Chương 21: Aftermath

For the last three days, Lin Yi was excused from sect assignments, and during this time he did only one thing; well, two to be precise. Resting and meditation. The aftermath of abolishing one's cultivation was not so easy to overcome. While the pain went away relatively quickly after the procedure, the exhaustion that penetrated his entire body did not. It felt like every cell of his body was in a semi-dormant state. His movement was sluggish. He couldn't walk properly or even lift his arms without difficulty.

His mind too was affected. He tired easily and slept most of the day. His spirituality was weakened, and his thoughts felt obstructed. He couldn't even enter Wu Wei. After trying for more than seven hours, he gave up. This had furthermore influenced his Qi flow. He couldn't properly control his Qi, and his senses were muted. Even before entering the Charging Bull Sect, when he was ill in this life or in his past life, he had never experienced anything like this.

It was as if the source of his very being was damaged. Though he knew that was untrue. His three Splendors; his Essence, Qi, and Spirit didn't function at a level that they normally would. His Essence and Qi were still reeling from the backlash of the dissolution of his Qi circulation pathways. These pathways were, after all, spiritual organs, even if they were created by himself. It would be the same if someone had an organ ripped out of their body, if they could survive that.

His Spirit was not yet self-sufficient, and remained dependent on his Essence and Qi, and thus was dragged down by his two siblings. Once the two Splendors regained their full capabilities, his Spirit would too return to full power. Fortunately for Lin Yi, he was correct, and by the end of the second day he felt a slight improvement. After a good, long, restful sleep, his condition recovered to a lower-than-normal but good-enough state.

The first thing he did in the morning was enter a meditative state to inspect his current situation. His spirituality regained most of its strength. Using Internal Sight was not a problem. As Lin Yi expected, his entire Qi circulation pathways no longer existed. Instead of following a path through his Kidney and Heart Meridian, his Qi flew randomly throughout his body. Luckily, neither his physical nor spiritual organs were damaged, or they had already healed after Elder Bao dissolved his cultivation base.

He went deeper into his body and entered his Golden Cauldron. There, his Qi Flame, though diminished, continued to burn. Its time to bring my body back to its peak state. That was one of the many perks of being a cultivator. As long as one was not in one's declining age, was not inflicted with major injuries, and had enough external resources-in earlier stages, food and Essence Pills, and in later stages, Spiritual Qi- one could return to one's peak constitution in a relatively quick time.

Lin Yi ingested a prepared Essence Pill. The pill's medical power dissolved into and throughout his body. His Essence grew stronger and flowed towards his Qi Flame, where it was refined by it into Qi. Lin Yi merged his spirituality into the flame and actively helped in the refinement process, making it more effective. The abundant Qi then escaped from the lower dantian and surged through his body, nourishing and returning it to its peak state. This text was taken from Royal Road.

Help the author by reading the original version there. Lin Yi could feel his body growing stronger and stronger at a fast pace. In just thirty minutes, his body's constitution reached a ceiling. Sigh, I am finally back to normal. He frowned. Lin Yi compared this level of his body to the one he had before his cultivation was abolished and found it wanting. I am around twenty percent weaker than before, huh.

No matter, the difference is not big on the grand scale of things, especially if I can form a perfect Golden Cauldron foundation. His three Splendors were working again at peak condition. Thus, the process of returning to the very beginning of the first level of the Qi Condensation Realm was finished. Lin Yi was now at the same stage as he was shortly after entering the cultivation path. He pondered about his next steps. Hmm, tomorrow I need to report to the division again.

I was only freed from my duties while in a weakened state. He thought for a moment about whether he should start to cultivate again before shaking his head. He was back at the beginning, and this was a good moment to choose a restricted immortal art. He delayed picking one for various reasons over the past weeks. Still, now he had a relatively good overview of what he could expect, and starting to cultivate it together with the Classic of Qi Refinement wouldn't be a bad choice.

He nodded to himself, and slowly departed. His destination was not the private platform of the mountain, but the public one, to be precise, the main Scripture Pavilion. He wandered between the mountain peaks and, in under one hour, reached his endpoint. Here, all the important immortal arts of the Dang Prefecture's Outer Court were stored. Some divisions may have small repositories of their own, but they were not allowed to store important core methods. Lin Yi stepped into the multi-story grand pavilion.

Even after being here dozens of times already, he was still amazed by its vastness. The Scripture Pavilion had four floors. The first one had common immortal texts, biographies, or widespread immortal arts stored. It was the biggest floor, with countless texts. Lin Yi knew there were at least 100. 000 of them. Besides cultivation, Lin Yi often used his time to read here about the immortal dao and the cultivation world. But, as usual, there were fewer than ten people on the entire gigantic first floor.

The second floor contains immortal arts or secret texts that are more valuable. One needs to exchange the right to read them for Sect Points. Depending on the value, the price also changes. The third floor was Lin Yi's goal today. It housed the restricted immortal arts of the Charging Bull Sect. One needed a special pass to borrow restricted immortal arts, or pay 1. 000 Sect Points, but even then one would need the consent of a Division Master.

The difference in grading of the various immortal arts was quite simple. The widespread arts were nearly self-explanatory. Nearly every major organization had copies of them, and even rogue cultivators could obtain them relatively easily. These immortal arts were simple in concept and had countless variations. The Five Element Control Spell, Golden Light Body Spell, Riding Clouds and Wind Spell, and many more fell under the category.

While most of them were very simple and recreational, if some were cultivated to a high level, such as the Classic of Qi Refinement, they would transform into wondrous arts. The arts on the second floor were methods that were not easily obtainable outside of rated sects. Included were arts that touched upon some greater mysteries, like Yin-Yang, for example. Restricted immortal arts, on the third floor, in contrast, were derived or slimmed-down methods from the core immortal arts of the Charging Bull Sect.

Many disciples sought them because the sect had later methods for higher realms. Of course, among them were also wondrous independent arts with profound abilities. Lin Yi had one of these in his eyes. The last and fourth floor was forbidden to the disciples, elders, and most division masters. Foundation Establishment Realm immortal arts were stored there. Their preciousness alone was worthy of an extra floor.

Standing at the entrance of the Scripture Pavilion, Lin Yi looked down at the first floor and quickly spotted the entrance/check-out counter. He walked towards it and greeted the on-duty disciple, who was holding a jade slip. She was a kind-looking young woman in her twenties, and wore the normal sect-issued robes.

"Hello, Senior Sister Zhang."

"Ah, Junior Brother Lin. I heard you recently abolished your cultivation to re-cultivate. I hope everything went well?" Lin Yi nodded.

"Yes, thank you. My Splendors returned to normal early today."

"Sigh, that is good." She looked at him with a gentle and sweet expression, as she put a hand over her heart. With a tilt of her head, she asked.

"Are you here again to read some immortal texts, junior brother?" He shook his head. Today he was present for a different reason.

"No, I still have a free restricted immortal art from my time in the Valley of Immortal Seedling. I wish to choose one." Senior Sister Zhang understood and took out a metal plate, similar to the sect identification plates. She used her spirituality to connect with it, searching for something in it.

"Ah, yes. Here it is." The metal plate flickered with light for a moment before vanishing again. She looked at him again.

"I registered your sect plate. You can now go up to the third floor and choose an art of your liking." Lin Yi bowed slightly.

"Thank you, senior sister. I will be on my way." As he turned towards the entrance of the third floor, Senior Sister Zhang waved him goodbye.

"Good luck, Junior Brother Lin!"