Chapter 137: The Spiritual Root Breeds the Source, Cultivating the Mind Gives Birth to the Great Dao!

Even the great grassland was not entirely flat. Towering mountains rose from the wilderness, piercing straight into the clouds as if holding up the sky itself.

Mount Tianzhu.

This was the ancestral land of the Six-Eared Clan, and the destination of Yuan Sheng's desperate flight. Its treacherous terrain made it the perfect place to hide.

"Venerable One..."

Looking at Wang Ping, who sat cross-legged in his arms like a ginseng fruit, Yuan Sheng's expression grew increasingly restrained. He opened his mouth, wanting to speak but not knowing where to begin.

He had heard tales of reincarnated Venerable Ones born with inherent knowledge, but those events always happened in the great clans of the Royal Court. Moreover, they only ever appeared when the Wisdom King issued a decree to march south and attack the Central Plains. He never imagined a Venerable One would suddenly be born into his own Six-Eared Clan.

No wonder his clan had been exterminated.

At this thought, much of the resentment in Yuan Sheng's heart dissipated. A whole clan's lives exchanged for a Venerable One—if his clansmen knew this in the underworld, they would rest in peace.

After all, there were too many similar examples on the grassland.

When a Venerable One descended to the world, they would make a great vow to deliver all living beings from torment. In the end, when their merits were complete and they returned to the heavens, their mortal clan would inevitably become the rulers of the Royal Court.

For example, the last Venerable One had been born into the Peacock Clan. When that Venerable One departed, the Peacock Great Sage directly became the Khan of the Royal Court. The Peacock Clan even obtained the privilege of being consumed and reincarnated first by the Great Golden Wheel Wisdom King, a noble status that continued to this day.

To put it bluntly.

Every descent of a Venerable One meant a change in the Khan's throne and a shift in the leading clan. It was an iron law on the grassland that no one dared defy.

"This time, it is finally my Six-Eared Clan's turn!"

Yuan Sheng's heart swelled with boundless joy. After all, why had their Six-Eared Clan, despite possessing a noble bloodline, fallen to the point of extermination?

It was because the clan had a low birth rate and a sparse population. As everyone knew, fewer people meant fewer geniuses, and fewer geniuses meant a weaker clan. A weak clan struggled to catch the Wisdom King's eye to be consumed. Without being eaten, there was no reincarnation, leading right back to a sparse population... It was an unsolvable cycle.

The only solution was to be eaten by the Wisdom King.

Only if the Wisdom King enjoyed the taste of the Six-Eared Clan, reincarnating people from other clans into theirs just to eat more of them, could their clan truly prosper.

This was the survival logic of the grassland.

Whichever clan's flavor earned the Wisdom King's favor could absorb other clans through reincarnation. This was how the great clans of the Royal Court's Eight Banners came to be.

"Stop here."

Wang Ping suddenly spoke up. By this time, the two had already arrived deep within Mount Tianzhu. Wang Ping sprang out of Yuan Sheng's arms and landed on the ground.

This sudden jump gave Yuan Sheng quite a fright. He instinctively reached out to catch him, only to feel a massive, overwhelming force repel his hand. Only then did he realize that this little ancestor before him needed no protection. Fearing he had overstepped, Yuan Sheng quickly lowered his head.

"Alright, go rest."

Wang Ping said casually, stifling a yawn. For now, he had no interest in the affairs of the Six-Eared Clan or Yuan Sheng's talk of reincarnated Venerable Ones.

His most pressing priority was breaking through.

Besides... what if this man was actually the Heaven-Stealing Thief?

Regardless, it was best to send him away first.

They found a mountain cave. After shooing Yuan Sheng away, Wang Ping sat right where he was, turning his spiritual sense inward to observe his own dantian in his lower abdomen.

Soon, he found his target.

It was a talisman.

Its patterns were ancient, depicting flowers, birds, fish, and insects that ultimately traced out an eerie character. Wang Ping didn't recognize it, but the moment his spiritual sense touched it, he understood intuitively.

It was the character for "True."

It flowed with radiant colors, as though billions of profound mysteries were converging within it.

So this is the true form of a true spiritual root... A talisman? How could something like this be innate? Could it have been intentionally planted by some external force...?

