Soul Refinement

Emerging from that chaotic space in his Sea of Consciousness, Zhou Xuan's awareness returned to his body. He suddenly opened his eyes and gasped for breath.

An unprecedented sense of exhaustion swept over him, as if he hadn't slept for three days and nights. His mind was drained to the limit.

And yet his thoughts had never been clearer.

He slowly raised his hand and held it out before his eyes.

It was still the hand of a Body Tempering Realm Cultivator. The skin was nothing special, and thin calluses from years of labor covered his knuckles.

But now, in Zhou Xuan's perception, his hand seemed somehow different.

He could clearly feel the touch of every inch of skin and the contraction of every muscle fiber. He could even faintly hear the blood flowing through his veins.

His control over his body had reached an astonishing level of precision.

A thought crossed Zhou Xuan's mind. He extended his index finger and thumb, then gently pinched up a speck of dust from the ground.

The entire movement was incredibly delicate. His fingers seemed weightless as he held the minuscule speck steadily between them, without the slightest tremor.

It was a very subtle feeling.

He could have done the same before, but never with such ease and grace. He would have needed to focus all his attention just to manage it.

Now, it felt as natural as breathing.

He tried standing up, then moved his hands and feet around inside the cramped thatched hut.

He threw a punch.

The air whistled, and the blow carried plenty of force.

He carefully felt out the changes in his body, then realized that his physical strength hadn't increased at all.

A Ninth Layer of Body Forging Cultivator generally had around two thousand jin of strength. The force behind his punch was still within that range, without the slightest increase.

And yet, he could clearly feel that he had grown stronger.

When he threw the same punch now, the force traveled seamlessly from the soles of his feet, through the twist of his waist and abdomen, and into the swing of his arm.

The power flowed through his body with astonishing smoothness, without even the slightest waste.

His coordination had reached a whole new level.

If he had once been a machine with precisely made parts but a somewhat rough assembly, now every screw had been tightened and every Gears meshed perfectly.

He was faster, too.

Thanks to his improved technique, his punches and steps were at least ten or twenty percent quicker than before.

"Talent."

The word slipped softly from Zhou Xuan's lips.

He remembered things he'd heard in the mortal world in his previous life.

Some people were born with an extraordinary degree of control over their bodies. They learned any martial technique or skill far faster than ordinary people.

Such people were said to possess talent.

For Cultivators, control over the body naturally improved as their cultivation advanced.

So at first glance, this improvement seemed negligible and easy to overlook.

But Zhou Xuan didn't think so.

A bold idea came to him. What if he could keep improving his control over his body?

If his Divine Soul could continue to grow stronger through that mysterious scripture, what heights might it eventually reach?

Could he cast spells instantaneously?

Could he control a Dharma Artifact as effortlessly as moving his own arm?

When fighting someone, could he predict every move they made?

All of that was still far beyond him. He couldn't even get close to it yet.

But without a doubt, this had opened up a new path to support his cultivation.

This Green Copper fragment was an incredible treasure!

The mysterious scripture was still incomplete. What astonishing changes might occur if he could restore it in full?

He forced down his excitement and carefully took another Green Copper fragment from his Universe Bag, one he'd found in a pile of household trash.

This fragment was slightly larger than the last, and its patterns were clearer.

He gripped it tightly, feeling its distinctive chill, as if he were holding the hope of the future.

Next time, once he'd saved up a thousand Gold Touch Value, he'd use Enlightenment on it right away!

Zhou Xuan made up his mind. He carefully put the Green Copper fragment away again, keeping it close to his body.

Just as he finished, Zhou Ye's voice came from outside the hut, low but brimming with excitement and urgency.

"Brother Xuan! Are you in there?"

Hearing him, Zhou Xuan straightened his slightly rumpled clothes and called, "I'm here. Come in."

The thatched hut's door soon swung open, and Zhou Ye poked his head inside before stepping in.

The moment he saw Zhou Xuan, he hurried over and said in a hushed, conspiratorial tone, "Brother Xuan, I found something really strange at the Miscellaneous Affairs Department today!"

"Something strange?" Zhou Xuan asked, curious.

Zhou Ye first glanced nervously outside. Once he was sure nobody was there, he leaned closer to Zhou Xuan.

In a low voice, he said, "Brother Xuan, do you remember what you told me to do? Keep an eye out for things that looked dangerous or like nobody wanted them."

Zhou Xuan nodded.

"These past couple of days, I've been searching deeper into the area we're responsible for. Today, I came across a batch of discarded medicinal herbs by accident."

"The strange thing is, they all looked perfectly fine. They weren't spoiled at all!" Zhou Ye sounded utterly baffled.

"Medicinal herbs?" Zhou Xuan froze. "The Miscellaneous Affairs Department gets Scrap from the Herb Garden, too?"

As far as he knew, the Miscellaneous Affairs Department handled mostly Waste Pills and pill residue from the Pill Room, damaged Dharma Artifact fragments from Artifact Peak, and the household trash Sect disciples produced in their daily lives.

How could a place like the Herb Garden produce Scrap?

"It does!"

Zhou Ye nodded quickly.

"But not much. The herb gardens in our Sect are always tended personally by senior brothers and sisters from Pill Peak. They're very particular, and they grow precious spirit plants and medicinal herbs."

"They take better care of them than they would their own children, so almost nothing goes wrong. That's why they hardly ever send us any Scrap."

"But over the past few days, I don't know what happened. The waste from the Herb Garden has suddenly piled up."

"And they've been sending things I've never seen before."

As he spoke, Zhou Ye carefully pulled a small cloth bundle from inside his shirt. It was wrapped in coarse fabric.

He placed the bundle on the table and slowly opened it.

As the cloth unfolded, a rich yet gentle Spiritual Energy filled the air.

Zhou Xuan looked into the bundle, and his eyes instantly narrowed.

Inside lay a handful of glistening grains of rice.

Each grain was enormous, nearly the size of a peanut. They had a warm, jade-like sheen, and faint glimmers of light seemed to ripple across their surfaces.

Just looking at them, he could sense the considerable Spiritual Energy they contained.

"Spirit Rice?"

The words escaped Zhou Xuan's lips.

This special rice was imbued with the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth. Eaten regularly, it not only filled the stomach but also subtly improved one's physique and replenished one's qi and blood. For Body Tempering Realm Cultivators, it was a rare aid to cultivation.

But Spirit Rice required an extremely particular growing environment, and its yield was low, making it very expensive.

In the Sect, only highly esteemed Inner Sect Disciples, or even True Inheritor Disciples, were qualified to enjoy it.

And now, this Spirit Rice, worth a fortune outside the Sect, was being treated like garbage and dumped by the heap at the Miscellaneous Affairs Department?