Before nightfall, Li Ling finally descended the mountain, where the estate's guards found him and escorted him back.
The Ninth Princess hurried over upon hearing the news. When she saw Li Ling, she rushed forward and hugged him. "Husband, you weren't hurt, were you? Why are your hands so cold?"
Li Ling patted her back and reassured her. "I'm all right. Fortunately, Senior Brother Zhu arrived in time."
Only then did the Ninth Princess notice the disheveled Daoist. She stepped forward and greeted him. "Senior Brother Zhu."
The disheveled Daoist gave a drunken belch and waved his hand. "Since everything's fine, I'll be off. Away I go."
With that, he leaped like an ape onto a roadside treetop. In the blink of an eye, he bounded away, taking a shortcut north.
His divine sense spread outward, and an invisible gang wind seemed to envelop him, pulverizing the rain around him. Any ignorant mountain villagers who saw him would surely have thought an immortal was riding the clouds and mist.
"He comes when he pleases and leaves when he pleases. What freedom!" Li Ling looked up and watched him go, filled with envy.
Yet after finally making it home, he developed a fever. Ordinary mortals could not escape calamity and illness; their freedom fell far short of a cultivator's.
Although Li Ling was young, his life had soared upward from birth, with wealth and privilege pressing in on every side. If anything, he could be called delicate. After such an ordeal, a bout of illness was hardly unexpected.
That night, Li Ling rested beneath the covers in the enormous Gilt Purple Sandalwood and Ivory Bed, still feeling the world spinning around him.
Half asleep and half awake, his soul floated up, allowing him to see his surroundings.
Gauze curtains, brocade hangings, cabinets, jars... every furnishing in the room was present, as clear as if he were looking with his eyes. He could faintly hear voices too, seemingly the Ninth Princess instructing the servants to brew medicine.
Li Ling gradually realized something was wrong. Is this my spiritual consciousness extending outward?
I can actually extend my spiritual consciousness without the aid of Spirit-Communing Incense?
Somewhere beyond perception, a spiritual radiance seemed to shine, spreading steadily outward from his body until it stopped a hundred feet away.
This was already the level of an early-stage qi refining cultivator. In the past, Li Ling could not have achieved this even by meditating with Spirit-Communing Incense; he had managed a range of only ten feet or so.
Amazed, Li Ling swept his awareness around. It truly felt as though he were there in person, with every detail of every object laid bare.
The most conspicuous presence was the Ninth Princess, an early-stage qi refining cultivator. Spiritual radiance surrounded her, faintly visible even through several walls. By comparison, the servants were much dimmer.
Just then, Li Ling suddenly noticed many ethereal things wriggling through the air, as fine as gossamer threads. All took the form of strands of manifested thought.
Yet unlike his own divine sense, they had no source. Instead, they seemed to appear out of thin air from the midst of chaos.
Li Ling brought his thoughts close to one and immediately discovered that it merged with his divine sense, becoming indistinguishable from it.
My divine sense... has grown stronger!
What exactly is this stuff? How can it strengthen my divine sense?
For some reason, Li Ling recalled the methods cultivators used to refine spiritual energy, spirit root aptitude, and opportunities on the immortal path. His body trembled with excitement, and he swallowed over a hundred threads in one go, still hungry for more.
These things seemed capable of regenerating. More kept emerging from the void, though not in the same numbers as before.
The growth of his divine sense reminded Li Ling of cultivators' abilities to move objects with their thoughts and control flying swords. He tried moving an object, only to frown inwardly at once.
I can't even move a vase?
Fine, if a vase would not work, he would try paper. That, too, proved as heavy as Mount Tai.
At last, he spotted a stray hair that had not yet been cleaned from a comb at the corner of the dressing table. Yet he could not budge that either.
Li Ling's face burned fiercely. He quickly abandoned the attempt and began searching for even smaller things, such as dust.
After some effort, Li Ling finally established that his soul had indeed undergone a change. It seemed to have been stimulated and strengthened until he could finally extend it outward on his own, just like a cultivator.
But the strength of his divine sense was still approximately zero. Perhaps it could only be measured in micrograms, a unit far smaller than milligrams.
No wonder I can't even budge a hair. On a microscopic scale, a hair is a colossal object, weighing hundreds of micrograms. That strand on the dressing table should be Qing Si's. Her hair reaches her waist, so I'd even have to measure it in milligrams.
Suddenly, Li Ling felt his body become weightless. He tried moving and actually slipped out of his body like smoke, then floated upward.
Instinctively, he looked down and saw himself lying on the bed, leaving him even more astonished.
This was soul projection, as described in the Daoist scriptures!
