Chapter 15: What Is Xuan Xiu?

After eating a meal worth two hundred wen, Feng Xue felt he had gained new insights, and with the two fellow disciples still fretting over their heartache, they returned to the funeral hall together to begin formal instruction.

This senior brother had no intention of deceiving anyone; he didn't even select excerpts, but simply pulled out the notebook his master had given him for practice—the yellowed pages and worn, faded edges made it clear this was no hastily prepared fake.

"Mr., copy it out once first—it'll serve as reading too. If anything's unclear, just call me."

After saying this, the two began repetitive tasks like folding paper ingots and threading five-colored cords.

Seeing this, Feng Xue didn't hesitate—he immediately pulled out his phone and photographed the entire "secret manual," then picked up his brush to copy the manual, which was barely more than ten pages long.

Photographing it was to avoid copying errors or omissions; copying it was to deepen his memory.

As the "senior brother" had said, the act of copying was also a form of reading.

This manual was not the kind of Daoist scripture Feng Xue had imagined, filled with coded language and jargon; quite the opposite—it had a minimalist beauty, as if afraid a semi-literate person wouldn't understand, written entirely in plain vernacular, striving to explain clearly how exactly to practice it. From this alone, Feng Xue understood: either the ancestral founder of this text had taken on a dull disciple, or the cultivation method recorded here was nothing but common, run-of-the-mill stuff.

But he didn't mind—the more widespread the method, the lower the threshold. If given a legendary manual only two or three people in a thousand years had mastered, it might not be as useful to him as this one.

The manual was roughly divided into three parts: the first was an overview and taboos of Xuan Xiu; the second, the specific cultivation method; the third, rituals for setting up altars and several simple spells.

Though Feng Xue longed to jump straight to the point, he had endured the agony of having only sixty days left to live—he finally restrained the urge to flip ahead and began copying from the first character, memorizing each word in his mind as he wrote.

The book opened by stating that human cultivation took countless forms, but ultimately boiled down to two: Wu Xiu, which nurtures essence and consolidates qi, nurtures qi and stabilizes spirit; and Xuan Xiu, which refines essence into qi, and qi into spirit.

Wu Xiu was mentioned only briefly; as for Xuan Xiu, entry required nourishing the spirit-soul with blood and qi, thereby generating magical power, until spirit was complete and qi was full, at which point it could nourish the physical body in return. Thus, in the early stages, one must suppress impatience, avoid arrogance and restlessness, and never rush for quick gains—otherwise, one would severely damage one's lifespan; even if one managed a Breakthrough, the lost lifespan could never be restored, and no matter how strong, one would die young. A single misstep could leave one unable to even retain a yin spirit.

"Similar to what Dr. Lan said—but for me, this is good news."

After finishing the first chapter, though he wasn't afraid of the so-called lifespan loss, Feng Xue still carefully noted down every taboo.

Only then did he begin copying the actual cultivation method.

As the saying goes, true transmission fits in a single phrase—this cultivation method was surprisingly short, summed up in three characters: Jian, Ning, Yang.

Jian meant strengthening the body. Though Xuan Xiu didn't excel in physical prowess like Wu Xiu, one still needed a strong, healthy body—the healthier the body, the more essence and blood could be refined.

Ning meant concentrating the spirit. Through a method combining visualization and breathing, one purified one's thoughts and constructed a spiritual phantom in the mind, serving as the foundation.

Yang meant nourishment: continuously feeding the spiritual phantom with blood and qi, strengthening the spirit-soul while generating a byproduct called "magical power." This magical power was inferior to a Wu Xiu's true qi for enhancing the body, but Xuan Xiu could use it with rituals to perform various mysterious techniques.

Repeatedly strengthening the body, concentrating the mind, and nourishing the spirit-soul—until the spirit-soul was flawless and could fully nourish the body—this was what made one a true Xuan Xiu.

But the cultivation content ended here.

Feng Xue hesitated, then finally didn't copy the third part first. Instead, he turned to the senior brother, who had already folded two baskets of paper ingots, and asked:

"Little master, this book only records up to the minor accomplishment stage. After the spirit-soul becomes flawless, how does one continue cultivating?"

At Feng Xue's question, the senior brother paused slightly in folding the ingots, then smiled:

"My brother and I both asked our master this. Actually, there's no difference—once you've perfected it, just keep repeating this Set of Techniques, continuously strengthening the spirit-soul until you achieve Yang Shen and ascend to heaven in broad daylight. But according to my master, the last clearly recorded ascension was hundreds of years ago. Most just keep cultivating until they die of old age, then go to the Nether Court to ask the ancestral founder for a job."

"Nether Court? Job?" Feng Xue was utterly unprepared to hear these two words, and couldn't help being startled. The junior brother, hearing this, proudly added:

"Exactly! Once an Xuan Xiu cultivates a spirit-soul, even after death, their spiritual awareness remains intact—they can directly switch to becoming a ghost immortal. Our ancestors in the human Xuan Xiu lineage have been working down there for hundreds or even thousands of years; every sect has its own business. For example, our ancestral founder is…"

"Slap!" The senior brother smacked the junior brother, cutting off his boasting, then said:

"Mr., the Nether Court is mostly controlled by major mountain sects. We're a minor branch—we're worse off than wealthy merchant families. For someone like you, a great person, as long as you arrange a spirit altar and a seated statue before switching to ghost immortalhood, and set up a memorial tablet for your family to offer incense, your spirit-soul will remain intact. Then, the City God will guide you to the Nether Court's divine court to cultivate the ghost immortal path."

"Exactly how to cultivate, our master never explained—he only said someone from the Nether Court would teach you then. As for what position you get, besides background, the strength of your spirit-soul is paramount. So even though no one has achieved Yang Shen in centuries, everyone still strives to cultivate, because the stronger your spirit-soul, the higher the rank you can hold down there."

"I see." Feng Xue nodded slightly, though he had his suspicions. Calling it "ghost immortal" sounded like it had little to do with the Outriding Immortals or similar folk practices, given the talk of City Gods and incense offerings—but ancestors working down there… somehow, that sounded like hell.

Shaking off the strange thought, Feng Xue continued copying. Compared to the straightforwardness of the first two parts, the third section finally gave Feng Xue a real sense of cultivation.

At first glance, besides text, there were various diagrams—but as he read from the beginning, it remained as simple and clear as ever—

According to the book, in the early stages of Xuan Xiu, the spirit-soul is weak. Though magical power exists, it's hard to control, so one must rely on the altar and ritual to guide the power and achieve the desired effect.

Once the spirit-soul grows strong enough, control over magical power improves, allowing one to directly perform certain spells without an altar or ritual.

At this stage, altars and rituals become amplifiers: the cultivator can use their own magical power to draw upon heavenly罡 and earthly煞, incense devotion, and other forces to produce far stronger effects.

The book also states that each cultivator, depending on their unique spiritual phantom, excels at different kinds of forces. Only by developing one's own rituals and spells based on one's own spirit-soul—adapting them flexibly and using them freely—can one enter the Master's realm; otherwise, one is merely imitating others.

Of course, this manual clearly didn't expect newcomers to immediately perform Master-level work. The third part, besides a brief formula for designing rituals, also recorded altar setups and opening rituals usable by any spiritual phantom, as well as four practical universal spells: 【Call Lightning Spell】, 【Substitute Spell】, 【Summon Spirit Spell】, and 【Possess Spirit Spell】.

(End of Chapter)