Cultivation

After Zhou Chengjie left, a small, furry head rolled out from inside Zhou You's robes. It was Feidian.

Its dark eyes remained fixed on the direction Zhou Chengjie had gone, looking thoroughly wary.

"You little thing, now you're being clever." Zhou You gave its little head a rub.

Feidian had been hiding inside his robes the whole time, but from the moment Zhou Chengjie arrived, it had stayed as still as if it were dead.

It seemed this little thing really might be a Soul Beast, since it knew to hide from a Soul Master.

"Xiao You, you... Huh? Why did you bring this little thing along?"

Feidian tilted its head and stared fixedly at the old village chief.

Zhou You turned to look and nodded politely. "Village chief." Then he reached out and pushed Feidian's head back inside his robes.

"Xiao You, Ajie just told me everything. You're going to the Spirit Hall, aren't you?" the old village chief said to Zhou You with a beaming smile, his voice gentler than it had ever been.

In an ordinary village like Yingyang Village, the appearance of a Soul Master with average aptitude was usually cause to thank the ancestors for making blue smoke rise from their graves. This time, it had actually produced a genius with Innate Full Soul Power. Wouldn't the old Zhou family's ancestral graves have to burst open with auspicious clouds to bring about such good fortune?

The old village chief was terribly envious of the Zhou family and wished Zhou You were his own child, but unfortunately, that was impossible.

He could only console himself. Zhou You was a child of Yingyang Village, and they both had the surname Zhou. Rounded up, that made him the old man's child too...

"Xiao You, since you've decided to go to the Spirit Hall, just stay home and take it easy these next few days. Don't go anywhere. All you have to do is wait for the Spirit Hall's people to come get you.

"Oh, right, is your family having any difficulties? Tell Grandpa, and Grandpa can find a way to help."

"That's too kind of you. Wouldn't it be a bother?"

"What are you saying? We're all family here. What bother? Are you treating Grandpa like an outsider?"

You never had this attitude when you handled things before, Zhou You grumbled inwardly.

After the two went back and forth for a while, Zhou You saw that the old village chief's "generous offer was too hard to refuse." He could only accept the man's kindness and ask for help with a few matters, neither too big nor too small.

Not only was the old man pleased, he nodded with satisfaction, carefully committing Zhou You's words to memory and preparing to set about resolving the problems as soon as he got back.

Sure enough, once a person succeeded, everyone around them was kindhearted. Zhou You had only just set half a foot on the road to success, yet he was already beginning to experience a successful person's happiness.

He couldn't help reflecting that, though the world was a different one, people were still much the same.

The old village chief followed Zhou You all the way home and personally told Mother Zhou the good news. Naturally, she wept tears of joy, holding on to Zhou You and saying things like, "I knew it! My son was clever from the time he was little."

The old village chief also had no trouble producing flattering words, saying things like, "I could always tell this child would amount to something," "He's been bright since he was little," and "Could just anyone raise a Soul Beast? They wouldn't have the guts, you know."

He truly lived up to his two years of schooling. He didn't repeat a single compliment, and his words left Mother Zhou glowing.

The two of them kept chatting about it until the sun went down. Only then did the old village chief finally have his fill of talking and leave, still wanting more.

That evening, Father Zhou came home from work and was likewise overjoyed to hear the good news. During the family celebration that night, he had a couple of extra drinks and began talking nonsense.

He was so happy that his words came out in a jumble, but the gist was that he was delighted, his ancestors had shown their favor, and so on.

The couple were both very ordinary people. They had yet to realize that once their son became a Soul Master, he and they would belong to two different worlds.

They were simply immersed in their happiness, enjoying the surprise of the moment.

Zhou You quietly kept them company throughout, a smile on his face as well. No one noticed the complexity in his eyes.

The next day, Father Zhou left for work as usual, and Mother Zhou got up and went about her chores in and around the house as usual.

A night had passed, and it seemed nothing had changed, yet it also seemed that something had.

Zhou You slung his herb basket onto his back, called out to Mother Zhou, and headed for the Jincheng Mountains.

As for the old village chief's earlier warning not to go out?

He paid it no mind.

Since last year, Zhou You had been deliberately exercising this body. Of course, he hadn't pushed it very hard. He merely climbed mountains, gathered herbs, and practiced the Three-One Sect's basic Stake Training to refine Qi.

After all, his body was only six years old. Training too hard could easily damage its foundations.

