Chapter 78 - Blazing Radiant Rays that Scorched the Sky (1/2)
Almost simultaneously with the appearance of the miniature sun, his head was inundated with the cacophonous din of the discordant mixture of sounds ringing at the same time – the shouts of people, the howls and roars of beasts and the thunderous cascading of a million waterfalls falling!!
Concealed within the dissonance were abstruse and unfathomable messages that mercilessly flooded into his mind; his psyche ocean was gushing and billowing in chaos. The liquefied psyche uncontrollably floated into the air and weaved various kinds of totem carvings as if they were just unfolding marvelous paintings one after another!
The sun spirit he reached out to was starting to coalesce with his soul, it was transferring the knowledge and quintessence within it over to him!
The manifestation of a spirit was the first step in the ascension from a mortal to a Qi Practitioner – the first stage of cultivation for Qi Practitioners. However, to transcend and be reborn and to shed off the worldliness within was another matter entirely. This could only be achieved by the full exploration and understanding of the unfathomable spirit; the complete assimilation and coalescence of the spirit with the soul of the cultivator. Only then, can one reach the exalted stage of Rebirth Qi Practitioner.
And now, he was standing on said stage.
How does one ever shed off the worldliness within him?
Mainly, by relying on the spirit.
Spirit – they were among the most abstract and ethereal concepts of the world, inherently holding the most mysterious knowledge within them They were the profound and mysterious totems, the distillation of the power of the heaven and earth., They had the strength to transcend the mortal to immortality, and possessed the knowledge of the fundamental essence of the universe.
Reaching out to the spirit and coalescing it with the soul will transmute the totem carvings it held into the cultivator's own knowledge, therefore, upon ascending to a Qi Practitioner – one's strength and prowess would greatly increase!
This was the benefit that a spirit could bring!
But the stage of Rebirth was not that easy to achieve. While the cultivator was strengthening the spirit, the soul and spirit must also be coalesced into one to form the Primordial Spirit, shedding off the worldliness within the cultivator. It was only then, would the cultivator possess the prowess to soar to the upper limits of the sky and burrow to the depths of the underground, wield their strengths and skills unrestrained, and carve out their own paths of cultivation.
Most Qi Practitioners would spend the rest of their lives strengthening and nourishing their spirit, but fail to coalesce their soul and spirit into one. Hence, they could not shed off the worldliness within them and ascend to a Rebirth Qi Practitioner. The main issue lied within their spirits. As they were usually weaker than others, they were placed at a disadvantage from the outset; the knowledge and power that the spirits bequeathed onto them were little to none.
Hence, they would need to an increasingly disproportionate amount of time and energy to achieve the culmination of their spirits. But until then, they would have turned old and senile, forever bereft of the chance to break through to the next stage of their cultivation.
The spirit Zhong Yue acquired from the sun was one of the strongest sun spirits, the Great Sun Golden Crow; it was a miniature sun when it stood still, a three-legged golden crow when it extended its wings; and or otherwise, a three-legged celestial being during the normal times.
With the Great Sun Golden Crow as his spirit, he would be granted a more robust foundation than ever; but it was also not an easy task to fully understand the abstruse insights brought by the Great Sun Golden Crow.
Zhong Yue could feel the abstruse knowledge flooding into his mind. If his mind was to be said to be a lake, then the knowledge deluging it could be described as the Yangtze River. Not only was his mind flooded, but his head was also on the verge of exploding out!
Zong Yue even harbored doubts on whether his brain would survive the sudden influx or burst apart from overload at anytime!
Thankfully enough, it did not happen, but the knowledge and messages still glutted his mind in a disordered mess and addled his mental faculties. For now, he could only cast them aside and store them in his mind; unable to absorb them into his own base knowledge he would need more time to cogitate on and digest all the information in his brain so that he could entirely grasp the quintessence held within them.
Behind Zhong Yue, the miniature sun was burning in fire, it effused massive energy resembling a golden liquid that blazed towards him, refining his soul.
The golden liquid flowed onto the skin of his soul; his soul was not big, it was only an inch tall. But by visualizing the Sui Sovereign and infusing it into his psyche, his soul would turn out to be over hundreds of feet tall.
The stronger the psyche, the stronger your senses. Right before this, he was taking the form of the Sui Sovereign which enhanced his senses tenfold – that was exactly how he could reach out to the Great Sun Golden Crow.
And now, his soul was getting refined by the Great Sun Golden Crow, the golden liquid flowed all over his body, smiting his soul. Zhong Yue noticed that his psyche was quickly getting vaporized away, and he was about to withdraw his psyche back so that his prowess would not be impaired.
"Continue your visualization, don't stop now!"
Xin Huo suddenly shouted, "Now this is a golden opportunity, you can seize the chance to also temper your psyche when that the spirit is refining your soul, this will allow your psyche to see skyrocketing improvement; you can then use it to refine your soul further and complete your rebirth!"
Zhong Yue was surprised, "Rebirth right away without going through the accumulations?"
The cumulation of spirit – it would usually take tens of years for a cultivator to nourish and cumulate the spirit. Even after acquiring the strongest spirit of Swords Gate, it would still require two to three years to nourish it. The Lawless Battles of the upper house were meant for the disciples to compete for the strongest spirit, and allow the strongest disciple to save up to ten years of hard work.
Whereas completely eschewing the cumulation process and shooting straight for rebirth was something Zhong Yue had never heard of anyone achieving before.
"That's right, go straight for it!"
Xin Huo laughed and said, "For the other Qi Practitioners, after acquiring their spirits, they will have to nourish the spirits and spend countless amounts of time on it. But your Great Sun Golden Crow is incredibly strong, how can it be deemed as the strongest spirit if it still requires you to nourish it for tens of years? I've placed two teleportation portals, wasted two god's treasures and spent so many efforts sending you to the sun If you are still going to need to waste tens of years, then what am I doing all of these for? All the meticulous arrangements I've made was meant to save you tens of years of time!"
Zhong Yue then nodded, his psyche lunged out from his psyche ocean towards his soul, while right there, the golden liquid was incessantly flowing onto his soul and vaporizing his psyche.
He had some understandings of his own towards the stage of 'Rebirth', it was the process of the spirit reshaping the soul.
The soul of a human was shaped like a human, but the atman of a Qi Practitioner was bizarre. Some looked like a treant, some was a bird-human celestial being, and some took the form of a stone golem; these were all due to the coalescence of their soul and spirit, the spirit transmuting the soul and allowing it to acquire the mythical features of the legends, changing their atman to the form of a human god!
This was the 'Rebirth'– the reshaping of the mortal characteristics.
There were two steps; the first was to nourish the spirit and strengthen it; secondly, was to galvanize the psyche and facilitate the spirit and soul coalescence process to complete the process of 'Rebirth'.