After breakfast, Shen Hui went to the West Courtyard as agreed to practice his writing with Senior Sister Jingming.
Today, Jingming had switched to an annotated edition of Taishang Ganying Pian as their textbook.
As she taught Shen Hui to read the text, she also explained some basic principles of cultivation and stories from Daoist tradition.
Shen Hui studied diligently, occasionally asking questions, and Jingming answered each one clearly and thoroughly.
When they reached a line in the annotations that read, "A cultivator must not deceive himself within or deceive others without. Only when his thoughts flow freely can he resonate with Heaven and Earth," Jingming suddenly stopped explaining and looked at Shen Hui.
"Junior Brother Qingxuan, you've entered the Dao, haven't you?"
Her voice was soft, and her tone was not forceful. It carried only a calm certainty, as if she already knew the answer.
The hand holding Shen Hui's brush paused slightly.
He instinctively wanted to deny it, but the words caught in his throat.
After a moment of silence, he finally gave a slight nod.
A flicker of surprise crossed Jingming's eyes.
She had suspected as much, but seeing this junior brother—who had joined the sect only two days ago—nod and admit that he had entered the Dao still shook her.
However, she did not press him on it. Instead, she raised another question.
"Why didn't you say so just now?"
Jingming watched him, pausing in what she was doing. "Were you afraid Junior Brother Qing Shi would feel resentful if he heard?"
Shen Hui did not answer. He only smiled.
Seeing this, Jingming resumed turning the pages of the annotations and said calmly, "If he can't even hear this news without growing resentful or feeling ashamed of himself, then his twelve years of solitary cultivation in the mountains have all been spent on the wrong things. He might as well go down the mountain sooner rather than later."
"Senior Sister, you're mistaken."
Shen Hui smiled and shook his head, but his brush kept moving. "...Though you and I are both cultivators, in the end we're still only mortal bodies with impure bones. Who can claim to have no desire to compare themselves to others?"
As he spoke, he dipped his brush into the inkstone and said evenly, "Senior Brother Qing Shi is kind and diligent, so perhaps he wouldn't think that way. But even if he did, it would be only human nature. After all... why should others get so easily what you've struggled in vain to obtain?"
At his words, the surprise in Jingming's eyes deepened. She looked Shen Hui over again.
She hadn't expected this newly arrived junior brother to say something like that, and his expression was entirely calm and composed.
"It's rare to see someone think of it that way. But you entered the Dao through your own hard cultivation, so you can face yourself with a clear conscience..."
Her tone softened slightly. "You must have spent all last night meditating and practicing Qi, without a wink of sleep. That diligence surpasses many others. Even..."
She paused. "Even I wouldn't meditate all night unless I had to. After all, indulging in comfort and shirking hard work are human nature."
Shen Hui inwardly muttered a word of shame.
It was true he hadn't slept all night, and he had indeed meditated and practiced Qi, but he hardly deserved to be called "diligent."
Perhaps three percent of his cultivation could be credited to his own "talent," but the other ninety-seven percent was all thanks to that inexplicable "interface" giving him a cheat.
He hadn't shed many drops of sweat. As for effort... most of it had probably gone toward diligently "adding points" and diligently "eating fruit."
"Senior Sister, you flatter me."
Shen Hui shook his head, wearing just the right amount of "humility." "My meager progress is nothing worth mentioning. Cultivation is a slow, steady process; only time can reveal a person's true character."
Jingming watched Shen Hui, seeming to try to tell whether he was being sincere.
But she saw that his expression was frank, his eyes clear, and his brow entirely free of pride or smugness. She couldn't help admiring him inwardly.
"It's best if you can think that way."
She spoke with solemnity. "On the path of cultivation, the worst thing is impatience. Many people see others progressing rapidly while they themselves remain stuck in place, then give up on themselves and become consumed by inner demons. Take that as a warning."
Shen Hui solemnly agreed, though he couldn't help grumbling to himself.
Anxiety? Giving up on himself? Those were emotions he'd already outgrown back when he was a corporate pack mule in his previous life.
As a seasoned old hand who'd been battered by modern society and understood the ways of "lying flat" and "making peace with himself," his mindset was as steady as an old dog.
There was no way he'd crack. Not in this lifetime!
Besides, his master had said that twenty years passed in the blink of an eye. How many days had he even cultivated so far?
