The Deepening Abnormalities

Chapter 16

"The condensation of supernatural powers is born from the power of incense wishes. Whatever mortals think, the gods will respond. By attracting the thoughts of mortals, supernatural powers are formed. However, the thoughts of mortals are like the sea—complex and illusory. Supernatural powers can change in countless ways, and so can the divine body."

This passage about the condensation of supernatural powers is recorded in the Mysterious Technique of Building the Spirit and Changing the Embryo. Li Changmeng read it word by word, beginning to understand it.

Li Changmeng had long known that the thoughts of mortals about the gods, through the power of incense wishes, would cause changes in the cultivator's divine body. Especially for cultivation methods following the Incense Path, where the focus is on incense, these changes were amplified.

However, for the cultivator himself, whether in terms of attack or defense, he was weaker than the righteous cultivators. Supernatural powers were a way to compensate for this deficiency, and they were also the simplest and most effective method.

Just the power of incense wishes provided by the villagers of Mingguan Post had already allowed Li Changmeng to manifest four psychic jade hands. Their flexibility and strength far exceeded that of his original hands. These hands could be used to release spells and draw talismans, making them much more useful than his original arms.

Now, with Tieniu Town's population several times larger than that of Mingguan Post, and with an endless stream of pilgrims burning incense every day, the more massive power of incense wishes finally caused Li Changmeng to undergo another change.

"There must be something wrong somewhere. I never said that the Taoist Lord Mimen Wangqing has eyes on his hands. How could I have spread such an image that could have a huge impact on me?"

Li Changmeng raised his right hand in surprise and looked at the bronze mirror in front of him. To his shock, there was a crack in the palm of his hand. As he focused, the crack widened, and a golden vertical eye emitted light. Under the illumination of this light, Li Changmeng found that he could see the internal structure of the bronze mirror, and even some basic information appeared:

[Bronze Mirror] [A Valueless Object]

For a moment, Li Changmeng thought he had obtained some kind of system, but after further research, he discovered that this eye in his palm could analyze the object being illuminated and convert it into an understandable form.

For example, when he used it on Wang Hu, he received the following information:

[Wang Hu] [Fanatical Believer]

Generally speaking, it was a fairly useful supernatural power.

However, Li Changmeng was certain he had never spread such an image of the Taoist Lord. In order to obtain the supernatural power related to world creation, he had always preached in the temple: "The Taoist Lord Mimen Wangqing's body is like chaos. The entire universe lies within his divine dream. With a single thought, heaven and earth manifest. In a single dream, there are three thousand worlds."

This was the image of the Taoist Lord Mimen Wangqing that he had spread.

Yet, the manifestation of the eye in his palm, along with the psychic jade hands, went against this. While the tentacles could be explained by the villagers' understanding of the Taoist Lord's power, the eye in the palm could not be explained at all.

In fact, even for the psychic jade hands, the villagers believed real hands should have grown, so why did tentacles they had never seen before appear?

"Where exactly is the problem?"

The appearance of supernatural powers was a good thing, but Li Changmeng had just stepped onto the path of cultivating the Incense Path, and there hadn't yet been a significant and hard-to-detect power of incense wishes. At most, it was just one town and three villages, and currently, he could only absorb incense wishes from Tieniu Town.

Yet, from just the power of incense wishes of one town, he had obtained a supernatural power without fully understanding why. When his cultivation level grew higher, and there were millions or even billions of believers, who knew what kind of changes might occur?

Li Changmeng wanted to investigate the origin of the changes. The first step was to understand what image the Taoist Lord Mimen Wangqing had in the minds of the people who came to burn incense. Taking advantage of his position as the Mimen Spiritual Official, Li Changmeng asked many townspeople.

"The Taoist Lord is unfathomable and has supreme good fortune. How dare I make random speculations? Of course, it's the appearance in the shrine!" one person responded.

"The Taoist Lord Mimen Wangqing is such a great god. I'm just a small citizen in Tieniu Town. How could I know what he looks like?" said another.

Intimidated by Li Changmeng's status, the answers he received were all similar.

How could mortals dare to speculate about the appearance of the god? With the shrine right in front of them, there was no need to guess.

The importance of the natal spiritual embryo lay in two aspects: first, it was the foundation of cultivation, absorbing the power of incense to enhance the cultivation level; second, the image of the natal spiritual embryo was the initial image of the god.

In the early stages of cultivation, the god's image in mortals' minds would form the basis for the appearance of the spiritual embryo.

For Li Changmeng, his spiritual embryo had appeared as an ordinary human form, with no added special features. According to myths, his form should have been simple, with no additional peculiarities.

"So, the supernatural powers I have obtained must be the result of something gone wrong!" Li Changmeng concluded.

He reasoned that based on the image and story he had spread, no supernatural powers should have formed. The problem, then, must lie either with the cultivation method itself or with him—someone from another world.

As for the cultivation method, it was a fragment of a scripture that Taoist Baiyun had found, so it was possible that it contained flaws. Perhaps the cultivation method itself was incomplete.

As for Li Changmeng's origin, being someone reborn from another world, it seemed normal for there to be some issues when using a cultivation method meant for someone born in this world.

"But I can't solve either of these problems."

He had once been desperate to cultivate immortality, but now that he had finally embarked on the path, these issues had arisen.

When he reached the Great Perfection of Qi Refining and helped Taoist Baiyun, perhaps he could find a way to correct the cultivation method.

For now, his focus was on reaching the Great Perfection of Qi Refining, which would be achievable by the end of the year. By that time, he would only be nine years old. Even if he had to discard all his current cultivation and start anew with a righteous cultivation method, he would still have time.

The abnormalities within himself had shaken him deeply. He no longer desired to become a monster due to his cultivation method or the power of incense. He sought true immortality, transcending the limits of this world.

The image of immortality in his heart was that of someone with great power—ethereal, eternal—not someone with eyes in their palm or tentacles sprouting from their body.