Awakening from his slumber once more, Chu Chen subconsciously rubbed his eyes and realized that his consciousness was back in his main body, causing him to let out a huge sigh of relief.
'Luckily I'm back!'
However, the first thing he wanted to confirm was if that weird eaglet was his clone. Did a part of his soul enter the eaglet's body?
Chu Chen quickly closed his eyes to focus, slowly stretching out his senses.
As expected, in just an instant, he could feel it. Near the Black Fog Valley in the distance, on top of that withered old tree, that little eaglet transmitted a familiar feeling of a kindred spirit.
He felt that his consciousness could cross the folds of space and move from his body into the body of that eaglet. In a way, it was equivalent to him having two bodies. In other words, he had an extra life!
That was just too miraculous!
What could be confirmed was that accident led to a part of his soul to possess a mutated eaglet's body.
Could that be the reason his cultivation speed increased like crazy?
Chu Chen suddenly remembered that he had another memory of his soul projecting out of his body. Scenes from the depth of his memories suddenly played back in his mind.
At that time, he was still an infant. After going to sleep at night, the consciousness of his soul would often leave his body and crawl around in the sky of the village he stayed in.
Infants were scared of the outside world. The sudden projection gave him quite a fright, therefore leading to him having difficulty sleeping properly. His parents had also brought him to all sorts of places looking for a cure.
Unfortunately, none were able to cure him. His parents finally met with an old man in black Daoist garb. At first, the old man wanted to take him as a disciple but later went back on his word. The old man told his parents that his soul power was too strong. Once he embarked on the path of cultivation, it would lead to his destruction should his soul power go out of control.
Only if could move about 10 percent of his soul into another body would his cultivation talent be at the level of a genius.
The old man had him take an elixir and told him to train his body more or he would eventually get in trouble should his physical body fail to withstand the power of his soul.
After taking the elixir, he stopped having those weird dreams, but his body was still very weak.
As the old man's words were too mysterious, his parents did not pay much attention to them. They only vaguely understood it as his body being too weak and was the source of his illness.
With that, they started inquiring all around in search of ways to strengthen one's body in order to help Chu Chen.
Later on, they heard that Crystal Spring Sect was looking for internal disciples with good talent. They went through all their assets to gather the traveling funds to send Chu Chen here.
In the past three years, Chu Chen ran all over the place in search of spiritual medicine. His cultivation did not advance much, but his physical body was very well trained instead. He almost never got sick in the past three years. That was why he had forgotten about that matter.
That would explain why he had never been able to advance his cultivation in the past three years.
It was because of his soul power being too strong. Every time he meditated, the spiritual energy picked up by his senses was too chaotic. Every time he used the Spirit Drawing Mantra, the air around him would seemingly boil over as endless current rushed over, preventing him from properly absorbing the spiritual energy. That was why his progress had been so limited.
After a portion of his soul entered a separate body, his talent should also reach the level the old man claimed, the level of legendary geniuses.
That was why he could break through three times in one night, reaching the fifth level of the Spiritual Mist Stage.
As the saying went, fortune and misfortune are intertwined. The cause and effect of the world were truly amazing.
However, all those were just his own speculations. He would need to cultivate again to verify his theory as the previous breakthrough might have been luck.
Just as Chu Chen was about to experiment once more, the door suddenly creaked open. A dirty figure walked in.
"Brother Chu, you're awake."
When Tong Meng saw Chu Chen, she immediately forced a smile on her weary face. "Brother Chu, Things are going smoothly for my herb collection. Y-y-you don't have to worry."
"Stupid girl."
This time, Chu Chen quickly held Tong Meng who was exhausted from her fruitless labor in his arms tightly.
His junior sister, who was originally beautiful as a doll, was now covered in dirt from the hills. It was obvious that she had fallen over many times as her clothes were also torn in various places by thorns. Her slender and fair fingers also had its skin worn.
It seems that she had a difficult time searching for spiritual herbs in the hills. It was all his fault for being useless in the past and being a burden for his junior sister.
