Chapter 62: Little White's Embarrassment
With things having developed to this point, Li Yan had no choice but to set aside all other thoughts. He released one strand of divine sense to envelop the small sword on the table, and another to probe the mouth of the storage pouch.
At that moment, two vivid scenes appeared simultaneously in his mind. In one, the little sword seemed connected to him by an invisible thread, responsive to his will and ready to move at a tug. In the other, his divine sense revealed a strange space about two zhang wide inside the pouch. Though slightly distorted in appearance, it clearly held a few spirit stones, some garments, and a small porcelain vial, all lying quietly.
Recalling the method Seventh Senior Brother had taught him, Li Yan carefully guided the thread of divine sense tethered to the sword. Slowly, the small sword began to rise from the table. In the next moment, he merged his two strands of divine sense and when he looked again with his eyes, the sword had already vanished from the tabletop.
He quickly sent his divine sense back into the storage pouch, and sure enough, within that pocket dimension, the small sword now lay peacefully. Joy surged in his heart as he began to savor the wonder of this process.
Moments later, he locked onto a spirit stone within the pouch. With a mental tug and release, a flash of white light flared at the pouch's opening, and a spirit stone instantly appeared on the table before him.
"Junior Brother, you truly can wield divine sense… Remarkable, truly remarkable!"
Lin Daqiao's voice came from nearby, his face still filled with unconcealed envy.
Seeing that Li Yan could already use the storage pouch, Lin Daqiao thought for a moment and then explained how to use the small sword and the flying spiritual artifact, namely, how to channel spiritual power. Compared to divine sense, this was much simpler.
Roughly another half an hour passed before Lin Daqiao realized he had covered all the basic knowledge he could share.
"Junior Brother, what I've taught you today is the common foundation of cultivation. Much of what remains cannot be grasped through words alone, it requires personal experience. Once you reach the sixth level of Qi Condensation, you'll be allowed to move about the sect more freely.
"There's much I don't know either, but the sect's Treasure Repository holds many scrolls and jade slips on all manner of topics, strange tales, cultivation anecdotes, and so on. When you have time, borrow a few and take a look.
"Most of those don't require spirit stones to borrow. Some even contain the personal insights of senior cultivators, should you come across one of those, it would be a rare fortune.
"As for meals, just inform the servants up front and they'll bring food to your courtyard. You can even set regular delivery times each day.
"This Seventh Senior Brother barely eat anymore. Usually, a single fasting pill suffices. Only when I crave actual taste do I have food brought over.
"Mmm... I'll go inform Eldest Senior Brother of the courtyard you've chosen. He'll come tomorrow morning to take you to the Treasure Repository to select a cultivation method and some spells."
With nothing more to explain, Lin Daqiao gave a few final reminders and then stood up to leave.
Seeing him rise, Li Yan suddenly remembered something.
"Oh right, Seventh Senior Brother, earlier you mentioned something called a Soul Lamp?"
Lin Daqiao chuckled.
"Ah, that's easy to understand. You know about the three souls and seven spirits¹, right?"
Li Yan nodded. Though he'd only half-believed such things before, they were commonly mentioned in folk tales. But now, he was beginning to take them seriously.
"When a disciple in the sect breaks through to Foundation Establishment, they must extract a sliver of soul to light a Soul Lamp. Once the lamp is lit, no matter where you are, even tens of thousands of li away, the sect can know your status.
"If you die, the lamp extinguishes. If you live, it continues to burn.
"This allows the sect to monitor the condition of its disciples at all times. Of course, only those qualified to light a Soul Lamp are included.
"For example, if someone were to betray the sect in the future, a simple spell on the lamp can roughly determine their direction. I've even heard that Nascent Soul cultivators can use the lamp to kill from a distance.
"Though it's said that such a feat requires both a Nascent Soul cultivation and mastery of soul-related secret arts but that's just what people say.
