Chapter 261: Discussing the Situation at Night

Under the night sky, a meteor streaked across the sky and landed in the wilderness, causing a commotion.

On a mountain behind the Myriad Phenomena Sect, Ye Jianyuan and Chen Yiming stood side by side, looking at the scenery under the night sky.

“The sect master’s ring is not an ordinary item. According to the previous sect master, there are secrets regarding the master realm’s breathing technique hidden inside.

Even if you don’t need it, you can use it as a reference,” Ye Jianyuan said.

“A breathing technique?” Chen Yiming turned around and asked.

“You don’t know about it?”

Ye Jianyuan was confused by Chen Yiming’s question. For a moment, his mind went blank.

Chen Yiming laughed and told Ye Jianyuan that although he could fight a master, he hadn’t really broken through to that level.

The mountain top was quiet. Moonlight shone down from above, and the Myriad Phenomena Sect was brightly lit in the distance. Some disciples couldn’t fall asleep, so they were making the best use of their time to practice the transitional cultivation technique provided by Chen Yiming.

The entire mountain was extremely lively, and an inexplicable power was gathering in the sky above the area.

Ye Jianyuan took a while to accept the fact that Chen Yiming was only at the peak of the warrior realm but already had strength comparable to the master realm.

“I wonder how this sect master ring is supposed to be used?”

Chen Yiming turned his hand this way and that, staring at the ring.

“One of the characteristics of the master realm is the materialization of spiritual power. You can start from this point,” Ye Jianyuan informed him.

After saying that, he shook his head helplessly. He did not even have the right to investigate the secret of the ring and had been guarding this treasure for many years.

Just as Chen Yiming was about to try studying the ring,

Ye Jianyuan suddenly thought of something and his expression changed.

“You’re not at the true master realm. If your spiritual strength hasn’t undergone a transformation, don’t try to find out the secret of the ring.”

Then, Ye Jianyuan explained the exact reason.

Chen Yiming came to a sudden realization. After his spiritual power completed the transformation, he would be at the level a half-step away from the master realm that Matsumoto Shigejiro had mentioned. However, it was impossible for his spiritual power to complete the transformation for no reason. It had to be built on the foundation of what humans called the breathing technique.

The breathing technique did not refer to the ordinary breathing of the human body. The general cultivation process was to first choose a certain part of the body as a medium to sense the outside world. This stage was called the anchoring.

Then, he focused his attention on the part chosen as the anchor and resonated with the natural world through the breathing technique.

Internal force was equivalent to a barrier. Everything was done in preparation for the next step. From the moment he broke through to the warrior realm and obtained the internal force, to the moment he completed the transformation of the internal force, to the moment he completed the fusion of the internal force, the stronger this barrier was, the more protection it would give to the spiritual power that had yet to undergo transformation. The difficulty of the corresponding transformation would decrease. This stage was called the materialization of spiritual power.

Ye Jianyuan continued, “Unfortunately, the current breathing techniques are all secrets that can’t be passed down. As for how to break through to the master realm after the materialization of one’s spiritual power, I don’t know.

Thinking back, I also visited the martial master in the south back then. However, I failed miserably when it came to the transformation of spiritual power.”

With that, Ye Jianyuan extended his remaining hand and flipped it over. On it, a black mark that seemed to have a life of its own was etched into his flesh.

Chen Yiming was shocked. He could sense something familiar coming from the black mark. It felt like the activity in his cells after upgrading to the Level-2 Undying Body talent.

“This black mark is the result of my spiritual power resonating with the natural world with the help of that martial master. If not for the fact that someone was protecting me, my spiritual power would have been severely injured. This is countless times more serious than the damage to my body,” Ye Jianyuan explained.

At this point, his expression turned extremely serious. He wanted to warn Chen Yiming about the danger involved. If he wasn’t confident, he shouldn’t try it.

Chen Yiming nodded, but he was filled with confidence.

The reason why the octopus spirit he had encountered in Japan could easily kill a human at the peak of the warrior realm was because of the difference in their spiritual strength.

The materialized spiritual power of the octopus spirit could not cause any harm to him, which indirectly proved that the level of the figure in his mind was even higher than that of the octopus spirit.

As for the strength of his internal force, if Chen Yiming couldn’t reach the threshold, there was no way for other humans to reach it. Clearly, there was no problem with his internal force.

What he lacked now was a breathing technique that he could use to cultivate.

…

Ye Jianyuan told Chen Yiming about the situation when he tried to connect his spiritual power with the natural world.

Suddenly, a faint light appeared in the sky, illuminating the clouds in the sky. Soon, there was an almost imperceptible tremor from the ground.

Ordinary people might not be able to sense it, but Ye Jianyuan and Chen Yiming were not ordinary people. They could sense even the slightest change in their environment.

The two of them looked towards the source of the abnormality, which happened to be coming from the base city.

