Chapter 11: Do You Still Remember the Immortal Asking the Way?

By the gently flowing stream, the boy tightly gripped the small wooden sword in his hand and stared fixedly at the white-haired man who descended on a flying sword.

“Your aptitude is very good. Do you want to come with me?” the white-haired man asked.

Though he was young, how could he fail to see the splendor of soaring through the blue heavens? He was just about to agree when a stubborn voice suddenly rang out beside him.

“Take me with you!”

The speaker was his playmate, the very opponent he had just defeated in their “sword duel.”

The boy knew very well how stubborn his companion was. For example, today’s “sword duel”—he could no longer remember how many times they had fought. But because he had lost once before, his companion stubbornly insisted on winning back before stopping.

The boy thought, then we can cultivate together.

He could no longer remember many details clearly, but he still remembered the white-haired man’s eyes.

Clear like a mountain stream, yet lofty like the sky itself.

The white-haired man looked at them with those eyes, looked at the two children who had been inseparable since childhood, and a smile of unclear meaning curved at the corner of his mouth.

“I only take one disciple,” the white-haired man said.

He repeated, “Both of you are excellent, but I will only take one away.”

What should I do?

That was what the boy thought at the time.

But he only had time to think that single thought. In the next instant, he was shoved into the stream.

Splash!

The sound of water exploding upward.

His friend—his friend who had run around naked with him since they were little, his friend who was himself still only a child—had pushed him into the water without the slightest hesitation!

Through the rippling water, he saw his “friend’s” expressionless face, and the white-haired man’s calm, unwavering gaze.

Then afterward, a frost-white streak of sword light shot into the sky.

His little companion and the white-haired man were wrapped within that gorgeous and dazzling sword light, arriving abruptly like a bolt from the blue and departing just as abruptly.

Just like in countless legends of immortals seeking disciples, brushing past the miserable and ordinary mortals below.

Leaving behind only something impossible to let go of, impossible to believe, something that woke him in shock countless times in the middle of the night!

…

Jiang Wang opened his eyes.

Pitch-black night wrapped around the surroundings and around him as well. The dormitory was exceptionally quiet. Ling He and Du Yehu’s breathing was long and steady, carrying a special rhythm.

Jiang Wang knew they were cultivating the basic breathing technique. Though shallow and foundational, it was something only inner disciples could be taught. It was the unchanging foundation technique of Zhuang Country’s Dao Academies for a hundred years.

There had not been much suspense in the inner academy selection of Maple Forest City Dao Academy. Ling He, Du Yehu, and Zhao Rucheng had all become new inner disciples, their names recorded into the Daoist jade register enshrined within the ritual hall.

It was just that before manifesting their dao meridians, they could not yet be considered true hemp-robed Daoists.

Meridian Opening Pills were priceless and difficult to obtain. Even though Maple Forest City Dao Academy was funded by the state, it was impossible for every disciple to receive one for free. They had been selected into the inner academy as the best among the outer disciples, but generally speaking, they would still need to endure at least a year, accumulating enough merit before earning the qualification to obtain a Meridian Opening Pill.

Only the top contributor among the outer disciples each year could exchange merit for a Meridian Opening Pill. This was a special incentive the academy provided for outer disciples. Since Jiang Wang had emerged this year, no one else could replicate his path.

Even so, Jiang Wang had fought bloody battles at the risk of his life before accumulating enough contribution to exchange for the Meridian Opening Pill. And now, within a hundred-li radius of Maple Forest City, there was no second West Mountain bandit nest left to exterminate.

Joining the outer academy and training diligently, defeating countless competitors to enter the inner academy. Then continuing to cultivate hard within the inner academy while accumulating mission merit, finally being granted a Meridian Opening Pill and stepping into the extraordinary.

This was the normal path of cultivators in Zhuang Country. One could even say it was a broad and visible road ahead.

But compared to those who were born with externally manifested dao meridians and directly entered the inner academy to begin cultivating dao arts, these youths who rose through the outer academy route truly wasted too much time.

On the path of cultivation, one slow step meant every following step would also be slow. This was why Jiang Wang had risked his life completing missions while in the outer academy. It was also why Fang Pengju’s greed had become impossible to restrain.

No one wanted to wait so many extra years!

That was why Jiang Wang understood Fang Pengju’s desperation, but could not forgive his methods.

Among people as exceptional as themselves, whether Ling He or Du Yehu, who desired transcendence any less than Fang Pengju did? Yet neither of them had done anything so despicable.

