Divine Sense

"To become an immortal, transform into a crane and soar through the skies."

From somewhere beyond, a distant, ethereal murmur seemed to echo in Xia Dong's mind.

The remaining medicinal power of the Yin Evil Pill within him flowed toward his brow like a hundred rivers returning to the sea.

In that instant, the cramped, dimly lit room abruptly collapsed in his perception.

Xia Dong felt all the weight leave his body. He "saw" his arms transform into broad, snowy-white wings.

Gales howled and a sea of clouds churned. He became a white crane, dancing gracefully as he rode the wind straight up through the clouds above a lonely, freezing mountain ravine.

With every beat of his wings, it was as if a layer of worldly filth were being shed.

Hum!

The surrounding illusion shattered like glass.

Xia Dong's eyes flew open, and an unprecedented, almost shiver-inducing clarity washed over him.

His perception had changed.

He no longer relied on his keen five senses to perceive the world around him.

He closed his eyes.

Centered on his brow, an invisible "domain" unfurled, spreading outward at incredible speed like ripples on water. One zhang, two zhang, three zhang... It continued until it had just barely enveloped the entire courtyard of Changchun Medical Hall, then the ripples finally stopped.

With it, he could "see" not only the grain in the wooden door straight ahead, but also a spider crawling slowly along the wall behind his head. He could even "see" through the wooden wall of the eastern wing and clearly sense Xiao Hong curled up under her covers, her chest rising and falling with her steady breathing.

"So this is a cultivator's spiritual sense..." Xia Dong murmured, his heart pounding.

At a thought from Xia Dong, the world revealed by his spiritual sense grew richer.

In the pitch-black night, countless strange pinpricks of light suddenly appeared. They drifted through heaven and earth, following paths that seemed haphazard yet subtly profound.

From the vantage of his spiritual sense, the lights were densest near the Withered Well, as if an exceptionally faint spring were seeping out from underground. In the middle of the courtyard, the jujube tree stretched out its withered branches like a drowning man moving in slow motion, greedily drawing the drifting lights around it into its trunk.

"So this is spiritual energy!"

A powerful urge surged through Xia Dong.

He immediately sent out a tendril of spiritual sense, like an invisible hand, and seized a large cluster of lights, yanking them forcefully into his body.

The instant the lights entered him, a refreshing coolness spread through him.

But the next second, Xia Dong's expression darkened.

As soon as his spiritual sense relaxed, the lights slipped through him like water through a sieve riddled with holes. Aside from a scant few wisps forcibly retained by his flesh and blood, most of the spiritual energy passed through him without resistance and dispersed back into the world.

Even when he immediately circulated the Dragon-Capturing Technique and locked his spine as tightly as he could, he still couldn't hold on to this formless, intangible spiritual energy.

"Looks like without a Spirit Root, trying to hold on to spiritual energy is like drawing water with a bamboo basket. I can't keep any of it." Xia Dong sighed to himself. In terms of absorbing spiritual energy, he was actually worse than the jujube tree in the courtyard.

"No, I still have the Bronze Ancient Bell!"

A flash of inspiration struck Xia Dong.

If his body couldn't retain it, what about the Ancient Bell in his sea of consciousness?

He summoned his spiritual sense again, gathering all the spiritual energy drifting through the courtyard like a great net, then guided it through his brow and straight into the depths of his sea of consciousness.

This time, something astonishing happened!

The Bronze Ancient Bell that had been hovering deep within his sea of consciousness shuddered the instant it touched the spiritual energy.

An incredibly domineering, ravenous force of suction burst from its mouth. Like a bottomless black hole, it greedily devoured all the spiritual energy Xia Dong had drawn in, refining it at a speed beyond belief.

"It worked!"

Before Xia Dong could even celebrate, a dizzying sensation slammed into him like a landslide.

At this terrifying speed of refinement, his spiritual sense, acting as a "spiritual energy carrier," was quickly drained dry.

