Chapter 113: Making Waves

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Yu Ci advanced three rapid steps, and the sword in his hand swung like an iron rod, pounding with a whooshing sound as it sliced through the air. 

In an instant, it suppressed Senior Brother Bao De’s thunderous palm force. Even if the qi wall set up by the “Primordial Qi Grand Grab” were as solid as a wall of copper and iron, the shrieking sword energy still pierced right through it in one strike. Seeing the relentless pressure of the sword, Bao De had no choice but to retreat, thus losing his initiative.

It was a chilly winter day, yet inside Heart Prohibition Temple the atmosphere was ablaze with activity. 

In the martial arena set aside in the rear hall, Yu Ci fought shirtless, displaying muscles with clear, flowing lines. 

Opposite him, Bao De was among the earliest outer-disciple practitioners of the temple to have formed his Yin Spirit and entered the mid-stage of Divine Connectivity. Although limited by his innate aptitude—in the following twenty years he would barely manage to let his Yin Spirit separate from his body to reach the high stage of Divine Connectivity—his cultivation remained remarkably refined. 

When his “Primordial Qi Grand Grab” was unleashed, his palms and fingers resonated like thunder, booming so loudly that even the hall more than ten zhang away trembled. 

Yet despite such awe-inspiring might, he was forced onto the defensive by Yu Ci’s ten sword strikes.

Yu Ci didn’t resort to the “Half-Mountain Mirage” sword intent; instead, he employed the basic method of controlling the sword with his primordial spirit. 

Every strike was a direct, aggressive attack. Relying on the sharp, solid nature of his sword energy, he moved freely amid Bao De’s robust tide of true qi. 

The reverberations of force struck his defined muscles like heavy hammers beating a drum, each impact making a resounding thud, and with every blow his vital energy surged even more powerfully throughout his body.

Outside, the onlookers erupted into cheers. Although both sides held back in the duel, it was extremely exciting—especially since Yu Ci, riding the momentum of having consecutively defeated seven fellow disciples, now faced Senior Brother Bao De who was a stage above him. Much of the applause was directed at Yu Ci, with Bao Guang’s cheers ringing out the loudest.

“Stop!”

From the steps, old daoist Yu Zhou suddenly called out. 

Bao De, as if granted a pardon, immediately leaped off the arena and shook his head with a wry smile, “Amazing!”

A familiar junior disciple laughed, “After attaining the Yin Spirit, one’s deep potential is unleashed—this period is one of breakneck progress. Of course, it’s impressive.”

“During the phase when the Yin Spirit is refined and its potential is released, I’ve been through it too—but I’ve never felt as exhilarated as he does!”

“Exhilarated? That’s one way to put it!”

At that moment, Yu Ci stood in the arena holding his sword, with heat rising off his body and his muscles subtly pulsating. His muscles, tendons, and bones had been completely loosened from the previous eight bouts, and he felt not fatigue but an overwhelming surge of energy—as if he had an inexhaustible reserve of strength. He even longed to shout out a challenge, to find a stronger opponent for another round.

Suddenly, the crowd outside fell silent. 

Yu Ci turned his head to see old daoist Yu Zhou—with his gracefully coiled white hair—unsheathing his sword as he smiled and descended the steps.

“I’ll be your opponent!”

Amid the uproar, he gave Yu Ci no time to react as a streak of sword light cleaved through the air.

The outcome of this duel needs not be mentioned.

A quarter of an hour later, the old daoist sheathed his sword. 

Young daoist Bao Guang then approached, holstering his treasured sword, and shot a glance toward Yu Ci as he chuckled.

Yu Ci lay on the cold stone slab, gasping heavily, no longer responding to Bao Guang’s taunts. Fatigue pervaded every corner of his body, yet his heartbeat remained steady and powerful, and his spirit was still in an extremely excited state. Driven by that state, streams of energy soon began to surge up through his limbs and bones, gradually converging into a flow. He flexed his fingers—if another bout were to commence at that moment, he was sure he could spring up and fight again!

