Chapter One: Heaven's First Floor

  As if having slept for countless years, in the darkness, it was vague and silent, until suddenly seeing that faint light, a few familiar memories emerged from the distant and unfamiliar memory, although still unknown what it was, there was a strong tremor like an electric current flowing through the body, shouting out loud in an instant!

  "Ah..."

  A loud cry, Shen Shi suddenly sat up with a start, panting heavily, staring around in shock, the familiar stone chamber scene entered his eyes, after a while, he slowly came back to himself, earlier he had fallen asleep in a daze, as if he had just had a nightmare.

  The scene in the dream was momentarily unclear, but after wiping his forehead, he found that he had broken out in a cold sweat. He didn't know what he had dreamed about, and sat on the bed for a while until his mood calmed down completely. Even then, he couldn't recall it, but instead discovered that his body felt extremely light, especially his spirit was full, as if his whole body was filled with energy.

  Shen Shi subconsciously glanced at the edge of the bed not far away, where an old hourglass stood silently, with white sand grains flowing quietly inside, now only a small amount remained. Shen Shi furrowed his brow, and a hint of surprise flashed across his face.

  This jade sandglass was a small thing given by Old Man Shen Tai when they parted, as a token of remembrance. The sand inside flows from one end to the other in exactly one hour. And Shen Shi clearly remembered that tonight when he started his cultivation, following the usual practice, he had placed all the sand at one end before turning it over to start timing.

  That is to say, from the start of cultivation until now, it has been almost an hour?

  Shen Shi pondered for a moment, jumped off the bed, exercised his body on the ground, twisted his head and waist, swung his arms, and finally jumped up and down several times. Finally, he confirmed that he was indeed in high spirits, as if he had a surplus of energy and couldn't wait to go to Hong Bang Village to peel 20 or 30 ghost-faced shrimp!

  But this is not right...

  Shen Shi slowly came to a stop, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter. Whether it was the records of the Star Luo Secret Method's incantation or the warnings from Wang Heng and Su He during their lessons, as well as the conversations he had with new friends like Sun You, He Xiao Mei, and Jiang Hong Guang after they started practicing, the meaning behind their words were all consistent: that humans, especially those who have just begun to cultivate and absorb spiritual energy into their bodies from the Ling Crystal, would always feel extremely exhausted, both physically and mentally, after each practice session.

  To quote Wang Hu's words, it means that when absorbing spiritual energy from the Ling crystal into the physical body's meridians, all the techniques and methods used in between are countless and varied, but ultimately they all rely on consuming one's spirit to guide with intention. Therefore, after cultivating, all practitioners will feel exhausted, which is also the fundamental reason why practitioners can only cultivate once a day to bring spiritual energy into their bodies. If they rush and cultivate too many times, their spirits will be overwhelmed first, and if they force themselves against heaven's will, within ten days or half a month, this person will become an idiot.

  Even if it is a cultivator with a deeper Dao and higher realm, it is the same. Although the cultivators of the Yuan condensing realm or the divine intention realm have high and profound realms, great spiritual powers, and are far superior to the Qi refining realm in both body and spirit, every time they absorb spiritual energy from the Ling crystal, their spiritual energy increases greatly, and the mental consumption is also greatly increased. At most, after cultivation, there will be no such intense fatigue, but the vast majority of high-level cultivators still cultivate only once a day.

  It has been a long time since this was a recognized principle in the Hongmeng Xiuzhen Realm. After Shen Shi entered the Ling Xiao Sect, he didn't know much about it from his senior brothers in the sect.

  But this situation in front of me now is obviously not quite right...

  Tonight, the excitement of introducing the spirit into the body for the first time has slowly dissipated, and in Shen Shi's heart, a strong confusion has taken its place. He sank into thought for a long time, but still couldn't think of a reason, so he simply sat down on the edge of the bed, closed his eyes, and replayed tonight's cultivation process from start to finish in his mind, trying to find some clues or unusual places.

  Ling crystal, hold tight, calm mind, concentrate, cultivate, perceive, darkness, faint light, spiritual power, pursue, guide the spirit, enter the body. Throughout the entire process, it was as if he had cut out a piece of his memory, recalling the past bit by bit. But no matter how much he thought about it, everything seemed perfectly normal, just like any other ordinary day, except that tonight there were no signs of physical backlash, and for the first time, his cultivation was successful...

