bookbashuk Chapter 212 The Supreme Elder's Invitation
Chapter 212 The Supreme Elder's Invitation
Chapter 212 The Supreme Elder's Invitation
The purple-level inner demons no longer had any effect on Ye Yang.
Therefore, after he arrived at the fifth outer heaven, he completely ignored the purple-level inner demons wandering around and began to search for black-level inner demons.
Black-level inner demons generally operate between the fifth and eighth heavens. Among them, the fifth heaven has very few black-level inner demons, and they are all low-level black-level inner demons with little intelligence or extremely chaotic minds.
In less than a day, Ye Yang found a Black-level Heart Demon here.
Right from the start, Ye Yang experienced a thousand-year life.
"Hiss~ The Black-level inner demon is so powerful! Although I feel my mind is still quite chaotic and I can't communicate, this illusion is indeed very impactful!"
When Ye Yang entered the second illusion, he maintained the continuity of his memories and consciousness under the influence of his true intention, unlike other cultivators who would temporarily forget the past and sink into the illusion.
Recalling his experience in the illusion of his previous life, he couldn't help but sigh.
A thousand years of life seems to be full of ups and downs, with dangers lurking everywhere. Every ten years there is an attack targeting the Dao heart, but this is just the prelude!
Countless self-examinations and growths in one's Dao heart are merely prelude to this.
To give an example, the previous yellow-level and purple-level inner demons are like the storms and tempests in the outside world. As long as the house is built solidly, you will be safe and sound.
The method of this dark-level inner demon is to sell you bricks containing time bombs during the process of building your house, so that you can build a seemingly sturdy house that stands firm no matter how strong the wind and rain are.
However, at the last moment, the time bomb inside the bricks exploded, and the entire house shattered and collapsed from the inside out!
The first life, a thousand years of preparation, culminates in the final, decisive blow.
It seems that those trapped in the illusion for thousands of years can gain a lot of experience and growth, but the foundation of all this has long been sown with the seeds of disaster. When they finally explode together, it is impossible not to reveal their flaws!
If even a random Black-level inner demon is this powerful, one can imagine how difficult it is for cultivators in this realm to overcome the tribulation of inner demons.
If Ye Yang hadn't cultivated the Immortal Path of the Heavens and hadn't had his true intent anchored within him, unintentionally discarding those "bomb-laden bricks," eating the sugar coating and throwing away the cannonballs, he probably would have truly fallen victim to the trap.
"The inner demon's offensive also relies on striking hard at the first blow, then weakening, and finally exhausting itself. If the first round of illusion fails, then the second and third rounds will still be powerless against me!"
Despite his confidence, Ye Yang remained cautious as he continued to navigate this second life's illusion.
Millennia later, the Black-level inner demon's memory information reserves are extremely deep. Combined with Ye Yang's memory information, it quickly built one illusionary world after another.
However, each attempt ended in failure! Each time, it became resources for Ye Yang's mental cultivation!
In this illusion spanning tens of thousands of lifetimes, Ye Yang also explored the three realms of mental cultivation with Hong, Lei Shen, and Luo Feng.
Learning from others' experiences can be beneficial. Ye Yang began to actively explore these three states of mind after realizing that his progress in honing his true intentions had reached 100% and there was no further room for improvement.
To understand one's true nature and achieve harmony between humanity and nature, one's heart is infinitely vast.
Among them, understanding one's true nature, having a heart like a knife, and having a heart like a mirror are the simplest, but the difficult part is persisting in them and going to extremes.
The unity of heaven and man, the pure heart of a child, and the harmony of yin and yang are a bit difficult, but after a thousand or two thousand years of practice in the illusion, Ye Yang also cultivated this state of mind.
A mind that is empty and boundless, infinitely vast, encompassing all things. This state requires a profound philosophical foundation, rich life experience, extensive knowledge, and extremely deep reflection on oneself, society, and the universe.
