Chapter 209: Chapter 207: Sea of Consciousness Breakthrough, Health Sword Array

「With the midterm exam approaching, you, an Old Deng, have faintly touched upon a mental bottleneck under the guidance of the Hidden Mist Butterfly’s remnant soul.」

「The opportunity to condense your Divine Sense and form a contract with the Juvenile Kunpeng lies here.」

After saying goodbye to Ma Tianba, Gu Ming’s days returned to normal. He no longer dared to let Cyan Treasure go out alone to gather Spirit Stones.

「The day before the midterm exam.」

After Gu Ming woke up, he received the system prompt above.

His Cultivation Technique was still at the Master Level. Last night, he had been on the verge of a breakthrough, touching the bottleneck, and he vaguely felt the idea of that one sword strike returning.

Previously, Gu Ming had generated the Ultimate Thought by relying on several Microscopic Arrays and a moment of sudden enlightenment.

However, that one sword strike was too extreme. In the days that followed, no matter how Gu Ming cultivated, he could never generate it again.

But now, he felt it coming back. That perfect state from before had completely returned.

The Cyan Pine he visualized in his Sea of Consciousness was also a vibrant, flourishing green, sending out ripples across the water’s surface.

The Spiritual Power hidden beneath his Sea of Consciousness was surging forth in a continuous stream.

His accumulated Spiritual Power had reached a critical point. ’But how am I supposed to condense my Divine Sense?’

Gu Ming looked at the system’s message.

This brought up the conventional process for a Beastmaster to advance from One-star to Two-star.

A Beastmaster themselves does not have a Magic Power Inner Core in their body like a Pet Beast does.

Therefore, a Beastmaster’s Star Level is primarily judged by the depth of the Spiritual Power in their Sea of Consciousness.

Secondly, it depends on how many Pet Beasts they can form a contract with.

By default, a Beastmaster who can form a contract with two Pet Beasts is considered a Two-star Beastmaster.

Judging by quantity is the simplest standard method.

However, this is only a preliminary judgment and is not one hundred percent accurate.

Some Beastmasters, even if they can form contracts with multiple Pet Beasts, will not excessively waste their Spiritual Power.

After all, the more Pet Beasts one contracts, the greater the mental burden on the Sea of Consciousness.

Furthermore, there is also the possibility of Spiritual Power decay.

Contracting too many powerful Pet Beasts at that point could instead become a mental burden for the Beastmaster, leading to the collapse of their body.

Of course, Gu Ming was still young and in the prime of his life, so he could boldly form a contract with a new Pet Beast.

’Since the system said I have a chance to condense my Divine Sense, I’d better prepare properly.’

This led to the common method most people used to condense their Divine Sense.

Generally, it involved drinking daily supplements that replenish Spiritual Power, coupled with constant stimulation and prodding from a Spiritual Technique.

One would imagine themselves as a Cyan Pine, spreading their branches and leaves.

The more lush the branches and leaves, the more Spiritual Power one would have.

The fruit grown amidst these lush green branches is the Divine Sense itself.

However, the method above was to liken oneself to a Cyan Pine.

Gu Ming only used the Cyan Pine as a model; his foundation was still his own human Spiritual Power.

Because of this, his path of advancement was subtly different.

’This isn’t in any textbook. I’ll have to see how the system describes it.’

Gu Ming first took out an old textbook and looked up the section in the Cyan Pine Unmoving Technique about the method for a Beastmaster to condense their Divine Sense when advancing to Two-star.

Ordinary people wanting to condense their Divine Sense had to train their Cultivation Technique to the Great Success Realm, allowing the Cyan Pine in their Sea of Consciousness to grow to a certain size. Without a sufficient spiritual foundation, they could not nurture a Spiritual Fruit.

But for Gu Ming, who had numerous Micro Arrays bolstering his powerful spirit, the threshold to form his Divine Sense was lowered by an entire Realm.

After finishing the book and glancing at the system’s message, he knew what to do.

「You reviewed the key points of the Cyan Pine Skill. It turns out that the new era’s Cyan Pine Skill naturally uses new types of Arrays to help novice Beastmasters condense their Divine Sense.」

「Some people like to condense their Divine Sense into things they like. You, however, have already condensed a Sword of Spiritual Sense before. The most convenient method is to inscribe a sword-type Array in your Sea of Consciousness and form a Divine Sense Sword Body.」

「Currently, the most suitable Array for you is, naturally, the Old Deng’s Health Sword Formation. Other Sword Arrays are too sharp and could easily injure your fragile Sea of Consciousness.」

Gu Ming was speechless when he saw the name of this formation.