What's going on? This isn't just extending my spiritual consciousness. I've actually achieved Soul Departure?
Isn't this something only those in the nascent soul realm can do? Even the Old Ancestor doesn't have this ability yet!
Cultivators in this world could only perform soul projection upon reaching the nascent soul realm or above.
More precisely, they began with night wandering, because a yin soul was ghostlike in nature, fearing flames and lightning, and fearing the blazing sun even more.
Once their cultivation deepened, they could attempt day wandering. Having cultivated yang within themselves, they could remain in daylight without avoiding the sun and no longer feared ordinary flames or lightning.
At that point, the nascent soul's spirit body was no different from a true physical body. It could even shift between yin and yang, using the power of the yang spirit to nourish the flesh's blood and vital energy. Mighty experts cultivated divine abilities such as regenerating flesh and reviving from a drop of blood through this very principle.
Yet no matter what methods those mighty experts possessed, independently leaving one's body while still a mortal remained inconceivable.
Li Ling had never experienced such a state. If the disheveled Daoist's ability to soar and leap across all kinds of terrain as though walking on level ground could be called a small measure of freedom, then Soul Departure, which ignored the restrictions of the flesh, was true freedom. This was an ability only great cultivators possessed!
Li Ling carefully examined his physical body with its eyes shut, then looked at the maidservants keeping watch nearby. He drifted back and forth before them, then observed the room's furnishings from different angles, finding everything utterly novel.
Li Ling tried reaching out to touch them, only to feel an invisible barrier blocking him. They seemed to show no reaction, perhaps because the force he exerted was negligible. It would only become apparent after his divine sense grew stronger.
He could pass through other objects like a ghost.
But the lamplight in the room was somewhat dazzling, making him inexplicably want to avoid it.
He went through the doorway into the courtyard and looked up. The world around him seemed vast and boundless, shrouded in endless, thick black mist. Only the hundred-foot radius illuminated by his spiritual consciousness was visible.
This was nothing like what ordinary eyes saw. Within a hundred feet or so, the range of his spiritual consciousness was clear and bright, as though lit by a torch. Beyond it lay an abyss, its boundless darkness provoking an instinctive terror for no apparent reason.
According to the Daoist scriptures, even high-level cultivators faced risks when their spirits roamed the great void. If an accident prevented them from returning, they would become wandering ghosts, or even die with their cultivation extinguished.
The limits of soul projection lie in the spirit body. By the time ordinary cultivators reach this stage, they already have an immense range of perception. They can fly, transform, and enter and leave the netherworld. But I can't do any of that yet.
After considering it, Li Ling refrained from rashly attempting a long journey.
Although he knew the paths near his bedroom, a brief attempt revealed what seemed to be an inexplicable air current overhead, preventing him from rising too high. He could only float a few feet above the ground, and his speed was no greater than an ordinary walk or slow jog.
If he went too far and encountered gang baleful energy, flames, or the like, he would inevitably be in danger.
Besides, his divine sense was currently far too weak to be useful. Finding a way to strengthen it was the proper priority.
For several days, Li Ling appeared to be resting in bed, but was actually exploring and researching.
He discovered that the threads appeared and disappeared without any definite pattern.
After he devoured them all, the number that regenerated also varied. Sometimes there were hundreds or thousands; sometimes only a few.
Yet once they merged with his thoughts, their strengthening effect was entirely real. The power of his thoughts began undergoing a heaven-and-earth-upending transformation.
This truly allowed Li Ling to experience what refining spiritual energy felt like.
Presumably, cultivators with complete spirit roots refined the five elements in much the same way, merging them into the thoughts of their souls to strengthen them, manifest them, and give them substance.
By now, he could move several milligrams of weight. At least controlling one of his own hairs in midair was no problem. The magnitude of his progress could move heaven and earth.
But what exactly are these threads? Where do they come from, and how can I get more of them?
Devouring and assimilating them doesn't seem difficult. If I had hundreds of millions or even trillions instead of hundreds or thousands, perhaps I could soon shed my old self and rival a real cultivator!
As the saying went, after gaining Long, one coveted Shu. Li Ling had barely enjoyed his delight before worries took its place.
Through observation, he discovered that regardless of the threads' size or thickness-and leaving their precise nature aside for now-each increased his divine sense's strength by a measurable microgram. A thousand threads made one milligram; a million made one gram.
But that was far too little.
It took several days to assimilate a few thousand threads. A million would take two or three years, and would still increase his thought power by only one gram.
The range of his spiritual consciousness, his strength and speed after soul projection, his divine abilities-none had improved at all. Or perhaps the changes were simply too slight to perceive. What use was that?
