Reading Settings
Font Size
16px
Line Spacing
1.6
Reading Width
900px
Font Share
Theme
Text To Speech

184: To ascend to heaven after indulging in poison, one must perform a ritual; the five paths of the turbid heavens must cleanse the heart.

After reaching the Shisha Realm, it does not mean the path of Cultivation has reached its end.

After Zhou Qingfeng vented the excitement in his heart to his heart's content, he flew down under the peach tree, swept the scene clean with a wave of his hand, and collected everything into the 'Holy Ring', the prize for being the champion of the Prodigy Competition.

Then, Zhou Qingfeng sat cross-legged under the peach tree, calmed his mind, and took out the Medicinal Pill specifically for those in the Shisha Realm to consume.

There are many types of Evil Qi that can be absorbed in the Shisha Realm. Compared to the Disaster-Eating Realm, which is extremely picky and only consumes the Qi of the Three Disasters, the cultivation resources available for the Shisha Realm are much broader.

These types of Evil Qi can generally be divided into three categories.

The first category is Formed Evil Qi.

Sharp Corner Sha: When the sharp corner of a building points toward a residence or office.

Wall Blade Sha: When the wall of a neighboring building cuts toward one's own building like a blade.

Reverse Bow Sha: When a road forms an arc like a drawn bow, and the residence or building is located at the 'back of the bow'.

Heart-Piercing Sha: When a road or river passes directly through the center of a residence.

Sky-Severing Sha: The narrow space between two high-rise buildings that forms a 'line of sky'.

Road-Charging Sha: When a road points directly at the entrance of a building.

Sole Yin Sha: When a building lacks the support of other buildings, appearing isolated and helpless.

Empty Loss Sha: When the front of a residence is narrow and the back is wide, resembling a pocket, making it difficult to retain wealth.

The second category is Formless Evil Qi.

Scent Sha: Bad odors, such as mold or sewage smells.

Light Sha: Excessive light or reflected light.

Sound Sha: Related to unpleasant noise.

Color Sha: Colors that are too intense or uncoordinated.

Number Sha: Related to numbers, such as four, one-three, six-six-six, nine, one-seven, three-nine, six-six-six-six, two-zero, two-eight, three-four, four-four, five-three, six-four, seven-zero, seven.

Thunder Sha: Related to lightning and thunder.

Directional Sha: Related to unfavorable positions in the Bagua or Flying Star chart.

The third category is Special Evil Qi.

Earth Sha: Related to the geographical environment, such as bad energy fields gathered in graves, sewers, or cliffs.

Water Sha: The negative influence of water flow, such as rapids, stagnant water, or leaks.

High-Pressure Sha: Surrounded by tall buildings, making one's own residence appear small and limiting the field of view.

Reflective Sha: When doors and windows face a strong reflective surface, such as water or a mirror.

In addition to these, there are Time Sha, Five Elements Sha, Qi Field Sha, and Human Sha.

Time Sha changes constantly according to the seasons, zodiac signs, and time, including Heaven and Earth Turning Sha, Month Sha, Day Sha, Hour Sha, and Direction Sha.

Five Elements Sha is the malevolent Sha born from the mutual restriction of the Five Elements.

There are mainly two types of Qi Field Sha: one is Yin Sha caused by excessive Yin Qi, and the other is Yang Sha caused by excessive Yang Qi.

Human Sha is related to people, such as Anger Sha, Hatred Sha, Jealousy Sha, Killing Intent, Negative Sha, Pessimism Sha, Marriage Sha, Life Sha, Resentment, and Year-Passage Sha.

So many types of Evil Qi were researched and discovered by the predecessors of the Shidu path.

These malevolent Evil Qi are also a type of Turbid Qi, mixed within the boiling Turbid Qi. To consume them, one must extract this Evil Qi like drawing silk from a cocoon before it can be swallowed into the Life Palace and converted into magic power.

The exterior of the Life Palace is cyan, emitting a faint cyan glow, round and smooth like a jade ball, and can switch between tangible and intangible at will.

The magic power and Life Soul of a Shisha Realm Cultivator are both in the Life Palace, and its importance is unquestionable. Therefore, the intangible Life Palace circulates endlessly between the two souls and seven spirits every moment to ensure that one's own Life Palace is not shattered by enemies.

The Heart-Piercing Pill, Thunder Sha Pill, and Yin Sha Pill placed in front of Zhou Qingfeng were refined by professional Shisha Realm Alchemists who collected Evil Qi and supplemented it with other shasha-grade Materials.