’I really want to roast the system. Can’t it give me something a young person would actually use?’

Unfortunately, the system insisted on training him as if he were a 50-year-old Old Deng, and that couldn’t be changed.

No matter how much Gu Ming protested, there was nothing he could do about it.

’Whatever. Old Deng it is.’

’Health-focused is fine, too. There won’t be any obvious side effects, and I won’t need to pop any Elixirs to help my Cultivation.’

With that thought, Gu Ming no longer cared.

Then, Gu Ming closed his eyes, immersing himself in the Sea of Consciousness within his mind and slowly constructing the Array with his own Spiritual Power.

Compared to the last time, Gu Ming could now conjure an increasing number of Arrays with the stirring of a gentle breeze.

These Arrays were minuscule and exquisite, their number gradually growing to twelve in total.

Among them, there were now six Old Deng’s Health Arrays, and the remaining six slots were filled with the Health Sword Arrays he had comprehended from the system.

「Ten minutes, half an hour, one hour.」

His parents, suspecting their son hadn’t woken up yet, came to his door and knocked.

Cyan Treasure had already sensed its master’s state. It nudged the door open a crack and, hissing in its serpent tongue, told the family not to make noise—its master was breaking through.

"What? Our son is breaking through?"

HISS!

Be quiet!

Cyan Treasure hissed urgently, its tongue flicking.

The two people outside the door, along with the two Pet Beasts behind them, fell silent and peered through the crack.

They saw Gu Ming sitting cross-legged on his bed, drenched in sweat and exuding the aura of a Sword Dao Formation.

The old couple was both shocked and delighted by the sight.

「Another half hour passed.」

The six Sword Arrays finished forming. A gentle breeze stirred in Gu Ming’s Sea of Consciousness, creating natural ripples.

These ripples all converged in the center, crashing into each other and creating tumultuous waves.

With every crash, Gu Ming would let out a muffled grunt, feeling as if a sword had slashed across his chest.

This made his parents, peeking from outside, break out in an anxious sweat, their hearts clenched with worry.

"The breakthrough for the Cyan Pine Skill is this dangerous?"

"What is he practicing? Don’t tell me he inscribed a Sword Array in his brain?"

The commotion was not small, even startling his grandfather. The old man pushed the couple aside and pressed his own face to the crack in the door to watch his grandson.

Six muffled thuds echoed, and six strands of Sword Qi rose up.

Gu Ming opened his eyes. The tumultuous waves receded, leaving a sharp, silver shortsword hanging in the center of his Sea of Consciousness.

This sword was Gu Ming’s Ultimate Thought.

Just by looking at the sword, Gu Ming felt his entire body become sharp.

It was as if he could transform his body into a blade and slash swiftly at his foes.

’What is this feeling?’

With a flicker of his will, Gu Ming’s mind attached to the Sword Body. He then felt his consciousness expand outward, extending beyond his physical form to see a microscopic view of the world around him.

The range of his will extended to the two Pet Beasts in the room, allowing him to perceive every one of their blood vessels, meridians, and even the state of their Dantians.

Next, Gu Ming’s perception swept toward the three people outside the door. Their eyes felt as if they had been pricked, and they squeezed them shut.

Inside the room, Cyan Treasure had already raised its pointed snake-like tail, wagging it back and forth in excitement.

It sensed the change in its master’s aura.

His restrained, health-focused aura had suddenly transformed, as if he’d had an epiphany, becoming like a sharp, unsheathed sword.

But after this sword was drawn, its sharp edge was only present for an instant. The feeling it gave Cyan Treasure afterward was as gentle, soft, and harmless as a spring breeze.

Outside the door, the three also felt a sense of contradiction.

Gu Ming’s Spiritual Power had clearly broken through. His gaze was sharp, yet it also held the steady, mature air of an old hand.

What a contradictory sensation.

A sword is inherently a sharp object, so how was it that with Gu Ming, they sensed the twilight aura of an old Sword Saint who had hung up his armor to retire to a quiet life?

And he was only eighteen years old!

How truly bizarre.