Chapter 112: Spirit Sea of Lingming

Duan Rong's dormitory was already cramped and narrow. At this moment, he sat cross-legged in a corner, placing his wardrobe and easel behind him to surround himself. With the walls on both sides, he had just enough space to sit in an enclosed area!

This was also the directional requirement for constructing a Mandala according to the cultivation technique!

Duan Rong hung the portraits of the Four Great Wisdom Kings on the four sides respectively!

According to the requirements of the technique, the Immovable Wisdom King resided in the east, the Step-Throwing Vajra Wisdom King in the west, the Vajra Yaksha Wisdom King in the north, and the Horse-Head Vajra Wisdom King in the south.

With the Mandala construction complete, Duan Rong sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, beginning to form hand seals and chant mantras according to the technique, while adjusting his breathing using a special method of respiration!

According to the Womb Treasury Sutra, after a complex session of respiration, one must search for the turning point between inhalation and exhalation (that is, the point where a deep breath, once sunk into the dantian, naturally converts into an exhalation), and by sinking one's Mental Power in from this point, one can enter the Spirit Sea!

However, Duan Rong tried many times without success!

This was because the turning point between inhalation and exhalation was actually elusive and very vague, much like a sliding pulse, making it difficult to grasp!

As time passed, even though Duan Rong was quite patient, he could not help but become a bit impatient!

But just at this moment, Duan Rong's Divine Sense suddenly shook!

Just now, his Mental Power had inadvertently and precisely struck that point!

Duan Rong's vision blurred, and immediately a series of phantoms appeared, twisting and rotating incessantly... He suddenly felt a wave of dizziness...

Suddenly the dizziness stopped, and Duan Rong discovered that he was already inside a space...

This world seemed to be an infinitely vast space...

It was just like being in a wilderness deep in the night...

The black earth was boundless, spreading toward the distance...

And the firmament was silent and soundless...

Between heaven and earth, a faint, thin mist filled the air, and that mist was constantly rolling and surging...

"Is this... the Spirit Sea?"

Just then, Duan Rong suddenly discovered that in the southeast of the Spirit Sea's firmament, there were several phantoms hanging upside down in the sky!

Duan Rong identified them carefully, but it was difficult to discern what those blurry phantoms actually were.

But as soon as Duan Rong moved his thoughts, those phantoms seemed to respond to him and began to rotate on their own!

A series of thoughts rolled through Duan Rong's mind!

He immediately knew what those phantoms were!

They were the phantoms of the Spirit Tools of every weapon he had devoured!

Zhao Mu's Ox-Tail Saber, the Unsharpened Great Cleaver in the warehouse, Gu Suxiu's Silver Needle, Zhu Xiaoqi's Silver Ankle Bracelet, the Mo Dao on the weapon rack in the Martial Arts Arena, Xie Lei's throwing dart, the barrier saber, and the longevity lock...

Duan Rong's heart was filled with shock!

They were all actually in his own Spirit Sea!

Duan Rong's heart suddenly skipped a beat. "These weapon Spirit Tools are all hanging upside down on the firmament! Then what about the eighty-one First Tier Tree Spirits I devoured?"

Duan Rong looked around under the firmament, but apart from this area of weapon phantoms in the southeast, there was nothing else in any other direction of the firmament; it was empty!

"Are they not here?"

Duan Rong felt that could not be the case; since the Tree Spirits were devoured by him, they should be in his Spirit Sea.

Moreover, he felt that when the previous devouring failed, the system reminded him that the relevant area within the Divine Sense Space was full.

The so-called Divine Sense Space actually referred to the Spirit Sea!

It was just the same thing described differently in different cultural systems!

The Spirit Sea was the descriptive method in the Womb Treasury Sutra, a term born based on the cultural system of the Jiuzhou World!

And the Divine Sense Space was the descriptive term given by the system based on its own modern knowledge system and linguistic habits!

Although the descriptive terms were different, they referred to the same thing: this space before his eyes at this moment!

