Spiritual Void Transformation

Mengshan City, northern district, within a courtyard shrouded by an array.

A young man in his early twenties, dressed in a gray robe, stood in the rear courtyard, his body still as his hands moved.

Gray spiritual light continuously burst from his dancing fingertips, shooting outward.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

The spiritual light moved as swiftly as teleportation. Almost the instant it emerged from his fingertips, a newly sprouted tender leaf on a jujube tree three meters away exploded and vanished within the light.

The young man was none other than Han Yi.

And what he was practicing was naturally his sole spell, the Spirit Void Finger.

The Spirit Void Finger was a simple spell. It used a special method to compress spiritual power at one's fingertips before firing it out, inflicting a certain degree of damage.

Because its principle was simple and its destructive power extremely limited, disciples above the middle stage of Qi Refinement generally no longer practiced it.

Only newcomers who had just entered the Mystic Pill Sect would find this spell dazzling enough to learn.

At a certain moment.

Han Yi, wholly focused on practicing the Spirit Void Finger, suddenly sensed that it had become smoother when he unleashed it, and that the range of spiritual power he could control and compress had grown larger.

More importantly, the method of compression abruptly changed. It now bore an obvious difference from the Spirit Void Finger he had first learned.

Simply put.

The Spirit Void Finger had leveled up.

This method of compressing spiritual power felt both unfamiliar and familiar.

It was unfamiliar because it was already different from the Spirit Void Finger he had initially practiced. Yet it was familiar because, when he used it now, there was not the slightest obstruction; it flowed as naturally as breathing.

Whoosh!

Boom...

A branch of the jujube tree was directly blown to pieces by that streak of spiritual light. The shattered branches and splinters flew so fast that some embedded themselves deep into the courtyard wall behind the tree, while the rest blasted bowl-sized pits into the wall.

Han Yi was startled and forcibly suppressed the urge to fire another shot.

Then joy appeared on his face as he looked at the panel.

Just as expected, it had broken through.

Spirit Void Finger (First Glimpse 1/100)

"Unlike alchemy, the Spirit Void Finger progresses faster, and after advancing, the power it displays is greater."

"Moreover, after advancing, even the method of compressing spiritual power changed. That means this spell has shed its old skin and been reborn. The current Spirit Void Finger should be version 2.0."

"This spell has great potential."

Han Yi's heart settled.

The last time he practiced the Spirit Void Finger, he had only spent two days pushing Novice Practice from 29/100 to 70/100.

This time, having thrown himself into it wholeheartedly, he had spent just one day grinding it all the way to First Glimpse.

This cultivation speed was far faster than alchemy.

The breakthrough of the Spirit Void Finger gave him a little more confidence in his own safety.

But.

It still was not enough.

Next.

Han Yi continued grinding the Spirit Void Finger.

He continuously flicked his hands, unleashing the Spirit Void Finger.

Han Yi had experimented before. The advancement of the progress bar was related to the number of times he practiced the Spirit Void Finger, not the amount of spiritual power compressed each time.

So every time, he kept the spiritual power he compressed to the minimum unit. That way, his spiritual power could support the greatest number of expenditures.

And he no longer dared aim his finger at the jujube tree.

Given the power of the Spirit Void Finger after his breakthrough, it would not matter if the jujube tree was blown apart.

But the courtyard wall behind it was connected to the array restrictions covering the entire courtyard. If his Spirit Void Finger wore away the array, he would have nowhere to cry.

After all, the courtyard's defenses were limited and could not withstand prolonged erosion.

He could only aim at the ground of the rear courtyard, using the original stone benches to enclose the area of activation as barriers.

9/100

14/100

19/100

The further he went, the more each day's progress merely matched the day before—or decreased.

But Han Yi was quite satisfied.

This constantly rising sense of accomplishment made him feel that he was making tangible progress.

More than a month later.

At a certain moment.

Boom!!

He flicked out a finger, containing only one-fiftieth of his total spiritual power.

But this time, as he compressed it, Han Yi gained a new insight in some ineffable way. Following that insight, he formed this finger flick.

His spiritual power compressed and circulated in a different manner before erupting from his fingertip.

The instant he flicked his finger, Han Yi even felt a slight numbness in it. His entire body was jolted by the recoil, trembling almost imperceptibly.

The next moment.

He had no time to check on his finger. Instead, his mouth fell open, his eyes widening round as he stared straight ahead in shock. After the violent trembling of his pupils came an expression of wild joy.

Before his eyes, the spiritual light compressed into a fine thread slanted toward the ground.

In the blink of an eye.

Boom!!

The spiritual light slammed into the ground. The earth trembled lightly, and the splintering stones blasted apart the stone benches and blocks arranged in a circle.

The flying stones crashed against the courtyard walls in a dense barrage of impacts.

The commotion was far greater than Han Yi had expected.

With a casual sweep of his sleeve, he pressed down all the billowing dust.

Looking closely.

Where the Spirit Void Finger strike had landed just now, there was now a pit about a meter wide.

There was no doubt that if that finger strike had landed on a human body, it would have blasted them cleanly into two pieces.

After its breakthrough, the Spirit Void Finger's power had surged by leaps and bounds once more.

And besides.

The spiritual power he had used to form the Spirit Void Finger just now was only one-fiftieth of his total spiritual power.

If he were in battle and went all out, using half of his spiritual power to form the Spirit Void Finger—

Just how terrifying would the might of that strike be?

The mere thought of it left him trembling with excitement.

Spirit Void Finger (Intermediate 1/100)

The proficiency panel also showed that the Spirit Void Finger had advanced.

After his wild joy, Han Yi wanted to continue cultivating, only to discover two problems.

After reaching Intermediate, progress in the Spirit Void Finger had become exceedingly slow. In two whole days, it had only advanced from 1/100 to 2/100.

Moreover, the courtyard where he lived could no longer provide an environment suitable for cultivating the greatly strengthened Spirit Void Finger.

Simply put, progress was difficult, and it was easy to blow up the courtyard.

On top of that, his spirit stones had been completely used up.

By now, more than four months had passed since he had last gone out.

He had even missed the once-per-season gathering at the Mystic Fire Pill Shop.

After being still for so long, he felt the urge to move.

Han Yi decided to go out.

Without spirit stones, cultivating the Spirit Void Finger and restoring his spiritual power would take an extremely long time and waste far too much time.

Besides, there was no way he could push the Spirit Void Finger to the next stage beyond Intermediate in a short time.

Before leaving, Han Yi sorted out the Evil Warding Pills he was to give Guan Sheng and the Qi Nourishing Pills he planned to sell to the Mystic Fire Pill Shop, then hid the surplus in his storage bag.

This time.

He planned to visit the market in Mengshan City first, then go to the Mystic Fire Pill Shop to trade his pills.

Selling pills was one reason for visiting the market. The other was to look for an opportunity to buy a stronger spell.

Relying on the Spirit Void Finger alone was far too limited.

One should always keep something in reserve. He ought to learn several more spells, then keep one—or even several—as trump cards.

Only then would he feel safer.

After more than four months, Han Yi once again used the Array Disk to activate the courtyard's formation restrictions. But instead of taking the direct route to the Mystic Fire Pill Shop, he headed toward one of Mengshan City's cultivation markets.

He had holed up for four whole months.

This had made Jiang De, who had occasionally come to lurk outside the courtyard during the first two months, wait until his face turned even darker.

(End of Chapter)