Chapter 10: Cultivating into a Crossroads

Being silent alone is quite comfortable, but having one more person is a bit awkward.

Seeing Ji You raised his blood-stained hand and scratched his side face.

"You... what exactly happened to you?"

"I was in seclusion for two days, didn't eat anything, and fought with the guard commander of Fengxian Shanzhuang at noon, consuming a lot of physical strength, so I realized this coughing blood divine skill in hunger..."

The mouth is really hard.

Xiang Kuangcheng twitched his mouth and said: "The world is full of people who can't eat enough, and there are those who faint from hunger and those who starve to death, but I have never heard of anyone who can vomit blood from hunger."

Seeing Ji You thought for a while: "Maybe only cultivators like us can do it?"

Xiang Kuangcheng didn't speak, staring tightly at the blood flowers spreading on his collar.

Seeing Ji You remembered the scene where he held a book and told him to find Fang Ruoyao, and after collecting his smile, he opened his mouth: "Okay, two days are not enough. I was in too much of a hurry, took a wrong turn, and now I have suffered an immortal Dao backlash."

Humans inherently contain true spirit in their bodies, and the first step of cultivation is to sense the true spirit in one's own body, let it communicate with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, which is called "Awakening Spirit."

Following that is to continuously condense the true spirit, strengthen the physique, nourish the limbs and bones, until the spiritual light in the body is dimly illuminated.

These two realms are actually entirely based on hard cultivation, and everyone is roughly the same.

And when reaching the Condensation Realm, one needs to introduce the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the body to condense, merge into the spiritual spring, and make it continuously grow.

Finally, the spiritual spring that has gathered the true spirit will be condensed into a spiritual essence, which is the so-called perfection of the Lower Three Realms.

It is said that before ancient times, it had another name, called "Golden Core."

But later, for some reason, that set of cultivation paths was suddenly abandoned by humans, and I don't know where it started, but someone changed to cultivate this three-five realm cultivation method.

Orthodox cultivators usually have family immortal elders guarding them during this step. If there is danger, they can immediately call to stop.

But Seeing Ji You didn't.

Not only did he not have immortal elders to protect the Dao, but he also had no classics related to cultivation to look up.

Great Xia strictly forbids commoners from cultivating immortality, which is not an empty word. The control of immortal books and Dao canons is very strict. Even if there are a few fragments circulating among the people, no one dares to look at them.

And in that immortal book of his, it just so happened that this part of the content was missing.

It wasn't a dramatic coincidence like missing pages, but it just wasn't there—there was no perfection of the Lower Three Realms.

So, Seeing Ji You could only cultivate by himself.

At first, he was quite smooth when introducing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, but when condensing the spiritual essence, he felt a strong sense of disharmony.

This disharmony made him almost immersed in the mystery of the Dao and unable to wake up. It wasn't until his divine sense returned that he discovered his spiritual spring hadn't condensed into a spiritual essence, but had directly burst its banks...

The true spirit in his body, as well as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, all scattered in his body at the moment of bursting, everywhere, mixed into a piece, and it was difficult to separate again.

But later he discovered that sensing heaven and man, controlling spiritual energy externally, and other means that only the perfection of the Lower Three Realms had, he had them all.

Seeing Ji You thought he had gained a blessing in disguise and achieved an alternative perfection, but it wasn't until he fought with Commander Bao of Fengxian Shanzhuang that he realized he was wrong.

The backlash was just late, but it would never be absent.

Perfection overnight was truly a wild wishful thinking.

Xiang Kuangcheng looked at his solemn expression and couldn't help but open his mouth: "Will you die?"

"No, it's just a burning pain in the heart. It will be fine after a few days of cultivation. However, I don't know if there is still a chance to go to the Upper Five Realms."

"Why would you rather do this step than ask Fang Ruoyao to try?"

Seeing Ji You spat out a few more blood foams before opening his mouth: "If you want to do it, do it thoroughly. Fang Ruoyao's weight is insufficient. Even if she is willing to help, it might not be useful after leaving. I reached the perfection of the Lower Three Realms just to let people know that I am destined to enter the Upper Five Realms, and I will kill my way back."

Xiang Kuangcheng heard the coldness in his words and couldn't help but shake his head: "This move is truly too risky."

"The spiritual energy in Qiu Ru's body was passed in by me."

"I have already guessed it..."

Seeing Ji You took a deep breath: "There's also Haiwa who herds sheep, Niuniu from the woodcutter Liu's family, and that disabled child picked up by Zhang Zui..."

Xiang Kuangcheng paused after hearing this, raised his head and looked at him unbelievably.

