Chapter 99: Feng Xue Only Needs to Cultivate; Li Maolin Has Much to Consider

But let us not speak of how Feng Xue practiced the Soul-Collecting Art; after leaving Feng’s courtyard, Li Maolin did not simply find some place to rest.

Compared to slacking off, he had plenty of things to do.

The three-hou deadline was not because Feng Xue had seen through him three times, but because today was the sixteenth day of the twelfth month—exactly three hou before the first day of the New Year.

Once he reached the Yi-Si year, he could shed his half-corpse, half-ghost existence and attain the state of spirit-flesh unity; though to restore his full strength—or even surpass it—he would still have to wait until the fifteenth of July, the human calamity was at least behind him.

The teaching of the three hou had two purposes: first, to endure loss; second, to bind Feng Xue, this unpredictable variable. Since their karmic threads were entangled, they must minimize his freedom of movement to prevent more people from being drawn into this karmic web.

And what better way to keep a man locked in place than seclusion?

Whether or not this brat was scheming against him, his desire to extract benefits from Li Maolin was genuine; so give him benefits, tie him to his home, and thus reduce the risk of the human calamity.

And what Li Maolin must do next was even simpler—

Incite a certain disturbance.

Actively teaching spells brought no clear “loss” to himself; it was hard to say how much it offset the human calamity. Moreover, last night he had indulged in absorbing too much primordial energy—even if little, it might still count toward the karmic ledger.

To ensure his “enduring loss” plan proceeded smoothly, he would still follow his original plan to provoke other Xuan cultivators—but now the goal was no longer merely to attract attention, but to inflict actual losses upon himself.

It was like suppressing bandits: make a plan, slowly toss out bait, confine the conflict within your control. Even if you trade blows with the bandits and suffer losses, you retain the initiative—far better than doing nothing until the bandits launch a full assault on your doorstep.

“But this process must be contained—minimize casualties, avoid replacing one calamity with another. Fine, consider it paying to avert disaster!”

At this moment, Li Maolin was deeply grateful he had prepared contingency plans before entering seclusion; his Hutan Bag still held ample silver, gold, and spell materials, so he need not worry whether purchasing supplies would expose his identity.

The only regret was that he could no longer visit Feng Xue at night to absorb primordial energy.

“Endure!”

…

Li Maolin had many matters to consider, while Feng Xue only needed to focus on cultivation.

The carpenters worked all afternoon; Feng Xue studied all afternoon. Having previously studied the “Jie Yu” scripture, he was already proficient in transforming his Qi into jade and infusing it into stones. After just a few practice sessions, he mastered the technique of splitting primordial energy. Though more complex than directly extracting a room’s worth and soaking in it, it offered precision: each jade talisman stored different primordial energies, allowing him to directly generate different types of spell energy by absorbing specific ones.

After this cultivation breakthrough, two natural branches emerged—

First, through exhaustive experimentation, he would mix different elemental spell energies to test various spells, confirming the effects of different configurations: single-element spells, mutually-generating combinations, three-element synergies, etc. Taking one unit of spell energy composed of up to five primordial energies as an example, there were 231 possible configurations; Feng Xue’s first task was to produce each of these 231 spell energy mixtures and test them.

Second, he would divide his spell energy within his mind-sea—transforming the single chaotic sea of spell energy into five distinct pools, so that in the future he could directly guide the five elements to flow and generate spell energy freely, without needing to refine it externally.

Compared to the first task, which required only repeated refinement, the second seemed far more difficult—but in principle, it was even easier.

After all, the foundational practice of spirit cultivation was visualization: simply imagine, during meditation, a grid, a pond, or a palette beneath your spirit, and your mind-sea would naturally adapt. With persistent focus, it could be accomplished.

The visualization scriptures only forbid imagining demons or natural disasters—imagining a foot stepping on a Five-Element disc can’t possibly be forbidden, can it?

Then, then Feng Xue encountered a rather awkward problem—

The capacity of his scrap materials was too low.

These fragments were fine for inscribing rituals—as conversion devices (like phone chargers)—but if he wanted to store primordial energy or even spell energy (like power banks), they were woefully inadequate.

After careful selection, Feng Xue found that aside from the blue-and-white seed material he had bought for fifteen guan—which had astonishing capacity—only a few bracelet cores from Nanshan Residence, nearly given away, were usable, but even those held only one or two years’ worth. At Feng Xue’s rate of consumption, a few spells would drain them dry.

“Before I establish the Five-Element spell pools, I need to get some high-quality materials!” Feng Xue stared at the blue-and-white seed material, which had easily stored sixty years’ worth of primordial energy with room to spare, and thought of Wang Laoyezi—how fortunate he was to have wealth, or this cultivation method would truly be unaffordable!

“Cultivation requires resources, wealth, companions, and location—the ancients did not deceive me!”

…

Freed from Li Maolin’s interference, the night passed peacefully. Feng Xue rose at dawn, ate breakfast, practiced standing zhuang, then returned to the streets. Though passersby still greeted him, Feng Xue sensed something was off.

It wasn’t that their attitude had worsened—quite the opposite. Whether wealthy merchants, their servants and guards, or common folk beyond the affluent quarter, their gazes toward him had grown even more reverent. This sudden shift left him deeply uneasy.

Fortunately, Lucheng County was not large. After walking only a short distance, he reached the Bird Market. As usual, he headed to Wang Laoyezi’s shop and found the old man listening to music.

He muttered inwardly at how frugal this man’s lifestyle was, yet stepped forward.

Sensing a flicker of spiritual light, Wang Laoyezi glanced over. Seeing Feng Xue, his first instinct was to duck away—afraid he’d be asked a question he couldn’t answer and lose his senior’s dignity.

But Feng Xue had already seen him. To flee now would be too humiliating. The old man gritted his teeth, maintained his hermit-sage demeanor, closed his eyes, and listened to the music. When he sensed Feng Xue had arrived beside him, he still didn’t open his eyes, and said:

“Why are you back again? Speak—what do you want to know now?”

“Nothing…” Feng Xue didn’t find the old man’s tendency to lecture problematic; he cut straight to the point:

“I’ve come to buy good jade—same quality as that Hetian blue-and-white seed material I had before. I need five pieces, preferably corresponding to the Five Elements.”

Hearing Feng Xue was here for business, the old man sat upright, his expression serious:

“You’re preparing for that too?”

“Huh? What ‘that’?”

(End of Chapter)