Chapter 28- Longmin’s Strange Feeling

Somewhere in the northeastern area of the inner region, there was a large Palace ruin surrounded by mountains and tall trees. At the front, several pavilions and courtyards were scattered about that were practically in rubles, with vines and bushes covering them.

Walking through here someone would be able to reach what was supposed to be the back of the palace.

Passing through the arching doorway and then turning a hard right, the spectacular sight of a natural spring would enter one's view.

As the water seep through the mountain rocks, it created a waterfall that splashed onto the large boulders in the two acres wide pond below it.

The large pond glowed an orange hue as the seven suns high in the sky blared their light rays onto it. A rainbow had also formed across the waterfall giving it a wonderland feeling.

However, this immersion in a fantasy world was quickly broken as within the forest trees surrounding the pond, numerous howls of demonic beasts would ring out from time to time.

Some distance away from the edge of the large pond, the two black-robed bodyguards were seated cross-legged on top of their tamed beasts with the pond to their backs.

Aside from the large Sparrow, the other peak-tier Rank 3 demonic beast was a crimson-red salamander.

As it lay there its scaled body was around the same size as the Sparrow. Its sharp claws could be seen casually digging into the hard grassy ground, while a glistening red hue reflect from its scales as the suns' rays hit them at just the right angle.

As the sounds of demonic beasts echoed from the forest, the bodyguards were calmly sitting there with their eyes closed, but the two demonic beasts would shift their gazes towards the forest trees ready to attack anything that came out.

On some rocks at the edge of the pond, several pieces of garments could be seen thrown over them.

In front of the waterfall on top of a rock, sat Longmin butt naked.

His eyes were closed as the strange energy that was inside the Pocket Realm, and could be found in the pound, flowed out before taking the shape of a swirling vortex around him.

He noticed that the purity of this strange energy was at least tenfold purer than the energy in the surroundings.

Longmin inhaled, and a stream of the strange energy detached from the vortex before entering his nostrils. Using his Spiritual Sense Longmin guided the stream of strange energy through his meridians by following a certain path.

The bad energy from this stream had already been released as he exhaled, while the rest quickly entered his dantian.

Within his dantian was a dark void-like space that had a gigantic circular formation, that had several symbols inside.

There were also nine smaller runes, with five of them being taken up by huge golden pillars. Each pillar had rune inscriptions on them that pulsated with power as the condensed Spiritual Qi inside of them circulated.

These golden pillars were known as Qi Pillars; they were created by condensing the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth together.

After condensing the first three, one would be considered an early-stage Foundation Realm cultivator, and condensing the sixth and ninth one would be considered a mid-stage and late-stage Foundation realm cultivator respectively.

In the Qi Gathering realm, a disciple would start to gather the Spiritual Qi of heaven and earth within their dantian, and after progressing to the 9th level they would then develop their Spiritual Strength and used it to condense all of the Spiritual Qi gathered so far into the first Qi Pillar. Thus entering the early stage of the Foundation Building realm.

The time spent for a normal disciple to go about this could usually take a minimum of four years with those with poor talent taking a maximum of seven years. Though truly extraordinary geniuses with natural cultivation talent on par with Longmin and Longwei were able to complete this process in little over a year.

After entering the Foundation Realm, the next stage in cultivation would be to move on from passively absorbing Spiritual Qi to using a cultivation method bring through their Qi meridians.

The reason for this is Spiritual Qi absorption in the Foundation Realm was a lot more demanding than in the Qi Gathering Realm. Qi Realm disciples' bodies weren't able to handle the strain posed by the strength of a cultivation method's Spiritual Qi absorbing process since their body was just introduced to Qi and hadn't yet gotten used to it.

The types of cultivation methods weak to strong were Mortal-level, Earth-level, Sky-level, and Heaven-level. These levels were further subdivided into low-grade, mid-grade, and high-grade. Every cultivation method also has its own unique Martial Arts techniques and Daoist magic known as complimentary Techniques or Divine Abilities.