Each bottle of these shasha-grade Medicinal Pills contains thirty pills, each costing one hundred thousand Magic Coins, totaling three million Magic Coins per bottle.

A single pill can increase magic power by one qian. For a Shisha Realm Cultivator to advance further, they must accumulate five hundred thousand qian of magic power before they can leap to the Shidu Realm.

The Shidu Realm: This 'poison' does not refer to poisonous drugs or toxic creatures; those are minor poisons not worth mentioning.

The true great poison is the poison of the human heart.

Because of all the poisons in the world, none are as toxic as the human heart.

Therefore, the Shidu Realm specifically refers to the poison of the human heart.

The academic name of this realm is the Shidu Realm, but there is a more common and apt name among the people, called the 'Heart-Eating Realm'.

To ascend to the Shidu Realm, one needs to prepare the Five Great Poison Hearts as Materials for Ascension. They are the Great Heart of Greed, the Great Heart of Delusion, the Great Heart of Anger, the Great Heart of Doubt, and the Great Heart of Arrogance.

These five Materials for Ascension might appear in only one out of a million people.

It is simple for ordinary people to possess one or even multiple heart poisons like greed, anger, delusion, doubt, or arrogance.

But these cannot be called the Five Great Poison Hearts; at most, they are just heart poisons that everyone possesses.

The Great Heart of Greed refers to extreme greed and possessiveness, not limited to material wealth, but also including the pursuit of power, status, emotions, or sensory pleasures, never satisfied, always seeking more and better.

The Great Heart of Delusion refers to ignorance or lack of knowledge, a wrong cognition and misunderstanding of the essence of things, making people cling to wrong concepts, unable to accept the truth, and never able to awaken.

The Great Heart of Anger refers to intense feelings of anger and hatred, dissatisfaction and hostility toward others or situations, always hurting others, leading oneself into endless pain and endless conflict.

The Great Heart of Doubt refers to continuous suspicion and disbelief, doubting the world, doubting everything, including distrust in one's own and others' abilities, making it difficult to establish firm beliefs and goals.

The Great Heart of Arrogance refers to extreme self-esteem and arrogance, believing oneself to be superior to others, attaching too much importance to one's own views and achievements, and never accepting criticism or new knowledge.

Possessing even one of these Five Great Poison Hearts is something that can be met but not sought, let alone gathering all five.

Even if one gathers the Five Great Poison Hearts, to ascend to the Shidu Realm, one must additionally perform a Dao-Sacrifice ritual.

The Dao-Sacrifice ritual sacrifices to the Five Turbid Heavenly Dao.

Through a specific Dao-Sacrifice ritual, one faces the Five Turbid Heavenly Dao and accepts the baptism of the Five Turbid Heavenly Dao... uh, it can also be called root-cause pollution. After a successful Dao-Sacrifice, the Shidu Realm Cultivator can become a carrier of certain low-level rules, and at the same time, can only study such rule-based techniques and Divine Abilities in the future.

Different Dao-Sacrifice rituals mean that the rule powers mastered will also vary greatly.

Generally, when a Shisha Realm Cultivator reaches this step, they can no longer afford the shasha-grade Medicinal Pills to increase their cultivation. Those fighting alone can only endure the days, relying on their own talent to absorb the Evil Qi contained within the Turbid Qi.

If there are no accidents, ninety-nine percent of the Loose Cultivators have basically reached their limit.

Even a top-tier noble like Zhou Qingfeng, with a net worth of hundreds of billions, feels the pain of spending money when taking shasha-grade Medicinal Pills.

Zhou Qingfeng poured all three bottles of shasha-grade Medicinal Pills into his mouth, calmed his mind, formed seals with his hands to mobilize his magic power to wrap around the surging medicinal power, refined it into magic power, and guided it into his Life Palace for storage.

The Qi of the Three Disasters surrounding his body all moved away, replaced by a large amount of Evil Qi slowly gathering around Zhou Qingfeng. Seven times the Turbid Qi meant that there was seven times the concentration of Evil Qi here.

Relying on taking Medicinal Pills, triple speed, and the assistance of seven times the Evil Qi, Zhou Qingfeng's cultivation speed was countless times faster than that of ordinary Cultivators.

This is a speed that others cannot reach, and a cultivation speed that others dare not even dream of.

Countless people are trapped in the Disaster-Eating Realm for a lifetime.

Even if they are lucky enough to reach the Shisha Realm, so what?

Five hundred thousand qian of magic power is a number that makes the vast majority of Shisha Realm Cultivators feel desperate.

