Phantoms (Part 1)

Li Feng had never been so somber in his life. Squinting, he sat by the pond with his knees hugged to his chest, enveloped in an aura that was incredibly chilling, bone-chillingly cold, and almost desolate. Zhao Yue'er stood about ten feet behind him. Although a glance revealed Li Feng's cultivation level wasn't very high, Zhao Yue'er felt a strange sensation—she couldn't see through him at all. She couldn't fathom what he was thinking or what he intended to do.

Zhao Yue'er recalled Liu Xingzi's words to her before he went into seclusion to recover from his injuries. After glancing at the dazed Li Feng, he had said, "This kid, he's actually a heartbroken person." Because he was heartbroken, he used a mask of recklessness and a facade of nonsensical behavior to hide himself. Because he was heartbroken, he appeared lustful, greedy for wealth, and seeking pleasure, but it was only because he lacked confidence in himself, merely wanting to grasp more things in his hands.

Vaguely, Zhao Yue'er began to understand Liu Xingzi's meaning. Perhaps Li Feng himself didn't realize it, but he had come to treat everyone in the Yiyuan Sect as a balm for the holes in his heart, a salve to mend his emotional wounds. To put it more plainly, Li Feng had developed feelings for everyone in the Yiyuan Sect, feelings he wouldn't admit to and hadn't even noticed. That's why his reaction was so intense when he discovered that the people he cared about were harmed.

"Ahhhh, I'll curse your ancestors! Even if those old geezers and old baldies are going to die, they'll be angered to death by this young master! Damn it, Emei Sect, you just wait!" Li Feng suddenly jumped up, hopping and roaring loudly at the sky, which startled Zhao Yue'er greatly.

After venting his frustration by jumping around, Li Feng gestured with his right hand, and a cold light shot out from his mouth. He had unleashed his 'Cold Sparrow' sword. Continuous true essence was continuously poured into the sword light. With a loud clang, the cold light, about twenty feet long, suddenly transformed into more than ten sword lights, stabbing back and forth in the air, filling the sky with flashing light and chilling energy. Zhao Yue'er quickly clapped and said with a smile, "Congratulations, congratulations! I didn't expect you to be able to comprehend the 'Thousand Sword Art' now."

Li Feng retracted the sword lights and said dejectedly, "What's the point of comprehending this? It's just splitting the sword light into more streams, right? Sigh, I still can't defeat those old Daoists."

Zhao Yue'er was stunned for a moment, then walked up and slapped Li Feng hard across the face, chiding, "What are you saying? If you want revenge on Old Daoist Wu Shen, you need to cultivate even harder. Are you afraid you won't have a chance for revenge? Old Daoist Wu Shen has only cultivated for three hundred years. If his deceased master hadn't been severely injured by the Heavenly Tribulation and poured all his true essence into him before dying, he wouldn't have this level of cultivation."

"However, even with such a huge advantage, he's still no match for Senior Disciple Brother and the others. It's just that no one expected that old fellow to be so shameless and launch a sneak attack. Our Yiyuan Sect's Qi Refining methods are far superior to theirs. As long as you cultivate diligently and with the help of the elders, you will surpass Old Daoist Wu Shen one day... You don't even need to have his level of attainment; as long as you can reach his cultivation level, I can steal the 'One Yuan Pearl' for you to use later, and you can still beat him black and blue."

A determined light gradually appeared in Li Feng's eyes. He nodded and said, "Yes, our Yiyuan Sect has so many treasures and spirit pills. One day, I will catch up to him. When that time comes, I will pour the filthiest things onto Mount Emei. Damn it, I don't believe I can't defeat him... Also, Master, don't forget you made a bet with me. I will definitely reach the Nascent Soul realm before you. Hahahaha, I absolutely will not carry Little Cat around Mount Hua three times. That guy is too fat."

Little Cat, following behind Li Feng, bristled with anger and cast a malicious glance at Li Feng's backside, seemingly contemplating how to bite it for maximum satisfaction.

