Star Odyssey

Chapter 3884: Thoughtless Mountain

Jue Ling’s expression grew solemn. This fruit carried great importance.

She turned to Jue Qing, hoping that her daughter would acknowledge that there were times when a scenery’s importance was not based on its beauty, but on its meaning.

Jue Qing took the Celestial Frost Fruit, her lips curling upwards to form a slight smile.

“This doesn’t count as a sight.” As she spoke, she looked up to meet Lu Yin’s gaze. “And yet... it is the most beautiful sight. You have completed your task.”

Lu Yin nodded. “Thank you.”

Jue Qing’s task was actually the hardest one that Lu Yin had been given so far, and that was because it depended entirely on the woman herself. It was simply too subjective.

To truly find the most beautiful sight, how could one even go about looking? There were countless beautiful vistas in any universe and planet after planet with incredible landscapes. Beyond the megaverse, there were even more incredible sights that remained unknown. It was simply impossible to determine what was the most beautiful.

For Lu Yin, offering the Celestial Frost Fruit had been his way of showing his sincerity.

It felt like so much time had passed since he had dealt with the Celestial Frost Sect, and he could not help but wonder how the Tianyuan was doing at the moment.

Wei Nu remained a thorn in his heart.

If he returned to the Tianyuan at this time, no one would be able to escape. Wei Nu, Forgotten Ruins God, the Nests—he would be able to sweep them all away, provided that no Immortals appeared.

Jue Qing had only stepped out to check on her task. Since it had been completed, she simply nodded and left.

Lu Yin was left alone with Jue Ling again.

He had given the matriarch his warning, so he got straight to his next point. “I want to see the Jue family’s secret manual.”

Jue Ling was caught off guard. “The Jue family’s secret manual? Why do you want to see that, Mr. Lu?”

Lu Yin replied, “Just tell me if I can or not.”

Jue Ling’s eyes flickered. “That’s also why you went to visit the Yu family, isn’t it? Yu Jing must have already told you.

“Our Jue family bears you no ill will, Mr. Lu. Please don’t harm us.”

Her answer was essentially the same as Yu Jing’s, so Lu Yin did not press the matter. He simply showed Jue Ling an image of the Lockbreaker who had released the white bones. Jue Ling immediately recognized the man as being the person whom the Cheng family had searched for for years, just like Yu Jing, though the matriarch added an additional detail.

“This person isn’t only being sought by us. Deathmound is also searching for him.”

Lu Yin was not at all surprised. “Since Li Guo has seen the secret manuals, it makes sense that he would be searching for this man.”

“What’s so special about him?” Jue Ling asked, confused. She herself had never been allowed to see the Cheng family’s secret manual.

Lu Yin smiled. “Let’s make a trade. You let me see your Jue family’s secret manual, and I’ll explain this to you.”

Jue Ling gave a helpless smile. “Then forget I asked. Thank you for considering it, Mr. Lu.”

With Jue Qing’s task complete and having received the same answer from the Jue family as he had from the Yu family, Lu Yin simply reached out to Long Yin, asking the peak lord to set up a meeting. Lu Yin wanted to visit Li Guo, but it would be impolite to arrive unannounced.

Even If Lu Yin got along well with the people of Deathmound, that did not mean that everyone associated with Deathmound wanted to interact with Lu Yin. The more familiar one was, the more important it was to act appropriately.

Long Yin agreed without hesitation. After all, she owed Lu Yin a tremendous favor.

At Jue Ling’s invitation, Lu Yin stayed with the Jue family. He did not know if Jue Ling’s invitation was genuine, polite formality, or even some small scheme, but there was no need to overthink things. He wanted to study the Jue family’s Linear Insight anyways.

Comprehension techniques were an elusive power. Out of all the various abilities and powers that Lu Yin had encountered throughout his life, apart from the power of karma, the most difficult to grasp were comprehension techniques. So far, he had Lu Xiaoxuan’s Flipping the Sky and Lu Yin’s own Setting Sun.

This was because comprehension techniques were impossible to really train in. They did not grow stronger over time and instead grew stronger as a person improved their cultivation and experienced more things.

