Chapter 88: Chapter 86: Lifting Heavy as Light, Breakthrough

Pinglan City, Wangjiang Mountain, Grotto Abode Yellow-163.

Song Ciwan inspected the grotto abode inside and out, examining it thoroughly with her Bright Vision Sense and the Tongyou Mirror. Once she confirmed there were no issues, she immediately activated the grotto abode’s built-in Defensive Array, brought out the Duality Heart Protection Array Plate, and kept the Celestial Net Shield on her person.

She had left the Big White Goose in the outer chamber of the grotto abode. Song Ciwan had woken it up earlier, fed it a small handful of insects, and instructed it to guard the home well.

After this period of careful feeding, the bald patches on the Big White Goose’s body had regrown their feathers. It was now about a third larger than before, and its Qi and Blood were exceptionally abundant.

When it stood on the ground, spread its wings, puffed out its chest, and cried "GAK GAK!", it truly had the imposing air of a magnificent goose general.

It clearly loved the grotto abode’s environment. The moment Song Ciwan gave her instructions, it immediately flapped its wings, huffing and puffing as it scurried around the outer chamber, squawking as it went, looking proud and full of spirit.

It was as if to say: ’This is my duty! Leave it to this goose and don’t you worry!’

This made Song Ciwan laugh out loud, putting her in an excellent state of mind.

With everything prepared, Song Ciwan even took out a pile of Elixirs and placed them within reach. Soon, she walked into the Practice Room in the inner part of the grotto abode, sat down cross-legged, and released the suppression on the True Qi within her body.

The rich Spiritual Qi in the surroundings immediately swarmed toward her, enveloping her completely.

Song Ciwan didn’t hesitate. She immediately used the momentum of this Spiritual Qi to circulate the Second Layer of the Sutra of Sitting and Forgetting, charging toward that formless barrier. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

RUMBLE! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

Within her Inner Dantian, waves churned in the True Qi Pool, and cracks began to appear around the Dantian Wall.

The transition from Qi Transformation to Qi Refining is, in essence, a process of gradually shedding one’s mortal shell.

Once successful, the very essence of a person’s life undergoes a monumental leap.

As Song Ciwan carefully perceived this transformation, cross-referencing it with the various scriptures of the Sutra of Sitting and Forgetting’s Second Layer, she gradually entered a state that was both mystical and real—a state of forgetting both herself and the world around her.

This was the gathering of the mind.

The mind is the master of the body, the commander of all spirits.

When the mind is gathered, wisdom is born. When wisdom stirs, divinity awakens. Within the grotto abode, a formless, profound aura slowly began to permeate the space around Song Ciwan.

Song Ciwan had previously performed Dharma Transmission several times. The recipients of her sermons included Humans, demons, and even aberrations!

This process seemed like she was "outputting" something to other living beings, but in reality, she gained much more.

Preaching the Dao to others—was that not also preaching the Dao to oneself?

Debating the Dao with others—was that not also debating the Dao with oneself?

Breaking through in one’s Cultivation can indeed be fraught with immense difficulty, but when the time is right and everything falls into place, it can feel surprisingly easy.

An unknown amount of time passed. Then, in a single instant, Song Ciwan grasped that flicker of Spiritual Light.

At that moment, her Dantian Wall finally shattered with a ROAR. The True Qi Pool burst its banks, and under the scouring of the surging, churning True Qi, the fragments of the Dantian Wall began to reorganize and regenerate!

On Song Ciwan’s body, the two Life-bound Illusion Texts for "Dao" and "Strong" automatically appeared.

Everything she had learned before—be it the Illusory Demon Seed in her Sea of Consciousness, the Heart Sutra Fire beneath the Demon Seed, or the various Techniques she had recently acquired, such as the Ganlin Spell, Mountain-Breaking Fist, and Dharma Transmission Skill—all of it rapidly converged around the "Dao" and "Strong" Life-bound Illusion Texts.

Everything spun and tumbled like a vortex, forming a profound force field in that instant.

Song Ciwan broke through!

Like a chrysalis breaking its cocoon, like the sun rising over a sea of clouds, like all things born anew.

The Dantian’s reconstruction was a success. The True Qi was as vast as a lake, and its state transformed again, changing from its previous viscous, mercury-like consistency to something as light and ethereal as mist.

From heavy to light—this was not a decrease in the quality of her True Qi. On the contrary, the ability of Lifting Heavy as Light was the most obvious difference between the Qi Refining stage and the Qi Transformation Stage.

And it was precisely because of this ethereality that Qi Refining Stage Cultivators could begin to practice Flying Techniques!

Song Ciwan withdrew from her state of Cultivation. She slowly regulated her breathing to conclude the session as she opened her eyes.

The joy in her heart went without saying. A quick mental calculation revealed that the breakthrough had taken exactly three days.

Song Ciwan immediately stood up and went to retrieve a Copper Mirror from her personal Canglan Grotto Heaven—huh, that’s not right!

Her Grotto Heaven... it had gotten bigger.

Song Ciwan sent her consciousness into the Grotto Heaven to take a look and saw that it had undergone an immense change.

Originally, the Grotto Heaven only had a space of about three cubic meters. Although its essence was that of a Grotto Heaven and not an ordinary Storage Magical Artifact, its various wondrous functions could not be utilized due to the limitations of Song Ciwan’s Cultivation.

At most, when facing a great crisis, Song Ciwan could barely manage to mobilize a single drop of the Heavy Water within the Grotto Heaven.

But now, following Song Ciwan’s breakthrough, much of the mist inside the Grotto Heaven had dissipated. Upon measuring it again, the space within had clearly expanded directly from three cubic meters to thirty cubic meters!

And that wasn’t all. More importantly, Song Ciwan could feel that her connection to the drop of One Element Heavy Water within the Grotto Heaven had deepened.

If before she had to give one hundred and twenty percent of her effort to barely mobilize that drop of Heavy Water—and even then, risk a backlash—now, she could probably move it with ease using only eighty percent of her strength!

Song Ciwan put away the Copper Mirror, changed into a fresh set of clothes, and then, holding a basket of previously cooked soybean pulp, strode cheerfully out of the Practice Room.

In the outer chamber of the grotto abode, the Big White Goose was flapping its wings, chasing a single white feather that was drifting in mid-air all over the room.

’That’s clearly... a feather it shed itself?’

It chased and shouted "GAK! GAK!", but the white feather always floated just ahead of it. No matter how it flapped its wings or leaped, it just couldn’t catch it.

But the Big White Goose was a stubborn one. The more it couldn’t catch something, the more determined it was to get it. When its efforts failed, it grew angry, craned its neck, and let out a stream of goose-curses with all sorts of "SQUAWK!", "GAK!", and "HONK!" sounds.

Song Ciwan was already in a great mood, and seeing this scene, how could she possibly hold back?

She burst out laughing, "Haha!"

Her laughter startled the Big White Goose. Oh dear. The goose twisted its neck, glanced once at Song Ciwan, then twice, and finally, it suddenly leaped up again and face-planted, slamming its head right into the grotto abode’s floor.

THUD!

Not only did it slam its perfectly good goose head hard onto the stone floor, but it also used both wings to cover its face, looking for all the world as if it were too ashamed to face anyone and wished it could just dig a hole and hide.

Its expression was so vivid that it sent Song Ciwan into another fit of laughter.

She walked over to the Big White Goose, looked at the feather that had landed beside it, and, both amused and exasperated, sighed softly and said, "Big White, lift your head and look. The thing you were just chasing... once you stop chasing it, it falls down all by itself."