The Scripture Pavilion was a grand hall thirty meters long and twenty meters wide. Inside, there were not many books, and they had been arranged very loosely—about a thousand in all.
All one thousand were cultivation techniques for the Innate Stage, capable of cultivation up to the Golden Core Stage. In the outside world, they would all have been top-tier martial arts manuals that people would fight tooth and nail over, yet here, there were a thousand of them.
The fifty-five people had each found the secret manuals they wanted and were now constantly reciting them.
Zhong Shan, however, started from the beginning and flipped through the books one by one.
Including those in the others' hands, there were sixteen manuals with white fingerprints on them—the best ones.
Zhong Shan spent half a day repeatedly narrowing down the choices and finally selected two cultivation manuals.
The Great Yang Divine Skill and the Supreme Yin True Scripture.
One was supremely hard, the other supremely soft. Each had ten stages. The sixth stage formed True Essence, and after the tenth stage, breaking through meant entering the Golden Core Stage.
The Great Yang Divine Skill was naturally for his main body to practice, while the Supreme Yin True Scripture was for the Hidden Body in distant Zhong Manor.
The two books obviously had fewer words than the Red Phoenix Heavenly Scripture and the Heavenly Devil Body Tempering Great Technique.
Whenever he was hungry, he went back to eat something, and once full, he returned to recite the books. During this period, Zhong Shan's Hidden Body did not copy down these techniques. Instead, he simply memorized them. It was not that Zhong Shan had never considered it; he knew how important the first reading and memorization of a book were. Usually, one's comprehension was greatest the first time through.
Eight days. After eight days, Zhong Shan had completely memorized the contents of both manuals.
Zhong Shan's residence was in a valley with an excellent environment. There was a waterfall, with a deep pool below it, and a small courtyard beside it. Next to the courtyard was a plot of land, and the Kaiyang Sect had provided a large quantity of seeds.
Looking at the seeds in the house, Zhong Shan felt rather strange.
Self-sufficiency? The Kaiyang Sect had no servants; everything depended on oneself. If one found it troublesome, one could hunt animals in the mountains and cook them, or find spirit fruits to eat. After all, this place contained an entire mountain range, with abundant produce. But there were vicious beasts in the mountains, so one had to be careful. If one died, no one would care.
The residences where everyone stayed, however, were absolutely safe. Arrays protected every residence, preventing poisonous insects and wild beasts from approaching.
Of course, only those at the Innate Stage still needed to eat. Once one reached the Golden Core Stage, one could use the energy of heaven and earth in place of grains.
Looking at the seeds, Zhong Shan felt odd again, but in the end, he sorted them: some vegetable seeds and some rice seeds.
After spending several days, Zhong Shan divided up a plot of land beside the house, planting some vegetables and some rice. After all, he was at the Innate Stage, and he finished everything completely within a few days.
The house contained various tools, clearly all used by those who had come before.
The Supreme Yin True Scripture was an extremely yin cultivation technique paired with a sword technique. For now, the Hidden Body practiced it, since the Hidden Body had also reached the Innate Stage a few days earlier and could cultivate it perfectly.
The Great Yang Divine Skill was an extremely yang cultivation technique paired with a saber technique. It also worked better when cultivated around flames.
Fire? Where was he supposed to get fire? He would have to go up the mountain and chop wood. Zhong Shan stared strangely at this barren place, his heart filled with indescribable bewilderment. Back in the Great Kun Kingdom, whenever he wanted something, didn't he have it? Here, why did he feel even more miserable than a poor peasant?
Still, for the sake of his grand undertaking of cultivating immortality, Zhong Shan endured it.
Closing his eyes, he began the first stage of the Great Yang Divine Skill. The Great Yang Divine Skill used true qi to temper the flesh, skin, sinews, and bones. Zhong Shan quickly began practicing. This one session lasted half a day, and by evening, he had barely entered the gate.
His dry rations had been eaten up, so he caught some fresh fish from the pool nearby and cooked them himself.
He spent the night regulating his breathing. Zhong Shan did not slack off in the slightest. The next day, at daybreak, he picked up a large saber that had already been in the house, brought some rope, and went to chop wood.
Once he left the valley's defensive array, it was no longer safe. He cautiously examined the surrounding forest and did not go too deep, merely felling two large trees at the edge and dragging them back with rope.
Outside the courtyard, he chopped the trees into many sections and carried them into the woodshed.
Next, Zhong Shan practiced his saber technique.
The Great Yang Divine Skill contained only two saber moves: Heaven Splitting Strike and Slaughter Without Mercy. But when practicing saber techniques, one had to pay attention to the grain along which one cleaved and slashed. Everything had weaknesses. To cleave or slash something was not a matter of brute force, but of finding its weakness. It was like the grain of wood: as long as one cleaved into the grain, one's power would multiply, producing an immense effect.
