Chen Yu walked back toward the outer district, completely unaware of the danger following him at a careful distance. His mind was too busy planning what he needed to do once he got home to notice anything suspicious.
First, he realized he'd never actually checked what kind of spirit roots he had. That was pretty important information for a cultivator to know about themselves. Second, he wanted to try cultivating in his real body to see if he could get double the gains, having both bodies cultivate simultaneously would be incredible if it worked the way he hoped. And third, after buying the spiritual rice, a question had occurred to him that seemed important: if he ate the rice, would the clone's body receive the nutrition? Or would the clone be unable to benefit from food at all since it existed in that strange void?
That last one was actually really important for his future plans. Pills and spirit beast meat were essential on the cultivation path according to everything he'd read in the manuals. If the clone couldn't benefit from them, that would be a serious limitation to his golden finger that might cripple his progress.
He'd need to experiment with all of this once he got home safely.
The walk back felt longer than usual, probably because he was eager to start testing things and couldn't stop his mind from racing ahead. When Chen Yu finally reached his shabby little shack, the sun was approaching its peak in the sky and the day was getting hot.
He set down his bag of purchases carefully on the table and immediately got to work preparing some of the spiritual rice.
He had to admit, even uncooked, the spiritual rice smelled amazing. It had a faint sweet aroma that normal rice definitely didn't have, and when he poured it into his pot with water, tiny wisps of spiritual energy seemed to steam off it like visible mist.
While waiting for the rice to cook over his small fire outside, Chen Yu sat down on his sleeping mat and closed his eyes. Time to check his spirit roots and see what he was working with.
He turned his awareness inward, sinking deeper into his own body in a way that felt unnatural at first. It was similar to meditation but more focused and directed, searching for that core of his being where his spirit root resided. The cultivation manual had described it as feeling for the root of a plant growing within your dantian.
After several minutes of searching and feeling like he was getting nowhere, Chen Yu finally felt something. There, in the center of his dantian, was a small root-like structure that pulsed faintly. As he focused his attention on it, he could make out five branches extending from the central point like a star, each one glowing with a different color. Metal was white, Wood was green, Water was blue, Fire was red, and Earth was yellow.
All five branches glowed with exactly the same intensity.
Chen Yu's eyes snapped open, his face going pale. He had a five-element miscellaneous root, the absolute worst type possible according to everything he'd read. But it was even worse than that, his roots were perfectly balanced, meaning he had no natural affinity toward any element at all. Some people with five-element roots at least had one element slightly stronger than the others, giving them something to focus on and work with. Chen Yu had nothing.
This was terrible. How was this even possible?
But wait. If his spirit roots were this bad, how had his clone sensed spiritual energy so quickly last night? That should have been impossible with roots this poor, it should have taken weeks or months!
Chen Yu immediately dove into the inner space, his consciousness rushing toward his clone body that was still sitting in meditation. He focused his awareness on the clone's dantian, searching for its spirit roots to compare.
The same perfectly balanced five-element root stared back at him.
Chen Yu's confusion deepened. The clone had the exact same terrible roots, yet it had succeeded in sensing qi and entering Body Refinement in a single night. That made no sense at all!
He withdrew from the space and sat there on his mat, thinking hard. Maybe he needed to try cultivating himself to understand the difference. Maybe there was something about his real body that was different from the clone's environment.
Chen Yu closed his eyes and tried to follow the cultivation method from the manual exactly as it was written. He could sense the spiritual energy around him now, that ability had transferred from the clone's breakthrough. The energy flowed through the air like an invisible current, abundant and waiting to be absorbed.
He reached out with his awareness and tried to draw it in like the manual instructed.
Nothing happened.
Chen Yu tried harder, focusing with all his mental strength on pulling the spiritual energy into his body the way the clone did. A few minutes passed. Then ten minutes. Then twenty minutes of concentrated effort.
Not a single wisp of spiritual energy entered his body. It was like trying to scoop water with a basket full of holes. He could sense it, could almost touch it with his awareness, but couldn't absorb even the tiniest amount no matter how hard he tried.
Frustrated, Chen Yu connected to his clone through the space and observed its cultivation to compare. The difference was staggering and immediate. The clone was pulling in spiritual energy at a steady pace, absorbing it into the body to continue tempering and strengthening the muscles and bones. And the speed was incredible, maybe ten times faster than what the manual described as normal for a Body Refinement cultivator!
Chen Yu sat back against the wall, his mind racing to understand. The only difference between him and the clone was location. His real body was in the normal world. The clone was in that mysterious space.
There had to be something special about the space itself beyond just storing his body. Something that not only preserved his original body but fundamentally changed how cultivation worked there. Maybe the space enhanced absorption rates dramatically? Or maybe it bypassed the normal limitations of spirit roots entirely somehow?
Whatever the reason, it was clear that trying to cultivate in his real body was completely pointless. The clone would have to do all the cultivation work while he focused on other things.
