Level Two, Like Water Flowing into a Channel

When Lu Yuan opened his eyes, dawn had yet to fully break.

The room was quiet, and he could hear his father's deep breathing next door. He lay still and first checked the wisp of Soul Power in his dantian. It was still there, seemingly just a fraction denser than yesterday.

He had done it.

He sat up and pulled on his old cloth shirt. Seven or eight days had passed since the incident with Zhao Shi, and all was calm on the surface. But he knew perfectly well that some things grew more dangerous the longer they stayed quiet.

He had to hurry.

Breakfast was coarse rice porridge with a few scraps of vegetable leaves mixed in. Lu Qinghe drank his with his head down, his eyes bloodshot.

"Dad, did you try it last night?" Lu Yuan scooped up a spoonful.

"I did." Lu Qinghe set down his bowl and rubbed his knees with his rough palms. "Like you said, the 'vortex' was half a beat faster. My Soul Power spun fiercely, but I was even hungrier afterward. My stomach felt hollow."

Lin Xiu stirred her porridge beside him, her brows knitted. "Why don't you slow down a little? You haven't looked well these past few days."

"I can't." Lu Qinghe shook his head, his voice firm. "There's no telling when that bastard Zhao Shi might show up again. If this family has no one to stand up for it, he'll dare climb right onto our faces."

Lu Yuan said nothing and slowly finished his porridge.

He knew his father had a point. Breaking through was like pushing a stone stuck halfway up a slope: too little force was useless, but enough force was bound to leave you exhausted. The problem was that the food they had at home couldn't make up for what was spent.

"I'm going to the river on the east side today." Lu Yuan put down his bowl. "I'll gather some river snails."

Lin Xiu wanted to say it was dangerous, but she looked at her son's calm eyes and swallowed the words. "Be careful."

Lu Yuan nodded, picked up a battered bamboo basket, and went out.

He did go to the river, though gathering snails was only a side task. His main purpose was to collect Green-Veined Stones.

That night, he had arranged a simple circle beside the herb patch in the backyard, following the simplified approach to the Spirit-Nourishing Formation in his memory. The positions and angles of the stones all mattered. Its effect was minuscule, but it did some good.

He crouched on the riverbank, picking out pebbles with faint blue-green veins on their surfaces. Sunlight dazzled his eyes. He picked one up, examined the direction of its veins against the light, then shook his head and tossed it back into the water. He picked up another, studied it for a moment, and put it in the basket.

The work took concentration.

Green-Veined Stones weren't rare, but their patterns came in all shapes and sizes. Out of a hundred, there might not be even one or two that met his requirements.

By the end of the morning, only a thin layer covered the bottom of the basket.

He had gathered quite a few snails, though. He hefted the basket and figured there were enough to make another dish, so he turned for home.

On the way, he ran into a few town children, laughing and chasing one another as they ran past. One looked back at him with a somewhat strange expression, then quickly turned away and ran off.

Lu Yuan kept walking.

He knew what that look meant. His Trash Martial Soul and innate half-level Soul Power were no secret in Maple Leaf Town. In the past, those children had either avoided him or pointed at him behind his back. News of his family brewing "Energy Soup" had spread these past few days, and he had also defied Deacon Zhao in public. There were probably even more rumors now.

He didn't care.

Or rather, he had no time to care.

When he got home, he tipped the snails into a wooden basin for his mother to clean, then took the carefully selected Green-Veined Stones into the backyard.

The Soul Condensing Grass and Starlight Dew Vine in the herb patch were growing reasonably well. The silver lines along the edges of the Soul Condensing Grass leaves seemed a tiny bit clearer than they had been a few days ago. The Starlight Dew Vine's tender tendrils swayed gently in the breeze.

He used the newly gathered stones to replace two whose patterns weren't quite right for the formation.

When he finished arranging them, he stepped back twice and took a look.

The circle of stones was small, just large enough to enclose the herbs. Sunlight slanted down onto them, and the faint blue-green veins on the stones seemed to come vaguely to life, with an extremely faint sense of water rippling through them.

He had done it.

Lu Yuan breathed half a sigh of relief. He had managed to put together this simplified Spirit-Nourishing Formation, barely. Its effect certainly couldn't match the original, but it should be enough to gather and gently nourish the thin Soul Power in the surroundings.

