CHAPTER 163: ILLUSORY CORE CONDENSATION, QI SEA MANIFESTATION

Congratulations on making it to both the Heavenly and Earthly Rankings, Daoist Master Fei Yu!

Congratulations on securing first place on the Earthly Rankings, Daoist Master Fei Yu. You truly are a role model for our younger generation.

Fei Yu...

It was evident that each of the brief text messages had been carefully composed before being sent. The ones offering congratulations were all fellow cultivators who had added each other as friends through various past encounters and shared fates.

Wang Sheng replied to them one by one, always with the same line.

Wang Sheng: The immortal path has no end. Let us encourage each other along the way, Daoist Master.

Shi Qianzhang: Brother Sheng! Amazing! Please carry[1] me! I'll warm the bed! I'll even scream for you!

Wang Sheng thought for a moment and replied with an ellipsis, then recommended Shi Qianzhang add Huai Jing on YouChat. He hoped the eminent Buddhist would use Buddhist arts to purify Shi Qianzhang's restless and immature soul.

After making the recommendation, Wang Sheng paused for a moment. He felt as if he had done something incredible, yet he couldn't quite put his finger on why it felt so significant.

Undeniably, the ranking system had a remarkable promotional effect. Even Wang Sheng felt that he had somehow gained a certain amount of notoriety.

Then, a thought began to form in Wang Sheng's mind.

If laws and policies were the rigid measures used to regulate cultivators' behavior, then these rankings had become an invisible chain that subtly influenced them. In this world, how many could truly remain indifferent to fame and fortune?

The official rankings had cleverly leveraged the righteous cultivators' pursuit of fame. The Special Investigation Unit had also shown great wisdom. They only ranked cultivators as individuals instead of as part of their Daoist sects' heritages.

There were drawbacks to this, though. Aside from the experts of the Special Warfare Unit, these rankings had essentially exposed all of the most active and powerful righteous cultivators, saving corrupt cultivators the trouble of gathering intelligence.

Nevertheless, the benefits of these rankings far outweighed their cons. After all, this move greatly enhanced the authorities' influence over the cultivation world.

Once the excitement around the rankings died down, Wang Sheng's mother took Mu Wanxuan to the bedroom, saying that she had prepared a lot of pretty dresses for her.

Trying to act scholarly, Wang Sheng's father brought out a few books and said he wanted to test Wang Sheng's studies in the Dao. He asked him to explain parts of Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon[2] and Baopuzi[3] on the spot.

Apparently, from his father's perspective, the foundation of cultivating the Dao was just translating classical Chinese.

Daoist texts were divided into the Three Caverns[4], Four Supplements[5], and Twelve Categories[6]. To truly study them all would be no different from crossing a vast sea of smoke.

Given his youth, Wang Sheng had only read a few of them. Qing Yanzi, on the other hand, had read quite a lot. Even before the resurgence of primal qi, he had already gone through countless Daoist scriptures. This was one of the reasons why his cultivation realm was equal to most of his seniors'.

***

Now that Wang Sheng was back home, he suddenly didn't feel like cultivating for some reason. Perhaps he had been pushing himself too hard for too long. Unlike Mu Wanxuan, who still meditated seven or eight hours a day, he just couldn't calm his mind.

He had no friends in the mundane world. His childhood playmates were likely all living their own lives by now, and he had long faded out of his old circle of classmates. Trying to reconnect with them would only feel awkward. It felt as if he had returned to his aimless university days.

On the second day home, Wang Sheng inexplicably yawned. Though his spiritual consciousness was intact and his soul was unharmed, he felt a little sleepy.

Well, since I'm tired anyway, I might as well just sleep.

Wang Sheng concluded that returning home had finally allowed him to relax completely. He no longer had to stay tense or force himself to cultivate. Hence, he simply returned to his bedroom. As Mu Wanxuan meditated beside him, he quickly fell into a deep slumber.

