Daoyi’s eyelashes trembled. She was sitting in a lotus potion with her guqin laying across her lap; her fingers rested upon the zither strings. Despite her lack of movements, the tune of music could be heard rustling with the wind.
Inside Daoyi’s dantian, eight Spiritual Pillars had already formed. Within her dantian was silvery-blue like a mist, and the mercury-like spiritual sea reflected the Spiritual Pillars like a mirror. Daoyi’s octagonal Spiritual Altar had grooves and elevation reminiscent of a spider’s web, rather than sitting atop the Spiritual Pillars, they were situated in between the Eight Pillars.
At the center of the web, an ethereal crucible was being formed, but it was not round. Instead, eight spider legs encased and seem to hold the crucible in place. The shape occasionally became blurry and developed into a crucible shaped mist, but it would change back once in a while. As more and more spiritual qi was absorbed, this happened less and less.
When the mercury-like spiritual sea almost dried up, Daoyi opened her eyes. With each breath, she exhaled a silvery mist.
“I’ve reached the Spiritual Altar stage but stepping into the Spiritual Crucible Stage is still a problem. Forget it, I shouldn’t be greedy. I should reinforce my Spiritual Pillars and Altar.” Daoyi’s soft voice was almost like a whisper, like a feather tickling the heart. “Master has said that once I reach the transcended the Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation, I can change my cultivation technique to a soul cultivation technique.”
Since first laying eyes on Daoyi, Mengfei could already detect Daoyi’s strong soul. Compared to Tianyi, it was only slightly inferior in size, but the quality was the same. In fact, it was not just Daoyi who had a strong soul. Whether by fate or luck, Xi Ri’s soul was also near the same quality.
After giving herself a brief respite, Daoyi began to pluck the strings of her guqin. Perhaps Tianyi didn’t realize it when he bought it, but many of the instruments he had purchased at the Xi Dynasty were artifacts capable of unleashing attacks.
Abnormally, Daoyi’s movements did not cause her guqin to produce any sound. In fact, no sound could be heard at all, no matter how much Daoyi plucked the strings. Daoyi showed no surprise at this strange occurrence.
Two humanoids crawled out of the ground, and their skin was the color of stone. They resembled human puppets with no facial features. One had arms thrice the average size, while another had sickle-like arms. The two puppets moved in a mechanical and lifeless motion, and if one looked closely, one could see silver strands attached to them. The two puppets did battle with the other.
The larger puppet’s punches were power incarnate. Each strike would shatter the ground and send rocks flying. The other, slimmer, puppet danced around the larger puppet, although a few stones would pellet its stone body. With each strike, its sickle-like hands would leave white marks.
One represented brute strength, while the other represented finesse.
By the end, the larger puppet was covered in white gashes, while the smaller puppet had numerous deformations from the flying stones. Daoyi removed her fingers from the guqin, and like puppets whose strings had been cut, the two stone figures crumpled onto the ground. Even their basic shape could no longer be maintained, becoming a pile of worthless stone.
The next day, Daoyi met her master once more. She had seen various beautiful women in her life. As a duke’s daughter, she had attended multiple banquets and frequently saw the empress and higher ranked consorts, even the officials and nobles’ madames. She had thought they were, outwardly, the most beautiful people she had ever seen.
But that all changed when her master, Xi Mengfei, revealed her face to Daoyi. Her master wasn’t just beautiful. She had a unique air to her, like a single forlorn flowering magnolia high above on a snowy peak. Untouchable by mortal hands.
There was a sense of distance that could not be closed, and Daoyi thought it would be hard to live with her master. But surprisingly, except for not speaking much, her master was actually pretty easy to live with.
“Daoyi, what progress have you made?” The voice was dignified with no fluctuation at all, but it was pleasant to the ears.
“Answering master, I have completed the Spiritual Altar Stage but I can’t enter the Spiritual Crucible Stage,” Daoyi answered back.
“Come here,” Mengfei said. Daoyi came forward and placed her wrist for Mengfei to inspect. Mengfei held Daoyi’s wrist in her hand and sent a strand of her immortal sense into Daoyi’s body.
“Your Spiritual Altar resembles a spider web?” There was a slight pause in Mengfei’s voice. She had already noticed that the number of Daoyi’s Spiritual Pillars was different, but seeing as they were sturdy and no problems came up, she let it be. If Daoyi failed, she could always start over. Mengfei could afford to heal the damage caused by the Spiritual Pillars’ collapse and allow Daoyi to re-cultivate it again.
Still, why did Tianyi and Daoyi like to change and alter the number and structure of Spiritual Pillars so much?
“Yes, I feel that this shape will be helpful in forming my Spiritual Core,” Daoyi said.
Mengfei said nothing as she released Daoyi’s wrist. “As long as you are sure of your path. Even if you fall, I will help you stand up once more.”
“Thank you very much, master!” Daoyi gave a sweet smile in response. “Oh right, master, do you know if there are any spider-type magical beasts available in the Taming Hall?”
Mengfei paused before giving Daoyi a closer look, “Why do you want to have a spider magical beast? Among all the magical beasts, spiders are considered rather hard to form bonds with. Unlike the other types, why not a rabbit or a fox?”
