Chapter 58 – Comprehending the Vital Energy of Heaven and Earth
by spirapiraChapter 58 – Comprehending the Vital Energy of Heaven and Earth
Li Fan had been stuck at the mid Qi Refining stage for several years now, unable to make the slightest progress.
Even after cultivating both techniques to the mid Qi Refining stage, he still couldn’t find where his personal opportunity lay.
Now, as Li Fan gazed at the Azure Sea Pearl, he suddenly sensed the catalyst for a breakthrough stirring in the depths of fate.
It was the same as before—using his own consciousness to make contact with and comprehend the Azure Sea Pearl.
Li Fan was well aware of how perilous that was. It was essentially no different from courting death.
《Miscellaneous Notes on Cultivation》 contained many records of cultivators sensing their personal opportunities.
Though there was a certain degree of risk, it always coexisted with opportunity.
But why hadn’t he sensed it before, only to have it suddenly emerge now?
Li Fan understood immediately.
The 《Xuanhuang Heart-Tempering Mantra》.
Perhaps operating the 《Xuanhuang Heart-Tempering Mantra》 could help Li Fan resist the assimilating will of the Azure Sea.
With that, his decision was made.
Li Fan cupped the Azure Sea Pearl in both hands, holding it slightly below his dantian.
He sat cross-legged as 《 The Jade Realm Thousand-Arts Golden Canon 》 and the 《Xuanhuang Heart-Tempering Mantra》 operated simultaneously.
Splitting his focus between two tasks, Li Fan found it somewhat unfamiliar at first.
But since the Heart-Tempering Mantra didn’t involve the circulation of spiritual energy—only the tempering of one’s mental spirit—the two techniques didn’t actually conflict with each other.
After several hundred attempts, Li Fan finally mastered the method of running both techniques at the same time.
His mind blurred, and he seemed to transform once again into a vast ocean, watching the world shift and change.
The sun rose and the moon fell. The stars wheeled across the sky. Clouds drifted and rain scattered.
All of it accelerated thousands upon thousands of times, flashing rapidly before Li Fan’s eyes.
A single thought seemed to span over a hundred years.
An aura of great age, antiquity, and weathered time gradually seeped into Li Fan’s consciousness.
He began to grow accustomed to viewing the world from the ocean’s perspective.
He began to gradually forget that he was a human being.
Just then, a cool and refreshing energy suddenly surged forth.
Like a mountain spring, it slowly washed away the mottled scars left by the passage of time.
Li Fan’s own consciousness gradually returned.
“It really does work.”
Having confirmed his hypothesis, Li Fan felt neither sorrow nor joy.
Although the Xuanhuang Heart-Tempering Mantra could reduce the Azure Sea’s will assimilating him to a certain degree, compared to the Azure Sea’s will, he was still far too insignificant.
Being affected was still unavoidable.
The consumption of his lifespan was still many times greater than normal cultivation, and human emotions like joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness were infinitely diluted.
But the benefits were also real.
He could now draw upon a sliver of the Azure Sea Pearl’s power.
His spiritual perception was amplified a thousandfold. With the slightest extension, it easily covered the entirety of Tai’an Island.
Without stopping, Li Fan’s consciousness spread outward like ripple after ripple, racing into the distance.
One after another, islands devoid of all life appeared in Li Fan’s mind.
Through his spiritual perception, he saw that beneath a certain island, a volcano that had long gone dormant was reigniting under the influence of the flame disaster, its dead ashes coming back to life.
He saw that not far from Glazed Glass Island, a massive fish skeleton lay among countless human remains. At the center of the fish bones, an enormous glazed jewel glittered brilliantly in the sunlight.
He saw that in various hidden corners of the Layered Cloud Sea, a few cultivators he had assumed were all dead still remained alive.
He saw the many secrets of the Layered Cloud Sea that normally lay concealed, only revealing themselves in an apocalypse such as this.
……
However, none of this concerned him anymore.
His heart was utterly free of greed.
