Chapter 1507: A Heart of Gratitude

Chapter 1507: A Heart of Gratitude....
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
All things and beings were both a whole and individuals.
This applied to mortals and cultivators alike.
For mortals, the soul resided within the body, and their flesh and blood contained a circulatory system that resisted external harmful elements.
This reduced the likelihood of illness and the danger to life.
It was the same for cultivators. With the enhancement of spiritual energy in their bodies, everything in their bodies circulated according to a certain pattern.
Moreover, according to different cultivation levels and life levels, this circulation would become more and more perfect.
After reaching a certain level, it would be very difficult for others to find any flaws. In the end, it would form a defense that belonged to oneself and resist external forces.
If one wanted to kill such a cultivator, they had to be stronger. Otherwise, if their cultivation was the same or even weaker than the other party, they had to have a special method to turn the tables.
Immortal arts were created based on this principle back then.
Its foundational method was in the words bizarre and special. It emphasized using special methods and the path of bizarre entity to bypass the opponent’s defense and erupt with killing intent.
Human nature was complicated and unrealistic.
Therefore, it would often become a breakthrough point that some immortal arts exploited.
For example, the Six Thieves Delusions.
The seven emotions and six desires contained within were all intents.
Using intent as a catalyst, it reversed the cycle and penetrated the defense, creating flaws that could be fatal.
As for the Five Dogs Sheltering Immortal, its essence lay in one’s nature.
The word ‘shelter[i.^ can mean shelter and abandon.]’ could represent a dwelling place, like the body that housed the soul.
Thus, the art had a spell named possession.
Other than that, this character had another meaning: to let go.
But it was very difficult for people to let go.
Therefore, that saying had emerged:
Not abandoning external possessions and all that existed became the flaw that bypassed one’s external defenses.
Through this flaw, the immortal art was used.
As for the memory of Yue Dong’s junior sister, it was the uniqueness of the immortal art.
Only by using such a method could it hide and make it impossible for others to sense it immediately. The principle was to make someone deceive themselves.
As long as they couldn’t sense it immediately, it would give miserly intent a chance to grow.
It was as though a door had opened out of thin air in a sealed room.
This time was five breaths, and this was the true meaning of the miserly dog entering the house.
Overall, this immortal art relied on the bizarreness and borrowed the intent of the Five Dogs to unleash its lethality in a way that surpassed the traditional methods.
If the door was opened, external evil would naturally invade.
That white eye was the greed in the Five Dogs Sheltering Immortal.
“Insatiable desires are known as greed; when the greedy dog enters, one is bound.”
Greed could bind one’s mind and body.
Hence, the door opened and a white eye appeared. The moment it stared at Xu Qing, waves instantly surged in Xu Qing’s mind and he fell into a daze for four breaths.
A strange seal appeared from the inside out. It followed the gaze of the white eye and sealed everything about Xu Qing.
These four breaths of time were the time when this seal was formed. If he couldn’t break it in four breaths of time, then…
” Creating false standards is delusion; when the deluded dog enters, one falls into the cycle of life and death.”
A white vortex silently appeared in Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness and under the white eye. It continued to spin, forming a separation force.
What separated was the fusion of the body and soul.
Three breaths later, under the white vortex, a large white mouth appeared. When this mouth opened, it revealed endless evil.
This was…
“Winning arguments through deceit is evil; when the evil dog enters, one falls into hell.”
The white mouth swallowed fiercely.
What it devoured was the soul!
Finally, in the surroundings of the eye, vortex, and mouth, the fifth intent of the Five Dogs Sheltering Immortal appeared.
It was a white face skin.
As it appeared, in Xu Qing’s sea of consciousness, the Five Dogs Sheltering Immortal Art was completely complete. The thing formed… was a complete face.
Its white hair fluttered in the wind and it had a bizarre expression that was neither quite crying nor quite smiling.
It fused into Xu Qing’s body.
“Refusing to accept the truth and obstinately rejecting the three paths to liberation is the precipice; when the precipice dog enters, one forever loses human form.”
The world in front of Xu Qing turned pitch-black.
Outside, at the bottom of the Immortal Shelter Lake, on the huge white rune where the countless corpses were, there was an additional one.
It was Xu Qing.
His hair had turned white, and his skin was even more so. When he opened his eyes, they emitted a white glow that seemed to have become one with all the corpses in the surroundings.
His expression was the same.
However, at the next instant, a sudden change occurred.
Outside Xu Qing’s body, a large number of seven emotions and six desires threads suddenly appeared in the void. These threads emitted the immortal art fluctuations of the Six Thieves Delusions which Xu Qing had set up in advance. At that moment, they were activated and instantly approached Xu Qing.
The moment they came into contact, a portion of the threads broke through Xu Qing’s body and entered it, heading straight for the white face skin.
The other part surrounded his body. Under the entanglement, Xu Qing was quickly wrapped into a human-shaped cocoon.
This cocoon contained a seal.
It sealed the white face skin in Xu Qing’s body, preventing it from leaving.
This was Xu Qing’s plan.
He wanted to personally experience the Five Dogs Sheltering Immortal Art. Although this art was bizarre and astonishing, Xu Qing was confident.
The source of this confidence came from the Six Thieves Delusions.
After all, the Five Dogs Sheltering Immortal and the Six Thieves Delusions were originally from the same immortal art.
Just like that, time flowed by.
Under the Immortal Shelter Lake, it was completely silent.
It was as though even the lake water didn’t flow anymore. Two hours later, among the many corpses, the cocoon Xu Qing had transformed into suddenly emitted a cracking sound.
This sound was light at first but very soon, it became more and more intense. Finally, cracks appeared on the cocoon.