“Rabbits and foxes aren’t as cute as spiders,” Daoyi said.
Mengfei stopped talking as if not knowing what to say. This disciple of hers was raised as a woman of the boudoir. No matter how neglected she was, spiders and insects should not be creatures that Daoyi saw daily. How in the world did her disciple find spiders so cute?
“Master, so are there any spiders available to be tamed?” Daoyi asked.
Mengfei didn’t open her mouth as she looked at Daoyi’s shining eyes. “Why the sudden interest?”
“Doesn’t senior brother have a strange magical beast that always followed him? Seeing senior brother play with it made me want my very own pet.” Daoyi said as she recalled how Tianyi would string the sphere-like animal with his fingers.
“Daoyi, that thing isn’t Yi’er’s tamed beast. It’s a pill that opened up its spirituality and started to follow him.” Mengfei explained.
“Really? A pill could act like that? Will it hatch open like an egg?” Daoyi asked, her interest piqued.
“The pill won’t crack, its base form is that of a sphere, or whatever it was initially shaped. But once it begins to cultivate, it can choose a new form. Like how, after a magical beast becomes a demon, it can assume a human form.” Mengfei said.
“I’ve never heard of a pill attaining spirituality before,” Daoyi said.
“It wasn’t unheard of when the Immortal Court still existed. Unlike magical beasts who can open their spirituality at the Qi Gathering or Foundation Establishment stages, only an immortal rank pill has the chance of opening their spirituality. So even during the era of the Immortal Court, such pills were rare. And those who can cultivate, even rarer.” Mengfei explained.
“Hm, so senior brother is going to become like a parent.” Daoyi instantly thought of her senior brother’s personality. He appeared to be a calm, collected person on the surface, but once you interacted with him more, you would find out that he was rather mischievous.
Daoyi recalled the numerous times Xi Ri suffered under Tianyi’s hands. He made one of the prototype Xiyi Talisman act like a mousetrap and clamp onto Xi Ri’s hand, or another time he set a predetermined image that made it seemed like Xi Ri had completed the Xiyi Talisman. Xi Ri was so happy, but that happiness was fleeting when he found out the truth.
Daoyi became worried for the pill.
Well, if senior brother goes too far, I’ll just have to tell him, Daoyi thought. “Wait master, you still haven’t told me whether there are any spider eggs available.”
Mengfei’s expression suddenly changed and stood up from her couch. She furrowed her brows as she walked out of her room. Daoyi followed, not uttering another word. The very air around her master had changed. The only reason such a thing were to occur would only be if it involved her senior brother.
Daoyi soon discovered the reason. Up in the air, tribulation clouds were gathering. Judging from the size, it would be no doubt heaven shaking.
“Did senior brother suddenly decided to undergo his Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation?” Daoyi asked.
Mengfei didn’t say anything. Tianyi had been in seclusion for the past few weeks because she had given him the Primordial Chaos Fruit to consume. Why did he suddenly invoke the Heavenly Tribulation?
Tianyi also felt very wronged. He devoured the Primordial Chaos Fruit and had been comprehending the Dao of Chaos. At the same time, he had continuously been adjusting his spiritual and martial cultivation techniques. Who knew that he had unknowingly reached the peak of the Core Formation realm and invoked the Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation.
The first tribulation was already deep gold in color. When Tianyi had seen Sect Master Yun undergoing his Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation, not even his final and forty-ninth lightning bolt had been this color. Although Tianyi was only at the Foundation Establishment realm back then, he could still estimate that the first strike of his Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation was already more powerful than Sect Master Yun’s final bolt.
But Tianyi faced the tribulation lightning head-on. His strength was already passed the Nascent Soul realm threshold, and this bolt was something he could endure easily.
Tianyi continued to endure the tribulation lightning. Without using any defensive technique, his body alone was enough to withstand the Heavenly Tribulation’s opening strikes. Even if they penetrated his skin, they would enter his body and be disintegrated by the true qi of chaos within his body.
Off by the side, a small crowd had already gathered to witness his Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation, but Tianyi didn’t have any spare thoughts to pay attention to them. Although he seemed to be having an easy time, any careless mistake could still spell disaster for him.
As the number of lightning bolts near eighty-one, their color began to deepen until it was almost pitch black in color. Once the eighty-first lightning bolt struck Tianyi, inside his dantian small slivers of transparent energy began to leak from his all nine of Tianyi’s Spiritual Cores. They started to condensed above Tianyi’s Dragon Yin Pearl Core, and slowly the form of a white five-petaled lotus formed.
Tianyi suddenly felt an ominous premonition. If he allowed his Nascent Soul to form into a lotus, his future would be at risk. It wasn’t to the point that he would die, but he felt a sense of wrongness as the white lotus continued to condense.
He recalled a potential soul cultivation method that he had theorized to go with his Sole Yin, Eight Trigram Yang Core Revolution Formation. Tianyi looked at the five petals, and then he gritted his teeth and made a gamble.
A five-petal lotus began to materialize above his head. This was his half-formed Nascent Soul!