Ascension Day

Xu Ying was a little disappointed. He had thought the mysterious voice was talking about a Nuo Master’s Nuo Technique and couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement, only to find out he was completely wrong.

"What’s a Qi Refiner? And isn’t what I’m cultivating a Demon Technique?"

He was puzzled. "Senior, can you help me open my Mud Pill Secret Treasury and teach me the Nuo Technique?"

The voice was extremely impatient. "What you’re cultivating is clearly a Qi Refiner’s Cultivation Technique! It has nothing to do with any Demon Technique! As for the Nuo Technique, what the hell is that? Enough nonsense. I’ll teach you how to perform Inner Observation. Keep your eyes half-closed, so only a sliver of light remains. Gaze upon the wings of your nose, and hold a single thought in your mind. This one thought is your consciousness. Listen to my commands! The eyes are the sun and moon, the hair is the stars, the brows are the Parasol, and the head is Kunlun! Arrange the Palaces and settle your spirit! I want you to place your spirit between your eyes, transform it into a single thought, and refine that thought into Divine Sense!"

Xu Ying’s eyes were neither fully open nor fully closed. Only a sliver of light entered his vision. He gazed toward the wings of his nose, but what he saw was not his nose, but that single line of light.

His consciousness focused on this sliver of light. He held a single thought, thinking of nothing else.

The voice, deafening, continued to ring in his mind. "Refine your consciousness into Divine Sense, and you will be able to see a gateway within that light. Push through the gate, and you will enter the Mysterious Domain inside your body! However, refining consciousness into Divine Sense takes several days. Call me when you’ve succeeded... huh?"

With his eyes half-open, a faint Divine Light seemed to be contained within them!

This was Divine Sense!

The voice let out a cry of astonishment, almost leaping out from the back of Xu Ying’s head.

The source of the voice was the Big Copper Bell hidden in the back of Xu Ying’s head. Last night, this Bell had wreaked havoc on the Naihe River, slaying six or seven powerful enemies. Unexpectedly, the girl in the coffin broke free and grievously wounded it.

It fled for its life, crashing into Jianshan. It tumbled and rolled down the mountain, landing beside a ravine. It tried to heal its injuries, but they were too severe for it to mend on its own.

Just then, Xu Ying happened to pass by and was about to touch its "head." The Bell sensed that Xu Ying was a Qi Refiner and decided to stage an accident.

The Big Copper Bell hid inside Xu Ying’s mind, siphoning his Qi Blood to heal. But Xu Ying was clearly a Qi Refiner who didn’t know how to cultivate, which infuriated the Bell so much that it decided to offer some guidance.

As the saying goes, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. And as they also say, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. Besides, if you want a horse to run fast, you have to feed it well. If Xu Ying’s cultivation speed increased, it could siphon even more Qi Blood, and its injuries would heal faster.

But guidance was one thing; the Bell didn’t believe Xu Ying could master Inner Observation in such a short time. To its utter astonishment, however, just after it had finished explaining how to refine a single thought into Divine Sense, Xu Ying had actually done it!

This speed truly gave it a shock!

The Big Copper Bell had seen the world. In its era, when enlightened individuals performed Inner Observation and Contemplation, Divine Light would pulse in and out of their eyes, its length ever-changing!

This Divine Light was Divine Sense.

Although no Divine Light overflowed from Xu Ying’s eyes, the fact that they contained it was indeed a sign that he had successfully formed his Divine Sense!

It was just that... this speed was simply too fast!

What it didn’t know was that the Cultivation Technique Xu Ying practiced was called the Taiyi Guiding Skill. Cultivating this technique required reining in one’s monkey-like mind and horse-like will, leaving only a single thought.

This one thought was Taiyi.

Although Taiyi was his thought, the thought itself was empty, vast enough to contain his entire spirit.

Xu Ying had been guarding the thought of Taiyi in his consciousness for seven years, building an incomparably stable foundation. Now, with the Big Copper Bell’s guidance, transforming his spirit into a single thought and refining it into Divine Sense was as natural as water carving a channel—incredibly simple.

The Big Copper Bell thought to itself, ’Just forming Divine Sense isn’t enough. He’ll need several more days of cultivation to even see the gate. And even if he can see it, he’ll need a few more days to hone his Divine Sense before he can push open the gate and enter the Mysterious Domain...’

It had just reached this thought when it saw the Divine Light in Xu Ying’s eyes swirl. In that brief instant, the young man had actually seen the gate and pushed through it with his Divine Sense!

"This kid is a prodigy!"

The Big Copper Bell’s Heart Spirit was profoundly shaken. ’He’s just one step away from being a genius! A talent like this might even be able to catch up to Master... hmm, well, he’s still a tiny bit worse than Master.’

Xu Ying used Inner Observation on the Divine Light before him. Vaguely, he could see a white jade gate within the light, and nothing else.

He "walked" forward. The gate grew taller and wider. Pushing it open, he suddenly entered, and a fantastical world appeared before him. This was the Mysterious Domain the Big Copper Bell had spoken of—the mystical, dream-like world within his own body!

His "vision" expanded and brightened as a dazzling array of brilliant colors filled his sight!

These colors were incredibly distinct—so clear that no corresponding colors existed in the natural world!

But this was not the vision of his eyes; it was the vision of his Divine Sense!

The moment he had pushed through the gate, his Divine Sense had undergone a wondrous transformation, granting him the ability to look inside himself!

He felt as if his Divine Sense had gained the ability to fly. It was floating in a vast expanse, weaving through currents of visible Qi.

Clouds and mist swirled all around.

Those currents, those clouds and mists—they were the Qi inside his body!

High in the sky above, majestic mountains and rivers hung upside down. They were his heart and viscera!

He could even see the wounds on his Five Viscera—the internal injuries he had sustained along his journey!

Xu Ying watched as some of the Qi evaporated into rain. The moment a thunderstorm formed, thunderclouds boomed, and bolts of lightning erupted with brilliant flashes, illuminating the cloud-covered sky and the mountains and rivers of the land!