Chapter 82: Choosing Treasures

The two doors before him were vermilion red, made of some unknown hard wood, standing three or four zhang tall, making Zheng Fa feel insignificant standing before them.

He stepped closer two paces, and the doors opened without wind, without a sound.

Inside the door, there was no artificial decoration—only a stalactite cave, filled with jagged, interwoven rocks, as if walking through a strangely magical rainforest.

Dozens of stone formations, shaped like bamboo shoots, rose from the ground, their tips floating with colorful luminescence—clearly the treasures left behind by the Ninth Mountain Patriarch.

The number of treasures was few, and compared to the enormous doors, they seemed almost meager.

The Ninth Mountain Patriarch followed him inside and gazed at the luminescence with a sigh: “These old relics left by that old man—I haven’t seen them in a long time.”

Zheng Fa listened, puzzled, and couldn’t help asking: “Master, couldn’t you even enter yourself?”

“Me?” The Ninth Mountain Patriarch pointed at himself: “I am not him. I am the spiritual vein, I am Ninth Mountain—but I am not him. I possess only all his memories…”

Zheng Fa finally understood.

He had always found this Ninth Mountain Patriarch strange.

He was the founding patriarch, yet his temperament seemed like that of a child.

“If I must say who I am,” the Ninth Mountain Patriarch gave a strange smile, “I am merely a substitute bound to Ninth Mountain Sect, even like a magic treasure he created.”

“He wished to fuse the True Form Talisman, yet could not let go of Ninth Mountain Sect—so he created me…” The Ninth Mountain Patriarch’s expression grew complex as he spoke of the original patriarch: “Sometimes, I don’t know whether to see him as my father who gave me life, or the master who put a dog leash around my neck.”

“Enough of that.” The Ninth Mountain Patriarch seemed to have merely sighed, then turned to Zheng Fa: “With your talent, according to what that old man left me, you may take two treasures from here.”

“How do I take them?”

Zheng Fa tried to see the shapes of the treasures within the luminescence, but the light obscured their forms.

“By fate!”

“Huh?” Zheng Fa froze—wasn’t that a bit reckless?

“Or call it luck.” The Ninth Mountain Patriarch rolled his eyes. “That old man had no divine foresight—he didn’t know who would come, nor what you needed. His treasures may not suit you… but treasures have spirit and respond instinctively. Walk around. If something gives you a special feeling, it’s probably meant for you.”

Hearing this, Zheng Fa walked into the cave, searching for the special sensation the Ninth Mountain Patriarch mentioned.

But most treasures were aloof; when he approached their luminescence, he felt only glare, nothing else.

After walking through half the cave with no reaction, Zheng Fa even began to suspect the Ninth Mountain Patriarch was fooling him.

Until he reached a treasure emitting emerald-gold light.

The qi within him, belonging to the Spirit Crane Body, suddenly surged wildly, racing through his meridians as if venting a primal longing.

A spectral crane appeared behind him, wings spread wide, as if yearning to plunge into the emerald-gold luminescence.

“Huh?” The Ninth Mountain Patriarch immediately understood: “You’ve trained the Spirit Crane Body?”

“Yes.”

“Wood and fire dual elemental roots, Spirit Crane Body… no wonder the Qingyang Qi responds to you.” The Ninth Mountain Patriarch pointed, and the emerald-gold light faded, leaving only a slow-flowing stream of blue-green qi speckled with golden flames before Zheng Fa.

“Qingyang Qi?”

“Yes. When that old man transformed into Ninth Mountain, the vitality of ten thousand trees surged in response to the great sun’s spiritual energy, giving birth to this Qingyang Qi—which he collected as a treasure.” The Ninth Mountain Patriarch explained: “I never expected to meet you—it suits you perfectly.”

“Suits me?”

“You have wood and fire dual elemental roots. Qingyang Qi was born from the union of the great sun and vegetation—it matches your elemental affinity. And you’ve trained the Spirit Crane Body.”

Zheng Fa understood why Qingyang Qi resonated with his elemental roots—but the Spirit Crane Body?

He looked at the Ninth Mountain Patriarch, puzzled.

