sinovels Chapter 29: An Attempt
Chapter 29: An Attempt
In the days that followed, Shen Moqi's life had another fixed activity, making her busier and more focused than ever before.
Every day at Shenshi (3-5 PM), he would return to his courtyard from the Scripture Pavilion. No longer would he practice swordsmanship and footwork first, as before, but instead he would go straight to an open area in the courtyard, concentrate his mind, and begin practicing the transformation of the Earth Shield Technique. He would concentrate completely, devoting all his attention to the precise control of his spiritual energy, practicing for several hours at a time, until his spiritual energy was exhausted and his arms ached so much he could barely lift them. Only then would he stop, sit cross-legged, and recover. As soon as his spiritual energy showed any signs of improvement, he would immediately get up and continue practicing. This cycle repeated until it was completely dark and he could no longer see anything clearly before he finally stopped.
On the first day, he tried ten times.
In his impatience, he tried to transform the familiar earthen shield into the envisioned curved pipe in one go, from the first attempt to the fourth. However, each time his spiritual energy tried to bend it, it collapsed instantly due to unstable control, turning into specks of yellow light and dissipating in the air. From the fifth attempt onwards, he learned from his mistakes and stopped rushing things. Instead, following Xiao Jiu's advice, he broke down the complex transformation process—first trying to lengthen the shield.
On his fifth attempt, he successfully extended the shield, though it only lasted for two breaths before dissipating on its own. This small success brought a glimmer of light to his eyes.
The sixth time, he began to try to bend the shield, building on its length. Spiritual energy carefully gathered to one side, and the shield slowly bent. But just as it was halfway bent, the spiritual energy suddenly became unbalanced, instantly exploding into a ball of light and vanishing without a trace.
On the seventh attempt, his spiritual energy was almost depleted. He barely managed to condense the rudimentary form of a shield before losing the strength to maintain it. The shield swayed and then disintegrated.
Shen Moqi shook his aching wrists, fine beads of sweat appearing on his forehead. He sat cross-legged, took a deep breath, and began circulating the "Luo Xiao Qi Guiding Technique" to recover his spiritual energy. Half an hour later, his spiritual energy had recovered more than half, and he immediately stood up, his eyes filled with unyielding determination.
The eighth attempt failed.
The ninth attempt failed again.
By the tenth time, it was completely dark, and night had enveloped the entire courtyard. His spiritual energy was also completely exhausted. Shen Moqi dragged her weary body back into the house, and without even taking off her clothes, she collapsed into bed and fell asleep without a single dream.
The next day, there were still ten attempts, and still failures, but there was a slight improvement compared to the previous day.
On the third day, after eleven attempts, I gained more experience from each failure.
On the fourth day, after twelve attempts, each failure made his control over spiritual power more precise.
He was making progress every day, slowly but steadily. Lengthening the shield was no longer a problem, and he could bend it as well, but the angle of bending was never ideal—he could only bend it to about forty-five degrees at most, and any greater, and the spiritual energy would go out of control and collapse.
On the fifth day, he finally managed to bend the shield to ninety degrees.
An arc-shaped shield hovered in front of him, like a thick sheet of iron that had been bent. Although it was still far from the "pipeline" he had envisioned, Shen Moqi looked at it and a satisfied smile appeared in his eyes.
"Next, close it." He murmured to himself, a determined light shining in his eyes.
Closing is an order of magnitude more difficult than bending.
The arc has only one side, while the pipe is closed. He needs to "weld" the two ends of the arc together to form a hollow cylinder. This means that the spiritual energy must not only be evenly distributed in the direction of the curve, but also maintain balance on the circumference, while keeping it hollow—the spiritual energy cannot fill the entire cross-section, but can only be distributed on the pipe wall. This requires extremely high precision in controlling the spiritual energy.
On the fifth day, he tried to close the connection eight times, all of which failed. Either the two ends could not be connected, or the connection collapsed instantly after being made.
On the sixth day, after nine attempts, all attempts failed. Each failure was accompanied by violent fluctuations in spiritual energy, causing his meridians to ache slightly.
On the seventh day, he began to try another approach—to make a cylindrical shield first.
The cylindrical shield is a variation inherent in earth shield magic, used to defend against attacks from all directions, creating an "earth prison." It doesn't need to be that big; the thickness of a fist is sufficient.
Spiritual energy slowly surged forth. He focused his mind and condensed a thin ring above his palm. The ring was extremely fragile, its edges flickering incessantly, as if it might dissipate at any moment, but at least it had taken shape.
Then, he extended upwards from the edge of the circle, erecting pillars of spiritual energy one by one, like building the skeleton of a cage. The pillars were erected one by one, and then spiritual energy was filled between these skeletons to connect them into one.
The process was extremely slow. Veins bulged on Shen Moqi's forehead, and sweat dripped down his face, falling to the ground. The consumption of spiritual energy was much greater than he had anticipated, and every second was testing his spiritual energy reserves and his ability to control them.
