Chapter 39: Deep Affection for the Old Sword

Deep Affection for the Old Sword

What is Spirit?

Spirit is the subtle consciousness that permeates the universe, existing between reality and void, governed by the Three Thousand Great Daos and stimulated by the Creator Dao Ancestor. Within the boundless universe, there is no place or object without spirit. Spirit is where the Dao rhyme of the Creator Dao Ancestor resides. When the Dao fruit matured and fell from the old universe, the Dao Ancestor wielded the Donghua Qingjun Sword to pierce through the clear and the turbid. Wherever the sword passed, the Dao rhyme surged, and thus all things were born.

All things grew by looking up to Qingjun, and the Donghua Qingjun Sword gave birth to a sword spirit through this opportunity. The sword spirit was conceived by sensing the creation, and it resonates with all vitality in this universe. Qingjun was born to master the Dao and was the first Dao Ancestor of this universe.

After Qingjun, the Five Tais of the Pre-Heaven matured one by one. Among the myriad heavens of the universe, living beings were inspired and opened up paths to the Dao. The Dao Ancestors of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements lectured on the Dao for a million years, leaving behind orthodox traditions before drifting away. Qingjun also established a sect in the Qinghua Myriad Things Heaven, writing the "Qinghua Transcendence Record" to prepare for future paths of transcendence.

Chaos has no calendar, and the primordial era knows no years. Since the Dao Ancestor of the Five Elements retired, this universe has experienced countless kalpas. Many Dao Ancestors have integrated with the Dao, and many have fallen. The universe was created, and all changes happen in an instant. The multitude of true beings plotted the Great Dao, all surging forward, and many Pre-Heaven magic treasures appeared, each leading a trend. Only Qingjun, as the first Dao Ancestor, held a transcendent status, lecturing and preaching only in the Qinghua Myriad Things Heaven, deducing her own path of transcendence. It must be known that Qingjun, as the first Dao Ancestor of this universe, had the closest connection to it; wanting to transcend was also the most difficult.

However, a Dao Ancestor is omnipotent; there is nothing in the universe that cannot be reached. Even while fully deducing the path of transcendence, all things in the universe could not transcend Qingjun's consciousness. This is a very wonderful feeling. Qingjun understands the changes of all things in the universe. It is as if there are countless Qingjuns, yet they return to one. At every moment, things are born in the universe; to Qingjun, this is like gazing at all things in the world at every moment. Qingjun is the Dao, and the Dao is Qingjun. This is one of the natural principles of this universe.

For Qingjun, from the moment of her birth, she mastered the Great Dao and merged with the universe. This is an instinct she was born with. For other living beings, it is an extremely mysterious and strange feeling. However, Qingjun's troubles are something other living beings could never imagine. She is the end point of all living beings' cultivation, and although she is everywhere, watching the birth and destruction of thousands of heavens, it is difficult to imagine what it feels like to be a tiny living being like a speck of dust in the universe.

On this day, the Qinghua Myriad Things Heaven reopened its Dao field. The countless lower sects and branch courtyards spread across the myriad heavens all sent disciples to listen to the Dao. Qingjun manifested before the platform. As soon as she took her seat, spiritual flowers fell like rain, and all the disciples were intoxicated. This was the spiritual rhyme of the Dao Ancestor. The disciples all cultivated the Great Dao of Life; being near Qingjun was like drinking fine wine, and they felt even closer and more submissive. It is said, "If one hears the Dao in the morning, one can die in the evening without regret."

Before Qingjun opened her lips, her beautiful, clear eyes swept across, and she suddenly looked at the water mirror beside her. With a face like a hibiscus, she said, "Oh, there is another little friend from the future."

This glance seemed to see into Ruan Ci's heart, or perhaps it was that glance downward by the Taiyi Monarch. It was also like the great star formed by infinite sword light above the universe. Qingjun is everywhere; all these gazes were her manifestations. Through Ruan Ci, she became all things in Ruan Ci's eyes. At this moment, she seemed to see the future, and she also saw the broken Donghua Sword in Ruan Ci's hair.

"Ah."

Qingjun sighed with a smile, her laughter echoing from afar, "So it is the old Donghua Sword's wind and moon—"

It turns out that the red dust of the world and the dense smoke of the wind are the long-standing attachment of the old Donghua path, meeting again after countless eons.

Ruan Ci opened her eyes, feeling her heart beating like a drum. Everything she had just experienced was still before her eyes. The feeling of being a Dao Ancestor was extremely clear, yet it was not as solid and long-lasting as when she entered Chang Chunfeng. Especially the perception of the Dao was both clear and void, as if it existed between existence and non-existence, like a lingering dream. One could only say that the feeling had indeed existed, and the traces left behind were extremely clear, but what exactly she had dreamed might only be found when she returned to this old dream again.

