The Golden Finger Had Arrived

Familiarization complete.

Cheng Buzheng took a small pouch from his robe. It looked exactly like the one hanging from Senior Brother Huang's waist when he had tested Cheng's aptitude.

This was a storage pouch, one of the welcome gifts the sect gave to its newly initiated disciples.

He walked over to the wooden bed and took stock of everything he owned. Calling it his entire fortune was a stretch; it was just the benefits the sect gave new disciples, and their first taste of wealth.

With a thought, he sent his Divine Sense into the storage pouch. The space inside was about one cubic meter, and it held ten Spirit Stones and a set of gray robes.

Cheng Buzheng, who had read the Cultivation Encyclopedia cover to cover, had a rough idea of what ten Spirit Stones could buy: five Spirit Pills that could improve one's cultivation in the Early Qi Refining Stage. They were the most ordinary Spirit Pills, and therefore the cheapest kind, but they were free. Having them at all was already a blessing.

The robes were the Sect Uniform. Without advancing to Qi Refining Level 1, he would not even have been able to wear a disciple's robes. After all, they were stored in the pouch, and without advancing to Qi Refining Level 1, he would have had neither Divine Sense nor magic power to open it.

These robes were a Low-grade Magic Tool, with built-in cleaning and temperature-regulating spells, among others. They were also extraordinarily durable, and ordinary weapons could not cut them.

He set the robes, ten Spirit Stones, and a bottle of Spirit Pills on the wooden bed, then took out the storage pouch. He placed a Jade Slip and a book beside them.

The bottle held Bigu Pills. He had been lucky enough to receive one when he was at the County Square. After nearly two months of use, the bottle—which had originally held ten pills—now contained only eight, an average of one a month.

Though there was a Fengyun Tower in the Immortal Sect, every dish in its restaurant was made with Spirit Medicine and Demonic Beast Meat, and its drinks were Spirit Wine. The bill wasn't paid in worldly silver, but in precious Spirit Stones.

Besides, the prices at Fengyun Tower were steep. Even the simplest meal cost at least one Spirit Stone—far beyond what he could afford right now.

So, for the time being, his only option was to take Bigu Pills.

The Jade Slip contained the cultivation technique issued by the sect, the Crimson Fire Technique. The book was the Cultivation Encyclopedia, an introductory guide to the Immortal Path. It recorded a wealth of cultivation knowledge, so he wouldn't be left floundering, utterly at a loss.

Cheng Buzheng looked at all his belongings, holding the white-jade Identity Token in his hand and rubbing it with his fingertip. His restless heart showed in the gesture.

The token was only about the size of his palm, and seemed to be made entirely of some kind of Spirit Jade. On the front, a Flood Dragon was engraved in a circle around three ancient characters at the center: White Cloud Sect.

On the back, the three characters Cheng Buzheng were engraved in the center, with four smaller characters at the bottom: Outer Sect Disciple.

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

A moment later.

With a thought, Cheng Buzheng put away his belongings, leaving only the robes on the bed.

A short while later.

After changing into the robes and hanging the storage pouch at his waist, he finally looked a little like a sect disciple.

He looked himself over and smiled faintly. Then he sat cross-legged on the bed and prepared to cultivate again.

Cheng Buzheng didn't stop cultivating for the day just because he had advanced to Qi Refining Level 1. He knew that in the cultivation world, he was like a baby in swaddling clothes, utterly defenseless.

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

Suddenly, he felt a faint stirring in his soul, but paid it no mind.

Cheng Buzheng circulated the Crimson Fire Technique at an unhurried pace, maintaining its peculiar rhythm as he followed the Celestial Cycle. Among the countless red specks of light in the air were a few yellow and golden ones. They entered his body and flowed into his meridians.

The specks followed the prescribed route of cultivation. Just as they were about to complete one Celestial Cycle and be refined, the yellow and golden specks, along with a good number of red ones, dispersed inside him.

There was nothing Cheng Buzheng could do about it. This was one of the differences between Spiritual Roots: cultivation speed, chances of advancement, and even how well one could refine pills.

Those with good aptitudes advanced as swiftly as wind, thunder, and lightning, while those with poor aptitudes crawled along like snails!

The differences between Spiritual Roots were simply too great. To this day, not even the great cultivators had figured out what Spiritual Roots actually were, let alone made any progress in understanding them.

