Chapter 44: Breaking Through The Fourth Layer

  A few people swept away the food on the table, Chen Hu pulled Yang Yue to go and tread on the water tank cover again, Yang Yun wanted to read a book, so he went to the small bamboo forest alone.

  In the sweltering summer days, this bamboo forest appears even more serene. Yang Yun placed the two books she would use as samples on the bluestone and her mind sank into the sea of knowledge.

  Inside the Jingluntang, several large bookshelves stood against a wall, stretching from the floor to the top of the hall, over four meters high. The books recalled from the Haitian Academy were all here, and a small part came from the Qinghai County School.

  If it were a real bookshelf, one would have to use a ladder to reach the books on top, but in this Jing Lun Hall, as soon as Yang Yun's mind stirred, the books on the shelves would fly down like butterflies.

  Yang Yun's figure entered the Jinglun Hall, a bright moonlight passed through the roof and shot down. The moonlight had not yet landed on the ground, it turned into hundreds of fine light beams cast onto the bookshelves, each beam pulling out a book flying in mid-air.

  As if they had received a signal, all the books opened simultaneously, and silver characters flowed out like a fountain.

  Silver characters formed a ribbon that surrounded Yang Yun, countless words and sentences flowing through her mind like rivers.

  Yang Yun closed his eyes, carefully comprehending the essence of the book. As he delved deeper into contemplation, the silver ribbon changed shape, and some silver characters from different books attracted and drew closer to each other, eventually merging together and detaching from the original ribbon.

  More and more parts of the ribbon broke off, finally turning into scattered petals that enveloped Yang Yun's body.

  After a long time, Yang Yun opened his eyes, let out a long sigh, and gently waved his sleeves. A cluster of silver petals quietly dispersed, transforming into tiny shooting stars in the sky.

  The library of Jingyun Hall has a collection of about 7,000 volumes, including the 6,000 volumes from Haitian Academy and its original holdings.

  Yang Yun thought to himself, "As the ancient saying goes, 'Reading ten thousand volumes of books is like having a divine pen.' Although there aren't quite ten thousand books in the Jinglun Hall yet, it's almost there. The problem is that most of these books have just been recorded and I haven't fully grasped their meaning. Once I've polished my skills and read all these books thoroughly, becoming a 'broken character' will be no big deal, and passing the imperial examination will be a trivial matter."

  It was already noon when Yang Yun returned home, after lunch he took a nap for a while, and went to the courtyard to see his second brother and Chen Hu still practicing under the scorching sun.

  In half a day's time they had made great progress and could now hold on to the lid of the water vat for half a moment.

  "Yun-di, how's our practice going?" Chen Hu asked with a bit of swagger as he saw Yang Yun come out.

  "Not bad, not bad, you can already stand up. Next step, the two of you need to be able to tread out water steps along the edge of the tub."

  "Ah!" Chen Hu stumbled and both of them fell off the millstone together.

  He didn't even bother to dust off his clothes, Chen Hu said with a bitter face: "Still want to practice footwork on this?"

  Yang Yun nodded and said: "To practice to a high level, you can even walk on the lid of this pot with the Overturning Heaven Step."

  Chen Hugang was about to say something when Yang Yue dragged him away and scolded, "Hurry up with your practice, my third brother still needs to review his books."

  "Yes, yes, Yun's studies are important." Chen Hu hastily picked up the lid from the ground and put it back on the millstone, gritted his teeth and jumped up again.

  The afternoon passed in a flash, and Yang Yun immersed his mind in the Jinglun Hall, accumulating his own insights bit by bit, feeling greatly benefited.

  It was evening, and it was time to practice the Moon Flower True Classic. Yang Yun still climbed up to the rooftop like he used to at home, using the ladder.

  "Third son? Now we can afford candles at home, why are you still going up to the roof?" Yang's mother asked in puzzlement.

  "It's not that I'm saving on candles, but thinking about what I've learned in front of the moon has a great effect." Yang Yun came up with an excuse.

  "Oh." Yang's mother believed it and stopped bothering Yang Yun.

  The moonlight shone on Yang Yun's body, although it was a new moon, the moonlight still flowed like a spring, and the illusory moon in the sea of knowledge also shone brightly.

  Ever since the last time Hei Gou added a rune to Huan Yue, the originally smooth moon surface had a Osmanthus tree-shaped moon mark. It was from then on that the Qīng Qíng Pearl gained the ability to absorb the lunar spiritual energy.

  "Huh?"

  As soon as he started practicing the Moon Flower True Classic, Yang Yun let out a surprised cry.

  The last pass of the fourth layer of the Moon Essence True Classic, the Zhōng Hé hole, was originally expected to take at least another month to condense successfully. However, during the first impact of the true energy, a stream of abnormally condensed moon essence burst out from inside the hole and merged with the true energy that was impacting the hole.

