Ji You had actually understood the wonders of cultivating immortality and comprehending the Dao back in Yuyang County.
But truly coming into contact with martial arts and experiencing the solid thrill of landing blows was a first for him in both his past and present lives.
Especially with spiritual energy woven into martial techniques, which he found exceedingly marvelous.
Before he knew it, a day had passed. The evening glow had dyed the sky red as Ji You emerged from Sword Testing Forest and headed to the Immortal Cuisine House for a meal. With his purse running empty, he only ordered Stir-fried Immortal Seed Gathering and Cold Tossed Golden Spirit Grass, soothing his ravenous stomach.
He wondered whether Kuang Cheng had spent all his money yet. He would go check on him another day...
Being stuffed made people uncomfortable, and purses were the same. Ji You could not bear to see a purse suffer. Even if he had to eat himself sick, he felt he had to save it.
After eating, Ji the Fierce Bandit returned to the courtyard.
The stove still held the charcoal from last night, now burned white. Ji You cleared away the ashes, added fresh charcoal, and used spiritual energy to kindle it. Then he soaked a towel in hot water and scrubbed himself down, washing his face while he was at it.
Bathing in ancient times was extremely inconvenient. Most people used bathing tubs, but Ji You was accustomed to showers. In a few days, he planned to rob some money, have a blacksmith make a perforated kettle, and use it as a showerhead while controlling it with his powers.
After cleaning himself, Ji You changed into fresh clothes and made his way against the tide of encroaching night toward the Dao Comprehension Ground. He found it already packed to the brim beneath the lingering light of the setting sun.
Some held spiritual pills in one hand while forming hand seals with the other, their minds wandering beyond the heavens.
Chu He and Lu Qingqiu in particular had sat at the Dao Comprehension Ground all day. Empty pill bottles littered the ground around them, strewn every which way, along with spirit stones that had been drained of all their glow.
The Outer Court disciples of Celestial Academy all aimed to enter the Inner Court.
And once they sensed the Celestial Book, an Inner Court spot was practically set in stone. No one would waste time.
As those at the Perfection of the Lower Three Realms, they should have possessed the greatest aptitude for comprehension. Yet at this moment, even after racking their brains, they could not sense the Celestial Book.
The matter of cultivating immortality truly was mysterious beyond mystery.
Still, even if they could not sense the Celestial Book, they naturally had other methods.
They could continuously stack supplementary pills, no longer demanding resonance with the Celestial Book, and instead first sense the Heavenly Dao.
Thus, after this single day, a strand of Mystic Light had appeared between Lu Qingqiu's brows, while the one between Chu He's brows shone even brighter.
The first realm of the Upper Five Realms was called Mystic Comprehension. As the name implied, it meant understanding the mysteries of the Heavenly Dao. Each deepened perception earned a strand of Mystic Light in response from the Heavenly Dao.
Once nine strands of spiritual light gathered between one's brows, a cultivator would have successfully stepped across the threshold of the Upper Five Realms.
After a day of comprehension, the two had witnessed that fleeting instant when heaven and earth first opened, when existence emerged from nonexistence. They had only just glimpsed the threshold, yet had already exhausted their pills.
Ji You passed through the crowd, found himself a spot, and sat cross-legged on the ground.
There was something wrong with his spiritual essence, but his Divine Sense and comprehension were still decent. Though he did not know whether he could break through, he could certainly attempt to comprehend the Dao.
As he sat down, the dozens of students nearby could not help slipping out of their states of comprehension and cracking open their eyes.
"Is that the wild private cultivator?"
"He wasted an entire day in Sword Testing Forest, and only now remembered to comprehend the Dao?"
"With no spiritual pills to assist him, he still willingly wasted most of his time practicing useless martial techniques. It truly makes no sense."
"He came from some remote backwater, after all. He is probably acting on a sudden whim. Little does he know that one step behind means spending the rest of his life only watching others vanish into the dust."
Chu He and Lu Qingqiu heard the surrounding discussion as well, but neither even raised their eyes.
At the same time, Ji You began extending his Divine Sense, sending it with all his strength toward the boundless depths of space to explore the faint glimmer within that dark, primal ignorance.
This was the method of sensing that Instructor Cao had described.
Last night, Ji You had sought out Instructor Cao to study Dao comprehension in advance. But Instructor Cao had spoken only in broad strokes, unable to describe it in detail. He merely said that once one comprehended the Dao, one had comprehended it.
