Between five thatched huts, Lao Li faced Lin Shuang and the five others. He took out six sickles, made of gold, silver, bronze, and scrap iron respectively.
“These are the farming tools for harvesting wheat,” said Lao Li to the immortals. “Which one will you choose?”
Lin Shuang, both amused and perplexed, stepped closer to examine them carefully.
Unable to restrain himself, Meng Zi reached for the golden sickle first. In an instant, his expression changed drastically. The spiritual energy in his dantian plummeted by two whole levels—from Condensed Yuan Stage Four to Condensed Yuan Stage Two!
Dao Dong, the one despised by the villagers of Li, instinctively grabbed the sickle forged from scrap iron, his forehead twitching. He immediately collapsed into the field—his cultivation level had plummeted to the peak of Qi Transformation!
“Immortal, I’m afraid I must trouble you. All of this wheat must be harvested within three days,” said Lao Li. “Otherwise, when the heavy rain comes, it’ll all be soaked. We’ll have to tighten our belts, and we won’t be able to provide meals for the immortals starting tonight.”
Lin Shuang: “…”
[! Haha.]
[…Indeed, I can’t just lie around.]
The six had no other choice but to toil in the fields, breaking out in sweat.
Each of the sickles—gold, silver, bronze, and scrap iron—had a line of small characters on the handle: “Suppresses dantian. After complete depletion, it becomes easier to breakthrough.”
Meng Zi and the others immediately turned their gazes toward Lin Shuang.
Lin Shuang’s expression stiffened slightly. “Why are you looking at me?”
“No wonder you suppress your dantian every day!”
“Stop talking nonsense. I never did such a thing. They were already at the Qi Transformation stage from the beginning.”
…
The sun rose higher.
Drenched in sweat, Meng Zi swung the golden sickle with practiced blade techniques, laboring to harvest wheat at the second level of Ning Yuan.
Mei Xin and Chen Xingchuan, wielding the silver and bronze sickles respectively, used the sounds of string-pulling and the glows of sword techniques to laboriously cut down wheat at the first layer of Ningyuan.
Dao Dong swung once, and the scrap iron sickle broke. In the end, he could only hold the remaining half wooden stick, use hand seals, activate formations, and cut wheat.
Before long, the four of them were drenched in sweat, their faces pale.
Their sudden drop in cultivation made them very uncomfortable. Their usually proficient attack techniques now felt strenuous.
But when they turned their heads, they saw Lin Shuang and Huangpu Yuan working with ease.
Huangpu Yuan, often frail and sickly, felt nothing at all despite a two-level drop in cultivation.
Lin Shuang’s dantian was originally at the third layer of Qi Transformation, leaving no room for further decline.
Both of them dove into the wheat field, their wheat-cutting movements even smoother and more consistent than theirs!
“Xiao Ai is about to perform a full scan on the first layer of wheat in the Ningyuan.”
“Weak point in spiritual energy—located and marked!”
Lin Shuang swung her sickle and cut precisely at the red dot on the wheat stalk illuminated by Xiao Ai!
As she moved forward, her eyes turned red.
She activated the Fire Eyes and Golden Sight technique.
“You’re doing great! There are 1,294 stalks of wheat per mu, and 1,293 left!”
“Woah, only 1,292 left! Lin Shuang, you’re amazing! Wow, you’ve even harvested wheat at the peak of Huaqi!”
Meng Zi and the others twitched their eyebrows.
The noise was indeed unbearable.
Huangpu Yuan even paused mid-swing.
He rubbed his forehead with his index finger.
[Backup Xiao Ai No. 2: Da Bao, you’re amazing! I can see all your hard work! You did it! You’ve conquered the second layer of Ningyuan!]
[Backup Xiao Ai No. 2: Muaaaah! Keep going, 1,192 more swings to go~]
[…Hang in there, why did you stop, Da Bao?]
Huangpu Yuan: “…”
He couldn’t help but turn his head to look at Lin Shuang, who was only five steps away.
