Li Yan cast aside his other thoughts and sent a strand of divine sense towards the small sword on the table, and another strand of divine sense towards the mouth of the storage pouch. At that moment, two clear images appeared in his mind. One was that the small sword seemed to be connected to him by a silk thread, which could be pulled at will. The other strand of divine sense showed a strange space of about two zhang. The things inside were slightly distorted. A few spirit stones, a few pieces of clothing, and a small porcelain bottle lay quietly inside.
He thought about the method his Seventh Senior Brother had just taught him and slowly pulled up the thread of divine sense that was holding the small sword. The small sword slowly rose from the table. The next moment, the two strands of divine sense merged. When he looked with his eyes again, the small sword was no longer on the table.
He quickly sent his divine sense into the storage pouch. In his mind, that space appeared, and the small sword was lying quietly inside. Li Yan was overjoyed and slowly savored this magical feeling.
The next moment, he used his divine sense to lock onto a spirit stone in the pouch. With a pull and a release, a white light flashed from the mouth of the pouch, and a spirit stone appeared on the tabletop.
"Little Junior Brother, you can really use your divine sense! You're really amazing, truly amazing!" His Seventh Senior Brother's voice came from the side, the envy on his face still present.
Seeing that Li Yan could already use the storage pouch, Lin Daqiao thought for a moment and then explained the method of using the small sword and the flying spirit tool, which was the use of spiritual power. This was much simpler than the use of divine sense. After about another quarter of an hour, he found that he had explained most of the common basic knowledge.
"Little Junior Brother, the basics I've talked about today are all common things in the cultivation world. But there's still a lot of knowledge that can't be understood just by talking about it. You need to go out and experience it for yourself. You can start walking around the vicinity when you reach the sixth layer of Qi Condensation."
"There are many more things that I don't know either. However, there are many such books in the sect's treasured collection, such as strange tales, unofficial histories of cultivation, and the like. You can borrow them to read when you have time. Most of these books don't charge spirit stones. There are even some cultivation insights recorded by seniors inside, which are also very rare. They are very useful for learning from the experience of predecessors. Hmm, if you want to eat, you can just go to the handyman department and let them know. Someone will deliver it to you. You can even set a time with them, and they will deliver it at that time every day. For us, like your Seventh Senior Brother, we eat less now. We usually just take a Grain Abstinence Pill. Only when we have a craving for food do we ask them to make something and send it over."
"Hmm... I'll go by Eldest Senior Brother's place in a while and tell him which courtyard you've chosen. He'll come over tomorrow morning to take you to the treasured collection to choose a cultivation technique and immortal arts."
Lin Daqiao felt that there was nothing more to say, so he gave a few more instructions and was about to get up and leave.
Seeing him get up, Li Yan suddenly remembered something.
"By the way, Seventh Senior Brother, what did you mean by Soul Lamp just now?"
Lin Daqiao smiled. "Oh, that's easy to understand. You know that a person has seven spiritual souls and three physical souls, right?"
Li Yan nodded. That's what the stories in the mortal world said, but he had been half-believing, half-doubting it before. After all, he couldn't see or touch it. But now he was starting to believe it.
"When someone in the sect successfully establishes their foundation, they have to separate a trace of their essence soul to light the Soul Lamp. After the Soul Lamp is lit, no matter where you are in the future, even if you are tens of millions of li away, we can know your condition. If you die, the Soul Lamp will be extinguished. In this way, the sect can always grasp the current situation of the high-level cultivators in the sect. Also, if a person defects from the sect after lighting the Soul Lamp, we can roughly determine their direction based on the Soul Lamp. I heard that a Nascent Soul stage cultivator can even kill the opponent from a long distance through this Soul Lamp. But I heard that this not only requires a Nascent Soul stage cultivation, but also a great power who has cultivated a secret soul art. This is just hearsay."
"The defector from Spirit Insect Peak, Lian Shan, was very difficult to track because he hadn't had time to light his Soul Lamp. But now the sect is stricter. As soon as a cultivator establishes their foundation, they must go to the Soul Lamp Hall of Lord Lao Peak to light their Soul Lamp."
