The old man looked Qi WuHuo up and down.
At last, he smiled and nodded. "Good."
"I've met quite a few cultivators. Your aptitude isn't especially good, but your understanding is excellent."
"Still, if you'd been relying on slow, steady effort to cultivate the Primordial Essence method, you wouldn't have made such quick progress."
"Tell me, what happened?"
So Qi WuHuo told him everything about encountering the Fierce Tiger Mountain God on his way up the mountain. He also explained the Gathering and Refining Primordial Essence method the god had taught him. The old man stroked his beard. "I see... You learned a method for refining Primordial Essence."
"You were able to grasp the knack of cultivating through both action and inaction from that method. Not bad."
The old man looked at Qi WuHuo and smiled. "However, this method for refining Primordial Essence is too basic. It was also an early, experimental creation."
"Looking at it now, there are quite a few parts that aren't quite right."
Qi WuHuo asked, puzzled, "An early creation? But it seems to have been written by the Dao Ancestor..."
The old man laughed heartily. "Not every cultivation method bearing the Dao Ancestor's name was written by the Dao Ancestor."
"Otherwise, with so many methods in the world, wouldn't he be worked to death?"
"Come, come. Sit over here, and I'll explain it to you."
The old man called Qi WuHuo over and had him sit beside him. Then he went through the Primordial Essence method in detail. Compared with the Fierce Tiger Mountain God's five hundred years of insight, his explanation was quite different. Set side by side, the old man's words struck straight to the heart of the matter and were much more concise. The tiger's method of refinement seemed to have been obtained long ago, when his understanding was still shallow. Looking at it now, it had quite a few problems.
When he had finished, the old man stroked his beard and waved a hand. "That was a fortuitous method the tiger found. I just thought it was interesting, so I told you about it."
"It wasn't something I passed on to you."
"So I haven't broken my word."
He hadn't even finished speaking before the old man himself could barely hold back his laughter. He shook his head and chuckled.
Pointing at the mountain produce, he said, "There are ginseng, Huang Jing, and all sorts of medicinal materials in there. Though you can't rely on external things forever, you're still laying your foundation, so you can certainly eat some for now. You've only planted the seeds of the Three Flowers. Give it a few years, and one day, when you Complete Three Talents and then unite essence with qi, you'll be able to cultivate something worthwhile."
Qi WuHuo looked at the mountain produce, seeming as though he wanted to say something.
The old man stroked his beard and smiled. "If you have something to say, go ahead."
Qi WuHuo cupped his hands. "...May I tell that Mountain God about the flaws in this Primordial Essence method and how to correct them?"
The old man answered casually:
"I already told you. This was a method the Fierce Tiger found."
"I didn't pass it on to you; I merely explained it. What you choose to do is up to you."
Qi WuHuo bowed deeply.
Then he picked up the Sword Artifact he used for protection, turned, and lifted the curtain. The old man called after him with a smile, "You're going now?"
"Mm."
"When will you be back?"
Qi WuHuo glanced outside. By now, after the lesson, the sky had already grown dark. He replied,
"After I've passed on the message, I'll be leaving."
The old man smiled. "Then make dinner first."
Qi WuHuo cooked dinner for the old man, then set off for the mountain.
The tiger was drinking beneath the moon, nourishing his spirit with its light. Few spirit beasts accompanied him, and the scene seemed both desolate and serene.
He had cultivated for more than five hundred years.
His Primordial Essence and primordial qi had reached an extremely high level. Three hundred years ago, he had already united essence and qi and cultivated Primordial Prenatal Qi.
After that came another three hundred years of cultivation, without a single day of slackening.
If he wished, he had the means to enter the next realm: he could swallow moonlight and drink dew, then soar skyward; gather and refine qi to condense earthly baleful energy; or swallow his Mountain God talisman and connect himself completely to the earth's veins, becoming an earth deity.
At the very least, he could find a way to beg an edict from the Heavenly Emperor, then let the affairs of the world flow past like water.
Any of those would let him roar proudly over his domain.
But he couldn't. He couldn't...
The tiger lay there, cutting away the many distracting thoughts that surfaced in his heart.
When he was young, he'd had the good fortune to glimpse the Great Dao of cultivation. From that moment, he had resolved to take that step on the foundation of the true Great Dao.
[Refining Essence] [Transforming Qi].
One who cultivated to this point could be called a True Person.
And he had already completed the next step.
Primordial Essence and primordial qi united and became qi—that was the great medicine.
He had spent several hundred years grinding away every trace of yin in that great medicine, transforming it into pure Yang.
This was the process of [Refining Qi].
One step further, and pure Yang Qi would unite with the Primordial Spirit. That was the stage of cultivation called [Returning to the Spirit].