Xia Dong felt as if an iron rod were stirring his brain. Overwhelming drowsiness surged over him like a tide, his eyelids weighed down by a thousand jun, and he nearly blacked out on the spot.

"Stop!"

He bit through the tip of his tongue and used the sharp pain to sever the flow of spiritual sense.

But as the Evergreen Medical Classic said: when the spirit is full, the qi is abundant; when the spirit is depleted, the qi is exhausted.

Xia Dong was horrified to realize that the blood and qi surging through him like a great river were now pouring uncontrollably toward his brow to replenish his depleted spiritual sense.

His sturdy body visibly shrank a little.

Gurgle, gurgle...

He was hungry.

An all-consuming hunger engulfed Xia Dong in an instant.

Fortunately, he was now practicing martial arts and burning through a great deal of energy. Xiao Hong had stocked the kitchen's hanging basket and cupboards with enough cooked food and cold cuts for three days.

Like a starving beast, Xia Dong grabbed several jin of cold beef and hard, coarse-flour buns. He didn't even bother to chew, stuffing them into his mouth and gulping them down.

Only after he had devoured the kitchen's entire supply—enough food to feed four or five grown men for a day—did the hunger threatening to drain him dry finally subside a little.

Half an hour later.

Xia Dong emerged from the latrine, his face pale.

His depleted spiritual sense had been replenished, and the loss of blood and qi had at least been brought under control.

But his stomach and intestines had taken a terrible beating.

Ordinary food contained too many impurities. To extract the vital essence from the meat and convert it into blood and qi in such a short time, his digestive system had been pushed beyond its limits. As a result, he had suffered five or six bouts of diarrhea in one night.

Back in his room, Xia Dong lit the oil lamp and stared at his weary reflection in the bronze mirror, his brows furrowed.

He had already realized that even the ordinary use of his spiritual sense consumed a considerable amount of blood and qi.

Xia Dong recalled what he had read in the Cultivation Miscellany he'd bought at the Marketplace.

"Cultivators who draw qi into their bodies mostly subsist on spiritual rice and Bigu Pills. Spiritual rice contains gentle, pure vital essence, free of the impurities found in ordinary grains. It leaves no residue when eaten and nourishes both the body and the soul..."

Those who fed on qi were clear in spirit and long-lived.

If he kept subsisting on ordinary grains or meat, he really couldn't solve the problem he was facing.

He needed to eat like a cultivator, consuming spiritual rice, Bigu Pills, and the like.

At that moment, Xia Dong felt both elated and troubled.

He was elated because the Profound Yin Scripture hadn't lied: he had truly cultivated a cultivator's spiritual sense.

Clearly, with spiritual sense, his ability to protect himself and fight would improve tremendously.

But he was troubled because this thing was hard to sustain.

"One Proof Eternal Proof" could ensure his cultivation would never fall, but it couldn't conjure energy from nothing to make up for a physical deficit.

If he abused his spiritual sense, no one else would need to lift a finger. He would drain his own blood and qi first, turning himself into a dried-out corpse.

Xia Dong sighed.

It seemed that, besides seeking out more Spirit Stones, he would also have to find a way to get spiritual rice or Bigu Pills and turn himself from a meat-eater and grain-eater into one who fed on qi. Alternatively, he could cultivate a higher-grade technique to improve his efficiency at refining essence into qi.

But!

Xia Dong stepped forward, his bearing as graceful as a crane.

The Crane Shadow Step activated.

Under the subtle control of his spiritual sense, Xia Dong seemed to shift through space, appearing several zhang away.

Incredibly fast.

And with his spiritual sense assisting him, he performed the Crane Shadow Step as smoothly and naturally as flowing water and drifting clouds, able to execute any movement he wished without the slightest hesitation.

It was safe to say that with the same level of blood and qi, he could now easily defeat his past self, who had lacked spiritual sense.

Xia Dong also understood that in a cultivator's battles, spiritual sense was meant to control magical implements and spells.

Now, it was as if he were treating his own body as a magical implement and wielding it with his spiritual sense to perform all kinds of wondrous techniques.

Mind commands the body!