Chapter 8: The Legacy of Sanshou

Bodhi looked at Ji Ning, silent for a moment, then said, "You are taking a risk. You are forcing the Wujian Sect, trying to push them into suing for peace... But to make the mighty Wujian Sect seek peace is extremely difficult. You should know what kind of path this is."

"Disciple understands." Ji Ning did not hesitate.

This path was fraught with danger!

Even if the Dao Ancestors could not act.

The Wujian Sect had ways to deal with Ji Ning without them, such as the simplest tactic of overwhelming numbers! They could hide enough immortals and demons to wage a realm war within a magic treasure, led by a top-tier Heavenly God or True Immortal on par with Lü Dongbin, and directly besiege Ji Ning! When immortals and demons reached a certain number, they could threaten even a Dao Ancestor, let alone Ji Ning.

Ji Ning was walking a tightrope!

On one side lay success.

On the other, death!

"Very well." Bodhi said softly, "Pushing yourself to the brink might also bring about a miracle. All your master can do for you is help you find some of the Wujian Sect's lairs and strongholds. Everything else depends on you. The path is yours to choose; if you die, you cannot blame others."

"Thank you, Master." Ji Ning was overjoyed.

"Be extremely careful." Bodhi exhorted. He had only just learned that his disciple had personally made the choice to send Yu Wei into the endless hell. This left Bodhi sighing with emotion, yet helpless.

"Go." Bodhi nodded and closed his eyes.

Ji Ning bowed respectfully, then left the Daoist temple.

...

After leaving the temple, Ji Ning returned to his residence and entered the quiet room of the Water Mansion.

Sitting on the Netherwater Jade bed, Ji Ning took out the brocade pouch and the gourd.

"First, cultivate the Star Picking Hand."

Instantly, five rays of light flew out of the brocade pouch, hovering in midair, each in one of five directions, and blazed with brilliance: dazzling gold, gentle blue, vibrant green, fierce red, and deep earthy yellow. The essence of the Five Elements was palpable even without active cultivation.

For instance, the water-blue ice crystals, though only a small pile, gave a sense of pressure like an endless ocean.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh~~~"

Ji Ning closed his eyes and began to cultivate, the surrounding Five Elements essence converging wildly toward him.

...

Cultivating the Star Picking Hand and the Eight-Nine Arcane Art was swift. Both were external arts that refined the body like a magic treasure, requiring complete comprehension of the techniques and rare materials, much like refining a treasure.

A day later.

Ji Ning left the quiet room and came to the main hall, where he saw the yellow-furred bear and the seven including Red Snow.

"Congratulations." The yellow-furred bear made a bow with its furry paws. "With the Eight-Nine Arcane Art at the Ninth Cycle and the Star Picking Hand at the innate level, Ji Ning, with these two great divine abilities alone, you can roam the Three Realms freely."

"The Ninth Cycle of the Arcane Art makes you impervious to myriad spells. Congratulations." Red Snow, the Heavenly God, also spoke.

"If only I could have become a disciple of Patriarch Bodhi and learned the Eight-Nine Arcane Art," said the childlike Heavenly God Yuan Guang, shaking his head with a sigh. "The Prefect and Brother Red Snow both became Bodhi's disciples one after another, especially Red Snow—he was already so old, yet he shamelessly became the Prefect's junior apprentice-brother. And not long after joining, he learned the Eight-Nine Arcane Art."

"I want to learn it too." The seductive Snow Scorpion also looked at Ji Ning.

"Which Heavenly God doesn't want to learn it?" muttered Jiuyā. "Back then, I was just a small soldier under the God King, only qualified to listen. Even now, I can't learn it."

Instantly, everyone began to grumble.

Red Snow and Ji Ning could only listen, not daring to say more.

In truth, this was something almost every Heavenly God in the Three Realms envied. The Eight-Nine Arcane Art was renowned as the number one divine ability in the Three Realms below the True God level! But the opportunity to cultivate it was rare, and the cost was exorbitant—especially for the Ninth Cycle, which cost far more than the Fifth Cycle of the Star Picking Hand.

