Chapter 15: Notes of a Predecessor

Although Su Chunyi could not fathom Chen Ye's true intentions, he still nodded and agreed to his request.

As if a thin veil had been gently lifted, Chen Ye suddenly felt his body grow light, only then realizing that during their conversation, an illusion technique had been silently cast.

No wonder even a beauty of Su Chunyi's grace and elegance had gone unnoticed amidst the crowd.

Now that the illusion was dispelled, the gazes of passersby seemed drawn by magnets, all turning toward them.

Waiting for the moment when everyone's attention converged, Chen Ye abruptly rose, propped himself on his signature white banner, and strode toward the tea house counter.

"Shopkeeper, I wish to temporarily deposit this bundle here with you; I shall return to retrieve it in a few days."

Upon hearing Chen Ye's words, the shopkeeper with graying hair could not help but show surprise.

"This Daoist, our shop sees many people and hands; it is truly difficult to safeguard guests' belongings. Should anything go wrong..."

Before the refusal could be fully spoken, Chen Ye flicked his arm, and several fragments of silver rolled onto the counter.

"These shall serve as the storage fee."

Having spoken, Chen Ye turned and beckoned to Su Chunyi.

Under the admiring and envious gazes of the crowd, Su Chunyi moved with lotus steps, slowly approaching Chen Ye's side.

In an instant, two streaks of silver light erupted, like agile swimming snakes, tightly wrapping around Chen Ye and Su Chunyi; then with a "whoosh," the two shot straight out of the tea tower like meteors chasing the moon, speeding toward the vast sky.

Such a miraculous sight had never been witnessed by mortals; each stood with mouth agape, stunned as if carved from wood or molded from clay.

The shopkeeper, who had just been refusing Chen Ye's request to store the bundle, now seemed like a different person, clutching that tattered bundle tightly with both arms, thinking to himself: This is a treasure left by immortals; there must not be the slightest damage!

This was precisely the effect Chen Ye desired; after today, his title of "Little Immortal" would be even more deeply ingrained in people's minds.

At the horizon of dusk, two streaks of silver light flashed like lightning.

This was the first time in Chen Ye's life he soared above the nine heavens.

Though not as imagined, standing on a flying sword like a skateboard, but rather gently embraced by sword light and propelled into the air, the thrill was no less in the slightest.

White clouds, like startled flocks of sheep, rushed past his sides, while the city below shrank to the size of ants in the blink of an eye.

In his past life, he had also experienced high altitudes, but then he was confined to a seat, able only to gaze far through a small window.

Now, standing on sword light, flying into the heights with human strength, the feeling was entirely different.

With a mortal body, defying the gravity of heaven and earth, freely shuttling between the sea of clouds like a bird—this is the pursuit of cultivators.

Chen Ye ultimately could not hold back; disregarding Su Chunyi's presence beside him, he opened his mouth wide like a child and shouted and screamed with abandon.

Seeing Chen Ye's childish appearance, Su Chunyi felt no trace of disdain; instead, a faint smile curved her lips as she said softly, "When I first flew into the sky with my master, like you, Daoist, I shouted until my voice grew hoarse. At that time, I only felt the vastness of heaven and earth, always dreaming that one day I could master a flying sword alone, journey to the ends of the earth, and behold all the world's wonders."

Chen Ye replied with envy, "Miss Su now commands a flying sword; wherever you wish to go, you may go, truly free and unfettered."

Su Chunyi gently shook her head and sighed, "The path of cultivation grows ever more arduous the further one travels. Although I can now fly on a sword, I spend the entire year in seclusion deep in the mountains, meditating and practicing sword techniques; my daily tasks are so heavy that I have no leisure to travel and play."

Su Chunyi's sigh resonated deeply within Chen Ye.

Only cultivators who feel utterly powerless can perhaps find leisure.

Just like his master, Hearing Mo Ci, who had possessed too many bodies, saw no hope of advancement in this life, and only when nearing the exhaustion of his lifespan did he think to take on a disciple.

And young men like Chen Ye, just entering the Spirit Awakening realm with over a hundred years of lifespan remaining, instead toil day and night in diligent cultivation, hoping only to advance further.

Immortality is hard to seek, and becoming an immortal is even harder than reaching the sky; yet even if there is but a sliver of hope, which cultivator would willingly miss it?

Both fell silent for a time until the sword light, like a weary bird returning to its nest, gently landed on a small hill outside the city.

The terrain surrounding Cui County is flat; having such a small hill standing abruptly is truly rare.

Su Chunyi led Chen Ye into a cave; he looked around and saw the rock walls covered in crisscrossing, fierce sword marks.

Chen Ye then realized that the "quiet chamber" Su Chunyi spoke of was exactly like this—a cave of ten zhang in diameter, forcibly carved out of the mountain rock using a flying sword.

