Chapter 258: Chapter 147: Advancing to the Third Realm, the Ability to Commune with Heaven and Earth

Seeing Wang Ping’s transformation from a distance, Zi Luan let out a long sigh of relief.

At that moment, he lowered his hands, dispelling the spell, and turned to look in another direction. Xiu Yu, dressed in gray linen, stood suspended in mid-air. His long hair, trailing far behind him on the wind, made him look like a wild scholar.

Noticing Zi Luan’s gaze, Xiu Yu looked over. Simultaneously, his voice traveled through the Wood Spirit Qi to Zi Luan’s ear. "Is this the person you’ve chosen to compete with me?"

"What do you think of him?"

"Very good. Better than you, at least. You’ve lost your courage. How pathetic."

"Haha!"

Zi Luan roared with laughter but offered no rebuttal.

Xiu Yu had no intention of saying more. He cupped his fist in salute to Zi Luan, then transformed into a streak of light and flew toward the dense western forest. Above the clouds, a great eagle, its wings marked with purple runes, followed closely behind him.

’He just had to take every little advantage!’

Zi Luan looked up in the direction the great eagle had disappeared and chuckled. "Still, you’ve helped him indirectly. I hope you won’t regret it in the future."

With that, he turned his gaze back to Wang Ping in front of the bamboo house.

Wang Ping didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary. Aided by the Heaven-Reaching Talisman, his Divine Soul easily absorbed the Spiritual Energy, making it a part of itself.

During this process, Wang Ping’s originally humanoid, illusory Divine Soul slowly began to twist and distort. Its shape was in constant flux—sometimes a plant, sometimes a towering ancient tree, and at other times, a strange creature.

With each distortion of his Divine Soul, the memories from his fusion with the Locust Tree Divine Soul would resurface in his mind, shifting and changing to match each new form.

「Twenty days later.」

Wang Ping’s Divine Soul had stabilized, now possessing the embryonic form of a Primordial Spirit. No longer illusory, it existed as a semi-corporeal form of Spiritual Energy. At the climax of the memories, a powerful pull had stabilized it into a humanoid shape.

The process felt like a gift from heaven and earth rather than the result of his own cultivation. It subconsciously reminded Wang Ping of his entire journey cultivating the Third Realm of the Taiyan Talisman. Generally speaking, cultivating the third volume of the *Taiyan Talisman* had always required the perseverance to let things fall into place naturally. It seemed simple, but the slightest misstep would lead to his humanity being devoured, turning him into a madman, or being assimilated by his internal Spirit Vein and becoming a twisted monster.

Wang Ping suddenly grasped some of the cosmic principles described in the *Annotations on Heaven and Man*, a text passed down by his sect. His once-chaotic thoughts gradually cleared, and with that clarity, his humanity returned in full.

With his humanity restored, a lingering fear blossomed in Wang Ping’s heart.

He had come so close to completely obliterating his humanity.

"You’re finally awake..."

Yu Lian’s voice in his Spirit Sea was jubilant. She spoke quickly, "You were almost lost in the Inspiration Realm!"

「On the distant horizon.」

Sensing Wang Ping’s state, Daoist Zi Luan let out a soft chuckle.

In his courtyard Dao Field, Xiao Shan Lord, who had been resting in meditation, opened his eyes. He gazed at the distant clouds enshrouded by Wood Spirit and muttered to himself with casual indifference, "The nine-times-nine tally is full once more. I hold three shares, which is enough to stabilize the fortune for ’Stealing Heaven.’"

「Southern Sea Region.」

Deep within a secluded island in the calm waters, inside a massive palace that seemed to have grown from a giant tree, a Daoist sat at the center of layered Gathering Spirit Arrays. Cross-legged upon a Jade Meditation Mat, he opened his eyes.

’A strange feeling...’

He took a pair of divination blocks from his storage pouch and cast them. As his eyes fell upon the resulting pattern on the floor, a faint smile touched his expressionless face.

’Such an interesting event... Should I go and see for myself, I wonder?’

...

「Forty-nine days passed in a flash.」

Wang Ping’s Divine Soul had already transformed into a Primordial Spirit by the fortieth day. He spent the remaining nine days stabilizing it and fully merging his consciousness with it, experiencing the world through his Primordial Spirit’s senses.

First, he saw that densely packed Spiritual Creatures had gathered above the clouds. They seemed to be feasting on the Wood Spirit Qi and Spiritual Energy that his breakthrough had attracted. When they sensed Wang Ping’s gaze, most of them scattered in an instant, but a few held their ground, their consciousness radiating defiance.

Annoyed, Wang Ping willed his body, which was now a complete Spirit Body, to form a spell seal. Instantly, he drew upon the Wood Spirit of the Inspiration Realm to form a sky full of Longswords, which then annihilated the defiant Spiritual Creatures.

’Just as Tongyu Taoist said, a Primordial Spirit can’t cast spells directly; it needs to borrow the physical body’s inspiration. But his explanation was incomplete. The Primordial Spirit itself should be cultivatable.’

As his Primordial Spirit watched the Spiritual Creatures dissipate, an apt metaphor formed in Wang Ping’s mind: his body was the hardware, and his Primordial Spirit was the software that controlled it. Now, both his software and hardware had been upgraded.

All that remained was to "install the software" and gain control over the overflowing Wood Spirit and Spiritual Energy in the area.

With this thought, Wang Ping called out to Yu Lian in his Spirit Sea. He then effortlessly merged his Primordial Spirit back into his physical Spirit Body. The return of physical sensation was a jolt to his senses. At the same time, the heightened sensitivity granted by his Primordial Spirit caused the Qi Sea within his body to resonate with both the Spiritual Qi of the physical world and the spiritual forms of the Inspiration Realm.

