Mysteries of Immortal Puppet Master

Chapter 1535: Chapter 633: Cautious Assimilation, Skillful Transformation

Xu Hanshuang, an Inner Sect Disciple of the Tianhe Sect. Quiet by nature, skilled in nurturing spiritual medicine. Upon entering the formation, she gained the Rain Accumulation Cloud Nature. Thereafter, she managed a cloud field on Withered Spring Peak, using the rain accumulation to moisten the veins, making springs flow from the barren peak and the desolate ridge green again within ten years. She also improved the Three-hour Moistening Medicine Cloud, doubling the survival rate of low-level spiritual grass.

The Rain Accumulation Cloud Nature is adept at nurturing and accumulating feelings. After Xu Hanshuang gained this nature, her heart became softer, and her empathy for all things grew deeper. Her cloud fields flourished, yet she was often melancholy. In her later years, she often sat quietly in the rain, saying that clouds could nourish plants and trees, but couldn’t nourish the human heart.

...

Ning Zhuo looked at the first few names on the list and discovered they were people from a long time ago. He also noticed that in each cultivator’s records, besides their personal history, there was a later section where the author of the Jade Slip, as a third-party successor, gave comments on them.

Ning Zhuo continued to read on.

Zhou Beixiu, a descendant of cultivators from Heavy Array Peak. A reticent youth with meticulous thoughts. Upon entering the formation, he gained the Hidden Cloud Nature. He later created the Hidden Peak Cloud Formation, using thin clouds to hide valleys and mirages to mislead demon soldiers. During the northern war, he used three Hidden Cloud Formations to protect the migration of sixty thousand ordinary citizens.

The Hidden Cloud Nature is good at concealment, collection, and disaster avoidance. Yet, for those who gain this nature, their thoughts are also easily hidden deeply. In the latter half of his life, Zhou Beixiu spoke less and became distant from friends. His formations became more refined as human interactions grew colder.

...

Gu Wanzhao, a female cultivator from a branch of the Gu Family in Embroidery Country. She loves brightness and is unafraid of others’ opinions. Upon entering the formation, she gained the Dawn Cloud Nature. She later mastered the Late Sun Danxia Technique, using Dawn Clouds to warm medicine, reducing the risk of furnace explosions. After the great fire on Danxia Peak, she used Dawn Clouds to protect half the storage of medicinal materials, preventing spiritual medicine from burning or decaying.

The Dawn Cloud Nature is positioned between fire and water, adept at illumination, warming, and dyeing forms. Those with this nature often have a radiant heart, and their fame is easily elevated. Gu Wanzhao was once renowned for her Dawn Cloud Pills, but due to excessive pursuit of pill colors’ beauty, she misjudged the properties thrice. Fortunately, she repented in her later years and reevaluated the Fire Technique.

...

As he continued looking through many of the subsequent names, he realized that most were Thunder Cloud Nature, Fire Cloud Nature, Rain Cloud Nature, etc. Hidden Cloud Nature was relatively rare.

Lu Xuanpu, originally a Loose Cultivator. With a heavy and reliable character, skilled in geomancy. Upon entering the formation, he gained the Heavy Cloud Nature. Thereafter, he used the heavy cloud to suppress mountain winds, stabilize the vapor in the spirit fields, and assisted the sect in developing three new suspended medicine gardens. The Heavy Cloud Nature can bear weight, suppress, store water, and obstruct movement.

The Heavy Cloud Nature is thick, able to carry objects, but also can bog down the heart. In his later years, Lu Xuanpu disliked change, excessive in keeping things intact, but insufficient in exploration. A heavy nature, if balanced, can become a mountain; if it loses its vitality, becomes a stubborn stone.

...

"Heavy Cloud Nature?" Ning Zhuo noticed a rare cloud nature.

The Divine Sense scanned rapidly, and Ning Zhuo noted the emergence of rare cloud natures.

For example, Luo Cloud Nature, skilled in weaving cloud qi into layers of patterns. Cultivators with this cloud nature can transform clouds from mere clumps and curtains into silk, cloth, nets, garments, and canopies.

