Chapter 718: Deeper Mental Realm

Duan Rong returned to Yunfu Peak, observing the interplay of light and shadow on the peak, estimating the time to be around 3 p.m.

He didn’t rest and went directly to the cultivation chamber behind the main hall on the first floor of the pavilion.

As the carved wooden door slowly closed behind him, Duan Rong stood next to the divine statue of the Unmoving Bright King, his gaze flickering slightly.

He was pondering the positions of the four divine statues, with the candlelight from not far away casting defined features on his face.

After contemplating, Duan Rong advanced into his cultivation chamber.

He walked into the chamber but did not close the stone door behind him. Instead, he went straight to a low chest in the corner by the cabinet.

Duan Rong crouched down and rummaged through the chest, retrieving a key from the bottom.

This was the key to another vacant cultivation chamber that he had obtained from Lu Geng last time and hadn’t returned.

Duan Rong tucked the key into his sleeve and slowly walked out of the stone door. After exiting, he used the key to lock his cultivation chamber’s stone door.

From the stone door, he glanced brightly at the cultivation chamber diagonally opposite.

He walked over quickly, inserted the key into the eye socket of the beast-head next to the stone door, and gently turned it.

The stone door vibrated slightly and slowly opened. Duan Rong swiftly entered and immediately closed the stone door.

Standing by the stone door, he glanced at the dusty divine statue in the corner.

Suddenly, Primordial Qi surged in his palm, and with a gesture, he drew the dust from the ground at the stone door entrance into his palm like a dragon inhaling water, forming a dust ball.

Then, with a light snap of his palm, he sent the dust ball flying to the opposite corner of the chamber.

A cloud of dust instantly rose in that corner…

Duan Rong then sat on the ground at the stone door, his five hearts facing the sky.

He adjusted his breath, felt the positions of the surrounding divine statues, and then got up to make an adjustment in position.

Now, Duan Rong sat against the edge of the stone door.

And at this moment, he was sitting precisely at the center of the four divine statues.

Thus, although the mandala formed by the four statues for cultivating the Fetal Concealment Scripture was bisected by stone walls, it didn’t affect the cultivation.

Because the cultivation of the Fetal Concealment Scripture is at the level of the divine soul.

As long as the cultivation technique operates correctly and the positions of the four statues are accurate, the induction will happen. The projections of the statues would then descend into the consciousness sea.

Duan Rong, sitting cross-legged at the stone door, took out the seedpod of the Black Fire Lotus from his lapels.

He gently broke the seedpod open.

The feeling and the act of breaking it were much like handling an ordinary lotus pod.

Duan Rong picked a lotus seed from inside the opened seedpod.

His gaze held a hint of surprise. The lotus seed of the Black Fire Lotus was actually scarlet red.

“I hope this isn’t poisonous?” Looking at the fiery red and vibrant color, Duan Rong hesitated a little.

However, he quickly dismissed the thought.

This Black Fire Lotus is the auxiliary medicine recorded in the secret manual of the Fetal Concealment Scripture’s Twelfth Layer.

How could it be poisonous?

Duan Rong placed the lotus seed in his mouth and swallowed it.

Once the scarlet seed entered his stomach, it quickly dissolved.

Mere moments later, his entire body felt like it was burning, the searing pain intense.

He dared not delay, forming seals with his hands while regulating his breath and entering the Sea of Consciousness.

Duan Rong felt a wave of dizziness, and upon opening his eyes again, he was already seated cross-legged in the center of the black earth within the Consciousness Sea.

Looking up, he saw a gray shadow sitting cross-legged, resembling his own features, in the sky, with eleven star bodies gleaming, slowly orbiting the shadow like planets.

Duan Rong was startled to discover that the thin mist filling this space began to occasionally flash with black flames.

The black flames flickered in and out, ghostly and eerie.

Duan Rong realized that these black flames appearing in his Divine Soul Space were related to the Black Fire Lotus seed he had swallowed.

Because the black flames flickering before him were nearly identical to the Black Lotus Fire in the Black Fire Pool within the Dark Forest.

Duan Rong immediately formed seals with his hands again, chanting spells softly.

Simultaneously, the gray shadow in the sky mirrored him, its lips moving gently.

The thin mist in the Divine Soul Space suddenly paused, then rapidly descended.

Duan Rong sat amidst a large mass of milky white mist, his hand seals forming faster, the incantations from his lips more intense than a sudden downpour.

Suddenly, four enormous divine shadows descended into the space, and their forms became increasingly solid.

Duan Rong’s brow furrowed slightly.

He sensed a pressure on his divine soul.

The four divine statues in this cultivation chamber were originally for use in cultivating the Thirteenth Layer of the Fetal Concealment Scripture, and Duan Rong was only at the Twelfth Layer.

Utilizing these four statues, each nearly twice a person’s height, indeed exerted significant pressure on the divine soul.

However, Duan Rong was different. He could achieve a layer of the Fetal Concealment Scripture in just two to three hours, and thus the pressure on his divine soul, while significant, was manageable.

For a normal cultivator, mastering one layer of the Fetal Concealment Scripture would take several years, and enduring such intense soul pressure repeatedly over time would overwhelm the divine soul.

What Duan Rong didn’t know was that just as the four divine shadows descended into the consciousness sea, some dust shook loose from the divine statue in the corner of the stone chamber.