  Later, he was tired and fell onto the bed. In the midst of the immense joy and excitement from completing his cultivation for the first time, at that moment, he also felt an unstoppable fatigue sweeping over him like a tidal wave. Then, he dazedly fell asleep.

  When I regain consciousness, it is now when I wake up from sleep.

  Shen Shi's eyebrows furrowed intensely, as if he had grasped something vaguely, and concentrated his mind to recall the fragment of his dream before falling asleep, but everything seemed blurry, his brain was a jumbled mess, or rather, a complete muddle...

  Was it really something that happened when I fell asleep just now? But I clearly didn't do anything, and now thinking back, in a daze, I seemed to think of nothing, just feeling tired and wanting to sleep soundly. If there was something stimulating at that time...

  Invigorating and refreshing!

  Suddenly, these four words flashed through Shen Shi's mind like lightning, as if illuminating the dark corners in an instant. His body shook at once, and at this moment, another name slowly emerged from the surface of his mind.

  Is this the secret he has been hiding and hesitating to touch?

  At this time, Shen Shi's face looked somewhat inexplicably strange, as if he had a sudden joy, and also seemed to have a bewildered confusion. He turned around, hesitated for a moment, stretched his hand into the deepest part of the bed, searched for something in a certain secret corner under the quilt, and when he turned back, there was an additional black scroll on his hand.

  On the day he first entered Ling Xiao Sect, when he went through the trial of Swallowing Crystal Toad, Shen Shi had already sensed that the Seven Leaf Golden Chrysanthemum pattern on the Qing Xin Zhou scroll might bring him trouble. From then on, he dared not carry it with him again. Coincidentally, Ling Xiao Sect assigned a separate cave to each new disciple, which could only be opened by their own cloud symbol, so Shen Shi carefully hid it in his cave.

  After getting the Clear Mind Mantra scroll, Shen Shi naturally secretly looked at it many times, but still had some worries in his heart and didn't dare to practice it randomly. After that, there were also physical backlashes, Red Clam Village peeling shrimp and other things, which made him spend a fulfilling and busy period of time, and for a while even forgot about the Clear Mind Mantra.

  Who would have known that just when I finally got used to the backlash of my flesh for the first time and succeeded in cultivating, I also inexplicably cultivated a Clear Mind Mantra.

  Has he really cultivated? Shen Shi's heart was a bit apprehensive, and he got up and carefully moved his body around, checking himself, and finally confirmed that he didn't seem to have anything unusual, on the contrary, his spirit seemed particularly refreshed and full. This was completely different from Sun You and others' complaints about being tired like a dead dog after each cultivation session.

  Or is this mysterious Clear Mind Mantra just a special skill for refreshing and awakening the mind?

  Shen Shi suddenly felt his heart skip a beat for no reason...

  April 28th, sunny.

  At dawn, when Shen Shi walked out of the cave, he looked up at the sky and found that today's sky seemed bluer than usual. The vast expanse of the sky was cloudless, with a clarity like a huge sapphire. The sea tide was still surging on the beach of White Fish Bay, and the sound of waves crashing against the shore could be heard from afar. The sea breeze was gentle, seemingly weaker than usual. Even the seagulls that often flew along the coast to catch fish were nowhere to be seen today.

  Shen Shi stood at the entrance of the cave, stretched towards the direction of the sea and let out a lazy yawn. He felt that this day seemed especially beautiful, and his mood was naturally especially good.

  Three nights ago, he finally succeeded in attracting the spirit into his body for the first time. From then on, he was considered to have officially embarked on the path of cultivation and could be barely called a cultivator, although he was currently only at the initial stage of the Qi Refining Realm.

  But which monk in this world did not start from here?

  At present, in the initial stage of Qi Refining Realm, the spiritual power within his body is naturally thin, but from today on, as long as the subsequent Spiritual Crystals can keep up and he doesn't slack off in his cultivation, the spiritual power within his body will naturally become thicker and more abundant. As time passes and he absorbs more spiritual energy, relying on a bit of luck to break through several key points in the meridians, his Dao Lineage will naturally rise. From the initial stage to the high stage of Qi Refining Realm, he can attempt to open up the Dan Tian Jade Mansion and explore the major passageway of the Condensing Origin Realm.

  As for the many fellow disciples who were trapped in the Refining Qi realm on Qingyu Island and couldn't progress, at this moment, Young Master Shen Shi didn't think of them at all.

