“I’m only a wisp of aura right now, and my cultivation isn’t high enough. There are some magical treasures I can’t identify,” the hazy shadow said.
Just as Nangong Yu was beginning to feel disappointed, it changed its tone. “But this Nine-Bend Cloud Screen was sold at an auction two hundred years ago for two hundred and seventy thousand spirit stones.”
!!
Nangong Yu’s heart leaped.
The shadow pointed at the incense burner. “This is an imitation of the ancient Purple-Smoke Enlightenment Furnace. Although it’s a replica, it’s still a low-grade Heaven-tier treasure. It came out of a secret realm five hundred years ago and is worth at least two million spirit stones.”
Two million?!
Nangong Yu’s heart began to race, and her mouth went dry.
Its head glided smoothly toward a lampstand. “This one has no rank, but it once lit the way for a human sage. Its value is impossible to estimate.”
Nangong Yu’s eyes shone. “My master has this kind of fortune?”
And that didn’t even include the so-called Purifying Vase, the greenery, the spirit fruits, and all sorts of miscellaneous trinkets.
Zhegu’s aura drifted among the objects filling the cave abode, introducing them one by one whenever it recognized something.
By the end, it had practically floated back in front of Nangong Yu in a daze. Its tone was full of doubt. “Are you sure these are really the ‘old belongings’ your master didn’t want?”
What cultivator had any such thing as old belongings?!
Many magical treasures had changed hands countless times after their first owners died. If they were valued according to how old or new they were, they would have become worthless long ago!
But had those ancient famous swords, Heaven-tier pill furnaces, and incomplete secret manuals depreciated because of that?
People would fight tooth and nail for them!
These couldn’t possibly be old belongings discarded by a Nascent Soul cultivator…
“You doubt me?” Nangong Yu said unhappily. “Then leave. I’m not selling anymore.”
Zhegu immediately changed its attitude. “No, no! Little Fish Fairy, please don’t be angry. I was merely overwhelmed by the sight.”
Its voice was almost obsequious. “On the fifteenth of next month, I’ll be in Yunchui City. It’s the nearest cultivator city to the Ziyang Sect, and there’s a branch of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion there. Bring my jade flute, and we’ll meet then…”
It really must have been running out of energy. By the end of its sentence, its voice had grown faint, and its shadow had become increasingly translucent until it vanished completely.
“Bring enough money!” Nangong Yu could only shout after it.
The cave abode fell silent.
The white jade flute in her hand had lost some of its luster, as if it had been alive before and now was not.
“What exactly are you?” Nangong Yu wondered. She took out a section of a ghost hand and used it to grasp the white jade flute.
This section of ghost hand was coincidentally as smooth and translucent as white jade. Its owner must have been a powerful ghost before death. A trace of lingering desire clung to it, and the moment it wrapped around the white jade flute, it began gnawing on it.
Crunch—
A corner was bitten off the white jade flute. The corner of Nangong Yu’s eye twitched, and she immediately put the ghost hand away.
She hadn’t expected it to be so brittle. Nangong Yu examined the flute. The broken surface didn’t look much like jade; it resembled bone instead.
She turned it around, aimed the undamaged end at her lips, and blew.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
She blew several times, but no sound came out.
Just as Zhegu had said, the jade flute was completely useless. Its only purpose was to serve as a password when she went to the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion next month.
Nangong Yu gathered up the objects on the ground.
Then she opened her optical brain and checked the calendar. When she had first arrived in Luoxia City, she had already calibrated the optical brain’s clock.
The current year was New Calendar Year 99,928.
The calendar had begun counting from the War of Sealing the Demons. Humanity and the demon race had joined forces to seal away the evil demon race, ushering in a new era.
Nearly one hundred thousand years had passed since then.
She checked the date.
The thirteenth of August.
She still had to wait a month before the transaction?
Nangong Yu’s heart skipped a beat. She felt that the side-quest NPC was hinting at something: this month would definitely be far from peaceful. Perhaps she wouldn’t even survive it.
