Enlightenment?

Chen Daoxuan, having returned to his own Cave Mansion, naturally knew nothing of this.

Thirteenth Uncle, who had just kept insisting that the family was poor, was now in a Secret Chamber piled high with Spirit Stones, taking stock of its wealth.

Inside the Cave Mansion.

Chen Daoxuan opened the stone disk sealing the Spirit Eye. At once, spiritual energy began bubbling forth again.

Seeing this, he did not dare waste even a trace. He hurriedly circulated the Returning Origin Technique, drawing the spiritual energy into his body and refining it.

In the cultivation world of the Myriad Star Sea.

Based on how efficiently cultivators refined spiritual energy, Spiritual Roots were generally divided into four grades: Lower Spiritual Roots, Middle Spiritual Roots, Upper Spiritual Roots, and the one-in-ten-thousand Heavenly Spiritual Roots.

Normally.

When cultivators with Lower Spiritual Roots drew ten portions of spiritual energy into their bodies, they could often refine only one portion. Their efficiency was extremely low.

Thus, under equal resource conditions, cultivators with Lower Spiritual Roots cultivated the slowest.

Cultivators with Middle Spiritual Roots refined spiritual energy much more efficiently, generally twice as efficiently as those with Lower Spiritual Roots. Out of ten portions of spiritual energy, they could refine two.

Cultivators with Upper Spiritual Roots doubled that rate again, refining four portions out of every ten.

The most terrifying were cultivators with Heavenly Spiritual Roots. They could completely refine all the spiritual energy they absorbed. With equal resources, their cultivation speed was fully ten times that of cultivators with Lower Spiritual Roots.

As for Chen Daoxuan.

He did not know what grade of Spiritual Root he possessed.

The Chen Family of Twin Lakes Island did not have a Magic Artifact for testing Spiritual Roots. The family's cultivators could only vaguely judge their Spiritual Root grades based on the speed at which they refined spiritual energy.

Moreover, without an accurate standard for comparison, whether such judgments were correct was ultimately in the eye of the beholder.

According to Clan Leader Chen Xianhe, his Spiritual Root was a Lower Spiritual Root.

For that very reason, the Clan Leader had begun cultivating at the age of ten, yet after a full eighty years, he had only barely reached the sixth layer of Qi Refining.

Certainly, Chen Xianhe's slow cultivation was partly due to the family's lack of cultivation resources, but the main reason was that his own cultivation aptitude was truly poor.

Chen Daoxuan's cultivation speed, on the other hand, was much faster. In just five short years, he had broken through all the way to the third layer of Qi Refining.

At this rate, in at most another dozen years or so, he would catch up to Chen Xianhe's sixth layer of Qi Refining cultivation.

Compared to Chen Xianhe, who had taken eighty years to reach the sixth layer of Qi Refining, his cultivation speed was more than four times faster.

In other words, if Chen Xianhe's Spiritual Root grade was a Lower Spiritual Root, then Chen Daoxuan's was at least an Upper Spiritual Root.

Other than cultivators with the one-in-ten-thousand Heavenly Spiritual Root, Chen Daoxuan's Spiritual Root grade was already among the very best.

It was only because he had been born into a small family like the Chen Family of Twin Lakes Island. Had it been a great cultivation clan, a disciple of Chen Daoxuan's aptitude would have long since been given the finest treatment and nurtured with every resource.

Not to mention that he also possessed terrifying Artifact Forging talent.

The next morning.

After cultivating through the night, Chen Daoxuan refined the final wisp of spiritual energy. Feeling the true qi within his dantian gradually settle and solidify, a satisfied expression appeared on his face.

He had only just broken through to the third layer of Qi Refining, yet after a single night of cultivation, he had already solidified his previously unstable true qi. He was thoroughly satisfied with this progress.

At this rate.

In three years at most, he would break through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining and become a mid Qi Refining stage cultivator.

One had to know that breaking through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining increased a cultivator's strength far more than breaking through to the third layer.

