Chapter 21 Spiritual Sense

Gu Jinlai chose high-carbon steel.

It wasn't as effective as titanium alloy, but it was simpler in composition and cheaper.

He planned to equip all one thousand elite members of the Gu family with these gears in the future, hence cost-effectiveness was of utmost importance.

"Visualization Great Sun."

Gu Jinlai took a deep breath.

On Qing Lian, Qingguang didn't pour into any of the orbs but shone upon the consciousness.

In an instant, information about the sun and carbon steel surged wildly in Gu Jinlai's mind.

He did not miss any detail he had ever come across in his lifetime.

Even the basic information about the structure of the sun broadcasted on televisions in some dramas wasn't omitted.

In ten seconds, his brain seemed to have completed a memory enhancement.

Furthermore, this enhanced information reflected clearly in his mind, making it as easy for him to understand as knowing that 1+1 equals 2.

Taking advantage of the moment when the structure of the Great Sun was exceptionally clear,

magnetic fields, plasma, gravitational confinement, proton reaction chains, helium formed from the fusion of hydrogen atoms, carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle reactions…

These pieces of information flowed continuously in his mind, over and over again.

Gradually, a realistic and rational Great Sun that radiated an intense and brilliant aura was visualized in Gu Jinlai's spiritual world, gradually guiding the vibrations that leaked from the depths of his soul to resonate in unison with it, forming spirit.

Subsequently, as the Grand Sun Nine Refinement Visualization Method operated, his essence and Qi began to burn.

Because of the Co-spirit state, as the essence and Qi burned, the intangible and imperceptible spirit, which could only exist as a concept, was ignited into Spiritual Fire. It then merged with the simulated Great Sun from the visualization, transforming into a "real" Great Sun that interfered with his spirit.

The relationship among essence Qi, spirit, and the visualized Great Sun was akin to the material, the ignition device, and the energy release formula.

Like hydrogen, which is merely a flammable gas when burned with fire, an energy release method,

if it were to undergo thermonuclear reaction, its power could be enhanced countless times.

As his spirit refined reality with essence Qi as the fuel, and spirit evolving the "Great Sun," his spirit went from virtual to real, and his Void was Refined into Reality, becoming Divine Thought.

Divine Thought...

It was like the tentacles of thought.

Or an extension of consciousness.

In an instant, Gu Jinlai felt as though his "field of vision" had entered a brand new world.

Not only was his perception of his own body honed to the utmost precision, but he could also reflect on the surrounding outside world.

Although the range was limited and the "image" became more blurred the further away it was, this point of view had no blind spots, a full 360 degrees.

If a stone were placed within his reflective range, he could clearly "see" all four sides of the stone, top and bottom, front and back.

"Divine Thought."

Gu Jinlai was blessed with a sudden clarity and understood the true nature of this power.

With the emergence of Divine Thought, his observation of the body reached an extreme.

He could clearly see the True Qi cultivated by the Great Sun Devilish Brilliance Skill and the Essence Qi that had refined the body being rapidly consumed, transforming into Divine Thought and causing his Divine Thought to rapidly grow stronger.

Furthermore, unlike the Divine Thought achieved by Refining God Immortals, the Divine Thought of the Heavenly Master Lineage possessed a certain "spirituality"!

It contained the power of the soul.

Because of the presence of Spiritual Power, his Divine Thought was more "solid and substantial," far from the freedom and agility depicted by the Refining God Immortals.

"No wonder, although both practice Refining God, Divinity Transformation Immortals can kill with sword control, whereas Heavenly Masters can only rely on Soul Secret Techniques."

Ultimately, the Divine Thought of Heavenly Masters was "heavy" due to the added element of spirit, too "heavy" to fly.

It moved sluggishly, so how could it possibly be used for sword controlling and killing enemies?

Besides, he realized he had oversimplified his thoughts.

Due to their "heaviness," Heavenly Masters' Divine Thought was not agile enough. Trying to guide Blood Exchange Martial Artists to cultivate True Qi like a Refining God Immortal would not be an easy task.

They were only suited for the slow Artifact Refining and Beast Taming.

