At night, everyone found an open area in the primitive forest to rest.

    At the moment, everyone is eating dry food while chatting about various topics.

    Chen Yun, as usual, found a big tree trunk to lean against and occasionally took out a water bottle for a sip.

    Tonight, apart from his cultivation practice, there is another very important thing for him to do, but since there are many people here, it's not convenient to do so at the moment. Therefore, he also joined in the casual chat.

    Wu Keji was talking about interesting stories and said, "Do you know the immortal poet Li Bai?"

    Zhang Ling expressed admiration: "Should no one know about the exile god's huge reputation?"

    Wu Keji blinked and said, "Do you know that before his death, Li Bai was also an extremely formidable cultivator?"

    This point, Chen Yun truly didn't know, and curiously asked, "The Azure Lotus Sage is also a member of my cultivation faction?"

    "Isn't he a poet?"

    "He's said to have practiced swordsmanship with the Tang Dynasty's Sword Saint Pei Min, and Pei Min was not from the Taoist sect either."

    Long Nv Sanjiu and Sun Yan, among others, found it very surprising.

    Chen Yun has some knowledge of Pei Min. It is said that this person is praised as the sword saint, and his swordsmanship is so high that it is rare in the world. He was from the beginning of the Tang Dynasty and had participated in various military campaigns against Xiqi, Khitan, and Tibetan people.

    According to the "New History of the Tang Dynasty," Pei Min held the rank of "Grand General of the Left Guard Commandery."

    Pei Min's swordsmanship was said to be incredibly high.

    There is a legend that illustrates his swordsmanship through the harmony of sword and painting.

    It is rumored that during the Kaiyuan period, Pei Min, after his mother's death, wanted to ask the great painter Wu Daozi to create murals at the Tian Gong Temple to assist in the transcendence of his mother's soul.

    Wu Daozi said, "I haven't painted for a long time. If General Pei really insists on having me paint, I'll have to ask you to dance a 'sword dance' first, as it will inspire my artistic thoughts."

    Pei Min immediately removed his mourning clothes, took out his sword, and began to dance. It was seen that he "galloped like a flying horse, spinning left and right," suddenly throwing the sword into the air, soaring tens of zhang, like a streak of lightning shooting down. Min stretched out his hand and grasped the sheath to catch it, and the sword penetrated through the room and went in.

    The sword thrown up to tens of zhang high could be caught by the sword sheath with his hand, and it straightened into the sheath. This was truly an extraordinary skill.

    At that time, thousands of onlookers were shocked and praised him immensely.

    Wu Daozi was also moved by the powerful and intense sword dance, and his artistic inspiration was swift, as if guided by divine assistance. Thus, he began to paint on the wall with great momentum, a gust of wind arising as he worked. Soon, a mural that was "a wonder of the world" was completed.

    This sword technique is not something extraordinary for cultivators, but it is truly amazing on earth.

    Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that Li Bai, who enjoyed dancing the sword, learned swordsmanship from Pei Min.

    Chen Yun is recalling information about Pei Min.

    Wu Keji smiled and continued, "You don't know that, when Li Bai was just 25 years old, he had known the Great Master Sima Chengzhen of the Heavenly Spring Sect, which allowed him to obtain a technique of breathing. Later, although his career wasn't very successful, he had extremely high cultivation talent. In just less than 20 years, he reached the intermediate level of a cultivator. Then, he was granted a scripture by the High Sage Ruo Ji from the Purple Empress Palace and was admitted as a disciple."

    So it was. Chen Yun has always been curious about Li Bai's death, and asked, "Since the Azure Lotus Sage's cultivation is so high, why is it rumored that he ascended at the age of sixty?"

    The term "flying transformation" here refers to death, not ascending to become a immortal.

