NOVEL NEXT Chapter 695: White Tiger Seed
The Water Navy Xuanwu then told me everything he knew.
According to what Ying Lingyun recounted to Water Navy Xuanwu, the White Tiger Seed suddenly appeared within his soul one day. This was not unusual for past Liangyi inheritors, as Water Navy Xuanwu himself became an Xuanwu Inheritor in the same way. At that time, Ying Lingyun was already a high-ranking official in the Human Bureau, and the White Tiger Seed transformed him from an ordinary person with no mana talent into a genius cultivating Gold Element Magical Power, which ironically caused him many troubles.
The White Tiger Seed symbolizes Gold and Slaughter, capable of turning its host into a legendary genius warrior, yet combat talent was of no help in resurrecting Yinyue. What Ying Lingyun desired was not battlefield prowess but the research talent to develop methods to resurrect Yinyue.
At that time, he had just recently copied Lu Chan's "Possibility Avatar" through the "Water Moon" technique, brimming with ambition, aiming to form a research team with some avatars of himself as researchers to break through critical technical challenges he encountered. He even wanted to integrate "experience and talent from different research fields," forcefully transforming himself into a scientist with epoch-making scientific wisdom—I later encountered this version of Ying Lingyun.
It was mentioned before that forcibly integrating the experiences and talents of multiple "Possibility Avatars" could lead to spiritual collapse. Generally speaking, creating a wise mad scientist through such a method is rare; it's a blessing if one doesn't end up as a dribbling, cockroach-eating, severely mentally ill person. Even Lu Chan never dared to do so. Ying Lingyun's ability to maintain the integrity of his self-awareness speaks volumes about his deep obsession and unimaginable spiritual direction.
However, with the presence of the White Tiger Seed, Ying Lingyun's "brilliant idea" was doomed to fail. No matter how many talents he integrated into himself, the White Tiger Seed would reset them to talents related to Gold and Slaughter. Moreover, since the "Possibility Avatar" spell does not distinguish between the original and the avatar by definition, the consciousness network of "Possibility Avatar" being said to be the original, the White Tiger Seed also affected other "Possibility Avatars" responsible for research work.
It is possible that even Ying Lingyun's inherent leadership skills underwent a transformation due to the appearance of the White Tiger Seed, preventing him from managing his forces from the shadows like before.
It is imaginable that Ying Lingyun was certainly in a considerably tough position during that period.
Being someone who relied on technology and political acumen, he unexpectedly lost his technological talent and political wisdom. Moreover, the White Tiger Seed only granted him talent but did not provide him with ready-made mana; he had to cultivate slowly if he wanted mana. You must know that even I did not start out so powerful; it took me over four years to grow into who I was when first meeting Mazao. Initially, Ying Lingyun was only exceptionally formidable by the standards of a weak mortal.
To maintain his status within the Human Bureau, he had to outwardly project an image of "nothing being wrong" with him under these circumstances. Even if he originally had talent in acting, he likely lost it by then. It's akin to a protagonist in some novels who must pretend to be an elite figure under the whims of fate—it's a tightrope walk indeed.
However, compared to this perilous adventure, Ying Lingyun came through it. He once defeated the nearly god-like Yinyue with a mortal's body, so such a dilemma could not stump him. It was during this period that he met Water Navy Xuanwu.
Ying Lingyun had long known from the Zhu family that the "Water Master" was an Xuanwu Inheritor and realized that he encountered the same situation as the Zhu family ancestor Zhu Yi. To resolve his problems, he sought out Water Navy Xuanwu through the intelligence network of the Human Bureau and secular authorities.
"After failing to assassinate Xuanming, I spread the false news of my death, which allowed me to stay incognito largely due to that. Besides a handful like Zhu Ba, no one knew I was alive. So when Ying Lingyun found me, it scared me quite a bit," Water Navy Xuanwu said now. "Thinking back, it might have been when I informed the Zhu family in person that I was still alive—that could have been where things went wrong. Ying Lingyun was always secretly monitoring Zhu Changan's movements; perhaps my visit was caught by the surveillance methods he had set up."
"Then you collaborated with him? Never thought of killing him to seize his White Tiger Seed?" I asked.
"How could I kill him? The method I possess for devouring other Power Seeds requires following the Five Elements' counteracting order step by step. I am Water, so I must devour Fire first, then Gold and Wood, and finally Earth," Water Navy Xuanwu explained. "Therefore, before killing you, I can't kill Ying Lingyun, or else the White Tiger Seed would automatically fly to Shan Liangyi's hands.
"Moreover, the relationship between Liangyi Inheritors is not only counteractive but also constructive. This constructiveness influences our destiny with each other; albeit less significantly than the counteractive aspect, as long as I am with the White Tiger Inheritor, there's an innate assistance from one to the other. Facts prove that both Zhu Yi and Ying Lingyun have been benefactors to me."
