Lin Feng had eight direct disciples under his wing as of current. It would not be too excessive if he took in Big Luo as well. Lin Feng himself was not too concerned about the number of disciples he had. Even if he did care about traditional limits, nine was the appropriate number and he had yet to mentor a ninth and final one.
As for the negative effects from the news of him taking in Big Luo as a disciple spreading throughout the Divine Lands, which could possibly lead to further conflicts and furors between the human and demon races, Lin Feng was not too particularly concerned as well. Everything had pros and cons, but whether one was more than the other depended entirely on handling the matter afterwards and personal capability.
Still, Lin Feng had no intentions of passing on his mantras to Big Luo - at least not for now. This would not change even after reforming Big Luo's original physical body. Lin Feng planned to let Big Luo do his own cultivation and research, and be his guiding star when Big Luo was stuck or when he was in trouble.
As he watched Big Luo, a strange thought started to form in Lin Feng's head, and Big Luo was the most suitable for this.
It would be even more so if Big Luo was able to practice the Demonic Book of the Heavenly Tao in his cultivation of the demonic mantras.
Lin Feng had his Heavenly Classic of the Way's Virtues, thus he did not covet the Demonic Book of the Heavenly Tao. However, he had a theory and if he wanted to test it he needed to check against Big Luo and his practice of demonic mantras, which would act as a kind of case study.
This did not mean that he wanted to use Big Luo as a guinea pig for his experiments. This path that Big Luo was about to start on was the fastest way for him to discover his true identity. To Big Luo, this was more important than becoming Lin Feng's disciple and learning his mantras. It was a pleasant coincidence and beneficial for both parties as well.
Big Luo himself would be harmed, of course, and neither would he be subjected to some kind of external danger. Lin Feng would help him seek a better life and greater fortune as well. The only difference between him and Xiao Yan, Zhu Yi and the others was that this path was molded and shaped by Lin Feng and not really of his own volition.
This was not consistent with Lin Feng's principles of taking in disciples, and this was the reason for Lin Feng's clarification that Big Luo could not be considered his direct disciple for now.
He was not about to sustain this relationship for the long term. He would give Big Luo the same choice he gave Xiao Yan and the others after Big Luo had discovered his true identity and background, and wherever he wanted to go and whatever he wanted to do was entirely up to Big Luo himself.
"It seems as if… He's really a key that can solve so many of my problems," Lin Feng thought to himself as he started to dodge the various dangerous illusions of the Ying Sea. Lin Feng could feel that the reappearance of the three mountains made the illusory powers of the Ying Sea a lot more potent and perilous.
As they were moving forward, Lin Feng suddenly felt a ripple of mana between the clouds and mist not too far from their location.
Once he was confident that it was not another illusion of the Ying Sea, he thought to himself, "People are fighting already?"
He split open the clouds and landed soundlessly at the side. It was an epic battle between a human and a demon - the demon was a Golden-Feathered Great Roc King, and the human was a nascent soul cultivator under the command of the crown prince of the Great Zhou Empire, Liang Yuan. This human cultivator seemed to be from the East Heaven's Gate, and his name was Shao Peng.
Both Liang Pan and the Marquis of Xuanji, Zhu Hongwu were present during this reappearance of the three mystical mountains. Liang Yuan remained behind to hold down the fort at Tianjing City and Shao Peng was here in his stead.
The Golden-Feathered Great Roc King flashed its original demonic body and transformed into a gigantic Great roc with feathers that flickered with golden light that surrounded Shao Peng in an instant.
Shao Peng's Celestial Spell of Elusiveness was exquisite, but it was incomplete. Besides people like Zhu Yi whose powers could not be measured by normal nascent soul stage standards, the Golden-Feathered Great Roc King was one of the only few opponents that he was unable to shake off.
This put him in a tight spot. The Golden-Feathered Great Roc King began to speak with its human voice, "Stop struggling and spill the news about the Green Glass Jade Stand. If you wait for me to capture you, I will just use the Soul-Searching Technique."
Shao Peng grunted and replied, "I just don't have time to stick around - you're condescending towards me now?"
