Wang Qi lay on the ground for a while before getting to his feet. "I need to make some preparations. In a few days, I'll head out to seek that so-called 'fortuitous opportunity' and begin a life of killing people, stealing treasures, and letting the virtuous claim them!"
Zhen Chanzi suddenly spoke. "Wait."
"What is it?"
"You still lack the awareness of a cultivator," Zhen Chanzi said. "Spiritual power needs tempering and contemplation. After your spiritual power advances, you may relax for a while, but after indulging yourself, you must sit in meditation again and comprehend the cultivation method."
Wang Qi sighed and sat back down inside the Gathering Spirit Array, comprehending the cultivation method Zhen Chanzi had left within his body.
Peerless cultivation methods did not establish themselves in words, only through a fragment of insight. Following the obscure, incomprehensible intent in his mind, Wang Qi directed his spiritual power and contemplated its properties throughout the process.
As he sensed the spiritual power within him moving according to his will, turning cold or hot, Wang Qi shook his head and smiled inwardly.
It really was an unscientific power.
After finishing, Wang Qi closed his eyes and felt out the changes in his body. When he opened them again, an inexplicable sense of unreality arose within him. "Old man, does this count as success?"
According to the cultivation method's description in his mind, he had actually broken through perfectly...
"What is wrong with that?"
"Wasn't that a little too smooth?" Wang Qi scratched his head, somewhat puzzled.
Didn't novel protagonists always have to sacrifice half their lives and countless savings to break through, only to suddenly turn things around at the very brink of failure—preferably with some unprecedented, never-to-be-repeated coincidence that let them complete a hidden achievement in the cultivation method?!
Breaking through was this easy? If this were written into a novel, it would definitely be a flop!
After learning the reason, Zhen Chanzi nearly flew into such a rage that his soul scattered. He roared in Wang Qi's mind, "Absurd! Absurd! You actually use street gossip as the measuring stick for your cultivation achievements? If breaking through the first realm already required risking one's life, what sort of aptitude would that be for seeing through the final gate? Even now, do you still treat cultivation as a child's game?!"
Wang Qi shook his head. "Not a child's game—a game, okay? A game! Something packed with bloodshed and violence like this would absolutely be banned from children by the ratings board, okay?"
Zhen Chanzi said, "...Forget it, forget it. Boy, speak less to this old man in the future."
Next, Wang Qi spent another three hours adjusting to his post-breakthrough state and stabilizing his cultivation. After ending his meditation and rising, he suddenly remembered something.
"Right, old man, do cultivators have any good methods for concealing one's aura and cultivation progress?"
"What do you need that for?"
Wang Qi replied as if it were only natural, "Concealing your cultivation, pretending to be a pig to eat a tiger, and slapping faces—that's where the thrill is!"
Zhen Chanzi regretted it at once. Arguing seriously with this brain-damaged brat was truly one of the greatest stains on his twenty-thousand-year life. "This ring comes with the finest Concealing Breath Technique. With your newly entered Qi Refining level, you cannot bring out its many wondrous effects, but it will certainly be enough to fool ordinary minor cultivators in Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment."
"Then does it have any money-farming skills?"
"Money-farming?"
"Like forging artifacts out of thin air, or alchemy with a one-hundred-percent success rate..."
Zhen Chanzi had not experienced the urge to vomit blood in nearly ten thousand years. "If such skills existed, this old man would have unified the immortal path ten thousand years ago!"
"Huh?" Wang Qi curled his lip, his tone brimming with disdain. "That's really useless."
Zhen Chanzi fell silent for a while, then said helplessly, "I have given you the methods for alchemy and artifact forging. Go learn them yourself."
Wang Qi nodded in satisfaction, counting on his fingers. "Fine. That checks off another source of satisfaction."
"Boy, what is the meaning of doing all these things?"
"Because it's fun!"
"Cultivating to the pinnacle, reigning over the immortal path, and earning the reverence of all ages is also a kind of enjoyment. Why do I not see you pursuing that?"
Wang Qi had already begun tidying up the household items in preparation for leaving. Hearing that, he stopped what he was doing and raised the ring before his face. "All ages? How could things in later generations be changed simply because I care about them? What good would the reverence of future people do me—would it earn me a single coin? And reigning over this world? Old man, don't you think this world is truly boring?"
"Boring?"
"It is nothing but a stagnant pool. As you said, the first Foundation Establishment cultivator was born eighty thousand years ago. Ten thousand years later came the first ascended immortal. Forty thousand years ago, the immortal path reached its peak, then gradually declined because spiritual energy dried up and resources dwindled?"
"That is true. This old man's body and Primordial Spirit were both destroyed, so I can no longer sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. But judging by the rate at which spiritual energy weakened ten thousand years ago, this should have long entered the Age of Dharma's End. There is likely not even a single Mahayana Stage grandmaster left in the entire world..."
"Then in another forty thousand years, won't the immortal path inevitably perish? Ruling over a bunch of people doomed to leave neither descendants nor heirs—just thinking about it makes it boring. Boring, boring."
Zhen Chanzi remained silent. He himself had been a great cultivator of the Mahayana Stage, so naturally he understood the inherent flaws of the immortal path better than anyone. Cultivators sought the truth, striving to seize heaven and earth's creations and forge their "truest self." The spiritual essence a single cultivator seized might be but one ladleful from the three thousand weak waters of the world, yet no matter how vast heaven and earth were, they could not withstand the endless extraction of disciples and descendants without end.
"Sooner or later, the immortals will strip this world bare. I can't govern the world, and I do not particularly want to—you know I hate troublesome matters most. So what happens to heaven and earth, what happens to everyone else, has nothing to do with me. I only seek one splendid lifetime."
