Chapter 218
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Chapter 218: Zhong Kui’s Ghost-Eating Portrait
"Star Spirit General, Water God Dragon King, Underworld Yin Spirit…"
After some consideration, Mu Lin finally chose the Underworld Yin Spirit as his main cultivation core.
When selecting the Yin Spirit, Mu Lin did not pick the Lord of Mount Tai or the Underworld King.
Not because he didn’t want to, but because he couldn’t.
Though the Divine Lord’s Summoning of True Resolve was powerful, one couldn’t fully develop a divine lord from the start.
"I’ll first use a mid-level Yin Spirit as temporary foundation."
Mu Lin chose Zhong Kui.
The reason was simple – his Underworld position resembled a martial judge’s role, boasting great combat strength.
More importantly, Zhong Kui’s legends mentioned ghost-eating abilities.
This devouring power indicated strong digestive capacity, which greatly benefited Mu Lin’s foundation.
"If I’m fortunate, I might skip searching for digestion-type cultivation methods altogether."
Once decided, Mu Lin immediately sat cross-legged to cultivate.
Advanced cultivation methods primarily involved meditation initially, and the Divine Lord’s Summoning of True Resolve followed this pattern.
Closing his eyes and concentrating, Mu Lin used his Grandmaster-level painting skills to vividly visualize Zhong Kui’s image – a fearsome, awe-inspiring figure radiating authority.
However, mere visualization wasn’t enough. Mu Lin needed to cultivate a core spiritual thought within Zhong Kui.
This required prolonged cultivation with uncertain success – perhaps only one in a hundred thousand practitioners might master this Heavenly Technique.
Fortunately, Mu Lin found a shortcut.
"Hmm…"
Alongside visualizing Zhong Kui, Mu Lin incorporated the enhanced Sky-High Technique Spell into the Zhong Kui manifestation.
"Boom!"
The fusion created blank spiritual thoughts within Zhong Kui. Without hesitation, Mu Lin channeled both City God power and Communicating-with-Spirits energy into this empty divine quality.
The infusion of these forces fully animated the Zhong Kui manifestation. Yet currently, it resembled a city god’s manifestation more than Zhong Kui’s true form.
The Divine Lord’s Summoning of True Resolve didn’t create deities through claims, but through understanding – unless borrowing ancestral powers.
"Still not working…"
Though unsuccessful, forming a city god manifestation still benefited Mu Lin. Previously, his unused City God status had limited power due to lacking official appointment.
But now, by transforming divinity into the Dao and treating the Governor City God as his manifestation, Mu Lin could fully utilize its power.
Yet, Mu Lin felt reluctant to do this.
More importantly, he wasn’t without alternatives.
“Normally, I couldn’t transform the City God into Zhong Kui with my current abilities. But luckily, I’m rarely ‘normal’.”
Mu Lin hadn’t forgotten his proficiency panel granted +1 progress for every effective cultivation attempt.
Though he’d exploited the Sky-High Technique Spell, the Divine Lord’s Summoning of True Resolve inherently allowed shortcuts—others borrowed True Lord’s spiritual thoughts to instantly master it.
Compared to them, Mu Lin’s efforts counted as Hard Practice.
Since this loophole existed naturally, the method was deemed valid and recognized by the proficiency panel.
The progress accelerated rapidly.
+31, +42, +36, +29, +51…
As Mu Lin channeled City God’s power and Communicating with Spirits energy into the Divine Lord’s Summoning of True Resolve, the Zhong Kui manifestation—hollowed by City God’s essence—grew increasingly imposing.
In mere moments, his cultivation reached entry-level completion. The bottleneck shattered, advancing the technique to proficiency.
Within the time it takes a stick of incense to burn, proficiency too was surpassed.
His cultivation method ascended to mastery.
The speed persisted, fueled by Communicating with Spirits’ power.
One must remember: Communicating with Spirits—Soul Summoning derived from the Lord of Mount Tai’s authority fragment.
This higher-tier power involving time and Revive wasn’t something Mu Lin could normally wield. Only by introducing the Underworld City God system to this world and gaining the Will of Humanity’s favor had he obtained it.
“The Will of Humanity aggregates all spirituality, surpassing divine ranks, second only to Heaven. With its favor, weakness is impossible.”
This extraordinary rank, perfectly aligned with City God, propelled his Divine Lord’s Summoning cultivation.
Soon, the method reached Level 3 Mastery’s peak.
“This isn’t true cultivation. I’m merely repackaging existing powers into the Divine Lord’s Summoning framework.”
His accumulated energies from prior cultivation flooded into the technique, easily pushing it to Level 3 Mastery’s limit.
But now, his reserves were drained.
Relying solely on external energies left his understanding shallow. Though at Level 3 Mastery, he grasped the “how” but not the “why”.
Breaking through became arduous—the so-called unstable foundation. Normally, years would be needed for stabilization.
As a Heavenly Technique, multiple bottlenecks remained. Even with a solid foundation, advancing to Level 4 required luck and serendipity.
Unlucky practitioners might never progress.
Such was the challenge of Heavenly Techniques.
“But that’s for others. For me, effort guarantees progress.”
Meditating on Zhong Kui’s image again, Mu Lin injected City God’s power and Communicating with Spirits energy.
“Hmm…”
As expected, +1 progress flashed. At Level 3 Mastery’s peak, this pushed him into 4th Level Master.
Boom!
His mind detonated as if struck by thunder.
Countless star-like insights illuminated his sea of consciousness.
Epiphany struck anew.
“City God isn’t Zhong Kui. Injecting only City God’s power creates a counterfeit Zhong Kui manifestation…”
“…Must elevate it through breakthrough…”
“…Solution: supplement City God’s power with starlight. The Big Dipper governs death—aligned with Underworld domains. As celestial leader, Big Dipper mirrors Zhong Kui’s role…”
“…Infuse Seven Stars’ deathly might into Zhong Kui’s being…”
“Wait—myths depict Zhong Kui as swordmaster. Forge the Big Dipper’s power into a Seven-Star Demon-Slaying Blade for his manifestation to wield…”
