Chapter 1324: The Transcendent One, Not Tainted by Karma

"Transcendence..." Gazing at the burnt-out cultivation insights, the mastermind couldn't help but recall events from the ancient and primordial eras.

After achieving transcendence, his very existence surpassed causality. His words and actions were free from karmic entanglement, unbound and unnoticed by anyone. He could do whatever he pleased.

He could transform into countless guises, experiencing myriad facets of life. He might become the chieftain of a tribe, ruling for centuries, leading it to prosperity and annexing other tribes. Alternatively, he could live as a wandering cultivator, gathering friends, drinking wine, and enjoying freedom for a millennium. Once he had experienced enough and grown tired, he would vanish, and the world would retroactively correct the events he had influenced.

In the tribe's memory, the chieftain would be someone else. Among the wandering cultivator's friends, no one would recall his existence, and events would be attributed to other causes.

He could have many wives and concubines, fathering children, without being held accountable for his actions.

He could be lawless, indulge his desires, and commit any wickedness, yet remain free from responsibility for his deeds.

"This is true immortality, unbound by anything."

Even knowing that the Five Ancient Immortals had achieved immortality one after another, he didn't give it much thought.

What if they achieved immortality? The ultimate outcome was merely transcendence, just like him. Being free from karmic entanglement, his existence wouldn't hinder subsequent cultivators from achieving transcendence.

However, he never imagined that there was more than one path after achieving immortality. Besides transcendence, there was also omniscience.

To avoid affecting himself, he launched a sneak attack during the Immortal Maiden's breakthrough. He had assumed, as usual, that his actions would be free from karmic consequence, and the world would forget the Immortal Maiden.

For ordinary immortals, he could achieve karmic detachment. For instance, during the Tinder Dynasty, when he assassinated the Immortal of Time, the Qilin Immortal's mind automatically conjured a memory of *himself* killing the Immortal of Time. This was how he grafted his karmic consequences onto the Qilin Immortal.

But his target happened to be the Immortal Maiden.

It was much later that the mastermind understood: the Immortal Maiden was halfway to omniscience, her karma too profound to be completely erased. This caused the world to forget her, but the Four Ancient Immortals did not entirely forget.

"I wasn't familiar enough with the omniscient realm back then," the mastermind sighed. It was, after all, an uncharted domain. Had he known more, he would certainly have used a different, less crude method against the Immortal Maiden.

Forty thousand years later, he had a much better understanding of the omniscient realm, knowing that no one in the current era would achieve transcendence and expose his identity.

"Though Lu Yang is entangled with karma, and every action he takes impacts the world, his Origin Tracing Dao Fruit severs karmic ties, preventing him from achieving omniscience."

"Although the Immortal Maiden possesses the Immortal Dao Fruit and had one breakthrough experience, that breakthrough was interrupted by me, and most of her accumulated karma dissipated as people's memories vanished."

"After her resurrection, she remained attached to Lu Yang's spiritual space. The karma generated during this period transferred to Lu Yang, making it difficult for her to achieve omniscience."

Naturally, he himself could not achieve omniscience either. He was already on the path of transcendence; to become omniscient, he would have to abandon his cultivation and start over from scratch.

A few days after the four returned to the villa, they discovered that the spiritual energy overflowing from the cave dwelling had actually ushered Blue Star into an era of spiritual energy resurgence.

This was because high-ranking officials proactively approached Xia He, stating that a mysterious energy had recently appeared. According to esteemed orthodox sects like the Zhengyi School and Longhu Mountain, this energy was called "spiritual energy." It could be cultivated to grant immunity to poisons and cure all ailments, potentially offering a cure for Xia He's illness.

"That's good news," Xia He said calmly, offering little further response.

She guessed that their purpose wasn't merely to convey this good news, but also to meet Lu Yang. Considering Lu Yang's unique status on Blue Star—having once ruled it and commanding greater prestige than Xia He—a meeting with the current rulers might be awkward, so he did not appear personally.

The Blue Star official's attention was involuntarily drawn to a plate of sliced fruit on the table. Typically, at meetings of their caliber, such a fruit platter was merely decorative, yet he couldn't shake the feeling that this particular platter was somehow "fragrant."

It wasn't the scent of food, but more like a deep longing from the soul.

He used a toothpick to eat a piece of peach and was astonished to feel his entire body become incredibly clear and light. Various age-related ailments had spontaneously healed.

Was this fruit brought by General Lu?

This reminded him of the legendary Peaches of Immortality. The old Celestial Master of the Zhengyi School once stated that mythical treasures might not just be legends, but things that once existed, only to disappear with the arrival of the Dharma-Ending Age.

Elder Xia couldn't possibly be unaware of the fruit's effects. If she could consume such fruit, was her demise truly approaching?

Lu Yang appeared only after the Blue Star officials had departed.

"I didn't expect that," Lu Yang chuckled. "So the Zhengyi School knows about spiritual energy; they've likely acquired some ancient texts." The resurgence of spiritual energy was undoubtedly good for Blue Star.

Originally, he had planned to establish a spatial gate between the cultivation world and Blue Star, but seeing Blue Star's current state, it might be better to let it develop on its own for a while.

"I'll give Blue Star a push," Lu Yang said. With spiritual energy only just resurfacing, everyone, including the government, was at the same starting line. Many problems might arise during this initial phase of spiritual energy recovery.

Cultivators were less of a concern; with their low cultivation, they couldn't cause too much trouble. The real issue lay with the spiritual treasures scattered across the land, which were undoubtedly powerful weapons beyond the government's current ability to handle. Lu Yang decided to stay in his hometown for a while to help Blue Star navigate this initial period.

"What do you plan to do, and what do you need from me?" Xia He asked.

"Write down the basic principles of spiritual energy application and methods for testing spiritual roots. Once finished, you can hand these over to the high-ranking officials."

Lu Yang then took out a storage ring—the one belonging to the evil monk Banbu.

"Then let's add some more spiritual energy to Blue Star."

The storage ring of an experienced Tribulation Passage stage cultivator contained a significant amount of spirit stones. Lu Yang forcibly removed the restrictions, took out piles of spirit stones, crushed them into fragments, and released the spiritual energy, making Blue Star's spiritual energy even denser.

"Wow, so many spirit stones!" Bai Shuang's eyes lit up at the sight of them. Since encountering spiritual energy, she had realized how difficult her life had been before. As a primordial being, she hadn't been able to unleash even a fraction of her abilities, which was a great disgrace to her kind.

"Why are they all dissipating?" Bai Shuang watched covetously as large amounts of spiritual energy floated away.

"With me here, how could Senior Sister Bai lack spirit stones?" Lu Yang quipped, taking out piles of top-grade spirit stones from his identification jade token. Compared to the Immortal Maiden, he might be dirt poor, but compared to cultivators in the Tribulation Passage stage, he was rich enough to make them envious.

"From now on, I'll take care of all Senior Sister Bai's cultivation resources."

Bai Shuang had never known that being taken care of could be so delightful.