A few days later, Xiao Hong stood at the door to her courtyard cupping her fists at a red-haired disciple with a polite smile on her face, “Thank you for visiting, Senior Brother Yan!”
“Ahem!” A flushed Senior Brother Yan cleared his throat, “I-I am only making sure all my Juniors are all unhurt. It is my duty as a Senior after all!”
Xiao Hong resisted the overwhelming urge to roll her eyes. ‘Resist it, Xiao Hong! Your eyeballs are glued! They are glued to your sockets and can’t move! This tsundere isn’t worth offending!’
She looked at Senior Brother Yan with ‘admiration’, “As expected of Senior Brother Yan, you’re truly a Senior I look up to! Senior Brother Yan is truly kind - you care so much about us!”
Senior Brother Yan flushed even more deeply, yet also slightly puffed up his chest slightly. “It’s only because it is my duty…”
After being praised a little more, Senior Brother Yan finally departed.
Xiao Hong finally returned to her room and jumped onto the bed, before letting out a huge sigh of relief, ‘Finally, it's done!’
After Gu Ran had left, news had spread out that Xiao Hong had finally regained consciousness. Immediately, a large number of disciples flooded her house. If it weren’t for Jun Meiling acting in time and kicking out all the disciples, her house might have exploded!
Anyway, in the next few days, many disciples visited her to express their gratitude for saving their lives and inquiring about her health, bringing her gifts and whatnot. It was only now that the final visitor had left.
Xiao Hong stared up at the ceiling and smiled. ‘This feels good.’ Despite the sheer number of people making it hectic, she felt happy. It was the first time people were truly grateful to her, in both of her lives.
It was a warm, fuzzy feeling that truly gave her a sense of belonging to the Great Mystic World and the Purple Spirit Sect.
After immersing herself in the feeling for a while, she got up and stretched.
‘I have healed up completely!’ her eyes lit up as she felt no soreness or aches in her body when she stretched. Her Zhenqi flowed smoothly through her Meridians, far stronger and quicker than before.
***
Walking down the streets of the makeshift town, Xiao Hong marvelled at the tremendous capabilities a Cultivator possessed.
‘It took them just three days - probably less - to build an entire fucking town from scratch!’ She looked around at the tall apartment-like buildings where the disciples stayed, the miniature version of the Alchemy Hall where the Alchemists like her would come to exchange the required pills, the Formation Hall where the Formation Masters worked on maintaining the town’s Formation, the Refiner Hall where the Weapon Refiners refined, repaired and upgraded the disciple’s weapons that got damaged fighting against Demon Beasts and so on.
‘It’s truly a marvel what Cultivators can do!’ Xiao Hong exclaimed inwardly, slightly awed. ‘Before this, my perception of Cultivators was that they were only a bunch of bombs in human skin flying around, ready to blow up and destroy their surroundings.’
The large number of battles that she’d gone through in this short duration had caused her to be disillusioned about what a Cultivator was.
She smiled lightly. ‘But this truly drives home the fact that there is much more to an Immortal Cultivator other than just fighting.’ While she knew that Cultivators were also good at creation, it was only now that she truly understood.
***
Just like that she casually toured the town in under an hour. There wasn’t much to see. It was only built for utility, after all. They would dismantle it when it was time to leave the Realm.
After a while, she arrived at the gates of the small town.
‘Now that I look at it closely,’ she stared at the Formation barrier at the edge of the town, ‘the principles of this Formation seem similar to my own.
‘It uses the same principle of using the enemy's power to enhance the Formation’s defensive ability. But it is also much more refined than my own.
‘Even if a Nirvana Stage Cultivator attacks this Formation with all their might, they would have to spend a week to wear it down.’ She analysed quietly, rubbing her jaw thoughtfully. ‘Not bad. These people are indeed quite talented. They understood the principles of my Formation, refined them and even adapted them for their own use in just 3 days. Probably less.’
She stared at the Formation for a while longer before retracting her gaze.
‘Though, now that I am a complete Grade 3 Formation Master, I can see dozens of ways to improve upon this Formation and increase its defensive power so much so that a Nirvana Stage being can basically forget about breaking it.
