Chapter 82: The Emergence of Divine Consciousness

  Li Ran swiftly entered the Xuanhuo Cave and directly walked to the thick stone gate, pounding on it with force: "It's me, open the door."

  The stone gate slowly opened, and Li Ran stepped in, seeing Ma Kong chatting with another green-clad person. Next to him, Tu Shun greeted Li Ran after opening the door and immediately turned around to greet another grey-clad disciple who was about to enter the cave, handling the formalities for him.

  Qing Yi Ma turned his head to see Li Ran Dao smiling: "Ran Dao, you're going out again? Remember, tomorrow it's your turn on duty, and you have to stay here for three days. During this time, don't go out again... Hmm? What's that thing on your chest?"

  Ma Kongfang said this, his eyes suddenly widened, and with a swift step, he arrived in front of Li Ranno. He hastily stretched out his hand to touch the golden sword on Li Ranno's chest, and the true yuan was activated, causing thirty-three faint glows to flash on the golden sword.

  "You, you've entered the Golden Sword Rankings? Burning Blade, is this real? When did this happen?"

  Ma Kong's face suddenly turned bright red with excitement, and several people beside him were also shocked and rushed forward.

  Li Ran Dao smiled and nodded, repeating what he had said several times again:

  "Senior brother, I just obtained this golden sword a moment ago. I entered the fourth layer of the Phantom Spirit Cave, killed 81 spiritual beasts and replaced Mountain Wisdom senior brother. This news will be spread throughout the entire sect in these few days."

  "This, this, it's all true, what a surprise... Haha, our Xuanhuo Cave really produced a Golden Sword. Ranhao, you don't have to be on duty anymore, just let other brothers do it, Golden Sword disciples don't need to work, you can just focus on cultivating."

  Ma Kong's hands and feet were dancing with excitement, and upon hearing the commotion here, everyone else in the cave also rushed out.

  After socializing with these enthusiastic senior brothers for a long time, Li Ruo finally escaped and returned to his own stone cave. In that stone cave, Tu Shun scratched his ears and cheeks and asked Ma Kong for leave: "Ma Kong senior brother, I want to ask for leave today, can you find someone to help me keep watch for a day?"

  Ma Kong glared and said: "Tú Shùn, where are you going again?"

  Tu Shun's face was filled with excitement: "I'm going to perform at the Xian Tang, I'll show them a good time, humph, dare to look down on us Huo Yan Dong, this time I'll see if they still have the qualifications to belittle us."

  Ma Kongzhuan smiled and waved his hand: "Go, go, I'm here, I'll help you take the watch myself."

  Li Ran Dao returned to his own cave, tightly closing the stone door behind him. He took a deep breath and calmed down, then quickly turned around and sat down at the stone table. He took out the iron essence and placed it on the table, then carefully drew out the small sword that was tightly tied to his waist in a beast skin pouch.

  The small sword is not metal, nor stone, nor wood, nor jade. In the dull and unassuming grey, there is only a thread of spiritual resonance flowing quietly, which is the essence generated by absorbing that half-spiritual bow last time.

  The amount of spiritual iron used to forge that half-spiritual crossbow was too small, and compared to a true spiritual instrument, the grade of that spiritual iron was far inferior. In contrast, this piece of iron essence in front of him was as big as a fist, enough to forge three or four higher-grade spiritual instruments if used to make short crossbows.

  "I wonder what kind of evolution this small sword will undergo if it absorbs this large amount of iron essence?"

  Li Ran's heart was burning with passion, one hand holding the sword and the other grasping the iron essence, slowly approaching, with a loud "pa" sound, the small sword and iron essence fiercely adhered to each other.

  Li Ran's knife paused in his heart, his eyes shining brightly and staring straight at that place, quietly waiting for a change.

  For a long time, Li Ran's knife became more and more puzzled, his eyebrows were also frowned tightly, the small sword and the iron essence had no change at all, and there was no absorption.

  "How is this possible? How is this possible? This piece of iron is clearly a spiritual iron, how can the small sword not absorb it? What went wrong? Did I miss something?"

  Li Ran's forehead was slightly sweating, his hands forcefully separated the iron essence and the small sword, thought for a moment, then turned the small sword to another side and stuck it onto the iron essence again.

  They stuck together with a slapping sound and remained unchanged after being observed for a long time.

  Li Ran's eyes widened in alarm. His current understanding of the sword intent was still extremely shallow, and he had only grasped about three levels of the ten levels of Jingyuan Jin. He had merely caught a glimpse of the entrance, and his plan was to further study the sword intent after evolving the small sword. But if the small sword became unusable, how would he be able to delve deeper into the study of the sword intent?

  If there is no sword intent, only the improvement of skill, then after a long time, Li Ran's knife will also be ordinary, and the ideals and wishes of this life after rebirth will be extremely difficult to achieve.

  Li Ran took a deep breath to calm himself down, separated the small sword from the iron essence, furrowed his brow in contemplation, and slowly circulated his vital energy onto the iron essence. A layer of pale blue light began to emanate from the iron essence.

  Li Ran nodded, knowing that Tie was indeed a spiritual iron with no errors. When the essence of energy passed through it, he could feel an astonishing density inside, far surpassing ordinary iron.

  So why can't Xiaojian absorb it?

