Chapter 234: Breaking Through into the Grotto Mystic Realm

Li Shun naturally had no intention of merely becoming a Confucian Sage.

To the countless ordinary people of this world, Confucian Sages might be supreme existences found only in myths and legends, beings that could only be looked up to from afar.

But in Li Shun's eyes, that so-called Confucian Sage was ultimately nothing more than a puppet under his control within the Fangcun space.

“So it is beneficial for forming a Confucian Sage...”

Li Shun's heart stirred. With a turn of his thoughts, he directly cast the Sage's Staff into the Fangcun space, where it landed precisely beside the incomplete stone statue of Threefold Self-Reflection.

In the next instant, it was as though some incomplete fragment of a mysterious law had suddenly been filled in.

The broken walking staff unexpectedly moved of its own accord, flying through the air before settling firmly into the cold, rigid palm of the stone statue.

The Threefold Self-Reflection stone statue had originally been severed at the waist, leaving behind only its upper half. Now, with the support of this fragment of the Sage's old staff, the aura of the entire statue seemed to have been invisibly completed, becoming far more stable than before.

As the master of Fangcun, Li Shun could clearly perceive every subtle change occurring within it.

He knew that this stability was by no means an illusion.

“In the past, every time I activated Threefold Self-Reflection, cracks would appear across the stone statue, and I had to use Lengshan Grass to repair it.”

“Although the Lengshan Grass within Fangcun is relatively abundant, such repairs are ultimately only treating the symptoms rather than the root cause. Their effectiveness has grown weaker with every successive use.”

“Now that the Sage's Staff is reinforcing it, the statue has become much more stable. Not only have the cracks that appear after each activation been greatly reduced, but more importantly...”

Li Shun closed his eyes and silently performed a series of deductions. A hint of delight gradually appeared on his face.

“The limits of Threefold Self-Reflection have been raised considerably.”

“For example, the maximum number of times I can now rewind has approached six without causing irreparable damage to the statue.”

“Unfortunately, the span of time that can be rewound remains firmly confined to a single day. It has yet to break through that limitation.”

“Perhaps... only by recovering the lower half of the broken body and completely restoring this Sage's stone statue can it undergo a final transformation at the level of its laws.”

Just as Li Shun was secretly calculating all of this, the Threefold Self-Reflection stone statue seemed to have sensed his thoughts.

The short staff clenched within its broken palm suddenly began spinning rapidly without warning.

Its frantic movements resembled a compass desperately searching for the magnetic pole, revealing an almost impatient desire to point toward something.

Unfortunately, because Fangcun existed as an independently isolated space, no matter how violently the short staff hummed and spun, it could never lock onto the precise location of anything in the outside world.

Seeing this, Li Shun's thoughts shifted, and he simply drew the staff back into reality.

Sure enough, the moment it was exposed to the heavens and earth of Great Qian, the staff seemed to have sensed some aura of the same origin.

After trembling and spinning violently in his palm for a moment, it abruptly came to a halt.

Its somewhat mottled tip pointed straight toward the southwestern horizon like a blade.

“This staff is reacting so strongly. Could the place it is pointing toward be the other half of the Threefold Self-Reflection Sage's stone body that disappeared?”

Li Shun narrowed his eyes, a cold glint flickering within them.

Deep within his soul, an instinctive and incredibly powerful impulse surged forth, urging him to immediately follow the guidance and investigate.

However, that agitation lingered in his heart for barely half a breath before Li Shun forcibly suppressed it with reason.

“I absolutely cannot act rashly.”

“The enormous disturbance caused by the Primordial Wilderness Illusionary Realm has only just subsided. As the sole surviving member of the Confucian lineage, I am certain to be watched closely by countless eyes both within and outside the imperial court. If I recklessly go searching for the Sage's remains now, the risk is simply too great.”

“I should lie low and endure for a while. Once the storm has completely passed, I can think about it again.”

