Yang Qing could feel something stir within him. He could feel everything within him from his soul to his body to his internal palace realm, slowly transform as some grand formless power continuously cleansed him from the inside out. He could feel his thoughts clear up, and a great elevation in his sense of self.

Yang Qing could instantly tell what was the source of the transformation, it was his Dao. Something within it had been activated with his act. Some of the profound truths and power contained within it had been triggered by his actions and were now baptizing and transforming his body.

Yang Qing closed out all his senses as he focused his entirety on the presence of his Dao. For one to break through to the palace realm they needed to grasp a form of Dao which they would then use as the key to open the doors of the palace realm. Once inside, the amount of Dao they have grasped would be used as the material and foundation to build their internal realm.

From that moment forth, the improvement of their cultivation base would be dependent on them digging deeper and deeper into the profundities of their own Dao. The more profound truths and mysterious secrets of their Dao they grasp and absorb, the more their cultivation improves. It was the only way to grow their cultivation base.

Though Yang Qing's cultivation didn't improve, he felt he had a finer control of his abilities, and everything from his soul, to his qi, to his body and internal palace world seemed to have been made more compact and purer. The power contained within his body seemed to have experienced a slight increase as the level of the mysteries and profundities contained within the vitality dao had increased within him.

Countless ideas and thoughts came rushing into his mind from the increase. Some were new ideas and concepts that he had not yet thought of, while others were scattered thoughts that he had over the years and could not make sense of.

Just as Yang Qing was wondering where to start, he felt a gentle power flood his body. The power seemed to soften the energy contained within those ideas and concepts that continuously flooded his mind into a form that was easily absorbable to Yang Qing. Though Yang Qing would have still been able to harvest something from those concepts and ideas and use it to transform himself and grow his strength, the gentle force hastened that process by aiding his ability to quickly grasp and digest the insights contained within those ideas and mysterious truths.

"Thank you.." Yang Qing gently said with a soft smile.

From the moment that gentle force covered his body, he could already tell its source. It had come from the scarlet crystal grove tree, more specifically the crystals themselves. He could feel the ethereal power being released from those crystals which then slowly covered his body like he was surrounded by warm sunlight.The interaction between the ethereal power, himself, and the vitality dao growing within him made him feel like he was in a lecture room discussing dao with countless seniors.

Within the ethereal power, he could feel the individuality contained within it. That individuality made the power split into different directions heading to the countless ideas and truths Yang Qing had in his mind.

Yang Qing could tell the split wasn't random. The ethereal power was the amalgamation of the spiritual intent and vestigial presence of the spirit beasts that left those crystals within the scarlet crystal grove tree. Those intents each split as they went to the ideas and truths within Yang Qing that they had some understanding of.

They shared their understandings with Yang Qing which hastened Yang Qing's ability to gain insight into the truths and ideas that had come flooding into his mind. It was like he was having a dao discussion with them and in the process of doing so, he was deepening his understanding of the vitality dao.

Gu Xing stood dazed as she saw Yang Qing surrounded by radiant lights of different colors. They flew around him like colorful miniaturized swallows. Even though she couldn't quite tell what was happening to Yang Qing she could feel the changes happening to him as his natural essence got more and more distinctive and profound.

It increased to the point that even if Yang Qing was standing right in front of her she was struggling to tell him apart from the graveyard's environment. It was like he and the graveyard had melded into one existence.

She could feel the graveyard's environment and essence elevating because of that symmetry. It felt more complete and balanced out than before.

Before, the graveyard part of the graveyard torch was more dominant than the torch. Having stayed here for close to 10,000 years, Gu Xing grew intimately familiar with every inch of the place and had therefore been able to notice a few things here and there such as though the spirit beasts had been able to form the inheritance blood crystals, those crystals were always incomplete.

They were unable to capture the full essence of the spirit beast that left them there, which in turn impacted their longevity and the benefits other spirit beasts may gain from refining it. Hence the torch aspect was always lagging behind but now, she could feel the essence within the area and the crystals themselves grow.

With Yang Qing acting as the catalyst, the graveyard torch experienced a transformation and elevation. Forming of the blood crystals will now be easier, they will last longer, and the successors will be able to harvest more from the crystals.

Gu Xing even felt that the graveyard now had a chance to form the crystalized eight-dao petal flower, which was considered the ultimate gift of the graveyard torch. Despite the Deer Mountain Range's graveyard torch being here for over 100,000 years, it has never formed one.

The requirements for forming the crystalized eight-dao petal flower were highly stringent as it needed quality inheritance blood crystals, with a bare minimum of crystals formed from spirit beasts that had reached the palace realm and had a deep understanding of the dao, other than that, there were other factors required to work in tandem such as the area's ability to support the formation of those crystals and actually contain them. Yang Qing's presence had done just that.

Gu Xing couldn't help but sigh. Earlier she had only revealed herself out of whim because she found Yang Qing's nature fascinating and did indeed have the intention to ask him to help the scarlet crystal grove tree as she felt his essence could improve it, but she quickly realized how she had grossly underestimated how unique Yang Qing was, or powerful he was. It was surprise after surprise after surprise.

His actions would affect the spirit beasts of the Deer Mountain Range for thousands and thousands of years to come. With the graveyard torch improved, she had no doubt there would be more palace realm spirit beasts as a result of it.

When her thoughts reached here, she couldn't help but worry. Even though the spirit beasts of the Deer Mountain Range weren't the most volatile, their history with the Deer Mountain Kingdom had left them all with a distaste and intolerance for humans. She couldn't help but fear them acting impetuously against Yang Qing because he was a human despite him being the greatest reason for their improvement.

"But with his strength, I doubt he would have anything to worry about, but still, it would be disgraceful if they attacked him."

Gu Xing decided she would have to enlighten every spirit beast that came to the graveyard torch and inform them that the benefits they enjoyed were because of Yang Qing. That was of course after getting Yang Qing's approval.

Almost an hour passed by before Yang Qing opened his eyes with a satisfied smile on his face. Even though he was still at the third stage of the palace realm, his harvests this time were greater than the epiphany he had by the river at the branch. By gaining a deeper understanding of his dao, all his abilities were elevated, and he could feel, he had just taken a step toward understanding the question green cocoon asked him.

What was vitality to him?

Though the question had seemed casual, right now, he felt like there was some guiding profound mystery within it that he had not noticed before. He could now feel an inkling as to what Green Cocoon was hinting at. Even though his understanding was raw at the moment, he at the very least could now feel the breadth of the question, and slowly by slowly as he kept improving, the concept of the question would no longer be as abstract as it was, and soon he would understand and eventually work toward finding an answer to it.

Yang Qing couldn't help but be excited at what awaited him when he found that answer. Just grasping the ephemeral presence of the question had brought him so many advantages, he couldn't help but wonder what it would be like when he completely grasped it and answered it.

"Maybe it's the key to the soul formation realm.."