Even a Dao Ancestor would feel pained to pay such a price.

Ji Ning had only obtained that gourd of immortal pills from the Redbright Dao Ancestor, a True God and Dao Ancestor born from Chaos, because he and the seven including Red Snow had rendered great service in the realm war and had not taken any of the distributed treasures. The Dao Ancestor, though pained, had gathered the pills for Ji Ning.

"Look at you all, so sour. Enough, enough," the bear quickly called out. "Let Ji Ning go break the master's restrictions and see those three treasures."

"Right, the three treasures."

"I wonder what they are."

"Prefect, go quickly."

"After you find out, come tell us."

Yuan Guang, Snow Scorpion, and the others' eyes lit up, and they stopped talking about 'envy,' urging Ji Ning on.

"I'm curious too. Wait here; I'll tell you when I come out." Ji Ning immediately left the main hall.

Soon.

The yellow-furred bear and Ji Ning arrived together at the void passage, where they again saw the glowing formation restriction.

"Break." Ji Ning struck out with his palm, which transformed into a hundred-zhang giant hand radiating a terrifying might, like a sky pressing down. The power was clearly different from before. When his palm struck the formation restriction, light flowed on the restriction, forming runes similar to the Star Picking divine runes to meet the blow.

The divine runes and the runes matched perfectly.

Whoosh~~~

The formation restriction dissipated like a gust of wind, and Ji Ning saw a wooden door ahead.

Ji Ning stepped forward and pushed. Creak~~~ The door opened.

"Big Bear, come in with me." Ji Ning turned to look at the yellow-furred bear.

"No, no. The master said only the new Prefect can enter," the bear shook its head. "Anyway, I won't get the treasures. You can tell me when you come out. Just let me have a good look and satisfy my curiosity."

Ji Ning nodded and did not press further, stepping inside.

Once inside, the scene shifted.

"Hm?" Ji Ning was startled.

It was a very ordinary room. Inside was a cushion, on which sat a one-armed, bald man dressed in animal skins. His gaze was deep as he looked at Ji Ning. Ji Ning immediately recognized him as Sanshou, the Daoist. He had seen Sanshou in person when he received the divine ability.

"You've come," he said.

Ji Ning understood that this was merely a restriction left by the other, and these words were spoken by Sanshou back then.

"To be able to enter this place, you have already cultivated the Star Picking Hand to the Fifth Cycle. I, Sanshou, finally have a successor." Sanshou's eyes held a sense of relief and detachment. "I failed to find a worthy successor in life, but after death, I have one. It is enough. I have no other requests of you, only that you treat well those who remain in the Star Picking Mansion. I guess Red Snow will stay, but I'm not sure about the others. The heart is the hardest to fathom. In life, they were loyal to me; after death, it's hard to say. I hope you treat those who remain well, especially those in the Treasure Hall. Give them the Pure Yang treasures that suit them."

"As for you, I have left these three ultimate innate spiritual treasures, hoping you can live to become a True God again, and even a Dao Ancestor. Let my Star Picking Hand divine ability truly become famous throughout the Three Realms."

"I only comprehended the Star Picking Hand through a stroke of luck. I regret that although I was a True God, I never grasped the Heavenly Dao to become a Dao Ancestor. Otherwise, the power of my Star Picking Hand would have been even greater." Sanshou shook his head. "But these are just empty names. The path you take in the future is entirely up to you. If you find the Star Picking Mansion a burden, you may disband it. I have only one request: treat well those who remain in the Star Picking Mansion."

"Red Snow, Donglin, Yuan Guang, Qulong... how many of them are willing to stay?"

Sanshou then shook his head with a smile. "Enough, enough."

Whoosh.

His figure vanished into thin air.

Ji Ning was taken aback, then knelt down and kowtowed solemnly, thanking him for the transmission of the art. Without Sanshou's legacy, he would not have achieved what he had today.

