Vital Energy

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Perhaps unknowable selfish desires and vile thoughts had lain hidden within that pile of ashes, but their owners had died in the midst of warm, joyful laughter. As the sole survivor among them, Yu Ci felt he ought to show something, and this was the best way he could manage.

Thus, Yu Ci did not feel that he was wasting a treasure bestowed by heaven, nor did he think there was anything particularly noble about what he was doing. It simply made him feel at ease. In this way, he set himself apart from Daoist Yan, who had murdered for wealth, and thereby earned the right to soothe the souls of the dead.

Another night came. Yu Ci sat in the center of a hollow near the mountaintop, with the Suspended Bright Moon directly overhead, its clear radiance shining down upon him.

This was his new shelter, a place he had spent more than half a day finding in the dense woods atop a mountain peak, two hundred li from last night's battlefield. It was a naturally formed rocky hollow within a pine forest at the summit. Behind it stood an overhanging cliff, perfectly shielding it from wind and rain. Below, clusters of pines encircled it; from beneath, no one could possibly spot this hiding place.

With the cliff overhead blocking the view, even someone flying through the sky would need to put in some effort to find it.

Though this place offered fewer escape routes and was not as safe as last night's location, Yu Ci did not concern himself with that. He was eager to understand the true extent of his progress in cultivation. Finding such a secluded and quiet spot already showed considerable patience on his part.

Yu Ci had intended to enter meditation at once, but his mind would not settle, and he was not in the right state. After pondering for a long while, he suddenly understood. Shaking his head with a smile, he took the Zhaoshen Bronze Mirror from his Storage Ring. Over the years, meditating with the bronze mirror in hand had become a habit. Now that he had suddenly put it away, he felt uncomfortable all over.

Seeing the lingering scorch marks on his brows and hair in the mirror, he was suddenly seized by childish mischief. Patting the mirror's surface, he pulled a face at it. "Old friend, I'll still need you to watch over me!"

The bronze mirror remained silent. Yu Ci laughed aloud, gripped it steadily as before, and entered meditation.

Sitting quietly beneath the moonlight, bathed in its radiance, he breathed in and out, each breath as fine and unbroken as threads of silk.

Visualization and the absorption of qi had always complemented one another. With every breath, Yu Ci exhaled the sun and inhaled the moon, embodying the qi of Heaven and Earth. Pure moon essence was naturally drawn in with his breathing, circulated through his five viscera and six bowels, stirring up five-colored cloud qi that nourished his organs.

The connection between a person's essence, qi, and spirit was exquisitely subtle. As the vital energy of his organs emerged, his brain palace responded as well. A cool breath rose from the Mud Pill Palace, forming a bright moon of its own that illuminated his entire body.

Taking spirit as the moon and qi as the clouds, Yu Ci had diligently cultivated the Nine Palaces Moon Bright True Return Marvelous Method for nearly twenty years. Visualizing the bright moon within his brain palace no longer required deliberate effort. In the half-present, half-absent state of his awareness, clear radiance naturally poured down, linking section by section with the qi, blood, joints, and acupoints of his limbs and body, while nourishing his soul and strengthening it.

Yet today was different. In the past, the bright moon had always hung within the Mud Pill Palace, drawing in the vital energy of his organs as it rose and fell. But now, stirred by the essence of moonlight, that bright moon moved out of the Mud Pill Palace of its own accord. It traveled from the Cavern Chamber to the Bright Hall, then rose to the Heavenly Court and the Great Emperor. It looked as though it intended to tour all the palaces of the Upper Origin.

Every inch the bright moon shifted brought immeasurable changes in the movement of qi. Flesh, organs, muscles, bones, and acupoints all responded. The reactions were minuscule, yet incomparably subtle—like faint, delicate sounds in the stillness of deep night, seeping into every inch of muscle, sinew, and bloodstream.

Yu Ci's mind naturally merged with the bright moon, circulating through the Nine Palaces and savoring the novelty within.

Perhaps because he was completely absorbed, he gradually forgot where his body was and no longer concerned himself with the arrangement of the Nine Palaces. In a daze, it seemed as though he dwelled within the bright moon itself, traveling through boundless emptiness with its eastern rising and western setting, its new moons and full moons, its waxing and waning.

After making a full circuit, the sensation changed again. Boundless emptiness remained, and the bright moon became a boat. Riding it, he drifted across a sea of stars. Spiritual light shone wherever he passed, constellations spread apart, and hundreds of billions of stars densely covered the vault of heaven, vast and without end.

As the bright moon traveled among them, he could see neither its beginning nor its end, neither above nor below. In all directions lay an endless sea of stars, brilliantly radiant. Yu Ci tried to sense it, but his thoughts had nowhere to anchor themselves. He only felt that the void was not empty, as though countless spiritual responses lay hidden within it. Yet tangled together, they were murky and chaotic, impossible to make out.

In that hazy state, he did not know how much time passed before a "thunk" rang out inside his skull. It was as though that little hammer had struck again, knocking him out of his utterly dazed state. When he opened his eyes, daylight had already broken. The scene of riding the moon through the heavens and beholding the vast sea of stars seemed still before his eyes, yet the more he tried to recall it, the more blurred and dreamlike it became.

Closing his eyes and looking inward, he found the qi, blood, muscles, bones, and body throughout him clean and flawless. His organs were supple and strong. With the slightest thought, true qi surged up like a tide; with another shift of intent, it transformed into something clear and gentle, flowing in fine strands like a spring breeze passing by.

There was no question that Yu Ci's cultivation had advanced. His physical condition was better than ever before, and never had his control over true qi been so utterly at his command.

Still, had he missed something?

In Yu Ci's view, leaping into the Spirit Communion realm should have been an incomparably crucial step on the path of cultivation. It ought to have been an unparalleled evolution from the body to the spirit; otherwise, how could one distinguish a cultivator from ordinary mortals?

Yet up to this moment, aside from the divine intent that had separated from his soul, Yu Ci had not discovered the earthshaking changes he had expected. Perhaps last night's moon-borne spiritual journey counted as one, but it had been too profound and mysterious, making it feel unreal instead.

Moreover, an even more serious problem awaited him ahead.