Chapter 336: A Battle of Spiritual Senses
Ning Zhuo raised his head, glanced at the towering Wuyin Mountain between heaven and earth, and then looked at Sun Lingtong.
Seeing the latter's indifferent attitude, he nodded to the village patrol, "Then I shall trouble you."
Although he had the strength of a Golden Core level, the Lava Immortal Palace incident had not passed long ago, and the lessons it left him were vivid in his mind.
Ning Zhuo was naturally cautious.
Since others had warned of the dangers in the mountains at night, he decided to follow the advice—what harm was there in staying a night in the village?
"Honored guests, please follow me." The patrolman smiled and led the way.
Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong followed him into the village.
Not long after, they met the village elder.
The village elder arranged two guest rooms for them in the center of the village.
Ning Zhuo took out twenty spirit stones to pay for the rooms and also invited the village elder to have tea later in the evening to discuss matters regarding Wuyin Mountain.
The village elder accepted naturally.
It was only proper.
Earlier, the patrolman had changed his mind and invited them to stay after seeing Ning Zhuo give him a spirit stone as payment for directions.
"Honored guests, this is Wuyin Tea, unique to Wuyin Mountain. Though it can't compare with famous teas, it has its own distinct charm." The village elder hospitably offered them tea.
Ning Zhuo picked up the teacup, noticing the dark green tea leaves covered with a layer of grey-white fuzz.
A mist rose from the surface of the tea, swirling gently.
Upon tasting it, the tea was initially bitter, like the thick fog in the mountains wrapping around his tongue, but the bitterness quickly faded, leaving a lingering sweetness, akin to the tranquility and freshness after the fog had lifted from the mountain peaks.
"Unique in its own way, not bad," Ning Zhuo lightly complimented.
On the other hand, Sun Lingtong did not take a sip.
Firstly, he had never been interested in the elegance of tea drinking; for him, tea was merely to quench thirst.
Secondly, since Ning Zhuo had already drunk the tea, he refrained. After all, they were traveling, and this was one of the small understandings between them.
As the three of them drank tea, they conversed.
Gradually, Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong gained a rough understanding of Wuyin Village.
The village had around three hundred households, with about one thousand five hundred people.
The highest cultivation in the village was at the Foundation Establishment stage—the village chief, who had late-stage Foundation Establishment strength.
There were six elders in the village, all of whom had once reached Foundation Establishment peak cultivation. Some had suffered severe injuries and, in old age, had fallen back to the Qi Refining stage, but they were still respected by the villagers due to their seniority and achievements.
When the village chief was mentioned, Sun Lingtong asked where he was.
Logically, since both Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong were Foundation Establishment cultivators, the village chief should have personally greeted them.
However, the village chief had not appeared yet.
The village elder explained that the village chief had organized a group to deliver grain.
It turned out that eight hundred li away from Wuyin Mountain was a place called Yugang Mountain.
This mountain was rich in Jade-Infused Blacksteel, and the Southern Dou Kingdom had set up a mine there, guarded by a heavy military presence. Over time, a small town had developed around it.
In recent years, the town's population had steadily increased, but the land of Yugang Mountain was barren, incapable of self-sustaining.
The Southern Dou Kingdom issued orders for the surrounding villages to send people and resources to provide surplus goods to the town at Yugang Mountain.
The villages were willing to comply.
This was because by delivering goods to the town, they could trade for considerable amounts of money and commercial goods. Though it wasn’t a huge profit, it was a small gain, and the development of the village itself was ensured—a win-win situation.
As night deepened, Ning Zhuo decided to end the tea conversation.
After the village elder took his leave, Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong used their concealment techniques to leap over the walls and conduct a night-time investigation of the village.
There were patrols near their residence.
But how could mere village patrols detect Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong?
Sun Lingtong, having been raised by the Bukong Sect, was a master of stealth and theft.
Ning Zhuo possessed the Concealed Cloud Hidden Flower technique, a rare and extraordinary ability that could even deceive Golden Core cultivators. Hiding from these village patrols was child’s play.
The two of them moved shoulder-to-shoulder, lightly leaping from roof to roof across the village.
The cool night breeze brushed their faces, and Sun Lingtong transmitted his voice, "Hee hee hee, this feels great! Xiao Zhuo, this is the taste of freedom!"
He had long been tired of staying in the Lava Immortal Palace. If not for initially worrying about his master and later being concerned about Ning Zhuo, he would have left long ago to wander the world.
Ning Zhuo smiled as well.
He had been born in Huoshi Immortal City and, for fourteen years, had exhausted his mind and energy to secure the Lava Immortal Palace.
Now that the matter of the Immortal Palace had temporarily come to a close, he was finally able to let go of the heavy burden on his heart and shoulders. In the gentle night breeze, moving freely, he felt a rare sense of ease.
The two of them found a high vantage point and stopped in an instant.
Sun Lingtong transmitted his voice, "Xiao Zhuo, let’s have a little competition and see who can detect more with their spiritual sense, shall we? I won’t take advantage of you—I’ll suppress my cultivation to the early Foundation Establishment stage."
Ning Zhuo replied, "Elder Brother, since you’re in such high spirits, how could I refuse?"
"Hee hee hee." Sun Lingtong chuckled and immediately released his spiritual sense.
Ten zhang, thirty zhang, sixty zhang...
His spiritual sense expanded continuously until it reached two hundred and sixty zhang before finally stopping.
