Xi Shen watched as Fei Yin walked off the stage with a resplendent glow in his eyes.
He had just witnessed Fei Yin go through a Dao Realization. A Dao Realization was something that one could try as hard as they could but could never trigger willingly.
It was something that can happen spontaneously, triggered by a sudden thought, or a situation one has been put in. Fei Yin’s case was the latter, and the result of his Dao Realization was that for a brief moment he was able to bridge the gap between Bai Lu and himself and kill him within an instant.
As for the Dao Fei Yin has come to realize, Xi Shen had his speculations based on past events and Fei Yin’s words just now.
Life and Death.
Fei Yin’s Qi was the Wood Elemental, and it has been known to be associated with life and vitality. But in the past, Fei Yin had been stuck in a perpetual loop of wanting to die but wanting to keep living so he could take revenge.
He was a walking contradiction, as well as the fact that his thoughts and actions were a complete contrast to the nature of the Qi he cultivates.
Having reached that far opposite end of what his Qi nature was supposed to represent, and then returning to wanting to live, had caused his mind to go through a transformation.
Just from watching him over the past few days, Xi Shen had realized that Fei Yin had become more peaceful and adopted the nature of a simple tree slowly going through the cycle of death/wilting and rebirth/growth.
Hence his previous words to Bai Lu, ‘With your death, I will be reborn anew. Like a withering tree in the desert that has received the blessings of the rain, I will thrive while you fall.’
Killing Bai Lu had pushed his mentality to transform even further, causing him to go through a Dao Realization of life and death.
Xi Shen's heart was beating fast in excitement. He had realized Fei Yin was a genius before but to have a Dao Realization so early on in his cultivation is unheard of. Not just him, Fang Chen was of a similar caliber as well. The sword technique Fang Chen had shown him made him extremely taken aback by its power and complexity.
Combining that with Fang Chen’s completely abnormal bloodlust was like adding wings to a tiger. And of course, he couldn’t forget his disciple Yang Su, who probably has the most outstanding potential in the group.
Xi Shen was starting to think he was gathering some extraordinary people in his Faction. If Fei Yin, Fang Chen, or Yang Su were to be put in a room with other disciples, without the other being present, they would become the number one genius of that group.
Lihua wasn’t any different and was a genius in her own right that wouldn’t lose out to Fang Chen or Fei Yin.
With this line-up, Xi Shen was facing a dilemma. At first, he was planning to gather six geniuses to join his faction and then recruit people suitable for Soul Cultivation, but now he was wondering should he choose quality over quantity when choosing his Faction members.
Fei Yin and the others had set the bar too high, now Xi Shen didn’t want to lower that bar and start recruiting sub-par talents to his Faction.
But the thing is if he chose to leave the bar in place and only recruit truly outstanding disciples, then he might as well not name his Faction Divine Sword Music Faction as no one besides himself would be a Soul Cultivator for the time being. All his actions before using the Inner Disciple Rankings to recruit Faction members would become meaningless, though at the very least that had allowed him to meet Fang Chen.
To continue with his original plan of creating a Faction that solely focused on combining the Music and Sword Dao, or create a Faction that was diversified with Soul Cultivation as one of its main focuses.
Which should he choose?
As the rain continued to soak his figure, Xi Shen’s heart and mind twisted and turn trying to find the right path he should take for his Faction.
“Junior brother Fei Yin, that was incredible! Just how did you manage to execute that sword movement?! I couldn’t even see your sword cut Bai Lu!”
Yang Su said in awe and stupefaction, while Lihua was looking at Fei Yin apprehensively. She herself was a proud genius that was always praised from a young age, so she had pride in her skills. However, the attack Fei Yin just carried out, caused her to question whether she could have come out unscathed from it.
And the conclusion was a resounding no.
She would have been killed just as easily as Bai Lu or even more so.
Fei Yin came up to the group, smiled at Yang Su, and said, “I don’t think I would be able to carry out that sword attack again even if I wanted to.”
Hearing that Yang Su blinked, not really understanding why that was the case.
Lihua was sent into deep contemplation from Fei Yin’s words, as she herself had some speculation about what just occurred with Fei Yin.
Xi Shen who had come out of his contemplation said, “Good job, now let’s head back to the courtyard. I really can’t stand being stared at by so many people, it’s becoming annoying.”
Yang Su and the others turned to see that most of the group of disciples were staring in their direction.
Yang Su realize quite a bit was specifically staring at him.
As they walked through the parted crowd, more and more disciples began looking Yang Su's way while pointing and whispering under their breaths.
Seeing this Yang Su asked, “Why are they looking in my direction? And what are they talking about?”
Xi Shen who was a step ahead could be heard saying, “Your reputation has spread. You only entered the Academy several months ago but have already reached the Sea Expansion Realm. If I’m not mistaken, that's the fastest a disciple of the Academy has accomplished such a feat, asides from my brother and that sword genius Ling Tian. Well that, and it could be because of your bright red hair.”
Hearing that, Yang Su became more conscious of the stares towards him.
