The Land of Ancient Wei

Shen Yue looked back.

"Black Soil Fortress scoundrels! Prepare to die!"

A hundred meters behind him, a dark, swarming mass of people surged forward, brandishing spiritual artifacts with murderous intent.

One person who lagged behind was pierced through the chest by three wooden vines and dropped dead instantly.

Shen Yue cursed his luck and took to his heels.

Yet, the people of this strange world possessed unknown supernatural abilities; some had wheels of fire beneath their feet, others had gusts of wind swirling around their legs. They moved with such speed that, after two sharp drifts, he was left at the very back.

He watched as a sky full of spiritual artifacts whistled toward him.

"Kill them!"

From both sides of the road, streaks of light shot into the sky, instantly forming a black dome of sand and earth that trapped the pursuing Wu Family members.

The situation reversed in an instant.

The Black Soil Fortress side, which had been fleeing just moments ago, revealed grins of triumph.

"The Wu Family is nothing more than this!"

In front of the black earthen dome, the sand and soil writhed like insects, coalescing into a large, frizzy-haired man with a dark face.

Simultaneously, the Wu Family members inside the dome transformed into tree-men, slamming frantically against the earthen barrier.

"This is the Post-Earth Absolute Green Formation; don't waste your breath!" Black Qiu sneered, his right hand slashing down violently. "Kill them! Leave no one alive!"

In a flash, everyone from Black Soil Fortress charged at the Wu Family.

Spirit Snake Swords... Blood Bells... Wooden Puppets...

A chaotic mess of spiritual artifacts clashed together.

In particular, the dark-faced man and a woman from the Wu Family dressed in palace attire were locked in a fierce battle, one transforming into a ten-foot-tall sand tower, the other into a thorny tree-man.

Shen Yue ducked aside to avoid the fray, but the earthen dome suddenly shattered. Wu Family members burst out from all directions, and a veiled woman charged straight at him.

Picking on the soft target?

Shen Yue recited an incantation, and his Heaven Origin Golden Hands clapped together from left and right, slamming toward the woman.

Seeing Shen Yue's weak cultivation, the Wu Family woman didn't even take the giant hands seriously. She opened her mouth and spat out three blue vines like snakes, binding him in a blue-silver entanglement.

"Scoundrel! Die!"

The Wu Family woman sneered repeatedly, spitting out a sharp thorn that aimed straight for his brow.

Boom!

The Heaven Origin Golden Hands exploded.

The Wu Family woman was blown to pieces along with the hands, leaving only a storage bag behind.

Shen Yue snatched up the spoils of war.

Gold overcomes wood, and with the help of the Separating Fire Talisman—which also countered wood—he had truly managed to take her out in a single blow.

Black Soil Fortress had come prepared, turning the Wu Family into a river of blood. Only a few managed to escape, and even the woman in palace attire had been slaughtered.

Now temporarily safe, Shen Yue mingled with the crowd, wondering if he could scavenge anything.

But loot wasn't so easily found; the corpses had already been picked clean.

"Brother, find anything good?" Someone suddenly patted his shoulder.

He turned to see the red-faced youth who had told him to run earlier. His features were bunched together, looking exactly like a monkey's backside.

Shen Yue wanted to interact with this person to learn about this world, but then a massive shadow fell before him.

"You two look unfamiliar," Black Qiu said, his eyes wide as a bull's. "Especially you—why is your face so red? You look like a Wu Family spy!"

Good grief, is this red-faced youth a fraud too?

Shen Yue felt as if a mountain were pressing down on him; he couldn't even mobilize his spiritual energy.

The red-faced youth's eyes darted toward a woman at Black Qiu's side.

"Fortress Master, you wrong me! I am Lin Yan, I've been following you for three years! My face is red because... I admire the young miss!"

Shen Yue glanced over, stunned.

The so-called young miss not only had a face full of freckles but also a mouth full of buckteeth.

When Black Qiu heard someone admired his daughter, a smile instantly appeared on his face, though his daughter looked at Lin Yan's ugly mug with utter disgust.

"And you? Why isn't your face red?" Black Qiu looked at Shen Yue, and the woman beside him also stared over with anticipation.

"Him? He's a natural pretty boy, he's just blushing on the inside." Lin Yan winked, providing cover.

Black Qiu nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer, withdrew his pressure, and turned to leave.

"Brother, I saved your life, shouldn't you show some appreciation? The Wu Family's third young miss's storage bag must have plenty of treasures in it." Lin Yan transmitted his voice secretly.

Divine sense transmission! A Foundation Establishment expert?!

Shen Yue's expression shifted.

