Chapter 34: When Cultivating the Supreme Method

Midnight, wind high, moon bright, stars sparse.

A white-haired, white-bearded old man leaned on the wall and told you, you're destined to be mine.

Li Guanyi's alertness spiked instantly—he was no longer the man who had just arrived in this world; after ten years of fleeing, even though he always smiled, his vigilance ran deep, and he drew the Suni Bow, the arrow locked tightly onto the old man's throat.

The arrow and bow shifted slightly.

To quickly adjust aim based on the opponent's movements.

Locking range: between the eyebrows, throat, heart.

The Xue family's One Arrow, Cold as Light, requires external qi release, with a martial image as weapon.

He naturally could not do it.

But as a foundation for carrying One Arrow, Cold as Light, he had the basics; the wall was no more than twenty paces from his current position, the night windless, the bow newly tuned, its resilience and elasticity at peak— one arrow would pierce the target.

The old man, unconcerned, grinned enthusiastically: "You don't know how much trouble you carry—I just discovered it. Far from here, someone has noticed you; in this world, the more trouble you carry, the more extraordinary you are."

"And you, especially so."

"Become my disciple. Old man will teach you all the wonders of Yin-Yang arts."

The old man spoke in a strange, mystical way.

Li Guanyi remained calm and composed, the bow and arrow unmoved: "If you wish to take a disciple, please come by day, state your identity, and I shall respectfully accept your invitation. But climbing walls at midnight? That's either a thief or a murderer. Please step back."

The old man calling himself Master Siming laughed: "You've got spirit. But I'm just impatient—I wanted to meet you sooner."

"People walk through the world; the world's rules bind the ordinary. If I want to see my disciple, I come. I give only cold glances to the mediocre, but to those who stir my heart, I light candles at midnight and talk late into the night—that's being true to my nature."

Li Guanyi, unsure of friend or foe, said only: "Please come again tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? I think… five, four, three, two, one."

"Hmm, midnight has passed. About right."

Master Siming clapped his hands and prepared to leap down.

Li Guanyi's arrow was already nocked when a muffled rush of air came—through the night, a dark object traced a perfect arc through the air and smacked squarely onto the old man's face; just as he leapt downward, he was slapped full in the face.

His balance shattered.

He let out a startled cry and toppled backward.

It was an iron pot—clanging as it hit the ground.

Li Guanyi turned his head and saw his aunt, Murong Qiushui, stepping out from another room, her left hand still gripping a pot, brows slightly raised, eager, gesturing for Li Nu to move aside—clearly, that was the same flying-pot technique she'd used to repel forty-seven bandits.

The old man fell backward but did not strike the ground—he landed in empty air, in a space invisible to ordinary eyes, where a black tortoise calmly caught him. The old tortoise glanced at him, shook its head, and slowly walked away, while the old man said: "What?"

"You mean, that boy is right? Coming at night isn't the way of a gentleman?"

The black tortoise slowly nodded.

The old man burst into laughter: "Hahahaha."

"Those who peer into heaven's secrets suffer five misfortunes; those who disrupt Yin-Yang die a cursed death."

"Both are the most lawless in this world. Kings make rules hoping everyone becomes a gentleman, yet men like me are called five-poison vermin, driven from Jingcheng by guards with halberds."

"But the emperor who cursed me died on the battlefield; the piss I poured on his grave has grown into a great tree, and his descendants kneel every time they visit his tomb—yet you and I still live, our teeth have fallen out and regrown five times already. How can worldly rules bind you and me?"

"But this is a good child. We will meet again."

"Today, I merely secured the master-disciple bond first."

"After all, I was the first to say 'as master.'"

The old man beamed with pride.

The black tortoise gave a distinctly human eye-roll.

The Ancestral Young Master once wrote to say he'd introduce a disciple to them; along with him came a Mo Juzi from the Mo Clan and a great Confucian scholar. He knew the old man had divined something, hence the midnight wall-climbing.

He stepped forward and vanished soundlessly. Almost simultaneously, the youth holding the Suni Bow stepped out swiftly, scanning the surroundings—found no trace of the old man, not even footprints. He picked up the thrown pot.

He'd used this old pot for a long time; it had been nurtured. Could not be carelessly discarded.

He touched the pot's bottom, Li Guanyi's expression turning slightly solemn.

The pot's bottom showed no change—meaning the strike had not landed at all. The old man had fallen deliberately, made no sound upon landing, and vanished in mere moments. The youth knelt, touched the ground—found no trace.

Perhaps, arranging for his aunt to stay within the Xue family would be safer.

Li Guanyi pondered, took the pot back inside. His aunt, upon hearing the man had vanished, was quite disappointed. Li Guanyi told her to rest quickly, then returned to his room. The interruption by the self-proclaimed 【Master Siming】 had dispelled his faint drowsiness—he was now fully alert.

Li Guanyi reviewed the "Three Levels of Warrior Enters the Realm" in his mind. It was the cultivation record left by the Xue family's supreme general, detailing the different tiers of Warrior Enters the Realm, describing the most basic method: strengthening the body while refining internal qi; when both reach a certain level, they naturally merge, allowing entry into the realm.