Wang Ping muttered in his heart. After all, a true spiritual root was the admission ticket to Qi Refining; it was the fundamental requirement to become a True Transmission disciple of the Immortal Gate. Yet the Heaven-Stealing Thief had casually gifted it to him, and Kunlun showed no unwillingness after losing his. All these signs pointed to the true spiritual root hiding deeper secrets.

However, Wang Ping quickly reasoned it out.

So what if there were problems with it?

He was not the Heaven-Stealing Thief; he lacked the capital to be capricious. As long as he could climb higher—even just a little bit—he had to cling to whatever he could get.

The next second, Wang Ping circulated his spiritual sense.

The landscape of his internal organs shifted. The Water Curtain Cave, the Kidney Water Dragon Palace, the golden headband, the peach orchard, the towering mountains... A multitude of scenes once again surfaced before his eyes.

Following that, a cluster of blazing red flames rose from within the Water Curtain Cave, parting only when it reached him. Out leapt a majestic, extraordinarily heroic monkey. Wearing the golden headband, it shifted and moved seamlessly, acting exactly as it willed. It bore the full semblance of an intelligent primate without a trace of demonic aura, and finally, it bowed respectfully to him.

The Mind Monkey has reached major completion.

Wang Ping saw it clearly. Ever since he had broken through to the Martial Dao Grandmaster Rank and mastered the Sacred Lord of Five Weapons, it had driven the Mind Monkey to achieve its most critical breakthrough as well.

The wood qi in his liver had been devoured by it, and the metal qi in his lungs had settled its temperament.

The fire qi in his heart burned ever brighter, while the earth qi in his spleen harmonized and centered it.

In this state, it was exactly as if the Mind Monkey had climbed the mountain, learned its arts, eaten the immortal peaches and golden pills, and even donned the golden headband. All it lacked now was a handy weapon.

Thinking of this, Wang Ping cast his gaze toward his kidneys.

"...Go!"

At a single thought, the Mind Monkey immediately responded. This time, there were no obstacles; it easily charged into the Dragon Palace and located the As-You-Will Divine Treasure Iron.

Once the Mind Monkey acquired the divine iron, the wood qi and earth qi it had absorbed earlier, along with its own inherent fire qi, all manifested. They automatically transformed into a purple-gold crown, golden armor, and cloud-stepping boots that draped over its body. Finally, it marched out of the Dragon Palace in awe-inspiring martial splendor, its unmatched divine strength howling through the inner landscape.

"Extracting Kan, it's done!"

Wang Ping was invigorated. This As-You-Will Divine Treasure Iron in the Kidney Water Dragon Palace was the inner-world imagery of the True Yang within Kan. Now, it had finally been retrieved by the Mind Monkey.

Completing this step proved he already possessed the merit of a Loose Immortal.

The next part would be simple. He just needed the Mind Monkey to carry the Divine Treasure Iron back to the Water Curtain Cave manifested by his heart, completing the final step of "Filling Li."

Once that was done, he would attain the fruit of a Loose Immortal!

Wang Ping steadied his mind and immediately commanded the Mind Monkey to return. However, just as it was about to land in the Water Curtain Cave—the inner landscape suddenly trembled violently once more.

"Boom!"

The Mind Monkey, which should have had an unobstructed path, was blocked out of thin air by another iron rod a split second before returning to the Water Curtain Cave, and was actually batted away!

"Hah!"

The Mind Monkey immediately let out a furious roar, seemingly responding to Wang Ping's thoughts. At the same time, his heart beat fiercely, granting it even more divine strength.

Yet right after, a second heartbeat echoed within Wang Ping's body. Then, in the inner landscape, right next to the Water Curtain Cave, out walked another intelligent primate. It looked exactly identical to the Mind Monkey and even hefted an As-You-Will Divine Treasure Iron in its hand, a ferocious, wicked grin plastered across its face.

Could the Mind Monkey swallow such an insult? It had just reached major completion!

And so, the two Mind Monkeys engaged in a brutal battle right in front of the Water Curtain Cave. Before long, they fought their way into the lungs, moved to the spleen, and even slaughtered their way back into the kidneys.

