Dan Island, cave abode.
Fang Qing sat cross-legged, gazing at the brand-new books before him.
One of them was unmistakably the Commentary on the Water Classic, covering everything from the first level of “Drawing Spirit into the Body,” to the great perfection of the ninth level of Qi Refining, and even the section on how to achieve Foundation Establishment.
After borrowing the original, he had first sworn an oath not to pass it on, then copied it stroke by stroke himself in the Heavenly Book Pavilion.
“It’s said that after Foundation Establishment, one’s divine sense can leave the body, and all cultivation methods are recorded in jade slips. A single sweep is enough to memorize them, so it isn’t this troublesome…”
Fang Qing shook his head and looked at the other pharmacopeias and alchemy classics.
Compendium of Spiritual Herbs, Flying Waterfall Alchemy Classic…
These books, too, had been recommended by Zeng Shu; they were the foundation of water-method alchemy.
Fang Qing planned to memorize them first, then familiarize himself with the properties of medicinal herbs.
As for refining pills? Naturally, that would have to wait.
“The most urgent matter is still to enter cultivation first. Otherwise, even going out is inconvenient. I can’t use magical artifacts… and still have to ride boats like a mortal.”
Fang Qing opened the first page of the Commentary on the Water Classic and saw a diagram of the human meridians.
“My body is from the ancient Shu world. I hope there won’t be any problems.”
He silently committed it to memory, then looked at the cultivation formula that followed.
The first step to entering immortal cultivation was “meditation and sitting in forgetfulness,” drawing in a wisp of spiritual qi from heaven and earth while sitting in meditative trance.
If one could completely absorb that wisp of spiritual qi into the body, circulate it through the meridians and acupoints, and finally guide it into the dantian to become magical power, then one had completed the work of “Drawing Spirit into the Body” and become a first-level Qi Refining cultivator.
Of course, it sounded simple, but doing it was extremely difficult.
Fang Qing spent no small amount of effort just memorizing that meridian diagram.
And the many specialized terms in the formula gave him an even greater headache, forcing him to return to the Heavenly Book Pavilion to borrow many medical texts and Daoist scriptures. In addition, he attended public lectures on the first and fifteenth of every month, shamelessly asking senior brothers and sisters for guidance. Only after more than a month did he finally manage to thoroughly comprehend the first-level formula.
……
“Sigh… compared to this, disciples born into Foundation Establishment immortal clans or Qi Refining cultivation families really do have an advantage. They start far ahead from the very beginning.”
Fang Qing sat cross-legged, gazing at the contribution points on his disciple token with deep emotion.
Newly admitted disciples customarily had a one-year adjustment period, but daily expenses, and even asking questions for guidance… it was impossible without spending contribution points.
Calculating things now, he was already somewhat tight on funds.
“I should hurry up and enter the Dao through cultivation. Once I become a Qi Refining cultivator, I can go to Wanbao Island to take on missions, earn contribution points, and exchange them for spirit stones, spiritual herbs, and other cultivation resources…”
Outside the cave abode, the moonlight was like water.
On a bright yellow meditation mat, Fang Qing sat cross-legged, silently circulating the formula for sensing spiritual qi.
Ever since confirming that he had fully mastered the first-level formula of the Commentary on the Water Classic, he had sat in meditation every day, attempting to sense the spiritual qi in the void. He already had a faint grasp of it. Yesterday, he had almost completed the final step, but because his emotions had been too agitated, he had fallen short at the last moment.
“Today, I will definitely succeed!”
Holding this conviction in his heart, Fang Qing entered a state of sitting in forgetfulness, selfless and without self.
Just as he forgot both self and world, he sensed, within the void, those faint threads of coolness.
Silently circulating according to the formula, that coolness poured into his body through the acupoint between his brows, passed down the great dragon of his spine, and traveled through his four limbs and hundred bones.
Immediately afterward, it was as if his breathing through mouth and nose had transformed into innate fetal breathing. The pores all over his body opened at once, greedily inhaling and exhaling spiritual qi.
Rumble!
A large amount of spiritual qi circulated within his body. After several great circulations, it finally rushed into a mysterious place in his abdomen.
“The dantian has opened, magical power has been born!”
“Drawing Spirit into the Body—done!”
Feeling a trace of icy-cool black-water magical power within his dantian, Fang Qing opened his eyes.
“This…”
In that instant, he discovered that his eyes seemed like those of a nearsighted person who had put on glasses; the entire world had become much clearer.
Apart from that, his ears twitched slightly, and he could hear the rustling of a tiny insect crawling several zhang away.
“Immortal cultivators have keen ears and sharp eyes… It really is completely different from martial arts. More like… human evolution?”
“I can now be considered a first-level Qi Refining cultivator.”
“Next, I just need to keep accumulating magical power. Once I reach perfection at the first level, I can attempt to break through to the second level of Qi Refining…”
“The first-level formula required a month of pondering because I had no foundation… Now that I’ve filled in what I lacked, relying on my own comprehension and occasionally asking senior brothers and sisters for advice, it shouldn’t be a big problem to thoroughly digest the Commentary on the Water Classic cultivation method…”
“And with magical power, I can cultivate spells and refine magical artifacts… truly transcending the mundane.”
Fang Qing sighed in satisfaction.
If he were in the ancient Shu world, who knew how long he would have had to waste? Unlike here, where he had practically been escorted forward the entire way. It made him have no choice but to marvel at how simple and honest the local customs were.
However, although he already had a Green Leaf Boat magical artifact on him, and the Commentary on the Water Classic also included several Qi Refining-stage spells at the end, what Fang Qing cared about most was not this.
“Daosheng Pearl!”
