Chapter 372: Spirit Gathering

Wang Lin swept his gaze, and the figure of the woman in the setting sun drifted away, entering the mountain gate of the Soul Refining Sect.

"This person looks somewhat familiar…" Wang Lin glanced at the figure, pondered for a moment, but couldn't recall where he had seen her before.

He moved his body, floating down from the peak, and soon arrived at the middle section of the mountain.

The middle-aged man was sitting on the ground, cultivating cross-legged. When Wang Lin landed, he opened his eyes and casually swept his gaze, but immediately his eyes narrowed, and he looked sharply at Wang Lin.

"Eh!! You've reached the Medium Stage of Foundation Establishment?" The man's face showed shock.

Wang Lin sighed inwardly. After his Primordial Spirit collapsed, he couldn't hide his cultivation, which allowed this Core Formation Cultivator to see through him.

"I need to restore my Primordial Spirit as soon as possible, otherwise, it will definitely be troublesome in the future," Wang Lin thought to himself, while outwardly displaying a respectful expression, saying, "This Disciple was on the verge of a Breakthrough before, and after cultivating the spiritual energy here, I fortunately succeeded and reached the Medium Stage of Foundation Establishment."

The middle-aged man remained expressionless, but inwardly he pondered. There was nothing suspicious about the other party's words, but this person's cultivation speed was simply too fast.

He gave Wang Lin a deep look, memorizing his features, and asked, "What brings you here?"

Wang Lin cupped his fists and said, "This Disciple wishes to exchange for an Immortal Cave with more abundant spiritual energy!"

The middle-aged man frowned and said, "Cultivators fear being too hasty. If you Cultivate like this, your Dao foundation will be unstable, and you will never reach Core Formation in this life!"

Wang Lin was silent for a moment, then said, "This Disciple understands, but I still hope Senior will grant my request."

The middle-aged man looked at Wang Lin and said, "Since you insist, I won't interfere further. However, exchanging rooms requires an additional Mid-Grade Spirit Stone."

Wang Lin forced a bitter smile, showing a pained expression, and handed over a Mid-Grade Spirit Stone.

The middle-aged man took the Spirit Stone and said, "Give me your token."

Wang Lin handed over his token. After the middle-aged man put it away, he took out another one from his Storage Pouch and said, "The smaller the room number, the more spiritual energy there is." With that, he tossed the token to Wang Lin.

After receiving it, Wang Lin saw that the token read 803. He quickly thanked him and turned to leave.

Only after he left did the middle-aged man's eyes flash, and he muttered, "Strange!" He moved his body, transforming into a long rainbow, and headed straight for Immortal Cave 1090.

In a flash, he arrived outside the Immortal Cave, stepped inside, and observed carefully for a long time, but found no clues, which made him puzzled.

"Could it be that I'm being overly suspicious, and this person really was on the verge of a Breakthrough, which is why his cultivation advanced so quickly?" The middle-aged man pondered for a moment, then walked out of the Immortal Cave, resolving to observe this person named Qing Mu more closely in the future.

Wang Lin held the token and flew up the mountain, finding Immortal Cave 803. This Immortal Cave was the same size as 1090, with nothing extraordinary about it, except that on the ground, there was a small Formation set up in one spot.

The structure of this Formation was extremely complex; at first glance, it even gave a sense of many overlapping images.

After Wang Lin entered the Immortal Cave, his gaze immediately fell upon the Formation. After studying it for a moment, his eyes flashed; this Formation was a simple Spirit Gathering Formation.

It had many unnecessary structures, clearly designed to prevent others from seeing through it.

The main purpose of a Spirit Gathering Formation is to gather spiritual energy from the surroundings, thereby greatly increasing the spiritual energy within a certain area. However, a Spirit Gathering Formation must be set up on a Spiritual Eye to be effective; otherwise, the effect is minimal.

Spiritual Eyes are like Acupoints within Spiritual Veins, where moving one affects the whole body.

"This place can't be a Spiritual Eye; it should be a pseudo-Spiritual Eye that has been relocated!" Wang Lin observed for a moment and saw through the truth.

Although he was injured by the Concept and Seal, and his cultivation was gone, he was still a Soul Transformation Cultivator. Wang Lin's eyesight remained sharp over these five hundred years, allowing him to discern the details of this Formation at a glance.

One must know that even Core Formation Cultivators rarely could see through the intricacies of this Formation. Only Nascent Soul Cultivators might notice some traces, but even for them, seeing through it completely would be very difficult.

Especially since this Formation also had many superfluous structures to confuse people, which greatly increased the difficulty of understanding it.

After all, the Soul Refining Sect, which could turn this entire mountain into Immortal Caves for outer Disciples, would also have secretly made some arrangements to prevent people from easily seeing through its Formations.

However, even the ancestor of the Soul Refining Sect probably wouldn't have imagined that a Soul Transformation Cultivator would be cultivating within the mountain Immortal Caves of the outer Disciples.

Wang Lin's eyes flashed, and he waved his right hand over the Formation. Immediately, he saw an even more complex Formation within the core of the Formation beneath.

"Presumably, this Formation within a Formation serves to relocate the Spiritual Eye and create a pseudo-Spiritual Eye," Wang Lin thought to himself after a brief look.

He pondered for a moment, restored the Formation to its original state, sat cross-legged to the side, performed Hand Seals, and cast Restrictions on the surrounding cave walls. After that, he took out three Top-Grade Spirit Stones and began to Cultivate again.

