Chương 21: Divine Sense Add-ons

Inside his personal courtyard. Ren Qingquan followed the squeaking sound while keeping a steady eye on the dot displayed on the system map. As he drew closer, Ren Qingquan parted the bush blocking his view. Hiding behind the grass is a thirty-centimeter-long rat. It was busy munching on an insect while occasionally squeaking. He heard the rustle from the nearby bush, paused mid-munch, and both humans and the rat stared at each other in silence. The rat reacted first by darting away.

By the time Ren Qingquan reacted, the rat had slipped into a small burrow, making it impossible to follow. With his target slipping from his grasp, Ren Qingquan opened the system map, then closed it when he failed to see any other decently sized dots.

'Well, guess I'll look for a practice target tomorrow.' At last, I heard Ren Qingquan dejectedly return to his room. Watching him lie in his room, reading a novel from the system library, I chose to take a break and read a random novel I had scanned from the Ren family's library. While I was reading, I suddenly heard Ren Qingquan complain, 'Darned mosquito. Why did this annoying pest buzz around my ears?' Hearing another of his usual complaints, I simply ignored it and continued my precious break time.

Suddenly, I felt Ren Qingquan jump from his bed.

'I got an idea!' I stopped reading and saw Ren Qingquan staring intently at a mosquito. Then he moved his hand at incredible speed and killed the mosquito without smashing its corpse into pulp. Picking up the intact mosquito corpse, Ren Qingquan circulated his spirit qi through his body using the corpse-refining technique. After circulating the qi through several complex meridian pathways, Ren Qingquan sent a tiny bit of his spirit qi into the mosquito and, step by step, refined it into a basic refined corpse.

In the final step, Ren Qingquan used the divine sense control method from the corpse-refining technique. He imbued the mosquito corpse with a minuscule fragment of his divine sense. That divine sense worked like an antenna on a remote-control toy. With it, Ren Qingquan controlled the mosquito, directing it to fly around him.

'Darn! It actually worked!' Ren Qingquan seemed surprised by his success in refining a mosquito. To be honest, even I am surprised by it. After all, although the corpse-refining method doesn't limit the corpse to humans, the smallest example it mentions is refining a rat's corpse. Who would've guessed that it's actually possible to refine a mosquito's corpse! Furthermore, the mosquito is simply too small, so the spirit qi consumed is only a fraction of what the book says is required to refine a human corpse.

With that, I concluded that the size of the corpse being refined also affects spirit qi consumption. The smaller it is, the less spirit qi is needed to refine it. Of course, there are also several weaknesses. For one, a smaller corpse will definitely be weaker than a bigger corpse. I also guess it will have weaker stamina and won't last as long as a normal-sized corpse. After all, the spirit qi it can store is lower than that of a normal corpse.

While I was contemplating the pros and cons of refining the insect corpse, Ren Qingquan was happily celebrating his success.

'From now on, I am a necromancer!' he shouted inwardly while controlling his mosquito with his divine sense. I rolled my eyes at the pitiful sight of a happy newbie necromancer and his pet undead mosquito. Soon, I saw Ren Qingquan stop controlling his mosquito and stare at another living one. He immediately killed it and prepared to refine it into an undead. But I quickly sent a message to stop him. [Host, please reconsider! Your current spirit qi is limited. The more spirit qi you waste, the weaker you'll be. If you continue to waste spirit qi like this, your cultivation realm might regress!] Ren Qingquan stopped when he heard his cultivation realm might regress.

'Well, guess I'll stop here for today. Tomorrow, I'll look for a new specimen.' With that, Ren Qingquan lay on his bed and continued reading his novel. Occasionally, I could hear him thinking about his plan for tomorrow.

'Should I look for a mouse corpse? Or should I look for a bigger corpse to experiment with? Maybe I should try digging in a cemetery? But what if I met a ghost?' Through [Anchor], I listened in silence to Ren Qingquan's thoughts and ramblings. After rambling on, Ren Qingquan finally fell asleep carefreely. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Now that night has fallen, and everyone I anchored has gone to sleep, I'll take a break and read some novels I've scanned. I seriously need a break after studying for several months. In a moment, the moon descended, and the sun slowly rose. When morning arrived, Ren Qingquan dazedly woke from his bed and left his bedroom. As Ren Qingquan prepared himself, I stopped resting and began reviewing the knowledge I've stored.

Soon, a fresh Ren Qingquan left the building used as his bathroom and ate the breakfast Xiao Cai brought. After Xuao Cai left, Ren Qingquan went to his courtyard to play- Ahem practice with his corpse refining technique. Just as he had yesterday, Ren Qingquan killed another insect and refined it with his spirit qi. He controlled it to fly around him, before the corpse suddenly went out of control once it was ten meters away from him. He repeated it a few times before staring at the sky with a blank expression.

