Chapter 14 : Spiritual Power Liquefaction
Chapter 14: Spiritual Power Liquefaction!
At a glance, all the tasks were high-risk, high-reward sect missions.
Gu Yan gently shook his head.
All of these required leaving the sect—crossing mountains and rivers, fighting others, or venturing into unknown dangers. Too troublesome.
He had never liked such exertion. His gaze lowered as he began searching for daily tasks instead.
Just as he was considering, fragments of conversation drifted into his ears.
“…Have you heard? The day before yesterday, two more true disciple senior brothers were attacked outside. It was the work of the Extreme Yin Demon Sect!”
“More than that! Senior Sister Zhao from Sword-Resting Peak went out last month on a gathering mission and hasn’t returned. I’m afraid the worst has happened.”
“This Demonic Sect has become more and more brazen. In the past, they only caused trouble in the outer sect territory. Now they dare to openly ambush inner sect disciples of our Taiyi Dao Sect!”
“Exactly. The times are unstable. The sect has already strengthened patrols around the perimeter.”
Meanwhile, from another side came a slightly louder discussion, filled with excitement and anticipation.
“Senior Brother Chen, you’re well-informed. Have you heard that the sect seems to be planning something big recently? About cultivating top geniuses from each peak?” a young disciple asked curiously.
The inner sect disciple called Senior Brother Chen glanced around and lowered his voice.
“Junior Brother Xu, your information is outdated.
Although it hasn’t been publicly announced, it’s no longer a secret among true disciples.
It’s said that several elders are leading the initiative to select those under thirty from each peak—either those already at the late stage of the second revolution or those with exceptional potential—and concentrate resources to train them intensively!
In the future, this group will represent the younger generation of our Taiyi Dao Sect, competing against other great sects and even the imperial court!”
“Such a thing exists?!” Junior Brother Xu exclaimed, then asked in confusion, “But why haven’t I seen any notice about it?”
Senior Brother Chen smiled. “How could such a core plan be widely announced?
Only true disciples and above—or inner sect elites personally informed by elders—know the details.
I only heard about it by chance from a familiar true disciple senior brother.
It’s said that those selected will not only receive far more pills than usual, but may even gain personal guidance from Supreme Elders!”
The surrounding disciples who overheard this conversation all revealed expressions of envy and longing.
Gu Yan, however, paid it no mind.
Centralized training? The face of the younger generation?
It sounded glorious, but it also meant more attention, heavier responsibilities, more frequent appearances—
And even more complicated factional entanglements.
He knew clearly what he wanted: longevity and freedom, quietly accumulating strength until transcendence.
Not competing for empty fame and fleeting benefits within a martial sect.
“Better to stick with weed-clearing tasks.” Gu Yan felt at ease and accepted daily tasks.
Although such tasks offered fewer contribution points, they were easy. Doing several each day was enough to cover his rent.
After all, even without sitting in meditation, he could now naturally absorb the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth into his body.
This orange entry, Five Elements Spiritual Body, seemed to gradually unlock more unspoken benefits over time.
Over the following days, Gu Yan’s life became extremely regular.
Aside from attending daily lectures and completing routine tasks, he spent most of his time—and contribution points—at the Scripture Pavilion in Evergreen Market.
This pavilion, though not housing the sect’s core inheritance, was vast and filled with countless texts.
It was an important place for ordinary disciples to broaden their horizons, consult information, and seek suitable martial techniques.
The first floor of the pavilion was the most spacious.
It contained miscellaneous records, geographical chronicles, sect histories, basic pharmacology, mineral identification, and accounts of customs from various regions.
Entry to the first floor was the cheapest—only one hundred contribution points per visit.
One could stay for three hours and browse freely.
The system resembled a bookstore from Gu Yan’s previous life, except that the books could neither be damaged nor taken out.
The second floor required three hundred contribution points per visit, also for three hours.
Here were proper Daoist texts, internal force cultivation insights, detailed explanations of bottlenecks at various realms, and orthodox martial theories.
Although it did not include core techniques capable of directly breaking through realms,
many predecessors’ cultivation notes and answers to difficult questions were extremely valuable.
The third floor cost the most—five hundred contribution points per visit.
It stored various combat techniques: sword diagrams, boxing manuals, movement techniques, and methods of using unconventional weapons.
Though lacking accompanying mental methods and thus unable to unleash full power, they held great value for reference.
On this day, Gu Yan came to the first floor and picked up *Records of the Great Qian Dynasty’s Landscapes* and *Records of Overseas Islands*, then sat down calmly.
On the surface, he appeared to be reading carefully, but in reality, his divine sense had already enveloped the entire first floor.
With the fine control of Qi Refining Ninth Layer divine sense, he could scan the contents of books on the shelves and imprint them into his mind in a short time without causing any disturbance.
A few days later, Gu Yan had silently memorized all the texts on the first floor.
He then repeated the process, extending his divine sense to the second and third floors.
Within a short period, an enormous amount of information flooded into his mind.
