Mental Power Cultivation Arc (Part 1) - Gentle Waves Realm

Martial Soul Mimicry Cultivation Chamber.

Yan Hongchen sat cross-legged, his eyes slightly closed, his breathing long and even.

What he needed to do now was adjust his mental state and formally begin cultivating Phantom Sea Condensing Truth.

As early as a month ago, Yan Hongchen had used the power of his head spirit bone to open up a sizable sea of spirit within his skull.

The seawater was not a deathly black, but glimmered with a faint deep-blue light, like a lake beneath the moonlit night—shimmering, boundless, and vast.

The seawater formed from spiritual power gently rippled, each rise and fall stirring fine motes of spiritual light, like fireflies dancing across the water's surface.

This was his sea of spirit.

Thanks to the head spirit bone, he had been spared the hardship of "opening the sea," a process that would normally take years to complete.

Though this sea of spirit could not yet be called boundless, it already possessed a complete form: depth, boundaries, and a pattern of autonomous circulation.

For ordinary people cultivating the first realm of Phantom Sea Condensing Truth, the Gentle Waves Realm, they had to start from scratch, using spiritual power to open their sea of consciousness and condense a sea of spirit. The step of "opening the sea" alone required an immense expenditure of time and effort.

But Yan Hongchen was different. His sea of spirit had already taken shape. What he needed was not expansion, but purification and sublimation.

"The core of the Gentle Waves Realm lies in the 'softness of water.'"

Yan Hongchen recalled the mantra. "The soft is neither hard nor impetuous; waves neither stagnate nor wither."

"Spiritual power is like water. It pierces stone not through force, but persistence; it carries vessels not through strength, but tolerance."

Although Yan Hongchen's sea of spirit was vast, his spiritual power still contained impurities. His free-floating spiritual power was mixed with stray thoughts, emotional residue, and faint impurities from heaven and earth. Like a muddy lake, it held plenty of water, but lacked clarity.

The Gentle Waves Realm was meant to turn this muddy lake into a clear spring.

Yan Hongchen took a white jade bottle from his robes. Inside was the Spirit-Gathering Sea-Condensing Pill Jing Hongchen had given him.

For someone who had yet to open a sea of spirit, this pill could help them "open the sea in a single step."

For someone like him, who already possessed a sea of spirit, its effect was to further consolidate it, making the sea deeper and more abundant.

But there was a problem: the spiritual power gathered by the Spirit-Gathering Sea-Condensing Pill was not particularly pure either.

The free-floating spiritual power absorbed from heaven and earth contained all manner of muddled thoughts, emotional fragments, and natural impurities.

If it were directly merged into his sea of spirit, it would instead contaminate the spiritual power already there, making the seawater even murkier. Therefore, it had to be filtered.

Yan Hongchen placed the pill in his mouth. It melted upon contact with his tongue, and a cool medicinal power traveled down his throat before suddenly surging upward, straight into his brain.

Boom—

It felt as though his consciousness had been hurled into a sea of stars. Countless specks of light rushed in from every direction—the thin, free-floating spiritual power of heaven and earth, drawn together by the medicine's power. Like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, it flooded madly into his sea of spirit.

The water level of his sea of spirit rose at a visible pace... one inch, two inches, three inches... At the same time, those mixed impurities flowed in as well.

Yan Hongchen could clearly sense the seawater turning cloudy. Gray flocculent matter and tiny black particles appeared amid the originally translucent deep-blue water.

"Your turn, Gentle Waves."

He calmed his mind and circulated the cultivation method of the Gentle Waves Realm. His spiritual power transformed into countless gentle waves that spread outward from the center of the sea of spirit.

These gentle waves were not violent tsunamis, but fine, soft ripples, circle upon circle and layer upon layer, like a spring breeze brushing over a lake.

Wherever the gentle waves passed, impurities were lightly pushed upward. This was not forcible stripping, but guidance.

Like a fine sieve, the gentle waves separated the impurities in the seawater from the pure spiritual power.

The impurities were heavier and thicker than pure spiritual power. Propelled by the gentle waves, they slowly floated toward the surface and gathered at the edges.

Yan Hongchen's consciousness carefully observed the process. The "softness" of the Gentle Waves Realm played its crucial role at this moment.

If he used harsh spiritual power to squeeze the impurities, they would shatter into even smaller particles and become harder to remove.

But gentle waves were different. They overcame hardness with softness. Like flowing water washing away silt, they lifted the impurities whole, allowing them to naturally float to the surface.

The impurities that had been pushed up gathered at the edge of the sea of spirit, forming a "turbid water zone."

Yan Hongchen guided them through the discharge channel of the sea of spirit—the outlet left behind when the head spirit bone had opened his sea of spirit—and slowly expelled them from his body.

He could feel strands of gray-black mist escaping from between his brows and dispersing into the air. Those were the expelled impurities, carrying a faint fishy stench.

The medicinal power lasted for several full hours. Throughout that time, Yan Hongchen continuously used gentle waves to wash, filter, and expel. The water level of his sea of spirit kept rising, yet the seawater grew ever clearer.

