Within the Great Void, in the True Realm.
Azure Radiance's eerie glow shrouded everything, heavy with death. The towering Dark Azure Mountain Range stretched across the emptiness, silent and profound. Chu Mo's Dharma Body sat cross-legged atop a peak, a faint spectral glow curling around him.
Before him lay a pile of thirty-seven thousand pieces of spirit matter. The crystalline beads gleamed with precious light, their flickering radiance lending this small pocket of space a different splash of color.
"Is Fellow Daoist Yichu's secular name Song Jiang? He really has delivered charcoal in the snow."
Chu Mo understood that Yichu must want something from him. This visit and everything he had done were investments. Still, such thoughtful, thorough consideration left him feeling thoroughly pleased.
"Friends brought together by shared interests can be pretty dependable sometimes."
He mused for a moment, then closed his eyes and circulated his magical power.
In an instant, the piled spirit matter rose into the air, flowing down like a long river formed from countless stars. It poured into his Dharma Body and was refined in moments.
Chu Mo's body trembled slightly as he drank in that pure power to his heart's content. His Dharma Body gradually manifested wondrous colors, while his True Realm continued spreading through the emptiness, expanding and growing stronger.
Unlike breakthroughs in other realms, advancing through the minor stages of Spirit Transformation required no assimilating treasures, seizing principles of magic, or manifesting an inner landscape... Once one's cultivation and attainment were sufficient, the breakthrough came naturally.
Just as it did now, with vast quantities of spirit matter propelling Chu Mo toward his bottleneck at tremendous speed.
Crack. An almost imperceptible sound rang out. He slowly opened his eyes, a trace of bewilderment flashing through them. "Did I just run over something?"
His