The Figure in the Sea

Su Mo opened the cultivation method and began reading. As he read...

He suddenly looked up at Gu Yu again and asked innocently, "But I still don't know what to do!"

"Sit cross-legged, enter a meditative trance, and sense the spiritual power of heaven and earth. Follow the cultivation method to draw spiritual power into your body, then guide it through your body..."

Su Mo sat cross-legged on the ground as Gu Yu instructed, carefully sensing the spiritual power of heaven and earth around him...

But even after a long while, he still could not sense anything, and gradually began to grow restless...

"Calm your mind!" Gu Yu noticed Su Mo's agitation and spoke from beside him.

"Do you remember the little sword I gave you, the one that merged into your body? It was formed from a drop of spirit liquid I condensed from spiritual power. Slowly sense its presence. You can use it as a guide to find the spiritual power of heaven and earth."

Su Mo quieted his mind and felt for the little sword, searching for every sensation within his body.

After a long while, he finally sensed faint traces of fluctuation in his chest.

It was a little sword shimmering with light.

Su Mo remembered the little sword Third Senior Sister had given him that night, in the pavilion outside Piercing Tower.

The sword had merged into his body then, and Third Senior Sister had told him it was a seed.

Now, Su Mo could clearly sense that after spending all these days inside him, the little sword had actually acquired his own aura.

Su Mo opened his eyes and looked at Gu Yu. "I can sense the little sword you gave me. There's an utterly pure, keen aura... is that it?"

Gu Yu nodded, a little surprised that Su Mo had sensed the presence of spiritual power so quickly.

"Exactly. It was formed from spiritual power I condensed. I gave it to you then so it could become attuned to you sooner, allowing you to control it easily today."

"Third Senior Sister, did you already know that day that I would join the Academy?" Su Mo asked curiously.

The corner of Gu Yu's mouth twitched, but he could hardly admit that he simply hadn't had anything else on him to give away.

To maintain his lofty, impressive image, Gu Yu nodded sagely.

Then he immediately changed the subject and continued.

"But this Spirit Sword carries the aura of my Great Dao! You don't need to deliberately seek out that aura. You only need to sense the spiritual power of heaven and earth that shares its source."

Su Mo nodded, feeling that cultivating immortality really was something lofty and impressive...

Closing his eyes again, Su Mo used the sensation that spiritual power gave him to sense the spiritual power between heaven and earth.

Gradually... a strange sensation rose in his heart. As Su Mo found the sensation given off by the little sword in his chest...

He also found the eerie aura that had appeared on him that night in the courtyard in West City.

The feeling this eerie aura gave him was strange beyond description.

It gave him a sense of detachment... of being detached from this world, reaching toward an unknowable place.

It also felt as though a thread connected him to something he did not understand.

Su Mo immersed himself in that sensation and slipped into a strange state...

Gu Yu looked up at the stars filling the sky and sighed slowly. "Back then, I entered a meditative trance in just one day. The Dean said I was an outstanding cultivation talent rarely seen in this world. You don't need to rush either. Take your time. After all, your senior sister's level isn't something you can aspire to..."

"As long as you enter a meditative trance within three days, you can already count yourself among those with extraordinary talent..."

Gu Yu thought for a moment, deciding he shouldn't put too much pressure on Su Mo, and added.

"But even if you can't enter a meditative trance within three days, there's no need to worry. Talent doesn't determine everything. Some people take a long time to enter a trance, but cultivate very quickly later on."

When Su Mo gave no response, Gu Yu lowered his head to look at Su Mo diligently sitting in meditation, then froze...

Was this... a meditative trance?

The night breeze blew past, and Gu Yu felt a little cold...

Hopefully, Little Junior Brother didn't hear what I just said about entering a trance in one day... Gu Yu felt he could hardly save face.

Suddenly, as Gu Yu watched Su Mo in his trance, his expression changed.

"He's already... starting to guide the spiritual power of heaven and earth through a lesser celestial circuit..."

What kind of monster was Little Junior Brother...?

But...

"This aura... why does it feel so indescribable?" As Gu Yu watched Su Mo circulate a lesser celestial circuit in his trance, an exceedingly strange aura faintly emanated from him.

"Could this be the aura of the Book Dao?" Gu Yu circled Su Mo, carefully sensing it.

Gu Yu cultivated the Sword Dao, so his spiritual power carried the aura of the Startled Swan Sword... domineering, pure, and keen.

Thus, as a scholar, Su Mo's spiritual power should have carried the aura of books... giving an impression of refinement, quiet grace, and the fragrance of ink.

Yet the aura coming from Su Mo felt to Gu Yu... eerie, mysterious, and unfathomably distant.

What he did not know was that Su Mo was currently in a state that transcended a meditative trance.

A state somewhere between a trance and meditation...

With his eyes closed, Su Mo seemed able to see that eerie aura solidifying, gradually becoming a stream of water that merged into his blood.

