The jade was faintly warm to the touch, almost alive with power.
Its surface was perfectly smooth yet somehow carried a subtle pressure that pressed against my spiritual senses even before I activated it with energy.
Even before channelling any spiritual energy into it, I could feel a vague resonance emanating from within, undeniable proof that this technique did not belong to ordinary, common cultivation methods.
This was something far more profound and dangerous.
Something that touched upon the fundamental nature of existence itself.
I raised the precious jade slip with both trembling hands and pressed it gently against my forehead, right at the center where cultivators said the mystical third eye which holds spiritual sense resided.
Then, with great care, I slowly guided my spiritual sense forward into the slip, establishing the connection.
The moment contact was fully established, the entire world vanished completely from my perception.
Information flooded into my consciousness like a great tsunami, not violently or painfully, but steadily and inexorably, like a massive river pouring into a carefully prepared channel.
Ancient characters I had never seen before unfolded one after another in my mind's eye, carrying profound meanings that somehow bypassed language entirely and settled directly into pure understanding.
There were no flashy visions of ancient masters, no dramatic imagery of mythical beasts or divine beings.
Only pure, crystallized knowledge, transmitted with ruthless clarity and brutal efficiency.
This technique, I realized with growing awe, did not cultivate qi like normal methods.
It did not strengthen the physical body like body cultivation arts.
It did not expand the dantian or open meridians or refine spiritual roots.
Instead, it addressed something far more fundamental, far more essential.
Something most cultivators never even dared to touch.
The soul itself.
The very essence of consciousness and existence.
According to the jade slip's detailed teachings, the soul was not merely an abstract philosophical concept, nor was it some immaterial illusion that scholars and monks debated endlessly.
It was a real, tangible existence, as real and solid as flesh and bone, occupying a distinct dimensional space within the cultivator's consciousness.
Cultivators who had reached sufficient realm referred to this mysterious space as the mind space, or alternatively, the soul sea.
Most mortals lived their entire lives, from birth to death, without ever once touching this space, never even becoming aware that it existed within them.
Even many cultivators, those who had stepped onto the path of immortality, never truly perceived it with any real clarity.
They relied instead on instincts, on their gradually developing spiritual sense, on qi circulation techniques and martial skills.
But their souls remained fundamentally unrefined, wild and chaotic, fragile like untempered glass that would shatter under the first real impact.
That was precisely why soul attacks were so utterly terrifying, so universally feared throughout the cultivation world.
A single precise strike from a skilled soul cultivator could bypass all physical defenses entirely, ignore protective artifacts and defensive qi, and cripple or kill an enemy cultivator at their very core, destroying them from the inside out.
The Divine Soul Nourishing Art, I learned as the knowledge settled into my mind, did not rush immediately to form offensive weapons or devastating attack techniques.
Its first and most crucial purpose was deceptively simple, yet profound in its long-term implications.
Stabilize the soul.
Nurture it carefully.
Make it resilient and unbreakable.
Only after building that absolutely solid foundation could one begin to shape raw soul energy into something lethal and dangerous, into weapons capable of striking at the very essence of an enemy's existence.
But for me, someone who possessed two souls that had been forcibly combined and mysteriously strengthened through the system's incomprehensible power left during my physique transformation.
All of these early stabilization steps could theoretically be skipped or at least significantly accelerated.
Time passed completely unnoticed as I absorbed every single detail, every instruction and warning, every subtle nuance of the technique.
When the final ancient character finally faded from my consciousness like morning mist dissolving under sunlight, I slowly, carefully opened my physical eyes.
The room looked exactly the same as before.
Unchanged.
But I wasn't the same person anymore.
I had fundamentally changed.
I summoned the familiar translucent interface in my mind with a thought, calling forth the system's status display.
The Status Panel appeared instantly before my inner vision, stable and perfectly clear.