Wouldn’t survive?
Nangong Yu counted on her fingers, listing the NPCs with whom she had grudges.
Elder Fuyun. Elder Xuanqing. The case involving Zhou Yun and Zhao You.
Her master NPC should count as an ally. At least within a certain range, he would certainly protect her—there was no way he would let another NPC devour a player, right?
The sect leader NPC owed her a favor, while the bizarre entity, despite being evil, followed the rules. Once it agreed to something, it would generally keep its word.
Her senior brother NPC was a hidden enemy. He had once clearly stated that he didn’t want a junior sister like “her.”
She needed to find an opportunity to test the combat strength of a Nascent Soul cultivator.
It was time for class again.
Before dawn, Nangong Yu obediently began climbing the mountain.
Rules were not something players should challenge lightly. If they said she had to climb the mountain herself, then she absolutely could not ride a spirit crane.
By the time she reached the mountaintop, there were still ten minutes until nine.
“Hmph. Useless.”
A haughty, disdainful voice came from ahead.
Nangong Yu was panting heavily. She wiped the sweat from her face and casually raised her head, meeting the arrogant little face of Mo Jiuyou.
This brat really had it in for her, didn’t he?
Nangong Yu was exhausted and couldn’t be bothered to deal with him. She dropped onto the ground, pulled out a spirit fruit, and began munching on it.
“Some people have no ambition. They’re destined to amount to nothing!” the child shouted.
Nangong Yu nodded. “That’s right. Not like some people who reach the Qi-Entwining Stage at nine. I’m sure you’ll reach Foundation Establishment at ten, Golden Core at fifteen, Nascent Soul at thirty, and transform into a god before you’re even a hundred.”
Mo Jiuyou had been glaring at her angrily, but the corners of his mouth twitched, and his expression suddenly turned awkward.
How did she know?
Although this person was useless, she could be considered his confidante.
“Can’t you put a little more thought into advancing to Class A?” Mo Jiuyou walked over and kicked her.
Nangong Yu narrowed her eyes and looked at him. Mo Jiuyou’s movement faltered, and he only managed to kick the hem of her robe.
“Do you know what you’ve missed out on?!” Mo Jiuyou demanded, exasperated by her lack of ambition.
He had already given up on her.
He had only come over today to mock her a few times. Who could have known that she actually understood him?
“You’d better perform well today!” Mo Jiuyou glared at her fiercely before turning and walking away.
The other disciples from Class A arrived. The main hall doors opened, and they entered one after another.
The disciples from Class B hesitated before following them, but they were stopped at the entrance. An invisible barrier sealed off the doorway, preventing them from entering.
Everyone’s expressions turned extremely ugly.
“Class B, is it?” At that moment, a lazy female voice came from behind. A female cultivator had appeared at some point. “Come with me.”
The new disciples had been divided into Class A and Class B.
Class A attended lessons every day in the finest main hall on Disciple Peak.
Class B had lessons once every three days. Their instructor was different from Class A’s, and so was their classroom: a side hall beside the main hall.
Any disciple who had entered the main hall knew how spacious, imposing, and magnificent it was.
The side hall was decent as well, but compared with the main hall, it was distinctly less impressive.
“Elder.” Someone bowed and asked, “Will you be teaching us from now on?”
The female cultivator remained languid, as if she hadn’t heard him. Standing sideways to the group, she raised her slender jade finger.
Spiritual power as fine as silkworm thread flowed from her fingertip, weaving and intertwining in the air. Before long, it formed a diagram of the human meridians.
It was three-dimensional, displayed in full detail and cross-sectioned for viewing. Blood vessels appeared in red, meridians in purple, acupoints as green dots, and the dantian and spiritual palace were marked in yellow and blue.
“You’ve all memorized the Qi Circulation Manual, haven’t you?” After finishing the diagram, the elder withdrew her finger and glanced over the group indifferently.
Everyone froze for a moment. Someone answered, “We’ve all memorized it.”
Another hesitated briefly before replying as well, “Memorized it.”