Zhao Yue'er nodded repeatedly. Seeing Li Feng's spirits revived, she couldn't help but feel secretly happy. In her excitement, she blurted out, "Uncle-Master Songzi lent you the 'Purple Pole Heart Sutra.' Hmph, lucky you. It's a shame you can't comprehend the celestial texts within it yet. Well, if you want to advance your cultivation faster, I do have a way. Our sect's secret collection of over a hundred volumes of Heavenly Mansion Daoist Scriptures contains astonishingly powerful spells. Come with me to 'Purple Radiance Pavilion' now. You can start by memorizing the contents."

Li Feng blinked in surprise. "Heavenly Mansion Daoist Scriptures? Are they very powerful?"

Zhao Yue'er nodded. "That's right. They record some spells used by legendary immortals. Unfortunately, they only contain the incantations, not detailed Qi Refining methods, so they consume too much true essence. Without the cultivation of the Golden Core stage or above, they are unusable. However, there are also many wondrous methods within them, which can be considered shortcuts to spells, allowing for extremely rapid progress in cultivation. But you must be careful not to become addicted to the spells; you must deepen your own cultivation."

Li Feng repeatedly agreed. "Of course. I don't want to be like yesterday, where one Heavenly Lightning strike drained all my true essence, leaving me too weak to even stand... However, I've already learned many incantations. My senior uncles say that if these incantations are cultivated to their highest level, they can allow one to steal from heaven and change the sun, becoming omnipotent. Are these so-called Heavenly Mansion Daoist Scriptures more powerful than my current incantations?"

Zhao Yue'er shook her head and thought for a moment before explaining, "Not exactly... Hmm, let me give you an analogy. The 'Lightning Control Art' you are learning now is like a blunt axe. As you slowly familiarize yourself with it and constantly study it, it will naturally become incredibly sharp and attuned to your will, responding to your call and obeying your commands, its power adjustable as you wish. The 'Thunder Thousand Miles' recorded in those celestial texts is like an already incredibly sharp axe, but it's exceptionally heavy. Its power when you use it is absolutely astonishing, but it's too powerful for you to control, and you might end up harming yourself and others."

Zhao Yue'er bit her lip. "However, this kind of spell is truly suitable for dealing with that old Daoist from the Emei Sect. What a despicable and shameless old fellow! Once Senior Brother and the others have recovered from their injuries, we don't even need to wait for Father to come out of seclusion. We can directly go to their Emei Sect to seek justice. If it weren't for the sneak attack, how could Daoist Wu Shen have succeeded so easily?"

Li Feng fell silent for a moment, then asked somewhat sheepishly, "Are the old Daoists alright? Didn't they say my Master's Golden Core was almost shattered?"

Zhao Yue'er shook her head repeatedly. "Don't worry, they're fine. They just suffered severe depletion of true essence and significant physical injuries. I opened Father's alchemy room and took eight Heaven Grade Two Spirit Pills, 'Nirvana Pills,' for Senior Brother and the others. After they consume those pills along with other spirit herbs for recovery, they should be back to normal within half a year at most. In these six months, you can use the time to learn more powerful spells. Choose some that you can use at your current level, and then we'll go to Mount Emei, including you. I know you want to teach their disciples a lesson."

Li Feng nodded repeatedly, a fierce look appearing on his face. Zhao Yue'er looked at Li Feng's suddenly fierce expression and couldn't help but feel a jolt of surprise. She wondered, "What kind of life did Fengzi live when he was a child? Why is there such strong malevolent energy deep in his heart? Senior Disciple Brother Ling Guangzi, although extremely dull in his dealings with people, has an extremely exquisite understanding of physiognomy. He actually said the same thing as Mother, which puzzles me a bit... Isn't Fengzi usually as fun as Little Cat when he's with me?"

