Chapter 455 - 335: Core Formation and a Few Matters
In just two days, the world within the Immortal Mansion had been completely transformed. Fang Qingyuan didn’t have time to inform the sect’s disciples that he had become a Golden Core Cultivator. Instead, he went straight into his Quiet Chamber, preparing to properly digest the gains from his Core Formation.
The Barbaric Wilderness was filled with too many people and prying eyes, and Lechuan wasn’t suitable either. Only within the Qingyuan Sect, on his own territory, could Fang Qingyuan truly feel at ease.
Within the Immortal Mansion, the changes had not yet stopped. Ever since the Immortal Mansion settled into Fang Qingyuan’s Golden Core, it had been ceaselessly absorbing external Spiritual Qi to replenish itself and convert it into territory.
However, this absorption rate was slow and cautious. It couldn’t compare to the spectacular feat during his tribulation, when it had devoured the total Spiritual Power of more than ten Nascent Soul Cultivators in a mere moment. Even when compared to its initial absorption of Earth Spiritual Power from Bear Wind’s territory, the difference was like night and day.
To quantify it, at this rate of absorbing external Spiritual Qi, it would take a full hundred years to match the results of devouring the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi from a radius of hundreds of miles during the tribulation.
Of course, back then, the Immortal Mansion had used the True Meaning of the Great Dao provided by the Celestial Tribulation, borrowing the power of heaven and earth to a certain extent. Now that the True Meaning of the Great Dao had fused into the Immortal Mansion, it no longer had that cover. The Immortal Mansion naturally had to be cautious. Otherwise, if the Heaven and Earth Law Will discovered it, another bolt of Innate Chaos Thunder would strike it down.
In Fang Qingyuan’s understanding, the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was the very blood of the world. Cultivators borrowed it to cultivate, but after death, they had to return it to the world.
The Immortal Mansion’s actions, however, were akin to covertly undermining the world itself. It only devoured and never returned, using the collected Spiritual Qi to expand itself. Small movements were fine, but if it acted too conspicuously and caused this world to feel pain, then it would be game over.
Fang Qingyuan was happy to see the Immortal Mansion spontaneously drawing in Spiritual Qi, but he wasn’t very satisfied with the speed.
It wasn’t that Fang Qingyuan was greedy, but once you’ve seen the ocean, it’s hard to be impressed by a stream. After witnessing the peak moment of devouring Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi across hundreds of miles, the current scale, like a trickling brook, was truly a letdown.
’It seems my future research will have to focus on how to increase this absorption rate without attracting the attention of the Heaven and Earth Law Will.’
For now, Fang Qingyuan turned his thoughts back to the Immortal Mansion itself. ’Right now, I have several difficult questions that need to be properly sorted out.
’First, the primary cause of the Immortal Mansion’s strange transformation during the tribulation, as well as its fundamental origins.
’Second, now that I’m a Golden Core Cultivator, what level has my combat prowess reached?
’Third, there are the various recent stirrings, the future development of the Qingyuan Sect, and how to attack the Cloud-Clawed Lizard. These are all pressing issues.’
Following this order, Fang Qingyuan began to contemplate the first question. At the beginning of the tribulation, the Immortal Mansion had acted on its own, without his command. Especially at the final moment, it had even collected the True Meaning of the Great Dao, playing a huge gambit. No matter how he looked at it, Fang Qingyuan felt that the Immortal Mansion seemed to have a mind of its own.
’Could it be that the Immortal Mansion also has its own core consciousness?’
Fang Qingyuan had originally thought the Immortal Mansion was just an inanimate object. But seeing its performance during the Celestial Tribulation, to say it had no intelligence and acted purely on instinct seemed a bit of a stretch.
But if one were to say the Immortal Mansion already had spiritual intelligence and had birthed a consciousness, Fang Qingyuan had not noticed the slightest hint of it in the hundred years he had been with it.
The Immortal Mansion had relied on his Magical Power to grow, evolving from a tiny plot of land to its current territory spanning dozens of miles. After a hundred years of this, Fang Qingyuan didn’t believe that a newly born, nascent consciousness could have hidden from him.
’Unless this nascent consciousness had truly just been born, and had only existed for a brief moment.’
At this thought, something clicked in Fang Qingyuan’s mind. He recalled the Heaven and Earth Law Will he had faced during his tribulation.
’What is a will, or a consciousness?’
’Anything that has a purpose, a pursuit—be it human or beast, plant or stone—so long as it has a pursuit, a purpose, then it has a consciousness.’
’A plant craves nutrients. When this craving reaches a certain level, the plant gains an independent consciousness. This is how it becomes a spirit.’
’And the purpose of the Laws of Heaven and Earth was to use the tribulation’s Thunder Fire to annihilate the person undergoing it. Although "heaven and earth are not benevolent, and treat all things as straw dogs"—meaning the heavens are emotionless, acting only with impartiality—by having a purpose, it too had a consciousness.’
’And the Immortal Mansion at that time craved Spiritual Power. Could it be that it, too, possessed its own consciousness for a short time, allowing it to complete those subsequent, miraculous maneuvers?’
This transient consciousness, much like the Heaven and Earth Law Will that arose because of Fang Qingyuan’s tribulation, simply vanished into thin air after its craving was fulfilled.
’Or did it go into hiding, awaiting the next opportunity?’
Fang Qingyuan couldn’t figure out the reason for it, but there was one thing he was sure of: the Immortal Mansion was still under his control for now. There wouldn’t be some strange, unknown consciousness vying with him for its control.
Fang Qingyuan had always harbored a hidden worry: why did he possess this Immortal Mansion? Was it pure luck, or was it a preordained arrangement of fate?
’Sometimes I wonder if my hundred years of hard work will turn out to be all part of someone else’s plan in the end.’
People always feel a sense of fear when faced with things they don’t understand, and for Fang Qingyuan, the Immortal Mansion was exactly that.
Even after a hundred years of controlling the Immortal Mansion, Fang Qingyuan still couldn’t see through its true secrets. He couldn’t figure out how the Immortal Mansion converted Spiritual Land into territory, nor could he comprehend what the darkness outside the Immortal Mansion was. He was even more clueless as to what extent the Immortal Mansion could evolve in the future.