Chapter 196: The Portrait

“Senior Brother You, please look after me within Thousand Illusion Mountain in the future.” Lin Jing produced another, smaller bag of Spirit Stones to grease the wheels.

After introducing themselves, he learned that this chubby young man was named You Wanli, and he hailed from the same cultivation Family as the Deacon You who had been in charge of recruiting Disciples earlier.

“Of course, of course. Junior Brother Huang, you’re being far too polite.” Senior Brother You was overjoyed. “Actually, there isn’t much to worry about here in Thousand Illusion Mountain.”

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“Junior Brother, you just need to remember one thing: when you’re out in the future and you see Disciples from the ‘Ten Thousand Beasts Sect’ or the ‘Flower Sect,’ just beat them to death and rob them blind!”

“Our Thousand Illusion Mountain has a blood feud with these two Sects. They’ve snatched several Spiritual Veins from us!”

“Oh, that Ten Thousand Beasts Sect is a Beast Taming Sect and is extremely tyrannical. Not a single person there is good. What decent person would tame beasts? Yao Beasts are living beings too! Unlike our Thousand Illusion Mountain, which only uses illusions to simulate Yao Beasts in battle.”

“As for the Flower Sect, they aren’t any better. On the surface, they’re a wood-element Sect that controls plants, but behind the scenes…”

“…they encourage their Disciples to hide their identities and marry into small Sects or Families to leech off them, swindling dowries, plotting for Family assets, and they even have secret techniques to absorb the mana of their Dao Companions.”

“Many Disciples of our Thousand Illusion Mountain have been tricked! Sigh, the pitfalls of lust!”

Lin Jing looked enlightened and said, “I, Huang, shall henceforth be irreconcilable with the Ten Thousand Beasts Sect and the Flower Sect.”

“Good!” You Wanli nodded. “Since you’ve just joined Thousand Illusion Mountain, the Sect generally won’t assign you any missions for three years. This is to give you time to switch your Cultivation Technique and practice the Spells of Thousand Illusion Mountain.”

“You can use these three years to improve your strength.”

“Besides waiting for the Sect to issue missions, you can also take the initiative to join one of Thousand Illusion Mountain’s halls. For example, the Huan Sha Hall. Disciples of the Huan Sha Hall specifically represent the Sect in seizing resources from other Sects.”

“The benefits for Huan Sha Hall Disciples are very high, but so is the casualty rate. If you don’t have enough strength, it’s better to be cautious.”

“Aside from that, the ‘Demon Observation Hall’ is also a good place. Our Thousand Illusion Mountain has a Magic Treasure called the ‘Monster-Revealing Mirror,’ which can record the prowess of Yao Beasts. The lifelike images of the Yao Beasts within the mirror can then be used by Sect Disciples to practice illusions.”

“However, Disciples of the Demon Observation Hall usually need to sneak into the battlefields of Yao Beasts at the Demon King rank or higher. They use illusions to hide themselves and record the battles to bring back to the Sect. If one’s Illusion Dao attainment isn’t up to par and they’re discovered by the battling Yao Beasts, it’s an extremely dangerous mission. It’s easy to die at the scene of a Demon King battle…”

“And also—”

As the two flew, You Wanli introduced various places to Lin Jing. After listening, Lin Jing felt that Thousand Illusion Mountain was quite interesting; many of its halls served the purpose of ‘Phantom Beasts.’

This included the Divine Beast Hall they were currently heading toward.

“The outermost perimeter of the Divine Beast Hall contains statues of 300 powerful Demon Kings carefully selected by Thousand Illusion Mountain. The middle layer…”

“…contains statues of 36 different races of Demon Emperors. The innermost layer holds the images of three ancient, progenitor-level Yao Beasts from powerful tribes. Their strength is comparable to Void Profound Cultivators.”

“After you enter the Divine Beast Hall later, you can only observe the Demon King statues in the outermost layer. As for the battle images of Demon Emperors and Demon Ancestors—never mind simulating them—even a single glance could cause a backlash for us Foundation Establishment Cultivators.”

“Since the Second Master sent you directly to the Divine Beast Hall, it means you must have some foundation in illusions, right? If you can manifest even ‘ten percent of the charm’ of a Demon King within seven days of entering the hall, then your trip will have been worthwhile. At that time, both the Huan Sha Hall and the Demon Observation Hall will extend an olive branch to you.”

