Chapter 127: Particles of Auspicious Light

However, at the very moment of leveling up, she still couldn't overcome the fear in her heart; her legs commanded her brain once again, and she fled at the first opportunity.

Watching the space sphere emit alluring flashes of purple light under the impact of the five-colored auspicious rays, expanding hundreds of times in the blink of an eye, Feng Ke'er wrung her hands until they were nearly twisted into a knot.

So frustrating! Why couldn't she have been a little bolder!

Just like last time, the space sphere completely swallowed the five-colored auspicious rays, leaving no particles behind.

Helpless, Feng Ke'er had to seek help from the cultivation notes of the Great God Pangu once more. Perhaps she could gain some inspiration from them.

The Great God Pangu was not satisfied with those meager particles of auspicious light. Therefore, before leveling up, he had tried using his magical power to condense a cloth bag. As soon as the five-colored rays burst forth, he cast the bag to catch them.

Seeing this, Feng Ke'er found it laughable—how could a cloth bag catch light? It was unscientific, simply unscientific! Anyone who had completed nine years of compulsory education would know that such a method was utterly absurd.

Yet, who would have thought that cultivation is, damn it, an act of defying the heavens! The cloth bag couldn't hold all the five-colored rays, but Pangu had indeed used this method to obtain nearly thirty percent of the auspicious particles!

After absorbing those particles, his Great Primordial Spirit successfully split into three!

Because it wasn't a sudden, violent strike, the entire process of the Primordial Spirit's division could be described as "the water flows and the channel is formed." Pangu felt no pain at all.

Putting down the Phoenix Jade Tablet, Feng Ke'er covered her face and sighed deeply: Damn it all, she was simply too well-read! Her mind was filled with too many rigid frameworks—this wasn't scientific, that wasn't scientific—and as a result, she had missed out on many opportunities in vain. Cultivation itself is an act of defying the heavens; what room is there for talk of science or lack thereof!

Just then, the Phoenix Jade Tablet shimmered. The voice of the Master of Tongtian echoed once more: "Girl, you've finally seen the light!"

Startled, Feng Ke'er jumped and instinctively threw the Phoenix Jade Tablet away. Fortunately, the treasure was tied around her neck with a cord; otherwise... well, there shouldn't be an "otherwise." The wall of the space sphere beneath her feet was soft enough that it wouldn't break at all.

"Master. Long time no see." Steadying herself, she greeted him through gritted teeth. You old codger, every time I call to the heavens and they don't respond, or call to the earth and it doesn't answer, you're always playing hide-and-seek. Once everything is settled, you come strutting out. What's the meaning of this!

The Master of Tongtian coughed lightly and said awkwardly: "I was away on a trip and suffered a minor injury, and you've added two new layers of space around you... ahem."

So, he was weak and his divine sense was insufficient. Feng Ke'er quickly changed the subject, exclaiming: "You're hurt? Is it serious? Have you recovered?"

This mischievous girl! The Master of Tongtian laughed: "What's a minor injury like this? It's nothing. Well, I have a new mission. I don't know how long I'll be gone this time."

So he had come to say goodbye. Feng Ke'er couldn't help but feel despondent: "Then, please take care of yourself."

The Master of Tongtian changed his tone, speaking earnestly: "Girl, the knowledge you learned from those books in the past is both beneficial and harmful to you. It broadened your horizons and helped raise your realm. However, if it constrains your thinking, it will hinder your cultivation. Fortunately, you have good comprehension and have already realized this. Now, I can finally be at ease."

Listening to this, it sounded as if he were letting go completely. Upon hearing this, Feng Ke'er felt a sting in her nose and nearly shed tears: "Master, will you never contact me again?" If so, she would truly be alone in this world.

At this very moment, Feng Ke'er realized that, without knowing it, her attachment to the Master of Tongtian had grown so deep.

The Master of Tongtian chuckled: "Silly girl, I'm just going on a long trip. How could I abandon you? Hmm, having read so many notes written by that person, haven't you figured something out yet?"

A "buzz" echoed in her brain, and Feng Ke'er turned to stone.

By the time she came to her senses, the Phoenix Jade Tablet had returned to normal. The Master of Tongtian had long since departed.

What was her true origin? And what was her relationship with the Master of Tongtian? Like someone possessed, Feng Ke'er opened the Tongtian Canon and began to reread it from the first page, word by word.

She didn't know how many times she read it, but she still couldn't find a definitive answer. However, the doubts were there. In fact, these doubts had long been hidden in her heart. For example, just like her, when the Chaos Green Lotus advanced, five-colored auspicious light burst from its body, and after Pangu received his inheritance, he also had five-colored light when advancing; Pangu had no so-called spirit roots and initially relied on killing to rise in power. Beyond that, Pangu's dantian would split, producing three golden cores, and after absorbing the auspicious particles, his Great Primordial Spirit split into three... She possessed all these traits, and they were even more pronounced.

As far as she knew, these were traits other cultivators did not possess. Among so many cultivators, why did she alone have these characteristics?

Could it be that the Old Dean was right, and she was truly a soul derived from the remnant spirit of a Holy Maiden hidden within the Phoenix Jade Tablet? Because the Phoenix Jade Tablet was actually a piece of jade formed from a petal of the Chaos Green Lotus, and her soul had been nurtured within it for hundreds of thousands of years, she possessed certain characteristics of the Chaos Green Lotus?

Then, why did she also possess some of Pangu's characteristics? Was it because of the boundary river between the God Realm and the Demon Realm? That was formed from Pangu's heart blood. The Phoenix Jade Tablet had once fallen into it; perhaps it was "polluted" then...

But the Master of Tongtian had clearly said that she had no connection with the Feng clan, and she was not some remnant spirit!

