Chapter 45: The Way of the Gods

  When night fell, Qin Tianyi had returned to Yunlai Sword Sect once again.

  Because he didn't know what kind of trouble the man in black had gotten himself into, Qin Tianyi didn't make a big show of bringing him back, but instead quietly brought him to his own courtyard and used some medicine that he had brought back from the Moonlight Number to do some simple treatment on the wounds on his body.

  The injuries on the black-clad man were extremely severe, and Qin Tianyi estimated that if he weren't a powerful spiritual adept who could perfectly control his bodily organs, nerves, blood vessels, and secretory systems with his spiritual energy, he would probably have been dead by now.

  The injury was too severe. Although Qin Tianyi didn't want to expose his existence, at this time, he had no choice but to notify Xue Ziyi, who had studied medicine, to come over.

  Before long, Xue Ziyi appeared in Qin Tianyi's courtyard.

  Looking at the black-clad man lying on the bed, covered in wounds, Xue Ziyi hesitated for a moment: "Young Master Shao, he is..."

  "I guess you could say we're friends now, I don't know much about medical care, so I'll have to trouble you to take a look."

  "Yes."

  Qin Tianyi didn't say anything, and Xue Ziyi naturally didn't dare to ask further. She stepped forward and began cleaning the wounds on the black-clad man's body.

  It took Xue Ziyi more than three hours to complete the initial treatment of the black-clad man, bandaging his wounds. In the process, she poured away several basins of clear water that had been stained red with blood.

  "Shaoshi Zhu, this friend of yours is really lucky, injured like that and still managed to hold on."

  "Haha, thanks for your trouble."

  "The Young Master said so, this is what we should do."

  Xue Ziyi said, suddenly exclaimed, and searched the black-clothed man's face for a moment. She quickly came to a conclusion: "Young Master... his face is wearing a mask... a very clever disguise mask..."

  "Oh?"

  Qin Tianyi looked at the black-clad man with some surprise, nodded slightly, but didn't say anything.

  Xue Ziyi had wanted to remind him that this person was actually wearing a mask and exchanging words with the Young Master of the Shaoyang Sect, which showed that his background was problematic. However, seeing Qin Tianyi seemingly not too surprised, she didn't say anything more.

  After a while, the wound was cleaned up, and Xue Ziyi stood up again: "Young Master Shao, his most important problem now is excessive blood loss. Later, I will let Snow Bamboo Sister simmer a bowl of medicine overnight, and after waking up, let him drink it to replenish some energy first. Tomorrow, I'll come over and take another look."

  "Uh-huh."

  Qin Tianyi nodded and personally got up to escort Xue Ziyi out of the courtyard.

  Although he was also injured, it wasn't serious. He had already taken care of it on the way here, so there's no need to trouble Xue Ziyi again.

  After Xue Ziyi left, Qin Tianyi sat down again and quietly nourished his spirit.

  Half an hour later, Xue Zhu returned with a bowl of medicinal soup and asked with some concern: "Young Master Shao, you didn't have any trouble on your trip to the Sun-Setting Mountains this time, did you?"

  Qin Tianyi smiled slightly, this kind of concern was not a treatment he could enjoy before.

  I'm fine.

  "Uh, Young Master, Qin Shizhu and Qi Changlao know you've gone to the Mountains of No Sunset, they're very worried, see..."

  Qin Tianyi took a glance outside. It was already approaching the third watch of the night. He said, "It's very late today. I'll talk to them tomorrow."

  "Yes."

  Xue Zhu saw that there was nothing more for him to do, so he slightly bowed and bid farewell.

  Not long after Xue Zhu left, Qin Tianyi's heart moved slightly, and his gaze fell on the black-clothed man again: "Since you're already awake, get up and drink that bowl of soup."

  The black-clad man who had been lying with his eyes closed opened them and looked at Qin Tianyi: "Who are you, why did you save me?"

  "If you feel uneasy or think I'll harm you, answer me a few questions and then you can leave."

  The man in black frowned and looked at Qin Tianyi, then looked at the bowl of medicine on the bedside table, hesitated for a moment, and finally picked up the medicine and drank it.

  If Qin Tianyi really wanted to poison the medicine, then there would be no need to save him in the Dayun Mountains.

  "Go ahead and ask."

  "Are you an energy healer?"

  "What is spirituality?"

  The man in black attire slightly paused: "What is meant by spiritual energy?"

  After he finished speaking, he seemed to have thought of something and said: "You're talking about a divine way cultivator, you're also a divine way cultivator? No wonder when I used the Soul Searching Technique, I was countered by your soul's backlash."

  "Shinto Practitioner?"

  "You don't know? Something that can cause my soul to backlash, your cultivation of the divine way is only higher than mine, yet you actually don't know..."

  The man in black looked at Qin Tianyi and explained directly, "Although the practitioners of the Divine Path have declined now, they are not a secret in some ancient sects. The current cultivation is nothing more than the essence, energy, and spirit of humans. Among them, the essence is the foundation of human existence, the source of life, and everything else. Energy refers to the so-called internal energy, true energy, etc. At present, the mainstream of cultivation is refining energy, especially the development of refining energy has reached a peak. Refining energy is no longer limited to internal energy, true energy, but has transformed into the energy of heaven and earth, the energy of all things, the energy of living beings... All kinds of energies with or without form can be included in the category of energy..."

