Soul Enters the Vortex, Three Objects Follow

As the vortex appeared, the clay sculpture on the altar trembled violently, creaking, and its eyes shone brightly, shooting out and connecting with the vortex above Qiu Yan's head.

Instantly, a simple and rustic atmosphere filled the surroundings.

"It's here!"

Upon seeing the vortex and noticing the change in the clay sculpture, Chen Jing lit up with joy.

"The spirit within this clay sculpture must have been captured by Qiu Yan. I've heard that Wen Pi's journey has deeply moved the clay sculpture, and the spirit it embodies is like a rope reaching to the heavens, capable of pulling the road to the Scholar Forest towards us..."

As he pondered this, he turned to look at Tao Ying: "Brother Tao, don't delay any longer! If we miss this opportunity, who knows when we'll have another chance!"

As he spoke, Chen Jing strode forward, taking three steps at a time to reach Qiu Yan's side. Then, his eyes flickered slightly, and a look of daze appeared on his face.

"Huh?" Tao Ying was taken aback, then remembered some things Chen Jing had told him two days ago. He immediately came to his senses and said, "Okay!" He then took a step and walked towards Qiu Yan's location.

The closer they got, the more pronounced Qiu Yan's aura became, while Tao Ying's expression grew increasingly complex, her gaze towards Qiu Yan carrying an indescribable undertone.

As he stepped on the ground, pebbles bounced and made crisp sounds, each sound sending shivers down Tao Ying's spine. The sudden turn of events just now still left him with lingering fear.

But when she reached Qiu Yan and heard the sound of reading coming from the vortex, Tao Ying's heart suddenly calmed down. Her thoughts drifted, and all sorts of desires in her heart surfaced, constructing a scene in her mind that was captivating.

For a moment, Tao Ying and Chen Jing were both in a daze.

However, Chen Jing quickly came to his senses and patted Tao Ying on the shoulder to wake her up.

At this moment, Daoist Lu also arrived at the side. This person also had a strange expression, but he did not lose his composure.

Tao Ying was jolted awake by a slap, only then noticing her surroundings. A trace of regret lingered on her face as she murmured, "It was just an illusion..."

"It wasn't an illusion, but rather the aftermath of the Scholar Forest. Once you join the Scholar Forest, Brother Tao will naturally understand the reason behind what just happened," Chen Jing said, then looked at Chen Yun. "Brother, I'm entrusting the rest to you!"

"Of course." Chen Yun nodded, then his eyes darted around and his gaze fell on the Sage Paper. The words on the paper were rising up, brimming with spirit.

Having received a response, Chen Jing nodded and then looked at Daoist Lu.

The Daoist priest remained silent, reached into his sleeve, took out a porcelain bottle, uncorked it, and poured out three emerald green pills.

As soon as the pill was produced, a Qingliang breeze filled the air, blowing onto Tao Ying's face. It cleared his mind and even enhanced his thinking, prompting him to exclaim, "This is the Spirit-Clearing Pill?"

"Excellent!" Chen Jing took two pills and gave one to Tao Ying. "This Spirit-Clearing Pill is one of the Three Treasures of Qingping. It can calm the mind and spirit, allowing the mind to focus and not disperse in the slightest."

Tao Ying took the pill, held it to her nose, and smelled it. Instantly, her body was filled with a refreshing fragrance, and she felt invigorated. "It truly is a treasure! If I had one like this in front of me while studying and memorizing, I could smell it every time and it would definitely make all the difference!"

"This is also a Chinese method, but this pill is precious and ordinary scholars cannot obtain it," Chen Jing smiled slightly, then changed the subject, "When we follow others into the forest, we must calm our minds and eliminate distractions. The slightest deviation could cause us to lose our chance. But as long as we hold this pill in our mouths, we don't need to go through all that trouble. Our minds will immediately focus, and our distractions will disappear on their own."

As he spoke, he opened his mouth, placed the emerald green pill in his mouth, pressed it under his tongue, and then sat down cross-legged. Instantly, his entire aura changed, becoming restrained and calm.

