Courtyard Houses: From Bronze Compasses to Global Reach

Chapter 32 The Initial Formation of the Divine Soul and the Beginning of Body Refinement

Five days passed within the space.

Lin Yan slowly opened his eyes from his deep meditation. The medicinal power of the Soul-Replenishing Pill had been completely absorbed, nourishing and repairing his soul, bringing him an unprecedented clarity.

With a slight thought, his divine sense naturally spread outwards. Unlike the previous feeling of being enveloped like a thin mist, his divine sense at this moment was condensed, heavy, and like mercury spilling onto the ground, penetrating everywhere yet carrying a weighty texture.

"This Soul Refining Method is indeed a matter of life and death, a process of breaking down and rebuilding..." Lin Yan thought with deep emotion. After enduring that inhuman pain, it was as if a door to a new world had been opened. It wasn't just a surge in spiritual power, but also a sense of ease and freedom emanating from the depths of his soul, as if a heavy, innate, invisible shackle had been removed, and his perception of the entire world had become clearer and more profound.

Little Qi, who had been standing by his side with teary eyes, immediately pounced on his lap upon seeing this, tugging at his clothes with her little paws and gazing at him with pleading eyes. She looked incredibly pitiful.

Lin Yan's heart softened. He picked up the little guy, gently stroked its soft fur, and sincerely thanked it, "Xiao Qi, thank you. Thanks to you this time. I feel great now, better than ever before. Don't worry."

Xiaoqi sniffled and asked in a tearful voice, "Brother, are you really okay? You vomited blood... golden blood... Xiaoqi is so scared..."

Lin Yan knew that his appearance under the stone mill, where his soul was injured and golden blood was spilling from his mouth, had frightened the little guardian spirit. He felt both moved and guilty. He hugged it and comforted it again, and promised it countless grilled fish and meat meals in the future. Only then did the little guardian spirit stop crying and start smiling again, regaining its spirits.

After calming down, Lin Yan took out the jade slip containing the "Bewitching Illusion" technique. With the strength of his soul after undergoing a soul-crushing and qualitative change, the previously obscure and difficult parts suddenly became clear, like wiping away the condensation on a mirror, making everything clear and understandable.

The cultivation method is very simple: just condense a special "illusion seed" in your sea of ​​consciousness. When facing an enemy, you can silently project this seed into their mental world through eye contact, which will guide them to relax their mind and fall into a state similar to deep hypnosis, answering any questions asked.

In a short while, Lin Yan had successfully condensed this illusory seed in his sea of ​​consciousness.

"It's done!" he thought with delight. He really wanted to leave the seclusion immediately and find someone to test this miraculous effect on.

Suppressing his eagerness, Lin Yan took out the body-refining technique left by his ancestor—the "Great Zhou Celestial Body Refining Technique".

After careful study, Lin Yan was once again impressed by the ingenuity of his ancestors.

The first half of this technique is similar to the steps of ordinary body-refining methods, divided into body tempering, skin refining, flesh refining, tendon refining, bone refining, marrow refining, and viscera refining. However, its demanding nature lies in the fact that each step must be repeated nine times to hone the foundation to its absolute limit!

The latter half of the technique is where its essence lies. After the physical body's foundation is incredibly solid, one must open the countless acupoints within the body, using abundant qi and blood to draw upon the power of the stars and fill these acupoints one by one. Then, one must release the stellar power from these acupoints externally, forming the phantoms of the Great Heavenly Circulation Star Array and the Small Heavenly Circulation Star Array outside the body, allowing them to operate autonomously!

When attacking, it can draw upon the power of the stars in the heavens to crush everything; when defending, it can transform into a stellar barrier, impervious to all attacks!

"This is truly a brilliant idea!" Lin Yan exclaimed. "The path of cultivation is like a boundless sea of ​​suffering, and the physical body is the precious raft for crossing it. A strong physical body is the true foundation of power!"

Fortunately, this first step, "body tempering," is relatively simple and doesn't require much enlightenment. It mainly relies on enduring the pain of the medicinal power and accumulating resources. The ancestor had already prepared all the medicinal bath materials needed for the first nine cycles of body tempering.

Lin Yan immediately summoned the puppet and instructed it to go to the kitchen in the courtyard and, according to the instructions on the jade slip, brew the first stage of body tempering medicine.