Chen Ye inwardly trembled; just how sharp must this Miss Su's sword light be to carve out such a vast space?

Though spacious, this cave was very crude, containing only a meditation cushion for sitting and two oil lamps hanging in midair, which appeared to be some kind of magical treasure.

"Mr., please make yourself at home. Although I am not skilled in alchemy, my sect possesses relevant scriptures; these may offer some assistance in your condensation of the Qi Sea."

Su Chunyi lightly raised her jade hand, placing several ancient texts before Chen Ye for his reference.

Chen Ye casually flipped through a few and immediately saw that these were not the secret teachings of the Qinghe Sword Sect, but rather privately collected by Su Chunyi. Among them, two were already familiar to him, precisely those taught by Hearing Mo Ci; they were ordinary scriptures known to all in the cultivation world.

However, two other secret manuals regarding the condensation of the Qi Sea caught Chen Ye's eye.

One of them studied how the dantian Qi Sea rotates.

This topic instantly sparked Chen Ye's interest; he had never before considered that the rotation of the Qi Sea had directions, clockwise or counterclockwise, and concealed profound mysteries.

The author of this book had clearly devoted great effort to research; superficially, whether the Qi Sea rotates clockwise or counterclockwise seems to have little impact on cultivation speed. But through the author's meticulous, layer-by-layer investigation, it was discovered that a clockwise-rotating Qi Sea is highly efficient in refining spiritual energy, while a counterclockwise-rotating Qi Sea allows spellcasting to proceed more smoothly and freely.

However, the research data recorded in the book was somewhat rough; it seems this author was a lone, unorthodox wandering cultivator without the backing of a sect's abundant resources, relying only on inquiries from all directions and personal speculation, so the conclusions naturally lacked precision.

Besides this manual exploring Qi Sea rotation, another was equally novel and interesting.

The author boldly stated at the outset: Why do cultivators possess only one dantian Qi Sea? If there were two, would not the cultivation speed increase dramatically?

This author was also a man of decisive action, daring to conduct the experiment personally.

Condensing two dantian Qi Seas; this idea sounded like a fairy tale at first, yet the author claimed the operation was not difficult, merely repeating the steps of condensing the Qi Sea like copying a gourd.

But the experimental results were unsatisfactory.

After taking two Condensation Pills, two dantian Qi Seas were successfully condensed, but before the author could rejoice for long, these two Qi Seas, like magnets attracting each other, effortlessly merged into one, their volume only slightly larger than the original.

This rendered the effort meaningless, since subsequent cultivation inherently requires continuously strengthening the Qi Sea.

Taking Condensation Pills to open a second Qi Sea, after merging, yielded no additional benefit; compared to ordinary pills that strengthen the Qi Sea, the effect was far inferior, side effects became more pronounced, and the consumption of resources was enormous.

It must be known that Condensation Pills are far more expensive than ordinary Qi Sea-strengthening pills; such turmoil is truly not worth the cost.

The author clearly could not accept giving up; he expended vast amounts of effort and wealth to try again.

This time, he entered deep meditation for a long period, relying on sheer willpower to desperately prevent the two Qi Seas from merging, fully expecting to realize the beautiful dream of double the absorption of spiritual energy.

But reality dealt him a heavy blow; the final result showed no significant difference from condensing the Qi Sea once.

Chen Ye thought briefly and immediately saw through the crux of the problem; this experiment was essentially a simple mathematical problem of multiplicative growth.

Assuming one dantian Qi Sea doubles in size each year, it takes thirty years to advance to the next realm. If two dantian Qi Seas were condensed from the start, also doubling each year, how many years would it actually take to reach the next realm?

The answer is twenty-nine years.

In that case, the difference between one Qi Sea and two Qi Seas is negligible; yet to prevent the Qi Seas from merging requires great effort and consumes vast precious resources, which is truly not worth it.

After confirming this point, the author ultimately abandoned this research, deeming it a futile endeavor with no value. The notes are filled with sighs that he had wasted many years for nothing, achieving nothing in the end.

But Chen Ye did not think so; on the contrary, he felt both authors were remarkable people, capable of such brilliant ideas. It turned out that the rotation of the Qi Sea had directions of forward and reverse, and one could attempt to condense it multiple times—details that Hearing Mo Ci had never mentioned.

Although the final conclusion was that both attempts made little difference, in Chen Ye's eyes, cultivating immortality was like a discipline encompassing all things and refined to the finest detail; only by deeply investigating the essence of cultivation could one avoid detours and even carve out a path to the heavens uniquely one's own.

After carefully reading the records in these two secret manuals, Chen Ye suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "What would happen if one simultaneously condensed two Dantian Qi Seas rotating in opposite directions?"