Chen Wentian helped Zhou Ziyun fully recover and checked her cultivation progress. Much like Lin Qingchen, Zhou Ziyun had also slowed down after entering the Spirit Initiate Realm. She was still squarely at the first level after two months. He wasn't too worried about it because she still trained hard and had made a large amount of progress on all aspects of her spiritual energy.
Her improvements to spiritual sense were particularly impressive. She could sense his position even in his resting state. Normally, it took until the middle levels of the Spirit Initiate Realm for someone to be that sensitive. Her spiritual control and spiritual strength were also improving steadily and she could beat Lin Qingcheng in a spar in any condition, even though she was one level weaker.
However, his main purpose for staying with her was actually Summer and Winter's Eternal Sutra. Of his first three disciples, Zhou Ziyun was the only one without an overpowered innate cultivation method. He wanted her to study this new immortal art and see what would happen. He wasn't sure if she would be compatible with it but it didn't hurt to try.
"Why don't you go find the ice sisters." Zhou Ziyun said gloomily when he brought this up.
"Come on… Ziyun!" Chen Wentian hugged her playfully, "Please?"
He traced a line of kisses up her cheek and nibbled her earlobe. "Remember how I promised to find you a suitable immortal art? Baby, when I found this art, the first one I thought was you."
"Really?"
"Mmm, I swear. The ice sisters will benefit from this art but it doesn't mean you can't learn it also. You're a smart girl, you're special. I'm sure you'll be able to gain something regardless of what happens."
"Fine, okay." Zhou Ziyun was appeased by his sweet talk.
Chen Wentian laughed and kissed her properly. After a long make out session, he went and drew a cultivation array on the stone floor of her room.
"Ready?" He asked as they sat down.
She nodded eagerly, her prior hesitation nowhere in sight. He couldn't help but feel like he had been played. This little wench had wanted to study the secret art from the start! He smiled wryly and pulled out the stone tablet. He projected the text into the air and they both began to read…
Summer and Winter's Eternal Sutra was separated into three parts. Two of the parts were for each gender and contained the ice and flame arts used for individual cultivation as well as martial arts. Their true names were Winter's Snow Dance and Summer's Blazing Sun. When the two parts were separated, there were many characters missing that resulted in the incorrect names as well as many wrong assumptions.
The third part was the dual cultivation secret art which had no title but instructed the male and female pair on how to join the fire and ice arts together along with their sources of yin and yang. This part also included some secret stages not included in the first two parts.
Winter's Snow Dance and Summer's Blazing Sun by themselves contained seven stages but the combined art gave them access to three more stages for a total of ten. Murong Aiyin had forcibly comprehended the eighth stage, Polar Vortex. It contained much more profound ice energy than the first seven stages and allowed her to overpower Fen Jue's flames.
"Master, I noticed something interesting." Zhou Ziyun spoke up.
"Hmm?"
"You mentioned Murong Aiyin was even more crazed and unhinged after she unlocked a part of the dual cultivation text."
"Yeah, I think she had sex with at least two hundred guys. Her elders also became pretty wild…" Chen Wentian wrinkled his nose in disgust as he recalled those scenes he wished he could forget.
Zhou Ziyun had a thoughtful look on her face, "I think their deranged mental states were due to incorrect application of the dual cultivation secret art. There are many places in here that mention how fire and ice should be balanced."
"And here," She pointed to another section, "This implies that the use of multiple partners for both the male and the female can have adverse effects. I think this art is only meant for a dedicated pair of dual cultivators. Both Divine Blazing Mountain and Murong Aiyin were doing it wrong."
"That's a good catch, excellent!" Chen Wentian praised her. He was impressed by her comprehension ability and her insight. A normal Spirit Initiate Realm cultivator might take weeks if not months to pick up on these details yet she managed in less than an hour.
"I think if those Glacier Palace disciples were forced to have sex with groups of men, they would have lost their minds as well. Master, you were right to save them." She said and gave him with a sweet smile.
They returned to studying the text and spent the rest of the day discussing and analyzing various aspects of the secret art. The more they studied, the more they realized that it had several problems.
The basic concept of Summer and Winter's Eternal Sutra was for the woman to cultivate extreme yin and the man to cultivate extreme yang. The two of them would then join together and achieve balance of their energies. The resulting energy that combined ice and fire, yin and yang, was extremely beneficial for improving both parties.
In terms of dual cultivation, this secret art could only be considered ordinary and it came with all the normal problems. The first was that it required a lot of time to achieve extreme yin and extreme yang. Zhou Ziyun didn't have that kind of time to cultivate Winter's Snow Dance from scratch. The second problem was that the dual cultivation also took a lot of time. Both parties were expected to gradually expel their ice and fire so that it could join together gently.
The third and largest issue was that unbalanced yin and yang could cause side effects. The text wasn't clear as to what those side effects it was probably exactly what Murong Aiyin and the elders experienced.
Zhou Ziyun had a disappointed look on her face when they finished studying. She was admittedly curious about the dual cultivation aspect but it turned out to be impractical. Still, she didn't want to leave empty handed. She stubbornly tried to cultivate both the ice and fire portions with their corresponding martial arts.
And on the fifth day…
"Meteor Fist!"
Zhou Ziyun's right fist shot out a red fireball barely the size of an apple. It weakly splashed against Chen Wentian's spiritual cloak and dissipated. He was really impressed considering she was only working with the tiny bit of yang that naturally existed within women's bodies.
Without pause, frost energy began to circulate from her hands which formed into a one-meter-long white blade.
"Ice Sword!"
Zhou Ziyun clutched the ice sword with both hands and charged at him, slashing several times. On the third strike, the blade edge shattered and everything vanished from her hand.
She looked up at him with a dazzling smile, her face full of happiness. Chen Wentian pulled her into his embrace and gave her a congratulatory hug.
She had surpassed all of his expectations and managed to enter the first stages of both Summer's Blazing Sun and Winter's Snow Dance in five short days. Her talent in comprehension was simply heaven defying. He didn't think it was possible. He didn't think she would be this talented.
It had been a difficult five days but she was relentless. She didn't meet some of the requirements but she found a way to bypass them and directly practice the two elemental arts.
But what happened next was even more unexpected. Zhou Ziyun's spiritual sea had reached the boundary without either of them noticing and it overflowed at that moment.
Boom!
2nd Level of the Spirit Initiate Realm was achieved, just like that!