Chapter Six: This Thing Will Be Popular

Sect Master's Hall.

Liuguang, who always carried the air of a carefree immortal, was now at a loss before Chuxuan, whose eyes pleaded with him. Beneath his mask of stern indifference, his hidden hands twisted restlessly within his sleeves.

“My junior sister, his situation is unusual. You can only meet him after confirming he poses no threat, can’t you?”

“It’s not that I am heartless, but the current circumstances do not permit it. A storm is brewing, and I must act with caution.”

Chuxuan had come seeking to see Wang Li, and this troubled him greatly.

The coming storm was real, his need for caution was real as well, but the excuse that circumstances did not allow was just that—an excuse. The truth was, he still could not fathom the depths of Wang Li. To Chuxuan, Wang Li was like a heart demon; she had only just broken through, her cultivation was not yet stable, and letting her see him now would be fraught with risk. If anything were to happen, it would not merely be a setback in her cultivation—it could lead to irreversible consequences.

He refused her only because he truly did not want his junior sister in danger.

Seeing her senior brother, who always indulged her every wish, now refusing her request, Chuxuan frowned slightly.

She understood why he denied her—he was looking out for her, after all. She was not ungrateful, and could appreciate his intentions.

Yet, there was something else in his words. Her eyes brightened as she asked, “Senior brother, what do you mean Wang Li’s situation is unusual? Do you think he hasn’t been possessed?”

Liuguang shook his head. “I said it’s possible Wang Li was possessed by a cultivator of equal rank to myself, merely a possibility. Perhaps he encountered some fortuitous opportunity. I simply cannot confirm it now. Your most urgent task is to stabilize your cultivation. Everything else can wait.”

“Then… how do you intend to handle Wang Li?”

“Naturally, I’ll arrange a good place for him to cultivate. Would I trouble a mere novice?”

Liuguang had anticipated this situation and had already instructed Liu Wanjin and Granny Zheng to keep Wang Li’s affairs secret.

He quietly applauded his own foresight.

“Senior brother, you’re lying!”

Chuxuan’s almond-shaped eyes widened as she mercilessly exposed his lie.

“Wang Li was first locked in the punishment cell by Liu Wanjin, then you sent him to the Fire Prison. Is the Fire Prison a good place to cultivate?”

“Senior brother, I spent a hundred years bitterly cultivating in there! Aside from the violent fire-attribute spiritual energy, what else is there?”

“Senior brother, you’ve changed!”

Liuguang’s benevolent lie exposed, an expression finally appeared on his face.

He was surprised. “How did you know?”

“I saw Senior Sister Zheng before I came,” Chuxuan replied. “She’s like a sister to me—do you think she’d keep secrets from me?”

Liuguang smacked his forehead, annoyed. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have let her bring Wang Li food.”

Chuxuan grew angrier. “You want to starve my precious Li?”

“No, no, nothing like that.” Liuguang waved his hands. “He’s at the third level of Qi Refinement. He won’t starve.”

“Hmph. Be honest, what else are you keeping from me?”

“Well, it’s like this…”

Liuguang realized there was no use hiding the truth any longer. Better to come clean than have Chuxuan make a scene and throw the sect into chaos.

He told her everything about his arrangement with Wang Li.

After hearing it all, Chuxuan’s mood grew heavy.

Though Liuguang insisted Wang Li might not have been possessed and that she could see him after stabilizing her cultivation, she knew in her heart these words were only to comfort her.

Sensing her turmoil, Liuguang swiftly changed the topic.

“Do you know why I left the sect in such haste?”

Chuxuan did not respond.

“I received a warning from the artifact spirit of the Pure Yang Bell at the time!”

At the mention of the “Pure Yang Bell,” Chuxuan gathered herself and set aside her worries for the moment.

…

Within the Fire Prison.

Wang Li regained control of his body.

“Grandmaster Sheng, is this the artifact you spoke of?”

He bent down, touching the bronze box on the ground, then flipped through the thin picture book, his skepticism undisguised. “Are you sure this thing can record techniques? It looks unreliable!”

Grandmaster Sheng retorted, “Ignorant child!”

“Grandmaster Sheng, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but these things are… well, they leave much to be desired!”

Wang Li had watched the entire process as Grandmaster Sheng crafted these items.

Even though he knew nothing of artifact forging, he could tell the contraptions were little more than haphazard assemblies of metal pieces and a few simple arrays—anyone could imitate them.

Could such things really be used to record and preserve cultivation methods?

Not only would others not believe it; even he, who had witnessed the process, found it hard to accept!

Grandmaster Sheng said, “Don’t be fooled by how easy they are to make—the results will astound you. They’ll be very popular in the future.”

His solution to the problem of recording and storing techniques in the Profound Heaven World was not complicated.

Put simply, he created an object that ignored the limitations of cultivation level and materials, allowing anyone to easily preserve their own experiences in practicing a technique, so that others could consult the corresponding mental impressions at any time.

The principle wasn’t novel. The foundation was the memory-capturing arts common in the cultivation world. Practitioners in Profound Heaven had long experimented with such methods and achieved some results, but due to the world’s unique nature, only specialized treasures could preserve such memories for long-term use; all other methods failed to retain images and allow repeated use.

As a result, recorded techniques became disposable items with very short shelf lives, and since one could hardly master a technique after only one or two viewings, this was useless for mass disciple training—one-on-one guidance was more effective.

Moreover, this method was costly, requiring Spirit-Nurturing Stones to serve as vessels for mental imprints, and the recorder’s cultivation level was still a limiting factor. Using specialized memory-capturing treasures was prohibitively expensive; only high-tier techniques warranted such investment, and for more common techniques, the cost was not worthwhile.

Thus, unless absolutely necessary, few would use this method to record their own techniques.

To Grandmaster Sheng, the Profound Heaven World was indeed unique, and many rules constrained the development of its practitioners. Yet, ultimately, it was still a real world—and real worlds always leave many paths open. The living simply hadn’t yet found them.

Finding a new path boiled down to two approaches: one, trial and error from the bottom up, eliminating wrong turns until a clear way forward appeared; the other, a top-down exploration, using a god’s-eye view to pick the path that leads the farthest.

Grandmaster Sheng was precisely the one with that god’s-eye perspective, able to spot the loopholes in this world with ease.

He adopted a completely different approach, combining immortal techniques with mortal craftsmanship.

Once the issue of storing mental imprints was resolved, all other problems vanished.

His masterpiece was the very bronze box and the picture book before Wang Li now.

“These cultivators, trapped in the dilemma of recording and preserving techniques, never lacked solutions—they’re just limited by their own perspectives. They’re too used to their lofty ways, as are you, always thinking like a cultivator. That makes it easy to get lost.”

“They don’t understand the true role of mental imprints in transmitting techniques. Those imprints merely serve to guide the learner’s understanding. Preserving that guidance isn’t actually hard—they just never saw it. I only need to separate images, sound, and mental impressions into two parts for storage, and the purpose of transmission is achieved all the same.”

“If you don’t believe me, try it yourself.”