Illusionary Asceticism

The Wisdom Eagle Pavilion is an imposing building, of which the Qi Training Hall alone covers thousands of square metres, a place for Spiritual Movement stage disciples to practise their skills.

It was still early, and the Foundation Establishment cultivators responsible for teaching kung fu had not yet arrived, so the disciples gathered in twos and threes, talking about matters of interest.

Lin Xuan silently went to a less crowded corner and sat down on his knees, intending to cultivate for a while longer while there was still time, and just then, a sound of footsteps reached his ears.

"Hehe, isn't this Senior Brother Lin?"

"I heard that you were in closed-door cultivation a while ago, still haven't broken through to the second level?"

Lin Xuan frowned slightly, but on the surface, he did not show the slightest expression. In the eyes of mortals, cultivators were like immortal gods who did not eat fire and smoke, but in fact, this was only an appearance.

The cultivation world is more cruel, more realistic and more snobbish than the mundane world!

Only here it is not about money, but about strength as the basis of power.

Whoever has a high realm, whoever has good magic treasures, whoever has more pills, is the boss, and the words spoken are also the truth.

In three years, despite the fact that Lin Xuan had put in harder cultivation than others, the defect of having no spiritual roots had left him far behind his fellow disciples, which made him suffer from cold eyes.

"Hmph, a mere mortal with no spiritual roots, even if he works harder, he can't possibly compare to us, instead of staying in the sect and losing face, he might as well have the sense to leave the mountain."

"Yes, three years and still can't break through the second layer of the Spiritual Movement Stage, he's simply a waste."

...

Faced with the taunts of the senior brothers, Lin Xuan did not even blink his eyelids, looking as normal, except for a few boring guys, coldly glancing at them, Lin Xuan walked to the side.

Not angry, not cowardly and fearful, but for a few shallow guys, simply not worth it, Lin Xuan will not let a few words of words affect his state of mind.

Sitting down cross-legged, he began to inhale the spiritual energy, and so it was, after about half an hour, a bell sounded into his ears, and the disciples who were still talking casually stopped talking and stood in line, and Lin Xuan came to the back of the group.

A middle-aged man walked in, from the looks of it, about forty years old, though it must have been more than that, cultivators lived longer as their realms rose, and ageing slowed down gradually.

"Master!"

The disciples bowed and saluted, according to the rules of Piaoyun Valley, they had to address every chair who taught them the techniques with such respect.

"My name is Zhang Yu, and I will be teaching you the mysteries of the Aura Shield."

Aura shield, as the name implied, was to spread spiritual energy on the surface of the body to form an aura shield, the most basic protective spell for cultivators.

The crowd of disciples instantly became excited and exchanged whispers.

Apart from Lin Xuan, who was an ordinary person, most of the disciples with spiritual roots had trained their techniques to the third or fourth level after three years of cultivation, and could already learn some simple small spells after entering the middle stage of spiritual movement.

"What's all the noise, be quiet!" Seeing the chaotic scene below, Zhang Yu's face sank.

Seeing that the chair was angry, the disciples immediately shut up obediently.

Next, Zhang Yu began to explain in detail, how to operate the spiritual power and the details that needed to be paid attention to. Lin Xuan listened attentively, in fact, with his current cultivation level, he was not enough to drive the spiritual shield, but first, he would memorise how to practise it, and later, when his power reached, he would slowly practise it.

"Alright, practice yourselves." After Zhang Yu finished speaking once, he left the Wisdom Eagle Pavilion, whether or not he could practice next would depend on the comprehension of each disciple.

Lin Xuan also left with him, he first returned to his residence, a humble hut, high ranking cultivators all had their own caves, but low ranking disciples like him lived in a very humble environment.

There was only a table, a chair and a wooden bed in the room. Lin Xuan opened the drawer of the table, took out a pen and paper from inside and recorded down the method of cultivating the aura shield he had heard today.

This had been his habit for three years, as he had no spiritual roots and his cultivation speed could not keep up with his fellow students, so after each teaching session, Lin Xuan would record what he heard, many things could not be cultivated now and left for later study, so he would not forget them if he wrote them down on paper.

After completing his silent writing, Lin Xuan carefully put away the book filled with gong methods, then went back to the back of the mountain on the Heart Refining Path and followed the passage down to the spot where he had cultivated the previous two days.

The aura became more and more abundant and Lin Xuan stopped, this was it, no further, the deeper the Heart Refining Path went, the more terrifying the illusion would be.

Suddenly, the scene changed and what appeared before him was a white world, a thousand miles of ice, ten thousand miles of snow, and a cold wind roaring.

The snowflakes flooded his ankles in no time, and his whole body felt like it was frozen in a flash. Lin Xuan's heart was aghast, could the illusion still change randomly, the last time he endured the pain of burning fire, but this time it turned into endless cold.

After a moment of silence, Lin Xuan sat down with his face expressionless on the snow and began to absorb the spiritual energy around him.

Soon he was frozen, and Lin Xuan's hair condensed into icicles, but he still sat motionless in the snow for more than 20 minutes before he ran out of the illusionary realm to rest for a while, move his body, and once he had recovered a little, he immediately went back to his cultivation.

...

The cold wind howled and snowflakes condensed into countless sharp ice blades that flew towards Lin Xuan, but the young man continued to meditate on the ground like a rock.

Two days later, Lin Xuan stood up expressionlessly, hesitated and continued to walk deeper into the Heart Refining Path, the purity of the spiritual qi here was not enough, to break through the bottleneck, he needed more pure spiritual qi, he walked firmly towards the more terrifying illusion ...