Chapter 480 - 453: Breakthrough and a Great Harvest of Human Desires

Song Ciwan traded some Yuqing Dew for a piece of the Thunderstruck Li Wood. Just as she was about to leave, the wood’s tender new shoot peeked out, showing a hint of reluctance to let her go.

Seeing how innocently cute the shoot was, Song Ciwan couldn’t help but extend a finger and gently trace the air just above it.

She spoke, "All things under heaven are born with their own Dao. The cycle of the sun and moon, the turning of the four seasons, the wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, the life and death of all beings—everything is within the Dao. As a creature of nature, you too should take nature as your teacher. Quiet your thoughts and focus your spirit; contemplate the Dao to attain truth. Nurture your vitality in tune with the seasons and gather True Qi. Gather when you flourish, replenish when you are diminished..."

The Dharma Transmission Skill activated, operating so subtly that it seemed to breathe in unison with heaven and earth.

Although obtaining the Thousand-Year Thunderstruck Li Wood had gone smoothly, without a single hitch, Song Ciwan found that imparting the Dharma in just a few simple words had unexpectedly granted her a unique insight of her own.

’It seems one doesn’t necessarily need adversity and turmoil to grow.’

’Or perhaps... this state of being able to achieve enlightenment anytime, anywhere... is a manifestation of the Primordial Spirit Dao Body?’

Song Ciwan continued to expound on the Dao as she pondered. It wasn’t a lecture on any specific Spell, but rather an insight, a philosophy, that resonated with what she saw and felt in that very moment.

It was a special kind of karmic connection.

The new shoot beneath the charred trunk seemed to listen intently, swaying back and forth. One moment it would unfurl its leaves, the next it would close its bud. It even tilted its tender stem, as if wanting to nuzzle against Song Ciwan’s hand again.

A harmony grew between the person and the plant.

Song Ciwan turned to gaze at the distant horizon. The sky was a picturesque, deep cyan. After countless years of clamor, Thunder Strike Ridge was experiencing a rare moment of tranquility.

But on the far horizon, faint bolts of lightning had already begun to flicker, showing signs of gathering once more.

This didn’t mean more frenzied bolts of lightning were about to manifest and chase after Song Ciwan. Although she had absorbed all the lightning above Thunder Strike Ridge, its formation here was a natural phenomenon.

In other words, the lightning on Thunder Strike Ridge was not without a source. The unique terrain, geology, earth-veins, and Vitality of this place had created the three-thousand-li ridge, where lightning struck ceaselessly day and night.

Even though Song Ciwan had absorbed it all for the moment, it wouldn’t be long before the lightning over Thunder Strike Ridge regenerated.

It would then resume its endless barrage, striking down year after year, just as it always had.

This was the divine artistry of nature, the permanence of heaven and earth—something unattainable for mortals, yet the very goal Cultivators pursued.

’So Cultivation isn’t truly about having no desires; it’s just that the desires of a Cultivator are far more distant, far more grand!’

’The Sutra of Sitting and Forgetting isn’t about eliminating all thoughts, either. The principle of ’attaching to nothing, thus entering the Void’ doesn’t mean one’s thoughts cease to exist. They are simply no longer fixed on the mortal world, but on the cosmos, on eternity itself!’

After Song Ciwan had been expounding on the Dao for fifteen minutes, the tender shoot beneath the Li Wood’s charred trunk swayed its leaves. Suddenly, a layer of frost coated them as it entered a rare state of Meditation and Enlightenment.

As for Song Ciwan herself, she had, without even realizing it, broken through from the Early-Stage Divinity Transformation to the Mid-Stage Divinity Transformation.

It happened just like that—naturally, effortlessly, without leaving a single trace or revealing the slightest hint of her aura.

Song Ciwan stood there, and in the eyes of onlookers, she was still just an Innate Third Transformation Martial Artist. Her Qi Blood was abundant and surging, yet contained and concealed, making her as unfathomable as the abyssal ocean.

Who could possibly have seen that she was actually a Cultivator who had just experienced a minor breakthrough?