He remembered that these children were either sick or had only one breath left, but later they got better inexplicably. Only then did he know that it was his doing.

"I am actually not a kind person. Some were just done by the way. Look, this is an immortal."

Seeing Ji You frowned tightly when he said the word "immortal": "But the Heavenly Tian Shuyuan people can't stay in Yuyang forever. Those people from Fengxian Shanzhuang won't have a first time without a second time, then a third time, a fourth time..."

Xiang Kuangcheng pursed his lips after hearing this: "Indeed, since the news of your perfection of the Lower Three Realms spread, Fengxian Shanzhuang has been much more disciplined, and Old Master Fang even stopped collecting offerings from the Qiu family."

"So effective?"

Seeing Ji You revealed a set of white and red teeth: "Then if I recognize a god-son with the wealthy families in the county, just a little bit of gift money, wouldn't I be rich on the spot?"

Xiang Kuangcheng: "?"

Seeing Ji You could still have wild thoughts, which also proved that he was indeed not in danger of his life.

It was just that he didn't know what kind of impact the bursting of the spiritual spring would have on his future cultivation. After all, he didn't condense a spiritual essence. What should he cultivate next?

Although Xiang Kuangcheng was full of poetry and books, he didn't know about cultivation, so he could only help him up and fetch water for him to rinse his mouth.

After resting for a while, Seeing Ji You's spirit was much better, and he couldn't help but exhort: "I will be fine after running a few more cycles. Don't tell others about this. Now that Qiu Ru can survive, it is already the best result."

"You entered the Heavenly Tian Shuyuan, isn't that also the best result?"

"I never thought about going to the Heavenly Tian Shuyuan. This matter is actually an accident."

Xiang Kuangcheng was surprised after hearing this: "You mean you just wanted to hide among the people and cultivate secretly? What is the meaning of this?"

Seeing Ji You shook his head: "You insulted a man's ambition. Although I don't want to be an orthodox cultivator, I have a plan for my life. If the Qiu family matter hadn't happened, I should have gone up the mountain next year to be a bandit."

"?"

"There is a bandit den west of Yuyang County, all of them are private cultivators, and they speak nicely. I heard that if a cultivator who has reached the perfection of the Lower Three Realms is willing to go up the mountain, he can at least be hired as a hall master. By then, I will pick up Old Qiu's family to the mountain, and I can eat fragrant and spicy food."

Xiang Kuangcheng didn't expect that he really had this plan, and couldn't help but frown after hearing it: "Clearly you can be an orthodox cultivator, but you insist on going up the mountain to be a private cultivator. Why?"

Seeing Ji You coughed twice, not knowing where to start, and only after thinking for a long time did he say: "I didn't know I could cultivate at first. Another reason is that I don't want to eat human blood offerings."

"What is human blood offering?"

"Cultivators do nothing, but swallow most of the world's resources and spiritual veins, causing the people to be unable to eat enough and the world to be in dire poverty. Although I don't have much ability, I can always choose not to become one of the straws that break the back of the people."

Seeing Ji You looked up after saying this: "However, it is said that the Heavenly Tian Shuyuan eats the fewest offerings among the Seven Great Immortal Sects, and doesn't use living people to refine medicine. It can be considered the luckiest among the misfortunes."

Xiang Kuangcheng paused and raised the book in his hand: "But the book says that only those who enter the Upper Five Realms and are selected into the inner courtyard disciples are qualified to eat the offerings of the people."

"?"

Seeing Ji You paused, his eyes widened: "You mean, I've entered the Heavenly Tian Shuyuan, and I still have to work-study?"

He only cared about being a bandit at the time and didn't look carefully at the content of being an orthodox cultivator, so he was completely stunned at this moment.

"You said you didn't want to eat human blood offerings? Isn't this a good thing for you?" Xiang Kuangcheng looked at him suspiciously.

"I'm going to be a bandit to rob the immortals to help the poor, and I can still get a share!"

Great Xia pays offerings to major Immortal Sects every year, but how it is specifically distributed is a matter within the major Immortal Sects.

Taking the Heavenly Tian Shuyuan as an example, their offerings are mainly distributed to inner courtyard disciples and teaching affairs, and whether it is the Upper Realm of Condensation or the perfection of the Lower Three Realms, they are ultimately outer courtyard disciples, so they cannot occupy the offering share.

Just as Seeing Ji You was doubting life, Xiang Kuangcheng opened his mouth again: "Actually, I am also going to Shengjing in two days."

Seeing Ji You came back to his senses: "What are you going to Shengjing for?"

"Imperial examination."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 11 =====