Eight breaths later, the skeleton collapsed with a crash, turning into a yellow light.
He took a deep breath, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and tried again.
This time, he held on for twelve breaths.
The third time, fifteen breaths.
By the tenth day, he had been able to steadily condense a cylindrical "bucket" about the thickness of a fist and about three feet tall. It hovered above his palm, slowly rotating, its earthy yellow light flickering slightly. Although the edges were still trembling slightly, it could at least hold for ten breaths without dissipating.
Shen Moqi let out a long breath, a long-lost sense of relaxation appearing on her face.
"It's time to merge them into one," he said softly, his eyes filled with anticipation.
Day 11.
Shen Moqi stood in the courtyard, closed her eyes, and went through the whole process in her mind.
A cylinder is straight; what it needs is to be curved. So, the cylinder must be made first, and then, at the moment it takes shape, the distribution of spiritual energy is changed to make the cylinder bend.
It sounds simple, but it's incredibly difficult to do.
He opened his eyes, a glint of light flashing in them, and began to circulate his spiritual energy.
A cylindrical shape took shape in his palm, radiating a stable, earthy-yellow light. He carefully adjusted the output of his spiritual energy, increasing the density of spiritual energy on one side of the cylinder and decreasing it on the other—
The cylinder began to bend slowly.
The bending angle is getting larger and larger—
Thirty degrees.
Sixty degrees.
Ninety degrees.
A curved pipe, about the thickness of a fist, finally floated before him. The pipe was semi-transparent, with earthen-yellow spiritual energy flowing slowly within its walls. Its overall shape resembled the number 6 and the letter G, the curvature perfectly matching his vision.
Shen Moqi maintained this form for a full five breaths before actively dissipating her spiritual power.
His legs gave way and he collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, but his face was filled with barely suppressed joy.
"It's done." He murmured to himself, his voice tinged with weariness but filled with excitement.
The twelfth day.
Shen Moqi did not rush to conduct the final experiment.
He spent the entire day repeatedly practicing the condensation of the curved pipe. He practiced twice before going to the Scripture Pavilion in the morning, once during his lunch break, and again after returning in the late afternoon until his spiritual energy was exhausted. He needed to make this technique a muscle memory, to the point where he could control it at will, and he absolutely could not afford to fail during the most crucial test.
By the evening of the thirteenth day, he was able to condense an arc-shaped pipe within two breaths and maintain it stably for more than twenty breaths.
"That's about it." He looked at the stable, curved pipe above his palm, his heart filled with confidence.
Evening of the fourteenth day.
The afterglow of the setting sun bathed the courtyard, casting a warm golden hue over everything. Shen Moqi sat cross-legged in the courtyard, before her a perfectly formed, curved pipe. The upper opening was pressed against the Baihui acupoint, only half an inch from the scalp. The lower opening curved forward, about a foot from her chest.
Everything is ready.
He took a deep breath to calm himself down, and then—
He blew a strong breath towards the entrance of the passage in front of him.
It's not about blowing into your mouth; it's about standing at a distance and blowing directly in front of the opening. Just like how our physics teacher used to blow air into the opening of a plastic bag.
The airflow rushed into the passageway entrance instantly.
In that instant, he clearly sensed the change.
The air inside the pipe was rapidly carried away by the airflow, creating a low-pressure area. The surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth, as if drawn by an invisible hand, surged wildly towards the pipe entrance.
The spiritual energy rushed along the conduit to the top, towards the Baihui acupoint—
Then, he felt as if his head had been hit hard with a sledgehammer, making a buzzing sound.
A massive amount of spiritual energy surged into the Baihui acupoint like a flood bursting its banks, instantly flowing into the entire body along the meridians.
The feeling was like a long-dried-up riverbed suddenly being flooded. The spiritual energy rushed into his meridians so fast that his meridians couldn't adapt in time. Every inch of his meridians was under unprecedented pressure, like a rubber tube stretched to its limit.
The feeling can be summed up in one word: "bloated".
The intense throbbing pain spread from the top of my head to my entire body.
Shen Moqi's face instantly turned bright red, then paled. He could clearly feel that every part of his meridians was sending out dangerous signals, and the meridian walls at the edges were stretched almost transparent, as if they would crack at any moment.
However, unlike the cultivation technique after the last modification, this situation was not caused by a surge of spiritual energy, but by an excess of spiritual energy. The two situations are completely different. The former is like a strong wind blowing over a pond, with surging waves crashing against the bank and causing damage; the latter is more like rapidly pouring a large amount of water into a pond, causing the pond to overflow its banks when full, but without causing significant damage to the banks.
This contradictory feeling of pain and ecstasy lasted for less than two breaths before his body could no longer hold on.
"puff--"
A mouthful of blood suddenly spurted out, splattering onto the bluestone slab in front of him, a shocking sight.
But the corners of his mouth slowly and uncontrollably turned up.