24: Chapter 24 The World of Cultivation (1)

Night fell.

Qinghe Town enjoyed a moment of tranquility, but the Li Family was busy managing the various newly acquired properties.

Li Changsheng had little interest in these Family properties.

At this moment, in his bedroom, he was sitting on his large bed.

The previous matter regarding the Blood Fiend Sect's Spiritual Qi cultivation had piqued his great curiosity.

"System, initiate simulation."

[Initiate Reincarnation simulation?]

The cold, mechanical voice vanished, and pale blue text appeared in Li Changsheng's mind once again.

"Initiate!"

[Ding! Consuming 10 points of Mental Energy, Reincarnation simulation initiated!]

[Connecting to world...]

[World Coordinates: Low Magic · Cultivation World]

[Warning: This world possesses basic Spiritual Qi Laws, but the concentration of Spiritual Qi is thin, and the Legacy is incomplete. High-level Cultivators are rare, and the civilization of cultivation is in a budding stage of recovery.]

[Simulation starting...]

When Chen Fan woke up, he choked on a mouthful of moldy rainwater.

He was lying in the corner of a dilapidated temple, covered by half a tattered straw mat.

Outside the temple, the autumn rain drizzled, and the cold seeped in through the cracks in the stone floor, making his teeth chatter.

This was his seventh day of waking up in this world.

Seven days ago, he, or rather, the current "Chen Fan," was still an otherworldly visitor named Li Changsheng.

But at this moment, he only had the memories of this body's fourteen years of life.

An orphan whose parents had died, wandering the streets, he relied on doing odd jobs for "Half-Immortal Liu" in town to scrape by.

"Spiritual Root..."

Chen Fan (Li Changsheng) propped himself up and sat, feeling the faint, almost non-existent sensation of Qi within his body.

This world had "Cultivators," but unlike the mountain-moving, sea-filling, flying, and earth-escaping descriptions in the novels of his past life, the Cultivators here... were a bit pathetic.

The Zhang Family at the east end of town patronized an "Immortal Master" who was said to be able to draw a few talismans to ward off evil and make teacups shake from a distance, which was enough to earn the awe of the entire town.

True "Great Experts" only existed in the stories told by the storytellers in the teahouse.

And the key to determining whether one could Cultivate was the "Spiritual Root."

Three days ago, Half-Immortal Liu had somehow acquired a dusty "Spirit Testing Stone," claiming it could test for affinity with immortality, charging ten copper coins per person.

Chen Fan handed over the meal money he had saved for three months and placed his hand on the stone.

The stone lit up, very faintly; it was a chaotic "Five Elements Mixed Spiritual Root."

"Tsk, bottom-tier Aptitude."

Half-Immortal Liu stroked his goat beard, his eyes filled with undisguised contempt.

"The Spiritual Qi sensing is weak, the attributes are mixed, and Cultivating will yield half the results with double the effort. If you can reach 'Qi Refining Level 3' in your entire life, it would be a miracle from your ancestors."

"Kid, give up on the idea of Cultivating; just honestly chop wood and carry water for me."

Chen Fan did not give up.

Or rather, Li Changsheng's consciousness did not give up.

Spiritual Qi cultivation was knowledge he urgently needed to obtain for his true body in his own world.

Poor Spiritual Root?

What would the physical talent containing the Dao of Longevity be like in this world?

The System simulation brought him here, certainly not just to experience a life.

He continued to work for Half-Immortal Liu.

Half-Immortal Liu was an old swindler, but he was also the only person in town who had any connection to "Cultivation."

He had a tattered handwritten copy of the "Basic Qi Induction Technique," which he hid away like a treasure.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to clean the study, Chen Fan forcefully memorized the incantations on the first three pages.

When the night was deep and quiet, he would try to Cultivate in the dilapidated temple.

According to the incantations, he sensed the "Spiritual Qi" drifting between heaven and earth, introduced it into his body, circulated it along specific Meridians, and refined it for his own use.

However, the progress was despairingly slow.

For a whole month, he could only vaguely sense a trace of coolness entering his body, which would immediately dissipate, impossible to retain at all.

This body's Spiritual Root was even worse than he had imagined.

"I must find a way to improve my Aptitude, or obtain more detailed knowledge on Cultivation."

Chen Fan pondered.

