Upon returning to his residence, Wei Yuan took out the copy of the Myriad Aspects of Great Yin Moon Splendor and read through it carefully from the beginning once more.
As a technique leading directly to the immortal path, it was naturally profound beyond measure. Every time Wei Yuan read it, he gained different insights, though these insights were sometimes contradictory.
The Myriad Aspects of Moon Splendor was renowned for its endless variations and was inherently complicated. The core text alone ran tens of thousands of words. Later generations of accomplished almighty figures had added countless annotations, supplements, and interpretations. These grand figures often held conflicting opinions, refuting one another across time and leaving behind their Dao rhythms as proof. Thus, including the grand figures' cross-epoch squabbles, the copy contained hundreds of thousands of words in total.
Wei Yuan held only one of three supplementary volumes; the insights recorded in the other two were likewise diverse, their past masters arguing across the void with equal ferocity.
And this was merely a copy. The original text contained few written remarks, but far more Dao rhythms. Most past Palace Masters and Vice Palace Masters of the Palace of Grand Beginning had left their Dao rhythms upon it, as had those who attained the realm of Immortal Monarch. These Dao rhythms carried little practical meaning—they merely proved that their owners had read the technique, akin to carving "so-and-so was here." After all, the Myriad Aspects of Great Yin Moon Splendor was a famed work left behind by an ancient Immortal Monarch. Leaving a Dao rhythm upon it was like stamping one's personal seal on a treasured painting.
Fortunately, each person's Dao rhythm was unique; otherwise, that jade cliff might not have held so many. They might have had to add extra cliffs beside it purely for storage, until the jade cliff displaying signatures ended up far larger than the original manual.
With hundreds of thousands of words and numerous Dao rhythms, even with Wei Yuan's robust divine soul, it took him a full half-day just to memorize everything. As for comprehending it completely, that was not something to be done in a year or two.
The Dao rhythms left by Immortal Monarchs on the original were vast and boundless; Wei Yuan could scarcely grasp one in ten thousand on his first reading. The Dao rhythms left by various True Monarchs on the copy were entirely distinct from one another, at times even directly at odds. What Wei Yuan himself grasped differed yet again from the True Monarchs'. An ordinary novice would have inevitably been thrown into disarray.
Yet differing insights were the very essence of this immortal method. The power of the Great Yin was boundlessly metamorphic, which was why every True Monarch left behind a unique Dao rhythm. The core of this manual lay in using the power of the Great Yin to construct a core within the sea of consciousness, serving as a locus to draw in worldly qi. A Great Yin core could take many outward forms, but a full moon was generally considered the supreme grade. Once the core was constructed, one had to plant a dharma idol seed within it, which would gradually absorb the Dao Foundation and transform into a dharma idol.
Every time he reached this point, Wei Yuan harbored a doubt: could this Dao Foundation of his truly be absorbed by a Great Yin core? But for now, he was nothing more than a greenhorn on the path of cultivation. Since an Immortal Monarch had said it could be absorbed, he would assume for now that it could.
This cultivation session was Wei Yuan's first since entering the Dao Foundation realm, and he had no pills to assist him. In truth, specialized supplementary pills existed for the Dao Foundation realm, but Wei Yuan could no longer afford them. It was not just Wei Yuan; disciples from clans outside the Seven Surnames and Thirteen Clans could not afford them either. Yet the Monastery of Creation, well aware that nobody could afford them, stubbornly refused to lower the prices—absolute bastards.
Before cultivating, Wei Yuan set his mind and heart upright, questioning his inner core first: *What is the purpose of cultivation?*
The answer this time was simple and clear: *To expand human territory, and to slay all alien races.*
Wei Yuan settled into the designated cultivation chamber. Soon, he forgot both self and surroundings. His Dao Foundation stirred into motion, drawing in the world's spiritual qi, converting it into the power of the Great Yin according to the technique, and beginning the construction of the core.
What Wei Yuan had not expected, however, was that although only a tiny fraction of Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains could manifest physically, the entire expanse could be mobilized when absorbing worldly spiritual power!
Wei Yuan's mind was lucid and unstained by dust. Sitting atop the spiritual vein, he drew a deep breath from heaven and earth!
Inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale...
Wei Yuan suddenly seized up, as if plunged into a vacuum. An overwhelming sensation of suffocation dragged him out of his meditative state. The worldly spiritual qi all around him was completely gone!
No spiritual qi? How could that be? This was the Palace of Grand Beginning!
Baffled, Wei Yuan looked around. He was still sitting in the cave dwelling's cultivation chamber, the cushion woven from Ice Heart Grass still beneath him. This residence was a cave dwelling designated for Dao Foundation disciples, each chamber built atop a spiritual vein with a concentration of spiritual qi far exceeding the interior of Hanging Azure of the Empty Valley. Outside, a blessed-land sect might have only one or two such chambers, while in a grotto-heaven sect, only elders and core legacy disciples could enjoy them.
The Palace of Grand Beginning operated on the principle of providing standard cultivation conditions for every disciple, so the cave dwellings for Dao Foundation disciples were largely identical; even Zhang Sheng's residence was not much better than Wei Yuan's current one. However, the Palace did not stop disciples from relying on external resources—Bao Yun, for example, had simply torn down her cave dwelling and rebuilt it from scratch.
Thus, nothing should be wrong with the chamber itself. Yet Wei Yuan felt as though he had taken merely half a breath of spiritual qi, only for the surroundings to be completely stripped bare, leaving even the spiritual vein bone-dry!
Wei Yuan sent his divine sense into the cushion and down into the spiritual vein, probing deeper and deeper. He extended his senses a full hundred yards before finally detecting a fresh trickle of spiritual qi flowing along the vein like a tiny brook.
As long as there was still spiritual qi, it meant the vein had not failed. Breathing a sigh of relief, Wei Yuan closed his eyes and quieted his mind until the spiritual vein was filled once more, then took another deep breath from heaven and earth.
Inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale, inhale...
The mountain peak dotted with Dao Foundation cave dwellings shuddered violently. The great spirit-gathering formation that maintained the peak's spiritual qi shifted from invisible to visible, manifesting like a colossal bowl inverted over the entire mountain. Yet the formation flickered erratically, trembling violently as if on the verge of collapse!
Figures shot out from the cave dwellings one after another. Even several disciples in prolonged seclusion broke out of their isolation, their faces filled with shock.
"What happened? Where did the spiritual qi go?"
"I just probed with my divine sense—the spiritual vein ran dry!"
"Is someone attacking the mountain?!"
Meanwhile, in the quiet chamber, Wei Yuan seized up once again, having inhaled only half a breath, and could only wait helplessly for the spiritual vein to refill. By now, a massive full moon had already appeared within his sea of consciousness, suspended high above the continent, silently illuminating the endless, desolate land.
Seeing the full moon, Wei Yuan finally breathed easy.
The manual had droned on about how immensely difficult constructing a Great Yin core was, explaining at great length how to establish the structure, stabilize the framework, accumulate power, and refine its purity. In hindsight, it did not seem all that hard. He had merely taken two and a half breaths, and the supreme-grade Great Yin full moon was already formed, was it not?
On second thought, however, Wei Yuan understood the ancient sages' painstaking intentions. They must have feared that descendants would find it too easy and grow complacent, so they exaggerated the difficulty to intimidate their juniors and ensure they dared not cultivate with anything less than full devotion.
With nothing else to do while waiting for the spiritual qi to replenish, Wei Yuan observed the full moon, only to find that the full moon was observing him in return.
Entrenched within the full moon was a conspicuous shadow, both familiar and strange. Before establishing his Dao Foundation, Wei Yuan had not been able to see it clearly, but now that the full moon had expanded several times over, the shadow had enlarged proportionally as well. He could distinctly see it churning sluggishly, as though it possessed its own life and thoughts.
It seemed to sit at the center of the full moon, yet to Wei Yuan's senses, it appeared connected to another world, fathomless and profound.
For a fleeting instant, Wei Yuan suddenly caught a thought from the shadow within the moon. The feeling was utterly absurd, yet undeniably real. Its thought was:
*I'm sitting right here, quietly watching you prance around.*
Chapter 96