‘Later on, I’ll go to the Formation Hall and get it updated.’ Every Formation Master that had visited her in the past few days had requested her help in strengthening the Formation.
Suddenly, a thought struck her.
‘Tch.’ She clicked her tongue in dissatisfaction, ‘It seems there will be no face-slapping events for me.’ Since she was basically acknowledged as the best Formation Master among all the Formation Masters present in the Secret Realm, there was pretty much no chance of someone ever looking down on her!
And no one would dare to try and sabotage her out of envy when she worked on the Formation. That would be a death wish because the Formation protected all of them! No one was that short-sighted.
‘So boring!’
She stomped out of the Formation and made her way to a small clearing not too far away.
Inspecting the clearing and its surroundings, Xiao Hong was surprised, ‘No one’s around here. Senior Sister Meiling’s advice is sound indeed.’ She had expected at least a few disciples training.
‘Oh, well. All the better for me.’ She shrugged.
Walking to the edge of the clearing, she bent down and swiped the ground with her finger, ‘It’s quite dusty, unlike how this forest’s ground was before.
‘While there is a Sun here, it is not hot enough for the soil to dry up so quickly.’ Her gaze turned to the town nestled between the tall Purple-leaved Spirit Birch trees.
To be precise, she was staring at the Formation that covered the town. ‘I see. It is the Formation channelling the power of the Earth Element, specifically its ‘firmness’ depleting it and thus loosening the soil around it.
‘This allows the water to evaporate quickly despite the Sun's heat not being strong enough.
‘All this results in this dusty soil quite unlike what it was before.’
She fell into thought. ‘I suppose this makes sense. Formations rely on the manipulation of the World by drawing upon the Five Elements, Three Wonders, Celestial Bodies, Mountains and Rivers and so on.
‘From that, it shouldn’t be too far-fetched to conclude that Formations used wrong can adversely affect the World, damaging it - possibly beyond repair.’
‘Though, I wonder,’ she mused. ‘Would the legendary level [Heaven and Earth Harmony] still harm the environment?’
Low-tier, high-tier, Resonance, Great Resonance and finally ‘Heaven and Earth Harmony’. These were the quality levels a Formation could be classified into, broadly.
Even while trying her best, the current Xiao Hong could only achieve the Great Resonance. ‘It probably wouldn’t, Heaven and Earth Harmony means that it exists in harmony with its surroundings.’
Xiao Hong’s gaze suddenly became strange. ‘Now that I think about it, are there possibly Environmental Activists in the Cultivation World?’
A ridiculous vision inexplicably unfolded in her mind as her imagination ran wild like a Qilin-blooded horse:
In the boundless blue sky, a riotous assembly of figures in Daoist Robes riding their giant Swords, their placards floating around like Flying Swords.
[Stop strip-mining mountains for Spirit Stones!]
[Down with harvesting of Spirit Herbs for Pill Refining!]
[Give Pixius back their sacred groves!]
[Stop the turtle trade, they ain't for soup!]
[Recycle your talismans and Jade Slips, reduce your worldly tolls and you can achieve Ascension!]
[Use your own hair for Talisman Brushes, not your Spirit Beast’s!]
“Oi, what the heck is a Spirit Beast Rights Activist like you doing here?”
“I dunno, brother, I just randomly wrote a profound-sounding slogan and joined in on the fun!”
“Oh, me too!”
“‘Use your own hair for Talisman Brushes, not your Spirit Beast’s’? How the heck is that ‘profound’?!”
“Fellow Daoist, this extraordinariness in simplicity…”
“...”
On another side.
“Courting Death! How dare you have a placard that is bigger than mine and a slogan that is more profound than mine?!” A random young master shouted, almost vomiting blood at the audacity of this ant that did not know the immensity of Heaven and Earth!
A suave young man looked at the young master with an indifferent expression. “Heh. Trash like you doesn’t know the first thing about the Dao of Protesting!”
“Argh! Kill this bastard!”
“...”
.
An involuntary giggle escaped her, ‘Hehe~ It will be darn interesting to see Cultivators protesting to protect the Great Mystic World!’
After amusing herself for a while, she shook her head. ‘I’m not here to think about this.’ She threw these thoughts to the back of her mind. Protecting the Great Mystic World was nice and all, but her own Inner World required more attention now.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
With a single step, she appeared in the centre of the clearing.