Yu Zhou dispersed the onlooking disciples and then, after studying him for a long while, said, “Well done… but how did you manage that?”

Yu Ci grinned broadly. The process of discovering the Divine Map was truly his proudest achievement in all these years.

Indeed, he hadn’t drawn the Divine Map—he had discovered it.

By utilizing the reflection of the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror and changes in the overall configuration, he transformed the Divine Map from a baseless, empty fantasy into a concrete existence that could be logically deduced and converged upon according to established principles. 

Although this existence was still rather vague and couldn’t yet be said to be the perfected state of the Divine Map, reality was the best proof: he had firmly stepped into the mid-stage of Divine Connectivity, unleashing his deepest potential and propelling his cultivation into a phase of explosive, breakneck progress.

Throughout the entire process, he had almost perfectly utilized all available resources. His thought process was clear from beginning to end, progressing step by step without any superfluous actions. Even now, in retrospect, he was exceedingly proud and delighted to share the experience with the old daoist.

Of course, the process was intermingled with his own ideas and with the crucial role played by the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror. 

Yu Ci had only clarified his thought process; as for the specific methods of implementation, he remained somewhat vague. In fact, he wished the old daoist had asked one more question—now that he was in such high spirits and there were no outsiders, even the secret of the Divine Illumination Bronze Mirror wouldn’t seem like much. 

Unfortunately, the old daoist didn’t press further, leaving him ample room, and only remarked: “This has already achieved the pinnacle of your current stage in terms of reasoning, structure, and adherence to principles. It is not merely ‘mapping’ but rather ‘discovering’—transforming an illusory image into an undeniable existence. I doubt that even Junior Brother Xie had ever considered such an approach. Hmmm, it does bear a certain empirical flavor.”

After saying that, he smiled, then shook his head and added, “A pity—it is still incomplete.”

Yu Ci nodded in agreement. 

Beside him, Bao Guang was the first to express his discontent, “I think it’s already pretty amazing.”

The young daoist was clearly envious of Yu Ci’s progress—eager to emulate him. However, when it came to his own disciple, the old daoist wasn’t one to hold back; he glared at him and said, “If it were an ordinary Primordial Qi method, that would be one thing. But the fact that the ‘Primordial Origin Qi Method’ has been accepted into the Ancestral Hall shows it’s far from simple. Judging by the sect’s cultivation in recent years, mapping the Divine Map is indeed extremely challenging; yet once successful, it constitutes an unparalleled breakthrough—one that might even allow one to skip two stages and directly have the Yin Spirit leave the body…”

Bao Guang recoiled under his glare, and Yu Ci winked at him before finally standing up and confessing, “In the end, this disciple did take a shortcut.”

“This kind of shortcut is perfectly acceptable—in fact, anyone who sees it would praise you for having an ‘open mind’ or being ‘extremely ingenious.’ However, you mustn’t neglect your essential work. Though your Yin spirit is now formed, it still hasn’t taken shape. In this situation, you’re missing…”

“Missing the concept!”

Yu Ci was well aware of his own limitations. 

You see, he had calculated his mental image from an overall structural perspective instead of allowing it to emerge naturally from a true understanding of the physical forms. In doing so—just as Meng Wei had mentioned—it meant he was lacking a consistent underlying concept, essentially missing the “framework” of his mental image. No wonder that within the Void Within the Mind, at the small lake in the center of the mountain forest, his mental image remained nothing more than a faint, indistinct shadow, while the “true spirit” shining outside appeared as a constantly shifting wisp of smoke, impossible to pin down.

The old Taoist saw that he understood clearly and felt gratified, yet he still had a couple of reminders: “In cultivation, refining the Yin spirit is primarily meant to unleash your potential, but once that potential is awakened, it must be properly controlled. Though your Yin spirit is formed, it’s still a half-finished product—and in the area of control, it’s somewhat lacking.”