When the medicinal power finally faded, the sea of spirit had changed completely. Its surface area had doubled, while the depth of its waters had gone from a thin layer to several feet deep.

The most important change, however, was the quality of the seawater. It was no longer murky as before, but clear as a mirror. Spiritual light could faintly be seen flowing amid its shimmering ripples, like a clear spring deep in the mountains.

"This is a true sea of spirit."

Yan Hongchen inspected his sea of consciousness inwardly, and a flash of understanding rose in his heart. His mind had become much clearer, which would also aid his cultivation.

After completing the purification of his sea of spirit, Yan Hongchen began cultivating another core ability of the Gentle Waves Realm—using spiritual power to exert a faint influence upon the real world.

Ordinary ripples could push fallen leaves, disturb reflections, and draw rings across a lake's surface.

The spiritual power of the Gentle Waves Realm was the same. Though it lacked great destructive power, it could create faint disturbances in the real world with extremely low expenditure.

Yan Hongchen closed his eyes and concentrated, extending a thread of spiritual power from his sea of spirit. Like a gentle wave, it silently spread through the quiet chamber.

He sensed the temperature of the walls, the flickering of the lamplight, and the texture of the window. These perceptions were finer and gentler than before, like lightly stroking something with his hand rather than straining to observe it with his eyes.

Yan Hongchen tried using his spiritual power to push a sheet of paper on the desk he had prepared. The wave-like spiritual power slowly approached the page and gave it a gentle push. It slid half an inch across the tabletop.

"It worked."

Though it was only a faint movement, it meant that his spiritual power could now touch the real world. It was no longer mere perception—it had gained influence.

He continued trying. Gentle waves spread throughout the entire quiet room, and he could sense the slightest changes in every corner.

This was not detection, but feeling—like standing by a lake with his eyes closed, sensing every movement within through the feedback of the rippling water.

"The gentle waves of the Gentle Waves Realm essentially allow spiritual power to resonate with the outside world."

Yan Hongchen began developing the soul bone skill of his head soul bone. One of them was Spiritual Sharing. The essence of this skill was to establish a connection with others through spiritual fluctuations, sharing senses, emotions, and even fragments of memories.

However, under normal use, Spiritual Sharing required both sides to possess a certain foundation in spiritual power, and the process of establishing the connection was rather abrupt—like knocking on a door. The other party would definitely notice someone knocking.

Yan Hongchen discovered that the gentle waves of the Gentle Waves Realm could combine perfectly with Spiritual Sharing. He extended his wave-like spiritual power outward, not as a knock, but as an integration—like a drop of water falling upon a lake, stirring only the faintest ripple.

When his gentle waves came into contact with another person's spiritual power, they would not feel invaded. Instead, they would feel as though a breeze had brushed past them, as though a ray of sunlight had fallen over them, naturally lowering their guard.

Wrapped within the gentle waves, the connection formed by Spiritual Sharing became softer and more natural.

Yan Hongchen attempted Spiritual Sharing with the Phantom Water Spirit Toad. Gentle waves entered its sea of consciousness and lightly touched its spiritual form.

The little toad paused in slight surprise before letting out a comfortable croak, taking the initiative to merge with Yan Hongchen's spiritual power.

"Master, this feels so good!" The Phantom Water Spirit Toad's mental voice was clear and warm. "It's not like before... like I got hit by something."

Yan Hongchen smiled faintly. The combination of Spiritual Sharing and gentle waves meant that he could establish spiritual connections with others without alarming them.

This held tremendous value in team combat, intelligence transmission, and even the treatment of spiritual trauma.

As for Yan Hongchen's martial soul beastification talent—Spiritual Detection—the essence of this skill was to spread spiritual power outward and detect living beings, energy fluctuations, and potential threats in the surrounding environment.

Conventional Spiritual Detection was like sonar: it sent out a spiritual wave, then received the echo to judge the surrounding situation.

While this method was effective, it had an obvious drawback: it was easy to detect.

The echoes of spiritual waves could be sensed by cultivators with a foundation in spiritual power. It was like being swept by someone's gaze, naturally provoking vigilance.

Yan Hongchen likewise discovered that the gentle waves of the Gentle Waves Realm could combine perfectly with Spiritual Detection. He spread his wave-like spiritual power outward, not by firing spiritual waves, but by permeating the surroundings—like water seeping into sand, slow, gentle, and silent.

Wherever the gentle waves passed, information from the environment naturally flowed back into his sea of consciousness. He did not need to send anything out and receive it again; instead, he allowed his spiritual power to become part of the environment, sensing information through "resonance."

This method carried no aggression and no abruptness. Like flowing air or shining light, it would not arouse any vigilance.

Yan Hongchen tried using gentle waves to detect the situation outside the martial soul simulation cultivation room. The waves slowly spread, passing through walls, corridors, and courtyards.

"The combination of Spiritual Detection and gentle waves has turned detection into 'perception.'"

Cultivating the Gentle Waves Realm lasted a full four months.

During that time, Yan Hongchen had not stopped cultivating his soul power either. With the Source Gathering Reflux soul skill, the Phantom Water Spirit Toad's passive boost, and his own active boost, he had also broken through to level twenty-seven.