Chapter 318: The Value of Old Li Is Still Rising

Feng Xue could easily avoid the contamination of faith-power on personality, since he could precisely filter the content of Emperor's Dew; as for pure faith-power…

Feng Xue couldn't help but turn his attention to Kitodora within his consciousness sea.

Kitodora was inherently hatched from a "seed of belief," a side of Feng Xue's soul constructed with his own "Outer Path Nascent Soul" as the target; its nature was entirely identical to his own soul, so directly nourishing Kitodora with his own qi, then letting Kitodora produce faith-power, could essentially guarantee the purity of that faith-power (Note ①).

Although this act seemed no different from directly harvesting qi to strengthen the soul, Feng Xue's goal was not merely the soul path of the Folklore World—he aimed to reverse his mortal state and ascend to immortality.

And in the path deduced from Bi Gelei's world magic, the most crucial step was "Primordial One Qi."

That is, the "element" endowed with spirit, as Bi Gelei described it.

When qi gains spirit, it becomes qi; to endow his original qi with spirit, replacing it with spirit-endowed faith-power was the most direct solution he could conceive.

Yet faith-power was inherently "postnatal spirit"; to reach primordial spirit, transforming a single primordial qi into Primordial One Qi, there remained a long road ahead.

This was why Feng Xue insisted on practicing Xuan and Wu simultaneously.

After all, the reason practitioners of Xuan in this world could extend their lifespan after entering the Dao was precisely because they infused excess magical power into the defensive-circulatory system, strengthening their bodies to produce more original qi, forming a virtuous cycle.

In other words, the production of original qi could not exist without bodily support.

How to balance the proportions of these three in cultivation was still under trial; fortunately, he had no shortage of cost for trial and error.

After sending out each member of the Bu Tou Gang who had reformed their ways from the clinic, Feng Xue prepared to use the Qi-Harvesting Method combined with the principles of the Blessing Vessel to further refine Kitodora's faith-power, further reducing potential risks.

"Pity—Old Li only taught me the Qi-Harvesting Art, not how to refine qi into pills; otherwise I could've purified it further… Sigh, indeed, missing any one of the hundred arts of cultivation has consequences—I'll have to figure it out myself."

Yet all the jade he had on hand was of the same shape; to avoid grabbing the wrong one in an emergency, he took a piece of yellow jade and planned to carve a dragon's head as a marker.

"My rice will be ready soon—how much longer for yours?" Liu Yunxi's voice came from the kitchen direction; Feng Xue had just roughed out the top of the jade, and since he hadn't refined the details yet, the entire dragon's head looked clumsy.

"Just call me when it's done!" Feng Xue cast a variant of the Purifying Dust Spell—the Dust-Collecting Spell—gathering all jade shavings onto the workbench; he channeled his magical power into his fingertips, squeezed hard, and compressed them into a small jade sphere.

To remedy the flaw of his low-grade spiritual soul, Feng Xue had exerted tremendous effort in practicing the Jade-Unlocking Method; now, merely fusing fragments and jade powder of identical material into one piece required no ritual—merely a thought, and his magical power spontaneously formed the corresponding spell.

"Quality's poor—just merge it with other scrap later." He spun the murky jade sphere between his fingers, then casually shoved it into his storage pouch and rose to head toward the dining area.

As he marveled at Liu Yunxi's improving cooking, Feng Xue still lit three incense sticks each for Seeing Mo Ying, Xiao Lingdang, Kitodora, and Su E Huiye; though incense and candles were merely ritual, what truly mattered was the sincerity behind them—but the ritual itself made it easier to carry faith-power.

Just as remembering ancestors in one's heart differs in weight from remembering them while burning paper offerings.

Faith-power forms from the heart, but scattered thoughts cannot sustain it; only tangible matter can serve as a reliable vessel—even the Merit Pool requires copper coins to carry those light or heavy prayers.

"By the way, tomorrow's local tradition is to cast away poverty and welcome wealth—don't forget."

Liu Yunxi's tone was subtle; Feng Xue immediately understood this was the lingering effect of having sent off the Kitchen God too early, so he pulled out the almanac, flipped through it, confirmed he hadn't misremembered, then nodded:

"No problem—here it's definitely the fourth day to cast away poverty and welcome wealth, and the fifth day to open business and receive the Wealth God (Note ②)."

Hearing this, Liu Yunxi relaxed slightly, then added casually: "By the way, besides tossing out the New Year's accumulated trash, there's also a ritual assembly—should we attend?"

Feng Xue had originally planned to take Liu Yunxi to observe, even if they didn't join the ritual—just strolling around would do—but that fleeting spark of inspiration resurfaced; recalling the previous divination verse, he still shook his head:

"No—the ritual will have too many cultivators, too tangled karmic threads; better to keep our distance."

…

"Has the location been confirmed?" Inside the Xinluo Pharmacy, the shopkeeper appeared to be asking a patient about symptoms, but the two were exchanging information through consciousness alone.

"The ritual assembly is at the Wealth God Temple—seventy percent of all orthodox cultivators in the city will participate; the rest are out-of-body immortals, demons, Jing Sect followers—nothing to fear."

The customer, while describing his lower back and knee weakness, transmitted the gathered intelligence through consciousness.

The shopkeeper nodded:

"Still be cautious—make a table of their locations. The Jiujuyi Sect's divine lord will arrive at two a. m.; before contact, summarize the route and hand it to him. Then everyone enters silence mode. Whether this mission succeeds or fails, all remain in silence unless the No. 1 summons occur—do nothing extra."

"Understood."

The customer took a packet of herbs and hurriedly left the pharmacy; seeing no immediate business, the shopkeeper called over an assistant to watch the counter and went to inspect the warehouse.

…

"Low-grade phantom soul—this little bit isn't enough!"

That night, Feng Xue retrieved the glowing golden-yellow jade dragon-head seal from the formation, his face showing dissatisfaction; compared to his own rate of qi extraction, Kitodora's output of pure faith-power was truly mediocre.

For a phantom soul, faith-power was essentially flesh and blood; though a phantom soul could recover merely by absorbing faith-power, to preserve Kitodora's purity, Feng Xue used only external faith-power as ritual material—the body of Kitodora was composed solely of his own qi.

Yet at this moment, Seeing Mo Ying's uniqueness became evident; whereas Ying Bao could consume any amount without limit, Kitodora's appetite was pathetically small—hardly better than Feng Xue's own soul's absorption rate.

Still, considering Feng Xue's own qi absorption efficiency was likewise limited, it was sufficient for cultivation needs.

"Xiao Lingdang, back up my current mental state, grant information collection permissions, record all subsequent changes in my mental state, and immediately halt cultivation if deviation exceeds preset thresholds."

(End of Chapter)