"You have a sharp eye, Fellow Daoist. It is indeed a low-grade, Tier 1 dharma artifact."
A dharma artifact as a greeting gift? So generous—I like you two already!
Seeing Luo Chen fiddling with the wooden puppet enamoredly and injecting magical power into it only for it to remain utterly motionless, Murong Qinglian covered her mouth and giggled. "This is a puppet artifact. A common Attraction Art cannot control it; you must use the corresponding incantation."
"A puppet artifact?"
"Yes. Listen closely, Fellow Daoist: *When psyche accords with spirit, and psyche abides in matter, the upper vault turns in cycles...*"
Under the beautiful woman's guidance, Luo Chen quickly grasped the puppetry technique.
First, he channeled spiritual energy into the puppet beast, then stirred the spiritual sense that inherently dwelt deep within his soul.
However, during the Qi Refining stage, spiritual sense could not yet leave the physical body, so spiritual energy was required as a medium.
Suddenly—
*Clack!*
The tiny pangolin abruptly took a step forward.
Delight flashed across Luo Chen's face. With a shift of his thought, the pangolin began to crawl, taking one step after another.
From slow at first to a steady pace, it eventually began racing in circles around the courtyard.
"Fun, how fun! Truly fascinating!"
"I used to hear people say puppetry rivaled the Four Arts of Cultivation, and I scoffed at it back then. Looking at it now, it truly lives up to its reputation!"
"It's practically akin to an act of creation!"
Luo Chen marveled repeatedly. With another thought, the little pangolin scampered right up onto his shoulder.
Only when he turned his head did he realize that Qin Liangchen and his wife were staring at him in astonishment.
"Good lad! Your foundation in spiritual sense is actually so profound!"
Once again, Qin Liangchen was stunned by his neighbor.
First it was his exceptionally nimble footwork, and now a foundation in spiritual sense far outstripping his realm.
Luo Chen, however, was puzzled. "A foundation in spiritual sense?"
Murong Qinglian nodded to him. "All things possess vitality, born with a soul. When humans embark on cultivation, spiritual sense is born. At the start of Qi Refining, spiritual sense resides in the sea of consciousness and cannot leave the body. But once one achieves Foundation Establishment, spiritual sense can project outward, sweeping over a radius of several li. And should one have the fortune to attain the Golden Core Dao, it evolves further into divine sense, reflecting heaven and earth."
Soul, spiritual sense, divine sense.
Luo Chen silently turned these terms over in his mind.
He had heard fragments about them in the past, but only now did he learn that the three shared such an intimate connection.
"Yet how could you tell my foundation in spiritual sense was so deep?"
Luo Chen remained puzzled. According to them, spiritual sense couldn't leave the body during Qi Refining, so how could they gauge its strength?
This time, it was Qin Liangchen's turn to explain.
"The strength of a low-tier cultivator's spiritual sense indeed cannot be probed directly, but it can be judged through external performance. The simplest way is controlling a puppet."
"Come to think of it, that's a trick we only learned on this trip."
Qin Liangchen said proudly, "The Luoyun Sect my son joined established its footing in the Jade Cauldron Domain through puppetry. They have their own methods for testing and training spiritual sense. When our son entered the sect, the two of us gave it a try as well."
"For example, when controlling a Tier 1 puppet beast, how quickly you get the hang of it on your first try, your maximum control duration, the beast's running speed, and so forth can all offer a glimpse into your foundation in spiritual sense."
Murong Qinglian nodded in agreement with her Dao companion. "Indeed. It's said that within the Luoyun Sect, they hold an annual puppet beast race, and the winners receive very handsome rewards."
Puppet beast racing!
Luo Chen's eyes shone at the mention of it.
He had already felt the pangolin's running speed just now—it was barely inferior to a mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator unleashing the Wind Riding Technique at full power.
And that was while he was still unaccustomed to it.
If someone designed a puppet better suited for running, once it got moving, wouldn't it match the physical prowess of a demonic beast?
Yet after the excitement faded, a touch of gloom set in.
Life in a sect was truly rich and colorful; alas, it was a place he couldn't go.
"Given how quickly you picked it up just now and how fast you made the pangolin puppet beast run, your foundation in spiritual sense far surpasses how my husband and I performed back then."
"Rumor has it that when an early Foundation Establishment cultivator's spiritual sense leaves the body, its range is generally around two li."