    When mentioning this, Wu Keji sighed and said, "Li Tai Bai's character was truly too impulsive. It is said that while drinking on the river in Dunpu, he suddenly noticed a very powerful demon in the water, which appeared as a reflection of the moon on the river surface. Li Tai Bai, with his high cultivation, thought there was no need to ask for help from his seniors and elders at the Purple Empress Palace. He alone leaped into the water to fight against the demon. The result was predictable - he was drowned by the demon on the spot and returned to heaven. It's unclear whether he was given a position as an immortal by San Guandi."

    Probably not.

    Chen Yun didn't hear anything about Li Bai being deified in Taoism.

    However, after hearing Wu Keji's story, Chen Yun's heart immediately trembled. He realized that as his cultivation grew stronger and stronger, he seemed to be becoming a bit "imprudent" as well.

    Previously, when encountering dangerous situations, his first reaction was to look at the situation and even think about ways to save his life first.

    However, after entering the Sun and Moon Lake Realm, things seemed to have changed.

    At first, he may have been more cautious, but after becoming an upper-level cultivator, he seemed to have been a bit overconfident in his two battles.

    For example, when facing Kang Yuan, he didn't think much at all and directly used the "Gold Light that Drops from the Sky" to fall to the ground and engage in combat with him.

    For instance, in the previous battle against Lu Cheng, he also went into battle without fully understanding the opponent's specific tactics.

    While it may appear that he had no other choice, this was indeed not his usual style.

    Chen Yun hadn't noticed these things before, but not until today when Wu Keji gossiped about Li Bai's story did he gradually come to his senses and think about how his actions had become increasingly "imprudent" recently.

    That's not a good sign.

    One of the most important cultivation courses in the Taoist religion is cultivating the heart.

    Now, sometimes when I do things, it seems as if I am going against my own heart.

    Chen Yun knew that it must be because as his cultivation becomes more and more powerful, the influence of desire is also growing stronger.

    The desire-based calamity is something that you may not easily detect in everyday life, but it will always affect the person who falls into it in every action they take.

    "I must find a way to break the desire-based calamity, otherwise when I cultivate to a high-level cultivator, it will not just be arrogance. It might even make me fall into witchcraft and enter a demonic state."

    Chen Yun began to take this matter seriously.

    However, to break the desire-based calamity, specific methods are needed.

    The simplest one is to fulfill one's wishes, that is, to obtain what one desires in their heart. For example, at the beginning, he killed Lin Feiyun and broke through the calamity for a short period of time.

    Now, what he deeply desires seems unlikely to be obtained.

    Chen Yun's mind involuntarily wandered back to the delicate face of Xie Ziran, and he couldn't help but sigh silently in his heart, "What kind of twisted thoughts am I having? There are so many women in the world, and I have many opportunities to obtain them. Why do I always think of a woman who can never be mine?"

    Perhaps it's because of the desire-based calamity that made him lose interest.

    Even after Wu Keji, Qin Ming, and others started to gossip about other things, Chen Yun no longer showed interest in listening.

    ...

    Just at nightfall.

    Chen Yun, as usual, patrolled around the area.

    Because this is a primitive forest, it's highly possible that there are many wild beasts lurking around, and there might even be spiritual beasts.

    Therefore, for everyone's safety, he was more vigilant than usual.

    Of course, he wasn't idle. While patrolling, he used his cultivation to set up a campfire nearby and cooked wolf stomach soup to take.

    An hour had passed, and the first steaming pot of wolf stomach soup for tonight was ready.

    As Chen Yun was patrolling mid-air, he used his cultivation to teleport the pot over and slightly cooled it down. He then drank the entire thing directly.

    After that, he used water-based spell to clean the clay pot, then put the materials for wolf stomach soup back in, and again used his cultivation to teleport it back onto the campfire to continue boiling.

    Not long after, the wolf stomach soup took effect, activating the medicinal properties of the elixir that transforms essence into Qi.

    While patrolling around the campsite, Chen Yun was sensitively feeling the internal True Qi being generated.

    Perhaps it was because he had breakthrough to the upper-level cultivator stage, the amount of True Qi generated at this moment was not insignificant, but the increase was very limited.

