Chapter 5: Rank One Immortal Root
Ding Hao heard none of the commotion upstairs; he was already immersed in the ocean of knowledge about immortal roots.
Although the ancient text contained a great deal of content, he did not read it through from cover to cover. Instead, he searched for content he liked and knowledge he needed.
"The Nine Provinces are vast, and immortal roots are numerous. The types of immortal roots can be classified as follows: elemental immortal roots, based on metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, which can combine with one another to form all manner of mutated elemental immortal roots; weapon immortal roots—blades, spears, swords, halberds and the like—with ritual weapons being the best, war weapons next, and common household implements inferior; and beast immortal roots—the nobler the beast, the higher the root, and the fiercer, the stronger!"
"In addition, there are mutated immortal roots, ghost immortal roots, dark immortal roots, and growth-type immortal roots. All of these are the finest of immortal roots, the roots of geniuses, among which even super rank-one immortal roots may appear..."
"Super rank-one immortal roots!" Ding Hao thought to himself. Truly, different people have different fates—these people have already surpassed rank one, while this old man hasn't even awakened a rank-nine immortal root.
He continued reading.
"It is said that in other dimensional worlds, those with immortal roots are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. That is because in our small world of the Nine Provinces, the system of Heaven's Will exists for awakening immortal roots. An immortal root is awakened by using the power within the body to break through the Ren and Du meridians, and finally surging out through the Baihui point at the crown of the head, connecting with Heaven's Will, and thereby opening the immortal root."
"Therefore, in opening an immortal root, whether it ranks from one to nine depends on one's physique, meridians, and spiritual power. The object of visualization is actually not important. When ten people visualize a dragon, some will open a dragon-horn immortal root, some a dragon-claw immortal root, and some might even open a dragon-dung immortal root. Thus the key lies in oneself, and only secondarily in the visualization. The quality of one's immortal root has nothing to do with age..."
"So that's how it is!"
Having finished the ancient text, Ding Hao nearly slammed the table in admiration.
What the book said was simple: to open a good immortal root, three things were most important—first, tempering the body; second, tempering the meridians; third, tempering the spirit! Only when all three were relatively strong could one open a better immortal root.
Another point: the age at which one's immortal root awakened was not actually very important.
Although most people awakened at the age of eight, awakening at eight did not necessarily mean one would open a good immortal root! Often, capable people who were confident would deliberately delay their awakening, first tempering their body and meridians, waiting until body, meridians, and spirit were all sufficiently strong before awakening. Only then could they open a high-quality immortal root!
"So that's how it is! So that's how it is!"
The more Ding Hao read, the more convinced he became, slapping the table in admiration again and again. He took careful note that the author of this text was a senior expert named Min Zhengyuan.
"It turns out this has all been a misunderstanding among the people of the world—everyone always thinks the earlier the immortal root opens, the better, fearing that if it's late, it won't open at all! But according to this book, opening it a bit later allows one to open a relatively better immortal root. Then what kind of immortal root will I be able to open?"
Having finished the text, Ding Hao felt a spark of anticipation. His ambitions were rather large—those rank-eight or rank-nine immortal roots, he honestly looked down on them.
Right now I can enter meditation at will, so tempering the spirit is not a problem. If I had a large quantity of pills to absorb, and then used that power to temper my body and meridians, why would I worry about opening a good immortal root?
At this thought, a strange light shot forth from Ding Hao's eyes!
"I'm so irritated! So irritated!"
At that very moment, a loud shout suddenly came from upstairs, followed by a clamor of many complex voices.
"My son, don't be impatient. Follow Immortal Master Min's guidance." This was Shopkeeper Shang's voice.
"It's all right, it's all right, don't be anxious. You're already doing very well." This was a pleasant-sounding woman's voice. The woman continued, "Entering stillness—entering stillness—lies in stillness. You absolutely must not be impatient. You need stillness of the eyes, stillness of the ears, stillness of the heart..."
Then the irritated voice rang out again, "But I really can't calm down, Immortal Master. Forget it, I can't do it!"
