Divine Brilliance

The past few days, no matter how he tried to inspect his body, he was only able to get the rough idea of energy changes. When Zong Shou looked into his body once again, he could clearly feel the unending flow of his meridians and ring after ring of profound and complicated chakra points, which were filled with the laws of Heaven and Earth.

Moreover, after this piercing pain slowly faded, a warm sensation rose within his abdomen at the same time.

This was where all the spiritual energy, primordial qi, and internal energy gathered, the root of all qi! It was also where the nine chakra points of the body came from. Before one broke open the chakra points, this was the only acupuncture point that could directly come into contact with the spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth.

Although Zong Shou could previously use some special methods to investigate, he was far from being able to sense everything accurately.

The spiritual energy that he had led with much effort and difficulty could not be stored here. Even if he forcefully infused it, it would only slowly dissipate.

Currently, his spiritual sense could see one more white bundle of qi at the bottom of that portion of his abdomen.

If one delved deeper into it, they would be able to see a white ocean of mist in front of their eyes. Many bundles of qi were flowing inside it. When one first looked at it, it was snow-white in color, but if one paid closer attention, they would notice many blue and grey spots inside it.

These spots were the remnant essence energy that he had used the Heaven Swallowing Energy Conversion Technique to purify from the Five Ginseng Blood Strengthening Soak. It needed one to slowly digest and transform it so that it could become internal energy.

The storage amount naturally could not compare to his last life when he was challenging the top. However, it lightened his chest and his depression faded.

“The opening of the energy ocean is the beginning of Chakra…”

In the last life, Zong Shou had created numerous characters in the game to analyze the secrets of Chakra. Using the virtual environment’s total realism aspect, he tested his new and weird ideas and tried out his crazy and randomly assembled ‘self-created’ techniques.

Naturally, he had opened up his energy ocean several times.

However, this was the first time he had done so in reality, and it gave him a totally different feeling. It was not a game character. Instead, it was true energy, that belonged to him!

This could be called the beginning of the meridians. After one opened it, one could truly be considered to have stepped onto the path of cultivation, and they gained the right to train in martial arts.

“However, although this Heaven Swallowing Energy Conversion Technique is magical, no matter how one purifies the essence energy swallowed, there are still some impurities. As I expected…”

Thinking about the multi-colored spots in the bundle of white gas, Zong Shou’s joy lessened and was replaced with serious thought.

Those impurities were not that obvious now. However, if he did not deal with them, it might be fatal once his cultivation reached the level of breaking through bodily chakra and amassing a certain amount.

Of course, it still was not a worry now. Absorbing the benefits of dozens of cultivation methods did have some use in improving the Heaven Swallowing Energy Conversion Technique. Moreover, with his self-created Energy Leading Technique, he would be able to totally purify it in a short time.

Only thing was that he still had to be careful about it in the future.

He tried to use the Internal Observing Technique to check his body’s Chakra Meridians, only to see that the energy ocean linked to several meridian acupuncture points; he had dual meridians, as expected. They were like fried dough twists wrapped together, one rejecting the other, and there was little that connected the two.

Zong Shou smiled helplessly. He no longer bothered with his body’s condition and started to sense the outside world.

Before the energy ocean was opened up, he basically could not notice and sense the spiritual energy that existed between Heaven and Earth.

Only now was he able to use his negligible amount of qi to explore the area an inch around his body.

However, the next moment, he was stunned once more. His brows could not help, but furrow once again.

“Why is the spiritual energy here so thin?”

After calculating the spiritual energy density of the area an inch from his body, he naturally found that the density to be far greater than his era.

However, compared to the God Emperor game, a virtually created abundance of spiritual energy, the amount was far more than this, too.

“Which era is this exactly? Is it truly ten thousand years ago?”

His eyes were at a loss as he looked around his surroundings. At that moment, Zong Shou felt an unprecedented regret.

In the God Emperor game world, the top cultivators had all the power. He had been worried about this matter, which was why he did not dare ask Yin Yang and Chuxue. During these few days, he could only probe from the sides.

However, he was now forced to understand his current situation, the landscape of this Cloud World, and the era he was in.

Legend had it that during the ending years of the Desolate Era, a time where legendary figures roamed the land, the spiritual connection between Heaven and Earth was mostly cut off. The legacies of spiritual masters and martial artists were close to extinct. It was least likely to be that era.

All that remained would be the era where spiritual energy slowly awakened in the Cloud World. However, this era lasted for tens of thousands of years before welcoming the energy explosion of the God Emperor era.

As his thoughts ran wild, he felt unsettled. Zong Shou sat in the basin in a daze. He only stood up after the water within the basin had completely turned cold; his face was totally green.

Right after he donned his clothes, Chuxue popped her head into the carriage to take a look and happily said, “Young Master, we have arrived at Twisted Gathering…”

“Twisted Gathering?” Zong Shou’s brows rose, and his heart felt a wave rise up once more as he quickly moved to the carriage window.

Looking out ahead, all he could see was a huge market occupying many square miles appearing before him.

This was not the Twisted City in his memory, as those majestic city walls had not been built yet. There were only a few fences outside to defend against wild beasts.

Looking at the sight in front of him, Zong Shou felt himself relax. He felt really emotional.

——

When the carriage stopped at the edge of the market, Yin Yang left on his own. No one knew where he went.

Su Chuxue accompanied Zong Shou as they toured around the market.

The current Twisted Gathering was far from the scale it had reached in the future, but it was already prosperous. At the sides of the streets were shops selling beast leather, beast crystals, and herbs. The people walking around all carried weapons and gave off a strong aura.

Its position was close to the Dragon Lake plains, and many clean water sources were nearby. As a result, many martial artists and spirit masters gathered here. Every day, no less than a thousand people would enter and exit this place.

Experts were abundant here, and some of them were scum who killed without blinking. Despite this, one did not need to worry about their safety.

The top sect of the East Cloud World defended this land. Within the market, private killing and fighting was prohibited. In such a place, who would dare to commit such atrocities?

Hence, Yin Yang did not worry much and allowed them to tour this complicated area, where fishes and dragons mixed.

As he walked, he observed the surrounding travelers and the many merchants on the sides. Zong Shou was feeling more and more certain about the era he was in, which helped him relax.

This should be about ten to fifteen years before the energy explosion occurred. Any earlier and there would not be this Twisted Gathering on the Dragon Lake plain. Any later, and Twisted City would have its rough structure. Numerous spirit masters and martial cultivators all felt the signs of the increase in spiritual energy and gathered here. They would venture into the depths of the Dragon Lake plains to strengthen their hearts and their cultivation.

Zong Shou had a gentle personality. When he came into contact with God Emperor, the reason he would skip sleep and meals was due to his interests. The texts within and the peak of martial arts that no one could reach interested him. Actually, he was not willing to compete with those perverted and overly powerful people from the God Emperor era. As for those legendary figures of the Primordial Era, it was best if he avoided them.

However, comparing the end of the Primordial Era to the later God Emperor era where spiritual energy was similarly low, Zong Shou preferred this God Emperor era, filled with endless cruelty and brutality. Although it was filled with dangers, at least he could continue to research all the things that he craved to learn and search for that peak of cultivation.

Furthermore, in his previous life, he had many regrets that needed to be solved one by one in this era, where spiritual energy was about to explosively increase.

“Yee? Baobing House, this Twisted Gathering actually has a branch of Baobing?”

Chuxue’s words broke Zong Shou’s focus. He followed her line of sight, only to see a medium-sized, really well-organized weapon shop right before them.