their talents soared and were no weaker than any genius in the world.

In other words, they underwent at least three complete transformations in the Lunhai Secret Realm, which laid a solid foundation for their future great achievements.

While Li Zhi was practicing the "Jie" secret in the cave, he was thinking about how to undergo the third transformation.

Ordinary cultivation resources are simply not enough to support his physique to undergo another complete transformation.

Not even holy medicine or divine source will work.

The grade of the raw materials used in the previous two transformations was too high, which made Li Zhi distressed for a while.

Now, unless he has the blood essence of a saint as the raw material to transform himself, even the phoenix blood of a king would not be enough to enable him to complete a transformation like a rebirth.

If this had been done earlier, the Blood of the Green Emperor would not have been used in advance.

However, without using the Green Emperor's blood to transform, his aptitude would not have reached the level where he can practice the Quasi-Emperor scriptures with ease today.

Li Zhi, who was practicing in seclusion in the cave, had no idea that the outside world was already in turmoil.

In order to avoid his enemies, Ye Fan directly spread the news of the Bronze Immortal Palace as a means of concealing his true identity, which added more turmoil to the already turbulent cultivation world in the southern region of the East Wilderness.

First, the ancient forbidden area seemed to change, then the tomb of the Green Emperor was opened, allowing the imperial soldiers that could change the world to be born, and then the mysterious bronze fairy palace reappeared in the world, and powerful people such as the Peacock King and Nangong Zheng who had been in seclusion for hundreds of years appeared one after another, and even ancient people from six thousand years ago reappeared in the world.

After connecting all these events one by one, any cultivator with a keen sense of spiritual perception could sense a sign that the world was about to change.

In addition, in recent decades, various Taoist bodies that exist in legends have appeared in the world, which makes people more likely to associate them.

As long as the major forces were not hopelessly stupid, they all knew what this change meant and began to take action.

Taixuanmen is no exception.

When the competition among the various branches of the sect was over, the head master held a secret meeting with the reclusive supreme elders that lasted seven days.

Finally, a conclusion was reached, that is, the golden age of cultivation has arrived again.

After making this judgment, the head master began to make arrangements in secret.

At the same time, a decree was issued to the heads of each peak, asking them to select disciples under the age of twelve whose cultivation had reached the Life Spring level, and send them to the floating fairy island where the head of the sect lived.

The apparent reason was that a great and powerful supreme elder had failed in his retreat, and his cultivation had not been able to reach a higher level to extend his lifespan. Now his lifespan was about to run out, and he planned to select a few suitable disciples from those talented children before he passed away, and train them vigorously as successors, and would send those disciples back to their respective peaks afterwards.

After receiving the decree, the 108 peak masters did not think much about it, but just lamented that fate was unpredictable. Even a great and powerful supreme elder would end his life because he could not break through his current realm.

But after expressing their feelings, everyone was eager to try it out.

After all, it would be a great fortune for one's own disciples to receive the dedicated training of a powerful person whose lifespan is about to run out.

The heads of each peak took action and began to select suitable disciples to send to the headmaster.

However, the number of disciples of the right age who were finally sent to the head master was not that large.

There are only about seventy disciples, with an average of less than one disciple per main peak.

It's not that Taixuan Sect lacks disciples who have raised their cultivation to the Life Spring level before the age of twelve, but these are the only disciples they can send to the Sect Master. The various conflicts of interest behind this can be imagined.

Among this group of children was Li Zhi, who had just been released from confinement for two days.

After more than three months of seclusion, he finally turned the secret of the word "皆" into a seed of magical power and planted it in his body.

Almost without any preparation, he was sent to the floating fairy island where the head of the Lingyao Peak was.

The peak master simply explained the reason to him briefly and told him to behave well.

It seems that there is not much hope for him.

However, he is the only one in the entire Lingyao Peak who meets the requirements. If Li Zhi is not selected, Lingyao Peak will appear to be very incompetent.

After all, in the previous competition among the peaks, the ranking of Lingyao Peak did not improve much. It only improved by ten places compared to the last time, but it was still ranked outside the top thirty.

Li Zhineng had cultivated to the Mingquan realm at the age of six, making him the only disciple that Lingyao Peak could rely on at this time.

Of course, this is what the peak master thinks.

After all, they didn't believe that Li Zhi could improve his cultivation to the Divine Bridge realm in just a few months.