She adjusted her breath for a long time before gradually calming down. When she examined herself again, she saw a small jade pool above her dantian. Silently urging her mind to connect with the Donghua Sword, she felt pure spiritual power flowing into her meridians like threads. Her meridians absorbed it greedily until they were completely clean. Unknowingly, she had already opened her pulses and cleared the pool, officially stepping onto the path of the Dao, possessing the cultivation base of the fourth layer of Qi Condensation.

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A Qi Condensation cultivator, in terms of combat power, is about the same as a martial arts master. However, this does not mean the two cannot be distinguished. Take Ruan Ci, for example: before obtaining the Heavenly Fate Cloud Seed, although she was agile and could do many things ordinary people could not, everyone in the Altar City regarded her as a martial arts master rather than a cultivator. This was because she had never opened her pulses or cleared her pool. After a true cultivator opens their pulses, spiritual power enters the body and is refined, which is completely different from the scene where it simply dissipates.

The opening of pulses for a true cultivator is sometimes a very long process. Take Ruan Qian, for example: being able to open his pulses on his own in a place like the Song Kingdom, where spiritual energy is severed, can truly be called a hero of his time. His pulse-opening took a long time because the spiritual energy in the Song Kingdom was unbalanced, which is actually very dangerous for the human body. The people of Song have eaten jade and rice for generations and carried talismans when going out, which is how they have been able to live under the Great Array. Perhaps because of this, they have had a natural tolerance and ability to regulate spiritual energy for seven hundred years, and they are better at absorbing it. So, although Ruan Qian only held a talisman, he felt the spiritual energy and Dao rhyme through the necessary peace of mind and perception of nature that comes with holding a talisman, slowly nourishing his meridians. He had already cleared many joints in his meridians. After the spiritual energy entered his body, it did not dissipate as usual but was significantly refined. That was why Liu Jizi said he had opened his pulses on his own that day. He was a Golden Core cultivator, and since no one in the Song Kingdom cultivated, the slight changes in spiritual energy beside the Divine Light of Thick Earth could not be hidden from him.

This kind of pulse-opening is common among ordinary people who happen to encounter immortal fate. They absorb spiritual power by instinct, clear their meridians, and then forge an inner scene world. In the Qi Condensation stage, the inner scene world is usually a jade pool, and magic power turns into jade liquid, so it is also called the Dantian Jade Pool. When the jade pool is full, one can attempt Foundation Establishment. If Ruan Qian never left the Song Kingdom and did not cultivate any techniques, relying only on that "Classic of Stillness," he might never fill the jade pool in his entire life. Even if he did, he would be old and frail, missing the best time for cultivation.

A more common way to open pulses in the cultivation world today is for a protector to take action, preparing three spiritual objects as guides to lead the spiritual energy through the meridians, identifying the congested and stagnant places in the meridians. Under the protection of the protector, the cultivator opens the jade pool. In this way, the initial jade pool is larger and more convenient than the one opened by oneself, which requires slowly expanding the jade pool. That is why Feng Zhishi asked Ruan Ci if she had found a protector for opening her pulses. The cultivation of the protector is also extremely important for a cultivator. Not to mention anything else, the size of the jade pool is something that needs to be carefully considered by the protector for the cultivator.

If the Dao foundation built during Foundation Establishment determines the future limits of a cultivator, then the water in the jade pool during the Qi Condensation stage is the resource for the Dao foundation. A cultivator must build the Dao foundation in one go, mixing the jade pool water with the three external medicines used during Foundation Establishment, like mixing mud with water. One's own divine intent is the mason, building the Dao foundation layer by layer. Whether it is the spiritual power pool water, the three external medicines, or one's own divine intent, whichever runs out first will cause the Dao foundation to stop at that layer. Therefore, the size of the jade pool determines the thickness of the future Dao foundation, and the thickness of the Dao foundation determines the upper limit that can be reached in the future. Weighing the size of the jade pool is also a point of comparison among Qi Condensation cultivators.

Although a large jade pool means sufficient resources for the future, it is not the case that bigger is better. After all, the prerequisite for Foundation Establishment is a full jade pool. For those cultivators with low aptitude and slow refining of spiritual energy, giving them a jade pool like the sea will only mean they won't be able to fill it until they die, which is harming them. For those cultivators with outstanding talent, if the jade pool is opened too shallowly, they will have to spend a lot of time expanding it themselves during the Qi Condensation stage. Therefore, the depth of the jade pool must be determined according to one's talent, and the cultivator must be guided to stop at the appropriate time or be given a helping hand. Although it is the pulse-opening of an ordinary person, it must be a Golden Core cultivator to be competent.