Ye Yang squeezed all the memory information out of this black-level inner demon, but he only managed to get a tiny bit of it.
"The three states of mind are different and have their own characteristics, but they can all serve as my spiritual nourishment."
Ye Yang has already refined this Black-level Heart Demon and is absorbing the pure divine soul essence it left behind.
While experiencing the growth and satisfaction of his soul, Ye Yang contemplated three states of mind:
"The first state of mind, enlightenment, directly pointing to one's true nature, seeing through all illusions—hidden within this is a premise, an axiom: the 'true nature' exists and remains unchanged!"
"So this is anchored to one's true self, and carried through to the end. You could say the anchor is in the 'past.'"
"The second state of mind is one of harmony between Yin and Yang, harmony between humanity and nature, and a state of mental fulfillment. Essentially, it seeks a 'harmonious and stable state.' When facing external shocks, this state of mind can quickly adjust, maintaining a balance of Yin and Yang, combining strength and gentleness."
"The anchor point is in the 'present'."
"The third state of mind is one of boundless capacity. To play it poorly is mere daydreaming, a sign of mental illness. But to truly master this state of mind is truly astonishing!"
"Although I once felt a trace of that sensation in the illusion, it's really not suitable for me. My heart isn't that big." Ye Yang shook his head.
"Anchor point one—this state of mind can be said to have no anchor point!"
"And me—"
Looking at the Dao Domain unfolding around him, Ye Yang felt his own aura permeating the power of the Great Dao. He already had the answer in his heart: "My Great Dao has always been anchored in the 'future'."
Since transmigrating, he has had extremely high expectations for himself.
After successfully resonating with the world of "Swallowing the Stars", my expectations are even greater.
This also led to his gradually condensed state of mind being anchored on the 'future'.
Whether the anchor point is in the past, present, or future, or whether there is no anchor point at all, makes a big difference.
Anchor points are both the foundation of one's state of mind and one's most fatal weakness.
It is relatively stable based on both the past and the present.
Without a foothold, "because he does not contend, no one in the world can contend with him," and the only one who can defeat him is himself.
Ye Yang's focus on the "future" and "expectations" is, from a common-sense perspective, undoubtedly very dangerous.
Because the past and present are already determined, but the future is uncertain.
After analyzing the situation, Ye Yang realized this and his thoughts couldn't help but tremble slightly.
Although it hasn't reached the point where the Dao Heart has cracked or even collapsed, such a risk still exists.
A knot has been left in my heart, and no one knows whether untying it will bring a false alarm or a complete collapse.
Sensing this, Ye Yang stopped thinking about the problem and stopped digesting the gains from refining the Black-level Heart Demon.
"Now, I don't know whether I should be happy or feel heavy-hearted."
He never expected that such a huge, potentially problematic issue would surface at the very end of the third round of true meaning tempering.
But this is actually a good thing, since it's better to expose your weaknesses during your own cultivation than to have them exposed by someone else.
Solving this problem will actually lead to a completely new breakthrough.
Therefore, Ye Yang's feelings are very complicated right now.
"It's not suitable to continue hunting inner demons for now, let's retreat." Knowing that he was not in good condition, Ye Yang immediately retreated to the fourth level of the Outer Heaven.
He only stayed in the fifth heaven for a little over a day before coming down.
However, just as Ye Yang was about to return to the third heaven, he saw a man and a woman being chased and jumping around by a cloud of purple clouds in the distance.
The two men also saw Ye Yang and hurriedly shouted, "Senior brother in front, we are disciples of Elder Tiancong. If you could lend a hand to save us, we would be eternally grateful and would repay you with a great treasure!"
Ye Yang also sensed from their auras that the two were cultivating the Devouring Demon Refining God Sect's techniques. He thought to himself, "It seems they sensed the aura of the technique on my body and think I am also a disciple of the Devouring Demon Refining God Sect."
