Chapter 10: Attempting a Breakthrough

  Yang Yun returned to his residence and saw the landlord, Fan Jun, playing with a pearl in his hand. Over the past few days, Yang Yun and Fan Jun had also become more familiar with each other. With his knowledge from his previous life and the assistance of Yue Hua's spiritual eye, Yang Yun was able to identify some rare and unusual items that Fan Jun often acquired through his sea cargo business, leaving Fan Jun astonished every time he heard Yang Yun's explanations.

  "Yang Xian, come quickly and help me take a look at this pearl," Fan Jun called out.

  Yang Yun took over the sea pearl. This sea pearl was not small in size, like a small walnut, and there was a faint flow of light inside the pearl.

  "Good stuff, probably takes a hundred years to produce, but unfortunately, if it's full of a thousand years, it's a pearl that's hard to find even with a lot of money."

  Fan Jun smiled and said, "I don't dare think about being a pearl mother. If I really became one, selling this shop might not even be enough to buy back that pearl."

  "Huh?"

  Yang Yun looked at the sea pearl with his Moonlight Spirit Eye and found that there was a hint of spiritual energy emanating from within.

  "What?" Fan Jun hastily asked back.

  "Mr. Fan, bring a few ordinary pearls, freshly picked from the sea."

  Fan Jun was preparing while being puzzled, the legendary Pearl Mother, when approaching other sea pearls, would emit a faint light, and with a jade plate loaded with a small sea pearl, putting the Pearl Mother into the jade plate, it would attract all the small sea pearls to its side like a magnet attracting iron.

  Fan Jun received this sea pearl, of course, is not a pearl mother, otherwise, his small shop would not be able to afford it.

  Yang Yun put the large and small sea pearls together, using the Moon Flower Spirit Eye to carefully observe them. He discovered that the wisp of spiritual energy within the larger sea pearl had begun to flow slowly, but its speed was abnormally slow, moving only a distance as small as a grain of rice after half a moment.

  "Congratulations, Mr. Fan! Although this pearl is not a pearl mother yet, it shouldn't be too many years before it can be used to cultivate pearls using the pearl nurturing method. After several decades, it will become a true pearl mother."

  "What's the method of cultivating pearls? What should I do?"

  "It's very simple, find a dark room, put the pearls in a small box made of ebony or black locust wood, fill the box with ordinary sea pearls, and change them every year."

  "How long will it take to raise?"

  "This pearl has left its original body and originally had no chance of becoming a pearl mother, but it has already stood at the threshold of becoming a pearl mother and has gained some spiritual energy. Generally, cultivating for ten years is equivalent to one year, looking at this pearl, it still lacks several years of fire, I estimate that it will take at least thirty years, or sixty to seventy years."

  Fan Jun was overjoyed, "After raising it for decades, it has turned into a pearl mother. My Fan family has obtained a treasured heirloom! Thanks to Yang Xian's insight, otherwise I would have treated it as an ordinary sea pearl and played with it for a few days before selling it to someone else. That would have been a precious jade thrown away."

  "But, I don't know how you, Yang Xian's nephew, came to know this method of cultivating pearls. Are you confident in it?"

  "I've only glanced through some idle books, I'm not sure how reliable they are, but if you raise them for a few months and the ordinary pearls in the box become dull and lusterless, then this method of raising pearls is feasible."

  Fan Jun nodded, ordinary small pearls he could still use, and if the method of cultivating pearls was ineffective, these small pearls would not be lost, if it was effective, then his future generations would be blessed.

  "Good - Yang Xian nephew high talent, I suppose this year's autumn exam can be high school, when the time comes I will give you a good gift."

  "Thank you, Uncle Fan."

  Yang Yun smiled, Fan Jun was indeed a businessman, his abacus calculations were quick and precise, it was still several months until autumn, by then he would have already tested whether the method of cultivating pearls was effective or not.

  Although he didn't say it out loud, Yang Yun was very confident in his method of cultivating the pearl. The so-called "pearl mother" could no longer be considered an ordinary sea pearl, but rather a kind of spiritual object. This sea pearl already possessed spiritual energy and was actually already considered a spiritual object, but it still lacked a bit of fire, and after leaving its original body, it would be unable to continue absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and over time would degenerate into an ordinary treasure.

