Chapter 645: Separating the Primordial Spirit, Attempting the Art of the External Body

Chapter 645: Chapter 125: Separating the Primordial Spirit, Attempting the Art of the External Body

After processing the data from the puppet, Wang Ping suddenly felt the urge to set up a Qi Fortune Array right away and attempt the calculations himself.

But a moment later, he forcibly suppressed the urge with his cultivation.

Next, he would use this puppet to attempt an advancement. The attempt would take place in the Jiangcun Dojo, which was one of the few safe areas available to him.

To that end, Wang Ping sent over two more puppets with Entry-level Cultivation to set up an Array for refining Spiritual Material.

Setting up the new Array would take at least a month. Wang Ping planned to use this time to perform the ‘Art of the External Body’ and separate his Primordial Spirit. After all, the two Spiritual Bodies the Demon Race had given him needed to be put to use.

But before that, he first had to arrange for the next Qi Fortune Array to be set up. He also needed to start preparing the Qi Fortune Array for his own eventual advancement.

Wang Ping had already decided that he would attempt his advancement at Qianmu Temple. True Monarch Yuan Wu had promised him that he was currently the only one with a slot to break through to the Taiyan Fourth Realm. This meant that Fourth Realm Cultivators were unlikely to cause him trouble, and ordinary Third Realm Cultivators lacked the power to attack Qianmu Temple.

The most critical materials for the Qi Fortune Array were the shell and blood of the Three-legged Turtle. The Three-legged Turtle was a peculiar creature capable of briefly glimpsing the future. Rumor had it that an ordinary person who consumed its flesh and blood could also gain this ability for a short time, though they would soon suffer a violent death.

Consequently, the shell and blood of a Three-legged Turtle were astronomically priced. Each time Wang Ping constructed a Qi Fortune Array, he needed ten jin of each, costing tens of millions of taels of silver. This was because the two items were sold by the tael—the shell for five hundred thousand, and the blood for a million!

The creature was most likely difficult to catch; after all, it could see the future and lived on the outskirts of the Mist Sea Region. Decades could pass without a single sighting. If not for the connections Wang Ping could now leverage through the Daoist Palace, no one would be willing to sell such a large quantity to him.

Besides the Three-legged Turtle’s shell and blood, the Array Core also required a powder from a plant called Flying Injury Grass. It grew in the deep-sea regions where the Three-legged Turtles dwelled, and just harvesting it required a Water Cultivator with at least Second Realm Cultivation. It was therefore ridiculously expensive, also sold by the tael for three hundred thousand taels of silver each.

Its purpose was to stabilize the consciousness of a Third Realm Cultivator. When performing the calculations, one had to observe dozens of future timelines every instant, which could cause a person’s consciousness to drift along with the visions. The grass was needed to anchor it. Its difference from Holy Heart Grass was that it would cause the consciousness to stagnate, and it was effective on those in the Third Realm.

Flying Injury Grass had always been a hot commodity on the cultivation market. Though it couldn’t be used for cultivation, if one’s Primordial Spirit Consciousness went berserk while practicing certain Secret Techniques, it could be used to stabilize the Primordial Spirit in an instant. This would signify the failure of the technique, but it was better than losing one’s life.

“Are you under too much pressure?” Yu Lian opened its eyes from its perch on Wang Ping’s shoulder and spoke in a human voice.

“Why do you ask?”

“These days, as soon as you finish your daily routine, you’re constantly busy. You barely get any rest.”

“Just until this period is over…”

While speaking, Wang Ping took out two storage pouches to inspect them. He had three full sets of materials for the Qi Fortune Array stockpiled, but the fourth set was short some Flying Injury Grass powder. He immediately sent a voice transmission to Xia Wen Yi in the front hall, telling him to acquire it with utmost urgency.

Wang Ping planned to set up the next Qi Fortune Array for his calculations back in the depths of Sanhe Prefecture’s water veins. He used a puppet to pass the materials to the Qianmu Temple disciples who had long been waiting there, then paid the matter no further attention.

Because next, he was going to attempt to separate his Primordial Spirit using the ‘Art of the External Body’!