He spent most of the next day sleeping as well. The more he slept, however, the more fatigued he felt. Even though he could stay awake, it didn't take long for him to start yawning again.

Two days later, Mu Wanxuan gave Wang Sheng a thorough examination, finding his true essence steady and robust. His meridians were wide and completely unobstructed, his Dao Rhythm and aura showed no signs of disorder, and his spiritual consciousness had grown increasingly ethereal and clear.

After pondering for a while, Mu Wanxuan recalled the state that she had been in right after breaking through to the Illusory Core Realm. It was strikingly similar to Wang Sheng's current condition. Unlike her, though, Wang Sheng had not undergone a breakthrough yet. No Illusory Core was forming within him either.

Normally, all sorts of phenomena accompanied breakthroughs to the Illusory Core Realm and beyond. Sleeping as a phenomenon, however... Mu Wanxuan couldn't make sense of it. She had no choice but to supervise Wang Sheng and call their master for guidance.

After a few moments of thought, Qing Yanzi became absolutely certain.

—Just forget about everything and sleep! The only thing standing between you and completing the Foundation Establishment Stage is that one nap! Who knows, maybe once you wake up, you'll have formed your Illusory Core. Have your senior sister watch over you. Rest easy and sleep tight!

Wang Sheng yawned and agreed, finally setting his mind at ease. He slept soundly until the morning of New Year's Eve.

While Mu Wanxuan was helping in the kitchen to prepare the New Year's Eve dinner, she kept the door to Wang Sheng's bedroom slightly ajar.

The moment Wang Sheng opened his eyes, his gaze faintly glowed golden. He sat upright, raised both hands high with his palms facing the sky, and let out a low shout.

A rumble soon echoed from within him, and a faint golden radiance erupted from every inch of his Daoist body. He was undergoing a tremendous transformation!

At some point, a qi vortex appeared in his dantian. It seemed to contain endless truths of the Dao, as if a vast sea of stars had condensed into a single point.

At his spiritual platform, the perfected Seven-Star Sword Intent emitted specks of starlight that passed through boundless space. They merged into Wang Sheng's true essence, then flowed toward the qi vortex.

His spiritual platform itself was also changing. From the mere tiny space carved out in endless darkness, the advancing starlight steadily drove back the darkness. In the corner, the sword that had an edge and a blade infused with the Dual-Polarity Sword Intent's twin koi was now also emitting two auras that complemented and countered each other, assisting in the expansion of the spiritual platform.

Right now, however, the changes in his spiritual platform were secondary—merely supplementary. The greatest transformation was still the one happening within Wang Sheng's internal qi vortex and throughout his meridians.

His meridians seemed to be undergoing rearrangements. No, that wasn't quite right. Rather, the ones used for the circulation of the Pure Yang True Essence were being continuously widened and reinforced. Though they had already gone past their normal width, they were still expanding and growing stronger. Meanwhile, those that the Pure Yang Immortal Mantra had not developed were gradually fading.

Meridians were the foundation of cultivation. Since it wasn't necessarily better to utilize more of them, different cultivation techniques guided the flow of true essence through different meridians.

One full circulation of the Pure Yang Immortal Mantra used about seventy percent of Wang Sheng's meridians. Right now, those had taken on a faint golden hue.

Golden light pervaded him as thunder relentlessly reverberated.

When his meridians finally stabilized, the qi vortex interwoven with faint golden light and scattered starlight began to spin faster. The internal circulation of his true essence rapidly sped up.

Mu Wanxuan, who was wearing an apron, rushed into the bedroom. Wang Sheng's face was still faintly glowing golden, and fierce gusts of wind were sweeping outward around him.

Recalling her master's instructions earlier that day, Mu Wanxuan immediately raised her hand to set up the Yin-Yang Grand Formation, enveloping the walls and windows in Yin-Yang qi to keep the fluctuating primal qi within the room.