  Suddenly Li Ran's mind flashed with an idea: "Wait a minute, I remember something! Incredible density? That's it..."

  Li Ran Dao thought of a possibility, could it be that the density of the iron essence was too high, and the small sword's evolution level was still too low, its absorption ability was insufficient, absorbing half-linguistic arrows was possible, absorbing wild bee stingers was also possible, but if he wanted to absorb this heavy iron essence, it seemed a bit beyond his power?

  "This large iron essence, the larger its head, the stronger its internal absorption power. I'll cut it into small pieces and see if the small sword can absorb it."

  Li Ruo Dao thought to this point and no longer hesitated, placing the iron essence on the stone table. The small sword's blade faced downwards and made a horizontal cut with a "whoosh" sound, cutting off a long strip from the iron essence as thick as a finger. The sharpness of the small sword once again surprised Li Ruo Dao, who carefully brought the long strip of iron essence towards the small sword, where it stuck together with a "slap".

  That long strip of iron essence was like a struggling worm, desperately writhing about, yet still being slowly absorbed by the small sword, its vitality sucked away bit by bit. The long strip of iron essence gradually withered, becoming increasingly dry and dull, losing its luster.

  With a loud crack, it split into countless segments, and the long iron essence fell from the small sword and landed on the ground, shattering into four or five pieces again.

  Inside the small sword, amidst the solidified grey ash that was as hard as steel, a thread of flowing luster quietly grew stronger.

  Li Ruo's eyes lit up with joy, knowing that it was a success. Excitedly, he raised his sword and cut off another long strip of iron essence to feed the small sword.

  It took nearly half a day to spend this iron essence, and the small sword finally absorbed it all. The faint glow in the small sword could already be seen with the naked eye.

  The little sword was so wonderful, Li Ran's knife was extremely happy again, carefully picked up the iron essence "dry corpse" on the ground without leaving any marks, and then sat cross-legged on the stone bed, holding the small sword to enter a state of meditation.

  Li Ruo's primordial spirit transformed into a small cluster of pale blue light that flew into the sword, and the gray mist inside the sword was like the dawn of heaven and earth. Only the central thread of spiritual cloud showed a hint of vitality. Li Ruo carefully approached the cluster of flowing clouds, standing in his old position with ease. Before long, a faint golden secret fruit arrived as promised, piercing through his primordial spirit with a whoosh, causing his primordial spirit to vibrate. Li Ruo felt an extreme sense of comfort and refreshment, and suddenly his mind was clearer than ever before, his spirit better than it had ever been.

  Li Ran's knife clearly saw that the mysterious pattern now coalesced into four wave crests and troughs.

  "It's finally absorbed a piece of iron essence, and the small sword's secret pattern has only just grown out a new wave... This, the small sword's evolution requirements are too abnormal."

  Li Ran's eyes widened in surprise, but thinking about it, the evolution of a small sword should be like human cultivation, requiring more and more energy as time goes on. In the early stages, half a spiritual bow could make it grow three waves, while an entire iron essence block was needed to evolve the fourth wave. Later on, if it were to evolve again, the demand for spiritual iron would likely reach an astonishing level.

  The mysterious pattern was quietly changing the yuan soul of Li Ran's knife. In the shuttle shock of the mysterious pattern, that faint cyan light condensed more and more, becoming more and more pure.

  Li Ranno was immersed in the excitement of his cultivation, watching as his primordial spirit continued to shrink and condense amidst the shockwaves, getting smaller and smaller. As it got smaller and smaller, Li Ranno gradually became more tense, unsure what would happen if it shrunk down to its limit.

  It's just that even in the previous life, I haven't observed the form of Yuanshen like this before. If Qingmang is small to the extreme, what changes will occur? Won't my life disappear...

  Li Rendao was somewhat frightened, and just as he was thinking of withdrawing his yuan Shen to reconsider, the secret pattern shook through again. The yuan Shen's pale blue light condensed inward fiercely, reaching an extreme point. Li Rendao felt a loud rumble in his heart, and the wu Shen unexpectedly condensed into a star-like sparkling state, only about the size of a bean.

  With a humming sound, his divine sense spread out like water, extending through the small sword and filling the entire cave. Li Fenger's eyes were closed, but everything in the cave, even the texture of the rocks, was clearly visible to him.

  Li Ran's eyes lit up with great joy in an instant, knowing what had happened.

  "This is indeed spiritual awareness! Something extremely familiar from the previous life, only to be rediscovered in this life after refining the eight trigrams of energy."

  Under the impact of the mysterious seal, Li Ruo's primordial spirit unexpectedly took a step ahead and transformed, directly achieving the divine ability of the Divine Movement stage.

  His heart was filled with joy, and his divine sense slowly spread outwards from the stone gate, but it was obstructed by the mountain rocks and became somewhat unclear. Li Ruo's blurred "sight" caught a glimpse of a grey-robed disciple passing in front of him, and the gaze that fell on the stone gate was filled with envy and respect, yet he had no idea that Li Ruo was "watching" him.

  The Grey Robed Disciple walked far away, Li Ruo's divine sense suddenly withdrew, extremely excited. When the small sword's secret pattern passed through his primordial spirit again, he no longer felt anything. Li Ruo knew that the fourfold secret pattern could only change his primordial spirit to this extent, but it was already an unparalleled joy.