Shrek Academy, Sea God Island.
Zhu Ziyang and the other two, who had been away for exactly forty days, had already arrived on the island.
The moment they returned to the Academy, Old Song introduced Jiang Nannan to the other elders and the four deans. While Jiang Nannan received many gifts, she also finally learned Mu En's true identity and that Zhu Ziyang's teacher was Mu En. The girl was very shocked and very excited.
However, for Zhu Ziyang, these were already secondary matters.
At this moment, he had already arrived at the bottom of the Golden Ancient Tree, found the wooden house Mu En had mentioned, and walked in. After a quick look around, he sat down and took out the high-grade Spirit herb, clear heart, which he had obtained a month ago.
Zhu Ziyang looked at the clear heart in his hand and couldn't help but smile, not expecting it would take so long to use it. He hoped it wouldn't disappoint him.
He reached out, plucked the petals of the clear heart, and put them into his mouth, one, two, three,..., until all the petals were in his mouth. Only then did he discard the now worthless stem onto the ground, then closed his eyes, began to meditate, and absorbed the medicinal power of the Spirit herb.
As a rare high-grade Spirit herb that could enhance mental cultivation, Zhu Ziyang was relying on clear heart to help his mental force cultivation break through to the realm of 'tangible without form'.
After Zhu Ziyang consumed the clear heart, a refreshing coolness surged into his sea of consciousness. Under the effect of this coolness, his mental force immediately accelerated its circulation. The silver vortex in his sea of consciousness also felt the wondrous effect of the refreshing coolness and devoured it without reservation, speeding up the rate at which it absorbed and released mental force. Subsequently, his entire sea of consciousness space became active. The blue seawater in the sea of consciousness rotated along with the silver vortex, forming an even larger whirlpool. However, the center of that whirlpool quietly changed color under the gradual erosion of the silver vortex.
This scene greatly reassured Zhu Ziyang. He focused on circulating the Great Bright Art, diligently refining the clear heart, and impacting that ethereal barrier.
—
Cultivation knows no time; he didn't know how long had passed.
Zhu Ziyang awoke from the haze of cultivation, only to hear a huge rumble in his mind, followed by the sound of something breaking, and then a feeling of soaring as if hearing celestial music. The unprecedented clarity in his brain made Zhu Ziyang immediately realize that he had broken through!
Without hesitation, he immediately controlled his mind and rushed into his sea of consciousness, and then he was stunned.
Silver, brilliant silver filled his entire sea of consciousness. That was Zhu Ziyang's mental force, even more solid and profound than before, dreamlike and illusory like a flowing silver river.
He was surprised to find that his sea of consciousness space had expanded by more than two times. The vast mental force not only converged into a silver ocean but also condensed into a sizable island in the center of the sea of consciousness. However, the island was very desolate, with nothing but Electrolux's divine soul bead and the Silver Dragon Wolf's soul crystal.
On the blue sky, golden stars still hung, and to the right of the golden stars was a silver crystal ball, like a satellite. Inside the crystal ball, dragon wing-like patterns were carved, symbolizing the connection between Zhu Ziyang's right eye and his sea of consciousness. Compared to its initial state, that silver crystal ball had grown a full circle larger.
However, Zhu Ziyang hadn't noticed that; he was extremely excited at this moment, because the Island of Mind was precisely the symbol of the second level of mental force.
After a Spirit Master's mental force cultivation enters the realm of 'tangible without form', they can gain more precise control over mental force, such as perceiving the surrounding environment through mental force, or controlling the power of Spirit Abilities through mental force, and so on. At the same time, after entering the realm of 'tangible without form', an Island of Mind, formed by pure mental force, will appear in the Spirit Master's sea of consciousness, which is a prerequisite for mental force materialization.
"Is this the mental force of 'tangible without form'? It's truly wonderful!" Zhu Ziyang murmured.
He hadn't opened his eyes, yet he could clearly perceive the surrounding light elements. In the past, to achieve this, he would need to use his Spirit. Now, he no longer needed the Pacifying Life-Reaping Scythe as a bridge; his mental force alone could perceive the elemental power in the air.