“Remember, don’t be greedy. Choose the Yao Beast you feel most connected to or are most familiar with, and understand it deeply!” You Wanli reminded him.

Lin Jing nodded. Manifesting one-tenth of a Demon King’s charm?

Something like that…

It seemed that even during his Qi Training Stage, he could already manifest one hundred percent of a Nascent Soul Demon King’s charm using the Thousand Transformations technique.

In that case, he would see if he could engrave the images of all three hundred powerful Demon Kings recorded in Thousand Illusion Mountain’s Divine Beast Hall into his mind within seven days…

Outside a massive palace on Thousand Illusion Mountain, You Wanli handed a written order to an old man. With a wave of the old man’s wide sleeve, the gates of the Divine Beast Hall swung open.

“You only have seven days,” the old man said. You Wanli added, “Good luck, Junior Brother Huang.”

“Thank you.” Lin Jing cupped his fists and entered the Divine Beast Hall.

The hall was vast. Yao Beast statues were arranged neatly on both sides, numbering over a hundred. The remaining hundred or so images were painted on the walls in the form of portraits.

Lin Jing looked at the nearest bear demon. After staring for a moment, an illusion seemed to appear before his eyes: a Bear King, its body flickering with dark-gold lightning, swung a massive paw toward him.

The bear paw grew larger and larger, blotting out the sky, before a single strike knocked Lin Jing’s consciousness back to reality.

“Without a certain level of Illusion Dao attainment or cultivation, simply looking at these statues would cause a mental backlash.”

“The Yao Beasts featured in this hall all have cultivations of at least the Late Stage Nascent Soul realm, and their Bloodlines are incredibly powerful. The experts of Thousand Illusion Mountain likely wouldn’t bother recording the charm of anything less.” Lin Jing observed for a while and realized that even if he perfectly manifested all the Demon King images recorded in this hall, they wouldn’t be of much use to him.

“After all, with my Thousand Transformations, I can now even manifest a bit of Senior Divine Pine’s Soul Transformation pressure. Although it’s a fake, it’s far more powerful than the might of these Demon Kings.”

He looked deeper. If he could go further inside to observe the statues of Demon Emperors and Demon Ancestors, it might be more useful. However, with his current status as a Disciple, he certainly wouldn’t be able to enter those closed doors.

“This Illusion Dao technique of perfectly integrating a Yao Beast’s charm into portraits and statues is worth learning. If I can master it, I could also create an illusion in the future to store somewhere and intimidate enemies.” Lin Jing found something worth studying.

He began to delve into it.

Seven days passed in a flash.

Thousand Illusion Mountain.

After sending Lin Jing into the Divine Beast Hall to Cultivate, You Wanli returned to his own Immortal Cave. Next, he only had to wait for Lin Jing to emerge and then escort him to his new cave to perfectly complete the mission given to him by the Second Master.

“Seven days have passed. I wonder how Junior Brother Huang’s progress has been!”

Just as You Wanli was about to head to the Divine Beast Hall to receive Lin Jing, a Dharmic voice suddenly rang out from the depths of Thousand Illusion Mountain.

“Disciples of Thousand Illusion Mountain, hear my command! If you discover the person in this portrait in the future, report it to the Sect immediately. You will be rewarded with a Magic Treasure.”

“His name is Lin Jing, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator from the Ancient Kingdom’s Beast Taming Sect. He is skilled in the Dao of Beast Taming, Buddhist Dharma, and the Art of Mechanics. He has a Pet Beast Squirrel, whose body is host to the Ice Soul Gu, one of the Ten Unique Gu of the Gu God Sect…”

You Wanli looked up to see a massive scroll floating in the sky above Thousand Illusion Mountain. The figure upon it was a young man in white robes with a gourd hanging at his waist, possessing extraordinary looks and temperament. Behind his figure was a faint double image with white hair and blue eyes—it was clearly Lin Jing’s appearance when fused with the Ice Soul Gu. Similar scenes were playing out in many other Sects at this very moment…

“Hmm?” Having just emerged from the Divine Beast Hall, Lin Jing looked at the portrait of himself in the sky above Thousand Illusion Mountain and fell into deep thought.