When He Lingchuan’s divine sense entered his newly opened Niwan Palace, he felt an overwhelming sense of comfort, as though soaking in a hot spring bathed in soothing warmth. Yet the reality differed from what Helian Chen, A’luo’s master, had claimed back then: this upper dantian stored almost no true power at all. Instead, it was a dwelling place for the soul!
The old man had likely never opened an upper dantian himself, which was why his explanation to He Lingchuan had been flawed.
Once opened, the Niwan Palace merged with the sea of consciousness, bearing the alternate name "Divine Mansion." This was not the acupoint in the upper abdomen, but the sacred ground where the origin soul was nurtured.
Even ancient immortals capable of sending their origin souls out of their bodies to travel hundreds of li by night had to begin their practice by opening this Divine Mansion.
At the same time, he discovered that the upper, middle, and lower dantians were integrated as one; pull a single hair, and the entire body moved. With all three dantians cleared and linked, his true power circulated with far greater efficiency—more than twice as fast as before.
Only when the soul was firm and stable could the ceiling of one’s cultivation rise. Body and soul complemented each other; neither could be dispensed with.
From this perspective, opening the upper dantian was the ultimate stumbling block for the vast majority of cultivators.
In ancient times, when spiritual energy was abundant, achieving this meant he had laid an ironclad foundation, finally taking a crucial step toward the supreme Great Dao. Ahead would lie boundless skies and a limitless future.
Yet constrained by the present era and environment…
*Without a great wind, the roc cannot take flight.*
Sooner or later, he would feel how severely this world bound and restricted his cultivation.
Naturally, that was a concern for later. For now, He Lingchuan sensed he still had room for growth.
Tomorrow’s worries could wait for tomorrow.
He slowly withdrew his power. Instead of standing up, he let out a long yawn.
The soul-snatching mirror sensed his shift immediately. "Whoa, you’re finally out of seclusion? You’ve been locked away for three days straight this time! I saw your body twitch several times—did you almost suffer qi deviation?"
"Almost," He Lingchuan replied offhandedly. "I opened my upper dantian."
"Oh." It took the mirror a good while to process the words. "Wait… what?!"
Without any fuss or fanfare, he had just pushed right through?
He Lingchuan climbed to his feet, stretched his arms, found some hot water to wash his face, and then headed straight for a tavern to feast.
These past three days and nights had drained him utterly. His stomach felt like a bottomless pit, and his appetite was easily double its usual size—and he was already a hearty eater to begin with.
Just braised pork shanks glistening with a rich purplish-gold sheen alone, he devoured five in one go.
Whole lamb legs simmered in spring water? He polished off two by himself.
Bowls of seaweed fried rice and shrimp fried rice, each serving bowl larger than his face—eight bowls.
Other seafood, staple dishes, and fruits were too numerous to count.
Seven or eight ravenous dockhands combined couldn't have eaten as much as he did alone.
After he called for extra dishes a second time, the tavern cook refused to believe a single person was eating it all and insisted on coming out to see for himself.
That glance turned the cook, along with every other diner in the room, into awestruck witnesses to He Lingchuan sweeping through the table like a tempest.
No one had ever seen someone pack away so much food!
The soul-snatching mirror couldn't help chiming in, "Hey, is the only benefit of opening the upper dantian that you get to gorge yourself like a pig?"
The true benefit of unblocking the upper dantian was stabilizing the soul and harmonizing the primal forces. He Lingchuan snapped open a crab shell with a satisfying crack. *Oho, packed to the brim with roe!*
"If you took dozens of strolls past the gates of hell, you’d eat even more than me, guaranteed."
This breakthrough attempt had lasted three whole days and nights. Both his soul and his physical body were worn to the bone. The joy of breaking through could not erase such profound mental and physical exhaustion.
Having eaten and drunk his fill, he ambled back to his inn and fell dead asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.
A deep, restorative sleep was always the best way to regain one's vitality.
***
When Dong Rui tracked He Lingchuan down, he handed over a black wine crock.
"What you asked for!"