  Apart from this, he has a good mood and there is another layer of reasons that cannot be spoken clearly to others.

  After repeated hesitation, careful consideration and internal struggle, he finally couldn't help but start secretly practicing the mysterious Qing Xin Zhou. And after several days of trial practice, Shen Shi finally confirmed that this Qing Xin Zhou seemed to have no adverse effects on himself, on the contrary, this mysterious spell had an astonishing effect on restoring his spirit, especially after he practiced the Ling Ru Shen Ti and felt a strong sense of fatigue, running the Qing Xin Zhou again helped him recover his physical and mental strength.

  Every time he practiced the Clear Mind Mantra, all his spiritual fatigue would be swept away, and he would feel refreshed like a person who had just taken a bath. His spirit was so good that it was almost palpable. Even more daringly, Shen Shi secretly tried to practice for the second time in one day, which meant that he attempted to absorb the spiritual energy into his body for the second time by holding the Spiritual Crystal.

  He did it.

  Not even he himself dared to have too much hope, just trying with a one in ten thousand chance, unexpectedly, surprisingly, really, succeeded!

  He actually succeeded in doing it twice in one day, and after the second attempt at cultivation, he had the same reaction as the first time, only feeling a huge mental fatigue, but none of the signs of over-cultivation that Wang Huan and the others mentioned, which would cause great harm to the body.

  However, the miraculous effect of the Clear Mind Mantra seemed to have reached its limit. After practicing it twice in one day, no matter how he ran the practice, his physical body had no reaction at all, as if the Clear Mind Mantra could only restore his spirit once a day.

  Chapter Forty-Eight Unlucky

  Within a single day, he had cultivated twice, and there was almost no backlash or harm. Even though the extraordinary effect of Qing Xin Jue could only be effective once a day, Shen Shi was already content and didn't want to ask for more.

  Within a day, he cultivates twice. What does this mean? This means that as long as the spiritual crystal can keep up with him, his cultivation speed will be twice as fast as an ordinary person. With such a huge benefit, how could his mood not be good?

  Looking at the sea and sky in a line, a piece of azure, Shen Shi really had an impulse to open his mouth and roar, but of course, he still endured it in the end, smiled, and then stretched out his hand to rub his brow.

  Her fingers paused lightly at her brow for a moment.

  Perhaps the only thing that made him slightly uneasy, and somewhat imperfect, was that the Clear Mind Mantra seemed to have a strange aftereffect. Every time he ran it, although he could quickly recover his spirit, at the same time, it would inexplicably scatter the thread of spiritual power he had cultivated before, slowly gathering and absorbing it into a certain acupoint deep within his brow, where it would come to rest.

  And the second time that day, the spiritual energy obtained from practicing the Ling Ru entry was scattered normally in the body's meridians, just like most cultivators.

  However, this seems to be no big deal either. The brow point is also a place where the body's energy converges. Although it's strange that the spiritual energy stops moving and stays there, according to common sense, only after cultivating to the Condensing Yuan Realm and opening up the Jade Furnace Qi Sea would the spiritual energy show signs of gathering in one place. In the Refining Qi Realm, I've never heard of such an unusual phenomenon occurring.

  But at least for now, it doesn't seem to be any unusual place. The more spiritual energy enters the body, the higher the cultivation path will be, and naturally, the better it will be! Anyway, in the future, when cultivating further, when opening up the elixir field and jade palace, all the spiritual energy in the body will definitely converge into the jade palace like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.

  Shen Shi thought excitedly, gazing up at the azure sky, feeling that his future prospects were bright and promising.

  The sea breeze blows by, carrying a hint of coolness.

  Shen Shi turned around and walked in the direction of Qingyu Village, preparing to take that road to Hong Bang Village. Today he was going to work hard for a day. Nowadays, whenever he encountered something joyful, although it couldn't be spoken of to others, his heart was already filled with energy. Moreover, practicing twice a day meant that the consumption of spiritual crystals would be double that of others.

  Generally speaking, a normal spiritual crystal can be used for twenty times of cultivation by a beginner in the Qi Refining stage, which is equivalent to twenty days of cultivation. As the realm improves, the cultivator's consumption of spiritual power will also increase significantly. A mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator absorbs spiritual energy at twice the speed of a beginner, and a crystal can only be used for ten days. By the late stage of Qi Refining, it is doubled again, and a crystal can only support five days. As for higher-level cultivators such as Grand Masters, those in the Condensing Yuan stage, the Divine Intent stage, or even the Yuan Dan stage, the amount of spiritual crystals and energy they consume during cultivation is beyond what Shen Shi can imagine now.