Lost in thought, Zhao Yue'er led Li Feng deeper into Qingyun Flat. As they walked, they passed the 'Nine Yang Gathering Yuan Array' and the 'Heavenly Spirit Spring.' Zhao Yue'er waved her hand, dispersing wisps of white mist, revealing a small canyon. The two of them, along with Little Cat, walked directly through the canyon to a place that Li Feng found utterly incomprehensible.

Here, stars filled the sky, and strange energy fluctuations permeated the surroundings. As Li Feng walked, he felt an almost floating sensation, as if walking in water. In his ears, he could faintly hear the subtle "swishing" sounds as the seemingly substantial energy waves passed through his body. And the ground beneath their feet—no, there was no ground at all. They were walking in black void, and with every step, a circle of white ripples emerged from under their soles, spreading towards an infinite horizon.

Li Feng was stunned and couldn't help but ask, "Where is this?"

Zhao Yue'er said in a deep voice, "The true core of the Yiyuan Sect. Our founding ancestor, Yellow Dragon True Man, an immortal from the Chan Sect during the Investiture of the Gods, split open the void and ascended. He split open this 'Lesser Celestial Realm' with half of his true essence. This place exists in the mortal world, yet it also exists on the path to the immortal realm. Including the thirty-six grotto-heavens of Daoism, this is the place closest to the immortal realm, meaning it has the most abundant Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, and occasionally Immortal Spiritual Energy overflows here."

Li Feng swallowed dryly. Without witnessing true wonders, one could never truly know the level of power of the Yiyuan Sect. The place closest to the immortal realm? That meant the power required to split the void during ascension would be much less, and the power of the Heavenly Tribulation would also be significantly weakened... To put it another way, being close to the immortal realm was like being at the doorstep of the immortal realm. Heavenly Tribulation was like a bomb, and those immortals weren't idiots. Would they detonate a bomb with too much power right at their doorstep?

Especially that so-called Immortal Spiritual Energy, it was a treasure tens of thousands of times purer than the spiritual energy of a Nascent Soul. As long as one could absorb a trace of Immortal Spiritual Energy, even if a cultivator was thrown into a place with no spiritual energy, like a desert, they could form a Golden Core within a hundred years. Li Feng licked his lips and muttered to himself, "My god, why aren't any Yiyuan Sect disciples cultivating here?"

Zhao Yue'er shot him a sideways glance and grumbled, "Why not? I cultivate here when I'm in seclusion. However, this place cannot tolerate too much interference. If more than three people enter at the same time, the fluctuations and oscillations of true essence could cause an imbalance in the energy here, ultimately leading to the collapse of the entire 'Lesser Celestial Realm.' Therefore, usually, my Mother brings me here to cultivate, and Senior Brother and the others only come in occasionally to consult scriptures."

The two of them, along with Little Cat, continued to walk forward on the dark ground. Little Cat was quite surprised by the white ripples appearing under its paws and couldn't help but bring its face closer to the ground. Suddenly, it saw its own reflection on the ground, startling it into frantically waving its right paw and smashing at the tiger's face reflected on the ground. "Swish, swish, swish, swish," countless white ripples spread out. When Zhao Yue'er looked back, she couldn't help but laugh heartily.

"Idiot, that's you. No need to hit it... Some things here can't be explained. Clearly, there's only void beneath us, yet it's like a mirror, reflecting many things. Especially some things we've never seen before. I heard that sometimes you can even see the past and future here, though I don't know if it's true or not."

Li Feng was taken aback. "See the past and future?" A wicked thought immediately popped into his mind: "If I'm lucky, wouldn't I be able to see if you're carrying my son in two hundred years, and if my son calls you Mother? Hehe... But then again, that depends on luck." As he thought, Li Feng's thoughts became increasingly indecent, and finally, he couldn't help but ask a question, "Master, I just find it strange, can cultivators also get married and have children?"

