She steadied her mind, propping up her still-weak limbs as she tried to jump down from the bed and walk toward the Gathering Spirit Meditation Mat placed at the side of the room…..
“Ugh~!”
Her legs suddenly softened as if stepping on cotton, and her body swayed.
“Thud!” Lu Qiancha sat heavily on the cold floor!
Lu Qiancha gave a speechless glare at her uncooperative legs.
Broken.
Point.
Accepted her fate, she settled into a cross-legged position right there.
With her claws, she formed a hand seal, and a faint, misty light of the Closed-Door Cultivation Array instantly rose up, enveloping her room.
Then, Lu Qiancha began refining the Ownerless Spiritual Qi within her body.
“Crack.”
A crisp sound, like jade breaking, echoed deep within her soul. That stubborn Realm Barrier shattered under the surging spiritual force, responding immediately.
A vast wave of spiritual power surged unimpeded into the new realm within her, her body feeling instantly translucent.
Lu Qiancha had successfully broken through; her realm—Mid-stage Refining Void.
Just as her realm stabilized completely—
Buzz!
A faint, extremely strange light appeared around three feet from her body, impossible to describe precisely with words, as if born from nothingness.
It was neither smoke nor mist, seemingly both real and unreal, its shape constantly shifting, its aura profoundly mysterious and obscure.
At its core, black and white colors twisted and flowed, faintly outlining an ancient, bottomless chessboard, spreading a profound, unique Dao Essence.
“This is… Dao Essence?!”
Lu Qiancha’s spiritual awareness touched that faint light, stirring a storm of emotions in her heart.
Dao Essence is the supreme crystallization born when a cultivation method is perfected to its utmost, an interaction between one’s own insight and the Dao path left by predecessors.
For later generations, it is an unparalleled treasure to comprehend the source of the cultivation method, directly grasp the core of the Dao, and build the foundation for future enlightenment.
However, such Dao Essence is unfathomably mysterious, only possible to be born when one’s cultivation method reaches the late stage, approaching its peak, with one’s entire Dao perfected.
But she had just started cultivating the Guiyuan Record.
This Dao Essence had come too strangely and too early.
Suppressing the shock in her heart, Lu Qiancha focused to examine the ever-shifting Dao Essence glow—black and white intertwined, the chessboard intricate.
A cold, aloof aura emanated, like a grandmaster placing chess pieces, viewing all living beings as pawns.
Lu Qiancha furrowed her brow.
This Dao was completely different from the Natural Nurturing Dao Charm carried by her foundational Peach Blossom Village life and the Mountain God Talisman.
Forcing herself to integrate this Dao would be tantamount to destroying her roots.
At that thought, Lu Qiancha no longer hesitated.
With a light tap of her claw, she summoned her storage ring and took out a purple-black Rubik’s Cube-like object covered with countless fine runes, which instantly appeared in her palm.
Lu Qiancha carefully separated a thread of pure spiritual power, enveloping the suspended Dao Essence, and slowly moved it toward the cube.
The moment the spiritual power wrapped around the Dao Essence touched the surface of the cube—
“Pop!”
Accompanied by a sound like a bursting bubble, the strange faint light containing the chessboard Dao was pulled by an invisible force and immediately absorbed without obstruction into the mysterious interior of the cube.
On one face of the cube, a dense chessboard appeared.
Lu Qiancha exhaled a gentle stream of spiritual power from her palm; the warm spiritual power flowed like a trickling stream into the cube in her hand.
“Click, click, click.”
The cube floated midair, rotating and assembling itself; in just a few breaths, it transformed into a small, palm-sized chessboard made of black jade.
The instant the chessboard settled in her claw, profound information flooded her mind—[Heaven and Earth Chessboard].
A thought takes a piece, and Heaven and Earth become the board. Since ancient times, the Heavenly Dao is like a chessboard; when the game ends, the world returns to the primordial.
A chill ran through Lu Qiancha’s heart.
This was, so far, the only Dao Essence in her hands that appeared in an almost complete form.
Unlike the fragmented spatial or killing Dao Essences the cube had devoured before.
She could clearly feel that this Heaven and Earth Chessboard Dao was profound and whole.
And its evolution seemed far from complete.
Her spiritual awareness sank deeper into the chessboard.
A battle technique secret titled “Three-Piece Decisive Formation” fell into her consciousness like starlight scattering.
“Three pieces placed, Heaven and Earth bound. When cultivated to the profound, it can cause Golden Immortals to fall to the mortal realm, and Wangliang to weep on the illusory path.”
She had glimpsed this description in a book at the Sect Scripture Pavilion.
Lu Qiancha had roughly tried this technique herself. Though the name sounded profound, it was actually a non-lethal binding technique.
Its effect was only about half as good as a slow-acting potion, took a long time to master, and demanded harsh talent requirements.
Without reaching that legendary profundity, its practical value in battle was barely above none.
And that was why Lu Qiancha had abandoned cultivating this method.
Better to brew a few more slow-acting potions than practice this.
As her thoughts turned, Lu Qiancha’s spiritual awareness probed her dantian.
The Mountain God Talisman’s faint light flickered, reflecting the current state of Peach Blossom Village:
Followers: 67
Incense Offerings: 174 (Of which: Taiyin Wealth Incense 30 | Little Peach Tree Spirit Pure Incense 144)
Alchemical Consumption: 134
The automatically displayed data made Lu Qiancha doubt even more—did any locals truly exist in this cultivation world?
The Mountain God Talisman’s statistics used Arabic numerals.
How absurd.
After checking the talisman, Lu Qiancha sent her awareness into Peach Blossom Village, ready to refine the next peach tree.
But as soon as her awareness entered, a sudden crisis arose.
That pure white Little Moon Rabbit was chasing a freshly refined Little Peach Tree Spirit all over the ground.
The rabbit’s mouth opened and closed, already chewing several tender peach leaves.
“?!!”
Lu Qiancha was shocked, her figure instantly disappearing in place as her true form of Peach Blossom Village appeared.
The Heaven and Earth Chessboard in her claw flared brightly, and three solid spiritual power pieces silently yet faster than lightning—aligned in Heaven, Earth, and Human positions—fixed themselves in the void.
“Buzz!”
A golden triangular cage woven purely from the power of Dao principles instantly formed, tightly imprisoning the troublesome rabbit at its core.
“Chirp chirp!”
The Moon Rabbit panicked, hopping up and down inside the cage, its white fur puffed up, clawing desperately at the seemingly intangible but impenetrable light barrier, but all in vain.
“Not allowed to eat your coworkers!”
Lu Qiancha floated down in front of the light cage, tapping the rabbit’s ruffled head lightly but with a warning tone. Her voice turned cold: “Next time… I’ll pluck your tail fur and make a felt rug!”
“Chirp chirp!”
The Moon Rabbit shrank its neck, its wet red eyes staring at Lu Qiancha—whether it truly understood or was just pretending, she couldn’t tell.
Lu Qiancha took it as a lesson learned and, with a thought, the golden light cage dissipated like a bubble.
The little rabbit, still shaken, hopped a few times in place, quickly nibbled some nearby innocent weeds, then stood dazed.
The several Little Peach Tree Spirits hiding not far away took the rabbit’s daze as a chance to cautiously move closer.
But the Moon Rabbit ignored them completely, hopping straight into the peach grove to search for fallen peaches to eat.
Seeing this, Lu Qiancha finally relaxed; it seemed the rabbit understood not to eat its coworkers.
Returning to her room, Lu Qiancha closed her cultivation again, focusing on refining the Ownerless Spiritual Qi within her body.