Breaking through to become an Elder of the sect… wouldn't that mean yet another reward of treasures?
With a sense of respect, Li Yuan bowed deeply toward the stone stele, then pushed the door open and stepped inside. Before him stretched a dense, flourishing forest, lush and vibrant.
Each and every tree was a century-old spiritual wood. Most of them were Qingchen Trees, which were especially prized—these Qingchen Woods were the most important material for refining Armored Wood Puppets.
The saying went:
"The Armored Wood towers to the heavens; to be reborn, it must first pass through fire."
Thus, fire was used to shape it, and only with the assistance of various spiritual materials could its form be stabilized, allowing it to unleash its full power.
As the ancient verses put it:
"Armored Wood towers to the heavens, and to be reborn, it requires fire.Spring resists metal, autumn resists earth.Blazing fire rides the dragon, surging waters mount the tiger.With the earth nourished and the heavens in harmony, it may stand firm for eternity."
Because of this, Armored Wood Puppets were rough-skinned and thick-bodied, embodying a fierce and upright strength. Their might surpassed that of Refined Wood Puppets by several degrees, which was exactly why disciples overwhelmingly preferred to choose them when refining puppets.
Li Yuan set his sights on a massive Qingchen Tree that had stood for more than a hundred years. Producing the axe he had prepared long ago, he chopped the giant down, peeled away its bark, smoothed its surface, then immersed it into a pool of Spirit-Convergence Water.
There it had to soak for eighty-one days—only then could the water fully penetrate the wood, transform it, and allow it to conceal water within its fibers, ensuring it would fear neither flame nor flood.
Once all this was done, Li Yuan suddenly felt the world spin. His vision blurred, and when he opened his eyes again, he was back in his own small courtyard.
His head throbbed painfully, dizziness overwhelming him. Clearly, his spiritual consciousness had been overexerted.
He collapsed directly onto his bed and fell asleep. In times like this, only rest could calm his mind and restore his spirit.
Outside the carved wooden window, autumn rains pattered softly, cold winds carrying the chill of the changing season. Raindrops fell endlessly from the eaves, a steady dripping sound filling the air.
Li Yuan slept for two whole days before waking again, feeling refreshed and invigorated.
Rising to his feet, he clasped his hands behind his back and stood at the window, gazing at the courtyard where countless yellow osmanthus blossoms had been beaten down by the rain, carpeting the ground in fragrant fragments.
With a quiet sigh, he murmured:"Another year of autumn has come."
Then, startled, he muttered:"Hm? Why does my spiritual sense feel… stronger again?"
Examining carefully, he realized something was different. After breaking through to the mid-stage, his divine sense had been able to cover about thirty zhang (roughly 100 meters) around him. But now, it had extended to forty zhang.
"Could it be…?"
A guess formed in his heart. When he used his consciousness to enter the Xuan Yuan Realm of Ten Thousand Trees, he had been able to manifest a figure of himself through divine sense alone. Clearly, this was a unique property of that realm—for an ordinary Qi Refinement cultivator would never be able to achieve such a feat.
And since he had exhausted his manifested divine sense inside that realm, once it recovered, his consciousness itself seemed to grow stronger.
The benefits of stronger divine sense were obvious. Most directly, it allowed one to control more puppets at once. For other cultivators, it could even assist in practicing cultivation techniques and breaking through realms.
But methods that specifically trained and strengthened divine sense… those were peerless secret arts, the kind that sects would guard above all else. In the current Qiling Sect, such things certainly did not exist.
Ecstatic, Li Yuan thought:If this truly works, then over the years my spiritual sense will grow far beyond others. When the time comes to break through realms, it will all be much easier.
Unfortunately, his days of free cultivation had ended—it was once again time for his turn at miscellaneous duties. He could not delay, so he tidied himself quickly and set out for the Lingfeng Grand Hall.
Along the way, his use of the Lightfoot Technique had grown noticeably smoother. After all, it was only a low-grade spell, and with Li Yuan's current cultivation, using it came naturally.
It took him less than two hours to reach the Lingfeng Grand Hall, arriving at the same time as five other disciples.
As was customary, deacon disciples received their duty assignments one day earlier than ordinary disciples. Lingfeng Peak did not have many deacons to begin with, and with yearly rotations, it was rare to find six gathered together at once.
Inside the hall stood a middle-aged, rotund man in yellow robes. With one hand, he stroked his short beard, his small eyes narrowed into smiling slits. His demeanor was genial and approachable.
When he saw them enter, he chuckled and said warmly:"So, you must be the newly appointed deacon disciple of our Lingfeng this year. Let me see… your name is Li Yuan, isn't it?"
"Yes, this disciple Li Yuan greets Elder," Li Yuan quickly stepped forward, cupping his hands and bowing respectfully.
"Mm, rare indeed," the yellow-robed elder said with a smile. "A disciple with only mid-grade spiritual roots, yet already at the mid-stage of cultivation at your age. Train another sixty years, and you might even become the youngest elder in the sect."
At this, the other five disciples cast sidelong glances his way. Embarrassed, Li Yuan hurriedly waved his hands and said:"Elder gives me far too much credit. I only reached this stage thanks to the help of the True Cultivators of Clear Wind Pavilion. Without their aid and without a hundred years of bitter cultivation, how could I ever have condensed spiritual blood to temper my roots?"
The yellow-robed elder chuckled, eyes squinting into crescents."Sometimes, fortune itself is the greatest talent one can possess.
Our Lingfeng has always had shallow foundations—most of our disciples come from humble commoner families. We can hardly compare to Qifeng Peak, where the disciples hail from the powerful Wang clan of Yuncheng."
This was something everyone in the sect knew, though few dared to discuss it openly. Lingfeng Peak might be weaker than Qifeng in disciples and resources, but the ancestor of Lingfeng—True Cultivator Yuhe—was two centuries younger than Qifeng's ancestor, True Cultivator Wang Xun.
And more importantly—Wang Xun was already over four hundred years old. Another sixty years, and no one could say for sure where the balance of power within the sect would tilt.
(End of Chapter)