Then strands of something colorless emerged from his blood. The spiritual power of heaven and earth flowed into his body, and that aura began guiding it through a lesser celestial circuit.

He did not know whether other people cultivated this way, but he kept feeling that he might be somewhat different.

Su Mo immersed himself in the sensation, unable to pull away!

It was profoundly mysterious. He could sense two things at once: one was the spiritual power of heaven and earth, and the other was this eerie aura.

The two intertwined, circulating through Su Mo's four meridians and eight channels.

That eerie aura seemed even more wondrous than spiritual power. While guiding the spiritual power, it was also continuously strengthening Su Mo's four meridians and eight channels...

Meanwhile, his spiritual power circulated at an extremely rapid pace, and the spiritual power of heaven and earth outside kept surging toward him.

At first, Gu Yu had only been astonished by Su Mo entering a trance. Soon, he was astonished by Su Mo beginning to circulate a lesser celestial circuit. But the shocks were not over yet...

He watched the spiritual power of heaven and earth atop the mountain suddenly surge toward Su Mo as though it had found its own family, gradually forming a spirit tide!

Looking at Su Mo, Gu Yu felt both joy and inferiority.

At that moment, the Academy's illustrious Third Senior Brother experienced the strange emotion of inferiority, something he rarely felt!

I knew the first time I saw Little Junior Brother that he was another freak... Gu Yu was delighted by Su Mo's talent.

Gu Yu walked over to the stone table and sat down, lazily propping himself up. He stopped looking at Su Mo... watching him was vexing.

Gu Yu gazed up at the starry sky and sighed in idle boredom. "At a time like this... there ought to be wine..."

Su Mo's spiritual power circulated faster and faster. Guided by that eerie aura, the ceaseless influx of spiritual power automatically and rapidly flowed through a lesser celestial circuit.

Spiritual power poured continuously into Su Mo's body, gathering into a river that circulated without rest. It converged at one spot, seeming to burst through something, then gradually formed a spirit sea...

A spirit sea belonging to Su Mo...

Wisps of eerie mist permeated this spirit sea,

And above it were scattered stars, like those in the boundless heavens.

Su Mo's consciousness sank into his spirit sea.

Everything he saw within his spirit sea filled Su Mo with curiosity.

As someone from another world, he experienced the strange sights brought about by cultivation.

His curiosity mingled with delighted surprise and astonishment...

According to the cultivation method, I should have entered the Qi Refining Realm...

Well... cultivation isn't that hard...

So this is a spirit sea?

This is my spirit sea? I'm someone with a spirit sea now... no... I'm a cultivator with a spirit sea now... this is so much fun!

Su Mo's consciousness took the form of a tiny figure and stepped onto the spirit sea. The surface gently supported his consciousness, allowing him to stroll across it, while the mist above the sea curled around him as he entered.

Su Mo looked around his spirit sea curiously, studying it...

Sometimes he waved his hand to disperse the mist; sometimes he crouched to scoop up the seawater beneath his feet, just like a child.

After all... he was still a young child...

At last, the endless stars above his spirit sea drew Su Mo's gaze once more.

Looking up, he saw faint points of starlight glimmering in the endless, pitch-black night sky...

This starry sky felt familiar...

Su Mo lowered his gaze and looked at the vast spirit sea.

The entire spirit sea lay in primordial chaos...

"Once I enter the Dao, in the middle of my spirit sea... right here... there should be a book." The tiny figure formed from Su Mo's consciousness pointed at the calm waters in the center of the spirit sea and spoke proudly to himself.

The book said that upon entering the Dao, one's own Dao would manifest as an object suspended above the spirit sea!

"Third Senior Sister should have a sword in his spirit sea. I've heard Fairy Luo is the reincarnation of the Zither God and cultivates the Zither Dao, so she should have a zither in her spirit sea. As the illustrious Provincial Graduate Su, naturally I cultivate the Book Dao. When the time comes, a book should appear!"

Su Mo wondered curiously, But books are different from other things. Books have contents... what would those contents be?

"I've read widely, with five cartloads of learning under my belt. I know astronomy above and geography below. What exactly would be written in the book that manifests in my spirit sea?"

As he pondered, Su Mo suddenly went pale.

He remembered the many adults-only books he had read in his previous life. Some had even been illustrated...

"Heaven have mercy. When I enter the Dao, I absolutely must control my thoughts and not let them wander... if I happen to think about that sort of thing, and a book like that manifests in my spirit sea, my lifelong reputation as the great Provincial Graduate Su will be utterly ruined."

Su Mo tried hard to calm himself and think about something else.

"Why does my spirit sea always feel so eerie? I can't put my finger on what's eerie about it. It's just very strange."

"The book didn't mention it either... I'll ask Third Senior Sister later."

Su Mo looked all around his spirit sea, continuing to experience the myriad sensations it gave him.

Suddenly, within his own spirit sea, Su Mo...

In a place wreathed in mist...

Saw a figure with alluring curves...