Names Matter

This fish-shaped jade talisman was green, but its surface was covered in rust-like stains, leaving its color mottled.

"I'm leaving." Lü Shenliang stood up.

Wang Li said, "Suit yourself."

"Senior Sister, be careful." Though Lü Shenliang said she was leaving, she instead walked toward a stone hut before her.

Wang Li said, "I'm your junior brother, not your senior sister."

"Do you believe I'll self-detonate my Golden Core?" Lü Shenliang said.

"I believe it completely." Wang Li said, "But right now, you're a mushroom."

Lü Shenliang said, "Then I still want to self-detonate my Golden Core."

Wang Li said, "Then I refuse to accept that too."

Lü Shenliang said nothing further. She entered the stone hut and went into the meditation chamber within.

Only then did Wang Li let out a sigh he had suppressed for a long time, yet still could not hold back.

That single sigh contained countless emotions.

When his senior sister cultivated on this solitary peak, she was usually lucid for roughly half the day. Although her train of thought was rather unique even when lucid, she was merely difficult to communicate with, not impossible to communicate with.

Yet whenever she went out with him to handle important matters, once they returned to this solitary peak, it seemed that the moment she relaxed even slightly, her mind would grow muddled in no time.

After so many times, he had thoroughly figured it out. Whenever she lost her senses, he merely had to casually respond to a few words, then say, "Then I refuse to accept that too." After that, she would calmly go cultivate and would not suddenly decide to self-detonate her Golden Core.

Logically speaking, after becoming so familiar with it, he should have long since grown accustomed to it. Yet every time he faced such a scene, he still could not get used to it.

Lü Shenliang had already vanished into the stone hut.

Yet these few stone huts inevitably reminded him of his master.

"Master, names truly cannot be chosen carelessly. For cultivators who walk against Heaven, names are truly important."

He gave a bitter smile.

His master had been named He Wanshi, and after accidentally being poisoned by spiritual toxin, he had truly petrified all over and become a stubborn rock. Thus, not long after Wang Li entered the sect, he had lost his master.

This senior sister of his was named Lü Shenliang.

The character liang had originally possessed two pronunciations on Lesser Jade Continent.

One was pronounced "liang."

A beautiful woman!

He felt that his senior sister was unquestionably a beautiful woman.

Yet when he had first entered the sect, his master He Wanshi had introduced the important figures of the Profound Heaven Sect and told him that the liang in his senior sister's name was pronounced "jing."

Gentle and tranquil, serene as the beauty of a deep abyss.

Her name was presumably chosen for that meaning.

For cultivators, outward appearance was certainly somewhat important, but more important still were one's bearing and state of mind.

By that reasoning, pronouncing the character "jing" rather than "liang" seemed to give it a better meaning.

But Wang Li had felt something was off even then.

Lü Shenliang, Lü Shenliang, Lü Shenjing... female lunatic. Say it quickly, and didn't it become female lunatic?

Then later, she had failed her tribulation while forming her Golden Core. Though she had not died, her Golden Core had been damaged, her soul unstable, and her mind often unclear. It was simply as if her name had come true.

Though the Heavenly Dao laws certainly did not say that a name determined one's fate, how could such a thing possibly be explained clearly? As for himself, he was named Wang Li, and he truly did seem to be constantly separated.

Hadn't he entered the Profound Heaven Sect alongside a group of fellow disciples in what seemed like extraordinary luck, only to lose his master soon afterward and then, as though betrayed by all, end up on this solitary peak?

If changing his name would help, he felt he absolutely could not be called Wang Li. He ought to be called Wang Ju. If that still did not work, then he ought to be called Wang Juju.

But for now, as long as Senior Sister could eventually recover, staying on this solitary peak did not seem uncomfortable at all.

He quickly finished all the spirit fruits on the square table, then grasped the green fish-shaped jade talisman before him.

As True Essence flowed from his fingertips, the green fish-shaped jade talisman emitted the distinctive aura of a spatial treasure.

The umbrella-like lotus leaf above his head, the grass mat beneath him, and the small purple table were all stored within the fish-shaped jade talisman.

If a cultivator saw this scene now, they would surely find it inconceivable.

According to the common knowledge of the Cultivation World, cultivators in the Qi Refining stage could not use any spatial treasure meant for storage.

Just as the True Essence of Qi Refining stage cultivators was insufficient to operate the vast majority of flight treasures, their True Essence was also utterly incapable of activating the spatial formations within such spatial treasures.

Even the lowest-grade Treasure Pouch required a cultivator in the Foundation Establishment Realm to use it.

Yet Wang Li used this fish-shaped jade talisman with apparent effortless ease.

After storing these items with this treasure, he too entered a stone hut and went into the meditation chamber he used for cultivation.

His meditation chamber looked entirely ordinary, seemingly no different from the cultivation chambers assigned to newly inducted disciples by ordinary sects.

Other than a stone couch, there were only the simplest stone table, stone stools, and similar furnishings.

But the instant spiritual energy fluctuations began to rise from his body, the stone couch, stools, and other items vanished directly amid a distortion of light and shadow.