In the brief moment those words sank in, Yu Ci’s body filled once again with energy, setting his qi and blood in motion. His entire body grew slightly warm as the surging, vigorous sensation nearly drove him to shout in an effort to vent his excitement. In that very moment, he truly embodied what the old Taoist had said.

Observing his look, the old Taoist suddenly asked, “Are you really unwilling to go to Cliff City?”

Yu Ci didn’t understand what he meant.

Clasping his hands behind his back, the old Taoist began to stroll slowly. “If in the past this was merely a consideration, now—looking at your state—I truly suggest you get moving. A concept like this must either be sought in absolute stillness or mastered in the midst of intense activity, and given your current condition, I doubt you can quiet your mind! Why not immerse yourself in a more complex environment, honing your resolve through interactions with others, in order to progress?”

“That said, why are you unwilling to go to Cliff City?”

“Because…” 

Just as the words reached his lips, Yu Ci suddenly fell silent. Indeed, why was he unwilling to go?

Undoubtedly, this was an opportunity. From the old Taoist’s experienced perspective, this journey would do wonders for affirming the concept behind your mental image. In the past, his reluctance to go might have been excused as not wanting to delay his cultivation, but now— with his mental image just emerging and his Yin spirit formed—it was precisely an excellent chance to test and verify his progress. So, why was he unwilling to go?

His thoughts drifted swiftly through the names of several “acquaintances” in Cliff City—Jin Huan, Tu Du, Zhen Yan…

When the sharp, thin face of Monk Zhen Yan came into focus, Yu Ci suddenly understood: perhaps, he was afraid?

He had long held the thought that an ant should avoid the battles of giants. In the entire Rifting Earth Sect, no one understood the grand conspiracy hidden after the chaos in the Sky Rift Valley better than he did—a level that, even with a formed Yin spirit and greatly advanced skills, he was utterly incapable of touching. Knowing this, yet still heading to the strongholds of Monk Yixin and Lu Mingyue would require not only extraordinary nerve but also an impressively foolish mind.

Wait a minute!

Yu Ci suddenly realized that his description was off. Who exactly was the fool? Was it Li You, who was so insistent on returning to the mountain, or that Daoist Master Xie Yan, whom he had never even met?

The obvious fact was that no one was truly foolish—both of the cultivators dispatched by the sect had survived safely to this day without suffering any harm from being caught up in the conspiracy.

Why is that?

Yu Ci went to look at Yu Zhou. The old Taoist was still in confusion, but at that moment Yu Ci recalled the words he had spoken in the study the other day, with such heroic air: “If you go to Cliff City, you’ll be representing my Rifting Earth Sect. Others will see that you’ve changed, and you’ll see that you’ve turned a corner yourself…”

In truth, he had never really turned a corner.

In the past, even if he had possessed the Divine Map that illuminated the entire myriad, Yu Ci was still, in the end, a lonely individual—the more secrets he knew, the heavier the pressure became until it was unbearable, forcing him to flee far away. But now, things had fundamentally changed. Whether or not the Divine Map remained, he was already an outer disciple of Rifting Earth Sect, and if he went to Cliff City, he would be the representative of the entire Rifting Earth Sect.

Looking at the bigger picture: the cultivators in Cliff City aren’t isolated individuals—they are the extended hand of Rifting Earth Sect, the sensory appendages for observing and relaying the information from within the city. One can imagine that if calamity were to strike, that colossal being, which has dominated the Broken Boundary Mountain Range for tens of thousands of years, would be set into motion, crushing anyone who defies its will and majesty into dust.

Truly spectacular!

In a sense, the cultivators dispatched to Cliff City are the vanguards of the sect’s formidable power, the ones who ride the surging tides. At this very moment, where are the ants?

With that thought, Yu Ci suddenly felt his heart lighten, and he burst into laughter, saying, “Go—why not go?”

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