  Although Shen Shi has just started on the path of cultivation and is only in the initial stage of Qi Refining, he doesn't absorb much spiritual energy from the Ling Crystal each time he cultivates. However, he can't help but cultivate twice a day now, which means his consumption of the Ling Crystal is twice that of an ordinary person.

  As soon as he thought that his weak cultivation base at the initial stage of Qi Refining would have to consume spiritual crystals at a rate equivalent to the middle stage, and that in the future, if his realm were to advance, the demand for spiritual crystals would only become more terrifying. As soon as this thought occurred to him, Shen Shi suddenly felt a sense of urgency, and even had some hidden fear, so he tried his best to earn more spiritual crystals, which had already become Shen Shi's top priority on Qingyu Island.

  Just as Shen Shi was getting into high spirits and preparing to make a big move, he hadn't taken two steps when he saw the stone gate of his neighbor's cave open with a loud rumble, and Sun You walked out with a dejected look on his face.

  Raising his eyes to see Shen Shi, Sun You beckoned him over and slowly walked to his side after closing the stone gate. Shen Shi looked him up and down, only to see that Sun You's eye sockets were slightly dark, and his eyelids and cheeks showed some swelling, looking like he had stayed up all night without sleep. He couldn't help but ask in surprise: "What happened to you?"

  Sun You's mouth twitched, and he let out a weak, bitter laugh. "It's all because of my cultivation," he said. "For the past few nights, I've been getting headaches after cultivating, and I haven't even been able to sleep well. That's why I look like this." As he spoke, he suddenly thought of something, and his eyes widened in surprise as he stared at Shen Shi...

  "Huh? I remember you said a few days ago that you've passed the physical rebound period and can start cultivating, but why do you look more spirited than me?"

  Shen Shi was taken aback and nodded subconsciously: "Yes, I can start normal cultivation three days ago and guide the spirit into my body."

  Sun You looked at him and saw that Shen Shi, although his face was also somewhat tired, had a spirited look in his eyes and stood upright, looking much better than himself. He furrowed his brow and said, "That's strange..."

  Shen Shi was momentarily speechless, his mind racing as he tried to come up with an excuse to brush it off. Just then, he heard someone beside him let out a cold snort, their tone laced with disdain. "Rare indeed! After cultivating, everyone naturally has fatigue, but due to differences in physical condition, the duration of spiritual exhaustion also varies from person to person. He's just recovering a bit faster, what's so strange about that?"

  Shen Shi and Sun You both turned around to look, only to see two girls standing not far away from them. One was fat and the other was thin, with similar facial features. They were none other than Zhong Qinglu and Zhong Qingtian. At this moment, the person who could still speak to Sun You with a tone of mockery was naturally the eldest sister Zhong Qinglu.

  These days, they were busy cultivating all day long. If not, they would be peeling shrimp in Hong E Village, rising early and returning late. Except for the previous few days when Shen Shi heard from Sun You that Zhong Qinglu had accepted a pill-refining task and Zhong Qingzhu had accepted a shell-collecting task, he hadn't seen these two girls for many days. Today, when they met again, Shen Shi first took a closer look at them, then was stunned for a moment, and afterwards couldn't help but feel amused in his heart.

  It turned out that these two girls, especially Zhong Qinglu, looked down on Sun You, but they didn't look too good either. They both had a tired expression on their faces. Among them, Zhong Qingzhu looked a bit better, while Zhong Qinglu's originally white and chubby little face now had two black eye circles, which were very noticeable.

  Sun You listened to Zhong Qinglu's words and didn't immediately get angry, but instead looked thoughtful for a moment before turning to Shen Shi and saying: "You're right, what the young lady from the Zhong family said makes sense. However, as we continue to cultivate and our days grow longer, our physical bodies will become more and more coordinated with our spiritual energy. For now, it's just some superficial reactions, but they'll improve with time."

  This principle Shen Shi had naturally heard people say before, but just now he didn't think of it for a moment. Instead, let Zhong Qinglu on the side look at Sun You with disapproval and directly speak for him, smiling and saying: "So you'll endure for a while longer."

  Sun You shrugged and said, "It can't be helped."

