Zhong Yue seemed to perceive the change in his sea of consciousness and wanted to open his eyes. The Sovereign Sui’s Picture he had constructed in his mind started to wavering and seemed like it could collapse at any moment.
"Don’t be distracted!"
Little Xin Huo shouted: "If you divert your focus you’ll lose all your previous efforts and damage your consciousness, by then it’ll become even more difficult to complete the visualization of the Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Picture! Now you have to gather all your effort and complete this cultivation!
Zhong Yue reined his consciousness in and focused all his attention. The Fire Era Palace, fire tree and Sovereign Sui didn’t anymore, instead becoming more and more complete, more and more steady.
After a long moment Zhong Yue felt his mind exhausted and opened his eyes. He looked with disbelief at the gloriously beautiful Fire Era Palace around him. When he looked down at his body he felt even stronger disbelief!
"No need to be surprised, this is the scene you visualized with your consciousness, it only exists in your sea of consciousness. The burden is also on your consciousness, but what obtained tempering is your soul.
The little Xin Huo kid proudly said on his shoulder: "The Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Visualization Picture isn’t like the rubbish method you were cultivating before, that kind of rubbish method has such a tiny effect on soul cultivation and isn’t half a bit useful for mind tempering. This the Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Visualization Picture I gave you can not only cultivate your soul, it can temper your consciousness and make it stronger and stronger!
Zhong Yue just wanted to stand up and go out of the Fire Era Palace, and look at the scenery outside, but suddenly he heard a crashing sound and the Fire Era Palace collapsed, the fire tree melted, even the Sovereign Sui’s body he had formed also crumbled, revealing his true soul body.
"What is this?" Zhong Yue was a little perplexed.
"If you can walk out of the palace, then you soul will break out of your body."
Little kid Xin Huo smiled: "No matter the Fire Era Palace or the Sword Gate, they both represent a portal. Inside the portal is your body, then outside the portal is outside your body. Whether you cross out of the Fire Era Palace or the Sword Gate you will have achieved the soul of the body state. You just came in contact with the Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Picture right now, achieving this step is already very good.
"Really?" Zhong Yue said happily as his eyes became bright.
Little Xin Huo kid’s face became stern again. He crossed his arms and walked on his soul’s shoulder , saying with a sneer: "Descendant of f.u.xi, don’t be proud. You’re still far worse than pure-blooded Soul Fire inheritors. Pure-blooded Soul Fire inheritors can visualize the whole of this Visualization Picture at a single glance, while you only visualized a rough sketch. You still have to practice!"
Zhong Yue was very openminded and smiled. "Pure blooded G.o.d race are so powerful? But they are G.o.d race and I am human, it’s natural if I can’t match them. Practice makes perfect, I’ll step up my cultivation efforts and won’t be worse than them."
Little Xin Huo kid pulled his face down and murmured in his heart: "Practice makes perfect? Your comprehension is higher than others, and you’re even more diligent than them, how are others going to live?"
Zhong Yue’s comprehension could only be regarded as ordinary among the generations of Soul Fire inheritors. But those inheritors the little Xin Huo kid had met were all pure-blooded f.u.xi G.o.d race!
For Zhong Yue to be able to achieve this step already made little Xin Huo very startled.
"Your consciousness is really too bad, just visualizing once exhausted your energy, and you need to rest for a while. When you cultivate the Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Picture a few times, your consciousness will become stronger and stronger. The day you can achieve consciousness transformation, making it visible to the eye, then you’ll have achieved small completion." Little Xin Huo kid laughed as he saw the over one hundred feet wide sea of consciousness had already dried up.
Zhong Yue stared blankly: "Transform the consciousness, visible to the eye, that only counts as small completion? That’s something only Qi Refining Warriors can achieve, can I really do it?"
Suddenly, he felt dizzy and drowsy. He couldn’t resist closing his eyes and fainted. Really, the visualization right now had consumed too much consciousness from him.
