Being alone in silence had been quite comfortable, but with one more person, it became somewhat awkward.
Ji You raised his bloodied hand and scratched his cheek.
"You... what exactly happened to you?"
"I went into seclusion for two days without eating anything, then fought Fengxian Mountain Villa's guard commander at noon and spent quite a bit of strength. So, in my hunger, I comprehended this Coughing Blood Divine Skill..."
What a stubborn mouth.
Kuang Cheng's mouth twitched. "The world is full of people who cannot even fill their bellies. Some faint from hunger, while others starve to death, yet I have never heard of anyone starving until they vomited blood."
Ji You considered it. "Perhaps only cultivators like us can manage it?"
Kuang Cheng fell silent, staring fixedly at the blood blossom spreading across his lapels.
Ji You recalled the scene from that day, when Kuang Cheng had held a book scroll and told him to seek out Fang Ruoyao. His smile faded before he spoke. "Fine. Two days wasn't enough. I rushed things and went down the wrong path. Now I'm suffering backlash from the Immortal Dao."
The human race was born with True Spirits hidden within their bodies. The first step of cultivation was to sense the True Spirit within oneself and allow it to communicate with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. This was called Spirit Awakening.
After that came the constant refining of the True Spirit, strengthening the body and nurturing the limbs and bones, until spiritual radiance faintly shone within the body.
These two realms were, in truth, entirely dependent on arduous cultivation. Everyone was more or less the same.
But upon reaching the Condensation Realm, one needed to draw the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the body, refine it, and gather it into the Spiritual Spring so that it could grow ever stronger.
Finally, the Spiritual Spring that had gathered the True Spirit would be refined into a Spirit Core. That was what was known as Perfection of the Lower Three Realms.
It was said that before ancient times, it had another name: Core Formation.
Yet for some unknown reason, that path of cultivation had suddenly been abandoned by humanity. And from some unknown point onward, people had begun cultivating according to this method of the three lower and five upper realms.
When orthodox cultivators underwent this step, there would usually be an immortal elder from their household guarding their side, ready to stop them at once should danger arise.
But Ji You had no one.
Not only did he lack an immortal elder to protect his path, he had nowhere to look for texts related to cultivation.
Great Xia's prohibition against commoners cultivating was no empty threat. Immortal books and Daoist scriptures were tightly controlled. Even if a few incomplete fragments circulated among the people, no one dared read them.
And his immortal book happened to contain nothing about this part.
It was not some dramatic coincidence where pages had gone missing. It simply had never contained it—there was no Perfection of the Lower Three Realms.
Thus, Ji You could only cultivate on his own.
At first, he had progressed fairly smoothly while drawing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Yet when he refined the Spirit Core, he felt a powerful sense of discord.
That discord nearly caused him to lose himself in the profound mysteries of the Great Dao, unable to wake. Only when his Divine Sense returned did he discover that his Spiritual Spring had not condensed into a Spirit Core at all—it had directly burst its banks...
Whether it was the True Spirit within his body or the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, everything scattered throughout his body the instant the banks burst. It was everywhere, mixed into a chaotic mass, impossible to separate again.
But afterward, he discovered that he possessed all the methods unique to Perfection of the Lower Three Realms, such as Heaven-Man Resonance and controlling spiritual energy outside the body.
Ji You had thought misfortune had turned into fortune, that he had achieved an alternative form of perfection. But only after fighting Commander Bao of Fengxian Mountain Villa did he realize he had been wrong.
The backlash had merely arrived late. It would never be absent.
Achieving perfection overnight had truly been nothing but an arrogant, delusional dream.
Seeing his grave expression, Kuang Cheng could not help asking, "Will you die?"
"No. It's merely a burning pain in my heart. A few days of rest will do, though I do not know whether I will still have a chance to reach the Upper Five Realms."
"Why would you rather go this far than ask Fang Ruoyao to give it a try?"
Ji You coughed out several more strands of bloody froth before speaking. "If I do something, I do it thoroughly. Fang Ruoyao does not carry enough weight. Even if she were willing to help, it might not be useful once she leaves. My Perfection of the Lower Three Realms is meant to let people know that I am destined to enter the Upper Five Realms—that I will come back and kill my way through."
Hearing the chill in his words, Kuang Cheng could not help shaking his head. "This is far too risky."
"The spiritual energy inside Qiu Ru was transferred in by me."
"I had already guessed..."
Ji You took a deep breath. "And Hai Wa the shepherd, Niu Niu from Liu the Woodcutter's family, the crippled child Da Zui's family picked up..."