Even if they gave Li Zhi hundreds of kilograms of pure source.

As long as you refine enough sources, you can quickly improve your realm, which is not something ordinary cultivators can do.

Ordinary monks cannot digest so much source.

Only cultivators with special physiques can quickly improve their cultivation by refining a large number of sources in the early stages of their practice.

According to the estimation of the master of Lingyao Peak, the hundreds of kilograms of pure source they bestowed on Li Zhi were enough for him to cultivate to the great perfection of the other shore realm.

Above the floating fairy island, there is a misty spiritual fog and beautiful buildings, which has a fairy-like atmosphere.

After Li Zhi was sent to the fairy island by the peak master, he was taken to the square in front of the "Taixuan Palace" by a disciple.

At this time, disciples from various peaks stood together in groups of three or five.

There were only seven or eight disciples standing there alone, and they seemed unable to get along with the disciples who were in groups of three or five.

This group of children ranges from seven or eight years old to eleven or twelve years old.

It’s just that most of the children are over ten years old.

There were only five children, including Li Zhi, who looked to be about six or seven years old.

After listening to the conversation between the children in the square for a while, Li Zhi roughly understood their identities.

Most of the children in groups of three or five had elders who were high-ranking figures in the various peaks of Taixuan Sect. They were either the direct descendants of the peak masters or the youngest sons of the elders.

There were probably less than ten outsiders like Li Zhi who had joined the Taixuan Sect as disciples in the square, and they were all older. Except for Li Zhi, most of them were around eleven or twelve years old.

Li Zhi's current age inevitably made the children look at him twice more.

However, the almost unadorned sect uniform he wore, along with his mediocre appearance, made the children subconsciously ignore him.

After all, many of the children present were full of energy and vitality, and looked as dazzling as a little sun. It was obvious that they were children who grew up in a jar of elixir, and their muscles and bones were much stronger than those of ordinary children.

However, Li Zhi seemed like an ordinary child. He had neither a strong energy nor a spiritual light. He looked ordinary.

No one even came up to greet him.

When all the children were present, an old man with white hair and beard, a face like a baby, an immortal look, but with a faint aura of old age, appeared in front of everyone.

It seemed that he was the supreme elder whose life span the sect leader mentioned was about to end.

As the Supreme Elder appeared, all the children immediately lined up in the square, and no one dared to whisper to each other.

The Grand Elder simply glanced at everyone and did not introduce himself. Instead, he said directly: "I have been proficient in music all my life. Now that the deadline is approaching, I will select seven disciples from among you to train. From today onwards, for a month, I will observe you and train you in music. During this period, the seven disciples whose performance satisfies me the most can stay and continue to train. Do you understand?"

"I understand." Although the voices were not uniform, they were very powerful. It seemed that they wanted to make the Grand Elder stay by shouting louder.

After the Grand Elder finished speaking, he disappeared from everyone’s sight.

Then, a middle-aged monk in his forties or fifties appeared in front of them and said, "I will teach you all kinds of music knowledge in the next month."

"It's Uncle Master." The children answered immediately.

Afterwards, the middle-aged man took everyone to a palace located in the valley deep in the fairy island - Fengming Palace.

That is where they will study and live for the next month.

Fengming Hall was very spacious. Even with more than seventy children entering it, it still seemed very spacious.

On the east side of the main hall, there is a side hall where musical instruments are stored.

The middle-aged monk gave Li Zhi and the others one stick of incense to go in and choose their favorite musical instruments.

After following the crowd into the side hall, Li Zhi saw hundreds of musical instruments, including wind instruments such as the sheng, xiao, and flute, plucked instruments such as the qin, se, and pipa, stringed instruments such as the erhu, and struck instruments such as bells, drums, gongs, bowls, and wooden fish.

Moreover, those musical instruments all emitted a faint spiritual light, as if they were not ordinary objects.

Li Zhi didn't know much about musical instruments, and didn't have much expectation of becoming a disciple of the Supreme Elder, so he just randomly chose a purple piccolo that was closest to him.

It seems to be made of purple bamboo.

The other disciples began to select carefully, and many even tried out the instruments, fearing that the chosen instruments were not suitable and would affect their subsequent performance.

Li Zhi discovered that the vast majority of his disciples chose the guqin.

It seemed as if he had already known that the supreme elder's life-saving magic weapon was a guqin.

