Chapter 16: What Is Xuan Xiu?

After eating a meal worth two hundred wen, Feng Xue felt he had gained new insights, and with the two grieving senior brothers in tow, he returned to the mortuary 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 to practice from—the yellowed pages and worn edges clearly showed it wasn’t some hastily prepared fake.

“Master, first copy it all out—it’s also a way of reading. If anything is unclear, just call me.”

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

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 fifteen-page text.

He photographed it to avoid copying errors or omissions; he copied it to deepen his memory.

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

The manual was not the esoteric Daoist scripture Feng Xue had imagined, full of coded language and jargon—quite the opposite, it had a stark, almost childlike simplicity, as if afraid a common illiterate wouldn’t understand. The entire text used plain language, striving only to explain clearly how the practice worked. From this alone, Feng Xue understood: either the ancestral founder had taken a dim-witted disciple, or this technique was nothing but common, run-of-the-mill knowledge.

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

The manual was roughly divided into three parts: the first gave an overview of Xuan Xiu and its taboos; the second detailed the cultivation method; the third described ritual procedures for setting up altars and several simple spells.

Though Feng Xue longed to skip ahead, he had endured sixty days of dwindling lifespan—he finally restrained his urge to flip forward and began copying from the first character, committing each word to memory as he wrote.

The book opened by stating that human cultivation took countless forms, but ultimately fell into two categories: Wu Xiu, who nurtured essence and stabilized qi to nourish the spirit; and Xuan Xiu, who refined essence into qi, and qi into spirit.

Wu Xiu was mentioned only briefly; the text focused on Xuan Xiu entry, which required nourishing the spirit with blood and qi to generate magical power, until the spirit was complete and the qi full—only then could one return the surplus to strengthen the body. Thus, in the early stages, one must suppress impatience, avoid arrogance and haste, never rush for advancement, or one would severely damage one’s lifespan. Even if one broke through, the lost years could never be recovered; no matter how strong, one would die young. A single misstep could leave one unable to even form a yin spirit.

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

After finishing the first section, Feng Xue, though unafraid of the lifespan loss, carefully noted 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 brief, summed up in three characters: Jian, Ning, Yang.

Jian meant strengthening the body. Though Xuan Xiu didn’t rely on 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 mental image of one’s spirit, using it as a foundation.

Yang meant nourishment—continuously feeding the spirit image with blood and qi. As the spirit grew stronger, it generated a byproduct called “magical power.” While this power was inferior to a Wu Xiu’s true qi for strengthening the body, Xuan Xiu could use it with rituals to perform various mystical techniques.

Repeating the process of strengthening the body, concentrating the mind, and nourishing the spirit until the spirit became flawless and returned its strength to the body—that was what made one a true Xuan Xiu.

But the cultivation instructions ended there.

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

“Young Master, this book only covers up to the minor accomplishment stage. After the spirit becomes flawless, how does one continue cultivating?”

At Feng Xue’s question, the senior brother paused his folding for a moment, then smiled:

“My brother and I both asked our master this. There’s no real difference—once you’ve perfected it, just keep repeating the method, continuously strengthening the spirit until you achieve the yang spirit and ascend to heaven in broad daylight. But according to our master, the last clearly recorded ascension was hundreds of years ago. Most just cultivate until they die old, then go to the underworld to ask our ancestral master for a job.”

“Underworld? Job?” Feng Xue was utterly surprised—he hadn’t expected to hear those words. The junior brother, eager to show off, added:

“Exactly! Once an Xuan Xiu forms a spirit, even after death, their consciousness remains clear—they can directly transition to becoming a ghost immortal. Our ancestors, hundreds or even thousands of years ago, went down there to build empires. Every sect has its own enterprises. For example, our ancestral master is…”

“Slap!” The senior brother struck the junior brother, cutting off his boasting, then said:

“Master, the underworld is largely controlled by major mountain sects. We’re a minor offshoot—we can’t even compare to wealthy families. For someone like you, a person of stature, as long as you arrange a spirit altar and statue, erect a memorial tablet, and have your family offer incense before transitioning to ghost immortalhood, your spirit will remain clear. Then, the City God will guide you to the underworld’s divine court to cultivate the ghost immortal path.”

“Exactly how to cultivate, our master never explained. He only said someone from the underworld would teach you then. As for what position you get, besides your background, your spirit’s strength is paramount. So even though no one has achieved the yang spirit in centuries, everyone still strives hard—because the stronger your spirit, the higher the rank you can hold down there.”

“I see.” Feng Xue nodded slightly, though he suspected something—calling them ghost immortals, yet mentioning City Gods and incense offerings, it sounded no different from spirit mediums. But ancestors working down below… why did that sound like hell?

He pushed the strange thought from his mind and continued copying. Compared to the straightforwardness of the first two sections, the third finally gave Feng Xue a real sense of cultivation.

At first glance, besides text, there were 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 is weak. Though magical power exists, it’s hard to control, so one must rely on altars and rituals to guide it and achieve the desired effect.

Once the spirit grows strong enough, control over magical power improves, allowing one to perform spells directly without altars or rituals.

At this stage, altars and rituals become amplifiers—through them, the cultivator can use their own magical power to draw upon heavenly Gang and earthly Sha , incense devotion, and other forces to produce far greater effects.

The book also stated that each cultivator’s favored forces differ based on their spirit image. Only by developing one’s own rituals and incantations based on one’s unique spirit, adapting them flexibly and freely, could one enter the master’s realm. Otherwise, one merely imitated others’ leftovers.

Of course, this manual clearly didn’t expect newcomers to jump straight into master-level work. Alongside a brief formula for ritual design, it recorded universal altar setups and opening rituals usable by any spirit image, as well as four practical common spells: [Summon Lightning Incantation], [Substitute Body Incantation], [Invoking the Divine Incantation], and [Spirit Attachment Incantation].

(End of Chapter)