Breaking through to become an Elder of the sect—wouldn't that mean another bestowal of treasures?
With deep respect, Li Yuan bowed toward the stone stele before him. Only then did he push open the gate and step inside, his eyes falling upon the lush and verdant forest before him.
Each tree here was a hundred-year-old spiritual wood, the majority being Azure沉 Trees. These Azure沉 woods were the most crucial material for refining Armored Wooden Puppets.
The saying went: "Armored Wood grows towering, yet must be reborn through fire." Thus, fire was required to shape its form. Supplemented by various spiritual materials to temper and stabilize it, only then could its power be fully unleashed.
As the old adage recited:Armored Wood grows tall, rebirth requires fire.Spring rejects metal, autumn rejects earth.With blazing fire, it rides the dragon; with surging waters, it tames the tiger.When earth is nourished and heavens are in harmony, it stands rooted for eternity.
For this reason, Armored Wooden Puppets were known for their thick hide and solid frame, their strength upright and fierce. Their might exceeded the Yi-Wood Puppets by twofold. That was precisely why, when given a choice, disciples always favored Armored Wooden Puppets.
Li Yuan fixed his gaze on one particular century-old Azure沉 tree. Taking out the axe he had long prepared, he chopped down the towering giant, stripped away its bark and smoothed its trunk. Afterward, he submerged it in Spirit-Gathering Water. Only after eighty-one days and nights of soaking would the wood fully absorb the essence, turning into Water-Nourished Wood, impervious to fire and flood.
Once the process was complete, Li Yuan suddenly felt the world spinning. When he opened his eyes, he was already back in his small courtyard.
His head throbbed, dizzy and swollen—clearly, his spiritual sense had been overdrawn.
Quickly, he collapsed onto his bed. In times like these, only sleep could soothe the spirit and restore his divine awareness.
Outside the carved wooden window, autumn rains pattered ceaselessly. The chill deepened as the season pressed on, raindrops dripping from the eaves in a steady rhythm.
Two whole days passed before Li Yuan finally awoke from his deep slumber. When he rose, his spirit felt refreshed and clear.
Standing with hands clasped behind his back before the window, he looked out at the courtyard. The ground was scattered with fragments of golden osmanthus blossoms, knocked down by the rain. With a faint sigh, he murmured:
"Another autumn has come."
Suddenly, his brows lifted."Hm? My divine sense… it seems to have grown stronger again?"
Examining carefully, he noticed that ever since breaking into the mid-stage of Qi Refinement, his divine sense could usually cover a radius of more than thirty zhang. But now, it extended nearly forty zhang.
"Could it be…"
A realization dawned in his heart. When he entered the Myriad Woods Realm with his divine sense, he had been able to manifest a form identical to himself. That was clearly an innate property of the realm itself—otherwise, how could an ordinary Qi Refining cultivator achieve such a feat?
Inside that realm, his manifested divine sense had been completely exhausted. And now, after recovery, his divine sense had indeed strengthened.
The benefits of a powerful divine sense were many. Most directly, it meant he could control a greater number of puppets. Beyond that, for any cultivator, divine sense enhanced both cultivation techniques and breakthroughs in realm advancement.
Yet, in the entire sect, cultivation methods specifically for tempering divine sense were unimaginably rare. Any such scripture would be considered a supreme secret art. Certainly, the current Qiling Sect possessed none.
Li Yuan could hardly restrain his joy. If this truly continued, then over time, his divine sense would grow immensely. Breaking through future realms would also become far easier.
Unfortunately, the time had come for his turn at administrative duties. He could not afford to delay. Rising to his feet, he tidied himself and prepared to depart for the Ling Peak Grand Hall.
Along the way, he practiced his Light Body Technique, and he realized he had grown much more adept. After all, this was only a low-grade spell, and with his current cultivation, casting it had become effortless.
It took him less than two hours to reach the Ling Peak Hall. There, he found five other disciples arriving at nearly the same time.
As a deacon disciple, his duty assignments were always distributed a day earlier than those of ordinary disciples. Within Ling Peak, deacon disciples were few in number. With rotational schedules throughout the year, encountering as many as five others on the same day was already quite rare.
Inside the grand hall stood a middle-aged, rotund man clad in yellow robes. Stroking his beard with one hand, his narrow eyes curved into friendly crescents as he smiled at the group.
When he spotted Li Yuan, he chuckled and spoke:"So, you must be the newly appointed deacon disciple of Ling Peak this year, yes? Your name… Li Yuan, isn't it?"
"Yes, this disciple is Li Yuan. Greetings to Elder." Li Yuan hurriedly stepped forward, bowing with clasped hands in full respect.
"Mm. Remarkable indeed. With only an average spiritual root, you've already reached mid-stage cultivation at such a young age. Another sixty years of diligent effort, and perhaps you may become the youngest Elder in the sect's history."
At this, the other five disciples all turned their eyes upon him. Flustered, Li Yuan quickly waved his hands."Elder flatters me. My progress owes entirely to the assistance of seniors in the Clear Wind Pavilion. Without a century of painstaking cultivation, how could one ever obtain Spirit Blood to condense an Immortal Root?"
The yellow-robed fat man smiled warmly."Sometimes, fortune itself is a form of excellent talent. Our Ling Peak has always been weak in foundation. Our disciples come from all walks of common life, unlike Qipeak, where the disciples are nurtured from the Wang Clan of Yun City. We simply cannot compare."
This was a truth well known throughout the sect, though no disciple dared speak of it lightly. Indeed, Ling Peak was weaker than Qipeak. Yet the founding ancestor of Ling Peak, True Cultivator Yu He, was a full two hundred years younger than the ancestor of Qipeak, True Cultivator Wang Xun.
More importantly, Wang Xun had already lived to four hundred years. Another sixty years from now… who could say how the balance of power within the sect would shift?
(End of Chapter)