Chapter 123: Prairie Fire
Just like that night in spring, he closed his eyes and calmed his mind, forgetting both himself and the world. His spiritual sense left the sea of consciousness, separated from his body, and drifted through the silent underground space. The surrounding environment faintly appeared in his mind—the stone walls and the light from the night pearls, after some kind of transformation, re-emerged in his awareness.
Closing his eyes meant darkness. Only after darkness fell could the stars emerge, allowing him to find his own destiny star in the night sky. But now, what he needed to do was not to fix his destiny star, but to achieve Self-Observation. So his spiritual sense did not continue rising higher; instead, it drifted down slowly like snow, returning to his body.
Spiritual sense was formless and boundless, effortlessly penetrating clothing and skin, entering the deepest parts of his body, and then feeding back everything it encountered. This was inner observation, or self-observation.
The Self-Observation realm actually had no clear boundary. Any cultivator who could condense their spiritual sense and observe themselves as they wished could be said to have entered the Self-Observation realm. If they wanted to advance further, it would involve the interaction between spiritual sense and meridians, but the most fundamental method was these two words: self-observation.
Every sect's cultivation method for Self-Observation recorded this sentence: "Observe yourself, and you can see heaven and earth."
Why? Because the cultivator's own body was itself a heaven and earth. Unlike the true heaven and earth of nature, the cultivator's personal heaven and earth was more subtle, more delicate. If the source of cultivation power came from nature's heaven and earth, then to make oneself stronger required constantly reforming this small heaven of one's own.
Marrow Cleansing was the first step for a cultivator to reform themselves, but it was relatively crude. Self-Observation was observation, but also a cultivator's reformation of themselves—more refined. Moreover, upon reaching the Self-Observation realm, cultivators no longer directly borrowed the power of starlight; instead, they began learning to use the true essence converted from starlight.
Starlight belonged to nature's great heaven and earth; true essence belonged to the cultivator's small heaven and earth.
Compared to ordinary cultivators, Chen Changsheng's situation was special. He first needed to find that starlight within this small heaven and earth, then try to convert it into his own true essence. The truly dangerous moment was exactly then. His body had not undergone Marrow Cleansing—could it withstand the energy burst when starlight converted into true essence? Would he, like the patient recorded in the appendix to the Four Meridians Self-Observation, spontaneously combust and die?
He didn't think about these questions. His spiritual sense entered his body and began self-observation, began searching.
The small heaven and earth was still heaven and earth. When he sat in self-observation, his spiritual sense became a gentle breeze between heaven and earth. Tonight, he searched for starlight within his body, just like that night he searched for his destiny star in the night sky. It was the same—constantly searching across a vast expanse. This process was very long, so long that he forgot the passage of time.
Blurry vision, shifting, changing light—these wove together countless strange images. Vague, as if they were heaven and earth, seemingly familiar, yet utterly foreign.
There were raised surfaces, like perilous mountains. Were those bones? But what about the deep fissures in the earth, the veins faintly emitting breath? Were those meridians?
The gentle breeze moved slowly through heaven and earth; his spiritual sense searched ceaselessly through his body. Gradually, he grew accustomed to this feeling. The images in his awareness became clearer and clearer, and then he saw broken cliffs. Hard, granite-like mountain ranges twisted into pretzel shapes. The earth's veins were shattered, a scene of devastation that stirred a sense of sorrow.
This was his body. This was the first time he had clearly seen the true appearance of his own body, and it made him very sad. Those broken cliffs and shattered earth veins—were they his severed meridians? Or blocked meridians? Was this the shadow of death hidden within his body?
But... where did that terrifying power that deformed mountains and shattered cliffs come from?
The breeze drifted across tens of thousands of miles of wilderness, past nine transverse mountain ranges, until it reached a plain covered in white snow.
He didn't know where this place was. He only knew that snow fell for thousands of miles, it was bitterly cold, and the ground was covered in an extremely thick layer of snow—so clean it was almost blinding.
He didn't know what this snowfield was, nor did he know what such a thick layer of snow, such a clean snowfield, meant to a cultivator. He didn't know that whether it was the legendary young master of the Li Mountain Sword Sect or any other peerless expert, if they knew he possessed such a perfect snowfield, they would do everything in their power to make him inherit their legacy.
Finally, he saw a lake.
It was a lake suspended between heaven and earth, vast and blue, spanning hundreds of miles in his spiritual sense's perception. To be precise, it was a water droplet suspended between heaven and earth. There was no impurity inside—no water plants, no mud, no sediment—only clean, transparent water, so light could pass through it freely.
At this point, his spiritual sense had traversed this small heaven and earth once. In terms of the true essence of cultivation, he had already entered the Self-Observation realm. If this fact were discovered, it would absolutely shock the entire world, because it meant he possessed the purest, most tranquil spiritual sense in the world, capable even of transcending the thresholds between realms.
The problem was, this meant nothing.
No matter how powerful his spiritual sense, without true essence, he was still just an ordinary person. At most, it could expand the range of his perception.
True essence came from starlight.
From spring to deep winter, night after night he had drawn starlight to cleanse his marrow. Marrow Cleansing had not succeeded—so where had the starlight accumulated?
At this moment, Chen Changsheng began to grow tense.
