전생검신 86권 11화

“Wooah!!”

In the next moment, a massive spirit energy writhed from the Earth Star Eight Trigrams Diagram, manifesting a singular form.

A beauty clad in a neat black robe with hair as dark as night. She didn’t carry a weapon, but ancient patterns adorned her delicate fingers. The swirling mass of spirit energy around her spun like planets in orbit, showcasing just how powerful Tydaht’s spirit was.

With a chilling gaze, the spirit of Tydaht looked at me and said,

“I am the spirit of Tydaht. Are you the Baek Woong they always talk about in the Zhuge Clan?”

Having encountered the spirits of Xuyou and Fire Spirit before, I wasn’t shocked to see Tydaht’s spirit had taken human form. Suppressing my surprise, I replied,

“Yes… this is my first time meeting the spirit of Tydaht.”

“……”

Tydaht’s spirit seemed to scrutinize me deeply before speaking again.

“Are you considering becoming my master?”

“Huh?”

Suddenly?

Taken aback, Tydaht’s spirit spoke as if offering me a favor.

“I think you could fit the role of my master. If you become my master, I’ll help you seize the world.”

“…… No, I don’t particularly want to seize the world right now.”

“Are you implying I suggested something you could just brush off?”

Seemingly offended, Tydaht’s spirit retorted, but I shrugged it off.

“It seems like Zhuge Yulong brought you out to conceal the location of the Portrait Immortal. How about we focus on that first?”

“Hmph… how difficult could that be?”

Tydaht’s spirit raised both arms to the sky and declared,

“Behold… this is the power of the liberated Tydaht!”

Kooowoo!!

In the next moment, hundreds of ancient characters appeared around us, each symbol glowing with formidable spirit energy. In a flash, layers of barriers stacked like onions manifested, creating an illusion as if the air itself was freezing tight. It was so oppressive that even I found it hard to move, so I couldn’t imagine what level of barrier was being enacted.

Zhuge Yulong marveled,

“To overlap the Eight Trigrams and compress them exponentially, then layer them in all directions for a 256-fold barrier… there is no one, not even a god, who could create such a barrier.”

“Zhuge Yulong. How long will you keep spouting such obvious things? Regardless of being a contractor for the Heavenly Mysterious Woman, there is no way she can sense us within this barrier. Unless she shows up herself!”

“Impressive indeed.”

I admired the spectacle before me.

“The liberated Tydaht… truly remarkable.”

Confidently disregarding the powers of Gum Cheon-jae, I realized that the liberated Tydaht’s barrier could withstand even an attack from the Heavenly Mysterious Woman’s true form! This meant, fundamentally, that it wouldn’t falter against the Old Ruler either; it truly deserved the title of one of the greats among the Seven Luminaries.

“If I defensively employ the liberated Tydaht and then attack with the liberated Xuyou or liberated Fire Spirit… an ordinary human could topple a ruler.”

The Seven Luminaries truly were exceptional treasures. Consequently, I felt the renewed necessity to restore the Seven Luminaries I had obtained in the past once my divine powers recovered.

Once the liberated Tydaht’s barrier was complete, Zhuge Yulong pulled something from his robe.

Upon seeing the item, I flinched in surprise.

“That’s… not just Pangu’s statue… but another statue…? A dragon?”

“Haha. Did you mistake it for Pangu’s statue? Despite being completely different, it’s no shock you misidentified it; your perception of divine powers is indeed on a whole different level from that of a human.”

Zhuge Yulong held up a small dragon statue, no larger than his palm, and chuckled.

“If there’s a statue that symbolizes the creator god Pangu, then surely there are statues indicating other gods. For instance, you owned a statue of Jeon Wook in the past, didn’t you? I kept that in mind and secretly explored sites across the land after the Great Calamity, and there I found the statue of Fuxi.”

“……!!”

“A genuine treasure among treasures that Fuxi himself allowed the human disciples of the past to create. Comparatively, this statue of Fuxi is even superior to the statue of Pangu. Although it seems to have little effect on you, it, too, is a depiction of a divine being; ordinary humans who see it risk going insane.”

A statue of Fuxi!

An artifact from ancient times stood right before me.

Curious, I asked while observing the statue of Fuxi.

“So why did you bring out the statue of Fuxi?”

“I intended to set it as the key leading to a secret location. Like this.”

Flick

When Zhuge Yulong tossed the statue of Fuxi carelessly onto the ground, astonishingly, a hole resembling an abyss appeared beneath it, swallowing up the statue without a trace. It was a bizarre and impossible transformation, likely created by directly bending dimensions to form a secret passage.

“Even the Great Immortal wouldn’t catch something like that under typical circumstances…”

Considering that he could create a secret location in Nanjing Castle, filled with divine contractors and hundreds of immortals! I couldn’t help but admire Zhuge Yulong’s meticulousness when he said,

“Follow me.”

As I followed Zhuge Yulong into the abyss-like hole, I felt my feet touch stairs against a pitch-black backdrop. Slowly descending the staircase, we went down to a depth so great that not a glimmer of light was visible, and suddenly, everything around us lit up.

Boom!

Before my eyes lay a massive platform surrounded by the pattern of the Eight Trigrams, with the Portrait Immortal atop it. Recognizing that this was indeed the secret Portrait Immortal, I frowned as I noticed it was white-haired.

