Soul Sacrifice

Zhong Yue went to Medicine Valley to collect ten Feather Spirit Pills, then sought out the Upper Court steward and moved into his own courtyard.

"This courtyard has three sections. The rear courtyard is for resting, the middle courtyard has a reception hall and a quiet room for visualization and cultivation, while the front courtyard is where servants live."

The steward led Zhong Yue around the courtyard and said with a smile, "Some scions of noble tribes bring a dozen or more servants with them to wait on them while they focus on cultivation. Those servants can live in the front courtyard. The Upper Court Token is extraordinary. Simply place it in the slot on the main gate, and it will activate the Totem Pillars in the courtyard, forming an invisible barrier that seals the courtyard. Outsiders won't be able to enter. To remove the barrier, just take out the token. The token needs to be nourished with soul and spirit energy. Once it's placed in the slot, no one else will be able to remove it."

Zhong Yue's eyes lit up. This function of the Upper Court Token was indeed thoughtful. Although Upper Court disciples were merely initiates, they had to devote themselves to cultivation every day and could not afford interruptions, or they might suffer cultivation deviation.

With this token, no one else could enter, so he no longer had to worry about being disturbed at a critical moment in his cultivation.

Moreover, if he kept anything important in the courtyard, he wouldn't need to worry about it being stolen.

"May I ask how the disciples of the Upper Court cultivate?" Zhong Yue inquired.

The steward smiled. "Every initiate who becomes an Upper Court disciple is reported to the Qi Practitioners of Sword Gate. Those Qi Practitioners will come and select disciples, impart cultivation arts, and teach them how to cultivate. Each Qi Practitioner has a dozen or twenty Upper Court disciples under him. When those Upper Court disciples become Qi Practitioners in the future, it will bring glory to their master as well. Junior Brother, rest assured. Once you pass the Azure Sky Hall assessment, a Qi Practitioner will come to accept you as his disciple within five or six days at most, or one or two days at least."

"I see." Zhong Yue breathed a sigh of relief.

After the steward left, Zhong Yue immediately fastened the token onto the main gate. The Totem God Pillar in the courtyard began to hum and tremble, sealing the courtyard. Zhong Yue carefully set down his herb basket and took out the battered Bronze Lamp. Its flame flickered between bright and dim, while Kindling remained deep asleep.

"I wonder how long Kindling will sleep?"

After thinking for a moment, he took out a small jade bottle. When he opened it, a faint medicinal fragrance wafted into his nose. Inside were ten pills the size of soybeans—the Feather Spirit Pills.

In the past, he had to toil over gathering and refining herbs, spending several months just to collect enough ingredients, and whether he could successfully refine them was still uncertain.

But now that he had become an Upper Court disciple, he had been given ten all at once—and ten every month at that. To Zhong Yue, this was an immense fortune!

A single Feather Spirit Pill could make an ordinary person light as a swallow and immensely strong, allowing them to go without food or drink for half a month. Even an Outer Disciple of Sword Gate could cultivate continuously for two or three days without fatigue after taking one, replenishing their spirit, nourishing their body, and moistening their soul!

Zhong Yue swallowed a Feather Spirit Pill and immediately felt its surging medicinal power transform into pure energy that flooded through his limbs and organs, filling him with incomparable comfort. His body was like land that had suffered a long drought. The pill's medicinal power flowed through him like a trickling stream, moistening his body and slowly causing his originally shriveled muscles to swell again. It was truly wondrous.

Before long, Zhong Yue had recovered his former well-proportioned physique. His muscles were firm, and the bodily energy depleted by cultivating the Fire Epoch Palace Suihuang Visualization had been replenished.

He also felt his spirit being nourished. Ripples rose across the sea of consciousness in his mind, splashing and murmuring.

Not only that, his soul was nourished by the medicinal power as well, leaving him immensely comfortable.

"The Feather Spirit Pill truly is miraculous. I've heard that disciples from some great tribes can take such spirit pills every day. No wonder those people advance so quickly! While I have the chance, I'll cultivate the Suihuang Visualization and see if I can advance another step!"

