# Chapter 95: The Star-Coiling Spirit Serpent
Cultivation comes first from cultivating the heart.
Cultivation level is the root of the martial path; the Dao arts are the means of protecting the Dao; but the disposition of the heart is the force that sustains a cultivator along his way.
With the knot in his heart dissolved, tonight's cultivation went especially smoothly.
His thoughts were lucid, his Dao heart clear. That star-coiling earthworm made several crossings through the spiraling river of stars in his inner world, then shed its worm-skin and poked out a nimble little serpent.
This likewise marked its evolution from an earthworm meridian to a spirit-serpent meridian.
As with the changes of other true spirits of the Dao meridians, the amount of Dao essence it could take in and expel grew from one drop to three drops.
The sole difference was that this spirit-serpent true spirit, coiled within Jiang Wang's Heaven-Access Palace, was still draped in starlight — and it was all the more nimble for it.
By the orderly progression, the second Dao vortex should have formed on the thirteenth day of the eleventh month.
But now he had already reached the critical point — two days early. And it was plain to foresee that, with the blessing of the star-coiling spirit-serpent meridian, this pace would only quicken further.
The formation of the first Dao vortex marked the laying of the foundation. It also meant that a cultivator's Dao essence could henceforth be generated from within. From the second Dao vortex on, however, the cultivator must begin preparing for the construction of the minor Zhou Heavenly circulation.
Only when three Dao vortices echoed one another and merged into a single whole could Dao essence truly flow without end. And only when the minor Zhou Heavenly circulation was firmly established could it support the expansion of the Heaven-Access Palace.
For this reason, an eighth-grade cultivator was said to be in the Zhou Heavenly Circulation Realm.
Constructing the minor Zhou Heavenly circulation was no simple matter. It was not enough to casually raise three Dao vortices and expect them to revolve. If the vortices themselves failed to harmonize, they might even clash with one another, thereby ruining the cultivator's path.
These three Dao vortices were also called the Lesser Three Energies. The optimum minor Zhou Heavenly circulation required not only that the logic hold, but that the artistic conception align as well.
Depending on the school, and even on the temperament each person favored, the Lesser Three Energies differed as well — like rivers, seas and oceans; wind, elegance and hymns; tree, grove and forest; even gold, silver and bronze...
For Jiang Wang, he had long since pondered the question deeply.
His first Dao vortex was the Sun.
The Grand Constellation Array began from the Sun Star. When the sun rises, the world is lit.
Setting out from the sun-vortex, there were also many extraordinarily powerful conceptions to build — like sun, moon and year, spanning the river of time from end to end.
Jiang Wang had no need to hesitate. The second vortex, plainly and simply, was the Moon. The Great Yin Star was all but bound up with everything he had today. Only the bright moon could mirror the heart at its root.
Equally a Dao vortex condensed from the Grand Constellation Array, the moon-vortex and the sun-vortex showed no difference in appearance, each suspended above the Heaven-Access Palace.
The two spiraling rivers of stars ran side by side, illuminating the Heaven-Access Palace yet more clearly.
The star-coiling spirit serpent swam merrily between the two Dao vortices, drops of Dao essence tumbling down like pearls and jade. Every day, the two vortices gave birth to sixteen drops of Dao essence. The spirit serpent's capacity for drawing in and expelling Dao essence was three times that of the star-coiling earthworm — once for each of the four daily sessions of meridian-rupture cultivation, that made twelve drops of Dao essence.
At this pace, barring accidents, the third spiraling river of stars could be established thirteen days from now. At that time, so long as the minor Zhou Heavenly circulation gave no trouble, Jiang Wang would step firmly into the Zhou Heavenly Circulation Realm.
...
The Prefecture Dao Academy examination, which had gripped so many hearts, was finally over. Li Jianqiu and Wang Changxiang, both familiar to Jiang Wang, had passed into the Prefecture Dao Academy with ease. Zhang Linchuan had not chosen to sit for it, but planned instead to seize a direct berth into the National Dao Academy through next year's Three-City Dao Debate.
There could be no doubt that this raced ahead far faster than the path of Li Jianqiu and the others, who had advanced through the joint examination of the three prefectures. And only Zhang Linchuan, with the strongest combat strength, was entitled to gamble a whole year on it.
When Li Jianqiu left, Jiang Wang and the others saw him off outside the city walls.
Those disciples who had passed into the Prefecture Dao Academy were essentially the cream of the City Dao Academy's crop, and many had come to see them off.
Wang Changxiang in particular was all but surrounded by a crowd. The Wang clan took pride in him, with several elders constantly pressing words of counsel upon him.