“We’re in trouble. Last time, when the creatures from the otherworld attacked the stronghold, many of them took the opportunity to break into the blue planet,” Ye Jianyuan frowned and said in a low voice.

“I went to the base city during the day and killed a dozen barbarians,” Chen Yiming said.

“So you killed a dozen barbarians. It seems like the creatures from the otherworld that were stranded on the blue planet may be getting anxious. The cultivation environment on the blue planet is much worse, and the humans have blocked the space-travel passage to the otherworld,” Ye Jianyuan thought for a moment and said.

“Will the base city be at risk of being breached?” Chen Yiming asked.

He was a little worried, but Ye Jianyuan knew the situation in the base city and stronghold better than him. If there was a need, Chen Yiming could go and settle the problem.

“It won’t be a problem to defend it. The stronghold has consolidated most of the forces in Jiangnan province. We can just transfer some of them over based on the situation.

What I mean is, if these creatures from the otherworld go crazy and attack human cities or mutant beast colonies, it will easily lead to a beast tide,” Ye Jianyuan replied.

Chen Yiming thought about it carefully and agreed with his judgment.

Jiangnan province was located on the blue planet, and the city’s defense was already stretched thin. Sending people into the wilderness to deal with the hidden dangers caused by the creatures from the otherworld made matters worse.

“You don’t have to worry too much. If the situation really changes drastically, the higher-ups of Jiangnan province will definitely send someone over to ask for help…” Ye Jianyuan informed him.

Chen Yiming quickly learned a lot of insider information, especially about the stronghold in the otherworld.

Due to the superior cultivation environment in the otherworld, the stronghold in the otherworld was essentially a long-term training ground established by humans. It was also a colony for humans. In the future, when the situation stabilized, it would also be open to martial arts practitioners.

The problem they were facing now was that the sudden appearance of the humans had attracted the attention of the creatures from the otherworld around the space-travel passage.

If they wanted to stabilize the situation, they could only rely on their strength to open a path and prove the power of the humans. Otherwise, they would only be treated as prey that could be bullied.

In other words, waves of attacks on the stronghold were bound to happen until the humans and the creatures from the otherworld struck a balance.

“The higher-ups of Jiangnan province have previously promised that after the situation has stabilized, they will divide the territory and distribute it to the civilian factions that have contributed to the stronghold.”

Ye Jianyuan revealed another piece of insider information.

He also told Chen Yiming that the humans currently had a limited ability to explore the otherworld. There was definitely not enough territory within the range of the humans’ influence.

Choosing a good location early on was very important to the Myriad Phenomena Sect. After all, Chen Yiming couldn’t guard a place for a long time. When he wasn’t around, he had to rely on the stronghold for protection.

As long as the Myriad Phenomena Sect had a long-term territory in the otherworld, it would soar into the sky.

Hearing this, Chen Yiming had an idea.

He was no longer a disciple of the sect. If he could provide his disciples with a better cultivation environment in the present, then in the future, there would be a large number of talented disciples under him.

Not only that, but Chen Yingying, who was not too good at martial arts, had been staying on the blue planet to cultivate. The ordinary warrior realm was probably her limit. If she wanted to advance to the next level, she could only go to the otherworld to cultivate.

…

After returning to the Myriad Phenomena Sect, an elder with a white beard hurried over to Chen Yiming.

“Sect Master, good news! Before the day has ended, more than 100 outer sect disciples have already broken through to the warrior realm. There’s also an inner sect disciple who relied on the ideas given by Sect Master to master the transformation of internal force.”

Chen Yiming nodded and said, “The transitional version of the technique is essentially a further division of the martial art realms. Go back and tell these people who have broken through not to slack off.”

“Understood,” the white-bearded elder replied and quickly turned to leave.

This elder walked with vigor, as if he had suddenly become 10 years younger. This was the change in energy that Chen Yiming had brought to the Myriad Phenomena Sect.

After the elder left, Ye Jianyuan praised, “Yiming, the transitional cultivation technique you created is really amazing. I now understand your train of thought. The original cultivation technique is divided into four versions from easy to difficult, corresponding to the four different stages of the early, middle, late, and extreme realms. It maximizes each person’s potential.”

The original version of the Myriad Phenomena Sect’s cultivation technique corresponded to the later stages, while the first version of the transitional cultivation technique created by Chen Yiming corresponded to the early stages. After he took over as the sect master, he created two more versions of the cultivation technique.

Because he had already completely analyzed the cultivation technique, it was almost effortless for him.

However, Chen Yiming wasn’t blinded by the success, and said,

“Other than those who have broken through to the actual next realm, the potential of the other people who practice the transitional cultivation techniques can only be further unearthed but not substantially improved. In a few months, these people will be stuck at a new bottleneck.”

However, Ye Jianyuan felt relaxed and smiled.

