[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-watching-the-immortals-fall":3,"chapter-watching-the-immortals-fall-watching-the-immortals-fall-chapter-10":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Watching the Immortals Fall",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2259883,4410,"Chapter 10: Cultivation Gone Astray","watching-the-immortals-fall-chapter-10",10,"\u003Cp>Sitting alone in silence was rather comfortable, but having another person nearby felt awkward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji You raised his bloody hand and scratched his cheek.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You… what on earth happened to you?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I secluded myself for two days, ate nothing, fought the guard commander of Fengxian Manor at noon, expended much strength, and in my hunger, I stumbled upon this coughing-blood divine art…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His mouth is truly hard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuangcheng’s lips twitched as he said: “The world is full of people who can’t even get enough to eat—some faint from hunger, some die of it—but I’ve never heard of anyone coughing up blood from starvation.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji You thought for a moment: “Perhaps only cultivators like us can do this?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuangcheng fell silent, staring intently at the blood spreading across his robe.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji You recalled the day he held a book and told him to find Fang Ruoyao; he dropped his smile and spoke: “Alright, two days wasn’t enough—I pushed too hard, went off the path, and now I’m suffering backlash from the Immortal Dao.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Human beings are born with an innate true spirit; the first step of cultivation is to sense this true spirit within oneself, allowing it to communicate with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth—a process called Awakening the Spirit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then comes the continuous refinement of the true spirit, strengthening the body, nurturing every limb and bone, until a faint spiritual glow shines within.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These two realms rely entirely on hard cultivation, and all cultivators follow roughly the same path.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But at the Condensation Realm, one must draw spiritual energy from heaven and earth into the body, condensing it into the spiritual spring, causing it to grow stronger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, the spiritual spring infused with the true spirit is refined into a single spiritual core—this is known as the full completion of the lower three realms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It is said that in ancient times, it had another name: Golden Core.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But for reasons unknown, this cultivation path was suddenly abandoned by humanity, and from some unknown origin, others began cultivating the new three-five realm method.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Orthodox cultivators, when reaching this stage, usually have an elder from their family guarding them; if danger arises, they can immediately halt the process.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Ji You had none.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not only did he lack an elder to guide him, he could not even find any cultivation scriptures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Great Xia’s ban on commoners cultivating was no empty threat—immortal texts and Daoist classics were tightly controlled; even if a few fragments circulated among the people, no one dared read them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And the immortal book he possessed happened to lack this section entirely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn’t some dramatic case of missing pages—it simply wasn’t there. There was no mention of full completion of the lower three realms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Ji You had to cultivate alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At first, drawing in spiritual energy from heaven and earth went smoothly, but when he tried to condense the spiritual core, he felt a strong sense of dissonance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This dissonance nearly trapped him in the profundity of the Dao, unable to awaken; when his spiritual sense finally returned, he realized his spiritual spring had not condensed into a core—it had burst open…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His internal true spirit, the heavenly spiritual energy—all of it scattered throughout his body, mixed together, inseparable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But soon he discovered he possessed all the abilities unique to full completion of the lower three realms: heavenly-human resonance, external control of spiritual energy, and more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji You thought he had gained fortune from misfortune, achieving an unusual full completion—until he fought the commander Bao of Fengxian Manor, and realized he was wrong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The backlash had merely been delayed, but it would never fail to arrive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Achieving full completion in a single night was truly a reckless fantasy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuangcheng, seeing his grim expression, spoke: “Will you die?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No, just a searing pain in the heart—I’ll recover after a few days of rest. But I don’t know if I’ll still have a chance to reach the upper five realms.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why go this far instead of asking Fang Ruoyao for help?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji You spat out a few more strands of blood before speaking: “If you’re going to do it, do it thoroughly. Fang Ruoyao isn’t powerful enough—even if she helps, it won’t last after she leaves. My full completion of the lower three realms must be known: I am destined to enter the upper five realms. I will return and kill them all.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuangcheng, hearing the coldness in his voice, shook his head: “This is far too reckless.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The spiritual energy in Qiu Ru’s body—I transferred it to her.