  If Yang Yun cultivates to the point of guiding Qi out of the body, he can infuse spiritual energy into the Sea Pearl himself, but this still requires the properties of the cultivation method to be suitable. If he cultivates to the foundation establishment stage, it's much simpler, a single Spirit Gathering Technique can catalyze this Sea Pearl into a Pearl Mother, and if there's an opportunity, he might as well give Fan Jun a surprise at that time.

  Yang Yun was still looking forward to Fan Jun's gift, he is now a poor guy, not even having the money for the previous academy. When the time comes and he has this gift, he should be able to afford the expenses of going to Beijing to take the exam.

  But as long as you can hold on, the gift will definitely be received with a soft hand, and it won't make a difference if Fan Jun doesn't give this one.

  "Must get first place!"

  Yang Yun is not greedy for wealth and glory, having experienced the previous life, facing honor and wealth has long been able to be carefree and light, compared to cultivating the Tao, even emperors are like dirt.

  Take pearls for example, they are considered precious treasures even for emperors, but for cultivators, they are just the lowest-grade materials.

  In her past life, not to mention the thousand-year-old Pearl Mother, even the three-thousand-year-old Pearl Emperor Yang Yun didn't bother to collect them. The ten-thousand-year-old Pearl Spirit transformed into a human figure and was just doing some odd jobs in the cave, making up the numbers.

  But Yang Yun's parents and siblings, as well as relatives and friends, attach importance to this, which is enough.

  In his previous life, Yang Yun's greatest regret was his family. This life, no matter what, he had to make up for it. Moreover, compared to decades of cultivation, becoming a scholar-official was the fastest way to gain power, whether it was to repay his family or protect himself. This year's autumn exam must be passed with high honors.

  Before achieving a small success in cultivation and obtaining transcendent power beyond the mundane world, I might as well use mundane methods to gain power, Yang Yun thought to himself.

  After bidding farewell to Fan Jun and leaving, Yang Yun returned to his own room, read a book for a while, and the servant delivered dinner on time.

  After finishing dinner, the servant came over to collect the tableware and left. The room was then empty except for Yang Yun alone.

  Yang Yun closed the door, sat cross-legged on the bed and began to cultivate the Moon Flower True Classic.

  Today is a crescent moon, and the concentration of moonlight is clearly inferior to that of the full moon. This is also a bottleneck in cultivating the Moonlight True Classic.

  The moon's aura is also a kind of spiritual energy from heaven and earth, this spiritual energy is very pure and can cultivate not bad magical powers, unfortunately the shortcoming is too unstable, must be practiced at night, and with the change of the full moon, the density of the spiritual energy also changes.

  Yang Yun patiently circulated the Moon Flower True Qi, repeatedly flushing each of the apertures on his head.

  The silver moonlight shone on Yang Yun's body, and if you looked closely, you could see tiny light spots appearing in the air from time to time, then disappearing into the acupuncture points that Yang Yun had already opened. These small light spots were the external lunar spiritual energy, which was attracted by the lunar true energy on Yang Yun's body.

  The orifice at the top of the head, Yang Yun only had the last Baihui acupoint left that hadn't been successfully condensed. Once it was opened up, the second layer of the Moon Flower Scripture would be complete.

  As time passed slowly, Yang Yun cultivated for two hours, a small light spot hovered above the Baihui acupoint, but refused to enter even a little bit into his head.

  Yang Yun let out a small sigh and knew he had been a bit too hasty.

  "It's been about a month since I started practicing the Moon Flower True Classic, and I still need to work on breaking through to the second layer. Moreover, today's timing isn't suitable either."

  The Moon Essence True Classic breaks through the bottleneck, it's best to choose when the moon is full, in order to get the greatest assistance from the Moon Essence Spirit. Yang Yun's first layer of cultivation was successful on the night of the full moon, and it wasn't a coincidence.

