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Chapter 1617: The New Method Paves a Dead End

Chapter 1617: The New Method Paves a Dead End

"What exactly was that inky-black figure?"

Rinsing Moon Bai was drenched in sweat. Even after being reborn for so long, she still hadn't fully escaped the horrific remnants of her past life.

"Is it possible," she wondered, "that the so-called Spirits of Heaven and Earth are merely bait to lure and kill Soul Transformation cultivators like us? But that makes no sense. To a Dao Integration expert, a Soul Transformation cultivator is little more than an ant, easily crushed with a wave of the hand. Why would they need to set a trap?"

"Besides, the method of sacrificing a Spirit of Heaven and Earth to achieve Dao Integration is certainly no fabrication..."

Rinsing Moon Bai couldn't make heads or tails of it. She looked at Li Fan, still fast asleep in his room, and a pang of guilt struck her. "I had originally planned to bring my nephew to the Xuanhuang Realm to change his fate and extend his life. I never expected that he would have lived longer as an ordinary mortal in the small world of Great Xuan."

After long deliberation, Rinsing Moon Bai made up her mind.

This life, the plan would change!

She would accelerate her cultivation even further. Soul Transformation in fifteen years!

She founded a mortal dynasty to serve Li Fan and Li Fan alone.

Furthermore, she left behind over a thousand mechanical puppets to ensure his complete safety.

"I've arranged for a delivery of sufficient spirit stones every ten years. This will continue for five hundred years."

"Auntie..." Li Fan was moved to tears, his face etched with shame. "It's because I'm useless. I've been a burden to you all this time."

Seeing Li Fan like this, Rinsing Moon Bai felt a deep sense of comfort. She patted his head. "Don't you worry, this is just a temporary measure. Once I uncover the truth, I will bring you out of here sooner or later. How could my nephew cower in a small world like this for his entire life!"

The domineering aura in her words was something the simple woman from her past could never have mustered.

"To become an emperor, revered by millions... your nephew is already more than satisfied," Li Fan said, expressing his gratitude once more.

Rinsing Moon Bai smiled and said no more. With a leap, she was gone.

Li Fan knelt and kowtowed, remaining on the ground for a long time.

Only after Rinsing Moon Bai had left Great Xuan did Li Fan return to his usual self.

"The accumulation of spirituality is certainly terrifying, but the Xuanhuang Realm is also an exceedingly treacherous place. There are the shackles of the Dharma Spreaders and the guard of the Hunger Immortal. Breaking free will not be so easy. Not to mention, the path to immortality is severed. Without [Truth], ascending to the Upper Mountain is practically a fool's dream."

With a single thought, countless possible futures for Rinsing Moon Bai unfolded in Li Fan's mind.

Yet in none of them did he see a possibility where she successfully walked out from behind the high wall, let alone one where she could leave the Primal Possibility, reach the Other Shore, and transcend into sainthood.

"Unless..."

"Unless the accumulated spirituality reaches a truly terrifying level. One high enough to ignore all of these obstacles."

"I shall wait and see."

Though he remained in Great Xuan, everything that happened within the high wall was under Li Fan's watchful eye!

Having learned her lesson from the previous life, Rinsing Moon Bai naturally didn't dare to pursue Crimson Flame again.

But the truth behind that inky figure genuinely intrigued her.

So she chose to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight.

She secretly sold the news of Crimson Flame's imminent appearance, earning a huge amount of contribution points.

Afterward, Rinsing Moon Bai waited outside the Cong Yun Sea, observing from a distance.

Just as she had experienced before, after Crimson Flame was slain, Ink Death descended, annihilating everything in its path.

"It's confined only to the Cong Yun Sea region."

Rinsing Moon Bai watched the writhing, exceptionally malevolent shadows just a short distance away. She was slowly beginning to piece things together.

"It seems some secret is buried within the Cong Yun Sea."

Witnessing the death of hundreds of millions of beings, the Rinsing Moon Bai of today could remain completely unfazed. She departed quietly.

