It was the day of Jiang Mang and Chu Lingxin's departure. The duo would be accompanied by ten saint stage seniors and Xiao Lu, who had become a saint beast after following Jiang Mang for another five years. It had become a saint beast a month before Jiang Mang and had grown to become a massive crane with a wingspan of ten meters whose feathers were green and red, it had also learned a technique from bloodline heritage to alter its original size to become smaller. Xiao Lu had to have an impressive bloodline for it to become a saint beast after only a couple of years and receive bloodline heritage.
Jiang Mang had searched for its bloodline in the royal library but hadn't found a single clue. He only learned that all spirit beast with a pure enough ancestral bloodline would learn the transformation ability when they became saint beasts. They would also have superior intellect equivalent to adult humans compared to ordinary saint beasts who have the intellect of 10-year-old children.
When they set off, they flew on a thunder eagle saint beast who rivaled peak saint stage cultivators. It was an enormous eagle with a wingspan of thirty meters and a saddle capable of carrying twenty people. This thunder eagle had a trace of the bloodline from the thunderbird, which helped it gain the intelligence of an adult human, and it understood the human language after living with them for many years. This thunder eagle was one of the protectors of the chu empire as it could temporarily fight low King stage cultivators when it activated its bloodline, which would temporarily weaken the eagle after ten minutes of fighting.
While flying on top of the eagle it would take a full month to reach their first destination called Sea city, which was the capital of one of the small continents which specialized in sea trade and water elemental techniques. This continent was ruled by a power called the Sea serpent group which focused on trade and business instead of cultivation.
This month would allow Jiang Mang to comprehend the illusion and charm intent through experimentation on the other saint stage cultivators who followed the duo. These two intents were the basis of the three charm and three illusion techniques, which would immediately reach Di tier after comprehending those two intents. this would, however, not be as easy as the speed and claw intent as both the charm and illusion intent are immaterial and would thus require more talent and opportunities to comprehend than other intents as they would never be learned by those who don't have the talent for it.
He would also study two Di tier techniques he gained from the Chu empire during his free time. These two techniques were called vine storm and darkness domain, these two techniques could be integrated with his musical performances which would enhance his control over elemental qi. He would have to learn another two intents to master these techniques. The intents were the growth intent and absorption intent. The growth intent would allow the user to use qi to rapidly heal and grow vines around him while the absorption intent allows the darkness to absorb qi attacks completely or partially.
Jiang Mang was incredibly happy with these two techniques and vowed to learn and master them. He started his training by playing qi songs and creating illusions to comprehend the illusion intent. He would then try to charm the other people with his charm techniques to comprehend the Charm intent, and when he was bored in between his training he would start learning the two other techniques and intents.
After the first week, Jiang Mang had gained many insights into the charm and illusion intent. He had discovered that different actions and emotions could increase or decrease the charm effect dependent on the target while the illusion intent mainly relied on the understanding of the human heart. He had also mastered all the different techniques of the Di tier techniques and had to only learn the two intents.
Another week went by, and they were halfway to their first destination. Jiang Mang had achieved initial mastery of the charm intent and was now capable of completely charming saint realm cultivators. This was his third intent which was quite the accomplishment as normal saint realm cultivators cannot comprehend or can only comprehend one type of intent in this realm while geniuses are capable of learning two or three and only prodigies from the top 9 powers could learn more than three. Chu Lingxin had comprehended two types of intents one of which had reached small accomplishment. They were the soft intent and sword intent, which was the requirement for being called a swordsman.
During the third week, he achieved initial mastery in both the growth and absorption intent while almost reaching it in the illusion intent. He felt that the illusion intent needed just a simple realization before achieving initial mastery. He currently comprehended illusions as productions formed by a person's dreams, perceptions, and senses, but this didn't seem to be complete. He eventually decided to immerse himself into a series of illusions to comprehend illusions through experience instead of observation.
He spent a week immersed in illusions, and Chu Lingxin became worried for him and decided to wake him by tomorrow when they almost arrived at Sea city. While Chu Lingxin was worrying, Jiang Mang was experiencing all different types of illusions, from trap type illusions to mazes to lust illusions. He even experienced Reincarnation paradise, but he was still unable to find that piece of inspiration.
He was now experiencing the life of a traveling musician who played music to survive and earn money. All the music he played was filled with a desolate feeling of despair and sadness. One day when he was playing on the streets, a passerby asked why he only played sad music to which he replied: "Because this is the only way how I know."
When he said these words comprehension suddenly dawned onto him. People desire and act a certain way because they have learned to act that certain way, which stems from experience, emotions, and heart. Even if a person acts against their heart, they will still act in a way because of their heart. This means that illusions originating from the heart will always be the strongest and it doesn't matter if the target is willing or not.
He immediately woke after reaching comprehension, and he immediately noticed that he had achieved the illusion intent and had even mastered it to the peak of initial mastery only half a step away off small accomplishment. They were also only a couple of hours away from arriving at Sea city.