Ascending to the Clouds Alone

A crack appeared in the clouds in the sky, and the sunlight that pierced through made the jagged rocks look particularly rugged.

After tidying everything up and determining the direction, Lin Su cautiously made his way westward.

After traveling for nearly half an hour, they stopped because they were worried about encountering monsters again.

He tried to mobilize the spiritual energy within his body, but his dantian remained stagnant.

The suppression of the spirit-locking talisman was still present, but it seemed to have loosened slightly compared to the beginning.

I suppose this talismanic power will naturally dissipate over time?

His conjecture had barely formed in his mind when it was interrupted by the distant roar of a monstrous beast.

The sound made his scalp tingle, but he had no time to investigate further; he needed to leave this place first.

After a day and night of stealth, dodging monsters along the way, he finally reached the edge of the chaotic rock forest when he was almost exhausted.

I only rested a few times during that period, and each time it was less than half an incense stick's time. My legs were already sore and weak, and every step I took felt like stepping on cotton.

As dusk settled, the world gradually darkened.

More than ten miles away, the outline of a huge town stretches out in the twilight, with houses forming a continuous line.

Thousands of lights shone from the town, as dense as stars, and together they resembled a giant beast covered in cold light, lying across the mountains and fields.

We've finally left the territory of Crescent Town.

He let out a long sigh, took out the last remaining red fruit, and ate it while pondering:

What lies ahead? What is the situation inside?

However, before entering this town, one must first recover one's strength.

So he found a dense thicket of bushes and hid there.

After sitting cross-legged and regulating his breathing for a while, Lin Su visualized a wisp of spiritual energy from heaven and earth, like morning mist in spring, flowing into the Baihui acupoint on the top of his head and slowly descending along the Ren meridian.

Just as the spiritual energy was about to return to the dantian, it collided with a layer of invisible gel.

After several unsuccessful attempts, he wondered: Could this be the power of the Spirit Locking Talisman?

He focused his mind again, repeatedly trying to guide and direct his qi downwards.

But just when it was about to be completed, the spiritual energy could never be gathered, just like trying to light wet firewood, which would produce smoke but not flame.

It must be a spirit-locking talisman!

For a moment, they couldn't think of a way to break the restriction.

Are we just going to sit and wait for it to disappear on its own?

The road ahead is fraught with danger and uncertainty, and pursuers are likely right behind us. Without breaking this talisman, we risk being constrained at every turn.

He suppressed his unease and carefully recalled the first time he had practiced Qi cultivation.

The opening of the "Tongtian Baolu: Yinqi Scroll" states:

"The practice of guiding qi involves using the body as a medium and the spirit as a guide to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the body, transforming ordinary breath into true breath..."

The content he memorized as a child was merely the most basic passage from the entire set of martial arts manuals that his father made him memorize.

After he had thoroughly mastered the instrument, his father didn't urge him to practice. Instead, he casually said, "Practice the zither first."

He tried to guide his qi according to the methods in the classic texts, but after a long time he couldn't get it right and gave up after a few tries.

Several years passed in the blink of an eye. One morning, he suddenly remembered it again and asked his father how to induce qi.

The response he received was to "sit in silence for three days".

Three days later, the father pointed to the eaves and asked, "Did you hear the sound of the wind blowing through the eaves?"

He nodded. Actually, he hadn't heard anything during those three days; he just didn't dare to answer truthfully.

"That is the breath of heaven and earth upon you," the father said, pointing to the zither in the corner of the study.

"When playing the zither, your hands should be empty for the sound to be full. Cultivation is the same; it's not about snatching things from the outside in, but about first becoming an empty bowl that can receive them."

Later, after practicing the piano for a long time, I realized that what I needed to hear was never the wind.

……

Lin Su returned to reality from his memories, pondering:

There was no obstruction in guiding and directing the Qi just now; it was just that the Qi could not be gathered at the end.

It seems that this spirit-locking talisman does not sever the connection between people and the outside world.

"If you encounter an impregnable fortress, consider that it is not naturally formed; trace back the path you came from..."

An impregnable fortress? This... isn't this exactly the state Father was talking about!

Could it be that the spirit-locking talisman is only locking up the spiritual energy that has already circulated within the body?