It's like Zhou Qingfeng riding a super luxury carriage pulled by four horses, galloping along a wide and flat road, while others are still struggling on rugged mountain paths.

How can they compare? There is simply no comparison.

Zhou Qingfeng focused on seclusion and cultivation. When his Medicinal Pills were insufficient, he would notify Jin Wei to send people in. Time had lost its meaning at this moment. He only knew that every day of hard cultivation now had rich rewards.

In the blink of an eye, it was February 2nd, 1092 of the Gengshi Emperor's reign, late winter, the Dragon-Swallowing Festival.

Zhou Qingfeng, still immersed in cultivation, suddenly felt the surrounding Evil Qi dissipate instantly, and the environment returned to a vast white space. Zhou Qingfeng was stunned, not knowing what happened for a moment.

A moment later, with his rusted brain turning bit by bit, he slowly remembered that his ten-year cultivation time in the White Bone Foundation Establishment Tower, after several times of going in and out, had been completely exhausted.

After slightly checking his own magic power, it had reached two hundred fourteen thousand six hundred and twenty qian.

'Time to go out.' Zhou Qingfeng made a sound with difficulty. Having not spoken for decades, he had almost forgotten how to speak, but speaking is an instinct; once learned, it is never forgotten.

After a little adaptation, he was able to speak fluently.

He stood up slowly, walked out of the training room, and walked down the steps.

Until he walked out of the gate of the White Bone Foundation Establishment Tower and saw the City Lord's Mansion decorated with lanterns and festoons, full of joy. More than a dozen servants were sweeping snow. When they saw Zhou Qingfeng come out, they were all stunned.

Then, an experienced Household Slave quickly dropped his broom and urged the new Household Slave beside him to salute: 'Are you blind? This is the Fourth Young Lord who has been in seclusion. Why don't you pay your respects quickly?'

A dozen new Household Slaves quickly clasped their fists and bowed in fear: 'This small one greets the Fourth Young Lord.'

Zhou Qingfeng nodded slightly and looked at the experienced Household Slave: 'You recognize me?'

The experienced Household Slave smiled flatteringly: 'I had the honor of meeting you years ago. It was also a day with heavy snow. You had just come out of seclusion then too. What a coincidence, this time when you came out, it was me again.'

Hearing this, Zhou Qingfeng's rusted brain turned, seeming to remember such a person: 'Oh, so many years have passed, what is your position in the residence now?'

The experienced Household Slave clasped his fists and replied: 'Replying to the Young Lord, I have been diligent for ten years and have now become a supervisor in charge of the hygiene and environment around the White Bone Foundation Establishment Tower.'

Zhou Qingfeng's expression was numb, and his eyes were empty as he said: 'Hmm, continue your work.'

'Yes, Fourth Young Lord.' The experienced Household Slave immediately took the other new Household Slaves to work.

Zhou Qingfeng walked away with his hands behind his back, walking along the familiar yet strange road. He did not visit his Master and Mother first, but walked out of the City Lord's Mansion and dived into the bustling and noisy streets.

To quickly get rid of the state of stiff thinking, indifference to emotions, and cold-heartedness, he had to use the smoke and fire of the Mortal World to awaken himself. After spending a few days with his family, he would quickly return to normal.

This is normal. If a person repeats one thing alone for a long time and becomes numb, they almost become a cold stone. To warm up, one must integrate into this burning Mortal World, watch the various states of life, and experience the flavor of the marketplace.

Fortunately, nearly ten years had passed, and the people of the Sword Tower had blurred memories of Zhou Qingfeng. Even if Zhou Qingfeng stood in front of them, they might not recognize him for a moment, but they had not forgotten Zhou Qingfeng.

They still remembered the number one on the Heavenly Ranking, Zhou Qingfeng. As long as Zhou Qingfeng walked to the front of the stage again, all the people of the Sword Tower would cheer for him. Even now in the teahouse, there were storytellers telling the story of Zhou Qingfeng.

'It's been almost ten years. Since the Prodigy Competition, Zhou Fourth Son has disappeared. I really miss the time when he was here.'

'What do you miss about him?'

'I miss him causing trouble. As long as he was there, he could always make a big move, and I could watch the fun. The ten years he disappeared were too boring. I didn't even know who to scold.'

'Hahaha, that's true. I suddenly miss Zhou Fourth Son a bit too.'

