Taking the "Solid Essence Fruit"

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

The parts were neatly arranged in the box.

He had intended to continue assembling it, but his mind was in a chaotic whirl; the things he had seen last night were still spinning in his thoughts—that rift, those strange stars, and that blindingly blue North Star.

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

It had been a long time since he last cultivated.

After waking up from his coma in the Spirit Ascension Platform, Yun Ming had told him not to cultivate for a month, so he had truly not cultivated for a month.

Later, Ye Xinglan came to find him every day to practice swordplay; after sparring, they would study their coordination, and after that, they would sit and chat, so he never thought to cultivate.

After that, Ye Xinglan went to intensive training, and he practiced swordplay, read books, took apart parts, and built the telescope by himself, still never thinking to cultivate.

Counting the days, it had been nearly two months.

He sank into his Sea of Spirit to perceive his soul power.

Level 23.

He remembered clearly that before the Spirit Ascension Platform, he had just broken through to the second ring, with his soul power stabilized at Level 21.

Later, he fell into a coma, woke up, and was forbidden from cultivating for a month; he had not once actively cultivated.

Yet now, his soul power was at Level 23.

He sat there thinking for a long time.

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

It wasn't intentional; he just felt stuffy and uncomfortable if it was closed.

The moonlight shone in through the window, falling upon him.

He had never thought there was anything special about this—it was just moonlight; who hadn't been shone upon by moonlight while sleeping?

But now, he was suddenly not so sure.

He stood up, walked to the window, and looked outside.

The sunlight was bright, but he wasn't looking at the sun; he was looking at the moon that had yet to set in the sky.

Pale and white, hanging on the horizon, it was quite inconspicuous.

He stared at it for a long time.

That night, he did not sleep.

Moonlight spilled onto the surface of the lake, shimmering with silver light.

Yun Jingheng walked out of his room and came to the lakeside.

He didn't bring anything; he was all alone.

He sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

The moonlight fell upon him.

It was the same as every night, but this time, he was not sleeping; he was perceiving.

It was light and soft, flowing down from the top of his head like water, coursing through his meridians and throughout his entire body.

It required no guidance, no circulation; it flowed of its own accord.

Wherever it passed, his soul power would vibrate slightly, as if responding to something.

He had never actively sensed this process before.

That was because every time it happened in the past, he had been asleep, but tonight, he was awake.

He clearly felt the moonlight entering his body, merging into his soul power, and growing bit by bit.

It was very slow and very light.

It was so slow he could barely perceive it, and so light that if he lost focus for a second, he would ignore it.

But it was always there.

He opened his eyes and looked down at his hands.

The moonlight rested in his palms, a thin layer like water, like mist, like something he did not yet fully understand.

But he suddenly understood one thing—the soul power he had gained over these two months had not come from thin air.

It was the moonlight, feeding it to him bit by bit every night while he slept.

He hadn't been slacking off; he had been getting fed the entire time.

He closed his eyes and continued to meditate.

This time, he did not wait passively but actively guided it.

As his soul power circulated, the moonlight followed; the speed was faster than before, and the amount pouring in was greater than before.

He cultivated for the entire night.

When the horizon began to turn a pale, fish-belly white, he opened his eyes.

He sensed the soul power within his body and fell silent for a moment.

A single night of cultivation now was worth several days of cultivation in the past.

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

He stood up and looked at the moon on the horizon, which had faded until it was almost invisible.

Why? He did not know.

But from that day on, he began to cultivate proactively again, practicing his sword during the day and meditating at night.

Since meditating under the moonlight was highly efficient, he took advantage of it, but he did not wait for the moonlight to feed him; he went out to seize it himself.

Every night, he sat cross-legged by the lake, guiding the moonlight into his body, circulating his soul power, and consolidating his foundation.

The speed was faster than he had anticipated, so fast that it sometimes felt unreal.

Yet he did not grow greedy for speed; he took every step with great stability.

He remembered the first lesson he had learned in the laboratory in his past life: speed was not a skill, but stability was.

Days passed one by one.

His soul power grew day by day.

Neither fast nor slow, he advanced steadily.

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

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

Yun Jingheng stood by the lake; he wanted to practice his sword.

On the night of the full moon, when the moonlight was at its peak, he wanted to see if there would be any difference in his martial soul.

