Chapter Seventeen: Strange Fire Takes Shape

  Wang Guanlan didn't know if what she was doing would be effective either, it was completely a case of desperately trying every possible cure, treating a dead horse as if it were still alive.

  The effect is surprisingly good.

  It is known that the divine soul power that has undergone the refining of the blue fire is already very pure, and the yuan zhen spiritual power does not need to remove impurities at all. Instead, it directly refines and compresses these divine soul powers. The process is very smooth. The volume of the divine soul power in the sea of consciousness begins to shrink, but its density becomes greater and greater. The divine soul power that flows into the yuan zhen spiritual power transforms from a gaseous or liquid state into a true liquid state, drop by drop, flowing into Wang Guanlan's sea of consciousness.

  Before, Wang Guanlan's spiritual power had undergone the baptism of green flames and began to transform into a liquid state. However, at that time, his spiritual power was not strong enough, so the transformed spiritual power did not become a dominant force, and he remained in the second-stage mage phase. But now, the situation is different. The powerful spiritual energy of the Onmyodo master was transformed by the blue flames, making up for Wang Guanlan's deficiency. As the yuan zhen spiritual technique progressed step by step, the spiritual power in his mind also began to undergo some strange changes. The semi-liquid and semi-gaseous spiritual power gradually became completely liquidized, and then a strange thing happened.

  After the complete liquefaction of the divine soul's power, the swelling sensation in the sea of consciousness disappeared. Afterwards, no matter how much divine soul's power flowed into the sea of consciousness, there was never again this unbearable swelling feeling.

  Wang Guanlan was surprised at the same time, and began to observe his own sea of consciousness further.

  "No way, how can such a strange thing happen?!!"

  He made a strange discovery, his spiritual sea, although on the surface it didn't seem to have expanded, but the divine soul power inside was constantly increasing. If at first when using the yuan zhen spiritual technique, the spiritual sea had already been filled up, but at that time, the divine soul power was only a small pond. Now, it has started to transform from a pond into a deep pool, and the water in this deep pool is getting deeper and deeper, gradually giving off an unfathomable feeling. His spiritual sea seemed to have transformed into a bottomless pit, calmly watching the constant increase of divine soul power without expanding or shrinking.

  Wang Guanlan was a Taoist, and for some common sense of Taoists, he was still clear-minded. The sea of consciousness is like a container that holds the power of the soul, which is also known as spiritual power, and the little light that represents each person's consciousness. All of this exists in the sea of consciousness.

  Ordinary people have a small sea of consciousness, so the spiritual power that can be accommodated is limited, and only their basic divine soul power can exist. Therefore, these people do not have the potential to cultivate as mages, but can only cultivate martial arts.

  People with the potential of a wizard have a larger volume of recognition than ordinary people, can hold more divine soul power, and are born with some unusual skills that are different from ordinary people. These people are the legendary ones who possess the potential of a wizard.

  Ordinary people who want to become a wizard, there are many methods, but essentially, they must meet two conditions: one is to enhance the power of the soul, and the other is to expand the sea of knowledge. If only the power of the soul is enhanced without expanding the sea of knowledge, then the only result will be that the sea of knowledge will be burst by the power of the soul. And if only the sea of knowledge is expanded but not filled with sufficient spiritual power in time, it is also unacceptable, and the result will be that the expanded sea of knowledge will slowly shrink back to its original size.

  Knowledge and spiritual power coexist.

  Therefore, ordinary practitioners cultivate the power of their divine soul, and the power of the divine soul in the sea of consciousness is always full. The method of cultivating the divine soul by visualization or spiritual techniques is to increase the quality and quantity of the divine soul while nourishing the sea of consciousness, causing the sea of consciousness and the divine soul to expand continuously.

  Low-level practitioners, the divine soul power presents a gaseous state, diffusing in the sea of consciousness, and that sea of consciousness is like a gas balloon. Later on, as the divine soul power increases and its quality becomes higher, the gaseous divine soul begins to condense into a "liquid" state, and the gas balloon also transforms into a "water ball". This "water ball" will continue to expand with the increase in divine soul power. It is said that truly powerful practitioners have a vast and boundless sea of consciousness, like the heavens and the earth, while their divine soul power is like an endless great ocean. This is also the origin of the term "sea of consciousness".

  Of course, the expansion of the sea of knowledge to that "vast and boundless, like heaven and earth" stage is only in legend.

  The power of the divine soul is increasing and expanding, which will also expand the sea of consciousness. This is a common problem. Wang Guanlan's sea of consciousness had previously produced a swollen feeling because his divine soul power grew too quickly, and the expansion speed of the sea of consciousness couldn't keep up. This is also why there are few shortcuts for a practitioner to cultivate. There are many treasures in this world that can greatly enhance the power of the divine soul, but due to the limitations of the sea of consciousness, few practitioners seek these things out. For practitioners, these things are not a shortcut to increasing their strength, but rather a poison that can burst their sea of consciousness. Some of these treasures have even become a means of punishing practitioners, used on them to explode their sea of consciousness.

