Wild Continent
Merin walks down the hallway of the Alliance headquarters in Xuanming City.
Three days have passed since his battle with Su Wei, a fight that ended in his resounding victory.
He returned here with Elder Li and Su Weinan, while Su Wei remained behind to negotiate cooperation with his master.
Now, Merin follows a deacon toward the chamber where the Alliance stores cultivation techniques brought from the Shenyuan Continent.
The door opens, and shelves line the room, each scroll sealed with faint spiritual light.
The deacon gestures toward a section and says, "You should select from the basic techniques of the Purple Jade Sect. Once you reach the Shenyuan Continent, you will be counted among them."
Merin nods and steps closer as the deacon leads him to a small shelf, divided neatly into two rows—the upper row holding cultivation techniques, the lower row spiritual body techniques.
The deacon folds his hands behind his back. "Choose which you wish to practice."
Merin lifts his hand toward the scrolls and begins to examine them.
The seals allow him to browse only the opening chapters, the rest remaining locked away.
Among the cultivation techniques, he uncovers the Illusionary Jade Cultivation Method, its first pages shimmering with faint jade runes.
Among the spiritual body techniques, he comes across a rare fragment—an intermediate method known as the Five Element Jade Body Technique.
His choice is swift.
Turning to the deacon, he makes his selection known.
The deacon's brows lift slightly when Merin voices his choice.
"The Illusionary Jade Cultivating Technique and… the Five Element Jade Body technique fragment?" he repeats, as though weighing the decision in his mind.
Merin only nods, his expression calm, but his gaze lingers a moment longer on the sealed scrolls as if memorising their aura.
The deacon studies him for a long moment before speaking. "This Illusionary Jade technique… You may want to reconsider. Its path reaches only as far as the Ascendant Realm. Beyond that, you'll be forced to change techniques or attempt to extend it yourself."
Merin's reply is calm, almost dismissive. "I haven't even broken through the Inner Palace Realm. The Ascendant Realm is still far away. I'll think about it when I get there."
The deacon exhales, a faint trace of helplessness in his eyes. "For you, that day may come sooner than you think. But if this is your decision, I have nothing more to say."
He hands Merin the sealed jade slips. Their faint glow pulses with runes that resist any attempt to pry them open outside meditation. "Study well. The path of Shenyuan is not as forgiving as the Wild Continent."
Merin accepts them with both hands, feeling their weight press against his palms like anchors to a greater destiny.
As he turns to leave the chamber, his thoughts are already moving. Illusionary Jade… Five Elements… ripple and dream…
Piece by piece, the framework of his cultivation road begins to take shape in his mind.
Merin opens the Illusionary Jade cultivation scroll and begins to read. As the words imprint themselves into his sea of consciousness, his Qi stirs restlessly, then burns away like fuel.
It transforms, first into inner energy—a fusion of essence and spirit—and then, as it fuses deeper with his spiritual energy, into true energy.
The aura of a Qi Refiner fades from his body, replaced by the unmistakable presence of a Shenyuan continent cultivator.
Merin opens his eyes and feels the change. His strength has not grown greatly, yet his control over energy has sharpened to a fine edge, and within him, he senses his lifespan stretches—thirty years added to the twenty he gained upon reaching the Great Master realm. He now stands with one hundred and fifty years of life ahead.
The next step is the Inner Palace Realm. But rushing would only plant hidden dangers. His true energy must be refined to the limit before advancing.
So he spends a week in seclusion. The once loose and cotton-like flow of his true energy is tempered again and again, until it is dense and unyielding as forged steel.
When he finally rises, his power has surged by at least thirty per cent. Even without invoking the Law of Ripple, he is now confident he could defeat Su Wei. Difficult, yes—but no longer impossible.
After that, he does not continue his practice but leaves his room.
He returns twenty minutes later, having learned that the ship to leave the Wild Continent has not yet arrived and will take several more days.
With nothing to do but wait, Merin picks up the Illusionary Jade Cultivation Technique and begins reading the section on breaking through to the Inner Palace Realm.
The Inner Palace Realm is also called the Magic Power Realm, or the Five Organ Refining Realm.
To break through, one must first master a magic power of one of the five elements.
If it is fire, then the heart must be refined. If earth, then the stomach. If water, then the kidneys. If metal, then the lungs. If wood, then the very spark of life.