He took a deep breath and infused his soul power.

The Moonlight Sword condensed in his hand.

Then, he froze.

The patterns on the blade were not the dimness of a new moon, nor the curved hook of a crescent moon.

It was a full moon—complete, brilliant, and radiating boundless light.

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

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

In the past, he had to fight for a long time and land many hits to stack from a new moon to a crescent moon, and from a crescent moon to a full moon.

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

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

That day had not been a full moon, yet he had forcibly pushed from a crescent moon into a full moon, and from a full moon into a blood moon.

He recalled the feeling of losing control, the distorted shadow, and that streak of red that could not be washed away.

He did not know what it meant to reach a full moon directly on the night of the full moon.

But he knew that it meant he was one step closer to the blood moon.

He gripped the sword, stood for a long time, and then began to practice.

One strike, two strikes, three strikes.

The sword qi swept across the lake, leaving behind deep furrows.

The sword in its full moon state was far stronger than what he usually used.

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

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

Lying on the bed, he stared at the ceiling.

He had to learn to control it, to learn not to lose control in the full moon state, and to learn how to steady himself while in the full moon state.

Otherwise, if the blood moon came again, he did not know if he would be able to wake up.

He turned over and closed his eyes.

The moonlight shone in through the window and fell upon him.

He did not deliberately guide it, but the moonlight flowed in of its own accord, bit by bit, light and slow, as natural as breathing.

He thought for a moment and did not refuse.

Refusing would be useless anyway.

One day, Zhuo Shi arrived.

"Stop spacing out." Zhuo Shi's voice came from the doorway.

Yun Jingheng turned his head and saw Zhuo Shi standing at the door, holding a small wooden box in his hand.

The box was small, square-shaped and palm-sized. It was impossible to tell what kind of wood it was made from, but the grain was fine and dense, emitting a faint luster.

Zhuo Shi walked in, placed the box on the table, and pushed it toward Yun Jingheng.

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

"Open it and see."

Yun Jingheng glanced at him and lifted the lid.

Inside lay a single fruit.

It was very small, only the size of a thumb, silver-white all over, with a layer of fine fuzz on its skin that shimmered with a faint halo under the light.

"Solid Essence Fruit."

"Don't let its size fool you," Zhuo Shi said. "For a child of your age, it can consolidate your foundation and solidify your roots."

Yun Jingheng looked up at him.

Zhuo Shi's expression was indifferent, as if he were speaking of something entirely ordinary.

"Your father asked me to find it."

He paused. "Your constitution is too weak, and your soul power is rising too quickly; your foundation is prone to instability. Eating this will patch up your base."

Yun Jingheng stared at the fruit.

He had seen the Solid Essence Fruit in books.

It was extremely rare, with harsh growth conditions: a hundred years to bloom, a hundred years to bear fruit.

It could only grow in the habitats of Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts because it required incredibly dense soul power to mature.

There was one in the Shrek treasury, said to have been kept for a long time, too precious to be used.

"Eat it."

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

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

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

It had no particular taste, just a profound chill.

The cool liquid slid down his throat without dispersing; instead, it condensed into a single thread, dropping straight from his chest into his dantian.

Then—it exploded. Not a violent blast, but a blooming.

It was like a flower blossoming within his body. The petals were layers of warmth that spread outward from his dantian, following his meridians, tracing his blood vessels, and seeping into every inch of muscle, every bone, and every pore.

He heard Xiao Jiu shouting something, but the voice grew increasingly distant.

Then, he knew nothing more.

Inside the Sea of Spirit, Xiao Jiu stood up.

It was not the usual lazy rise, but a true, full-body tensed stance.

All nine tails were spread wide, every strand of fur glowing.

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

Moonlight poured down from the moon, landing on the surface of the Sea of Spirit and stirring up ripples.

"WTF... 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 fools who don't know what they're looking at!"

"This is clearly... damn it, let's do this!"

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 settled in the corners bit by bit.

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

But that fruit could.

It acted like a brush, scouring every corner.

Xiao Jiu guided the medicinal power, forcing it to flow through his entire body.

Everywhere it passed, the impurities were stripped away.

It was slow, and it was painful.

But it could not stop.

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

He didn't feel the pain, or rather, he could no longer perceive it.

"You're certainly carefree..." Xiao Jiu grumbled, and continued to work.