Fortunately, as a cultivator, his mental capacity was vast enough to fully process it.
Unfortunately, this Scripture Pavilion did not contain Taiyi Dao Virtue Scripture · Third Revolution Chapter or higher core techniques.
According to what he knew, such core inheritances were stored in a secret pavilion on the main peak, Cloud-Mist Peak.
Sword-Resting Peak and Pill Glow Peak also had their own Scripture Pavilions.
However, their outer perimeters were guarded by formations and rotating disciples.
The alert range was far beyond his current five-hundred-meter divine sense.
Without proper reason, one could not approach—let alone secretly investigate.
Everything would likely have to wait until his divine sense reached a thousand meters.
Even so, the gains from Evergreen Market’s Scripture Pavilion were immense.
The greatest gain was not any specific technique, but his understanding of this vast world.
The world described in the texts was far broader and more complex than he had imagined.
For example, to the west of the Great Qian Dynasty lay a country called the Fire Luo Kingdom.
This nation revered flames, had a fierce culture, and its martial cultivation system differed somewhat from that of Great Qian.
However, the records were limited—only noting occasional border conflicts between the two.
To the far south lay the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
There was no unified nation there—only treacherous terrain, toxic miasma, countless strange races, ancient tribes, and reclusive clans.
These clans often possessed long histories and unfathomable foundations, some even independent of any dynasty.
To the east stretched the boundless Endless Sea.
Within it were scattered islands—some as large as a commandery, others no more than reefs.
Many islands formed independent nations with vastly different cultures.
What caught Gu Yan’s attention most was the scattered mentions of creatures called demonic beasts.
According to descriptions, these were powerful beings that had awakened intelligence.
Their forms were varied—some were giant beasts, others could transform into humanoid shapes—but most were violent and fond of consuming flesh.
The flesh and blood of martial artists seemed to be especially nourishing to them.
Historical records mentioned several instances where powerful demonic beasts wreaked havoc—devouring villages, even attacking cities, causing heavy casualties.
However, such creatures were extremely rare, usually appearing only in deep mountains, wild marshlands, or the depths of the sea.
And once they appeared, they would attract the attention and joint suppression of martial artists and authorities.
Thus, to ordinary low-level martial artists, they were almost like legends.
“Demonic beasts? This martial world has such things too?”
Gu Yan thought for a moment. Since this world had Spiritual Energy, it was not impossible for beasts that lived long enough to become such beings.
……
Time flowed on like a fleeting white steed.
Clouds gathered and dispersed over the mountains again and again, and in the blink of an eye, another year passed.
Late that night, all was silent.
Due to its abundant vegetation and herbs, Pill Glow Peak was usually quieter than other places at night.
However, just past midnight, a small patch of dark clouds suddenly gathered in the sky above the eastern side of the peak.
Strangely, aside from this patch, there were no signs of storms anywhere else in the night sky.
This abnormal phenomenon immediately caught the attention of a duty elder on Pill Glow Peak.
He stared intently at the dark cloud, brows tightly furrowed, eyes full of confusion.
“How strange… I have observed the stars and sensed the earth’s qi. There have been no signs of rain or storms within a hundred miles.
Where did this cloud come from?
And its form remains condensed without dispersing. The thunder is low and muffled—not like ordinary wind and lightning.”
“Could this be some kind of rare localized phenomenon?”
The elder pondered without answer.
With his fourth-revolution cultivation and experience, he could not see through the nature of this cloud.
After observing for about a quarter of an hour and seeing no further changes, he shook his head and classified it as an incomprehensible natural anomaly.
……
Beneath the dark cloud, within a small courtyard.
Gu Yan sat cross-legged on a wooden bed, eyes tightly shut, his expression subtly shifting.
Half a year ago, the spiritual power in his Dantian had fully liquefied.
According to the cultivation logic from his previous life’s novels, such a qualitative transformation either meant he had entered the Foundation Establishment realm—or had broken through to the tenth layer of Qi Refining.
But aside from the clear increase in both quantity and quality of his spiritual power, his personal status still showed Qi Refining Ninth Layer.
At first, Gu Yan had been puzzled. But after carefully examining himself internally, a hypothesis gradually formed.
Could it be that the twenty-seven acupoints he had opened earlier using martial methods—used to store spiritual power—were the cause?
Each acupoint functioned independently, like miniature Dantians.
Was it because they diverted and stabilized large amounts of spiritual power that his breakthrough had yet to manifest?
Upon thinking this, he made a decision.
Over the next half year, he refined tirelessly, converting the spiritual power within each acupoint into liquid form.
Until tonight, he had finally succeeded in transforming the last acupoint’s gaseous spiritual power into liquid.
And at the moment when all twenty-seven acupoints were filled with liquid spiritual power and faintly resonated with his Dantian—
A sudden change occurred!
Gu Yan’s soul trembled. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself suspended in midair.
Below him was a hospital room.
On a white bed lay a person.
Those features, that outline… it was himself!