Chapter 50: Practice of Divine Consciousness

After buying his books, Chen Mobai left the Nanxi Market.

After he departed, two cultivators emerged from the shadows of the street.

"Should we follow him?"

"He Qun said he's at least Qi Refinement Stage 6, possibly a late-stage Qi Refinement cultivator hiding his true cultivation."

"Then let's not follow."

"Let's wait a bit longer. From his attire, he might be from a major sect. We've just managed to settle down in this market, and exposing ourselves for twenty spirit stones isn't worth it."

***

Since he was carrying a large sum of money this time, Chen Mobai didn't return to the city via the barren mountain, but instead went back to his water mansion.

Sitting cross-legged on the meditation cushion, he looked at the twenty-two clear, neatly cut spirit stones laid out before him, feeling an unprecedented sense of joy. If these were brought back to Di Yuan Star and exchanged at a bank, they would be worth 220,000 merit points. However, Chen Mobai certainly wouldn't take these spirit stones to the national bank; that would be clearly inviting the Immortal Sect to investigate him for unexplained wealth. He picked up two stones and put them in his backpack, storing the rest in the water mansion.

Before returning home, he didn't forget to water the Ailanthus sapling. He felt the leaf buds were slightly greener than before, probably due to the decent spiritual energy in the water mansion. Thinking this, Chen Mobai pressed the return-to-city button, and amidst a flicker of silver light, he reappeared in his room.

Good news followed good news. The next day, while he was at school, he received a message from Qing Nü. She said that all the medicinal materials had been cold-extracted, with only the final blending step remaining. Chen Mobai, who had expected to be very nervous, found himself surprisingly calm. Perhaps this was the saying: a thicker wallet gives a man more confidence.

It seemed as though all forces were aligning in his favor. In the school's cultivation room, Chen Mobai practiced the "Nurturing Thought and Forging Spirit Art" as usual. To his surprise, he had unknowingly broken through a bottleneck: the seed he had been visualizing had sprouted from the ground, sending forth a green shoot. At that instant, he finally fully grasped the transformation of his mind and spirit. "This is divine sense!"

Having experienced it once before, Chen Mobai was very calm this time. In the cultivation room, he introspected, seeing the colorful spiritual energy slowly swirling like a vortex, though it was somewhat distorted and not perfectly round. After cultivating divine sense, he could actively correct the flow of spiritual energy within his body. Following the technique explained by Venerable Qingping, Chen Mobai slowly guided the spiritual energy into his dantian in a clockwise direction. With this, he corrected the originally skewed vortex. After one circulation, the somewhat angular vortex finally became less irregular.

He felt that in a little more time, he would be able to completely mold the spiritual energy vortex in his dantian. At that point, the Five Elements Art would automatically help refine spiritual energy during its operation, saving a significant amount of effort. According to the Five Elements Art course materials, if this spiritual energy vortex were fully formed, it could even increase the chances of reaching the Foundation Establishment stage. Chen Mobai regarded Venerable Qingping's words as golden rules. Now that he had cultivated divine sense, he could perform this step. After trying it, he felt that his spiritual energy seemed to be slightly more refined. "When the Qi Supplementing Spirit Water is blended and I give it to Dad, I'll tell him about this too," he murmured.

As he murmured to himself, his phone alarm rang, signaling that his time in the school's cultivation room was up. Chen Mobai stood up and left.

"I heard the representative from Butian Dao Academy arrived today."

"The representative from Wuqi Dao Academy is supposedly the renowned Master Bian."

"So, among the Four Great Dao Academies, only Jumang and Kunpeng are left to arrive. But they should be here soon; after all, they need a fair amount of time to arrange their entrance exam content."

As he walked out, a large group of students whose cultivation time was also up gathered in small groups, exchanging the rumors they had heard.

"I've finally reached Qi Refinement Stage 5!" A joyful shout rang out nearby. Chen Mobai glanced over and saw it was his deskmate, Lu Hongsheng.

"That's amazing!"

"Congratulations, you're finally no longer at the bottom of the class," two female classmates teased. This brought a scolding from Lu Hongsheng. "First fat isn't fat; true fat comes later and breaks the bed. My breakthrough is a natural accumulation, unlike someone who needs to take pills to break through, with a shallow foundation. I wonder if his realm is even stable yet." As Lu Hongsheng spoke, his gaze subtly drifted towards Chen Mobai. He had always been unconvinced by Chen Mobai's breakthrough to Qi Refinement Stage 5 during the holiday. He had been holding his breath, wanting to prove himself. Moreover, he subscribed to the "no pills" cultivation school, believing that the spiritual energy cultivated this way would be purer, making it much easier for spiritual energy to liquify during Foundation Establishment, thus increasing the success rate.

"Old Chen, I broke through today. Want to go out for a good meal together?" Seeing that Chen Mobai ignored him, Lu Hongsheng immediately walked over deliberately, clearly wanting to show off. However, Chen Mobai's cultivation was now higher; he had already cultivated divine sense and could easily enter Qi Refinement Stage 7 once his spiritual energy was sufficient. He suddenly felt an indescribable barrier between himself and these classmates who were still in the mid-Qi Refinement stage.

"Another time, perhaps. I have plans with a friend today." As Chen Mobai spoke, he turned to leave.

"Friends? Do you have friends other than us classmates? I'm happy today, let's all go together." Lu Hongsheng walked over, trying to stop Chen Mobai. However, Chen Mobai didn't even pause. The release of his Qi Refinement Stage 6 spiritual energy instantly crushed Lu Hongsheng's casually released aura, who had just reached Qi Refinement Stage 5.

"How is that possible..." After his aura was shattered, Lu Hongsheng, who was blocking the way, stumbled unsteadily. Chen Mobai reached out and put his hand on Lu Hongsheng's shoulder, steadying him. "When you've just broken through, your emotions shouldn't fluctuate too much, otherwise you could easily fall back down." After saying this, he released his deskmate and left the cultivation room.

"When did that guy break through to Qi Refinement Stage 6?!" Lu Hongsheng stood rooted to the spot, murmuring to himself with a look of disbelief.

"Qi Refinement Stage 6!? Maybe even higher." Song Zheng walked out. He had also just emerged from that batch of cultivation rooms and was about to leave, but unexpectedly witnessed quite a show. Others might not have noticed, but having reached Qi Refinement Stage 7 himself, he sensed the active divine sense fluctuations coming from Chen Mobai. This was a sign of cultivating divine sense, indicating that the bottleneck of the late Qi Refinement stage had been broken. "It seems, besides Yan Bingxuan, there's another person in the class worth paying attention to." Song Zheng thought about Chen Mobai frequently going in and out of Old Man Ding's office, pondered for a moment, and then turned to find his own teacher.