"Besides, with this Spirit-Clearing Pill, we can also maintain the resilience of our souls through the connection of our spirits, so that we won't get lost in the Scholar Forest. It has many benefits. I begged for a long time before Lu Dao finally agreed to give it to me."

His voice grew weaker and weaker, and his breath became increasingly faint, as if he were about to fall asleep.

Suddenly, Chen Jing's head drooped, and his soul leaped out from the top of his head. This soul was initially confused, with its Three Souls intertwined. It was just an ordinary Living Soul. If it weren't for a layer of azure light enveloping the Living Soul, it would have been swept away by the surrounding air currents and scattered.

Immediately afterwards, a flash of azure light appeared, and Chen Jing's Living Soul regained its clarity. Then, without further ado, he transmitted a thought—

"I'll wait inside first. Living Soul are too fragile in the outside world; there are too many variables. We'll discuss the details later."

As the thought settled, the Living Soul rose up and entered the vortex above, disappearing without a trace.

"Since that's the case, then this humble Daoist will follow..." The Daoist Lu looked up, then swallowed the Spirit-Clearing Pill, sat down cross-legged, and faced the sky with his palms facing the heavens.

A moment later, the Daoist's soul also leaped out, becoming one with him, with Heart Fire pulsating within.

Divine Soul!

This Daoist Lu was actually a cultivator who had condensed his Divine Soul! His Divine Soul leaped out, floated up, and entered the vortex, the whole process proceeding calmly and unhurriedly.

Tao Ying looked around. With his mortal eyes, he could not see the Living Soul outside of the blue light. After a slight hesitation, he followed the same method, pressed the Spirit-Clearing Pill (a kind of spiritual cleansing pill) onto his tongue, sat on the ground, and began to snore. Then, the Living Soul leaped out, just like any other ordinary Living Soul, in a daze.

But a flash of blue light brought Tao Ying back to his senses. He struggled desperately, as if he were drowning. He looked at the whirlpool above, trying to float away, but the more he struggled, the deeper he sank. If it weren't for the layer of blue light protecting him, he would have been blown to pieces by the wind long ago.

Seeing this scene from not far away, Chen Yun shook his head slightly, made Dao Seal, and a gust of wind suddenly rose from the ground, supporting Tao Ying's Living Soul and sending it into the vortex.

After doing all that, he turned his head and his gaze fell on Qiu Yan.

Qiu Yan's consciousness was within the Sage Paper, but his Fleshly Body continued to write down characters full of life, following the train of thought in his mind.

Words strung together, Literary Thought flowed like a spring, gushing forth from the page!

The trembling Sage Worthies Clay Statues exude an atmosphere of simplicity, diligence, and self-discipline, which resonates with Qiu Yan's Literary Thought.

Suddenly, tiny lights flickered in the otherwise empty ruins.

"A spark of wisdom..." Chen Yun noticed the change, his expression turning serious. "Qiu Yan is currently communicating with the Order Spirit within the diagram and clay sculpture, as if he has forgotten that he is supposed to go to Scholar Forest."

Snap!

Just as Chen Yun was pondering, a soft sound came from the clay sculpture.

He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a crack in the clay sculpture, running from the head all the way to the base. His expression immediately changed.

At the same time, Qiu Yan's consciousness suddenly jolted as he wandered through the field, feeling the surrounding scenery change to endless golden farmland. The rice ears swayed in the wind, and an old man walked through the rice field toward him.

The person's outline was blurry and his face was indistinct; only coarse cloth and hemp shoes could be seen.

"Who is this person...?" Amidst the confusion, the person suddenly disintegrated, transforming into a drop of blood that flew straight towards them, arriving in the blink of an eye!

"Um?"

Startled, Qiu Yan snapped back to his senses, his consciousness returning to his body. His muscles tensed, and he looked down to see that the pen in his hand had been put down, and the Sage Paper in front of him gleamed, with faint traces of ink visible.

