Chapter 8 First Practice

Chapter 8: First Practice

“To practice, you first need to enter a meditative state through meditation. This isn’t difficult, but it takes some time for most people.”

“Once you enter the meditative state, you’ll feel the energy around you. However, ignore it; that’s our world’s energy and cannot be absorbed. I will act as your guide, capture a pure energy, and send it to you. What you need to do is use your will to guide this pure energy into your body and try to keep it from dissipating.”

“The power of will is very important. If your will isn’t strong enough to draw the energy, then you have no talent for cultivation.”

“But as long as your body successfully absorbs the first energy, your path to cultivation will be open.”

Lin Yue’s words echoed in Li Yi’s ears.

At this moment, Li Yi sat with his eyes closed, trying to enter meditation.

Lin Yue guided Li Yi on his posture, breathing, and other meditation details to help him enter the state faster.

As time passed slowly.

Li Yi’s body gradually lost sensation. His consciousness seemed to sink into darkness, as if about to be swallowed by an abyss. A sense of helpless fear surged into his heart, which instantly startled him awake, pulling him out of the meditative state.

“Scared?” Lin Yue watched him from the side, smiling.

Li Yi wiped his forehead, finding no cold sweat, but he was still shaken: “I felt like my consciousness was going to be swallowed by darkness, and I would never wake up again.”

“Don’t be afraid, this is a normal feeling. Your consciousness and body have been intertwined for twenty years. Now, to abandon the body and move independently, it’s normal to feel fear. The reason it’s a dark void is because your consciousness has escaped the influence of the body’s five senses. Imagine, one day you wake up, your body can’t move, your ears can’t hear, your eyes can’t open—wouldn’t you be scared?” Lin Yue patiently explained.

“What you need to do is overcome this fear, adapt to that feeling, and then continue to sink deeper. As long as you pass that hurdle, your consciousness will generate new perceptions on its own. That perception isn’t sight, isn’t hearing; it’s a special existence.”

“I understand, I’ll try again.” Li Yi nodded, then closed his eyes once more.

The second time he entered meditation, perhaps to overcome the fear from his first attempt, it took him more time.

This time, Li Yi’s consciousness once again sank into darkness, and that sense of fear surged again.

But this time, he didn’t fight the fear; instead, he let it envelop his entire body.

However, his consciousness seemed trapped in a dark void, with no direction, no time, like a cage.

Soon.

Li Yi trembled and woke up again, directly exiting the meditative state.

“Failed again?” Lin Yue asked.

Li Yi nodded: “My consciousness was trapped by the darkness, and an instinct made me want to break free.”

“This is your brain checking if your body has died, so your consciousness was forcibly called back. But don’t worry, the human body’s adaptability is very strong. After a few more times, your brain will understand that state wasn’t death, and this situation won’t happen again later.”

“Cultivation is not a simple matter. During the process, you have to overcome various psychological states and repeatedly train your body and mind to adapt to that feeling. Some say there’s great terror in cultivation, and that’s true. But if you can’t even get past this hurdle, then I advise you to give up cultivation.”

Lin Yue said seriously.

“I understand, I’ll try again.” Li Yi took a deep breath and said.

Lin Yue said, “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Take your time; there’s plenty of it.”

Li Yi nodded.

Although he didn’t say anything, he knew very well that his peaceful time was limited, and trouble would soon come knocking. Before that, he had to embark on cultivation and confirm whether the half dao coin in his hand was indeed a qi object.

Continued to meditate.

After an unknown amount of time.

The office door opened.

Uncle Biao cautiously walked in, glanced around, and motioned to Lin Yue.

Lin Yue walked out lightly.

Uncle Biao asked in a low voice, “How is Li Yi’s cultivation progressing?”

“The progress isn’t very smooth. He hasn’t truly entered meditation yet,” Lin Yue said, shaking her head.

“It’s okay, that’s normal. Wasn’t I the same back then? Be patient with him. After all, it’s his first time encountering cultivation; he didn’t know anything before,” Uncle Biao said.

Lin Yue said, “Uncle, do you still remember the situation when Li Yi’s father, Li, first cultivated?”

As she spoke, she held up a finger: “Once. Li entered meditation in one go and then began absorbing Cosmic Energy, formally entering cultivation.”

Uncle Biao snorted and said, “His dad was a true genius; there’s no comparison. Otherwise, how could he have become a Silent One? Do you think just anyone can be a Silent One? It’s because the first batch of cultivators progressed too quickly, and everything hadn’t been thoroughly explored yet, so problems arose and they became like that.”

“Niece, tell me, does Li Yi have a talent for cultivation?”

After speaking, he nudged Lin Yue’s arm and asked.

Lin Yue pondered for a moment, then said, “I can’t tell yet, but he also entered meditation in one go. He just got scared due to lack of experience and then exited the meditative state. However, cultivation talent is no longer measured by how quickly one enters meditation, but by the efficiency of absorbing Cosmic Energy.”

