After consuming eight spirit jades, Nie Tian finally finished his transcendence.
As of now, four vortexes of spiritual power were rotating at high speeds in Nie Tian's spiritual sea. Moreover, his spiritual sea had expanded a few times, and been filled to the brim with pure spiritual power.
Not only that, when he carefully examined himself, he found that his vortexes of flame power, wood power, and star power had also expanded by at least three times.
That was when he realized that breaking through to a new stage could cause significant changes to his spiritual sea.
The transcendence of his spiritual sea not only allowed him to obtain more spiritual power, but also enabled him to condense more fire essence, wood essence, and stardew in his vortexes of flame power, wood power, and star power.
Now, he could keenly sense that surging spiritual power, as well as the three types of power with different attributes, were being rapidly infused into his meridians.
FIZZ! FIZZ!
One fiery snake after another rapidly formed and flew out of Nie Tian's fingertips.
He could also feel that the speed at which the spiritual power circulated in his meridians was greatly enhanced.
Eyes narrowed, he focused all his attention on the changes inside of him while he ran tests by summoning flame power, wood power, and star power.
After a long while, he opened his eyes and awoke from his cultivation and enlightenment, realizing that the efficiency at which he generated and utilized power had greatly improved.
Before, he would have had to spend a few seconds to cast the Flame Spirit Incantation and form fiery snakes.
However, he now only needed one second to channel the flame power within his spiritual sea to his fingers through his meridians and create blazing snakes.
"How about the chaotic magnetic field?!" With that thought in mind, he immediately placed his palms opposite each other and formed the chaotic magnetic field at the fastest speed possible.
In the blink of an eye, a one-meter-radius chaotic magnetic field was formed around him.
If it were before he made his breakthrough, he would have had to spend quite a while to summon all the types of power he possessed and adopt the right state of mind to cast the spell.
However, he, at most, needed three seconds to form it now.
Not only did it require less time for him to form the magnetic field, but it also required several times less time to expand it.
"Ten seconds!" He managed to expand the magnetic field to a ten-meter range in ten seconds.
Meanwhile, he examined himself, and found that he had only consumed less than one tenth of the power in his spiritual sea to achieve it.
It seemed that the acceleration and expansion of the vortexes had made it easier and faster for him to build up the magnetic field than before. At the same time, the significant growth in his spiritual sea allowed it to hold more power, and thus only one tenth of his total power was enough to establish a magnetic field that large.
"Let's try something else!" Nie Tian took a deep breath and clenched his fist as flames of anger began to burn in his heart.
When his heart was filled with burning rage, the various types of power he possessed rushed out of his spiritual sea into his fist, along with his flesh power and psychic power.
Before, he hadn't been able to control the process. Once he had used the technique, he would drain every last bit of his strength.
However, it was different this time. To his surprise, he was able to control the amount of every type of power he summoned with great precision.
He only summoned one fourth of his spiritual power, and only added a very small amount of flame power, star power, wood power, and flesh power to cast the Rage Punch.
BOOM!
As soon as he drove his fist into a five-meter-high solid stone beside him, it exploded, sending pieces flying in every direction, dust slowly falling from the air.
Afterwards, he didn't have the same exhausted feeling as he had before when using this technique. Instead, he was still energetic and in high spirits.
From what Nie Tian could tell, the punch he had just thrown was more powerful and destructive than any of his previous strikes.
"After rising to a new cultivation base, everything is different," Nie Tian muttered to himself.
Since he could now accurately manage the power he added to the Rage Punch and thus control of the might of it, he no longer needed to worry that he would become meat waiting to be carved after using this technique.
Now, he could choose between dealing ultimate damage to his enemy by draining all his power with one strike, and striking four times using one fourth of his power each time.
He would have to test the effectiveness of the two methods in future battles against other Qi warriors.
The mysterious changes that had happened to him after he entered the Heaven stage made him very excited. Thus, he went on to test the magics he could cast with the Flame Spirit Incantation.
Only when he discovered that he had spent quite a bit of his spiritual power did he finally stop and recuperate with spirit stones and fire-attributed and wood-attributed spiritual materials.
One after another, they were rapidly drained of energy and reduced to ordinary rubble.
Then, he realized that after breaking into the Heaven stage, the speed at which he absorbed power from spiritual materials had also greatly risen.
In merely two hours, he drained ten spirit stones, six fire-attributed stones, and five wood-attributed materials.
"After entering the Heaven stage, my spiritual sea expanded, and the rotation speed and size of the vortexes in my spiritual sea increased. The consumption, channeling, and condensation of my spiritual power are also very different from before. Not only that, once my spiritual sea is drained, I'll need ten times as many spirit stones as before to refill it.
"And this is only the Heaven stage…"
The train of thoughts entered Nie Tian's mind as he channeled energy from the spiritual materials. He finally understood why the truly powerful Qi warriors stocked up on spirit jades and spirit crystals, but not spirit stones.