"The traitor Lianshan from Spirit Insect Peak was able to escape mostly because he hadn't yet lit his Soul Lamp, which made tracking him incredibly troublesome. Nowadays, the sect enforces this more strictly, any Foundation Establishment cultivator must go to the Soul Lamp Hall to light theirs immediately."
Lin Daqiao spoke casually, having grown up under the sect's doctrine of absolute loyalty. To him, such things were only natural.
Li Yan, however, couldn't help but ponder in silence.
'To have my life constantly monitored... and to risk being killed remotely by a Nascent Soul cultivator, this isn't what I want. So once I reach Foundation Establishment, how will I escape such shackles?'
He was determined not to let his fate lie in the hands of others. But on his face, he only smiled faintly, nodding to show he understood, after all, Foundation Establishment still felt far away for now.
Seeing this, Lin Daqiao stood fully. After speaking for so long, he felt quite satisfied, though a bit fatigued. Unfortunately, Li Yan had just moved in and didn't even have tea ready, leaving him parched.
With a wave, he picked up Li Yan's identity token and held it toward the courtyard door. A flash of dark light shot out, and within the white mist at the gate, a narrow path appeared, wide enough for a person to pass through.
Setting the token back down, Lin Daqiao reminded Li Yan to recognize it with blood as soon as possible, then floated away toward the gate, saying he'd go and immediately vanished.
After he left, Li Yan returned to the main hall and picked up the token to examine it. He now understood that cultivators read most things using their divine sense, so he sent his own into the token.
After about the time it takes to eat a meal, he withdrew his divine sense, then reached into the storage pouch to retrieve the small sword. With a gentle cut across his finger, several drops of blood fell.
Holding the token up to meet the blood, a dazzling red light burst from its surface. In that instant, Li Yan felt a mysterious bond form between himself and the token. Now, even without using divine sense, he could issue commands with just a thought.
With a single intent, he watched from the main hall as the gate of the courtyard changed, the narrow path of white mist closed and reformed into a seamless circular wall, sealing the area once more.
He then walked out into the courtyard and practiced controlling the token a few more times. Each time, the protective formation responded precisely, shifting between its various modes.
From the token, he had learned that the formation had several functions, illusion, offense, and defense. It was currently set to basic defense. With further familiarity, these modes could be merged, though that would consume significantly more spirit stones.
Li Yan took another stroll around the courtyard and soon discovered several spirit stone slots embedded at the corners of the courtyard walls. Each held a few spirit stones, these were the array stones provided monthly by the sect. Of course, one could use them for cultivation, but no sane cultivator would ever do so.
Even within the sect, every cultivator's residence was protected at all times by a defensive formation. Everyone had their own secrets and would never tolerate being intruded upon without warning.
If only one mode of the formation was activated, the spirit stones would last until the next monthly distribution. But if multiple formation modes were used at once, the spiritual energy within the stones would be depleted in ten days.
By then, one would have to replace the stones at their own expense. Li Yan, who had just joined the sect, possessed only three pitiful low-grade spirit stones. He tested each formation mode one at a time before giving up on running them simultaneously.
After toying with the token for a while, Li Yan fastened it to his waist and walked through the other rooms of the residence.
The rest chamber held only a bed and a table. The cultivation room was so bare it had only a single meditation cushion on the ground. The beast-rearing chamber featured a pool built of jade stone, but it was completely empty. In the pill and artifact refining room, there was little more than a bamboo rack, a pill furnace, and a forging stove. The guest hall contained only a table, some chairs, and a tea set. "Elegant" was one way to put it, "utterly bare" would be another.
Standing in the guest hall, Li Yan stared at the tea set and realized he didn't even have a way to boil water. He didn't know a single spell. Glancing up at the darkening sky, now nearing dusk, he sighed, seems like he'd have to make a trip to the outer sect service hall himself.
When he returned, he had a kettle of hot water in hand. Upon reentering the courtyard, he reactivated the protective formation.
Back in the hall, he patted the storage pouch at his waist, and several packed dishes appeared on the table. Looking at the food and then the kettle in his hand, he couldn't help but smile wryly.