"This might be an opportunity!" Ding Hao thought for a moment, then simply set down the ancient text, walked up the stairs, and arrived at the second floor.
"This woman is truly beautiful, just like a fairy." Ding Hao caught sight of Immortal Master Min's back at a glance, and could not help letting his gaze linger ferociously on her round bottom for a moment before turning his attention to the matter at hand.
The bookstore owner had not lied. His son was thirteen years old, tall and strapping as an ox, but his temperament was extremely violent and irritable, which made it impossible for him to enter stillness. That was why he had invited Immortal Master Min this time to help his son enter stillness, hoping he could awaken in one go!
But no one expected his son's temperament to be so impossibly agitated!
Although Immortal Master Min had used some immortal root techniques, at most she could bring his son into low-level stillness, and only for an extremely short time—of little use.
"Xiao Hai, don't be agitated. Follow me in breathing practice first. One breath in, one breath out, let your qi flow smooth and slow..."
It had to be said that Immortal Master Min had real skill. Her gentle words, combined with the immortal root techniques, gradually calmed Shopkeeper Shang's son considerably, and after ten minutes, he finally entered a state of stillness.
Immortal Master Min held a jade talisman in her hand and pressed it to the young man's forehead. The jade talisman emitted a mist of dark red light.
"Still only low-level stillness." Immortal Master Min shook her head.
At that very moment, Ding Hao walked over. Perhaps his footsteps made the wooden floor vibrate, or perhaps he made a sound—instantly the young man woke from his stillness and immediately shouted, "This is infuriating! I'm so irritated!"
Everyone turned to look at Ding Hao with displeasure, thinking: if not for you, how could he have been woken?
The beauty, Immortal Master Min, spoke up: "Being startled awake by such light footsteps shows just how agitated Xiao Hai's spirit is. Even if no one had woken him, this kind of low-quality stillness would be of no help to his awakening anyway."
With her saying this, no one blamed Ding Hao any further. Shopkeeper Shang clapped his hands and sighed, "What misfortune has befallen my house. Even an Immortal Master can do nothing. So be it. Xiao Hai, I'll support you for the rest of your life!"
By saying this, Shopkeeper Shang had given up. A son who never awakened would become a waste, dependent on his father's support for a lifetime. This was the most tragic news in the world of the Nine Provinces—much like a family on Earth giving birth to a child born disabled. Everyone offered sympathy, but there was little anyone could do.
However, at that moment, a young man's voice sounded from the back: "How about you let me try?"
"You?" Everyone turned their heads and found that the speaker was a youth of fifteen or sixteen, of unremarkable appearance, wearing an ordinary long robe, nothing special about him at all.
Seeing that it was Ding Hao, Shopkeeper Shang smiled bitterly, "Young man, don't make trouble for me. You yourself said you haven't awakened an immortal root at fifteen and a half, and you still want to help my son? How could you possibly help?"
"Fifteen and a half without an awakened immortal root—in half a year, he'll be a true piece of trash." Someone had already begun to mock.
Standing beside Immortal Master Min, a handsome young man curled his lips in scorn, "How laughable. What even an Immortal Master cannot solve, and an unawakened little fellow wants to try? Should I call you ignorant, or arrogant?"
Shopkeeper Shang smiled ingratiatingly, "The Little Prince is right." Then to Ding Hao: "Young man, stop making trouble."
So this was the Little Prince. Ding Hao sized up the young man, then said to Shopkeeper Shang, "I didn't want to meddle in the first place. It's only because you seemed like a decent man that I wanted to do you a favor. But it seems none of you care for it—treating my good intentions as a donkey's liver and lungs. Then just pretend I said nothing."
Having spoken, Ding Hao turned to leave.
But at that moment, the young man called Xiao Hai spoke up, "Big brother, can you really help me? I don't want to be a waste!"
Ding Hao turned back, "I really can."
Xiao Hai said again, "I don't want to breathe slowly and calmly like the Immortal Master. I hate that."