He saw sweat dripping from her forehead, but her eyes were bright and clear.
It was as if the field before her wasn’t wheat, but nectar.
Every time she cut down a piece of wheat, it was like harvesting countless sweet dew, and she was visibly delighted.
Huangpu Yuan closed his eyes.
‘Yuan’er, you’re so amazing. You’ve already grown three tails.’
‘You’re your mother’s pride…’
Long ago, he had also been praised.
He almost forgot.
How many years… It seemed like a very, very long time ago, and many things were already forgotten.
“Hisss.”
Lin Shuang stumbled slightly in the unusually tall ‘mutated’ wheat field.
Huangpu Yuan almost reached out to support her.
But she steadied herself instantly, hoisting the half-body tall sickle onto her shoulder.
“Xiao Ai, adjust the wheat-cutting method!”
“This isn’t efficient enough.”
Huangpu Yuan: “…”
Meng Zi and the others: “…”
[?]
“Mark all transformed wheat as green, and the first layer of condensed wheat as yellow…”
“Now, activate the dual Pomodoro timer.”
“???”
Lin Shuang, shouldering the sickle, patted the lion dog talisman at her waist.
Xiao Ai immediately beeped. “Dual Pomodoro task activated: body movement practice, attack practice. Countdown begins for one incense stick’s time!”
Lin Shuang nodded.
In an instant, she vanished from sight.
In the air, she almost formed ninety-eight high-speed moving afterimages.
In an instant, the wheat field where she was located…
The wheat stalks fell one after another!
“Switch Pomodoro training: group attack!”
Upon encountering three stalks of ethereal wheat intertwined together, she swiftly executed a triple sickle slash.
She wouldn’t strike an extra time unless necessary.
Four strikes.
Triple strikes.
Double strikes.
Only when encountering isolated, lonely stalks of wheat would she deliver a satisfying blow.
“Only 32 stalks of wheat left—you’re doing great! We’ve increased our speed by 24%!”
“Next is the first layer of Ning Yuan—charge!”
“You’re doing great! We’ve increased our speed by 32% compared to before~”
It was like going through levels, from easy to hard.
Lin Shuang not only maintained a steady mindset, conserving her energy at the outset when facing the fourth-layer wheat, but also gradually mastered the proper sickle technique while harvesting lower-tier wheat.
Her sword techniques gradually merged with the sickle.
Her speed kept increasing.
The one incense stick time ended.
She sheathed her sickle.
Landing gracefully in front of Huangpu Yuan, she finished her move with style.
“Lin Shuang completed today’s body movement practice with 1,923 high-speed movements. Speed practice completed.”
“Completed the harvesting of all first-layer Ningyuan and Huaqi wheat. Single-person sword technique training completed 913 times, triple strike technique completed 182 times…”
“Congratulations, Lin Shuang!”
Meng Zi: “!”
Mei Xin: “…”
Chen Xingchuan: “…”
“I see now,” Meng Zi gritted his teeth. “Grouping wheat of similar strength together to deal with them, without having to repeatedly adjust the force of each strike…”
This was called the scale effect.
When the same production steps are grouped together, the more you do, the more time you save.
Otherwise, her dantian would fluctuate, facing wheat of different strengths, each time adjusting different amounts of spiritual energy.
Very troublesome.
Not impossible, but an unnecessary waste.
Lin Shuang sheathed her sickle, wiping the heavy sweat from her forehead.
“I’m completely drained.”
“…”
[You’re lying! You still have strength left!]
She looked at the countless thick wheat stalks that had fallen.
Frowning.
Lao Li stood by the edge of the field, hands behind his back, appreciating the sky.
“So, after cutting the wheat, I also have to pick it up, right?”
Lao Li didn’t even glance at her.
She still had a long way to go before finishing work.
“Xiao Ai, record this. The attack method of the Water Spirit Sword is too monotonous. While defeating the enemy, I can’t also pick up their storage pouch. I still need a sword technique that allows me to fight and collect items at the same time.”
