Cultivation

Submerged in the ocean, Chen Chuan followed Talu as she continued to dive. At first, light still filtered down around them, but as they descended deeper, the surroundings grew progressively dimmer until everything faded into a murky blur. Yet this affected him very little. A fighter's mutated senses were exceptionally keen. Even without them, both his spiritual power and his outward-projecting field enabled him to clearly perceive shifts in his external surroundings. Up ahead, Talu made a hand gesture. Chen Chuan immediately understood her meaning: she was telling him the entrance was not far ahead. And yet he couldn't sense anything at all. Even when he extended his spiritual power to its utmost limit, he still came up empty. It seemed that an enduring, stable fissure like this truly differed from one that erupted without warning. The fissures he had encountered in Center City burst forth with brilliant light and ferocious torrents of air, spilling over with creatures emerging from within, possessing a tremendously forceful presence. Here, however, not a trace could be discerned. No wonder it had proved impossible to locate once it had been lost. This made him admire all the more the previous Talu who had tracked down this fissure once again. Back then, that predecessor hadn't known its exact location, nor even whether the fissure truly existed. To search for such a place amid the boundless expanse of the ocean was a despairing thought just to contemplate. As they continued diving downward, Talu suddenly vanished from his senses up ahead. His heart gave a slight stir, and he dived toward the spot where she had disappeared. Immediately, he felt the surrounding seawater abruptly recede from his body. In the next moment, he felt his feet touch solid ground. He was standing in a place suffused with a soft, lustrous glow. The entire space resembled a vast hall, its two flanks propped up layer upon layer by curved, rib-like bones. The glow seeped out from the inner walls in specks of light, growing brighter the farther forward one went, yet without being glaring to the eyes. This hardly looked like a fissure at all. At this moment, the water droplets rolled right off the skin of both individuals, leaving neither of them wet. In Chen Chuan's case in particular, white steam plumed from his body, and the moisture in his clothes evaporated completely in just a few moments. Beneath her thick brows, Talu's eyes shone bright. "Mr. Chen, are you using the Furnace Breathing Technique?" Chen Chuan said, "Yes." Talu said, "The Furnace Breathing Technique is an esoteric art of our faction. I've heard the requirements to practice it are extremely demanding. I've seen people who mastered the breathing technique before, but the way it manifests in you seems rather different from them, Mr. Chen." The people she had seen merely had scalding, reddened skin with a faint wisp of misty vapor. She had never seen anyone billow white smoke the way Chen Chuan did. Had she not felt that baking heat at close range and caught that distinct breathing cadence, she wouldn't have been certain. Chen Chuan gave a noncommittal hum. When it came to esoteric arts and combat techniques, differences in mutated tissue coverage and individual physiology caused them to manifest differently in every fighter. His mutated tissue coverage rate was exceptionally high, and he used the Zhouyuan Jin technique as his foundation. Thus, in external appearance, his might appear considerably more imposing than the orthodox Furnace Breathing Technique. Nevertheless, anyone with some knowledge of the technique could tell which breathing method he practiced from his breathing rhythm at close quarters. He looked around the surrounding space. "I've been inside fissures before, but they were vastly different from this." Talu looked upward and said, "That is because through generations of exploration by the Danliu School's predecessors, a sort of balance has been reached with the other side. In the past, one of the Danliu School's predecessors even merged with a certain lifeform inside the fissure, and many of our esoteric arts are contained within his field." "Then where is he..." Chen Chuan had initially intended to ask where this predecessor was, but he quickly realized a possibility and looked around once more. Talu said quite frankly, "We are right inside his body." She walked forward a few steps onto the open ground and said, "It is precisely because this senior's body acts as a barrier that the corruption coming from the other side of the fissure is blocked, keeping the entrance exceptionally stable. But all the incursions must be borne by this senior alone. It's said that long ago, he still possessed consciousness, but gradually lost it over time, leaving only his physical instincts to maintain this place." Chen Chuan thought to himself that it was no wonder he hadn't felt the sensation he normally experienced upon entering a fissure; it was evidently this unique organism at work. Talu said, "They say that in every stable fissure passed down from the Old Era, there is an organism merged with an entity from the other side. Most likely, those are all seniors from various martial arts schools." Chen Chuan focused his perception for a moment. This organism was indeed extraordinary; there was no spiritual power present at all. Just as Talu had said, nothing remained except a certain instinct. He followed Talu forward until they reached the far end of the area. Standing before them was a wall twisted together from countless coiling tendrils. When Talu approached, without her making any visible motion—seemingly sensing only the emission of her biological field—the intertwined tendrils loosened and slowly blossomed outward. In an instant, a beam of bright light poured out through the opening. Chen Chuan immediately felt a spiritual