'Speaking of which, hasn't Zhou Fourth Son's seclusion ended yet? With his talent, a mere Shisha Realm is not easy to pass? Why hasn't he come out to jump around? I'm so bored!'

Zhou Qingfeng sat in the restaurant tasting food and wine, listening to the gossip of the common people, enjoying the bustle of the crowd around him, and a smile slowly hung on the corner of his mouth: 'The smoke and fire of the Mortal World are the most soothing to the heart.'

For the next few days, Zhou Qingfeng did not return to the Zhou residence, but wandered in the bustling market, using the pseudonym 'Little Zhou', getting to know people. Whether they were Mortals, Cultivators, old people, or children, Zhou Qingfeng could laugh and chat with them, just like an idle street loafer, wandering the streets every day.

Until he felt that he had recovered, Zhou Qingfeng returned to the Zhou residence. Under the service of a group of beautiful maids, he bathed and changed his clothes, and transformed into a graceful young noble again.

In the study, after Jin Wei congratulated Zhou Qingfeng on reaching the Shisha Realm, he began to report to Zhou Qingfeng the achievements of his work in recent years and some things that Jin Wei felt were important and worth reporting.

'Young Lord, the framework of the main city of the fief has been built after years of hard work. Infrastructure such as squares, barracks, training grounds, workshops, granaries, markets, and canals have been basically completed, costing a total of 10 billion Magic Coins.'

Zhou Qingfeng was holding a pen to practice calligraphy, heard the report, looked up at Jin Wei, and said lightly: 'What about the population?'

Jin Wei lowered his head and reported: 'Excluding slaves, the registered free people have increased to three hundred households, with a verified number of one thousand five hundred people, half of whom are Cultivators and half are Mortals.'

'In terms of settlement, Zhi Qi and Master Chen have been relatively strict. They feel that it is better to have nothing than to have something inferior, requiring every household to have a Cultivator before they can bring their whole family to settle in the fief.'

'Young Lord, everything is difficult at the beginning. Building a city is a matter that consumes a lot of money, manpower, material resources, and time. It needs the painstaking efforts of several generations to succeed. Spending 10 billion in ten years is already considered careful calculation.'

'Fortunately, the framework has been built.'

'When it gets on the right track in the future, the current investment will have rich returns.'

Zhou Qingfeng said lightly: 'Hmm, let the money flow as much as possible. Keep some rare and precious items, and cash out other items that can be traded and sold on the market. Keeping so much money on hand is just dead money.'

Jin Wei clasped his fists in a salute: 'Young Lord, I was just about to report this to you. Over the years, I have already cashed out everything that can be cashed out. Most of the money has been invested in various industries in the local area, and there are currently very considerable dividend returns every year.'

'And now the residence has also added a reserve personal guard team.'

'These reserve personal guards are all composed of Zhou family Household Slaves. The main components are 25 adult female slaves and 50 adult male slaves in the residence. In addition, there are 150 young Household Slaves.'

'The young Household Slaves were all bought by Young Miss Shui'er from slave merchants when they were three to six years old. After these years of training, constantly instilling the ideology of loyalty to the Zhou family and loyalty to you, the initial results have been achieved.'

Zhou Qingfeng raised an eyebrow: 'Oh, how did little sister think of training Household Slaves?'

Jin Wei clasped his fists and replied: 'Young Miss Shui'er said, the development of the Zhou family needs talent, but also loyal servants.'

'Household Slaves trained from childhood, even if their abilities are mediocre, are trustworthy.'

'Moreover, the descendants of Household Slaves can also be loyal to our Zhou family for generations and will never betray.'

Zhou Qingfeng said with a smile: 'It seems that in these eight or nine years, little sister has made progress.'

Jin Wei showed respect: 'Young Miss Shui'er has become more and more powerful over the years. During your seclusion, she also participated in the Prodigy Competition and won twenty-seventh place on the Heavenly Ranking, once again boosting the reputation of our Zhou family.'

Zhou Qingfeng nodded with satisfaction, and then asked: 'Where is Shui'er now? What about Old Uncle? I've been back for half a day, why haven't I seen anyone?'

Jin Wei clasped his fists and replied: 'Young Miss Shui'er and Old Uncle are leading the reserve personal guard team in the Zhou family fief to preside over the overall situation. You have just come out of seclusion, do you also want to go to the fief to inspect?'

Zhou Qingfeng became interested and put the brush on the inkstone: 'Then I must go and take a look.'

Continue Reading

Create a free account to unlock this chapter and continue reading.

Register
Prev Next

🔊 Text To Speech

Listen while reading

Ready