90 The Trifles of Body Tempering 4 (1/2)

This night, it seemed as if the Sanctum of Eternity was determined to cleanse and enhance the major meridians within her body. As An Fei drifted amongst a turbulent sea of sleeplessness, warmth, and comfort, her body was undergoing a major transformation, the second of five within the Realm of Body Tempering.

The major meridians except for the pericardium, kidney, and gallbladder meridian systems were experiencing a baptism of golden light.

Pure, untainted divine essence filtered into spiritual essence inundated the meridians to full capacity, widening them and disintegrating impurities or blockages centimeter by centimeter.

Fortunately, the girl had long entered sleep before the intensive process occurred, otherwise she would not have suffered from mere bouts of sleeplessness. Perhaps she would have screamed her lungs out from the pain, for the intensity of the golden light far exceeded that of the minor blood vessels of her fingers and toes.

The golden light traveled along the entire length of each major meridian system, purifying not only the major meridian, but also the supplementary branches connected to the main stem.

While the golden light traversed the entire length of the girl's lung, stomach, spleen, bladder, kidney, and other meridians, it did not enclose them with the golden radiance as the blood vessels nearby.

There was far more work to do.

At the foreground, a massive coalesced serpent of silver-colored spiritual essence rested within the girl's dantian and meridians – a target needed to be exterminated before any further progress could be made.

The enormous cluster of spiritual essence naturally possessed the deserving intelligence as a creation by a Mortal Tribulation cultivator, and had not been damaged to a significant degree when the Sanctum had purified An Fei's blood vessels.

Though it would be preferred to progress slowly, the Sanctum was far cognizant of the underlying risks that would befall the girl due to the natural toxicity of mortal cultivation and spiritual essence to the girl's body. Hence, instead of delaying it any further, the Sanctum was determined to fully expel the silver-colored spiritual essence and slaughter it tonight.

An Fei was destined to wake exceptionally late tomorrow morning, perhaps not even until nightfall.

The Sanctum of Eternity rumbled as a massive quantity of divine essence gathered at the seventeenth platform of the Archive of Time. The divine essence observed An Fei's body with an unearthly vigilance as if staring down at prey with a vicious glint.

Approaching the girl and infiltrating the body through the fingertips, a strand of the formless and colorless light traveled through the complex pathways of the meridians, racing towards the dantian.

Once the dantian was breached by the thread of divine essence, the interior was exposed to reveal an enormous serpent with silver scales.

The serpent was several hundred meters long, coiled around itself numerous times to minimize its volume. Within the small dantian of the young girl, the serpent easily consumed the entirety of the available space.

Silver scales, durable and elegant, covered its body from head to tail, and shimmered when light descended onto it.

The serpent had been in a slumber when the divine essence breached the walls of the dantian, the long, forked tongue flickering at a rhythmic pace relaxed and lazy.

Unfortunately, upon detecting the presence of an intruding entity of sentience of a similar scale to its own, the serpent hissed in a provocative manner towards the thread of divine essence.

The thread immediately fled from the dantian, retreating far into the pathways of the meridians.

However, it ensured to remain at the fringes of the serpent's range of perception, constantly taunting the latter simply due to its continuing presence.

The serpent snarled, the large mouth opening to reveal two massive, curved fangs, and a bottomless void daring to consume everything in its path. After a moment's hesitation, the serpent darted forth leave the dantian to hunt the malignant thread of divine essence.

Thus, a rather comical but horrifying game of cat-and-mouse ensued; a tiny thread of divine essence led a several hundred meter long serpent of silver spiritual essence throughout the girl's meridians in a disorderly chase.

If the girl was awake to witness such a debacle, it would be a miracle for An Fei to not receive severe mental trauma. A snake many times larger than herself rampaging throughout her body's meridians to hunt a thread of light no longer than a centimeter… would be downright terrifying to witness.

Racing through the girl's conception vessel, the divine essence suddenly escaped from the body, forcing the serpent to slow to a halt. Its head swaying from side to side as the massive tongue flickered, searching for the pesky little thread.

The tongue stilled, and the entire serpent froze, the pair of callous and brutal eyes narrowing with savage wrath.

The serpent's body pulsed with an unearthly silver light, pressing against the current of golden light streaming down the length of the conception vessel.

With a flash, the serpent followed the trail of the thread, detaching itself from An Fei's meridians. In its haste to conquer and pulverize the annoying cluster of divine essence, the serpent had completely removed itself from the girl's body and most particularly, her dantian – only to deeply regret it moments later.

Once it had left the girl's body, a simple glance was enough to deduce that it had run headlong into a trap.

The thread of divine essence had reunited with the major cluster, and enough had gathered to completely saturate the seventeenth platform of the Archives of Time. Thus, while the serpent of silver-colored spiritual essence was difficult to eradicate when hiding within the girl's delicate body, it was a completely different circumstance when outside.