intrusion. Arriving alongside it were wisps and threads of quintessence. Though far less copious than when the Heavenly Gate had opened that day and comparatively faint, a breach had undeniably appeared. Talu offered a well-meaning warning: "Mr. Chen, when you cultivate, you only need to stay right here. Whatever you do, do not go out. It's hard to say what lies beyond. Senior's body can shield you here, but once you step outside, he won't be able to help you. What's more, Senior instinctively shuts out all foreign matter, so if you pass through, you might be sealed on the outside and find it very difficult to return." Chen Chuan said solemnly, "Understood. Thank you for the warning." Talu stepped back a few paces, and the tendrils closed back together. She said, "Mr. Chen, the fissure is very unstable right now. Keeping it open for long during the day will produce all sorts of anomalies, and those could easily be noticed by people up above. So if you want to cultivate, it's better to wait until nightfall. Let's head back for now." Chen Chuan nodded. In any case, he already knew the location, and he had some preparations to make. Thus, he exited the fissure alongside Talu. Since there was no path leading upward, they had to scale the sea cliff again to return to the top, but this posed no difficulty for either of them, and they soon made it back up. Once the moisture on his body had evaporated, he headed over to the thatched shelter by himself. Chaoming was currently perched atop the suitcase he had left there. Seeing him approach, it let out a chirp. He stepped forward and stroked it a few times, then picked up the suitcase and followed Talu down the mountain, intending to find a place to stay first. Feiguang Island had roughly three to four thousand residents. The largest village sat at the base of the central cliff, home to over two thousand people; the disciples recruited by the Danliu School came almost entirely from this village. Naturally, some people traveled from afar, drawn by the school's reputation to seek apprenticeship, but because it was usually difficult to ascertain their backgrounds and origins, very few ended up staying. Since ancient times, the Danliu School had been the protector of Feiguang Island and its surrounding waters. Back before martial arts gyms fell into decline, the status of a Talu was exceedingly high; even the rulers of Luowang Island had often come here to become nominal disciples. Yet with the decline of the martial arts schools, Luowang Island was annexed by other island nations and turned into a purely tourist island. Over the course of a century, memories of the school throughout the surrounding seas had also faded; only the people of Feiguang Island still revered them like guardian deities. Because Chen Chuan had been brought in person by Talu, the villagers arranged the best vacant guest room for him. After setting his belongings down inside, he washed up, then went out to buy some supplies and tools. Around five or six o'clock, carrying a freshly purchased waterproof tote bag and with Chaoming in tow, he returned to the top of the cliff and sat down. Perched at the cliff's edge with one hand resting on a bent knee and the Xuejun Saber placed casually beside him, he gazed at the magnificent sunset glow across the horizon, looking relaxed and at ease. The sea breeze ruffled his hair in continuous flutters. The evening sun bathed him in light, casting a warm golden-red sheen across his cheeks and clothes, all set against a canopy of deep violet dusk. Ever since arriving on this island, he had felt completely relaxed—a loosening of the spirit akin to soaking in a warm spring. At his spiritual level, he could tell that this was immensely beneficial for harmonizing a fighter's mind and body. It seemed that not just the fissure down below, but the island itself was a treasure ground. There was good reason why the Danliu School had chosen to establish its foundation here in the first place. He sat there until the sky turned completely dark, then stood up, picked up his waterproof bag, leapt from above, and plunged into the sea. Having visited once during the day, he could already sense the location's presence. Finding it again took little time. After diving several hundred meters, he felt the water recede from his body, and once more stepped inside the fissure. He strode forward. As he walked, water droplets slid off his skin, and billows of white steam drifted upward. When he arrived before the tendrils, they parted outward almost immediately—likely recognizing his field from earlier that day. Light filtered through from the other end and shone over him, accompanied by a strong gust of air that stirred the hem of his clothes and the tips of his hair. He stood still, taking it in for a moment. Although crossing over would yield far greater cultivation results, he was someone who took good advice to heart and had no intention of going through. Releasing his grip, he let the tote bag drop to the ground. Taking one more step forward, he sat down barely a meter from the entrance. Laying the Xuejun Saber beside him, he sensed the threads of quintessence surging through and began channeling the Spiritual Illumination Reflection Method taught to him by Teacher Xue. He felt the effects for a while. This was indeed vastly faster than his ordinary cultivation, and required no auxiliary medicinal aids. Usually, his spiritual practice relied on aromatic medicines, the grade of which escalated alongside the growth of his spiritual power. Here, however, none was needed. Yet an unavoidable problem emerged: a pronounced sign of illusory blurring appeared across his Second Self. A certain corruption from the other side had seeped through alongside the quintessence. He paid it no heed. Sitting cross-legged with eyes closed, he immersed himself wholeheartedly into cultivation. …… ……