The little Xin Huo kid came out of his sea of consciousness and went back to the lamp. Black haze rolled in every direction and loud sounds echoed forth. The finger segment tall kid looked at the pa.s.sed out Zhong Yue, then looked back at the black haze, revealing a confused face: "How long did I sleep, why did the f.u.xi from back then become this way? What happened during this period? Moreover, what are those things inside this black haze…This little G.o.d race said this was the era of Human Sovereigns, what kind of era is the Human Sovereign Era?
Inside Zhong Yue’s sea of consciousness, the spirit was flowing like a small stream of running water. It grew, gradually filling the sea.
Zhong Yue woke up after a few hours, he entered meditation and immediately entered his sea of consciousness, suddenly delighted when he saw his originally over a hundred feet sea of consciousness had doubled again, becoming a full two hundred feet!
"Such powerful visualization method, what kind of existence is Xin Huo in the end?"
He composed himself, once again picturing the Fire Era Palace and Sovereign Sui. Since his consciousness was at least twice stronger it was much easier this time to visualize the Fire Era Palace, Sovereign Sui, and the fire tree.
After a moment Zhang Yue’s soul opened its eyes and saw that the Fire Era Palace formed by his consciousness had become much steadier, and although this visualization had cost him a lot of energy there was still half his consciousness left.
"There’s still so much consciousness left inside my sea, it should support my going out of the Fire Era Palace right?
Zhong Yue’s heart strongly beat twice "Bang Bang", he had cultivated six years and still couldn’t manage to break his soul out of the body, but now after practicing the Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Picture twice, he felt confident he could manage just that.
Inside the Fire Era Palace, Zhong Yue’s soul that had transformed into Sovereign Sui’s strode forward step by step, towards the Fire Era Palace’s outside!
And with his moving steps his consciousness was also rapidly consumed. One step, two steps, three steps, the spirit-formed sea within his sea of consciousness was quickly bottoming!
When he crossed his ninth step Zhong Yue reached the Fire Era Palace’s gate, only half a step away from going out of this divine palace. And at this moment his spirit was closed to being dried out.
Finally, his ninth step completely landed, and his sea of consciousness became entirely dry at the same time!
Boom!
An huge earthshaking noise came to his ear like the strike of galloping thunder, so loud that even the deaf could hear. Everything spun in Zhong Yue’s vision and transformed, as if he had stepped into a whole new world!
At this moment his soul had actually gone out of his body, standing in front of his own body!
Out of Body.
Zhong Yue’s heart and soul stirred, he finally achieved the breaking out state!
He had entered the Sword Sect at nine years old. It had been six years already, six years of diligent bitter cultivation, suffering a hundred times more hardship than others, persevering despite all setbacks, and he still couldn’t cultivate the Out of Body stage. Now he cultivated the Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Picture a short few hours and he actually managed to break through!
Zhong Yue was surprised and delighted, itching to laugh loudly and cry loudly, and thoroughly vent the happiness inside his heart.
Flames floated as Xin Huo flew out from that copper lamp, hanging face to face with Zhong Yue. This time after flying out of his body, Zhong Yue finally realized how small his own soul was; it was more or less the same as Xin Huo.
Two small persons looked at each other face to face and suddenly laughed together.
"You managed to break out, but it’s only the beginning, there’s still a distance from becoming a Qi Refining Warrior."
Little Xin Huo kid looked him up and down and said; "The out of body realm is too low, your present soul is small and weak, you can’t even infuse your soul, don’t mention inducing spirit."
"Soul Infusion?
Zhong Yue’s soul returned inside his body and he felt dizzy, that was a side effect from exhausting his consciousness.
Zhong Yue struggled to resist the urge to pa.s.s out and sleep, saying: "My Sword Sect has fifty thousand outer disciples, and not even a thousand can manage soul infusion, how could soul infusion be such an easy thing to achieve?"
While speaking he felt his consciousness restore a little, only this kind of recovery speed was much slower than sleeping deeply. To quickly restore consciousness he still had to sleep.
Soul Infusion was another realm, after the soul comes out of the body, you could infuse it inside an item and make that item fly. Only Soul Infusion needed an extremely strong soul and it was difficult to reach.
Those who could manage Soul Infusion were all outstanding characters among outer disciples!