Zhu Ziyang was not in a hurry to get up, but rather carefully sensed the changes in his own strength after his mental force breakthrough.
The most significant change was his Silver Right Eye. With the enhancement of his mental force, the time-stopping ability of his Silver Right Eye had now extended from the initial one second to three seconds, and its target limit had also increased from Spirit King to Spirit Emperor. This would greatly increase Zhu Ziyang's combat power.
At the same time, after his mental force broke through to the realm of 'tangible without form', his spirit power also benefited, naturally increasing from level 37 to level 38. This made Zhu Ziyang very happy, because this meant he was only one level away from the Spirit Ancestor realm. As long as he reached level 39, and then used the Soul Ascension Pill awarded for being the champion of the freshman assessment, he would definitely reach level 40!
Just thinking about it was exhilarating.
Zhu Ziyang was content and prepared to end this period of secluded cultivation.
However, just as his mind was about to leave the mental space, the gray bead floating on the Island of Mind suddenly trembled. This incredibly subtle movement was transmitted to Zhu Ziyang's consciousness with extreme clarity in his sea of consciousness. Zhu Ziyang immediately changed his mind about leaving, controlled his consciousness, and instantly descended above Electrolux's divine soul bead, staring intently at the gray bead.
It had been about half a year since Electrolux fell into slumber. Was Electrolux about to awaken? Zhu Ziyang thought, and couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation.
What kind of surprise would this teacher from another World bring him after he awakened?
Time flowed silently. The gray divine soul bead trembled repeatedly in Zhu Ziyang's anticipation, and the movements became increasingly large and obvious, until it continuously swayed and floated into mid-air. Immediately after, the gray bead suddenly stopped moving. After three seconds of silence, a circle of gray airflow emerged from the bead. The airflow was like mist in primeval chaos, yet it carried specks of golden light. The airflow grew more and more, eventually filling the entire mental space, almost blocking Zhu Ziyang's senses.
With his senses blocked, Zhu Ziyang felt no fear at all. Because he felt intimacy and care from the gray airflow. Although there were no words, he clearly realized that this was his teacher from another World giving him a master-disciple gift.
Sure enough, the gray airflow filling the mental space stirred again. They were actually able to ignore the barrier of the soul firmament and directly penetrate from the sea of consciousness into his physical body and blood.
Zhu Ziyang could clearly feel that this gray airflow entered his meridians, acupoints, bone marrow, and flesh, tempering every corner of his body. More airflow followed his blood to his heart, entered the Danzhong Acupoint, and thus began to affect his Spirit, the Pacifying Life-Reaping Scythe.
Affected by this gray airflow, the Pacifying Life-Reaping Scythe naturally appeared, and its three spirit rings restlessly revolved around the scythe handle and blade. The gray airflow spread upwards along the scythe handle, passed two purple spirit rings, and directly enveloped the yellow spirit ring.
Zhu Ziyang only felt a crisp breaking sound emanate from his body. The warm yet chilling aura made him somewhat intoxicated, and unconsciously, he fell into a deep sleep.
When he woke up again, everything had returned to normal. Only the Power of Death, which he could control as easily as his own arm, reminded him that everything that had just happened was real.
Zhu Ziyang opened his eyes and immediately released his Pacifying Life-Reaping Scythe. His Spirit was as usual, with no changes. But his spirit rings were somewhat different. He saw that his first spirit ring had clearly transformed from its original pale yellow to a rich deep yellow! He looked shocked and puzzled, not expecting that his teacher had actually increased the age of his first spirit ring. How did he do it?
Besides the spirit rings, Zhu Ziyang could also vaguely feel that the light elements and Power of Death within him, which had originally coexisted without interference or intrusion, were now starting to become closer. Although they still couldn't merge, it was still several times stronger than their previous state of complete separation.
He was very surprised and immediately put away his Spirit, wanting to enter his sea of consciousness to see if Electrolux had awakened, but another aged voice came from his ear.
"Since you're awake, come up."
This was Mu En's voice.