There were times when even Lu Yin was surprised by the power of his comprehension techniques. It almost seemed like they grew stronger the more emotional he became.

Flipping the Sky alone had turned the tide for Lu Yin on multiple occasions when he had been facing a desperate situation.

Setting Sun had also saved him more than once, by incinerating his opponent’s strength.

However, if Lu Yin was asked to deliberately train in either of his two comprehension techniques, he would not know how to even begin.

It might be possible for him to make progress by traveling the cosmos or by strengthening his own emotions or awareness, much like the path that he had taken to stabilize his power after acquiring Word Manifestation and when he had been preparing for his Origin realm breakthrough.

What exactly were comprehension techniques? He had bits and pieces of answers, but nothing conclusive yet. It might be possible to find some clarity from the Jue family.

Lu Yin made no secret of his desire to research comprehension techniques, and Jue Ling quickly gave him a page from an ancient manuscript.

Lu Yin looked at it and saw nearly a hundred strange names. The Weight of Pricelessness. Snow in the Wind. A Coin in My Heart. There were many names, and while they initially seemed to be completely unrelated, they all gave Lu Yin an impression of vicissitude.

“What’s this?”

“These are the comprehension techniques that have been developed by people that my Jue family has recruited over the ages.”

“Recruited?”

Jue Ling smiled. “You can’t believe that it’s only been members of my Jue family who have mastered comprehension techniques, do you, Mr. Lu? That’s not the case at all. People who are raised in the same environment and form the same group don’t have a great many differences between each other. Their perception of the world and understanding of life don’t vary too much. The ones who are most likely to master a comprehension technique are those who have wandered the cosmos, suffered hardships, or borne deep grudges.

“Our Jue family recruits more outsiders than either of the other two clans. We don’t need people to fight for us, just people who can master comprehension techniques and then help us create a new comprehension technique.

Lu Yin understood. “Are you saying that your Jue family is able to ensure that the people you recruit can master a comprehension technique?”

Jue Ling replied, “One in 10,000.”

Lu Yin’s expression grew solemn. “That’s very impressive.”

He had roamed about the Tianyuan, the Spirit Nidus, and even the Nine Odysseys Megaverse, but how many of the experts that he had encountered had mastered comprehension techniques? He could count them on one hand. And yet the Jue family had a one-in-ten-thousand chance of producing such a person. That explained why there were so many comprehension techniques on the page that Lu Yin had been given.

Jue Ling gave a bitter smile. “Don’t be misled into believing it’s a high percentage, Mr. Lu. Those are simply our odds from among those we recruit. The truth is, our recruitment process is extremely strict and very time-consuming. We often need to observe a cultivator for many years before we decide to bring them in. After all, helping someone develop a comprehension technique costs us a great deal of resources.

“It’s normal for centuries to pass without anyone in our Jue family mastering a comprehension technique. Right now, even if we include our own family members, there aren’t even ten people who have succeeded.

“We are only barely able to maintain the numbers that we need to develop spirit treasure formations for the Cheng and Yu families. With the Cheng family now gone, we can finally breathe a little easier.”

Lu Yin arched a brow. “You have to supply them with formations?”

Jue Ling nodded. “That’s our agreement, which is part of the three-clan covenant. Of course, in exchange, we also are given some of the Cheng family’s carved spirit treasure formations and the Yu family’s Script Arrays.”

“Why not actively create specific experiences for people to undergo? You could replicate the experiences of those who’ve already mastered a comprehension technique and allow others to live through them. It seems faster.”

“We’ve considered that and even tried it, but it doesn’t work. Even if two people live through the exact same experiences. meet the same people, hear the same words, and see the same sights, it still doesn’t work.”

Lu Yin grew curious. “Then how does your family make those whom you recruit master comprehension techniques? Of course, if this is a secret, then forget I asked.”

Jue Ling smiled. “It’s no secret. Many people already know about this. Everything we do relies on our palm technique, Formless Palm.”

“Formless Palm?”

