"You craz-!" Zhang Wanqing cursed instinctively, but her words were cut short when she realised that she was actually not sinking into the lake this time.
Instead, her feet seemed to have landed upon a strange surface, stopping her from falling any deeper. As she stood on this invisible floor, the water actually only came up to her knee.
"Eh? What's going on?" Zhang Wanqing looked towards Wu Meng for answers.
She was certain that this floor did not exist earlier, or they would not have been able to dive to the bottom of the lake.
Only a few minutes had passed since they came out of the lake, and now this invisible floor had suddenly appeared?
Zhang Wanqing was sure that this had to be Wu Meng's doing.
Of course, she was also secretly relieved that this was the case. She would hate to have to go underwater once more.
"Craz? What were you about to say?" Wu Meng narrowed his eyes at her.
"No, no, I didn't say anything," Zhang Wanqing shook her head profusely. "Just tell me what to do, and I will definitely obey without question!"
"Sit down and close your eyes."
"Got it!" Zhang Wanqing immediately did as she was told, allowing the water to rise up to her chest level. In this position, she could once again feel that the water in the Myriad Wonders Lake was extremely heavy, completely unlike ordinary water.
"Enter a state of self-introspection by seeing into your own body, focusing on the dantian area."
Zhang Wanqing: "..."
What on earth is he talking about?
Enter a state of self-introspection?
See into her own body?
How?
"Imagine that you are a mere wisp of consciousness, entering your own body through the glabella, passing straight through your skin, flesh, blood, and bones, slowly falling to the dantian area," Wu Meng tried to describe the visuals for her. "Take your time."
Huu-!
Zhang Wanqing let out a deep breath before trying to follow Wu Meng's instructions.
Still, it was easier said than done.
Time and again, Zhang Wanqing tried to see herself from a third-person point of view, but how could it be that easy?
She ended up failing each time and having to repeat the process, only to fail again and repeat again.
"Doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result is but a foolish endeavour. You need to make necessary adjustments if you truly wish for a different result," Wu Meng advised. "Ultimately, your dantian is a part of you. Take control of both the origin and the goal, slowly allowing them to come together naturally."
Zhang Wanqing did not reply.
Instead, she heeded his advice and silently started making adjustments to her attempts.
Her progress was not fast by any measure, but there was progress, nevertheless.
Bit by bit, she made adjustments to her methodology.
And bit by bit, she got closer to observing her dantian.
Wu Meng did not press her either, watching silently and allowing her to keep trying with minute adjustments each time. The ideal way to complete this process differed from person to person, so prescribing a fixed method might even end up imposing a limit to what she could achieve.
That was why he had kept things vague on purpose, allowing her to slowly figure out the way that best suited her.
Who knew how many times the sun slowly crossed the sky, replaced by the moon, and then rose back up from the other end?
Zhang Wanqing was simply too focused on the task at hand to even notice.
And her concentration did not go unrewarded, either.
After an unknown amount of time had passed... after countless attempts had failed, Zhang Wanqing finally managed to see that elusive dantian that she had been seeking all this time.
Or perhaps it was more accurate to call it sensing the dantian instead.
At this moment, Zhang Wanqing instinctively understood – this was the state of self-introspection that Wu Meng had mentioned before!
"Well done," Wu Meng's voice sounded out in her head immediately. "Now comes the next step. Feel the world origin energy in your surroundings and guide them towards your dantian. The more, the better, so don't hold back!"
Once again, Zhang Wanqing did not respond.
She could feel that she had entered a strange state right now – one that greatly aided her in the process. It was as though her concentration had risen to an unprecedented level, allowing her to analyse her surroundings and get that much closer to understanding just how she should go about doing what Wu Meng had told her to.
Therefore, Zhang Wanqing was afraid that the moment she opened her mouth to speak, that would trigger the end of this mysterious state of concentration.
Should that really happen, who knew how long it would take for her to get to this point again?
Instead, Zhang Wanqing merely tried to expand her senses while not losing track of her dantian area.
In order to feel the world origin energy in her surroundings, she would need to replicate this state of self-introspection to a certain extent, doing so for her surroundings as well.
But to Zhang Wanqing's surprise, this step was actually rather easy.
The heavy water around her continued to rise and fall according to the gentle waves of the lake, splashing against her body and allowing her to clearly feel the movement of the tides. And this heavy water contained an extremely dense amount of world origin energy, almost making it such that it was the only relevant body of energy in this area.
Even to Zhang Wanqing, who was almost completely ignorant to the ways of cultivation, this was a fact that simply could not be missed.
It was a feeling that arose from one's fundamental instincts – akin to how people would just know that it hurt when they came into direct contact with fire.
As the heavy water rose and fell against her skin, so did the world origin energy in her surroundings.
This created a physical sensation for her – an incredible aid that directly helped the cultivation novice in visualising the flow of world origin energy around her.
In her mind, Zhang Wanqing imagined the pores of her skin expanding, hungrily absorbing energy particles from the heavy water and allowing them to enter her body.
And just like how she had imagined her wisp of consciousness entering her forehead and making its way to her dantian, she imagined the same for these energy particles, slowly guiding them towards the position of her dantian.
Little by little.
Bit by bit.
These individually-miniscule energy particles slowly came together and accumulated over time, forming a whole that only continued to increase in mass.
Zhang Wanqing had no idea how far she could go, or how far she needed to go.
All she sought was to continue until she could sustain it no longer.
Who knew how much time had passed since the start?
Was it hours? Or was it days?
Then again, it did not matter.