Ji You had asked how one could be sure that one had comprehended the Dao.
Instructor Cao had then said that once one comprehended the Dao, one would know for sure. Ji You had been so angered that he robbed him of two taels of silver as punishment.
Having been robbed, Old Cao indeed became much more sincere. He told Ji You to send his Divine Sense as high as possible. The closer he got to heaven, the stronger the sensation would become.
But sending Divine Sense into the sky consumed an enormous amount of spiritual energy and physical strength. Most people could not last even half a shichen before stopping to rest.
Yet once that thread of thought slackened, all previous efforts would go down the drain, and they would have to start over from the beginning.
Chu He and Lu Qingqiu were the only exceptions. They could rapidly replenish themselves with spiritual pills and spirit stones, naturally making them far faster than the others.
At three quarters into the Hour of the Rooster, Ji You slowly opened his eyes. Hot sweat beaded across his forehead as he realized that comprehending the Dao with Divine Sense was even more taxing than practicing martial arts.
"No wonder everyone says the Upper Five Realms are a process built atop piles of pills."
"Only people like Chu He and Lu Qingqiu, who start off swallowing pills and consuming spirit stones, can keep going when they are about to run out of strength..."
However, Ji You had vaguely heard that pills capable of directly affecting Divine Sense could only be refined by the Pill Sect among the Seven Great Immortal Sects. Since they were rare commodities, their prices were exorbitant. Even those from merely ordinary households could not afford to try them.
Continue.
Ji You closed his eyes again, and his Divine Sense continued soaring toward the heavens.
His method was clumsier than everyone else's. Each time, he had to fly a little higher than before, using that to break past his limits.
But the boundless depths of space were truly boundless, while human strength always had an end.
After trying again and again, Ji You felt each time as though his skull were about to split apart.
At this moment, several more exhausted disciples opened their eyes and looked toward Ji You, panting heavily.
"He comprehends for half a shichen at a time?"
"Can't Lu Qingqiu and Chu He both comprehend for half a shichen? What's so surprising about that?"
"He came here after practicing martial arts, with his physical strength already drained. When the body is weak, Divine Sense is weak. Yet he can still endure for half a shichen."
"Just look at his pale lips. He is already at the end of a spent crossbow. Now look at Chu He and Lu Qingqiu. After taking medicine, they can comprehend the Dao for far longer than a shichen. How could he compare?"
At those words, everyone looked over and saw the matching strands of spiritual light between Lu Qingqiu's and Chu He's brows flickering bright and dim.
As for Ji You, despite his repeated attempts, he had still not touched the threshold.
Earlier, someone had secretly said that the three of them were rivals, only for Chu He to shoot them a glare.
Now it seemed they were no longer sick in the head. Not just anyone could be a rival to the Chu family.
But at that moment, Ji the Fierce Bandit's brow suddenly smoothed, and his face gradually relaxed, even causing his cheekbones to sink slightly.
But very quickly, his relaxed brow abruptly furrowed tight again, and it did not loosen by even a fraction afterward.
Lu Qingqiu had already run out of strength. She slowly opened her eyes, looked toward the sweat gathering on Ji You's forehead, observed him for a while, then turned to Du Zhu beside her.
"How long does he last each time?"
"Nearly half a shichen the first time, half a shichen the second time, and he has already exceeded it now."
More than half a shichen? Lu Qingqiu frowned at the answer.
Without using spirit stones to store up strength, she herself could only last half a shichen at a time.
Ji You had spent the entire day practicing martial arts and come here physically depleted, yet he could still persist for more than half a shichen. It seemed he truly had some skill after all.
He had wasted the day practicing martial arts today, but he certainly would not go again tomorrow. If he comprehended the Dao from morning until night as well, perhaps he could far surpass the time she could spend comprehending the Dao without swallowing pills or consuming spirit stones.
This was precisely the importance of swallowing pills and consuming spirit stones.
At that moment, Ji You suddenly let out his breath, lowered his head, and panted for a while, feeling dizzy and disoriented.
This time, he had flown higher, but he also knew it would be difficult to advance even half an inch further. Still, this was an excellent method for tempering the strength of his Divine Sense, and it would greatly benefit his martial techniques as well.
He had consumed too much Divine Sense today and had no pills to replenish it, so he could only stop here...
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