Divine Transcendence

Chapter 224: Live up to one’s name

"It seems that influencing others through intention also has its limitations," Yuan Ming thought to himself.

However, he did not give up and continued to try to influence Xuanhua Zhenren again and again, while also sensing Xuanhua Zhenren’s cultivation situation.

Xuanhua Zhenren’s cultivation had also reached the peak of Qi Refinement, but the technique he practiced was quite ordinary. It relied entirely on the assistance of the nearby purple spirit incense to barely reach the level of absorbing spiritual power required for the Biro Technique.

Yuan Ming discovered that this purple spirit incense had a much more significant auxiliary effect on cultivation compared to the green spirit incense, but he didn’t know its name.

If he could meet Xuanhua Zhenren this time, he would definitely try to buy some. Of course, it would be best if he could find a way to obtain the method of refining it.

Under Yuan Ming’s repeated influence, Xuanhua Zhenren’s thoughts in his sea of consciousness became increasingly intense, and he soon stopped cultivating and stood up.

However, Xuanhua Zhenren did not leave the stone room but took out a somewhat old beast skin book to read, as if he wanted to calm his mind.

Yuan Ming thought to himself that Xuanhua Zhenren’s mental strength was quite strong, and it was not easy to influence his state of mind.

He was not in a hurry and continued to influence Xuanhua Zhenren to leave the stone room, while also paying attention to the beast skin book. Suddenly, he was stunned and stopped controlling Xuanhua Zhenren’s thoughts.

Xuanhua Zhenren quickly turned the pages and soon stopped at a certain place. Yuan Ming hurriedly looked over and found that these two pages recorded the methods of making three kinds of spirit incense, named "Purple Maiden Incense,""Red Earth Shadow Butterfly Incense," and "Seven Steps Down."

From the description, he found that the purple spirit incense was exactly the purple spirit incense, which had a more significant auxiliary effect on cultivation.

He speculated that the green spirit incense that Xuanhua Zhenren took out to sell should belong to the least popular type of auxiliary cultivation incense, and there were probably better spirit incenses than the purple spirit incense.

The "Red Butterfly Incense" was a tracking spirit incense. Once it touched the target, it could not be removed, whether bathing or changing clothes.

The incense itself had no smell and needed to be combined with another special potion applied to the nostrils to feel a special scent, which was used for tracking and was both secretive and convenient.

As for the "Seven Steps Down," there was no need to look at the introduction to know that it was a kind of stupefying incense. The enemy would fall to the ground after taking seven steps, similar to the poison incense that Yuan Ming had developed himself, but with a more significant effect.

Both the materials and the production steps of these three kinds of spirit incense were quite complicated. Compared to the few kinds of spirit incense Yuan Ming made, they immediately seemed somewhat crude.

"This is the real incense," Yuan Ming couldn’t help but exclaim, and then he memorized the methods of making the three kinds of spirit incense with his extraordinary memory. Then, he tried to influence Xuanhua Zhenren to continue reading and look at several other spirit incense formulas.

However, Xuanhua Zhenren’s gaze was fixed on the method of making the purple spirit incense, pondering its essence, and his intention was so strong that he was not affected by Yuan Ming at all.

He quickly put down the beast skin book, came to the incense-making table, and began to prepare various materials. From the materials he took out, it was clear that he intended to make the "Purple Spirit Incense."

"I previously possessed the Emperor’s body and borrowed his insights into the cultivation technique to quickly learn the Explosive Technique. I wonder if I can have a similar effect by comprehending this person’s incense-making," Yuan Ming thought to himself.

At this point, Xuanhua Zhenren had already prepared the preliminary work and started making incense. Yuan Ming hurriedly observed with his mind.

A considerable amount of time had passed since the possession this time, and he was somewhat anxious, silently praying that he could see the entire process.

Because the method of making the purple spirit incense was not simple, it required not only ordinary incense-making skills but also the coordination of spiritual power to integrate many spiritual materials. The difficulty was far beyond that of the Black Incense. Although he had memorized the method, he would undoubtedly need to spend a lot of time to experiment when he tried it himself. If he could directly experience it during this possession, he would naturally be able to achieve twice the result with half the effort in the future.

Fortunately, Xuanhua Zhenren had obviously already mastered the making of the purple spirit incense and quickly completed one. Yuan Ming also experienced the process of making the purple spirit incense firsthand.

Just as Xuanhua Zhenren had finished making the purple spirit incense and had not yet had a chance to try it, Yuan Ming’s possession time was up, and he suddenly returned to his original body.

***

"Speaking of which, it’s not a bad idea to learn incense-making through possession, but unfortunately, it can only be done once every seven days, and the other party has to be making incense," Yuan Ming closed his eyes and recalled the process of making the purple spirit incense, feeling exceptionally skilled. He had made thousands of purple spirit incenses, and he could clearly understand the details of each step. However, this feeling was somewhat elusive, and he needed to make the purple spirit incense himself to have a more profound experience.

Thinking like this, Yuan Ming got up and left the inn, heading south to the city.He had been staying in this small town for two days, and heard that there was a small market fifty miles south of the city where he could buy a lot of things.

Half a day later, he returned to the inn, closed the door, and waved his hand towards the table.

