Chapter 494: Chapter 493: Deduction in the Clouds

Considering Ji Kongkong’s tender age, Jiang Li attributed her words to the constant indoctrination of Ji Zhi. So, he held Ji Zhi accountable for this.

“Ji Zhi was the one who leaked my secret outing from Dao Sect to Bai Hongtu. Old Bai still teases me about it. I had a little accounting session with Ji Zhi on the eve of the Spiritual Treasure Appreciation Conference, so let’s call this square.”

“Before every book related to the path of time, Ji Zhi wrote ‘Jiang Li, give it up. You can’t master the path of time’. I haven’t made him pay for that yet.”

“Now even Ji Kongkong is being led astray by Ji Zhi. Another score to settle.”

“It might make me, the Human Emperor, seem petty if I pick a quarrel with Ji Zhi for every little thing. It might be better to wait until Ji Zhi causes more trouble, and then I’ll note it down, and combine these three grievances together to take care of it. That’s a good idea.”

Jiang Li stroked Ji Kongkong’s little head with a grin, dismissing her and dissolving the consciousness space.

After he left the conscious space, he saw that Bai Hongtu and Yu Yin were still there.

“What’s up?”

“Do you recall when we encountered a psychic manipulator in the World of Weigu, also known as Special Ability World?”

As soon as Bai Hongtu said this, Jiang Li understood what he meant.

“I remember, that person was average in strength, not even close to the Nascent Soul Stage, but the psychic special ability involved inner grounds development. Our initial plan was to develop a method to practice inner grounds development for cultivators ahead of time after we return to Jiuzhou.”

“But I was transported back to nine thousand years ago by the leader of the Special Ability Sect and forgot about it in the rush of things.”

Bai Hongtu showed a look of envy, wondering why he could never enter the river of time, “It’s about that. Now that the three of us, all cultivation prodigies, are together, why don’t we research it together?”

Yu Yin nodded, “I have no objections.”

“Neither do I.” said the Ruyi Gourd, usually hanging around Yu Yin’s waist.

They all lowered their gaze to look at the Ruyi Gourd. The gourd took the initiative to leave Yu Yin and flew back to the Tianyuan Emperor Dynasty on its own.

The three of them flew into the clouds, and Jiang Li plucked a few pieces, moulding them into tables, chairs, bench, tea sets, and paintings. Bai Hongtu set up a concealment formation that made them invisible and inaudible to passing cultivators. Yu Yin took out his favourite tea leaves and started making the tea with a flowing elegance.

They were all using utensils made from clouds.

The three of them took their seats and started chatting amongst the clouds, all of them appearing somewhat laid-back.

Jiang Li casually constructed the internal structure of an inner ground, analyzing where further improvements could be made in the current inner ground cultivation method.

“The inner ground is the foundation of divine sense, if we could use divine sense ahead of time, it would improve the cultivation efficiency.”

“This is an ordinary cultivator’s inner ground. This is the psychic manipulator’s inner ground.”

Yu Yin said, “The psychic manipulator’s inner ground is different from that of cultivators’. It shifts a little, developing postnatal.”

Bai Hongtu said, “The existence of psychic manipulators, to a certain extent, proves the correctness of the Five Element Creation Theory. This psychic manipulator should have changed the inner ground with psychic abilities, allowing the inner ground to be cultivated and use divine sense ahead of time.”

“Will changing a certain structure of the inner ground lead to a forced growth, which is not beneficial for the later cultivation?” Yu Yin expressed his worries.

“Let’s speculate.”

Jiang Li used a spell to assume that the psychic manipulator would cultivate and reach the Transcendance Tribulation Stage or even the Earth Immortal Stage, without any effects on the inner grounds.

“It seems that this method does work. However, changing the structure of the inner ground is easy for us but extremely difficult for low-level cultivators.”

“Here’s what I think, this psychic manipulator must have used the principles of the Five Elements Creation Theory and combined the five elements, which led to the alteration in the inner grounds structure. We can imitate this.”

