Notes from Predecessors

Although Su Chunyi could not fathom what Chen Ye was planning, she still nodded and agreed to his request.

As if a thin veil had been gently lifted, Chen Ye suddenly felt his body grow light, and he realized with a start that an illusion had been quietly maintained while they were talking.

No wonder even a beauty as graceful and charming as Su Chunyi had not attracted any attention while standing in the crowd.

Now that the illusion was dispelled, the gazes of the surrounding pedestrians were drawn to them as if by a magnet.

Chen Ye waited for the exact moment when everyone's eyes converged, then stood up abruptly, gripped his signature white banner, and strode toward the tea house counter.

"Shopkeeper, I would like to leave this bundle with you for safekeeping; I shall return to collect it in a few days."

As soon as Chen Ye spoke, the gray-haired shopkeeper looked surprised.

"My dear Daoist, this shop is busy with all sorts of people coming and going, so it is truly difficult for me to keep items for guests. If something were to go wrong..."

Before the refusal was even half-finished, Chen Ye raised his arm, and several pieces of broken silver clattered onto the counter.

"Take these as a storage fee."

Having said that, Chen Ye turned his head and beckoned to Su Chunyi.

Escorted by the stunned and envious gazes of the crowd, Su Chunyi moved with light, lotus-like steps, slowly walking to Chen Ye's side.

In an instant, two silver rays of light erupted like agile snakes, tightly wrapping around Chen Ye and Su Chunyi. Then, with a "whoosh," the two shot out of the tea house like a meteor chasing the moon, darting straight toward the vast, boundless sky.

Mortals had never had the fortune to witness such a miraculous sight, and they were left dumbstruck, standing like wooden statues.

The shopkeeper, who had just been refusing Chen Ye's request, now acted like a different person, clutching the tattered bundle tightly to his chest and thinking to himself: This is a treasure left behind by an immortal; it must not be damaged in the slightest!

This was exactly the effect Chen Ye wanted; after today, his reputation as a "little immortal" would be even more deeply rooted in people's hearts.

In the twilight sky, two silver lights streaked by like lightning.

This was the first time in his life that Chen Ye had soared above the nine heavens.

Although it was not like he had imagined—standing on a flying sword like a skateboard—but rather being gently embraced by sword light and propelled into the air, the thrill was not diminished in the slightest.

White clouds flew past like a startled flock of sheep, and the city beneath his feet shrank to the size of an ant in the blink of an eye.

In his previous life, he had seen high altitudes, but he had been strapped into a seat, able to look out only through a small window.

Now, with his feet planted on sword light, flying into the high heavens through the sheer power of a human, the feeling was completely different.

To defy the gravity of heaven and earth with a mortal body and travel freely through the sea of clouds like a bird—this was the pursuit of a cultivator.

Chen Ye could not hold back in the end. Regardless of Su Chunyi being by his side, he opened his mouth like a child and shouted to his heart's content.

Seeing Chen Ye's childlike demeanor, Su Chunyi did not feel the slightest bit of disdain. Instead, she curled her lips into a faint smile and said softly, "When I first flew into the sky with my master, I was just like you, shouting until my voice went hoarse. At the time, I only felt that the world was vast and boundless, and I always hoped that one day, I could pilot a flying sword on my own, travel to the ends of the earth, and see all the wonders of the world."

Chen Ye replied with envy, "Miss Su can now pilot a flying sword and go wherever you wish; that is true freedom."

Su Chunyi shook her head gently and sighed, "The path of cultivation only feels more difficult the further one goes. Although I can fly with a sword now, I spend my years in deep seclusion in the mountains, meditating and practicing sword techniques. With such heavy daily tasks, where would I find the leisure to travel?"

Chen Ye felt a sense of shared sorrow at Su Chunyi's lament.

Perhaps only cultivators who feel they have reached their limit can find the time to be idle.

Just like his master, Mo Ci, who had undergone too many possessions, had no hope of advancing in this life, and was nearing the end of his lifespan, only then did he think to take on an apprentice.

Yet, young people like Chen Ye, who had just entered the Qiling Realm and still had over a hundred years of life ahead of them, worked hard day and night, hoping only to take another step forward.

Longevity is hard to seek, and becoming an immortal is even harder than ascending to heaven, but even if there is only a glimmer of hope, what cultivator would be willing to miss it?

The two fell into silence until the sword light, like a tired bird returning to its nest, landed gently on a small hill outside the city.

The terrain around Cui County was flat, so it was quite rare to have such a small hill standing abruptly in the landscape.

Su Chunyi led Chen Ye into a mountain cave. He looked around and saw that the rock walls were covered in sharp, crisscrossing sword marks.

Chen Ye finally realized that the "quiet room" Su Chunyi had mentioned was like this—she had used her flying sword to carve a cave ten zhang in diameter directly into the mountain rock.

