Li Yan had his own speculations about this result. The cultivation of monks was often the opposite of that of Daoists. Daoist cultivation arts emphasized breadth, the great principles of heaven and earth, as if there was nothing they did not understand. Not only were they proficient in alchemy and artifact refining, but they also wielded a wide variety of magical treasures.
Monks, on the other hand, were somewhat similar to sword cultivators. They usually only focused on cultivating their natal magical treasure and looked down on other magical treasures. This resulted in the attack methods of sword cultivators and monks often being very singular, but incredibly powerful, usually resulting in a one-hit kill.
Li Yan then turned his attention to the jade slips. One by one, the jade slips were quickly removed from his forehead. His face was devoid of joy or sorrow, making it impossible for others to guess his thoughts.
About a hundred breaths later, a flicker of emotion appeared on Li Yan's expressionless face. The jade slip he was holding recorded a cultivation method called "Secret Traces Vajra Suppresses the Sacred Mountain." When this method was cultivated to its deepest level, the eighteen prayer beads could be refined into eighteen Vajra Hand Bodhisattvas, each of which could suppress heaven and earth. Once all eighteen Vajra Hand Bodhisattvas were refined, they could form the "Vajra Sacred Mountain-Suppressing Formation." Even a true Vajra Immortal could potentially be suppressed by this art.
Seeing this, Li Yan couldn't help but suck in a breath of cold air.
"I remember back then, Chan Master Dajing only used one Bodhisattva, and my speed was immediately suppressed by about thirty percent. If I hadn't cultivated the 'The Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis' to a minor completion in the past nine years, I would have been suppressed to the point of being unable to move. If there were one or two more Vajra Hand Bodhisattvas, even with all my techniques, I might not have gotten any advantage this time..."
Li Yan remembered this clearly. Then, he thought of another point.
"Could it be that Chan Master Dajing had only cultivated one Vajra Hand Bodhisattva?"
Li Yan was puzzled. He remembered that when Chan Master Dajing was fighting Li Yuyin at the beginning, he had only used one Vajra Bodhisattva visage. Even when the two of them joined forces, he had not seen him summon a second one.
After Li Yan finished reading the entire "Secret Traces Vajra Suppresses the Sacred Mountain" cultivation method, he slowly gained a general understanding of it. This method was created by the founding patriarch of "Mingtuo Temple," "Venerable Mingtuo," thirty thousand years ago. However, although he created this method, even he had only cultivated four Vajra Hand Bodhisattva visages before his ascension.
The original version of this method was an immortal art that "Venerable Mingtuo" had accidentally obtained, called "Golden Pearl Dragon-Subduing Art." It was not a Buddhist cultivation method, but a method for refining gold-attribute pearl-type treasures. When "Venerable Mingtuo" obtained this method and saw that it was for cultivating pearl-type magical treasures, and since he happened to be a gold-attribute cultivator, it sparked an idea in him.
Afterward, he had the idea of applying this method to prayer beads. This man was truly a monk of a generation. Not only did he successfully cultivate the "Golden Pearl Dragon-Subduing Art," but in the following several hundred years, he actually managed to integrate it into the Buddhist Vajra Hand Bodhisattva cultivation method, finally forming the Buddhist cultivation method "Secret Traces Vajra Suppresses the Sacred Mountain."
Even if only one of the prayer beads from "Secret Traces Vajra Suppresses the Sacred Mountain" was released, its power was more than double that of before. After another thousand years of improvement, it finally became the current holy protective art of "Mingtuo Temple."
Although this method was incredibly powerful, its requirements were also quite high. Besides being well-versed in Buddhist teachings, the main requirement for cultivating this method was a specific spiritual root attribute. The worst qualification had to be an Earthly Spiritual Root with a primary gold spiritual root. Therefore, the successive abbots and elders of Mingtuo Temple were all people with gold-attribute Earthly Spiritual Roots.
"According to the final introduction of this method, the best candidate for this method is a gold-attribute Saintly Spiritual Root, only then can one completely cultivate the eighteen Vajra Hand Bodhisattvas. Even the founding patriarch 'Venerable Mingtuo,' who had a Heavenly Spiritual Root, only managed to cultivate four Vajra Hand Bodhisattvas in the end and could not form the complete 'Vajra Prison-Suppressing Formation.' This means that whether one can truly cultivate the eighteen Vajra Hand Bodhisattvas described in the method is actually a matter of speculation.