Zhong Yue immediately visualized Suihuang of the Fire Epoch Palace. Waves surged through his sea of consciousness as he constructed Suihuang, the Fire Epoch Palace, and the Fire Tree. At the same time, his spiritual power began to deplete rapidly. However, because he had taken the Feather Spirit Pill, his spiritual power continued to regenerate even as it was consumed.

After an unknown amount of time, the Feather Spirit Pill's medicinal power was exhausted. Zhong Yue immediately swallowed another spirit pill and continued cultivating. His sea of consciousness kept expanding. As his old spiritual power faded, new power arrived, causing his sea of consciousness to grow ever larger and his soul ever stronger!

Before he knew it, the medicinal power of the Feather Spirit Pill was exhausted again, and Zhong Yue swallowed a third.

One Feather Spirit Pill after another went down. He became immersed in the marvels of visualization, feeling for the first time that cultivation was no longer dull. Instead, it was so interesting, so full of anticipation!

"Hm? I'm out of Feather Spirit Pills?"

Zhong Yue suddenly awoke. He stared at the empty jade bottle in astonishment. Ten Feather Spirit Pills would take an ordinary Upper Court disciple a month to consume, yet during this session of cultivation, he had unknowingly used them all up!

"It's probably only been four days. Four days to exhaust ten Feather Spirit Pills..."

Zhong Yue felt a headache coming on. Cultivating the Fire Epoch Palace Suihuang Visualization was simply a bottomless pit. Without ample financial resources, he couldn't cultivate at all!

"No wonder Kindling said I could only eat spirit pills and elixirs. If I ate grains and ordinary food, they would certainly drain my body dry and starve me to death!"

Zhong Yue drew a long breath, rose, and left the quiet room. He went to the rear courtyard's garden and gently stretched his limbs. His body felt filled with explosive power. He thought, "Ten Feather Spirit Pills and four continuous days of cultivation. I wonder if I can perform Soul Sacrifice now?"

With a thought, his soul left his body and instantly attached itself to a stone block weighing over a hundred pounds in front of him.

Whoosh—

The stone block suddenly flew up and hovered before Zhong Yue. His soul had attached itself to the stone, and when his soul flew up, it carried the stone with it. This was also one of the methods Upper Court disciples used in battle. The stronger the soul, the heavier the things it could move.

In theory, if one's soul were powerful enough, it could even lift a mountain, fly through the sky, or be used to destroy a city!

However, that was merely in theory.

Among Upper Court disciples, anyone capable of moving a thousand-pound object was already considered outstanding. Moreover, using heavy objects as weapons was only the crudest method. When Upper Court disciples performed Soul Sacrifice, they usually sacrificed their souls into weapons. Totem patterns were carved onto those weapons; once activated, they moved as fast as lightning, cut through metal as if it were mud, and could shatter anything in their path. Their might was immense!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

In the garden, Zhong Yue controlled the stone block as it soared through the air, coming and going like the wind, rising and falling. Suddenly, the stone lost control and smashed viciously into the artificial mountain. The artificial mountain, which stood three or four zhang tall, was broken cleanly in half. Half of it fell into the water, creating a shocking sight!

"Sword Gate has unique cultivation arts for Soul Sacrifice. Sacrificing one's soul into a saber or sword comes with the mysteries of different sword techniques. Only by cultivating those arts can one unleash the power of Soul Sacrifice, instead of striking about wildly like me—and it won't lose control, either."

Zhong Yue pondered for a moment and thought, "To master the mysteries of Soul Sacrifice, I need someone to teach me. That Upper Court steward said that newly admitted Upper Court disciples would have Qi Practitioners come personally to teach them and accept them as disciples. Why has no one come for me these past few days?"

He did not dwell on it. He immediately gave a low shout and visualized the Dragon Totem Body Coiling Art. His spiritual power surged out, transforming into dragon scales and claws. Gradually, a dragon body appeared, growing clearer and clearer as it coiled around his body!

Next, an extremely vicious Flood Dragon head slowly rose from behind him and glared ferociously ahead, while two dragon claws clasped Zhong Yue's shoulders!