Jiang Wang’s father had once said a sentence:

A person is defined by the choices they make.

Jiang Wang deeply agreed.

And right now, he himself was caught in a difficult choice.

Everyone knew that cultivators were divided into nine grades, with first grade supreme and ninth grade considered the beginning of transcendence. The mark of achieving ninth grade was forming a dao vortex, allowing dao essence to regenerate on its own.

Cultivation had existed for an unimaginably long history, so naturally there had been extremely detailed and in-depth research into this first step of transcendence.

The spine was regarded as the great dragon of the human body, and the dao meridians were hidden within the spine. After the dao meridians manifested, cultivators could use the power of their qi and blood to nourish the dao meridians, thereby generating dao essence. Dao essence was the foundation of all dao arts and the basis of transcendence.

Taking Jiang Wang’s Earthworm Meridian as an example, every activation of the “earthworm” required mobilizing a considerable amount of qi and blood power. Only after circulating through the entire great dragon spine could a single dao essence be formed. And cultivators at Jiang Wang’s level could perform meridian circulation at most twice per day, accumulating two dao essences. It was not that he lacked diligence, but that his body could not endure more. The consumption of qi and blood was too great, damaging one’s vitality and spirit, completely not worth the cost.

After accumulating dao essence, the next step was to use the spirit to control dao essence and arrange it according to the foundational formation diagram, point by point. Once the formation was completed, the dao vortex would be born.

As a cultivator who had already opened his meridians, Maple Forest City Dao Academy naturally taught the foundational formation diagram. It was the standard Return-Origin Formation used throughout Zhuang Country, containing a total of eighty-one formation points.

In other words, assuming there was not the slightest error in arranging the foundational formation diagram, he would still need at least forty-one days—nearly a month and a half—before truly becoming a ninth-grade cultivator. (The two dao essences Jiang Wang had accumulated earlier had already been exhausted in battle.)

Before this, Jiang Wang naturally had nothing to struggle over. But now he had unexpectedly entered the Taixu Illusory Realm and even inherited Zuo Guanglie’s “Cave True Ruins Blessed Land,” unlocking the corresponding Sword Discussion Platform and Dao Deduction Platform. Thus, he had gained a new trouble.

Yesterday, after obtaining the Return-Origin Formation Diagram, he had used all 1,850 points of merit to test the effects of the Dao Deduction Platform by deducing the foundational formation diagram.

In the end, he obtained the incomparably complex Zhou Tian Star Formation Diagram.

The entire foundational formation contained three hundred sixty-five formation points!

Leaving aside the difficulty of arranging the Zhou Tian Star Formation Diagram, even if he could perfectly replicate the formation, he would still need at least half a year before generating his first dao vortex.

And afterward, advancing from ninth grade to eighth grade required establishing three dao vortices, while advancing from eighth grade to seventh grade required establishing nine dao vortices.

By that calculation, the time required was far too long!

The Zhou Tian Star Formation was undoubtedly stronger than the Return-Origin Formation, but the lengthy time needed to establish its foundation was exactly what made Jiang Wang hesitate. He needed to increase his cultivation as quickly as possible in order to catch up with those cultivators born with externally manifested dao meridians. Yet time waited for no one.

But after waking from tonight’s dream, he had already made his choice.

Jiang Wang closed his eyes and activated the single dao essence generated from yesterday’s meridian circulation, slowly moving it within his spine.

Within the vague world of perception that came from controlling dao essence, this was a boundless and immeasurably vast space.

Because the great dragon dwelled here, this place was also called the Sea of the Spine.

But among cultivators, it had another, far more resounding name—

The Heaven-Connecting Palace!

To pass through the Heaven-Connecting Palace and open the Gate of Heaven and Earth marked the transformation from a low-rank cultivator into a middle-rank cultivator.

Within the boundless Heaven-Connecting Palace, a single dao essence was as tiny as a speck of dust.

Yet it did not drift with the current. Instead, it stubbornly and firmly carried out Jiang Wang’s will.

Moving, moving…

Finally, it came to rest at the ideal location.

That was the position of the Sun Star within the Zhou Tian Star Formation Diagram.

The moment that dao essence stopped there, Jiang Wang seemed once again to see the eyes of that white-haired cultivator from his childhood.

He would never forget the moment he was pushed into the water.

Those eyes had seemed to say to him—

“The path of cultivation is struggle.”

[End of Chapter]