Kuang Cheng froze at those words, lifting his head to stare at him in disbelief.
He remembered that those children had either fallen ill or been left with only a single breath, yet they had later recovered for no apparent reason. Only now did he learn that it had been Ji You's doing.
"I'm not really some kind person. Some things were merely done on a whim. See? That is what immortals are like."
As Ji You spoke the word immortal, his brow furrowed tightly. "But the people from Celestial Academy cannot remain in Yuyang forever. Even if those people from Fengxian Mountain Villa do not come a first time, there will be a second time. Then a third, a fourth..."
Kuang Cheng pursed his lips after hearing this. "Indeed. Since news of your Perfection of the Lower Three Realms spread, Fengxian Mountain Villa has behaved much more properly. Master Fang even stopped collecting the Qiu family's Attendant offerings."
"It works that well?"
Ji You bared teeth streaked red and white. "Then if I acknowledge kinship with all the major households in the county, asking for only a little gift money each time, wouldn't I become rich on the spot?"
Kuang Cheng: "?"
Ji You still had the mind to let his thoughts run wild, which also proved that his life was indeed not in danger.
It was only that he did not know what effect the bursting of his Spiritual Spring would have on his future cultivation. After all, he had failed to condense a Spirit Core—how was he supposed to cultivate from here on?
Though Kuang Cheng had read extensively, he knew nothing about cultivation. He could only help Ji You up and bring him water to rinse his mouth.
After resting for a while, Ji You's spirits improved considerably. He could not help instructing, "After I circulate a few more cycles, I'll be fine. Do not tell anyone about this. The best possible outcome now is simply that Qiu Ru survived."
"Wasn't entering Celestial Academy also the best possible outcome for you?"
"I never intended to go to Celestial Academy. This was purely an accident."
Kuang Cheng was immediately surprised by this. "Could it be that you only wished to hide among the common folk and cultivate in secret? What meaning would that have?"
Ji You shook his head. "You have insulted a man's ambitions. Though I do not wish to become an orthodox cultivator, I still have plans for my life. Had the Qiu family matter not occurred, I would likely have gone up the mountain next year to become a bandit."
"?"
"There is a bandit den west of Yuyang County. Everyone there is an independent cultivator, and they speak so pleasantly. I heard that if a cultivator who has achieved Perfection of the Lower Three Realms is willing to go up the mountain, he can at minimum apply to become a Hall Master. Then I can bring Old Qiu's whole family up the mountain, and we can live high on the hog."
Kuang Cheng had never expected him to truly have such a plan. His brow furrowed after hearing it. "You could clearly become an orthodox cultivator, yet you insist on going up the mountain to become an independent cultivator. Why?"
Ji You coughed twice, unsure where to begin. After pondering for a long while, he finally said, "At first, I did not know I would be able to cultivate successfully. There is another reason as well: I do not want to consume offerings bought with human blood."
"What are offerings bought with human blood?"
"Cultivators never do anything, yet swallow up most of the world's resources and spiritual veins, leaving the people unable to fill their bellies and the realm in misery. Though I have little ability, I can at least choose not to become one more straw crushing the backs of the masses."
After saying this, Ji You raised his head. "Still, I heard Celestial Academy consumes the fewest offerings among the Seven Great Immortal Sects, and it does not use living people to refine medicine. That is a blessing amid misfortune."
Kuang Cheng paused, then raised the book scroll in his hand. "But the book says only disciples who enter the Upper Five Realms and are selected for the Inner Court are qualified to consume the offerings of the masses."
"?"
Ji You froze, then his eyes widened. "You mean even after I enter Celestial Academy, I'll still have to work-study?"
At the time, he had only cared about becoming a bandit and had not looked closely at the part about becoming an orthodox cultivator. Now he was completely dumbfounded.
"Didn't you say you did not want to consume offerings bought with human blood? Isn't this a good thing for you?" Kuang Cheng looked at him in confusion.
"If I become a bandit, I can rob immortals to aid the poor—and still take a cut!"
Great Xia paid offerings to the various immortal sects every year, but how they were distributed was an internal matter for each sect.
Take Celestial Academy, for example. The offerings it received were primarily distributed among Inner Court disciples and educational affairs. Whether one was in the Initial Condensation Realm or had achieved Perfection of the Lower Three Realms, one was ultimately still an Outer Court disciple and thus could not claim a share of the offerings.
Just as Ji You was beginning to doubt his entire life, Kuang Cheng spoke again. "Actually, I'll also be going to Shengjing in a few days."
Ji You came back to his senses. "What are you going to Shengjing for?"
"The Imperial Examination."
Before you continue