Name: Shen Yuan
Age: 18 / 179
Cultivation: Qi Refining, Layer 5 (peak)
Spirit Roots: Five Elements (High Grade)
Spirit Cultivation Techniques: Longevity Spirit Breathing Technique (Stage 1, 59%)
Body Cultivation Techniques: Primordial Star Refining Celestial Body Art (Stage 1, 0%)
Soul Cultivation Techniques: Divine Soul Nourishing Art (0%)
Legacy: Spiritual Farmer (Tier 1)
Spells: Spirit Rain, Sword Control, Qi Manipulation, Earth Moving
Rewards:
Verdant Dew (White) ×1
My gaze did not linger on my cultivation level or existing techniques this time.
Instead, it drifted naturally, inevitably, inexorably to one specific line.
Soul Cultivation: Divine Soul Nourishing Art (0%)
I stared at those words for a long moment, feeling their immense weight and potential.
Thanks to the system's mysterious assistance, the technique was no longer unfamiliar or foreign or mysterious to me.
It was not something I had merely read once and tried desperately to memorize like a student cramming for exams.
It was something I understood deeply, instinctively, completely.
Every single circulation pattern, every critical mental anchor point, every serious warning and piece of advice was now engraved clearly and permanently in my awareness, as if I had practiced this art for countless years.
But understanding alone, I knew, was not true mastery.
Knowledge by itself was not real power.
Only dedicated practice, actual application, was the true test and the real path forward to strength.
I closed my eyes again with determination, shutting out the physical world entirely.
The moment I deliberately withdrew my awareness from my physical body and the material world around me, everything went quiet.
Not silent, exactly.
But profoundly quiet.
Peaceful in a way I had never experienced before.
It was as if all external noise, all the countless sounds of the world, had been completely filtered away, leaving behind only a vast, empty stillness that stretched endlessly in all directions.
Then, gradually, like the sun rising slowly over a distant horizon, the mind space began to reveal itself to my inner perception.
There was no fixed, definable shape to it whatsoever.
No sky stretching overhead.
No solid ground beneath.
It was an endless, limitless expanse, dim yet somehow not truly dark, like an infinite void illuminated only by impossibly distant starlight that had traveled for countless eons to reach this place.
And at its center, floating serenely in the emptiness, was my soul.
It hovered there perfectly still and quiet. It was purple in colour
Noticeably smaller than my physical body in the material world, yet unmistakably, undeniably me in every single detail.
Its features mirrored my own physical appearance exactly, though rendered somehow softer, less sharply defined, as if I were viewing my reflection through heavily frosted glass.
A faint, gentle glow surrounded the soul form, pulsing rhythmically with each breath it took, if such a thing could even properly be called breathing in this strange realm.
Seeing my own soul directly like this sent an indescribable, strange sensation rippling through my entire consciousness.
Something I couldn't quite name or categorize.
This was absolutely nothing like looking at a simple reflection in still water or a polished mirror.
It felt infinitely closer than that.
More intimate and personal.
More real than reality itself.
As if I were staring directly at the absolute truest version of myself, completely stripped of all flesh and physical matter, all deception and masks and pretenses.
This was me at my most fundamental level.
The core of my existence.
This is who I really am, I thought with wonder.
This is my true self, beyond all illusions.
I steadied my swirling thoughts with effort, pushing away the existential wonder and philosophical amazement.
There would be time for contemplation later.
According to the technique's instructions, which I now understood perfectly, I had already unknowingly completed the first crucial part during my soul fusion, the initial stabilization.
The next step, the second and equally crucial step, was establishing complete and absolute control over the soul space itself.
Making it truly, unquestionably mine to command.
I extended my will outward cautiously, like invisible hands reaching carefully into the surrounding darkness.
The space responded to my touch, but not immediately or eagerly.
Instead, it reacted gradually, hesitantly, cautiously testing this new presence.
Ripples spread slowly through the void in expanding circles, like perfectly still water disturbed by a single falling pebble.
I focused all my concentration intently on calming those ripples, on smoothing them out completely, on asserting my presence and authority as the absolute, undisputed core and master of this entire domain.
This space is mine. Mine alone. I am its master. I command here.
Minutes passed in focused concentration.
Or perhaps hours.
Or maybe even days.
Time had absolutely no meaning whatsoever in this place beyond the physical world.