His spiritual sense covered most of the village, and after quietly scanning for a moment, he quickly withdrew it.
The speed at which he retracted his spiritual sense was astonishing—it took only three breaths for it all to return.
More impressively, throughout the entire process of releasing and retracting his spiritual sense, there was no leakage of aura; it was perfectly hidden. Even though Ning Zhuo was standing right beside Sun Lingtong, he felt no disturbance at all.
Now it was Ning Zhuo's turn.
He slowly released his spiritual sense.
Ten zhang, twenty zhang, forty zhang...
His spiritual sense expanded to one hundred and eighty zhang before reaching its limit.
It covered just over half of the village.
Many villagers had no defenses and were completely unaware, allowing Ning Zhuo to observe the layout of their homes and their nighttime activities.
He noticed that many of the villagers worshiped mountain gods.
The altars, statues, or small shrines to the mountain gods were dedicated to fox gods in eighty percent of the cases, while the other twenty percent had tiger gods.
Among those who had tiger gods, most also had fox gods, suggesting that the tiger gods, despite being the official gods, were secondary.
Ning Zhuo cautiously retracted his spiritual sense.
His process of releasing spiritual sense was several times slower than Sun Lingtong's, and the retraction was even slower, taking dozens of times longer.
Sun Lingtong had been watching Ning Zhuo’s performance and frowned slightly.
"Xiao Zhuo, although our cultivation levels differ, your spiritual sense range should be far more than one hundred and eighty zhang after cultivating the Divine Mirror Spiritual Technique from the Three Sect Lords. Are you hiding your strength from me?"
Ning Zhuo immediately shook his head, "Elder Brother, this is truly my limit."
Sun Lingtong, puzzled, said, "That can't be right. One hundred and fifty zhang is the average range for Foundation Establishment cultivators, but only one hundred and eighty zhang with the Divine Mirror Spiritual Technique? That doesn’t make sense."
Ning Zhuo smiled slightly and explained, "Elder Brother, there’s something you don’t know. The strength of the Divine Mirror Spiritual Technique lies in its ability to combine with external objects."
"According to the teachings we received, I need to refine segmented mirrors. Each segment mirror can project my spiritual sense further. The effect varies based on the material and quality of the mirror."
"If I had enough mirrors, I could cover the entire Wuyin Mountain. However, after multiple projections, my spiritual sense would become very weak, and my perception would turn blurry."
Sun Lingtong relaxed his brows, "So that’s how it is."
Only then did he feel reassured.
The earlier competition was merely an excuse for him to help Ning Zhuo better grasp his spiritual sense.
After all, Ning Zhuo had only recently advanced to the Foundation Establishment stage, while Sun Lingtong was already in the late stage.
For Qi Refining cultivators, spiritual thoughts could not be projected outside the body. Even when reading jade slips, they had to place them against their foreheads.
But after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, spiritual thoughts could be condensed and elevated to form spiritual sense.
Spiritual sense could then be projected outside the body. For early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, this range was generally about one hundred and fifty z
hang.
Cultivators who specialized in cultivating the spiritual sea and upper dantian often had a spiritual sense range that exceeded one hundred and fifty zhang upon reaching Foundation Establishment. The better the technique, the greater the distance.
Sun Lingtong, even after suppressing his cultivation to the early Foundation Establishment stage, had a spiritual sense range of two hundred and sixty zhang.
The Divine Mirror Spiritual Technique, originating from the Three Sect Lords, had a range of only one hundred and eighty zhang, which fell short of Sun Lingtong’s expectations.
However, after Ning Zhuo’s explanation, he was at ease.
The Divine Mirror Spiritual Technique was unique and relied on external objects to reveal its full potential.
The cultivation world had developed countless wondrous techniques.
Some techniques made spiritual sense ethereal and elusive, others heightened its sharpness to an extreme, and some even developed spiritual sense as a means of attack.
The Divine Mirror Spiritual Technique, needing external objects to function, was indeed peculiar, but it aligned with the principles of the Three Sect Lords—after all, their tradition was based on using mechanisms. Relying on external objects was characteristic of their legacy.
After completing their reconnaissance, the two quietly returned to their guest rooms.
The villagers remained unaware.
Lying in their respective beds, Ning Zhuo and Sun Lingtong used their spiritual thoughts to communicate through the walls, secretly sharing what they had discovered during the investigation.
When they discussed the number of tiger god and fox god altars, Sun Lingtong speculated, "Both the tiger god and the fox god have been officially recognized by the Southern Dou Kingdom as true gods and enjoy the incense offerings, greatly enhancing their power."
"However, the tiger god seems far too weak, allowing the fox god to freely gather the incense while remaining indifferent. This is not logical."
"Could it be that the fox god has usurped the tiger god’s position?"
In today’s cultivation world, humans and gods ruled together.
Humans were the main race, while gods were scattered across the world.
After a cultivation kingdom was established, they would often subdue the local gods by destroying temples and sealing mountains.
Some gods refused to submit and were killed or disintegrated, while others surrendered and were recognized as true gods, receiving the kingdom’s salary and being controlled by the cultivation court.
A cultivation kingdom needed these gods to strengthen its rule.
Compared to humans, gods were often simple-minded, able to endure extreme environments, and capable of using divine powers to bring rain, draw water, or split mountains.
When gods joined a cultivation kingdom, they could absorb incense, exchange resources with the outside world, and cultivate by borrowing the kingdom’s fortune.
It was a mutually beneficial, win-win relationship.
(End of Chapter)