Vital Energy

Ye Qin gave these rays a name: "White Glows." He counted carefully. There were around a dozen or two of them.

He widened his eyes and stayed obediently inside the halo surrounding the Life Primordial Spirit Stele, not daring to move recklessly. Inwardly, he could only pray that the White Glows wouldn't come near him.

But Gray Island was only a li across. The White Glows drifted this way and that, and one of them eventually floated near the Life Primordial Spirit Stele. It touched the bubble-like halo around the stele, then blundered straight inside. Once in the halo, it swam about on its own, paying no attention to Ye Qin, the little ball of light sharing its space.

When Ye Qin saw it burrow inside, he was so frightened his legs nearly gave way. He wanted to turn tail and flee, far away from the halo around the Life Primordial Spirit Stele.

But he quickly calmed down.

Unlike when he had encountered the Purple Lightning, he didn't feel an overwhelming, instinctive terror that left him capable of nothing but running away.

Instead, as the White Glow drew near, he felt an immense sense of joy.

That meant the White Glow probably posed no threat to him.

Ye Qin was delighted. At last, he'd encountered something benevolent in this endless void. He floated over toward the White Glow, slowly drawing closer, hoping to touch it and say hello.

But the moment he touched it, the White Glow suddenly merged with his own ball of light.

In that instant, Ye Qin felt that his faint, tenuous body of light had grown just a tiny bit stronger and brighter. The increase was minuscule, yet he felt it clearly. It was like eating a nourishing tonic: all his fatigue and drowsiness vanished, and he felt full of energy.

Ye Qin froze, then nearly leaped up and shouted with excitement. These White Glows, wherever they came from, were his "food." They could make him brighter and stronger.

That left Ye Qin with no hesitation. He quickly surveyed the whole island and saw no Purple Lightning nearby.

Ye Qin immediately rushed out of the halo around the Life Primordial Spirit Stele and drifted toward the White Glows.

Before long, he had caught and "eaten" every one of the White Glows drifting around, making his ball of light just a little brighter.

Ye Qin couldn't help lamenting that there were so few White Glows here—not even enough for more than a few bites. It would be wonderful if there were more. After his meal, Ye Qin didn't dare linger on the Floating Island. He hurried back to the very center, where the Life Primordial Spirit Stele stood, and hid inside its bubble-like halo.

Gray Eagle Peak, beneath a boulder.

Ye Qin, sitting cross-legged, abruptly opened his eyes. He lowered his hands from his chest to his dantian, slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, then stopped practicing. His gaze seemed to hold a few more sparks of life, his eyes shone brighter, and his mind felt a little clearer.

Even so, he was still puzzled.

What kind of mental cultivation method was the first part of the Sitting-in-Forgetfulness Sutra, Sitting and Forgetting Selflessness? It did nothing to help him cultivate inner qi, yet seemed to have some other effect. He still couldn't explain exactly what that effect was. But at the very least, it greatly strengthened his spirit, so it wasn't entirely useless.

Over the next few days, Ye Qin repeated the experiment again and again.

Gradually, he began to discover a few tricks.

Every time he cultivated one Greater Celestial Circuit, an extremely faint wisp of energy arose inside his body. When it reached the Mud Pill at the center of his brow, it disappeared. At the same time, a White Glow several inches long appeared on the Floating Island.

Could this be the vital energy mentioned in the book?

Ye Qin could cultivate seven Greater Celestial Circuits a day, and the Floating Island would gain exactly seven White Glows—not one more, not one less. Clearly, the faint wisps of energy produced by his cultivation weren't vanishing. They were all flowing into the island.

Then he entered the Floating Island as a ball of light and ate the White Glows one by one. His thin, dim ball of light gradually grew just a little more substantial. The process was extremely slow; it would take years of constant accumulation for the ball of light to solidify.

It was difficult to tell exactly how long it would take for the dim ball of light to solidify completely.

After thinking it over for a long time, Ye Qin decided to stop practicing Gathering Qi and Focusing Spirit. Instead, he would concentrate on cultivating Sitting and Forgetting Selflessness, which increased his vital energy. He wanted to nourish this ball of light and see what it could do for him.

A month flew by. After gathering medicinal herbs worth five Silver Leaves, Ye Qin returned to the Herbal Gathering Hall in Zhuqi County to turn in his task.

After resting in the county town for a day, Ye Qin once again set out to gather herbs. There wasn't much for him to do in town, and he didn't have many friends or companions. The only people he knew well were his master, his fellow apprentices, and Da Niu. He rested for a day, said goodbye to them, and headed out again.

Winter gave way to spring, and the first year since Ye Qin had become a herb-gathering apprentice passed in a flash.

After an incident in which he'd nearly been torn to pieces by a flock of Grey Eagles while climbing a cliff, Ye Qin realized his martial arts weren't good enough. He stopped going to dangerous places to gather herbs. He wouldn't set foot in places like precipitous peaks, sheer cliffs, gorges, or swamps.

He gathered herbs only in relatively safe forests, plains, and hills. Even if he came across wolves, his extraordinary stamina was enough to help him escape. And he gathered only enough herbs to meet the Herbal Gathering Hall's bare minimum quota, worth five Silver Leaves. He wouldn't gather any more. He spent all his remaining time in earnest cultivation, doing everything he could to improve his strength.

Ye Qin's master, Wang Hong, was extremely dissatisfied with how little he gathered. The other herb-gathering apprentices could already collect herbs worth ten Silver Leaves a month, but Ye Qin still brought in a mere five.

Herbalist Wang sternly warned him that if he couldn't gather more herbs each month, he would remain a herb-gathering apprentice for the rest of his life. He could work until he died and still never be promoted to Herb Gathering Artisan, let alone enjoy the many benefits that came with the rank: higher standing in the Herbal Gathering Hall, greater monetary rewards, his own home with green-tiled roofs in the county town, and even the right to marry a female disciple trained by the hall.

Herb-gathering apprentices weren't entitled to any of that.

After sharply berating Ye Qin, Herbalist Wang's expression softened a little. He began patiently trying to persuade him, saying that he had high hopes for Ye Qin and considered him the most promising of the five apprentices who had joined at the same time. Ye Qin was already fifteen or sixteen—not a child anymore—and it was time to think about the future. If he worked hard for a few years and became an Herb Gathering Artisan as soon as possible, he could take a wife and raise a few chubby little ones. What a fine life that would be! Just look at Yang Yicheng and Feng Xiao. Both of them were working themselves to the bone, determined to become Herb Gathering Artisans. Qian Ruoxiu and Sun Ying were growing prettier by the day, too. He'd better not let the others get to them first!