Back in the silent underground cavern, Wang Ping took out one of the Spirit Vein Bodies gifted by the Demon Race. This Spirit Vein Body was already in a refined state, and a Puppet Array had been injected into it.

Wang Ping planned to use it to house the first consciousness separated from his Primordial Spirit.

「Thirty minutes later.」

Wang Ping’s aura balanced out. His Primordial Spirit Consciousness then emerged. He summoned the Heaven-Reaching Talisman and activated the Night Charm Race effigy carved on it. By meditating on the effigy, he separated out the energy gathered in his Primordial Spirit’s Sea of Qi. The process wasn’t difficult, much like casting Magic.

Just as the description on the light-screen panel had said, this separated portion of energy truly began to read his memories and form a new consciousness.

‘As expected of Bloodline Magic. It’s truly favored by the Celestial Dao!’

Wang Ping thought to himself.

But Yu Lian replied, “And yet, their entire race was still annihilated.”

“…”

Wang Ping spent the rest of the day separating energy from his Primordial Spirit’s Sea of Qi, but there wasn’t enough to form a true consciousness.

Not until half a month later did the separated energy finally awaken a consciousness. It—or rather, *he*—instinctively shaped the gathered energy into a humanoid form, giving him the faint semblance of a Primordial Spirit.

Both Wang Ping and Yu Lian watched him with great interest. He, in turn, was fascinated by the outside world, and it wasn’t long before he was drifting all around the cavern in his fragile body.

“It really is a Primordial Spirit!”

Yu Lian’s voice was filled with amazement.

Wang Ping, however, was observing his Heaven-Reaching Talisman. Hearing her, he shook his head and said, “He doesn’t have an independent life. He’s no different from a puppet.”

“But it’s still incredible. How much of your strength can it wield?”

“That depends on the body it inhabits. If it’s one of the Spiritual Bodies from the Demon Race, I estimate its strength would be equivalent to what mine was right after I advanced to the Third Realm!”

“That’s more than enough. If you replaced all your puppets with these external Primordial Spirits…”

“Don’t even think about it. Unless we could make the entire Demon Realm submit to us. But even then, I doubt there would be that many Spiritual Bodies available!”

While speaking, Wang Ping forcibly controlled the Primordial Spirit puppet back to his side. Then, as the puppet looked on in a daze, he implanted it into the Spiritual Body that was already prepared nearby.

The moment the Primordial Spirit puppet entered the Spiritual Body, it instinctively began to merge with it. The process went smoothly, as Wang Ping had already refined the Spiritual Body.

「Two days later.」

Human skin appeared on the surface of the Spiritual Body, and in the blink of an eye, it had transformed into a person. He opened his eyes, paused for a moment upon seeing Wang Ping, then stood up, cupped his fist, and said, “Greetings, Master!”

“Mm. From now on, you shall be called ‘One’.”

Wang Ping chose the name casually. He didn’t want to form too much of an emotional attachment to this puppet. If his future calculations stalled, he would inevitably have to use him to collect data, or even have him attempt an advancement.

That’s right. Wang Ping planned to run calculations for both methods of advancement at the same time. He had a feeling that doing so would increase his chances of a successful breakthrough.

Just then, a strong energy fluctuation came from the Pocket World Mirror. The Array for refining Spiritual Material was ready. The puppet in the Jiangcun Dojo could attempt its advancement at any time.

“Is the puppet deployed in the Southeast Sea Region the one attempting to advance?” Yu Lian suddenly asked.

“Yes.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask, why aren’t we more serious about these advancement attempts? For instance, we could have the puppet use the existing data to calculate the most opportune moment for a breakthrough, and only attempt to advance when a genuine chance of success appears. You might get more data that way. Besides, isn’t that how you plan to handle your own advancement in the future?”

Yu Lian tilted her head and said quickly, “If it’s going to fail anyway, why not make the failure more valuable? Those materials cost tens of millions of taels of silver, after all!”

Wang Ping had explained the Secret Technique of the *Taiyan Talisman* to Yu Lian in his spare time, mainly because she had been persistently curious and kept asking.

Wang Ping was stunned for a moment by her words. He looked at her and said, “Then why didn’t you ask before?”

“I forgot…”