"Although many immortals and demons under your command have left, there are still those who remain steadfast in the Star Picking Mansion. Rest assured, I will treat the seven of them well." Ji Ning spoke solemnly. This was his promise. Those seven, without any coercion, had willingly waited in silence, not knowing when the end would come, yet they still waited willingly. Ji Ning had always admired those seven Heavenly Gods.

Ji Ning rose.

With a wave of his hand, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

In front of the cushion were three boxes, all open.

The first box on the left contained a large number of beads, each radiating an immense pressure.

The second box held a palm-sized, seemingly dilapidated little wooden boat.

The third box contained a small golden pagoda.

"Are you the new Prefect of the Star Picking Mansion?" A bald little monk in golden robes emerged from the small golden pagoda. "You've finally come. We've been stuck in this place for who knows how long, and we're already bored to death."

"No need to rush. Take it slow." An old man in simple clothes, like a farmer from the fields, emerged from the little wooden boat.

"Finally here." A clear-eyed child sat cross-legged on the dense cluster of beads, his gaze sharp and piercing.

"All three of you, speak up." Ji Ning smiled.

"Old man, you go first." The clear-eyed child said.

The simple old man nodded: "I am the spirit of this broken boat. This boat is called the 'Void Boat,' born from a wisp of pure energy at the dawn of creation, gathering the essence of heaven and earth, and gestating for eighty-four thousand years. It can shatter the void, and its speed ranks among the top five of ancient treasures."

"The Void Boat is simply fast," the clear-eyed child said coolly. "Among the ancient Chaos treasures skilled in flight, there are only two—one in the hands of Goddess Nüwa, the other in the hands of Lord Sanqing. In all of antiquity, only those two could surpass the Void Boat. According to Sanshou, the Void Boat is for you to escape with."

"My purpose is also escape." The bald little monk standing on the small golden pagoda said with a smile. "This little pagoda is refined from rare materials gathered from Chaos, wondrous and extraordinary. Sanshou named it the 'Nine Lives Pagoda.' Once you refine it, you can use its strange energy to create nine avatars. Each avatar can possess strength comparable to your own, capable of using divine abilities and escape techniques to flee quickly. When fleeing, the avatars consume the pagoda's energy; when the energy is exhausted, the avatars dissipate. Moreover, even True Gods and Dao Ancestors cannot distinguish these nine avatars from the real you. However, you must never let the avatars engage in combat, for once they do, the enemy will discover that your avatars do not use divine power or immortal magic, revealing the flaw."

"The nine avatars are mainly for you to escape and distract the enemy, not for battle. Their value lies in the fact that without combat, no one can tell they are fake. Even Goddess Nüwa cannot distinguish them." The bald little monk said confidently. "Sanshou hesitated about whether to bring them into battle, but Nüwa told him that there were terrifyingly powerful beings on the battlefield, and in such world-shattering battles, the Nine Lives Pagoda's avatars would be of little use. So he didn't bring them."

Ji Ning was taken aback.

The Void Boat and the Nine Lives Pagoda were both for escape?

In the ancient cataclysmic war, great beings like Bodhi hid and occasionally acted to save some. Knowing that the enemy's power was immense, nearly on par with Pangu, and that even the Nine Lives Pagoda was useless, Sanshou still charged directly onto the battlefield to face the enemy head-on. Truly brave.

"And you?" Ji Ning looked at the clear-eyed child on the cluster of beads.

The clear-eyed child looked at Ji Ning: "They are for preserving life and escaping, while I am for killing enemies."

"That is a supreme treasure of the killing path," said the old man on the Void Boat.

"Very fierce," added the bald little monk.

The clear-eyed child cast a cold glance at the other two, who grinned cheekily. He looked at Ji Ning: "Both of them and I are ultimate innate spiritual treasures, but they are easier to control. I am not something an ordinary Heavenly God or True Immortal can master. If you cannot control me, I advise you to return me to Lord Sanqing quickly and exchange me for a suitable treasure."

"Can't control?" Ji Ning was surprised, then smiled. "You haven't even told me your name."

"Refine me first," the clear-eyed child said coldly. "If you can control me, I'll tell you then."