Lin Yu's soul body just floated silently in the air, half a foot off the ground. His head was slightly lowered, as if he was still immersed in some deep state of slumber.
Compared to before he had entered that slumber, the Lin Yu at this moment had undergone earth-shattering changes.
In the past, he had been like a vague clump of water vapor barely squeezed into human form, the edges always blurred with afterimages, so transparent that you could even see the stone wall behind him through his body. But now, his soul body was condensed and solid as if carved from the finest white suet jade. Not only was there no trace of transparency, but even the folds in his clothes and the texture of his hair strands were crystal clear, as if a living person with a real physical body was just standing there out of thin air.
The surging soul power around them had finally completely calmed. The cave dwelling fell back into deathly silence, only the last wisp of blue smoke from the Soul-Nurturing Incense still stubbornly curling upward.
In midair, Lin Yu's eyelashes trembled slightly.
Then, he slowly opened his eyes.
They were a pair of shockingly bright eyes, free from the murkiness and deathly aura belonging to a remnant soul, as if they could see through all the illusions and deceptions in this world at a single glance, piercing straight to the heart.
Lin Yu lowered his head, bringing his hands up before his eyes, a trace of novelty in his gaze.
He slowly turned his palms, looking at the clearly visible lifelines on them. He tentatively clenched his fists, then extended his fingers one by one. As he made these movements, the natural curve of his fingernails was even visible on the jade-solid skin of his soul body, as well as the faint spiritual light that shimmered at his knuckles when he exerted force.
After a thorough inspection, Lin Yu finally lowered his hands.
He slowly raised his head. Those shockingly bright eyes crossed the void and settled quietly on Su Ming, who was sitting cross-legged.
Looking at his disciple's face, which was trying to force calmness, but whose eye corners still twitched slightly, the corners of Lin Yu's mouth curled upward into a mocking smile that Su Ming knew all too well.
A voice echoed through the cave dwelling.
Though the voice still carried a hint of the hoarseness that came from not speaking for a long time, it was now full of vigor, no longer carrying that ethereal, drifting sense of weakness from before. It was brimming with amusement.
"Brat, how long... was I asleep?"
After asking that question, Lin Yu's gaze shifted away from Su Ming's face and dropped again. He seemed to have developed a great interest in his current state, like an old craftsman examining a just-fired, peerless porcelain piece, scrutinizing his own hands over and over.
He vigorously flexed his ten fingers.
*Crack... crack...*
A series of subtle but extremely crisp sounds of knuckles popping rang out in the cave dwelling, which was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.
Su Ming's eyes suddenly narrowed. The sound was not loud, but it was unbelievably real! He knew that a soul was a formless, intangible thing, with no bones, no meridians. How could it possibly make the sound of knuckles popping, a sound that belonged only to a physical body? This could only mean one thing: his master's current soul body had reached a realm beyond imagination.
"Soul-Nurturing Wood Pith is indeed a marvelous treasure that seizes the creations of heaven and earth." Lin Yu twisted his wrist, feeling that long-lost, satisfying sense of power and control, his tone full of undisguised contentment. "This nap was worth it."
Though he appeared calm and carefree on the surface, a storm was raging inside Lin Yu's heart, and he even silently cursed to himself.
"Holy shit, 'worth it' is an understatement—I hit the jackpot! The solidity of this soul body is more than ten times stronger than before I went to sleep!" Lin Yu was roaring in his mind, feeling the soul power surging within him like a mighty river. "Back then, in that broken-down temple in Qingshi Town, I risked my life to swallow that Wailing Woman Lantern, just barely managing to break through to the early Ghost General stage. Later, I had to slowly grind away with the Minor Void Spirit Attraction Formation, and I relied on that stingy little bit of Star-Pattern Silk just to keep from losing a realm. This time, though, the wad of Soul-Nurturing Wood Pith that old geezer Hao Yuan gave me has a medicinal force that's absolutely tyrannical. It directly shoved me to the peak of the Ghost General realm!"
Peak of the Ghost General realm, when converted to the human cultivation system, was truly the peak of the Golden Core stage!
With soul body strength at the peak of the Golden Core, even if he ran into an ordinary early Golden Core cultivator, just relying on this powerful divine sense shock would be enough to give that person a serious headache.
"But still, I have to keep this trump card tightly hidden. In this shitty cultivation world, the only one who should know how many cards you have is yourself. Even for this dumb kid, there's no need to tell him the details, so he doesn't get too cocky and go get himself killed again." Lin Yu's internal calculations clicked along perfectly, but his face still maintained that transcendent demeanor of a master.
He slowly closed his eyes.
From Su Ming's perspective, his master was just resting with his eyes closed. But in reality, Lin Yu was extending his vast divine sense outward, in an extremely hidden manner, like ripples of water spreading out.
One layer, two layers, three layers...
His divine sense easily penetrated the several layers of formations that Su Ming had set up outside the cave dwelling to block prying eyes, pierced through the thick rock layers of Gazing Star Cliff, and stretched further toward the depths of Formation Peak.
A moment later, Lin Yu opened his eyes, casually sweeping his gaze across the stone table, his tone as flat as if he were commenting on the moonlight that night. "The spiritual field at the back of Formation Peak... those few Silver-Spotted Heart-Clearing Orchids used to concoct the Soul-Nurturing Incense are growing pretty well. But the root of the second one on the left seems to have some signs of fire poison accumulation. Go cast a Water Healing Art on it tomorrow to regulate it."
Sitting across from him, Su Ming's hands, resting on his knees, suddenly clenched tight, his heart feeling as if it had been slammed by a heavy hammer.
The spiritual field at the back of Formation Peak!
The straight-line distance from Gazing Star Cliff to that back-mountain spiritual field was a full two hundred zhang! And in between, there were various spirit-gathering arrays and protective restrictions set up by Formation Peak.
With his own cultivation at the peak of the early Foundation Establishment stage, the maximum range for releasing his divine sense was only a hundred zhang. But his master, who had just woken up, not only easily penetrated the dual obstacles of distance and restrictions with his divine sense, but could even clearly detect the subtle fire poison at the roots of a spirit herb two hundred zhang away!
This kind of terrifying perception had completely surpassed Su Ming's understanding of power at the Foundation Establishment stage.
"Master, what realm are you at now...?" Su Ming swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his body unconsciously leaning forward slightly, his tone carrying a mix of shock and tentative inquiry. "Could it be that you've already...?"
Before he could finish his words, Lin Yu raised a hand, gently cutting him off.
"I'm not too sure of my exact current realm either." Lin Yu put his hand down, his eyes deep as he looked at Su Ming, his tone carrying a hint of recollection and world-weariness. "You know, my soul body has suffered a heavy injury, so the boundary division can no longer be discussed according to normal logic. The only thing I can be certain of now is that I am... a little bit stronger than before I went to sleep."
"A little bit... stronger?" Su Ming looked at the body before him, solid as a white jade statue, and let out a bitter laugh in his heart. If this was called 'a little bit stronger,' then his own early Foundation Establishment cultivation probably wasn't even worth an ant's life.
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