This was not a tiring process for her. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
It would not be an exaggeration to call it a tranquil experience, albeit slightly unnerving due to her slightly irrational fear of unexpected failure. Nevertheless, regardless of how much time had passed or how much more time was required, she was confident that she could keep going at it until the point of completion.
And at a certain point, Zhang Wanqing finally heard Wu Meng's voice sound out in her head once more.
"Very well done. Now, leave the rest to me."
These simple words were akin to a hammer striking a bell, instantly creating a wave of relief that washed over her, turning her mental state from a state of tense tranquillity to that of tense excitement.
The tension was still there, but the reason for it was different now.
Badump-! Badump-!
Her heartbeat sounded as loud as drums as she examined her dantian with self-introspection.
There, the mass of accumulated energy particles was quickly materialising into a single spiritual entity, assimilating into her inner self around her dantian area.
Badump-! Badump-!
Zhang Wanqing instinctively knew that the process was finally completed, and could not help but admire her new spiritual organ with a mix of appreciation and relief.
Her spiritual meridian root had finally been formed!
"Brace yourself. Here it comes!"
At the point of formation, a wave of energy erupted from her spiritual meridian root and flooded her body. It was almost like a thousand bugs had just burst out of her dantian and were tunnelling through her body underneath her skin, devouring every last bit of flesh and tendons that stood in their way!
For something like that to happen within one's body would bring about an excruciating amount of pain that should have been intolerable for any ordinary mortal. But to Wu Meng's surprise, Zhang Wanqing only furrowed her brows lightly before calming down once more.
Yes, this was indeed a very painful sensation.
However, Zhang Wanqing was someone who had only just undergone the forced cleansing of her body at the very depths of the Myriad Wonders Lake. In comparison to that, this level of pain was actually nothing in comparison!
It was not as though she could no longer feel the pain, but her experience definitely helped make this way more tolerable!
Zhang Wanqing tried to relax her muscles and release the tension in her body, doing her best to endure the pain while letting the initial wave of energy wash over her.
With each second that passed, she could feel her body getting stronger, nourished by the energy circulating within.
And when the energy within her finally became too saturated to be confined within the boundaries of her skin, it exploded out of her in the form of a powerful shockwave.
Boom-!
The heavy water surrounding her was sent out in a circle, creating huge waves that disrupted the peaceful surface.
Her hair and clothes fluttered wildly in the storm of energy, and she slowly opened her eyes.
Badump-! Badump-!
Zhang Wanqing could almost hear her heart pounding in excitement as she looked expectantly at Wu Meng. "Is it... over?"
"Congratulations. By forming your spiritual meridian root, you have just taken your very first step onto the path of cultivation," Wu Meng nodded back to her with a smile.
Badump-! Badump-!
Huu-!
Zhang Wanqing took a deep breath to calm her palpitating heart as the heavy waters of the Myriad Wonders Lake fell back into place, crashing heavily against her body.
This sensation of water served as another form of spiritual anchor, yet it still proved insufficient in calming her excitement that was about to pierce through the clouds.
Badump-! Badump-!
"You don't have to hold yourself back when it's just us," Wu Meng chuckled. "Go ahead and celebrate. You earned it."
"Yes, Master!" Zhang Wanqing slowly got to her feet upon hearing this, then looked up and hollered to the sky. "It's finally over! Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Hahahahaha!"
Her clothes were drenched, her face was pale, her body was trembling, and her deep dark circles made it obvious that she had just pulled multiple all-nighters in a row.
However, all of that was overshadowed by the wide grin on her face – the best testament to just how elated she was at the moment!
All of the pain and suffering over the past few days had been torturous to say the least, but it was finally over!
And even that was only a cause for relief. The main reason for her joy was something else entirely.
She had been an ordinary villager girl all her life, resigned to the fact that she would have to live her life to its end in Green Seed Village.
That had been nothing but the truth up until just a month ago, when she was still an insignificant girl whose fate could be dictated by a single decision from the village head, not to mention the mighty and untouchable cultivators.
Yet, how things had changed since then.
As of this very moment, she could officially call herself a cultivator as well!
Wu Meng did not say anything. He watched in silence as Zhang Wanqing closed her eyes and smiled at the sky, bathing in the warm sunlight from above.
He understood just how much pressure the poor girl had been under.
She had put her life on the line to face monsters and entities far above her level of existence, ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of her loved ones.
She had left the world that she knew, blindly following him into the unknown and having to trust in his words without question.
And in the past week, be it the first three days spent cleansing the body of impurities or the following three days spent forming the spiritual meridian root, neither of them could be taken lightly in terms of both difficulty and pain.
True mental resilience was required to pull through it all.
In fact, there had always been a chance of her mental state collapsing in its entirety, in which case he had been fully prepared to intervene at the first sign that things were about to spiral out of control.
Yet this seemingly ordinary girl had still managed to pull through on her own, even ending with such a satisfied smile on her face.
That said, the fact that he did not have to intervene was ideal not only because it could improve her confidence and strengthen her will. Yes, that was definitely a perk that came along with successfully completing everything on her own. But in addition, it would also have a direct and tangible impact on her!
Regular, true, and golden.
These were the different types of spiritual meridian roots that could be formed by cultivators, with golden being the rarest and most sought after. However, most people would never even dream of forming a golden spiritual meridian root due to just how incredibly difficult that was.
And yet, here it was – Zhang Wanqing's newly formed golden spiritual meridian root.
Yes, Wu Meng had a huge part to play in this, having provided her with extremely favourable conditions. But had Zhang Wanqing not been able to last through the entire process without losing consciousness, the formation of a golden spiritual meridian root would still not be a guaranteed matter.
It would appear that he had not misjudged Zhang Wanqing – her mental fortitude was indeed rather satisfactory!