At last, the fifteenth day of the month arrived. It was the night of the full moon, and also the day Yu Yan and Xiao Wu would test the conjecture in their hearts.
They were still seated cross-legged atop the eastern mountain, waiting for the moon to rise.
Over the past few days, Xiao Wu had returned to normal. She ate and drank as usual, and even clung to Yu Yan's arm, acting cute until she got to eat three meals of crayfish in different flavors.
Everything seemed as though nothing had changed.
No, Xiao Wu's attitude toward cultivation was clearly much more serious than before.
Yu Yan had not guessed the reason, but Xiao Wu's willingness to cultivate seriously was tremendous good news to him.
"Do you think our conjecture will be proven?"
Xiao Wu was somewhat nervous. She feared that their theory—that the full moon night produced Moon Essence—would be proven wrong tonight.
"I think it'll work."
Having taken Xiao Wu's advice to heart, Yu Yan did not say anything discouraging or expectation-dampening at a time like this. Instead, he comforted her.
From this perspective, Yu Yan was influencing Xiao Wu, and Xiao Wu was influencing Yu Yan as well.
That was how people got along. You changed the other person, and the other person changed you.
A full moon slowly rose, its gentle light spilling over the world, caressing everything in the mountains and fields and draping it in a silvery veil.
Without Xiao Wu urging him, Yu Yan closed his eyes and unleashed his spiritual power with all his might, using the Meditation Method to sense his surroundings.
With his spiritual power operating at full strength, Yu Yan successfully sensed a special kind of energy within the gentle moonlight.
This energy was silver-white, flowing down toward the world with the moonlight as its source.
Seen from this perspective, the scene was unimaginably beautiful and deeply stirring.
Yu Yan's spiritual power came into contact with the silver-white energy. Unlike the Purple Qi that appeared at sunrise, the first impression this energy gave was gentleness.
Drawing near it felt like drawing near one's own mother.
His spiritual power touched this Moon Essence. Drawing on his experience refining Purple Qi, he guided a small wisp of the energy into his body.
When the Moon Essence entered Yu Yan's body, its mild energy released a faint, gentle chill that instinctively made one lower one's guard.
Yu Yan, who had long been prepared for this, instantly completed Martial Soul Possession and activated the Fire Fish's flame energy.
Flames and chill clashed within Yu Yan's body, and the Moon Essence was refined in the process.
Seeing Yu Yan use Martial Soul Possession, Xiao Wu understood that their conjecture had been completely correct. There truly was a special energy within the moon, and it could be absorbed.
Knowing that Moon Essence truly existed excited Xiao Wu even more than learning about Purple Qi.
Purple Qi had been discovered by Yu Yan alone, while Moon Essence had been discovered by her and Yu Yan together. The meaning represented by the two was entirely different.
Moon Essence was the name Yu Yan had given this special energy in advance.
After taking several deep breaths and calming herself down, Xiao Wu quickly sat cross-legged and entered a cultivation state. She wanted to see whether she could discover and absorb Moon Essence on her own.
Xiao Wu had learned the method of taking deep breaths to calm her emotions while practicing Taiji with Yu Yan.
In her meditative cultivation state, Xiao Wu did not sense the existence of Moon Essence.
Having expected this, Xiao Wu was not too upset. Instead, she began absorbing the high-quality Soul Power dissipating from Yu Yan's body.
After cultivating for some time, Xiao Wu could feel that the quality of the Soul Power in her body had improved considerably.
The fundamental nature of her level-ten Soul Power had not changed, but the duration for which she could use it was one-tenth longer than before. That was obvious progress.
Speaking of which, it was necessary to disparage Yu Xiaogang's Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul—Soul Ring bottlenecks did not affect Soul Power accumulation.
Yu Xiaogang's explanation for this theory was that Soul Power could continue accumulating even without obtaining a Soul Ring. For example, a level-thirty Soul Master who had not absorbed a Soul Ring could directly reach level thirty-one, or even a higher Soul Power level, after breaking through.
Such a pointed theory even specifically mentioned being stuck at level thirty without breaking through. It was obvious at a glance who was stubbornly refusing to admit defeat and who was daydreaming.
Yu Xiaogang might even be dreaming of breaking through one day and, thanks to years of accumulation, soaring straight to level forty or even higher.
These error-riddled theories were the real reason Yu Xiaogang became a clown in everyone's eyes and was mockingly called the "Grandmaster."
Back to the point.
The full moon hung high in the heavens. Unlike the Purple Qi within the morning sun, Moon Essence did not vanish in the blink of an eye.
It remained hanging in the sky, while Moon Essence continued flowing down from above.
Having refined that wisp of Moon Essence, Yu Yan drew in another and began refining it.
Yu Yan was very happy. He could continuously refine Moon Essence throughout the night, and the benefits of this cultivation session were self-evident.
Xiao Wu was also very happy. She could keep cultivating by absorbing the high-quality Soul Power dissipating from Yu Yan's body, gaining no small benefit.
In the blink of an eye, dawn arrived. Yu Yan, who had been cultivating all this time, sensed the appearance of Purple Qi. He quickly activated the Ice Fish's power and began absorbing and refining Purple Qi instead.
This time, when Purple Qi entered Yu Yan's body, some very obvious changes occurred.
Purple Qi flowed through Yu Yan's body and stirred the remaining Moon Essence.
Purple Qi and Moon Essence intertwined and fused, forming an entirely new energy. This energy gave off neither heat nor chill and appeared completely unremarkable.
Yu Yan used the Meditation Method to guide this new energy. There was no resistance whatsoever, and the new energy was drawn along and refined.
The entire process went exceptionally smoothly—so smoothly that Yu Yan began to wonder if it was an illusion.
Once the energy had been fully refined, Yu Yan could feel that both his Soul Power and physical constitution had improved considerably.
Xiao Wu, who had cultivated all night, opened her eyes and looked at Yu Yan strangely. This should have been the time when refining Purple Qi caused Soul Power to dissipate, yet no more high-quality Soul Power was leaking from Yu Yan's body.
Did something happen that I don't know about?
Xiao Wu stood up and casually stretched her body. Whatever had happened, she could ask Yu Yan after he finished cultivating.
As Xiao Wu moved her body, Yu Yan was examining his current state.
First, and most delightfully, his Soul Power had increased. After a night of cultivation, his level-nine progress had reached 54%. When the middle of next month came, he was confident he could successfully break through to level ten.
Second was the change in his body. After the fused energy of Purple Qi and Moon Essence had been successfully refined, Yu Yan could clearly feel strength surging forth. He could clearly feel his body changing, changing for the better.
Yu Yan named the energy formed from the fusion of Purple Qi and Moon Essence Sun and Moon Essence. The name was borrowed, but it was the most fitting one.
Yu Yan did not know exactly why this energy was born, but one thing was certain: it brought him nothing but benefits and no harm.
There was naturally no need to elaborate on the benefits of increased Soul Power. Soul Power was the foundation of Douluo Continent's fantastical power system.
An improvement in physical constitution would allow Yu Yan to absorb Soul Rings with higher year limits.
Before you continue