Spirit Scholar Su Yun

Su Yun climbed down from the sky along the rope, took out a Luomou and warmed it against his chest. Only after it had become warm did he begin to gnaw on it. After two bites, he grabbed a handful of snow and stuffed it into his mouth.

Ancestor Yuan San should still have been searching for his whereabouts. Under no circumstances could he light a fire now; the smoke from it would be no different from pointing out his location to Ancestor Yuan San.

After Su Yun ate the Luomou, he saw the sky gradually brighten. This long night had finally passed.

"The ape demons were drawn to me, and Ancestor Yuan San is hunting me from behind. Second Brother and the others should be safe now."

Su Yun took another mouthful of snow when he suddenly heard the sound of something heavy crunching through the snow behind him. His heart stirred, and he hurriedly cast out the Immortal Rope again, rising into the sky.

He had barely left when Ancestor Yuan San arrived.

The old ape sniffed at the snow, then threw back his head and roared.

"How did this old ape catch up to me? Does he possess some tracking ability?"

Su Yun was puzzled. He knew nothing at all about Spiritual Abilities; he had only heard others speak of them, and had no idea what method Ancestor Yuan San had used to track him.

The youth rose higher and higher along the Immortal Rope, while the sky grew brighter and brighter. Once the Immortal Rope reached its limit, it stretched flat across the clouds like a single long snake.

Su Yun sat cross-legged on the rope. It was rare for there to be no wind at this moment, and it was not so cold.

A thread of golden light spilled from the horizon. A golden sun raised its head, and its light gradually descended, shining upon the youth's face. Below, Tianshiyuan remained shrouded in darkness; there, it was still nighttime.

Su Yun's heart stirred, and he cultivated the Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter.

The Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter was supremely hard and supremely yang. As his cultivation technique began to circulate, rays of sunlight gathered and shone upon the space between his brows. The patch of light moved with his qi and blood, traveling from his brow to the philtrum, then to his throat, before sinking into his dantian.

Su Yun breathed in and out, and the patch of light grew brighter and brighter. The light gathered by his Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter also became increasingly intense.

Gradually, sun essence gathered before him and transformed into a tiny fireball, like a little sun that sometimes rose slowly before him and sometimes descended leisurely.

"The Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter draws in the essence of sun and moon faster than the Great Furnace Transformation: Qi Cultivation Chapter, but what it refines is not as pure. The Great Furnace Transformation: Qi Cultivation Chapter refines sun and moon essence faster, and with greater purity."

Su Yun's heart stirred. "I wonder if I can combine the strengths of these two Qi Cultivation Chapters?"

He tried using the Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter to increase his vital qi, then used the Great Furnace Transformation to refine that vital qi. It was indeed much faster than his usual cultivation.

It was not as though no one had considered cultivating two Qi Cultivation Chapter techniques, but mastering even one technique was already extremely difficult. How could one cultivate two at once?

Besides, once one reached the sixth level of Foundation Establishment, one would naturally abandon the Qi Cultivation Chapter and begin cultivating techniques of the Spirit Infusion Realm. Who would still spend effort on a Qi Cultivation Chapter?

Su Yun had no Spirit Infusion Realm technique. Only he would continue cultivating the Qi Cultivation Chapter.

His vital qi became increasingly abundant, his qi and blood both flourishing. He felt that his body had improved greatly as well. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the sun was already high in the sky, and Tianshiyuan was fully bright.

"Senior Lou Ban said I was already a Spirit Scholar. Why should I fear Ancestor Yuan San? But I clearly have not cultivated a Spirit Infusion Realm technique. Why did he say I am a Spirit Scholar?"

Su Yun's heart stirred as he carefully recalled all the information he knew about Spirit Scholars.

Spirit Scholars were people with powerful Spiritual Natures.

Spirit Scholars possessed Spiritual Abilities, formed from the things they thought of day and night.

Spiritual Abilities were formed by the fusion of a Spirit Scholar's thoughts with qi and blood.