Chen Ye was secretly shocked. Just how sharp must this Miss Su's sword light be to carve out such a massive space?

Although the cave was spacious, it was very simple, containing only a meditation cushion and two oil lamps hanging in the air, which appeared to be some kind of magical artifact.

"Sir, please make yourself at home. Although I am not skilled in the art of alchemy, my sect possesses relevant texts, and these might be of some help to you in condensing your sea of qi."

Su Chunyi raised her delicate hand and placed several ancient books in front of Chen Ye for him to study.

Chen Ye flipped through a few of them and saw at a glance that these were not the secret, non-transferable techniques of the Qinghe Sword Sect, but rather books Su Chunyi had collected privately. He was already familiar with two of them, as they were the ones Mo Ci had taught him; they were clearly common texts known to everyone in the cultivation world.

However, two other secret manuals regarding the condensation of the sea of qi made Chen Ye's eyes light up.

One of them studied how the sea of qi in the dantian should rotate.

This topic immediately piqued Chen Ye's interest. He had never considered before that there were clockwise and counter-clockwise directions to the rotation of the sea of qi, and that there were hidden mysteries within.

The author of this book had clearly put in a great deal of effort. On the surface, it seemed that whether the sea of qi rotated clockwise or counter-clockwise had little effect on the speed of cultivation. But through the author's meticulous research, it was discovered that a clockwise-rotating sea of qi was highly efficient at refining spiritual energy, while a counter-clockwise-rotating sea of qi was much smoother and more natural when casting spells.

However, the research data recorded in the book was slightly crude. It was likely that the author was a lone rogue cultivator who lacked the backing of a sect's vast resources and had to rely on asking around and his own deductions, so the conclusions were naturally not precise enough.

In addition to this manual on the rotation of the sea of qi, another one was equally novel and interesting.

The author boldly stated at the beginning: Why should a cultivator have only one dantian sea of qi? If one could have two, wouldn't the speed of cultivation increase significantly?

This author was also a man of action, actually daring to experiment on himself.

Condensing two Dantian Qi seas—the idea sounded like a fantasy at first glance, yet the author claimed that the operation was not difficult, merely a matter of following the same pattern and repeating the steps for condensing a Qi sea.

However, the experimental results were far from satisfactory.

After consuming two Qi Condensation Pills, he successfully condensed two Dantian Qi seas, but before the author could rejoice for long, these two Qi seas acted like magnets, merging into one with ease, their volume only slightly larger than before.

This was completely meaningless, as the subsequent path of cultivation was meant to continuously expand the Qi sea anyway.

Using Qi Condensation Pills to open a second Qi sea provided no additional benefits after the merger, and compared to taking ordinary pills meant for expanding the Qi sea, the effect was far worse, the side effects were increasingly obvious, and the consumption of resources was immense.

One must know that Qi Condensation Pills were far more expensive than ordinary pills for expanding the Qi sea; such a hassle was truly not worth the loss.

The author was clearly unwilling to give up, so he spent a great deal of effort and wealth to try again.

This time, he entered a long state of meditation, relying on his tenacious will to desperately prevent the two Qi seas from merging, full of anticipation that he could realize his dream of absorbing double the spiritual energy.

Yet reality dealt him a heavy blow; the final result was not significantly different from condensing a single Qi sea.

Chen Ye pondered for a moment and saw through the crux of the problem at a glance: this experiment was essentially a simple math problem of exponential growth.

Suppose a Dantian Qi sea expands at a doubling rate every year, requiring thirty years to advance to the next realm. If one were to condense two Dantian Qi seas from the start, both doubling every year, then exactly how many years would it take to reach the next realm?

The answer is twenty-nine years.

Viewed in this light, the difference between one Qi sea and two is negligible, and having to rack one's brain to prevent the Qi seas from merging while consuming a vast amount of precious resources is simply not worth it.

After confirming this, the author finally abandoned the research, concluding that it was all in vain and completely worthless. The notes were filled with lamentations about how he had wasted years of his life only to achieve nothing in the end.

But Chen Ye did not think so; instead, he felt that both authors were fascinating individuals for having such whimsical ideas. It turned out that Qi sea rotation had both forward and reverse directions, and that one could attempt multiple condensations—these were details Mo Ci had never mentioned.

Although the final conclusion was that neither attempt made much of a difference, in Chen Ye's eyes, immortal cultivation was like an all-encompassing, meticulous discipline; only by delving deep into the essence of cultivation could one avoid detours and perhaps even carve out a unique path to the heavens.

Chen Ye carefully finished reading the records in these two secret manuals, and a sudden inspiration struck him: "What would happen if I simultaneously condensed two Dantian Qi seas rotating in opposite directions?"