Chapter 253: Chapter 142: Completing the Spirit Body Refinement
Deep within the Six Heart Sect.
In a quiet Dao Field, Zuo Xuan sat under the eaves of a tranquil bamboo house. Before her was an embroidery workstation, where an exquisite piece of southern brocade was stretched taut on a frame. Silver needles danced across the surface as she embroidered a pattern of a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix.
The pattern’s outline was formed in no more than half an hour. Zuo Xuan steadily placed her silver needle on the rack beside her. Her spirited eyes studied the pattern on the brocade for a moment before she rose and walked to another workstation. On the brocade there, two Immortal Cranes were embroidered in mid-dance.
Zuo Xuan seemed quite dissatisfied with the pattern’s composition. She took out a sheet of rice paper, spread it open, and carefully drew a new design with a brush.
Just as the new design took shape, her disciple, Zuo Liang, approached with a cup of tea.
"This bitter tea has a good body, and a fresh fragrance I’ve never tasted before. Where did you buy it?" Zuo Xuan commented, holding the teacup.
"It’s your favorite southern bitter tea, Master. It’s just that this batch came from the Six Heart Sect’s Inner Courtyard," Zuo Liang explained quietly.
"Oh?"
Zuo Xuan smiled. "I’ve always heard that there are only three taels of the highest-grade southern bitter tea produced each year, picked from the last few tender buds after the first frosts of late autumn. I’ve tried using my connections to buy it before, but never found a way. I even went to their door to beg for it, but they refused to sell. I never thought I’d get to drink it so easily today."
"This must be the ’fated encounter’ you often speak of, Master, right?" Zuo Liang replied.
"Exactly!"
Zuo Xuan took another sip of tea. Holding the cup and savoring the aroma, she said, "The concept of a ’fated encounter’ is sometimes marvelously inexplicable."
Zuo Liang gently tugged at the leather belt around her waist and looked toward the small path in front of the bamboo house that led to the caves in the back mountain. "Will Daoist Changqing really be able to advance to the Third Realm this time?" she asked.
"Why do you ask such a question?"
"There are rumors spreading outside..."
"Since when did you start believing in rumors and gossip?"
Zuo Liang faltered, immediately realizing her mistake. She quickly lowered her head, cupped her fist in a salute, and said, "I was wrong."
Zuo Xuan set down her teacup, picked up a silver needle, and walked back to the brocade. "The greatest taboo on the path of cultivation is making elementary mistakes. Perhaps I have provided you with too much material comfort, to the point that you’re close to forgetting how cruel this path truly is. If you continue like this, you have no hope of advancing to the Second Realm."
Hearing this, Zuo Liang fell to her knees.
"I have a few friends in the north. I shall write a letter. You will go north to gain some experience. You should see what the world is like without my protection."
As she spoke, Zuo Xuan took out a blank sheet of letter paper from her storage pouch and began to write.
Zuo Liang did not dare to object. She knelt respectfully on the ground, waiting for her master to finish the letter. She listened silently to her master’s instructions, then performed a full kowtow. With a quiet "Yes," she left the bamboo house without another sound.
Once Zuo Liang was gone, Zuo Xuan returned to her seat. She glanced at the Calico Cat sleeping on a soft cushion nearby, then toward the seclusion retreat deeper down the path, and murmured to herself, ’The Great Dao is endless. For someone like me, who lacks talent, only through conscientious effort can I find a foothold in this world.’
After saying this, her gaze fell upon the teacup before her. She rose, picked it up again, and closed her eyes, inhaling the aroma. "Truly fine tea," she praised.
* * *
In the underground seclusion chamber, shielded from Spiritual Qi.
Wang Ping had lost count of how many times he had tried. Following his own understanding, he assimilated his internal organs while simultaneously refining his body. As he had imagined, the more his body was covered by Spirit Veins, the higher the success rate of the refinement. Currently, the success rate on his status panel had reached (48/100).
However, the prerequisite for all of this was that his Primordial Spirit had to be able to suppress the Spirit Vein Consciousness. Otherwise, the success rate would plummet to zero, and the desires in his own consciousness would be stirred up by the Spirit Vein Consciousness.
Therefore, for Wang Ping at this moment, whether he could refine a perfect Spirit Body was merely a matter of time.
"Why are you suddenly so full of confidence?" Yu Lian asked, puzzled.
"Because I can see hope?" Wang Ping replied, then asked back, "Are you getting impatient?"
"I’m just worried about you."
"Your cultivation is still insufficient." Wang Ping mimicked the tone of his master, Yu Cheng Taoist. These casual chats with Yu Lian were an important means for him to preserve his humanity during his seclusion.
Yu Lian projected a feeling of annoyance in the Spirit Sea but didn’t retort. Perhaps she, too, felt her cultivation was lacking.
Looking slightly pleased, Wang Ping leaned back on the cloud bed. Once his mind had recovered a bit, he got up, walked to the doorway, and sat down to absorb the Spiritual Qi from outside and replenish his Qi Sea. Yu Lian would usually take this opportunity to go up the passage to the surface for some fresh air.
The most profound effect of assimilating his internal organs was that Wang Ping became far more sensitive to Spiritual Qi. Sometimes, he could even see the Inspiration Realm without summoning his Primordial Spirit. The sensation of the two worlds overlapping was exceptionally strange. Visually, everything in the real world remained, but it was overlaid with chaotic Spirit Bodies.
