Sheng Kuo curiously looked at him. "Where were you?"
"Just went outside to get some fresh air. Why? Did you need something?" He kept a few steps of distance.
"No, I was just curious," he said. "How is your initiation going?"
"It's alright. I am making progress. How is it for you?"
"So so. It's more difficult than I imagined," Sheng Kuo sighed.
Sheng Xuan nodded. "I need to get back to work. Talk to you later, Brother Kuo."
"No problem. Go ahead."
While watching his back, Sheng Kuo rubbed his chin. He noticed Sheng Xuan smelled different. There were no other changes. He smirked. He was confident he could complete his initiation before Sheng Xuan. There was the luminous fish. That caretaker was not the only one he had bribed.
Swiping the iron token on the door handle, Sheng Xuan entered his room. He wanted to take a shower but he did not want to do it here. Instead, he changed into a set of robes and took the cushion to sit on the ground.
Taking out the Sun Essence Stone, he examined it. It looked like a vibrant piece of gold and faintly glowed. He did not feel anything unusual from it.
'I guess I will only know after burning it.'
Hopefully, it worked. Otherwise, he planned to use his parents' help. He was behind Sheng Hun. He did not like that at all. It was possible he had used an internal resource like spirit milk. It could also be an external resource like a Sun Essence Stone. Whatever he used did not matter.
He was fast.
Growing stronger was more or less a race. He had lost.
Not wanting to wait any longer, Sheng Xuan took out an incense burner. He opened the brass lid and placed the Sun Essence Stone on the charcoal disk. Usually, he placed tree resin on it and let it slowly burn and spread its woody fragrance. His mother liked this type of incense. He used a candle to light the charcoal.
Under his focused gaze, the charcoal heated up and glowed red. There was no change to the Sun Essence Stone. His keen eyes rested on it till it started to burn, emitting yellow smoke.
"It's working!"
Sheng Xuan sat cross-legged, closed his eyes and began to meditate, breathing in a rhythm. Every time he reached the end of the rhythm, he resumed right away without skipping a beat like a wave.
The essence stone burned, its mass slowly diminishing. Sheng Xuan was too focused on his breathing to pay attention to that. However, keeping this rhythm cost his mental energy. Fatigue built up, making it more and more difficult to keep the rhythm. If it went like this, he might miss a major beat and break out of the mindful state.
'I must hold. Hold!' he thought, clenching his teeth. It made him doubt whether he was even a greater talent.
'This is not me. I can do it. I am the best!' His resolve steeled. His confidence soared. Whether it worked or not did not matter anymore. His mindfulness deepened.
In the darkness, he saw a drifting bright yellow wisp. His heart shook. His jaw clenched as he kept the pace of the rhythm. His greedy gaze was locked onto the wisp. Gradually, it came closer and closer. When his rhythm faltered, it drifted away again. Sheng Xuan felt like he had an unscratchable itch.
His heart raced from the fast-paced rhythm. His mind was sapped. He pushed away all his doubts and kept up the rhythm. The wisp drifted closer and closer. His focus started to go in and out.
'I am so close!' he thought. 'Just a few more...'
As he completed another rhythmic breathing sequence, the wisp did not move. He finished another. It still did not move, drifting in place. It was just a few steps away. Sheng Xuan wished he could grab it.
He gritted his teeth and forcefully completed the last rhythmic breathing, using up every ounce of his remaining mental stamina.
'Come!' he roared internally.
The wisp trembled. As his gaze blurred, he noticed the wisp fly over, landing on him and disappearing. Something snapped. Relief washed over him as his vision cleared, his body surging with a whole new league of strength. Now, the dark expanse was filled with many drifting white and yellow wisps.
'I did it!' Joy surged in his heart. He curiously observed the wandering wisps. When he looked down, he saw a black silhouette with numerous transparent white spirit veins, connected to an empty circular area near his belly, the spirit core. The yellow wisp stood still in the core spirit vein in his torso.
'I can control it.' He was about to when he realized something. 'I am not breathing in rhythm anymore. Nice.' He was afraid to open his eyes. What if he lost this?