He swiftly retracted his spiritual perception and channeled the Azure Sea Pearl, drawing in the residual moisture lingering between heaven and earth across the Layered Cloud Sea, gathering it above Tai’an Island.
And so, the surviving humans on Tai’an Island watched as dark clouds gradually took shape in the sky.
“Boom!”
As the heavy rain fell, people wept with joy.
They embraced one another, rolling about in the rain.
The downpour lasted for an hour.
Above Tai’an Island, a faint wisp of cloud still lingered, not fully dissipated.
This was Li Fan’s doing. At fixed intervals of half a month, it would automatically draw moisture from the Azure Sea Pearl and bring rain to Tai’an Island.
Thereby ensuring the survival of the island’s mortal inhabitants.
Having done all this, Li Fan quietly gazed up at the sky.
The reason he felt no greed whatsoever toward the many secrets and hidden treasures of the Layered Cloud Sea was not because he had suddenly become some transcendent sage. It was because he had found something far more worthy of pursuit.
An opportunity to make contact with the will of heaven and earth.
According to the theory of 《 The Jade Realm Thousand-Arts Golden Canon 》, the most ideal state of the technique was to sense and refine the vital energy of heaven and earth.
The vital energy of heaven and earth, as the outward manifestation of heaven and earth’s will, was vast beyond measure.
If an ordinary cultivator made contact with it and was even slightly careless, they would suffer the same fate Li Fan had before—their lifespan rapidly draining away.
Or even losing one’s own will entirely, becoming a puppet of the Heavenly Dao. Such outcomes were perfectly normal.
But Li Fan now had this once-in-a-millennium opportunity to make contact with the will of heaven and earth while still retaining his own consciousness.
Because right now, he was no longer merely an ordinary Qi Refining stage cultivator.
A part of his consciousness had already merged with the Azure Sea Pearl.
If trying to fathom heaven and earth as a cultivator was a path to certain death,
then trying to fathom heaven and earth as the Azure Sea—that might just offer a path to survival.
A faint stirring of excitement began to build in Li Fan’s heart.
This was the true meaning of “hearing the Dao in the morning, one may die content that evening!”
He became the Azure Sea, quietly observing this realm of heaven and earth, sensing the myriad energies flowing through it, feeling the will of heaven and earth.
One year, two years……
The passage of time no longer held any meaning for Li Fan.
The more he gazed at the sky, the deeper his comprehension grew.
His previous notions were overturned one by one.
He had believed that the killing intent pervading the Layered Cloud Sea had gradually dissipated.
But now he realized that the killing intent of heaven and earth had never diminished—it still existed, right now.
The violent, raging killing intent Li Fan had sensed before didn’t belong to the Heavenly Dao at all.
The true killing intent of heaven and earth would never allow mortal cultivators to perceive it.
It would not be that fierce, that furious, that laden with emotion.
It was merely a pure will, a pure law.
It was heaven and earth showing no benevolence, treating all things as straw dogs.
It was: destroying you has nothing to do with you.
Beneath the Heavenly Dao, all were ants.
Mortals, cultivators, the Azure Sea……
In Its eyes, there was no distinction.
When cultivators plundered from heaven and earth, the Heavenly Dao naturally gave rise to killing intent.
Yet the Heavenly Dao would not act directly, because cultivators themselves were also a part of the Heavenly Dao.
Corresponding laws would naturally evolve on their own, resonating with the killing intent of heaven and earth.
For instance, the prohibition against dual-cultivating immortal arts.
And for instance……
The scene Li Fan was witnessing at this very moment.
High above the Layered Cloud Sea, a crimson, translucent figure gazed down at the world below with cold indifference.
In Its hand, a tiny flame danced ceaselessly.
Scorching the Layered Cloud Sea.
Sensing Li Fan’s gaze, the crimson figure turned its head.
Their eyes met.
The seawater within the Azure Sea Pearl boiled in an instant.
Fortunately, It only glanced once before looking away.
Only then was Li Fan’s consciousness preserved.
It was precisely because of that single glance at Li Fan that he came to understand Its identity.
Soul of Heaven and Earth: Flame!