Demoness, Stop! - Chapter 16 - Chapter 16 – Heavenly Spiritual Vein

A few days later, by a stream somewhere in the Baiyun Mountains.

Two figures stood beside a large rock by the stream, while a little white tiger frolicked in a nearby flower bush, chasing bees and butterflies.

Li Yu had promised Jiang Li that he would teach her martial arts, so he brought her along when he went out to cultivate today.

For cultivators, the most important thing is of course the cultivation of spiritual power, but close combat is not without use. In battles among lower-level cultivators, physical techniques can be even more important than spells.

With the aid of spiritual power, a person’s speed and strength increase significantly. Any Qi Refinement stage cultivator is not weaker than a martial arts master in the secular world.

However, without professional training, most cultivators only have brute strength and can’t fully utilize their power. If caught in close quarters by a secular expert, they might not even have a chance to cast spells.

Li Yu first taught Jiang Li several punches, elbow strikes, and joint locks. When she practiced them with some skill, he let her try some basic sparring exercises.

He rolled up his sleeves and said to Jiang Li, “Next, I’ll attack you from the front. Try to use the moves I just taught you to fully counterattack.”

Jiang Li nodded eagerly. “Bring it on.”

Without warning, Li Yu threw a straight punch toward Jiang Li’s face.

It was a left straight punch, but Jiang Li used the right forearm to block it, pushing inward from the outside as Li Yu had taught her. Li Yu suddenly felt a powerful force hit him and staggered, losing his balance.

Jiang Li immediately followed up with a spinning elbow strike to the back of his neck. Li Yu fell to the ground with a thud.

Jiang Li showed an excited expression on her face. She also had some experience in fighting, though only with basic punches, but she had a broader perspective. Before, when she fought alongside Li Yu, it was just wild swinging. Today, the moves he taught her were clean, precise, and practical.

Looking at Li Yu lying on the ground, she said, “Get up quickly. I know you’re letting me win, but if you’re going to act, at least make it believable…”

Li Yu lay on the grass, his head ringing.

That elbow strike from Jiang Li nearly finished him off.

He hadn’t expected her strength to be so great. Even though he had activated the spiritual defenses of two acupuncture points, he was still caught off guard and knocked down.

The back of the neck is a vulnerable spot. A strong blow there can be fatal.

Fortunately, the little white tiger had given him three spirit herbs, which greatly boosted his cultivation. Otherwise, that strike could have been deadly, and he might have had to switch to a ghost cultivation path.

Li Yu held his neck and struggled to get up. Disbelieving, he asked Jiang Li, “How many acupuncture points have you opened?”

A cultivator’s strength relates to their cultivation level. The massive force Jiang Li just unleashed was not from opening only one acupuncture point, or even from the power of a stage one Qi Refinement.

Jiang Li looked at Li Yu innocently and said, “Just one.”

Li Yu didn’t believe her at all and said firmly, “Nonsense! Have you been secretly cultivating behind my back?”

Jiang Li sighed helplessly. “Really, I’m not lying. I haven’t opened a second acupuncture point yet.”

Each acupuncture point opened in Qi Refinement cultivation comes with a noticeable feeling, and Jiang Li wouldn’t lie. She wasn’t the sneaky type; every day she just thought about what to eat and what fun things to do with Li Yu after going down the mountain.

Seeing her innocent face, Li Yu felt a little puzzled himself.

He thought for a moment and said to her, “Use all your spiritual power and cast a Fireball for me…”

Jiang Li summoned her spiritual power and cast the Fireball, smashing it onto a nearby open patch of ground.

Boom!

A fireball about the size of a washbasin appeared in midair and slammed violently onto the ground, blasting out a huge crater. The scorched marks spread over an area several meters wide.

The thunderous noise startled the little white tiger playing nearby.

Li Yu was even more stunned.

He specialized in the Fire Spiritual Vein, while Jiang Li cultivated the Water Spiritual Vein. At his current strength, the fireball he could cast wouldn’t even reach half the power of Jiang Li’s. This meant Jiang Li’s spiritual power was at least four times his own—she must have reached at least the second level of Qi Refinement…

Li Yu stared at her intently and asked, “Have you been gathering Qi for a while now?”

He suspected Jiang Li had been cultivating Qi for a long time already but had kept it from him to spare his feelings. Knowing Jiang Li as he did, this kid… this girl was definitely capable of doing something like that.

Jiang Li looked even more innocent and said, “No way, I started gathering Qi even later than you. That Qi Refining Pill was given to me by you, remember?”

Li Yu pursed his lips, feeling a dryness in his throat.

He certainly hadn’t forgotten about the Qi Refining Pill.

If Jiang Li had started Qi Refinement on the same day as him, it meant that in less than a month, she had advanced from just entering Qi Refinement to the second level, while Li Yu had only opened one acupuncture point—and that was thanks to taking pills…

What kind of talent was this?

Li Yu simply couldn’t imagine it.

…

Baiyun Temple.

Elder Sun was half-lying on a rocking chair, lazily basking in the sun.

Suddenly, his brow twitched.

He sensed a disciple at Qi Refinement second level entering the courtyard.