For instance, a Confucian Scholar's Spiritual Abilities were often the writings he recited daily. Once he grasped the essence of those writings, united knowledge and action, applied them in everyday practice, turned them into his own code of conduct, and ensured that his words and deeds never crossed the bounds or violated that code, those writings could become Spiritual Abilities.

Other abilities were no different.

If what one contemplated was architecture, then one's Spiritual Ability would be like bricks and tiles piled atop one another, carved beams and painted rafters, interlocking bracket sets supporting each other, winding corridors and curling eaves, sharp roof corners pecking at the sky;

If what one contemplated was flowers, then one's ability would be like flowers in full bloom, every blossom delicate and gorgeous, a riot of purple and red surpassing all colors in the world;

If what one contemplated was fierce beasts, then one's ability would be like a tiger walking by night, a Flood Dragon hiding in the abyss, a phoenix roosting in a parasol tree;

If what one contemplated was Gods and Devils, then one's ability would be like the vajra statues in temples—perhaps three heads and six arms, perhaps a third eye growing from the brow, perhaps flames covering the entire body;

If what one contemplated was weapons, then one's ability would be like a sharp blade!

"Then what is it that my Spiritual Nature contemplates?"

As Su Yun thought of this, an understanding suddenly arose in his heart. "What I have thought of day and night is actually the Great Yellow Bell I use to keep time! Then my Spiritual Ability..."

He suddenly burst into laughter. Yet as he laughed, the youth began choking back sobs as he sat on the rope.

When he was seven, Tianmen Town had suffered its calamity, and he had become the Little Blind Person. He had heard Uncle Cen's guidance and gone to the town's bell tower to feel the bell. Then, day and night without pause, he imagined that there was such a huge Bronze Bell in his mind, engraved with the divisions of time.

Who knew how much effort he had expended over the past six or seven years, how much time he had spent, and how much hardship he had endured?

Who knew how many times he had made mistakes while imagining this Yellow Bell, how many times he had fallen because of it, how many times he had tumbled into ditches?

Su Yun sat atop the Immortal Rope in the clouds, laughing as he wiped away tears.

The New Year was almost here. After it passed, he would turn fourteen. By then, it would have been seven years since the disaster in Tianmen Town.

Blind for six or seven years, having swallowed six or seven years of bitterness and pain, he had finally gained something.

The youth rose to his feet and stirred his qi and blood, letting it fill the Great Yellow Bell!

Dong!

He raised his head and saw the phantom of a gigantic Yellow Bell above him, seemingly cast from yellow brass. It had seven layers, divided into years, months, days, hours, characters, seconds, and instants. Every layer had its own divisions, and every layer had its own laws of movement!

As his qi and blood circulated, the Yellow Bell became clearer and clearer, and its divisions more and more distinct.

Su Yun stepped through the air. Sunlight shone down, and the Yellow Bell cast a faint shadow over him. At this moment, he finally possessed his own Spiritual Ability!

The Yellow Bell rotated above his head. Suddenly, thirty-six White Ape imprints gradually appeared upon the instant divisions, each in a different pose.

Suddenly, there were already thirty-six Crocodile Dragon images upon the instant divisions. Nourished by qi and blood, their forms gradually changed, as though Crocodile Dragons were crossing tribulation, transforming into thirty-six Flood Dragon images!

With the newly added thirty-six White Ape images, the seventy-two images occupied only two-tenths of the instant divisions, leaving the rest unfilled.

What was strange was that as the instant divisions on the Yellow Bell's lowest layer rotated, the Crocodile Dragons and White Apes within those seventy-two images continuously practiced their respective techniques, vivid and lifelike.

"Then how exactly are Spiritual Abilities used?"

Su Yun frowned. He had reached the end of the rope. Suddenly, he leaped out, grabbed the rope's end with one hand, and the Immortal Rope immediately seemed to lose its support, plummeting rapidly downward!

"I have never learned a Spirit Infusion Realm technique, so I do not know how to use it. But Ancestor Yuan San should know. If I fight him once, I'll know!"

Su Yun fell rapidly. Below him, Tianshiyuan was magnificent and majestic, with mountain ranges stretching endlessly, every part blanketed in snow.