These thoughts gradually cleared the chaos in Lin Su's mind:

His meridians were fully open, and although his dantian and dantian were frozen by the spirit-locking talisman, his foundation remained intact.

What if we temporarily set aside "guiding qi into the body" and turn back to rebuild the most basic "sensing qi and concentrating the mind" brick by brick?

Perhaps starting from scratch is the only way to break the deadlock right now?

The surroundings suddenly fell silent, as if waiting for him to give his answer.

Just as Lin Su was about to enter a meditative state, a flapping sound pierced his mind.

The scenery in front of me began to sway, as if through a heat wave, and its shapes became distorted.

Lin Su hurriedly got up, feeling dizzy and nauseous. He tried to stand up, but couldn't muster any strength in his legs.

Just then, a gray shadow emerged from a crevice in the rocks behind him and stabbed straight at Lin Su's back.

Using the momentum of his unsteady feet, Lin stumbled and rolled to the side.

The thing grazed his neck, bringing with it a cold breeze that sent goosebumps up on the back of his neck.

Lin Su rolled over on the ground and looked up.

A moth the size of a falcon hovered in mid-air, with a black, shiny mouthpart more than half a foot long.

Two pinkish-white scales flapped incessantly, creating ripples of pale gray.

"Bewitching Moth!"

Lin Su exclaimed in surprise.

It is recorded in the Book of Monsters that I was just curious and drawing it for fun when I was a child, but I never thought I would actually encounter it today.

This demonic beast's flapping wings can bewitch people's minds; judging from its current posture, it has at least reached the early stage of Qi Refining.

The whistling moth missed its target and spun upside down in the air, its wings flapping faster and the gray ripples becoming denser.

Lin Su felt his soul vibrating, and his ears were ringing loudly. He couldn't tell if it was the sound of the moths or the sound in his own head.

His eyes were fixed on the gray shadow in the air, and he thought to himself:

With my current level of cultivation, if I try to hold on, I'm afraid I'll die here.

For some reason, the images of the mantis and the black snake from yesterday suddenly surfaced in my mind.

The moment the black snake coiled around the mantis, it was precisely at the critical moment when the mantis had exhausted its strength.

It's not about speed, it's about accuracy!

At that moment, the sound of flapping wings was like countless strings playing at once, making one dizzy and nauseous.

Suppressing his discomfort, he stared at the gray shadow, trying to find its weakness and then devise a way to deal with it.

Before he could come up with a solution, the Bewitching Moth swooped down and thrust its proboscis straight at his heart.

In his panic, Lin Su struggled to swing his arm blade wildly, but the weapon pierced his left shoulder instead, and blood gushed out.

The wound burned with pain, but he became more lucid, and his heartbeat strangely steadyed up a bit.

In that instant, he "heard" the moment the moth turned around, and the tremor at the junction of the wing root and the body paused for a moment.

But the buzzing sound came back the very moment it was "heard"!

Lin Su rolled over and knelt on one knee, gripping the arm blade in his hand tightly.

The bewitching moth gathered its strength and continued to stab.

The instant it moved, Lin Su stomped forward with his right foot, twisting his body to dodge the straight-line thrust.

At the same time, the blade in his hand was thrust out, slicing straight towards the base of the moth's wing.

The arm blade slashed with the momentum of the forward step.

"Sizzle, pfft!"

Green bodily fluid spurted out.

The bewitching moth had a gash cut at the base of its left wing, causing its wingbeats to become erratic and unable to maintain a steady rhythm.

However, its ferocity intensified, and the flapping rhythm of its wings, suspended in mid-air, suddenly changed.

With a sharp hiss, the gray bewitching power was compressed to its limit, condensing into a pitch-black sonic blade, its wing edges gleaming with an inky light.

Lin Su's heart skipped a beat:

Is this some kind of sorcery? If even a speck of that light touched you, it would probably melt even your bones!

The moth's left wing root was damaged, causing its center of gravity to tilt, making its spinning motion chaotic and its trajectory increasingly unpredictable.

The next moment, it flapped its wings rapidly, slashing horizontally with a dark, sonic blade.

Lin Su had just finished using that move and hadn't had time to recover when a thought suddenly popped into his mind:

Imitating the jade mantis, he concentrated all his strength into one point and unleashed a fierce attack.

But at this moment, he reacted hastily and his foundation was weak. How could he possibly achieve such a refined and violent effect?