Lin Daqiao said nonchalantly. They had been instilled with the idea of not betraying the sect since they were young, so they naturally thought it was a matter of course.
After hearing this, Li Yan secretly pondered, 'To be controlled by others at all times, and possibly be killed by a Nascent Soul expert from a distance... this is not what I want. So, once I establish my foundation, how can I get rid of this?' Right now, the last thing he wanted was for his fate to be in the hands of others.
But on his face, he just smiled slightly to show that he understood. After all, establishing his foundation was still a distant matter.
Seeing this, Lin Daqiao stood up. He had spoken so much and had a good time today. He was also a little tired. And to make matters worse, Li Yan had just moved in and didn't have any tea, which made his mouth dry.
He bid farewell to Li Yan, reached out and picked up the waist token from Li Yan's table, and shook it at the door. A dark light flashed. He saw a gap appear in the white mist at the gate of the bamboo courtyard. After putting down the waist token, he reminded Li Yan again to drip his blood on the waist token as soon as possible, then floated towards the gate, leaving just like that.
Li Yan smiled and saw him off to the courtyard until Lin Daqiao disappeared through the courtyard gate.
After he returned to the living room, the first thing he did was to pick up the token and study it. He now knew that cultivators basically used their divine sense to read. He immediately released his divine sense and immersed it into the token.
After about the time it takes to eat half a meal, Li Yan's divine sense withdrew from the token. He released his divine sense again towards the storage pouch, took out the small sword, and lightly cut his finger. A few drops of blood fell out. With his other hand, he held the token up to the blood drops. A dazzling red light shone from the waist token. The next moment, Li Yan immediately felt a connection with the token in his hand. Now, even without using his divine sense, he could issue commands with a thought.
Following the instructions in the waist token, with a thought, he, sitting in the living room, saw the gap formed by the white mist at the courtyard gate instantly merge and fuse, once again forming a complete circle of white mist along the courtyard wall and gate.
Next, he went to the courtyard and manipulated the token a few more times at close range, making the protective formation change into several forms. He learned from the token that this formation had several types: illusion, attack, and protection. Currently, it was in a single protective state. After he became familiar with its operation, he could also merge these forms for use, but that kind of formation would consume more spirit stones. Any magical formation also required spirit stones.
He walked around the courtyard and found several spirit stone grooves in the corners of the courtyard walls, with a few spirit stones embedded in them. These formation spirit stones were all supplied by the sect on a monthly basis. Of course, you could also use them for cultivation, but no one would do that. Even when in the sect, the residence of every cultivator would have its protective magical formation activated at all times. Everyone had their own secrets and didn't want to be intruded upon without any warning.
If these spirit stones were used to activate a single formation form, they would be enough to last until the next month's distribution from the sect. But if multiple formation forms were activated, the consumption of spirit stones would be much greater. At that time, if it was not enough, he would have to pay for it out of his own pocket. Therefore, Li Yan only tried one form at a time and didn't dare to activate several at the same time. He had just entered the sect and only had a pathetic three low-grade spirit stones. He didn't know what kind of commotion the later stages of cultivation of the True Scripture of the Nether Water would cause. He couldn't let anyone detect the situation here under any circumstances.
After playing with the token for a while, he put it into his robes, then walked around the few rooms. The rest room only had a bed and a table. The practice room was even simpler, with only two meditation cushions on the floor. The breeding room had a pool made of jade, which was empty. The alchemy room, apart from an empty bamboo rack, had no medicinal pills on it. The living room, apart from the table, chairs, and tea set, was also empty. To put it nicely, it was elegant. To put it bluntly, it was extremely simple.
Li Yan stood in the living room, looking at the tea set, and felt that he didn't even have a place to boil water now. He didn't know any immortal arts. He looked at the sky outside. It was already evening. He couldn't help but sigh. It seemed he had to make a trip to the handyman department himself.
When he returned, he was already carrying a kettle. After entering the courtyard, he activated the protective magical formation again. He went to the living room, patted the storage pouch at his waist, and several packed meals appeared on the table. Looking at these meals and then at the kettle in his hand, he couldn't help but give a wry smile.