I comprehensively said, "Since Ying Lingyun later cut and pasted the White Tiger Seed to you... you made a pact with him, working for him, and thus appeared in Moon Hidden Mountain City to relocate Yinyue to his place?"
Water Navy Xuanwu nodded and explained the remaining parts.
During the time Ying Lingyun bore the White Tiger Seed, he could not have developed the techniques for Xu Gou and the Power of Cutting through research on the White Tiger Seed and Divine Seal Fragments. Water Navy Xuanwu couldn't clarify exactly how he managed this breakthrough back then. However, I have a suspicion.
Among all the "Possibility Avatars" summoned by Ying Lingyun, there is one "misfit" that cannot be integrated into the consciousness network and would not be affected by it—Dr. Silver Mask. During the period when Ying Lingyun temporarily lost his research capability, Dr. Silver Mask likely retained comprehensive research abilities. He merely needed to utilize this avatar.
Of course, Dr. Silver Mask seemingly holds ulterior motives against Ying Lingyun, although he serves the ideology of the Human Bureau, there's no guarantee of genuine loyalty to Ying Lingyun. And the "Twelve Gods Plan" is aligned more favorably with the Human Bureau's ideology, perhaps Ying Lingyun covertly packaged his needs into this project to have Dr. Silver Mask provide intelligence.
Upon reflection, even from a perspective of ignorance, the "Twelve Gods Plan" indeed feels suspicious. Ying Lingyun surely would allocate his time and energy mainly to resurrecting Yinyue, yet he proposed such a time-consuming research project himself. Considering this project's abandonment did not affect Ying Lingyun's status within the Human Bureau, it seems evident that it wasn't concocted solely for securing his position... It's surprising there exists such a hidden backstory.
Upon completing the severance with the White Tiger Seed, Ying Lingyun could revive all his talents through the "Possibility Avatars" copied using the "Water Moon", transforming himself into the "Mad Scientist"—oscillating between madness and lucidity—he would become in later times.
On the other hand, since Ying Lingyun used another method for transferring Power Seeds, Water Navy Xuanwu managed to bypass the Vermilion Bird Seed to directly acquire the White Tiger Seed. However, since Xuanwu does not restrain White Tiger, Water Navy Xuanwu couldn't quickly assimilate his gains; he could, at best, preliminarily bind the two seeds. When fighting me, he could only utilize the Water Element part of his power.
Water Navy Xuanwu had not fully claimed ownership of the White Tiger Seed, so a strong connection of destiny remained between the White Tiger Seed and Ying Lingyun—after all, even with severing, Ying Lingyun was initially chosen by the White Tiger Seed as the Liangyi Inheritor for this era, repeatedly selected regardless of cut times. This perhaps was the key reason why Ying Lingyun specifically pasted the White Tiger Seed onto Water Navy Xuanwu instead of discarding it casually.
Upon Water Navy Xuanwu's death, the White Tiger Seed returned to Ying Lingyun's soul, along with the Xuanwu Seed partially bound to it, also flying to Ying Lingyun.
To have painstakingly gotten rid of a Power Seed only to have it return, "buy one get one free" even—others could hardly imagine how frantic Ying Lingyun felt at that moment, leaving him with two options.
Either revive Water Navy Xuanwu and repeat his previous steps; or cut and paste both Power Seeds to his secretly allied friend—the Taoyuan Village Master, Meng Zhang.
Ultimately, he chose the former. Though Water Navy Xuanwu was of the Great Success Rank, making resurrection difficult as with the Great Demon Silver Moon, this case was special.
The Power Seeds are the "third gate creations" capable of assimilating all essence of a Liangyi Inheritor and ultimately handed over to Shan Liangyi for assimilation. They inherently record everything about the Liangyi Inheritor, considerably representing the contemporary Liangyi Inheritor. The strength of this resurrection medium, though not sure how it compares to Ying Shen Silver Moon, nonetheless makes reviving someone of Great Success Rank possible.
Ying Lingyun even used the White Tiger Seed, which had partially entered Water Navy Xuanwu's soul, as a resurrection medium, reviving Water Navy Xuanwu in a state "possessing both Xuanwu Seed and White Tiger Seed." This significantly increased the synchronization rate between Water Navy Xuanwu and the White Tiger Seed post-resurrection.
Golden can strengthen Water, leading to the digestion of the White Tiger Seed, allowing Water Navy Xuanwu to leap from an Impermanence candidate to Impermanence itself.
However, because Ying Lingyun needed to reserve most resources for resurrecting Yinyue, Water Navy Xuanwu was exceptionally weak at the beginning post-resurrection, not even waking up for a while, hence not participating in the early battles at the Human Bureau's headquarters.