This was an exceptionally ingenious illusion formation!

The previously unremarkable meditation chamber abruptly expanded to more than twice its original size.

The suddenly enlarged chamber was utterly empty. Only in the very center stood a round formation plate, raised several feet high like an altar.

Countless fine rune patterns resembling wriggling earthworms moved across the formation plate. It looked profoundly mysterious, yet any cultivator above the Qi Refining stage should have recognized it. This was a low-grade Spirit Gathering Formation that ensured the spiritual energy of spirit sand would not leak away during cultivation.

Not only on Lesser Jade Continent, but throughout the entire Cultivation World, cultivating with spirit sand was the mainstream.

The reason was simple. Spirit sand was equivalent to the initial purification and crystallization of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Cultivating with spirit sand was more efficient than absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth directly.

As for why spirit stones, which possessed a higher degree of purity, were not the mainstream, it was because Qi Refining stage cultivators and Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivators made up the overwhelming majority throughout the Cultivation World.

For low-level cultivators, spirit sand offered better value.

Spirit sand containing the same amount of spiritual energy of heaven and earth as a spirit stone was much cheaper than that spirit stone.

Thus, spirit sand naturally became the universal currency of the entire Cultivation World and the standard by which the value of barter was measured.

Since the Three Saints stood side by side and the immortal sects of every continent had entered under the Three Saints' command, strict standards had also been established for the amount of spiritual energy in spirit sand.

The impure Vital Energy in a grain of spirit sand could not exceed thirty percent, while the spiritual energy of heaven and earth it contained was precisely enough for one day of cultivation by a First Level of Qi Refining cultivator.

It sounded as though the amount of spiritual energy of heaven and earth contained within was already considerable.

But as one's cultivation rose, the amount of spiritual energy of heaven and earth a cultivator required increased by multiples.

Simply put, a First Level of Qi Refining cultivator required one grain of spirit sand per day. At the Second Level of Qi Refining, they required two grains per day; at the Third Level of Qi Refining, they required four grains.

And so on. By the Sixth Level of Qi Refining, they already required thirty-two grains of spirit sand each day.

But in reality, upon reaching the Sixth Level of Qi Refining, thirty-two grains of spirit sand were far from enough for daily cultivation.

For even the most ordinary cultivators accumulated some gains during cultivation and possessed some methods to assist their cultivation. Spiritual medicines, magical artifacts, and formation arrays could all greatly increase a cultivator's ability to draw in the Vital Energy of heaven and earth.

According to the consistent understanding of the Cultivation World, if a cultivator at the Sixth Level of Qi Refining could refine and absorb fewer than two hundred grains of spirit sand per day, then they would have no possibility of forming a Golden Core in their lifetime.

Yet the harsh reality was that nearly more than half of cultivators at the Sixth Level of Qi Refining could meet the standard of absorbing two hundred grains of spirit sand daily. But even if they completed all the sect's trials and gathering tasks, the amount of spirit sand the sect could provide was only a fraction of what they actually required.

The overwhelming majority of these cultivators could not eat their fill.

This was also why many Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators were reluctant to use spirit stones for cultivation.

The amount of spiritual energy contained in one spirit stone was equivalent to that in one hundred grains of spirit sand, but the impure Vital Energy it contained was only one-third that of one hundred grains of spirit sand.

The less impure Vital Energy one drew into one's body, the purer one's True Essence became, and the smaller the price one would need to pay in the future.

But one spirit stone sold for one hundred and twenty grains of spirit sand.

When one could not eat one's fill, those extra twenty grains of spirit sand were enough to make one abandon spirit stones and cultivate with spirit sand instead.

After all, all cultivators who could not eat their fill considered cultivation speed first. So long as they could raise their realm, the long-term harmful effects caused by the accumulation of impure Vital Energy within their bodies could be ignored for the time being.

Wang Li was currently a Fifth Level of Qi Refining cultivator.

If one judged his future achievements by the amount of spirit sand he consumed, then being able to refine and absorb around one hundred grains of spirit sand per day would already count as quite good. If he could steadily obtain enough spirit sand and his cultivation progress was not interrupted, then he still had hope of forming a Golden Core.

For a sect like the Profound Heaven Sect, having the chance to form a Golden Core was already remarkable.

But after he sat cross-legged in the center of the Spirit Gathering Formation, he took out a full five hundred grains of spirit sand from the fish-shaped jade talisman and scattered them over the formation plate.

With a soft hum, threads of spiritual light ignited across the formation plate as he directly activated the Spirit Gathering Formation.

He was in no hurry. He took out the jade box containing the Purity Returning Spirit Pill from the fish-shaped jade talisman, then removed the Purity Returning Spirit Pill sealed within and swallowed it.

If Meng Xiqiong could witness this scene now, he would surely be shocked speechless once more.

But that was the truth. From the very beginning, Lü Shenliang and Wang Li's plan had been for Wang Li to use this Purity Returning Spirit Pill, not Lü Shenliang.