When he had gone to the service hall, it happened to be mealtime. Li Yan wasn't picky and asked for a few dishes to go, also letting them know what time to deliver meals starting the next day.
He wasn't about to act modest, he couldn't starve himself, after all.
The servants all agreed with curious glances. They were all around the fifth or sixth level of Qi Condensation themselves and rarely ate, so Li Yan had simply come at the right time, some of them just happened to want a proper meal today.
Then Li Yan did something that left them all dumbfounded: he asked for a kettle of boiling water. And not just the water, the whole kettle.
With over a dozen pairs of astonished eyes on him, Li Yan's face turned beet red.
He didn't know any fire-starting spells and wasn't even sure if the kettle could be safely stored in the pouch without spilling. He didn't dare test it there, so he packed up the food, stowed it in his pouch, and, under the shocked gazes of the servants, briskly marched off with the kettle in hand.
Thinking back to the incident, Li Yan shook his head in mild embarrassment.
He first used his divine sense to remove all the contents from the storage pouch. Then, carefully, he placed the kettle of hot water inside. After flipping and turning the pouch a few times, he took the kettle out again. Seeing that not a single drop had spilled, he finally nodded in satisfaction.
After finishing his meal and drinking some tea, Li Yan headed into the cultivation chamber. It was time to examine his current state and plan his future path.
He shut the door. With the courtyard's defensive formation active, the outside world felt entirely cut off. Li Yan sat cross-legged on the cushion and calmed his breath, then turned his senses inward.
Half a cup of tea's time later, he slowly opened his eyes. He had indeed advanced to the second level of Qi Condensation. The five vats within his body had grown slightly. Among them, only the water-element vat, the largest of the five, held some spiritual power. The other four were still completely empty.
Though the water spiritual energy stored inside was only half full, it had become significantly more condensed than before. No longer was it the vague, misty energy that seemed like it would scatter at a breath, it now felt thicker, more tangible, even containing a hint of moisture.
His current mana was at least three times stronger than before. Indeed, each increase in stage was no mere incremental step.
His divine sense had also improved tremendously. He could now extend it outside his body without issue, though it was still too weak to reach beyond the room he was in.
Standing up, Li Yan closed his eyes. The room's layout emerged clearly in his mind. As he slowly turned his head, the image shifted accordingly. He could now walk about with ease, even without opening his eyes.
Delighted by this newfound skill, he walked into the courtyard and began pacing with his eyes closed. Whether it was the stone tables and stools or other objects, he could avoid them all with ease, moving freely.
But the moment he approached the courtyard wall, his divine sense was bounced back by the white mist layer on the barrier. He could no longer see what lay within the mist.
After about ten breaths, a sharp pain stabbed through his mind. His chest churned with nausea, and he hurriedly opened his eyes and withdrew his divine sense in alarm.
He collapsed onto a stone stool, panting. It took a long while before the vomiting urge subsided, though his head still spun and cold sweat soaked his back. His body trembled uncontrollably.
Another quarter-hour passed before he finally regained composure. Sitting silently on the stone stool, he came to a conclusion, this must be the result of overusing both spiritual power and divine sense.
Now, just thinking of using his divine sense again brought a splitting headache, as if thousands of steel needles pierced his mind.
Li Yan returned to the cultivation chamber and resumed his cross-legged meditation, running the Guishui True Scripture. Time slowly ticked by.
Three hours later, he opened his eyes.
Sure enough, when he tried using his divine sense again, the pain had greatly lessened. This eased his mind a little, but he didn't dare push himself further just yet.
(Chapter End)
¹ Some context, Three Souls and Seven Spirits is a Daoist concept describing the spiritual composition of a person. The three souls represent the ethereal, immortal aspect of one's consciousness, linked to higher spiritual existence. The seven spirits are more earthly, governing emotions, physical vitality, and desires. Together, they influence a person's life force, fate, and afterlife journey.