Zhong Yue felt as if boundless power were pouring into both his arms!

The Flood Dragon's two hind claws clasped his legs, making him feel as if he possessed the Flood Dragon's explosive strength and speed!

Zhong Yue stared at his hands and feet in disbelief. A Flood Dragon body as solid as reality coiled around his arms, torso, and legs. The dragon body even swam slowly, while the long whiskers hanging from the dragon head behind him drifted before his body!

It was as if a vicious Flood Dragon had truly wrapped itself around him. Dragon Power merged with his own strength, becoming one!

"To have cultivated the Dragon Totem Body Coiling Art to this level, I should have reached its limit, right?" Zhong Yue murmured.

"Not even close."

Kindling's voice suddenly rang out. Zhong Yue was overjoyed. He saw a small flame float out of the quiet room, with tiny arms and legs, a disproportionately large head, and fiery red hair. It was Kindling Child from within the Bronze Lamp.

"Your Flood Dragon Totem still has a long way to go. You've only obtained the Flood Dragon's skin, not its body, and not its spirit."

Kindling jumped onto Zhong Yue's body, entered through the mouth of the Flood Dragon he had visualized, and walked along its interior. "Look. Your Flood Dragon Totem has only skin. It has neither sinews and bones nor blood vessels and muscles. It has the form but no flesh or bones, so it can only unleash a fraction of a true Flood Dragon's strength. Your Flood Dragon Totem also lacks the true spirit of a vicious Flood Dragon. It's still far from enough. If you want to cultivate this body-tempering art to the extreme, you must capture a living vicious Flood Dragon and study it slowly. You must thoroughly understand its muscles, blood vessels, sinews, bones, and spirit, then visualize them."

Zhong Yue laughed. "If I could capture a living vicious Flood Dragon, would I still need to visualize it?"

"That's true."

Kindling thought for a moment, then agreed. "But if you were a pure-blooded member of the Fuxi Divine Clan, let alone capturing a Flood Dragon, merely releasing your aura would be enough to make it submit and let you study it. Hm? So many auras from the Fuxi Divine Clan! Come on, come on, hurry and take me outside!"

Zhong Yue dispersed his spiritual power, and Kindling Child immediately burrowed into the sea of consciousness between his brows, urging him, "If we don't find a pure-blooded royal and complete the Kindling inheritance soon, I'm afraid I'll go out. There are so many people here. We might be able to find a pure-blooded member of the Fuxi Divine Clan!"

Zhong Yue took him out of the courtyard. He saw many Upper Court disciples heading toward the Upper Court Scripture Hall. A Qi Practitioner must have descended from the mountain to impart cultivation arts.

"Why has no Qi Practitioner accepted me as a disciple yet?" Zhong Yue saw several Outer Disciples who had passed the Azure Sky Hall assessment with him also heading toward the Scripture Hall, making him even more puzzled.

Kindling Child used his eyes to peer outward, muttering, "Not pure-blooded, not pure-blooded, not pure-blooded... What happened to the Fuxi Divine Clan? Among more than a thousand people, there isn't even one pure-blooded member. They're even inferior to you! Come on, come on, let's go over there. There are more people there. We might find a pure-blooded one!"

Zhong Yue also wanted to make a trip to the Scripture Hall and ask the steward why no Qi Practitioner had accepted him and imparted cultivation arts to him. As he approached the Scripture Hall, two arcs of light suddenly flashed. With two sharp thuds, two Totem Pillars landed beside Zhong Yue, one in front and one behind!

At once, pressure surged from the two Totem Pillars and bore down viciously on him, pinning him in place!

"Zhong Yue of the Zhongshan Clan? You seem to have grown quite a bit fatter. I almost failed to recognize you."

An Upper Court disciple strode over and looked Zhong Yue up and down. He suddenly swept his leg toward Zhong Yue's knees and said with a grin, "Junior Brother Zhong, we have no enmity between us, and we've never even met before. But you embarrassed my master, so my master ordered me to teach you a lesson. Oh, right—my master's surname is Tian. Just kneel here outside the Scripture Hall for a few hours!"