Chapter Seventeen: The Generation of Spirit

The upheaval came swiftly and left just as quickly, like a sudden breeze. Apart from the faint buzzing lingering in his ears, everything seemed like a hallucination.

After a moment, he regained his composure.

Chen Yu pondered, trying to figure out what exactly these gases produced by the great white root were, especially since their reaction upon contact with well water was so intense.

That yearning, rising from deep within his lungs and seeming to boil up from his very marrow, left him unsettled.

He had never experienced anything like it, and it made him shudder.

Yet, at the same time, Chen Yu was keenly aware that this did not necessarily mean the gases were poisonous. Reflecting on the surge within his body at that moment, he felt it resembled the reaction of someone famished for three days and nights upon seeing a feast.

Almost instinctively, his body told him that drinking the well water infused with these unknown gases would be highly beneficial.

However, Chen Yu did not rush to try it himself. There was still plenty of gas—six spheres hung suspended in the air—so he had the leisure to investigate further before deciding whether to consume it.

He planned to store those on the table for later experimentation.

The well water at his feet had evaporated, and the gases seemed to have truly merged and vanished, no longer swirling or drifting about, but disappearing altogether.

He guessed they had probably evaporated along with the water vapor.

This unknown gas was not spiritual essence, so Chen Yu could not sense it at all—his mind was far from the legendary state of out-of-body perception, and his previous glimpse into the root's inner workings had only been possible due to its affinity with spiritual essence.

Back then, the hollow tuber had already given rise to the unknown gas, but spiritual essence still clung to it, granting him access. As time passed and the root matured, and the spiritual essence was fully absorbed, he lost the ability to peer inside.

Now, he closed his eyes and tried to sense it, but as expected, he found nothing.

His spirit, usually so attuned to changes in spiritual essence, felt numb at this moment.

Even the gently floating spheres offered nothing in the darkness behind his closed eyes. After all, though created by the catalyst of spiritual essence, these were not the same thing.

Unable to unravel the mystery for now, Chen Yu rubbed his temples and dismissed his scattered thoughts. His head still buzzed, and he dared not dwell too much.

He tried carving two ladles from the split root, fitting the halves together to resemble a gourd split in two.

He poured the remaining pale liquid inside, laid it horizontally, then suspended it with a thin cord in the cool inner room.

Unsure how long it would keep, Chen Yu decided to start exploring its properties that afternoon, hoping to uncover the nature of the unknown gas as soon as possible.

The most crucial aspect was the effect of the floating filaments after mixing, and any possible aftereffects.

There were birds and monkeys on the mountain, but clearly unsuitable as test subjects, so once again, he turned his gaze to earthworms.

They were plentiful and easy to control should anything go awry.

Meanwhile, unable to find a way to preserve them, the six spheres of gas on the table dissolved the instant they touched any physical container—be it leather pouch or ceramic jar. In the end, he had no choice but to dissolve them all in well water.

Combined, they filled three water pouches.

During the process, he discovered that well water also had a limit to how much of the unknown gas it could dissolve. For ease of calculation, he regarded one water pouch as a unit, capable of absorbing two complete gas spheres.

Thus, he concluded that a single mature great white root, catalyzed by spiritual essence, yielded roughly eleven complete gas spheres, enough to mix five and a half units of special water.

Of course, this figure might not be exact, since it was only the first root. Chen Yu planned to verify its effects, and if it proved useful, he would extract more spiritual essence and inject it into the soil, cultivating other crops alongside the great white root to see how they responded to the catalyst.

...

Afternoon at Yunhe Temple.

Driven by curiosity about the unknown gas, Chen Yu, for once, skipped his rest and plunged straight into his experiments.

He went to the backyard vegetable patch and dug up two earthworms, both slender, perhaps the ones he had released days ago.

He placed them on a stick before him, uncapped a water pouch, and let a drop of the liquid with white filaments fall onto each end, since he could not tell which was the mouth.

The drops landed on the wriggling worms.

Unlike the earthworm king exposed to spiritual essence, these worms changed slowly, but with careful observation, Chen Yu noticed their struggles lessened. At first, he feared something was wrong and they might be dying, but later realized otherwise.

After a moment, the earthworms sprang up—quite literally—their front and rear segments lifting, the middle twisting, forming a tiny bow that bounced across the ground.

Clearly, both strength and agility were markedly improved.

Half an hour later, the transformation ceased; there were no abrupt changes, their size and color remained the same, only their strength had increased.

Phew—seeing this, Chen Yu, despite anticipating the result, breathed a sigh of relief.

With his worries set aside, he suppressed his eagerness and decided to conduct more tests before trying it himself.

Thus, he spent the entire afternoon fiddling with earthworms.

He didn't stop at just one; for comparison, he dug up several more from the patch.

Some received one drop, others two, the most saturated worm got five drops.

Fortunately, even after five drops, that worm remained lively, though absorption seemed incomplete and its enhanced performance was similar to the one given four drops.

He estimated that this was the absorption limit for normal earthworms.

If that was the case, what about himself? If he tried to absorb it, would there also be a limit?

With this question in mind, he placed the vigorous earthworm in a newly made bamboo tube, filled with earth, planning to check on it the next day.

That evening, he practiced Yunhe Techniques and recited several passages from the "Record of Ten Pure Lives," which contained the principles of clarity and purity, to calm his mind.

The next morning, rising early, Chen Yu washed briefly, opened the bamboo tube, and found the earthworm just as lively as yesterday, with no new developments overnight.

Relieved, he greeted the rising sun and morning glow, uncapped a water pouch, and took a mouthful.

Cool liquid slid down his throat, the stimulation sent a tingle through his scalp, and the next moment warmth spread through his abdomen.

All over his body, inside and out, began absorbing the precious liquid.

Comforting, warm.

An indescribable ease washed over his heart, as if wandering in misty forests, or standing atop a lofty peak, with gentle breezes and murmuring streams cleansing his skin and soul.

After a long time, he returned to himself, feeling as if his spirit had shed its shackles, his mind clear as crystal, and even the confusion he once felt when practicing martial arts now spun rapidly, sparking fresh inspiration.

"And the body!"

He didn't know how long he'd been lost in it; by now, his body had fully absorbed the liquid. Chen Yu clenched his fist, feeling the surge of power in his palm and fingers—not much, just the faintest increase.

But this was only one mouthful!

He couldn't help but marvel.

About seventeen or eighteen drops, roughly the same as he'd used on the earthworms yesterday, produced visible effects—an astonishing power, almost miraculous.

Yet, none of this was truly important. The increase in strength was delightful, but what truly pleased Chen Yu was finally understanding a use for spiritual essence.

Farming, cultivating mutated crops like the great white root, extracting the unknown gas, then utilizing it.

No longer was he fumbling in the dark.

"It needs a name."

Knowing its use, he couldn't keep calling it "unknown gas" or "special liquid." After some thought, Chen Yu settled on names for both.

Since both were catalyzed by spiritual essence, he chose to include the word "spirit." The special liquid with white filaments would be called Spirit Liquid. The gas, naturally, would be Spirit Qi—after all, in this world, cultivation was unknown, so the name was apt.

As for the pale viscous liquid found when first cutting open the great white root, which could volatilize Spirit Qi, he simply called it Spirit Source, meaning the origin of Spirit Qi.

Spirit Source, Spirit Qi, Spirit Liquid.

In the span of a single morning, the venerable spiritual essence in his sea of consciousness now had a whole family bearing the mark of "spirit."