  Wang Guanlan was well aware of common sense and legends, but now his state of mind was something he had never heard of before.

  He had never heard of any practitioner whose sea of consciousness was like a bottomless pit, with an area that didn't expand, yet could hold infinite divine soul power. Of course, this infinity also had its limits, as the divine soul power of the Onmyodo practitioners was somewhat excessive for Wang Guanlan, but far from being infinite. Nevertheless, it still left Wang Guanlan aghast and wondering why such a thing would happen. It wasn't until the last drop of divine soul power fell into his sea of consciousness that his sea of consciousness underwent another transformation.

  "Is this... a Rune? A Rune born from the thought of creating all things!!"

  When no more divine soul power poured into the sea of consciousness, nine faint runes emerged from his already deepened divine soul power and flashed into the sea of consciousness. Although these nine runes flashed by, Wang Guanlan couldn't forget them. These nine runes were the obscure runes hidden in the depths of the One Thought Gives Rise to Myriad Laws rune. Wang Guanlan couldn't understand what they represented, but he confirmed at first glance that this thing was likely the main reason for the anomaly in his sea of consciousness.

  "A thought gives rise to all phenomena. It seems that I have never truly lost anything!!" After confirming that this was related to the "One Thought Gives Rise to All Phenomena" symbol, Wang Guanlan let out a quiet sigh and stopped thinking deeply about it. He took a deep breath and once again activated the "Circle". The spiritual energy in his Sea of Consciousness flowed outwards like water, and everything within a radius of fifty zhang was clearly reflected back to him. Unlike before, when he only had a similar feeling, now everything within a radius of fifty zhang had transformed into clear patterns, just like what he saw with his own eyes, projected onto the depths of his spiritual soul, in the Sea of Consciousness. The spiritual soul's pool was like a mirror, reflecting everything around him.

  This is a third-order mage!

  The divine soul's power undergoes a qualitative change, completely transforming into a liquid state. From merely being able to perceive the "suspension" within one's body, it extends to clearly mapping out the surrounding environment. This is the third stage of the Daoist practitioner, the "Heart Mirror", which takes the meaning of having a heart as clear as a mirror.

  "Cheers!!"

  Just then, a loud shout was heard. On the other side, Luohan finally broke through the dark array after entangling with it for a long time. The nine skulls exploded and scattered in all directions, releasing a surge of dark energy. Luohan and the two Huayi guards didn't bother to deal with that anymore. Their figures flashed like lightning as they charged straight towards Wang Guanlan's side.

  "How dare you be so presumptuous and rude to Young Master Fourteen!"

  Wang Guanlan was injured, if something really happened to him, then the three of them would not be able to return to Ning Wangfu, and even their family members would be implicated. Ning Wang Wang Bicheng was not a kind person.

  "Stop yelling, I have a headache!!"

  They were in the midst of the formation, bewildered by the dark energy, and had no idea what was happening outside. They had been anxiously waiting for half a day, but before they could even react, they charged forward, only to find themselves standing beside Wang Guanlan. It wasn't until then that they saw the unbelievable scene unfolding before their eyes: the corpse split in two, the eerie green flames floating in mid-air, and Wang Guanlan lying on the ground, unable to speak a word. They were all stunned, staring at Wang Guanlan in disbelief, wondering how he had managed to kill such a powerful Onmyodo master in such a short amount of time.

  "Fourteen, you're injured again!"

  However, incredibly, Rong Han quickly came to and helped up the half-dead Wang Guanlan, starting to examine his injuries.

  "It's nothing, I just forcibly activated the Bodhi Town Law Knife and stirred up old wounds. Going back to rest for a few days will be fine!" Wang Guanlan said with a bitter smile, feeling helpless about his frequent injuries.

  "Subordinates are incompetent and unable to protect, I hope the young master will not punish us!!" Luo Han said, while the two Hu Li guards simply knelt down in front of Wang Guanlan.

  "Alright, I'm not that arrogant!" Wang Guanlan shook his head, "However, for now, we still can't leave, and we'll have to trouble you all to stay a bit longer!"

  Two Huā Lí (Flower Fox) guards were stunned for a moment, somewhat perplexed. Hú Hán, however, gazed thoughtfully at the green flame floating in mid-air, "This subordinate dares not, this is within this subordinate's duties!"

  "Haha!" Wang Guanlan dryly laughed twice, propping himself up to sit on the ground. At this time, the green flames that had devoured the Yu Gui Shi's divine soul had formed an extremely strange shape, no longer resembling ordinary flames, but rather a human face - or perhaps a ghostly face. However, this shape seemed unstable, occasionally transforming from a ghostly face back into flames, and then back into a ghostly face again. Every time it transformed into the ghostly face, Wang Guanlan could clearly feel that the spiritual energy of the flames had greatly increased, even allowing it to explicitly convey its intentions to him. But when it transformed into flames, the spiritual energy would greatly weaken.

  "Fourteen, if I'm not mistaken, this must be the legendary heterochromia!" Looking at the eerie green flame, Luo Han asked.