At this mont, the situation in Li Yan’s body was strikingly similar to the descriptions of spirit-absorbing techniques found in ancient texts. This horrified him, could the Guishui True Scripture actually be an extre demonic cultivation thod?
What unsettled him even more was that, even as the water-elent spiritual vat within him filled to the brim, the powerful suction didn’t stop.
While he was still panicking, the chaotic spiritual power that had filled the water vat suddenly split into four distinct streams as the vat overflowed. These streams flowed steadily toward the neighboring wood, fire, earth, and tal vats, transforming into brilliant arcs of colored light like rainbows.
Li Yan watched nervously, but a mont later, he let out a long breath of relief.
The four streams had accurately converted into their respective elental attributes and were now pouring into their corresponding reservoirs.
Even more shocking, once they entered, the chaotic energy began to stabilize. Within the divine sense of Li Yan, the previously impure and foreign energy transford into clean, pure elental spiritual power, completely indistinguishable from his own.
“Could it be… the Guishui True Scripture really can absorb others’ spiritual power?”
The thought flashed through Li Yan’s mind but imdiately afterward, another possibility arose.
“Perhaps the spiritual energy within this strange blue prism is sothing unique… sothing different from ordinary ambient spiritual qi?”
The prism seed to contain a boundless source of power. The vortex above the water-elent reservoir showed no signs of slowing, on the contrary, it was spinning even faster, pulling more and more spiritual power from the prism into his dantian.
Li Yan began to feel bloated, unbearably full.
He glanced down, startled to see his lower abdon bulging outward as though it had been inflated like a balloon. Alard, he tried again to sever the connection with the prism. But any spiritual power he attempted to send clung to the vortex, becoming part of it instantly, completely ineffective.
Cold sweat poured down his back. If this continued, he’d still die if not of spiritual starvation, then of spiritual suffocation.
He forced himself to stay calm. After a few breaths, his stomach swelled further. Sweat stread from his brow. A sharp, unbearable pain radiated from his dantian, engulfing his whole body.
Then, a flash of insight struck him.
“If I can’t sever the outside flow, maybe I can redirect it. I can still control my internal spiritual power…”
Realizing this, he tried once more to circulate his energy and to his delight, it worked. As long as he didn’t touch the vortex, his control remained intact.
Li Yan focused his mind, steadied his breath, and began circulating the Guishui True Scripture technique again.
His solution was simple, since he couldn’t stop the incoming energy, he’d use it to break through! He’d direct it to smash through the next bottleneck, an internal evolution could consu the excess energy and prevent his dantian from rupturing.
The bloating he felt stemd from the spiritual reservoirs reaching their maximum capacity. The only way to expand them… was to advance in cultivation. Even if he failed, the attempt itself would burn away a great deal of excess power.
The origin of this blue prism was unknown, but its essence was undoubtedly a great treasure. As Li Yan began to attack the barrier to mid eighth level Qi Condensation, the influx of energy surged but the prism still showed no sign of depletion.
However, as ti passed, the blue glow on its surface began to dim, while the black core within it grew ever brighter.
Within the Wheel of Life and Death, where spiritual qi was several tis richer than the outside world, the torrents within Li Yan’s body crashed violently, each wave more intense than the last, layer after layer hamring against the barrier before him.
Then,
Splash.
A subtle sound echoed in his ears. Like a levee breaking, the tide of energy burst through the wall. More power surged in behind it, the tide rising even higher.
In less than twenty breaths, Li Yan had already reached mid eighth level Qi Condensation but this was just the beginning.
The Guishui True Scripture spun even faster.
The blue prism continued pouring forth its endless reservoir of energy.
Splash… Splash… Splash…
Peak Qi Condensation eighth level… ninth level… tenth…
Half an hour later, Li Yan’s cultivation had soared to the peak of early tenth level Qi Condensation!
His eyes snapped open just as the vortex abruptly dissipated, and the frenzied spiritual tides within him sank back down.
Sensing the surging spiritual power now dwelling within his dantian, Li Yan was overco with emotion. This trip into the Wheel of Life and Death had been the right call, regardless of whether he made it to the final rankings. As long as he could survive to reach the core, he had already won his gamble.
In just half an hour, he had achieved results equivalent to one or two years of intense cultivation outside. The gains had far exceeded his expectations.
After calming his emotions, Li Yan glanced again at the blue prism, only to be stunned.
The once-vibrant blue prism had turned a dull grey. The black core within it had shrunk to a tiny speck, barely visible unless one looked very closely.
To his senses, it now felt like an ancient elder at death’s door, ready to vanish into dust at the slightest breeze.
Cautiously, Li Yan extended his divine sense toward it, sweeping across its surface.
What he saw within was a world of grey skies, vast, empty, and utterly lifeless.
His sense didn’t detect any imdiate danger. He scanned the desolate landscape before continuing forward.