In this life, she lived for another eight hundred years.

Until the day she died, she never found the opportunity to break through to Dao Integration.

But she wasn't the least bit anxious. "According to my inquiries, sixteen Spirits of Heaven and Earth have descended over the past eight hundred years."

"Among them, the one most suitable for me, with the least competition, should be the [Blue Flame]."

"Sixty-two years after rebirth, it will appear beneath the great river in Lingze Province, freezing the land for thousands of miles and turning the marshlands into a snowy realm."

"Sixty-two years... to think I have to wait that long..."

Though Rinsing Moon Bai felt unwilling to wait, she couldn't find a faster way to achieve Dao Integration at the moment.

The Thirteenth Life!

Before the Cong Yun Sea was destroyed, Rinsing Moon Bai searched it relentlessly, attempting to find its hidden secrets.

Her meticulous investigation truly did lead her to discover many strange things.

"The land of Cong Yun... could it have been slammed into the Xuanhuang Realm by a giant palm? An external land, not native soil. No wonder the Heavenly Dao of Xuanhuang is determined to see it utterly destroyed."

"In the vast Xuanhuang Realm, is the Cong Yun Sea the only place like this? What on earth happened to cause all this?"

Solving one mystery only gave rise to more questions in her mind.

A chill ran down her spine.

"And then there is Master Yin's Innovated Method..."

"Foundation Establishment Through Oneself."

"In these sixty-odd years of waiting, I might as well study it. If I can break free from the shackles of the Dharma Spreaders..."

However, the difficulty of the Innovated Method far exceeded Rinsing Moon Bai's imagination.

With her talent, sixty years passed, yet she had gained nothing!

This was the first time she had ever doubted her own aptitude.

"How can such a method exist in this world? The accumulated experience of my ten lives can't even make an inch of progress?"

But Rinsing Moon Bai did not give up because of this.

These sixty-plus years of study made her feel that the Innovated Method wasn't a dead end. On the contrary, it held immense potential.

In the sixty-second year, Rinsing Moon Bai successfully slew the Blue Flame and ascended to the rank of Dao Integration Immortal Sage!

The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance was shaken.

After reaching Dao Integration, her status and position underwent a qualitative leap. She no longer needed to scramble for cultivation resources and was even qualified to learn the various secrets of the Xuanhuang Realm.

Rinsing Moon Bai also brought Li Fan to the Xuanhuang Realm to help him cultivate.

The sole living relative of a Dao Integration cultivator.

Even though Li Fan was merely a mortal, no cultivator in the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance under Rinsing Moon Bai's influence dared to show him the slightest disrespect.

Li Fan indulged in a life of hedonism and pleasure.

As a mortal man, he commanded female cultivators whose cultivation far surpassed his own. It was a life of bliss.

As long as her nephew was happy, Rinsing Moon Bai didn't care.

She even took the initiative to find suitable partners for him, hoping to add another branch to the Li family tree.

Unfortunately, perhaps as a consequence of altering his fate, no offspring were born no matter what methods she tried.

After accepting this, Rinsing Moon Bai no longer forced the issue.

This life, it seemed, was already perfect enough.

But all this happiness came to an end once more when Li Fan's lifespan ran out.

"Auntie, I don't want to die..."

On the verge of death, the youthful appearance forcefully maintained by heavenly treasures faded away, revealing Li Fan's aged face.

Yet he cried like a child.

The sight broke Rinsing Moon Bai's heart. In a daze, she felt as if she had returned to the very year she was first reborn.

"Don't be afraid, Fan'er. Auntie will definitely save you!"

Rinsing Moon Bai tried to use more heavenly treasures to extend Li Fan's life, but in the end, it was a hopeless effort.

"Aun—"

A single tear traced a path down his cheek as Li Fan perished before Rinsing Moon Bai once again.

In that instant, it was as if all the vitality and spirit had been drained from Rinsing Moon Bai.

This powerful Dao Integration cultivator seemed to age in a moment.