“The white-haired Portrait Immortal… could that be Jin?”

“No. Do you know why that Portrait Immortal was white-haired from the start?”

Now that I think about it, I had never heard of that before.

“I’m not too sure…”

“When the quality or quantity of their portrait abilities is low, there will be no change in appearance. However, once the portrait power reaches its peak or the variety of abilities significantly increases, they inevitably turn white-haired. This is because the Upper Dantian, which triggers the portrait abilities, is under extreme strain, causing a burden to the physical body.”

“…… So the white hair signals that the Portrait Immortal’s body has reached its limit? Just like how a person who has lived a tough life turns white-haired faster?”

“Correct. However, apart from the one supreme Portrait Immortal, none can elevate their abilities to that extent.”

“……”

I had no idea it worked that way. Zhuge Yulong continued,

“Thanks to your past life memories, the Zhuge Clan, and that Tai Chi platform, the techniques of the Portrait Immortal have experienced exponential growth. Thus, it has become easy to create a white-haired Portrait Immortal without even needing to summon the soul of Qin Shi Huang.”

“That Tai Chi platform… you’ve managed to discover that artifact from ancient times.”

Looking closely, I realized this platform with the Portrait Immortal was indeed the Tai Chi platform I had seen several times before. An artifact that artificially manifests the [Chaos Talent] of humans since the Takrok Era! Of course, in the Takrok Era, it had already been significantly destroyed, and I never imagined the Tai Chi platform found in later eras would function properly.

Zhuge Yulong chuckled softly.

“Even if humans don’t know where the Tai Chi platform is, the Heavenly Mysterious Woman won’t miss it. I negotiated with her to find out its location when she descended to earth. While I couldn’t restore it, it greatly aided the process of producing Portrait Immortals.”

“I see.”

“The issue arose after creating the white-haired Portrait Immortal. As you know, no matter how strong a Portrait Immortal becomes, they still hit a ceiling at the awakened level of Qin Shi Huang. While they were strong, they still lacked when faced with true divine statuses. So, Zhuge Clan and I collaborated to create a Portrait Immortal that surpasses the white-haired level.”

I turned to Zhuge Yulong, surprised.

“Isn’t the white hair a sign that the body has already overstrained due to the portrait ability? So wouldn’t further enhancement be impossible?”

“Of course, the body can’t be enhanced any further. The Portrait Immortal has already utilized all techniques and precious materials from both East and West to forge its being, so we can’t create stronger flesh than this. But…”

Zhuge Yulong’s eyes gleamed.

“If we can’t develop the body, we can elevate the mind instead.”

The mind?

I didn’t quite grasp Zhuge Yulong’s meaning, so I asked,

“What do you mean? The Upper Dantian’s power is already fully developed for the Portrait Immortal, hasn’t it?”

“We thought that at first too. However, as research on Portrait Immortals progressed, we realized otherwise.”

Zhuge Yulong’s subsequent question disoriented me slightly.

“Do you think a Portrait Immortal could utilize intent?”

“……?!”

What?

The question threw me off guard, and it took me a moment to respond.

“They can’t. I’ve never seen one do that.”

Even the strongest Portrait Immortal, Jin, couldn’t use intent. They simply unleashed terrifying portrait abilities without ever touching on the realm of intent. Hearing that, Zhuge Yulong remarked,

“That’s correct. Originally, Portrait Immortals were incapable of using intent. Why do you think that is?”

“Why…? Well…”

With Zhuge Yulong’s words echoing in my mind, I struggled to formulate a response.

“It can’t be just because they’re not human… there are beings that are non-human who can use intent.”

I had seen absolute experts from the Giant Race in the Takrok Era and the cosmic absolute realm Sword Saint, Ajidahaka, so I couldn’t simply state that being human was a prerequisite for intent. It’s common knowledge that even entities resembling humans constructed differently can’t use intent solely based on their flesh.

Finally, I came to a natural answer.

“Intent is a form of imagination, right? Perhaps Portrait Immortals lack the imagination to wield it.”

“……!!”

At that, Zhuge Yulong seemed somewhat surprised and looked at me. Then he spoke,

“That’s not wrong. You’ve shown considerable insight.”

“Is that what you were thinking too?”

“Yes. Portrait Immortals possess reason (理性), yet their ability to function through phenomena of life and insight is exceedingly low. Even Jin’s case, where the soul of Qin Shi Huang was fused into him, had fewer restrictions compared to ordinary Portrait Immortals, as they are mechanical beings lacking humanity and the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination. So they can’t use intent.”

I began to comprehend what Zhuge Yulong was implying. I then asked him,

“Why bring up intent in the first place?”

“Originally, if a Portrait Immortal, who can’t utilize intent, develops their mental capabilities and gains the ability to use it, what would happen? The Upper Dantian would reach saturation, eliminating the white-haired drawback, reverting back to their original form.”

“……?!”

“In terms of martial artists, it would correspond to a level akin to Superhuman Entrance into the Sacred, or Half-Transition Master.”

A Portrait Immortal who could use intent would return to their original form?

Wait, is that even possible?

Feeling flustered, I exclaimed,

“Hold on a second! Intent is a mark of the absolute supreme expert… if a Portrait Immortal could use that, wouldn’t that mean they’d also wield martial arts at a world-class level?!”

“Indeed.”

“What kind of nonsense is that…?”