Chapter 0895: Heavenly Temple Lotus

"If you're going to begin cultivating the Myriad Resonances Dragon Fang Sword Formation, I have a good place in mind," Li Jingzhe said to the excited Li Luo. At the same time, he had casually thrown Li Lingjing into the fire veil for her daily bath.

When he was done speaking, he did not wait for Li Luo's response. He simply walked onto the surface of the lake. Step after step, he strolled towards the center.

"Oh?"

Li Luo's eyes lit up as soon as he heard Li Jingzhe's words. The place his grandfather was talking about was sure to be very beneficial for his cultivation. Without wasting any more time, he followed Li Jingzhe in a hurry. Ripples spread out with each step that he took on the lake's surface. Shortly later, they arrived at the center.

At this point, Li Jingzhe waved his sleeve, and the water in the lake started rising high up into the air. It turned into bubbles that enshrouded both Li Luo and him. Afterwards, the bubbles fell back into the lake and dove down.

As they traversed the depths, Li Luo noticed mysterious lights dancing around the deep waters of the lake. It was like a naturally formed ward, waves of strong resonant power pulsing from its core.

This was clearly a secret spot that Li Jingzhe used for his daily cultivation.

The dive did not take long. After about two minutes, Li Luo could see a bright glow coming from the bottom of the lake. It created an enchanting sensation that seemed to penetrate one's entire being.

When they approached the glow, Li Luo finally realized what it was.

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

It was a dark, golden lotus seat.

The seat was tens of feet wide with a cushion in the middle. The glow was coming from it, piercing right through anyone who approached it.

At this moment, Li Jingzhe flicked his finger, and a ray of light shot towards the lotus seat. The protective layer of light around it began to crack slightly, then the two of them slipped through the crack.

"This is my cultivation ground, known as the Heavenly Temple Lotus. It's an extremely rare cultivation treasure. I went into an ancient ruin a long time ago and managed to obtain it within. I had to fight with my life against quite a number of Kings for it. Luckily, I won and obtained this prized possession. This has proven to be extremely beneficial even for King Stage cultivation, and many of the other four Lineage Chiefs were extremely envious when they learned of it," Li Jingzhe explained with a laugh.

Hearing this, Li Luo was secretly surprised. Kings were already close to the top of the food chain in this world. Anyone who reached that stage would be famous and influential with endless wealth. If this was a treasure that even they would covet, then it was the cream of the crop even amongst treasured artifacts.

"This is a really magical treasure, especially if you sit in the heart of the lotus. If you can ignite one of the lotus buds, you will enter a very special mental state of enlightenment. I call it the Heart of the Enlightened Lake. In this state, one’s perceptive abilities are greatly enhanced and many of the problems and roadblocks one faces during cultivation are easily resolved. If you were merely cultivating an ordinary Duke Art, I may not have brought you here. After all, it would be quite a waste."

At this point, Li Jingzhe paused and took a glance at Li Luo. He seemed to smile as he continued, "But if it's the Myriad Resonances Dragon Fang Sword Formation, it'll be worth it."

Li Luo almost drooled when he heard all of this. As expected of a prized artifact that even Kings would fight over—the treasure before him could actually help people cultivate the best Duke Arts.

Some high-grade Duke Arts were extremely difficult to cultivate. Even though Li Luo was very confident in his ability to comprehend resonance arts in general, he had already encountered quite a number of roadblocks that he could not figure out during the time that he was studying the Myriad Resonances Dragon Fang Sword Formation. If the Heavenly Temple Lotus could aid him in resolving these issues, it would definitely increase his chance of successfully cultivating this Duke Art.

"Take a seat." Li Jingzhe pointed to the set.

Li Luo did not hold back. He quickly stepped forward and sat cross-legged over there. Instantly, he could sense a cool breeze enter his body from the lotus seat. His mental state immediately became calm like still water, and all kinds of distractions were erased without a trace.

He fell in love with this state straight away. After all, such a calm and composed state of mind would not happen even once a month in his ordinary, daily cultivation.

"Oh, right. Grandpa, do you have any updates regarding the thing that I asked you about earlier?" Li Luo asked with a flattering smile. He did not commence with his cultivation immediately.

"You mean those so-called Pseudo Duke Arts?" Li Jingzhe replied with great interest.

Li Luo nodded. The so-called Pseudo Duke Arts were like weaker and incomplete versions of true Duke Arts. However, they did possess some power and were still stronger than most high-grade dragon-general resonance arts.

Many who were not ready to cultivate Duke Arts yet would turn towards Pseudo Duke Arts as a stopgap. For example, the Demon Ape's Will that was used by Sun Dasheng during the Holy Grail Meet was, strictly speaking, just a Pseudo Duke Art.

"You're planning to fully utilize the edge you have with your multiple resonances. After cultivating Pseudo Duke Arts for their ease, you will take advantage of their synergy with each other and raise your battle capabilities. Is that right, you brat?" Li Jingzhe asked, seeing through Li Luo's plan at a glance. After all, he possessed vast experience, so this was no surprise.

"Grandpa, you are brilliant." Li Luo replied with a thumbs up.