  At this time, Zhong Qinglu took Zhong Qingtian to the front of the two of them. Looking at their backs, perhaps because Zhong Qinglu had unintentionally helped him out just now, Shen Shi suddenly felt that Zhong Qinglu looked more pleasing to the eye this time. He couldn't help but whisper to Sun You: "Why do you always quarrel with Zhong Qinglu? I think she's not particularly annoying."

  Sun You snorted with laughter, just about to criticize this friend of his, when Qiong Liu suddenly seemed to have heard some movement and stopped in her tracks, turning around to look back. She happened to see Sun You's suspicious expression as he looked at her while thinking of saying something to Shen Shi. Her face immediately fell, and she coldly said: "Sun the Second, what are you sneaking around and whispering about behind people's backs again?"

  Zhong Qinglu's eyes swept over Shen Shi, seeing him looking at her with a bewildered expression, and she felt annoyed. She coldly snorted and shouted: "What are you staring at? Haven't you seen a beauty before? You were chatting with Old Man Sun over there, and just one look tells me you're not a good person. I don't know how you managed to sneak into Ling Xiao Sect!"

  After that, she glared at the two of them fiercely, then ignored them and turned around, shaking her head and floating away. Zhong Qingtu stuck out his tongue and smiled apologetically at the two of them before hurrying to catch up with her.

  After a while, Sun You glanced at Shen Shi with a slanted eye and said, "What did you just say?"

  "Let's just forget about it and pretend I never said anything!"

  Two people walked together to Qingyu Ji, because the major halls of Ling Xiao Sect were all located on Qingyu Island and had their own temples distributed across the island. After receiving a task from one of them, they basically went to do things in corresponding places. So Sun You and Shen Shi parted ways at Qingyu Ji. When saying goodbye, Sun You looked like his spirit had recovered a lot, and he smiled at Shen Shi: "If I finish my tasks early today, I'll go to Hong Bang Village to see you peeling shrimp."

  Shen Shi smiled and put it aside, for so many days, Sun You had said the same thing several times, but except for the first time when he came unannounced, every other time he said he would come, not once did he actually show up.

  From the Qingyu Temple, they headed east along the main road to Hongbang Village. After a while, they saw the small village nestled on the beach in the distance. As they walked closer, Shen Shi also caught sight of the slender figure leaning against a tree at the entrance of the village, just as he had expected.

  He smiled slightly and walked up with big strides, greeting Haixing girl: "Good morning."

  The sea star looked at him and suddenly said: "Hey, you seem to be in a good mood today."

  Shen Shi burst out laughing and rubbed his face, saying: "Really?"

  The sea star chuckled and said: "Nonsense, your mouth is almost smiling all the way to your ears!"

  Shen Shi laughed and shook his head, then rubbed his fists together and said: "Alright, let's cut the chatter, quickly bring out the shrimp cage, today I'm going to make a big catch."

  The sea star was taken aback and asked strangely, "What's wrong with you today? You look strange, like you hadn't woken up from sleep a few days ago, but now it seems like you've become a different person."

  Shen Shi burst out laughing and didn't say much, just urging Haixing to hurry up with the shrimp basket. In recent days, he had gradually become familiar with peeling shrimp, an occupation that most people on Qingyu Island considered bloody, dirty, and even a bit lowly. As a result, his speed at peeling shrimp had stabilized at around 20 per day. However, over the past few days, due to his focus on studying the Clear Mind Chant, he had devoted almost all of his attention to it, as he knew that if he didn't get it right, there might be problems with his cultivation. Consequently, during these days when peeling shrimp, Shen Shi would occasionally appear distracted, and the number of shrimp he peeled daily had dropped from a stable 20 to only 12 or 13.

  This obvious abnormality was naturally discovered by Haixing, who had endured two days of silence before finally speaking up to Shen Shi yesterday. However, at this moment, Shen Shi had already solved the major problem and was overjoyed, eager to make a big move and earn more spirit crystals, as he would need twice as many as ordinary people in the future.

  At this thought, Shen Shi became somewhat impatient and said: "Nothing, nothing. A few days ago I just happened to have some things, now they're all fine, hurry up and bring out the shrimp cage!"

  The sea star looked at him with a hint of regret, sighed and said: "It's rare to see you so motivated, but unfortunately, we can't peel shrimp today."

  "What?"

  Both chapters will be released at 10 am today.