Chapter 1344: The Ascension of Divine Awareness

After several years of tempering his spiritual consciousness, for Zhou Yiqiao, every day is like dancing on the edge of a knife.

The power of the dark blue earth fire lotus was like the cruelest sculptor, constantly carving his consciousness.

In just a few years, Zhou Yiqiao's appearance and complexion have undergone tremendous changes.

The once handsome face is now covered with traces of time, his skin looks pale due to long-term hard training, his eye sockets are sunken, and his eyes are bloodshot.

His hair became thinner, with a few strands of silver mixed in, revealing a sense of vicissitudes that was inconsistent with his age.

However, despite his appearance being tortured beyond recognition, Zhou Yiqiao's eyes were still clear, revealing a firmness and stubbornness.

Zhou Yiqiao's progress in cultivation over the past few years has been extremely difficult.

During the initial period of time, he could feel that his consciousness was gradually becoming tougher and purer in the torment of this world of ice and fire.

However, as his practice deepened, he gradually felt a huge obstacle, as if there was an invisible barrier preventing his consciousness from undergoing the final step of transformation.

Zhou Yiqiao could vaguely feel that this would be the last obstacle he would face in the final stage of his nerve training. Only by breaking through this barrier could his spiritual consciousness be truly sublimated.

However, the strength of this barrier was far beyond Zhou Yiqiao's understanding.

Zhou Yiqiao tried for a long time but failed to break through this barrier. Instead, his spiritual consciousness could not withstand the high-intensity training and he almost fainted several times.

Fortunately, Zhou Yiqiao's foundation in all aspects was strong enough to help him survive the test of life and death time and time again.

Finally, when his spiritual consciousness was once again exhausted by the power of the Dark Blue Earth Fire Lotus and was about to fall into darkness, Zhou Yiqiao suddenly felt an unprecedented clarity.

"I see......"

He murmured to himself, as if at this moment, all his confusion and struggles had found answers.

Zhou Yiqiao finally understood that this barrier was not an external force, but came from the restrictions he set for himself unconsciously.

His consciousness had reached a critical point under the tempering of the Dark Blue Fire Lotus of the Earth's Core, but he was still unable to take that final step. This was because deep in his heart, there was still a trace of fear of the unknown and resistance to failure.

Although his cautious attitude has helped him avoid many unnecessary risks, it has also become a shackle that prevents him from breaking through himself and moving towards a higher level.

His thoughts became clear, Zhou Yiqiao took a deep breath and began to adjust his state.

He discarded all distractions and fears and devoted all his mind to the refinement of his spiritual consciousness.

He gradually relaxed his consciousness and no longer resisted the power of the dark blue earth fire lotus, but allowed it to flow freely in his body.

In just a few breaths, Zhou Yiqiao's heart became extremely peaceful, like a windless lake.

Just as he had foreseen, in the quiet atmosphere, he finally saw through the invisible obstacle, which was the embodiment of his fear and hesitation, the shadow lurking deep in his heart.

This time, Zhou Yiqiao did not escape, nor did he waver in the slightest. He chose to face this fear head-on.

A tenacious will quietly gathered in his heart, like the first ray of sunlight at dawn, pointing directly to the core of the barrier.

"Boom!"

Following a subtle but clear cracking sound, Zhou Yiqiao felt as if some solid shackles in his mind were suddenly broken, and an unprecedented freshness and joy surged from the bottom of his heart, instantly sweeping over his body.

He could feel that his spiritual consciousness became purer and more powerful at this moment, as if it could see through all the secrets of the world.

As the barrier was broken, Zhou Yiqiao's consciousness began to exist in a new way.

He instinctively released his spiritual sense, but found that the range of his spiritual sense did not expand, but instead decreased sharply.

In the past, when he exerted his full strength, he could sense vague scenes thousands of miles away, but now, even if he concentrated his energy, his spiritual sense could only cover a thousand miles away.

Zhou Yiqiao was shocked. His first reaction was that his spiritual power was too much consumed and he needed time to recover and readapt to this new realm.

He hurriedly swallowed several pills to restore his consciousness. However, after the pills entered his stomach, they did not bring about the expected rapid recovery of his consciousness.

"Damn it, is this a case of being possessed by a demon?"

Although Zhou Yiqiao was frightened, he quickly calmed down and began to examine his condition.

He found that his mental state was unusually good, without any signs of being possessed. He closed his eyes and tried to perceive the world around him.

When he released his spiritual sense, he was surprised to find that although the range of the spiritual sense was narrowed to within a thousand miles, everything within this range became extremely clear.

He could feel the veins of every leaf and the dance of every speck of dust, as if everything was under his control.

The clarity of this perception far exceeds the level that the spiritual consciousness can reach before the realm.

Zhou Yiqiao's heart moved, he remembered the description of spiritual consciousness in ancient books. The strength of spiritual consciousness does not depend on the size of its range, but on the depth and clarity of perception.

