Chapter 49: The Immortal Path Is Long

True Person Fenhai hummed a little tune all the way back to his residence. He headed straight for the study, rummaged through the shelves, took down the few most precious magic treasures, elixirs, and heavenly materials displayed in the center, packed them carefully into boxes, and meticulously labeled each with its purpose, material, and price. After finishing this, he searched the entire room, eventually digging out a jade toad from a corner of the storage room.

From the perspective of a True Person, this jade toad was of mediocre quality, crudely crafted, and useless except for slightly improving feng shui and bringing good fortune. But what feng shui could possibly surpass Konggu Xuanqing?

Yet True Person Fenhai placed this jade toad—so useless it couldn’t even serve as a decorative piece—right at the center of the treasure rack, and carefully wiped it several times.

The three tiny immortal swords that had previously occupied this shelf were now moved aside.

The news that Xiang Weiyuan had successfully manifested his contemplation map stirred a small ripple among his classmates, then vanished without a trace. His contemplation map had been sealed personally by Zhenjun Xuan Yue; no one below the rank of True Person could peer into it, so his classmates naturally had no way of knowing the truth.

Though curious, his classmates soon forgot about it entirely.

Historical records state that the Jade Toad Gazing at the Moon map’s maximum limit is twelve zhang, a moderate anomaly. Bei Yun’s eleven-zhang contemplation map was slightly smaller, but carried a top-grade anomaly, actually surpassing all past sages. Cui Yu’s contemplation map was only six zhang, yet its anomaly neared top-grade, and the boon he received was an immortal sword qi, so his overall combat power was not low. With the Cui family’s backing, he could still rise further—he was already all but guaranteed a Heavenly Rank.

Xiang Weiyuan took unprecedented time to expand his contemplation map, clearly due to insufficient innate talent, hence his slow cultivation. His foundational talent was seven chi nine cun—unrivaled outside, but merely average among Taichu Palace disciples. He came from poverty, lacked methods to awaken his mind, and had never purified his bones, so his peers silently assumed he was relatively dull, and that his intellect would only fully mature after several years.

If both bone structure and talent were weak, and the cultivation method unsuitable, it was entirely possible to spend a full year just manifesting the contemplation map.

Outside Taichu Palace, countless ordinary people spent decades trying to cultivate the Jade Toad Gazing at the Moon map and still failed to forge a Dao Foundation.

His classmates silently agreed this was something Xiang Weiyuan could not bring himself to mention, so they all Moqi ly avoided the topic. They had heard enough such stories—even if they hadn’t seen them firsthand. Countless disciples from humble origins stunned everyone upon entering the palace, only to be gradually overtaken and surpassed by aristocratic disciples during the long cultivation process, with many even losing their Dao hearts. Very few truly rose from obscurity to become True Persons.

The classroom was calm yet tense; all classmates had begun forging their bodies, each pushing themselves relentlessly on the path of cultivation, terrified of falling behind.

The students were naturally proud and haughty, and Ji Liuli kept stoking the fire daily, constantly comparing them to the Zhigu Sect—every class, someone from Zhigu had broken through, someone else had received a family treasure, forcing everyone to train like mad. “How the Zhigu Sect’s people are doing this and that” had become a phrase everyone’s ears were tired of hearing.

After being sealed off from external fate by Zhenjun Xuan Yue, Xiang Weiyuan finally embarked on the path of body forging.

That day, after returning from Tianqing Hall, Zhang Sheng gave Xiang Weiyuan a detailed explanation of every detail to watch for during the body-forging stage. The first step was purifying muscles and tendons, gradually transforming the physical body into the raw material for an immortal embryo. This stage marked the beginning of transcending mortality and entering immortality; the body would undergo obvious changes—strength and speed would surge, and resistance to blows would increase.

Xiang Weiyuan had already felt this firsthand during their last brawl; all classmates had begun body forging, their strength exploding—even Xiang Weiyuan, who had been naturally powerful since childhood, could no longer withstand them.

After explaining the precautions, Zhang Sheng set down three vials of Peiyuan Elixir and told Xiang Weiyuan to cultivate on his own, then hurried off.

These three vials were not a three-month supply—they were a ten-day supply. From now on, Peiyuan Elixir would shift from one pill every three days to three pills per day.

After Zhang Sheng left, Xiang Weiyuan began cultivating immediately. This time, he still manifested as the jade toad, but staring at the clean, empty moon in the air, he felt slightly uneasy. Yet what followed was familiar: inhaling and exhaling lunar essence.

