land as far as her eyes could see and her senses could touch. Under Zheng Xuanling's guidance and her own experimentation, she quickly adapted to the many wonderful uses of this new body.
She could run and jump, feel the gentle breeze caress her "cheeks," listen to the gurgling flow of the stream, observe insects busily moving among the grass blades, and even, like a mortal, "breathe" the air carrying the fresh fragrance of dew in the morning mist... These experiences, utterly ordinary to common people, were filled with novelty and emotion for her.
She was like a prisoner confined for far too long, finally granted limited freedom, greedily savoring everything.
When Zheng Xuanling finished handling his sect affairs and quietly returned to Li Family Village once more, this was the scene he witnessed:
The young girl's spiritual body, clad in a pale green long dress, was walking barefoot in the shallow water by the stream below the earthen slope. Her slender feet faintly shimmered with a woody luster. She carefully stepped through the water, sometimes bending down to fiddle with the pebbles at the bottom, sometimes scooping up the cool stream water, startling away a few small fish. The leaves on the two tender branches atop her head trembled joyfully with her movements, her face radiant with undisguised, pure delight.
He did not disturb her, merely standing under a distant tree with a smile, watching until Lin Tingwan had her fill of play and walked back inside the low wall, carrying with her the moisture of water and the fresh scent of plants and trees.
"It seems Fellow Daoist is gradually getting the hang of it," Zheng Xuanling said with a laugh.
Lin Tingwan wasn't bashful either, her eyes sparkling brightly. "Fellow Daoist Zheng, I feel as if I've 'come back to life' again, able to truly touch and perceive this world." She paused, then asked somewhat excitedly, "I was just wondering, how far can this spiritual body currently travel from the main body?"
Zheng Xuanling gestured for her to sit, finding a flat stone for himself as well, and sat down slowly. "For a Canopy Stage spiritual body, its range of activity and its strength directly depend on the depth of your main body's Spiritual Resonance, the closeness of your connection to the earth veins, and your mastery over the spiritual body.
Upon first entering this stage, the spiritual body is still ethereal. Its range of activity is generally within a radius of about a hundred li. Beyond this limit, the spiritual body will rapidly weaken, its connection to the main body becomes blurred, and there is even the danger of dissipation."
"A hundred li..." Lin Tingwan murmured in repetition. This range was already considerable for her, enough to cover Li Family Village and the vast surrounding mountains and wilderness.
"As your realm stabilizes and the spiritual body solidifies, this range will gradually expand," Zheng Xuanling continued. "If you can reach the late stage or even perfection, the spiritual body's activity range can extend for thousands of li, and it will become more condensed and stable, difficult to harm with ordinary spells. If you can break through perhaps... your spiritual body avatar would be sufficient to travel the world, while your main body could safely remain hidden, focusing wholeheartedly on cultivation."
Lin Tingwan's heart surged with excitement. If she could reach such a realm, with the vastness of heaven and earth, where could she not go? Although the main body still needed to take root, the spiritual body would be nearly a free entity!
Zheng Xuanling continued listing, "Apart from basic perception, movement, and simple manipulation of Spiritual Resonance, as a plant spirit's avatar, you can now attempt to execute some of your main body's supernatural abilities through the spiritual body.
For example, condensing spiritual clouds to bring down spiritual rain; guiding Earth Vein Qi to nourish or stabilize a piece of land; controlling part of the main body's branches, leaves, or roots for defense or simple attacks. When the spiritual body grows stronger, you could even briefly leave the body to perform wood-element spells or use the spiritual body to set up simple plant-based formations."
He changed his tone, his voice carrying a note of warning. "However, the spiritual body ultimately relies on the main body. Remember, do not let the spiritual body stay far beyond the main body's limit range for extended periods, do not let the main body become excessively depleted, and most importantly, do not let the main body fall into danger. Once the main body is damaged, the foundation of your Spiritual Resonance will also be injured, and recovering from that is much more troublesome than healing spiritual body wounds."
Lin Tingwan nodded solemnly, firmly committing these key points to memory.
In the following days, she began consciously exploring her range of activity. At first, she only lingered within a few li around the earthen slope, familiarizing herself with the terrain, practicing spiritual body flight and simple external release of Spiritual Resonance. Gradually, growing bolder, she began exploring further into the distant mountains, forests, and stream valleys.
She discovered that when her spiritual body was more than fifty li from her main body, she could clearly feel an intangible "pulling force" and a slow drain of her spiritual body's energy. Beyond eighty li, this drain rate would accelerate, and the perceptual connection with the main body began to experience delays and blurriness.
She tried pushing the limit to the edge of a hundred li. The feeling of weakness, as if the spiritual body might be "snapped" at any moment, and the sluggish, obstructed connection to her consciousness made her wisely retreat immediately.
But even so, a range of a hundred li was vast enough. She walked through valleys blooming with spring flowers, watched the flowing river of stars on summer nights, listened to the sound of autumn winds blowing through the pine forests like ocean waves, and touched the snow-covered peaks in winter. Like a greedy apprentice, she used her own way to reacquaint herself with this world that was both familiar and strange.
She had finally come back to life like a human again!