Only when the entire space had finally become completely still and calm, perfectly smooth like an infinite mirror reflecting nothing, did I carefully proceed to the next and final preparatory step.
The jade slip had warned with absolute clarity, its caution etched permanently into my memory.
Do not rush the condensation process under any circumstances.
Unstable soul energy is infinitely more dangerous than having no soul weapons at all.
Patience and precision are everything.
I followed that solemn warning to the absolute letter, treating it as inviolable law handed down from the heavens themselves.
Deep within my soul space, in the very depths, I could clearly sense vast quantities of residual soul energy lying dormant and untapped.
Enormous reserves of raw power left behind from my earlier traumatic transformation and also when the original Shen Yuan' soul had merged with my transmigrated consciousness.
Normally, under natural circumstances, such massive excess energy would simply disperse gradually over time, bleeding away harmlessly into nothingness.
But I had no intention whatsoever of allowing that to happen.
This energy was too precious, too useful to waste.
Instead, I reached out carefully with my will and began the delicate process of gathering it together.
The very moment I made initial contact with the swirling energy, a sharp, intense pressure struck my consciousness like a physical hammer blow to the skull.
My brow furrowed deeply in concentration and growing discomfort.
This energy...
It's not gentle at all. Not peaceful or calm.
It's violent. Chaotic. Dangerous.
The energy carried within it the concentrated remnants of incredible pain, of forced transformation, of violent evolution and psychological trauma.
If mishandled even slightly, if rushed or forced, it could easily tear my soul completely apart from within, like a catastrophic storm ripping through delicate paper.
I deliberately slowed down my movements dramatically, proceeding with extreme caution.
Every action measured.
Every movement deliberate.
I followed the technique's precise instructions exactly as written, not deviating even a single millimeter from the prescribed method.
My physical body, sitting motionless in my room, slowly raised one hand.
At the exact same moment, perfectly synchronized, my soul form mirrored that movement flawlessly in the mind space.
The synchronization was absolute and complete.
Two bodies moving as one unified entity.
Then my soul, following my focused will and intention, began carefully and cautiously guiding the gathered energy forward bit by bit, compressing it gradually with painstaking precision and infinite patience.
Before my floating soul form, hovering in the empty void, a vague outline slowly began to take shape.
At first, it was nothing more than an indistinct blur, a shapeless mass that could have potentially become anything.
But I had already decided long ago exactly what form it would ultimately take.
A sword.
Not because swords were somehow inherently superior to all other weapon types.
Not because I possessed any particular exceptional skill with bladed weapons.
But simply because they were straightforward.
Simple and direct.
Honest and true.
A sword was fundamentally just a sword.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
No deception or hidden tricks.
As my will gradually sharpened and my focus intensified to laser-like precision, the vague outline grew steadily clearer with agonizing slowness.
The blade began to elongate, stretching out.
The cutting edges straightened and sharpened, becoming deadly and defined.
The handle formed properly at the base, initially rough and incomplete but definitely recognizable as a grip.
Each tiny adjustment, every minute refinement, demanded immense mental effort and iron concentration.
Each small improvement drained my focus and willpower steadily, like water slowly leaking from a cracked vessel.
This was absolutely nothing like normal qi shaping, where spiritual energy flowed relatively easily through familiar, well-worn meridian channels that had been opened and tempered.
This was raw, unfiltered soul manipulation.
Working directly with the fundamental forces that most cultivators wisely never dared to even attempt touching.
Pain bloomed gradually throughout my consciousness, spreading like poison.
Not physical pain that could be treated with medicine or healing arts.
But something infinitely deeper and more fundamental.
More primal and terrible.
A crushing pressure built steadily behind my physical eyes in the material world.
A dull, throbbing ache settled heavily at the very core of my awareness, spreading slowly outward like cracks in breaking ice.
I gritted my teeth savagely and simply endured it, refusing absolutely to stop or give up.
I can do this!
I must do this!
There is no alternative!
Push forward! Don't stop now!
The process stretched on seemingly forever, each second feeling like an hour.