Each element corresponds to one of the five vital organs, and together they form the foundation of the realm.
The Inner Palace Realm is divided into nine stages. The first five are the refining of these organs. The last four are the combining of magic powers to draw in the Earthly Energy.
And when that Earthly Energy merges with true energy, it transforms into Source Energy—the mark of one who is truly ready to advance into the next realm, the Star Induction Realm.
The Illusionary Jade Cultivation Technique records five elemental magic powers.
For fire, the Fox Fire Magic Power—flames that deceive the senses, burning both flesh and spirit.
For earth, the Crystal Mirror Magic Power—stone-like reflections that rebound force with unshakable clarity.
For metal, the Spirit Sword Magic Power—a condensed edge of true energy that cuts through illusion and reality alike.
For water, the Illusionary Mist Magic Power—veils of shifting fog that dissolve attacks and cloud the mind.
And for wood, the Phantom Vine Magic Power—illusory tendrils that sprout from nothingness, binding body and soul while feeding on life itself.
Merin reads through all the techniques, then decides to begin with the Crystal Mirror Magic Power. Closing his eyes, he enters his spirit space within the sea of consciousness, tracing the method over and over until the patterns settle into his mind.
When he opens his eyes, he leaves his room and walks toward a secluded clearing in the mountain where the alliance is built. He channels his true energy, and a large crystallised mirror forms before him. He disperses it, reforms it, then disperses it again. If fully mastered, he would be able to summon twelve such mirrors at once.
He trains from morning until the dead of night before returning to his quarters. There, he turns his true energy into earth-element energy and begins refining his stomach.
The next morning, he repeats the cycle—training during the day, refining his organ at night. On the third night, his refinement of the stomach reaches one per cent, and a wave of pleasure floods his body. His true energy condenses further, his essence deepens, and his vitality surges, extending his lifespan by another fifty years.
Now, even without using the Law of Ripple, he could defeat Su Wei within minutes.
But he halts his Crystal Mirror practice. His progress has slowed. His Jade Body, even bolstered by the Wolf Body, is still only a basic spiritual body. The true energy it can hold is limited, and its ability to absorb and refine spiritual energy lags behind.
To advance further, he must strengthen his spiritual body.
Merin picks up the Five Element Jade Body fragment. Though incomplete, it outlines how to form five separate spiritual bodies—one for each element. From the structure of the text, he can already infer the missing part: once the five are mastered, they must be fused into one. Only then would the technique rise to the rank of an intermediate spiritual body.
The five methods recorded are the Stone Spiritual Body, Iron Spiritual Body, Fog Spiritual Body, Lava Spiritual Body, and Bamboo Spiritual Body.
Merin chooses to begin with the Stone Spiritual Body, its foundation closest to his current Jade Spiritual Body. But the scroll makes clear that successful transformation requires resources—earth-element demon blood and earth spiritual stones.
Fortunately, the alliance headquarters holds no shortage of either. And because he is not starting from scratch but reshaping an already refined body, the process flows swiftly. With sufficient resources and uninterrupted focus, it takes him a single week to transform his Jade Spiritual Body into the Stone Spiritual Body.
The Jade Spiritual Body and the Stone Spiritual Body are both basic forms, but the Stone holds a slight edge in strength—and grants an ability of its own.
Merin heads to the open training grounds to test it. Mobilising the Stone Spiritual Body, he senses earth energy resonating all around him. With a thought, he activates the ability, and a solid stone shield rises before him, its surface dense and unyielding. His body feels heavier, sturdier, his strength subtly reinforced by the transformation.
On his way back, he encounters a deacon, who informs him that the ship to Shenyuan will arrive in two days. Hearing this, Merin immediately prepares, purchasing cultivation resources to sustain him during the long journey—it will take more than two years before they reach the continent.
Two days later, he boards the massive ship alongside Su Weinan, who is returning home. Not long after departure, he stands on the deck, watching the coastline of the Wild Continent blur into the horizon.
Su Weinan joins him. "You likely won't be returning here again."
Merin glances at her. "Why?"
She looks out over the waves. "You're going at the worst possible time. A war is about to break out with the Black Flame race. Once you arrive, you'll be drawn into it."
Merin only shrugs. War is nothing new to him. Wars bring death—but also opportunity. When great forces clash, resources once tightly controlled often flood down to the lower ranks. For him, it will be a chance to climb faster.