He grunted again as he placed his palms together. Streams of green energy steamed out of his body and transformed into clear air as they drifted into the sky and formed dome like a tiny illusory world with stars that sparkled in the sky.
Shao Peng started to cast another spell as a giant door opened into the tiny transparent world and a great force of gravity came out from within.
The Golden-Feathered Great Roc King had that momentary lapse of concentration and was very nearly sucked inside. He immediately channeled his own natural abhijna and extended his wings to soar away but was locked in place by the door leading into the tiny transparent world.
The tiny transparent world immobilized the Golden-Feathered Great Roc King but was unable to suck him in completely, while the latter was also unable to break free as both entities entered a standoff.
Lin Feng was intensely amused at the sight. When Shao Peng first met Zhu Yi, he was captured right away and showed no attitude at all. However, there was some substance to this guy after all.
At least he was a disciple of the Heaven's Gate Sect and managed to pick up the Dark Boundary Curse technique from them. For a nascent soul cultivator, this performance was actually not too shabby.
Lin Feng was completely uninterested into the victor of this battle, however; what piqued his interest was the topic of their discussion.
The Green Glass Jade Stand - this was the name of a magic item.
Lin Feng was still interested in hoarding magic items after all. However, this still depended on the rarity and power of the magic item and normal ones definitely did not qualify.
This Green Glass Jade Stand was an exception. Its value was not in the magic item itself, but due to the fact that it was connected to the Three Mountains of the Ying Sea. This magic item was nothing extraordinary outside of the context of the Ying Sea.
The Green Glass Jade Stand's original owner was the Golden Hill Holy Man. This individual was one of the most active immortal soul stage cultivators during the Middle Ages, and even erected his own line of mantras and he named it the Way of the Golden Hill.
During the first appearance of the Three Mountains of the Ying Sea, the Golden Hill Holy Man was one of the more powerful cultivators who entered the Ying Sea with the hopes of taking control of at least one of the mountains.
However, he perished regrettably in the Ying Sea, and the Way of the Golden Hill was extinct ever since as he did not have any successors.
There were many powerful immortal soul cultivators like the Golden Hill Holy Man who perished in random events or in dangerous places like the Ying Sea over the course of history, so this piece of news was nothing new.
However, during the next appearance of the three mountains, there was a rumor that went around saying that people saw the Green Glass Jade Stand appear on top of the Yingzhou Celestial Mountain, one of the three mystical mountains.
The rumor was proven to be true as there were multiple witnesses. There were even people that came way after who reported the same sighting.
However, during the recent reappearances of the three mountains in the past few thousand years, the people that went by the Yingzhou Celestial Mountain could no longer locate the Green Glass Jade Stand.
People had a theory that this magic item did exist on top of the Yingzhou Celestial Mountain before, but the people that wanted to take control of the mountain triggered its defensive mechanisms during their epic battle and caused the Green Glass Jade Stand to crash down from the mountain.
Even though the Green Glass Jade Stand was no longer on top of the Yingzhou Celestial Mountain, it had existed on it for more than a millennium after all. People postulated that it was likely that the retrieval of this item would be of great benefit to taming this particular mystical mountain. Therefore, the Green Glass Jade Stand became one of the most important leads to finding the Yingzhou Celestial Mountain and was treated by all to be of substantial importance in this collective endeavor to find the mountain.
Lin Feng finally showed himself and exited the void. He extended his finger outwards, and the tiny transparent world formed by the Dark Boundary Curse instantly shattered to pieces.
Shao Peng's face turned pale as the Golden-Feathered Great Roc King broke free. He did not take the opportunity to ambush Shao Peng but turned towards Lin Feng with a wary look and said, "You…"
Before he could even finish his sentence, Lin Feng flicked his fingers and a stream of purple energy surged towards the Roc King like a gust of strong wind and blew him away and knocked him off his feet.
A haze of shock and indignation came over the Golden-Feathered Great Roc King. However, he did not dare to say anything else as he was aware that he was no match for Lin Feng. In the end, he had no choice but to suck it up as he extended his wings, tucked his tail and escaped into the far end of the horizon without a single moment of hesitation.