    Another hour passed.

    The first elixir that transforms essence into Qi for tonight was exhausted.

    Chen Yun checked the increase in True Qi, "The amount of increase is a bit small. I estimate that after I refine the remaining elixir that transforms essence into Qi, I can only reach the mid-stage of the upper-level cultivator, and it's uncertain. The exact results will only be known after refining it."

    Although the rate of cultivation progress has slowed down a lot, he didn't feel much disappointment.

    After all, cultivation is something that should depend on oneself.

    Chen Yun felt grateful that he could accelerate his cultivation to a certain extent with the help of spiritual soup.

    He then took the second dose of the wolf stomach soup.

    However, Chen Yun's attention was not entirely focused on the refining of the medicine.

    At this moment, he stood on a branch at the top of a vast ancient tree and a radiant and colorful pagoda appeared in his palm, which was none other than the Five-colored Crystal Pagoda.

    "Got this thing for so long and haven't tried using it yet."

    Chen Yun stared at the Five-colored Crystal Pagoda for a while, "I previously judged that if I could breakthrough to the upper-level cultivator, I might be able to use it. After all, when I made that judgment, I thought that after breakthrough to the upper-level cultivator, I would definitely grasp some of the 'God's' power operation. It indeed turned out that after becoming an upper-level cultivator, I did gain some abilities of spiritual energy."

    Let's see if I can use the power of spiritual energy to activate the pagoda.

    He mixed his spiritual awareness with the True Qi, releasing a tiny amount into the pagoda.

    In this process, Chen Yun was very cautious because the Five-colored Crystal Pagoda was a treasure used by the tribal deity before death, and its power was definitely astonishing. If he made a mistake and caused a rebound, he might get injured, and even his spiritual essence could be severely injured.

    Therefore, he had to be careful.

    Fortunately, Chen Yun didn't cause a reaction when he injected the True Qi mixed with his spiritual awareness into the pagoda.

    What surprised him even more was that as he gradually infused his spiritual awareness into the pagoda, he began to feel a tiny connection between himself and the pagoda.

    Although there was no progress bar on the pagoda, Chen Yun could feel that his spiritual awareness was continuously blending with the pagoda, as if they were cultivating a "proficiency" level.

    Currently, he predicts that the progress may not be more than 0.001.

    Chen Yun wasn't in a hurry at all. He had held onto this treasure for so long without being able to make use of it. Now that he saw hope, how could he possibly be in a rush?

    He gradually infused his spiritual awareness drop by drop.

    As time went on, around the time of the early hours, Chen Yun noticed that the pagoda seemed to have absorbed enough spiritual awareness and was no longer accepting his True Qi infusions.

    So far, Chen Yun had estimated that the progress bar was at one percent.

    "I feel like I should still be able to infuse more spiritual awareness, but why can't I inject it anymore at this moment?"

    Chen Yun felt a bit puzzled and secretly guessed, "Is it that the pagoda has a certain limit on the amount of spiritual awareness it can accept every day? Like a ritual artifact, it needs 49 days to master completely?"

    He thought this possibility was very high.

    If he estimated based on the progress bar tonight, then in a hundred days, he should be able to be closely connected with the pagoda.

    At that time, could he finally activate this powerful treasure?

    He was not yet sure about this, but since the pagoda could be infused with spiritual awareness to increase compatibility, then what about the Taichi Zihu Robe?

    He eagerly took out the Taichi Zihu Robe.

    Immediately, Chen Yun injected the True Qi mixed with spiritual awareness into the Taichi Zihu Robe, just like before.

    A miraculous scene emerged naturally!

    The Taichi Zihu Robe did not require the cultivation of "rapport" like the Five-colored Crystal Pagoda, or to put it another way, while it did require a certain level of rapport, it didn't necessarily have to reach a full progress bar to be used.

    As soon as Chen Yun's spiritual awareness was injected, the Taichi Zihu Robe turned into a stream of light and appeared to be worn by him!

    (End of this chapter)