Chapter 40: Entering the Milky Way Realm

Chen Mobai returned home and first placed the Wutong sapling on the balcony. He wanted to water it but was afraid of drowning the seedling.

He took out his phone to check how to care for it, finding that many people had different advice.

However, one point was consistent: it thrived best in places with abundant spiritual energy; the more spiritual energy available, the faster it would grow.

This Wutong sapling was one of the few spiritual woods in the Immortal Sect that could infinitely advance in grade. Currently, the highest-grade specimen was the Grade Four superior-grade Jade Wutong in Danxia City.

Although the Wutong sapling had infinite potential, its growth was extremely slow.

The Jade Wutong in Danxia City was planted by a Grade Three spiritual gardener. It was said to have taken 200 years for a Wutong sapling to grow into a Grade One spiritual wood.

Once established, the Wutong sapling would naturally regulate the earth's meridians, enhancing the spiritual energy, with the tree and the spiritual land complementing each other. However, if it had initially grown in a Grade Four spiritual land, this Jade Wutong would not have taken over four thousand years to ascend to a Grade Four spiritual wood.

Upon seeing "abundant spiritual energy," Chen Mobai naturally thought of his water mansion.

Amidst shimmering silver light, he teleported to the Tianhe Realm.

He placed the Wutong sapling on the desk in the side hall, then opened the Azure Water Grand Formation, scooped a pot of water from outside the protective barrier, and poured it at the roots.

Online sources all claimed this was the easiest spiritual wood to care for, only requiring placement in a spiritual energy-rich area and regular watering. Once the Wutong sapling flowered and bore fruit for the first time, watering could even be omitted, as it would then grow on its own.

Once mature, this Wutong sapling would be valuable in every part.

Its bark and leaves could be used for talisman paper, its sap could serve as ink and repel insects, and the wood was an excellent material for musical instruments and boxes. However, its most valuable parts were the flowers and fruits, which were the main ingredients for refining the Grade One superior-grade Clear Fire Elixir.

The Clear Fire Elixir was one of the few elixirs in the Immortal Sect that could enhance spiritual consciousness, making it one of the most precious elixirs for cultivators in the late Qi Refining stage.

Thinking of spiritual consciousness, Chen Mobai couldn't help but close his eyes. The effect of the "Startled Dream Melody" was still present, but it was no longer as clear as last night. The spiritual energy he perceived seemed veiled, no longer transparent.

According to Chen Baolan's reminder, the "Startled Dream Melody" effect would likely last for three to four days. During this period, it was best not to cultivate spiritual energy but rather to meditate on one's mind and perceive the formation of spiritual consciousness, the sensation of seeing through mist.

Spiritual consciousness was the sixth sense, beyond the five senses, originating in the heart-sea and forming in the consciousness-sea.

Once a cultivator developed spiritual consciousness, they could examine the state of their body internally. When spiritual energy circulated, they could compare it against the correct pathways in cultivation manuals and make corrections, ensuring that spiritual energy was refined in the most perfect state.

The stronger the spiritual consciousness, the more body parts could be examined. Upon successful Foundation Establishment, this spiritual consciousness could even leave the body to observe the outside world.

Many spells for dispelling illusions and deceptions were based on spiritual consciousness.

However, Chen Mobai had only just had his spiritual consciousness activated, allowing him only to examine his Dantian Qi Sea and sense the fluctuations and rotations of spiritual energy.

This spiritual energy rotation was something he had learned about when listening to Qingping's lectures, where it was said that spiritual energy circulating in this manner could aid in refinement. However, without spiritual consciousness previously, although he could manipulate spiritual energy to rotate, he didn't understand the specific details.

Today, observing with his spiritual consciousness, he found that this spiritual energy rotation was incredibly slow, like a turtle's pace, and the trajectory it formed was not round at all but a flattened, irregular shape.

"Once I truly master spiritual consciousness later, I'll need to properly correct this," Chen Mobai muttered to himself.

With that thought, he opened his cultivation assistance software and entered "spiritual consciousness" and "Qi Refining stage" as keywords for his search.

The results were few, only two pages with a mere dozen or so posts.

After all, those able to post on the cultivation assistance software were at least Foundation Establishment cultivators. Content about cultivating spiritual consciousness during the Qi Refining stage was largely disregarded by the time they reached that level.

Fortunately, due to the large user base, some Foundation Establishment cultivators had researched the techniques for cultivating spiritual consciousness during the Qi Refining stage, for the benefit of their juniors or disciples.

To make the most of the "Startled Dream Melody's" effect, and since he couldn't cultivate spiritual energy anyway, Chen Mobai decided to carefully study these posts.

After reading them, he furrowed his brow slightly.

The two pages of posts surprisingly presented two different paths for cultivating spiritual consciousness.

One path was the orthodox method of self-cultivation and nurturing the mind, gradually developing mental power until it naturally coalesced into spiritual consciousness. Those following this path could exchange for the "Nourishing Thought & Casting Spirit Art" at the National Library.

The other path was slightly more aggressive, using a specially prepared "thought incense" to induce an out-of-body experience of the mind.

This path believed that human spiritual consciousness was inherently located deep within the brain but had to seal itself off due to the absorption of post-natal qi. However, spiritual consciousness was the master of the human body, naturally active, and only required a small trigger to reactivate it.

However, Qi Refining cultivators had weak spiritual consciousness and could not sustain out-of-body experiences for as long as Foundation Establishment cultivators. Therefore, when practicing this method, someone needed to be present. Once the mind was drawn out of the body, the "thought incense" had to be extinguished immediately.

After several such activations of out-of-body experiences, cultivators would naturally grasp their spiritual consciousness; it was considered a long-term stimulating cultivation method. Cultivators who followed this path gave it a unique name: "Spiritual Consciousness Fitness."

"Isn't this just like listening to the Startled Dream Melody every day? But listening to the melody is enjoyable, whereas this feels more like torture."

Chen Mobai instantly understood. He then checked this stimulating cultivation method in the National Library and found that it was indeed recorded there, named "Spirit Inciting Heavenly Roaming Art," though its acquisition required Foundation Establishment cultivator permissions.

Clearly, the Immortal Sect did not strongly advocate for it, which was why, unlike the orthodox "Nourishing Thought & Casting Spirit Art," which Qi Refining cultivators could download for 1000 points, this one was restricted.

Chen Mobai was someone who quite liked the idea of exercise, but it was just a liking; he had never actually put it into practice.

Leveraging his high-level permissions, he checked the catalog and outline of the "Spirit Inciting Heavenly Roaming Art," discovering that the "thought incense" used was actually a Grade Two elixir. He had been somewhat tempted, but he immediately gave up on the idea.

Grade Two elixirs required real-name authentication for Foundation Establishment cultivators to purchase them; they were considered controlled substances.

It seemed that the "Spirit Inciting Heavenly Roaming Art" was a method for Foundation Establishment elders to help their juniors activate spiritual consciousness.

After thinking for a while, Chen Mobai decided to get to his main task for the day.

He stood up and opened his school bag, which contained a historical costume wig — decorations he had ordered online, designed to resemble ancient styles.

These items had actually arrived yesterday, but he only had a chance to try them on today, after dropping Chen Xinglan off at the Scarlet Cloud Academy.

The sizing was correct. Dressed in the ancient costume and wearing the crowned wig, he looked like a handsome, elegant young man.

He checked his appearance in the small mirror he held, and after confirming there were no flaws, Chen Mobai took a deep breath and activated the water mansion's grand formation.

He was finally about to step onto the land of the Tianhe Realm.