The crock’s mouth was sealed tight with wax and talismans. He Lingchuan weighed it in his hand, feeling small, loose objects rattling inside.
These were the pieces of divine bone that Dong Rui had cut and processed.
Keeping divine bone active after exhuming it from a grave was no simple feat. Who knew what methods Dong Rui had used to pull it off.
The moment He Lingchuan took the crock, Dong Rui held out an open palm. "Where’s my island? When do I get it?"
"There’s still one tough hurdle to cross," He Lingchuan sighed. "I still haven't figured out the full story behind that monster on Longji Island. These past few days, I’ve had men asking around everywhere, including old-timers in Blade Harbor, but not a single one has ever laid eyes on this king of the yin hui."
He turned to Zhu Daniang, who was lingering nearby. "Madam, have you ever heard of such a creature before?"
"Rarely." Zhu Daniang was always blunt. "Earth fiend itself isn’t rare. Usually, wherever it gathers, not a blade of grass grows, and neither man nor beast can survive. But an earth fiend yin vein like the one in the Yangshan Archipelago is actually very uncommon."
He Lingchuan recalled the Panlong Desert and the former lands of the Yuan Kingdom. Those were indeed typical examples of so-called lands of divine wrath.
Dong Rui frowned in confusion. "Are earth fiend yin veins really that rare?"
"Earth fiend yin veins *like this one* are rare!" Zhu Daniang emphasized the word *this*. "The Yangshan Archipelago gets drenched in sunlight by day. Any earth fiend exposed to the light gets thoroughly baked away, only regenerating once every seven days. Most other earth fiend yin veins lie in utterly sunless, barren dead zones where the sun never shines year-round.
"Though yin hui live in places of yin fiend, the fiend energy is to them what air is to us—it sustains their normal breathing. But aside from breathing, they still need to eat."
He Lingchuan grasped her meaning at once. "The Yangshan Archipelago has yin fiend, but it also has ordinary living creatures. It's the ideal habitat for yin hui."
"Exactly. There are fish in the water, and they taste pretty good." Zhu Daniang had snagged a few while on the boat. "That’s why yin hui are rare elsewhere. But if that king of the yin hui on the island were truly a great demon left over from antiquity, we shouldn’t have been able to escape so easily the first time we set foot on Longji Island."
"Don't yin hui fear light?"
"An ancient, seasoned demon has plenty of ways to shield itself from sunlight temporarily," Zhu Daniang said. "Besides, Longji Island is its home lair, honeycombed with underground pits and caverns. Even if it wanted to stay out of the sun, it should have had plenty of ways to intercept us."
Though Zhu Daniang was rich in combat experience, she understood that a mighty dragon cannot easily crush a snake in its own grass. Both monsters were nourished by earthly qi; judging by how formidable Juju had been on Mount Xu, this king of the yin hui shouldn't be far behind.
"You mean...?" He Lingchuan mused.
"Either it isn’t nearly that strong, or... there’s something else going on."
"I hadn’t looked at it that way." He Lingchuan’s eyes lit up. "Madam, what you're saying makes a lot of sense! We’ve drained the archipelago’s yin fiend turbidity twice now, putting the entire yin hui population in grave peril, yet that massive brute never made a move in person. It only sent giant hui ashore to come after us."
Why wouldn't it leave Longji Island?
If the king of the yin hui hadn't reached the caliber of an ancient demon immortal, his upcoming negotiations ought to be far simpler.
"Mm-hmm." Zhu Daniang pulled over a massive jar of fine wine, punctured the clay seal directly with a leg, and began slurping it up.
The way she drank bore an uncanny resemblance to people drinking bubble tea in He Lingchuan’s original world... He asked casually, "By the way, where has Erniang reached?"
"She's past Baifu Ridge. Four or five days more and she’ll arrive at Blade Harbor."
Dong Rui caught the name and blinked in surprise. "Hold on. Erniang? Zhu Erniang is coming?"
He glared at Zhu Daniang. "How long have we been staying under the same roof, and you never once mentioned this?"
"Didn't I?" Zhu Daniang scratched her mouthparts with a foreleg.
