Chapter 30: A Vision Suddenly Rises

"Please rest here, Dao Master Li..."

A guard from the Sihai Pavilion surnamed Zhang found a sheltered spot along the temple wall to block the wind, diligently spread out a felt mat, and invited Li Qingyun to sit and rest.

During the journey, Guard Zhang had been careless for a moment and nearly had his arm bitten by a corpse-dog, but Li Qingyun had struck it down with a timely thunder strike, destroying the creature.

"Much obliged!"

Li Qingyun smiled and nodded, accepting without hesitation. He sat down cross-legged, eyes half-closed, and began to meditate.

Meditating grew his cultivation — whenever he had a free moment, he naturally sat down to do so.

The battle on the road had left quite an impression on him. That female cultivator from Biyou Temple, Wang Muyun, had unleashed thundering dharma pearls and raging flames, dominating the battlefield with overwhelming force. It had been a considerable shock to witness.

Compared to a cultivator like Wang Muyun — accomplished in her cultivation and wielding a formidable Magical Artifact — he was still somewhat lacking.

"No wonder everyone says Junior Brother Qingyun loves to sit and contemplate the Dao. But the Treasure Furnace Qi Absorption Art doesn't only have one sitting posture for gathering qi..."

An exhausted Zhao Yifan spread his own mat nearby and sat down to rest. Seeing his junior brother already meditating with half-closed eyes, he felt a mix of admiration and exasperation.

Not far away, Wang Muyun washed her face with clean water offered by the caravan guards, her features appearing all the more fresh and lovely.

She glanced at the young meditating figure, and a faint smile seemed to play at the corner of her lips. Then she returned to her private carriage to rest.

Qian Fuguang directed the others — those who needed to tend their wounds did so, those assigned to night watch took their posts. He also had everyone place the Dao effigies along the outer edge of the ruined temple's small courtyard, then led the group in burning incense and offering reverent prayers.

Many of the effigies whose radiant light had dimmed along the road slowly began to glow again.

Finally, the rings of Dao Lord radiance linked together, forming a halo that warded off evil and subdued demons, shielding the people and horses within.

More than thirty Dao effigies of various sizes emitted a soft, pure light, projecting an aura of inviolable majesty. The ghost-shadows and demon beasts lurking around the ruined temple sensed this power and retreated far away.

In the vast darkness of night, the ruined temple bustled with human activity — to the eyes of demons and monsters, it shone like a candle flame in the dark. Yet precisely because of its imposing presence, ordinary ghosts and demons dared not approach.

A cultivator like Li Qingyun could sense that although the ruined temple had long since fallen into ruin, the land on which it stood still retained faint traces of Daoist Dharma resonance, enough to intimidate lower-grade demons and monsters.

For a time, the ruined temple enjoyed a rare peace.

The night wind blew cold and desolate, distant stars glimmered faintly, and scattered inexplicable sounds occasionally rose from around the temple.

All within the ruined temple, save for those on night watch, gradually drifted off to sleep.

Li Qingyun sat cross-legged on the grass mat, his mind calm and still, silently visualizing and reciting the Treasure Furnace Qi Absorption Art.

In his mind, the mysterious spectral Dao Effigy stood with eyes lowered, wisps of pure qi continuously drifting from the crown of its head.

Faint sparks of Dharma Power arose one after another within his meridians, only to vanish like mud dissolving into the sea, disappearing without a trace, as if flowing away to some unknown place.

"Cultivation is all about realm — if I had Wang Muyun's level of cultivation at the eighth or ninth layer of Qi Refining, I could have faced those corpse-dogs and ghost creatures with complete composure!"

"Time waits for no one! Without the techniques for the fourth layer of Qi Refining and beyond, am I just supposed to waste my time? Even now, Dharma Power is clearly being generated during meditation..."

Li Qingyun was unwilling to accept this, and at the same time was testing — without the higher-level techniques of the Treasure Furnace Qi Absorption Art, could the mysterious Dao Effigy in his mind bring him a new surprise?

So even though he had already completed his daily meditation quota, he wanted to try pushing further.

Quantitative change leads to qualitative change; accumulating small steps covers a thousand miles. It was merely the fourth layer of Qi Refining — hardly some great realm-crossing barrier...

