85: Chapter 85 The First Appearance of the Spirit Vortex

Yun Song dragged his foul-smelling body out of the stone house, the dried filth on his clothes having almost hardened into a crust.

Fortunately, after rounding two mountain ridges, a babbling stream came into view.

He impatiently dove into the water, and only after scrubbing every inch of his skin until it turned red did he crawl back onto the bank, soaking wet.

He sat cross-legged on a bluestone by the stream, formed hand seals with his fingertips, and began to charge with all his might toward the third level of the Spirit Guiding Art.

The key to Cultivating the Spirit Guiding Art to the third layer lies in condensing a Spirit Vortex at the Spiritual Root.

This small vortex of Spiritual Power is like the core engine within a cultivator's body; only by successfully condensing it can one convert Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi into truly controllable Spiritual Power, thereby casting basic Spells such as creating fire or summoning wind.

As Yun Song operated his Cultivation Technique, the multicolored Spiritual Qi within a radius of ten feet was pulled by an invisible giant hand, swarming toward him.

They condensed into a vortex of Spiritual Qi above his head, entering one after another through the tianling acupoint.

Traveling along the twelve major acupoints such as Huiming and Zique, they finally gathered at the Dantian and the Spiritual Root.

The initial gathering of Spiritual Qi did not go smoothly; that rampaging Spiritual Power churned within his Meridians, stinging every meridian like steel needles.

Beads of sweat the size of peas rolled down Yun Song's pale cheeks, but he gritted his teeth, forcibly guiding the Spiritual Qi to swirl around his Spiritual Root.

Ten days passed, and a shallow indentation was finally polished onto the surface of his Spiritual Root, but it was still far from a complete Spirit Vortex.

When he tried to draw in Spiritual Qi again, he discovered that the Spiritual Qi within a radius of several feet had been completely exhausted, resembling a Wasteland that had been ravaged by locusts.

"The Spiritual Qi has depleted so quickly..." Yun Song sighed softly, brushed the dust off his robes, and continued to search for a new place to Cultivate.

Following the splashing water sounds coming from afar, he passed through a dense bamboo forest.

The view suddenly opened up—a silvery-white waterfall poured down from a cliff, like the Milky Way inverted.

The splashing water refracted colorful halos in the sunlight, and even more astonishingly, the concentration of Spiritual Qi here was several times richer than in ordinary places!

Yun Song was overjoyed and immediately sat cross-legged on a giant rock beside the waterfall.

He was pleasantly surprised to discover that the strong airflow brought about by the waterfall was like a natural Spirit Vortex, constantly gathering the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

Such a uniquely endowed environment for Cultivating was exactly the blessed land he had dreamed of!

Cultivation began once again.

A constant stream of Spiritual Qi surged into his Dantian along his Meridians, rapidly rotating around his Spiritual Root.

Whenever his Spiritual Root expansion encountered a Bottleneck, Yun Song would recall the key instruction in the Spirit Guiding Art: "Follow the spiritual opportunity, harmonize Yin and Yang, and the Spirit Vortex will form naturally."

He no longer forced the breakthrough, instead guiding the Spiritual Power with a gentler rhythm, and finally, on a certain full moon night, he felt a violent tremor coming from his Spiritual Root—that stubborn obstacle collapsed with a roar!

His Spiritual Root began to rotate at high speed uncontrollably, its range constantly expanding, and its luster becoming increasingly brilliant.

Time flew by.

During the entire year of Cultivating at this waterfall, relying on the natural Spirit Vortex, Yun Song was able to focus wholeheartedly on his closed-door training.

When the multicolored Spiritual Root finally transformed into a thumb-sized multicolored Spirit Vortex, a glimmer of excitement appeared in his eyes.

To verify the results of his Cultivation, Yun Song quickly formed hand seals with both hands and shouted softly: "Ignite!"

A cluster of five-colored flames instantly ignited at his fingertips, and the temperature emitted by this flame actually distorted the surrounding air into ripples.

As Spiritual Power was continuously injected, the fireball grew larger and larger, illuminating the surroundings as if it were daylight.

The moment his Spiritual Power was exhausted, the fireball turned into specks of starlight and dissipated into nothingness.

Yun Song was in high spirits and cast over a dozen Fireball Techniques in succession.

Not until the Spiritual Qi in his Spirit Vortex was nearly exhausted did he reluctantly stop and regulate his breathing.

Feeling the surging Spiritual Power within his body, he knew that he had finally truly stepped across the threshold of a cultivator.