Cultivation

"Today, a sudden fire broke out at an abandoned factory on the outskirts of Luo City. Firefighters arrived in time and brought the spread of the blaze under control.

There have been no casualties so far. The details of the fire are still under further investigation."

The clear voice of a news anchor came from the television in a street-side convenience store.

Lu Yan glanced at the television. The fire at the abandoned factory was still raging fiercely, impossible to extinguish through conventional means. The firefighters could only create a firebreak to prevent the flames from spreading.

Bringing the blaze under control was only the beginning. Once the spirit fire consuming the factory went out and the Underground Factory was exposed, the authorities would inevitably dig up even more.

But none of that had much to do with Lu Yan. He had already left the outskirts of Luo City and returned to the residential complex where he lived.

Passing through the gates of the aging complex, the old buildings steeped in the marks of time and the elderly people downstairs chatting in the shade all bore witness to its history.

Yet for some reason, as Lu Yan passed through the complex, the eyes of the old people around him were filled with surprise, and hushed whispers began to rise throughout the neighborhood.

"That's the Lu Family kid."

"That boy really has good fortune!"

"It's been three months already. I thought he wouldn't come back here."

"You don't understand. Returning home in wealth and honor is better than walking at night in embroidered robes. The richer you are, the more you should come home."

"Looking at how he's dressed, he doesn't seem all that rich, does he?"

The scattered snatches of conversation left Lu Yan somewhat baffled, so he could only ignore them.

He made his way up to the fifth floor, took the spare key from the fire hydrant cabinet, and turned the lock to open the door.

Just then, the neighboring door suddenly opened, and an elderly woman with a head full of silver hair looked at Lu Yan in astonishment.

"Little Lu, why are you back?"

Lu Yan was even more confused. Before he could respond, he heard the old woman continue:

"I heard Mega-corporations took a liking to you and sent you to Myanmar to do international business.

Some said you became a big landowner in Myanmar. Others said you became rich and settled down in a big city. In any case, they said you wouldn't come back to this old neighborhood."

Hearing that, Lu Yan immediately realized that, in the Xianxia Version, Steward Chu had taken him away from that mortal city.

To outsiders, that was an immortal opportunity ordinary people could only dream of. Even becoming a mere clerk under a cultivator was a position beyond the reach of common folk.

But only Lu Yan knew that Steward Chu had not chosen him with good intentions.

What had happened in the Xianxia Version had been reflected into the Urban Version, turning directly into Mega-corporations taking a liking to Lu Yan and sending him to Myanmar to get rich.

Thinking of Myanmar's notorious online reputation for human trafficking and telecom scams, Lu Yan actually felt that explanation made a bit of sense.

People and events between different versions did not correspond completely, but some parts always lined up in the end.

Having figured out the reason, Lu Yan could not help twitching at the corner of his mouth. He quickly explained to the elderly woman before him:

"Grandma Xu, don't listen to other people's nonsense. There's no such thing as Mega-corporations or Myanmar. I was just away on a business trip for a while."

To his surprise, the old woman immediately showed a knowing expression.

"Wealth should not be flaunted; keeping a low profile is the way. I understand!"

Lu Yan found it hard to explain further. After exchanging a few more pleasantries, he stepped into the home he had been away from for three whole months.

Lu Yan's home was not large, an old-fashioned apartment of just over eighty square meters, but for one person, it was more than spacious enough.

Lu Yan's parents had died young, leaving behind a substantial inheritance and this apartment, allowing him to finish university.

Lying on the old sofa, free at last from the cold, hard bedboards, Lu Yan felt the long-lost comfort ease his entire body and mind.

At that moment, it was as though he had finally escaped the nightmare of the past three months and returned to a civilized society.

For a while, Lu Yan was lost in thought.

After a moment, Lu Yan let out a long sigh.

"Sadly, this peaceful life in the Urban Version won't last forever."

Before Lu Yan's eyes, words had already appeared on an illusory screen.

Current Version: Urban

Version Update Progress: 0.02%

Although Lu Yan could choose the direction of the world's version update, he could not stop the Version Update from arriving.

That meant that once the Version Update Progress reached 100%, he would have to choose the next direction for the Version Update once again.

The Apocalypse Version, Cyberpunk Version, Xianxia Version, and many other unknown versions all concealed tremendous dangers.

Even by a rough understanding, the Xianxia Version seemed to be among the more peaceful ones, second only to the Urban Version.

Faced with these endless Version Updates, Lu Yan had no chance to catch his breath.

What was more, Lu Yan's successful counter-killing of Steward Chu was hardly some secret. He had spent a full three months at the Spirit Talisman Shop, so the Demonic Path Cultivator behind Steward Chu would certainly know Lu Yan's identity.

It was fine while he remained in the Urban Version. Under a stable social order, a Demonic Path Cultivator without cultivation would not necessarily be able to stir up much trouble.

But once he returned to the Xianxia Version, the Demonic Path Cultivator's formidable power would undoubtedly make it easy to find him.

If Lu Yan wanted to protect himself, he had to pursue greater strength. Rest was nothing more than a luxury.

With that thought, Lu Yan took out the Storage Bag from his clothes, used a spirit stone to open it, then retrieved the volume of the "Red Lotus Karma Fire Sutra" and began studying it carefully.

During his three months at Bamboo Forest Market, Lu Yan had learned a basic amount about so-called cultivation through constant exposure, though he still did not understand many of the technical terms in cultivation techniques.

He turned on the computer that had sat unused for three months and tried searching online for the technical terms in the cultivation technique.

To his surprise, Lu Yan discovered that much of the terminology in the "Red Lotus Karma Fire Sutra" corresponded to Buddhist and Daoist classics passed down from ancient times in the Urban Version. Many sections were even the original text of those Buddhist and Daoist classics.

"Though they are different versions, they are still the same world. It seems normal that there would be some correspondence."

Lu Yan began patiently translating the "Red Lotus Karma Fire Sutra." He even found diagrams of the human body's meridians and compared them one by one against the circulation routes shown within.

That research alone took a full three days.

Over those three days, other than sleeping, Lu Yan spent all his time studying the "Red Lotus Karma Fire Sutra."

As a genuine high-grade cultivation technique, the "Red Lotus Karma Fire Sutra" was far more difficult to cultivate than things like the Evergreen Art. It contained not only a circulation route for drawing qi into the body, but also a corresponding mental method.

The circulation route was merely the outer form. Only by combining it with an understanding of the mental method could one truly cultivate this high-grade technique and bring out the wondrous power of the "Red Lotus Karma Fire Sutra."

To a certain extent, the deeper one's understanding of the mental method, the faster one could cultivate the technique.

Without a senior cultivator to show the way, relying solely on one's own understanding made every step as difficult as moving an inch.

But this posed no problem for Lu Yan. Though he had no senior cultivator to pass down experience, a casual online search brought up countless interpretations of Buddhist and Daoist classics, greatly assisting his cultivation.

While studying and interpreting the mental method, Lu Yan compared it against Buddhist and Daoist classics and even discovered several errors in the "Red Lotus Karma Fire Sutra."

Without those Buddhist and Daoist classics as reference, those errors would have been difficult to spot. But once one had some understanding of the classics, it became clear that those seemingly insignificant mistakes were a hair's breadth off, yet a thousand miles astray.

Since this cultivation technique had not come by legitimate means in the first place, perhaps the Demonic Path Cultivator had deliberately planted traps within it. Lu Yan decisively chose to trust the Buddhist and Daoist classics that had been passed down in this world for thousands of years and corrected the errors.

On the morning of the third day after returning to the Urban Version, Lu Yan began his first cultivation.