Chapter 47: Fen Yan Jue

If I’m not mistaken, the spiritual seed inside him is transforming into a spiritual root; he feels the seed growing larger, and his internal cultivation energy stirs in response.

After a cup of tea passed, a soft “pop” echoed inside him—the spiritual seed seemed to burst open under some unseen force, a chilling sensation flooding his entire body, then vanishing instantly.

Is it over already?

Has the spiritual root successfully formed?

But I didn’t feel anything at all.

Wang Yu hesitated, then instinctively activated his cultivation technique again, inhaling a breath of spiritual energy.

“Huh.”

Spiritual energy from within a dozen zhang around him surged toward him like a whale drinking water, instantly swallowed into his body and gone.

This absorption efficiency!

Wang Yu was startled.

No, it must also be related to his already having reached Foundation Establishment third layer.

Wang Yu closed his eyes and used his spiritual sense to inspect his inner state.

The spiritual seed had vanished entirely; his cultivation energy had calmed, but it had increased by more than two-thirds compared to Foundation Establishment second layer, and his spiritual sense limit had also risen slightly.

But where was the spiritual root?

Wang Yu carefully probed his body with his spiritual sense, finding no anomaly whatsoever.

Puzzled, Wang Yu tried reciting the third-layer incantation of the Yin Water Technique, but the sparse spiritual energy around him allowed him to absorb only a tiny amount—his brow furrowed.

No wonder every cultivator he’d met said that after Foundation Establishment third layer, one must go to a spiritual domain with a spiritual vein to continue cultivating.

In this environment, the thin spiritual energy simply couldn’t satisfy his greatly enhanced absorption efficiency.

Even if spiritual energy were abundant, reaching the Foundation Establishment third layer bottleneck would likely take at least three or four years—and only with the aid of cultivation-enhancing pills.

It seems Tongzhou City can no longer be stayed in; I must visit Guangyuan Bazaar to see what it’s like, and there I can test my spiritual root affinity, then head to the Yin family.

After all, according to Yin Linglong, Guangyuan Bazaar has specialized devices for detecting spiritual roots.

As Wang Yu pondered, he rummaged in his robe and pulled out a gray pouch—the storage pouch left behind after the death of Lord Huang.

At Foundation Establishment second layer, he could only open half of it; now at third layer, he should finally be able to fully unlock it.

He held the pouch in one hand and slowly infused it with cultivation energy.

The tightly tied mouth of the pouch slowly loosened, then, after a flash of white light, fully opened.

Wang Yu, overjoyed, extended his spiritual sense inside and finally determined the pouch’s internal capacity—it held a space of over two meters, more than enough for personal belongings.

He turned the pouch’s mouth downward toward the ground.

A flash of white light erupted from the opening, spilling out a small pile of spiritual stones, two green wooden boxes, and a book with a crimson cover.

Wang Yu counted—the pile contained roughly thirty spiritual stones.

He opened each wooden box in turn; inside each lay a segment of emerald-green branch.

Curious, Wang Yu picked up one branch with his fingers.

“Bang.”

The moment his fingers touched it, the branch shattered like porcelain, dissolving into a pool of green liquid that vanished at a visible speed.

Wang Yu was stunned; he lifted his finger and sniffed it—thick medicinal fragrance filled his nose.

This thing seems extraordinary—surely worth a good number of spiritual stones?

He muttered to himself, feeling a pang of regret, and dared not touch the other emerald branch again; he closed the remaining box and picked up the crimson-covered book.

“Fen Yan Jue.”

This was a spell manual.

“Taiyuan, enter hyper-synchronization mode.”

Overjoyed, Wang Yu’s eyes gleamed as he quickly flipped through the pages.

The manual was thick, written by a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator who called himself “Yu Ming,” summarizing a secret technique for splitting fire spells based on years of personal experience.

The first portion of the manual was the cultivator boasting of his own greatness, recounting his adventures and the powerful enemies he’d slain; only in the middle pages did it truly record the method of casting “Fen Yan Jue,” along with a spell rune diagram composed of three runes; the final portion documented his combat insights and experiences from battles with other cultivators.

After reading it, Wang Yu checked his limited spiritual energy and began studying the spell under Taiyuan System’s assistance.

This so-called “Fen Yan Jue” is a clever technique for forcibly splitting a spell’s imprint, testing the caster’s control over their spiritual sense and spell imprint.

With the aid of hyper-thinking, Wang Yu read the manual’s description once and instantly grasped the essence of the technique; soon he was fully immersed in comprehending the spell’s rune pattern.

Two days later.

Wang Yu stood before his house, pointing one finger at empty air ahead.

“Pop.”

A flame flickered into existence at his fingertip—the “Firefly” spell.

After half a year of practice, he could now reliably form this spell imprint without failure.

He murmured incantations, formed a hand seal, and in his spiritual sea, another faint spell imprint emerged atop the “Firefly” imprint, then spread to cover it entirely.

The “Firefly” imprint twisted and split into two smaller “spell imprints,” still faintly connected by a crimson thread of light.

“Pop.”

Outside, the flame blurred, then split into two thinner, smaller flames.

Wang Yu looked at the split flames before him, a hint of satisfaction on his face.

“Go.”

He flicked his finger twice toward the two flames.

“Boom.” “Boom.”

The two flames shot forward, striking two small trees with perfect accuracy, transforming them into twin pillars of roaring fire that instantly reduced them to smoke.

Wang Yu was startled by this.

Was it his imagination, or did the “Firefly” spell feel stronger than before since forming his spiritual root?

While studying the “Fen Yan Jue” rune patterns these past two days, he’d confirmed that spell runes recorded in manuals were indeed far easier to comprehend than original spells—hence why he’d mastered “Fen Yan Jue” so quickly.

He’d noticed this gap in comprehension back when studying “Guan Qi Shu” on the Iron Arrow, but now he was certain of it.

Now, he murmured incantations again, and another “Firefly” appeared before him; he flicked his finger twice more in the air, and after three soft pops, four even smaller miniature flames emerged—but all flickered and blurred, as if they might vanish at any moment.

With his current cultivation energy and spiritual sense, this was likely his limit.

He shook his sleeve, and the four miniature flames vanished simultaneously.

Several days later, afternoon, same open space outside the house.

Wang Yu, freshly finished practicing the Tiger Pounce Four, stood bare-chested and drenched in sweat, but formed hand seals, chanted incantations, and reached upward with one hand; after a flicker of blue light, a fist-sized ball of water condensed in midair, then fell, drenching his upper body and washing away most of the sweat.

Slightly invigorated, Wang Yu changed his hand seal, chanted again, and extended his other palm, closing his five fingers.

“Zi-la.”

A spark of electricity appeared on his fist’s surface, stretched into a thin filament, flickered faintly, then vanished with another “zi-la.”

These were the two new spells he’d learned in the past half-year: “Water Gathering” and “Electric Spark.”

But unlike “Firefly,” these two tricks were far harder to comprehend and master; one merely condensed a ball of water from nothing, the other produced only a faint spark.

The former solved the problem of carrying water on long journeys; the latter was pathetically weak—its only effect was a slight numbness upon contact, with zero destructive power, utterly dwarfed by “Firefly,” and perfectly matching the description of “trick spells” in the “Introduction to Spells.”

Both are original spells—why is “Firefly” so incredibly powerful?

Wang Yu still felt puzzled.