The dimness of night led to the glow of sunrise in the sky, illuminating the misty Blood-Moon Peak of the Star-Soaring Sect. The mountain peak wasn't outstandingly tall, but neither was it small. Despite its size, there was only one courtyard at the top of the mountain. The surrounding mists of that courtyard were the deepest and darkest bloody red, dispersing in a gradient into the white fog that permeates over the mountain surface like a blood stain. The swirl of thick energy resembles the Blood Yin1 that would appear during a Blood Moon, yet this mist persists throughout the year. It was only when the warm sunshine lit the mountain peak that the mist thins and the bloody color lightened to reveal the lush surface brimming with spiritual energy.
The mist moves with the spiritual energy flow, and this movement appears random. However, one with a sensitive perception might be able to see the mist flow up instead of down. An even more keen observer would pick up an unnatural flow leading to the courtyard at the top. But the true circumstances of the spiritual energy could only be seen accurately by the person within the courtyard.
A young man with long black hair pushed a fallen strand away from his expressionless face using a spare strand of energy, entirely focused on the assembly and carving process. His dark eyes seemed deeper than the void as they gleamed with seriousness, yet this gleam seemed to be dampened by the translucent film covering his foggy eyes. This made his focused eyes appear as if a night sky with stars hidden behind a fog.
In Xiao Changyu's eyes, the world seemed so different and alien compared to what can be seen normally.
The dimness of the room was supposed to be illuminated only by the single candle on the table and dim moonlight.
And yet, his view was bright.
Glimmers of spiritual energy strands shone like ephemeral lights while particles surrounded him like fireflies. The room was more than sufficiently lit. The table was tidy with lines of tools easily within reach surrounding a petite wooden carving placed carefully upon temporary stands. It was placed so that he could easily reach various parts of the carving with his tools. On top of the wooden carved piece, each of his hands held a metallic tool to embed energy1 carefully and meticulously down the grains of each carved line below. With his well-maintained and swift hands, he picked up the elusive faint strands of energy which was typically invisible in other people's eyes. The tools in his hands twisted and connected intricately in the air to weave together the faint energy strands into hair-width continuous threads. As this thread solidifies in batches, the energy thread is embedded with intricate and precise stabs into the fine lines of the wood carving. The sounds of tiny stabs would be inaudible in any other place, but Xiao Changyu could almost hear it in the silence of his alchemic workshop and under his focused gaze. The rhythmic vibrations helped him ensure that this process was done flawlessly and flowingly as it repeated swiftly like floating clouds and flowing mists.
The spiritual energy from outside continued pouring in through the opened sliding doors to fill the gap left behind by the intense and rhythmic refining process. Additionally, he kept his cultivation method operated while refining. Instead of absorbing the spiritual energy into his Dantian1 and then using his own energy to refine the wooden carving into a puppet, he did it to attract more spiritual energy that was picked up before it could enter his own body. This counter-intuitive method of cultivation would destroy the views of any spiritual cultivators seeing it2! However, Xiao Changyu continued to focus on his flawless movements. He picked up strands of energy meant to supplement his cultivation and embedded the woven thread into the complicated pattern on the wood. The few glimmers of spiritual energy that did not pass his rigorous picking were left to be absorbed, sinking into his skin and disappearing.
That was right.
Although the world looked bright and glimmering with energy in the eyes of Xiao Changyu, the only dark void that he could not see through... was his own body.
He looked at and into himself, attempting to sense anything at all and yet he kept failing. It was like how others kept telling him that the night was darker than the day, yet he could always see with the abundant flickering lights of various spiritual energy around him.
Xiao Changyu was already used to it, to the point that he was more used to seeing this than the 'normal' sight he had only begun seeing after suppressing his bloodline1. He continued picking up faint strands of spiritual energy before it could enter his body and refining the puppet with high-quality and thick threads of energy. His own body was left to absorb the lesser energies and particles which were insufficient in strength or quality for his own cultivation progress.
Due to the sun's dispersal of the Blood Yin energies1, the spiritual energy in the room became thinner and less abundant2. The energy became more natural and less concentrated, whereas his cultivation method began attracting more Yang-aligned strands of energy. When Xiao Changyu picked up a thicker and more vigorously flowing Yang-aligned energy strand, his whole movement paused. The energy in his tool's grasp wriggled more actively than the Blood Yin energy, looking similar to a live worm.
It was only then that he realized the concentrated red glimmers of energy in the room had been reduced into an orange hue, like the golden sun that was about to break through the horizon soon. Although there remained some Blood Yin spiritual energy in the room, it was sparse compared to previously. It made it difficult to consistently attract only a type of energy to the tools in his hands. He immediately let the active Yang-aligned energy go like a worm running away from its nemesis as he picked up another Blood Yin energy strand nearby instead. Using the leftover strands, he began an even more vigorous process of connecting and weaving the energy threads in a different manner. This time, the resulting threads were not embedded deeply into the wood but formed little loops and connections such that it was enclosed enough, yet still able to be picked up and unraveled to be continued another night.
Once that was complete, Xiao Changyu finally put his tools down and picked up the wooden carving itself. It was a piece of solid wood carving in the shape of a little butterfly with complicated red lines as its wing patterns. The varying degrees of redness would have been a beautiful image if anyone else could see it with Xiao Changyu's eyes, but the person himself took no notice of it. He instead focused on inspecting the few lines of energy that had been embedded into the wood during the night. At a microscopic level, the energy was firmly tucked into a series of cuts that are so precisely patterned that one might not believe it was made by a human hand. Of course, Xiao Changyu couldn't see at a microscopic level with his bare eyes despite his bloodline. Instead, he used his experience and expertise to make sure the spiritual energy within the butterfly carving could flow normally without excess fluctuations. Once he was satisfied with the results, he placed the butterfly down and closed his eyes briefly.