Zhao Yue'er's body paused. She tilted her head and gave Li Feng a sideways glance, scrutinizing him for a long time before pouting and saying, "Hmph, hmph, why are you asking this? I know you're wondering why my Mother and Father had me, but you can blame my Father for that. In order to refine the 'Seven Orifices Supervisory Grass,' he attracted the jealousy of heavenly demons, who infiltrated my Father's sea of consciousness from the subtle, igniting his inner yang true fire and nearly reducing hundreds of years of hard cultivation to nothing. Fortunately, he and my Mother were dual cultivation partners, so Mother assisted with her pure yin true essence. After three years, she refined the heavenly demon in his heart, resulting in a great advancement in her cultivation. However, she accidentally leaked a bit of her primal yang, which is how I, your Master, came to be."

Li Feng suddenly understood. "Oh, so the Sect Master had a demonic possession." Li Feng immediately became lost in thought. "Damn, if I were also invaded by a heart demon once, wouldn't I be able to... hehe... with Master? But at my current level, outer-realm heavenly demons probably wouldn't even look at me. Sigh, it's hard to even ignite my inner yang true fire."

Continuing forward for about twenty miles, soft purple light suddenly emanated from ahead. Li Feng focused his gaze. There was a pillar of purple light shooting down from an unknown height. Within the light pillar, transparent spiritual lights danced back and forth, and powerful spiritual energy radiated out in waves. Enveloped by the light pillar was a small, unwalled courtyard. Inside, there was a small bridge, flowing water, mountains, and waterfalls. Beneath the mountains was a small, exquisite residence decorated with jade corridors featuring filigree and openwork patterns of flowers, birds, grass, and trees. The residence appeared to be only five or six rooms in size, with black tiles, white walls, and green window frames, exuding a very special sense of tranquility.

The two of them, along with the tiger, tiptoed into the courtyard. Li Feng finally stepped onto the land. Taking a breath, Li Feng was almost choked to death by the abundant Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy. The spiritual energy here had almost condensed into a liquid state, permeating the space. Li Feng felt a strange sensation of being immersed in water.

Zhao Yue'er pointed to the winding stream and said, "Look closely. That's not water; that's water-like Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy."

Li Feng was stunned. Liquid spiritual energy? He suddenly understood how he, at the initial stage of Qi Condensation, should continue his cultivation. He had now transitioned from the acquired realm to the wondrous innate realm and had good communication with the heavenly qi. Basically, as long as he didn't use spells and only fought like an ordinary martial artist with punches and kicks, his true qi would not be depleted. What he needed to do now was to continuously condense his true essence, condense it again and again, until the quantitative change transformed into a qualitative change, allowing it to turn into Misty Violet Qi and finally form a Golden Core.

If he couldn't refine his true essence and maintained his current level, he would only be comparable to an innate master in the martial arts world, and not necessarily their match. This was because although he had stolen two secret manuals from the bedroom of the previous generation's Mount Hua Sect Master, he had never practiced them and didn't understand any techniques.

These were idle thoughts. Speaking of which, upon realizing this, Li Feng felt a surge of joy. He watched the streams flow to the end of the creek, immediately transforming into scattered spiritual lights, like a waterfall flowing upstream, with myriad colorful lights emanating from within the spiritual lights. Li Feng laughed heartily three times towards the sky, "Ha, so that's what the so-called Qi Condensation stage is all about... Hahaha, I finally understand."

Zhao Yue'er hit Li Feng hard on the back of his head and shouted, "You idiot, you're only realizing it now? Where did you read those Qi Refining incantations?... Alright, you can choose a room to go into freely. You can't take the Daoist scriptures from here, so you can only memorize them here. Especially, I must tell you, you absolutely cannot practice spells or cultivate magical artifacts here, otherwise, be careful you don't get choked to death by the spiritual energy you attract. You can only refine qi here at most, and it's best not to exceed one hour of qi refining per day. You still can't adapt to such dense spiritual energy."

Li Feng nodded repeatedly, while Little Cat had already curled up on the ground, closing its eyes in meditation. This was Little Cat's cultivation posture.