The Daoists called that realm the Yang Spirit.
The Three Flowers could Gather at the Crown.
One would be beyond the ordinary.
Yet this was the very pass that had held him back for a full three hundred years.
Perhaps he would grow old and die on this mountain without ever taking that step.
As the Mountain God drank beneath the moon on the snowy plain, he suddenly lifted his eyes slightly. He caught the faintest sound. Looking toward the mountain path below, he saw a blue-clad youth parting the snow-laden branches that crisscrossed the road. The boy strode toward him.
A visitor beneath the moon.
"Hm? Qi WuHuo..."
Recognizing him, the Mountain God raised his eyes and asked teasingly, "It's late. Why have you come in such a hurry? Are the spirit medicines not enough?"
The boy replied, "I received an addition to the Primordial Essence refining method you gave me."
"Oh?"
"Haha, in that case, I shall listen with an open mind."
The Mountain God hadn't thought much of it at first. But when Qi WuHuo simply sat down on a rock, gathered the hem of his robe, and began explaining the supplemented and corrected method of Gathering and Refining Primordial Essence, the Mountain God's composure tightened. The boy's features were ordinary, nothing remarkable, but as he sat there beneath the moon and explained the cultivation method, his expression was calm and gentle.
After listening, the Mountain God sat stunned for a long while.
The bottleneck that had trapped him for so long seemed to have begun to open.
But how could that be?!
When Qi WuHuo finished, he added, "Primordial Essence, primordial qi, and the Primordial Spirit cannot be separated even for an instant."
"You must bring all three to completion before you can advance. Otherwise, you'll make rapid progress at first, but sooner or later, you'll get stuck at a bottleneck."
"You might make no progress for thirty years, or even fifty."
"The elder in my household told me about the flaws in this method, so I came to tell you."
"Why rush the timing? The Great Dao can be followed at a leisurely pace."
Beneath the moonlight, the Mountain God saw the boy sitting upright, his hair slightly mussed. Dirty snow and stains clung to the hem of his robe, picked up on his night walk across the snowy mountain path. There was no doubt: as soon as the boy had learned of these things, he had hurried here in the night to tell him.
The tiger sighed. "There was no need to go to such trouble."
"You could have come tomorrow."
Qi WuHuo smiled without answering, then rose to take his leave.
He didn't accept the Mountain God's invitation to stay and drink spirit wine while discussing the Dao. Instead, beneath the moonlight, he took up a plain but clean sword and made his way down the mountain, sinking deep into the snow with every other step.
When he got home,
his shoes were completely soaked.
The old man was paging through a light read without looking up. "Did you tell him?"
"Mm."
"Why didn't you stay?"
Qi WuHuo replied, "Because I've already done what I needed to do."
"And dinner will be ready soon."
"Old man, it's time to eat."
The old man looked up at Qi WuHuo, who seemed a little happier than usual, and smiled faintly.
"Good."
The next morning, after getting up, Qi WuHuo regulated his breath and refined Primordial Essence.
Then he cooked a meal for the old man.
Only then did he pick up the washed winter bamboo shoots and mountain delicacies and head toward Li Puyü's home.
By then, the Mountain God, who had sat all night, finally felt that the bottleneck blocking him was about to break. So he invited the nearby Water Gods and Earth Gods to his mountain sanctuary. When the earth deities arrived, they learned that the tiger wanted to trade with them for things that could nourish the spirit.
The tiger laid out everything he had accumulated—
Perhaps it would now take a great deal to make up for his moment of impatience in the past.
But the tiger didn't begrudge it.
One Earth God arrived rather late. After arriving, he quickly apologized before taking his seat. The other earth deities jokingly demanded that he atone with drinks. He didn't hesitate, downing three cups before finally explaining why he was late, amid his friends' teasing. "Ah, it was my duty, wasn't it?"
"Don't know what happened, but today, a large residence in the town under my jurisdiction was thick with deathly energy."
"Seems they've stirred up some sort of Killing Intent."
"I barely managed to isolate the Baleful Intent so it wouldn't affect the earth's veins. Someone must have coveted gold that wasn't theirs."
"Serves them right to die."
The Earth Gods and Mountain Gods were earth deities whose purpose was to keep the earth's veins in order. They didn't meddle in human affairs.
Someone asked what residence it was.
The Earth God held his cup in one hand and pointed toward the northwest. "It's over there, the home of a family surnamed Li."
"The one that invited a lot of guests over today."
The Fierce Tiger Mountain God, who had been drinking heartily, froze.
"Hm?!"
"Whose home?"
At the same time,
Qi WuHuo raised his eyes to the two characters, [Li Residence], on the plaque above the gate and knocked on the door.
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