Taking the "Solid Essence Fruit"

The next morning, Yun Jingheng sat at the table, staring blankly at the telescope.

The parts were neatly arranged inside the box.

He had originally wanted to continue assembling it, but his mind was a mess. What he had seen last night kept spinning through his head—the crack, those different stars, that North Star so blue it hurt his eyes.

He sat there in a daze for a long time before suddenly straightening up.

He had not cultivated in a long time.

After waking from his coma in the Spirit Ascension Platform, Yun Ming had said he could not cultivate for a month, so he truly had not cultivated for an entire month.

Later, Ye Xinglan came every day to practice swordsmanship with him. After sparring, they studied coordination; after that, they sat and chatted. He had not thought of cultivating then, either.

Afterward, Ye Xinglan went to special training. He practiced swordsmanship alone, read books, took apart components, and built telescopes, yet still did not think to cultivate.

Counting the days, it had nearly been two months.

He sank into the Sea of Spirit and sensed his Soul Power.

Level 23.

He clearly remembered that before the Spirit Ascension Platform, he had just broken through to two rings, his Soul Power stable at Level 21.

After falling unconscious, waking up, and being unable to cultivate for a month, he had not cultivated voluntarily even once.

Yet now, his Soul Power was at Level 23.

He sat there and thought for a long time.

Ever since waking from his coma in the Spirit Ascension Platform, he had slept with the window open every night.

Not intentionally. He simply felt stuffy and uncomfortable when it was closed.

Moonlight shone through the window and fell upon him.

He had never thought there was anything special about it. It was only moonlight. Who had not had moonlight shine on them while they slept?

But now, he was suddenly no longer so sure.

He stood and walked to the window, looking outside.

The sunlight was bright, but he was not looking at the sun. He was looking at the moon still hanging in the sky.

Faint and white, it hung at the edge of the sky, inconspicuous.

He stared at it for a long time.

That night, he did not sleep.

Moonlight spilled across the lake, gleaming silver.

Yun Jingheng left his room and walked to the lakeshore.

He did not bring anything. He came alone.

He sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

Moonlight fell upon him.

Just like every other night, but this time, he was not asleep. He was sensing it.

It was light and gentle, flowing down from the top of his head like water and spreading through his entire body along his meridians.

There was no need to guide it, no need to circulate it. It flowed on its own.

Wherever it passed, his Soul Power trembled faintly, as if responding to something.

He had never actively experienced this process before.

Because every time it had happened in the past, he had been asleep. But tonight, he was awake.

He clearly felt the moonlight enter his body, merge with his Soul Power, and increase it bit by bit.

It was slow, very gentle.

So slow that he could barely notice it, so gentle that the slightest distraction would make him overlook it.

But it had always been there.

He opened his eyes and lowered his head to look at his hand.

Moonlight lay in his palm in a thin layer, like water, like mist, like something he did not yet fully understand.

But he suddenly understood one thing—his Soul Power had not increased out of nowhere over the past two months.

Every night, while he slept, the moonlight had been feeding it into him bit by bit.

He had not been indulging himself. He had been nourished all along.

He closed his eyes and continued meditating.

This time, rather than passively waiting, he actively guided it.

His Soul Power circulated, and the moonlight followed. It moved faster than before, and more of it poured in.

He cultivated through the entire night.

When the sky began to pale at dawn, he opened his eyes.

He sensed the Soul Power within his body and fell silent for a while.

One night of cultivation was worth several days of his previous efforts.

Meditating under the moonlight was several times more efficient than during the day.

He stood and looked at the moon at the horizon, now so faint it was nearly invisible.

Why? He did not know.

But from that day on, he began cultivating actively again—practicing swordsmanship by day and meditating at night.

Meditating beneath the moonlight was efficient, so he made use of it. But he did not wait for the moonlight to feed him. He fought for it himself.

Every night, he sat cross-legged by the lake, guiding moonlight into his body, circulating his Soul Power, and strengthening his foundation.

The progress was faster than he had expected, so fast that it sometimes felt unreal.

But he did not greedily pursue speed. Every step he took was steady.

He remembered the first lesson he had learned in the laboratory in his previous life: speed was not skill. Stability was.

The days passed one by one.

His Soul Power increased day by day.

Neither too fast nor too slow, steady and solid.

Half a month later, it was the night of the full moon.

That night, the moon was as large as a silver disk, hanging overhead and illuminating the entire Sea God Lake as brightly as day.

Yun Jingheng stood by the lake. He wanted to practice his swordsmanship.

On the night of the full moon, when the moonlight was at its strongest, he wanted to see how his martial soul would differ.

He took a deep breath and infused it with Soul Power.

The Moonlight Sword condensed in his hand.

Then he froze.

The pattern on the blade was neither the dimness of the New Moon nor the hooked curve of the Crescent Moon.

It was a Full Moon—complete, radiant, and dazzlingly bright.

All seven lunar phase patterns lit up. The blade shone like a real moon, illuminating the entire stretch of lake around him.

He stood where he was, looking at the sword in his hand in silence for a long time.

Before, he had needed to fight for a long time and land many hits before stacking from the New Moon to the Crescent Moon, then from the Crescent Moon to the Full Moon.