"In recent years, Refining God has replaced Heavenly Master as the orthodox path of cultivation. To distinguish the difference between the two, the Divine Thought of Heavenly Masters has been forced to be renamed Spiritual Sense..."

Gu Jinlai finely attuned to the spirit carried within his Divine Thought.

The term Spiritual Sense was indeed more fitting than Divine Thought.

At the same time, he examined the state of his body.

"The consumption of Essence Qi… is not as significant as I imagined."

His physique and True Qi were indeed severely depleted.

But they hadn't dropped below the Hugging Pill stage.

It would only take him a month or two to recover.

Such an outcome...

"In the Grand Sun Nine Refinements Visualization Method, the Great Sun is the foundation of cultivation. Perhaps it's due to the brilliance of the Great Sun and the high efficiency of refinement that enabled me to quickly complete the condensation of Divine Thought… Spiritual Sense."

Like turning iron ore into weapons.

While others need to blast it with intense fire, melt it at a high temperature, and repeatedly hammer it, he simply liquified the iron ore into molten iron and poured it into a mold to form a treasure sword.

The whole process was completed in one stroke, so naturally, the depletion of Essence Qi was negligible.

Gu Jinlai's spirit turned toward the little figure on the Qing Lian.

A new orb had emerged beside the figure.

And this orb...

"Deep Purple."

Gu Jinlai was somewhat surprised.

He had some guesses about the colors of the orbs.

Green orbs correspond to Qi Refinement, Gang Condensation, and Hugging Pill according to the depth of their color.

Blue orbs correspond to Refining God, Divinity Transformation, and Primordial Spirit according to the depth of their color.

Since the Grand Sun Nine Refinements Visualization Method had nine layers and could be practiced up to the peak of Primordial Spirit, it should be deep blue in color.

But now it turned purple...

And it was Deep Purple.

"Is it because my Visualization Great Sun fundamentally changed the potential upper limit of this cultivation technique!?"

Gu Jinlai had an epiphany.

Combined with the fact that he developed Spiritual Sense with a negligible loss of Essence Qi...

This was the change brought by the leveling up of the cultivation technique.

"If it's only consumption of this level, is there a possibility that I could maintain my own cultivation while transitioning to cultivate as a Heavenly Master?"

Gu Jinlai turned his gaze toward the Beast Taming chapter derived from the Grand Sun Nine Refinement Visualization Method.

Heavenly Masters had considered more than once whether it was possible to use visualization to lead spirit beasts through evolution to evolve humans, but without exception, all had ended in failure.

One cannot co-spirit with oneself.

Nor can one do so with the help of another.

The key to co-spirit lies in the spiritual disparity between the two parties.

Inanimate materials possess the weakest spirituality, followed by wild beasts, which is why the forging of Treasure Weapons and Spiritual Artifacts is easier compared to nurturing Exotic Beasts and Spirit Beasts.

After all, humans are the All Things Spiritual Leader.

"Cultivation, in the end, is about Refining Essence into Qi, Refining Qi into Spirit."

The True Qi of a Qi Refining Realm cultivator is the condensed Essence within the body, which nourishes the body after becoming True Qi, and they cycle endlessly.

Once both have grown strong enough to achieve Qi Refining and no leaks in the True Body, one starts nourishing the mind, hiding the Spirit, and nurturing the Divine Thought until it arises naturally.

Once Divine Thought is formed, dig deeper to unleash the body's potential, nurturing more Divine Thought, and progress further to cultivate Yin God and Primordial Spirit.

"Compared to the cultivation lineage where Essence Qi Spirit supports and cycles endlessly, the way of Heavenly Master Dao continually takes from the body, upsetting the balance of Essence Qi Spirit. Even nurturing and refining the body is like a drop of water on a hot stone, no wonder it was phased out by the times."

Gu Jinlai shook his head, "Cultivators in this world cannot, like in novels, use the heaven and earth as a furnace, the body as a great pill, refine the power of heaven and earth to replenish themselves, and draw on the cycle of heaven and earth for endless life."

Right now, his consumption while Refining Qi and God Transformation was minimal...

If he could nourish life properly, perhaps he could replenish what was lost during each Qi Refining and God Transformation.