  "The Bixi Shui Zhen Jue from my previous life can be cultivated anywhere there is water, the restrictions are much better than this Yue Hua Zhen Jing." Yang Yun thought to himself, after all, places without any water at all were rare, and the Bixi Shui Zhen Jue could basically be cultivated anytime and anywhere. If he was on the ocean, then at any time there would be abundant water spiritual energy.

  "Wait a minute - when I was trapped in the Flowing Fire Desert in my previous life, I tried to break through the boundary of the Azure Water True Intent with a method. It's worth a try." Yang Yun's heart moved slightly.

  As soon as he thought of it, Yang Yun moved to a corner where the moonlight couldn't shine, and then reversed the running route of the Moon Flower True Qi.

  Reversing the flow of vital energy is a very dangerous thing, and ordinary people who do this are simply seeking death. It's like someone practicing with a sword, can't even hold the hilt steady, yet releases the handle and wildly waves the blade.

  However, Yang Yun's foundation is deep and strong, for ordinary people, things that are extremely dangerous can only be said to have some difficulty for him.

  After all, the cultivation level of the Moon Flower True Classic is still quite shallow, and what Yang Yun has condensed are some basic acupoints, so he still has a 50-60% chance of success.

  After reversing the true energy, the original true energy that was impacting Baihui acupoint immediately became chaotic, with some of it turning back and others scattering in all directions.

  Yang Yun separated his mind and slowly adjusted the scattered true energy, because Baihui acupoint did not condense successfully, the scattered true energy had nowhere to go, under Yang Yun's siege, they all gradually joined the reversed Moon Flower True Energy.

  Yang Yun let out a sigh of relief; the most dangerous step had already been taken.

  The true energy of the moon essence reverses and flushes those condensed successful acupoints, which are like lakes storing a lot of moon essence. After being flushed, their foundation becomes unstable, and with the external moon essence density being insufficient, they gradually have a tendency to disperse outward.

  If the Moon Flower True Qi is allowed to escape through the holes, it would be like scattering one's skills, and Yang Yun's painstakingly cultivated True Qi would lose more than half of its power. At that time, even the first layer of the Moon Flower True Scripture might not be preserved.

  Yang Yun hastily stabilized his true energy and counterattacked again!

  The Baohui Cave, which had just been emptied by thieves, was suddenly hit by another wave of surging crowds.

  The Baihui acupoint was slightly loosened after being impacted, and Yang Yun reversed his true energy once again.

  The true energy of the moon's aura surged back and forth in Yang Yun's meridians.

  Yang Yun carefully grasped the timing, each time the true energy turned was a severe test. If control was slightly deviated, it would either cause the true energy to scatter and injure the meridians or result in the failure of the exercise with the energy bursting out of the body. This was like walking on a steel wire suspended over an abyss, where one misstep would lead to a fatal fall, yet he had to dance on it lightly!

  Time slipped away quietly, and Yang Yun had already forgotten how many times he had reversed the Moon Flower True Qi.

  The better the control, the more inevitably the true energy of the moon in the meridians will be gradually consumed. At this time, the true energy condensed in the acupoints automatically flows out to supplement, but it can't last for long either.

  Yang Yun only felt his head spinning and his true energy flowing through his body like a red-hot saw cutting back and forth, causing him immense pain.

  The moon's true energy is almost depleted, and Yang Yun estimates that the true energy can only support two more reversals at most, after which it will have to stop.

  After all this commotion, Yang Yun's Moonlight True Qi would once again retreat back to the level it was at when he had just broken through the first layer.

  "If this time is unsuccessful, I can only spend a dozen more days recovering my true energy and then make another attempt at the second layer next month on the fifteenth." Yang Yun thought somewhat dejectedly.

  Cultivation is like this, apart from accumulation, breaking through bottlenecks also requires experience, skills, environment and opportunities, sometimes even requiring the courage to break the cauldron and sink the boat, even if it's Yang Yun, can't guarantee success every time.

  The consequence of taking a shortcut and failing is that more time has to be spent making up for it, Yang Yun had mentally prepared himself before attempting the breakthrough.