But now, on the night of the full moon, the sword emerged as a Full Moon from the start.

He looked at the light on the blade and suddenly remembered the day at the Spirit Ascension Platform.

It had not been a full moon that day, yet he had forcibly charged from the Crescent Moon into the Full Moon, then from the Full Moon into the Blood Moon.

He remembered that feeling of losing control, that twisted shadow, that stain of red that could not be washed away.

He did not know what it meant for the sword to directly enter the Full Moon state on the night of a full moon.

But he knew that it meant he had taken another step closer to the Blood Moon.

He held the sword and stood there for a long time before beginning to practice.

One slash, two slashes, three slashes.

Sword qi swept across the lake, leaving deep ravines one after another.

The sword in its Full Moon state was far more powerful than when he used it normally.

Every strike carried true damage that ignored defense, and every strike exploded across the lake's surface.

He practiced for two hours, sheathed his sword, and returned to his room.

Lying on his bed, he stared at the ceiling.

He had to learn control. He had to learn not to lose control in the Full Moon state, to steady himself in the Full Moon state.

Otherwise, if the Blood Moon came again next time, he did not know whether he would be able to wake up.

He turned over and closed his eyes.

Moonlight shone in through the window and fell over him.

He did not deliberately guide it, but the moonlight still flowed into him on its own, bit by bit, light and slow, as natural as breathing.

He thought about it and did not refuse.

Refusing would be useless anyway.

One day, Zhuo Shi came.

"Stop staring into space." Zhuo Shi's voice came from the doorway.

Yun Jingheng turned and saw Zhuo Shi standing there, holding a small wooden box in his hand.

The box was not large, about the size of a palm. It was impossible to tell what kind of wood it was made from, but its grain was fine and dense, gleaming with a faint luster.

Zhuo Shi walked in, set the box on the table, and pushed it in front of Yun Jingheng.

"Grandpa Zhuo, what is this?" Yun Jingheng asked.

"Open it and see."

Yun Jingheng glanced at him, then lifted the lid.

Inside lay a fruit.

It was very small, only the size of a thumb. It was silver-white all over, with a fine layer of fuzz on its skin that gave off a faint glow beneath the light.

"Solid Essence Fruit."

Zhuo Shi said, "It may look small, but for a child your age, it can strengthen your foundation and nourish your essence."

Yun Jingheng looked up at him.

Zhuo Shi's expression was calm, as though he were discussing something ordinary.

"Your father asked me to find it."

He paused. "Your constitution is too weak, and your Soul Power has been growing too quickly. Your foundation could easily become unstable. Eat this, and it will strengthen your base."

Yun Jingheng looked at the fruit.

He had seen the Solid Essence Fruit in books.

It was extremely rare and grew under harsh conditions, flowering once every hundred years and bearing fruit once every hundred years.

It could only grow in the habitat of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, because it required extremely dense Soul Power to mature.

There was one in Shrek's treasury. It was said that they had kept it for a long time without being willing to use it.

"Eat it."

Zhuo Shi said, "Don't waste it."

Yun Jingheng picked up the fruit and placed it in his mouth.

The instant he bit through it, a cool liquid flowed out and slid down his throat.

It had no real taste. It was simply very cool.

The cool liquid slid down his throat without dispersing. Instead, it condensed into a line and dropped straight from his chest into his dantian.

Then—it burst open. Not an explosion, but a blossoming.

Like a flower blooming inside him, its petals turning into streams of warmth that spread outward from his dantian, along his meridians and blood vessels, seeping into every inch of muscle, every bone, every pore.

He heard Xiao Jiu shouting something, but the voice grew farther and farther away.

Then he knew nothing more.

Within the Sea of Spirit, Xiao Jiu stood up.

Not with its usual lazy rise, but truly stood up, its entire body tense.

All nine tails spread out, every strand of fur glowing.

It stared at the moon—the moon was spinning, much faster than usual, so fast that its patterns were nearly impossible to see.

Moonlight poured down from the moon and fell upon the Sea of Spirit's surface, stirring layer upon layer of ripples.

"Fuck... this idiot!"

Xiao Jiu muttered, "He didn't even ask how to digest it before eating it?! How could that possibly be a Solid Essence Fruit? A bunch of idiots who can't recognize treasure!"

"This is fucking obviously... Damn it, do it!"

It took a deep breath, closed its eyes, and released all of its Soul Power.

Moonlight surged into its body, then flowed through it into Yun Jingheng's meridians.

The medicinal power rampaged through his body, digging out the impurities that had accumulated in every hidden corner bit by bit.

Those things were buried too deeply, so deeply that normal cultivation could never reach them.

But that fruit could.

Like a brush, it swept through every corner.

Xiao Jiu guided the medicinal power, letting it flow throughout his body.

Every place it passed, the impurities there were stripped away a little.

It was slow and painful.

But it could not stop.

It glanced at Yun Jingheng's sleeping consciousness—that ball of light was steady, without a ripple.

He did not know pain. Or rather, he could no longer sense it.

"You really are easy to handle..." Xiao Jiu muttered, then continued working.