Chapter 95: Closed-Door Cultivation 3

This... it worked?

Le Kai closed his eyes and turned his awareness inward. When he saw the faint, pale-red mist drifting through his meridians, he could not help feeling uncertain and alarmed.

His meridians had not widened by much. Everything seemed almost exactly the same as before, except that the color of the mist was oddly amusing, and its quantity pitifully small compared with before.

Of course, the greatest change lay in the ancestral aperture and the elixir field.

In those two places, a tiny speck had already formed. To call it a speck was almost generous; if seen with the naked eye, it would probably be no larger than a grain of dust. In the elixir field, it was a pale-red grain of dust, while in the ancestral aperture, it was white.

Le Kai felt the power contained within that dust-like thing and could not help staring dumbly. That true core, small though it seemed, held power that was astonishingly twice what he had before.

Le Kai sprang to his feet at once. He looked over his body in disbelief, touching here and pinching there, then after a moment burst into excited laughter. So the breakthrough had come so suddenly. At this point, he could be considered a true master of the hall level, right? More than eight thousand anke of strength! If he fought Zhang Lang now, ten moves would be enough to make that man taste defeat on the spot!

In truth, the farther one cultivated, the less advantage raw strength held. What truly mattered was the quality and quantity of inner force. Only inner force was the foundation of a martial artist. Le Kai did not understand why the Return-to-One Heart Method specially distinguished this mist-like energy as something separate; it seemed that other martial artists simply called it inner force, with no mention of any such mist.

This mist circulated through the meridians, but it had to pass through the ancestral aperture and be tempered by spiritual power before returning to the elixir field. The process was natural, ceaseless, and never paused. Indeed, the Return-to-One Secret Tome had not been wrong: too much yin would not grow, and too much yang would not give birth. The way of nature lay in orderly balance, in harmony between yin and yang. After this mist passed through the ancestral aperture and sank back into the elixir field, a thin stream of its essence clearly entered the dust-like true core.

Could this be what was meant by the origin of power?

Only when the true core continued to grow would the elixir field be able to store more power. This was utterly different from the state of a master-level cultivator, whose inner force was like air inside a balloon, spread throughout the body and easily reaching full capacity, only to be consumed in large amounts each time it was used. Now, however, it was sealed within the true core, growing steadily with limitless potential.

And the mist stored within the true core, though meager in amount, would surge outward once it left the true core, becoming far stronger in both volume and might.

After confirming that he had succeeded, Le Kai sat down and continued to consolidate his progress for two more days. Only when the two true cores had fully stabilized and become real, tangible points did he stop.

With a thought, Le Kai took the curved blade from the space within his wristwatch. As always, he brushed his fingers lightly along the blade, feeling its desolation and coldness.

The curved blade was his companion. Every day, he would touch it once and feel that ancient loneliness, using it to calm the restless turbulence in his heart and keep himself composed and clear-minded.

After such long and extreme use, his spiritual power had grown at an astonishing rate, far beyond what should have been possible at his current level.

Spiritual power was controlled by divine awareness, and divine awareness, in a certain sense, was a form of control. A martial artist’s true combat strength depended entirely on his realm. Strength was like a firearm; realm was the one holding the gun. Even if a child possessed a nuclear weapon, he could hardly unleash its full power, because he lacked the knowledge and experience to use it. The ability to wield such power was what was meant by realm. And within realm, the most important thing was divine awareness. Divine awareness was equivalent to wisdom; only those with broad vision and deep intelligence possessed limitless potential.

Le Kai’s present state was such that his raw power was not especially great, but the consciousness and realm with which he controlled that power were extremely high. It was like a strong adult swinging a bundle of straw to strike someone: though the strength of the man himself was great, the frailty of the straw limited the blow, and it could not hurt anyone at all. In the end, it still had only the force of straw.

My present realm is probably no worse than that of a one-star martial artist, but my strength is only a mere eight thousand anke. The gap is far too great. It seems I will need to focus on strengthening my power from now on.

He spread his spiritual power over the curved blade, gently caressing it with an almost reverent tenderness. It was said that weapons could become spiritually attuned. Even an ordinary weapon, if nourished by its master for a long time, could become one with his will and display greater fighting strength. Le Kai had always believed this.

Ever since his father handed the curved blade to him, he had regarded it as a companion tied to his very life. In lonely moments, he would even hold the blade close, muttering to himself and smiling foolishly as though chatting with a friend.

The curved blade seemed truly to sense Le Kai’s sincerity. Under his fingertips, it no longer felt quite so cold. When he poured spiritual power into his eyes, that was normally when his special ability would activate. By now, Le Kai no longer needed to rely on rage alone to enter that profound state as he once had. So long as he wished it, he could concentrate his spiritual power in his eyes and make it happen.

At such times, his pupils seemed to vaporize into liquid, leaving his gaze as deep and unfathomable as a black hole in a sea of stars.

And now, wherever his eyes fell, all things began to change, revealing wondrous hidden aspects. When he looked at a human or an animal, he could instantly analyze it from every angle, measure its strength, and find its weaknesses. But what about objects?

This was something Le Kai had long wanted to test, but his spiritual power had been too weak before to sustain it. So the moment his cultivation ended this time, he immediately took out the curved blade and focused his spiritual power in his eyes, scanning the blade as though with a machine. Yet the result was still discouraging. The curved blade remained covered in rust, still filled with an ancient and desolate air. No matter how slowly Le Kai let his gaze and spiritual power sweep across it, there was no change at all.

Instead of feeling disappointed, Le Kai was delighted. This outcome only proved how extraordinary the curved blade truly was.

When he scanned ordinary objects, he could see their general structure, not merely their surface, but even their internal composition, clear as if dissected before him. This near-X-ray ability had no effect whatsoever on the curved blade. Le Kai had once tried it on Lanbo’s dagger. That dagger was made of alloy, and he could tell exactly what kinds of metals it contained.

In that case, the curved blade was at least several levels above Lanbo’s alloy dagger.

It seemed he would have to wait until his spiritual power grew stronger before trying again. For now, he ought to get some fresh air. After secluding himself for so long, some people were surely growing impatient.

A signature demonlike smile appeared at the corner of Le Kai’s mouth. A whirl of faint illusion stirred within his eyes before gradually settling back into calm, and his pupils emerged once more.

He put the curved blade away in the wristwatch space and turned to leave, only to freeze all of a sudden. Shock ran through him. He crouched down in disbelief and picked up a tiny speck between two fingers. His eyes widened and widened until, at last, his face filled with astonishment.

Between those two fingers was a fleck of rust.