A white light flashed, and seven or eight spiritual materials appeared on the table, which were the materials for the Purple Profound Incense. Yuan Ming took out the tools for making incense, and carefully thought through the entire process of making the Purple Profound Incense by the Xuanhua True Man before starting to make the incense.

Before long, he had a purple stick of incense in his hand, which was almost identical in color and fragrance to the one made by the Xuanhua True Man. Yuan Ming took out an ordinary incense burner, lit the Purple Profound Incense, and then activated the Nine Elements Formula to test its effect.

After a moment, he opened his eyes.

The effect of the Purple Profound Incense in assisting cultivation was slightly worse than that made by the Xuanhua True Man, but it was much better than the Green Profound Incense. There was no doubt that it was a successful spiritual incense.

Yuan Ming’s cheeks flushed with excitement. The fact that he was able to successfully make the Purple Profound Incense for the first time indicated that his speculation was correct. The incense burner’s ability to possess could help him learn spells and quickly master the art of making incense, of course, it also required a bit of luck. Thinking deeper, alchemy, artifact refining, talisman drawing, and other skills could also be quickly acquired using the incense burner’s ability to possess.

The name of this incense burner was not wrong at all. The achievements that others worked hard for their whole lives could easily be obtained by the incense burner. It was truly worthy of being called the "Heaven-stealing Cauldron."

Yuan Ming got up and walked around the room for a long time before calming down.

Although the ability of the Heaven-stealing Cauldron was incredible, he still felt that he had not truly mastered this treasure and needed some time to slowly explore its mysteries.

The most unsettling thing for him at the moment was to ensure that he had truly evaded the "pursuit" of the Guangli Scattered Alliance and returned to the Great Jin safely.

If he could break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, many problems could be easily solved, but unfortunately, he didn’t have much confidence in it right now."

With these thoughts in mind, Yuan Ming walked to the desk and continued to make the Purple Profound Incense. In the following days, he stayed in the small town, making the Purple Profound Incense during the day and continuing to cultivate the fourth level of the Cold Moon Formula at night.

***

Seven days later, the incense burner recovered.

Yuan Ming couldn’t wait to light the Black Incense and possess the Xuanhua True Man again.

To his surprise, the Xuanhua True Man was still in that dim secret room making incense, but this time it was not the "Purple Profound Incense," but the "Seven Steps Downward."

Naturally, Yuan Ming didn’t hesitate to become an apprentice, carefully pondering the production of the "Seven Steps Downward" from the perspective of the True Observer. The Xuanhua True Man was extremely skilled in making the "Seven Steps Downward," seemingly thinking about something while casually making it. In just fifteen minutes, he had made two sticks.

The insights gained from two consecutive complete processes made Yuan Ming’s understanding of the production process of the "Seven Steps Downward" even surpass that of the "Purple Profound Incense." He began to plan that after this possession ended, he would go to the market to buy materials and try it himself.

After not continuing to make the third "Seven Steps Downward," the Xuanhua True Man took out a small animal skin book and flipped to the last page, his eyes shining with a burning light.

Yuan Ming noticed the anomaly of the Xuanhua True Man and looked over curiously. The last page of the book recorded the formula for a spiritual incense, but there was only one kind, called "Foundation Establishment Incense."

Yuan Ming was suddenly shocked and was about to concentrate on reading it carefully when endless darkness engulfed him, and his consciousness fell into chaos.

When he regained consciousness, his awareness had returned to his body.

***

Yuan Ming suddenly stood up from the bed, his eyes shining, and he was quite excited. Although he hadn’t seen the formula for the "Foundation Establishment Incense" clearly just now, he had also glimpsed some of its effects. According to its description, this incense, as its name suggested, was a kind of spiritual incense that could assist in Foundation Establishment, and its effect was quite good, increasing the success rate of Foundation Establishment by about twenty percent.

If it were an ordinary method to assist in Foundation Establishment, Yuan Ming might not have paid much attention to it, but spiritual incense was different. His Heaven-stealing Cauldron had the effect of stimulating the spiritual incense. The increase in the success rate that the Foundation Establishment Incense could originally bring would probably be even more significant under the stimulation of the Heaven-stealing Cauldron.

"This is truly a great help to me. If I can obtain this incense, coupled with the assistance of the Foundation Establishment Pill and my foundation of cultivating the thirteen levels of Qi, the possibility of success will greatly increase!" Yuan Ming thought to himself and couldn’t help but clench his fists.

Yuan Ming sat quietly in the room for a moment, and when his mood had completely calmed down, he set off to the market to buy the materials for making the "Seven Steps Downward."

In the following days, Yuan Ming attempted to possess the Xuanhua True Man every seven days to investigate his whereabouts.

But the Xuanhua True Man seemed to be enchanted, always staying in the secret room, practicing most of the time and making spiritual incense the rest of the time.

Unfortunately, after catching a glimpse of the "Foundation Establishment Incense," the Xuanhua True Man did not look at the description of this incense again, nor did he actually refine it. Even under the repeated influence of Yuan Ming’s thoughts, he remained the same.This made Yuan Ming anxious, as the incense ash he had obtained from the Liu Xin Sect was extremely limited, yet there was nothing he could do about it.

Fortunately, during his last possession, he had accidentally discovered the location of Xuanhua Zhenren, in Ning City of Yue Country in the Eastern Region.