Feeling a little more at ease, he began to try to explore this new power. Sure enough, he discovered that although the range of his spiritual awareness had shrunk, the depth and clarity of his perception had greatly increased.

Zhou Yiqiao suddenly had an idea and decided to do an experiment.

He locked his spiritual consciousness on a demon beast in the early stage of Qi Refining that was foraging for food a thousand miles away.

As he focused his consciousness on the monster, Zhou Yiqiao could clearly feel that his spiritual consciousness penetrated the void like a thin thread and accurately entangled with the spiritual consciousness of the monster in the early stage of Qi Refining.

The monster was burying its head in the grass, completely unaware of the impending danger.

Zhou Yiqiao's mind moved, and a pure and powerful divine power surged out from his heart, passing along the thin thread and instantly penetrating the monster's fragile spiritual defense.

"Buzz!"

A slight tremor exploded in the monster's mind, and then the monster's eyes became dull, its limbs stiffened, and it could no longer move.

At this moment, its vitality was completely deprived by Zhou Yiqiao's spiritual consciousness. Without even a chance to struggle, it fell silently into the grass.

Zhou Yiqiao's heart was shocked, he finally understood that his spiritual awareness was not really weakened, but became more condensed and powerful.

"Sacrificing the distance of spiritual consciousness in exchange for the strength of spiritual consciousness..."

After letting out a long breath, Zhou Yiqiao finally let go of his worries.

"In any case, the matter has come to this point and cannot be reversed. We might as well find out the strength of this method."

First, he tried to influence creatures at a greater distance.

As his spiritual consciousness extended, he could clearly feel that his influence on the living beings in his spiritual consciousness was rapidly weakening.

However, even so, after reaching the farthest distance of a thousand miles, his spiritual sense can still cause a fatal blow to the demon beasts in the late stage of Qi Refining.

Immediately afterwards, Zhou Yiqiao began to try to influence creatures at different distances.

He discovered that as the distance shortened, the influence of his spiritual awareness also increased.

Within a distance of four hundred miles, he could even inflict the same fatal attack on some monsters in the early stages of foundation building.

Through this series of experiments, Zhou Yiqiao finally determined that his spiritual consciousness was enough to kill creatures in the late stage of Qi Refining even at a distance of thousands of miles.

As the distance gets closer, the strength of his spiritual awareness will gradually increase, but how powerful it can be is unknown due to the limitations of the area he is in now, so he cannot give it a try.

Despite this, Zhou Yiqiao is already very satisfied with his new abilities.

After all, the range and strength of spiritual consciousness will continue to grow with the advancement of cultivation. As long as one advances to the middle stage of the Void Refining Realm, or even to a higher level, the power of this spiritual consciousness will undoubtedly be more terrifying, and can even threaten stronger people at a higher level.

"Thinking about it this way, at least for now, finding a new method of refining the spirit is more important than advancing to the middle stage of refining emptiness."

Zhou Yiqiao pondered secretly in his heart, his eyes flickering, and for a moment he had the idea of ​​bidding farewell to the Tijian Sect and going out to explore the martial arts.

Fortunately, reason told Zhou Yiqiao that the spirit of the demon sword outside the Tijian Sect was still missing. Before getting some useful information from his great-grandmaster Li Mubai, the best option was to continue practicing in the Tijian Sect.

Just as Zhou Yiqiao was about to continue his practice to further master and skillfully use his new spiritual abilities, a familiar voice came from outside the cave, interrupting his meditation.

"Brother Zhou, have you finished your retreat?"

"Well, I just made some progress and am preparing to adjust my breathing and start the next round of hard training."

Zhou Yiqiao answered loudly, calmed his mind, stood up and walked out of the cave.

He was very familiar with this voice. It was the swordsman of the Tijian Sect, Li Mubai, who had been out of contact before his retreat.

Li Mubai was seen standing on the bluestone path outside the cave with a smile on his face and his arms folded across his chest.

The sunlight shone through the sparse clouds and fell on his energetic face.

"Brother Li, why are you coming here in person?"

Zhou Yiqiao stepped forward and asked.

Li Mubai laughed.

"What else can it be? In the entire Tijian Sect, the only one who can order me around, besides my unreliable master, is of course my great-uncle."

When Zhou Yiqiao heard this, a gleam of light flashed in his eyes.

"Is it that Senior wants to see me for something?"

"Exactly."

Li Mubai still had a smile on his face, but the voice he transmitted to Zhou Yiqiao suddenly became extremely serious.

"My great-grandmaster has returned from his travels and has specially summoned you. It seems that there has been some progress regarding the matter of the magic sword and the sword spirit, and he wants to discuss it with the two of us in detail."

Zhou Yiqiao looked stunned, then reacted. His expression remained unchanged as he smiled and bowed to Li Mubai.

"Since it is a summons from the senior, I naturally dare not neglect it in the slightest."

"Brother Li, please lead the way. We will be there immediately."

Li Mubai nodded, and the two of them each summoned their flying magic weapons, chatting and laughing as they flew towards the sword edge where the Sword Heart Pavilion was located...