Like a lone bird, his strand of awareness flew on through the grey sky. After so distance, a black dot suddenly appeared ahead.
Li Yan judged that this must be the core that was visible from the outside.
His awareness approached swiftly. As he neared, the black dot rapidly grew in size until it beca a black sphere roughly ten feet across.
Li Yan’s divine sense hovered in front of the black sphere. He cautiously probed it, and at once, his heart trembled.
From within the sphere ca a sensation that felt strangely familiar, even intimate, like an old friend calling out. It stirred a powerful yearning in him to move closer. At the sa ti, his spiritual power fluctuated slightly, as if responding to the call of a long-lost companion.
After a mont of hesitation, Li Yan extended his divine sense toward the sphere but remained ready to cut off that strand the mont anything felt wrong.
If danger struck, he would sever it instantly. Though his divine sense would suffer damage, it could be cultivated back over ti. That was still better than losing his life.
But the instant his sense touched the black sphere, he felt as though he’d carelessly pushed over a frail old man. The entire space and the black sphere with it collapsed in an instant.
At the sa ti, the blue prism outside his body disintegrated into wisps of smoke and vanished without a trace.
Watching the fading haze drift away before him, Li Yan sighed in regret. He hadn’t even figured out what the prism actually did before it had completely vanished. What a waste.
Yet in the next mont, his eyes flared with excitent.
If a single blue prism held such power, what if he could obtain several of them?
Wouldn't it an that even Foundation Establishnt… might no longer be just a dream?
His breath quickened, and he instinctively looked toward Gong Chenying’s direction.
But after a dozen breaths, his gaze slowly cald.
Regardless of how miraculous the blue prism was, each team had only one. Without it, they wouldn’t even be able to proceed to the next stage. Without that, they would all die here.
Besides, each sect's prism core had a different color. His Sixth Senior Sister's prism had a purple core. Did that difference imply sothing deeper?
If this blue prism truly possessed such an incredible hidden function, why hadn’t the sect ntioned it? Why hadn’t Li Wuyi said anything about it?
Even just the ability to provide such refined spiritual energy was beyond what any number of mid-grade or even high-grade spirit stones could offer. That alone should be enough to drive countless cultivators insane with desire.
And yet… no one seed to care much about the prism.
Its only known functions were to grant passage through the Wheel of Life and Death, prevent internal slaughter among factions, and delay the black shadow in the sky.
Which suggested what he had just discovered… no one else had discovered before.
But his thod of discovery was absurdly simple, he had only injected spiritual power. Hadn’t Gong Chenying done the sa?
Then… could it be that at the mont she cut off her power, nothing strange occurred?
One question after another flashed through Li Yan’s mind, piling up without end, leaving him more confused the deeper he thought.
Then suddenly, like a lightning bolt, a mory struck him.
Back during the first trial, hadn’t that monk crushed his own blue prism?
Looking back, was it really just a casual gesture?
Could he have discovered the secret too and destroyed it on purpose to keep it from being exposed? Or… was it tied to a secret plot?
Before entering the trial grounds, and even after, every cultivator from the Wraith Sect had remained alert to the possibility of a conspiracy among the three sects.
Just earlier, when chatting with i Caichu and the others, they had discussed this very issue.
So far, apart from the odd looks exchanged before entering, they had only run into disciples from the Pure Land Sect. Everything else appeared normal.
Li Yan frowned deeply. He suddenly rembered sothing else, just before that monk died, he had whispered a single sentence.
At that ti, Li Yan had yet to fully retract his divine sense after triggering a devastating poison explosion. He’d been the closest and had heard it most clearly.
The monk had said,
“What a pity… we t too soon……”
At the ti, Li Yan, like the others, hadn’t given it much thought.
They all assud the monk was lanting running into Gong Chenying’s team too soon. If they'd had more ti, ti to recover or prepare, the outco might have been different.
But now, thinking carefully… those words sounded more like he had expected to et them, specifically the Wraith Sect team. And the "too soon" part implied so plan had gone awry.
“But what difference would eting later have made? Would they have been more prepared? And would we not have been just as ready?”
Li Yan’s thoughts spun rapidly.
Everyone knew the mont they entered one of the spherical trial spaces, they’d never face teammates, only strangers. Thus, before entering, everyone would take a mont to prepare. The only exception was when the sky’s black shadow forced them to enter imdiately.
Li Yan's frown deepened.
It felt like there was only a thin veil blocking his understanding. One push and everything would beco clear. But for so reason, that final push eluded him.
“Prepared? The blue prism? The blue prism… so kind of preparation?”
His eyes flickered with intensity.
“Could it be… that the prism grants so kind of advantage if used properly? That monk’s words, was he suggesting that encountering us, while holding the prism’s hidden potential, guaranteed victory?”
“If so… what exactly is the other use of this prism?”
(Chapter End)
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