“All things in heaven and earth correspond to cosmic spiritual mechanisms. The crane is white, purest yang—some cultivators call it the yang bird, and regard it as a symbol of longevity. The Spirit Crane Body was created based on the pure yang body.”

The Ninth Mountain Patriarch gestured, and the Qingyang Qi drifted to Zheng Fa’s feet: “This Qingyang Qi is exceedingly rare—otherwise that old man wouldn’t have kept it until death. If you can cultivate a pure yang body cultivation method before Foundation Establishment and fuse this Qingyang Qi, you may attain a pseudo-Qingyang Dao Body, greatly benefiting your future.”

Zheng Fa reached out, and the Qingyang Qi flew into his palm like a swallow returning to its nest, flowing through his meridians into his dantian.

The Qingyang Qi was extremely dominant; upon entering his dantian, it treated the space as its own home, squeezing the Spirit Crane Body qi he had cultivated into the margins, forcing it to skulk helplessly along the edges.

Yet Zheng Fa faintly sensed that his existing qi was slowly being permeated by the Qingyang Qi, undergoing subtle changes—becoming slightly more lively.

…

After obtaining the Qingyang Qi, Zheng Fa had no more such luck.

The other treasures ignored him entirely; his body showed no reaction, as if both sides were mutually unimpressed.

“Hmm…” The Ninth Mountain Patriarch frowned: “These treasures have no affinity with you. Then you must choose from the cultivation methods this old man left behind.”

He waved his hand, and a pile of jade cylinders appeared before Zheng Fa.

“Pick one.”

“?”

Zheng Fa was stunned—this was even more arbitrary than choosing by feeling. How was he supposed to pick?

“Compared to treasures, methods are even less useful to you,” the Ninth Mountain Patriarch explained. “That old man attained Dao as an anomaly—he left almost no methods suitable for ordinary cultivators. That’s why I had you choose treasures first.”

Zheng Fa nodded. Treasures were often usable immediately, but methods chose the cultivator.

Especially a bizarre origin like the Ninth Mountain Patriarch’s—his path surely differed from normal cultivators’.

“But among these, some arrays or talisman methods might suit you.” The Ninth Mountain Patriarch pointed to the jade cylinders. “That female disciple was quite clever—she picked an incomplete Foundation Establishment method, which might actually suit her.”

“Incomplete?” Zheng Fa perked up—he understood Zhang Shijie’s thinking: if no one can use it, why not take a half-finished one and fix it myself?

He resolved to learn from Zhang Shijie.

“Don’t bother,” the Ninth Mountain Patriarch said, as if recalling something: “That old man didn’t have that much free time— that Foundation Establishment method was just a casual creation while he contemplated the True Form Talisman.”

“Come to think of it, I was also created at that time.”

“?”

“At that time, he also created the Spirit Mountain Method. He had become Dao through spiritual vein transformation, then reversed his own cultivation process to create the Spirit Mountain Method—the core principle being: Dao Body is Spirit Mountain, meridians are spiritual veins, using the human body as heaven and earth to nourish Ninth Mountain Sect’s cultivation—that’s how I came to be.”

“This Spirit Mountain Method is useless to you—it’s a method entirely for serving others. You—”

“Disciple chooses the Spirit Mountain Method.”

Zheng Fa suddenly said.

The Ninth Mountain Patriarch stared at him, his gaze complex: “I misjudged you…”

“?”

Zheng Fa didn’t understand why he said that.

I thought you were cunning and secretly devious; the Ninth Mountain Sect’s atmosphere was already frivolous—had you joined, I feared what the sect would become…

…You’ve insulted a lot of people.

“But I was wrong. When that old man created the Spirit Mountain Method, he said it was a method only those with selfless hearts and great virtue would choose—even perhaps no one in the world would ever choose it…” The Ninth Mountain Patriarch looked at Zheng Fa with newfound admiration: “Now I feel Ninth Mountain Sect is unworthy of you!”

Zheng Fa felt there was a beautiful misunderstanding here.

For him, the sole reason he chose the Spirit Mountain Method was:

This method solved one of his biggest problems—how to safely and controllably generate spiritual energy in the modern world.