Chapter 759: Inspiration

Inside the Immortal Cave on Mystic Radiance Mountain, Li Qi was puzzled.

Hmm…

Never mind, it doesn't matter. I'll just sleep. It's been a long time since I slept, and since his sixth sense didn't give him any ominous premonitions, then he must be fine.

Li Qi often had such a subtle feeling, and most of the time it was very accurate. This was essentially a reaction produced by the intermingling of a Shaman's Inner World and the Great Universe outside.

However, Shui Bi didn't have this. A Daoist Cultivator's Inner World is highly independent, almost completely isolated from the outside world, with only pure plunder from it. She wishes to be independent from the world, which means she won't intermingle with the Universe.

After a good night's sleep, Li Qi received more invitations from Shamanes. Having reached the Fourth Realm, he was naturally a highly anticipated super Genius. Now that he had returned to the world and was confirmed to be safe, many people invited him to banquets.

Li Qi found it hard to refuse. Calculating the time, even if he went, it would only take four or five days round trip, which was nothing. So, he told Shui Bi about it, tidied himself up, prepared some gifts, and carried them to the banquet.

As for the gifts, they were Medicinal Pills refined by Shen Shuibi. When the time came, he could simply say, “My wife's handmade,” which wouldn't make him lose face; instead, it would show intimacy.

Shen Shuibi personally packed the Medicinal Pills and handed them to Li Qi. The two exchanged a few more private words, and then Li Qi left with the items.

After Li Qi left, Shen Shuibi sat alone in the Immortal Cave for a day.

She felt a sense of not knowing what to do.

Her daughter was creating her story and experiencing her life in the East Sea.

Her husband had gone out to socialize, as these matters were all handled by Li Qi, and Shen Shuibi didn't want to go to crowded places.

What about herself?

If it were before, she would probably be practicing cultivation at home, doing things she enjoyed.

But now, she felt a sense of disinterest.

“Forget it, since my mind is restless, I might as well go out for some fresh air.” Shen Shuibi thought to herself, then rose and cast a spell. The Pill Furnace, medicine grinder, medicine bucket, pounding mortar, and other Alchemy tools flew into their respective categories and were neatly stored. Many herbs displayed outside also returned to the multi-drawer cabinet.

After tidying up, she rose and went outside the Immortal Cave.

Outside the Immortal Cave, a gentle breeze wafted, rustling leaves and flowers in the forest, lightly caressing red orchids around the trees. Just after the passing of dark clouds, a sudden fresh rain of bean blossoms fell. Tranquility settled in the green shade, with green vines winding around the mountain, climbing towards the sun.

The continuous light rain had made the ground damp, which Shui Bi disliked. She preferred a dry environment.

Many years ago, Shen Shuibi had already comprehended the Realm of 'One Thought, Heaven and Earth's Thought; One Heart, Heaven and Earth's Heart.' She only needed to let her Inner World permeate this place to freely control all the natural environment before her.

But she didn't do that; instead, she jumped directly down Mystic Radiance Mountain.

Clouds formed under her feet, and she floated all the way down to the foot of the mountain.

Speaking of which, she hadn't really explored Mystic Radiance Mountain much. Before, she always used spells for travel. It was rare to have the inclination to walk around, so she decided to see what the area around the Immortal Cave looked like.

Shen Shuibi actually knew every path on Mystic Radiance Mountain, but this was through her super perception. She truly didn't know what the scenery around Mystic Radiance Mountain looked like.

It was like being able to use a space infrared telescope to see infrared waves emitted by a pulsar billions of light-years away from the solar system, and even accurately measure the pulsar's rotation speed.

But this is fundamentally different from seeing that pulsar with your own eyes. You still don't know what that pulsar looks like; you can only estimate it through data.

So, seeing it with her own eyes was good.

She began to wander through Mystic Radiance Mountain. She was different from Li Qi. If Li Qi were to do such a thing, he would prefer to measure the land with his own feet, walking step by step, observing Mystic Radiance Mountain from various perspectives.

But Shen Shuibi was different. If she said she wanted to see it, then she would finish seeing it as quickly as possible.

She controlled her cloud-riding Divine Ability and quickly circled Mystic Radiance Mountain once.

Hmm, done looking.

It was just so-so. She had seen enough of the bizarre and grotesque outside the Realms. What was a mere Mystic Radiance Mountain? The surroundings were just like that, nothing special.