'So, the distance of my control is only ten meters? Ain't this corpse refining thing pretty useless?' I can feel Ren Qingquan starting to doubt his life. So, I shared my idea with him. [Host, actually, System wishes to do an experiment that will require your help.] After reading my message, Ren Qingquan ignored it and continued to stare blankly at the sky. [This experiment might help you increase the distance of your divine sense.] After I told him that, Ren Qingquan finally perked up.

'As expected of my cheat! Although you seem defective, you're still pretty useful.' Your mom is defective! Your whole family is defective! I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. Let's not get angry. I'll become the bigger person and let it pass. [From what System has read in books, the divine sense is actually pretty similar to 'Scan' at some part.]'So?' [System suspects it should be possible to use 'Scan' as your divine sense. That way, the range of your control will expand based on 'Scan']'What? For real?'

[Currently System isn't too sure. That's why System wanted to experiment in the first place.]'Then I'll cooperate with you.' Ren Qingquan nodded. With Ren Qingquan's agreement, I immediately asked him to expand his divine sense as much as possible and activate it to its fullest. Unlike when controlling a mosquito, which consumes only a small amount of divine sense, Ren Qingquan won't be able to activate his divine sense at full power for long.

That's why, once Ren Qingquan has activated his divine sense to its utmost, I immediately used the connection from [Anchor] to share all of Ren Qingquan's sense with myself. In addition to the usual senses of touch and sight, a new sense is coming from Ren Qingquan. That new sense should be how Ren Qingquan perceives the world with divine sense. It didn't take me long to get used to the information Ren Qingquan's divine sense provided. I must say it is indeed pretty similar to [Scan], just several times weaker.

[Scan] allows me to sense light, vibration, smells, energy, and other things I'm not even sure about. Meanwhile, divine sense only enables me to perceive light, vibration, and energy. Of course, it might be just because Ren Qingquan's divine sense is still too weak, which limits its range and what it can sense. Aside from that, divine senses are less detailed than my [Scan]. Suppose my [Scan] has a 4k HD resolution. Then Ren Qingquan's divine sense has a resolution of less than 144p.

I guess the lower resolution also kinda helps low-level cultivators use something like a divine sense. Otherwise, if they had a resolution as high as my [Scan], I guess their head might explode from being overloaded with information. I think I am getting sidetracked. Finally, just like [Scan], divine sense can also pass through an obstacle. But when [Scan] isn't affected by an obstacle, divine sense seems to be quite affected.

From the sense shared by Ren Qingquan, although the limit of using divine sense in the air is around ten meters radius. But when it spread underground, the distance seemed to decrease by thirty percent. It's also harder to pass through more solid things like stones. Anyway, I have pretty much ascertained that divine sense and [Scan] are pretty similar. So, it should be possible to accomplish my plan. Now, what I need to do is find out how to let Ren Qingquan use [Scan]'s range as his divine sense range.

The first plan I have is to have Ren Qingquan activate his divine sense and [Scan] on his own at the same time. [Host, brace yourself. The System will start the first experiment and activate your 'Scan'.] All this time, I've been activating [Scan] on his behalf and converting the information into maps for Ren Qingquan. Now, I'll let him receive information directly from [Scan].

Of course, I also reduced the amount of information gained by lowering the resolution, blocking unnecessary details, and taking several other measures. Not long after I let Ren Qingquan receive the information from [Scan], I saw him frown. From our connection, I sensed the headache Ren Qingquan was feeling. But I didn't waste time trying to comfort him; instead, I quickly sent a message to remind him. [Quickly control your insect corpse and try to move it outside of your divine sense range.] Ren Qingquan controlled the insect without a word. He controlled it until it exceeded his 10-meter divine-sense range. Instantly, the insect went out of control and moved on its own. Luckily, after wandering for a few minutes, it mindlessly entered Ren Qingquan's divine sense range once again, thanks to the remaining divine sense stored on it. Ren Qingquan quickly took control of the insect and retracted his divine sense while messaging his temple.

"Activating divine sense for so long actually gives me a headache." Seeing Ren Qingquan looking extremely haggard, I guess I'll let him rest for now. While Ren Qingquan sat at his table and prepared a tea set, I studied the result from the previous experiment. My gut feeling is that it should be possible to connect [Scan] to Ren Qingquan's divine sense. But, just how should I do it? Suddenly, Ren Qingquan asked me while sipping his tea, 'System, how is the previous experiment?

Have you succeeded in connecting my divine sense to [Scan]? [Not yet. I initially thought it could be done simply by activating 'Scan' and my divine sense simultaneously, but somehow they didn't seem to connect. It seems things aren't that easy.]'Hmm?' Ren Qingquan closed his eyes while gently taking another sip from his cup, 'From what I learned on those few books, each cultivator's divine sense should be unique. So, have you tried to match your [Scan]'s aura, frequency, or whatnot with my divine sense's?'

That... that is actually a pretty solid piece of advice. [Host, let's continue the experiment after you rest.]