Chapter 37 9 Orifices Connected, Spirit Force Turns into a Stream
This had been his ultimate goal for the past month.
However, Lu Ye found that although much of the Barrier-breaking Fruit\'s medicinal effect had been expended, a substantial amount still lingered. If left unattended now, not to mention the potential impact on his future cultivation, at the very least, the remaining medicinal effect would be wasted.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om
This fruit was indeed a rare and valuable item; it would be a pity to waste it.
So, after only a slight hesitation, he began to mobilize his own Spirit Force, attempting to pinpoint the position of the 11th orifice.
The sect master had only helped him identify the location of up to his 9th Spiritual Orifice since, in the sect master\'s view, given Lu Ye Yiye\'s talent, even with a sufficient supply of Spirit-Nurturing Pills, it would likely take another two to three years to reach Spirit Stream Level 1.
It wasn\'t that the sect master looked down on him, but rather that his talent was too low, and his cultivation efficiency was indeed very poor.
Yet, the sect master hadn\'t expected that Lu Ye would be able to open up to the 9th orifice within just a month, and that was with a shortage of pills and medicine. With enough Spirit-Nurturing Pills, he would have progressed even faster.
By now, even without outside help, with Lu Ye\'s own reserves of Spirit Force, he could locate the orifices himself, though not with the ease of the sect master.
In the meantime, Lu Ye had taken the time to study the Golden Cicada Carefree Method, so he had a rough idea of the subsequent orifices\' locations; as long as his luck wasn\'t too awful, locating the positions of the orifices shouldn\'t be a problem.
After about one hour of effort, Lu Ye finally pinpointed the location of the 11th orifice. He quickly directed the remaining medicinal effect of the Barrier-breaking Fruit towards this orifice, and the barrier of the 11th Spiritual Orifice quickly dissolved like before.
A few dozen breaths later, the barrier of the 11th Spiritual Orifice broke, and not much of the medicinal effect of the Barrier-breaking Fruit remained.
Lu Ye continued to locate the position of the 11th orifice.
About an hour and a half later, Lu Ye took a deep breath, opened his eyes, and at this moment, he could no longer feel the effect of the Barrier-breaking Fruit. The warm flow in his lower abdomen had also vanished without a trace. The barrier of the 11th orifice had not broken through but had loosened significantly.
This would make breaking through the barrier much easier when he resumed his cultivation in the future, so it was not entirely without gain.
One Barrier-breaking Fruit allowed him to open up two orifices, and the barrier of the 11th orifice also dissolved a lot, a tremendous gain.
Lu Ye suppressed the thought of immediately achieving the Spirit Stream Realm, because he faintly felt that while advancing to the Spirit Stream now might be successful, if he could cultivate his newly opened 9th orifice to a full state, achieving the Spirit Stream would be somewhat easier.
At this point, he was in no rush.
He walked aside, skinned and gutted a dead rabbit, started a fire to roast it, and feasted heartily.
In the following days, Lu Ye massively hunted nearby animals, eating a surprisingly large amount daily, and everything he consumed turned into his blood Qi energy, then refined through the Essence Refinement-Qi Conversion, and channeled into his 9th Spiritual Orifice.
About six days later, in the cave, Lu Ye sat cross-legged.
Although he had eaten a lot of beast meat these past days, instead of gaining weight, his body seemed even leaner, and his once-fitting clothes now hung a bit loose.
This was the result of Essence Refinement-Qi Conversion. Too much blood Qi energy had been refined into Spirit Force, reflected in his physical appearance.
Despite becoming leaner, Lu Ye felt no discomfort but instead felt stronger, his body sculpted with clearly defined muscles. Describing him as muscular would be most apt.
He had finally cultivated the 9th Spiritual Orifice to its full capacity.
After striving for so many days, today was finally the season of harvest, and Lu Ye could not help but feel excited.