"Each refinement of the Grand Sun Nine Refinement Visualization Method extracts more spirituality from the soul and increases the co-spirit frequency. The stronger the spirituality and the higher the co-spirit efficiency, the stronger the Great Sun's capability that ultimately evolves, and thus more efficiency in refining further Spiritual Sense..."

Gu Jinlai carefully perceived for a moment and quickly realized how astonishingly efficient the Great Sun's refinement rate derived from his Spiritual Fire was.

Threefold? Tenfold? Thirtyfold? A hundredfold?

No!

It was almost a one-to-one input to refinement ratio.

This efficiency...

Even those at the ninth refinement could not compare to him.

In other words, had he effectively reached the Cultivation Perfection of this method?

To verify the guess in his heart, Gu Jinlai immediately ended his cultivation practice and left the courtyard.

"Master,"

At the entrance to the courtyard, Su Nanxing opened his eyes, "Have you succeeded?"

"I have transitioned to cultivate as a Heavenly Master while still in the form of Refining God, naturally accomplishing it at the first attempt,"

said Gu Jinlai.

Su Nanxing nodded, "Master is right."

"Bring two people skilled in forging with me to the outer courtyard."

Gu Jinlai gave an order.

By the time he arrived at the outer courtyard, Gu Chaoyang and two other unknown descendants of the Gu family had hurried over, waiting at the side.

Here, there was a casting stage.

"Patriarch,"

The few greeted him with respect.

"Ignite,"

Gu Jinlai instructed, looking at the embryo plate of the chest part of the plate armor already prepared on the casting stage.

The casting stage was quickly activated, and the two Gu family disciples with blacksmithing skills stepped forward to work the armor.

Gu Jinlai gave instructions on the proportions of carbon content on the side.

An hour later, the breastplate had been preliminarily forged.

At that moment, Gu Jinlai also completed his visualization of the "High-carbon Steel" chest armor.

As the chest armor was forged, the visualization pattern was infused into the newly born chest armor through the Spiritual Sense.

Vaguely, Gu Jinlai felt as if he could perceive the life of this part of the chest armor.

It was a resonance that was indescribable and unfathomable.

Co-spirit!

The Co-spirit frequency is related to the similarity between the visualized object and the actual item.

Spirituality, co-spirit, and Spiritual Sense were, in the terms of the telecommunications industry, akin to signal transmission speed, signal transmission success rate, and the duration that transmission could be sustained.

You need a seed to download, but it won't work without download speed.

You have a seed, but without a download speed, it won't work.

You have download speed and a seed, but if it can only download for a minute or two, it still won't work.

Because he knew the structure of high-carbon steel very well, Gu Jinlai's co-spirit rate with the chest armor was extremely high.

As the spiritual power contained in his Spiritual Sense poured in, the originally weakly spiritual chest armor seemed to "awaken," given consciousness and life, and under Gu Jinlai's guidance, followed his instructions on the structural composition of high-carbon steel to adjust and grow until it underwent a Transformation.

"Heavenly Master Artifact Refining."

This scene, witnessed by Gu Chaoyang and the others, left them afraid to even breathe loudly.

In less than the time it took for a stick of incense to burn, Gu Jinlai stopped.

He felt a weariness in his Spirit.

The consumption of his Spiritual Sense was significant.

For he had just become a Heavenly Master, and the Grand Sun Nine Refinement Visualization Method was not a Martial Arts Skill, so no matter how divine, it could not allow him to create a Treasure Weapon in a day.

"Forge the other parts of the armor with the materials I mentioned just now,"

Gu Jinlai said.

"Yes."

The two replied, somewhat excitedly.

Gu Jinlai, carrying the chest armor, returned to the Cultivation Room, where he used the meditation section of the Grand Sun Nine Refinement Visualization Method to recover his Spiritual Sense.

"The growth of Spiritual Sense isn't overnight; that requires successive Qi Refining and God Transformation. However, I can raise the level of the Grand Sun Nine Refinement Visualization Method and gain more spirituality,"

Gu Jinlai's gaze turned to the deep purple light ball beside the spiritual self within his mental world.

"Charge me up!"