Goldfinger Arrives

Familiarization complete.

Cheng Buzheng took a small pouch from his robes; it was identical to the one hanging from the waist of Senior Brother Huang, who had tested his aptitude earlier.

This object was none other than a storage bag, the starter kit issued by the sect to all new disciples.

He walked over to the wooden bed and took inventory of his entire fortune. Calling it a fortune was a stretch; it was merely the welfare provided by the sect to newcomers, his very first wealth.

His thought stirred, and his divine sense probed into the storage bag. The interior space was roughly one cubic meter, containing ten spirit stones and a set of gray robes.

Having thoroughly studied the Cultivation Encyclopedia, Cheng Buzheng had a rough idea of the purchasing power of ten spirit stones. They could buy five spirit pills capable of advancing cultivation in the Early Qi Refining Stage. Although these were the most common—and thus cheapest—pills for cultivation, they were essentially free, so he couldn't complain.

As for the set of robes, they were the standard sect uniform. Without advancing to Qi Refining Level 1, he wouldn't even have had the chance to wear them; after all, the clothes were inside the storage bag, and without the divine sense and magic power of Level 1, he would have no way to open it.

These robes were a low-grade magic tool, featuring self-cleaning and constant-temperature spells, and were exceptionally tough, ignoring the slashes of mortal weapons.

He placed the robes, the ten spirit stones, and the bottle of spirit pills on the wooden bed, then took out the storage bag, a jade slip, and a book to place alongside them.

The bottle of pills contained Bigu Pills. He had been lucky enough to receive one at the County Square; after nearly two months of consumption, the original bottle of ten pills now held only eight, averaging one per month.

Inside the Immortal Sect, there was the Fengyun Tower, where all dishes were prepared with spirit medicine and demonic beast meat, and all drinks were spirit wine. However, the currency for settling the bill was not mortal silver, but precious spirit stones.

Moreover, the prices at Fengyun Tower were not low; a single simple meal cost at least one spirit stone, which was far beyond his current means.

Consequently, he had no choice but to rely on Bigu Pills for now.

The jade slip contained the sect-issued Crimson Fire Technique, while the book was the Cultivation Encyclopedia. It was the primer for his immortal path, filled with essential cultivation knowledge that would keep him from fumbling around in the dark.

Cheng Buzheng looked at all his belongings, clutching the white jade identity token in his hand and rubbing it with his thumb, his inner turmoil evident.

The token was only the size of a palm and seemed carved from some kind of spirit jade. On the front, a flood dragon was carved in relief, surrounding the three ancient, austere characters for "White Cloud Sect" in the center.

On the back, the characters "Cheng Buzheng" were carved in the center, with the four smaller characters for "Outer Sect Disciple" at the bottom.

This was his sect identity token, bound to his soul's aura and a symbol of the sect itself.

A moment later.

Cheng Buzheng's thought stirred, and he stowed his items away, leaving only the robes on the bed.

Shortly after.

Once he had changed into the robes with the storage bag at his waist, he finally looked a bit like a sect disciple.

He examined himself, a faint smile touching his lips, before sitting cross-legged on the bed to resume his cultivation.

Cheng Buzheng did not stop his training today just because he had reached Qi Refining Level 1; he knew that in the cultivation world, he was like an infant in swaddling clothes, with no ability to resist danger.

Without further delay, he sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

Suddenly, he felt a strange sensation in his soul, but he paid it no mind.

Cheng Buzheng practiced the Crimson Fire Technique, maintaining a steady, special rhythm. As he circulated heavenly energy, a large number of red light motes, accompanied by a small amount of yellow and gold motes, merged into his body and entered his meridians.

The motes moved according to the specific technique. Just as he was about to complete a full cycle and the motes were on the verge of being refined, the yellow and gold motes, along with a significant portion of the red ones, dissipated within his body.

Cheng Buzheng could do nothing about this; it was one of the differences in quality between spiritual roots, affecting cultivation speed, the chance of advancement, the effect of refining pills, and so on.

Those with good aptitude advanced with the speed of wind and thunder, while those with poor aptitude moved as slowly as snails!

The difference between spiritual roots was truly vast, and to this day, no great expert had managed to research what exactly a spiritual root was or achieve any definitive results.