Although Ye Yang didn't know any "Elder Tian Cong," he was, after all, a formal disciple of the Devouring Demon Refining God Sect, and considered an outer member of the Devouring Demon Refining God Dao lineage. He should save him if he could.
They were just a group of purple-level inner demons, numbering only three or four thousand, posing no threat to Ye Yang whatsoever.
Of course, if he weren't a disciple of the Devouring Demon Refining God Sect, Ye Yang wouldn't bother with him at all.
"Come into my golden light," Ye Yang transmitted his voice, and tried his best to expand his Dao Domain to its maximum.
The two rushed in quickly, looking exhausted.
"This is—." One of the male cultivators looked around in surprise, sensing the area filled with Ye Yang's divine soul aura. At the same time, there was a suppressive power that kept emanating from it, making him feel that he had no secrets to hide.
"What's going on with you two? Why are so many inner demons chasing after you?" Ye Yang asked curiously.
The two could only recount their unfortunate experience. They were preparing to enter the fifth heaven, but as soon as they arrived at the fourth heaven, they saw tens of thousands of purple-level inner demons gathered together for some unknown reason.
Then they were constantly being hunted down, and if they were unlucky, they would be attacked by one or two inner demons.
Fortunately, although the demonic attack lasted a long time in the illusion, it was very short in reality. That's why the two of them were able to hold on for so long with the help of the "Mind-Stabilizing Pearl".
"So it turns out it was still because of me." Ye Yang couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he thought of the 'cloud' of tens of thousands of purple-level inner demons that he had attracted before.
These two were indeed unlucky.
"Thank you for your help, fellow Daoist. But may I ask if you are my senior brother or junior brother? I have never seen a cultivator of the third realm like you in the sect before." The female cultivator looked at Ye Yang with a puzzled expression.
"Junior sister, please don't be rude." The male cultivator quickly interrupted her, looking apologetically at Ye Yang: "Senior brother, my junior sister is straightforward and can't keep things to herself, please don't mind."
"My Daoist name is Ji Ying, and my junior sister is Ji Zhen," the male cultivator introduced himself.
"Minghong," Ye Yang nodded and said.
Ji Ying then asked with a smile, "Is Senior Brother Minghong a 'core disciple' of our sect?"
Ye Yang nodded.
"As expected." Ji Ying suddenly realized, "Senior Brother is now unleashing this golden light, which countless inner demons cannot overcome. Could it be the legendary 'Dao Domain'?"
Ji Ying's words surprised Ye Yang, who couldn't help but ask, "You actually know about the 'Dao Domain'?"
Ji Ying nodded: "My master once told me that, and—normally, disciples of this sect are only divided into 'outer disciples,' 'inner disciples,' and 'personal disciples.'"
"Those who can be called 'core disciples' are extremely rare; only cultivators from the 'Nameless Cave' can obtain the status of core disciples."
Ye Yang nodded. So that's how it is. This is a special arrangement for visiting "tourists" by the Devouring Demon Refining God Sect.
"Since Senior Brother Minghong comes from the 'Nameless Cave,' he must not be very familiar with our sect's elders. Our master, 'Master Tiancong,' is one of our sect's three Supreme Elders, a being who is infinitely close to a Celestial Immortal."
Ji Ying said with a hint of pride.
"Senior Brother Minghong, why don't we leave the Outer Heavens and meet in the mortal world?"
The three chatted for a while, then quickly returned from the fourth heaven to the first heaven, said goodbye to each other, and agreed to meet again in reality.
Ye Yang's consciousness returned to his body. Ignoring the two people, he pondered the problem he had discovered regarding his Dao heart and shook his head: "Entrusting the future—is it right or wrong?"
Upon opening the secret chamber and stepping out of the cave, Ye Yang saw an ancient communication talisman floating in front of the door.
"Hmm? An invitation from the Supreme Elder of the Devouring Demon Refining God Sect, 'Master Tiancong'?"
He raised an eyebrow.