Chapter Eight: The Ancient Pagoda in the Sea of Consciousness
As soon as the words fell, the man suspended in midair was hurled straight into the ancient tower. Thunderous booms erupted; the earth shook and the mountains trembled. The entire square quaked, and in the blink of an eye, a dense web of cracks spread like a spider’s web. As Yun Yufeng stared in astonishment, the swirling clouds above him were sucked into the ancient tower as if swallowed by a great whale. Then, the tower rocked, tore itself free from the ground, slowly shrank, transformed into a beam of light, and instantly shot into his head. Within his mind, a voice rang out, deep and resonant like a great bell, making his whole consciousness buzz and reverberate.
“The God-Slaying Tower, eternal warden of the soul.”
With that, all fell silent. Gathering his wits, Yun Yufeng realized the square continued to split apart beneath him. He stood atop a relatively intact fragment, gazing into the depths of the nearby fissures, where turbid, swirling mists churned. His heart cursed Huo Qubing with every conceivable insult.
Damn it, if you’re going to destroy this space, couldn’t you have sent me out first? How am I supposed to survive like this?
The entire realm was on the verge of collapse. Storms raged, and the earth’s surface, littered with bones, disintegrated into dust. As Yun Yufeng despaired, a blood-red shield of light suddenly flared around his head, instantly expanding to enclose his whole body. With a crash, a massive spatial rift swept past, reducing the stone fragment beneath his feet to powder.
“It’s over,” Yun Yufeng thought.
Suddenly, dizziness seized him; his vision was flooded with crimson light, but in the next instant, he was clear-headed again, only to find himself back in the outside world.
He stood once more atop the stony mountain, by the familiar cliff’s edge.
The battle had long since ended. The night wind was thick with the stench of blood, a testament to a fight that had ended in utter annihilation for one side. Clearly, the Shadow Wolves had won. Bones littered the ground—Shadow Wolves would never let fresh meat escape them.
The bright moon hung high, its light washing the land. Yun Yufeng sighed. So this is the law of this world? In just a few short days, so much carnage.
He had often heard that wherever there are people, there are rivalries. Here, it was even more so. The era of savagery was past, yet in this world where strength reigned supreme, there was only frenzied slaughter and endless strife. Only by rising above others could one avoid dying an untimely death. Wisdom alone could not guarantee safety; without strength, one was doomed to be trampled underfoot.
Clenching his fists hard, he resolved that since he had been reborn here, he would live with even greater brilliance.
Yun Yufeng moved carefully through the killing field, collecting the mercenaries’ belongings, then found a stone cave a few hundred meters from the cliff. He could no longer stay by the precipice—the night wind would carry the scent of blood, and beasts with sharp noses might come searching. With Huo Qubing’s space destroyed, there was nothing left to linger for. At first light, he would have to head for the forest’s edge.
He blocked the cave entrance as best he could, then sat cross-legged and began to cultivate. A sense of crisis filled his heart—he could think of nothing but increasing his strength, for only strength was the root of survival.
His battle aura flowed ceaselessly through his meridians, drop by drop condensing into liquid form and accumulating in his dantian, without rejoining the meridian cycle. This was the accumulation of cultivation—gradually expanding the dantian until it could grow no more, and then, limited by one’s innate talent, one would reach the pinnacle of their realm. No matter how hard one trained after that, their cultivation would not increase.
The aura, colorless at first, slowly shifted towards violet as it circulated. Red motes of light drifted toward Yun Yufeng, seeping gently into his body and merging with his aura, losing their redness and turning violet as they moved with the flow. The condensed aura gathered, drop by drop, in his dantian, while the uncondensed aura continued to surge through his meridians.
His hands, forming seals, were completely enveloped in swirling violet energy, within which they were imperceptibly transforming—becoming more flexible, resilient, and powerful.
He trained for most of the night. When his meridians began to ache from the relentless flow of aura and dawn was near, Yun Yufeng exhaled a long, turbid breath and awoke from his trance.
He recalled how that towering ancient tower had simply burrowed into his mind. It left him with a headache; it had entered unbidden, bellowed once, and then gone silent—shouldn’t it at least have explained how to use it?
Yun Yufeng was vexed. He had finally received a legacy, only to be scared witless, and then it had vanished into his head without a trace.
He scratched his head, trying to recall some family techniques, but unfortunately, as a former wastrel, his mind contained nothing of value—just tricks and thoughts for eating, drinking, and having fun.
Cursing bitterly, he focused his thoughts on the ancient tower in his mind. Suddenly, he sensed a mysterious fluctuation emanating from his consciousness. Yun Yufeng’s heart leapt—could this be the method, the way to unlock the ancient tower within his mind?
He quickly calmed himself, concentrating with all his might to communicate with the ancient tower. A suction force emerged, and in an instant, Yun Yufeng found himself in a strange space, not large, about the size of a lake, with crimson borders visible at a glance. The ground was covered with silvery liquid, undulating as if blown by the wind, with waves rising and falling.
Suspended in the air, the ancient tower gleamed with four radiant characters. It floated up and down, as if riding the silver waves. At its apex, the blood-red beam piercing the sky had vanished, revealing a conical spire. The surrounding silver mist was drawn into the tower, forming a tiny vortex, then was transformed at the base into bright silver liquid that dripped into the silvery lake below.
Yun Yufeng quietly observed all of this. Could this be his sea of consciousness? But why was it so vast? Was everyone’s sea of consciousness this large? If it could expand further, would it truly become as boundless as a sea of clouds? The voice in his mind had said, “The God-Slaying Tower, eternal warden of the soul.” Could this be the very seat of his soul?
Blinking, Yun Yufeng became even more conflicted. The God-Slaying Tower was right before him, yet intangible; the connection was faint and elusive, as if separated by a veil, always just out of reach. He refused to believe Huo Qubing’s legacy was merely this ancient tower—surely, there was a greater world within. Perhaps the time was not yet right; in any case, it was now within him and could not be lost. One day, he would make it truly his own, he told himself.
Power—Yun Yufeng cast a lingering glance at the God-Slaying Tower. When he relaxed his mind, he immediately exited his sea of consciousness. After a moment’s thought, he decided that what he’d seen must mean that only when one’s spiritual force reached a certain strength could one enter the sea of consciousness as easily as observing one’s own meridians. Although he had not yet accessed the so-called legacy, knowing the tower’s location was a good thing; since it was in his sea of consciousness, it could never truly escape him.
“The God-Slaying Tower, eternal warden of the soul”—did that mean he would never again need to fear soul-related harm or attacks? In time, he would find out. For now, the most urgent thing was to get out of this damned forest.
At that thought, Yun Yufeng felt another headache coming on. Strength could not be increased overnight, or else his foundation would be unstable. Besides, even with further cultivation, it was not as though he would immediately reach the fifth or sixth rank—danger would still abound.
Damn it, Yun Yufeng seethed with frustration.