A sense of powerlessness welled up in Rinsing Moon Bai's heart.

"Everything was already so good..."

With no motivation left, her heart and mind exhausted, Rinsing Moon Bai passed away from grief ten years later.

"Truth!"

Li Fan, who had already died, spoke softly from within the darkness.

Although he had long since ceased to care for mortal, carnal desires, indulging in them again once in a while wasn't so bad.

"However, my dear aunt seems to have hit a bottleneck. Should I give her a little push?"

"Never mind. I'll wait and see. It would be a shame if I left a flaw and all this effort went to waste."

The Saint-Making Project, Fifteenth Life!

The reborn Rinsing Moon Bai remained motionless for a long time.

"After Dao Integration, there is no hope for longevity." Suddenly, she let out a long sigh.

The closer one gets to the Longevity realm, the more one understands the terror of the Dharma Spreading Heavenly Venerate.

The vast chasm between Dao Integration and Longevity made it difficult for Rinsing Moon Bai to muster any confidence that she could advance further.

"Especially within the system of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, there is simply no opportunity for a Dao Integration cultivator to advance."

"I have heard, however, that on the side of the Five Elders Council..."

"Could it be that I have to switch sides this life?"

After careful consideration, Rinsing Moon Bai shook her head, dismissing the thought.

"In essence, there should be no difference."

"To break these shackles..."

"Perhaps the only way is through the Innovated Method."

It took a year for Rinsing Moon Bai to regain her spirit.

While continuing her routine cultivation, she dedicated almost all of her free time to comprehending the Innovated Method.

At the same time, she felt that her own strength might not be enough.

So, she shared her own insights with Master Yin.

Rinsing Moon Bai's talent astounded Master Yin. Utterly convinced in both body and mind, he willingly offered his assistance and perspective.

During their exchanges, he also revealed many secrets about the Xuanhuang Realm to her.

But even with their combined efforts, they were unable to make any progress with the Innovated Method.

The fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth...

When the number of Rinsing Moon Bai's reincarnations crossed the threshold of twenty.

Perhaps it was the qualitative change brought about by the accumulation of spirituality. A flash of inspiration struck Rinsing Moon Bai's mind, and she finally glimpsed the path forward.

"After Foundation Establishment Through Oneself..."

"Comes the Mixed Origin Golden Core!"

"The Mixed Origin is the source of all things, created from the Great Oneness, transformed by Yin and Yang." The Rinsing Moon Bai of this moment was far from the crude peasant woman she once was.

Having perused countless classics, her knowledge, learning, and insight had already surpassed the vast majority of people in the Xuanhuang Realm.

"From the vast, misty chaos, born of the innate, at the dawn of the limitless. Yin and Yang diverge, Heaven and Earth are set, and the cycle of motion and stillness begins."

"Kan and Li are inverted; fire flies over the azure sea to refine the void. The Grand Unity contains the true form, pearly drops condense in the jade cauldron, and divine transformation merges with the profound."

...

The accumulated experiences of several thousand years, as if tempered by the fire of inspiration, finally erupted with an overwhelmingly abundant power.

It toppled all the boulders blocking her path.

Revealing a wide, open road!

"With my nephew's aptitude, an overly difficult cultivation method is definitely out of the question."

"As they say, only by seeing one's nature can one clarify the mind. Foundation Establishment Through Oneself is feasible, but let alone a mortal, even for me, truly understanding the self is incredibly difficult. Therefore, the entry barrier for this cultivation path must not be set so high."

"It can be done in stages!"

In Rinsing Moon Bai's mind, thousands of ideas converged and connected at this very moment.

"Each stage of the Innovated Method should be cultivated simultaneously."

"During Foundation Establishment, you build the foundation. During Golden Core, you also build the foundation. Even at Nascent Soul and Soul Transformation, with every step of cultivation, you must continuously build the foundation again and again. Only at the very end will you achieve the true [Foundation Establishment Through Oneself]."

