The Journey of Immortal Cultivation-Chapter 901 - 495: The Secret of the Avatar

While deep in thought, a child of about five or six years old ran up, timidly tugged at the hem of her clothes, and handed her a large pancake, saying, "Immortal, this pancake is for you. Mother said, it’s because you saved the lives of all our tribe."

The pancake in her hand was made of highland barley flour, shaking it could still make tiny ice shards fall off, yet it was already rare food. Many people took out from their bundles fist-sized coarse bread rolls, which in the cold weather had long hardened like stones, capable of denting someone’s head if thrown.

Ning Xiaoxian accepted it with a smile, then took out a small box of pastries from her storage bag and handed it to the child, saying, "Thank you. Sister doesn’t have anything particularly good to eat, so I’ll give you this box of pastries." The child accepted the pastries joyfully, said thank you, and ran back. Following the child’s figure, she indeed saw a few members of the Pu Clan looking at her with grateful and respectful eyes.

At this moment, someone approached her side. Ning Xiaoxian let out a long sigh before softly asking, "Why did you betray Yin Jiu You?"

The person walking next to her was naturally Gongshu Zhao.

Gongshu Zhao smiled, accompanying her for a short stretch. The snow on the ground had been cleared by the Hidden Guards, revealing gravel and rocks underneath. He looked down at his feet for a long while before asking her in return, "What do you think a soul avatar is?"

This question, she truly hadn’t pondered over. Such academic questions had always been discussed by Tu Jin and Changtian, did a humanities student like her need to know? She probed, "Is it just a strand of Divine Thought from a Soul Cultivator?"

"If it were just Divine Thought, what’s the difference between a Soul Cultivator and an ordinary cultivator?" Gongshu Zhao shook his head, "The avatars split by a Soul Cultivator are each nearly complete and intact souls. Placed in an independent physical body, that becomes an independent person." He looked at Ning Xiaoxian’s calm expression, knowing she couldn’t grasp the true meaning of his words yet, "Let me put it this way. As powerful as Lord Changtian is, even if he could break free from the Dragon Binding Rope and create a powerful body again, like millions of cultivators, he still couldn’t unravel the mystery of the Life Soul." 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Her heart stirred, suddenly recalling when she first set out with the Cloud Tiger Trading Team, Changtian had awakened a straw man to practice guiding techniques with her. She was amazed at how it could move and fight. Later, Changtian told her he had endowed the straw man with a very incomplete soul, extracted from the bodies of two little bat demons he had killed, so it had no autonomous action or thought capabilities, only able to obey his commands. Had it been placed in a human body, it would be in a state of living death.

Even so, she was still astonished back then. Of course, it was just something Changtian did offhandedly. Having been both friend and foe with Yin Jiu You for so many years, he had considerable understanding of the path of Soul Cultivation. A true confidant in the world is your enemy, no more than this layer of meaning.

But even Changtian has been unable to create a complete and healthy soul out of thin air to this day, only the avatars split by Yin Jiu You possess complete "form, sensation, perception, action, and consciousness," each avatar having the capability of independent observation, sensation, thought, action, and learning, which is a distinct characteristic that differentiates an independent "person" from others.

However, such a "mystery of the Life Soul" directly indicates the ability of Creation, which is a great power only the Creator can possess. Throughout the ages, countless talented individuals have emerged, yet so far, apparently only Yin Jiu You has truly unraveled the key. In this sense, he is undoubtedly a genius. It’s just a pity that the moment this Divine Skill he created was born, it placed him in opposition to everyone.

"That fellow is simply anti-human," he continued. "So what?"

"So in essence, every avatar has the qualification to become an independent person! It’s just that we initially possess the memories bestowed by Yin Jiu You’s main body," Gongshu Zhao replied with a bitter smile, "Initially, I thought I was him. I thought like him, acted like him. It wasn’t until many, many years later that I truly understood I was just a tool of the main body. Pathetically enough, even the emotion of ’pathetic’ was only triggered at that moment."

Her heart suddenly stirred: "Wait a minute. You say you originally acted in the way of Yin Jiu You? Then do soul avatars have the ability to cultivate Divine Skills?"

"That’s a very good question!" He looked at her with approval, "During the thousands of years Yin Jiu You was imprisoned at Yuhu Peak, the cultivation of a few avatars immediately stalled. It’s not that we didn’t want to cultivate, but no matter how much soul power we absorbed, there was no progress in Divine Skills. It was only after awakening self-awareness that we understood this was originally Yin Jiu You’s method."