Chapter 66: The Gate of Cultivation
Li Yan's days of cultivation had begun. He set up a cultivation plan for himself. Now, it was no longer like before in the Military Advisor's Mansion, where he had to cultivate in secret. Back then, it was like eating one meal while missing the next. Now, he could throw himself into it with his whole being.
Inside the cultivation room, Li Yan sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, eyes tightly shut, his face calm and emotionless. A faint black mist swirled around his body. With every breath he took, the black mist rhythmically expanded and contracted outward, cycling over and over again.
Li Yan was completely immersed in an almost trance-like state of cultivation. Inside his body, the faint black spiritual energy slowly circulated along his meridians. It would take roughly half an hour for it to return to the Purple Mansion within his dantian and then be poured into the Water Spirit Energy Vat.
With each full cycle, the faint black spiritual energy would deepen in color ever so slightly. Though the change was nearly imperceptible, it was happening gradually. The mist inside the energy vat was also rising slowly.
Several hours later, Li Yan opened his eyes. He felt as if power surged through his entire body. At this moment, he thought that if he encountered a Qi Condensation-level expert like his Seventh Senior Brother, he might actually stand a fighting chance.
As for this sensation, Li Yan naturally understood that it was a false sense of swelling power, caused by post-cultivation vitality and a slight increase in strength. In a real fight, that kind of expert could probably still kill him with a single finger.
The Guishui True Scripture truly lived up to its reputation as one of the oldest and most powerful inheritances in the Immortal Spirit Realm. Those chosen by it would find the cultivation method especially compatible. After each session of cultivation, Li Yan always felt his strength had improved somewhat.
Although the process was very slow, he could see the changes in the energy vat inside his body, gradually filling up day by day.
Li Yan extended his hand and circulated his spiritual energy. The next moment, strands of black mist began to spread across his palm. He clenched his five fingers tightly and punched forward. Instantly, the black mist condensed into a ball and shot outward.
The black sphere let out a dull "wum" as it moved through the air. The next moment, with a loud "bang!", the wall of the cultivation room lit up with a flash of greenish-white light, then returned to calm.
Li Yan nodded in satisfaction. That punch didn't belong to any immortal technique, it was simply a direct projection of his magical energy. The target was the bamboo wall of the cultivation room.
Speaking of the bamboo walls, they were rather peculiar. Li Yan had only discovered their uniqueness by accident a few days ago.
That day, after cultivating, the magical energy in his body was abundant, and he felt a kind of desire to break free from his body.
So Li Yan thought to try channeling the power into his hand. After several attempts, his palm was indeed enveloped by dense black spiritual energy. Then he threw a punch, and as he attempted to control the energy with his mind, he instantly regretted it.
Under his mental direction, the energy actually left his body instantly, with a decent amount of force. In the blink of an eye, it heavily struck the greenish-white bamboo wall several zhang away with a deep, muffled thud.
Li Yan was startled, thinking he'd caused a disaster. In his mind, though the bamboo house might not collapse, there would surely be considerable damage.
But what followed was unexpected. Amid the loud sound, several greenish-white lights flickered on the wall, then vanished. The section of the wall remained completely undamaged.
Li Yan quickly got to his feet, walked over to the spot that had been hit, and examined it closely. He saw that it was just as bright and green-white as the surrounding wall, nothing out of the ordinary.
He touched it with his hand. The surface felt cool against his fingertips. When he channeled spiritual energy into his hand and pressed it again, a faint greenish-white light glowed under his finger, which now felt like it was pressing against a highly elastic bowstring. This made Li Yan realize the bamboo house was not ordinary.
He proceeded to try the same thing in the other rooms and found identical results.
After thinking for a while, he opened the courtyard gate and walked into the bamboo forest outside. He stood before a stalk of dark bamboo as thick as a grown man's arm, channeled his magical energy again, and punched.
The next moment, several green points of light flickered on the bamboo stalk, and then it split in half at the waist, leaving Li Yan stunned.
The reason he had tested all the room walls earlier was because he suspected that the bamboo house of the cultivation room was reinforced with a small formation to prevent accidental damage during training.
But after testing all the rooms and finding their walls equally sturdy and having no additional tokens apart from the one to activate the courtyard formation, Li Yan concluded that the bamboo used to construct the buildings was likely a low-grade spirit artifact, which could resist attacks from cultivators.
Yet looking at the severed ink bamboo, he wasn't so sure anymore. Thinking again, he went to another stalk and punched. A crisp sound followed, and this time the bamboo merely developed a few cracks. Then he tested two more: one broke into fragments, and the other remained completely intact.
Li Yan finally confirmed: although the bamboo used in the buildings and the bamboo outside looked similar, there were indeed differences. It might be due to age, quality, or simply superficial resemblance.
In the experiments he just performed, each strike produced different results. This proved that the bamboo outside was a low-grade spiritual plant, which ordinary mortals couldn't damage.
Li Yan wasn't just doing this out of boredom. The Strategist had left a shadow on his heart.
He had now developed a habit: always trying to understand everything around him, so he could be in the most familiar environment possible. Any small, seemingly insignificant detail might save his life in a critical moment.
As Li Yan watched the green-white light flicker again on the wall of the cultivation room, he realized that today's strike was stronger than those of the past few days, proof that his cultivation was producing visible results.
He stood up, opened the door, and walked into the courtyard. Standing still for a moment and focusing, Li Yan raised both hands and, somewhat clumsily, formed hand seals in front of his chest while muttering incantations.
After more than a dozen breaths, a small patch of dark clouds began to slowly gather a few feet above his head. But that cloud was only the size of two adult palms, looking rather comical.
As his chanting quickened, the two tiny clouds began to darken in color and started churning more violently.