Cheng Buzheng was quite content with his three spiritual roots. While he could not compare to those with single or double spiritual roots, those with four or five were far worse off—he was better than some, if not the best.

He felt quite fortunate, as the better the aptitude, the rarer the occurrence.

Perhaps one in a hundred with five spiritual roots might produce one with four, and it might take a hundred of those to produce one with three, and so on. This showed just how rare and precious single spiritual roots were.

After Cheng Buzheng finished his cycle, he finally sensed the ripple in his soul that he had felt while practicing the Crimson Fire Technique.

He calmed his heart, sent his divine sense into his sea of consciousness, and focused his intent. Deep within his sea of consciousness, a purple small disc shimmering with purple light floated in the depths.

The more Cheng Buzheng looked at it, the more familiar it seemed; this purple small disc was an object from his previous life.

Could it be that this purple small disc was what brought me to this world?

And this body just happens to have spiritual roots—otherwise, how could so many coincidences overlap like this?

This purple small disc was something he had picked up as a bargain at a street stall in his past life.

At the time.

He had noticed that the disc looked brand new, but he could not identify the material it was made of, so he bought it out of curiosity.

He spent a year studying it without finding any similar material. The patterns carved on the disc were extremely complex; looking at them for too long seemed to cause a loss of focus, as if his thoughts had come to a standstill.

With no results, he had reluctantly hung the small, exquisite purple disc around his neck.

Suddenly.

The purple small disc shot out a stream of information that merged into his soul.

After reading it, he understood the disc's function. Its purpose was simple: it absorbed pure spirit energy, stored it within its complex patterns, and when spells or techniques were placed in the recessed nest at its center, it used that pure spirit energy to evolve them into stronger spirit seeds.

Once a spirit seed was absorbed, one could obtain more refined spells and powerful spell techniques. Moreover, it was a leap to the heavens—one would directly reach the perfection realm.

However, the Great Dao was fifty, the Heavens evolved forty-nine, and one escaped; he could only master nine spells to the perfection realm.

Additionally, the disc had a small function for manifesting information.

He tried testing this feature. His thought stirred, and the purple small disc bloomed with a faint light. Instantly, a floating panel appeared above the disc.

Master of the Heavenly Jade Disc: Cheng Buzheng Realm: Qi Refining Level 1 Technique: First-order Mid-grade (Ordinary) Crimson Fire Technique (Entry) Spiritual Power Value: 0

A seemingly ordinary disc, yet its function was powerful—truly a miracle of creation.

He knew clearly that this was the foundation for his foothold in this world.

Seeing the spiritual power value at zero, he couldn't help but think of the ten spirit stones in his storage bag, but he immediately suppressed the thought.

Having just joined the sect, there would surely be many places where spirit stones were needed. It would not be too late to allocate them once he had learned and familiarized himself with the sect.

Suddenly.

Cheng Buzheng thought of his own magic power, which was also refined from spirit energy.

Magic power: Formed by the fusion of pure spirit energy and one's own will; its power varied depending on the technique and the attributes of the spirit energy.

But since he was the master of the Heavenly Jade Disc, and his magic power contained a bit of his own will, there shouldn't be much difference.

Using my own magic power to replace spirit energy should work, right?

If it succeeds, everyone is happy, and I can save a large number of spirit stones in the future. If it fails, I lose nothing. Trying doesn't cost a thing!

Action followed thought.

His divine sense enveloped a thread of red magic power within his Dantian space, simultaneously connecting to the Heavenly Jade Disc deep in his sea of consciousness, but the Heavenly Jade Disc did not move in the slightest.

Clearly, the experiment failed.

Seeing this, Cheng Buzheng frowned, but said nothing more.

Instead, he silently closed his eyes and practiced with great care; having just stepped into Qi Refining Level 1, he needed to consolidate his foundation.

Suddenly.

The surrounding spirit energy gathered toward him, forming a thin layer of spirit light. As he practiced the Crimson Fire Technique step by step, that thin layer of spirit light was absorbed into his body bit by bit.

PS: Placing my bowl, a polite triple request (seeking favorites, seeking recommendations, seeking tickets).