"How the demon gate and Daoist gate fight is our internal business, but that thing has no right to get involved. I'll sign too."
...
The twelve cultivators quickly finished signing, and the sheepskin scroll was taken back by the cloud-robed cultivator.
Twelve rules descended between heaven and earth, entering their seas of consciousness, hearts, and dantians respectively.
The contract was complete, and the restrictions of the rules were born.
At the same time, as heaven and earth resonated, a massive surge of Dao Rhyme poured into their bodies.
"Could this be the reward from heaven and the Dao Rhyme for those who protect the one with the Dao Insight!"
"With this much Dao Rhyme, one can gain far more than through ordinary meditation and comprehension."
"The nature of a Dao Rhyme is influenced by the one who has the insight. The child who gained the Dao Insight this time has a pure heart."
...
Tianji Sect.
Cui Mengzhi set down his stone. "What is this? It can actually obscure divination."
"A Dao Rhyme," a white-bearded old man said as he pushed open the door and entered.
"Master, what is a Dao Rhyme?"
"When a cultivator has a Dao Insight, a Dao Rhyme is born."
"Dao Insight, Master? Are you sure it isn't an epiphany? No, no, an epiphany wouldn't cause such a commotion."
"It is a Dao Insight. Cultivators begin to explore their own Dao from the Nascent Soul stage. Before ascension, they must define their Dao heart. This process is called attaining the Dao. A Dao Insight, on the other hand, occurs during the search for one's Dao between the Nascent Soul and Tribulation Transcendence stages. It is when one gains a certain realization of the Dao. This realization can connect to the river of time, reaching back to the past and forward to the future. It can cross the boundaries of species and the divide between immortal and mortal. As long as it is a living being, they can follow and gain comprehension. It can trigger the resonance of heaven and earth, the unison of the Great Dao. It can make the laws of heaven and earth and every Dao that has ever existed throughout the ages speak out. Anyone could potentially have a Dao Insight, and anyone could potentially go their entire life without one. No one knows how to achieve it, and no one knows who might have one. A Dao Insight is far rarer and more mysterious than an epiphany; in fact, many cultivators have never even heard of it."
"Master, is it strictly limited to the stages between Nascent Soul and Tribulation Transcendence? Is it impossible to have a Dao Insight before the Nascent Soul stage?"
"Mengzhi, if such a monster truly exists... as long as you can lure them to the Tianji Sect, no matter which elder they apprentice under, I will become your disciple instead."
"Your disciple spoke out of turn; I would never dare."
"Mengzhi, you have been stuck at the peak of the Golden Core stage for many years. This Dao Rhyme might be your chance to break through to the Nascent Soul stage, so make sure to seize it."
Similar scenes of meditation like the one in Penglai and similar conversations like the one in the Tianji Sect were occurring all across the cultivation world.
Gu Ningyun was still completely unaware of all this.
Wind spirit energy flooded into her meridians like seawater, entering through the acupoints of her Ren and Du meridians and her eight primary meridians.
Besides the wind spirit energy, countless threads of star energy that others could not perceive fell from above the nine heavens.
Boundless silver threads and azure wind spirit energy converged into two surging streams that washed through her meridians.
The unprecedented influx of spirit energy and star power into her acupoints made her meridians and acupoints swell throughout her body.
Had she not undergone thunder tempering on the Shocking Thunder Platform, her meridians and acupoints would likely have been torn apart by these violent forces long ago.
But even with that tempering, and even though her body cultivation level was already at the peak of Qi Refining level twelve, she still found the collision of these energies difficult to bear.
The silver threads on her meridians, acupoints, and dantian resembled a star map, shining brilliantly as they absorbed and refined the impact of the two energies on all three.
Within her sea of consciousness, the two cultivation techniques began to run on their own at an unprecedented speed, almost matching the speed of Gu Ningyun's active cultivation.
They guided the wind spirit energy and star energy through Minor Orbit cycles within her meridians.
With every cycle, a ring of wind spirit energy and star energy was converted into wind spirit energy and star power, flowing into her dantian.
A cultivator's body is a wondrous thing.
Whether viewed with divine sense or the naked eye, the meridians and acupoints appear no different from a normal person's from the outside, only slightly stronger than a mortal's.
The dantian, spirit roots, and sea of consciousness are even more invisible and intangible.
But if one were to grasp a cultivator's wrist and probe with spirit energy, they would see the vastness of the meridians and the breadth of the dantian.
If one were to touch a cultivator's brow and probe with divine sense, they would witness the immensity of the sea of consciousness.
Gu Ningyun's dantian had grown from the size of a sesame seed when she first induced qi to the size of a pigeon egg at Qi Refining level one.
After she began practicing the Record of Primordial Stars, her dantian expanded to the size of a chicken egg under the influence of her Innate Star Body and the divine-rank technique.
From that point on, the size of her dantian was always twice that of other cultivators at the same rank.
Inside her dantian, alongside the spirit energy corresponding to her spirit roots, there was an equivalent reserve of star power.
As she continued to cultivate and break through, her dantian expanded by a ring with each rank.
By the time she reached Qi Refining level nine, it was already as large as a small pond.
It had only been a few months since Gu Ningyun broke through to level nine. Aside from a small cluster of spirit energy and star power accumulated at level eight, her dantian only held a shallow ring of energy gathered by the automatic operation of her techniques over these few months.
Combined, they formed a mass of energy no larger than a water vat.
Now, as the external wind spirit energy and star energy flooded into her body, they were processed through Minor Orbit cycles by the automatic operation of her two techniques.
With every cycle, the azure and white sphere in the center of the pond, which resembled a Bagua, grew by a ring.
As the sphere grew larger, its rotation speed increased.
The energy flooding into the dantian had initially been congested and difficult to absorb.
As the sphere's rotation speed increased, it absorbed the incoming energy faster and faster.
Eventually, it reached the same speed as the Minor Orbit cycle's energy conversion.
After an unknown amount of time, the azure and white sphere grew to the same size as the pond-like dantian.
The degree of tempering of the dantian was no less than that of her meridians.
The current energy of the sphere was far from enough to shake the dantian.
The energy continued to gather, and since the sphere could no longer grow, it began to compress and condense.
The azure and white gaseous energy condensed from a light mist into a thick fog until not a single gap remained.
Pop—
With a faint sound, like water flowing into a channel, her dantian expanded by a ring.
Gu Ningyun's aura shifted; she had reached Qi Refining level ten, with her spirit energy and star power condensed.
Her body was pure and untainted, her twelve primary meridians were completely unobstructed and tempered to the limit.
She did not need to break through meridians layer by layer like other cultivators.
The cultivation techniques continued to run, and the energy of the azure and white sphere began to accumulate for the next level.
With her physical condition being expertly managed by the divine-rank techniques, Gu Ningyun remained completely unaware.
Her entire consciousness was in a peculiar state.
She saw something invisible, colorless, boundless, and infinite—something that could not be captured by the naked eye, probed with spirit energy, or approached with divine sense.
Until a giant axe suddenly appeared.
Under the giant axe, she was as small as a grain of dust.
A giant hand appeared out of thin air, grasped the giant axe, and swung it horizontally.
That existence suddenly became tangible.
It was like gas, like mist, like a solid, like a liquid.
It could be seen, but not described in words.
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