According to the records of the Returning Origin Technique, when cultivators broke through from the early Qi Refining stage to the mid Qi Refining stage, their true qi would grow by at least fifty percent—far beyond the twenty percent increase from breaking through to the third layer of Qi Refining.

After finishing his cultivation, Chen Daoxuan used the stone disk to seal the Spirit Eye inside the Cave Mansion again, preventing any more spiritual energy from leaking out.

After doing all this, he could not help sinking into thought.

By habit.

Every morning after finishing cultivation, he would silently recite the Primordial Enlightenment Scripture once.

But now—

His consciousness sank as he looked at the nine Star Dusts revolving around the Golden Scripture within his Sea of Consciousness, falling into deep thought.

To be honest, he was unsure whether he should continue silently reciting the Primordial Enlightenment Scripture.

The nine Star Dusts in his Sea of Consciousness had appeared after he silently recited the Primordial Enlightenment Scripture for nine consecutive days.

Today was the tenth day. If he continued reciting the scripture, he had no idea what changes might occur.

But the Primordial Enlightenment Scripture was Chen Daoxuan's greatest trump card. It was clearly impossible for him to give it up now.

"So be it. If it is a blessing, it is no disaster; if it is a disaster, there is no escaping it. Since I cannot let go of this opportunity, I must be mentally prepared to suffer its backlash!"

At that thought, Chen Daoxuan's gaze became resolute once more.

Next.

He closed his eyes and silently recited the Primordial Enlightenment Scripture.

Very soon, a Dao rhythm flowed through Chen Daoxuan's Sea of Consciousness. Immediately afterward, he sank into a stretch of chaos and lost consciousness, with only his mouth instinctively continuing to recite the Primordial Enlightenment Scripture.

The time it took for an incense stick to burn passed in the blink of an eye.

When Chen Daoxuan opened his eyes again, he discovered that another Star Dust had appeared in his Sea of Consciousness.

"The Tenth Star."

Chen Daoxuan pondered. "Only..."

He frowned. "This time seems to be a little different again."

Chen Daoxuan discovered that the ten Star Dusts revolving around the Golden Scripture in his Sea of Consciousness seemed to be attracting one another this time.

Had Chen Daoxuan not deliberately kept them under control, the ten Star Dusts would already have merged into one.

"Do you want to become one?"

Chen Daoxuan murmured, then his gaze hardened. "Then I'll grant your wish!"

With that thought, Chen Daoxuan stopped controlling the Star Dusts and allowed them to collide.

Boom!

When the ten Star Dusts collided, Chen Daoxuan's mind first went blank. Then he felt his consciousness rising without end. At last, it was as though his consciousness had been cast into the scene of the Big Bang.

"This is..."

In the depths of his Sea of Consciousness.

Countless pieces of knowledge he had once learned surged toward him like a tidal wave. Some were things he had learned in his previous life but had long since grown hazy in his memory; others were things he had studied diligently in this life and remembered deeply.

For example, the Returning Origin Technique, the primary Cultivation Technique he cultivated every day.

Chen Daoxuan's consciousness lightly touched the Returning Origin Technique.

In an instant, a flood of insights regarding the Returning Origin Technique welled up in his heart.

"This is... So this is how the Returning Origin Technique should be cultivated. No wonder I always felt something was off whenever I cultivated it before. Cultivating it this way allows me to absorb spiritual energy to a far greater extent..."

In but an instant, he discovered problems he had never noticed before.

"So it can be cultivated like this."

"What exactly is going on? Why do I feel as if I have suddenly become so much 'smarter'? This feeling is just like the legendary Enlightenment!"

That was right—Enlightenment!

He recalled a cultivation phenomenon recorded in the family's ancient texts—Enlightenment!

Yet an opportunity like Enlightenment existed almost only in legend.

Most cultivators would not encounter Enlightenment even once in an entire lifetime of cultivation.

But what was happening now?

The ten Star Dusts collided, and he entered Enlightenment?

Having figured it all out, Chen Daoxuan could not help being stunned senseless by this heaven-shaking opportunity.