Chen Chuan had no intention of pushing his cultivation through to the very end in a single breath. After just one night, he stepped out of the fissure.
The Xuejun Saber flashed, wiping away the rift. The glaring light that had spilled out into the cave vanished along with it.
He inspected the ritual array he had laid out, confirming that nothing had slipped through from the other side. This was an indispensable check. Even though he cultivated right at the lip of the fissure, there was never any guarantee that nothing would cross over.
Of course, the Ying Continent was riddled with fissures opened by both the First People and present-day cults and sects. Who knew how many entities had already seeped across? One more or less on his part hardly seemed to matter.
Yet as a member of the Purist Faction, he was willing to put into practice those tenets that aligned with his conscience. Whatever the state of the world elsewhere, things had to be kept spotless on his end.
He retrieved the food supplies he had prepared earlier and released a wave of mental power outward. A gust of wind stirred outside as Chaoming, circling on patrol in the skies above, caught the signal. The creature swooped down, crawled through the cave opening, and bounded eagerly up to him with a happy cry.
Chen Chuan gave a faint smile and reached out to stroke it a few times before dividing out a portion of the food for it. With a thought, he scooped water from the subterranean pool, suspending a scattering of crystal-clear water spheres in the air so Chaoming could gulp them down whenever it grew thirsty.
Chen Chuan picked up a spoon, scooped up a mouthful of glistening rice, and ate slowly. Cultivating here was nearly equivalent to secluded meditation, but with Chaoming keeping him company, it did not feel dreary.
Moreover, his mental power was formidable enough that even within the stone cave, he could still pick up faint field signals transmitted from the zhisuo via his boundary credential. He could use this to keep abreast of developments in the outside world, so he was hardly cut off from society.
The new technologies of the modern era, coupled with abundant provisions, made this vastly superior to the bitter solitary retreats of ancient hermits, who had only the cool breeze and bright moon for company, drinking chilled dew to quench their thirst and feeding on wild Solomon's seal to stave off hunger.
He also discovered that the field information service provided by the Tianji Sect included subscription channels. If there was a subject one wished to follow, paying a fee ensured that the Tianji Sect would periodically compile reports and deliver them.
Though these reports arrived slightly behind real-time news, they were transmitted promptly via telegraph. Their timeliness was more than adequate, and their absolute veracity was guaranteed.
This suited him well, as it kept him from falling out of touch with the outside world.
Beyond that, his orderly and telegraph operator remained on standby at an inn near the scenic reserve. Should he have any requests, or if Delegation Leader Xie or the home country had any updates, word could reach him without delay.
After browsing the listings, he subscribed to more than a dozen channels in one go. Even without focusing on the federal capital, he could track happenings across the more remote peripheral Center Cities.
He could also find news regarding the Tianji Sect's recent affairs. Curiously enough, anyone seeking blessings or offering worship could commission a specific zhishi to perform a prayer ritual, provided they paid sufficient ritual coin.
Furthermore, like other Center Cities, the zhisuo offered on-site ritual setup and delivery of various provisions. In other words, even if he had brought nothing with him, the nearby zhisuo could have supplied everything he required.
However, considering that the Tianji Sect territory was not entirely free of intelligence operatives from the Strategic Affairs Division and the Secret Operations Directorate, he preferred to minimize such contact. In any case, everything he needed had already been prepared in advance.
Once he finished his meal, he sent Chaoming out to roam. By then, sunlight was already streaming into the cave, so he brought out the pellet.
As the beam of light swept across it, the figures of the Xuanists reappeared, and the details of the mural emerged once more.
Chen Chuan walked over, studying the movements of each Xuanist and tuning his senses to the spirit emanating from the wall.
These traces of spirit were extraordinarily faint, intermittent, and disjointed. Piecing them together and making sense of them required deep contemplation, which added considerable difficulty.
Fortunately, he was in no hurry to decipher it all at once. What made no sense today could wait until tomorrow. If he could glean insights he could apply to himself, that would be ideal; if not, there was no need to force it.
Over the days that followed, he settled into a steady routine. At night, he entered the fissure to cultivate. By day, aided by the pellet and the sunlight, he read and weighed the methods on the mural, taking the opportunity to rest his mind and review outside news.
Time slipped past day by day, and more than half a month went by in a flash.
Though the guards moved about outside, they never strayed far, rotating shifts to ensure a contingent remained on watch nearby at all times.
Within the fissure, Chen Chuan progressed step by step according to the methods outlined in the manual. Through daily tempering and cultivation, his spirit visage gradually grew taller and grander.
A larger frame meant it could draw more energy from the world across the rift to channel into his physical body, while also enduring the reciprocal nourishment of his body's power.
The method of Visage Deconstruction hinged on the concept of "deconstruction." Much like a martial artist breaking through their limiters, once one attained the threshold of their original level, a metamorphosis naturally followed. This was an indispensable preparation and transitional phase on the path to the Cave Mystery View.
