So That's How It Is

The torrential rain poured down, washing away the layers of mud and sludge from the figure on the ground.

Slowly, the man became clean.

It was the Bandit Leader.

"Damn that mother-loving Black Bear Spirit, and that mother-loving Constable Yan..."

The Bandit Leader cursed as he worked his stiff limbs free from the mire.

Once he had struggled his way out, he spat a few times and raised his hands high, letting the storm wash over him.

After a few minutes of rinsing, he regained some strength and shook his head.

"I spent over three years in Little Liuzi Town honing my tunnel-digging skills. I know exactly which soil is easy to dig and how to go about it. Did they really think this lax village dungeon could hold me? Ridiculous, simply ridiculous..."

As he spoke, the Bandit Leader began to chuckle, his laughter growing louder and louder.

Today, he had successfully broken out of prison once again. He had proven to everyone that some people are simply impossible to cage!

He was also fortunate; because of the incident with the Black Bear Spirit, the constables had no energy to spare on him and had just tossed him into a random holding cell. Otherwise, it would have been a difficult dig.

At the same time, the Bandit Leader glanced at the blurred shadows of the mountains in the distance through the curtain of rain.

"They must be busy looking for help from the martial arts world and scouring the forests these days. They haven't come to escort me yet—either they've forgotten, or they still haven't found that bear. If they haven't found it, that's a good thing."

The Bandit Leader weighed his options and decided to head back to Little Liuzi Town first.

He still had some money hidden there.

Over a hundred taels!

One tael of silver was worth a thousand copper coins. In this dynasty, five taels of silver were enough to cover the normal living expenses of a family of three. A hundred taels was enough to last a family twenty years.

The Bandit Leader could abandon his brothers without a second thought, but he could never part with such tangible silver.

"Only things you can see and touch are truly real."

The Bandit Leader oriented himself in the rainy night and walked straight toward Little Liuzi Town.

The next day.

The sky was bright.

At the dilapidated temple.

"Snore..."

Chen Guan rose from his bed, feeling that his palm was much better. Although it still felt a bit awkward when he applied force, the stinging pain from yesterday was gone.

I wonder what my sister managed to sort out.

Chen Guan was filled with anticipation, eager to see the spoils of war.

As he stepped out of the side room, Xiao Qing was waiting expectantly by the back door of the temple, looking toward his room.

"Brother!"

Seeing Chen Guan appear, she jumped up and down on the spot. If she hadn't been unable to leave the temple, she would have floated right over to greet him.

"Roar."

Chen Guan grunted a morning greeting to her, then walked into the temple and turned his gaze toward the corpse.

There might be something on this Taoist.

His body hadn't attracted a single mosquito or insect.

"Brother, a sachet!"

Xiao Qing manipulated the yin energy to manifest, then presented a brocade sachet from behind the statue as if offering a treasure.

Chen Guan looked at it and caught the faint scent of medicinal herbs.

This must be the reason why the insects were repelled.

"Xiao Qing has tested it; with this, many mosquitoes and insects won't come near!"

Xiao Qing floated to Chen Guan's side. "Brother, wear it, and those bugs won't bite you anymore!"

Roar. Feeling a warmth in his heart at his cheap sister's thoughtfulness, Chen Guan tried his best to show a gentle smile.

Xiao Qing, however, did not mind her brother's eerie appearance and then produced a book.

Chen Guan looked over and saw a small patch on the top of the cover stained with blood, now dried.

In the center of the cover were three characters:

Qi Swallowing Art

Is this a cultivation technique? A cultivation manual?

Chen Guan was very interested, carefully taking it with his bear paw.

He possessed a spiritual root—a fire spiritual root from his previous life.

Over ten days had passed, yet he hadn't figured out any way to utilize it.

Perhaps this book would contain some answers.

Of course, Chen Guan also regretted killing the Taoist; otherwise, he could have asked about cultivation matters.

But facing a practitioner he had never encountered before, and unknown methods, even if he had risked holding back and fought with restraint to cripple the man's limbs, Chen Guan still felt it wouldn't have been safe.

Now, whether for the sake of his cheap sister or the proficiency he had already built up to over a hundred, Chen Guan did not want to die.

And even if he were to die, it had to be for something of greater value.

Dying just for some cultivation information was not worth it.

However, his luck was quite good today.

As he flipped open the manual, he found some introductory notes.

Chen Guan learned that some "low-grade spiritual roots" needed to be "activated."

His own low-grade fire attribute likely fell into this category, as he could not sense the fire attribute in the air.

Those with unique talents, even without cultivation, could sense the differences in the air.

It was like opening the Yin-Yang eyes, allowing one to see the presence of spiritual energy with the naked eye.

At the same time, after learning this, Chen Guan seemed to trigger memories from his first life.

In his recollections, Chen Guan vaguely remembered his cheap grandson often saying to him, "Grandpa, why are there so many red flowers in the air, like the firewood in the stove?"

Hearing these whimsical thoughts, his original self had never paid them any mind.

He even thought his grandson's "eyes were broken."

Back then, out of deep love for his grandson, he had traveled for miles around over several years, taking the boy to see many doctors.

It was during this search that he encountered a wandering cultivator.

And then, his grandson was taken away by that person.

Now, Chen Guan understood; that "broken-eyed" ability to see sparks was actually "excellent aptitude and extraordinary talent."

According to the rankings in this book, it would be a "fifth-grade spiritual root."

The manual also recorded that spiritual roots were ranked from "one to nine," with one being the highest and nine the lowest.

He was currently at the "ninth grade," the lowest.

But these ranks were not worth dwelling on.

Because Chen Guan knew that in a world like this, filled with Gods and Devils, it wouldn't be long before he discovered that above the first grade, there were likely further divisions like "top-grade, super top-grade, as well as Human, Earth, and Heaven" rankings.

After all, this was just an ordinary, mass-produced secret manual.

The records within it were naturally limited by the author's own narrow perspective.

Yet his own reincarnation appeared to be an infinite "stack upon stack" of possibilities.

Having finished checking the grade.

Chen Guan flipped further ahead.

Xiao Qing accompanied Chen Guan quietly, not making a single sound.

Just like that, page after page, he finished the entire secret manual.

First of all.

He had to thank this Daoist for his habit of writing down his insights, which made some of the obscure and difficult terms within easy to understand.

As a token of gratitude, Chen Guan would cremate him in a moment and scatter his ashes across the world, letting him merge with nature and permeate the Great Dao.

Following that, through his annotations.

Chen Guan learned how to cultivate.

The first step was to seek "Qi sensation."

As for how to seek Qi sensation.

One needed to calm their mind and spirit, perceive the elemental spiritual energy in the air, and then integrate it into the body to be used as one's own.

This would mark the first step of cultivation.

[Refining Essence into Qi]