"Soul Infusion is very difficult?"
Xin Huo fell on his shoulder and asked confusedly: "Wait until your next visualization, you’ll be able try Soul Infusion."
Zhong Yue’s eyelids were heavier and heavier as he murmured: "How could it be so fast…"
When he woke up once more he examined his sea of consciousness and saw that it had increased somehwat again. He couldn’t restrain his surprise and happiness: "Maybe this time I really can try Soul Attachment… eh, how did I become so much thinner?"
Lowering his head, he saw that in a short two or three days he had lost a lot of weight, with only skin left on his bones. He couldn’t help but be shocked. Although Zhong Yue was only fifteen years old, but among the many ten thousand disciples in the Sword Sect’s outer sect his physique could be considered one of the best. He was one of the rare people among outer disciples to cultivate the martial dao.
The martial dao wasn’t very important for Qi Refining Warriors. He had rarely heard of Qi Refining Warriors that cultivated the martial dao being able to accomplish great achievements, so the Sword Sect wasn’t very keen on the martial dao.
The Sword Sect mainly cultivated sword qi, first comprehending spirit, then borrowing spirit to cultivate sword qi. Ordinary Qi Refining Warriors of the Sword Sect could achieve a three feet long sword qi manifesting in the air and conquering all in its path. But the Sword Sect is after all a time-honored holy land with a long history and they still had some martial dao inheritance. It didn’t forbid its outer disciples from practicing them either.
The martial dao method Zhong Yue obtained in the outer sect was called the Jiao Dragon[1] Totem Body Coiling Secrets. It was also a visualization method and came from a human tribe with a Jiao Dragon as totem. Visualizing an ominious Jiao Dragon coiling around his own body, it provided a strong physique, every gesture as if containing the might of a Jiao Dragon; it was extraordinarily strong.
Cultivating so far, Zhong Yue’s body was many times more powerful than usual outer sect disciples. The reason he bitterly cultivated this martial dao method was also because he was born poor, needing to frequently go down the mountain to picking herbs and refine pills, strengthening himself to have a way to preserve his survival.
The Jiao Dragon Totem Body Coiling Secrets had also let him escape time and again from death when he met ferocious beasts, only leaving scars after scars on his body but preserving his life. However in those two or three days, the body he had painstakingly trained with the The Jiao Dragon Totem Body Coiling Secrets suddenly thinned to the point it resembled a dried twig, making Zhong Yue find it more or less difficult to accept.
But although his body had become thin, Zhong Yue didn’t feel like he had become weaker and his strength was still there.
"The cultivation of the Fire Era Palace Sovereign Sui Picture needs great amount of energy, the muscles in your body were consumed by your two visualizations."
Little Xin Huo kid explained: "Your body isn’t too weak, you must have been practicing a body cultivation method right? You did very well, body, consciousness, soul, the three complement each other, if you want great accomplishments you need a good body! If your body had been a bit weaker you could have starved to death the first time you visualized the Fire Era Palace and Sovereign Sui."
Zhong Yue was scarred and involuntarily cried ot: "Cultivating this method can even kill people?"
"Of course. Consciousness and body are connected, the stronger the body the stronger the consciousness will become. Consuming the consciousness will also consume the energy in the body. Visualization consumes consumes, therefore it consumes the energy in the body at the same time. If your body were a bit weaker you would definitely have starved to death."
little Xin Huo kid smiled: "Fortunately your body’s foundation isn’t bad and can sustain two visualizations, but if you try a third time you will turn into a skeleton. Now you absolutely need to eat, but also eat greatly. Not only you have to eat to your fill but you have to eat good things, it’s best if you don’t eat grains and crops and eat spiritual pills and wonder herbs instead. Or else your body will be dug empty!"
Translator notes:
I have translated 精神 as consciousness, but it’s a vague term that could mean spirit, soul, energy, focus, consciousness, essence, mood, whatever. Please note that this isn’t the same as in sea of consciousness, which is literally called sea of knowledge. I might change this later.
[1]: see more here: In chinese fantasy the Jiao is often seen as one step away from true dragons on the evolution pole.