Alright, Mystic Radiance Mountain is done. What to do now? It's only been less than ten minutes since I left home.

Shen Shuibi fell into distress again.

If she wasn't doing those things at home and not cultivating, it seemed she really had nothing to do. Li Qi used to have this kind of distress, but now Li Qi seemed to have seen through these problems, and he no longer had this trouble.

But Shen Shuibi found that she suddenly had a sense of detachment.

But then she thought carefully… it's just a sense of detachment, what does it matter?

The 'singular self' cultivation of the Daoist School inherently doesn't care about this sense of detachment. What do external worldly matters have to do with me? Transforming the world is the business of the worldly faction. As a reclusive faction member, Shen Shuibi wasn't that sentimental.

With this thought, the distress in Shui Bi's heart naturally disappeared. Being detached from the outside world was a natural thing. Li Qi was a Shaman; what he pursued was not independence, but integration with the Universe, which is why he wanted to establish connections with the outside world.

She didn't need to.

Then let her do as she pleased. The so-called 'freedom' was precisely this.

Shui Bi relaxed her mind, sat on the mountaintop, pondered for a moment, and took out her jade flute.

Although she didn't play it often, she did know how to play the flute, and she had even taught Li Qi before, though Li Qi, despite learning, had no interest in it.

The reason she took out the jade flute was because she remembered something: just a while ago, while in the Ruins, she had heard the 'Primal Hum' emitted by Yao Wanchi.

Why not try it here?

She took out the jade flute and tentatively began to simulate the Primal Hum.

Not imitating the sound itself; she had no ability to produce sounds of that frequency. That was the breath of the Ruins, impossible to imitate.

Instead, she tried to imitate that Qi, that vast and ancient aura.

“Woo~—” A flute sound rang out.

This was still very difficult, not that simple, because to imitate the Qi, one needed to comprehend the other party's ancient Qi, then replace it with one's own Qi, while also paying attention to the rhythm.

Because as mentioned before, playing these extraordinary instruments was not simply blowing air into them. This instrument would produce different sounds based on different spells and Qi.

Li Qi had tried it; blowing lightning Qi into it, the flute could produce electronic music.

Shen Shuibi began to meticulously blend thousands of different types of Qi, mixing them together, and blowing them into the mouthpiece at different ratios and times, making them produce different sounds.

Perhaps by luck, the sound of the flute perfectly matched the Primal Hum of the Ruins.

The flute, also known as 'di,' purifies. It purifies evil and filth, bringing forth elegance and righteousness. It can cleanse evil Qi and project righteous sounds. Therefore, it is played harmoniously, its twelve tones corresponding to the musical law.

As the flute's sound resonated, it instantly cleansed the surroundings. From the very first note, mountains seemed to ripple like waves. After several undulations, sounds of fish and dragons performing a hundred acts emerged, with an elegant and cold charm.

The surrounding terrain began to change. Mountains rose thousands of feet, valleys became hills, and surrounding stones began to arrange themselves according to the sound waves, densely packed and layered, with twin boulders rising. Clear water gushed to their left, and sweet springs flowed to their right, circling endlessly.

The flute extended its mournful cry, Shui Bi exerted her jade-like hands.

Then—her vermilion lips parted, revealing gleaming white teeth, her face flushed, her jade-like countenance rose, as she chanted the clear shang and initiated the flowing zheng.

As the melody continued, a sense of vastness gradually emerged.

The earlier fish and dragon acts were merely a prelude. What she intended to play was not ordinary sound, but to simulate the lingering echo of the Universe's creation.

The lingering echo of creation's beginning—this sound encompassed everything that had been born, passed away, and even what was yet to come, all that had ever existed.

This was a trace of the divine charm remaining from the grand symphony of creation.

If there was a song that could sing 'everything,' then it could only be this one.

As Shen Shuibi played, before her eyes appeared the instant when all things were created.

She seemed to faintly perceive the reverberation that occurred countless billions of years ago in that single moment.

So vast and extraordinary!

This sound revealed many great and profound things. It was the glory of the beginning and the splendor of the end. The music filled and overflowed the endless 'nothingness' around it, and even space and time were born together because of it! The melody and echoes flowed in the boundless Void Realm, and thus, the Void Realm ceased to be empty.

However, this so-called 'Creation Symphony' was not actually a real thing.

This was merely a metaphor, a kind of fluctuation that the Dao created at the immeasurable beginning of time.