This absolutely could not continue. He had to find their true source!
One night, Li Ling found an excuse to sound out the Ninth Princess. "Have you noticed anything extra in this room?"
The Ninth Princess's expression briefly froze. "Husband, why do you ask?"
Li Ling said, "I keep feeling as though something is floating around me."
The Ninth Princess reached out to feel his forehead, then extended her spiritual consciousness to check. "No. Husband, don't let your imagination run wild. Just focus on getting well."
Li Ling hesitated, but ultimately asked nothing more.
Qing Si's spiritual consciousness can't perceive them, and none of the Daoist scriptures or other texts I've read have ever recorded anything like this. It probably has nothing to do with other cultivators' methods.
Perhaps I'm not seeing them through spiritual consciousness at all, but through my extraordinary gift for sensing fragrance!
At that thought, Li Ling immediately felt he might have taken the wrong path. He tried calming his mind and entering meditation, slipping into a hazy yet lucid state between sleep and wakefulness.
Sure enough, this time he seemed to smell incense smoke from within the void, along with the qualities of jiangzhen and agarwood.
This is the scent of spreading incense!
It's so faint it's almost imperceptible, but there's absolutely no mistake. This is the smoky scent released after lighting incense!
These threads are actually connected to incense?
Li Ling did not believe they were molecules or atoms of fragrant materials. His extraordinary gift involved visualizing scents and manifesting their fragrant qualities; it fundamentally belonged to the realm of the mind.
Suddenly, Li Ling recalled the essence of the Incense Path.
Incense could reach the unseen; faith gave it spiritual power.
Since ancient times, mortals had burned wood and incense for sacrifices and prayers, always using fragrance as their guide. Its original purpose was to convey prayers and make offerings to the gods.
By bringing Spirit-Communing Incense into this world, he had unwittingly aligned with the essence of the Dao, allowing cultivators to use it for soul tempering.
Could these threads be the very reason Spirit-Communing Incense aided soul tempering?
They themselves contained some property that honed the mind, or a special energy akin to spiritual energy.
Although Li Ling did not know exactly what it was, he had long entertained related conjectures. Previously, however, he had not developed his extraordinary gift to its current extent, leaving him no way to investigate.
If that's true, this really is incredible!
But soon, Li Ling's initial excitement gradually subsided.
He realized that his Soul Departure depended entirely on the unique nature of his extraordinary gift. He had no cultivation realm of his own, so he still could not perform many of the divine abilities recorded in the Daoist scriptures.
Moreover, cultivating without spirit roots and performing soul projection as a mere mortal-how shocking would it be if word of these things spread?
If the Old Ancestor learned of it, who knew what thoughts he might harbor?
An innocent man becomes guilty by possessing a precious jade. Until I have the strength to protect myself, I'd best make my fortune quietly.
Early the next morning, still unable to settle his thoughts, Li Ling rose early. He stopped the maidservant who was about to ask a question and said softly, "Don't disturb the princess. I'm going out for a walk."
Then he got up, dressed, and went outside.
Eunuch Wang, the deputy steward, and the servants were already up and on duty. Along the way, Li Ling seemed to notice more household guards than before.
These were the additional defenses the Ninth Princess had arranged for the estate after the incident.
They looked powerful and hardened. In fact, even in the army, they would have been worthy of being called elite troops, fit to serve as personal guards.
But Li Ling knew that what he could truly rely on was a magical artifact the Old Ancestor had sent someone to deliver a few days earlier, called the Heart-Warning Bell.
It was a low-grade magical artifact that could link to a simple formation's restrictions and trigger an alarm.
Any graded artifact was precious to qi refining cultivators, even one of merely low grade.
The Old Ancestor seemed to have realized that the leaked secret would inevitably attract prying eyes. Yet assigning other qi refining cultivators to protect Li Ling personally was impractical. He was not important enough for that, so the Ninth Princess could only shoulder the task.
With this item, the Ninth Princess could finally sleep peacefully, without forever hearing enemies in every gust of wind and cry of a crane.
When Eunuch Wang saw Li Ling, he came over to pay his respects and reminded him, "Prince Consort, things outside are rather unsettled at present. If you go out, please remember to take Her Highness with you."
Li Ling said, "I'm not going out today. I'll just stroll around the estate. By the way, have someone bring over the incense burner and Spirit-Communing Incense I left in the Fragrant Incense Pavilion. I'll need them shortly."
Eunuch Wang said, "Yes, but which burner exactly, and how many pieces of incense?"
Li Ling said, "Any incense burner will do. As for the incense... bring everything on the bookshelf."
He intended to conduct some experiments to verify yesterday's discovery.