It was just like the ghost sightings from the legends of his past life!
It was just that the ’ghosts’ here were mostly timid. As long as Wang Ping released the Spiritual Qi from his Qi Sea, they would flee far away. Moreover, if he wished it, a single thought from his Primordial Spirit could crush some of the weaker Spirit Bodies.
The recovery period was no more than four hours.
Afterward, Wang Ping returned to the center of the cloud bed and sat cross-legged. Yu Lian returned soon after, coiling around the cloud bed just as she had before.
Time flew by. For Wang Ping, who was deep in ascetic cultivation, five years passed in the blink of an eye.
Except for his head, he was only one final step away from completely assimilating his physical body. The refinement success rate had reached (99/100).
But that final one percent remained, and no matter what he tried, he could not achieve completion.
At this moment, Wang Ping still relied on breathing and the circulation of blood from his heart to survive, but this state had already become non-essential.
Once he finished refining his body into a perfect Spirit Body, his flesh and Spirit Veins would completely merge. All that would remain inside him would be his Qi Sea and the meridians that kept it functioning. The only part of him still in a human state would be his head.
"If you continue cultivating this way, you’ll completely transcend the category of human," Yu Lian couldn’t help but say.
"I’ve been prepared for that from the very beginning," Wang Ping responded calmly. "But as long as my humanity exists, I am still a person—a living, breathing person."
It was unclear what Yu Lian was thinking. She said abruptly, "I’ve suddenly taken an interest in the Yuqing Sect’s Secret Technique for cultivating an internal Cosmos. Is there any way you could steal a copy of their Cultivation Technique for me to study?"
"..." Wang Ping tried to read Yu Lian’s thoughts, but she suddenly severed the connection to the Spirit Sea.
"Why the sudden interest?"
"It just came to me."
"But why did it suddenly come to you?"
"Why are you acting like a child?"
Yu Lian shot back in annoyance, then changed the subject. "The Mystic Sects abandon the inherent advantages of the human body, using Spirit Bodies to ascend to a higher level of life and constructing a Primordial Spirit from a Spirit Body. It’s all so profound and mysterious. Look, life is inherently spiritual, and through cultivation, we refine ourselves into Spirit Bodies. It’s almost as if two Saints set down the rules of cultivation for us when they created the world."
Her words were jumbled, but Wang Ping understood what she was trying to express. He chuckled. "If Saints truly exist, then given their standing, the entire Cosmos would belong to them."
"True enough!"
Their conversation came to a sudden halt.
They both realized that if they continued this discussion, the topic would become incredibly grim and terrifying.
After a long silence, Yu Lian asked, "Are you ready?"
"Of course!"
Wang Ping took a deep breath, savoring one last lungful of fresh air with this body. Then, he decisively formed a Spell with his hands and summoned his Primordial Spirit. He had his Primordial Spirit give his physical body a careful look, then plunged it into the puppet.
At that moment, on the light-screen panel, the success rate for refining his physical body suddenly dropped to (20/100). This was because, in the instant he possessed the puppet, he wasn’t using his Primordial Spirit to suppress the Spirit Veins in his body.
In the next moment, his Primordial Spirit controlled the puppet to extend a hand and grasp the hand of his physical body. Using his Primordial Spirit to suppress the Spirit Veins within his flesh, the success rate quickly rose back to (99/100).
"Let’s begin..."
The voice that came from the puppet, spoken by Wang Ping, was raspy, like the grinding of wood shavings.
Yu Lian immediately connected her own Qi Sea with the Qi Sea in Wang Ping’s body, forming several stable Spiritual Energy Vortexes around the cloud bed.
Wang Ping calmly materialized the ’Luck-Borrowing Talisman’ and the ’Spirit Communication Talisman’ from his Primordial Spirit. He then began to refine his physical body using a common Artifact Refining method.
The process was unremarkable, with no heaven-and-earth-shaking phenomena.
He could clearly feel the process of his flesh and Spirit Veins merging. At this point, if he so wished, he could even change the form of his body, turning himself into a tall, handsome young man.
But Wang Ping didn’t do that. He still had some sense of shame, after all.
The refinement didn’t take long, finishing in just three days and three nights. Outwardly, his refined body showed no change, but its interior was now composed entirely of Spirit Veins. The connection between his Qi Sea and the meridians in his limbs was far more intimate, and the flow between them was completely unimpeded.
"I still have to say, this is incredible."
As Yu Lian marveled, Wang Ping’s Primordial Spirit left the puppet and easily merged back into his own body...
He could still breathe. His body still had warmth. His consciousness and memories were perfectly intact.
"The Spirit Vein Consciousness is infinitesimally close to zero. As long as no major problems arise in my future cultivation, it’s almost impossible for the Spirit Veins in my body to go berserk again."
Wang Ping said with delight, "Now that my Primordial Spirit has merged with my body, I can still connect to the Inspiration Realm. It’s even autonomously absorbing Spiritual Energy from the Inspiration Realm to strengthen my Primordial Spirit! In other words, I can now roam the Inspiration Realm without my Primordial Spirit needing to leave my body!"
"I’ve always been able to do that!"
"..."
Wang Ping decisively dropped the topic and cast a ’Cleansing Spell’ on himself before striding toward the main door.
"We can finally leave this place!"
Yu Lian cheered, darting out the door even faster than Wang Ping.
