Chapter 96: Quietly Watching You (Bonus Chapter 8)

After returning to his quarters, Wei Yuan took out the copy of the “Ten Thousand Phases of Taiyin Moonlight” and read through it again from the beginning.

This cultivation method leads straight to the Immortal Path, its mysteries boundless—each reading brought Wei Yuan new insights, though sometimes these insights contradicted one another.

The Ten Thousand Phases of Taiyin Moonlight is famed for its transformations, and thus is extraordinarily complex; the core text alone spans tens of thousands of characters. Later cultivators who achieved great success added annotations, supplements, and interpretations, often disagreeing among themselves, refuting each other, and leaving Dao rhythms as proof. Including the virtual debates of these greats, the copy contained hundreds of thousands of characters.

The copy in Wei Yuan’s hands was merely one of three; the insights recorded on the other two copies differed as well, and the greats’ virtual quarrels there were just as fierce.

This was still just a copy—the original had few written notes, but its Dao rhythms were abundant. Generations of Palace Masters and Deputy Masters of Tai Chu Palace had left their Dao rhythms, and those who attained Immortal Lord status had also inscribed their own upon the original. These Dao rhythms held no real meaning—they merely proved they had studied the method, like someone carving “So-and-so was here.” The “Ten Thousand Phases of Taiyin Moonlight” was a famed scripture left by ancient Immortal Lords; leaving a Dao rhythm upon it was akin to stamping one’s private seal on a treasured painting.

Fortunately, each Dao rhythm was unique; otherwise, the jade wall might never have held so many, and they’d have had to add extra slabs just for storing them—eventually, the jade wall collecting these signature rhythms might have grown larger than the original scripture itself.

With hundreds of thousands of characters and countless Dao rhythms, even Wei Yuan’s mighty Primordial Spirit required a full half-day just to memorize them all; full comprehension would take years, even decades.

The Dao rhythms left by Immortal Lords on the original were vast and overwhelming—Wei Yuan could comprehend only one in ten thousand. The Dao rhythms left by True Persons on the copies were entirely different, some even contradictory. Wei Yuan’s own insights differed from theirs as well; a novice cultivator would surely be overwhelmed.

In fact, differing insights were precisely the essence of this Immortal method—Taiyin energy shifts endlessly, which is why each True Person’s Dao rhythm was unique. The core of this method lies in constructing a central core within the spiritual sea, using it as a foundation to draw in cosmic spiritual energy. The Taiyin core may take many forms, but the full moon is considered the highest. After constructing the core, one must plant a Law Phase seed within it, then gradually absorb Dao foundations to transform it into a Law Phase.

Every time he reached this point, Wei Yuan wondered: Could his Dao foundation truly be absorbed by the Taiyin core? But Wei Yuan was merely a novice on the Immortal Path; since the Immortal Lords said it could be absorbed, he’d assume it could.

This cultivation was Wei Yuan’s first since entering the Dao Foundation realm, with no elixirs to assist. Dao Foundation cultivation did have specialized elixirs, but Wei Yuan could no longer afford them. Not only could he not afford them—no family disciples outside the Seven Surnames and Thirteen Clans could afford them. Yet Zao Hua Guan, fully aware of this, refused to lower prices—truly unforgivable.

Before cultivation, Wei Yuan centered his mind and sincerity, asking himself: Why do I cultivate?

The answer was simple and clear: Expand territory, exterminate all alien races.

Wei Yuan sat down in his dedicated cultivation chamber, soon entering a state of emptiness, his Dao foundation activating as he began drawing in cosmic spiritual energy, transforming it into Taiyin energy according to the method, then constructing the core.

What Wei Yuan hadn’t anticipated was that although the Ten Thousand Mountains and Rivers could manifest only a tiny portion, the total spiritual energy he could draw upon was the entirety!

Wei Yuan’s mind was clear, untainted, seated atop the spiritual vein, and he drew in the cosmos with a single breath!

Draw, draw, draw, draw…

Wei Yuan suddenly choked, as if plunged into vacuum—intense suffocation forced him out of meditation. All surrounding spiritual energy had vanished!

No spiritual energy? How? This was Tai Chu Palace!

Wei Yuan frowned, looking around—he still sat in the cultivation chamber of his cave dwelling, his buttocks resting on the same mat woven from Bingxin grass. His residence was a cave designated for Dao Foundation disciples, each chamber built atop a spiritual vein, with spiritual energy density far exceeding that of Konggu Xuanqing. Outside, such a chamber might be found in only one or two blessed sects; only Elders and core disciples of heavenly sects could afford such a place.

Tai Chu Palace’s principle was to provide every disciple with basic cultivation conditions, so all Dao Foundation disciples’ caves were nearly identical—Zhang Sheng’s wasn’t even better than Wei Yuan’s current one. But Tai Chu Palace didn’t forbid disciples from using external aids; for instance, Zhang Yun had simply torn down and rebuilt her cave entirely.

So the chamber itself should have been fine. But Wei Yuan felt he’d only drawn half a breath of spiritual energy—how had all the energy vanished, even the spiritual vein dried up? His spiritual sense probed into the mat, delved deep into the vein, and traveled hundreds of zhang downward before finally sensing new spiritual energy trickling in like a slender stream along the vein.

At least there was still spiritual energy—apparently the vein hadn’t malfunctioned. Wei Yuan exhaled in relief, closed his eyes, and waited patiently until the vein replenished, then drew in the cosmos once more.

Draw, draw, draw, draw, draw…

The mountain, dotted with Dao Foundation caves, suddenly trembled. The Spirit Gathering Array maintaining the mountain’s spiritual density shifted from invisible to visible, appearing like a giant bowl inverted over the entire peak. Yet now the array flickered erratically, violently shaking—as if on the verge of collapse!

Figures flew out of the caves, even several who had been in deep seclusion breaking their meditations—all faces filled with shock.

“What’s going on? Where did the spiritual energy go?”

“I just probed with my spiritual sense—the veins are all dried up!”

“Has someone attacked the mountain?!”

Inside the quiet chamber, Wei Yuan had drawn only half a breath when he choked again, forced to wait helplessly as the vein slowly refilled. In his spiritual sea, a vast full moon now hung above the land, silently illuminating endless desolate earth.

Seeing the moon, Wei Yuan finally relaxed.

The scripture had described constructing the Taiyin core as impossibly difficult—detailing how to build the structure, stabilize the framework, accumulate energy, and purify it at length. Yet now it seemed not so hard at all—he’d drawn only two and a half breaths, and the supreme Taiyin full moon had already appeared!

But then Wei Yuan realized the wisdom of the ancient sages. They must have feared future cultivators would grow careless if it were too easy, so they exaggerated the difficulty—to frighten disciples into taking cultivation seriously.

!.

While waiting for the spiritual energy to refill, Wei Yuan had nothing to do but observe the moon—and discovered the moon was observing him.

Within the moon loomed a prominent shadow, both familiar and strange. When he hadn’t yet formed his Dao Foundation, he’d barely made it out; now that the moon had grown tenfold, the shadow had too, clearly surging slowly, as if possessing its own life, its own thoughts.

Though it appeared at the moon’s center, in Wei Yuan’s perception, it connected to another world—profoundly unfathomable.

For a single instant, Wei Yuan caught a thought from the shadow within the moon. The sensation was absurd, yet undeniably real. Its thought was:

I am here, quietly watching you scramble.

(End of Chapter)