The group quickly left the Battle Arena and headed back to their courtyard.
Xi Shen separated from the group and headed for his room to change out of his wet clothes.
After taking a relaxing bath, Xi Shen came to sit in a cross-legged position in the middle of his room. He was only wearing pants, while his upper body was exposed.
After using the small towel around his neck to dry his hair and face a bit, he began to think about his method of recruiting Faction members once more.
Suddenly Little Snow appeared from the void and situated herself in his lap. As if on instinct, Xi Shen began to caress her fur, while he contemplated to himself.
Tai appeared as well with his chubby paws wrapped around a small wine gourd.
Suddenly, Xi Shen’s nose began to twitch as the fragrant aroma of the wine batted against his senses. Xi Shen snapped out of his thoughts and turned to look at Tai with a venomous glare.
That was one of Xi Shen’s few bottles of Spirit Wine he had taken from the Li Clan’s Treasury. He had been holding himself back from drinking any and only saving it for special occasions. But Tai had sneaked one out when he had entered Xi Shen’s storage ring.
Tai look back at him defensively ready to leave if Xi Shen made a move towards him, but Xi Shen only snorted before he said, “Fine, you can keep that. Consider it a reward for helping me get that item.”
Tai getting confirmation no longer held back. A small bowl suddenly appeared in front of him on the table, before he skillfully poured out the wine from the gourd. After that, he began happily licking away at the high-quality wine.
Xi Shen shook his head before he lifted Little Snow off of his lap while saying, “I’m going to cultivate, it’s not good to be near me then.”
Little Snow nodded before her small frame disappeared and reappeared next to Tai, licking from the bowl as well. Tai’s eyes’ flickered with displeasure but he didn’t shoo her away, as she had also helped with retrieving the pill furnace.
Spirit Wine for them didn’t have any major effect other than being a delicious substance. They didn’t have a Dantian so all of the Spiritual Qi the wine contain went to their flesh and bones, strengthening them. But the effects were really minor and couldn’t do much to improve their physique overall.
While his pet cats were some distance away drinking the spirit wine from the bowl, Xi Shen placed his hands together in a circle above his Dantian.
The cultivation method he had created to cultivate his Time Qi had become more complex, and by this time he really had to focus on his breathing techniques to absorb Time Qi.
Since he was in the Meridian Opening Realm he could allow the Time Qi to circulate faster around his body, as well as have his pores take in the Time Qi.
After his Divine Will seeped into the void around him, the dark Time particles slowly increased and transformed into streams of energy that entered his nose and mouth as well as his pores.
Xi Shen gently and carefully combine these streams of energy into one and sent it through his 100th meridian, once again trying to open it.
After two to three hours, Xi Shen’s heart suddenly let out a thud and he was surprised.
The Time Qi that was being held back by an invisible force, was suddenly freed and it smoothly open his 100th meridian.
However, Xi Shen's excitement to see what secrets this stage holds suddenly got doused with a bucket of ice-cold water.
As soon as his 100th meridian opened, an insatiable suction force erupted from his body, or more specifically his Dantian, and began absorbing the Time Qi with uncontrollable fury.
Xi Shen immediately tried to get his Dantian under control and cut off the flow of Time Qi with his Divine Will but he soon found it to be impossible.
‘Wh-what the hell is happening?!!’
Xi Shen became shocked that he wasn’t in control of his Dantian anymore, no, in fact, he wasn’t even in control of his body anymore as he can’t move!
In only a matter of seconds, Xi Shen Dantian was filled with Time Qi. After which, an outline of a Qi Sea began to form.
Xi Shen became even more dumbfounded as this was happening all on its own! He couldn’t stop his breakthrough into the Sea Expansion Realm!
‘No this is bad, I didn’t want to break through in the Academy, this is the worst possible place to have a breakthrough. It could cause the secret that I can cultivate to be discovered!’
Xi Shen’s face became absolutely solemn, and he frantically tried to stop this process that seemed like it wouldn't stop until he had fully broken through.
As Xi Shen was struggling to stop the formation of his Qi Sea, he suddenly sense something in the outside world.
Completely and utter stupefaction overcame his heart when he realized what it was.
Behind Xi Shen’s body in his room, the outline of a black circular object could be seen forming slowly.
If one were to compare this translucent and barely visible object to the Qi Sea that was forming in his Dantian, one would see that they are identical!
‘Is-is this a Qi Sea Projection! Does opening 100 of your meridians allow you to project your Qi Sea outside of your body?’
Xi Shen was shocked to come to this discovery, and he was elated he find out something new about the Spiritual Qi cultivation system. However, this was a complete catastrophe for Xi Shen!
‘No this can’t be happening, this makes it even worst then my secret is definitely going to be revealed! Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop forming goddammit!!’
Xi Shen screamed internally as he tried everything in his power to stop what was happening. If he couldn’t stop it in time, the whole Academy would find out he could cultivate, and not only that, they would find out he could cultivate Time Qi.
‘Fuck!’
Xi Shen cursed as his efforts prove unsuccessful.
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Word Count: 2104
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