The sword form grew progressively denser with each passing moment.
Clearer and more defined.
More solid and substantial.
More fundamentally real.
My physical breathing in the material world, though technically meaningless and unnecessary in the soul space, became instinctively heavier and more labored.
Cold sweat soaked completely through my robes, dripping steadily onto the straw mat beneath me, though I remained only dimly and distantly aware of my physical body's condition.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of focused effort, the technique's final warning echoed loudly in my mind like a thunderclap.
Final condensation phase begins now.
This is the single most dangerous stage of the entire process.
Success or catastrophic failure.
There is no middle ground.
This was it.
The absolutely critical moment that would determine everything.
Either the sword would fully stabilize and solidify properly.
Or it would collapse catastrophically and violently.
If it collapsed now, at this final stage, all of the carefully compressed and shaped soul energy would rebound explosively and violently, scattering chaotically back into the soul space in a devastating detonation.
Best case scenario, I would lose many months of painstaking progress and cultivation advancement, forced to start over completely from the beginning.
Worst case, my soul would suffer severe, permanent, irreparable damage that could never be healed by any method, potentially crippling my cultivation foundation forever.
I gritted my teeth together so hard in the physical world that my jaw ached intensely and I tasted blood.
"No backing out now!" I muttered fiercely.
"Not after coming this far! Not after investing this much!"
"I refuse to fail! I will succeed!"
I poured every single ounce of remaining focus I still possessed into the final, crucial refinement, holding absolutely nothing back in reserve.
Complete commitment.
All or nothing.
Suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, the partially formed sword began trembling violently in the void, its surface rippling and distorting like liquid glass caught in a catastrophic earthquake.
For one absolutely terrifying moment that seemed to stretch into infinity, visible cracks appeared rapidly along the blade's surface, spreading like lightning.
No! No! Hold together!
Don't break! Not now!
Please!
My heart clenched painfully with overwhelming fear and desperation.
I forced my entire will down upon the wavering sword form like an enormous hammer, crushing the dangerous instability with pure determination.
"Stay stable!" I commanded with every fiber of my being, pouring everything I had into that single word.
"Solidify! Condense! Stabilize completely!"
The spreading cracks sealed slowly, painfully, agonizingly.
The violent trembling gradually decreased and finally ceased entirely.
The chaotic rippling stilled.
And then, blessed silence.
Complete, absolute, perfect silence that seemed to fill the entire universe.
Before my floating soul, hovering serenely in the infinite void, was a transparent yet somehow tangibly solid sword.
Its blade was perfectly, impossibly straight and smooth.
Its presence was so fundamentally sharp and dangerous that it seemed to literally make the surrounding void feel thinner, as if it were cutting through the very fabric of reality itself simply by existing.
A Soul Sword.
My Soul Sword.
My first true soul weapon, forged from my own essence.
A weapon I could use to directly attack enemies' souls, striking at their fundamental existence and bypassing all physical defenses entirely.
If somehow destroyed in battle, it would be lost forever, its energy dispersed.
But it could theoretically be recreated later, given sufficient time, resources, and painstaking effort.
I opened my physical eyes abruptly, almost violently.
Air rushed desperately into my starving lungs as if I had been drowning underwater for many long minutes.
My chest heaved up and down rapidly, gasping and gulping.
Cold sweat dripped steadily from my chin onto the floor below, forming a spreading puddle.
My muscles trembled uncontrollably all over, twitching and spasming, though I had not physically moved even a single inch during the entire soul cultivation process.
But my mind.
Oh, my mind.
My mind felt sharper than it had ever been in either of my lives.
Clearer and more focused.
More aware and alert.
I closed my eyes once more, sensing carefully inward to verify.
The Soul Sword was definitely still there, floating peacefully around my soul in my mind space.
Perfectly stable.
Fully responsive to my will.
Complete and functional.
I did it!
I actually succeeded!
I forged my first soul weapon!
Also, I noticed something else remarkable.
My spiritual sense, which had previously only extended a mere 5 meters in radius around my body, had expanded dramatically and significantly.
It now reached an impressive 15 meters, a total increase of 10 meters!