Furthermore, even if the Old Dean's words were true, what did all this have to do with the Master of Tongtian?

Damn it! Suspense and deduction—guessing back and forth—she hated it most of all! With her heart racing, Feng Ke'er shook her head, which felt as heavy as lead. Roar, she couldn't dwell on this anymore. All these random, messy thoughts—if she kept thinking about it, her head would explode!

Feng Ke'er sat cross-legged and practiced the first level of the Heart-Clearing Mantra ten times before her mood returned to calm. However, when she peered inside herself again, she never expected that her brief moment of aimless pondering had expanded her sea of consciousness by half a percent!

It was more effective than practicing the Heart-Clearing Mantra! Feng Ke'er was simply dumbfounded. Uh, should she set aside time every day for a little "deep thinking" from now on?

Taking a deep breath, Feng Ke'er focused her mind and began to advance toward the third level of the Primordial Spirit—appropriate meditation could exercise divine sense, but one couldn't level up just by daydreaming. This was crucial!

Perhaps the answer would be in the later cultivation notes. So, keep leveling up, dear!

Inspired by the Great God Pangu's use of a cloth bag made of magical power, Feng Ke'er's space sphere weaving skills improved significantly. Thus, this time, after only ten larger space spheres exploded in succession, she successfully advanced to the third level of the Primordial Spirit.

Likewise, at the moment of leveling up, she threw out the pre-woven magic bag and flashed out of the space sphere.

Facts proved that the magic bag she wove was better than the Great God Pangu's. The bag caught a little over forty percent of the auspicious particles.

Under the impact of the five-colored light, the space sphere leveled up once again. Feng Ke'er couldn't be bothered to check the results; she impatiently opened the bag. Inside, it was iridescent and filled with auspicious particles that looked like fireflies—well, it was her eyes that were monstrous. Compared to her eyes, modern electron microscopes were just weak.

Forming a hand seal to protect her brow, she slowly absorbed the particles into her sea of consciousness. Just as Pangu described, the auspicious particles were scorching hot. Even though she had undergone body tempering countless times and her body could be called tempered a thousand times over, when the particles began to pierce into her brow and enter her sea of consciousness, she still cried out in pain.

The auspicious particles were not five-element spiritual energy; they were extremely overbearing. Each time she inhaled for ten breaths, it was the limit for her small frame.

After absorbing them, she had to wrap the particles in her divine sense before passing them through her Ren and Du meridians to her dantian sea. If not wrapped in divine sense, her meridians would be scorched into charcoal strips by the auspicious particles.

The dantian sea was filled with layers of spiritual energy to wrap them, and only then could she release her divine sense and let the particles go.

The particles were very limited. When distributed among a thousand Primordial Spirits, each could only get two. It seemed the Primordial Spirits really liked these hot energy particles; they played with them for a moment before reluctantly swallowing them, like children eating chocolate beans.

At this time, she could begin a new round of absorption... Repeating this, it took Feng Ke'er three full months to exhaust that bag of auspicious particles.

The effect was that the Primordial Spirits' bodies had grown a little larger and were sturdier than they had been after the last level-up. Moreover, Feng Ke'er discovered that the messy, subconscious thoughts in her mind seemed to have diminished significantly. For instance, she hadn't thought about slipping out of the space to satisfy her craving for monster-slaying for a long time—slaying monsters was an act, but it was also a habit, and over time, it became addictive. When she first came out of the Obstacle Sea, her hands would itch from time to time, and it took a great deal of mental struggle to suppress the desire to kill. That was the reason she had agreed to the vixen's request to stay in the space sphere. She was truly worried that she would one day become a bloodthirsty demon. Bloodthirst was also a disease, a psychological one, and it had to be cured! Of course, discovering another method for leveling up because of this was what one might call an opportunity.

Hmm, it seemed the auspicious particles also had the effect of purifying the heart. Just as durians become foul-smelling because they are fragrant to the extreme, things turn into their opposites; this great weapon could actually be used as a heart-clearing pill! Feng Ke'er was very satisfied and began a new round of leveling up.

...

Just like that, amidst the days of leveling up, time passed like quicksand.

Her cultivation improved steadily, and without realizing it, three hundred thousand years had passed within the space sphere. Feng Ke'er's cultivation had already reached the Great Perfection of the Void Transformation stage.

At this point, Feng Ke'er encountered the first bottleneck since she began cultivating—after exploding fifty space spheres in a row, the barrier of the Void Transformation stage still showed no signs of loosening. She felt like a leaking balloon; since the thirtieth space sphere, despite there being a massive influx of spiritual energy with every explosion, the concentration of spiritual energy in her dantian sea and meridians remained unchanged.

Could it be that she needed to find a new method to level up again? But finding a new method was not easy! Feng Ke'er calculated the time; it had been nearly a hundred years outside, and in a few years, the passage would reopen.

She knew that for all these years, Hu San had remained outside, never moving a single inch.

As the day of ascension drew closer year by year, he might not show it on his face, but his heart must be filled with anxiety. Feng Ke'er decided to come out of seclusion.

The vixen had quite sharp eyes; although she appeared cold on the surface, her heart was extremely soft, and she feared this kind of persistent pestering the most. Besides, not every guardian beast had a secret crush they couldn't let go of, preventing them from doing their job. The vixen should be a good guardian beast.

Most importantly, Pangu's cultivation notes contained a detailed record of how servant contracts worked.

She knew there was no such thing as a contract in this world that could only be forged but not dissolved. Moreover, she could now drink auspicious particles like warm water, so the three tribulation lightning strikes before ascension were nothing!

Hehe, she, Feng Ke'er, never did anything she wasn't sure of. (To be continued)