Meng Zi and the others: “…”
[!]
[…]
She truly never stopped reflecting!
By the edge of the field, Lin Shuang finally, with Xiao Ai’s help, gathered all the scattered wheat into the shed.
Only then did she walk to the tea pavilion for rest, accepting the spiritual tea offered with a smile by Lao Li.
She wore a very grateful expression.
“Thank you, Grandpa Li. Thanks to you making me harvest the wheat, I discovered the biggest flaw in my cultivation technique.”
“When facing enemies, after defeating them, I still have to waste effort cleaning up the battlefield. Sigh, it’s really inefficient.”
“!”
[…]
No wonder she’s the junior apprentice who casually attracted the Dao Enlightenment spiritual energy.
[It’s hard to tell whether she’s flattering the puppet or being serious.]
But the next moment, Lao Li’s hearty laughter rang out from the projection.
“Immortal, you’re truly flattering this old man too much.”
“I don’t know anything about immortal cultivation… but I did hear from my ancestors that a hundred years ago, our Li Village hid a sword technique as powerful as the dragon drawing in water.”
[!]
Lin Shuang’s eyelid twitched.
She saw Lao Li exclaim in surprise as if just remembering something, clapping his hands together.
He excitedly looked at the space behind Lin Shuang.
“Immortal Lin, could these pages scattered in the wheat be the ones you’re looking for!”
This time, Lin Shuang was genuinely surprised.
Following Lao Li’s excited and exaggerated expression, she turned her head.
She saw the thick wheat stalks she had picked up one by one and tied together had changed.
Page 1 of “Dragon Drawing Water Sword”
Page 23 of “Dragon Drawing Water Sword”
Page 6 of “Dragon Drawing Water Sword”
…Page 9
…Page 6
…
“Can it be like this?”
Meng Zi was completely taken aback, his entire face lighting up.
“Is there also a saber technique?”
Lao Li immediately averted his gaze, looking toward the wheat field. “Ah, immortal, did you say something? Speak louder! Ah, you said there’s still so much wheat left to harvest, right, right.”
Meng Zi: “…”
[Pu—my spiritual tea.]
Soon, Huangpu Yuan also completed the task second fastest, silently but efficiently despite his frail body.
In front of Lao Li, he even spat out a mouthful of blood. “For the sake of Li Village’s food supply next year, my broken body can contribute a small effort, and I will die without regrets.”
Lao Li’s eyes flickered again.
Huangpu Yuan coughed a few times, his body swaying slightly. “Is there anything else I can assist with, Elder Li? Please let me know. While harvesting wheat, I gained some insights into sword techniques and would like to test them out again.”
Lao Li’s eyes continued to flicker.
Then, suddenly, he showed a greatly moved expression.
“I remember there’s also a sword cultivator’s notebook here. If you want it, you can dig around in the field.”
After saying that, Huangpu Yuan turned around.
He saw dozens of pages flying in the field where the wheat had been harvested.
Instantly, Meng Zi and the others gritted their teeth, speeding up their wheat-cutting actions.
The previous complaints and low spirits were gone.
They buried their heads and worked hard!
[Wow, Lin Shuang turned the situation around instantly, boosting morale.]
[Even Dao Dong, who had been treated unfairly in Li Village, now has fighting spirit.]
[Looking forward to her performance in the inner sect competition. Junior apprentice, lead the way for these underachievers in the inner sect.]
[…]
“Truly worthy of being senior apprentice.”
Moved, Zhao Keran turned to the green-robed and pink-robed elders.
“Elder, I’ve completed all the cleaning.”
“May I go to the lower levels of Zhen Chuan for further training?”
What!?
All cleaned up?
Green-robed Elder Duan Wufang straightened his neck, astonished at the completely renewed six thousand layers of resting caves.
Pink-robed Li Min was already used to it. She nodded and tossed a jade token to her.
“All disciples below three thousand layers are away. You can do as you please.”
Zhao Keran immediately bowed respectfully.
