Building a Martial Dao Celestial Family by Laying Low

After Liu Zongying left, Chen Li rose and walked out of his study. He found his wife, Song Ying, and told her he needed to enter seclusion for a while, asking her to take on the burden of managing their household affairs.

Song Ying was surprised. Her husband had only just returned, and there were many things she wanted to discuss with him.

Especially the expansion of the silkworm rooms and the purchase of more silk-reeling machines. These were major expenses, and she couldn’t make the decision on her own.

But she also knew how important Chen Li’s cultivation was, so she nodded and told him to enter seclusion without any worries.

Chen Li made some small talk with his wife, and they had a meal together.

He had the servants prepare some fresh water and dry rations before returning to the study and entering the secret chamber.

Seated cross-legged on a cattail cushion, Chen Li didn’t immediately begin his cultivation.

Instead, he first spent time repeatedly mulling over the secret art Liu Zongying had given him, the Transformation Technique.

This was Liu Zongying’s deal with Chen Li.

In reality, more than the Silent Extinction Finger, what Chen Li truly wanted was this Transformation Technique.

This technique truly offered a way for someone to quickly comprehend and master a True Intent.

Its core principle was not to gradually perceive and attune to a True Intent, but to directly and forcefully devour and refine the wisp of foundational True Intent contained within a True Intent Map, converting it into fuel to nourish one’s own domain of intent.

Liu Zongying had also frankly admitted that he had obtained this technique by chance in his younger years and had never tried it himself.

The reason was simple: True Intent Maps were just too precious.

They were sketched by supreme experts of the Dharma Realm, who poured immense spiritual energy into them. Each map contained the essence of its creator’s True Martial Dao and was incredibly rare.

While the various sects and schools were not without them, they all regarded them as priceless heirlooms. Who would be willing to use such a destructive, short-sighted method just to help one person achieve rapid success?

Once the True Intent was devoured, the True Intent Map would be ruined, no longer usable for passing on the art to future generations.

This was tantamount to destroying the very foundation of a supreme art’s lineage—an act no power could tolerate.

For Chen Li, however, this was not a concern at all.

The Qiankun Qi Roaming Dragon True Intent deep within his Divine Sense had been a direct reward from the system.

It didn’t have a physical True Intent Map, nor could it be extracted and imparted to others.

Even the Nine-Character Hand Seal True Intent that his second son, Shouye, had obtained was given directly by the system after Shouye was bound to it; it was impossible to extract.

Since it couldn’t be passed down anyway, refining it for his own use was the best option for Chen Li. He had no qualms about it whatsoever.

His thoughts sank into the depths of his sea of consciousness.

Amidst a vast, starry expanse, the indistinct yet supremely majestic shadow of a staff flickered in and out of sight among the starlight.

It moved like a wandering dragon, soaring through the cosmos, unrestrained and free, its movements full of an endless, nimble grace.

Without hesitation, Chen Li’s soybean-sized, incredibly solid Divine Sense plunged into the starry expanse.

He activated the Transformation Technique.

The next moment, his Divine Sense seemed to become an invisible vortex, generating a powerful suction that tried to forcibly rip the surging, dragon-shaped staff shadow out of the space.

HUMMM—!

A piercing shriek from his Divine Sense rang out in Chen Li’s sea of consciousness.

The dragon-shaped staff shadow, which had been roaming leisurely, seemed to sense a threat and abruptly went berserk.

It began to twist and thrash frantically, trying to break free from the invisible vortex’s pull.

The staff shadow went utterly wild, transforming into a true wandering dragon.

The dragon’s tail swept out, and its head rammed forward.

Every movement stirred tumultuous waves in Chen Li’s sea of consciousness, shaking his Divine Soul.

Chen Li felt his Divine Sense being battered.

In the outside world, he let out a muffled groan, and his face began to turn deathly pale.

He had never imagined that the backlash from refining this True Intent would be so ferocious.

Daring not to hesitate, he activated the full Power of his Divine Sense.

The soybean-sized Divine Sense suddenly swelled, transforming into a seven-foot-tall Divine Sense Illusion.

Wielding the Qiankun Ruyi Staff, it took a single step and leaped onto the back of the madly struggling, dragon-shaped True Intent.

"Hold!"

The long staff in the Divine Sense Illusion’s hand pulsed with a dark light as it pressed down heavily, tightly coiling around the dragon’s body.

The dragon-shaped True Intent let out an even more piercing roar. Its struggles intensified as its body thrashed and its sharp claws raked wildly.

This was a clash of Divine Sense and will, a battle far more perilous than any physical fight.

The slightest misstep would lead to the complete obliteration of his soul.

Time slipped by during the intense confrontation.

Gradually, the dragon-shaped True Intent’s struggles weakened. Its roars subsided, and its once-solid body began to turn illusory.

POP...

It was like the soft sound of a bubble bursting.

The dragon-shaped True Intent completely disintegrated.

It transformed into an immense, incomparably profound stream of turbid energy, which surged out of Chen Li’s sea of consciousness and flooded his entire body, pouring into his Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

"Urk!"

Chen Li’s physical body convulsed violently. He felt his meridians instantly become engorged with this rampaging, turbid energy.

This turbid energy was neither like qi nor like pure intent, yet it had somehow appeared within his meridians.

Not daring to slacken for even a moment, he immediately circulated his Inner Qi with all his might, trying to guide and absorb this turbid energy.

This was a Water Grinding Technique; it could not be rushed.

Chen Li cleared his mind of all distractions, his entire Heart Spirit sinking into the process of refining the turbid energy.

In the secret chamber.

His body was as still as a clay statue, completely unmoving.

Only the aura around him ebbed and flowed like a tide, at times fluctuating violently, at others, gradually growing calm.