The elder pointed at the diagram of the human meridians and said, “Cultivate.”
With that, she tossed down a meditation cushion and sat cross-legged.
Her eyes closed, her posture straight and proper. She looked very much like she did not wish to be disturbed.
All the disciples were stunned. They looked at one another, wanting to ask questions but not daring to open their mouths.
What were they supposed to cultivate? The meridian diagram had not been explained, nor had anyone told them how to cultivate.
How could the elder of the Ziyang Sect be so irresponsible?
Many of the disciples grumbled inwardly, but none dared say it aloud. They did not want to lose even their place in Class B and be sorted into a new Class C.
There were many meditation cushions in the side hall. The disciples each took one and sat cross-legged on the floor. Some studied the Sūtra of Breath Control, some examined the diagram of the human meridians, while others began fighting over the cushions.
There were exactly enough cushions for everyone—no more, no fewer.
However, some of them were in poor condition. Some had curled edges, while others had holes in them.
The dispute began quietly enough. Everyone tried their best not to make a sound, lest the elder notice and punish them.
But it was difficult to keep the conflict under control. Before long, one disciple was thrown to the ground and let out a cry of pain.
“Ah!”
The sound was not loud, but in the silent side hall, it was impossible to miss.
Everyone froze at once and turned toward the elder.
At some point, the elder had opened her eyes. Her expression was faint, as though she were smiling—or perhaps mocking them.
The disciples felt uneasy. They did not know what she meant by it, but none dared continue fighting over the cushions.
Although they had heard that a cultivator’s opportunities had to be fought for, and that this was part of tempering one’s Dao heart...
The hall fell silent.
Nangong Yu sat in a corner, some distance away from everyone else. She took out the Sūtra of Breath Control and began reading.
The senior brother NPC had said that she did not need to read it because Elder Ling Heng would teach her.
But the Disciples’ Peak was teaching it anyway.
She did not understand.
She might as well give it a try.
The book taught people how to circulate “qi” through their bodies.
The first half concerned air: inhaling it, circulating it through the blood, and then exhaling the waste.
The second half concerned spiritual energy: drawing it in, circulating it through the meridians, and then releasing it from the body. During this process, some spiritual energy would remain behind, accumulating over time and transforming into spiritual power. That was how cultivators gained cultivation.
Nangong Yu knew how to breathe air. She did not need to learn it; her body breathed on its own.
But if that were all there was to it, the book would not have devoted half its contents to the subject.
After carefully chewing her way through the entire section, Nangong Yu finally understood.
Mortals could breathe unconsciously, but cultivators had to breathe consciously.
They had to know where the air went after entering the body and which parts of the body it passed through.
A cultivator had to observe every part of the body. Even the capillaries in their toes had to be included, ensuring that the air could travel there before being drawn back and expelled.
To become a cultivator was to truly merge with this game instance.
But cultivation was imperative.
Nangong Yu cast aside her distracting thoughts and followed the Sūtra of Breath Control, attempting to sense the distribution of blood vessels throughout her body.
She could not feel them.
But she could imagine them.
The diagram of the human meridians drawn by the elder appeared in Nangong Yu’s mind. She imagined air entering her body and traveling through every part of it.
Were the blood vessels and pathways all parallel? Or did they have to be followed in a particular order?
As she repeated the visualization more and more, the diagram of the human meridians drawn by the elder actually began to change.
The network of blood vessels marked in red was no longer motionless. It began to flow. Red light flashed along the vessels, completing a cycle according to some kind of sequence.
The elder, who had been sitting cross-legged with her eyes closed, opened them in surprise and glanced toward the corner.
The young girl sat cross-legged on her meditation cushion. Her posture was far from perfect, but her expression was exceptionally tranquil. Clearly, her mind had already sunk into meditation.
The elder studied her for a moment, then withdrew her gaze and swept it across the many disciples in the side hall. Without a trace of warmth, she closed her eyes again.
In the air, the diagram of the human meridians stood silently, unchanged.
