Chapter 157: The First Art of the Divine Soul

Duan Rong stood at the edge of the Tree Spirit Light Sea, watching this sea of cyan, ghostly light. In the darkness, these Tree Spirits were like some strange creatures from the deep sea, translucent and cyan-hued, glowing brilliantly...

Duan Rong looked carefully; among these Tree Spirits arranged in nine rows and nine columns, he realized that the Second Tier Tree Spirits were a circle larger than the First Tier ones, with not only thicker trunks but also more lush branches and leaves...

After inspecting the Tree Spirit Light Sea, Duan Rong walked back to the center of the Black Earth, sat cross-legged, and began to chant and form seals.

Muffled thunder rumbled in the sky, thin mist rapidly sank, and the divine shadows of the Four Great Wisdom Kings emerged...

The technique of the Womb Treasury Sutra began to circulate within the Spirit Sea...

The Tree Spirit Light Sea was like a school of fish startled in the deep sea; large swaths of cyan light threads suddenly rose up, forming a massive cyan ribbon of light that circled and roamed through this space...

As that cyan ribbon circled and roamed in rings, the ribbon that had originally emitted a cyan, ghostly light seemed like a dyed piece of silk, turning red bit by bit...

At this moment, if one observed closely, one would discover that every wisp of cyan, ghostly light within the ribbon was adsorbing a large amount of the red threads formed by the Dragon Flame Fat...

The cyan, ghostly ribbon, like a piece of silk in water, floated between heaven and earth for a few turns before transforming into a crimson stream, climbing upward toward the sky...

As the crimson stream rose, large swaths of cyan light threads emerged once again within the Tree Spirit Light Sea, forming another massive cyan ribbon of light...

That floating, climbing crimson stream, upon touching the Blood Cocoon drifting in the sky, immediately merged with it, as if juice were being poured onto the Blood Cocoon... and the Blood Cocoon wrapped itself thicker layer by layer...

Gradually, the phantom of the infant inside the cocoon could no longer be seen...

And that Blood Cocoon also slowly changed from an oval to a perfectly round sphere...

Who knows how much time had passed...

The ribbon circled, turned red, and rose to the sky; after this process had repeated who knows how many times, suddenly, there was a profound silence between heaven and earth...

The divine shadows of the Four Great Wisdom Kings no longer exhaled grayish-white mist, and the Tree Spirit Light Sea no longer floated with cyan, ghostly light...

And the eerie red threads that had originally floated between heaven and earth were also almost completely exhausted.

Duan Rong's heart jolted. At the very moment the world suddenly fell silent, he could clearly perceive that the second layer of the Womb Treasury Sutra had been achieved!

Duan Rong stopped chanting and forming seals, stood up, and raised his eyes to look. He saw that above the sky, a sacred Star Body emitting a milky-white fluorescent glow and a blood-colored Star Body emitting an eerie red light were reflecting each other, shining upon one another!

They were like two full moons, one red and one white, floating within his Spirit Sea...

Duan Rong was so stunned by the wondrous sight before him that he was speechless, merely looking up for a long time. His soul had a faint connection with the two Star Bodies; he could perceive their existence—it was a marvelous feeling that could not be described in words...

Duan Rong's heart and soul trembled. He stood there like a devout saint, looking up...

When he came to his senses and surveyed the surroundings, the divine shadows of the Four Great Wisdom Kings had already vanished, and the thin mist was once again permeating and churning between heaven and earth...

"The time has come..."

Duan Rong's gaze shifted, and he walked toward the Tree Spirit Light Sea. He stood at the edge of this sea of cyan, ghostly light and took a count, discovering that thirty-two Tree Spirits were missing. Adding in the remaining Tree Spirits from the previous batch, it was clear that the second layer consumed a greater number of Tree Spirits, and this included some Second Tier Tree Spirits.

It seemed that the further one cultivated the Womb Treasury Sutra, the more Tree Spirits it would consume. However, as his Mental Power level increased, the tier of the Tree Spirits he swallowed into his Spirit Sea would also become higher. With these two factors offsetting each other, in the later stages, he should not encounter the extreme situation of needing to swallow a massive amount of Tree Spirits just to cultivate one layer.

