The Devil Finger Wood would serve as material and, along the way, a subject for research. The spiritual materials could be given a legitimate provenance and gradually diverted into his own stash. The other odds and ends all had their uses, too, but sorting them out would take time.
Li Ling set all that aside for now and pondered the unusual object he had discovered today: the oil lamp imbued with the power of the sun.
Yet however he looked at it, it did not seem to be a magical artifact.
Li Ling suspected the oil was what made it special. Sure enough, after a while, he remembered that the Unusual Events Bureau's records had mentioned something like this.
This seems to be Crow-Blood Oil!
Crow, as in Golden Crow? Is this the blood of a Golden Crow?
The Golden Crow was a creature of legend, so the name was clearly an exaggeration, but it still offered a rough indication of its effects.
Recalling the scorching sensation when the lamplight had shone on him, Li Ling rejoiced inwardly. Burning this stuff can simulate sunlight!
If I can proceed step by step and slowly adapt, perhaps I can reach the Day Wandering Realm with ease.
He had done quite a lot tonight. Rather than try it immediately, Li Ling first moved everything back to the outskirts of the Royal City and found a few secluded, deserted spots to hide the less important items.
The spiritual materials, meanwhile, went home with him.
To be cautious, Li Ling even poured out the Crow-Blood Oil and found another container for it, throwing the lamp itself away.
Who knew whether someone had left marks on these things to track them?
The possibility was extremely slim, but extra precautions were still best. In the future, he might as well find a place outside specifically for hiding things.
The next morning, Vice Minister Pei came to visit, gleefully presenting his good news. "Prince Consort, good news! Good news!"
Li Ling smiled. "What good news?"
"Last night, the Unusual Events Bureau won a great victory in its campaign against the Demonic Path and obtained considerable spoils," Vice Minister Pei said. "The Devil Finger Wood among them has been delivered together with our previous stock."
"Oh? Has it?" Li Ling said.
"There are eighteen portions in total. Please have a look."
The number was close to Li Ling's estimate, and even exceeded it by several portions. He nodded. "Very good."
Then he asked a question whose answer he already knew. "What was this great victory you mentioned?"
"Deputy Commander Ma did not tell me the specifics," Vice Minister Pei said, "but I learned that they killed no fewer than five Demonic Path Envoys from other continents, as well as two late-stage Qi Refining experts. They destroyed four strongholds and slew over a thousand Demonic Path recruits, lackeys, assorted demonic creatures, and zombies."
"I never would have known without asking, and what a shock it was! Those towns normally look so peaceful, yet so many evil cultivators, demons, and spirits were lurking in the shadows!"
"According to the prisoners, they originally intended to expand covertly into the Royal City as well, but an unforeseen turn of events forced them to abandon the plan."
"The Unusual Events Bureau has rendered outstanding military service and protected us all," Li Ling said.
"Indeed..."
After chatting for a while, Vice Minister Pei took his leave.
Li Ling picked up the box and inspected it. To his surprise, a full three portions were resin-bearing wood with a resin content of ten percent, their quality already meeting the standard for agarwood.
Those alone could considerably strengthen his mental power.
If he also selected some to make incense, raising his Divine Sense's strength to a hundred jin would be no problem at all.
He immediately summoned the servants, took out the incense materials, and began making incense.
Once he got busy, he worked straight through until noon.
The Ninth Princess came to find him herself, both exasperated and concerned. "Husband, why do you always forget everything else once you get busy? It's already noon. However urgent it is, have your meal first."
"I just received quite a lot of Devil Finger Wood and got too excited," Li Ling said apologetically.
The Ninth Princess stepped forward and took his hand. "Come along. The food is ready."
When they reached the dining hall, the serving maids had already arranged the dishes on the large rosewood table in the center. Husband and wife sat down to eat.
The table could easily seat more than ten people, and around twenty dishes had been laid out. Most were merely for display, however; only those before the couple were meant to be eaten.
At intervals, servants came from the adjoining room carrying trays to replace dishes that had not been tasted. Fish, shrimp, and other foods that needed shelling or picking over were carefully prepared by attendants at the side. Even the Ninth Princess personally tended to Li Ling as he enjoyed his meal.
She ate little herself, not to lose weight or anything of the sort, but because she was abstaining from ordinary food and taking pills as part of her proper Qi Refining practice.
Once Li Ling had eaten and drunk his fill, the Ninth Princess said, "Husband, didn't you say you were interested in matters concerning the River God and folk legends?"
With a maid attending him, Li Ling rinsed his mouth and spat the water into a silver basin. He smiled lightly. "Yes. Why?"
"There's a Boat-Racing Festival on the fifteenth of next month," the Ninth Princess said. "We haven't gone out together in ages. Let's go have a look."