In fact, this was not an uncommon idea. Back when Li Luo was at the Resonant Master Stage, he had learned multiple low-grade resonance arts and achieved synergistic benefits by combining them, letting him achieve a power that was not any weaker than a high-grade resonance art. Now, he was doing the same thing but with Pseudo Duke Arts instead of low-grade resonance arts.

"That's a good train of thought. If you use your multiple resonances to cultivate Pseudo Duke Arts, you can achieve the power of certain Communion-grade Duke Arts if utilized well. Furthermore, it will put less strain on your resonant power compared to a real Duke Art." Li Jingzhe nodded slightly and approved of his grandson's idea.

"With your multiple resonances, the path that you'll take will definitely differ from that of ninth-grade resonance talents. They will be aiming to be the best in one area, while you'll be aiming to improve through multiple paths."

As for an actual Duke Art, it was still extremely challenging for Li Luo to cultivate one, even Communion-grade ones. It would take up a huge amount of his energy and time to do so, and it was already a miracle that he had succeeded with any of them. Simply speaking, he lacked the strength to comprehend even more of them in a short span of time. Moreover, he did not have enough resonant power in him to fully utilize each Duke Art even if he was successful.

As such, Li Luo was thinking of using Pseudo Duke Arts as a replacement. It was indeed not a bad idea.

After giving it some thought, Li Jingzhe waved his sleeve again. Tiny rays of light shot out and hovered in front of them.

There were dozens of them, and each one contained a slightly different colored scroll.

"Strictly speaking, Pseudo Duke Arts are not considered Duke Arts. Thus, it's not against the rules for me to help you search for them." Li Jingzhe laughed lightly.

"You can take these Pseudo Duke Arts to study. I know you're thinking of using the precious chance to cultivate as many Pseudo Duke Arts as you can. Heh. You surely don't waste any of your resources."

Clearly, Li Luo was thinking of taking full advantage of the Heart of the Enlightened Lake state to help him cultivate these arts—asking for the arts now was not a coincidence. While he was cultivating the Myriad Resonances Dragon Fang Sword Formation, he could also cultivate a few Pseudo Duke Arts to improve himself and better prepare for the upcoming Dragon's Head competition.

With that, Li Luo gladly accepted the numerous scrolls. The Respected Elder was truly the Lineage Chief. Although these Pseudo Duke Art were worth less than a real Duke Art, they were still extremely valuable items. Few people could just take out dozens of them instantly like him.

"Thank you, Grandpa." Li Luo truly meant it.

While Li Jingzhe was known as a man of principle, he could also be said to be kind of stubborn. At times, he could be pretty harsh even with juniors like Li Jingtao and Li Fengyi. However, he would always try his best to fulfill any requests that Li Luo made. For example, no one in the whole Dragon's Fang Lineage would have the luxury to enjoy the Heavenly Temple Lotus except for Li Luo and himself.

At this moment, Li Jingzhe waved his hands again, and a ray of resonant power shot out from his fingers. This time, it went straight into the bottom of the lotus seat.

A spot of light rushed out from the bottom roughly five feet in front of Li Luo. After a while, it transformed into a lotus bud that was about ten feet in length.

The bud seemed to be made of jade stone. Mysterious light circulated around it, and a faint fragrance filled the air.

Li Jingzhe spat and a spark of flame flew out, landing directly on the lotus bud. It immediately began to ignite, and a curl of green smoke containing many strands of golden light started rising up. The smoke then proceeded to surround Li Luo like it was a living organism.

In the same moment, he could sense that his mind was clear of all distractions and his thoughts started flowing more smoothly and quickly. Similarly, the outside world seemed to have slowed down for him.

In an instant, he seemed to have figured out many things, and inspiration was rushing out of his heart just like bubbles in boiling water.

Clearly, this was the so-called Heart of the Enlightened Lake state.

"The ignition of the lotus bud will last half a month. In this time, you can sit here quietly and work hard," Li Jingzhe explained.

Li Luo took a deep breath of the fragrant air and his mind cleared up right away. He nodded towards Li Jingzhe before he waved his hand and took out a Pseudo Duke Art scroll. Channeling his resonant power into it, the huge amount of information entered his mind like a tsunami.

He was planning to study a few Pseudo Duke Arts first. Once he got used to this state, he would begin cultivating his Myriad Resonances Dragon Fang Sword Formation for real.

Seeing how his grandson had started training, Li Jingzhe did not bother him any further. He simply said to himself, "Little brat, it takes a hundred years for a bud to grow here. There's not much left now. How much you can get out of it is up to you."

Without a doubt, the other Kings would surely rage at him for wasting such a precious resource on a Fiend Body cultivator like Li Luo if they ever found out. However, Li Jingzhe did not mind it at all.

As he stared at the young man in front of him, the majestic figure of Li Taixuan seemed to have intertwined with Li Luo's in his eyes. The usually serious and stern look on his face seemed to have grown a little gentler.

"Don’t you worry, my third brat... Since you chose to send this kid back to us, I will make sure no one will ever touch him no matter what. History... will not repeat itself," Li Jingzhe murmured to himself. He then sighed in his heart before gradually making his way out of the lake.