Cultivating Spells

Chen Lingxi returned to his room and sat on the edge of the bed for a long while.

He replayed everything he had seen and heard in the Divine Chamber over and over in his mind.

First, there was the Candle of Time.

"I traded with the Candle of Time, and then desire arose in my heart—greed... This was probably the Cauldron Calamity..."

"No wonder Lin Suri sank it into the Yuan River. As for those three talismanic seals, they were likely meant to lure Lu Baizhong over."

"And the Six-Qi True Method... the Dao-Below Academy."

Chen Lingxi rolled the two names over on his tongue.

"The Six-Qi True Method is the Breath-Absorption Method."

"According to Lin Suri, this Six-Qi True Method most likely came from the Dao-Below Academy he mentioned."

The Breath-Absorption Method he had acquired had merely been copied from Lin Suri's cultivation through the Wandering Sight Divine Ability.

Previously, Chen Lingxi had only known that breathing exercises could nourish the flesh, stir the blood and qi, and even lead one into the path of Qi Circulation. He had never known its name.

Much less had he known that behind that name lay ties to something called the "Dao-Below Academy."

"Lin Suri said that I had never cultivated any spell formula, only the path of breathing and circulating qi." Recalling those words, he frowned slightly.

What was a spell formula?

Was it a more profound cultivation method beyond the Breath-Absorption Method?

Lin Suri himself had cultivated to the Qi Circulation Fifth Floor, even willing to trade twenty years of his lifespan for a chance to break through to the Sixth Floor. That "spell formula" was likely the key to ascending the floors.

Unfortunately, he did not know it.

"This cannot be rushed. I can only wait and see whether I can glean more from Lin Suri in the future."

And there was that youth.

Lu Baizhong.

When Chen Lingxi spoke those three words, his brow could not help but furrow.

He recalled Lu Baizhong's gaze.

A pure, lofty indifference.

Like a child watching ants move house, then crushing them beneath a finger after growing bored.

"What an inflated opinion of himself."

Chen Lingxi took a deep breath and suppressed the surging anger in his heart.

"If I were to encounter this man in the real world by accident, he would likely keep me pinned to death."

He would not need any reason at all.

Chen Lingxi had vaguely guessed the man's origins.

Long ago, when he had used Wandering Sight on Lin Suri, Lin Suri had mentioned the name Lu Baizhong when meeting that mysterious cultivator surnamed Chao.

Within Yuan River Prefecture, besides the Baosu Marquis Residence, there was also the renowned Lu Family.

"This Lu Baizhong must be a member of the Lu Family."

He closed his eyes and gathered his thoughts, filing away each clue for future investigation.

Outside the window, the sky gradually began to pale.

Chen Lingxi put away his thoughts, rose to pick flowers and arrange them, then carried the flower arrangement all the way to East Hall in the West Courtyard.

Inside East Hall, Lin Longyue was still practicing martial arts.

Where her palm wind swept past, the dust upon the bluestone tiles was cleared completely away.

It was exactly as he had seen in the Divine Chamber.

When he turned back toward the West Courtyard, he again encountered Liu Que, the West Courtyard steward, at the corner of the covered corridor.

He then went to the accounts office to collect his monthly allowance.

Ten taels.

Returning to the servants' quarters, he put the silver away and sat down before the table.

The room was utterly quiet, with only the occasional birdcall drifting in from outside the window.

Chen Lingxi let out a long breath of stale air and stared at the empty vase holding the flower arrangement on the table. An indescribable awe rose within him.

He had spent four days in the Divine Chamber.

During those four days, every detail, every single matter, had been identical to what he had experienced today.

The Divine Chamber did not seem to be calculating anything. It seemed to be foretelling the future—and forcibly stuffing him into it.

The space within the Divine Chamber seemed like a reflection of the real world. Every leaf, every wisp of wind, every word and action of every person had been carried inside in perfect entirety.

"How wondrous."

Chen Lingxi could not help murmuring in amazement.

"With ten days as its limit, it rehearses what is to come."