The more powerful a cultivation method was the faster a disciple's Spiritual Qi absorption and cultivation speed would be. The Qi that's absorbed would be a lot purer as well.

Longmin's cultivation methods, both the Emperor's Tactics Manual and Seven Daos Runes scripture, were Sky-level cultivation methods along with the other Legacy Cultivation Methods in the Wu Clan.

He was currently using the Seven Daos Rune Scripture to absorb the strange energy from the pond. As the stream entered into his dantian, he used his Spiritual Sense to guide it towards his fourth Qi Pillar.

Looking at it, one could tell that it was slightly shorter in height than the other three and it looked a little unstable as well.

As the strange energy entered it, the Qi Pillar trembled for a moment before it actively started to suck in the strange energy.

The height of the fourth Qi Pillar would increase as it continued to greedily absorb the strange energy. When it reached almost the same height as the other three, the suction force it emitted stopped before it started to shimmer with a soft golden light.

Seeing this, Longmin cut the flow of the strange energy, and then with a thought from him his Spiritual Sense clustered together to form a soul projection that slowly floated in the dark void.

Longmin's soul projection had his original appearance but since it was just a projection, the only color that was visible was the swirling blue and gold runes within his pupils.

Those eyes were curiously looking between his fourth Qi Pillar and the other three.

Longmin then glanced down at the massive red rune below.

After a while of silently observing, Longmin thought to himself.

'There's no change. I thought condensing one of my Qi Pillars with this energy would lead to some kind of change within it, but it's no different than using Spiritual Qi. Maybe it's due to the fact that I had already condensed a third of the Qi Pillar with Spiritual Qi before finishing it with this strange energy. I wonder what would happen if I condense my fifth Qi Pillar entirely of this energy, would there be a change then?'

As Longmin thought this, he looked over to the rune next to his fourth Qi Pillar, and with a swing of his arm, he sent the stream of strange energy towards it.

After the strange energy appeared above the rune, it started to condense into the base of his fifth Qi Pillar, albeit rather slowly.

'It would take a while for me to condense my fifth Qi Pillar, and the Pocket realm is only opened for a full day. If I stay here for that entire time and solely focus on cultivating maybe I'll be able to condense about 2/5 of it, but I can't do that, brother and I have already decided to explore the Pocket Realm together, so spending all my time doing this would be a waste, especially if it turns out to be a fruitless endeavor.'

Longmin's soul projection had on a deep frown.

He wanted to figure out why this energy felt so strange to him; ever since he stepped into the Pocket Realm he just had this nagging feeling deep down that made him unsettled.

Longwei hadn't felt anything off about the energy, but Longmin could guess why.

All though it was small, he was still able to notice that after absorbing the strange energy a sliver of it would force itself from his control and head towards his granduncle's runic seal.

He wasn't talking about the one below him, this large red rune was a product of the Seven Dao Rune Scripture he cultivated. The one he was talking about was the one located in his soul.

Longmin glanced at his fifth Qi Pillar which already had a corner of its base forming before he closed his eyes and vanish.

The space between the eyebrows was where a person's Sea of Consciousness and soul reside.

Longmin soul projection slowly formed in that location and he looked around.

White clusters of fog were all around him that would from time to time show images of his bitter-sweet memories.

With familiarity, Longmin began to float through the fog while glancing ever so often at the images to his lift and right. After a while, he stopped in the depths of his Sea of Consciousness and waved his hand.

The fog that was within his surroundings began to move away on its own. When Longmin's vision became clear, what appeared before his eyes was a five-hundred-meter large semi-transparent version of himself.

It was his soul.

Longmin's soul was seated cross-leg with its hands forming a circle above its dantian as if it was in meditation.

Aside from its massive size, one striking feature that stood out on its large body was the rune on its forehead that flashed in a multi-colored light.