She also needed to work hard.
Senior apprentice kept pointing out her shortcomings and kept improving.
Senior apprentice Zhou Xuanwu also went into retreat for cultivation.
What reason did she have to slack off?
Zhao Keran quickly put down the four brooms in her hand and the four rags under her feet.
She used hand seals and left.
The disciples on the six thousandth floor looked at each other.
In a corner, Bai Yu sighed lightly and signaled to his teammates to step into the transmission array.
Meanwhile, the much-praised Lin Shuang was now entering her rest time.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to keep working.
It was simply that her dantian wouldn’t allow it.
“Hehe, it’s the junior apprentice’s one incense stick time limit.”
Huangpu Yuan patted the dust off his clothes and followed into the village chief’s thatched hut.
Lin Shuang raised her eyebrows, looking at his pale profile and waist-length black hair.
“Senior apprentice isn’t also someone who can only rise once a day, huh, tsk tsk.”
“…”
“…”
“When did you find out?”
Huangpu Yuan smiled as he sat by the tea table. With no one else inside, he no longer called her junior apprentice.
Deprived of protection, his ancient demon blood was coveted by human cultivators.
As a child, he had his six tails severed by human cultivators.
Now, with his tails gone, he was only a fake nine-tailed fox.
Every time he used his power, it felt like his tails were being severed again.
He could only unleash his Shenshen power once a day.
Any more than that, and his old injuries would flare up, costing him his life, and even medicinal pills below the sixth grade would be useless.
Lin Shuang shook her head, not wanting to answer such a simple question.
Immature.
No one could escape her analysis with 108 spiritual senses.
“Did you come here to break through to the Condensing Yuan stage?”
Huangpu Yuan sat by the tea table, calmly pouring a cup of spiritual tea.
“For a transformed body, unleashing full power is akin to having only the duration of a single incense stick’s worth of condensed essence time.”
“Any longer, and it will damage the dantian.”
Lin Shuang was holding a wet cloth to her sunburned face, not responding.
Full-fat burning exercise is best done every two days.
Too frequent, and the dantian would ache, unable to recover the next day.
Previously, slacking off in the outer sect, cough, keeping a low profile, two days of fat burning was enough.
But now that she was in Zhen Chuan, two days of full output was gradually becoming insufficient.
Lin Shuang looked inward at her 98 dantians, all now tired.
What the great demon Huangpu said was correct. Only when a hundred dantians merged into one, becoming true Ningyuan, could she casually unleash Ningyuan’s power.
Otherwise… she would have to rest after one incense stick’s time.
Lin Shuang opened her eyes. “Hmm, I want to break through to the Condensing Yuan stage.”
Huangpu Yuan’s thin lips twitched.
Traditionally, only demons, nourished by their bloodline, could break through naturally, unlike human cultivators who suffered.
She really was more like a little demon.
“I’ll guard you while you cultivate, junior apprentice.”
Huangpu Yuan smiled, taking out his sword and placing it on the tea table.
“I want to try to get first place in the inner sect competition with junior apprentice.”
Lin Shuang closed her eyes, sitting cross-legged on the jade bed.
“Being too goal-oriented isn’t good, senior apprentice.”
“If you fail to achieve your goal, you’ll easily become disappointed with yourself. Disappointment will lead to unnecessary sadness.”
“I’ll just casually get first place in the outer sect arena and first place in the inner sect arena.”
Huangpu Yuan: “…”
Because she had multiple goals, failing one wasn’t a big deal.
I did three things, what’s the problem if I fail the fourth?
Lin Shuang’s inner strength was as formidable as divine refinement.
Soon, she applied a one-way mirror talisman to herself.
Inside the talisman world, she inserted the wallpaper background of the interior decoration of the 99th wooden house in the outer sect.
In a familiar learning environment, she would enter a state of immersive cultivation and focus faster.
The focus of spiritual consciousness would also be enhanced as per daily habits.
Lin Shuang glanced at the virtual “background.”