“Yiming, you can’t use your own standards to predict how ordinary disciples would react. To have a transitional cultivation technique that can help them break through, they are already laughing their heads off. As for their potential being completely unearthed, they will have to rely on themselves to fight in the otherworld in the future. The Myriad Phenomena Sect can’t always watch over them.”

Chen Yiming digested Ye Jianyuan’s words. That was indeed the case.

He had just become a sect master and had yet to change his way of thinking. It may even have been a little inappropriate for him to take out all four versions of the cultivation technique at once.

To the disciples of the Myriad Phenomena Sect, if they could obtain everything without putting in any effort, they would lose the courage to fight for a future. This was not beneficial to the Myriad Phenomena Sect in the long term.

…

At midnight, Chen Yiming quietly left the Myriad Phenomena Sect and arrived at a mountain range dozens of kilometers away.

He looked at the ring on his thumb and saw that it was faintly reacting to the moonlight reflected off it. Scattered light spots were being absorbed.

“I hope you won’t disappoint me.”

Chen Yiming entered the spiritual world and started to communicate with the figure in his mind.

As everything could only be done by his will, and he did not know how to do it, after spending some time, his consciousness suddenly fused with the figure in his mind.

This feeling was very magical. It was as if his consciousness and the figure in his mind were one. The reason why they could split into two was completely due to his innate ability.

At this moment, a thought appeared in his mind. Could it be that the system was only providing support and mainly relied on his own talent?

However, before Chen Yiming could continue thinking about it, the figure that had fused with Chen Yiming’s consciousness disappeared from the spiritual world and entered the ring through his thumb.

“Is this a damaged space?”

From the perspective of the figure, he could see that there was a very thin crack behind where he had entered. The figure had entered through the crack.

Chen Yiming couldn’t help but laugh. Spiritual power was indeed magical. If it was his physical body, he wouldn’t have been able to enter this place.

However, something strange happened. His spiritual power automatically imitated his laughter, causing his laughter to echo throughout the entire ring.

“…”

Chen Yiming was so frightened that he shut up.

He subconsciously reminded the figure to retreat if anything happened.

However, the figure in his mind had its own judgment. It remained where it was, just like when it helped Chen Yiming secretly learn other martial arts techniques when he was just starting out in martial arts.

Chen Yiming calmed down and observed the space in the ring.

Thin cracks could be seen everywhere at the edge of this space. Chen Yiming couldn’t figure out if these cracks had existed in the first place or if they were caused by the damage to the space in the ring.

Upon closer inspection, he saw scattered light spots rolling along the cracks to the bottom of the space before disappearing for no reason.

He instantly had an epiphany. He could only blame himself for being too inexperienced. When he saw the crack, he thought that there was something wrong with the ring.

“There’s nothing at all?”

Chen Yiming looked around but didn’t find anything.

Just as he was feeling disappointed, a layer of fog seemed to have been lifted from the space in the ring, revealing its true appearance.

“My talent really didn’t disappoint me.”

If it wasn’t just his consciousness that was present, Chen Yiming would have given the figure a thumbs up.

In the middle of the space, there was a human-shaped spirit controlled by an invisible force. There was an energy vortex above and below the human-shaped spirit.

Above it was a golden vortex, and below it was a silver vortex.

The scattered light spots that had been sucked into the ring’s space continued to fuse into the silver vortex.

“Is this the secret of the warrior realm breathing technique?”

Chen Yiming broke out in cold sweat. He had almost been tricked.

If not for the figure in his mind, he would have thought that there was nothing in the space.

He had killed many sacrificial spirits previously. Those spirits were not easy to deal with since they really wanted to eat people’s souls. The consequences of moving around rashly were unimaginable.

Chen Yiming heaved a sigh of relief and started to observe the human-shaped spirit carefully.

In reality, the difference in size between the human-shaped spirit and the figure in his mind was probably the difference between a normal person and a giant. Clearly, there was a reason why the figure in the mind had been staying put.

At this thought, Chen Yiming couldn’t help but doubt his intuition.

He clearly felt that they were one, but why was his consciousness so different from the figure in his mind? This was because the figure in his mind was the one who had broken through the layer of fog in the ring, while his consciousness did not notice anything amiss at all.

“I just believed in myself for once… Let’s go back to being the man who made use of the system!”

Chen Yiming had no choice but to accept reality.

Then, he observed the human-shaped spirit again.

“A woman?”

The human-shaped spirit had its head lowered, so Chen Yiming could only see a small portion of its face. However, he could tell that its facial features were exquisite. It was completely different from the spirits he had encountered before.

Other than that, it did not have unstable emotions unlike the sacrificial spirits. Instead, it was calm and cool.

Just as Chen Yiming was at a loss for what to do, his consciousness synchronized with the figure in his mind. The scene before him looked like a gold and silver millstone.