Chapter 5
Draw in yang energy?
When Liu Meng heard those five words, her heart skipped a beat despite herself.
Just moments ago, to save her main body, she had transferred the entire stream of pure yang energy—brought on by the Yang-Attracting Pill and nearly out of control—from her main body into this clone!
She didn’t need to absorb anyone else’s yang energy. The immense amount she already possessed was more than enough for her to refine!
Wasn’t this contest tailor-made for her?
“Don’t think that becoming Miss Su’s maid means all you’ll have to do is serve tea and water. Your worth is the only thing you can rely on to stay alive.” The Senior Sister in the black mask suddenly blurred and appeared before the two girls like a ghost. She reached out with her icy fingers and gently tapped each of them between the brows.
“Buzz—!”
A vast, cryptic torrent of information poured into their minds.
The other girl felt as if her head were splitting apart. Countless enigmatic phrases and complicated pathways for circulating energy crashed around inside her mind.
“The Gate of the Mysterious Female is called the root of Heaven and Earth. It seems to endure forever, and its use is never exhausted...” The opening lines alone made her head spin. What followed was even more incomprehensible, like an unfathomable text. She could only struggle to memorize it, barely understanding its deeper meaning. Pain and confusion filled her face.
But when the same art poured into Liu Meng’s mind, it gave her a completely different feeling.
The Senior Sister had taught her the Profound Female Art!
Back in the cell, her main body had studied this fragment of the cultivation art countless times. Though incomplete, he had already mastered its core method for circulating energy.
Now, the complete art passed on by the Senior Sister filled in all the missing parts. Suddenly, Liu Meng understood the whole cultivation art, grasping it completely in an instant.
The Senior Sister withdrew her hand and began to explain at an unhurried pace:
“The true secret of the Profound Female Art lies in resonance.”
“It teaches you how to use your own yin energy to draw in yang energy from outside. When these two utterly opposite energies collide in your dantian, they can resonate with the invisible spiritual Qi between Heaven and Earth.”
“That resonance is like a bridge between you and the spiritual Qi. It can temporarily pry open your mortal constitution, allowing you to draw the wandering spiritual Qi into your body.”
“All you have to do is seize the moment resonance occurs and do everything in your power to draw in spiritual Qi, then use the Profound Female Art’s method to condense it into a wisp of spiritual power that truly belongs to you!”
“Only then can you become a true cultivator!”
The other girl asked in a trembling voice, full of awe, “Senior Sister... if we do that... can we become cultivators?”
“Cultivators?” The Senior Sister in black let out a scoff and shook her head. “You’re still a long way off. Once you’ve accumulated ten wisps of spiritual power, you’ll be able to combine them and break through the shackles of mortality, reaching the first layer of Qi Refining. Only then will you have truly shed your mortal body and embarked on the path of cultivation.”
When she finished speaking, she wasted no more time and fixed them with a stern look. “Enough talk. The rules are simple: whoever absorbs more yang energy and condenses more spiritual power wins.”
As soon as she spoke, two maids wearing white masks emerged from the shadows, dragging two cold corpses into the center of the room and dumping them on the floor with two heavy thuds.
One of the corpses was all too familiar to Liu Meng... It was her previous clone, “Liu Er.”
“This corpse has been dead longer, so little yang energy remains in it.” The Senior Sister casually pointed at the dried-out male corpse, then at Liu Er. “This one died recently, so it still has a decent amount of yang energy. Which of you will choose first?”
“Me! I’ll take this one!”
Almost before the Senior Sister had finished speaking, the other girl scrambled over to Liu Er’s corpse as if it were a lifeline.
Liu Meng felt no particular emotion. It was actually a relief that the other girl had chosen Liu Er, sparing her the trouble of facing this clone with complicated feelings.
By now, she had a clear plan.
Just surviving wasn’t nearly enough. In this place that devoured people, mediocrity meant a slow death. Only by displaying talent far beyond the ordinary and becoming a genius worth investing in could she obtain more resources—and gain the means to protect her main body and eventually escape!
“Begin.”
At the Senior Sister’s command, the girl who had claimed Liu Er immediately got to work. She struggled to recall the obscure art, then pressed her trembling yet resolute hands against Liu Er’s dantian.
Faint wisps of white mist began to be drawn out of Liu Er’s corpse, slowly gathering toward the girl’s palm.
Meanwhile, Liu Meng calmly placed her hand on the dried corpse’s chest, pretending to concentrate on sensing something. In truth, she had turned all her attention inward.
She immediately stirred up the pure, surging stream of yang energy from her main body!
Boom!
In that instant, the pure yang energy collided violently with the yin energy within her. A powerful “resonance” surged through her dantian!
In an instant, her world changed.
It was as if she’d suddenly gained a new sense. She could clearly “see” countless tiny specks of light, each about the size of a grain of rice, drifting through the air around her and glowing softly.
These were the spiritual Qi between Heaven and Earth!
The pull created inside her by the resonance was like an invisible vortex, exerting a deadly attraction on those specks of spiritual Qi!
“Come!”
Liu Meng murmured inwardly. Countless specks of spiritual Qi immediately surged into her like fledgling swallows returning to their nest, and she swiftly drew them in and condensed them using the Profound Female Art...
In the span of just a few breaths, a new energy, warm and solid, quietly formed at the center of her dantian.
Her first wisp of spiritual power!
It was even easier than she’d imagined!
With a cultivation art she already knew and pure yang energy to draw on, the results were far beyond what she’d expected!
She didn’t pause for a moment. Instead, she immediately activated the art and began drawing in and condensing spiritual Qi for the second and third times.
The spiritual power in her dantian began to accumulate at an astonishing rate.
One wisp... two wisps... three!
Just then—
“Hahaha! I did it! I’ve condensed spiritual power!”
A shriek of delight and triumph rang out beside her.
The girl who had been hunched over Liu Er’s corpse sprang to her feet, her face alight with barely contained excitement.
After fumbling her way through it, she had finally figured out the art’s trick. She had wrung enough yang energy from the corpse to condense her very first wisp of spiritual power!
But to everyone’s surprise, after succeeding, the girl didn’t bend down again to condense a second wisp. Instead, she slowly straightened and fixed her gaze on Liu Meng.
A cruel, cunning smile spread across her face, twisted with excitement.
“Senior Sister only said that whoever condenses more spiritual power wins...” Her voice grew shrill and frenzied. “She never said we... couldn’t attack each other!”
“As long as I stop you from absorbing yang energy, there’s no way you can condense more spiritual power than me!”
Before her words had even faded, she strode toward Liu Meng, closing in step by step with a menacing air.
The other maids didn’t try to stop her. Instead, they folded their arms with interest, looking forward to the show.
Exactly. This was the Profound Female Sect’s way. Talent mattered, of course, but knowing how to exploit the rules and eliminate your opponents with ruthlessness and cunning was just as essential to survival!
She stopped in front of Liu Meng and looked down at her as she continued trying to absorb yang energy. With a vicious grin, she said, “You’ve already lost! I’m the only one who gets to live!”
As she spoke, she raised her hand, fingers curled into claws. Empowered by that wisp of spiritual power, she reached viciously for Liu Meng’s shoulder!
At that very moment, Liu Meng, who had kept her head lowered and eyes closed, finally opened them.
Her clear eyes held none of the panic or fear the girl had expected. They were calm and unfathomable, with... a faint trace of mockery deep within them.