He couldn't squeeze anything more out of Half-Immortal Liu.

The opportunity appeared a month later.

A dusty figure in grey robes arrived in town, setting up a stall in the market to sell some strange and peculiar things.

Rusted daggers, withered herbs, and a few books with blurred covers.

He called himself a "Traveling Loose Cultivator," looking to trade for travel expenses.

Chen Fan's gaze was drawn to a small booklet in the corner of the stall, which had no cover and pages that were yellowed and brittle.

The booklet was carelessly pressed under a pile of miscellaneous items, with only half a page exposed, showing vague diagrams of Meridians and annotations.

He squatted down, pretending to browse other items nonchalantly, before finally picking up the booklet.

"How much for this?"

The grey-robed Loose Cultivator glanced at it.

"《Annotations on Small Heavenly Cycle Qi Circulation, don't know which unlucky devil left this incomplete copy behind."

"It only contains some shallow understandings of the first three layers of Qi Refining, and a few practical minor Spells."

"Five taels of silver, no bargaining."

Five taels of silver!

Chen Fan's entire net worth was less than two mace.

He gritted his teeth and took out a piece of inferior jade pendant (also a fake) that Half-Immortal Liu had rewarded him with a few days ago.

"This can count for three taels and three mace; I will also work as a short-term laborer for you for three months, and my wages will cover the rest, is that okay?"

The grey-robed Loose Cultivator picked up the jade pendant, examined it, and scoffed.

But perhaps seeing that Chen Fan was truly pitifully poor, or perhaps eager to get rid of it, he finally waved his hand.

"Keep the jade pendant, one month of short-term labor, room and board included, wages to cover the debt."

"Kid, count yourself lucky; only a greenhorn like you who understands nothing would treat this piece of junk as a treasure."

The deal was struck.

Chen Fan felt as if he had found a treasure and tucked the booklet into his chest.

For the next month, he worked like a beast of burden for the grey-robed Loose Cultivator during the day, and at night, he studied the "Annotations on Small Heavenly Cycle Qi Circulation" with a desperate hunger.

Unlike Half-Immortal Liu's vague incantations, this booklet, though incomplete, explained in detail what "Spiritual Qi" was.

How to more effectively "capture" and "refine" Spiritual Qi.

How to use mental will to guide Spiritual Qi to circulate in a "Small Heavenly Cycle" through specific Meridians.

The book also recorded the structural models of three basic Spells.

"Cleaning Spell," "Vision Spell," and "Glimmer Spell."

More importantly, the booklet mentioned a hypothesis.

For those with poor Spiritual Root Aptitude, if one could use great perseverance and precise control to repeatedly temper a small segment of a Meridian, it might slightly improve that segment's affinity for Spiritual Qi of a specific attribute.

This was equivalent to "partially" improving one's Spiritual Root.

This was a clumsy method, extremely time-consuming, with minimal results, and almost no one tried it, but it gave Chen Fan a glimmer of hope.

After the work for the grey-robed Loose Cultivator ended, Chen Fan returned to the dilapidated temple and began his near-masochistic Cultivation.

He no longer pursued quickly drawing Qi into his body, but strictly cultivated according to the annotations.

He used his mental will to forcibly bind the trace of imperceptible Spiritual Qi he sensed, guided it into the first small segment of the "Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian" in his right hand, and repeatedly washed and nourished it.

The process was painful and monotonous, with progress measured in months, or even years.

Spring went and autumn came; three years had passed.

Chen Fan was sixteen years old, still a beggar, but his temperament had quietly changed.

His eyes were calmer, and although his body was thin, there was an introverted resilience.

His right index finger's sensitivity to "Metal Attribute Spiritual Qi" was about half a percent sharper than it had been at the beginning.

At the same time, relying on the fine-tuned practice of manipulating Spiritual Qi, he successfully mastered the "Cleaning Spell," which allowed him to keep his clothes and himself basically clean.

As well as the "Glimmer Spell," which could condense a bean-sized glimmer at his fingertip, lasting for three breaths.

This achievement was not worth mentioning in the eyes of a true Cultivator, but it was his Breakthrough from nothing to something.

More importantly, through three years of practice, he had gained a personal, systematic understanding of the "foundation of foundations" of Spiritual Qi cultivation: sensing, guiding, refining, storing, and applying.

This was far more precious than any textbook knowledge.