Qi Sense

The bookboy knew some characters, but he did not recognize the second character in this secret manual.

"Young Master, look at this book."

The scholar in blue took the book and looked at the manual. "Blood Fiend Art."

"The Blood Fiend Sect's foundational cultivation technique for the early Qi Refining stage."

"The mnemonic."

"The cultivation method."

"The circulation route for the technique."

"It even comes with two spells."

As he flipped through the thin booklet, the scholar's eyes widened more and more. Anyone who could read would recognize what was written inside.

"This is actually an immortal's cultivation technique!"

"What? An immortal?" The bookboy staggered back two steps, pointing at Zhao Shixian's body, too shocked to speak.

He had just gone through even the immortal's undergarments.

Terrified and trembling, he repeatedly begged forgiveness.

"Immortal, please do not blame me. Wubao did not know any better."

"Immortal, please do not blame me."

"If this belonged to an immortal, then he must have been a demonic immortal."

The scholar in blue was quite bold. He crouched down to inspect Zhao Shixian's wounds.

Looking at them now, they had clearly been inflicted in a battle of spells.

A sword wound ran across his chest, cleaving his heart apart and causing the immortal's death.

"If this man truly was an immortal, then this thing wrapped up like a command flag is very likely a legendary divine artifact." The scholar gripped the Soul Banner.

It was now the scorching heat of midsummer, yet he felt a refreshing chill seep into his heart from his hand. The sweat from walking vanished in an instant.

Even if he did not know how to use it, it was more than enough as a simple tool to escape the summer heat.

Inside the Soul Banner, Tu Shan Jun let out a long breath.

He had been afraid the scholar would not recognize its worth and toss it away as rubbish.

Since even villagers knew of immortal masters, tales of cultivators must have spread far and wide and been widely believed.

Even villagers knew of them, much less an educated man.

Lure him with profit, then supplement it with cultivation techniques and divine abilities.

Anyone with an eye for valuables would surely see the Soul Banner's extraordinariness and would never discard it lightly.

Now, as long as the other party could cultivate the technique, he would be able to use the Soul Banner.

Tu Shan Jun's suspended heart finally settled halfway.

The other half still worried that the scholar might not possess spiritual roots.

"Wubao, carry the immortal's body over."

The scholar found a patch of wasteland rarely traversed by people. Using the ornamental sword he wore, he dug a pit and hastily buried Zhao Shixian's corpse.

He also erected an unmarked wooden tablet.

After kowtowing, he said, "Today, I, Li Qingfeng, have obtained an immortal's cultivation technique and divine artifact. If I achieve success on the Dao in the future, I will surely exhume the immortal's body and rebury him in a fine site of auspicious feng shui."

"May the immortal bless me."

Tu Shan Jun, placed in the book basket, watched everything unfold before him.

His hatred naturally could not be dispelled.

Thinking of the suffering he had endured, baleful intent surfaced on his face, and even the entire soul banner began to tremble.

If he could, he would rather grind Zhao Shixian's soul to ashes, bury his body upright in yin-soaked ground, then drive it at will once it became a zombie.

But now, he was merely a mid-grade Soul Banner, at most possessing an additional Main Soul at the Qi Refining Fourth Layer.

After they had busied themselves for quite some time, the sun had long since slanted westward.

People passed by while the two were occupied.

Some wore short clothes and carried shoulder poles, swaying down the main road with no telling what they bore.

Others drove ox carts out of town.

Most were ox carts or donkey carts.

Tu Shan Jun had only seen horse-drawn carriages with that initial troop of Black Armor Cavalry.

Dusk.

Not yet dusk.

Scholar Li Qingfeng and his bookboy Wubao set off once more.

They left behind yet another lonely grave.

Li Qingfeng held an umbrella against the sun as he read through the cultivation manual in his hands, while the book basket was carried by Wubao.

Though his heart was filled with excitement, as if he had stumbled upon a bargain, and he feared others might find out—

He could not wait even a moment longer.

This was an immortal opportunity.

The immortal masters in Eight Directions City were like divine dragons whose heads could be seen but not their tails, living secluded lives and rarely appearing.

His family had no connections that could send him into a cultivation sect.

He often heard traces of immortals spoken of, and everyone acknowledged their existence. He had even seen an immortal once from afar.

Yet none of that could compare to the scripture in his hands. It truly left him thrilled and exhilarated.

"Blood Fiend Art, the Blood Fiend Sect's foundational Qi Refining technique."

"At dawn and dusk, one must comprehend yin and yang, guide the sensed Qi, refine it and store it in the dantian. Thus one achieves the Qi Refining First Layer."

"The technique's mnemonic."

Li Qingfeng muttered the mnemonic, and immediately felt an inexplicable vibration arise within his mouth.

The vibration possessed a distinct rhythm, and that rhythm set his entire head trembling. His body relaxed along with it.