When he went to the handyman department just now, they happened to be preparing to eat. Li Yan wasn't picky and asked for a few dishes to be packed. He then told them the time to deliver his meals starting from tomorrow. He wasn't being polite. The group of young men and women naturally nodded in agreement, all looking at him with curious eyes. These people were also at the fifth or sixth layer of Qi Condensation and actually ate very little. It was a coincidence that Li Yan had come today.
Finally, Li Yan did something that astonished them. He asked them for a pot of boiled water and even took the pot with him. Seeing the dozen or so pairs of astonished eyes, Li Yan's face turned red. He didn't know any immortal arts and couldn't make fire. And when he got the pot full of boiled water, he didn't know if it would spill if he put it in the storage pouch. He couldn't possibly try it there. He had no choice but to put the packed meals into the storage pouch and, amidst the dumbfounded gazes of the handyman disciples, he strode away with the kettle in his hand.
Shaking his head, he washed the tea set, filled a few cups, then released his divine sense and took everything out of the storage pouch. Only then did he carefully put the kettle, which was still more than half full of boiled water, into the storage pouch. He then unfastened the storage pouch, turned it over a few times, and then took it out again. Seeing that it was unchanged, he nodded in satisfaction.
After eating and drinking tea, he went to the practice room. He planned to check his cultivation carefully to make a plan for his future cultivation.
Closing the door, with the formation in the courtyard running, all sounds seemed to be cut off from the world. Li Yan sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion. After regulating his breath for a moment, he began to look inward.
After about the time it takes to brew half a cup of tea, Li Yan slowly opened his eyes. He was indeed at the second layer of Qi Condensation now. The five vats in his body were also a little bigger. Now, only the highest water spiritual power vat had a little less than half of its spiritual energy. The other four spiritual energy vats were all empty. But he could clearly feel that although the spiritual energy in this water spiritual power vat was not much, it was much more condensed than the previous floating spiritual energy that seemed like it could be blown away with a single breath. Although the current spiritual energy was still in a gaseous state, these gaseous spiritual energies seemed to contain a little moisture, making them look much more condensed and tangible.
And the power of the current spiritual power could be clearly felt to be at least two or three times higher than before. Sure enough, each increase in realm was not a simple one-plus-one.
As for his divine sense, it was also several times stronger than before. It was not a problem for it to leave his body at all. He used his divine sense to carefully probe the surroundings again, but because his divine sense was still very weak, he couldn't probe out of this room at all. He stood up, closed his eyes, and a part of the scene of this room appeared in his mind. As he moved, the scene constantly changed. He could walk without any obstacles without using his eyes at all. This made him overjoyed. In a playful mood, he went to the courtyard and began to walk around with his eyes closed. Whether it was the stone table and benches in the courtyard or the other rooms, he could easily avoid them and come and go freely. It was only when he walked to the courtyard wall that his divine sense would be bounced back by the layer of white mist on the wall, making him unable to see the situation inside the mist.
After only a short while, Li Yan felt a sharp pain in his head and nausea in his chest. He was so scared that he quickly opened his eyes, dispersed his divine sense, and sat on the stone bench in the courtyard. It took him a long time to calm down before he could stop the feeling of vomiting. But his head was still dizzy, his back was soaked with sweat, and his body was trembling slightly, out of control.
After another cup of tea's time, he finally felt a little better and could calm down. He sat on the stone bench and thought for a while. He concluded that this should be the manifestation of overusing his spiritual power and divine sense. At this moment, the spiritual power in his body was already bottoming out. Only a few wisps of thin spiritual energy were still floating in the spiritual energy vat. The half-vat of somewhat substantial spiritual power from before was long gone.
To confirm this, he returned to the practice room and sat cross-legged to circulate the True Scripture of the Nether Water. Time passed bit by bit. Three hours later, Li Yan opened his eyes, his face full of doubt. After three hours of cultivation, the spiritual power in his body had only recovered to seventy or eighty percent. This kind of cultivation speed made him feel like an old ox pulling a broken cart. In a place with such rich spiritual energy, it was actually slower than when he cultivated in the Strategist's Manor.
But now he wanted to first verify the problem of divine sense consumption. He released his divine sense again and carefully savored the circulation of spiritual energy in his body. Three breaths later, he dispersed his divine sense again and began to think deeply.