The sun finally sank below the western horizon. The earth sighed into night.
Inside the Celestial Palace, the little earthworm completed its long journey and spat out a single round, full pearl of Dao essence.
Dawn and dusk were the best times to cultivate. The sun ran warm without severity, gentle without harm. For early-stage cultivators, it protected the meridian well. History held plenty of examples of noon cultivation gone wrong — the true solar fire stirring inner flames until body and meridian burned.
This was what the ancients meant by receiving morning purple qi and drawing evening red clouds.
Even Jiang Chen's body, tempered by martial training since childhood, felt his blood vitality pressed to a critical limit. Push further, and he would damage his primordial qi. The earthworm inside his Celestial Palace looked somewhat withered too.
But at this threshold, he felt no weakness. The Dao essence pearls nurtured in the Celestial Palace pulsed like tiny hearts, pumping power through him without pause.
All of this deepened the lesson from today's lecture. From blood vitality to Dao essence — this was the sublimation of power, the prerequisite for transcending humanity.
True martial cultivators, he had heard, did not nurture Dao essence at all. They honed their bodies and tempered their blood vitality alone. That was another path entirely.
In the present age, warlords rose and fell. Sects and schools multiplied. A hundred schools contended, and the Great Dao was infinite. It was a golden age of cultivation. But for Jiang Chen in the State of Zhuang, no other path existed.
Carefully, he guided the Dao essence pearl to move through the Celestial Palace, filling in the Starfield Array diagram he had memorized. The process was not easy. Mental power, like blood vitality, had its limits at each stage.
For a newly ascended cultivator like him, moving Dao essence twice per day was the ceiling. More would dull the mind; in severe cases, it could damage the intellect.
Jiang Chen knew the Starfield Array would take ages to complete. He dared not waste a single moment. One mistake meant starting over. And he had given himself no time to start over.
Only two chances per day to arrange formation points. He could not miss a single one. Not even though the Starfield Array was far more complex than the Primordial Array.
If someone cultivated alongside him using the Primordial Array, they would outpace him by a wide margin at perfect execution.
Jiang Chen did not know if his choice was right. But once made, there was no turning back. Only forward. Only doing his absolute best.
Fortunately, he was doing well. After today's final charging session, dozens of Dao essence pearls already hovered in the Celestial Palace, each plump and ripe as autumn grain. They would be the fuel for his ascension.
But Jiang Chen had one more pressing matter.
The dormitory stood empty. Ling Chuan and Du Hu were both out on missions. Now that they were inner disciples, their hunger for Meridian-Opening Pills burned even hotter.
Jiang Chen settled his mind and sank into the Ethereal Realm.
Today was the fifteenth of the seventh month — the monthly challenge day. Barring surprises, he would face the Jade Altar master's challenge today. He would be demoted.
The familiar starfield stretched around him. Jiang Chen sat cross-legged, watching the sundial's phantom shadow, waiting for the challenge to arrive.
He wanted to witness the strength of true experts. He had "heard" the fierce exchange at Huanzhen Temple, but he had not seen it with his own eyes. Dean Dong's later strike had been against an opponent with no power to resist.
Sitting in this starfield, his heart opened to its vastness.
The first time humanity looked up at the stars, history began its charge. Compared to the boundless galaxy, everything on earth seemed small and illusory.
After an unknown stretch of time, five characters appeared on the sundial phantom: Challenger forfeited.
Jiang Chen's tension released, replaced by an odd disappointment.
He had preserved this month's Merit output from the Dongzhen Ruins. But perhaps only because of the former master's overwhelming dread. That blazing figure named Zhuo Lie!
Most who entered the Ethereal Realm concealed their real-world identities. Apart from themselves, no one knew what reputations they held there. So few had known that the master of Dongzhen Ruins was the real-world prodigy of Great Chu, Zhuo Lie. Even fewer knew now. Even those who had guessed from his fighting style would have to abandon their theories.
Normally, when someone died in the real world, their Ethereal Realm identity vanished too. But Zhuo Lie had driven the True Form of Zhurong to nearly burn through space and time itself. Combined with a powerful lingering obsession, the circumstances produced an anomaly. The Ethereal Realm had failed to reclaim his Void Key in time, and Jiang Chen had branded it. He inherited everything Zhuo Lie had built there.
Blessed Land number twenty-three: Dongzhen Ruins. This month's output: 1,850 Merit.
* * *
"Deduction Platform."
A green bamboo desk materialized before him, as naturally as crops rising from soil. Upon it lay nothing but an open jade book, blank for now.
Jiang Chen had done this once before. He only needed to visualize the art he wished to refine, invest the corresponding Merit, and the result would appear on the jade book. The Starfield Array itself had come from refining the Primordial Array.
With his foundation array incomplete and no Dao vortex formed, Dao essence was too precious to spend refining Dao arts. He had never even practiced a real Dao art yet. At this early stage, Dao essence was everything.
But leaving Merit idle was not an option either. On the path of cultivation, stagnation meant regression. Tomorrow and disaster — who knew which came first? Growing stronger at every stage was the only true principle.
Jiang Chen considered the sword techniques he excelled at, then chose one with a fierce, aggressive style for refinement.
The cost: 1,850 Merit. Every single point.
The entire State of Zhuang favored Dao arts over martial techniques. But Jiang Chen had no choice at this stage. Without a completed foundation, he dared not use even the weakest Dao art.
Since he had chosen to strengthen his swordsmanship, he would go all in.
The jade book on the bamboo desk suddenly overflowed with text — the ordinary sword technique Jiang Chen had learned in the outer Academy. Apart from being sharp, it had no special merit. But as the Merit count on the sundial phantom dropped, the text on the jade book began to shift and dance.
Jiang Chen focused. The characters seemed to transform into human figures, drawing and dancing with swords. Faster and faster, until they blurred into a single mass.
He squinted, almost feeling the sting of their edge!
When he blinked, the text had settled. Before him lay a sword art more profound than anything he had ever seen or imagined.
In the outer Academy, Jiang Chen had been acknowledged as the top swordsman. But reading this art now, he suddenly felt everything he had practiced before was crude farm work — fit only for tilling fields.
The Merit count on the sundial phantom had hit zero. Jiang Chen let out a satisfied sigh.
It was worth it. Every point.