Chapter 922: Chapter 324: Accumulating Virtue, Stealing Treasures (Part 2)
Sun Lingtong listened and couldn’t help but be shocked, “Your thieving style… is really unique!”
Zeng Jide chuckled, “I feel like the way you’re looking at me is as if you’re seeing a fool.”
Sun Lingtong placed his hands behind his head, “Hehe, I wouldn’t do such foolish things. Why bother doing something so thankless? Since it’s theft, I’d be very cautious, trying my best to do it without anyone knowing.”
Zeng Jide, hearing his actions being deemed foolish, found himself aligning more with Sun Lingtong’s attitude, “You brat, you’re quite frank.”
“Haha, don’t mind me telling you, I’ve done such foolish things many times already.”
“Each successful attempt makes my Stealing Technique improve significantly! If the profit wasn’t enough, do you think I would do such ostentatious things?”
Sun Lingtong widened his eyes again. He was hearing such a method of cultivation for the first time, and he was incredulous, “Stealing Technique is indeed a kind of spell. Besides improving the realm, one must practice diligently. Are there other shortcuts to cultivate?”
“There are, young one,” Zeng Jide said, “I’ve read Buddhist classics and simultaneously cultivated Buddhist Sect techniques, enabling me to make a wish, fulfill a wish, and return a wish.”
“Each time I send a worship note, it’s like making a wish.”
“Successful theft is the fulfillment of a wish.”
“Finally, fulfilling the wish, every magic technique I use during the theft grows dramatically!”
“This cultivation efficiency far surpasses my hard practice.”
Sun Lingtong was greatly enlightened, “Is there such a path in Buddhist cultivation?”
Zeng Jide stroked his beard with a smile, instructing him, “Cultivation Hundred Skills, Thousand Families, Ten Thousand Techniques, fundamentally are all methods of cultivation. If it’s useful to you, just use it.”
“Who cares whether it’s Buddhist Sect or Demon Sect?”
“Cultivators should be like the sea, embracing and accommodating everything, adapting flexibly, using everything for themselves, and never be rigid.”
Sun Lingtong nodded repeatedly, taking the words to heart.
Zeng Jide accomplished his goal by taking all the vortex eyes but did not leave immediately.
“Since you’re here, Senior, you might as well take more,” Sun Lingtong suggested.
Zeng Jide nodded, acting seriously, “Indeed, these are destined for me. In our Buddhist cultivation, we emphasize both wish and destiny.”
Zeng Jide continued, sweeping away all the treasures on the shelf.
“Huh? There’s another secret room!” Zeng Jide unexpectedly discovered.
He cast several Stealing Techniques consecutively, finally opening the secret room’s door.
The secret room wasn’t big, containing only three kinds of treasures: No Desire True Dew, Seven Emotions Ash Jade, and Void Moon Soul.
No Desire True Dew had only one drop.
It floated in the center of the Jade Bottle. The dew drop was crystal clear, as if it didn’t exist but indeed did.
It emitted an utterly pure aura of “nothing,” seeming to purify all delusions and dust.
Zeng Jide’s gaze was complex as he introduced, “The River of Oblivion rarely forms the No Desire Dojo. No Desire True Dew is the sole treasure left after the natural extinction of the No Desire Dojo.”
“It can purify Heart Demons, eliminate illusions, stabilize the Dao heart, and is a sacred object for cultivating top-tier Righteous Path techniques and overcoming Heart Demon Tribulations. Just one drop is enough to invoke a frantic scramble among major cultivators of both right and left paths!”
Seven Emotions Ash Jade had seven pieces, each of different colors, resembling glazed jade. They naturally stacked together, forming a colorful mountain.
“Seven Emotions Ash Jade!” Zeng Jide inhaled deeply, “Joy, Anger, Sorrow, Fear, Love, Hate, Desire, when these seven fundamental emotions accumulate to the extreme, under certain special conditions, they crystallize into jade! Each piece contains the source power of an extreme emotion! It is the supreme sacred object for practicing Seven Emotions Demon Technique as well as the core material for top-tier Illusion Arrays, emotion-based attack, or defense Magic Treasures. Gathering all seven pieces, it’s said to invoke the original power of the Seven Emotions, with endless, magical uses.”
“This is what the River of Oblivion has ‘washed’ and ‘precipitated’ from the countless souls that have sunk, over unknown eons, into an object of profound emotion.”
Sun Lingtong suddenly understood.