Satisfied, she closed her eyes.
The white noise from the earpiece automatically played, blocking out Meng Zi’s roars and Dao Dong’s cries from outside.
“Then I’ll trouble Senior Brother.”
Lin Shuang concentrated and entered an introspective state of her dantian.
Her spiritual consciousness rapidly operated, thinking.
Based on the extensive data she recently gathered in Zhenchuan concerning the aggregation of yuan:
—Approximately 100 dantians at the third level of Qi Transformation are equivalent to one yuan condensation at the third level.
Lin Shuang smiled.
If her speculation was correct, once the 100 dantians merged, she could instantly leap from the third level of Qi Transformation to approximately the third level of Yuan Condensation.
Thus saving ten breakthroughs.
Combined with two instances of spiritual energy bestowal, she might even step into the fourth layer of Yuan Condensation.
Given her mastery of various cultivation techniques and the formidable strength of her spiritual consciousness, defeating a cultivator at the sixth layer of Yuan Condensation would hardly be an impossible feat.
“Never thought the day of breakthrough would come so quickly.”
She counted on her fingers, “I leaped straight from Qi Transformation to Yuan Condensation, which would naturally attract attention and astonish many.”
“If I were in the outer sect, I’d have to explain this to Senior Brother Xu Rui and the Master of the Cultivation Transmission Hall.”
“But now,” Lin Shuang’s eyes brimmed with confidence, “I’ve reached the Elder Guidance level of Zhenchuan.”
“Breakthroughs were all guided by Xiao Hong.”
“Not to mention the time array, the exclusive training ground in Liji Village, being repeatedly challenged by senior peers at Yuan Condensation, the 6,000 layers of elder bestowal, and the pressure of representing the sect in battles…”
“Under such immense pressure and extraordinary encounters, my continuous breakthroughs from Qi Transformation to Yuan Condensation would naturally be filled in by others’ imaginations.”
“I even have eyewitnesses—”
With this thought, Lin Shuang turned her blazing gaze toward the “one-way glass” outside, fully aware that Huangfu Yuan was waiting there.
“He witnessed my breakthrough. If anyone has doubts, they can ask him.”
Lin Shuang was delighted.
She was truly brilliant.
Coming to the inner sect this time was definitely the right decision!
Thinking thus, she happily formed a hand seal and fully absorbed the spiritual energy bestowed and locked between her brows.
108 spiritual consciousnesses, like robbers again, dragged surrounding spiritual energy violently into her body.
But within a short tea-drinking time, the 99th dantian was formed.
Huangfu Yuan, sitting by the tea table, looked down at the swirling spiritual tea in his cup.
His phoenix eyes slowly widened from a daze, gazing toward the 108 spirals of spiritual energy swirling around her.
Lin Shuang sat with eyes closed, smiling, her posture elegant and content.
Earlier, she had exhausted all spiritual energy in the wheat field; her body now was like a parched land craving rain.
…
The 100th dantian formed.
Lin Shuang excitedly rubbed her hands, secretly extinguishing it.
In order, she awakened the veteran 1st and 2nd dantians located left and right in her lower abdomen.
Slowly, she controlled them to fuse.
She had started this experiment nine years ago, creating multiple dantians, failing many times.
Later, she spent a lot of time familiarizing and practicing with different dantians.
Now, finally, it was time to fuse!
She opened her lab notebook, unable to hide her excitement.
[Experiment 923 on Dantian]
[Sunny today, starting the first step of fusion.]
Using her spiritual consciousness, she slowly brought No. 1 and No. 2 closer.
Zhi la——
In an instant, the two simultaneously operating spiritual masses, running the Haoran Technique, collided at their edges.
Like metal clashing, they sparked scattered spiritual sparks!
“!”
“?!”
“Ah!”
Lin Shuang frowned, the microcirculation instantly interrupted, clutching her painfully aching lower abdomen.
It hurt.
Wait.
Lin Shuang’s breathing quickened, a fine layer of cold sweat breaking out on her neck.