Triple the previous range!
A proper weapon capable of striking directly at any enemy's soul, completely bypassing all physical defenses, armor, and protective qi.
I let out a long, shaky breath of pure relief and overwhelming triumph.
"This..." I whispered to the empty room.
"This was absolutely worth it. Every moment of pain. Every drop of sweat. All of it. Worth it."
Only after my soul had settled completely, after all the turbulence and chaos had fully calmed and stabilized, did I finally move on to the next planned stage.
But first, I took some necessary time to calm myself properly, to let my racing heart gradually slow to normal, to allow the bone-deep exhaustion to fade somewhat.
Deep breaths.
In and out.
Slowly.
Gradually returning to equilibrium.
Then, when I felt ready, I retrieved exactly ten spirit stones from my inventory storage and placed them carefully in an even circle around my seated position on the floor.
The low grade spirit stones immediately began pulsing with faint light, releasing steady streams of pure, concentrated spiritual energy into the surrounding air like invisible rivers of power.
I shifted my complete focus away from soul cultivation and back fully to my physical body and its needs.
And began seriously practicing the Longevity Breathing Technique with absolute concentration and perfect form.
Inhale slowly and deeply.
Pure spiritual energy flowed smoothly into my body like cool morning mist, refreshing and invigorating.
Exhale steadily and completely.
Accumulated impurities were forcefully expelled from my meridians and organs, pushed out and discarded.
Cycle after cycle.
Breath after careful breath.
My dantian greedily absorbed the incoming spiritual energy, pulling it in hungrily like a man dying of thirst.
The already impressively dense spiritual mist inside my enormous dantian churned violently, swirling faster and faster, pressing harder and harder against the invisible limiting barriers that currently confined it.
Internal pressure built steadily, increasing with each complete circulation.
Mounting higher and higher.
My meridians hummed and vibrated with increasing power, resonating.
Then, boom!
The restricting barrier shackles shattered explosively like fragile glass struck by a mighty hammer!
Qi Refining 6th Layer!
The breakthrough was clean, powerful, and absolutely decisive!
More solid and stable than any previous advancement I had experienced!
Spiritual energy surged wildly and violently, flooding into every part of my body in an overwhelming torrent of raw power.
The ten expensive spirit stones arranged around me dimmed rapidly, visible cracks forming and spreading across their previously smooth surfaces as they were completely drained dry of all energy, reduced to worthless, crumbling powder.
At the exact same time, my already enormous dantian began expanding yet again.
Fifteen meters in diameter.
Then sixteen meters.
Seventeen meters.
Finally, eighteen full meters!
Only then did the dramatic expansion finally stop and stabilize at last.
I carefully guided the remaining spiritual energy gently and precisely, stabilizing my newly expanded realm and calming the violent turbulence still roiling within my vastly enlarged dantian.
I started methodically filling the newly created region with the remaining excess energy, but frustratingly, it wasn't nearly enough to completely fill the massive new space.
I'll definitely need significantly more spirit stones later to properly fill this.
The larger the dantian, the more resources required.
But the foundation will be unshakeable.
When absolutely everything had finally settled into peaceful stillness, when the last ripple of energy had calmed, I opened my tired eyes slowly.
Utterly exhausted beyond anything I had experienced before.
Completely drained.
But simultaneously deeply, profoundly satisfied with the results.
After fully stabilizing my new cultivation realm, meticulously checking every meridian and energy flow for problems, I did not immediately push myself to immerse deeper into more intensive training.
That would be foolish and potentially dangerous.
Instead, I wisely allowed both my body and mind to settle naturally, to properly rest and recover from the intense strain.
For someone attempting to simultaneously cultivate both soul and qi paths, recklessness and impatience were far more dangerous than any external enemy.
Patience and careful planning were absolutely essential for long-term success.
So I simply lay down on my simple bed and fell almost immediately into deep, dreamless sleep after activating my robe's convenient self-cleaning enchantment, which efficiently removed all the accumulated sweat and grime.
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"From now on for every 2 or more novel reviews I will post an extra chapter"