"Chan Master Dajing was an initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivator and had probably only cultivated one or two Vajra Hand Bodhisattvas. Since summoning multiple Vajra Hand Bodhisattvas at the same time requires a large amount of gold spiritual power to maintain, and he was a three-attribute Earthly Spiritual Root, for every additional Vajra Hand Bodhisattva visage he summoned, he would need to consume more magical power. As such, only fifty to sixty percent of his total magical power could be truly used, and the rest of the miscellaneous magical power would be wasted. And in a real duel, he would definitely have to reserve his strength for unforeseen circumstances. That's why he only summoned one when dealing with us. It was only at the end, in order to kill me quickly, that he switched to what he thought was a more reliable method: Willpower..."
Li Yan looked at the introduction of the cultivation method, his thoughts racing as he reasoned through his questions one by one, while also searching for a description of how to use the Willpower in the prayer beads.
But even after reading the entire cultivation method, he couldn't find a single mention of how to use Willpower.
'There's no mention of Willpower at all in this "Secret Traces Vajra Suppresses the Sacred Mountain." Could it be that Chan Master Dajing refined it in himself later?'
Li Yan couldn't find the method to use Willpower. He certainly wouldn't cultivate it; that required bearing the karma of incense offerings. He wasn't a monk, so he just wanted to be able to use the residual Willpower in these prayer beads, even if it was just once. It could play a crucial role at a critical moment.
He then looked through the other jade slips. To his frustration, not only did he not find the method for cultivating Willpower, but the other three divine abilities he saw were also major Buddhist divine abilities. To cultivate these divine abilities, one needed a foundation of profound Buddhist teachings. Li Yan could only understand half of it, as if he were lost in a fog, let alone cultivate them.
"I can't possibly go and study Buddhism just to cultivate these few divine abilities!" Li Yan complained to himself.
The remaining jade slips held nothing else of interest to Li Yan. They were basically various scriptures and Buddhist classics, which Li Yan skimmed over. After putting down these jade slips, Li Yan fell into silence.
After a cup of tea's time, Li Yan finally gritted his teeth and decided that he would have to set aside some time in the future to read these Buddhist scriptures, even if only roughly. The three pure Buddhist divine abilities required mastery of Buddhist teachings, which Li Yan could not do. But "Secret Traces Vajra Suppresses the Sacred Mountain" only required a basic understanding of Buddhist knowledge to cultivate.
Li Yan possessed the great art of "The Five Elements Return to Primordial Genesis." Once the five elements were united, the power of this divine ability would be multiplied. Li Yan felt it was worth spending some time reading the Buddhist scriptures.
After he had finished reading all the jade slips, he turned his gaze to a verdant jade box. This jade box was placed together with the jade bottles of pills, but it was square in shape, and its lid was sealed with a talisman, which made it look rather special.
"To add another seal in his own storage space, this item must be very important to Chan Master Dajing."
As Li Yan thought, with a thought from his Divine Sense, he took the verdant jade box out of the monk's pouch. The moment the jade box was in his hand, a cool and refreshing feeling spread from his palm. He did not open the jade box immediately but carefully examined it with his Divine Sense.
After a full half a cup of tea's time, besides the talisman seal on the jade box, Li Yan did not find any other restrictions. But he did not let his guard down because of this. Instead, he became even more cautious. Usually, such treasures might have two layers of restrictions, one visible and one hidden. Just because he didn't find it didn't mean it wasn't there.
After some thought, Li Yan gently pushed the verdant jade box forward ten zhang, where it floated quietly in the air. Then, Li Yan's Divine Sense transformed into a divine sense spike and stabbed toward the talisman on the verdant jade box like lightning.
With a soft "hiss," a golden mist rose from the edge of the verdant jade box. Then, a golden palm suddenly shot out from the golden mist, its fingers curved into a claw, and it grabbed at Li Yan like lightning.
Li Yan's expression did not change. He also suddenly raised his hand and threw a punch.
"Boom!"
As the fist and claw met, Li Yan's cross-legged body couldn't help but sway a few times. The giant golden palm in front of him exploded with a loud bang.
"What a strong restriction!"
Li Yan felt the force from his fist. The power of that palm just now was equivalent to a strike from an initial-stage Nascent Soul cultivator. Even his physical body was shaken by the recoil. Of course, this was the result of Li Yan not using his full strength. If this item had been obtained by an ordinary cultivator, this single palm could have turned them to dust, and the power of the talisman would still be preserved.
However, Li Yan's punch, which had seemed ordinary, contained seventy percent of his strength. The talisman shattered with a single blow. As the golden palm disappeared, the lid of the verdant jade box popped open with a crisp "click."
The moment the lid opened, the entire cultivation chamber before Li Yan's eyes instantly became a place filled with steaming water vapor and mist. At this moment, Li Yan also saw the object in the box. His heart leaped, and he cursed inwardly. He immediately drew his hands quickly through the air, and a spiritual light shield several inches thick appeared. With a flash, the light shield enveloped the entire interior of the cultivation chamber.