Many disciples studied it for a long time but failed to discover the method, leaving them dispirited.
Others took one look, failed to understand it, and grew restless.
But as time passed, more and more disciples gradually calmed down. They began studying the Sūtra of Breath Control and comparing it with the diagram of the human meridians in an effort to understand it.
“Hm?”
After circulating her breath through her body more than a dozen times, Nangong Yu noticed something strange.
She seemed to be able to truly “see” a stream of qi flowing through her body, following the sequence shown on the meridian diagram.
The moment her attention wavered, that wondrous and indistinct “vision” vanished. When she focused again, she could “see” it once more.
“So interesting?”
She found it rather fascinating, but did not continue visualizing. Instead, she tried the second half of the technique: circulating spiritual energy.
What was spiritual energy?
All things possessed spirit. “Spirit” existed in every aspect of the world, in every corner that could be seen and every corner that could not.
And all things generated and restrained one another. These “spirits” were further divided into the Five Elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
A spiritual root was Heaven’s favor. Those who possessed spiritual roots within their bodies could more easily interact with all things, hear the voice of the Heavenly Dao, and merge with the world.
Following the second half of the Sūtra of Breath Control, Nangong Yu tried to sense the spiritual energy around her.
Spiritual energy had attributes. Energy sharing the same attribute as a cultivator’s spiritual root was easier to sense and absorb.
Nangong Yu quieted her mind and tried to capture things she normally paid no attention to.
She felt the wind surge past her, lifting the hem of her robe and making it flutter.
She heard birds chirping outside the hall. They were tiny creatures living among the trees.
There was a gleam of light before her eyes—the sunlight had slipped through the lattice of the side hall’s window and shone upon her eyelids.
Nothing.
She had not sensed any of the Five Elements.
She began imagining things in her mind. Following the diagram of the human meridians, she visualized a system for circulating spiritual energy and imagined her dantian.
Spiritual roots were born within the dantian, but she could not imagine what her three spiritual roots looked like. In the diagram the elder had given them, the dantian was simply marked by a yellow mass.
“What is a spiritual root?” Nangong Yu wondered.
She had never seen a spiritual root. She had never touched one or used one. It was clearly something that existed within her body, yet she could not sense it.
She could visualize even the capillaries in her toes, but she could not visualize her spiritual roots.
If something could not be touched, seen, or used, did it truly belong to her?
“What is a spiritual root?” Nangong Yu asked herself again.
She was a player.
A cultivator’s foundation was their spiritual root. Then what was a player’s foundation?
Courage. Bravery. The will to survive.
These were the gifts that had allowed her to survive, the talents that had accompanied her for so long. Those should be her spiritual roots!
The sea of consciousness suddenly opened wide.
An ocean she had never sensed before appeared within her. A hurricane howled, rolling up waves ten thousand feet high.
“This is my spiritual root!”
The waves surged violently, yet Nangong Yu’s mind was clearer than ever.
Fearless in the face of terror. Brave in the face of danger. Possessing an indomitable will to survive even when confronted with death and utter despair!
She was so proud.
Just thinking of them gave birth to boundless strength.
At Luowu Peak.
Chen Zhi was cultivating inside his cave dwelling. He sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, yet found it difficult to calm his mind and focus.
“I wonder whether Little Grand Martial Aunt’s class is going smoothly?”
He thought of Nangong Yu, who was attending class today, and felt somewhat worried.
She really was far too lively.
She was already a suspect in a murder case, and had even managed to offend Elder Fuyun and Elder Xuanqing one after another.
Would she stir up even more trouble? If she did, even Elder Ling Heng would not be able to protect her.
Chen Zhi assumed that the girl, who had such a wild, impulsive temperament, had changed so drastically and lacked proper guidance because her entire family had perished in the tragedy that had befallen Small Swallow Village.
Yet the root of all this mess was the misconduct of Zhou Yun and Zhao You. The Zi Yang Sect had wronged her first.
If she died young while still in the sect, Chen Zhi thought it would be nothing short of a tragedy.