It was a struggle for Xiao Changyu to operate most cultivation methods or body refinement techniques. As the energy within his body could not be sensed or seen, he could only rely on trial and error to find a method that would work and then memorize it. He began operating his body refinement method to suppress his bloodline, making himself feel sluggish and heavy. After a while, he completely suppressed his bloodline and felt the heaviness lift slightly.
And then, he flicked his eyes open.
The foggy glimmer within his eyes disappeared and left behind a very normal set of dark eyes. Xiao Changyu had typical black eyes that seemed mediocre at best, but his temperament meant that people would notice the subtle overbearingness of self-confidence instead of his mediocrity. He adjusted to the suddenly dark environment by blinking and turning around slowly to allow his eyes to adjust to the rising brightness brought by the sunlight outside. Dark became dim, then dimness led to sparkles of light. As the sunshine penetrated the thick red mist, he could see the lush courtyard1 outside the door. The alchemic workshop dedicated to his puppet refinery is placed in the main hall of the whole courtyard complex. With the large open doors leading to the main entrance of the courtyard complex, the spiritual energy outside could rush in easily as he refined and built the wooden puppets. In other courtyards, a main hall such as this would typically be where Junior Disciples2 and servants formally make visits, yet Xiao Changyu's reclusive nature meant that he would rather use this prime location for his puppet refinery than see someone. For a courtyard complex with no one but Xiao Changyu himself and no expected guests, nobody in the Star-Soaring Sect would be able to refute his unconventional methods.
As Xiao Changyu stood up, he patted his crumpled robes, straightening them to a somewhat decent state. It was already a brand new day and he had to temporarily leave his puppet refining behind. Xiao Changyu helplessly reached into his sleeves to retrieve a little journaling book from within his inter-spatial tool1 wrapped around his wrist like a bracelet.
His voice was slightly hoarse from a whole night of disuse, but it was clear and pleasant with a hint of helplessness and a tinge of obsessive pursuit.
"What else can I do today, hm?"
Specifically, powers and characteristics that are hereditary and passed down through the blood (literally or through reproduction). Xiao Changyu's specific bloodline will be explored further in the story.
The word "courtyard" is being used interchangeably between "an area of flat ground outside that is partly or completely surrounded by the walls of a building" and "a traditional Chinese house complex, containing various buildings of various purposes" also known as a Siheyuan (四合院) according to Wikipedia. To reduce confusion, the word "courtyard complex" would be used to refer to the latter definition from hereon forward.
Specifically, sect members with lower seniority (either due to joining later than Xiao Changyu or those of lower cultivation ranks). Due to the traditional courtesy of the Junior being respectful and lower than the Senior, the person who would visit the other is typically the Junior of the two as allowing the Senior to take the time and effort to journey to the Junior's place is seen as rude or belittling. There are other exceptions, but this is the norm of the cultivation world.
Yin is the opposite of Yang, and the Sun is considered a source of Yang-aligned energy in contrast to the Moon's Yin-aligned energy. When opposites meet, they will typically become unstable. The more will typically vanquish the lesser of the two.
Specifically, a separate space within or utilized by the tool. Typically to store items or other things. Also typically restricts the storage of living things.
Specifically, the Yin-aligned energy of the Moon that has been tainted by the celestial significance of Blood Moons. It is considered unconventional and even evil in some parts of the cultivation world. The Blood-Moon Peak is named as such due to its ability to convert normal Yin-aligned energy from the Moon into ones similar to what would be received during a Blood Moon night on the peak itself.
Spiritual cultivators typically prioritize absorbing spiritual energy to improve their cultivation, circulating the energy through the meridians to achieve the method's intended function and "leveling up" their cultivation ranks. The energy absorbed into the body and stored within the Dantian could be used for combat, refining, or other purposes. This means that energy is better controlled from within after being "processed" by the cultivation method compared to controlling raw energy. When cultivating, struggling to absorb high-quality energy or lacking amounts of energy is considered a stunted growth, lack of motivation, progress, or of lower talent.
Clarification that the Blood Yin has a higher level than normal concentration due to the refinement process and the cultivation method's operation. The sun disperses the Blood Yin, thus the concentration that could be attracted is below that of the previous. The concentration of the other energies is at a normal level and cannot compare to the Blood Yin's own concentration, thus the concentration of energy, in general, was lowered proportionally to the increasing Yang-aligned energy from the sun.
Unless specifically mentioned, any mentions of energy in the cultivation world will typically refer to natural or artificially supplemented spiritual energy. Other energies are mostly a differentiation or derivation of pure spiritual energy. This will be different and more specifically mentioned in the more "scientific" arcs of the story.
Specifically, the core of the cultivation and where accumulated spiritual energy in the body is stored. Typically, a cultivation method refers to the method of utilizing the energy within this core around the spiritual "blood vessels" known as meridians until it reaches this core again to end a loop. More in the "Cultivation System Glossary" auxiliary chapter.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
MystenNoire
Hi, this is Author Mysten, I apologize for the info dump, but please be kind to me! *bow*
And also!!! I can only do this so that I can bring you the interstellar space journey without worries~! Things will catch up to the synopsis soon, have a nice day~
MystenNoire 
MystenNoire