He dusted the dirt from his hands and returned to his room.

He closed the door, and the room grew dim. He sat on the edge of the bed and closed his eyes.

He gradually adjusted his breathing until it became deep and steady. His consciousness sank into his body, seeking out that gossamer wisp of Soul Power.

For the past few days, he had been practicing the "simplified Lesser Heavenly Cycle" he had planned out in his mind. His Soul Power was too weak to complete the full circuit, so he did it in sections: the first half one day, the second half the next.

Like ants moving house, he gnawed out a path bit by bit.

Now, guided by his will, his Soul Power began to move slowly. It was barely faster than a crawling snail. His meridians felt empty, and as the Soul Power passed through them, it left a faint, cool sensation.

He concentrated completely.

It snagged slightly as it passed the Shanzhong acupoint. This was a bottleneck, and his weak Soul Power struggled to push through. He didn't dare force it, instead controlling the Soul Power to grind away slowly, inching forward bit by bit.

After about the time it took an incense stick to burn, the resistance eased somewhat, and the Soul Power barely made it through.

He continued along the lung meridian of hand taiyin toward the fingertips of his right arm.

At the fingertips, it turned back.

It followed the large intestine meridian of hand yangming back to the shoulder, then passed through the governing vessel and descended.

At last, it returned to his dantian.

Today, he had finally stumbled through one simplified "Lesser Heavenly Cycle," a circuit that had taken several days to complete.

Lu Yuan opened his eyes, a thin layer of sweat on his forehead.

Exhausting.

He hadn't spent much Soul Power, but the drain on his mind had been severe. Controlling such weak Soul Power along such a precise route meant it could disperse at the slightest lapse in attention.

But it had produced results.

After the Soul Power returned to his dantian, he could feel that the gossamer wisp seemed more "obedient," and a tiny bit denser. It was still thin, but it was less scattered and a little more resilient.

He retrieved the small notebook hidden under his bed and took out a stub of charcoal pencil.

The notebook was crammed with symbols and curves. He turned to a fresh page, wrote down the date, and recorded:

"Beginning of the Xu hour: completed the first segmented Lesser Heavenly Cycle guidance. Total time: four days. Noticeable resistance as Soul Power passed through the lung meridian of hand taiyin and the large intestine meridian of hand yangming. Total Soul Power increased slightly, approximately one percent. Control precision rose from 'lower C' to 'middle C.'"

When he finished, he stared at the line for a while.

One percent.

It sounded paltry, but he knew that for someone with innate half-level Soul Power and no resources to help him, that rate of growth was already quite good. For many with aptitude like his, Soul Power growth was measured in years.

His method worked.

That was enough.

The days passed one by one.

Lu Yuan's routine was almost rigid. He rose before dawn and spent half an hour on Stance physical training. After breakfast, he either went to the river to collect stones or helped around the house in the morning. His afternoons were reserved for cultivation, shut in his room guiding his Soul Power. In the evenings, he conducted stimulation experiments on the Blue Silver Grass.

The data continued to accumulate.

Under Soul Power stimulation, the chance of a faint glow appearing at the leaf tip rose from less than ten percent to nearly thirty percent. The glow also lasted longer, from vanishing in the blink of an eye to around one breath. The node at the core of the Blue Silver Grass seemed to have grown a little "brighter" under his constant stimulation.

All these changes were so slight as to be difficult to notice.

But Lu Yuan recorded every one of them.

His father Lu Qinghe's progress was more apparent.

Perhaps spurred on by the incident with Zhao Shi, Lu Qinghe cultivated almost desperately. Every day after work, no matter how tired he was, he practiced the "vortex" breathing method without fail. He spent a great deal of Soul Power and ate more as a result, and the family's food stores dwindled visibly. Lin Xiu said nothing, but her frown grew deeper and deeper.

Lu Yuan saw it all but said nothing, merely going to the river more often.

He knew this was a price they had to pay.

How could they hope for change without taking risks or paying a price?

That night, the moonlight was beautiful.

Lu Yuan sat cross-legged on his bed, preparing for his final Soul Power guidance session before sleep. During this period, he had grown more and more familiar with the simplified Lesser Heavenly Cycle, and the resistance had diminished considerably.