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I already guessed as much…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji You took a deep breath: “And the shepherd boy Haiwa, Liu the woodcutter’s daughter Niuniu, the crippled child Big Mouth picked up…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuangcheng froze, lifting his head to stare at him in disbelief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He remembered these children had been sick or barely alive—but later, inexplicably recovered. Now he understood it was all Ji You’s doing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m not some good person. Some things I did were just casual acts. Look—this is what an immortal is.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji You frowned as he said the word “immortal”: “But the Heavenly Book Academy won’t stay in Yuyang forever. The people of Fengxian Manor didn’t have their first strike—they’ll have a second, then a third, a fourth…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuangcheng pressed his lips together: “Indeed, since your full completion of the lower three realms became known, Fengxian Manor has become much more restrained—even Master Fang stopped collecting tribute from the Qiu family.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That effective?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji You showed his teeth, red and white: “What if I became sworn siblings with all the wealthy families in the county? Just a small gift, and I’d be rich overnight?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuangcheng: “?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The fact that Ji You could still indulge in such daydreams proved he was not in mortal danger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But he didn’t know how the burst spiritual spring would affect his future cultivation—after all, he hadn’t formed a spiritual core. What came next?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuangcheng, though well-read in classics, knew nothing of cultivation. He helped him sit up and brought water for him to rinse his mouth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After resting awhile, Ji You’s spirit improved greatly. He warned: “I just need to circulate the energy a few more times to be fine. Don’t tell anyone. For now, Qiu Ru surviving is the best outcome.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Isn’t entering the Heavenly Book Academy the best outcome?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I never intended to join the Heavenly Book Academy. This was an accident.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuangcheng was stunned: “So you only wanted to hide among the commoners and cultivate secretly? What’s the point?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji You shook his head: “You insulted a man’s ambition. I don’t want to be an orthodox cultivator, but I have plans for my life. Had the Qiu family incident not happened, next year I would have gone up the mountain to become a bandit.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“West of Yuyang County is a bandit den—full of private cultivators, and they speak well. I heard that if a lower-three-realm-complete cultivator joins, he can at least become a hall master. Then I’d bring the Qiu family up the mountain, and we’d feast and drink freely.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuangcheng had never imagined he truly meant this. He frowned: “You could be an orthodox cultivator, yet you’d rather become a private cultivator on the mountain? Why?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji You coughed twice, unsure how to begin. After a long pause, he said: “At first, I didn’t even know I could succeed. And there was another reason—I didn’t want to consume human blood tribute.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What is human blood tribute?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Cultivators do nothing, yet they consume most of the world’s resources and spiritual veins, leaving the people starving and the realm in misery. Though I have little power, I can still choose not to become one more straw crushing the masses.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji You looked up: “But I heard the Heavenly Book Academy takes the least tribute among the Seven Immortal Sects, and never uses living people to make pills. At least that’s a small mercy.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kuangcheng paused, lifting the book in his hand: “But the book says only disciples selected for the inner academy, after reaching the upper five realms, are entitled to receive tribute from the people.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji You froze, his eyes widening: “You mean… now that I’ve entered the Heavenly Book Academy, I still have to work my way through?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had only cared about becoming a bandit and hadn’t read the details of orthodox cultivation. Now he was utterly stunned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You said you didn’t want to consume human blood tribute. Isn’t this good for you?” Kuangcheng asked, puzzled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’ll become a bandit, rob the immortals, and help the poor—I’ll even get a cut!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each year, the Great Xia pays tribute to the major immortal sects, but how the tribute is distributed is entirely up to each sect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Take the Heavenly Book Academy: its tribute is mainly allocated to inner academy disciples and teaching affairs. Whether one is at the initial condensation upper realm or full completion of the lower three realms, one remains an outer academy disciple—and thus ineligible for tribute shares.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As Ji You questioned his own life, Kuangcheng spoke again: “Actually, I’m going to Shengjing in two days.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ji You snapped back to attention: “Why are you going to Shengjing?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“For the imperial examination.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1540,"2026-06-19T15:28:39.995Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","e87aed08cc2922e598ac10a0612d085faa1ec8e1df99f4565de13815a4aa99c2","watching-the-immortals-fall-chapter-11","watching-the-immortals-fall-chapter-9",430,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fwatching-the-immortals-fall-cover.jpg"]