The entire inner landscape was thrown into absolute chaos.

Seeing this, Wang Ping narrowed his eyes.

It's like this again...

This was the main reason why, despite his Mind Monkey reaching major completion, he had previously only broken through to the Martial Dao Grandmaster Rank instead of becoming a Loose Immortal in one go.

It was because this damned immortal cultivation truly presented a bottleneck at every step. Even right at the final threshold, there was still such a hurdle. The two Mind Monkeys were engaged in a chaotic brawl, and he couldn't tell them apart at all. With no way to subdue them, he could only let them fight to the death. But if they kept fighting until his inner landscape collapsed, he would be finished as well.

The only solution was to put the As-You-Will Divine Treasure Iron back.

As long as he returned this True Yang of Kan, the Mind Monkey would remain incomplete, and the second Mind Monkey wouldn't appear. However, doing that meant he would never be able to break through.

One body, two minds; the Great Dao was long and fraught with obstacles.

After multiple attempts, Wang Ping understood that to pass this trial, he had to assist the true Mind Monkey in taking one step further, overpowering the second mind, and killing it.

But the difficulty lay in how hard it was to distinguish the second mind.

If he identified them incorrectly and his aid landed on the second mind, allowing it to kill the original Mind Monkey instead, it would be reversing the celestial order. A lifetime of cultivation would be completely invalidated.

"This process is also part of cultivation."

"Because cultivation in the Immortal Gate focuses heavily on 'seeking truth,' and discerning which is the Mind Monkey and which is the second mind is exactly a crucial step in 'seeking truth'."

Wang Ping's thoughts shifted slightly.

In an instant, the three great Loose Immortals of Iron City Mountain—whom he had killed and subsequently recorded into Invoking Deities—were all activated, possessing his body one by one.

At the same time, Wang Ping sank his spiritual sense into his dantian.

The illustrious true spiritual root couldn't possibly be unable to assist in breaking through a bottleneck, right?

"Let me see your limits!"

Rumble!

In a flash, Wang Ping felt as if a clap of thunder had exploded by his ear. Immediately after, an overwhelming and unstoppable might slowly rose from the depths of his dantian.

This might was like a roaring thunderclap, like the voice of heaven. It washed through his five viscera and cleansed his six bowels. It instantly terrified the second mind into a panic, and the true Mind Monkey finally seized the opening.

"Hah!"

With a furious shout, the Mind Monkey swung the True Yang of Kan, the As-You-Will Divine Iron, and smashed the second mind to pieces with a single strike. Instantly, a refreshing stream of qi surged into Wang Ping's heart.

The next second, the Mind Monkey strode proudly into the Water Curtain Cave. The inner landscape solidified as a result, and Wang Ping's consciousness instantly transcended it, returning to reality. When he looked up at the sky again, he felt as if all the obstacles before his eyes had vanished. He had transcended the mortal dust. In the blink of an eye, his vision had already leapt above the firmament.

At this moment, Wang Ping's eyes blurred.

It was because what filled his vision was no longer the ordinary blue sky, white clouds, mountains, and rivers. Instead, it had transformed into a vast, boundless expanse of profound qi.

Qi divided into the Three Realms: Heaven, Earth, and Man.

The Three Realms divided into the Five Elements: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.

The Five Elements then divided into Yin and Yang, becoming the Ten Heavenly Stems.

With the Ten Heavenly Stems positioned across the Three Realms of Heaven, Earth, and Man, there should originally have been Thirty Qi. Yet for some unknown reason, six paths were missing, leaving only Twenty-Four Qi hanging high above.

The spiritual root breeds the source, cultivating the mind gives birth to the Great Dao!

Wang Ping simply gazed up at heaven and earth, finally realizing his own insignificance. A long time passed before he recovered, a flash of enlightenment telling him exactly what he needed to do next.

"Choose a path of qi."

"Select a qi from the Twenty-Four Qi of Heaven and Earth that harmonizes with me. By merging the Mind Monkey with it, I can pass the Human Tribulation and refine magic power."

This was what was meant by: The Mind Monkey becomes a sage, its name registered equal to heaven.

This was precisely the true crux of Borrowing Qi to Manifest Magic!