With a thought, the Daosheng Pearl spun. Inside his dantian, that wisp of black-water magical power instantly dispersed, transforming into the purest “primordial qi.”
“Hmm? In terms of conversion rate and quality, it’s actually far superior to the Red Sand Hand power I painstakingly cultivated for ten years! As expected, magical power is simply higher-grade than martial force?”
Fang Qing circulated it slightly, converting all of the magical power into Red Sand Hand power.
In an instant, his palms turned from white to red, then from red back to white, cycling seven times. A faint, indescribable force began to form.
“Projecting astral force outward… an Innate martial master, almost extinct in the secular martial world?”
Fang Qing lightly struck out with his palm. Astral qi projected outward, crossing three feet through the air and striking the stone wall of the seclusion chamber, causing stone powder to fall in a rustling shower.
“And… this is martial Dao Innate achieved with a third-rate martial art as common as dirt like Red Sand Hand?”
“Unfortunately, to immortal cultivators, Innate martial artists are nothing more than slightly bigger ants… one spell would take care of them.”
He circulated the Daosheng Pearl again, converting all his body’s power into the black-water magical power of the Commentary on the Water Classic, but felt that his own magical power had only increased by an insignificant trace.
“Roughly equivalent to several days of my meditation cultivation… and that was ten years of Red Sand Hand power!”
“As expected, in a world of immortal cultivation, practicing martial arts has no future.”
“At the very least… the martial arts I’ve come into contact with are completely crushed.”
……
Several days later, Dan Island.
In front of the cave abode, Fang Qing looked excited as he took out a green leaf-shaped magical artifact from his robes.
This was the standard-issue magical artifact that the Blue Sea Sect gave to its disciples—the Green Leaf Boat. It could only fly slowly, and counted as a low-grade first-rank artifact.
He had spent an entire night finally succeeding in refining this magical artifact.
“Rise!”
Fang Qing formed hand seals with both hands. The green leaf continuously grew larger, eventually turning into a small leaf-shaped boat half a zhang long and several chi wide, suspended in midair.
He leapt onto the Green Leaf Boat, then began shakily attempting to fly.
At first, Fang Qing’s flight path was extremely chaotic. Several times, he almost fell off; fortunately, he had not flown too high.
“This feeling of flying freely really is different from riding an airplane or being carried by someone else.”
After Fang Qing gradually became familiar with it, the Green Leaf Boat’s speed kept increasing, and he began trying some tricks.
Flying forward, flying backward, flying diagonally, flying upside down…
Occasionally, he would charge forward and enter the clouds, then emerge from the other side.
“Haha… riding the wind is truly exhilarating. Unfortunately, I don’t have much magical power left.”
Fang Qing sensed the thin magical power within his dantian, shook his head, fixed on a direction, and descended onto Wanbao Island.
The cultivator with the highest cultivation on this island, Elder Wanbao, had already reached late-stage Foundation Establishment. The “Miscellaneous Affairs Hall” under his control was a place that many disciples of the Blue Sea Sect could not avoid.
The Miscellaneous Affairs Hall was situated on the largest flat expanse of Wanbao Island. It was an ancient bronze hall, extremely towering and majestic, with eight doors. At this moment, large numbers of disciples were entering and leaving through every doorway.
Fang Qing walked inside and was immediately drawn in by the lively scene.
Quite a few Blue Sea Sect disciples had even set up stalls directly by the roadside, trading with spirit stones or bartering goods.
On the bronze plaza, more than ten enormous bronze pillars rose into the sky, with all kinds of runes flashing with light upon them.
【Lakeside Wilderness No. 17 Medicinal Garden is recruiting one spiritual plant farmer. Requires mastery of the Little Cloud Rain Art. Compensation: three hundred contribution points per year.】
【Long-term recruitment of spiritual farmers. Compensation: one hundred contribution points per year.】
【Wanted: the Three Mad Fiends of the Sea, late-stage Qi Refining or perfected Qi Refining cultivation. Bounty of one thousand contribution points per head…】
【Long-term purchase of Azure Dragon Carp. Generous compensation…】
……
Fang Qing swept his eyes over them and saw all sorts of missions and bounties.
Some of these had been issued by the sect, while others had been issued privately by various elders and disciples, dazzling the eye.
“Guarding and bounty-type missions… require magical combat. Right now, I’m still a little shrimp. I can’t do them.”
“I can only look at production and construction-type work first… The pay for spiritual farmers is way too low, isn’t it?”
Fang Qing looked at the pill-refining category. The rewards there were quite generous, but unfortunately, he did not know even a single alchemy method.
After searching around, he barely found something similar:
【Mission: refine three hundred bundles of “Bi Ling Silk.” Mission reward: if the employer provides the raw materials, two hundred contribution points; if you provide your own raw materials, five hundred contribution points…】
Fang Qing continued reading and only then learned that this “Bi Ling Silk” required a type of spiritual plant called “Tianqing Hemp,” which had to be washed and refined in a cold spring.
Its texture was flexible, light, and breathable, making it an excellent material for refining inner armor and scarf-type magical artifacts.
And the Blue Sea Sect’s best cold springs were all on Dan Island. As a disciple of Dan Island, he could still go and make use of them.
“This should be a benefit specially meant for Dan Island disciples, right?”
“What else is there to say? I’ll take it.”
Fang Qing immediately took out his disciple token and went to accept the mission, incidentally receiving several bundles of Tianqing Hemp, then carried them all the way back to his cave abode.
Because he had not expected to bring raw materials with him on the return trip, the Green Leaf Boat ended up overloaded. His magical power nearly failed, and he almost fell into the lake halfway back…