He had originally estimated that he would need a month. That estimate, however, had factored in various contingencies. Practicing inside the fissure day after day eliminated those delays, allowing his cultivation to advance remarkably fast.
There was good reason so many martial artists from various nations were stationed at the Ring of the World. Aside from the genuine need for them to repel external incursions, acquiring resources and cultivating there was simply far better than doing so in the convergence zones or their home world.
Comparatively, however, life there offered far less freedom. Even when no entities attacked from the other side, they had to remain on standby around the clock.
As the days drifted toward late March, Chen Chuan was hovering cross-legged in the fissure when a sudden sensation washed over him. His eyes snapped open.
In tandem with his movement, the spirit visage opened its eyes as well, cold lightning seemingly flashing within their depths.
At the same moment, platinum fire of spirituality surged around the spirit visage. The ambient light inside the fissure actually shrank back, plunging the surroundings into pitch-black darkness, only to be immediately replaced by the brilliance radiating from the visage itself.
A dense web of cracks spread across the spirit visage's surface. Flakes of pale-gold debris peeled away, disintegrating into a fine, dark-gold powder that scattered in the radiant light as a haze of glittering specks, an effect both dazzling and magnificent.
With this shedding, the revealed spirit visage became far more exquisite and lifelike, resembling a true living being. Yet its stature remained colossal, draped in swirling ribbons and armor. Beneath the visor, its eyes radiated an imposing majesty; to call it an immortal or god descending into the mortal realm would be no exaggeration.
At this moment, he had passed the hurdle of Visage Deconstruction without incident.
With this trial complete, the spirit visage had effectively shed its former constraints, becoming vastly better attuned to his current flesh. Its capacity to absorb energy and resist foreign aberration increased by leaps and bounds.
Furthermore, he noticed wisps of purple qi spreading through the spirit visage.
This purple qi had previously existed only within his own body. Its emergence inside the spirit visage meant that under the impetus of this power, the visage could unleash tremendous force in an instant.
Moreover, if he merely materialized a portion of it, he would hardly suffer any exhaustion.
In that case, should he fight a Cave Mystery View martial artist again, a brief burst of power would ensure he was no longer reduced to a mere bystander.
At this thought, his mood lifted considerably.
With a flick of his intent, the golden specks swirling around him all drifted into the ring-shaped object floating before him.
These particles hovered between spirit and matter, making them viable materials for boundary-convergence weapons. Though they seemed of little use for now, there was no telling what the future might hold.
His feet touched down on solid ground. Drawing the Xuejun Saber, he turned and stepped out of the fissure. With a flash of his blade, he sealed the rift.
He walked over to the prayer mat and sat down. The road ahead was the final push toward the Cave Mystery View.
Beyond accumulation and the necessary resources, there was another issue he had to take into account.
Whenever he had broken through limits in the past, whether stepping into the fourth limit or reaching the Longevity View, the process had been arduous. His foundation was simply too profound, making each successive ascent progressively harder.
According to the outline, if one sought a breakthrough on this final threshold rather than grinding away slowly, one still had to undergo external combat. Only in the crucible of battle could one's full potential and vitality be completely unleashed.
Yet this path of metamorphosis might not prove easy.
He felt that as he grew stronger, finding an ordinary Cave Mystery View martial artist might not necessarily pose enough of a threat to stimulate that breakthrough.
He pondered the matter. He might soon need to thwart certain Federation factions from launching an offensive against Kawatua; perhaps he could encounter worthy opponents there.
Before that, however, he had to temper himself to a state of absolute perfection.
If that still fell short, he could perhaps try his luck with the Progenitor Company. He would have to pay them a visit eventually anyway.
Having thought it through, he rose to his feet, brought out the pellet, and shone the light, causing the mural to emerge once more.
Over these past few days of silently attuning to those lingering spirits, he had finally gleaned something from them.
The mural primarily depicted the various methods employed by the patriarchs of the Xuan Sect to combat entities from beyond the heavens.
"Xuanling" was actually a broad term. It could refer to an external visage, a refined application of spirit, or the Xuanist in person. It all depended on what one sought, which alone enabled one to accurately extract what was useful from the scattered traces of spirit.
Followers of the old sects mostly employed the Visage of the Divine and the Visage of the Aberrant; instances of the Visage of Man were exceedingly rare. Yet among these figures, one stood out with remarkable clarity.
He shifted his gaze toward the front. There stood a Xuanist adorned in a jeweled crown and blue robes, treading upon a lotus, holding a ritual ruler in one hand and a horsetail whisk in the other. His eyes looked out with disdain upon all directions, and on the mural as a whole, he held the position at the very vanguard of the charge.
Chen Chuan gazed at the image, carefully feeling the spirit imbued within it.
Hm?
Just then, he sensed something and could not help glancing toward the outside.
One of the seeds he had sent out, which had remained motionless in a certain place all this time, had suddenly begun to move. He could not yet tell what had prompted it.
Chapter 1220