Chapter 348: Change in the Ring of Ignorance

In Spirit Province's Demon Vanquishing Department's archive building, Chu Qiguang was reading a book related to the Immortal Dao.

"Legend has it that the Heavenly Master Manor discovered the first-ever undying person. The followers who spread the secrets to undying went on to found the Immortal Dao. However, in their excessive pursuit of immotality, they eventually strayed from the right path, becoming deranged and depraved individuals who made the term 'undying' synonymous with calamity. The consequences of their actions proved that for mortals, the pursuit of immortality is a cursed path."

In the very beginning, the Heavenly Master Religion had been known as the Heavenly Master Manor. While it was conducting research into undying individuals, some of its followers gradually broke awsy and went on to establish the present-day Immortal Dao.

The Imperial Heavenly Dao and the Immortal Dao had both left a very profound mark on the history of Spirit Province, so the majority of the ancient scriptures found in the province were from these two religions.

Before long, Chu Qiguang finished reading the scripture.

That's the seventh one already. Is this one also going to be a dud?

All of a sudden, he felt a burst of power surge from his Ring of Ignorance, which began burning in his chest like an open flame. However, the burning sensation lasted only an instant, and the faint heat lingering in his chest was the only proof that it hadn't been a figment of his imagination.

Chu Qiguang removed his upper garments to examine the Ring of Ignorance on his chest, causing it to appear at his behest.

What had once been a palm-sized black hole now had a glowing, purple rim, as if it were surrounded by purple flames.

Upon closer examination, Chu Qiguang discovered some strange runes within the purple flames, but the moment he tried to get a better look, they disappeared.

At the same time, a faint purple flame could now be seen within the black hole, prompting a curious look from Chu Qiguang.

Could it be that the Ring of Ignorance has been secretly accumulating power every time I failed to receive a boon from reading a scripture?

As he examined the Ring of Ignorance, a passage of text appeared before his Dao pursuer eyes.

"Ring of Ignorance, the mark of the cursed Dao pursuer. Those who possess a Ring of Ignorance can return to normal even after undergoing demonification. However, their pursuit of knowledge will eventually set them on the path of demonification once more, and in the end, they'll become fools with no knowledge left in their minds.

"The Ring of Ignorance comes from the gatekeeper of the Heavenly Dao, who is said to be the one closest to the Heavenly Dao. However, it's precisely because of their excessively proximity to the Heavenly Dao that they're unable to witness it. Thus, they have cursed all pursuers of the Heavenly Dao."

The gatekeeper of the Heavenly Dao? Who's that supposed to be? And they're the one handing out these Rings of Ignorance? But when did I meet them? I don't recall encountering the Heavenly Dao, either.

Up to this point, Chu Qiguang still had no idea what the supposed Heavenly Dao was, and he was even more clueless about the identity of this Heavenly Dao gatekeeper.

With no answers to any of his questions, Chu Qiguang could only move on to another book and see how the Ring of Ignorance would react.

He turned his attention to a new book titled "Gospel of the Imperial High God," and another passage of text surfaced before his Dao pursuer eyes.

"It's said that readers of this scripture are able to see the distant Imperial High World. Devout followers have pored over this scripture endlessly in hoped of traveling to the Imperial High World, even though they don't even know the name of their god."

After finishing this book, Chu Qiguang was finally rewarded with a boon in the form of a list of cultivation art options.

Primordial High Zenith Demonic Arts (4), Twelve Infernal Palms (1), Star Shifting Cloud Piercing Step (4), Blood Activation Arts (4), Raging Tempest (1), Steel Tendon Iron Bone Arts (4), Vajra Laws (4)...

What was surprising was that this boon wasn't accompanied by the usual sense of urgency.

Instead, it simply hovered patiently in his mind, waiting for him to make his choice. Curious, Chu Qiguang decided not to make a decision right away so he could see how the boon would react.

Around a minute later, the boon returned to the Ring of Ignorance, settling into the purple flame within the black hole. At his behest, the boon immediately reappeared in his mind.

After repeating this a few more times to make sure it wasn't a fluke, Chu Qiguang confirmed that he could now store boons released by the Ring of Ignorance instead of using them immediately.

This is like banking skill points in a game!

Chu Qiguang's initial idea was to save up the boons and use them on a certain cultivation art when the time was right. However, another possibility quickly occurred to him.

Perhaps if I save up enough boons, I'll be able to choose options that have been unavailable to me up to this point, like the Heavenly Fiend Foundation Establishment Technique, the Undying Seal, or even the Sumeru King Scripture.

Having decided to bank his boons, Chu Qiguang read another scripture related to the Imperial Heavenly Dao and was rewarded with another boon, which he also stored away in the Ring of Ignorance.

As he examined the purple flame in his chest, Chu Qiguang discovered that there was a difference between the two boons he had stored.

"Deep boon, a boon that comes from the depths of the Heavenly Dao and is capable of elevating the mastery of knowledge."

"Dark boon, a boon that comes from the voids and contains twisted power capable of altering the form of knowledge."

According to Chu Qiguang's understanding, a deep boon could raise the level of a cultivation art, such as the boon he had used to upgrade the Vajra Laws from the third level to the fourth, while a dark boon was capable of completely altering an existing cultivation art, such as the one that had transformed the Primordial High Zenith Qigong into the Primordial High Zenith Demonic Arts.

This was the first time that Chu Qiguang had been able to see information about boons through his Dao pursuer eyes.