Terrifying Illusions, Spirit-Nurturing Pill Patterns (Thanks to Night Rain and Stars for the 500-coin tip)

Bright sunlight streamed down from the sky, filtering through the spirit apricot tree's leaves and casting countless dappled shadows.

Beneath the shade, perhaps because the sunlight was a little dazzling, Ye Jingcheng rubbed his eyes and discovered that he had actually fallen asleep beneath the stone table outside his cave dwelling.

Beside him lay two jade slips containing insights into breaking through to Spirit Transformation.

Waves of fatigue washed through his mind, as though studying these jade slips and their breakthrough insights had somehow lulled him to sleep.

One of the two jade slips came from White Medicine True Lord, who was on the verge of a breakthrough, and the other from his master, Divine Lord Zhengyuan.

"I haven't fallen asleep in ages. How strange," Ye Jingcheng murmured to himself.

Ordinary cultivators at Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment could go ten days or half a month without rest and suffer no ill effects. After all, meditative cultivation was itself another form of rest.

At Golden Core and Nascent Soul, although cultivators spent longer in seclusion, most were either cultivating or comprehending their arts, making falling asleep even less likely.

Strange though it was, Ye Jingcheng gave it little thought. Behind him, Chu Yanqing was cultivating in seclusion, and everything in the Heavenly Phoenix Oasis before him remained as usual.

But the next moment, a streak of spiritual light suddenly carried a voice transmission to him. This was no ordinary jade-slip message, but a direct transmission through a secret art. It crashed into his ears like thunder, urgent and deafening.

"Jingcheng, something's happened! The jade slips of every cultivator in the lineage on Crimson Jade Mountain have shattered!"

Shortly after the transmission arrived, peals of bells rang throughout the Desert Sea.

The bells were deep and lingering, tinged with mourning.

Ye