Shao Peng's heart skipped a beat as Lin Feng turned around to face him. He sighed inside before he bent over in greeting, "Greetings, leader of the Celestial Sect of Wonders."
It appeared that Shao Peng had seen pictures of this avatar before. Lin Feng was not too concerned as he said calmly, "Speak."
Shao Peng knew the meaning behind Lin Feng's request, and he swallowed as he considered his options. Even though this avatar was only at the nascent soul stage, Lin Feng's display of power by blowing away the Golden-Feathered Great Roc King meant that there was no way he could escape or even put up a fight. He was probably unable to commit suicide even if he wanted to - whether he lived or died was no longer up to him.
Shao Peng did not have the courage to deceive Lin Feng and started to spill the beans. "The Green Glass Jade Stand…"
Before he could talk any more, his eyes started flashing with green light as his entire soul began to tremble violently.
Intense fear appeared in his eyes as he spat out two words with agonizing effort, "My… Lady…"
In the next moment, his nascent soul erupted into roaring flames!
Lin Feng watched everything happen in silence and shook his head. He slashed down with his right hand like a blade and the Fences of the Heavens Technique started to work its magic.
The flames on Shao Peng's nascent soul vanished into thin air in an instant, as if it had never appeared before.
"I..." He was already in the nascent soul stage, but Shao Peng broke out cold sweat anyway, as if he had just woken up from a horrifying nightmare.
In the deepest recesses of his soul, a mark of some sort gradually disappeared and a chilling voice could be faintly heard from within. The voice became a lot more distant over time and ultimately became completely silent.
Lin Feng turned to look at Shao Peng as if nothing ever happened and said again, "Speak."
Shao Peng could feel the bitterness in his mouth and his heart sank. "There is a myriad of illusions in the Ying Sea. Even though the space is not as chaotic as the Void Battleground, it's still considered highly unpredictable. I don't actually know where the exact location of the Green Glass Jade Stand is."
"We have received news that this treasure has appeared on a tiny island Northwest from the Ying Sea. This tiny island formed a triangle-like formation with two other islands, and not far from these three islands, there were three other small islands with a similar triangular formation. This is the only unique characteristic that distinguishes these islands from the others."
"The problem is that the Ying Sea is a vast as it gets. Furthermore, there are so many illusions as well and there may be more than one place with such a geographical layout. I haven't seen the islands myself, so I don't actually know how to distinguish it and neither do I know it's exact location."
The 'Northwest' territory of the Ying Sea was equally large and had an incalculable surface area. Cloudy mist circulated around as layers of illusions blanketed the entire place. Even third-level immortal soul powerhouses would face a great many obstacles.
This lead was still murky and unspecific. However, Lin Feng nodded once before departing into the void.
Shao Peng was rooted to the ground momentarily before he realized that he was finally free. Still, he knew that he could not relax and lower his guard as the question of where he should go now remained a conundrum.
Lin Feng flew across the sky as he thought about what happened. He was observing Shao Peng's emotions as he was reporting and Lin Feng was positive Shao Peng was not trying to deceive him. Even though it was just a rumor that passed into his ears, it was still a helpful lead nonetheless.
Even if the Green Glass Jade Stand was able to run, it would be obstructed by the great many limitations of the Ying Sea compared to the Yingzhou Celestial Mountain, which was able to move around freely. With a rough designated area to search was a lot easier than otherwise.
Furthermore, the task of controlling the mountains was not as simple as just finding them. One probably had to battle a great many people to gain control of the mountains. Therefore, the success of the victor would depend on personal capability after all and the Green Glass Jade Stand was likely to be something that increased one's chances with the Yingzhou Celestial Mountain.
After flying for a long time, and meeting several human cultivators and demons who heard the same piece of news along the way, Lin Feng knew that he was reaching his destination.
The triangle-shaped islands finally appeared in sight. Even though it was covered by thick layers of cloudy mist, Lin Feng could feel that there was a raging battle not too far from here.