A faint smile on her lips, Song Ciwan stepped into the void. Using Cloud Sea Stepping Waves, she instantly returned to the spot beneath the Light Gate of the Spirit Realm Secret Realm.

At the foot of the mountain where the Light Gate was located, the Cultivators who had been watching the battle had not yet left.

It wasn’t that they didn’t want to leave, but the injuries they had sustained were not so easily healed. At the very least, fifteen minutes was not enough time for them to recover enough to depart from this place and make the journey back to the city.

Furthermore, there was a particularly wretched group who were still lying unconscious on the ground, unable to be woken.

The price the crowd at the foot of the mountain had paid to witness the battle between Celestial Prides had been steep indeed.

Lian Jia had crawled out from under her Puppet Carriage and was now hawking her Healing Elixirs. With a silver tongue and flying spittle, she sold a great many Healing Elixirs, taking in so many Primordial Pearls that her hands began to cramp.

Eventually, the way the crowd looked at her began to turn strange.

Just as the atmosphere at the foot of the mountain was growing increasingly strange, Song Ciwan, using Cloud Sea Stepping Waves, reappeared from the distance.

The faint commotion at the foot of the mountain instantly ceased, and the atmosphere fell silent once more.

The crowd, whether sitting frozen or standing stupefied, reacted just as they had before: with heads tilted back and eyes wide, they stared dumbly at the returning Song Ciwan.

If their inner thoughts could be put into words, they would surely be screaming in terror: ’He’s back! He’s back! Why is he back?! AAAAAAHHHH!’

So much for the dignified composure of a Cultivator—it was nowhere to be found.

If the situation had allowed for it, they would have squawked more fiercely than a brood hen that had just laid an egg.

Although Song Ciwan couldn’t hear their thoughts, the Heaven and Earth Scale materialized beside her, and orbs of human desires assailed it as fiercely as a tempest.

She didn’t need to hear their thoughts to know the agitated state of their hearts.

[Human Desires: The terror, horror, and dread of an Early-Stage Divinity Transformation Cultivator. Weight: three jin and nine liang. Exchangeable.]

[Human Desires: The panic, terror, and suspicion of a Mid-Stage Divinity Transformation Cultivator. Weight: four jin and six liang. Exchangeable.]

[Human Desires: The shock, doubt, and worry of an Innate Third Transformation Martial Artist. Weight: four jin and two liang. Exchangeable.]

[Human Desires: The terror, doubt, and panic of a Qi Cultivation Stage Cultivator...]

...

There were a great many human desires, twenty to thirty orbs in total.

Half of the providers of these human desires were Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators and Innate Third Transformation Martial Artists; after all, those with lower Cultivation were still too far away to have arrived yet.

Most of them were the same Cultivators who had been discussing the Dao with Ye Sheng in the Fenghua Building. Hailing from all over Yu State, they were the prodigies of their respective families and sects.

Otherwise, it would have been difficult to gather so many at the Divinity Transformation Stage and Innate Third Transformation level in a single place like Qingshi City.

There were also some Cultivators at the Qi Cultivation Stage and Innate Second Transformation, most of whom had arrived in Lian Jia’s Puppet Carriage. Now, they were just here to make up the numbers, but accumulating more human desires from them was certainly no loss for Song Ciwan.

By circling back for this surprise harvest, Song Ciwan had collected a decent number of human desires, but in terms of weight, they were rather lackluster.

After all, among these twenty to thirty orbs of human desires, not a single one was Qi Over Five Jin.

In contrast, during her battle with Ye Sheng, several of the many orbs of human desires she had collected had been exceptionally heavy.

This hadn’t been detailed earlier because the battle had been too intense for Song Ciwan to spare the attention to check them.

Now, as she collected the human desires from the crowd below, Song Ciwan began to sort through her earlier harvest. The feeling of such an overflowing bounty brought a particular sense of delight.

And so, the crowd at the foot of the mountain could only watch helplessly as the black-clothed young man who had left and returned now stood silently atop the peak.

His eyes were downcast in thought, and they had no idea what was on his mind.

This only made the crowd grow more terrified, their hearts filled with an indescribable, agonizing anxiety.