He pulled his focus back onto the wisp. To turn it into his own spirit qi and store in his spirit core, he would need to circulate it through the spirit veins. Then it would automatically regenerate after use. He could do so even without following Sun Sea Art, but it would be very inefficient and ineffective.
An even bigger worry was that it would be easy to make mistakes, hence people relied on dao arts. Moreover, if one wanted to add specific intents to spirit qi, one had to follow certain circulation routes. Sheng Xuan did not want too much. He just wanted to study and understand.
Sheng Xuan circulated the wisp from his core spirit vein to a major vein, smaller in width, then a minor vein, even smaller. It moved at a breakneck pace, making him feel a warm sensation. Its mass decreased. Its instinctive resistance vanished. He did not attempt the Control Intent. He neither understood it nor its circulation route, so he stuck with the base circulation method. Satisfied, he stored it in his spirit core and opened his eyes.
The next instant, he closed his eyes and thought of the previous vision. A few moments later, he saw the same vision and was relieved. Wanting to see his spirit qi, he looked at his right index finger and willed. In an instant, the wisp rushed to his fingertip. Small, bright and yellow.
'Do I try using it?' He hesitated. He might drain it, but he wanted to try.
Holding a piece of wood, he pointed at it, imagining striking it with the wisp. Under his surprised gaze, it zipped toward it, and pierced through. A small burning hole formed on the pale wood, wafting a burnt smell.
'Wow. This is really cool!' he thought excitedly. When the initial thrill passed, his heart tensed. He hurriedly closed his eyes and looked into his spirit core.
Empty.
He panicked. Was he going to fall back to being a puny mortal now? He dreaded the thought.
'Relax. Relax. This is normal!' he told himself and waited, wanting it to recover fast. To aid it, he actively did the rhythmic breathing, much easier to do compared to before. Soon, a pale, transparent shell of a wisp appeared, brightening and filling up as he breathed. Soon, he had his wisp back. His heart relaxed. Everything was alright.
Sheng Xuan considered his next steps. He decided to stay and cultivate diligently for the next few days and keep the leftover for later. Everyone had gotten 14 days of free spirit chamber session. He was tempted to go home to find Wei Lan and dual cultivate with her. However, he had just started his cultivation journey. He wanted to become more familiar with it.
His parents had given him a bunch of resources to use. He wanted to attempt a closed-door session and see how that went. He planned to cultivate as long as possible without leaving once.
First day was interesting. Cultivation was novel and fun.
Second day it was still engaging. He made fast progress.
On the third day, the nonstop circulations got to him. He wanted to see the outside scenery. Besides cultivating, he studied the Severing Sun Sword Art, gaining some rudimentary understanding.
Fourth day he grew tired of the closed-door session. He realized he needed a break. He was not used to doing this. He missed Wei Lan and his parents.
Despite the mental soreness, he held out for one more day to build his tolerance toward this.
When he came out, even just seeing the white walls and red pillars of the hall, he felt better. He made his way to Steward Zhang and mentioned his success to him. Steward Zhang was all smiles and heartily congratulated him.
Sheng Xuan also learnt of the successes of the other two greater talents. Two women. Both beautiful, but he preferred playing in the gentler leagues.
He did not linger here for too long. He was tired of this place now. He walked back home, excited to share the good news. The leftover days were his holidays before he had to follow the schedule for his cohort. Lessons ran three days of the week, which he did not mind so much.
...
In the busy hall, Sheng Kuo learnt of the new initiates in cultivation. Even Sheng Xuan had done it now. Sheng Kuo was the last one left. His heart burned with jealousy. He wondered where he had gone wrong. He should have just used what his grandfather had given him instead of saving it.
Remembering the words of the caretaker, frustration grew in his heart. He was sure the caretaker did not dare to lie. So, how did he fail? Even his other helper did not find anything. Since they had failed, either the luminous fish was never there or someone had gotten there before them. And he had an idea on who it could be.
When he had met the helpers again, he had smelled a similar smell that was on Sheng Xuan. Of course, he could be wrong, but he did not care about that. He did not like Sheng Xuan anyway. If it was not him, then it was Sheng Hun. Either of them had stolen his opportunity. In this case, it was Sheng Xuan.
He had stolen what belonged to him. How could he just swallow it? His eyes chilled.