The couplet on the door had a certain charm, and Chen Shi couldn’t help but take a few extra glances.
"Heaven’s form and Earth’s images are all reflections of myself, better to seek self than gods or devils. How long must one struggle in the mortal world before reaching this state? To reach this step, is that not transcendence?"
He ascended the steps and walked into the strange ancient temple.
The ancient temple itself seemed to have a sandy quality, appearing not quite real, as if it could crumble at the slightest touch.
A faint scent of incense fire qi lingered in the temple. He looked around to find that two pillars supported the main beam within the temple, with no decorative patterns on them. The floor was laid with ordinary blue bricks, and the walls on both sides were bricked and plastered with white ash, devoid of murals.
He reached out to touch the wall, and astonishingly, his hand could pass right through it.
The columns and floor were the same.
"This temple is not a real structure, but some sort of illusion. Strange, how did I enter this illusory realm?"
He felt puzzled, wondering if he had really encountered something evil?
In front of him stood an incense burner, two feet tall and four feet wide, empty of incense sticks with only a pile of ashes inside.
In front of the burner was a red doorframe, six feet tall and about five feet wide, built against the wall.
The doorframe was empty, housing a divine shrine.
The divine shrine was bare, devoid of any divine statue.
"This shrine is just like mine, I am without a Divine Embryo, and it is without a statue."
Chen Shi looked around but found nothing more.
"How should I leave this peculiar place?"
Just as he was thinking this, his vision blurred, and he unconsciously left the mystery temple, returning to his own body.
Chen Shi opened his eyes to find himself still standing under a tree, not having moved at all.
He was surprised and looked around, but the temple he had just seen did not exist, as if it had all been a dream.
"Little Ten, were you lost in thought?"
Zhu Xiucai asked in puzzlement, "You’ve been standing there without moving, and now light another stick of incense... Wait, why’s there a temple behind your head?"
Chen Shi was startled: "A temple behind my head?"
"Indeed, a solitary temple! There’s only a main hall, and in front of the temple are two pillars!"
Zhu Xiucai expressed his amazement, "It’s right where your divine shrine used to be! Wait a minute, what about your divine shrine? Your divine shrine is gone!"
Chen Shi was even more shocked. Wasn’t the temple Zhu Xiucai described exactly the one he had seen in the illusion?
And if the temple had occupied the space of the shrine, where had his own divine shrine gone?
Zhu Xiucai quickly said, "Turn around slowly; let me have a look!"
Chen Shi did as he was told, allowing him to inspect the temple, feeling somewhat uneasy.
He couldn’t help but regret that his trip home was merely to offer incense to his grandfather, godmother, Zhu Xiucai, and others, and to visit Granny Sha and the rest, never anticipating this situation!
He was already lacking the Divine Embryo Realm compared to others. If his divine shrine had also vanished, wouldn’t that mean he was missing two realms?
Without those two realms, how could he compete with his peers?
Zhu Xiucai let out a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "The divine shrine is still there, inside the temple... Wait, how am I inside the temple? How did I end up sitting on the divine shrine?"
He cried out in surprise.
Chen Shi’s eyes widened in shock as the Zhu Xiucai who had been hanging from the crooked-neck tree disappeared without a trace, leaving only an empty noose swinging!
Meanwhile, Zhu Xiucai’s voice was coming from behind his head!
Zhu Xiucai, in a panic, called out, "Little Ten, let me out quickly! This temple is too strange!"
"I don’t know how to let you out either," Chen Shi also felt a bit of panic, as he had never encountered such an event before.
Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind. He immediately activated the temple as he would the divine shrine. The temple lit up, with divine light swirling around the shrine, bathing Zhu Xiucai, who stuck out his tongue that extended for thirty to fifty feet, startling Black Pot resting in the shade below the tree so badly that it leapt up and fled with its tail between its legs.
Chen Shi was also startled by this tongue and quickly stopped activating the temple.
Only then did Zhu Xiucai feel his body was his own again, and breaking into a cold sweat, he said hastily, "Little Ten, what did you feel when I sat on the shrine in your temple?"
Chen Shi, after hearing this, focused to sense and replied, "I feel as if I have an extra ’me’, like another self sitting behind my head, helping me regulate True Qi and use cultivation techniques!"
He activated the Meridian Evil Slayer Sword, forming a sword technique with his hand. Zhu Xiucai, with an alarmed shout, also found himself forming a sword technique involuntarily.
Chen Shi channeled Sword Qi, and Zhu Xiucai did the same. The power of the Sword Qi surged, shooting out with a whoosh and reaching a hundred yards away!
Chen Shi was stunned; the range of this Sword Qi was more than twenty percent further than before!
The power had also increased by twenty percent!
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Moreover, with Zhu Xiucai ensconced in the temple shrine, he felt his True Qi flowing even more smoothly and gently, not as violent as before.
But when Qi-Blood erupted, the burst was more terrifying!
This situation was like...
He was pondering an appropriate analogy when Zhu Xiucai suddenly said, "It’s as if you have a Primordial Spirit behind your head, helping you regulate True Qi, invigorate Qi-Blood, perform alchemy, and cast spells, right?"
Chen Shi replied, "I haven’t cultivated to the Primordial Spirit Realm, so I don’t know the wonders a Primordial Spirit can do."
Zhu Xiucai sighed and said, "What I just described is precisely the marvel of the Divine Embryo. With the True God’s descent, one is granted a Divine Embryo. Cultivators receiving the True God’s blessing gain a Divine Embryo, which is like having an additional Primordial Spirit at a lower realm, making regulating Qi, managing blood, practicing alchemy, and learning spells much easier than before. Both the power of mana and skill will be stronger than before."