Starting Over

Having calmed down, Mo Fei felt no concern whatsoever about his current predicament. Having never left his sect since childhood, he was woefully unaware of the dangers of the outside world. Even now, with his Golden Core dim and spiritual energy depleted, he felt not the slightest unease.

Emerging from the lake, Mo Fei found a vacant spot on the shore, sat cross-legged, and prepared to recover his strength. Yet as he began to circulate the Jade Void Art, hoping to absorb spiritual energy from the world to restore his power, he realized something was gravely wrong.

There was not a trace of spiritual energy in his body. No matter how he ran the Jade Void Art, the Golden Core remained utterly inert, silently resting in his dantian as if it had lost all vitality.

Normally, the Golden Core would revolve on its own within the dantian, constantly drawing in spiritual energy from the world. After several attempts, the Core still showed no response, forcing Mo Fei to give up. Since he could not draw on the Core, he would have to find another way. For now, he was no different from an ordinary mortal; it seemed he would have to start cultivating anew from the Qi Refining stage. Once he generated spiritual energy within his body, he should be able to awaken the Golden Core and restore his strength.

Having been hailed a genius since childhood, cultivation had always come easily to Mo Fei. Beginning again from scratch brought him no disappointment at all.

Just then, as he stood and prepared to survey his surroundings, his stomach growled loudly. Evidently, without spiritual energy to sustain him, Mo Fei now felt hunger like any mortal. Since forming his Foundation, he had not felt hunger in many years. He gave a wry smile and shook his head; it seemed he would have to fill his belly before anything else.

With no spiritual energy in his body, not even his storage pouch could be opened. Looking at his empty hands, Mo Fei could only break off a tree branch and sharpen its tip against a stone, fashioning a makeshift spear. Fortunately, though he had lost his spiritual power, his physical fitness and keen eyesight as a Golden Core cultivator remained; catching a few fish posed no problem for him.

Of course, eating raw fish was out of the question, and as for making fire by friction—a basic survival skill—Mo Fei, being a genius, had naturally mastered it.

Tossing aside the last fishbone, Mo Fei leaned contentedly against the stone behind him. After a short rest, he roused himself and prepared to begin his cultivation.

Following the Qi Refining section of the Jade Void Art, he began to attune himself to the heavens and earth, seeking to draw energy into his body. Closing his eyes, he used his powerful Golden Core cultivator’s spiritual sense to perceive the world around him.

“Hm? What are these tiny points of light filling the air? Why can’t I sense any spiritual energy?” Mo Fei wondered, having noticed the anomaly with his spiritual sense.

“The world around me feels completely different from before! Why is there no spiritual energy here? Could it be I’m no longer in my original space?” Mo Fei, having studied “Wandering the Heavens and Earth,” knew a thing or two about spatial theory, and was aware that many different spaces existed in the world. But he had never expected to be transported to another space by a spatial formation.

“Damn it, without spiritual energy, how can I recover my strength? How can I return to my original space?” Only now did Mo Fei begin to panic.

But he forced himself to remain calm, reminding himself that panic would only make things worse. “There must be a way. According to Wandering the Heavens and Earth, any space must have a sustaining energy source. In my original world, that source was spiritual energy. This world must also have a sustaining energy—and perhaps it's these tiny points of light scattered throughout the air?”

Calming himself, Mo Fei compared the differences between his previous world and the current space, and came to a conclusion—the little points of light must be this world's sustaining energy.

But knowing this was one thing; how could he make use of it? Mo Fei extended his spiritual sense once more, carefully observing the properties of these energies. He discovered that the points of light came in different colors. Expanding his spiritual sense, he saw that most of the green lights emanated from the forest trees, blue lights from the lake, and yellow and gold from underground.

“Could these points of light correspond to the five elements—green to wood, blue to water, yellow to earth, gold to metal, and the rare red ones to fire?” he speculated.

To test his hypothesis, Mo Fei concentrated intently on the characteristics of the lights. Indeed, green carried the vitality of wood, blue the fluidity of water, yellow the weight of earth, gold the sharpness of metal, and red the ferocity of fire. But what of the black, white, cyan, and the few violet lights? For now, he put them aside. Knowing the properties of the main lights would suffice.

Mo Fei remembered what his master had told him at the start of his cultivation: spiritual energy is generated by the ordered combination and balance of the five elemental energies. It seemed he would need to rearrange these points of light according to the principles of mutual generation and restraint among the five elements before his body could absorb them.

With this in mind, Mo Fei used his spiritual sense to arrange the five-colored lights in the order of mutual generation, and began to absorb the energy with the Jade Void Art. Sure enough, the re-ordered energies could now be absorbed by his body.

After two hours of absorption, Mo Fei could feel a faint wisp of spiritual energy within himself. However, sustaining this arrangement with his spiritual sense for two hours had left him dizzy with fatigue.

With a bitter smile, he realized that arranging these points of light drained his spiritual sense far too quickly. At this rate, with his spiritual sense exhausted and only the faintest trace of spiritual energy gained, he had no idea how long it would take to get his Golden Core spinning again.

By now, dusk was falling. From the depths of the darkening forest came the distant howls of wolves. Clearly, there were many wild beasts in this forest. In his present state, Mo Fei could handle ordinary animals, but if he encountered anything truly fierce, he would be in grave trouble. He would have to find a way to leave this place as soon as possible. Who knew how large the forest was, or what lay beyond it? Whether there were people or not? For now, all he could do was take one step at a time.

That night, Mo Fei climbed a tree to sleep. With his spiritual sense depleted, only rest could restore him. And since night was when the beasts prowled, the only way to avoid being eaten was to find a relatively safe perch.

The night passed without incident. At dawn, the calls of woodland birds woke Mo Fei from his slumber. He took a deep breath, savoring the fresh, clean air, and found that his spiritual sense had almost fully recovered.

Mo Fei abandoned the idea of further cultivation. In such an unknown forest, he needed to keep himself in peak condition to face unforeseen dangers. For now, his only priority was to get out of the woods.

Climbing to the top of a tall tree, Mo Fei surveyed his surroundings. To his relief, he estimated that he was only about twenty li from the edge of the forest.

Descending from the tree, he set off toward the forest’s edge, hoping to reach it before nightfall.

Meanwhile, at the edge of the forest, a team of five—three men and two women—was advancing from the outside, making their way into the woods.