He felt his meridians begin to ache and swell, a faint tearing sensation within them. But he judged it barely tolerable. After these days of diligent cultivation, his physical bone constitution had gained some improvement through the nourishment of Dharma Power, and it seemed to be slowly expanding the duration he could sustain meditation — though the change was still extremely subtle.

This subtle sign filled him with excitement, and he naturally kept pushing his limits.

"I've heard that cultivators of great depth can enter closed-door seclusion and sit for years or even decades without issue. My bone constitution can only sustain six hours of meditation per day — compared to those great masters, that's truly laughable. How I wish I could reach that level someday!"

Dharma Power continued to arise within his meridians, then vanished without form.

Li Qingyun kept his mind still as water, enduring the aching soreness throughout his body, reaching out to trace the fading path of the Dharma Power.

He had a vague sense that this Dharma Power had not truly dissipated into nothingness, but was instead dissolving into the vast, desolate, undeveloped Spirit Vault and Inner Landscape within his body.

"Perhaps it's simply that the accumulation isn't enough yet. I want to keep at it and see — without the fourth-layer techniques, can I rely on the ceaseless impact of Dharma Power to nudge that Spirit Vault just a little, and break through the bottleneck on my own..."

It was merely the fourth layer of Qi Refining, not some great heavenly barrier. With the mysterious Dao Effigy as his foundation, Li Qingyun was naturally unwilling to give up.

Suddenly, he felt all six senses go still — empty and vast.

He did not know what hour of the night it was. The various strange sounds around the ruined temple had also abruptly fallen silent and receded. The boundless night sky stretched deep and eerie.

In his heart, familiar figures began to surface unbidden.

In a daze, the first figure he saw was Lady Cui, Mistress of the Manor.

She sat upright in the grand hall above, gazing down at him with cold, malicious contempt.

"Third Son, everything you eat and use comes from this manor. Why must you be so greedy, even coveting the Heir's position!"

"I told you — once you arrived at Lingbao Temple, you were to write a letter to report your safety, and send a letter every month to report your cultivation progress. Where are those letters? Do you think that just because you've left the manor, you can ignore me..."

Lady Cui's cold, malicious gaze was like needles piercing him. Li Qingyun let out a cold laugh.

"Wretched woman!"

"Be gone!"

He formed a thunder seal in his mind, and Lady Cui's figure dissolved like smoke.

In the next moment, another familiar figure surfaced — his birth mother, Lady Liu!

She appeared in the depths of his heart, standing weak and helpless in the darkness, pouring out her longing and suffering.

"My child, even in cultivation you must take care of your body — too much of anything is harmful. Your mother suffers so here, and misses you so dearly..."

The moment Lady Liu appeared, Li Qingyun's mind grew hazy, his consciousness sinking into a kind of dark oblivion.

From the deepest recesses of his heart, a surge of fierce resentment, bitterness, and longing suddenly welled up.

It was the instinct buried deepest within this body — or perhaps a lingering trace of the original soul's spirit — stirring his mind.

He slowly opened his eyes and gazed out into the vast darkness beyond the ruined temple.

In the distance, a blurry, frail silhouette of Lady Liu appeared, beckoning to him.

"Come, come, my child, come to me..."

His mind drifted as if in a dream. He rose to his feet and was about to take a step forward.

But in the next instant, Li Qingyun's eyes suddenly cleared, and a cold smile curved his lips.

"Begone!"

He formed the Thunder Seal, uttered an incantation, and thunder intent erupted both within and without — a thunderclap suddenly rang out from the deepest depths of his heart.

Crack!

That last lingering obsession deep within his soul was utterly obliterated in the thunderclap. The heavy illusions collapsed in an instant, and his mind returned to crystalline clarity.

This time, without relying on the mysterious Dao Effigy in his mind, he had broken free from the nightmare illusion on his own.

"Just now, those malevolent spirits had unknowingly slipped past the Dao Lord effigies' radiant light and were manipulating so many people..."

With clear eyes, Li Qingyun immediately saw the figures before him — wandering travelers, caravan guards, and others — moving like sleepwalkers, stepping forward, about to cross the ring of radiant light cast by the effigies and walk into the deep, eerie darkness beyond.