"Brother Chu, Meng'er is too useless. I just can't seem to find any spiritual herbs. There are only four days left. Why am I so useless…"
The girl's chin rested on Chu Chen's shoulder. Drops of crystal clear tears were rolling down her cheeks, drenching the shirt on Chu Chen's back.
Chu Chen immediately teared up and his eyes turned red.
"Dumb dumb!"
Chu Chen hugged the exhausted girl and gently patted her back. He then slowly transferred his spiritual energy into her body to alleviate her exhaustion, allowing her to gently closed her eyes and fall asleep.
"Little girl, from now on, I'll be the one protecting you. I want to be stronger, strong enough for you to rely on."
Chu Chen gripped his fists tightly. In the past, it was always Tong Meng that transfused spiritual power into his body. This time, he had finally done so for her. Although he was just at the fifth level of Spiritual Mist Stage, that was a brand new beginning.
The girl obediently leaned in the young man's embrace with her arms gently wrapped around his waist. Her expression was an innocent one as she slept soundly.
After gently placing his junior sister back to Blue Flower Valley, where she stayed, Chu Chen finally heaved a sigh of relief.
This must never happen again. Chu Chen already had a plan regarding herbs collection, and that was to use his eaglet clone to enter Black Fog Valley. Nobody had dared to collect herbs from that place for ages. From then on, it would be his private territory.
However, the eaglet had just hatched. He should let it grow for another two days.
He decided to begin cultivation right then to verify if the previous triple breakthroughs were because of luck or his cultivation talent reaching the level of a genius.
With that thought, Chu Chen immediately crossed his legs and meditated. A strong urge to grow stronger boiled within him. It made him unwilling to waste even a breath's worth of time, quickly going into the state of cultivation.
After calming his mind, his spiritual senses spread out. In the air around him, spots of clear glowing lights seemed like the stars in the sky, filling everywhere endlessly. Those lights were condensations of unimaginably pure spiritual energy. It was the essence of spiritual energy!
This time, the area his spiritual senses covered was stronger than before. Around him, the spiritual energy was the size of fireflies. This time, at the location further from him, was countless spiritual starlights the size of his fist.
The next moment, along with the use of Spirit Drawing Mantra, Chu Chen's body seemingly transformed into a black hole that was suddenly giving off a strong devouring force, pulling in everything. The star-like spiritual energy was drawn in by the pull. In an instant, it was as though the entire milky way was pouring in, rushing wildly into his body.
A large amount of spiritual energy washed over his body repeatedly, refining his body, allowing his physical body to grow stronger and more resilient.
On the other hand, large amounts of spiritual energy moved into his dantian's Qi ocean, refined into his innate essence that filled his body, circulating between his meridians repeatedly.
The violent movement manifested in the form of a huge spiritual storm in space that burrowed into his body ferociously. This time, his cultivation speed was even faster than before.
In just four short hours, his body trembled as a blinding white glow burst forth!
Breakthrough spiritual glow! Sixth level of Spiritual Mist Stage!
Chu Chen's body was like a beggar that went hungry for several years, devouring the spiritual energy essence in the space around him. The great flow of spiritual energy was like a river that flowed violently within his body.
Before this violent flow of spiritual energy, all the so-called stage barriers turned extremely fragile and were torn apart easily.
Just like that, in a short night, ray after ray of breakthrough spiritual glows kept lighting up inside Chu Chen's hut repeatedly!
This time, Chu Chen actually managed to break through four times, reaching the ninth level of the Spiritual Mist Stage, ready to go for the Spiritual Droplets Stage!
Chu Chen suddenly felt that genius was insufficient to describe him. At the rate that he was cultivating, he would be a monster!
If other disciples were to witness that scene, they might go crazy from the shock. On the path of cultivation, the progress would slow down the further one went. Instead, Chu Chen had a feeling that he was going faster and faster. That was a speed that even 'heaven-defying' would be insufficient to describe!