Murong Qinglian said admiringly, "If you manage to advance to Foundation Establishment, Fellow Daoist, I fear your spiritual sense might reach four or five li the moment it first leaves your body."
*I'm actually that awesome?*
Luo Chen chuckled sheepishly, a rough guess forming in his mind.
Either it was a built-in perk of being a transmigrator,
or it was because he had overcome a heart tribulation a while back, after which he had felt his mental vitality improve significantly.
Even concocting two cauldrons of pills in a single day left him feeling unwearied.
Curious, Luo Chen asked, "You mentioned earlier that Luoyun Sect has ways to train spiritual sense besides testing it? How exactly does one train spiritual sense?"
"We wouldn't know that." Murong Qinglian shook her head helplessly. "We only heard that the stronger a person's spiritual sense, the more puppets they can control, and the more powerful those puppets are. Perhaps the method for training spiritual sense has something to do with the number of puppets controlled!"
Qin Liangchen curled his lips. "Puppet beasts are damn expensive. We bought several Tier 1 ones planning to give them to you neighbors as regional souvenirs, but just a few of them cost a hefty sum of spirit stones."
"I've caused you two to spend so much." Luo Chen reluctantly held out the pangolin.
"Bah, we're not hurting for this one. Why be so polite?"
Qin Liangchen waved his big hand, pushing it right back.
"Once my son becomes a Foundation Establishment cultivator, won't I have as many as I want?"
Whenever his son Xiaohu was mentioned, a look of pride always surfaced on the man's fierce, rugged face.
Murong Qinglian was the same, radiating a gentle maternal glow.
She lifted her skirt and rose to her feet. "Now that we're home, I should clean up a bit. You two keep chatting—I'll call you over for dinner in a while."
*Another free meal?*
"That wouldn't be proper. I've got pink pig thigh meat braising in the pot," Luo Chen said bashfully.
Qin Liangchen laughed heartily. "Who would have thought a lad like you could cook? Though I doubt it tastes like much. Don't be shy with my wife—just bring your red-braised pink pig over when the time comes, and we'll eat together."
"Then this Xiao Luo would be impolite to decline."
Murong Qinglian went inside to get busy, leaving Qin Liangchen in the courtyard chatting with Luo Chen.
He was a generous, talkative man, whose years of cultivation had already broadened his horizons.
Having recently traveled far from home to the Luoyun Sect, with its starkly different customs and local color, he had all the more stories to share.
Coincidentally, Luo Chen had a voracious thirst for knowledge and played the role of an excellent listener to perfection.
As one spoke and the other chimed in, they hit it off so well they felt like old friends meeting late in life, completely in tune with each other.
"If not for Old Man Mi's letter rushing us back, we would've toured Mount Yuhuang no matter what. Honestly, fighting some life-and-death battle out of nowhere—nothing better to do with his time!"
Qin Liangchen cursed as he explained the reason for their return, roundly blasting that "Old Man Mi" of his.
Anyone who didn't know better would have thought he was talking about some petty hoodlum.
Yet Luo Chen knew that the Old Man Mi he spoke of was a bona fide Foundation Establishment powerhouse and the current leader of the Mountain Breaker Gang.
He asked in surprise, "Brother Qin, are you going to fight on behalf of the Mountain Breaker Gang?"
Qin Liangchen gave a displeased grunt. "Of course I have to help! Back when I couldn't even put food on the table, I survived on a warehouse guard job Old Man Mi threw my way. I was only at the second level of Qi Refining back then. Now that he's in trouble, there's no way I can just stand by and watch him die."
Luo Chen truly had not expected this. It was one thing that his elder brother Wang Yuan was taking part in the death match,
but now this Brother Qin he had only just started addressing was also taking part in the death match.
What was this mess!
After some thought, he decided to offer a gentle warning.
"Brother Qin, I'm afraid it won't be easy for the Mountain Breaker Gang to beat the Great River Gang this time. The danger involved warrants second thoughts."
Qin Liangchen glanced at Luo Chen and fell silent for a moment.
Soon enough, though, he waved his hand dismissively.
"It is what it is. No matter how dangerous it gets, it won't beat heading into the mountains to hunt demonic beasts when I was only at Qi Refining level four. Old Man Mi made things very clear to me regarding this death match—isn't it just the Lianyun Merchant Alliance pulling strings from behind the scenes?"
"Nothing more to say about it. Just beat the crap out of them and call it a day."
Chapter 48