The jade toad opened its mouth, and lunar essence poured down, filling its huge maw in an instant, overflowing. Despite its large mouth, swallowing it was still difficult. After swallowing the lunar essence, the jade toad belched with a “gur.”

Such an abundance of lunar essence was naturally the effect of three Peiyuan Elixirs. But lunar essence alone was insufficient to release the elixir’s potency; inside the contemplation map, a torrential downpour began.

The jade toad adjusted its posture, aligning the moon, its mouth, and its rear in a straight line, then opened its mouth upward, catching another full mouthful of lunar essence. This time it was much easier—the essence flowed straight down the throat into the belly, bypassing the intermediate steps.

Thus bathed in lunar essence all night, he unconsciously woke to daylight.

Awakening from meditation, Xiang Weiyuan felt fine tingling and itching in many parts of his body—his flesh and blood were beginning to regenerate. His contemplation map in the mind sea had also changed: a small patch of ground had shifted from void to solid. But judging by its size, it would take at least six or seven hundred days to solidify the entire ground.

This was the result of taking three Peiyuan Elixirs. The medicinal power had now reached the limit of what Xiang Weiyuan could endure; more than this, the jade toad could not swallow it. Yet three pills per day should equate to dozens of days of hard cultivation—logically, progress shouldn’t be this slow.

Xiang Weiyuan retrieved the copied notes of Zhenjun Tunyue’s insights and studied them again, finally confirming he had made a mistake in his cultivation.

Only a small fraction of the heavenly spiritual energy converted from inhaling and exhaling lunar essence, along with the Peiyuan Elixir’s power, was used for body forging; the vast majority vanished into thin air, nowhere to be traced. But Xiang Weiyuan was certain: all this spiritual energy and medicinal power remained inside his body—not leaking or dissipating. It seemed something invisible within him was absorbing most of the power.

In his first cultivation session, judging by the volume filled in the contemplation map, Xiang Weiyuan’s progress was far beyond that of ordinary disciples—he was eating Peiyuan Elixirs like rice. But his contemplation map was simply absurd; proportionally, his progress was painfully slow. Ordinary students typically completed muscle and tendon forging in three to four months; some with superior talent and sufficient elixirs finished in just one month.

Xiang Weiyuan could only stop thinking about his progress.

After this, Zhang Sheng no longer visited once a month, but every ten days, bringing three vials of Peiyuan Elixir each time, and spoke to Xiang Weiyuan more often—this was good news.

The bad news was that the taste of Peiyuan Elixir was truly awful, carrying a strange odor, tasting like eating…

When he took fewer pills, he hadn’t noticed much, but now with three per day, the flavor piled up and intensified, lingering endlessly. After only a few days, Xiang Weiyuan could barely swallow them; just seeing the pills made him want to vomit—worse than inhaling lunar essence.

Though revolting, one Peiyuan Elixir equaled over ten days of hard cultivation; three pills accelerated body forging by forty to fifty times—he had to take them.

Xiang Weiyuan guessed many others had complained about the taste of Peiyuan Elixir, yet Zao Hua Guan refused to change it.

Xiang Weiyuan maliciously speculated that the old bastards at Zao Hua Guan thought: since no matter how many Peiyuan Elixirs they produced, they’d all be sold out, why bother improving the taste? Zao Hua Guan wasn’t a tavern.

Every day before cultivation, Xiang Weiyuan cursed Zao Hua Guan in his heart; after cultivation, he cursed again. But curses or not, he still had to swallow the pills, inhale and exhale lunar essence, and the days passed one by one.

There was one thing Xiang Weiyuan hadn’t anticipated: the senior sister’s weekly root-purifying ritual still continued.

Xiang Weiyuan had once asked Ji Liuli when the purification would end, only to find the senior sister had changed her tune, saying the path to purity had no end, and his foundation was still too unstable—so he must keep purifying.

So now, besides taking pills and inhaling lunar essence, he also had to endure being purified.

At this point, Xiang Weiyuan realized the Immortal Path was not only long—it was dull, repetitive, and required enduring countless strange and bizarre things.

He wondered how the True Persons and Zhenjuns up there were holding up mentally.

Thus, month after month passed, and Xiang Weiyuan felt time slowing more and more; each night seemed to stretch into extra hours.

(End of Chapter)