He had entered the Inspiration Realm with his physical body!

The dormant Spirit Vein Consciousness within him surged wildly. The countless whispers of the Inspiration Realm grew clearer, with some sounding as if they were being spoken right into his ear.

"Ignore them!"

It was Yu Lian’s voice.

Wang Ping naturally paid them no mind. He extended his consciousness, and in a single instant, he drew all the materialized Wood Spirit Qi from dozens of miles around into his Qi Sea.

The world was instantly restored to clarity. The rapidly flowing Wood Spirit Qi inside Wang Ping’s body surged through his meridians, suppressing the Spirit Vein’s consciousness in accordance with his Primordial Spirit’s will, while simultaneously nourishing the channels.

A few breaths later, a wave of Spiritual Energy washed over his physical body, intertwining with the Wood Spirit Qi within him and forming dense Natural Spirit Patterns along the inside of his meridians.

They were the Natural Spirit Patterns of the Wood Spirit, and they completely fused Wang Ping’s physical body and Primordial Spirit. At that moment, the Heaven-Reaching Talisman manifested as a blurry scroll above his head.

The scroll vanished in a flash. Wang Ping opened his eyes. All over his skin, dense Natural Spirit Patterns had appeared, resembling an intricate script. He first glanced at Yu Lian, who had shrunk down and was now floating beside him.

"I feel great right now," Wang Ping said. "It’s as if all the Wood Spirit in the world has become a part of my body. I can even use it to bring some very interesting ideas to life."

Wang Ping pointed casually. A soldier made of grass and wood rose from the lawn. Unlike before, it was no longer stiff and lifeless; it even politely cupped its fists in salute to him.

"How interesting!" Yu Lian’s face was full of amazement.

With a smile, Wang Ping gently waved his hand, and the grass-and-wood soldier magically reverted to a patch of weeds. He then looked around, and the Wood Spirit blanketing the area receded like a tide.

When he saw the ruined mountain forest, he formed a spell seal. The fused Spirit Communication Talisman and Luck-Borrowing Talisman appeared around his body, along with the newly inscribed Heaven-Reaching Talisman.

The next moment, dense saplings sprouted from the ground. Growing wildly at a speed visible to the naked eye, they quickly formed a new forest, shaped by Wang Ping’s memory to be nearly identical to the one before. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"Wow! What else can you do?"

"There are new Talismans, called the ’All-Purpose Talisman’ and the ’Transfer Talisman,’" Wang Ping explained. "From now on, I won’t have to inscribe all sorts of miscellaneous Talismans. I’ll just need the All-Purpose Talisman, which can transform into any other. The Transfer Talisman is basically a teleportation Talisman, but it requires a fixed Array to be set up in advance."

Wang Ping thought of his master, Yu Cheng Taoist, teleporting around the sect. ’He must have a Transfer Talisman passed down from the sect,’ he mused.

"Anything else?"

"And an elevation in my very level of existence!"

"Can you be more specific?"

"To be specific, if I were to face Second Realm Cultivators now, no matter how many there are, I could annihilate them with a flick of my finger, as long as I’m at my peak."

"That powerful? Really?"

"That’s the ideal scenario. In reality, what cultivator who reaches the Second Realm isn’t extraordinarily cunning?"

Wang Ping shook his head with a smile. As he spoke, he seemed to recall something. He formed a spell seal, causing the Wood Spirit Qi in his Qi Sea to circulate rapidly once more. The dense Spirit Patterns on his body’s surface slowly receded beneath his skin.

Once he looked no different from an ordinary person, he cast a cleaning spell on himself, removed his jade crown, and retied his disheveled hair.

Just as he finished, Zi Luan appeared, walking down the path from the forest entrance as if on cue.

"Congratulations, Fellow Daoist, on achieving the Heaven-Reaching Realm. From this day forward, the sky’s the limit!"

This time, Zi Luan’s use of "Fellow Daoist" was far more sincere than when Wang Ping had first broken through to the Second Realm. The smile on his face was no longer a mere formality.

Wang Ping maintained his respectful demeanor toward Zi Luan, cupping his fist in salute. "Many thanks, Fellow Daoist, for standing guard for me."

’I must first acknowledge the favor,’ he thought.

"Haha!"

Zi Luan laughed heartily and invited, "Care to join me for a cup of tea at my Dao Field?"

...

Zi Luan’s Dao Field looked identical to his underground meditation chamber. From the outside, it was unremarkable and no different from Wang Ping’s, but the interior was incomparably extravagant. Even the stove used to heat the tea was forged from Fire Spirit Ore.

After the tea was brewed, Zi Luan filled three cups and said with a smile, "Fellow Daoist, countless people were waiting to see you fail in this breakthrough, especially the disciples from Junior Brother Xiu Yu’s lineage."

Wang Ping smiled but said nothing.

"Anyone specific?" Yu Lian asked, much bolder now. She would never have dared to speak so forwardly in front of Zi Luan before.

"If Fellow Daoist wishes to know, I can introduce them to you, one by one," Zi Luan said, his smile unwavering as he looked at Yu Lian.

"She’s used to being mischievous. Fellow Daoist, you needn’t take her seriously," Wang Ping interjected.

"You are as benevolent as ever, Fellow Daoist."

"I just find it too troublesome."

"Haha!"

After another laugh, Zi Luan extended a hand and tapped lightly in the air. A Talisman materialized before him. "The Lord has given his instructions," he said. "You do not need to pay him a visit after your advancement. This is the Secret Technique from the first half of the fourth volume of the *Taiyan Talisman*. I now pass it to you on the Lord’s behalf."