First Cultivation

He was no stranger to items like Dharma Coins. Spirit Stones and magic crystals were similar; all were common currencies among Spirit Realm adventurers. In essence, they were Spirit Realm money.

Unlike real-world currency, which was backed by national credit, Spirit Realm currency was universally accepted because of its own value-energy.

Whether it was magic power, mana, internal power, or battle Qi, it was fundamentally a cultivator's own energy. Spirit Stones and Dharma Coins could quickly replenish that energy, which was where their value lay.

Magic crystals and Spirit Stones, however, were both naturally occurring energy crystals. Dharma Coins were different: cultivators made them by refining the power of faith with mana, making them an artificial currency.

There are Dharma Coins in the real world too. Are they made by refining faith? he wondered, walking toward his house without slowing his steps.

Xuanwei Monastery was the overlord of this region, and even outer disciples enjoyed decent benefits.

Besides a spiritual lamp artifact as standard equipment, they could also collect ten Dharma Coins and three sticks of soul-nourishing incense each month.

Item: Soul-nourishing incense

Grade: Cyan, common

Type: Consumable

Effects: Soul protection +1, Soul Refining efficiency +5%

Durability: 15/15

Description: When lit, it nourishes the soul and eases mental fatigue. Often used to aid cultivation while a cultivator meditates.

Meals and lodging were also fully covered, and each disciple even had a dedicated servant to order around.

Lin Xu glanced at the servant bowing in greeting and quickly entered the quiet room to cultivate.

Time was short. He could not afford to waste a single second.

The room was cleaned every day. That was one good thing about NPCs: they carried out assigned tasks meticulously, without needing extra supervision.

Sitting upright on a meditation cushion, Lin Xu closed his eyes and meditated.

After ten consecutive years of meditation, his fundamentals were unquestionably solid. In just a few seconds, he cleared his mind of distracting thoughts and swiftly entered a meditative state.

The many secrets of the Bright Lamp Spirit Kindling Art flashed rapidly through his mind, and he soon grasped the mysteries of cultivation.

That was what a skill book did. It did not simply instill memories; it directly imprinted knowledge and the mysteries it contained onto the soul, allowing the cultivator to instinctively perceive its true meaning. Of course, whether the cultivator could understand it, and whether that understanding was correct, was another matter.

At the beginning of cultivation, ordinary lamp oil is needed to help focus the mind, so beginners can quickly enter a state of meditation. But after ten years of cultivation, I'm already past that step.

Without hesitation, he held the already lit bronze lamp and cautiously extended his mental perception.

This was the fruit of meditative cultivation. While in a meditative state, a cultivator could roughly perceive the surroundings even with closed eyes.

According to the cultivation materials Lin Xu had gathered over the years, one's mental attribute had to reach at least 13 points to accomplish this.

The Bright Lamp Spirit Kindling Art appeared to have no cultivation requirements, but it already contained an implicit one.

With his mental attribute as high as 15 points, Lin Xu quickly sensed the light source. It was as though a sun had risen in the depths of his consciousness, illuminating his once-dim sea of consciousness.

Lin Xu's consciousness immediately rushed toward the "sun." Boom! His consciousness jolted violently. In an instant, it was as if he had entered purgatory; the agony of flames scorching his body nearly swallowed his consciousness.

At that instant, he activated Thought Overclocking without hesitation. Time seemed to stretch out in a flash, and the agony of being consumed by flames grew indistinct.

His meditative state, which had been on the verge of breaking, stabilized once more. Lin Xu's consciousness seemed to become a giant in an instant, bringing the entire "sun" under control.

In that instant, the light previously projected through external mental power came completely under the control of his extraordinary conscious form.

The scattered radiance was gathered in, becoming a harmless light that illuminated his sea of consciousness.

A great sun rose above the horizon, thoroughly illuminating his entire chaotic consciousness.

In that instant, the mysteries that had been concealed were laid bare. At that very moment, Lin Xu "saw" where the Divine Aperture was.

So this is where you are...

It looked like an illusion, there yet not there, like an illusory grotto-heaven that would vanish into the chaos in the blink of an eye.

No wonder so many people cultivated, yet those in magic classes were so few...

Seeing this, Lin Xu suddenly understood. The Divine Aperture's location was not fixed; it might be here one second and somewhere else the next.

So it was quite possible that some people failed to open their Divine Apertures all their lives purely because of bad luck.

In Buddhist terms, their karmic affinity was insufficient.

Once the Divine Aperture opened, mana arose of its own accord.

According to the sages of Daoism, the Divine Aperture was the gateway connecting the human body to heaven and earth. As it opened, Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi quietly flowed into his body. A warm current poured out of the illusory grotto-heaven and slowly flowed along his meridians, permeating his limbs and bones and cleansing his flesh.

Lin Xu was in the state of Thought Overclocking at the time, and he clearly sensed this newly born mana sustaining the overclocked state in place of the stamina it would have consumed.

Knowing that Thought Overclocking required a continuous expenditure of mana, he dared not slacken in the slightest. He immediately used his thoughts to guide the mana and consolidate his sea of consciousness.

In the overclocked state, his consciousness was like a bright mirror and still water. His extraordinary wisdom swiftly discerned the deeper mysteries of the Bright Lamp Spirit Kindling Art, and the once-obscure scripture appeared clearly in the depths of his consciousness.

As his consciousness changed, his soul changed with it. The mental power generated by the Basic Meditation Method he had practiced diligently for the past ten years was quietly undergoing a transformation.

A vague realization rose in his consciousness: This is the process of mana tempering the soul...

With a thought, his soul left his body.

In the quiet room, a stick of soul-nourishing incense burned silently, its blue smoke curling and spiraling upward.

Beside Lin Xu, who had been sitting motionless, a hazy figure like smoke quietly emerged, ghostlike.

This was Lin Xu's soul leaving its shell, and it also meant he had completed the first stage of soul cultivation-Soul Leaving the Body.

Is this the Soul Leaving the Body Realm? He examined it carefully. His soul was as light as the wind; without any particular movement, a single thought sent it floating to the top of the quiet room. Looking down at his cross-legged body, he felt as though he were gazing at a clay statue.

A faint realization surfaced: no matter how far away he went, he needed only a thought to return to his original body, using his physical body as an anchor.

In the state of Soul Leaving the Body, my consciousness finds it easier to focus instead. Is it because I've escaped the body's restraints and cut off interference from the five senses?

He focused his perception. His soul seemed to resonate with the world around him, and his consciousness was as clear as a spring.

Suddenly, a wisp of black smoke quietly appeared, taking the shape of a savage ghostly face that lunged straight at Lin Xu's soul.

But it halted when it struck the blue smoke from the soul-nourishing incense, as though blocked by an invisible barrier.

The blue smoke's protective power was limited, however. The black smoke twisted with a sinister laugh, then abruptly opened its mouth and spewed a foul wind that tore through the protective smoke.

A cool current flowed through his soul. With a thought from Lin Xu, the flame of the Dao Rhyme Bright Light Lamp lit up in the depths of his soul. Wherever its bright light shone, the black smoke melted away in an instant, like snow under the sun.

This was the manifestation of an outside evil invading the soul, using foul yin Qi to corrode a cultivator's mind and spirit.