But at that very moment, black sand began to crawl up from beneath their feet like wriggling worms.

Black Qiu let out a cackling, eerie laugh: "Daring to toy with this Fortress Master? Die for me!"

Chusheng Market, Refining Lake.

Shen Yue's face was deathly pale.

Almost ascended on the spot.

Good thing I had the [Nine Heavens Profound Mirror]...

After calming his state of mind for a while, Shen Yue took out a cyan-green brocade bag.

Huge profit!

Storage bags were high-end goods in Chusheng Market; a drudge like him couldn't afford one even after ten years of recycling waste.

"That red-faced youth named Lin Yan said this storage bag belonged to the Third Miss of the Wu Family. I wonder what kind of good things are inside."

Shen Yue channeled his spiritual power and probed into the bag.

Within the three-cubic-meter space, various items were neatly categorized.

Spirit stones... small blue-and-white porcelain bottles... a woman's personal effects.

"Seven spirit stones!"

Shen Yue suppressed his excitement and looked at the two porcelain bottles, each containing a pale cyan medicinal pill.

He didn't recognize this type of pill, but he could roughly identify that it was for Wood Spirit Root cultivation, which was useless to him for the time being.

Putting the bottles back, Shen Yue took out an earth-colored jade slip and applied his spiritual sense to it.

[Bingchen Dingsi, Earth within Sand. This earth is not pure earth, but a mixture of sand and soil. It flows away when water comes and leaves silt when water recedes. Its nature is fluid yet concealing, focusing on secrecy and hidden accumulation...]

After reading through it, Shen Yue's brows furrowed slightly.

What was recorded in this jade slip was a Qi-gathering technique called [Star Sand Return-to-Store Technique], which was vastly different from the techniques found in the market.

The technique he practiced, the Geng Metal Art, could be cultivated by anyone with a spirit root, with the quality of the root determining the speed of progress.

However, the [Star Sand Return-to-Store Technique] required opening the six meridians first, then gathering the Qi within the sand, before true cultivation could begin.

Filled with doubt, Shen Yue took out a cyan jade slip to examine it.

[Yi Wood is the wood of vines and creepers, growing by attachment rather than self-sustenance. It borrows the Qi of wood to nourish the body. One who cultivates this chapter must first find a spirit wood...]

"Opening meridians... gathering Qi..."

This jade slip was titled [Wood Spirit Chapter], and its contents were much more detailed, containing not only the technique itself but also many miscellaneous notes and insights.

It turned out that the place was called Ancient Wei, the Wu Family was a family of Qi-gathering cultivators, and Black Soil Fortress was a den of bandits.

Those cultivators possessed astonishing supernatural powers because once they opened all six meridians and stepped into the realm of Qi-consumption, they could condense their spiritual sense.

"Spiritual sense!"

In this world, for a cultivator to develop spiritual sense, they had to be at least in the late stage of Qi Refining.

With the augmentation of spiritual sense, the power of any technique would be greatly enhanced.

Most importantly, spiritual sense was one of the essential requirements for Foundation Establishment.

Shen Yue clutched the two jade slips, filled with joy.

The Qi-gathering path not only allowed for the early condensation of spiritual sense, but also granted a lifespan of two hundred years, comparable to the Foundation Establishment of this world!

"If I cultivate the Qi-gathering path, doesn't that mean Foundation Establishment is within reach?"

"My Wood Spirit Root aptitude is low, while my Earth Spirit Root is average. This [Star Sand Return-to-Store Technique] is more suitable."

Shen Yue put the [Wood Spirit Chapter] back into the storage bag and turned to study the [Star Sand Return-to-Store Technique] in detail.

If I can reach the stage of Qi-consumption, I will have spiritual sense even in the early stages...

Time passed like a turning star.

Shen Yue recycled waste during the day and practiced the Qi-gathering technique at night.

The [Star Sand Return-to-Store Technique] consisted of two parts: opening the meridians and gathering Qi. As it happened, the martial arts of the mortal world shared many similarities with the meridian-opening methods of Ancient Wei.

As a martial arts master and a top scholar in the martial examinations, it took Shen Yue only half a month to successfully open five meridians, with the final one also well on its way.

However, opening meridians too quickly had its troubles; he encountered a problem.

The [Star Flow Sand] required for the Qi-gathering chapter had yet to be found.

[To gather this sand, one must choose sandy ground at the bottom of a river or the silt-soil layers of an ancient riverbed. Pure sand or pure mud is to be avoided...]

Shen Yue glanced again at the collection method for this sand in the [Star Sand Return-to-Store Technique] and cast his gaze outward.

"I wonder if the silt and sand in Refining Lake would work..."