Many of the previous treasures were also products of emotional accumulation. For instance, Heart-Binding Lotus of Grief, Anger Fire Glaze, Fear Soul Cold Crystal, Resentful Poison Miasma Flower, Obsession Iron, etc.
Seven Emotions Ash Jade should be the pinnacle of these treasures!
Void Moon Soul was like a crescent moon sealed within millennia-old mystic ice.
The crescent moon was a peculiar blue, semi-transparent, and emitted a strange fluctuation tracing the past and reflecting old memories.
“Buddha said, all is emptiness.”
“This is the source of ’emptiness’ condensed from the River of Oblivion, containing the True Intent of ’emptiness.’ It’s a supreme treasure for cultivating top-tier Dao of Forgetting Emotions Techniques like ‘The Supreme State of Emotionlessness’ and ‘Silent Heart Method,’ and also a peculiar auxiliary item for crafting space-type Magic Treasures or comprehending the Space Law. But direct contact can lead to a great risk of losing oneself, turning into the void.”
“Legend has it that Yun Xiao used this object, burning himself out, to create the Empty Return Raft.”
“It’s said that the Void Moon Soul he used at that time was as large as a hill, extremely astonishing. It was probably the largest and most accumulated treasure of the kind in the River of Oblivion!”
Sun Lingtong was moved, “How coincidental, Yun Xiao wanted to save his partner and happened to encounter the Void Moon Soul, just in time to meet the conditions.”
Zeng Jide nodded slightly, “So there is another explanation regarding Yun Xiao’s story.”
“It’s said that Heaven of the Netherworld couldn’t bear seeing the River of Oblivion become a forbidden zone, wishing to create a crossing method for souls in the Netherworld.”
“Therefore, through the evolution of destiny, it arranged Yun Xiao and Yue Yi, two cultivators. Ultimately, Yun Xiao sacrificed, resulting in many emotionless crossings and Empty Return Rafts.”
“This is the theory of destiny.”
Sun Lingtong remained silent, but he thought: Now that I’ve come to Wangchuan Immortal City, encountering Zeng Jide and gaining his help, it might also be due to the evolution of destiny.
He asked Zeng Jide, “Elder Zeng, I’m very interested in the concept of destiny!”
“Do you know it, and can you teach me?”
“I have a good idea, which is to concurrently cultivate destiny methods and then integrate them, creating new Stealing Techniques.”
“With new Stealing Techniques, I could directly steal destiny. Then, as I take a few steps, perhaps I would encounter treasures, enemies would kill each other, and I would thoroughly sail smoothly with fortune! Life would be too pleasant.”
“Hahaha.” Zeng Jide was amused, laughing heartily three times.
He stretched out his finger, pointed distantly at Sun Lingtong’s forehead, “You’re dreaming too beautifully, kid.”
“I have no magic technique related to divination or destiny.”
“Even the Lord of Wangchuan Prefecture, who presides over important matters, doesn’t have them. If he wants to divine, he has to seek help from Grey Bone Elder.”
“There’s a secret in this!”
Sun Lingtong pursued, “What secret?”
Zeng Jide answered, “To acquire the skill of destiny or divination, force won’t work, it’s based on compliance with heavenly mandates!”
“If Heaven wants you to have it, these arrangements exist.”
“Otherwise, the stronger the existence (whether individual or power), the less likely they are to acquire this kind of technique.”
“Because once learning this technique, it is easy to become an ‘ailment’ in the world, difficult to eliminate, threatening the natural cycle of life and death.”
Sun Lingtong frowned, “If this is true, then looking from another perspective, does it mean the stronger someone is, the less likely they are to gain destiny or divination methods?”
Zeng Jide nodded, “Yes.”
“The stronger individuals here refer to those like you with a promising future. Though temporarily weak now, as long as you continue to grow, you will surely become strong.”
“Hence, your chance of seeking destiny or divination magic is nearly impossible.”
As he said this, Zeng Jide sighed, “Ah, I’ve tried before. If I had divination skills, combined with my Wish Technique, I could foresee success and failure and hidden risks before submitting each worship note.”
“Then my cultivation speed would transform completely, becoming a renowned Thief Saint in history, not too far off.”
“Therefore, any cultivator gaining the destiny or divination skill has, in general, weak destiny or frequent disasters, often lacking in several aspects.”
“From what I know, those divination practitioners highly value their destiny, always maintaining it between a certain upper and lower limit, very particular.”