She then took out her Crane-Spirit Treasure Pouch, dumped out a heap of Qi-Nurturing Stones, and quickly arranged a qi-gathering formation at the bedside. The formation was primarily meant to stimulate the primal qi within the Qi-Nurturing Stones.

Within Wang Sheng, the qi vortex slowly rotated one hundred eighty degrees as the wind around him blew fiercely. Afterward, all his pores opened up, and he began to wildly absorb the surrounding primal qi.

Wang Sheng also absorbed the primal qi that the qi-gathering formation had released almost instantly. More waves of gentle breeze rose around him, continuously flowing toward him.

Frowning slightly, Mu Wanxuan immediately placed more Qi-Nurturing Stones on the bed. Due to their old age, however, they contained very little primal qi. Even when stimulated, they only emitted faint wisps, which were far from enough to meet Wang Sheng's urgent need for primal qi in this breakthrough. It was like trying to quench a raging fire with a cup of water.

They were in the mortal world, where primal qi was turbid and impure. Although it would not be a big problem for Wang Sheng to absorb it for his breakthrough, he would have to spend time afterward expelling the impurities. Mu Wanxuan did not want Wang Sheng to miss out on the benefits that came with breaking through to a major realm just because of that.

She gently bit her lip and then sat softly in front of Wang Sheng. Gracefully and seamlessly, she removed her apron and took off her sweater. No one was around to witness her fair skin glow with crystalline clarity and her hair sway and slip down.

She quickly formed hand seals, causing her long hair to float gently as strands of yin-yang qi drifted around her.

One qi divides into yin and yang. As polarities, they clash yet complement each other.

Returning to the origin with clarity, the Primal Chaos henceforth arises.

Yin-Yang Secret Scroll: Yin-Yang Reunified Mantra!

Strands of yin-yang qi intertwined and gradually merged, turning into a somewhat murky aura. It then lost all its colors and transformed into the purest form of primal qi. The suction force that Wang Sheng emanated pulled it all into him.

Wang Sheng's Dao body trembled lightly, as if a parched land had encountered sweet rain. Instinctively, he absorbed the pure primal qi drifting toward him.

The thunder inside him roared louder, the golden radiance beneath his skin grew deeper, and his aura climbed steadily. The qi vortex within him also spun faster and faster.

True essence surged wildly through him, completing a great circulation every three breaths. His recently widened meridians were quickly filled to capacity, and the qi vortex visibly expanded.

A qi sea had been formed!

Right now, Wang Sheng's mind was immersed in the spinning qi sea, sensing the myriad transformations of his Dao. It was as if he were standing at the very center of the qi vortex.

From Wang Sheng's profound and mysterious awareness, the perceived size of the qi sea soon exceeded nine mu[7]. He couldn't imagine how his Dao body could hold such a vast vortex. It looked merely palm-sized in the dantian region of his Dao body, but his spiritual intuition told him that the qi vortex truly stretched for nine mu.

Golden light flashed at the center of the qi vortex. Bolts of lightning erupted, revealing a faint, golden-colored qi core.

After gathering qi through the Dao, he had now condensed all of it into an Illusory Core.

He had finally broken through!

1. A gaming term that means getting someone strong to help you win or level up. ☜

2. An ancient Chinese medical text or group of texts that has been treated as a fundamental doctrinal source for Chinese medicine. ☜

3. A text that discusses topics such as techniques to achieve immortality, Chinese alchemy, elixirs, and demonology. ☜

4. Refers to three major divisions or "caves" that represent primary Daoist heavens or regions. They are often linked to the Three Pure Ones, the highest Daoist deities, and symbolize fundamental celestial realms. ☜

5. Refers to secondary but supportive texts that expand on the three caverns. ☜

6. The Twelve Categories classify Daoist scriptures by content and function, serving as a detailed thematic framework within the Three Caverns and Four Supplements. ☜

7. Chinese unit of measurement, about 60 zhang squared or 666.67 meter squared ☜