"Whenever do you juniors mean to head for the Prefecture Academy? Or shall we simply meet at the National Dao Academy?" Li Jianqiu's final question was directed, however, at Jiang Wang.
Ever since the trip to Standing Brush Peak, and the settling of old scores, Li Jianqiu had plainly loosened up a great deal, and recovered a measure of the vigor that befits a young man.
In his view, of these few people, the one most likely to enter the National Dao Academy directly was Jiang Wang.
Zhao Rucheng, grinning and shameless, said, "We'll strive to catch up to Senior Brother soon. If we can't, then please, Senior Brother, walk a little slower and wait for us."
Li Jianqiu had come to know him a bit by now, so he laughed and said, "Then you'd better work a little harder. Otherwise Senior Brother is getting on in years and can't wait forever."
"I'm working plenty hard already, Senior Brother Li!" Zhao Rucheng protested indignantly. "Every day I squeeze in two whole hours of cultivation!"
"And at least four hours steeping in the Three-Fragrance Pleasure House," Huang Azhan put in. His tone was less contemptuous than envious, sour as vinegar. "And you never take Senior Brother with you!"
"Then bring some silver, Senior Brother!"
"Senior Brother going to a brothel with you is a favor to you! Look — if anyone else asked Senior Brother to go, would he go? He wouldn't even glance their way!"
"That's because nobody but me ever asks you!"
Jiang Wang paid no heed to their daily bickering, and smiled at Li Jianqiu as he said, "It seems Senior Brother won't stay long at the Prefecture Academy either. In the future, do you mean to develop in the Ministry of War, or shepherd a region as its magistrate?"
"When I eventually come out of the National Dao Academy, I'll probably go to Sanshan City." Li Jianqiu said, "I always feel I should go and do something there."
Zhao Rucheng and Huang Azhan, who had both been grinning, fell silent. They had taken part in the campaign to wipe out the ferocious beasts at Sanshan City, and so could understand Li Jianqiu's mood all the better.
Sanshan City held a strange charm — not something the place itself conferred, but something given to it by the people who lived there.
Of these men, the one with perhaps the most complicated feelings was Jiang Wang. Aside from clasping his hands in salute, there was little else he could say.
He saluted in turn, saying, "Then, Senior Brother, may you rise high like the clouds and soar. Look not back."
Li Jianqiu pressed his hand to his sword and walked away — and truly, he did not once look back.
As he re-entered the city, Jiang Wang spied at one corner of the gate a person cradling a plump ginger cat. The man had presumably come to see someone off, but for some reason stood here alone.
His figure was forlorn.
Catching Jiang Wang's shifting gaze, the man only gave a slight nod, no further emotion in his gentle eyes.
Jiang Wang nodded back, and was shoved on his way by Zhao Rucheng.
...
The night of the fifteenth of the eleventh month.
The monthly challenge of the hallowed land began on schedule, and Jiang Wang always set aside that day, dedicating it in full to the challenge. He had no wish to be judged defeated for failing to answer the call in time — though, of course, even answering it in full could not save him from defeat.
Tonight was no exception.
Jiang Wang clutched two spiraling rivers of stars, had brought the Purple Qi from the East Sword Art to its highest degree, had finished the Azure Dragon Chapter of the Four Spirit Body-Tempering Art, and his Dao arts were all reasonably polished.
And still he was killed in an instant.
This time, even more absurdly, he could not even tell what had killed him.
Jiang Wang felt that were he to keep a record of his experiences in the Great Void Illusion, its title should be "The One Thousand Ways Jiang Wang Died."
He gloriously dropped to Cave Spirit Source, rank twenty-six of the hallowed lands, his monthly yield of contribution reduced to just 1550 points. Added to the points left over from before, that made 3390 in total.
His offensive arts were more than adequate by now, and a host of Dao techniques were laid open to him within the Dao Academy, so he begrudged spending these points. The hallowed land had, after all, been won by an accident of fortune, and by the look of the current trend, some day or other he would be driven out by another. Or else... he might grow strong enough before that could happen.
Deliberating for a long while within the Great Void Illusion, he turned his gaze toward the Sword-Discussion Platform.
This was the ninth-grade Sword-Discussion Platform. Within the Great Void Illusion, one rode this platform to battle opponents.
He suddenly recalled the words that Old Master Lin had spoken when he had barred the gate with his sword in Wangjiang City —
"Let's see whether he truly is, without equal throughout the Wandering-Meridian Realm!"
At present, his combat strength — he flattered himself that within the three cities of Fenglin, Sanshan and Wangjiang, he had accomplished that very thing.
And what of the whole world?
In this unfathomable Great Void Illusion.
What then?