Therefore, Duan Rong was certain that those eighty-one First Tier Tree Spirits must be here!

Since they were not on the firmament, they must be elsewhere!

Duan Rong suddenly discovered that under the surging thin mist, in the southwest direction, a faint, ethereal, ghostly light was vaguely emanating, just like a patch of sparse fireflies hiding in the mist!

Duan Rong walked toward the faint, ethereal, ghostly light!

A moment later, Duan Rong looked at the sea of cyan ghostly light before him, and his thoughts stalled slightly!

That sea of light was actually eighty-one tree shadows, rooted in the earth, emitting a faint cyan ghostly light and appearing as if they were solid!

"Are these the Tree Spirits I devoured?"

These tree shadows were quite delicate and solid; even the textures and veins on the leaves could be seen clearly!

Duan Rong's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and he immediately counted these Tree Spirits!

"Nine rows and nine columns, exactly eighty-one of them!"

Duan Rong turned his head to look at the weapon phantoms on the southeast firmament, then looked at the Tree Spirit Light Sea before him, and said in surprise: "That's not right, why haven't these Tree Spirits been digested and absorbed! How many days have passed, and there are still eighty-one of them!"

Duan Rong circled this sea of light a few times and finally stopped in front of one Tree Spirit!

This Tree Spirit actually only had half left; its trunk was incomplete as if it had been gnawed by a wild deer, and especially on one branch, the leaves on this branch looked as if they had been eaten by insects, with only a small portion left, leaving jagged marks on the edges...

Moreover, there were threads of light slowly being drawn away from the leaves on this branch, just like silk being drawn from a silkworm cocoon...

Duan Rong observed carefully, and as soon as the drawn-out light threads entered the void, they disappeared without a trace as if they had been absorbed by something!

Duan Rong suddenly understood that these light threads, which were being slowly drawn away, were absorbed by his Divine Sense Space after being drawn out!

In other words, the Spirit Sea was digesting these Tree Spirits!

"But this speed is too slow! It's simply crawling like a snail!"

Looking again at the branches and leaves of this Tree Spirit, Duan Rong's heart suddenly stirred!

"This is that... camphor tree!"

This was the first First Tier Tree Spirit he found when he was in Wild Boar Mountain; at that time, when he devoured this Tree Spirit, he even shouted excitedly in the mountains.

He had devoured this camphor tree's Spirit Tool on the very first day he entered Wild Boar Mountain. He had stayed in Wild Boar Mountain for eight or nine days and had been back for several days; it had been more than ten days, and only half a Tree Spirit had been digested and absorbed!

Duan Rong suddenly understood at this moment why there was a sense of discomfort in his mind after devouring the Spirit Tool of a weapon, yet there was no such discomfort after devouring the Tree Spirit!

It was because the Spirit Tool of a weapon was digested and absorbed in two or three hours!

Whereas for the Spirit Tool of the Tree Spirit, only half a tree had been absorbed after more than ten days!

The lack of discomfort was purely because the digestion and absorption were too slow!

"If I have to wait to digest and absorb the Tree Spirit to raise my Mental Power level, who knows how long that will take?"

It is a good thing he did not let the Soul Technique in Xu Ruhu's hands slip by... otherwise, he would have been cheated by the system...

It took half a month to digest half a Tree Spirit, which meant that a First Tier Tree Spirit would take a full month to be completely digested and absorbed!

For eighty-one of them, wouldn't that take eighty-one months?

How could he possibly wait that long?

Duan Rong left the Tree Spirit Light Sea and returned to the center of the earth!

Within the Spirit Sea of spiritual clarity, thin mist churned, the Cangqiong hung low, and heaven and earth were silent!

He felt a kind of ancient, vigorous power spreading throughout this world, resonating with his own thoughts...

Duan Rong was shocked in his heart and whispered silently: "Everyone's Spirit Sea is a universe..."

Duan Rong suddenly looked at the thin mist floating before his eyes; his heart seemed to be moved, and he exclaimed in shock: "This floating, churning mist... is... my thoughts?!"

(End of this chapter)