“Exactly. Spiritual power works just like mystic power—complete with techniques and skills. The Ancestral Symbol Scripture is merely a cultivation method. It has attack options, but they’re beyond what you can handle now, Zhen’er. We start from the basics.”
“Got it. Please teach me, Master.”
Chen Xi nodded slightly and began explaining in her calm tone:
“Zhen’er, you have spiritual power now, but you’re only using it to control mystic power and muscles. Its greatest strength—sensory perception—hasn’t been tapped yet. What I’m teaching you is the trick to dispersing spiritual power for perception.”
【Ding! Key Plot Activation】
Yan Zhen slapped the system interface away from his face before it could finish announcing and focused intently on the Beautiful Master’s lecture.
“Your spiritual power was born from the Fire Symbol, so imagine it as a spark amid the stars. Let it spread with the wind, growing into an endless blaze that scorches ten li around. In that way, your spiritual power will project outward on its own.”
Yan Zhen nodded thoughtfully.
“For a first-time dispersal, most need one or two hours of focus, and the range is tiny—even covering ten meters around you counts as passing. But Zhen’er, with your innately powerful soul, I’d estimate you can exceed thirty meters.”
With that, Yan Zhen followed her instructions, attempting to disperse his spiritual power and weave his senses into it.
He succeeded quickly, though the range was small—about one meter.
The Beautiful Master had said over thirty meters, and the script called for forty-nine.
So Yan Zhen kept expanding it, forming an invisible membrane: one meter, two… ten… twenty… forty… forty-nine.
He’d hit it! Just as he prepared to withdraw, he sensed plenty of room left. He could push further.
Fifty meters… sixty… ninety—finally stopping at a full hundred meters around him, still wanting more!
In his perception, the hundred-meter radius brimmed with pure heaven-and-earth mystic power. Every strand gleamed like a rainbow in vibrant hues.
The Beautiful Master appeared as a flawless ring of holy white light, a beautiful five-colored flame burning at her abdomen.
What he didn’t know was that Chen Xi’s beautiful eyes had gone wide. Even with her Half-Saint powerhouse composure, she couldn’t hide her shock.
How was this possible? In her previous life, Zhen’er’s first dispersal had only reached forty-nine meters—far short of her own eighty-one, and she’d even scolded him for it. Now he’d more than doubled that?!
From what she knew, the strongest Pill Refiner God in history had a racial talent for mental arts and only just hit a hundred and one meters on his first try. Yan Zhen was matching that?
Yan Zhen opened his eyes again, beaming. “Master, I did it! I… Master, what’s wrong?”
Noticing the odd look on the Beautiful Master’s face, he grew concerned.
Chen Xi snapped out of it, schooling her shocked expression into seriousness. “Zhen’er, your first dispersal reaching a hundred meters is unprecedented—practically second in history. Until you have enough strength to protect yourself, don’t breathe a word of it. Envy breeds enemies, got it?”
“Oh, okay.”
“I’m not scaring you. On Mystic Heaven Continent, there’s a faction called the Demon Domain—bitter rivals with Jialan Holy Land. If they learn you’re this once-in-a-lifetime spiritual power prodigy, they’ll either pull out all stops to claim you or destroy you without mercy.”
“This disciple will heed Master’s teachings.”
Yan Zhen was well aware of the Demon Domain. It was a massive terror organization spanning all seven continents of the mainland. Its mystic cultivators were all evil cultivators without scruples—slaughtering cities and wiping out villages for cultivation, twisted by their demonic arts into monsters that were neither human nor ghost.
The master of the Demon Domain was an utterly vicious fiend, not only overwhelmingly powerful but also a master at slipping through the cracks.
In the story’s grand finale, that bastard had his body blasted apart and his two souls and six spirits obliterated by Yan Zhen. Yet even then, he escaped with one soul and one spirit, fleeing the Mystic Heaven Continent into the Extraterrestrial World.
The tale ended there, leaving it unknown whether Yan Zhen remained on the Mystic Heaven Continent to bask in supreme glory or pursued the Demon Domain’s master into the Extraterrestrial World to carve out new territories.
He had veered a bit off track.
In the script, his master wasn’t supposed to share all this just yet. She should have stopped right after his initial spiritual power release hit nineteen meters.
“Okay,” she said. “You’ve just pushed your spiritual power to its limit, so you might feel a touch dizzy. Do you want your master to rub-rub your little head?”
Her words made Yan Zhen realize he did feel a bit lightheaded, though nothing serious. A short rest should have fixed it—no need for a head massage, really.
But… gazing at his beautiful master’s enchanting smile and breathtaking immortal beauty, and imagining her soft hands gently stroking his head, Yan Zhen blushed furiously and nodded.
“Yes~”
Chen Xi smiled warmly, shifting from a cross-legged position to kneeling. She patted her thigh.
“Come here, then.”
Yan Zhen shuffled shyly over to his beautiful master before leaning back. His head landed perfectly on her lap.
The soft, springy sensation made him nuzzle against it instinctively. Then he closed his eyes, awaiting her loving caress.
When he emerged from the Crystal Stone Space, Yan Zhen’s heart was still bubbling with joy. But the system interface popped up again, slapping right across his face.
【Ding! System Warm Reminder: Task incomplete. Please don’t slack off, host.】
Yan Zhen glanced at it. Besides the initial spiritual power release exceeding ten meters, the role-playing requirements also included “Stop Xiao Shi from drugging and causing trouble; rescue Xiao Xinyan.”
Got it, got it.
Yan Zhen dismissed the system interface with a wave. But the thought of Xiao Xinyan dousing him with water later left him feeling uneasy.
He checked his clothes. Good thing it wasn’t his favorite outfit.
With that, Yan Zhen closed his eyes and unleashed his spiritual sense. The whole world seemed to turn transparent. Everything within range took shape as outlines within the bubble of his perception.
At his Hidden Realm divine soul cultivation, he could only make out silhouettes—no clear faces.
His spiritual sense swept toward the back street. Sure enough, a sleazy figure lurked beneath a window, ears pressed close to catch the sounds from inside the room.
Inside, of course, was Xiao Xinyan soaking in the bath. She had already fallen victim to the concentrated Dawn Dream Dew. Submerged in petal-strewn warm water, her face burned red as she panted heavily. Soft moans escaped her lips now and then. Both hands were underwater—she was clearly taking matters into her own hands.
No clue why they had skipped academy classes to stage this steamy comic-book drama. And now he had to swoop in for the rescue.
Yan Zhen slipped out of the room, hopped onto the roof, and cut through a shortcut to the Xiao family juniors’ residence in the back street. He leaped down just in time to catch Xiao Shi frantically prying at the window, eager to invade the boudoir and defile his own cousin.
“Hey.”
Yan Zhen planted a foot squarely on Xiao Shi’s thrusting butt, sending him flying.
“What the heck are you doing?”
Xiao Shi ate the kick and whirled around in fury. Spotting Yan Zhen, terror seized him.
“Yan Zhen? W-Why are you here?!”