“Most cultivators have four spiritual roots, how do we imitate that?”

Bai Hongtu scratched his chin and chuckled lightly, “That’s not an issue. They can use external items, such as collecting spirit plants and grasses of five different properties.”

Bai Hongtu pulled out five stalks of commonly found spirit grass from his storage ring.

“The Five Elements Creation Theory is not the same as the Five Elements Spiritual Root Creation Theory. They can all be substituted.”

Jiang Li speculated and transformed these five stalks of spirit grass into numerical values, finding the measure ratio of the five properties and the method of use, proving the feasibility of Bai Hongtu’s idea.

“This way, the threshold for cultivating inner ground could be lowered, from the Nascent Soul Stage to the Golden Core Stage or even lower, to the Foundation Establishment Stage.” Jiang Li was surprised, as the result was unexpected.

“But the Qi Cultivation Stage still won’t work. The inner ground during the Qi Cultivation Stage is not mature enough to withstand such a level of change.”

“The name of the Foundation Establishment Stage isn’t wrong at all. It means laying the foundation and is the base for cultivation.”

Jiang Li’s rapid progress in the path of cultivation had strong connections with his awakening of the celestial spiritual root during the Foundation Establishment Stage.

The three of them went along, and they all began to speculate the five-elements spirit plants and grasses commonly found in Jiuzhou, controlling the prices to the range that low-level cultivators can afford, and developing several replacement methods.

“Job well done!” Bai Hongtu clapped his hands together. After integrating the speculative results of the three of them, he listed a series of synthesis formulas. He was confident that even the poorest cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Stage could use this cultivation method.

Bai Hongtu turned to Jiang Li and said, “The inner ground can be classified into several forms such as mist, droplets, streams, rivers, and oceans. The stronger the inner ground, the more advanced the form.”

“Yu Yin and my inner grounds are like lakes, and if we could gain immortal power, or become immortals, our lakes will turn into oceans, making a huge leap in improvement. What is your inner ground like, Jiang Li?”

What Bai Hongtu was referring to was the inner ground during the Transcendance Tribulation Stage. He had also seen Elder Immortal’s inner ground, a vast inner ground ocean, where one would have to fly for a long time to find an end.

Jiang Li showed a teasing smile, “Want to take a look?”

Unable to contain their curiosity, Bai Hongtu and Yu Yin’s divine spirits left their bodies and entered Jiang Li’s forehead.

“Glub——glub——” As soon as Bai Hongtu entered Jiang Li’s inner ground, a surge of sea water flooded his divine spirit.

Yu Yin foresaw this and didn’t end up as overwhelmed as Bai Hongtu. However, she was still shocked when she saw what Jiang Li’s inner ground truly looked like.

Even though an immortal’s inner ground is vast, it’s only a body of sea after all, and space is still left for flight above the sea.

But Jiang Li’s inner ground stretched out far and wide, filled with sea water from all four directions above and below, without a dry spot to set a foot on, no wonder Bai Hongtu’s divine spirit was consumed as soon as he stepped in.

Both of their divine spirits couldn’t breath in the inner ground ocean and were about to withdraw when the seawater disappeared, revealing Jiang Li’s smiling figure.

“Where did the sea water go? What composes your inner ground?” Bai Hongtu was puzzled.

“When I reached the Mahayana Realm, my inner ground was indeed made up of seawater. As my cultivation continued, the volume of seawater increased until it filled up my entire inner ground. Then the seawater transformed into a solid, which eventually disappeared to become a malleable substance. These substances can transform into an ocean or disappear completely or turn into other forms, all at my thought’s command.”

To prove his point, Jiang Li released a thought and his inner ground underwent earth-shattering changes. Six continents appeared, each vastly larger than the mainland of Jiuzhou. The six continents paired up to form a cube, while Jiang Li turned into the sun, illuminating each side of the cube.

This completely impractical scene seemed very real under Jiang Li’s transformations.

It took a long time for Bai Hongtu to voice his feelings slowly.

“Holy cow.”