Li Qingfeng was overjoyed. He tucked the cultivation technique into his robes and thought, As expected of an immortal's cultivation technique. It is truly miraculous.

From within the basket, Tu Shan Jun watched Li Qingfeng's movements.

As expected, Li Qingfeng could not hold himself back and began cultivating.

Because he was educated, his understanding of the scripture far surpassed that of ordinary people.

In truth, it did not require any profound comprehension. One only needed to recite the mnemonic, supplement it with a special posture for drawing in Qi, and sense Qi during the transition of yin and yang.

If one possessed spiritual roots, there was a great chance of perceiving the Qi Sense described within.

After that, one simply had to strengthen the Qi one had sensed.

The Blood Fiend Art was actually only a middling cultivation technique.

The understanding within the technique seed said that the Blood Fiend Art emphasized being without attributes, making it suitable for any type of spiritual root. In truth, its conversion of Qi Refining was not particularly powerful.

The Blood Fiend Qi's assistance also came with side effects, though they were relatively minor.

It was not that Tu Shan Jun did not want to teach a more brilliant technique. Blood Fiend Art was simply the only one he possessed.

It would do for now. If there was still a future, Li Qingfeng could switch to another cultivation technique.

The problem was that it was still uncertain whether Li Qingfeng had spiritual roots at all.

Thanks to the understanding from the technique seed, Tu Shan Jun's knowledge of spiritual roots had become fairly clear.

A cultivator with a Heavenly Spirit Root would basically gain Qi Sense after receiving a cultivation technique and reading it through once.

Li Qingfeng had already read it several times and had even begun trying to memorize it, yet there was still no progress. He was certainly not blessed with a Heavenly Spirit Root.

They would have to wait and see.

That wait lasted three months.

Three months passed in the blink of an eye.

Tu Shan Jun, inside the Soul Banner, had widened his eyes, and a touch of savagery had appeared on his face.

He had never imagined that Li Qingfeng's aptitude could be this poor.

Over those three months, after Li Qingfeng returned home, he abandoned the Four Books and Five Classics, the classics, histories, philosophers, and literary collections, studying the Blood Fiend Art day and night.

He also occasionally went to the medical clinic to ask about acupoints and the paths of the meridians.

Awake by day, cultivating by night.

He did not dare miss either of the two daily moments when yin and yang intertwined.

He would even bathe and change clothes beforehand.

He turned down every literary gathering organized by those fair-weather friends and did not leave the house at all.

Li Qingfeng's family had some property. They could afford to support his studies, and at seventeen or eighteen, he had already passed the county examination and become a xiucai. Then he plunged headfirst through the gates of immortality.

Other than his three daily meals, he barely stepped outside.

Even his parents wondered whether he had fallen ill.

They invited physicians several times, only to be told that he was not sick. He was merely somewhat listless, with a slight deficiency of Qi and blood.

That frightened his parents badly. They thought a female ghost had entered their home.

After all, that was how the storybooks always put it: a female ghost entered a scholar's home, bewitched him, and drained his vital essence.

The scholar would then become obsessed with women and lose all interest in the imperial examinations.

Not only would he neglect the foundations of his learning, he would ultimately lose his life.

Li Qingfeng explained several times, then simply stopped explaining. Every day, he opened his doors and windows to study, putting on the appearance of diligent endeavor.

Only then did the two elders at home finally feel reassured.

But Tu Shan Jun was not reassured at all. He was beginning to grow impatient.

Over those three months, he told himself again and again, "It's fine. Whoever finds the Soul Banner is fated with it. He will have spiritual roots."

"A fated person has spiritual roots."

"It's impossible for him not to have them. I refuse to believe it!"

Muttering and rambling to himself, Tu Shan Jun felt he was about to become another Xianglin's Wife.

Tu Shan Jun could accept that Li Qingfeng was not blessed with a Heavenly Spirit Root. After all, geniuses were scarce in this world.

But if there was no Qi Sense after two or three days, that meant he did not have Dual Spirit Roots.

If there was no Qi Sense after seven or eight days, it seemed he did not have Triple Spirit Roots.

That was fine. Triple Spirit Roots were already considered above-average aptitude in this world.

But if there was still no Qi Sense after a month, that no longer matched the pattern of Four Spirit Root.

One month would have been one thing, but it had been a full three months.

Three months without Qi Sense.

Tu Shan Jun had already given up struggling and resigned himself to fate.

He merely felt that there truly was nothing perfect in this world.

Li Qingfeng, seated cross-legged on his bed, was not discouraged in the slightest. Though somewhat disheartened, he continued cultivating.

Today, the sky was only just beginning to brighten.

A ray of morning sunlight from the east shone through the window.

Li Qingfeng, seated with five points facing heaven, eyes closed as he sensed Qi, suddenly opened his eyes.

Spiritual light flickered in them.

"Success!"