“Formless Palm. It’s an attack that can empty a person’s mind of all thoughts, incorporating both manifested thought and consciousness. Of course, what we employ is nothing close to the strength of your consciousness, Mr. Lu, but we are able to temporarily leave a person’s thoughts and consciousness empty. Then, when combined with the scene, event, or person they are most obsessed with in their memories, will result in a small probability of them gaining sudden enlightenment and understanding a comprehension technique.”

Lu Yin raised an eyebrow. So that’s how it works.

“It may sound simple, yet it is anything but in practice. The most difficult obstacle is not even the Formless Palm, but rather identifying a person’s greatest obsession. That requires my Jue family to have a profound understanding of the individual cultivator, and we must observe and record them day after day. From what we have observed, what most cultivators believe to be their obsessions are false. People do not actually know their own desires or obsessions, and that makes it extremely difficult for us to determine those things. That is what wastes the most time and resources.

“If we could accurately pinpoint a cultivator’s obsession, the chances of them understanding a comprehension technique could rise to at least one in a thousand.”

Lu Yin looked at Jue Ling strangely. So this... is what the Jue family is doing.

Is this any different from what I’m trying to do to understand my own obsessions?

The situation involving Yuan Huo and Kui Niang had revealed to Lu Yin that people often misunderstood their own obsessions. People did not understand their own desires, goals, or struggles. Yuan Huo had not known, Kui Niang had not known, and even Lu Yin, who had been able to see all of the two’s experiences, had not known. Not even karma could reveal the truth to him.

Everything boiled down to one proverb: water finds its own course. Yet that simple maxim stumped nearly everyone.

No one overcoming Dukkha truly understood the nature of their own suffering. Yet when water found its own course—when the conditions were perfectly ripe—a person could overcome their Dukkha and step into the Immortal realm.

“If I’m not mistaken, the people that your Jue family recruits don’t have very high cultivation, do they?” Lu Yin asked.

Jue Ling was startled. “How did you know that?”

Lu Yin chuckled. How could he not know? In order to observe a person and understand their entire life’s experiences and obsession, time was the most important factor. Ordinary humans only lived for around 100 years, which was easy enough for a cultivator to observe. On the other hand, even a weak cultivator could live for centuries, millennia, or longer. How was someone supposed to observe that?

Even the observer might not live for as long as the one they were observing.

For the Jue family to accurately identify a recruit’s obsession, the target could not have lived for too long yet. Observation might last for decades, or even centuries, but not millennia. Beyond that span, the cost would overwhelm even the Jue family.

This was also just to help someone understand a comprehension technique. A comprehension technique and overcoming Dukkha were nowhere close to being on the same level, and yet the process could be quite similar.

If one could observe a cultivator from the moment of their birth until they entered Dukkha, while the person themselves might never know that they were being watched, it could be possible for the observer to understand the cultivator’s Dukkha better than the person themselves. If that truth could be pointed out at the right moment, that person would have a good chance of stepping into the Immortal realm.

It was a process that offered a true shot at Immortality.

But who could possibly do such a thing?

Who could continuously observe a person from birth until Dukkha?

No one could do such a thing; only the boundless cosmic firmament itself, which had pierced the veil of time, recorded every fleeting moment.

The Jue family’s method could not be replicated. Even if other powerful factions in the Nine Odysseys Megaverse learned the family’s Formless Palm, they would not be able to dedicate their resources to observing a single person as the Jue family did. After all, this was the foundation of the Jue family’s business.

Lu Yin dismissed Jue Ling and went to visit the Jue family’s Thoughtless Mountain.

Thoughtless Mountain was where the Jue family helped people understand comprehension techniques.

Lu Yin saw a person being struck by a Formless Palm, and they became confused and incapable of perceiving their surroundings. A member of the Jue family then brought out a woman, who shouted, “Father!”

The man trembled, as though something was surging up from deep within his memories and causing him to become highly agitated. Around him, other Jue family members manipulated the nearby scenery, trying to provoke the man even further.

Unfortunately, despite all their efforts, the man still failed to understand a comprehension technique.