But the very next moment "poof!" as if someone had suddenly sighed in relief, the dark clouds above instantly scattered into nothing.
Li Yan's face showed no expression as he stood still and fell into contemplation. After a while, he once again raised his hands, and the low hum of incantations resounded.
This was the "Raincloud Technique" that Li Yan had been practicing lately. He hadn't started with other offensive-type spells for a simple reason, he began from what he actually needed.
Although the place he lived wasn't far from a nearby water source, using it every time was always inconvenient. Whether for washing up or daily use, he had to go out on a trip each time.
That day, he heard from his seventh senior brother that whenever a cultivator's body got dirty, they could simply cast a "Dust-Cleansing Technique," or summon a "Raincloud Technique" for a quick bath, then use spiritual power to steam their body and clothes dry.
When he was at the Treasure Repository, he had already set his eyes on obtaining one of these types of spells. After all, cultivators, at the end of the day, were still people, and daily living habits were still necessary.
However, the past few days of practicing hadn't gone smoothly. Just this morning, he had gone to look for his eldest senior brother to ask for guidance.
But ever since that farewell at the courtyard gate, that overly handsome senior brother was said to have gotten drunk that same day. After the red-clothed Li Changting, swaying slightly in her drunken charm departed, this excessively handsome Senior Brother ended up crouching on the ground, retching for a long time.
Yet cultivators were indeed hardy, even their digestion was strong, he actually didn't vomit at all. Then, with a green face, Li Wuyi declared he would enter closed-door cultivation for a period of time. Currently, affairs within the sect were being handled by Fourth Senior Sister Miao Wangqing.
Li Yan now had no way to ask about cultivation matters. He didn't want to consult the current person in charge, his fourth senior sister.
It wasn't that he thought poorly of this senior sister. On the contrary, Miao Wangqing had a friendly demeanor and looked so beautiful she could put flowers to shame. The reason was that he had never, since childhood, spent time alone with an unfamiliar girl.
Moreover, he'd heard from the servants that Fourth Senior Sister had been in a foul mood lately, pouting all day. Li Yan didn't want to provoke bad luck.
As for asking that fat master for advice, Li Yan felt even more apprehensive. He always felt that this fat master could see right through any of his thoughts. And he couldn't help but overlap this master's image with that of Strategist Ji.
In the end, Li Yan had no choice but to go seek his seventh senior brother again. Fortunately, Lin Daqiao was still on the peak and hadn't entered closed-door cultivation.
The reason was that he was currently building up to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage. As for Foundation Establishment Pills and other supporting elixirs, Wei Chongran had already given them to him. He was now waiting for the right moment.
To break through a realm like this, not only was a deep reserve of spiritual power and potent auxiliary pills needed, but also a refined state of mind. He was now slowly searching for that spark of inspiration.
When Lin Daqiao saw Li Yan coming, he was overjoyed. Recently he hadn't been cultivating, often walking around the other peaks or wandering on Little Bamboo Peak, but still hadn't found that moment of insight. It left him rather bored.
Li Yan's arrival gave him someone to talk to. Perhaps, through conversation, he might suddenly find that inspiration, who could say it wasn't possible?
When Lin Daqiao found out why Li Yan had come, he was even more delighted. For a spell like this that was as common as dirt and didn't touch upon the secrets of his cultivation technique, he was more than happy to explain it to his junior.
The path of spells mainly involved incantations, hand seals, and spiritual power working together to form a technique.
But that was only for beginners just entering the world of spells. For true experts, once they had mastered a spell, one might not even see them chant or make seals, the spell would fire off with just a wave of the hand.
Some could even form the spell with a mere thought.
Next, Lin Daqiao carefully explained the features of the "Raincloud Technique" to Li Yan, its similarities with other spells, and the things to watch out for during practice.
He also went over the timing of integrating incantation, seal, and spiritual power, which gave Li Yan a feeling of sudden clarity, like clouds parting to reveal the sun.
He believed that thanks to this lesson, not only could he avoid many detours, but he might also draw inferences to other spell practices in the future.
This made Li Yan even more fond of his lively and quirky seventh senior brother. After finishing his inquiries, he chatted with him for half an hour more, until Lin Daqiao was still full of ideas and reluctant to stop.
Finally, Li Yan bid farewell and left the courtyard.
In the days that followed, aside from heading to the servant quarters once every ten days or so to collect food, Li Yan shut himself away and practiced tirelessly day and night.
He was still a novice and couldn't endure extended closed-door cultivation, and besides, ordinary food still tasted far better than fasting pills…
Time was the hardest thing to grasp, and the days flew swiftly by in fulfilling cultivation. But on Little Bamboo Peak, it was hard to perceive the change of seasons.
Only by carefully observing the bamboo leaves turning from tender green to deep inky green, or seeing spring shoots sprouting in the bamboo forest, could one know the seasons had changed and the sun and moon had continued their endless cycle.
In the blink of an eye, more than half a year had passed.
One day, the main gate of Li Yan's bamboo courtyard opened. Amid swirling white mist, a pathway appeared, and Li Yan slowly stepped out from within, dressed in a dark green long robe.
At this time, Li Yan had grown significantly taller compared to half a year ago. At fifteen or sixteen, it was the age where a youth's body grew fast. The fuzz at the corners of his mouth had begun to darken and thicken, and his shoulders had grown broader.
His frame had already been tall for his age, and now, after months of cultivation, he looked even more mature. Much of the childishness had faded from his face, though his plain features still lacked the slightest spiritual air typical of a cultivator.
At this moment, Li Yan's brows were tightly furrowed, clearly weighed down by heavy thoughts. After stepping out the gate, his figure shifted and strolled leisurely toward the mountaintop behind him!
(Chapter End)