After saying that, Wang Qi no longer paid attention to the silent Zhen Chanzi and began preparing for his future travels.
Cultivation emphasized method, wealth, companions, and land. Of those, he possessed only "method." The other three were not things this desolate village could provide Wang Qi.
Because cultivation during the Spirit Body stage centered on tempering the body and produced no miraculous effects, if Qi Refining cultivators came into conflict, it would surely be a fight to the death. Zhen Chanzi had also made it clear that Spirit Body cultivation was best walked step by step on one's own, without relying on any medicinal pills. Thus, Wang Qi had never gone out to seek so-called "fortuitous opportunities." But now, everything was different.
"Since I'll probably leave and never return, the house and fields are useless... I'll sell them cheaply to the villagers... Mm, for three mu of land, I'll charge... The old house can be sold to..."
Suddenly, the jade ring shook violently. Wang Qi felt as though he were holding a phone set to vibrate. "Old man, old man. Why did you suddenly switch to vibration mode?"
"There is a cultivator's aura—a Foundation Establishment Realm one. I do not know who they are. Quickly inject your spiritual power into the ring, and I will help you hide it."
Though Zhen Chanzi had fallen ten thousand years ago and only a wisp of remnant soul remained, he claimed that he had been the leader of a great sect ten thousand years earlier, one of the world's foremost experts. His cultivation had reached the peak of the Mahayana Stage; once he passed the heavenly tribulation, he could ascend beyond the heavens and roam freely through the cosmos. Though only a wisp of remnant soul remained now and his power was gone, he still possessed all manner of inconceivable abilities.
Without the slightest hesitation, Wang Qi poured all his spiritual power into the jade ring. A chill flowed from it and spread through his entire body. Then all vitality and brilliance in Wang Qi's body drew inward, making him resemble withered wood or an unyielding stone.
"Wait! Old man, you probably don't know anything about the immortal path of this era, right? Shouldn't we ask first?"
"We do not yet know whether they are friend or foe. If they harbor ill intent, would you not be delivering yourself to your death by going out rashly? Stay put!"
There was actually a trace of gravity in Zhen Chanzi's voice. In his spiritual sense, the aura of spiritual power at the Foundation Establishment Realm had originally been flying toward the center of the village. Yet three hundred zhang away, it suddenly turned and flew in this direction.
Three hundred zhang was, to Zhen Chanzi's knowledge, the limit of a Foundation Establishment cultivator's spiritual sense—and that was only for those who had specifically cultivated methods of divine perception.
Had they been discovered? That should not have been possible. Though Zhen Chanzi was only a remnant soul, his spiritual sense for detecting spiritual power could still extend over ten li. The moment the other party entered that range, he had issued a warning. When Wang Qi activated the ring, the other party had still been more than two li away. A Foundation Establishment cultivator's spiritual sense extending two li? That completely defied the laws of heaven!
But had a Foundation Establishment cultivator seen through the concealment method built into this ring? Absolutely impossible. Even in the era when the immortal path flourished, no cultivator two major realms below could have seen through this ring's technique, much less in this Age of Dharma's End.
Wang Qi only saw a streak of white light fly toward him from the horizon. Zhen Chanzi said in a deep voice, "Pretend you know nothing."
Wary of the approaching cultivator, Wang Qi did not answer Zhen Chanzi.
"Breathe in... breathe out... breathe in... breathe out... very good, don't be nervous... keep smiling... relax your facial muscles, make sure you show six teeth... keep your breath fresh—ah, fine, that seems impossible."
Facing the streak of light, Wang Qi put on what he considered a charming, standard smile.
"What exactly are you doing..." Zhen Chanzi was deeply puzzled.
"A good first impression." Wang Qi squeezed the words out through his teeth.
"Idiot! At a time like this, you should pretend to be working!"
"Bullshit! The Gathering Spirit Array in the courtyard hasn't even been put away. Acting like I know nothing would be suspicious, wouldn't it?"
At that moment, the white streak of light stopped above the Wang Family's old house. As the flowing light dispersed, a girl of sixteen or seventeen revealed herself. She was extraordinarily pretty, dressed in red and standing atop a small purple sword.
"Flying on a sword..."
A trace of envy appeared on Wang Qi's face. In his previous life, he had imagined countless times that one day he could stand upon a Flying Sword and roam the four corners of the world. Though he had entered the immortal path in this life, he had not yet reached Foundation Establishment and still could not wield artifacts.
However, the girl's next words shattered his daydream.
"You down there. Yes, you—the Ancient Method Cultivator who just broke through to Qi Refining. Come with me."
"Hey, hey, hey! Miss, I have no idea what you're talking about!"
Wang Qi denied it flatly.
The girl revealed a contemptuous smile. "You think an ancient treasure whose design philosophy was discarded ages ago can conceal you from cultivators of this era? Completely blocking spiritual resonance like this is way too conspicuous, okay? Besides, your cultivation method became outdated thousands of years ago."
Huh?
Wang Qi stared dumbfounded.
Fuck, this isn't how the script was supposed to go! Wasn't this the Age of Dharma's End? Weren't older cultivation methods supposed to be more orthodox? Cultivation methods can become outdated too? Fuck, fuck, fuck...
Not only was Wang Qi's heart churning like overturned seas and rivers, even Zhen Chanzi could no longer remain composed.
"Who exactly is this little girl... What kind of terrifying strange treasure does she carry..."
"No... I think I know who she is..." Wang Qi said to Zhen Chanzi through his still-unfamiliar spiritual sense.
"What?"
"She is definitely some goofball Brother Heavenly Dao sent to slap us in the face!"
Before you continue