Taking several deep breaths to calm his mind, Lu Ye followed the circulation pathway of the Golden Cicada Carefree Method. He initiated the spirit force of the Root Spiritual Orifice, channeling it into the 2nd Spiritual Orifice, driving the spirit force of the 2nd Orifice along with it into the 3rd Spiritual Orifice, then from there into the 4th Spiritual Orifice, and so on...
until the 9th Spiritual Orifice!
The location of the 9th Spiritual Orifice was near the Root Spiritual Orifice. After the Spiritual Energy surged into the 9th Spiritual Orifice, Lu Ye guided it back to the Root Spiritual Orifice. Thus, the 9 Major Spiritual Orifices were interconnected, forming a closed loop, known as the Minor Circumambulation!
If the spirit force previously stored in the spiritual orifices was like stagnant water, now it had turned into flowing water, beginning from the Root Spiritual Orifice, flowing through the other 8 Major Spiritual Orifices, and back to the Root Spiritual Orifice, circulating relentlessly.
Lu Ye suddenly experienced a rather different sensation.
However, he did not stop there. Instead, he continued to guide the spirit force, repeatedly practicing the Minor Circumambulation method, over and over.
In the 9 Major Spiritual Orifices, the flow of the spirit force grew faster and faster until it broke through a limit. At that moment, Lu Ye\'s senses buzzed. Even with his eyes closed, he was engulfed by a brilliant whiteness. Soon after, as the white light faded, his senses sharpened, and he felt an overwhelming sense of sublimation.
A visible ripple of energy, centered on Lu Ye, thunderously spread out in all directions, causing sand and stones to fly around inside the cave.
The Spirit Stream Realm was achieved!
Lu Ye did not rush to open his eyes, instead quietly sensing his current state.
Although he was no longer actively guiding the flow of spirit force, the spirit force within his body continued to flow ceaselessly through the 9 Major Spiritual Orifices, murmuring like a stream, cycling over and over, practicing the Minor Circumambulation.
This was the hallmark of achieving the Spirit Stream Realm.
Unless Lu Ye died or he encountered depletion of spirit force and shattering of the spiritual orifices, from now on, the flow of his own spirit force would never cease.
Slowly opening his eyes, he raised a palm and slightly stimulated his spirit force, which immediately brought forth a faint brilliant glow in the palm of his hand. This was the glow of spirit force, yet the spirit force he felt now was distinctly different from before.
Although the storage of his spirit force had not increased compared to before, his current spirit force was clearly more destructive.
This fact was distinctly felt by Lu Ye, and he felt that his strength had improved more than twofold compared to before. If he were to fight the big tiger now, Lu Ye was confident he could take it down without the help of a Spirit Talisman.
After some contemplation, Lu Ye understood the reason.
Although he had opened many spiritual orifices previously, he could only stimulate the spirit force of a single spiritual orifice at a time. If the spirit force in that orifice was depleted, he would have to stimulate another. He couldn\'t stimulate two or more simultaneously.
But now, with the 9 orifices interconnected and the spirit force cycling with the Minor Circumambulation, the spirit force he stimulated was not merely from a single spiritual orifice anymore. It was the power of the 9 orifices.
Of course, its destructive power wasn\'t as great as ninefold, but a twofold difference was there.
As for the 11th Orifice, although it had been opened, it fell under the category of the Spirit Stream Level 2, separate from the Level 1 of the 9 orifices, and thus couldn\'t bring him much enhancement at the moment. At best, it would just increase his total storage of spirit force in the future.
Ultimately, the cultivation of the Spirit Stream Realm is a process from quantitative change to qualitative change. By opening enough spiritual orifices and allowing the spirit force to pass through these orifices, practicing Minor Circumambulation, one\'s strength would undergo a soaring increase!
Prior to this, the maximum effect of opening orifices was to enhance one\'s storage of spirit force, not directly increasing strength.
This was common knowledge in cultivation, and every cultivator would have it taught by a mentor at the beginning of their cultivation journey. However, Lu Ye, stranded in the Spirit Stream battlefield, bereft of support, had no one to teach him such knowledge. Thus, he had to rely on his own explorations and insights.