Just as Li Yan had done this, a few wisps of extremely pure spiritual energy burst out from the box, like the rising sun breaking through a sea of clouds.
This purity of spiritual energy seemed somewhat familiar to Li Yan. However, even the stone chamber in the secret realm did not have such pure spiritual energy. Although only a few wisps of spiritual energy emanated from the box, each wisp carried an immense pressure, causing the space around Li Yan to emit a series of "kaka" sounds, as if it were solid.
If Li Yan hadn't reacted quickly and immediately protected this place with his powerful magical power, his cultivation chamber, even with the protection of restrictions and formations, would have burst in an instant and turned into nothingness. Such immense pressure, if placed on Li Yan before he formed his Nascent Soul, even with his transcendent body-refining art, he would not have been able to last a single breath.
At this moment, Li Yan's eyes also shot out a dazzling light, staring intently at the inside of the jade box through the misty water vapor in the room. Inside the opened verdant jade box was a deep blue crystal the size of an egg! On its surface, a blue airflow was constantly circulating, making the entire deep blue crystal even more splendid and dreamlike. Wisps of visible spiritual energy danced and circled around the deep blue crystal, like the most lively spirits and souls in the world...
"A water-attribute supreme-grade spirit stone!"
Li Yan muttered to himself. This was the second time he had seen a supreme-grade spirit stone, but the first time he had been so close to one. The last time was when True Lord Qianzhong had taken out and put away a fire-attribute supreme-grade spirit stone, letting them feel it for a moment. Just that lightning-fast moment, and with True Lord Qianzhong intentionally shrouding most of the pressure, had made Li Yan and Zhao Min's blood feel as if it had been instantly boiled dry. The terrifying temperature was still fresh in Li Yan's memory.
Li Yan reached out his hand, and the deep blue, dreamlike supreme-grade spirit stone flew into his palm. Waves of power like a monstrous tide continuously rippled from the surface of the spirit stone. The dark magical power on Li Yan's palm also surged continuously, firmly controlling it in his palm.
Feeling the extremely pure spiritual energy, without a trace of impurity, coming from the spirit stone, even without intentionally absorbing it, the magical power in Li Yan's body would involuntarily surge along with it.
"This is the purest spiritual energy in the world. Even I, at my current level, cannot feel the slightest impurity in it. The spiritual energy in those low-grade spirit stones, compared to this, is like a ten-thousand-year-old spiritual plant versus a common weed..."
A strange light shone in Li Yan's eyes as he slowly rotated the supreme-grade spirit stone in his palm, carefully examining every crystalline spiritual thread on it. He had a primary water-attribute spiritual root, so he was most sensitive to water-attribute spiritual items.
After a long time, Li Yan finally let out a long breath. He also thought of something.
"If this had been a gold-attribute supreme-grade spirit stone that was suitable for Chan Master Dajing, instead of a water-attribute one, then if he had used this item to cast 'Secret Traces Vajra Suppresses the Sacred Mountain,' under the impetus of such pure gold spiritual power, Li Yuyin and I might have been instantly suppressed to the point of being unable to move. It's even possible that we would have died..."
Li Yan felt a chill in his heart. It seemed that there was a good deal of luck involved in his dealing with Chan Master Dajing this time. Although he felt that his combat power could rival that of a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, those veteran Nascent Soul cultivators, even if their realm was still initial-stage Nascent Soul, to have survived until now, each of them had heaven-defying means and a deep foundation.
After another half an incense stick's time, Li Yan reluctantly put the supreme-grade spirit stone back into the verdant jade box and, with a wave of his hand, stored it in the "Earthen Patch."
By now, Li Yan had looked through about seventy to eighty percent of Chan Master Dajing's golden-yellow monk's pouch. The remaining space was filled with spiritual plants piled up like small mountains, as well as the bones and skins of demonic beasts and various metal and stone materials.
Li Yan recognized many of the spiritual plants. In his opinion, about seventy percent of them were around a hundred years old. The remaining thirty percent were over five hundred years old, and there were even four herbs that should be the main ingredients for refining Nascent Soul stage pills, which Li Yan judged to be at least a thousand years old.
Among the remaining demonic beast bones, teeth, and skin materials, most were third-rank. But a broken tailbone of an unknown demonic beast caught Li Yan's attention. This tailbone was grayish-white, about six feet long, and looked quite heavy.
When Li Yan picked it up, although he had expected it, his palm still sank sharply.
"Hm?"
Li Yan's expression changed slightly. His arm instantly swelled by several times its size, and only then did he manage to hold the object. This unknown tailbone was unexpectedly heavy.