Why did the fusion hurt?
Biting back tears from the corners of her eyes, she sniffled.
She stopped the Haoran Technique in both dantians, switching to the gentler Shuiling Technique.
Left and right, slowly bringing the two dantians together.
With a plop, the two dantians collided again, sparking spiritual sparks and tearing pain!
Damn.
Lin Shuang’s face turned pale from the pain.
No way?
“Stay calm.”
“Don’t jump to conclusions. There must be something wrong.”
Lin Shuang remained unfazed, her spiritual consciousness entering each operating dantian, patiently communicating with them.
The body has memory.
Dantians also have personalities.
They couldn’t be forced; only communication would work.
But Lin Shuang, hand on her lower abdomen, soon opened her eyes in disbelief.
“What do you mean, No. 1? You’ve only worked once a day for months.”
“Don’t want to merge? Don’t want to work every day.”
“…”
Lin Shuang was stunned.
Big trouble!
Huangfu Yuan, sipping spiritual tea while reading the “Directory of Elders from the Twelve Sects” in his pouch, felt something and looked up.
He saw Lin Shuang on the spiritual stone bed, forehead drenched in sweat, tightly gritting her teeth, her expression pained.
Frowning, he stood up with the scroll.
Approaching the jade bed.
Seeing Lin Shuang’s swaying figure, he raised an eyebrow, sensing her inner body with spiritual consciousness.
Instantly, his expression turned odd.
What was going on?
Inside her body, it seemed like the hundred demon clans were holding a grand meeting, chaotic and noisy… spiritual energy was rampaging.
“What should I do? How can I persuade a hundred lazy workers to work every day?”
He leaned closer, only then hearing her pale lips muttering.
Huangfu Yuan: “…”
*
In the rest courtyard of the 6,000th layer, the pink-robed elder and the green-robed elder each occupied one side of the jade counter.
They seemed like water and oil, never mixing.
Mutually disdainful.
But both watched the projection screen simultaneously, showing an odd expression.
In the thatched hut of Liji Village’s chief, spiritual energy consumption increased.
Lin Shuang and Huangfu Yuan had entered and hadn’t come out.
It had been nearly two hours.
Huangfu Yuan was fine, but according to Lin Shuang’s usual restlessness as an outer sect disciple, shouldn’t she be unable to sit still after just one incense stick’s time?
Just like in the Ten Thousand Volumes Study Hall, she would choose cultivation techniques and then get up to walk around, chat, eat melon seeds, comb her hair…
“She seems to be breaking through.”
Duan Wufang nodded. When her temper wasn’t flaring, her face actually looked quite docile.
“When she entered Zhenchuan, she was at the third layer of Qi Transformation, not like simple hidden cultivation. Even the Zhenchuan stone tablet couldn’t detect higher spiritual fluctuations.”
Li Min, upon hearing this, rarely refrained from retorting.
Her expression was strange.
It was indeed Qi Transformation dantians…
But she had eleven, no, probably more.
Only a hundred Qi Transformation could rival someone at the third layer of Yuan Condensation.
Turning dantians into this state, who taught her?
Now, what was she doing?
Li Min shook her head. She had never seen such a cultivation method.
[Outer sect’s Cultivation Transmission Hall, Li Daowei: I don’t know either. She ranked low. Every morning class, she would arrive one to three names earlier.]
“…”
Even this master didn’t know.
At this moment, only she, Xiaolv, and that guy at the 9,000th layer were on duty in Zhenchuan.
Their master, Elder Tan, was managing the guilds across the Twelve Sects, busily occupied, probably unable to spare even a projection to descend into Zhenchuan.
Li Min’s face showed helplessness. “I hope nothing goes wrong.”
*
Inside the old thatched hut of Liji Village.
Lin Shuang, wearing an outer robe, listlessly leaned against the spiritual stone table.
Her spiritual energy gradually recovered on the jade bed.
But she still looked weary, her spiritual sea exhausted. Her 108 spiritual consciousnesses were already wanting to sleep.