Since he could not sit still any longer, he simply stood up, leaped onto his flying sword, and headed for the Disciples' Peak, planning to wait for Nangong Yu to finish her class and walk her out.
"What on earth is that?" Before he even arrived at the peak, he spotted a massive spiritual energy vortex hovering above the Disciples' Peak.
His eyes went wide with shock, his pupils trembling violently. "Who did she get to break through this time?!"
With such commotion, could it be that one of the elders was making a breakthrough?
Filled with curiosity, he sped up his flight toward the Disciples' Peak.
"Greetings, two Elders." Landing on the peak, Chen Zhi bowed to the class instructors of Class A and Class B.
The two elders wore vastly different expressions. The Class A elder had a deep frown on his face, clearly displeased, while the Class B elder's eyes brimmed with barely contained awe.
The Class A disciples were still attending class inside the main hall, but all the Class B disciples had already come outside, gathering in the open square in front of the hall and whispering to each other.
Chen Zhi scanned the crowd and did not spot Nangong Yu anywhere. His heart sank immediately. "Reporting to Elders, this disciple is Chen Zhi from Luowu Peak. I have come to find Little Grand Martial Aunt Nangong Yu on important business. Where might she be?"
Worried that she had caused another incident and been punished, he made up an excuse on the spot when he could not find her.
"Little Grand Martial Aunt?" A young boy's voice suddenly rang out. "You call her Little Grand Martial Aunt? Who is her master?!"
Chen Zhi turned to look and saw a familiar figure standing at the entrance of the main hall — it was Mo Jiuyou, the talented young disciple they had recruited back in Luoxia City.
"Isn't she just an outer sect disciple?" Seeing Chen Zhi stay silent, Mo Jiuyou simply ran out to him.
The Class A elder glanced at him but said nothing.
When a disciple is far more outstanding than expected, even elders will sometimes choose to look the other way.
Right behind Mo Jiuyou came Xiao Junlin, Zhao Ziyun, and several others, all the top talents in Class A.
"Who did Nangong Yu take as her master?"
"Why do you address her as Little Grand Martial Aunt?"
That day back at the main peak, every single one of them had been taken away by an elder or a peak lord one after another. Only Nangong Yu had been left behind.
They had all assumed no one wanted her — if her master had any standing at all, she never would have ended up in Class B.
"She is the disciple of Elder Ling Heng," Chen Zhi explained. "The Hall Master of Discipline."
Everyone's eyes went wide in shock.
The Hall Master of Discipline!
No ordinary elder could hold that position. It required immense prestige, an unyielding sense of justice, the willingness to offend others, and the ability to stand up to anyone, no matter their status!
Having been in the sect for a few days, they had already learned a thing or two about the structure of the Zi Yang Sect. They knew the Hall Master of Discipline carried such weight that even the Sect Leader treated him with great respect.
Nangong Yu had actually become his disciple?!
That meant all of them were technically a generation below her!
Mo Jiuyou's face turned dark with suppressed frustration. Not only had she gotten an incredibly powerful master, but she had also achieved enlightenment today!
He had always seen her as a whetstone to sharpen his own skills, never expecting that "whetstone" to turn out to be this huge and formidable!
Thinking back to her attitude toward him before, it was obvious she had never once regarded him as a threat...
"She has achieved enlightenment," the Class B elder spoke up, answering Chen Zhi's unspoken question. "She will not wake up for a while."
Enlightenment was an incredibly rare opportunity for any cultivator. Many cultivators lived their entire lives without ever encountering such a chance.
Chen Zhi could barely believe his own ears when he heard the news. "Little Grand Martial Aunt, she... she achieved enlightenment?"
She didn't trigger someone else's breakthrough?
It was her, herself, who had attained enlightenment?
He could not help but look up at the massive spiritual energy vortex above the side hall, its scale so grand it made others seethe with envy. With a vortex this size, she would not be waking up any time soon.
Nangong Yu had no idea she was in the middle of an enlightenment state.