All Baiyun Temple disciples were at the first Qi Refinement stage and had only opened one acupuncture point; opening two was already considered excellent. Li Yu, with some special opportunities, had opened three Spiritual Veins but still was not at Qi Refinement second level.

Only official disciples of the sect could reach Qi Refinement second level.

But what was an official disciple doing at Baiyun Temple?

Elder Sun slowly opened his eyes and saw two figures approaching him—one was Li Yu, the other was…

When Elder Sun saw that figure, his body trembled, his eyes full of shock. He sprang up from his chair and appeared instantly beside Jiang Li, reaching out with his thin, shriveled hand to grasp her wrist.

But the next moment, his face broke into wild joy as he exclaimed, “Heavenly Spiritual Vein! Heavenly Spiritual Vein! I never thought Baiyun Temple would produce someone with a Heavenly Spiritual Vein. Haha, the Golden Core is in sight! I can finally reach the Golden Core!”

Jiang Li still looked confused, while Li Yu confirmed his suspicions.

Recently, he had been studying the basics of the cultivation world and had already heard of the Heavenly Spiritual Vein.

In fact, all people are born with five spiritual veins. Most have too low a talent to hold spiritual energy in their bodies and thus cannot embark on the path of cultivation. Those with slightly better talent can hold spiritual energy and thereby step onto the path of immortality.

That demoness discovered Li Yu’s cultivation talent while rescuing him and sent him here.

For the vast majority of cultivators, each spiritual vein has seventy-two acupuncture points, like seventy-two checkpoints that must be cleared one by one to open the entire vein. But sometimes, there are exceptions.

That exception is the Heavenly Spiritual Vein.

Those born with the Heavenly Spiritual Vein are undoubtedly the favorites of the cultivation world. One or several of their spiritual veins inherently have no checkpoints. Once the first acupuncture point is opened, it is as if the entire vein has been opened.

A cultivator’s strength depends on the spiritual power within. If spiritual power is compared to water, the spiritual veins are the containers holding that water. Early-stage cultivation involves opening and expanding the veins so they can hold more spiritual power.

Ordinary people have to open their veins point by point, but those with the Heavenly Spiritual Vein, from the very moment they successfully gather Qi, are already at the peak of Qi Refinement. The accumulation of spiritual power naturally follows.

The advantage of the Heavenly Spiritual Vein isn’t only during the Qi Refinement stage.

Because the Foundation Establishment stage also involves cultivating the spiritual veins, those with the Heavenly Spiritual Vein face no bottlenecks not only in Qi Refinement but also in Foundation Establishment. They can reach the peak of Foundation Establishment in just a few years without relying on pills. They are truly the favorites of the immortal path.

It took Elder Sun more than two hundred years to reach that realm.

Li Yu finally understood Jiang Li’s mood when he gathered Qi.

It was a complicated feeling of both fearing his brother would suffer and fearing his brother would surpass him.

In the past, everyone’s talent was mediocre. If Jiang Li hadn’t gathered Qi, at worst Li Yu could have tricked the demoness to get resources to support her. But now, Jiang Li had transformed into a favored child of the heavenly path, with an unlimited immortal future.

As for himself, whether he could even enter the Kunlun Sect was still uncertain.

Elder Sun was still laughing to the sky, as if the one with the Heavenly Spiritual Vein wasn’t Jiang Li, but himself.

Li Yu could understand his excitement. A genius like Jiang Li was rare even in the Kunlun Sect; every one of them was the sect’s future hope. As the steward of Baiyun Temple, Elder Sun discovering such a genius was a great achievement.

Sure enough, after laughing enough, Elder Sun quickly pulled a palm-sized silver shuttle from his chest. Tossing it into the wind, it expanded and in a few breaths grew to several meters long, transforming into a flying boat.

Elder Sun brought the still confused Jiang Li aboard the flying boat and said to Li Yu, “I will take this girl back to the sect. For the next few days, take care of the matters here on my behalf…”

Jiang Li, having realized what was happening, looked anxious and tried to say something to Li Yu, but the flying boat had already transformed into a silver streak and vanished over the horizon in an instant.

Li Yu stood there, staring after the flying boat’s departing direction, lost in thought for a long time.

In just a quarter of an hour, their fates had diverged greatly. Li Yu stood there for a while longer, finally smiling and shaking his head, saying, “You kid…”

At the small courtyard’s gate, several Baiyun Temple disciples stood talking.

“That guy… Jiang Li is actually a girl?”

“Hey, I kind of liked him before. Why does it have to be a girl?”

“But you’re a man…”

“So what? Men can like men, can’t they?”

“What’s the Heavenly Spiritual Vein? Is there a sixth spiritual vein? I’ve never heard of it before.”

…

Some were surprised, some sighed, some puzzled, some filled with envy, whispering, “I really didn’t expect the Heavenly Spiritual Vein to actually exist. I heard those with the Heavenly Spiritual Vein can at least cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage…”

For Baiyun Temple disciples, Elder Sun at Foundation Establishment stage was the strongest person they could meet. The Golden Core stage existed only in their imagination, and the Nascent Soul stage—well, the head master of Kunlun Sect was at Nascent Soul…

To briefly become fellow disciples with such a person was already something they could brag about for a lifetime.