Huangfu Yuan put down his teacup. “Do you know that humans can only create a second body when reaching the Void Entry stage?”
The body contains both spiritual consciousness and nascent soul.
“At Void Entry, one can create a body; at Soul Combination, one can face tribulation.”
Lin Shuang clenched her right fist, striking her palm.
“So that means, if I train several dantians to the Tribulation stage, it would work?”
Huangfu Yuan’s mouth twitched.
Among the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon lineage, each tail, when newly formed, equates to a human cultivator at the Qi Transformation stage.
As their lifespan increases, they need to cultivate each tail separately.
Only after each tail reaches the Tribulation stage can they unite as one, escaping fate, and ascend.
But she was a human cultivator…
Huangfu Yuan looked at her, his expression more complex than ever.
Yet Lin Shuang suddenly had an epiphany. “So that’s it! Normally they refuse to merge, but under the life-and-death crisis of lightning tribulation, they either die or unite.”
“Tribulation can work,” Lin Shuang’s eyes lit up again. “So, cultivate each dantian to the Tribulation stage, and wait for the tribulation.”
Nine-Tailed Huangfu Yuan, with a huff, “You previously said there were ninety-seven of you.”
Lin Shuang: “Now it’s a hundred.”
Nine-Tailed Huangfu Yuan’s dark pupils momentarily lost focus.
“Yuan’er, the strength of nine tails comes at the cost of difficult bloodline breakthroughs.”
“Others only need to cultivate once to reach Tribulation, but we must cultivate nine times…”
“You must endure the path of the Nine-Tailed Dao.”
Cultivating nine tails is difficult, but compared to a hundred…
He looked at Lin Shuang with complex emotions.
Suddenly, he felt that cultivating each tail separately didn’t seem so hard anymore.
Huangfu Yuan sat down, his expression ever-changing.
An indescribable joy radiated from the tips of his hidden nine tails.
It turned out heaven wasn’t unfair to ancient bloodlines.
There’s always someone facing greater difficulty.
An indescribable joy surged from his heart.
Huangfu Yuan reached out to support his forehead, barely suppressing the quivering tips of his tails.
“Are you laughing, Senior Brother?”
“…Yes.”
“…”
Lin Shuang pointed an accusing gaze at this figure supporting his forehead, whose furry cloak seemed to tremble with laughter, simply unable to believe it.
No humanity at all.
“Junior sister, back to the main topic, what do you plan to do?”
Huangfu Yuan’s laughter made the scroll in his hand tremble.
His laughter gradually unrestrained.
“Not to mention whether lightning tribulation can help you unite, if you don’t find a solution, with a hundred dantians, every time you break through, you’ll have to do it a hundred times.”
“Early cultivation time is a hundredfold of others. In the end, it might all be in vain, unable to ascend.”
“…”
Breaking through from the third to the fourth layer of Qi Transformation would require repeating it 100 times.
Because she had 100 dantians.
Lin Shuang instantly grimaced in refusal.
No, this completely contradicted her original intention of saving breakthrough time!
Huangfu Yuan closed his eyes, cleared his thoughts for three seconds, then spoke, “I can intervene now and shatter 99 of your dantians. With your talent, starting over won’t be slow.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be quick and painless.”
Lin Shuang: “…”
She could still be saved.
She immediately entered the one-way mirror room again.
The current issue was actually the dantians refusing daily work and unwilling to merge.
But that wasn’t a big deal; just keep adding more dantians… a thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand… eventually reaching Tribulation strength.
But her past control over a hundred dantians was entirely due to having 108 spiritual consciousnesses as a foundation.
If cultivating a hundred thousand Qi Transformation dantians, the 108 spiritual consciousnesses couldn’t handle it at all.
That would be a fantasy, self-destruction.
Lin Shuang frowned.
The dantians had to be kept within 108, limited by her 108 spiritual consciousnesses.