"And... I have a feeling that as my cultivation ascends, ten days will become a hundred days, perhaps even years."

He steadied himself, and his consciousness sank once more into the Divine Chamber in his mind.

The void within the Divine Chamber remained shrouded in mist of varying density.

Yet Chen Lingxi's gaze went straight to the heights of the void.

Those lines of golden tadpole script had indeed changed.

[Divine Ability: Total Perception (Essence Replenishment: 1/10)]

The Total Perception Divine Ability, which he had clearly used once already, now had an additional status of "Essence Replenishment."

At first, Chen Lingxi did not understand the tiny "one-tenth" appended after it. After concentrating on it for a moment, he realized.

One-tenth meant it had not yet reached one full portion.

"It seems that cultivating the breathing method, absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and refining spiritual qi can replenish the expenditure of this Total Perception Divine Ability."

"Once Essence Replenishment reaches ten full portions, I can use it again."

As he thought this, he felt that terms such as "tenths" and "portions" were far too vague.

How much was one-tenth?

Ten tenths made one whole, so one-tenth was one-tenth of a whole.

To fill ten wholes, would that make a hundred?

"Using percentages from my previous life would be clearer."

The moment that thought arose, the three tadpole characters in the void abruptly twisted and changed shape.

[Divine Ability: Total Perception (Essence Replenishment: 1.1%)]

Chen Lingxi stared blankly.

"...It can do that?"

After his astonishment, Chen Lingxi withdrew his mind. His consciousness exited the Divine Chamber, and he found himself seated once more before the elmwood table.

[Concealed Edge Method].

[Azure Edge Method].

The two spells, purchased with fifty years of lifespan, now rested securely in his mind.

"I wonder just how powerful these spells truly are."

Chen Lingxi felt a trace of excitement.

He closed his eyes and focused, first reviewing the qi-circulation routes, breath-concealing techniques, and qi-aperture barriers of the Concealed Edge Method one by one.

"This spell emphasizes 'outwardly like dull iron and withered wood, inwardly concealing a blade of ten thousand jun's weight.' Using spiritual qi as a guide, it forms an almost imperceptible barrier between the dantian and the meridians throughout the body, concealing all traces of spiritual qi and fluctuations of blood and qi."

Chen Lingxi summarized it in his heart.

It sounded simple, but putting it into practice was nothing of the sort.

He sat cross-legged. The thumb-thick stream of Azure Qi in his dantian slowly circulated, following the route recorded in the Concealed Edge Method toward the barriers at the Qi Sea, Gate of Life, and Great Vertebra.

The instant it reached the first Qi Sea, the spiritual qi seemed to strike an invisible wall. It abruptly collapsed and surged back into his dantian, setting his chest and abdomen churning.

"Extremely difficult."

He took a deep breath and began again.

On the second attempt, he passed the Qi Sea but got stuck at the Gate of Life.

On the third, he passed the Gate of Life as well, only to get stuck at the Tail Gate.

The fourth time, the fifth time, the sixth time...

He struggled for nearly half an hour, failing more than thirty times.

Sweat appeared on Chen Lingxi's brow, and his breathing grew heavier, yet his eyes only became brighter.

With every failure, his perception of the spiritual qi's path grew a little clearer.

The sense of obstruction at those barriers also gradually loosened beneath repeated impacts.

Finally.

On the fifty-second attempt, that stream of Azure Qi passed through every barrier without the slightest hindrance. It circulated once through the meridians throughout his body before finally returning to his dantian.

In an instant, Chen Lingxi felt his entire body lighten.

It was as though an invisible veil had been lifted from him.

He lowered his head to look at his hand. The warm, jade-like sheen beneath his skin quietly receded, and the faint spiritual qi fluctuations that had once seeped out vanished without a trace.

If he closed his eyes now, he felt no different from before he had sat cross-legged to absorb qi. Though the spiritual qi in his dantian remained, it was wrapped within an exceedingly thin yet resilient barrier, hidden without the slightest leak.

"It worked."

A flash of delight passed through Chen Lingxi's eyes.

