Chapter 7: The Journey of Cultivation Begins

Ji Yao spent three days carefully studying the cultivation primer and the diagram of spiritual energy circulation, making sure that she could recite them flawlessly even with her eyes closed, before settling herself cross-legged on the bamboo couch in the study, her five hearts facing the heavens, to begin sensing the spiritual energy.

Speaking of this, Ji Yao realized that whether it was due to the abundant spiritual energy in this place or the transformation her body underwent in the spiritual spring, her memory had become exceptionally sharp. While not quite perfect recall, it was nearly so, and her sensitivity to spiritual energy was astonishingly swift.

Within less than a quarter of an hour after calming her mind, Ji Yao sensed the various colored points of light drifting around her body, gathering toward her like swimming fish.

So this is spiritual energy! Ji Yao felt the warmth of the energy flooding into her body and quickly recited the incantation mentally, guiding it through her meridians, circulating it and collecting it in her dantian.

Time flew by in cultivation. For a full ten days, Ji Yao did not leave the Sumeru space.

During those ten days, she also visited the pill room to seek out books on spiritual herbs and medicinal plants. Even books on refining materials and monster beast illustrations captivated her completely.

In the meantime, Ji Yao finally understood something: why, in this bamboo house, with its complete rooms and books on the four cultivation arts, there were no tools like pill furnaces. It was simply because Situ Jing was a sword cultivator!

The kind who wielded a single sword to break all spells, dedicating her life to the mastery of the sword—an elemental lightning sword cultivator!

Situ Jing was not ignorant of the four arts of cultivation, but her knowledge was limited to theory. Imagine the disaster if she tried to practice alchemy—everything would explode. That was exactly her.

As for the absence of manuals on cultivation techniques, it was because Situ Jing herself was a living compendium of methods. Her lifelong hobby was collecting and studying all kinds of cultivation techniques.

Whatever could be collected, Situ Jing had memorized; there was no need to keep physical books in the study.

Yet, Situ Jing had a disciple who mastered all ten skills, proficient in the four cultivation arts and even familiar with the minor disciplines. So the ownership of these books was obvious.

Ji Yao could imagine how much Situ Jing’s disciple endured during the long life of an immortal. It was likely thanks to this disciple that Situ Jing could live worry-free.

Well then! The stories of the great ones are not so easy to enjoy.

No sooner had Ji Yao stabilized her cultivation at the first level of Qi Refinement than Situ Jing informed her that she should prepare to join a sect—specifically the Cloud Summit Sect. What kind of arrangement was this?

Wasn’t she supposed to help Ji Yao cultivate? Was it really okay to throw her out like this?

---

Grumbling aside, Ji Yao knew that for a novice cultivator like herself, joining a sect was essential for systematic learning. After all, those from proper schools always tread fewer winding paths than those who learn by themselves.

Without protest, Ji Yao spent several more days gathering all the recognizable spiritual herbs and medicinal plants in the area.

Yes, medicinal plants—just the kind found in any ordinary pharmacy. After all, most people on the continent were still mortal, and gold, silver, and copper coins could sustain her. Sadly, she hadn’t studied medicine in her previous life, so her knowledge was limited; she only managed to dig up a dozen wild ginseng roots.

After sorting out all her belongings, Ji Yao sadly discovered she was still poor.

Eating wild herbs and fruits along the way, traveling by day and resting by night, by the time Ji Yao emerged from the Great Yu Mountain, half a year had passed.

Only then did Ji Yao realize Situ Jing’s confusion. With the original body’s age of seven, it was completely impossible to reach the depths of the Great Yu Mountain unscathed and unaided—a mystery that could not be unraveled.

On the eve before she left the forest, Situ Jing told Ji Yao that she would no longer shield her; from here on, Ji Yao would have to walk her own path. Unless absolutely necessary, Situ Jing would not speak again, as she needed to enter seclusion to repair her soul.

The moment Ji Yao stepped out of the woods, her clothes were tattered. Looking ahead at the overgrown wild grass and barely a semblance of a path, Ji Yao stepped forward resolutely.

Micang Realm, here I come!

---

Songshan Town lay on the outskirts of the Northern Wasteland, a small settlement inhabited mostly by mortals. Nearby stood Pine Crane Temple, renowned for its flourishing incense offerings. Whenever the families in the surrounding region had an important matter, they would come here to pray, for the temple housed a Taoist priest who knew immortal arts.

Ji Yao arrived here half a month ago; it had been a year since she entered this world, and six months since she left the Great Yu Mountain.

In the span of a year, she managed only to stabilize her cultivation at the fourth level of Qi Refinement—and that was thanks to frequent practice in the Sumeru space.

Only in comparison did she realize how difficult it was to cultivate in the spiritual energy-starved outskirts of the Northern Wasteland. A year’s progress here equaled only a month’s advancement for an outer disciple of a major sect. No wonder so many cultivators longed for the great sects.

Situ Jing once said that the spiritual energy in the Sumeru space was equivalent to that of the top cultivation sanctuaries in the Micang Realm. Only when one transcended this realm and ascended to the immortal world would the Sumeru Ring begin to absorb immortal energy from outside and transform itself—such was the rule.

Ji Yao remembered clearly that when Situ Jing spoke this last sentence, her voice carried an undertone of worry.

---

Rules? What did they truly mean?

Such things were beyond her current level of comprehension. If there was cause for concern, it was for those who had reached the tribulation stage.

It was said that for nearly fifty thousand years, no one in this world had ascended to the immortal realm. To this day, there were only two tribulation-stage True Lords in the Micang Realm, and one demon emperor whose cultivation equaled theirs.

These three all reached the tribulation stage fifty thousand years ago. Since the ascension of Lord Jing Yi fifty millennia ago, not only has no one ascended, but not even a new tribulation-stage cultivator has appeared.

Qi Refinement to Foundation Establishment grants two hundred years of life; Golden Core, five hundred; Nascent Soul, fifteen hundred; Divine Transformation, six thousand; Unity, twenty thousand; Tribulation-stage True Lord, eighty thousand years.

Though longevity multiplied with each stage, it was limited. If one’s lifespan ran out without further advancement, only death remained.

Eighty thousand years for tribulation-stage, and most of it had already passed. Over the past fifty millennia, many talented younger generations at the Unity stage died with regret. Likely, the two tribulation-stage True Lords felt little comfort.

As for the demon emperor, compared to the brevity of human life, monster beasts possessed a natural advantage in longevity, so their fate was much better.

Of course, such common knowledge about the Micang Realm was something Ji Yao learned from Master Yan He, the abbot of Pine Crane Temple.

Yan He was the priest the villagers spoke of who practiced immortal arts. When Ji Yao heard about him from the farmer she stayed with, she resolved to visit, for many things in the Micang Realm needed the perspective of a local cultivator.

In reality, Yan He was just a cultivator stuck at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, unable to advance further. However, what delighted Ji Yao was that Yan He was actually an outer disciple of the Spirit Talisman Sect of Central Continent—one of the seven great sects of the Micang Realm.

Regarding the situation in the Micang Realm in recent years, the news from the outer disciples of these major sects was far more accurate than the rumors spread by rogue cultivators.

Today, Yan He brought Ji Yao the best news yet.

The seven great sects would soon come to the Northern Wasteland to recruit disciples!