Divine Sense

"To become an immortal, one must transform into a crane and soar to the heavens."

In the depths of his consciousness, a distant and ethereal whisper seemed to echo in the mind of Xia Dong.

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

In that instant, the cramped and dim room seemed to collapse within his perception.

Xia Dong felt his body lose all its weight; he "saw" his own arms transform into vast, snow-white wings.

With the wind howling and clouds churning, he became a white crane dancing gracefully, riding the wind and soaring high above the lonely, frigid mountain streams and clouds.

Every beat of his wings seemed to peel away a layer of worldly filth.

Hum!

The surrounding illusions shattered like glass.

Xia Dong snapped his eyes open, followed by an unprecedented, hair-raising sense of clarity.

His perception had changed.

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

He closed his eyes.

With the center of his brow as the origin, an invisible "domain" expanded, spreading outward like ripples in water. One zhang, two zhang, three zhang... the ripples only ceased once they had completely enveloped the entire courtyard of the Changchun Medical Hall.

Not only did he "see" the grain of the wooden door directly in front of him, but he also "saw" a spider slowly crawling on the wall behind his head; he even "saw" through the wooden partition of the east wing, clearly sensing Xiao Hong curled up under her quilt, her chest rising and falling with her steady breathing.

"So this is the divine sense of a cultivator..." Xia Dong muttered to himself, his heart trembling violently.

Xia Dong shifted his focus, and the vision of his divine sense became even richer.

In the pitch-black night, countless tiny, wondrous points of light suddenly appeared. They drifted between heaven and earth, following trajectories that were both incredibly random and subtly profound.

Under the overview of his divine sense, the points of light were densest near the dry well, as if a faint spring were seeping out from beneath the ground; meanwhile, the jujube tree in the center of the courtyard was stretching its withered branches, like a sluggish drowning man, greedily absorbing the drifting points of light into its trunk.

"This is spiritual energy!"

A surge of intense impulse welled up in Xia Dong's heart.

He immediately split off a strand of divine sense, like an invisible hand, and precisely captured a large cluster of light, forcefully dragging it into his body.

The moment the light entered his body, it brought a refreshing coolness that chilled the heart.

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

As soon as his divine sense relaxed, those points of light acted as if passing through a sieve riddled with holes; apart from a tiny fraction forcibly retained by his flesh and blood, the vast majority of the spiritual energy passed through his body without obstruction, dissipating back into the world.

Even when he immediately circulated the Dragon-Capturing Technique, locking his spine like a great dragon to the absolute limit, he could not trap this intangible, formless spiritual energy.

"It seems that without a spiritual root, it is like drawing water with a bamboo basket; I simply cannot retain the spiritual energy." Xia Dong sighed to himself, realizing that in terms of efficiency in absorbing spiritual energy, he was not even as good as the jujube tree in the courtyard.

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

A flash of inspiration struck Xia Dong's mind.

If his physical body could not retain it, what about the ancient bell in his sea of consciousness?

He once again channeled his divine sense, acting like a great net to gather all the drifting spiritual energy in the courtyard, then guided it directly through the center of his brow and into the depths of his sea of consciousness.

This time, a sudden change occurred!

The Bronze Ancient Bell, which had always hovered in the depths of his sea of consciousness, shuddered violently the moment it touched this surge of spiritual energy.

An incredibly domineering and greedy suction force erupted from the mouth of the bell, acting like an insatiable black hole that swallowed and refined all the spiritual energy Xia Dong had drawn in with terrifying speed.

"It worked!"

Before Xia Dong could even rejoice, a wave of overwhelming dizziness struck him hard.

Under such terrifying refining speed, the divine sense acting as the "spiritual energy porter" was rapidly drained.

Xia Dong felt as if his brain were being violently stirred by an iron rod; an intense sense of exhaustion washed over him like a tide, his eyelids feeling heavy as lead, and he nearly lost consciousness on the spot.

"Stop!"

He bit the tip of his tongue, using the sharp pain to instantly sever the connection of his divine sense.

However, the Evergreen Medical Classic states: when the spirit is full, the energy is sufficient; when the spirit is empty, the energy is consumed.

Xia Dong realized with horror that the blood and energy surging like a river within his body were now uncontrollably and frantically rushing toward the center of his brow to fill the void left by his divine sense.

His sturdy frame actually withered slightly at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Gurgle...

Hunger.

An extreme sense of hunger instantly engulfed Xia Dong.

Fortunately, because he practiced martial arts and consumed a great deal of energy, Xiao Hong had stocked the kitchen's hanging baskets and cupboards with three days' worth of cooked food and cold cuts.

Xia Dong, like a starving beast, grabbed several pounds of cold beef and hard, coarse-flour buns, not even bothering to chew, and stuffed them into his mouth, swallowing them whole.

It was not until he had wiped out an entire day's rations for four or five grown men that the hunger threatening to drain him dry finally subsided.

Half an hour later.

Xia Dong walked out of the latrine, his face pale.

The depletion of his divine sense had been replenished, and his blood and qi had barely managed to stop hemorrhaging.

However, his stomach had suffered greatly.

Common food contained too many impurities. In order to extract the essence from the meat to convert it into blood and qi within such a short time, his digestive system had been pushed into overdrive, resulting in him running to the latrine five or six times throughout the night.

Returning to his room, Xia Dong lit an oil lamp and frowned at his exhausted reflection in the bronze mirror.

He had already realized that even the daily consumption of his divine sense required a significant amount of blood and qi to replenish.

Xia Dong recalled what was recorded in the Cultivation Miscellany he had bought from the market.

"Cultivators who draw qi into their bodies mostly subsist on spirit rice and grain-avoidance pills. Spirit rice contains gentle and pure essence, free from the filth of mundane grains; consuming it leaves no grime and nourishes both the physical body and the soul..."

Those who consume qi are enlightened and long-lived.

If he continued to rely on mundane grains or meat, he would certainly not be able to solve his current predicament.

He had to be like a cultivator and consume things like spirit rice or grain-avoidance pills.

Xia Dong felt a mix of joy and worry.

The joy was that the Profound Yin Scripture had not lied; he had truly cultivated the divine sense of a cultivator.

It was obvious that with divine sense, his ability to survive and fight would be greatly enhanced.

The worry was that this thing was not easy to maintain.

One Proof Eternal Proof could only ensure that his cultivation realm would never fall, but it could not conjure energy out of thin air to fill the void on a material level.

If he abused his divine sense, he wouldn't even need someone else to kill him; he would be drained of his blood and qi and turn into a dried corpse himself.

Xia Dong sighed.

It seemed that besides finding more spirit stones, he also had to find a way to obtain spirit rice or grain-avoidance pills to transform himself from a consumer of meat and grains into a consumer of qi, or perhaps cultivate a higher-level technique to improve the efficiency of refining essence into qi.

However!

Xia Dong took a step, his posture like a crane.

Crane Shadow Step activated.

Under the subtle control of his divine sense, Xia Dong appeared several yards away as if he had shifted his form and swapped his shadow.

It was impossibly fast.

Moreover, with the aid of his divine sense, his execution of the Crane Shadow Step was as natural as flowing water, allowing him to perform any movement he desired without the slightest hesitation.

It could be said that with the same level of blood and qi, the current him could easily take down his past self who lacked divine sense.

Xia Dong also understood that a cultivator's divine sense was originally intended for manipulating magical artifacts and spells during combat.

Right now, he was treating his own body as a magical artifact, using his divine sense to command it and thereby unleash various wondrous techniques.

Controlling form with spirit!