Murim's Weakest Princess-Chapter 31: Seven Gates

Even without the disturbance of those silver bells, Yan Ping struggled to focus because her newly designed soul-anchoring array kept pulling her back before it was time. It took the prophet several days to configure its sensitivity correctly before she could finally astral dive without disturbances.

After a series of gruelling attempts, Yan Ping stumbled upon a game-changing technique that allowed her to access her astral form with a newfound ease. The process of severing the connection between her conscious mind and gathering all her energy into her core was an ineffective process. However, with the aid of seals specifically developed for Anji to block major meridian channels, Yan Ping achieved her astral state in half the time.

From that point forward, the prophet focused on becoming familiar with the control of her astral body. The world, once seen through the lens of energy, now took on a new, intriguing form after she separated her soul from her body. The vision in her astral form was not just clearer but also revealed things she could not see before. Anji’s existence, previously a mystery, was now represented as a soul in the astral realm. Although Yan Ping still could not discern her cultivation level, Anji’s soul was the brightest among all the people in the Celestial Dragon Sect.

Travelling from the deepest cultivation chamber, Yan Ping used her astral body to travel down the mountains and observe her student’s progress. Anji was still studying, as she should have been under Mingfeng’s guidance. More interestingly, the toddler was working as an apprentice under her family physician. No matter. Yan Ping did not mind sharing Anji with others. After all, the successor of the Mystical Qilin Sect only had one job — to pass on the secret arts of the sect and produce the next prophet.

Assured that Anji was in good hands, Yan Ping returned to her inner world. Cultivating in the astral form was very different from cultivating qi. Unlike the body with meridians, the astral body had no channels for energy flow. People said that the eyes were the window to the soul, and Anji’s eyes were definitely unique. Yan Ping received a vague hint about soul cultivation from studying Anji’s Heavenly Eyes.

The inner world was very similar to the Daoist Heart. However, unlike the cultivator’s Golden Core, the soul’s inner world was an empty void. Yan Ping had no idea what she was meant to do. Without any manuals or guides, the prophet loitered in the void of her soul world for a very long time, trying to find the end of the vast space. Unfortunately, the void seemed endless.

Spinning endlessly in the soul’s inner world, Yan Ping tried to recall what the monk taught her about chakras. He said the body had something similar to meridians for soul cultivation. They were known as chakra, although they functioned like gates. Anjis meridians were closed. However, her Heavenly Eyes worked because she could harness qi using a different method through her naturally aligned chakras.

"Maybe the first step to using the soul’s world is to unlock the seven gates?" Yan Ping wondered.

Despite deciding on a direction to begin her soul cultivation, Yan Ping had no idea where to find them. Unlike the meridians taught to all cultivators by their teachers, the chakras were not physical points in the body. They were closer to concepts than pressure points, or were they? free𝑤ebnovel.com

Starting from her dantian, Yan Ping returned from her soul world and exited her astral body. No matter how much control she had over her astral body to travel outside her physical body, it could not do anything else. She should start from the cultivation basics and retrace her steps to see if she missed anything.

Instead of circulating the qi all over her body throughout the bloodstream as novice cultivators would do, Yan Ping kept the qi within her golden core and tried to find a different gateway that the qi could access. Anji’s core was sealed tightly, preventing qi from entering her meridians. However, Yan Ping sensed a mysterious energy source that travelled freely when the young girl activated her Heavenly Eyes. If she recalled the path correctly, the energy path traversed along her spine from the coccyx to the crown of her head. In other words, a different type of energy flowed in her body along her spinal cord.

Transferring small portions of qi from her golden core, Yan Ping started with her lowest vertebra. She might not be a doctor. However, it was common for cultivators to know more about the human body than the average mortal. Living for more than a hundred years had its perks.

The human body has a total of thirty-three vertebrae that make up the spine. It starts from the back of the skull and extends downwards all the way to the hip bones, holding up everything essential for a human’s functionality. Anyone with missing limbs cannot cultivate because they have an incomplete meridian system. However, according to the monk Yan Ping met, any living person could attain nirvana through meditating and cultivating the soul. Using this little hint, Yan Ping theorised that soul cultivation used qi and circulated it along the spine, similar to how cultivation worked. However, Yan Ping failed as soon as she began.

The qi that she sent to her coccyx merged with her meridians immediately. The Kidney Meridian channel and Conception Vessel snapped her energy even before Yan Ping could attempt anything. Locating the seven gates was harder than she thought.

Undeterred, Yan Ping tried again. There were thirty-three vertebrae in total, and that was just the first. Maybe there were only seven vertebrae that worked as gates in the spine. She must not jump to conclusions too quickly.

Moving quickly from the coccyx to the sacral region, Yan Ping replicated her experiment, only to be met with the same results. She proceeded with the same thread of qi from her golden core and attempted it with the lumbar, thoracic and cervical vertebrae, but the same thing happened. Like trying to send a small supply raft to the other side of a raging river, her small thread of qi never made contact with her spine.

Frustrated, Yan Ping exited her meditation. She had sealed many major meridians using the seal she developed for Anji, which helped her navigate her consciousness and access her astral body. Sealing every meridian channel that she had spent a lifetime to develop would make her no different from a mortal. Yan Ping had no idea if she would be able to withstand the harsh environment of the cultivation chamber and lack of food without the remaining meridians.

"There is no choice," Yan Ping sighed. "I’d have to request for external assistance or an isolation chamber if I want to make any progress."

Leaving the cultivation chamber with a heavy heart, Yan Ping exited the mountain.