Normally speaking, Qi warriors at the Worldly realm, the Profound realm, and the Soul realm would cultivate or recuperate with spirit jades, since the energy in spirit stones was too miniscule for them.
The spiritual seas of peak Qi warriors in the Void Domain, the Saint Domain, and the God Domain were as vast as oceans. The spiritual power they consumed in every battle was terrifyingly enormous.
Since, according to the legends, they had the ability to move mountains and seas and reshape domains with a mere movement of their fingers, they could only recover strength and cultivate with spirit crystals.
Mixed emotions rose in Nie Tian's heart. "Cultivation is an endless path. Compared to them, I'm only a beginner."
Before he had finished the process of entering the Heaven stage, the only notion in his mind had been to cultivate wholeheartedly.
That was why he hadn't given any response when he had learned that Cai Yuan was going to save Pei Qiqi's teleportation portal.
He was aware that, being at the Lesser Heaven stage, he didn't have the strength to confront the vicious bandits and Dark Moon members who had roamed the Void Illusion Mountain Range for years.
However, his confidence had greatly improved after stepping into the Heaven stage.
He was now confident that he would be relatively safe in the Void Illusion Mountain Range as long as he didn't encounter any powerful Greater Heaven stage experts.
He even believed that he would be able to easily escape from his next encounter with Hu Han, even if he wouldn't be able to defeat her in battle.
This was all because of the enlightenment he had received from entering the Heaven stage and the new knowledge he had drawn from his various spells and skills.
Therefore, he cast aside Cai Yuan's warning and marched towards the location of Pei Qiqi's teleportation portal, even though he knew that it would be safer to wait for reinforcements from the Blood Skull.
He created and unleashed his Heaven Eyes as he marched into a wasted land where no sign of the activities of spirit beasts or humans could be seen.
That was when he noticed that his soul hadn't undergone any noticeable changes after he entered the Heaven stage.
"It seems that the Heaven stage is mainly about the transcendence of the spiritual sea in my dantian, as well as the enrichment and refinement of the different types of power within it. The changes to my soul don't seem to be that significant.
"I need to develop my soul power within the seven fragmentary stars to be able to study the profound mysteries in the middle part of the Fragmentary Star Incantation. When will I be able to do that?
"From the look of it, I'll need to take it step by step, and spend more time studying the first part of the incantation. Only after achieving a thorough understanding of the secret magics recorded there, will I be able to move on to the middle part."
While lost in his thoughts, Nie Tian marched further and further away from the secure zone that Li Ye had marked out for him.
It wasn't long before he came before a mountain valley with several creeks running through it, where numerous spatial rifts were rapidly slithering in midair and the polluted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth was exceptionally dense.
That was when one of his Heaven Eyes detected two men talking. "I just heard that Ma Jiu of the Dark Moon and his men have surrounded Pei Qiqi of Shatter City and Cai Yuan of the Blood Skull in this area."
"Yeah, I know. A few brothers returned from this area and said they saw Ma Jiu and his men chasing after Pei Qiqi. I just don't know how it turned out."
"Whatever. It's none of our business. We're just passing by, so I don't think they'll have the time to mind us."
"Anyhow, let's get out of here as quickly as possible, lest we get dragged into their battle and killed."
Hi folks, it’s Minor Cold (Lesser Cold) today. Here’s something you might want to know about it.
The Minor Cold (小寒), 23rd of the 24 solar terms, falls between January 5 and 7 of the Gregorian calendar. It ushers in the coldest days of the year. According to meteorological data, of all 24 solar terms it is during this one, the 23rd, that temperatures are lowest. Contrary to what their names suggest, there have been few years when the weather has been colder in the Major Cold (大寒) than during the Minor Cold.
There is a Chinese saying, "The coldest days are during the third Nine" - meaning a nine-day period during Minor Cold. In this solar term, cold air masses moving from north to south cause temperatures to drop so low that both the soil and lakes throughout northern China freeze. As icy temperatures pose the risk of frost for winter crops, farmers take care to shake snow off the branches of their fruit trees after a snowfall to prevent them from freezing and breaking off.
People also need to "shake off" excess cold from their bodies. Traditional Chinese medicine defines cold in the human body as yin, and the coldest period of the year is notable for excessive yin that upsets the essential yin and yang balance. So to maintain good health during the Minor Cold, close attention must be paid to diet. As piping hot food is recommended to ward off freezing temperatures, hotpot is the perfect dish! (Baijiu does the trick too 🙂 )
But, there's no need to stay indoors all the time when the Minor Cold comes! One aesthetic advantage of such severe winters is the annual Ice Sculpture Festival in Harbin. This traditional festival is a chance to experience and marvel at a wonderland of ice art, and attracts thousands of visitors each year.
And here a video of the the Minor Cold (23rd solar term) (Although I’m not a big fan of the guy in it):