This clearing was often used as a training ground by the disciples in the few days after the town was built. Stimulated by the powerlessness they felt against Fang Jin, watching their friends and family leave them forever, they had made many such clearings to train their Techniques.
This was also why Xiao Hong was surprised that this place was empty.
Xiao Hong inhaled deeply, expelling the last wisps of distraction.
She closed her eyes and reached out to her Zhenqi. She felt the steady current of warmth flowing through her body, surging and sinking with every breath. She ‘saw’ her red-gold Qi flowing through her meridians that weaved through the body like a second circulatory system.
The corner of her mouth curled up slightly when she felt it responding to her call excitedly.
If someone were to ask her what Qi felt like, Xiao Hong would liken it to a warm bath after a particularly intense workout, relaxing the body wherever it flowed. Yet, it was also like a shot of caffeine after a great sleep, energising and invigorating. She even felt it was like a hyperactive puppy sometimes, eager to run around and unleash all of its energy onto the world.
This strangely contradictory mixture of feelings had been a little hard to get used to when she’d just transmigrated; but slowly, she’d gotten used to and even a little, no more than a little, addicted to it. It couldn’t be helped, there was very little that could be compared to the empowering feeling and sense of security Qi gave to a Cultivator.
She took a deep breath and clenched her fists. She felt her muscles tense, casually exerting a force even a hydraulic press would find hard-pressed to match.
Her Divine Sense mobilised, spreading out like a ripple, covering everything in a radius greater than 400 metres. There was very little that could escape her senses in her range. Stones, dried leaves, insects, and even tiny specks of dust could not escape her.
‘Now. Let us test it out.’
She opened her eyes and shouted inwardly, ‘Divine Ability: Heavenly Convergence!’
… and nothing happened.
Xiao Hong: “???”
She was confused for a while before a sense of irritation washed over her.
What the hell?! After all that hype, you give me a dud?! Where is my earth-shattering boom, the dazzling aura, the glorious proof of my power?!
And most importantly.
Where the fuck up am I supposed to put my face now?!
Her chest felt incredibly stifled!
‘Again!’
“Heavenly Convergence!”
‘...’
“Heavenly Convergence!!”
‘...’
She tried again and again several times more. Yet, try as she might, the only thing converging on her was a tidal wave of embarrassment and anger.
‘What the heck?? Clearly, it is at the Beginner level, why am I not able to activate it?!’ She grumbled inwardly.
She released a small breath.
‘Ugh.’ After complaining a bit more, she calmed herself down.
‘I’m missing something…’ She thought back to the exact circumstances that had awakened her ability.
‘Desperation?’ She mused, ‘Possibly. A lot of abilities are awakened under duress. Powering up at the edge of life and death is practically bread and butter for Cultivators like us.’
She stroked her jaw lightly.
‘Anger?’ She thought of other possibilities, ‘That also seems possible.’
‘Pain…? I sure hope not, I don’t wanna be beaten up just to activate a Divine Ability. I’m not a masochist!’
‘Despair?’ Another possibility occurred to her.
‘No, no!’ She vehemently shook her head, ‘Even though I have red eyes, I don’t want to be an emo that only speaks in grunts! Although, being able to copy Ninja Techniques - ahem - Cultivation Techniques sounds super useful…’
She carefully recalled everything she had felt when she punched Fang Jin flying.
Suddenly, it struck her!
‘Willpower!’ Her eyes lit up! ‘It’s Willpower! Or more accurately, it was my Intent! It was my purest intent to give Fang Jin a new orifice that generated a tremendous amount of Willpower.
‘A Willpower that mobilised the entirety of my being - Spirit, Body and Essence - and focused it to achieve a singular purpose: to make Fang Jin pay a price! All the emotions only served to make my Intent stronger.
‘The fusion of the three should have occurred by the purest chance…
‘No wait! It was not just pure chance.’ Another thought occurred to her. ‘It was because of how heavily injured I was that I had to use my Qi to nourish and Divine Sense to hold myself together, thus placing the three in their position.
‘And under the influence of my Willpower, they fused together.’