「Three full days and nights passed.」

Chen Li slowly opened his eyes, a look of delight on his face.

He carefully sensed the changes within himself and could indeed feel a massive difference.

With a mere thought, without even needing to deliberately use a Staff Technique, an invisible intent naturally enveloped a one-zhang radius around him.

This was the nascent form of a True Intent Domain.

Within this domain, he was like the master of his own small world.

However, he quickly frowned.

This domain... it was completely empty, a mere shell of its potential.

Besides allowing him to vaguely sense minute changes within its one-zhang radius, it possessed no substantial power.

It could neither harm enemies nor defend him, as if it were nothing more than an illusory space.

’What’s the problem?’

Chen Li closed his eyes again, his Heart Spirit sinking once more into the depths of his sea of consciousness.

The space of the Qiankun Qi Roaming Dragon True Intent was still there.

Although the staff shadow had transformed into turbid energy and been devoured, the "framework" that housed the True Intent—that vast, starry sky—had not dissipated. It had not merged with his Divine Sense, but continued to hang in its depths, separate from his Divine Soul.

’Qiankun Qi...’

Chen Li frowned. ’Could it be that the "Roaming Dragon" was only the killing aspect, and the foundation of this True Intent lies in this starry sky?’

He had a vague guess: as long as this space remained unbroken, the True Intent would not truly be his. The domain would naturally be a mere shell, having form but no spirit.

’I have to shatter this space!’

Chen Li began his attempt.

From the outside, looking in with his Divine Sense, the starry sky didn’t seem large. But once inside, it was boundless and vast, with no discernible borders or sense of direction.

No matter how fast Chen Li’s Divine Sense Illusion sped through the starry sky, it couldn’t see the slightest hint of a boundary.

’My Divine Sense is inside, so it’s useless. But what about an external object?’

After several failed attempts, a flash of inspiration struck Chen Li, and he thought of the Qiankun Ruyi Staff.

With a thought, the Qiankun Ruyi Staff appeared in the hands of his Divine Sense Illusion.

"Grow!"

Chen Li barked.

The Qiankun Ruyi Staff grew at his command.

The staff’s shaft extended endlessly, piercing the void above and plunging into the abyss below, as if it would become the pillar supporting this entire world.

CRACK... CRACKLE...

At first, the cracking sounds were faint.

But they grew louder, like the sound of a frozen lake shattering.

With the ever-lengthening staff at its core, spiderweb-like cracks began to appear in the void.

The cracks spread rapidly, covering the entire starry sky in an instant.

BOOM!

Finally, the starry sky collapsed, shattering into countless glittering fragments.

Chen Li activated the Transformation Technique once more.

His Divine Sense Illusion transformed into a giant vortex, frantically absorbing and gathering the fragments of space.

The moment the fragments touched Chen Li’s Divine Sense Illusion, they abruptly transformed into an even more condensed and pure stream of profoundly mystical clear energy, which surged into his meridians.

This impact was even more violent than before.

This "clear energy" seemed gentle, but it carried the domineering will of the universe itself.

Everywhere it passed, his meridians and Acupoints felt as if they would burst. The pain it caused was even worse than the turbid energy, piercing straight to his marrow and his very Divine Soul.

Chen Li gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead as sweat poured down like rain. Pushing his Inner Qi to its absolute limit, he struggled to guide the profoundly mystical clear energy.

Gradually, the clear energy began to dissipate into Chen Li’s body.

「In the blink of an eye, another seven days had passed.」

When Chen Li opened his eyes again, with a mere thought, the True Intent Domain within a one-zhang radius of his body instantly solidified.

Within the domain, a thought was all it took for a killing intent to coalesce.

Heaven’s Killing Intent!

Although the range was still small, within this tiny space, his intention could direct the True Intent to manifest as a tangible attack.

It was no longer an empty shell!

’I finally did it!’

Chen Li let out a long sigh of relief, a trace of satisfaction on his face.

Refining a True Intent was immensely risky and painful, but the rewards were equally astonishing.

Now, he had truly and completely made the Qiankun Qi Roaming Dragon True Intent his own, taking the crucial step of uniting body and intent.

After ending his cultivation session, Chen Li began to attempt the unification of spirit and intent.

He recalled the notes his eldest son, Shouheng, had brought back from the Martial Arts Academy.

The key to clearing the Divine Intent Pass was the unification of spirit and intent, and the unification of intent and body.

By using the Transformation Technique as a shortcut, he had now achieved a preliminary unification of body and intent.

But the next step, uniting spirit and intent, seemed far more profound and mysterious.

He attempted to have his Divine Sense leave his body.

A cultivator at the Void Transformation Realm could have their Divine Sense briefly leave their physical body and hover outside.

Once his Divine Sense left his body, his physical form instantly became rigid, like a lifeless statue. It was difficult to even move a single finger.

He tried to use his detached Divine Sense to activate the True Intent within his body.

At first, there was no response, as if the connection between his physical body and Divine Sense had been completely severed.

After patiently trying to channel his Intention, his rigid body finally gave a slight tremble.

But the reaction was extremely mechanical and sluggish, far from fluid. Performing any sort of technique was out of the question.

’Intent born of spirit...’

Chen Li recalled those four words from the notes, mulling them over repeatedly.

The meaning of those four words was that true "intent" had to be directed by a detached "spirit."

But how was he to establish such a connection?

Chen Li racked his brain for half a day and tried various methods, but he could never grasp the essential point.

Shouheng had clearly been limited by his own Realm; he hadn’t been able to comprehend many of the deeper concepts, and the notes he had taken were too disorganized, making them almost impossible for Chen Li to understand.

’Haste makes waste. In the end, I’m just lacking a fortuitous opportunity.’

Chen Li sighed and shook his head, temporarily setting aside his thoughts on cultivation.