He closed his eyes and sank his consciousness inward.

Soul Power rose from his dantian and traveled up the conception vessel. It paused only slightly at Shanzhong before passing through smoothly. It branched off through the meridians in both arms, making his fingertips tingle faintly, then turned back, passed over his shoulders, and descended through the governing vessel...

Everything fell into place, like water flowing into a channel.

Just as the Soul Power completed its cycle and was about to return to his dantian-

Hum.

An extremely faint vibration seemed to come from the deepest part of his body.

The gossamer wisp of Soul Power suddenly began rotating on its own the instant it entered his dantian. It wasn't fast, but it was remarkably steady, forming a tiny yet distinct spiral.

The somewhat scattered Soul Power already settled in his dantian was drawn along by the spiral, gathering around it and slowly revolving.

It was as though an invisible hand had combed through all the Soul Power in his dantian, leaving it orderly and condensed.

Lu Yuan's eyes snapped open.

He had done it.

Level Two Soul Power.

There were no strange phenomena in heaven and earth, no brilliant burst of light. He barely felt anything different in his body. Only the circulation of energy within him had become smoother than ever, and his five senses seemed a fraction sharper; he could hear the insects outside the window more clearly.

He sat in the darkness, quietly sensing the slowly rotating spiral of Soul Power in his dantian.

It was faint, but it was undeniably there.

This was a hallmark change of Soul Power reaching the level of a Level Two Soul Scholar. In the theories from his previous life, the appearance of a Soul Power spiral marked the true beginning of the cultivation path.

It had taken him nearly two months.

From innate half-level to Level Two Soul Scholar.

In the eyes of the geniuses of the great sects, that pace was as slow as a crawling tortoise. But Lu Yuan knew what it meant for someone who had started where he had.

It meant the knowledge in his mind really could shatter the shackles of innate aptitude.

It meant this path could be walked.

He sat in the darkness for a long time, until his heartbeat had completely settled. Then he took out his notebook and charcoal pencil and began recording by the moonlight coming through the window:

"Third quarter of the Hai hour: circulating Soul Power spontaneously condensed into a spiral, stable and holding together. Assessment: officially entered the Level Two Soul Scholar realm. Physical sensations: meridian flow improved by approximately twenty percent; Soul Power control precision rose from 'middle C' to 'lower B.' Sight and hearing slightly enhanced."

At that point, his pencil paused.

Then, on a new line below, he wrote two words with force:

"Theory verified."

He closed the notebook and slipped it back under the bed.

It was time to sleep.

But after lying down, he kept his eyes open, staring at the dark ceiling for a while. A thought flashed through his mind: Could Level Two Soul Power stimulate the Blue Silver Grass a little further?

Once the thought appeared, he could hardly suppress it.

He sat up again and quietly moved to the window. The Blue Silver Grass growing in a broken clay bowl sat on the windowsill, its delicate outline visible in the moonlight.

He reached out and gently pressed a finger against the Blue Silver Grass's main stem.

In his dantian, the newborn Soul Power spiral sped up slightly. A wisp of Soul Power, considerably thicker and denser than before, slowly passed from his fingertip into the Blue Silver Grass.

Hum...

The Blue Silver Grass trembled gently.

Immediately afterward, that familiar faint glow lit up at the leaf tip once more.

This time, the light was clearer and steadier than ever before. It didn't flicker, but shone continuously, like a firefly on a summer night.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

The glow lasted a full three seconds before slowly fading.

And just before it vanished completely, Lu Yuan saw clearly that the Blue Silver Grass's smallest leaf seemed to... lift upward a fraction.

Just that fraction.

Almost imperceptible.

But Lu Yuan saw it.

He withdrew his finger and stared at the Blue Silver Grass in the darkness for a long time.

The leaf had returned to its original state, drooping listlessly, no different from usual. It was as though that momentary rise had been an illusion caused by the moonlight.

But he knew it hadn't been an illusion.

Level Two Soul Power infused, glow lasting three seconds, leaf lifting a fraction... These fragments of data rapidly combined and were worked through in his mind.

A vague conjecture gradually emerged.

He took a deep breath, then slowly let it out.

It was still deep into the night.

The Blue Silver Grass sat quietly on the windowsill, as though nothing had happened.