“Some people can absorb ten units of Cosmic Energy in one go, but only retain one or two. Such a low conversion rate indicates poor cultivation talent.”

“But some people can absorb at most five units of Cosmic Energy, yet they can retain all of it, achieving a hundred percent conversion rate. Such talent is very high, and the potential is immense. If combined with a guide, they can reach the genius level.”

“Of course, there are also those whose conversion rate is low, but they can capture a hundred units of Cosmic Energy in one go. Even if only twenty percent can be converted, that’s still extraordinary.”

“I’ll need to test Li Yi to find out which type he belongs to.”

“Then I’ll leave everything to you. Later, Uncle will treat you to a meal,” Uncle Biao said with a smile.

Lin Yue rolled her eyes: “No, I’ll say this upfront: if Li Yi doesn’t have much cultivation talent, there’s nothing I can do. After all, I’m just a person, not an immortal who can bestow cultivation talent. As for Li Yi’s talent, I’ll know after guiding him for three days.”

“Haha, how could that be? A tiger father has no dog son. This kid Li Yi definitely has great talent, don’t worry. Three days is enough for him,” Uncle Biao said.

He wasn’t confident in Li Yi’s cultivation talent, but he knew that Li Yi was a sensible child. If there was no progress after three days, he probably wouldn’t continue to bother Lin Yue.

“I hope so.”

Lin Yue suddenly shushed: “He seems to have successfully entered meditation. Uncle, you go ahead and get busy. I’ll go check on him and test his cultivation talent.”

Uncle Biao nodded, then tiptoed away.

At this moment, Li Yi, who had entered a meditative state, began to adapt to the feeling of his consciousness sinking into darkness.

His mind was calm, without the slightest panic or disarray.

And as his consciousness detached from the body’s influence and began to adapt to the darkness, some new changes started to appear.

Some light gradually appeared in the darkness.

The light filled the surroundings, flowing like river water beside him, but its color was somewhat eerie, a grayish-white, as if contaminated, making one instinctively want to reject it.

“This should be the contaminated spiritual energy that fills reality. These things cannot be absorbed.” Li Yi had this clear understanding in his mind.

However, very quickly, in this grayish-white world, another unusual light appeared. This light was ancient and clear, like a sharp blade of light that instantly tore open a gap in the contaminated areas. Then the light expanded, gradually forming the shape of a half dao coin.

Within the area enveloped by that light, pure Cosmic Energy flowed, and under the perception of consciousness, it was as brilliant as a cosmic river of stars.

At this moment, Li Yi became a little excited.

He understood now: the half dao coin in his hand was indeed a damaged qi object, capable of generating its own energy field to purify contaminated spiritual energy. If so, wouldn’t his cultivation speed be incredibly fast?

However, now was not the time to be excited.

Li Yi tried to guide that energy with his will.

At first, the energy showed no change, but after a short while, a few points of light, as if drawn by some force, slowly flowed into his body.

The will guidance was successful.

It seemed he had cultivation talent.

However, this guided Cosmic Energy dissipated quickly before it could be absorbed, then merged into the grayish-white world, and was finally completely assimilated.

“Failed?” He recalled Lin Yue’s words.

Guiding Cosmic Energy into the body was only the first step; the second step was to retain it and absorb it.

If the second step couldn’t be achieved, then no matter how much Cosmic Energy was guided, it would be useless.

Li Yi tried again.

Several more pure Cosmic Energies entered his body.

This time, the result was still the same: the energy dissipated, then was assimilated, completely disappearing.

But Li Yi was not discouraged, because the Cosmic Energy in that energy field was virtually endless for him now, allowing for infinite trial and error.

On the third, fourth, and fifth attempt, one pure energy was bound by his will and remained in his body without dissipating. Instead, it began to melt, as if being absorbed. At the same time, a cool sensation surged into his mind, bringing an indescribable feeling of invigoration and comfort.

Success!

One of the five attempts finally succeeded.

Li Yi continued to cultivate.

At this moment, he noticed that a few scattered points of light suddenly appeared in the surrounding contaminated grayish-white world. These seemed to be Cosmic Energy overflowing from wormholes, but their quantity was pitifully small compared to the Cosmic Energy in that energy field.

“Why are those energies surging towards me?”

Suddenly, Li Yi noticed that the few scattered points of pure energy in the grayish-white world seemed to be drawn by other forces and entered his body.

“Is Sister Lin helping me guide them?”

He thought this, but didn’t hesitate, trying to absorb them.

Some Li Yi successfully absorbed, some failed. The energies that weren’t absorbed were wasted, contaminated by the world.

Overall, the probability of failure was higher, and successful absorption was rare.

Just like that, Li Yi gradually immersed himself in cultivation.