Cultivation was all about fate. You couldn't force it.
He glanced at the bright daylight outside the window, and his smile spread wider.
What was the point of cultivating immortality? Wasn't it to live freely and unrestrained?
He thought things were pretty good as they were.
No mortgage or rent chasing him down, no boss or client pestering him for a proposal.
He had a roof over his head and food in his belly. As long as he didn't suddenly drop dead, even if he only lived a few decades, it wouldn't be a big deal.
Shen Hui turned to Jingming, his eyes bright. "Don't worry, Senior Sister. I take things in stride. Even if I don't live past a hundred, I won't mind."
There was no grand ambition or deep-seated bitterness in his words, only the relief of someone who had survived a disaster and the calm acceptance of "since I'm here, I'll make the best of it."
He wasn't going to demand eternal life of himself right from the start. He was already tired.
At first, Jingming's brow furrowed slightly, as if she thought him a little too "unambitious," but somehow his words touched something deep inside her.
She thought of the hardships she'd endured before joining the sect, and of the dull, bitter days she'd spent cultivating. At first, all she had wanted was a little peace and transcendence.
After a long while, she let out a soft breath.
"It's good that you can take things in stride."
In the end, that was all she said. She didn't elaborate, simply picking up the annotations again. "Let's get back to practicing your writing. Today, we'll finish annotating this passage."
Shen Hui smiled and answered, "All right." He picked up his brush again and focused on the words on the page.
At the stroke of ten in the morning, the writing lesson came to an end.
After saying goodbye to Second Senior Sister Jingming, Shen Hui returned to his simple little room and, as usual, sat cross-legged to meditate.
Three hours later, he checked the Parchment Interface.
[Dao Xing]: 10 (Available to Allocate) [Realm]: Qi Induction (0/10000)
Sure enough, after breaking through to a new realm, the maximum Dao Xing he could accumulate from daily meditation had increased—from the five or six points before to ten now.
"At this rate, even relying only on my own cultivation, I can get ten points a day, or 3,650 in a year. To reach ten thousand, it'll take about... two years and seven months."
Less than three years!
If he could also supplement his cultivation with "external aids" like spirit fruit, he could shorten that time even more.
"Less than three years... and I'll reach Foundation Establishment?"
Shen Hui emerged from his meditative state and silently calculated.
According to what the senior brothers and sisters had said that morning, Senior Brother had cultivated diligently for over fifty years and was still stuck in the late stage of Qi Refining.
Second Senior Sister, a prodigy among prodigies, had taken twenty years just to reach the threshold of Foundation Establishment, while Fifth Senior Brother had only barely entered the realm after twelve years...
At this rate, "exceptional talent" probably wasn't enough to describe him.
What did that mean?
"It means I'm awesome!"
Shen Hui grinned, suppressed the stirrings in his heart, and continued meditating and practicing Qi.
A little over an hour later, his [Dao Xing] points had settled firmly at "10," with no further increase.
"Looks like I've reached today's limit."
He got to his feet and loosened up his somewhat stiff limbs, then stepped outside.
It was still early. He planned to have a good look around Clear Wind Temple.
He'd been here for two days, but aside from his lodgings, the Dining Hall, Chengxin Studio, and Senior Sister Jingming's place in the West Courtyard, he hadn't set foot anywhere else.
The afternoon sun of late autumn carried a hint of warmth as it spilled across the quiet courtyard.
First, he went to the slightly larger courtyard he'd passed the other day.
The peach tree there was still gnarled and sturdy, and dust covered the stone table and stools beneath it.
By now, its leaves had long since fallen, leaving only bare, twisted branches.
More eye-catching were the large patches of charred black on its trunk, as though it had been struck hard by lightning and fire. It gave off an air of decay and deathly stillness.
He stepped closer to examine it. The scorch marks had sunk deep into the wood, rough beneath his fingers.
He raised a hand and tried to sense something, but apart from a hint of withering brought on by the passage of time, he detected nothing unusual.
Perhaps it had simply been struck by some ordinary natural disaster?
Shen Hui brushed some of the dust off the stone stool beneath the tree, sat down, and stared into space for a while.
Sunlight filtered through the bare branches, casting dappled shadows across his gray Daoist robe.
There was no internet on his phone, no voices or traffic, only the mountain wind brushing past his ears and the occasional chirp of a bird.