He Lingchuan cleared his throat. "I forgot to tell you. I invited Erniang to settle in the Yangshan Archipelago as well."
Zhu Erniang had arrived in eastern Mou Kingdom two months before him and had been residing in a secluded canyon.
These spider demon sisters possessed a peculiar form of shared telepathic resonance that allowed real-time communication. Through Zhu Daniang, He Lingchuan had extended an invitation to Zhu Erniang to take up residence in his new territory, the Yangshan Archipelago.
"Why her?" Dong Rui protested indignantly. "I contributed divine bone! What does she have?"
"She has output," He Lingchuan counted on his fingers. "Fluorescent spores, spider silk, aphid honey... If I missed anything, feel free to add to the list."
"Mushrooms," Dong Rui muttered sulkily. "Does she get her own island too?"
"Yes. She has a vast brood of offspring under her; an island too small wouldn't hold them all." Unlike her sister, who preferred acting alone, Zhu Erniang brought an entire household wherever she went.
Moving house was no small ordeal for her. Consequently, Zhu Erniang had weighed He Lingchuan’s invitation with great gravity, pondering it for several days before finally nodding in agreement.
He Lingchuan thought he had caught a whiff of reluctance.
Not that it mattered; he didn't mind.
The Yangshan Archipelago was vastly better suited to be Zhu Erniang’s cozy haven than any deep mountain gorge. If she pleased, she could even weave herself a Silken Cave.
With such a master cultivator and harvester on hand, the resources produced in He Lingchuan’s domain would expand dramatically.
In these early stages, such resources were vital.
Dong Rui gave a snort and dropped the subject. "Right, didn't you bring a whole nest of pirates to heel?"
"I did. And soon I’ll be sitting down for a meal with the chieftain of another pirate band." Min Tianxi, Chief of the Second Channel, had pulled the strings to arrange a meeting between him and Huang Zhao, Chief of the First Channel, at the Yellowfish Tavern in Blade Harbor.
Both sides had already exchanged preliminary greetings, of course.
Min Tianxi was on good personal terms with Huang Zhao and had shared everything he witnessed on Longji Island. After careful consideration, Huang Zhao had agreed to meet He Lingchuan.
Hearing about it was nothing compared to seeing it with one's own eyes, after all.
He Lingchuan remembered something. "By the way, that child-devouring ji beast I gave you—have you hatched it yet?"
He had traded a Heavenly Palace-produced child-devouring ji beast along with Alfalfa Island for forty pieces of active divine bone from Dong Rui. Looking back, he had certainly made out like a bandit.
"Not yet," Dong Rui replied solemnly. "It isn’t ready."
*Ready? Does waking a ji beast really require so much preparation?*
He Lingchuan knew little of such arts, but seeing Dong Rui take it so seriously, he let the matter rest. "Watch yourself. Don't end up swallowed whole by it."
"Me? Swallowed?" Dong Rui shot him a look of utter disdain. "Do you even know what you’re talking about?"
He Lingchuan shrugged. "If you need a hand, just say the word. No need to be shy."
Zhu Daniang added, "Same here."
Just then, Wang Fubao, a native of Mount Rong, came in to report: "Eldest Young Master, the notice recruiting craftsmen was posted in Blade Harbor four days ago. So far, two hundred people have signed up, and some of them came bringing their entire crews."
Dong Rui beamed with delight. "That fast? I thought nobody would dare set foot in the Yangshan Archipelago."
Wang Fubao scratched his head. "Well, the wages we offered are much higher."
"The Yangshan Archipelago isn't what scares people; poverty is," He Lingchuan chuckled. "A few days ago, Butler Ding had already gathered a good number of tenant farmers and laborers to start working on the islands. Most of them came from the Qing Kingdom and Bailie."
He marveled aloud, "A free port is truly a wonderful place. You can recruit so many useful hands here."
***
The following day dawned clear and bright. He Lingchuan set out once more to explore the waters around Longji Island. This time, his party included not only Zhu Daniang and the Mount Rong disciples, but also Dong Rui.
Dong Rui, however, was aboard another vessel alongside Qiu Hu.
Chapter 915