Su Yun looked down as mountains and rivers rushed toward his face.

Meanwhile, in the snow, Ancestor Yuan San wore a gloomy expression as he covered his wounds with ice and snow to ease the pain.

At the treetops in the forest beside him stood six White Apes, each balanced upon the very tip of a branch as though weightless, stretching their necks to look in every direction.

These six White Apes all had different stances, and their movements were precisely the opening forms of the six moves of Ape Lord's Judgment!

At that moment, one White Ape suddenly spotted Su Yun falling from the sky while clutching the rope and immediately let out a shrill ape cry!

Ancestor Yuan San's spirits surged. He rubbed snow into his wounds, sprang to his feet, seized the Iron Cudgel standing beside the tree, and shook his qi and blood, pouring it into the Iron Cudgel.

Six ape cries rang out. The six White Apes leaped from the treetops and flew toward the Iron Cudgel.

Had Su Yun been there, he would have recognized that the movement techniques the six White Apes used to fly toward the Iron Cudgel were precisely the six moves of Ape Master's Art.

Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding!

Six crisp impacts rang out. At each of the places where yellow brass wrapping encircled the end of the Iron Cudgel, three White Ape imprints appeared, vivid and lifelike.

Like the Crocodile Dragon and White Ape images in the divisions of Su Yun's Yellow Bell, these six White Apes were all peculiar qi-and-blood imprints.

Ancestor Yuan San grabbed the iron cudgel and charged forward. Like an arrow leaving the bowstring, he raced toward the place where Su Yun would land!

The Iron Cudgel in his hand was not a true iron cudgel either, but a Spiritual Ability!

The White Ape imprints had been formed during his Foundation Establishment days, when he cultivated the Immortal Ape Qi Cultivation Chapter. After he had cultivated Ape Lord's Judgment to its third attainment, his qi and blood had transformed into imprints upon his Spiritual Ability!

The reason he could accurately find Su Yun every time was precisely the Ape Lord's Judgment imprints within his Spiritual Ability.

The moment Su Yun landed, he immediately put the Immortal Rope back into his bundle.

The youth tied the bundle onto his back and tightened it again, silently regulating his breathing.

He firmly believed that Ancestor Yuan San would be able to find him. There was no need for him to search; he only needed to stay here and wait at ease for the exhausted enemy.

Suddenly, the ground trembled faintly. Su Yun looked up and saw a line of snow in the distance splitting the snowy plain, while heavy snow on both sides surged like waves and was forced apart!

At the center was a white-furred violent ape wielding an Iron Cudgel. The cudgel dragged across the ground as it came charging wildly!

Su Yun's eyelids twitched. That white-furred violent ape was incomparably fast, and the pressure from its qi and blood was even stronger. Before it had even reached him, that pressure already made Su Yun feel an oppressive force in his eyes!

"Ancestor Yuan San's cultivation is stronger than mine. The pressure of his qi and blood is forcing back the qi and blood in my eyes, turning me blind again."

Su Yun's vision grew dimmer and dimmer. The qi and blood in his eyes could no longer force open the Immortal Sword, allowing the Immortal Sword imprint to make a comeback and prepare to occupy his pupils once more!

"But that cannot be allowed!"

Su Yun shouted explosively. Sunlight gathered above his head, forming a tiny fireball that revolved around the Yellow Bell and illuminated every division upon it!

The qi and blood within him surged violently, blocking Ancestor Yuan San's oppressive qi and blood. Light returned to his vision!

Winter day, snowy scenery.

Ancestor Yuan San leaped into the air. His qi and blood swelled wildly, causing cords and masses of muscle to emerge all over his body. He was incomparably brawny, like a white tower!

Every wound on his body burst open, qi and blood spraying everywhere. Yet the arm-thick Iron Cudgel swept toward him with a hum!

Su Yun stepped forward and charged. One human and one ape collided with a thunderous crash in midair!

The snow on the ground suddenly seemed to suffer an invisible heavy blow. Vast sheets of snow sank down, forming a great pit three or four zhang across!

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