  He sighed and said, "The path of spiritual cultivation is arduous and progresses slowly. It's hard to reveal one's divine powers until reaching a high level. Now, with the rise of Qi refinement, ninety-nine out of a hundred people only know how to cultivate their Qi but don't even know what it means to cultivate their spirit."

  "Is it essence, energy, and spirit?"

  Qin Tianyi nodded slightly.

  This theory has also been prevalent in the federal world for a long time.

  However, the stars in this world contain an unknown element called Tian Di Yuan Qi. Humans can absorb and refine it to strengthen their bodies, enhance their energy, and gain abilities such as summoning wind and rain or overturning mountains and seas. Most people choose to cultivate their energy instead.

  ...and the Federal World...

  Fundamentally, no one knows what the primordial energy of heaven and earth is. Even the strongest humans cannot cause rivers to stop flowing or move mountains. Unable to cultivate their essence and energy, they can only choose to cultivate as gods, and on this path, they flourish and gradually possess the ability to conquer the universe.

  "In the context of Jing Qi Shen, Shen refers to the core of all energies including spirit, willpower, consciousness, vital energy, vigor and true energy. If we were to describe Jing Qi Shen as an army, Jing would be equivalent to the number of soldiers, Qi would be equivalent to the quality of the soldiers, and Shen would be the commander-in-chief of this army. A truly elite force with a sufficient number of soldiers, but all are old, weak, sick or disabled, will not have any combat effectiveness. On the other hand, even if an army is strong and powerful, without a brilliant commander, they will only engage in reckless fighting, and such an army cannot be considered as a top-notch team."

  Here is the translation:

  "Speaking of which, the man in black looked at Qin Tianyi and said: "You may not know what a divine path cultivator is, but under the coincidence of fate, your divine path cultivation has reached an extremely deep realm in the 'sensing' period. Relying on your strong divine soul, your cultivation before reaching the Sky Stage will be smooth sailing. Those bottlenecks that ordinary swordsmen and sword masters find painful and cannot break through their entire lives are completely effortless for you. Many times, as long as the energy is sufficient, it can lead to a smooth promotion."

  "Bottleneck in cultivation?"

  Qin Tianji's heart moved slightly.

  He had also experienced the bottleneck of cultivation, and although there were rumors outside that it was extremely difficult to break through this boundary, with only one person out of ten possibly succeeding, for him, the difficulty was indeed much smaller.

  Ordinary people need three to five years, or even ten or eight years of bottlenecks, but he only needs one or two months of accumulation to break through forcefully.

  "Perception Boundary? Sky Stage?"

  Qin Tianyi hesitated for a moment: "Can you tell me in detail about the realm of divine cultivators?"

  "This is no secret either."

  The black-clad man's family background was far beyond what Qin Tianyi, who came from the Yunlai Sword Sect, could compare to: "As for the cultivation of the Dao, I know that it is divided into five realms: Ming Shen, Gan Ying, Tian Ren, Chao Tuo, and Yong Heng. If one achieves Ming Shen Dacheng, then the swordman's cultivation will be smooth sailing; if one achieves Gan Ying Dacheng, then the swordmaster's cultivation will be unimpeded. As for Tian Ren... it is said that if one's divine soul cannot achieve Tian Ren Dacheng, they will forever find it difficult to ascend to the highest position."

  "Divine clarity, responsiveness, heaven and man, transcendence, eternity..."

  Qin Tianji muttered these five divine realms in his mouth and hurriedly asked: "How to determine which realm one is in?"

  "When you reach a certain stage, you will naturally have a sense of feeling. The Ming Shen stage, as the name suggests, is clear and bright. At this stage, the practitioner's memory will be greatly enhanced, and their computational ability will also be significantly improved. Many problems can be solved with ease, and one can infer three from one example.

  As for the realm we are currently in, the first stage of feeling, it is possible to clearly feel the changes within oneself, every move, clear in mind. The second stage, which is the middle of feeling, not only is sensitive to changes within oneself but also has a strong ability to perceive external events, and when fighting with an enemy, one can often predict their moves..."

  At this point, the man in black looked at Qin Tianyi and said, "You should have a deep understanding of this."

  Qin Tianyi nodded slightly.

  "And in the later stages of sensing... it's no longer just perceiving the external world, but rather the soul breaking free from the physical body, extending outside, and wherever the soul reaches, even if there are countless ants on the ground, they can all be sensed clearly!"

  "The consciousness extends beyond the body."

  In the Federation, this boundary should be equivalent to a 7th-level spiritual practitioner. A 7th-level spiritual practitioner has the ability of spiritual extension, but in this world, Qin Tianyi estimated that at least reaching the standard of a Spiritual Master is required to achieve it.

  "The swordsmen of the Heavenly Staircase, by mobilizing their own true energy and resonating with the external heavenly and earthly primal energy, possess the ability to fly through the void. However, as cultivators of the divine soul, once we sense the Mahayana, we don't need to worry about our true energy being unable to resonate with the heavenly and earthly primal energy. Once we reach that realm, the heavenly and earthly primal energy are all within our perception and grasp. What difficulty is there in resonating with it?"