With the Concealed Edge Method initially mastered, so long as he did not actively circulate spiritual qi to fight others, even someone in the Qi Circulation Realm might not easily see through the fact that he was a cultivator.

He rested for a breath, then turned his thoughts toward the second spell.

The Azure Edge Method.

This spell was completely unlike Concealed Edge.

Concealed Edge drew inward; Azure Edge burst outward.

It emphasized that "qi emerged like a sword, its edge unmatched," condensing spiritual qi into an extremely fine, extremely sharp strand of azure edge qi that burst from the body and pierced all things.

Following the method's instructions, Chen Lingxi guided the spiritual qi from his dantian outward, slowly pushing it along the meridians of his right arm. At the same time, he continuously compressed and condensed that Azure Qi with his will.

This was more than twice as difficult as the Concealed Edge Method.

Spiritual qi was originally formless. When circulated normally, it spread like mercury spilling across the ground, dispersing naturally in every direction.

To forcibly restrain it within a single line now was like stuffing a wild horse into a bamboo tube. The slightest mistake would ruin all previous effort.

"This spell may very well become my greatest reliance in the future."

Chen Lingxi began attempting to cultivate it.

On the first attempt, the Azure Qi exploded the moment it condensed at the Shoulder Well acupoint, leaving his entire right arm numb.

On the tenth attempt, the Azure Qi dispersed at his elbow. A faint remnant of azure force burst from his fingertips and shaved off a small corner of the coarse pottery bowl on the table.

On the thirtieth attempt, the Azure Qi reached his wrist.

On the eightieth attempt, the Azure Qi finally condensed at the tip of his index finger.

Chen Lingxi gritted his teeth and clamped down with his will upon that strand of Azure Qi, which was on the verge of dispersing. Then he thrust it forward fiercely!

Ssst—

An extremely fine ray of azure light burst from his fingertip, swift as a flying arrow, and plunged into the leg of the elmwood square table one step away.

With a soft crack.

A sword scar the width of a fingernail appeared on the table leg. Its edges were as smooth as a mirror, without even a trace of splintering.

Chen Lingxi was drenched in sweat, breathing rapidly, his face frighteningly pale.

The thumb-thick stream of spiritual qi in his dantian had been reduced to less than half.

He lowered his head to look at his fingers, then at the mirror-smooth sword scar on the table leg. There was not the slightest bit of frustration in his eyes; instead, they shone with startling brilliance.

"The Azure Edge Method... truly has tremendous power."

And he was still a Copper Scarlet Realm martial artist. The Azure Edge Method was already peerlessly sharp; if it were launched attached to Copper-Molten Qi, its power would rise another level, and his enemies would be utterly unable to guard against it.

However...

"One casting consumes nearly half my spiritual qi. In other words, at my current cultivation, I can activate the Azure Edge Method at most twice."

"Twice is enough."

"I still need to diligently practice both spells. At the very least, I must make the Azure Edge Method as natural as moving an arm or finger."

Chen Lingxi slowly curled his fingers, drawing in the lingering azure radiance at his fingertips.

The room fell silent once more.

His gaze turned toward the window.

The sun had already reached noon. Bright sunlight streamed through the lattice window, falling over the bluestone floor tiles and casting warm patches of light.

He suddenly recalled what had happened in the Divine Chamber.

—Wang Kong was searching the streets for him with two burly men.

"Steward Zhao has given the order. If you fail to bring him in today, you alone will answer for it."

Wang Kong's shrill voice still rang in his ears.

Wang Kong should have only recently entered the Copper Scarlet Realm.

That day in the rear garden, Chen Lingxi had only barely avoided Wang Kong's fists by dodging twice in succession. Faint traces of the cracks in his forearm bone still remained.

But now, he had reached minor attainment in the Copper Scarlet Realm, cultivated Mountain-Crushing Force, and possessed a killing move such as the Azure Edge Method.

Chen Lingxi's gaze settled on the mirror-smooth sword scar on the table leg.

"You want to seize me while I go report to the authorities?"

"Let me see, Wang Kong, exactly what you are made of."