Duan Rong looked up again. Above the sky, shrouded by mist, the two Star Bodies—one red and one white—both seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep at this moment; his mental connection to them was even weaker than when the second layer had just been achieved.

Duan Rong then withdrew from his Spirit Sea.

After the second layer of the Soul Technique was achieved, one could unlock the first art of the Soul Technique—Divine Sense Projection!

After Duan Rong withdrew from the Spirit Sea, he discovered that he was sitting cross-legged, stark naked, on the cushion in the four-sided space.

Duan Rong stood up, took down the four Mountain and Water Paintings of the Hidden Mandala, rolled them up, placed them into the cabinet, and then put on his clothes before sitting upright on the bed.

Duan Rong took a deep breath, and with a movement of his mind, he could instantly perceive a certain resonance between the two Star Bodies—one red and one white—within his Spirit Sea.

According to the description of the Womb Treasury Sutra technique, after the second layer is achieved, while feeling the resonance of the two Star Bodies, one must vaguely project and diffuse one's attention toward the surrounding space, and remember not to concentrate on any object, any point, or any direction at the beginning.

That is to say, your attention must be projected toward the void all around...

Diffuse your attention as if it were exploding outward...

Then, the Divine Sense can disperse out of the Spirit Sea and be projected outward...

After Duan Rong felt the faint resonance of the two Star Bodies—one red and one white—he began to attempt to project and diffuse his attention toward the surroundings according to the description of the technique.

Just as Duan Rong mobilized his attention, he felt a buzz in his brain, and the next moment, he entered a strange state.

He could truly and delicately feel that his Divine Sense had projected outward, covering a range of approximately one hundred meters in radius.

The projected Divine Sense was like countless slender, flexible, and invisible thread-like tentacles, delicately touching everything, large or small, within a one-hundred-meter radius centered on Duan Rong.

And everything that the slender and flexible thread-like tentacles of the Divine Sense could touch, Duan Rong could "see."

That was not seeing through visible light, but a miraculous kind of seeing that occurred after information was gathered and imaged in his brain.

The projected Divine Sense almost covered the entire courtyard of Liu Lu!

Under the shroud of the Divine Sense, everything minute had nowhere to hide.

Duan Rong could "see" that on the ground at the kitchen entrance, because he had taken a bath two hours ago, a puddle of water remained on the ground, and at the edge of the puddle, a drowning ant was struggling with all its might. Duan Rong could even see clearly the antennae on the ant's forehead and the fine hairs on its abdomen...

Duan Rong could "see" a cluster of weeds under a willow tree next to the kitchen. Every blade of grass was clearly visible; they swayed with the night wind, the serrated edges of their leaves covered in fine fuzz, and in the soil within the gaps of the weeds, an earthworm was twisting its body and poking its head out...

When Duan Rong projected his Divine Sense, because he had already withdrawn from the Spirit Sea, he could not witness that as his Divine Sense projected, within the Spirit Sea, above the sky, the two Star Bodies—one red and one white—were rotating around each other in a bizarre way like a binary star system, and circles of red and white light, like ripples, were expanding outward with the two Star Bodies as the center...

Those ripples were expanding circle by circle, until they reached the edge of the sky and continued to expand toward the endless distance...

Duan Rong's projected Divine Sense almost covered the entire courtyard of Liu Lu, and to the north of his bedroom, separated by an alleyway, was the Back Courtyard of the Yuanshun Escort Agency.

Duan Rong's Divine Sense passed through the alleyway, entered the Back Courtyard, and reached all the way to the entrance of the Gathering Justice Hall.

Duan Rong sighed slightly in his heart. He had only achieved the second layer of the Womb Treasury Sutra; if he achieved the third layer, the range covered by his Divine Sense Projection would be even wider, and perhaps it could cover the entire Gathering Justice Hall. By then, no secret within the Gathering Justice Hall would be able to escape his ears.

(End of this chapter)