Even so, over the course of a year, he had accumulated a considerable amount of Qi, and his physique was far stronger than that of his peers.

He was rather curious. Given Tang Hao's early attitude of letting everything go to ruin, Tang San must surely have been malnourished for his first six years. Yet even under those circumstances, he had managed to persist in cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Skill every day? He was practically a god.

Zhou You passed through the woods and crossed a river, arriving at his usual cultivation spot, a tranquil grove of wild bamboo.

The Heaven and Earth Vital Energy here was "fresher," making it especially suitable for refining Qi and cultivating one's Nature Skill.

"Feidian, I'm entrusting you with the task of standing guard." With great solemnity, Zhou You set Xiao Bai Diao down in front of him. "When this humble Daoist attains the Dao and ascends someday, I shall surely appoint you my chief guardian. You must be diligent in your duties!"

Feidian looked at him with its dark eyes and tilted its head. It gave a cry, as if it both understood and didn't.

Zhou You nodded in satisfaction. "Very good. This exalted one is greatly comforted."

His words seemed playful, but that wasn't really the case.

Though Xiao Bai Diao was small, it was by no means weak. Soul Beasts were generally hard to find in the Jincheng Mountains. In the six years Zhou You had lived here, Xiao Bai Diao was the only creature he had seen that might be one.

Not only was Feidian as fast as lightning, but because it liked to eat all kinds of poisonous mushrooms and plants, it also harbored a deadly poison in its body. Zhou You couldn't say for certain whether it could deal with a Soul Beast.

But it could bring down an ordinary wild beast with a single poisonous bite. It truly was formidable.

If Zhou You weren't half an apothecary himself and hadn't grown so familiar with the white marten, he probably wouldn't have dared carry it around so casually.

With the lightning marten beside him, Zhou You dared to cultivate in peace, even here in the woods.

Soon, his mind entered a state of stillness and his breathing began to slow. Countless wisps of Heaven and Earth Vital Energy, invisible to the naked eye, entered his body bit by bit with each breath. They were then refined together with the primordial essence in his body into Qi, which settled in his dantian.

Since his lower dantian had long been full, the Qi Zhou You refined was soon squeezed back out.

Zhou You had long since grown accustomed to this, and he didn't lose heart.

He continued directing the Qi with his mind, sending it up against the flow along the governing vessel. It passed through the three gates and entered his upper dantian, the Niwan Palace, where it began to cleanse and refine his primordial spirit.

"Huh?"

At that moment, Zhou You noticed that something in his Niwan Palace seemed different from usual.

Under the illumination of his mind, another object was faintly discernible within the Niwan Palace. He could just make out the shape of an umbrella.

It was the Martial Soul Zhou You had just awakened—the Heaven- and Earth-Harmonizing Umbrella!

Faint and insubstantial, it looked like a shadowy image, floating quietly above his primordial spirit.

A sudden impulse stirred Zhou You's heart, and he knew that his primordial spirit was revealing something to him.

As the manifestation of one's true innate spirit, the primordial spirit could often see straight through to the essence of things. Anything it drew his attention to was bound to be extremely important.

Thus, following his primordial spirit's revelation, Zhou You sank into a deeper state of meditation. The shadowy image in the Niwan Palace gradually became more solid.

In Zhou You's inner vision, the shadow of the Heaven- and Earth-Harmonizing Umbrella gained clearer details. Numerous spots of light appeared on its surface, and even more wispy filaments of light drifted around it.

Understanding suddenly dawned on him. Those filaments and spots of light were manifestations of Heaven and Earth Vital Energy.

He saw the Heaven- and Earth-Harmonizing Umbrella draw in wisps of Heaven and Earth Vital Energy, then breathe out a purer primordial Qi. With each inhalation and exhalation, each breath drawn and released, its harmony seemed to contain some ultimate truth of heaven and earth.

Zhou You noticed that there was far less primordial Qi after refinement than there had been when it was drawn in—only about a third as much.

After being expelled, the pure primordial Qi drifted aimlessly around the Heaven- and Earth-Harmonizing Umbrella. As Zhou You watched it, a thought suddenly stirred, and a wisp of primordial Qi actually began to move in response to his will.

In the real world, Zhou You's eyes flew open, his gaze bright and piercing. The divine light within them slowly faded.

"So that's it. This is Soul Power? It's completely different from Qi!"