Half a day later, Lin Yan was soaking in a large, steaming bathtub filled with the aroma of herbs. He was leaning against the tub wall, his body trembling slightly, his face pale, and fine beads of sweat on his forehead.

The medicine, like countless tiny steel needles, frantically drilled into his pores, stimulating every inch of muscle and every fascia, bringing a complex sensation of numbness, itching, and pain.

"It's alright..." he thought through gritted teeth. "Compared to the despair of having one's soul crushed, this purely physical pain is still within a tolerable range."

At the same time, he clearly felt a strange sensation of "slight fullness" in his body. He thought about it again and realized that since he started cultivating, apart from taking the Bigu Pill, he had not eaten any grains. Previously, when he only cultivated spiritual power, he might have been able to barely maintain his body's energy consumption, but now that he had begun to refine his body, his energy requirements would inevitably increase dramatically.

"This feeling of 'being full' is probably because my body is frantically absorbing the essence energy from the medicinal bath." He immediately realized a problem: "It seems that before the supply of spiritual food in the special zone can be stable, this body tempering technique cannot be carried out recklessly. It must be done step by step, otherwise it may cause physical depletion."

This medicinal bath served as a wake-up call for him.

After finally enduring the first body tempering session, Lin Yan stepped out of the bathtub, feeling a slight lightness in his body, yet also a heaviness—a very contradictory yet real feeling.

Xiao Qi immediately jumped into his arms and whined, "Brother, are you really out of seclusion this time? Are you even more amazing now?"

Lin Yan smiled and patted its head: "Yes, your brother has become a little more powerful." He then explained to Xiao Qi the use of the new "Bewitching Illusion" technique he had learned, "Once your brother is ready, I'll take you to the courtyard to watch a 'good show'."

Xiao Qi tilted her head, her big, dark eyes filled with confusion: "Brother, we're so powerful now, why don't we just beat up bad guys like Yi Zhonghai? Or... just quietly kill him like we would a wild boar in the mountains, right? Why do we need to learn such troublesome magic?"

Upon hearing this, Lin Yan's heart skipped a beat.

He had never considered the problem from this perspective. From Xiao Qi's point of view, which was purely based on power levels, the way to solve the problem was indeed much simpler and more direct.

He crouched down, gently stroking the pair of tiny horns on Xiao Qi's head, and began earnestly to instill his worldview in it:

"Xiao Qi, look, we're really powerful now, seemingly 'invincible,' right? But why do we still need to use this roundabout method?"

"Because this is a world made up of and dominated by mortals. You and I are ultimately just passersby in this world. If we openly use extraordinary power to resolve disputes within human society, it will completely break the existing rules and balance, and may cause unpredictable chaos. We have power, but we must learn how to use it. If we are arrogant and recklessly rampage through the human world, wantonly harming others, it means we are not worthy of such power. Logically speaking, we should use this power to protect others, not to harm them."

"Although the human body is weak, their wisdom is never inferior to that of any cultivator. In fact, it is precisely because of the limitations of physical strength that their minds become exceptionally active and calculating. Truly high-level human 'players' prefer and are better at using their brains to obtain everything they want."

"Since mortals can play this 'game of wisdom' so well, how can we, with our longer lifespans and stronger learning abilities, admit defeat? Of course, we should use smarter and more subtle methods to win, right?"

He paused, his tone becoming serious: "Of course, if anyone truly threatens our safety, I will not hesitate to use force to eliminate the threat. But before making any decision, you must think it through and weigh the pros and cons."

"Most importantly, my brother doesn't want to reveal the secret that he's a cultivator. Once this secret is known to the world, it will bring endless trouble, greedy eyes, and relentless demands. That will seriously interfere with our cultivation, unless we're willing to hide in this space forever and never go out again."

"But after cultivating for a long time, you get tired, and you need a change of environment to see different scenery and experience the joys of life, don't you?"

Xiaoqi seemed to understand, but she grasped the core meaning: her brother didn't want to be exposed, didn't want to cause trouble, didn't want to bully others by relying on his strength, and wanted to use a "smarter" method.

It obediently nodded its little head, stopped asking questions, and lay peacefully on Lin Yan's lap. Soon, it began to breathe evenly and fell into a deep sleep. It just needed to know that its brother knew his place and would take care of it.