Cheng Buzheng was quite content with his Three Spiritual Roots. He couldn't compare with those who had a Single Spiritual Root or Double Spiritual Roots, but cultivators with Four Spiritual Roots or Five Spiritual Roots were even more hopeless. He was no match for the best, but better than the worst.

So he felt rather fortunate. The better the aptitude, the rarer it was.

Out of a hundred cultivators with Five Spiritual Roots, perhaps one would have Four Spiritual Roots. It might take a hundred with Four Spiritual Roots to produce one with Three Spiritual Roots, and so on. That was enough to show just how rare and precious a Single Spiritual Root was.

Only after completing one Celestial Cycle did Cheng Buzheng turn his attention to the faint stirring in his soul that he had felt while circulating the Crimson Fire Technique.

He calmed himself and sent his Divine Sense into his Sea of Consciousness, his awareness settling into his soul. Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, a purple disc glimmered and bobbed in the depths.

The more Cheng Buzheng looked at it, the more familiar it seemed. This Purple Small Disc was the very thing he had owned in his previous life.

Could the Purple Small Disc really be what brought me to this world?

And this body just so happens to have Spiritual Roots. How could so many coincidences possibly come together like this?

This Purple Small Disc was the one he had bought after finding it at a street stall in his previous life.

At the time,

he had noticed that the disc looked brand-new, yet he couldn't tell what material it was made of. Curious, he had bought it.

After a year of searching, he still hadn't found anything like its material. The patterns engraved on the disc were also exceedingly intricate. Staring at them for too long made his mind wander, as though his thoughts had ground to a halt.

Unable to learn anything from it, he had unwillingly hung the exquisite little Purple Small Disc around his neck.

Suddenly,

the Purple Small Disc shot a stream of information into his soul.

After reading it, he understood what the disc could do. Its function was simple: absorb pure Spirit Power and store it in the disc's intricate patterns. Then, place spells, cultivation techniques, and the like in the Recessed Nest at its center, and use pure Spirit Power to deduce more powerful Spirit Seeds.

After absorbing a Spirit Seed, he could obtain more refined spells and more powerful Spell Techniques. What's more, he would reach the Perfection Realm in a single leap, comprehending them fully in an instant.

But the Great Dao numbered fifty, while Heaven's evolution accounted for only forty-nine, leaving one to escape. He could master only nine spells at the Perfection Realm.

Besides that, the disc had one other minor function: it could manifest a display.

He tried it. With a thought, the Purple Small Disc glimmered, and a floating panel appeared above it.

Master of the Heavenly Jade Disc: Cheng Buzheng

Realm: Qi Refining Level 1

Cultivation Technique: First-order Mid-grade (Ordinary) Crimson Fire Technique (Entry)

Spiritual Power Value: 0

It looked like an ordinary little disc, but its functions were incredibly powerful—an astonishing wonder of creation.

He knew perfectly well that this was what would let him establish himself in this world.

Seeing that his Spiritual Power Value was zero, he couldn't help thinking of the ten Spirit Stones in his storage pouch. But he quickly suppressed the thought.

He had just joined the sect, and there would surely be many things he needed to spend Spirit Stones on. He could decide how to allocate them after he had learned his way around the sect. There was no rush.

Suddenly,

Cheng Buzheng thought of his own magic power, which had also been refined from spiritual energy.

Magic power was formed by tempering pure spiritual energy with one's own will. Its power varied according to the Spell Technique and the spiritual energy's attributes.

But since he was the master of the Heavenly Jade Disc, his magic power merely contained a little of his own will. That shouldn't make much difference.

I should be able to use my own magic power in place of Spirit Power, right?

If it works, everyone wins, and I can save a huge number of Spirit Stones in the future. If it doesn't, I lose nothing. It's not like trying costs me anything!

He acted as soon as the thought came to him.

He enveloped a trace of red magic power in his dantian with his Divine Sense, while also reaching out to the Heavenly Jade Disc deep within his Sea of Consciousness. But the Heavenly Jade Disc didn't react at all.

Clearly, the experiment had failed.

Cheng Buzheng frowned at the sight but said nothing more.

Instead, he silently closed his eyes and resumed cultivating, taking care to proceed cautiously. He had only just entered Qi Refining Level 1 and needed to shore up his foundation.

At once,

the surrounding spiritual energy gathered around him, forming a thin layer of spiritual radiance. As he steadily circulated the Crimson Fire Technique, one step at a time, the faint glow was gradually drawn into his body.