She frowned slightly, ‘That kind of Intent and Willpower is not something I can generate casually - it requires very desperate circumstances to work.’
Her frown deepened before relaxing. ‘No, I probably don’t need that strong an Intent to make it work. It needed to be that strong because it was the first time. This time, I just need the Intent to be strong enough to initiate the fusion or convergence of the Essence, Spirit and Body.’
Having thought so far, she immediately tried it out. She took a deep breath and mobilised her Divine Sense with all her might, staring at a convenient test subject - a massive boulder seven to eight times her height and a third of that in width.
She raised her hands and got into a stance. For Cultivators, stances made very little difference in their ability to fight - their bodies and Qi moved fast enough that unless the enemy was in a less-than-a-metre range, they could reach quickly enough. But Xiao Hong still took her stance.
Why? Because it conditioned her Mind, allowing for the required Intent to be shaped with greater ease.
Her Qi roiled excitedly and her muscles tensed involuntarily as she stared at the boulder like they could not live under the same sky!
‘Heavenly Convergence!’
Woom!
Akin to a shockwave, a small burst of wind expanded with her as its epicentre, blowing up the dust and leaves.
Her Zhenqi surged, coursing through meridians rapidly. It resonated harmoniously with her body, creating a symphony of power that reverberated within her. Her Spirit instantly soared to a peak, drawing in reserves of Zhenqi that fused with her and melded with her flesh and bone, strengthening it to a level beyond she’d ever felt.
“Whoa!” she gasped, sensing the tremendous rush of power filling her body. Her entire Being felt like it was elevated infinitely! Everything around her seemed smaller like she had grown a few times taller.
The world around her sharpened, colours imbued with a newfound vibrancy.
Her body felt so light, she thought she could soar into the sky with a single bound, flying free and unfettered!
‘Phew…! Calm down, Xiao Hong!’ She scolded herself. She was familiar with this feeling - it had happened after her previous breakthrough from Sky Spirit to Divine Sea.
‘This is the hallucination from gaining a tremendous increase in strength in a short period.’ Xiao Hong took several deep breaths to calm herself down. ‘It's just that the feeling Heavenly Convergence gives is slightly weaker.’
She casually clenched her fist, feeling the pleasant tingling of power surge through her body, raring to go.
Xiao Hong mobilised her Divine Sense that had become much clearer, trying to understand her state from an outsider’s perspective.
At first glance, there seemed to be no change at all - she looked no different than usual other than her eyes seeming a little brighter.
Upon looking closer, though, there was indeed a great difference. The special Aura that surrounded all Cultivators like a miniature field, suffusing the air with a subtle energy, had disappeared entirely. In its place, was an aura that was almost indistinguishable from an ordinary mortal - just a touch more mysterious. It was an aura that, while seemingly ordinary, hinted at unfathomable depths beneath the surface - like the boundless ocean.
She closed her eyes and felt out her current state.
‘Hm. So it doesn’t draw in or affect the Qi in my Dantian?’ Other than a quarter of it being consumed for the activation of her Divine Ability, the rest of the massive reservoir of Zhenqi in her Dantian remained unaffected and unchanged. ‘I wonder…’
Her Spirit fluctuated slightly, drawing out several strands of her Zhenqi and trying to merge it with her Body like the Divine Ability, idly noticing how much easier it was to control.
She shook her head with a small sigh, ‘As expected. I can’t merge more than a certain amount of the three Pillars. At least, not without raising my mastery of the Divine Ability.’
‘Oh, well.’
She threw her thoughts to the back of her mind. ‘Now, let's see how strong this state is!’ With a single bound, she appeared directly next to the boulder.
However, she was not going to go all out and punch the boulder like a brain-dead protagonist!
There was no need to do that and unnecessarily draw attention from everywhere! There was a much simpler way to do things!
She placed her palm on the boulder and simply clenched.
With sharp cracking noises, her fingers easily dug through the boulder like it was made of sand rather than stone.
She pulled her hand out, bringing with it a small piece of the boulder the size of a table tennis ball. She drew from the reservoir of Zhenqi and pumped it into the stone, enhancing its defensive power immensely. It glowed with a reddish-gold hue.
