Celestial Peak

Chapter 5: Cosmic Foundation

There is a place where no life could exist in, it was known as the Void. The Void was a place where darkness is spread all over and where light could never hope to penetrate.

In that place, life was something of a taboo. The Void forbids for life to exist, so in the slim chance a living being wandered to that place, the rule of the plane will destroy that being and turn it into smithereens.

However, there was one occasion where a being survived The Void. Although this being was a soul, it survived the Void nonetheless. This being was a man, and it came from the Celestial Spirit Realm right after destroying his era.

This soul was Wang Ling. In the void, he was in a state where he was both alive and at the same time dead. His consciousness at that time was not present and the only thing protecting him from the rule of the void was the scripture that contained the laws of the ancients the Overturning Nine Heaven Scriptures.

When Wang Ling destroyed the chains of the realm, the scripture dragged his soul into this lifeless plane. The scripture does not have sentience but it had laws, and these laws were designed so that anyone who could find it and uses it will be given a second chance in life.

The law dictates that when the soul of the user is unshackled by his or her fleshy body, he or she will be brought to the Void.

As for the reason why Wang Ling was brought to the Void, it was so that he could escape being dragged into the yellow spring roads. Once he enters the Void, life and death became trivial and his soul managed to wait until the right time when he could reincarnate.

Thus, the scripture did what it was designed to do. After Wang Ling's death, it brought his soul to the Void where it could rest and recuperate. Soon after his soul recuperated, it brought him back to the realm where he could live as a human once again.

However, in the process of Wang Ling's reincarnation, his soul unknowingly became dormant. With his soul being dormant, the job of the scripture was not complete.

It did what it was meant to do and helped him recover.

It helped Wang Ling so he could one day regain his consciousness. The scripture redirected the spirit qi that entered Wang Ling's body and poured it to his soul. It did this so that he could recover his consciousness faster.

However, this did not continue without a price. By redirecting every spirit qi, Wang Ling's physical body slowly deteriorated over time. His qi pillars slowly turned desolate as every spirit qi was redirected to his soul so he could wake up faster.

Eventually, Wang Ling woke up and regained his senses. When he did, the scripture burrowed itself to the depths of Wang Ling's soul until the time it could fulfill the second law it was given.

The second law was simpler than the first one.

And that's to bestow the user a cultivation technique of the higher realm. However, for the secret art to appear. The scripture needed a catalyst that can be used to give Wang Ling the cultivation technique.

With that being the case, the scripture waited for Wang Ling to reconstruct his qi pillars and once the qi pillars were just about to be completed. The scriptures made its move like the law it contained instructed it to do so.

Using the spirit qi in the qi pillars as 'paper' and the dust as 'ink'. The scriptures gave birth to the Overturning Nine Heaven Art. With the materials coming from Wang Ling's own body. The new cultivation technique was assimilated by his still weak body without a problem.

After that, the job of the scripture that broke the chains of the heavens is done. The second chance it gave and the cultivation technique has been given.

Opening his eyes, Wang Ling had a massive headache and vague information he had never known about constantly flooded his mind. The information contained two different things.

One was the significant relation about him being able to reincarnate in this life and the other was about the cultivation technique he was gifted with.

The Overturning Nine Heaven Scripture bringing his soul into the Void so he could recuperate, and how he reincarnated and awoke through its help was deeply etched inside his head.

The information was unbelievable, but because of the properties of the scripture being heaven-defying, Wang Ling chose to believe the information he was given. Besides, he didn't even know how he got back to the Celestial Spirit Realm in the first place, so he had no reason not to believe it.

The other part of the information was about the cultivation technique he had received.

In a moment of silence, Wang Ling assimilated this information and turned it into his memory bit by bit. He gathered the pieces of information lingering inside his head and turned it into a whole.

"So that's how I ended up here." he quietly mumbled to himself as he finally understood how and why he reincarnated. Reincarnation was a confusing concept and it was hard to understand the logic behind it.

The thing he had been thinking so hard about since reincarnating in this era was why and how he did it. Now that he got a complete and detailed explanation of how and why it happened, Wang Ling felt satisfied.

Wang Ling was now sure how his soul found its way to the new era. The information even mentioned why he was unconscious for nineteen years and how he recovered from such a state.

An overwhelming sense of gratitude filled his heart.

Overall, Wang Ling could do nothing but say his thanks to the scripture. It was the reason why he was alive right now, and as for the incident that happened when he was cultivating? That was something irrelevant now.

He was alive and that's all that matters. Besides, the scriptures didn't mean to injure him, it was technically his fault for interfering with the creation process of the cultivation technique that he experienced the backlash of the spirit qi.

[I am still narrow-minded] he berated himself.

Looking around, Wang Ling noticed that he was not in the library anymore. But rather inside his room.

[Someone must have found me when I collapsed.]

When he collapsed, he was the only one present in the library. So that would mean, that someone must have found his unconscious body and brought him here.

He was the only one present in his room. However, he could faintly smell medicine in the air so he was sure that Physician Mo and Alchemist Yu must have paid him a visit when he collapsed.

The two old doctors should have given him some basic treatment.

Sitting atop his bed, Wang Ling started looking around. After this, he didn't waste any time and sat cross-legged before meditating.

Observing the state of his body, Wang Ling sighed as he lamented about his destroyed qi pillars. Qi pillars could be reconstructed, but to do so, he will need time and patience.

A single qi pillar can be rebuilt in three days. Although that seemed fast, Wang Ling still found it displeasing. If one qi pillar takes three days to be rebuilt, then he will need twenty-seven days to fully complete his nine qi pillars.