Just when Li Zhi thought that everyone had finished choosing their instruments, a simple-dressed little girl beside him suddenly whispered to him, "Junior brother, can you give me the purple jade short flute in your hand? I will exchange this white jade flute with you."

Li Zhi turned his head and saw the little girl's face full of worry. It seemed that she mustered up a lot of courage to make the request to him.

Li Zhi looked at the white jade flute in her hand and saw that there seemed to be no big difference between it and the purple jade piccolo in his hand. He directly handed the purple jade piccolo to the little girl and said, "Here."

Seeing Li Zhi being so generous, the little girl's eyes immediately lit up with joy, and then she said, "Junior brother, are you really going to give it to me?"

Li Zhi nodded and said, "Actually, I can't play any musical instruments."

After the little girl took the purple jade piccolo, she said happily, "It's okay, I can teach you. I come from a family of musical instruments, and I've been able to play many instruments since I was a child. But I'm best at playing the piccolo. It's just that there's only one piccolo here, so I wanted to exchange it with you, my junior brother."

After Li Zhi gave the purple jade flute to the little girl, he did not reach out to take the white jade flute she handed over. Instead, he looked at the surrounding instruments and fixed his eyes on a bell hanging on the wall. He said, "Sister, please put the white jade flute back to its original place. I'll choose the bell. It should be easier to shake the bell than to play it."

Li Zhi could already see that the girl didn't seem to be the descendant of a high-ranking member of the Taixuan Sect. Like him, she was a disciple from outside the sect. She was able to improve her cultivation to the Mingquan realm at the age of eleven, so her talent should be quite good.

But before he could get there and take off the bell, another child suddenly ran over and took the bell away.

He even looked back at Li Zhi and the little girl with a provocative look, which was really incomprehensible.

Li Zhi didn't want to argue with these kids, so he chose a very inconspicuous bronze gong.

No one will grab it now.

Sure enough, after seeing Li Zhi pick up the gong, many children looked at him as if he was a country bumpkin.

The little girl also walked up to Li Zhi and said, "Brother, the gong cannot play music independently. You might as well choose the big drum."

Li Zhi said: "It doesn't matter, beating the gong or beating the drum is the same, simple and convenient. I am just making up the numbers, but I don't know why the peak master sent me here."

"Junior brother, I'm afraid you have the best mentality among all the people present." The girl said with a smile, and then suddenly stretched out her hand to pinch Li Zhi's chubby face and said: "Haha, so cute. Don't worry, I have your back, and I will definitely not let you make a fool of yourself."

Then the girl directly sent a voice message to Li Zhi: "Junior brother, you may not know yet. Just now, everyone seemed to be choosing instruments, but in fact, they have already started to compete with each other. You chose a gong, which seems to be self-destructive in their eyes. How about you choose another one? In fact, you can choose the small bell, which is easy to use and can play heavy music."

Li Zhi shook his head and said, "Thank you for your kindness, Senior Sister. I don't know how to play musical instruments. The chimes are too complicated. It's better to play gongs and drums."

The little sister seemed to like him very much. She took out an exquisite suona and handed it to Li Zhi, saying, "Junior brother, this suona is for you. My father was a suona maker before he embarked on the path of cultivation. He personally made three suonas for me before I entered the mountain gate. Although it is just an ordinary thing, it also represents the sister's heart. I will teach you to play the suona later, and I will make sure you surpass others."

After Li Zhi received the suona from the junior sister, he said, "Thank you, senior sister."

The time for a stick of incense passed quickly.

Except for Li Zhi who chose the gong, an instrument that requires almost no playing skills, the instruments chosen by others all require strong skills.

On the contrary, it was because the musical instrument chosen by Li Zhi was quite unique that the middle-aged monk looked at him twice more.

It seems like I want to laugh but I dare not laugh out loud.

When they returned to the main hall of Fengming Palace, the middle-aged man said, "Since your respective instruments have been determined, you are not allowed to change them within the next month.

Okay, from now on, I will teach you music theory from the beginning, but I will not teach you any instrument playing skills. You have to play the music according to the music theory I explain, do you understand?"

"I understand." The children were very enthusiastic and wanted to show themselves in front of the Grand Elder right now.

But Li Zhi was thinking in his heart, is this to test everyone's understanding?

Since I'm here now, there's no harm in learning some music theory.

He was also looking forward to being able to play a beautiful piece of music with a gong after learning music theory.

That scene must be very special.

(End of this chapter)