In her mind, she had visualized three spiritual roots: one of courage, one of bravery, and one of the will to survive.
Each of these spiritual roots she imagined as thick, tall, and robust, maxed out at a full 1000 points.
She would never settle for those single-digit spirit root values!
She was a super genius with top-tier talent, and that was all that mattered.
Three towering trees had taken root in her dantian, their branches and leaves so lush they blotted out the sky.
One tree was heavy with marinated chicken feet, another was covered in sesame seed cakes, and the third was laden with watermelons.
Tears slipped down her closed eyes, and at the same time, a heavy downpour began to fall in the dantian, pooling into a lake that reflected the dense canopy of the three trees.
She decided she needed a little boat to make the lake feel less empty.
And there should be fish in the lake — dragon-patterned koi fish, they were beautiful to look at and delicious to eat.
On the shore, she would build a small log cabin, perfect for escaping the summer heat and watching the snow fall in winter.
She wanted a reclining chair. A swing. A hanging basket.
A huge villa, with air conditioning in the summer and central heating in the winter.
A flock of plump, free-range chickens, so the hens could lay eggs and the roosters could be cooked for a nice meal.
A lawn. Chinese roses, wild roses, herbaceous peonies.
...
Every beautiful, wonderful thing she could possibly imagine, she placed it all in this inner world she was building through her visualization.
Endless streams of spiritual energy poured in through the top of her head. A small portion of it seeped into her limbs and bones, her skin and hair, her blood and meridians, but the vast majority of it surged toward her dantian, taking shape as all the little scenes and objects she had imagined.
This process lasted a full half month.
When Nangong Yu finally finished her visualization and was fully satisfied with the little estate she had built in her dantian, she found that even if she diverted her attention and then refocused her mind, the little manor was still there, which made her even more delighted.
What was even more of a pleasant surprise was that at some point, the purple-marked meridian system on the human body meridian diagram she knew had started running automatically inside her body!
She tested it over and over, shifting her focus away and then bringing it back. The only difference was the speed at which the spiritual energy circulated. When she actively guided it, the speed was much faster. When it ran on its own, it was a little slower. But even at that slow pace, it could operate completely on its own! Just like breathing, she did not have to think about it at all — her body would take care of it by itself.
"Hahaha!"
She was still sitting with her eyes closed, but she could not help bursting into laughter. "I'm a total genius!"
In just the second class, she had already mastered the entire *Breathing Meditation Manual*.
"You are indeed a genius," a complicated voice suddenly came from right in front of her.
Nangong Yu's eyes flew open with a jolt, and she saw Chen Zhi sitting not far away, his long sword laid across his lap, a look of utter bewilderment on his face.
"What are you doing here?" Nangong Yu asked in surprise. "Looking for me?"
Chen Zhi said, "You achieved enlightenment. Half a month has already passed."
"What?!" Nangong Yu was shocked. Her first instinct was to check the calendar on her optical computer, but she held back since there was an NPC right in front of her.
Chen Zhi never lied, so she decided to take his word for it. "I achieved enlightenment?" She patted her own face, a bright grin spreading across her features. "I really am a genius!"
Anyone who had read a cultivation novel knew that attaining enlightenment was the ultimate sign of a true genius. "So does that mean I've already succeeded in drawing Qi into my body?"
Since spiritual energy was already circulating inside her, that should mean she was a real cultivator now, right?
Chen Zhi stood up and walked over to her. He flicked a wisp of his own spiritual energy out with his fingertip, letting it seep into her skin.
What a pure, untainted physical body!
A look of genuine amazement spread across his face. He could sense that she had already mastered the full cycle of spiritual energy circulation, and he was even more awestruck by her incredible natural talent.
Who said that someone with terrible spiritual roots could not cultivate? She might have the worst spiritual root aptitude, but she had a rare, god-given immortal destiny!
The moment his spiritual energy was about to reach his dantian after flowing through his meridians, he suddenly furrowed his brows and let out a confused sound. "Hm?" His spiritual power had vanished completely, as if it had been devoured by some unknown force.