A better method is imprinting divine intent.

"By using a technique imbued with the martial image's essence, one can preliminarily perceive the martial image's spirit. Breaking through to Warrior Enters the Realm via this method refines finer aspects than mere physical conditioning, allowing the warrior to grasp an external qi technique upon entry."

"Since ancient times, this has been the core method of great sects and noble families."

"Beyond this superior method, there is another."

"Once, in the Western Regions, there was a Buddha called Crown-Top. At age three, he entered the realm. His temple housed many servants and many bone artifacts. I was curious about his method and borrowed the Crown-Top technique."

"Refused? Destroyed it."

These four characters carried a fierce, violent aura.

"Later, I learned the Crown-Top method was actually a martial image transmission technique; this path was demonic—it could transfer a martial image from one person to another, but the recipient died instantly, all his power lost. I burned the technique, the scriptures, the temple—but I had read the texts, pondered long, and gained insight."

"Before entry into the realm, one nurtures a small cosmos; one polishes the body."

"Entry into the realm is linking the inner and outer cosmos. Daoists call it Inner and Outer Scenery, Buddhists call it Awakening to Spiritual Powers, Confucians call it Establishing Resolve. In my view, the three teachings are one: the human body is like the earth; entry into the realm is like digging canals to guide external water into channels. Ordinary conditioning is like digging blindly—slowest, least effective."

"It may even damage the body's foundation."

"But if the general direction is right, you'll eventually reach water—and enter the realm."

"This was the oldest method used by warriors to enter the realm."

"Later, they recorded their own entry experiences—how to train the body, how to nurture qi—and these became the earliest entry techniques, like having a water map: knowing where water lay, where to exert more effort, where to build deeper accumulation."

"Thus, half the effort yields double results; the dug canals become more stable, and drawing primordial qi inward becomes most effective."

"But this is still something achieved through 【human effort】, not as good as the great force between Heaven and Earth naturally carving open a channel; if one could temper the body before Already in the Realm, then with the aid of a special treasured ground, combining internal and external strength to naturally break through the barrier and enter the Realm, that would be the supreme method."

"I courteously inquired of the Daoist sect and borrowed the cultivation method of the Daoist sect's Innate Gate."

"They opened their library to me. I read for a month, fusing the teachings of both Buddhism and Daoism."

"Together with my good friend who called herself Yaoguang, we cross-verified and created a method for entering the Realm — externally borrowing the power of Heaven and Earth, internally cultivating righteous Qi, circulating and transforming, naturally entering the Realm; if one had a Dharma Phase level warrior to assist, it should be possible to shape a root-bone like the so-called 【Living Buddha's Reincarnation】 or 【Daoist Innate】."

"I laughed heartily — so the so-called supreme root-bones of the Three Teachings can also be achieved through human effort."

"It's just a pity I entered the Realm at eight, so I never had the chance to try."

"Yaoguang didn't mind — the Eastern Lands' Star-Gazing School is always like that, she didn't understand."

"If one could shake the supreme root-bones that the Three Teachings have shaped through mystery and majesty — the Son of Heaven's Mandate."

"What tremendous significance this would hold for the world."

"But she was too beautiful, so I won't blame her."

"After descending the mountain, Yaoguang spent three years finding a place with excellent feng shui near Guan Yicheng in Jiangnan Dao, then set up a formation that could artificially create the treasured ground needed for entering the Realm. I moved the Xue family there and asked her how long it would take."

"She calculated and said that with the passage of time, it would take at least two hundred years to gather the earth's qi."

"I might still be alive at that point, but she would certainly be dead."

"Star-Gazers peer into the Mandate of Heaven, so they don't care much about life and death, and the title is passed down through generations. The successor who receives the inheritance — remember to give it a try, you should already have mastered the Dharma Phase, hahahaha. Only by obtaining the Dharma Phase can you pick up my bow, and obtaining the Dharma Phase inevitably means entering the Realm."

"That feeling of having the most perfect method to enter the Realm within reach yet unable to attain it, gnashing your teeth in frustration — is also a gift your ancestor here gives you, hahahaha. After all, I was quite vexed at the time, and always felt that this feeling was something my descendants simply had to experience."

Li Guanyi grinned.

This peerless number-one divine general under heaven in the records seemed a bit of a rascal. He continued reading: "But you can bring a junior you approve of with you to seek out this treasured ground. Yaoguang and I left some interesting things there."

"If you truly create a top-tier foundation, you may go again to seek out the Daoist sect's Innate Gate."

"Yaoguang said there's a youngest, most wooden child there who might be able to cultivate the Dao, and should be able to live several hundred years. Go up the mountain and seek out Daoist Qingwei."

"Tell him, 'Xue-lang of those days has come again.'"

"Is the peach-blossom wine you stored here several hundred years ago still good?"

Li Guanyi saw that one page of cultivation method, this lineage thus came to an end, and his thoughts paused for a moment.

Wait a minute??? Where's the location of the Mystical Realm?

Where did you hide the Mystical Realm?

What comes next? Nothing?

(End of this chapter)