A hissing sound interrupted his thoughts. Chen Yu looked over and saw the rice pot boiling over, water starting to overflow onto the fire. He lunged for it, trying to pull it off the flames quickly.
"Ah, shit!" The metal pot handle burned his hands and he dropped it reflexively, managing to knock it to the side but spilling some of the rice in the process. Chen Yu stuck his burned fingers in his mouth, blowing on them to cool the sting.
He shook his head and tsked at his own carelessness. At least most of the rice was still in the pot and not wasted.
Once his hands stopped hurting enough to function, Chen Yu carefully retrieved the pot and scooped the cooked spiritual rice into his wooden bowl. Now for the final experiment he'd been planning.
He took a bite of the rice and immediately felt the difference from normal food. There was spiritual energy in it, warm and nourishing, flowing through his body as he swallowed. But he noticed something interesting, most of that spiritual energy didn't stay in his body. It flowed toward the space, toward his clone.
Chen Yu focused carefully on the sensation. Maybe 90% of the spiritual energy from the rice was being absorbed by the clone automatically, while only about 10% stayed in his real body. And that 10% didn't do much anyway considering how terrible his body was at actually using spiritual energy.
He let out a sigh of relief. At least if he ate cultivation pills or spirit beast meat, the benefits would go to his clone where they'd actually be useful. That was good news.
But then another thought occurred to him that made him pause. What if he needed medicine pills? Not cultivation pills, but healing pills or antidote pills in case he got injured or poisoned? He didn't want those going to the clone uselessly, he needed the effects himself.
Chen Yu concentrated and tried to cut off the flow of spiritual energy toward the space. It took a moment of mental effort, but he managed to close off that connection like shutting a valve. The next bite of rice he took, all the spiritual energy stayed in his real body instead of flowing to the clone.
He grinned. Perfect. He could control whether spiritual energy went to the clone or stayed in his real body. That gave him flexibility for different situations.
After wolfing down the rest of the spiritual rice, which tasted incredible compared to normal rice, with a subtle sweetness and a satisfying texture that made his taste buds sing, Chen Yu connected to his clone through the space again. Time to "update" his real body to match the clone's current cultivation level.
The moment he made the connection and pulled the cultivation progress across, Chen Yu felt a rush of strength flow through him like electricity. His skin felt noticeably tougher and smoother than it originally was. When he flexed his arms experimentally, he could feel real power there that hadn't existed before.
He was still only at the first layer of Body Refinement, but already he felt like he had the strength of an average strong man. Maybe not quite as strong as someone who did manual labor their whole life, but definitely way stronger than the malnourished teenager body he'd woken up in two days ago.
Chen Yu couldn't help but laugh with excitement. This was incredible! The rate of progress was insane!
He took several deep breaths to calm himself down before he got too carried away, then went back inside his shack and carefully retrieved the talisman-making manual from where he'd stored it. Time to learn how to actually create these things.
He flipped to the section on Light Talismans, reading carefully and taking his time. This was the easiest Tier 1 talisman according to the book, and he definitely didn't want to waste expensive materials making stupid mistakes on harder ones.
As he read through the formation pattern and the method of inscription, one sentence jumped out at him:
"A formation is a promise to spiritual energy, and energy never forgives broken promises."
One mistake, one line drawn incorrectly, and the whole talisman would fail. Or worse, it might explode or produce unpredictable effects that could injure him. Precision was absolutely critical.
Chen Yu studied the formation diagram for the Light Talisman carefully. It was actually fairly simple compared to some of the other patterns in the book, a circular outer boundary enclosing the main design, with symbols arranged to guide the flow of energy, and marks placed carefully to concentrate the spiritual power.
It really was like a circuit diagram from his old job. The outer boundary contained the energy, preventing it from leaking and guiding it along the intended path. The internal symbols directed and shaped the power as it moved, and the carefully placed marks ensured the effect manifested properly.
He felt that the description in the book didn't accurately explain the markings in enough detail, but he couldn't expect much from a beginner manual like this anyways.
Chen Yu started doing what he always did when designing circuits back in his old life, flailing his arms around in the air, tracing invisible patterns as he mentally worked through the design. His hands moved in arcs and spirals, his fingers precisely marking where each focal point would need to go.
He drew the formation in the air a dozen times, each repetition making the pattern more familiar and more natural. By the fifteenth time, his hands moved smoothly through the motions without him even thinking about it consciously. Muscle memory was important for this kind of precision work.
Chen Yu cleared a space on his wooden table and set up his equipment like a surgeon preparing for an operation. The talisman paper went in the center, smooth and slightly glossy with its treatment of spirit beast blood. The bottle of spiritual ink sat to the right, already opened. The brush lay ready, its spirit beast hair bristles surprisingly soft despite looking stiff.
He took several deep breaths, centering himself and clearing his mind of all distractions. This was it. His first attempt at talisman creation.
Chen Yu dipped the brush in the spiritual ink, making sure the bristles were evenly coated but not dripping. Then, with steady hands and absolute focus, he touched the brush to the talisman paper and began drawing the formation.