But dantians No. 1 to 100 refused to merge. Cultivating each to Tribulation, as Huangfu Yuan mentioned, would require cultivating a hundred times, consuming too much time early on.
Lin Shuang took a deep breath.
It was a dilemma.
No wonder no one cultivated like her.
Case solved.
Lin Shuang’s expression was odd as she introspected her stubborn, uncooperative dantians.
“Actually, you’re just avoiding the reality of going to school or work every day.”
“Too willful.”
“Ah… I promise you then.”
“No one will work daily, I guarantee.”
Saving 100 breakthrough times during advancement meant temporary ‘merging’; also, considering the dantians’ moods, letting them temporarily separate when there’s nothing to do.
She immediately closed her eyes.
Shaping the edges of the 100 small round dantians into tooth-like shapes, like gears.
After an incense stick’s time, assembling them into a large spherical shape of 10*10.
When the gears engaged, a truly stable third-layer Yuan Qi condensation was achieved from the third-layer Qi Transformation.
But as Lin Shuang opened her eyes, the sphere instantly disassembled back into 100 small round dantians.
Forming a hand seal, she merged them again.
She closed her eyes and nodded.
Continuing to absorb spiritual energy.
In an instant, the spherical dantian rose from the peak of the third layer of Yuan Condensation to saturation, advancing one level and entering the fourth layer of Yuan Condensation.
Now, they could merge and break through together.
No need to break through 100 separately.
She smiled, opening her eyes. The sphere scattered again into 100 small round dantians at the fourth layer of Qi Transformation (each rising one layer).
They could continue taking turns resting.
Perfect, separable and mergeable.
Modular dantians!
[Speculative Cultivation Conversion
Qi Transformation N-layer small dantians * 100 = Yuan Condensation N-layer * 1 = 1 spherical dantian
Based on this inference, Nascent Spirit N-layer = 100 Yuan Condensation N-layer.
“Ah, after feeling it out, the merged spherical dantian also increased the dantians’ synergy.”
“Originally, I could only last about an incense stick’s duration, now it’s extended to half a day’s endurance.”
One dantian continuously working felt unfair, but merging into a sphere, seeing the other 99 equally unlucky, they accepted the overtime.
Their tolerance for overtime increased!
Lin Shuang nodded in satisfaction.
In reality, she could sustain the power of true Yuan condensation for half a day.
She closed her eyes, fully absorbing the spiritual energy between her brows, breaking through to the late stage of Yuan Condensation at the fifth layer.
Enough to pass this trial.
In the future, condensing 100 Yuan into the dantian, forming the Nascent Spirit dantian… surviving until the Tribulation, a lifespan of a thousand years should be achievable.
At this moment, the massive spherical dantian shone brilliantly in her lower abdomen.
Lin Shuang smiled and removed the one-way mirror charm.
Huangfu Yuan’s phoenix eyes revealed a hint of red, gazing over, his expression extremely complex.
A hundred points of light in her lower abdomen merged into one.
At this moment, her entire being exuded the aura of Yuan Condensation at the fourth layer peak.
But with a breath, she separated them again, reverting to a weak Qi Transformation at the fourth layer.
Huangfu Yuan: “…”
He looked again at her dantians.
Somewhat strange, looked again.
Even stranger.
She could merge 100 dantians into a sphere, breaking through from the third layer of Qi Transformation to the fourth layer simultaneously for all 100.
What about his nine tails?
Huangfu Yuan fell into contemplation.
Lin Shuang meditated and finally completed her cultivation at midnight, breaking through to the fifth layer of Yuan Condensation strength.
She removed the one-way glass and stood up to get water, but suddenly froze.
By the dimly lit kang table, an eerie figure was weaving nine strands of thick, gleaming silver fur under the candlelight.
“…!”
Lin Shuang’s eyelashes trembled.
This wasn’t what she had taught, right?
“Little junior sister, you’re smiling.”
“…Yes.”
“…”
“Senior Brother, combining nine strands into one… should I teach you the simple braiding technique for a fishbone braid?”
“!”
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