The Great Lin River was broad and long, with abundant water. Many towns along its banks had boat-racing customs, though the dates usually shifted with the flood season and the time of year.
The Boat-Racing Festival near the Royal City was usually held on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, coinciding with the Ghost Festival as Li Ling remembered it.
"Sure, let's go watch the boat races then," Li Ling agreed readily.
The Ninth Princess added, "I've made some progress refining the Cloud Fiend lately. Have a look and tell me what you think."
She eagerly demonstrated, and indeed, she had become increasingly adept at changing the shape and color of the Cloud-Producing Incense.
She fashioned a beautifully shaped Seven-Colored Auspicious Cloud for herself. Under the control of her Divine Sense, it expanded and contracted at will, drifting freely through the air.
With Li Ling's current insight, he understood without her explanation that she was at the stage of filling it with spiritual energy. Once she condensed Gang Qi, she could make it solid enough to carry someone. Success was already close.
Yet however Li Ling looked at it, he felt that the Ninth Princess had put a great deal of effort into its shape and color. The cloud's exquisite appearance left nothing to criticize.
He could not help teasing her. "You're neglecting proper arts and spending all your time on flashy frills."
The Ninth Princess replied with charming innocence, "What you don't know, husband, is that divine abilities and spells are all about transformation. Knowing only how to use brute force isn't the right path."
"Really?" Li Ling said. "There's a saying like that?"
"There's a saying: 'One foot higher in the Dao, boundlessly higher in magic.' Have you heard it, husband?"
"I've heard 'One foot higher in the Dao, ten feet higher in the demonic,'" Li Ling said.
The Ninth Princess scoffed. "That's just the Demonic Path shamelessly blowing its own trumpet. 'Boundlessly higher in magic' doesn't mean spells are superior to attainment in the Dao. It means that even one extra foot of attainment can raise the accompanying divine abilities and magical power beyond measure!"
"So the key to cultivation is still one's level of attainment in the Dao."
"I see..."
After hearing her explanation, Li Ling sank into thought, finding the saying increasingly profound.
It was much like saying, "One inch higher in skill puts you beyond all bounds."
Cultivators in this world placed great importance on cultivation realms, Dao Fruits, and laws. Single-mindedly increasing magical power or brute strength was actually extremely inefficient.
Of course, strength itself was also something to rely upon. For now, he still needed to make and consume incense diligently, laying a solid foundation.
The Ninth Princess continued, "Besides, the ancestor said that if this Cloud-Producing Incense truly proves useful, you should receive another major contribution credit. If we can develop a method from it that benefits cultivation, wouldn't that secure the credit nicely?"
Only then did Li Ling realize that the Ninth Princess was not merely playing with flashy frills; she was helping with his research. Moved, he said, "Thank you for all your hard work."
"It's hardly hard work," the Ninth Princess said. "Successfully refining baleful intent with the Cloud-Producing Incense can also promote Gang Condensation. It has already sped up my progress considerably."
"Whatever the case, I haven't done anything more with this incense since creating it," Li Ling said. "If it earns any credit, at least half belongs to you. When the time comes, let's simply ask the ancestor for two Youth-Preserving Pills, one each, and enjoy ageless youth for at least a hundred years!"
"Youth-Preserving Pills?" The Ninth Princess froze when she heard him.
That truly was a gift hard to refuse.
Youth-Preserving Pills had always been something low-level female cultivators dreamed of. If they could not live forever, then settling for eternal youth was good, too.
But remembering Li Ling's cherished wish, she still felt uneasy. "Would that really be all right? Husband, haven't you always hoped to find something that could let you enter the Dao...?"
Li Ling had actually already made plans for this. Consuming incense gave him hope of tempering his soul, but his physical body was still lacking. Sooner or later, he would have to obtain something of that sort.
His wife had her own cherished wish, too. Her fixation on Youth-Preserving Pills was no weaker than his dream of cultivating immortality.
This contribution was not enough to defy heaven and change his fate, but it was just right for exchanging for Youth-Preserving Pills. Naturally, securing them took priority, and the sooner they used them, the better.
He leaned close to the Ninth Princess's ear and murmured things like "Husband and wife are one," "If you use it, I get to enjoy it," and "What's good for you is good for me." Her ears and face flushed as she shyly pummeled him.
A stretch of peaceful days soon passed. Once the incense was ready, Li Ling raised the strength of his Divine Sense to sixty jin.
A few days later, it rose to seventy jin.
Then came eighty, ninety...
By the fifth day of the seventh month, he finally broke through the hundred-jin threshold!
This was a significant milestone, because for someone with a complete set of Spirit Roots practicing Five Elements Qi Refining, the first step was also to raise the strength of their Divine Sense to around a hundred jin.
In other words, even setting aside the rank of his soul, Li Ling's mental strength alone was equivalent to that of an early-stage Qi Refining cultivator.