For example, Mirror Cloud Nature, with a cloud surface like a water mirror, yet more agile than a water mirror. It does not focus on attack but reflects qi mechanisms, light and shadow, revealing illusions and realities.

Tribulation Cloud Nature carries an aura of tribulation. The cloud body is heavy, capable of pressing divine souls, drawing out the fears, flaws, and obsessions in cultivators’ hearts, absorbing karma adversities, and manifesting catastrophes overhead.

Home Cloud Nature can construct homesteads, allowing cultivators to recuperate, operate within their world, forcibly transmitting and recalling.

"Traveling Cloud Nature?" Clouds are unattached to mountains, water is unattached to shores, the wind moves them, the wind stops them slowly. Traveling clouds into the body, the heart road widens; if there are no attachments, one ultimately drifts. This nature is valued not because of attack, but for not being stagnant. In a predicament, taking even one step often surpasses breaking a hundred moves head-on."

Ning Zhuo’s Divine Sense swept to the depths of the Jade Slip and found another fascinating cloud nature.

Lin Qingyuan, an Outer Disciple of the Wind Sect. Light in nature, disliking constraints. Upon entering the formation, she gained the Traveling Cloud Nature. Thereafter, she mastered the Three-fold Wandering Cloud Step, taking three bends in one breath, her figure was nimble and agile. She had ventured into the demon nest three times to explore paths, bringing back terrain maps, and before the enemy formation surrounded, rescued twelve messenger disciples.

Traveling Cloud Nature emphasizes fluidity, transition, leveraging forces, and not stagnating. Those with this nature easily refine their movement techniques, and their heart paths widen. Lin Qingyuan later received a sect steward appointment, declined thrice, and traveled extensively throughout the year. The traveling cloud finds life through paths, if lost, it dissipates. Her movement technique met great success, and her heart also drifted far.

...

Name■■ (this part is obscured), descendant of a steward of the Pill Hall. Traveling Cloud Nature merged with the Pill, Pills are not confined to formulas. This person could not bear the constraints of sect rules, disliked elder admonishments, and disliked comparisons with fellow disciples, leaving the sect to wander the world. The Scattered Pills he refined were mostly common consumables, yet their properties were adaptable, changing according to people, places, and materials.

Traveling Cloud entering the Pill, the Pill is not confined; cloud nature enters the heart, the heart is not caged. If this person had stayed in the sect, he or she might have become a great instrument in the Pill Hall. Yet their ambition was not within the hall, clouds do not cling to mountains, people do not cage themselves, what a pity, what a pity.

...

Many more intriguing cloud natures are still out there.

For example, Sleep Cloud Nature, gentle and quiet, extremely suitable for healing, hibernation, and sealing.

Mirage Cloud Nature, able to project false images using real qi mechanisms, indistinguishable between true and false.

Medicine Cloud Nature, capable of absorbing medicinal qi but not easily polluted by drug toxins, highly valued by Pill Masters and Medical Cultivators.

Ning Zhuo also saw someone had obtained the White Cloud Nature.

Jing Xi, an abandoned disciple of the Little Cold Temple. Continuously laughs foolishly, with incomplete heart orifices. He smiles at everyone he sees, smiles at blooming flowers, and smiles at torn remains. When entering the Myriad Phenomena Cloud-Attracting Array, the cloud natures came and went unpredictably, unwilling to stay long, except the White Cloud Nature that hovered above his head, swelling and contracting with his laughter. Jing Xi reached to touch it, and the White Cloud Nature transformed into a mass of white qi, merging into his brow. Thereafter, he mastered the Laughing Cloud Nourishing Heart Method, able to soothe and calm frightened divine souls with the white cloud, once helping dozens of low-level cultivators on the brink of an inner demon sleep peacefully.

The White Cloud Nature is clear and pure, akin to the heart of a Buddhist child. After Jing Xi gained this nature, his foolish laughter did not diminish, yet it gained an extra layer of benevolence. This person does not understand Buddhist doctrines, yet his heart is close to Buddhism. White clouds mixed with laughter can cleanse fear. Foolishness, without thoughts of harming others, is itself a form of purity.