Future Plans

He had brought these books back hoping to gather useful information about A World. But what disappointed Huang Huai was that they weren't historical records and rarely touched on the wider world.

That left Huang Huai's understanding of A World like flowers seen through a fog. Much of the time, he could only make guesses based on accounts in biographies.

Still, by piecing things together, Huang Huai could extract some useful information.

For one thing, it was clear that A World contained supernatural powers and people who cultivated. Cultivators seemed to rely heavily on all kinds of divine statues, which appeared to be a form of cultivation resource.

He thought of the people burning incense and worshipping the gods when the Seventh Elder of Great River Sect bestowed blessings. The amount of divine favor manifested seemed to be measured by the amount of incense offered. Huang Huai couldn't help wondering whether offerings and faith were also important to cultivators—or whether they benefited the divine statues themselves.

Another thing he'd learned was that A World wasn't nearly as peaceful as it had seemed. The biographies made that clear: powerful figures honored as High Gods had either perished in calamities brought by Gods, Demons, and Malevolent Spirits, or fallen in clashes with their fellow cultivators.

There also seemed to be all kinds of factions in A World, such as Great River Sect, which controlled Great River City, and Dongyang Sect, where Meng Qiuran—the subject of one biography—belonged.

To embark on cultivation, one needed a cultivation method. Meng Qiuran of Dongyang Sect cultivated the sect's secret Great Divine Court Scripture. As for Bull Demon High God Qin Zhuang, though he'd been born with extraordinary gifts, he might have grown old and died in some village like countless ordinary people if he hadn't stumbled upon the cultivation method Hundred Refinements Divine Palace Method.

Thinking about all this made Huang Huai even less able to sleep. He rolled over, sat up in bed, and began to consider what he could get from A World. Or, rather, what he wanted from it.

Gold, silver, and other valuables didn't matter much to him. Influenced by Great Daoist Master, Huang Huai was rather easygoing and detached. He didn't think he'd be tempted by the wealth of A World.

Gold, silver, and other valuables held little appeal for him. What truly stirred his heart was the wondrous supernatural power displayed by the cultivators of A World.

So what Huang Huai wanted to know was how he could set foot on the path of cultivation and, like those High Gods, wield mighty supernatural power.

"People say that cultivators need Law, Companion, Wealth, and Location: a cultivation method, cultivation resources, fellow cultivators, and a suitable environment. I don't seem to have any of those!"

Huang Huai let out a bitter laugh and murmured to himself. He hadn't even touched the threshold of cultivation, yet he was already thinking about what he needed to cultivate. He was getting ahead of himself.

But he quickly rallied. True, he had none of the four essentials right now. But he shouldn't forget that, in A World, he had an entire modern world behind him. With a whole world as his backing, he refused to believe that he, a living, breathing man, could be barred from the path of cultivation.

After giving himself a pep talk, Huang Huai settled on his ultimate goal in A World: to wield supernatural power.

Of course, he'd have to take things one step at a time. A World was anything but peaceful. If he charged in without a plan, who knew whether he'd be so lucky next time?

He'd been lucky this time and hadn't run into trouble. But if he truly entrusted his safety to luck, one day he'd lose his life.

Once his thoughts had settled, Huang Huai leaned against the bed. Since sleep still wouldn't come, he began making plans for his next trip to A World.

"I need to bring more silver. It's clearly hard currency in A World. I should bring some gold, too. According to the biographies, gold never tarnishes and makes excellent material for gilding divine statues. It's valuable even among the High Gods. Most of the time, money can solve ninety-nine percent of the world's problems."

Remembering his conversation with the couple who owned the eatery, and how the waiter had reacted when Huang Huai gave him a Silver Gourd Seed, Huang Huai wrote the words "gold" and "silver" in his notebook under the faint moonlight.

"Besides gold and silver, I should bring one or two divine statues. So many shops have statues enshrined in them. That suggests divine statues aren't only useful to cultivators. They must be of some use to ordinary people, too."

Then Huang Huai wrote "divine statues" in his notebook.

"Next is safety. Even if A World offers a path to immortality and godhood, there's no point risking my life if I can't even keep myself safe."

He added the words "personal safety" to his notebook.

"Right, there's one more thing: I have to do everything I can to keep my crossing a secret. From the moment that mysterious portal linking the two worlds appears to when it fully solidifies and opens, it takes more than ten seconds. That may not sound like much, but for someone with great power, it's probably enough time to unleash dozens of deadly attacks. So whenever I open the portal, I have to make sure it's safe and secluded. If I can avoid opening it, I should. You can't keep walking by the river without getting your shoes wet. If I open the portal too often and travel back and forth between the two worlds, sooner or later someone might discover me."

Whenever something occurred to Huang Huai, he wrote it down. From time to time, he also took out his phone and looked things up online.

It wasn't until well into the night, after much thought, that Huang Huai finally drifted off, overcome by sleepiness.

When daylight came, Huang Huai got up early as usual. Normally, after staying awake until two or three in the morning, he would have slept late the next day.

If he'd gotten up early, his head would have been groggy and he'd have felt drained. Huang Huai had experienced that firsthand whenever he'd stayed up late and risen early.

But this time, he woke early feeling full of energy, without the slightest trace of that half-dead feeling.

Even Huang Huai, slow as he could be, realized that this had to be because the High God's blessing had benefited both his body and mind.

He'd received only a little blessing in A World, yet it had such a noticeable effect. Huang Huai's heart stirred with excitement.

But after joining his fellow senior disciples for a set of health exercises and moving around for half an hour, his excitement settled. His muscles and bones loosened, his blood flowed freely, and instead of feeling tired, he felt refreshed all over.

After breakfast, Huang Huai changed into a Taoist robe, as Chen Wei and the others did. He first went to the side hall, took out incense and candles as usual, and respectfully offered incense to Holy Lord Emperor Guan, enshrined there.

Not long afterward, tourists began arriving at Xunzhen Temple. Huang Huai, Chen Wei, and the others got busy as well. Their work was simply to maintain order at Xunzhen Temple and answer visitors' questions.