  Although the amount of moonlight was not large, it was extremely pure and almost instantly merged with the true energy in the meridians. Along the direction of the moonlight, the true energy easily entered the Zhongzhu hole.

  With a loud crash, Yang Yun felt a huge shock in his chest and couldn't help but take a long deep breath.

  As soon as he inhaled this breath of air, it dissolved inside him, and all he felt was a sour and itchy sensation in his chest, followed by a violent fit of coughing.

  A mouthful of thick phlegm was coughed up, and there were many small black-gray specks mixed in with the mucus.

  The true energy of the moon circulates back and forth in the chest meridian, bringing a cool feeling, as if drinking iced water on a sweltering summer day.

  Yang Yun raised his head, revealing a face full of joy. "What's going on? How did you break through the fourth layer of the Moon Flower True Classic as soon as you got home? I had just started attacking the Zhongzhong acupoint when I left the Haitian Academy, and it should have taken at least a month to break through."

  Looking back carefully, I didn't cultivate at all after getting drunk last night. Where did that moonlight come from to help me break through?

  I immersed my mind in the sea of knowledge and first went to the doghouse to take a look. Xiao Hei was sleeping soundly as usual.

  Yang Yun waved his hand and a light screen appeared out of thin air, vaguely displaying Xiao Hei's actions since yesterday.

  This lazy dog spends most of its time sleeping, only getting up for a short while to wander around, which is exactly when it has drunk itself into a stupor.

  After some thought, it seems that only Xiao Hei can come up with such a trick, and he is also considered the half-owner of Shi Hai.

  "Hey, wake up!" Yang Yun stretched out his hand and shook Xiao Hei awake.

  The little black dog opened its eyes into a slit.

  "What's the origin of that moonlight in the Zhongxian acupoint? Can I get it again?"

  Hei let out a low hum, and from the narrow slit of his eyes, a glimmer of "don't get your hopes up" shone through before he closed them again to continue sleeping.

  Yang Yun shook his head in disappointment. Such good things were truly rare. It seemed that from now on, he would have to cultivate diligently and honestly.

  If other cultivators knew Yang Yun's thoughts, they might be so jealous that they would want to kill him. Others could only diligently and painstakingly practice during the Condensing Aperture stage, slowly absorbing and accumulating spiritual energy bit by bit, while Yang Yun had opened his Spiritual Sea and, on top of that, possessed a treasure that could gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the Condensing Aperture stage.

  Although it can only gather a few hundred meters of spiritual energy, during the Condensation Period, this is enough to defy the heavens, and it's simply carrying a blessed land cave with you.

  Moreover, there is the greatest advantage that Qīngzhū (Seven Emotions Pearl) is Yangyun's innate magical treasure. Therefore, during the process of Qīngzhū absorbing spiritual energy and automatically refining it, Yangyun's Sea of Consciousness also becomes stable and expands.

  The buildings such as Huanhai Hall and Jinglun Hall in the Sea of Knowledge are becoming more and more like a dream, beautiful like a fairyland.

  "I had a sea of knowledge during the Condensation Period, and it's still expanding. If this continues until the Foundation Establishment Period, I wonder how powerful this sea of knowledge will become." Yang Yun thought to himself with a pleased smile.

  As a cultivator who has gone through the process, Yang Yun deeply understands the importance of the Sea of Consciousness, especially when taking that step out of the Condensed Divine Spirit. The Sea of Consciousness is absolutely crucial at that point.

  "The fourth layer of the Moon Flower Scripture, I wonder what kind of divine ability it will bring me?" Yang Yun thought to himself. The divine abilities of the first three layers were all very obvious, such as photographic memory and clairaudience, which could be discovered with just a slight try. He circulated the Moon Flower True Qi, carefully sensing his body's reaction.

  "Hasn't your body changed at all? What is this divine power?" Yang Yun had not yet discovered that his breathing frequency was getting slower and slower, finally becoming almost imperceptible, his entire body seemingly a statue-like stillness.

  "Never mind, I'll look for this divine method slowly later." Yang Yun thought, stopping the Moon Flower True Qi.

  At the same time he stopped the Moon Flower True Qi, Yang Yun's body recovered its breathing, and a long breath was sucked into his lungs.

  "What's this?" The sudden deep breath finally made Yang Yun discover the anomaly, and he hurriedly tried a few more times.

  "This is a turtle's breath, which can be used to hide one's breathing. However, this turtle's breath divine ability seems to be a bit different, as the mind doesn't seem to be affected while holding one's breath. It looks like this divine ability is a good way to eavesdrop."

  Yang Yun smiled with a "heh heh".