“For now, I should take advantage of this rare opportunity to cultivate in peace and break through the Spirit Resonance realm first.”

Li Shun's turbulent thoughts slowly settled.

He had already reached the pinnacle of the Spirit Resonance realm. He had merely suppressed his cultivation by force before in order to participate in the Hundred Schools Gathering.

Now that he was no longer suppressing himself and was wholeheartedly pursuing a breakthrough, advancement naturally came as smoothly as water flowing along its course.

Within the quiet Wen-Dao Pavilion, the surrounding Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi suddenly began to churn violently like boiling water.

It transformed into a colossal vortex that was almost imperceptible to the naked eye, continuously and steadily pouring into Li Shun's body.

The various subtle principles and profound meanings of the Spring and Autumn Brush lineage, along with its classical writings, shone brilliantly within Li Shun's mind like streaks of flowing light.

The vast Primordial Qi was transformed without the slightest obstruction into the purest Confucian Principle Qi, surging and roaring throughout every limb and bone in Li Shun's body.

“Grotto Mystic.”

“Penetrating the profound mysteries of heaven and earth.”

“Of the seven great realms of cultivation, only after stepping into this realm can one be considered to have undergone a true transformation, a rebirth from the mortal shell, and genuinely entered the inner hall of cultivation.”

“Below the Grotto Mystic realm, the three lower realms of Mortal Physique, Primal Simplicity, and Spirit Resonance may also use cultivation techniques to forcibly manipulate a trace of the laws of heaven and earth. But ultimately, they are merely copying the forms left behind by their predecessors, mechanically following the experiences those before them have summarized. They know what something is, but not why it is so.”

“Only by truly knocking open the gates of the Grotto Mystic realm can one's divine sense pierce through appearances, touching and comprehending the countless mystical transformations within the circulation of the laws of heaven and earth.”

“Once successful, neither the speed of cultivation nor the killing power of one's divine abilities and techniques can possibly be compared with the past.”

Cultivators of the three lower realms, Mortal Physique, Primal Simplicity, and Spirit Resonance, could at most unleash enough power for their divine abilities to affect an area of several dozen feet around them. Before a true calamity of heaven and earth, they remained no different from blades of grass.

But once one stepped into the Grotto Mystic realm and resonated with heaven and earth, one would truly possess the terrifying power to annihilate an entire city alone.

“Xiong Jin, one of the remnants of the Xiang Nation from back then, was in the Grotto Mystic realm.”

“I never imagined that in less than a few years, I would have become just as powerful as he was.”

The breakthrough occurred without any unexpected complications.

As the surging Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi within the courtyard gradually returned to calm, Li Shun, who had already stepped into the Grotto Mystic realm, stood quietly in the courtyard.

The scene of Xiong Jin displaying his might in the past, when nearly the entire Lengshan County had been reduced to ruins, surfaced in his mind. Li Shun could not help but feel a profound sense of emotion.

The ant he had once been had now transformed into a mighty Grotto Mystic cultivator.

And for Li Shun, this was destined to be merely the beginning.

“Grotto Mystic...”

Li Shun's divine sense left his body and manifested within the world around him.

He activated the protective divine ability [No Harm Can Befall the Self], then carefully observed the minute details of how the surrounding Principle Qi circulated.

In the past, Li Shun had been completely unable to perceive how this protective technique actually took effect.

But after breaking through into the Grotto Mystic realm, he could now clearly sense the entire process by which the technique drew upon the laws of heaven and earth before transforming them into protective power.

It was profound beyond words, mysterious beyond comprehension.

“The Primordial Wilderness shattered and fell apart. Great Qian is merely one fragment among them.”

“Although the Great Dao is incomplete, to mortals it remains as vast as an ocean of smoke and mist, its full appearance impossible to perceive.”

“It was precisely by relying upon the power of the Grotto Mystic realm that the sages of old were able to observe and summarize a set of cultivation methods suitable for those who came after them.”