That night, clear moonlight lay like frost across the earth.
Li Ling's Spirit Body left his flesh, and he made his familiar way to a cave in the wilderness. He found a fire starter and lit the oil lamp hidden there.
Recently, while steadily increasing the strength of his Divine Sense, he had not forgotten to study this substance.
He had discovered that it really did strengthen his yang aspect.
As the light rose, a warmth like bathing in the dawn welled up, then swiftly grew scorching, becoming the sensation of roasting beneath a blazing sun.
Li Ling adjusted his Spirit Body's position and soon discovered, to his delight, that he had improved again.
When my Divine Sense had only fifty jin of strength, I could only hover three to five zhang away.
Now that it has reached a hundred jin, and with lighting the lamp and warming myself by its fire every day, I can actually hold steady within one zhang!
If this continues, perhaps I'll even be able to cup the flame and warm myself over it.
The warm sunlight dispelled the chill in his Spirit Body, and his soul's yin nature was being eliminated.
Just then, Li Ling suddenly noticed something unusual about his perception.
His Incense Perception was a perceptual ability that could be called a means of communing with the unseen, allowing him to visualize scents and manifest their fragrant qualities.
From abstractions such as temperament, virtue, and moods to the concrete smells of physical objects, he could sense them all-even the snakes, insects, rodents, ants, rocks, grasses, and trees in the wilderness.
Yet this had mostly remained limited to ordinary sights and experiences, stopping at the bounds of mortal understanding.
Today, however, it seemed he could even smell the deeper-level primal energies.
In the cave, a scent resembling the toasted aroma of roasted wheat wafted over. It was the smell of the sun's power emanating from the lamp oil.
Moonlight had a scent, too!
The hazy moonlight cast illusory shadows like spreading mist, resembling delicate wisps of curling smoke.
But after careful observation, he could distinguish the crucial differences.
The scent of this moonlight is rather sweet and gentle, like very diluted sweet fermented rice wine. It's also a little like the sweetness after licking iron...
He committed the scent firmly to memory.
Sun essence and moonlight, everything between heaven and earth-all had their own fragrance!
Five colors shimmered between heaven and earth, and ever more primal energy, Gang, and baleful intent revealed themselves.
He tried shifting his attention, ignoring some of the ordinary things he saw every day. Sure enough, the textures of the Five Elements spiritual energy that had always existed between heaven and earth manifested before him.
Although there was no active Incense Essence for him to absorb, his Incense Perception was more than sufficient to distinguish them.
This should be fire spiritual energy. Its fragrant quality is close to pine resin, but with a little of smoke's pungency...
Li Ling considered it carefully and felt that it might be linked through synesthesia to his past experience of burning firewood.
Soon, he continued picking up the scents of other primal energies.
Water spiritual energy had the most insubstantial fragrant quality, its scent almost nonexistent, yet seemingly mixed with a hint of coconut milk;
Metal spiritual energy was cold and sharp like liquor, with a little spicy pungency;
Earth spiritual energy encompassed myriad impressions and was somewhat heavy, like the dust and soil after sudden rain on a sweltering day;
Wood spiritual energy resembled the raw green smell of freshly cut grass...
Since I can sense them all, can I move them with Divine Sense?
Li Ling tried moving the surrounding Heaven-and-Earth Origin Energy as he would physical matter, but there was no response at all.
Is it still a matter of my Spirit Root aptitude?
I haven't refined spiritual energy, and my mind contains none of the Five Elements' manifested power, so I can't truly make contact with them.
Only after Foundation Establishment, once I've refined magical power, will I be able to borrow their power.
Truly accomplished cultivators use their minds to command Heaven-and-Earth Origin Energy, making it come over and move on its own, rather than foolishly struggling to haul it around.
Even then, my Five Elements spells will probably lack the support of the corresponding Spirit Roots. I still need to play to my strengths and avoid my weaknesses.
With a shift of thought, Li Ling instead began actively moving the Incense Essence emitted by the various substances in nature.
Li Ling had long suspected that he possessed what might be called an Incense Spirit Root. Now, sure enough, controlling it was as effortless as moving his own fingers.
One moment, he kneaded it into clumps; the next, he scattered it through the air. This was utterly unlike his helpless attempts to move the Five Elements spiritual energy earlier.
It's becoming more and more effortless. My soul seems to have reached some sort of critical threshold.
Li Ling had already known that once a cultivator's mental power grew strong enough, it would undergo other changes. The increase was by no means merely one of brute strength.
Transformations of Gang and baleful intent were only one aspect. More important was the minute perception of spiritual awareness. Perhaps this was why he could smell primal energy.
At the same time, such minute spiritual awareness also meant that his power could reach deeper, acting upon matter at smaller scales and achieving more transformations.
The conditions had finally matured for his long-held ambition: creating his own divine abilities and arts!