Then she clenched her hand while increasing both the strength she exerted and also the amount of Qi she exerted. Such a method not only tested the strength she could exert but also the control she had over her Zhenqi she had in this state. Because if she put in too much, the piece of rock would simply explode - too little and it would be crushed under the force exerted by her hand.
She slowly increased the strength of her grip, exerting greater power and Zhenqi with each passing moment.
Crack!
With a loud crack, the stone shattered. The crumbled pieces of stone fell out from the gaps between her fingers.
Xiao Hong, however, did not care.
‘Almost 60%?!’ Her jaw dropped a few feet.
Unlike Zhenqi which she could theoretically exert all at once, her Physical Potential was not something she could exert in one instance. An Essence Cultivator could mobilise their Zhenqi all at once, given that their meridians could handle the load.
But a Body Cultivator could not exert all the strength and energy in their bodies since they did not have direct, conscious control over their bodies like an Essence Cultivator had over their Essence. It was only through their subconscious that they exerted control over their bodies.
For example, even if someone were to throw a punch with all their might, they wouldn’t fall flat on their face, out of energy. They could still punch several times more. This was also why a pure Body Cultivator's Battle Strength was not nearly as good as a pure Qi Cultivator.
Even when she punched Fang Jin flying, the exhaustion was in her Divine Sense and Zhenqi. The only reason her body shut down was because she was injured heavily.
‘No wonder the System evaluated my combat prowess at the 7th Disaster Stage! My combat potential is really at that Stage!
‘Going by this rate of improvement, wouldn’t that mean that I can go toe-to-toe with Nirvana Stage Beings when I’m at the 8th Disaster Stage?!’ Xiao Hong’s eyes widened in astonishment when she realised the implications!
Her concentration wavered greatly under the intense feeling of shock and she immediately dropped out of the state of Heavenly Convergence.
‘Ugh.’ She groaned as her body rebelled against the withdrawal. The exhilarating lightness of her newfound power vanished, replaced by a leaden weight that seemed to seep into her limbs. It was as if she'd been burdened with a mountain.
After what felt like an eternity she managed to re-adjust to her weaker self.
‘This feeling is really crappy…’
After grumbling and cursing under her breath for a while, she seriously began to analyse her current capabilities.
‘At the base level, while the single-target destructive ability I can unleash at a certain Stage is the same as what I can unleash with my Zhenqi at the same Stage, the overall Battle Power I can exert is definitely not as good.
‘After all, the destructive capability is only part of a battle.’ The battles she went through in this Mystic Realm had taught her this much. ‘The best example is my battle with the higher-levelled Demonic Cultivators - even if it looked like it was my strong Physical Cultivation that brought me victory, it was actually the Star Shifting Steps that contributed the most - without it, I would only be hung up and beaten if I dared to fight.’
The sheer versatility of an Essence Cultivator was so overwhelming that a Body Cultivator at the same Stage would be suppressed unilaterally. Formations, Puppets, Artefacts, Talismans, Spell Arts, and Battle Techniques among other things were the greatest strength of an Immortal Cultivator.
And most of these things cannot be used by a pure Body Cultivator - because they lack Qi.
In such a situation, pure Body Cultivators will only be at a disadvantage. Even their greatest advantage - their Physical Qualities like resilience, healing and endurance could be mimicked using appropriate Artefacts.
Yet, despite this being the case, the System evaluated her Battle Strength to be at the 7th Disaster level. If she followed this trend, then going toe-to-toe with a Nirvana Stage Being at the 8th Disaster Stage might entirely be possible!
‘Other than that old fogie, Gu Ran, there are probably very few Cultivators who can achieve the same level of Battle Strength - and those who do, would definitely not be able to achieve it with Body Cultivation!’ Xiao Hong’s eyes burned with excitement.
‘Moreover, if I guessed correctly, not only can Heavenly Convergence boost my Physicality, but it can also do the same for my Essence and Spirit - it currently enhances my Body by default because it is the strongest among the three Pillars. As long as my proficiency in Heavenly Convergence is high enough, it can boost either of them!’
Her heart thumped with anticipation. ‘I need to cultivate this Divine Ability to a higher level of Mastery as soon as possible!’
She immediately began to train her Divine Ability having decided to not waste her time.
‘It was a great idea to come to this Mystic Realm!’