The spiritual energy here was several times denser than in Immortal Cave 1090. After all, there was a Spirit Gathering Formation here, connected to a branch line directly from the Spiritual Vein through the pseudo-Formation Eye, thus naturally making the spiritual energy abundant here.

Coupled with the assistance of three Top-Grade Spirit Stones, the density of spiritual energy here was already astonishing. Even Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators, if they saw this place, would disregard everything and directly seize it.

Cultivating here would greatly increase their speed.

Wang Lin was immersed in his cultivation, oblivious to the passage of time. Outside his body, a thick layer of spiritual frost had accumulated.

When spiritual energy reaches a certain density, if there is no place for it to flow or dissipate, it will condense into a light blue spiritual frost. At this moment, within Immortal Cave 803, the ground glowed with a blue light, extremely beautiful.

Wang Lin had even more spiritual frost on his body, covering him completely. From a distance, he looked like a person cloaked in blue light. However, the tea-shaped scars on his face were still too numerous, making him look extremely ferocious and somewhat terrifying.

Inside Wang Lin's body, spiritual energy slowly accumulated and condensed bit by bit. At the same time, the Concept of tea and the Seal, under the influence of this dense spiritual energy, became even more solidified, several times stronger than when they first appeared.

Time flew by, and Wang Lin had been in seclusion here for two months.

During these two months, Wang Lin's body hadn't moved once. He seized almost every moment to continuously improve his cultivation.

However, the further one progresses in cultivation, the greater the spiritual energy required, and the slower the speed. As a result, in two months, he had only reached the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment, still some distance from Foundation Establishment Great Perfection.

The three Top-Grade Spirit Stones were also used up. Wang Lin felt quite pained; he had decided to use this method of cultivating with Top-Grade Spirit Stones as little as possible.

On this day, Wang Lin opened his eyes and looked at the Formation on the ground. After pondering for a moment, he slapped it with his right hand, and immediately, the Formation dispersed, revealing the Formation Eye within.

"The spiritual energy here is still not enough. If I can directly draw spiritual energy from this pseudo-Spiritual Eye, it should be enough for my cultivation to reach Core Formation!"

Wang Lin's eyes flickered as he stared at the small Formation within the Formation Eye, studying it carefully.

Formations are essentially a manifestation of Restrictions. Wang Lin's research into Restrictions had already reached a state of perfection. Now, with focused study, he gradually gained insights.

He performed Hand Seals, mobilizing the spiritual energy within his body, and his hands rapidly changed in front of him. Restrictions formed in his hands one by one. Gradually, sweat appeared on Wang Lin's forehead, and his hands moved faster and faster, eventually forming a series of afterimages.

Almost as soon as one Restriction was cast, another appeared. Soon, more and more afterimages appeared.

The sweat on Wang Lin's forehead had already soaked his clothes.

This afterimage Restriction was Wang Lin's own unique Restriction method, significantly different from ordinary single Restrictions. With Wang Lin's current cultivation, he could easily cast single Restrictions, but afterimage Restrictions were somewhat difficult.

Back when he was in the Ancient God's Land, with his Core Formation Stage cultivation, he could only cast a few afterimages, let alone now.

At this moment, even with his full cultivation, casting one was extremely strenuous.

Wang Lin's hands moved faster and faster. Finally, all the afterimages suddenly merged into one. Wang Lin let out a low shout and pointed at the Formation. Instantly, the afterimage Restriction descended.

The small Formation immediately vibrated, and a huge repulsive force rose from within it, spreading out abruptly.

Wang Lin moved his body, avoiding the repulsive force, his gaze fixed on the Formation.

After the repulsive force subsided, the Formation immediately stopped operating, with no more spiritual energy emanating from within. Wang Lin stepped forward and lightly tapped it with his right hand. Immediately, a series of clicking sounds emanated, and the Formation flashed, slowly disappearing, revealing a fist-sized Spirit Stone within.

The Spirit Stone was red, and within it, wisps of mist seemed to drift. Wang Lin recognized it at a glance; this stone was called Kun Jingyan, which naturally absorbed spiritual energy but could not store it.

Without a word, Wang Lin placed his right hand on this red Spirit Stone and began to Cultivate.

"Boom"

Vast spiritual energy surged from within the Kun Jingyan at an unimaginable speed, rushing madly into Wang Lin's body along his arm.

Under the impact of the intense spiritual energy, Wang Lin immediately felt all the pores on his body open, and a black gas was abruptly squeezed out from his pores.

The tea-colored scars on his face immediately darkened. Although they didn't collapse and disappear, they were clearly weakened.

Wang Lin was ecstatic. He hadn't expected such a direct absorption of spiritual energy from the pseudo-Spiritual Eye to have such an effect. However, this effect was only effective with the first violent impact; it would be ineffective the second time, unless a more powerful Spiritual Eye could be found.

Wang Lin took a deep breath, dispelling all distracting thoughts, and focused entirely on cultivating spiritual energy. Gradually, the spiritual energy surging from the Kun Jing Stone slowly stabilized, no longer as violent as before, and Wang Lin slowly immersed himself in cultivation.

——

There will be another update later. After 6-7 consecutive days of three updates, my thoughts are a bit blocked. After resting for a few days, I'll resume three updates. Er Gen knows this isn't good during the double monthly vote period, but to ensure the quality of writing, I've given up on it.

As for monthly votes, Er Gen is extremely eager, so eager~~~ I'm about to fall out of the top fifteen on the overall ranking. Fellow Daoists, please cast some votes to push me up!!