After more and more cracks accumulated, the cocoon shattered into pieces, revealing Xu Qing inside.
His hair was no longer white and had returned to its original color. His eyes were the same, but they revealed some emotional fluctuations.
“So this is the Five Dogs Sheltering Immortal.”
Xu Qing mumbled.
“This technique is even more bizarre than the Six Thieves Delusions… No, it’s because Yue Dong’s strength wasn’t enough, so the Six Thieves she used on me could be broken.”
“The source of the immortal arts here is this rune…”
Xu Qing lowered his head and stared at the huge white rune under his feet.
He could sense that this rune was extremely ancient. There was a high chance that it originated in the Ancient Sovereign Mystic Nether Era.
In fact, it was very likely that this rune was the foundational rune of the Five Dogs Sheltering Immortal’s immortal art.
“If I hadn’t grasped the Six Thieves Delusions first and transformed it into an authority Dao mark that completely fused with my body, it would have been very difficult for me to awaken so quickly from this immortal art.”
Xu Qing looked at the corpses in the surroundings.
At that moment, he understood that these were all those who had come here to comprehend the art but had met their deaths in failure.
“This immortal art…”
Xu Qing retracted his gaze and looked at his right hand.
At that moment, the shattered cocoon transformed into threads again and gathered. Very soon, a faint mark slowly appeared in Xu Qing’s palm.
The appearance of this mark was exactly the same as the white rune under the Immortal Shelter Lake. It was just that it had shrunk countless times.
Upon closer inspection, one could see that the totem of this mark was actually an abstract mask.
This was the white mask formed by Xu Qing after extracting the white face from his body using the Six Thieves Delusions Immortal Art. He then forcibly retained it by using the art’s inherent resonance.
At that moment, Xu Qing’s divine sense fused into it. It was as though he had walked through the Five Dogs Sheltering Immortal again and finally confirmed the essence of this immortal art.
“The miserly dog hides within the memory of the person being targeted by using a method to continue a segment of memory. Due to its special nature and concealment, it is difficult to detect. If the person being targeted does not erase it within five breaths, the greedy dog will appear.”
“The role of the greedy dog is to seal and prevent the person from escaping. This seal takes four breaths to form. If it is not erased within this time, the seal will be established, and the delusional dog will appear.”
“The power of the delusional dog is a vortex, aimed at separating the target’s soul from their body. Once a flaw appears, the flaw is torn wider. If it is not extinguished within three breaths, the evil dog will come.”
“The evil dog devours souls. If it is not extinguished within two breaths, the precipice dog will arrive.”
“The precipice dog merges with the body, allowing only one breath to kill it. If it cannot be moved within that breath, then… the Five Dogs Sheltering Immortal art will succeed.”
“Once this immortal art is successfully activated, it can erupt with astonishing lethality. To a certain extent, it uses the target’s body to kill the target!”
“Therefore, not only can it defeat the strong despite being weaker, but the damage to the soul caused by this technique is even greater.”
“It’s just that there’s something I don’t understand…”
Xu Qing pondered.
“Sheltering immortal, abandoning immortal. What is the meaning of this?”
“Letting go of immortal? Giving up immortal? Or is it oneself becoming a shelter for immortals?”
Xu Qing had a faint feeling that these words were another level of this immortal art and contained an extremely important meaning.
Because he hadn’t learned this immortal art, he couldn’t completely understand it at this moment.
Xu Qing felt some regret.
However, he also understood that this art was vast and definitely couldn’t be learned in a short period. The current him had only grasped the basics.
This was only because of the Six Thieves Immortal Art.
“Therefore, it’s both a foundation and qualification.”
“Only those with the qualifications have the possibility of mastering it.”
Xu Qing put away the regret and looked up. His body swayed and he headed straight for the surface of the lake.
As he left, the Immortal Shelter mark at the bottom of the lake dissipated a little, as though it was no longer complete.
At the same time, in the Immortal Arts Hall in the outside world, in the depths of it was a secret chamber restricted area that was sealed layer by layer.
In the secret chamber, there was a black stone with an ancient rune on it. It was exactly the same as the mark at the bottom of the lake.
This was the true Immortal Shelter Rune.
However, now, even it had dimmed a little, as though a portion of it had been separated.
Because the Great Immortal Master of the West Demon Feather hadn’t returned from his travels, no one knew about this scene.
At that moment, on the Immortal Shelter Lake, those immortal masters from the West Demon Feather were still meditating and comprehending. It had only been less than four hours since Xu Qing sank to the bottom of the lake.
Hence, when Xu Qing’s figure broke through the surface of the lake and appeared, not many immortal masters noticed this scene.
As for those who saw it, they were all stunned. However, they soon reacted and guessed that the other party hadn’t really comprehended it. He should have retreated out of fear, so they each looked down on him.
Xu Qing didn’t care about these. He looked at the white Immortal Arts Hall and recalled what his master had once taught him. One had to be grateful when doing things. Hence, after some thought, he cupped his fists and bowed to the Immortal Arts Hall.
This way, his heart would be at ease and he wouldn’t owe anyone anything. When he saw them in the future, he could be at ease and kill them.
After that, he turned and sped away.
When the youth in the Immortal Arts Hall saw this scene, he couldn’t help but sneer.
“Arrogant when arriving, and bowing when leaving—such behavior of being haughty at first and respectful later is something I have seen often.”
“Some always think of themselves as geniuses, believing they are capable of anything. But after enduring the torment of the immortal arts in my hall, they all turn out to be nothing more than common fools.”
“This Xue Chenzi is even more of a coward. Looking at the time, this person was clearly scared off.”
“He’s nothing to worry about!”