That was almost a month. The fact that he had been holding back in cultivation for a whole month was enough. He had acted enough and was slowly establishing himself as an independent person in the family.

He had spent the first month of his awakening setting up an image of getting better so in the second month he'll be able to cultivate diligently.

With his start already being too late when compared to other people. His body had long passed the appropriate age to cultivate, Wang Ling could not wait to cultivate any longer.

Thankfully, Wang Ling now has other methods to reconstruct his qi pillars faster. And that method lies in the cultivation technique he got from the scripture.

Wang Ling thought about it and got up from the bed. He didn't know what time it was so he went over the window to check if it was day or night. Walking over, he found darkness looming over the kingdom.

He lifted his head and saw that it was actually about time the sun to rise. Sunrise was the perfect time for him, if it was already night, Wang Ling would need to wait until the next morning. Thankfully, he woke up in the most appropriate time.

Wang Ling formed a smile on his face. One of the purest forms of spirit qi was about to descend so it would be best if he moved now. The key to the second method he knows of lies in this pure spirit qi.

This spirit qi would be very helpful in rebuilding his qi pillars so he wasted no time and immediately sat cross-legged. 

However, he didn't start attracting the spirit qi of the world immediately. Instead, what he did was start recalling the cultivation technique he was bestowed with.

He scoured the sea that is his mind and easily found the memory he wanted to access. The words Overturning Nine Heaven Art appeared in his mind.

"There it is!"

In actuality he had already decided to cultivate this art the moment the information about it started pouring in his mind, this was his trump card. He found this cultivation technique as formidable.

From what he could tell. This was technique was suitable for his current physique. His current situation where his qi pillars were destroyed. With the nine qi pillars missing, he didn't have any place he could store the spirit qi he will absorb in the future.

Which was a vital problem if he wants to cultivate.

Every cultivation technique was different. They have different effects and they use different methods to be cultivated. However, they still have a resemblance to one another and that's through the utilization of qi pillars.

Qi pillars were known as a kind of storage for spirit qi. They exist to house the spirit qi a cultivator absorbs, if they are gone, then cultivation would be arduous, impossible even.

This is the reason why qi pillars are so important and were treated as the foundation of cultivation. Qi pillars may seem easy but they were very complicated.

However, from the thousands of cultivation manuals, Wang Ling had read. Only one consists of a different method of cultivation. This cultivation technique requires a set of destroyed qi pillars to be reconstructed.

Normally, one would avoid the destruction of qi pillars because once they were destroyed, reconstructing would take a lot of resources and it would become frail compared to the first set of qi pillars that were originally present in the body.

This unique cultivation technique was the Overturning Nine Heaven Art.

From the information he was given by the scriptures, the Overturning Nine Heaven Art has 9-level. The first level alone was bizarre and outlandish for him.

The first level of the technique was called the Cosmic Foundation . This level instructs him to destroy his qi pillars and after doing so, he will need nine days to reconstruct a foundation that can withstand the falling down of the sky.

"Let's try this technique then."

The nine days of qi pillar reconstruction alone was tempting so Wang Ling decided to start cultivating the technique. If what it said was true, then he would not be needing twenty-seven days of constructing his qi pillars.

Wang Ling noticed that the sky was turning bright so he didn't dally any longer. A few seconds later, the bright rays from the sun appeared. Spirit qi that was considerably purer than the norm washed his the insides of his body.

Swoosh!

Wang Ling immediately circulated the Overturning Nine Heaven Art and greedily started sucking in the spirit qi. He directed the spirit qi the way he comprehended from the art.

The spirit qi that entered his body whirred. The spirit qi howled as the descend of a much purer spirit qi commenced while the first qi pillar was slowly reconstructed.

Qi pillars were white. They looked untouched and will only ever change depending on the cultivation technique the cultivator practices.

However, at this moment, the color of the qi pillar he was constructing was different as it was gold in color. It was supposed to be impossible to alter the color of a qi pillar until it was lit up and cultivated.

However, Wang Ling was not normal. He was cultivating while reconstructing his qi pillars (foundation), and the goal of this reconstruction was to achieve the most stable of foundations.

A foundation that could support the skies. And to construct such a thing, the presence of supreme spirit qi was a must.

While he was cultivating the technique he noticed the pureness of the spirit qi flowing in his meridians and determined that it was supreme spirit qi.

The qi pillars he was building began to form almost immediately after the supreme spirit qi descended. The construction rate of the qi pillar was so fast that even Wang Ling was left speechless.

Half an hour later, the pure surge of spirit qi coming from the rising sun vanished.

Shining with a golden color, Wang Ling's qi pillar towered at a height of fifteen meters. Smiling, Wang Ling felt delighted at the sight of his golden qi pillar.

"This qi pillar is created by supreme spirit qi? Now that's pretty interesting."

Wang Ling praised the newly built qi pillar. He opened his eyes and saw the passing of the pure spirit qi.

He stops cultivating altogether after creating the first qi pillar. The process of constructing a qi pillar needs the presence of pure spirit qi obtained from the rising sun. Without the ability to cultivate properly. It would be meaningless to cultivate any further.

Wang Ling would need to repeat the process of reconstruction eight more times. To cultivate, nine pillars were needed.

It would take him another week to complete the entire reconstruction process but this was a lot better compared to the normal process where he needs twenty-seven days.

Smiling, Wang Ling felt that things were finally starting to move. Standing up from the floor, he stepped out of his room.

He went out to see Butler Sun so he can talk to him about some serious matter.