When his spiritual sense found the starlight, the moment it made contact, the starlight would completely convert into true essence. His body had not undergone Marrow Cleansing, but his teacher and senior brother had soaked him in medicinal baths for so many years—could it withstand such a terrifying burst of power?
His spiritual sense traveled through the small heaven and earth once more, tens of thousands of miles in a single breath.
Finally, he looked at that snowfield... a vast expanse of white, so clean, so beautiful.
His spiritual sense rose higher, and he saw clearly: this snowfield was slowly melting, but because snow kept falling, its area was not shrinking. Instead, it continued to grow, to thicken. Only in certain places where the light was most intense did some cracks appear.
The cracks were few, but they ran through the snowfield, cutting it into dozens of pieces.
Was it here?
It was here.
He gazed quietly at the snowfield, very happy.
That snow—it wasn't snow at all. It was ice crystals formed from condensed starlight.
He could cultivate.
That starlight was all there.
So, what now?
He didn't think for long, because this matter didn't require his thought, nor could he control it.
The moment his spiritual sense confirmed it was starlight, the small heaven and earth perceived it.
Observation, then judgment—that was contact.
From the sky to the ground, whether tens of thousands of miles or the distance of a finger, his spiritual sense fell from the sky to the ground in a single flash of thought.
His spiritual sense landed on a small snowfield in the southeast corner, slowly drifting away.
That wisp of his spiritual sense was like a torch falling onto withered leaves covering the mountains and fields.
The ice crystals formed from condensed starlight instantly emitted infinite light, then began to burn fiercely.
There was no sound, no smoke or dust—only the raging flames of a sudden conflagration.
The small snowfield's area was at least several thousand acres, yet the moment his spiritual sense landed, the entire small snowfield ignited in an instant.
Clean, transparent flames, carrying immense heat, scorched the sky.
The ice crystals burned as they melted, turning into something like lava, slowly flowing in all directions. It didn't take long for them to spread beyond the snowfield's boundaries, onto that wilderness. That lava was the essence of starlight, containing unimaginable energy, emitting a bright red light that seemed especially terrifying. Wherever it passed, whether yellow grass or rock, everything caught fire.
The lava flowed into the broken cliffs, and the cliffs began to burn.
It flowed into the shattered earth veins, and the underground began to burn.
The entire small heaven and earth began to burn.
In the cold, silent underground space, a warm breath suddenly appeared.
The Black Dragon gazed at Chen Changsheng, whose eyes were tightly shut, watching the snowflakes falling on him melt instantly. The indifference in its eyes was replaced by a trace of surprise.
Then, its gaze grew very serious.
Chen Changsheng's face turned bright red. The breath from his mouth and nose, meeting the slightly cold underground air, instantly turned into white mist.
Snow fell on him and melted, then quickly evaporated. He was entirely shrouded in white mist.
Just how high was his body temperature now?
A look of concern appeared in the Black Dragon's eyes. It gently blew a breath toward him.
Dragon breath mixed with ice shards fell onto Chen Changsheng's body.
In an instant, a transparent ice armor formed on the surface of his body.
Yet, moments later, that ice armor cracked, melted, and evaporated.
Chen Changsheng's face grew redder and redder, his body hotter and hotter. The blood vessels in his neck thickened, then bulged. Soon, more and more blood vessels thickened, protruding from his skin, covered in dense blue veins—a terrifying sight. One could even faintly see blood flowing rapidly through the vessels.
In the silent underground space, a dense drumming sound arose—thump, thump, thump—that was... his heartbeat.
His heart beat rapidly, blood flowed swiftly through his vessels. His clothes were instantly soaked with sweat, then dried again.
His body had already made many reflexive responses, trying to solve the problem he now faced.
But the true essence converted from starlight was now rampaging wildly through his body. Without undergoing Marrow Cleansing, how could his body withstand it?
And on top of that, his meridians were congenitally severed, able to hold far less true essence than a normal person. The situation was even more dangerous.
Chen Changsheng kept his eyes tightly shut. The blood vessels at the corners of his eyes twitched incessantly. His brows were furrowed deeply, showing extreme pain.
He had skipped Marrow Cleansing and gone straight to Self-Observation because he needed to see whether that starlight was there, to settle his mind. Otherwise, if he had to give up on the Grand Examination, he would never be content.
Now he had seen that snowfield. The starlight had begun to burn, to convert into true essence, and he was about to die. Could he be content like this?
Watching the boy's pained expression, the Black Dragon's eyes showed a hint of pity, but it did nothing.
(Caught a cold for the fifth day—really annoying. I wanted to take a day off to rest, but then I felt a bit better, so I wrote this chapter. Thankfully, I wasn't too muddled and managed to include all the important points. Just this chapter today. Also, there's something important I want to say, mainly for the readers on the book platform: the comments from the platform will all be synced to the website, and I've been picking some to read—yes, I only read the good reviews. Everyone will get used to my shamelessness. Thank you for your support and attention. In the past few days, some readers have been asking how to vote on the platform. Please, when you reach the last chapter, don't close the page. Click the next page, and it will jump to the voting page. Please help by casting your recommendation votes. As for monthly tickets... well, I'll ask for those tomorrow. I'm going to rest now. Also, Chen Changsheng having a fever doesn't mean I have a fever—I checked, and it's normal.)