"By the same token, the concept of 'Mixed Origin' encompasses all things. It's impossible for someone at the initial stages of cultivation to master it. At first, it's just a nascent pellet. With every step forward, more fuel must be added, and the refinement must be enhanced."

"The same applies to every realm after Golden Core!"

"The Innovated Method, then, must be a path where all realms are cultivated simultaneously."

"Every bit of progress in self-awareness, every advancement in understanding the principles of heaven and earth, becomes the driving force for one's realm to advance."

"Like a galloping horse leaving the dust behind, advancing without end. Until..."

"The moment of completion! Foundation Establishment is complete, Golden Core is complete, Nascent Soul is complete... and ultimately, Longevity is achieved!"

Rinsing Moon Bai dissipated her own cultivation realm, returning to the state of a mortal.

Then, she began to walk the path of the Innovated Method.

If she didn't even have the confidence to walk the path she created, how could her thoughts ever be clear and unobstructed?

Rinsing Moon Bai didn't seek to fully know her true self. She simply used the self she perceived in her current state to forge her foundation.

It was like carving a stone statue of herself into a mountainside cliff.

Her future cultivation would be a process of constantly reshaping this statue, carving it anew.

Once the Foundation Establishment statue was formed, the next step was to achieve the Great Dao of the Golden Core.

The sights, learnings, knowledge, and feelings from twenty lifetimes of reincarnation all converged in her mind.

Finally, they transformed into a seven-colored Golden Core.

It appeared at the brow of her self-statue.

"This is the sum of all my insights into the world, harmonizing with the Dao, resonating with the Dao."

"As I continue to reincarnate, my understanding will continue to grow. This Golden Core will become ever more vibrant and colorful."

A thought arose, and the Golden Core formed.

With the Golden Core's formation, the self-statue instantly became ten thousand times more vivid.

It was as if it were Rinsing Moon Bai herself.

"After the Golden Core comes the Nascent Soul."

Rinsing Moon Bai felt her inspiration flowing like a torrent, endless and inexhaustible. So she continued to deduce the next step.

"The Nascent Soul is like an unformed embryo, like the Tai Chi that constitutes the heavens. A person embraces the body of heaven and earth, holds the purest essence, and is the most spiritual of all living things..."

"Using the body of the true self to deconstruct the perceived world!"

"But the people of the world are often dull. If they cannot even fully see and know their own mortal bodies, how can they possibly see the true heaven and earth?"

"Heaven and earth are boundless and infinite. Regardless of their true nature, one's perception of them is bound to change as one's realm and strength increase. Therefore..."

Rinsing Moon Bai seemed to have an epiphany. Within the self-statue, below the seven-colored Golden Core...

...at the center of her chest, a Nascent Soul suddenly appeared.

Only, this Nascent Soul was different from the cave-heaven Nascent Soul created by the Dharma Spreaders' method, and also different from the classical Nascent Souls recorded in the ancient texts.

It was completely different.

It was entirely transparent, like a flawless jade wall.

It seemed to reflect the world as she saw it.

"Foundation Establishment Through Oneself, the Mixed Origin Golden Core. And after that, the Spirit Mirror Nascent Soul!"

"A polished treasure mirror reflects but a single room; a polished heart-mirror can reflect the six directions! The more you see, the wider its reflection. The vaster the world, the more concrete the image in the mirror!"

Rinsing Moon Bai's Spirit Mirror Nascent Soul emitted a faint glow.

It flashed with scenes from her past twenty lives.

As it reflected these scenes, the self-statue also became tinged with a hint of the "mortal world."

Rinsing Moon Bai, who had dissipated her cultivation to start anew, was only at the Nascent Soul stage.

But with the successive formation of the statue, the Golden Core, and the Spirit Mirror, her aura returned to its peak in a very short time.

With the body of a Nascent Soul, she was on par with a Dao Integration expert!

However, a moment later...

Just as it reached its zenith, Rinsing Moon Bai's life force suddenly began to decay.

Her mind and spirit had been utterly exhausted by the process of enlightenment, and her soul was scattering and perishing!