With pen in hand, the essay "Knowledge Through Effort, Practice Through Diligence" is now complete.

Recalling the previous scene, Qiu Yan's mind raced, and he examined himself, but found nothing unusual. After a moment's thought, he shook his head and looked up at the vortex above his head.

The vortex trembled, showing faint signs of collapse.

Qiu Yan suddenly understood, Soul Aperture trembled. Incense Faith surged forth, filling every part of his body, but because they were integrated into his flesh and blood, they were hard to find.

"There's no time to lose; if we delay even a moment longer, we'll be doing all the work for someone else."

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, his Divine Soul connection surged forth and entered the vortex.

Suddenly, the ruins fell silent. Qiu Yan's body sat upright in the chair, motionless. Chen Jing, Tao Ying, and Daoist Lu were scattered around him, sitting cross-legged.

Chen Yun narrowed his eyes, his expression shifting between light and shadow.

Splash!

Suddenly, a sound of collapse came from the altar. Chen Yun was startled by the sound and turned his head to look. He saw the clay sculptures scattering and his expression changed drastically.

"Not good!" Shocked, he quickly changed his mind, Shrinking Earth to Inches, and arrived at the altar. He then used his Dao Arts magic to wrap around the statue, trying to prevent it from collapsing, but in the end, it was all in vain.

Looking at the pile of clay, Chen Yun frowned, a hint of panic showing on his face. "What are we going to do now? We've already been keeping it from the patriarch, and now the Sage Worthies Clay Statues has unexpectedly collapsed. How are we going to explain this?"

As the clay sculpture collapsed, the suspended vortex vanished like a bubble, disappearing without a trace.

Immediately afterwards, the candles on the altar went out.

This forgotten Sage Worthies Hall was plunged into darkness and silence.

At the same time, in Eastern Capital, in Qiu Yan's inn room.

Clang!

A strange sound came from a corner of the room, and wisps of water mist broke apart, dispersing the Spiritual Qi contained within them. Then, three objects rose into the air: a Jade Basin, a Paperweight, and a white jade pen.

Within the Paperweight, the energy forcibly infused by Qiu Yan surged forth, presenting a strange spectacle of shifting light and shadow.

From within the Jade Basin, layers upon layers of aura surged forth, which turned out to be Qiu Yan's aura, also displaying shifting brilliance.

Within the white jade brush, Literary Thought surged forth, gradually merging with the other two objects.

Three distinct auras erupted, and three different doctrines converged in mid-air.

The next moment, a vortex appeared above each of the three objects...

Creak.

The door opened, Dai Guo walked in. He released his senses and carefully examined the scene inside the room, finally frowning.

"Strange, I clearly heard something strange, so why... um?" Suddenly, his expression changed, and he went to a corner.

The mist in the corner gradually dissipated, leaving behind a lingering Spiritual Qi.

"Strange! Very strange! Could someone have used Dao Arts in the young master's room?" With these questions in mind, Dai Guo raised his hand and grabbed a wisp of water mist along with Spiritual Qi, then hurriedly left.

He didn't notice that on the desk, there was a wooden carving about the size of a thumb, radiating a faint divine power.

This wooden carving is a miniature image of the Kitchen God.

ps:

Thank you for the generous donation from "Step by Step"!

Thanks to "xmcf" for the monthly pass!

I'll probably update again tomorrow evening.

Also, I should mention something. The recent shift to updating at night is due to a number of reasons, one of which is a problem with the neighborhood's electrical circuits, which frequently experience sudden power outages—the kind that flash briefly and then recover.

I use my PC to write at home, and after several trips back and forth, I lost quite a few drafts. But that's secondary; the main problem was the power supply.

So I've been using my laptop to type these past few days, but I'm not used to the numeric keypad, and the laptop is old and the battery isn't working well. Sometimes when the power goes out, the screen will still light up.

Therefore, the update schedule is not very stable, and we hope you can understand.