Naturally, if one can get a Grotto-Heaven cultivator to protect the pulse-opening, the ancestor can see everyone's talent with a single glance, and with a single finger, the pulses can be opened immediately. That is a different experience. There are many details in this, and since it is the first step of Dao cultivation and everyone knows it, "The Boat Crossing" also has many descriptions and pointers. Ruan Ci had curiously read many of them in the Junping Mansion and remembered clearly all the hallucinations one might encounter during pulse-opening. She didn't expect that when it was her turn, it would be achieved quietly in a dream. The jade pool above her dantian was deep, and it already contained a pool of clear water. Not only was the pulse-opening successful, but she also truly had shallow cultivation—if according to the statement of the scattered sects in the Northern Youzhou, she was already at the fourth layer of Qi Condensation.

Although her cultivation was achieved through intent cultivation based on Chang Chunfeng, the jade pool in her body was several times larger than Chang Chunfeng's. Compared to it, Chang Chunfeng's jade pool was like a small vat, while Ruan Ci's dantian had a small lake covering an acre, full to three or four tenths. Immersing her consciousness in it was like being in the vast ocean. She could also feel spiritual power being transmitted from the Donghua Sword from the void, continuous and extremely pure. Once it entered her meridians, it was all absorbed into the jade pool without any stagnation, and there was not the slightest leakage. This is what low-tier cultivators often call the "Flawless Golden Body."

Ruan Ci meditated for a while, carefully exploring the changes in her body, and was secretly amazed. According to the classics she had read, Qi Condensation cultivators mainly focus on making up for the deficiencies of the flesh, clearing all meridians so that spiritual power does not dissipate or block when entering the body, and can all be gathered into the jade pool. But for her, the inside and outside were one, her flesh had no flaws, and she didn't know if it was the accumulation of seven hundred years of gathering essence and eating qi by her ancestors, or the natural exclusion of impurities by sword intent tempering. Ordinary disciples still need to identify and collect spiritual power from spiritual energy, while the Donghua Sword gathers spiritual energy like a whale swallowing, sending it to her extremely pure. This spiritual power turning into water speed only depends on how much time she has for cultivation and whether her connection with the Donghua Sword is closer. That trace of connection from the void, if it becomes stronger, the speed at which the Donghua Sword transports spiritual energy to her will be faster, and her cultivation seems to be able to grow indefinitely until the jade pool is full and she is about to break through to Foundation Establishment, at which point she will have needs for external objects.

Ruan Ci knew how to use the Donghua Sword to nourish herself after reading the "Qinghua Secret Records." She urged her thoughts and ran the technique for several cycles without feeling tired. She had been trapped in the mortal realm for six years and didn't dare to try intent cultivation until she arrived at the Profound Heaven Sect. Now that she had won the first battle, she was naturally fresh and happy. She moved twelve major cycles in a row and saw that the jade pool water had risen by an imperceptible trace. She estimated in her heart and had a number—if she cultivated day and night without stopping for a moment, it would take about ten years to fill the jade pool. If she cultivated for three hours each time, it would take twenty years.

Twenty years for Foundation Establishment is neither fast nor slow among cultivators. However, cultivation in the Qi Condensation stage is not the faster the better. The depth of the jade pool and the thickness of the Dao foundation are the keys. For Ruan Ci, her own cultivation is not the most urgent. The depth of magic power is just a matter of whether it is useful when using techniques or fighting. Since she has chosen the path of intent cultivation, she still needs to figure out how she got into the body of a cultivator in a dream and how to reproduce this scene so that she can dream into the bodies of cultivators with higher cultivation.

When Ruan Ci finished her cultivation and stood up, she thought she would be as dirty as described in "The Boat Crossing" after her first cultivation, but she didn't expect her skin to be without any abnormality. Looking at the time, it was only noon the next day, and it had been exactly six hours since she started cultivating the "Yin Jun Intent Returning Pill Song Note."

Opening pulses in one night without anyone protecting her—if this were said, everyone would find it strange. However, Ruan Ci was not panicked. Although the Profound Heaven Sect's rules were strict, the control over disciples within the sect was very loose. She lived alone in a mansion, and the four servants were all mortals who couldn't tell whether she had opened her pulses or not. After ten days or half a month, when she went to Feng Zhishi, she could just say that a teacher from the Purple Void Cave Illumination Heaven had secretly come to protect her pulse-opening, and that would be it.

Thinking that she had slept for seven or eight hours, the few servants must have been waiting in fear, she couldn't help but laugh at her own impatience, actually starting to cultivate without making arrangements, and because of this, she remembered that she had looked back at the Sect Master when she was in the Seven Stars Small Abode. After reflecting for a long time, she also knew that her actions were indeed a bit frivolous.

Thinking about it again, she felt relieved, secretly thinking, "I understand the principles, I'm just too lazy to change. I just want to do what I want to do. If I don't change, then I won't change."

She walked out of the bedroom, rang the copper bell, summoned the four servants, and settled the daily affairs.

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Oh my god, I finally logged into iCloud. It turned out that my 4G couldn't connect, and it downloaded as soon as I connected to Wi-Fi.

I'm still outside, so I can't type much on my phone!

Sending red envelopes for this chapter!