Free Web NovelChapter 380: Chapter 301: Five Elements Perfected, Changing the Core Thesis
Back then, didn’t that late-stage Golden Core Cultivator, one of the White Mountain natives known as Elder Green Robe, ally with the Wei Family precisely because he wanted to establish his own sect?
Otherwise, with all sorts of rare materials monopolized by the major sects, approaching them as a Loose Cultivator would be a fruitless and humiliating endeavor.
Besides, an individual’s energy is limited. At that stage, it’s best to have a sect to serve you, using the manpower of the entire sect to gather cultivation resources to support you.
But to establish a sect, one must first achieve merit in the expansionary wars. This single requirement has held back countless late-stage Golden Core cultivators.
Seeing the three Illusion Beasts absorb the spiritual materials into their bodies and begin to digest them, Fang Qingyuan smiled in satisfaction. He then withdrew his spirit from the Immortal Mansion and, back in the outside world, began circulating his Cultivation Technique as well.
The increase in the Five Elements Illusion Beasts’ intelligence also signified the growing profundity of Fang Qingyuan’s own Cultivation Method. If all five of his Illusion Beasts evolved once, then regardless of how much their combat power increased, the Five Elements Rotation alone would dramatically boost Fang Qingyuan’s cultivation speed.
A month later, with a sharp cry, the Three-legged Golden Crow’s body suddenly swelled to a foot and a half wide. It returned to the sky above the Immortal Mansion and began to radiate light and heat.
This time, the Three-legged Golden Crow flew even higher in the sky.
Every time Fang Qingyuan’s cultivation level increased, not only did the area of black soil in the Immortal Mansion expand, but the height of the transparent dome above it also increased.
From Fang Qingyuan’s observations, the Immortal Mansion had a spherical structure. For every bit the ground’s area increased, the distance between the sky and the earth would increase by a corresponding amount.
In the following days, the Geng Metal White Tiger and the Earth Star Bear also evolved. With that, all five of Fang Qingyuan’s Illusion Beasts had undergone their first evolution.
Once the Five Elements Illusion Beasts’ states stabilized, Fang Qingyuan tried circulating his Cultivation Technique. After a single session, he was thrilled to discover that the Magical True Essence he gained was equivalent to one and a half sessions from before.
By that calculation, didn’t that mean he could perfect the Foundation Establishment Seventh Layer in just eight more years, instead of the original twelve?
After the initial joy, Fang Qingyuan sank into melancholy. ’A faster cultivation speed is a good thing, but my Core Formation thesis is still a mess.’
How exactly could he develop his thesis on the Voice of All Things, an idea derived from the Bee Queen, to the point where it could support his Core Formation? He had to avoid a situation where his thesis proved unstable during the condensation of the Golden Core, causing it to be rejected by the Heavenly Dao and shatter.
During Core Formation, one must withstand a Thunder Tribulation. The thesis is the heavens’ way of judging whether it approves of your expression—your articulation of the principles you’ve learned in your lifetime. If the thesis is poorly constructed, the Thunder Tribulation will be merciless, and you will most likely die beneath it.
But if the thesis is exceptionally well-done, one can survive the Celestial Tribulation even if their cultivation is slightly lacking. This was a well-known truth among all who had ever achieved the Golden Core.
The matter of his thesis troubled Fang Qingyuan, giving him the same sense of melancholy as when summer vacation is about to end, but you haven’t started your homework.
For the next two years, he tried to uncover various applications for the Voice of All Things, attempting to develop his thesis in that direction. But after two years, Fang Qingyuan had to reluctantly admit that perhaps the Voice of All Things truly wasn’t suited for him.
It was, after all, an Innate Divine Technique awakened by the Bee Queen. He was merely borrowing it through a contract. There was always a layer of separation between them. While this barrier had no noticeable effect in daily use, when it came to choosing it as the foundation for his thesis, comprehending it was an exercise in futility—like trying to scratch an itch through a boot.
Moreover, if he chose the Voice of All Things for his Core Formation thesis, he would have to walk this path to the very end. The Great Dao he chose in the Nascent Soul Realm would also have to be unearthed from this same path. But could the Bee Queen’s Divine Technique truly support a True Meaning of the Great Dao at the Nascent Soul Level, or even the Divinity Transformation Level?
After all, in this Cultivation Realm, he had never heard of any Divinity Transformation Cultivators who followed this path. He hadn’t even seen any at the Nascent Soul Realm.
Fang Qingyuan agonized over his decision for a long time, once again weighing his options between the Five Elements Dao, Longevity, and the Voice of All Things.
This continued until the day Lechuan summoned him. Upon seeing his state, Lechuan’s face paled in shock.
"Qingyuan, what’s happened to you? You look so haggard!"
Fang Qingyuan was jolted awake. He summoned an ice mirror and only then saw that his appearance had deteriorated significantly compared to two years ago.
’I almost fell prey to a Heart Demon.’ The thought flashed through Fang Qingyuan’s mind, and a sense of lingering fear washed over him. For the past two years, he had stayed in his Quiet Chamber, refusing to see anyone, painstakingly researching his thesis on the Voice of All Things. If Lechuan hadn’t called for him this time, he probably would have refused to come out at all.
"I’m fine. Thank you for your concern, Master. Why did you summon me this time?"
Seeing Fang Qingyuan being stubborn, Lechuan chided him in exasperation.
"You call this being fine? From now on, you are to do nothing. Just stay here at my White Mountain Beast Taming Sect and recuperate. You can return to the Qingyuan Sect when I think your condition has improved."
Without waiting for Fang Qingyuan’s reaction, Lechuan had someone forcibly escort him away. And so, Fang Qingyuan had no choice but to take up temporary residence there.
The Spiritual Land of the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect was a tier higher than that of the Qingyuan Sect, so Fang Qingyuan’s cultivation speed was even faster here. However, with so much weighing on his mind, he felt no joy.
In the days that followed, he continued to cultivate while also poring over the records of the White Mountain Beast Taming Sect. The collection of texts here was more than ten times the size of the Qingyuan Sect’s.
Books are the ladder of human progress. Recalling this saying, Fang Qingyuan decided to seek answers in the thoughts of his predecessors.
He went through one ancient text after another, reading each one diligently. Although he didn’t find his answer, Fang Qingyuan felt his mind gradually calming down in the process.
Until one day, he came across several discourses in a book.
’On the Origin of This Realm, On the Source of Human Cultivators, On the Future Between Demonic Beasts and Humans, On the Source of the Great Zhou Academy’s Authority...’
Just reading the table of contents, Fang Qingyuan was stunned. ’This author sure is audacious.’ Then he saw the author’s name: ’All-Knowing Elder’.
’Oh, that makes sense then.’ This Divinity Transformation Cultivator, who was active three thousand years ago, certainly had the right to make such claims. Not only that, but the thirteen volumes of the *Annals of All Things* left behind by the All-Knowing Elder were already a recognized classic in the Cultivation Realm. While not everyone owned a copy, every major sect would certainly have a complete set.
However, the All-Knowing Elder had vanished without a trace at the height of his power, becoming one of the Cultivation Realm’s most famous unsolved mysteries. The *Annals of All Things* only reached thirteen volumes, leaving many sights and scenes undocumented.
This book of discourses was likely a lone surviving copy left behind by the All-Knowing Elder. It couldn’t be found in any bookstores in the outside world. It might even be a forbidden text, one that could only be found in the Scripture Pavilion of a sect like the Beast Taming Sect.
Seeing these discourses, Fang Qingyuan’s interest was instantly piqued, and he turned to the first page.