Then he might as well chop wood. Zhong Shan soon discovered that wood had the most obvious grain and was the easiest to practice on.
The sections of wood he had chopped that morning became the start of Zhong Shan's career as a woodcutter.
Following the movement and breathing method of the Great Yang Divine Skill, he brought the saber down, stroke after stroke. A former tycoon had actually found himself doing such hard labor.
At first, either his movements were wrong and his saber technique was wrong, or his saber technique was right but he could not accurately strike the grain. Even after hitting the grain, it would suddenly change partway through, preventing him from chopping all the way from beginning to end.
But Zhong Shan persisted.
Two days later, his movements and saber technique had both become practiced, but he still could not cleave all the way along a single grain. Thus, Zhong Shan was not very satisfied with himself. When he went to fetch more wood, however, he discovered that all the timber had been chopped into small pieces.
There was no uncut wood left.
Looking at the chopped wood, Zhong Shan kept some to cook with. He carried the rest outside the courtyard and, following his own requirements, dug a large pit. He made the soil into blocks and set them aside.
He filled the entire perimeter of the pit with wood.
Zhong Shan stripped naked and jumped into the center, where there was no wood. He set the fire, sat cross-legged, and soon flames rose all around him. At the center of the fire, Zhong Shan began continuously circulating the Great Yang Divine Skill.
The Great Yang Divine Skill could stimulate cultivation beneath a blazing fire, and it was indeed so. As Zhong Shan cultivated, he felt as if the flames around him were constantly tempering his body. His true qi also absorbed some of the fire's heat, continuously nourishing his body.
His entire body had been reddened by the smoke and flames, but Zhong Shan felt that cultivating this way was more than twice as fast as before.
Having tasted the benefits, Zhong Shan cultivated even harder. Only after all the wood around the pit had turned to dry ash and the flames had gone out did he regulate his breathing and stop his practice.
Looking at the pit full of ashes, Zhong Shan quickly dug them out and carried them to the nearby field to use as fertilizer, making use of the waste.
He chopped wood to practice his saber technique and burned wood to refine his divine skill. Even when resting, Zhong Shan worked hard to keep himself in a state of circulating true qi and regulating his breath. Without stopping for a moment, Zhong Shan trained the Great Yang Divine Skill with extraordinary diligence.
Finally, after one month, he reached the first stage of the Great Yang Divine Skill. The first stage—at last, the first stage! After a month, Zhong Shan's face showed extreme excitement.
At this moment, not far from Zhong Shan's courtyard, near the vegetable plot, stood a large house. Beside it was a shed filled with chopped wood. This large house had been built by Zhong Shan during this period: a kiln, a huge kiln.
During cultivation, flames raged inside as Zhong Shan sat at the center, resisting the scorching heat, tempering his body, and practicing the Great Yang Divine Skill. At the same time, it also served to make bricks and stones, firing them for Zhong Shan to use in building the house himself.
It was in this kiln that Zhong Shan reached the first level of the Innate Stage.
Naked, he pushed open the stone door and walked out of the kiln. All the hair on his body had been burned away, yet his skin had somehow not been blackened by the smoke and fire; it was merely somewhat flushed.
He reached the edge of the deep pool and plunged headfirst into it, carefully washing his body. Afterward, his whole body felt much more comfortable. He cooked some food and then continued cultivating. Besides the Great Yang Divine Skill, Zhong Shan also practiced the Red Phoenix Heavenly Scripture and the Heavenly Devil Body Tempering Great Technique. Although these two techniques were auxiliary cultivation methods, they still possessed their own wondrous qualities.
Because his cultivation damaged his clothes rather easily, Zhong Shan normally went bare-chested.
The next day, Zhong Shan left the valley again, carrying his saber to chop wood.
Meanwhile, inside Kaiyang Hall, Tian Xingzi, Gu Shuangzi, and Xuan Xinzi had already returned. They seemed to have just discussed something, and all three wore frowns without saying a word.
Just then, Tian Ling'er, who had received the news, suddenly ran to the great hall.
"Dad, did you get the Somersault Cloud?" Tian Ling'er called out the moment she entered the hall.
"The Somersault Cloud?" Tian Xingzi visibly paused, while Gu Shuangzi and Xuan Xinzi both looked strangely at Tian Ling'er.
The Somersault Cloud? What Somersault Cloud?
"That Zhong Shan told me everything already, so don't try to fool me." Tian Ling'er called out coquettishly.
"Told you what?" Tian Xingzi furrowed his brows and looked strangely at Tian Ling'er.
"The Somersault Cloud, of course. One somersault takes you a hundred and eight thousand li." Tian Ling'er's eyes shone with excitement.
The three exchanged a glance, then all stared at Tian Ling'er with their mouths hanging open.
P.S. I'm fighting for the rankings and urgently need recommendation votes. I humbly beg you to recommend this work; I would be deeply grateful.
Before you continue