The reason it's called the 'immeasurable' beginning of time is because before that, there was no time at all. It wasn't a very long time, but 'immeasurable.' There wasn't even such a thing as time. Space-time, Karma, and even logic itself were Chaos. Before 'Haotian' created everything, all these things couldn't be measured; there was no concept of duration, it could have been an instant or infinitely long.

At such a time, the 'Universe' was created in a way that no creature other than a 'God' could understand. Calling this fluctuation a symphony was merely for convenience of understanding, because at the moment of creation, the instant Haotian created all things, there was indeed a certain 'fluctuation' present.

According to the form of this 'fluctuation,' Cultivators found a similar process—composing and performing music—to create a more vivid 'analogy.'

But even if it was just an 'analogy,' it possessed power, just like those Buddha statues. When you pray to a Buddha statue's golden body, the Great Bodhisattva or Buddha behind the statue truly hears you.

Shen Shuibi immersed herself in this vastness, playing many complex and subtle notes with her heart. These notes all possessed some characteristics of the 'Primal Hum.'

This was very difficult. Countless changes were hidden within these melodies, so much so that she had to be completely absorbed to maintain it.

This complete absorption also put her into a state similar to secluded cultivation, completely ignoring what was happening outside, focusing on the beauty of her present moment.

Indeed, this was truly a wonderful experience. The sensations brought by the lingering echo of creation greatly astonished Shui Bi.

As she was immersed, a subtle change was taking place around her.

The music transformed into a kind of power, influencing the natural, primordial spiritual existences, and also bringing about some clearly visible anomalies.

Around Shen Shuibi, the originally drizzling rain disappeared.

The wind and rain parted. In the gloomy sky, only a 'halo' seemed to appear around her. Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that a large hole had opened in the dark clouds, and sunlight fell from there, illuminating only her. The unscalable mountain rocks paved a path beneath her feet, seemingly waiting for her to step upon it.

These anomalies began to grow even grander, reaching absurd levels.

The natural spirits began to look up; those primitive, unintelligent spirits began to raise their heads. Several colossal phantoms began to emerge, but they barely had any form, appearing like huge, irregular energy masses, translucent, with a faint glow.

But Shen Shuibi paid no attention to any of this; she simply continued to play the jade flute.

Unfortunately, in the very next instant…

Bang—

With a crisp crack, the jade flute in her hand shattered directly, fragments flying out, even cutting her hand, causing Shen Shuibi's blood to drip onto the ground.

Shui Bi also awoke, surrounded by the transformed mountains.

Her first reaction was not surprise or anything, but a sense of exasperation.

Uh… what should I tell Li Qi when he gets back?

The renovation that had just been done seemed to have been redone by herself.

She activated her Golden Core to heal the wound on her hand, but a Dao Resonance impeded Shen Shuibi's wound, preventing her from forcing it to heal.

“Hmm?” Shui Bi's eyes widened as she looked at the wound on her hand.

This Dao Resonance… it was from the flute, meaning the rhythm she had just played.

Those rhythms formed the Dao Resonance.

The jade flute couldn't withstand it and shattered, so the Dao Resonance naturally adhered to the fragments. It was these Dao Resonances that hindered Shen Shuibi's healing.

However, it didn't hinder her natural healing or natural blood coagulation, but rather prevented rapid healing through cultivation.

These Dao Resonances were resisting 'change.'

Resisting the Cultivators' powers that altered reality.

Interesting. This is also a good Divine Ability, but it requires a good flute to carry it. The Divine Ability displayed by this Dao Resonance can suppress all other 'forcibly changing the world' Divine Abilities and spells. Any forced changes will disappear into nothingness within this music.

Within this range, all supernatural effects will not take effect, unless one forcibly breaks through the Dao Resonance's suppression with cultivation and essence.

Shen Shuibi's physical body was also not ordinary. As she explored the effect of the Dao Resonance, the wound on her hand had already stopped bleeding and would heal itself in a few more minutes.

This feeling of natural healing was quite strange. All the injuries in her previous life were actually healed by spells. After all, she herself was a good doctor, and healing was naturally easy for her; there was no waiting for self-healing.

natural healing, and this Dao Resonance born from the lingering echo of creation, also supports nature and suppresses other supernatural things.

Nature… what is it?

Shui Bi suddenly grabbed onto some inspiration, her eyes widening.