And that was precisely why time seemed to stretch out so much longer here.
After sitting for a while, he rose and wandered over to the Three Pure Ones Hall.
The two heavy hall doors stood ajar, a deep, narrow gap between them.
He poked his head inside.
The towering statues loomed indistinctly in the shadows, their presence solemn. A thin layer of dust covered the altar table, and only a single eternal lamp burned faintly.
Shen Hui hesitated at the entrance for two seconds. In the end, he straightened his Daoist robe and pushed the doors open.
Standing in the hall, he looked up at the three statues, their lacquer chipped and mottled. He felt little awe or trepidation, mostly just curiosity.
He copied a gesture he remembered from television dramas, pressing his palms together and raising them to his chest, then suddenly felt that something was off.
That was a Buddhist gesture.
So he changed it, clasping his left hand over his right to form an imperfect "Ziwu" hand seal. He waved it about haphazardly, counting it as a Daoist greeting.
"Ahem."
Shen Hui cleared his throat and began murmuring toward the statues:
"Ancestors, your disciple Shen Hui has just arrived."
He paused as if searching for the right words.
"Your disciple has no lofty ambitions and doesn't want to cause any trouble for you all. I only ask for the most basic peace and good fortune... and, well, a carefree life would be even better."
At this point, he lowered his voice and adopted a more bargaining tone.
"If you ancestors happen to be in a good mood, you could let a little something slip through your fingers... say, let me stumble across a magical treasure while walking, or make my cultivation progress a thousand miles a day, or occasionally send a modest stroke of fortune my way. That would be even better."
After finishing, he glanced at the empty incense burner on the altar and the lone eternal lamp. He looked around for a while, but couldn't find where the incense and candles were kept.
"Uh... I don't have incense or offerings yet. I'll make it up to you later. Please don't take offense."
Once he was done, he seemed to find himself a little funny. He shook his head and turned to leave the hall.
He passed through the moon gate connecting to the courtyard and entered the East Courtyard.
As soon as he came through the gate, he saw Fourth Senior Sister Jinghui and Third Senior Brother Qingyi huddled by several chipped pottery pots against the wall, talking in hushed voices.
Jinghui was crouching on the ground, carefully nudging a droopy plant with curled, yellowing leaves with her finger.
Qingyi stood beside her, bending over to examine it with a book in hand, his brow slightly furrowed.
Curious, Shen Hui hesitated for a moment before walking over.
"Senior Sister, Senior Brother, what are you doing?" he asked softly.
Jinghui looked up at the sound of his voice. When she saw Shen Hui, her face immediately brightened into a smile. "Junior Brother Qingxuan, my senior brother and I are tending these Spirit Nourishing Grass plants. It's a pity they're not growing very well."
Qingyi straightened up too and smiled warmly. "Junior Brother has finally decided to come out for a walk."
Shen Hui smiled and scratched his head.
Qingyi explained, "Master brought these Spirit Nourishing Grass plants back from Ten Thousand Springs Valley. They aren't especially precious, but if they take root, the spiritual energy in their leaves will be far purer than that of the wild fruit on the Back Mountain. They'd be quite beneficial to cultivation."
As he spoke, he suddenly sighed, looking rather helpless. "They're a bit delicate, though. My junior sister and I are trying to figure out why these few always look so sickly."
Shen Hui crouched down and examined the plants carefully, imitating Jinghui.
The soil in the pottery pots looked reasonably moist, but the plants' leaves did indeed lack vitality. Their edges were scorched yellow and curled, and their veins were not very distinct.
"Are they short on water? Getting too much sun? Or... is the soil wrong?" Shen Hui guessed, drawing on his limited experience growing flowers and killing flowers.
"The water comes from a mountain spring on the Back Mountain, and the soil is Moist Soil we specifically gathered from beside the Back Mountain Hot Spring."
Qingyi shook his head. "According to the texts, the surrounding conditions should be ideal too: partial shade. But... perhaps these seedlings themselves are just poor stock? Or maybe we haven't been focused and calm enough while tending them, and that's affecting the plants?"
Jinghui propped her chin in her hands, looking troubled. "But I tell them nice things every day..."
Shen Hui laughed silently to himself. If saying nice things worked, who'd need spirit springs and Moist Soil?