"Fine!" Ding Hao said. "Right now you're like someone with insomnia—severe insomnia! All those methods about relaxing your mood and regulating your breathing are useless. What you need right now is a powerful sleeping pill!"
The agitated Xiao Hai clapped his hands at once, "Yes, yes, yes! Big brother, you're absolutely right!"
Immortal Master Min's beautiful eyes lit up. She stepped forward, cupped her fists, and said, "Young man, your analogy is vivid and novel—I've never heard anything like it. I am Min Qingqiu of the Nine Provinces Academy."
"Min Qingqiu, a fine name." Ding Hao thought to himself that since her name carried such an illustrious origin—"Min Qingqiu of the Nine Provinces Academy"—this old man could hardly lower his own standing. So with a grand flourish, he cupped his fists as well, "Immortal Master Min, truly you sink fish and fell geese, floating like an immortal. I am Ding—upright and righteous, vast and mighty—Hao!"
"Ding Hao—upright and righteous, vast and mighty." Min Qingqiu couldn't help a hint of a smile at the corner of her mouth, thinking this youth was rather amusing.
But seeing Min Qingqiu smile made the Little Prince unhappy. He spoke up, "Ding Hao, let me ask you—you haven't even awakened yourself, so how can you help someone else awaken? And this 'powerful sleeping pill'—isn't that laughable?"
Ding Hao said, "Little Prince, although you're quite handsome, there seems to be something wrong with your ears. I only said I would help Xiao Hai enter stillness—I never said I would help him awaken! Entering stillness and awakening are two completely different matters. I believe most of the people present can understand this."
The Little Prince flushed red and said angrily, "Then let me ask you—on what grounds can you help him enter stillness? Senior Sister Min has a rank-one Netherworld Jade immortal root, and used her immortal root techniques to help Xiao Hai. And what about you?"
This pretty young lady actually had a rank-one immortal root! Shocked, Ding Hao stole a glance at Min Qingqiu's chest to steady his nerves, then said, "Little Prince, a principle explained a thousand times is not as good as one experiment. Let me try. If I succeed, wonderful; if I fail, you lose nothing."
"Well said. If it works, great; if not, no harm done. Go ahead and try." Min Qingqiu nodded first.
"Senior Sister, even you believe this..." The Little Prince was still displeased, but since Min Qingqiu had agreed, he could hardly say more.
Although Shopkeeper Shang didn't believe it either, thinking that failure would cost nothing, he said, "Young man, if you wish to try, then try."
Ding Hao thought to himself: at this point, even if I help you, you won't be too grateful! Better to play hard to get.
"If you want me to act, come find the Musing Ding Family in the back street of the Southern Garden." With that, the fellow actually left the whole crowd behind and walked off, leaving everyone gaping in disbelief.
"What kind of person is this?" Shopkeeper Shang was dumbfounded.
The Little Prince snorted coldly, "Deliberately mystifying! He's nothing but a fraud!"
Min Qingqiu watched the youth's back as he descended the stairs, her beautiful eyes brimming with curiosity.
Ding Hao walked downstairs, left the bookstore, and returned home. He knew Shopkeeper Shang would definitely bring his son!
All this deliberate mystique was because he wanted fame and money, for in that ancient text, he had seen a bright future ahead!
He needed a large quantity of pills to stretch open his meridians and temper his body. Then, combined with the spiritual power gained from entering stillness, his body, meridians, and spirit would all become strong! At that point, why would he worry about opening a good immortal root?
By this logic, the number of pills he needed would be staggering—absolutely not something that could be satisfied by sneaking a few sips from other people's shops.
So he needed to make money—a lot of money—and helping people enter stillness had shown him a market.
"Hmph, as long as a person works hard, there's nothing that can't be done!"
"Ding Hao, even if you truly have the body of a piece of trash, I will use every method to wash you into a genius!"
Both chapters delivered today. During the new book period, two chapters daily. From now on, 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., hehe. Thanks to friends like Shiyu Meng, Jun Luohua, Shuangmuyu, Jiangchengzi, and Brother Mingri for the donations—thank you, and may your own books sell like wildfire!