To confirm that his perception was not mistaken, Charlie wade carefully ran through the entire set of hand seals several more times.
The result filled him with boundless joy.
Each time he completed a full cycle of the seals, an additional strand of spiritual energy would appear as if from nowhere, flowing into his consciousness sea like a gentle trickle.
Compared to the spiritual energy already stored in his consciousness sea, this extra amount was truly pitifully small. Even so, it still drove Charlie wade wild with delight.
These new hand seals completely overturned the worldview he had held since he first began cultivating.
He had always believed that the entire world was in the Age of Ending Dharma, that natural spiritual energy had virtually vanished from the environment. The only way for cultivators to raise their cultivation and increase their spiritual energy was by taking pills.
One could think of it this way: although nature no longer provided ready-made spiritual energy, the art of alchemy could still artificially synthesise spiritual energy from all kinds of heavenly treasures and rare materials, thereby sustaining the arduous cultivation of this depleted era.
Under that premise, spiritual energy was the most precious resource in the world for cultivators.
Yet now, these hand seals had suddenly opened an entirely new door.
They, too, were a method that could generate spiritual energy.
Moreover, they required no materials whatsoever. Simply by performing this set of seals, one could slowly increase one’s own spiritual energy.
With these seals, cultivation in the Age of Ending Dharma would become far easier.
Of course, the rate at which these seals produced spiritual energy was indeed extremely low. To fully replenish all the spiritual energy in one’s body would probably require tireless practice for several months at the very least.
Only at this moment did Charlie wade finally understand why the legends spoke of eminent monks who sat in meditation and contemplated Zen their entire lives, eventually ascending to the Pure Land, attaining buddhahood, and gaining countless supernatural powers. It was because they had contemplated Zen for a lifetime whilst simultaneously cultivating this practice for a lifetime.
A single meditation mat, a few sticks of sandalwood incense, one person sitting devoutly before the Buddha for a hundred years. Even if others cultivated for a hundred years, they could never achieve the same purity or the same wholehearted devotion.
At this thought, Charlie wade suddenly felt that the tales of the sweeping monk in wuxia novels might actually hold some truth.
Meanwhile, Grace Lowes and Song Rife had, with great difficulty, completed the full set of sixteen hand seals for the first time.
They had never encountered Buddhist seals before, so the movements felt obscure and hard to grasp at first, and linking them smoothly was difficult. Naturally, they were nowhere near as proficient as Charlie wade, the poor fellow who had been tricked by the previous set for so long.
When they finally managed one complete cycle, they were still wondering what on earth these seals were for. They could not possibly be an offensive technique, could they? If launching a single attack required so much effort, no one would have enough lives to throw away in actual combat.
Yet the moment they finished, they both suddenly sensed a tiny strand of spiritual energy appear in their bodies from an unknown source.
At first, both women were utterly shocked.
Like Charlie wade, they had never dared to hope that spiritual energy could simply materialise out of thin air.
Therefore, they exchanged a glance, neither daring to believe that the sudden appearance of spiritual energy was connected to the hand seals they had just laboriously performed.
Without delay, they tried again.
Grace Lowes’s comprehension, cultivation level, and experience far surpassed Song Rife’s, so she completed the cycle noticeably faster. When she felt another strand of spiritual energy appear within her, she instantly understood the profound secret. Tears of excitement streamed down her face.
The sensation was like someone who had relied their whole life on water doled out by others finally digging their own first well. Even if that well produced water very, very slowly, for her it was still a revolutionary step forward.
Overwhelmed with emotion, she immediately stood up, walked to Charlie wade, fell to both knees, and choked out, “Grace Lowes kowtows in gratitude for the supreme opportunity the gentleman has bestowed!”
