Cultivation Techniques

"Unlike what we imagined, extraterrestrial life looks remarkably similar to humans, and its features are extremely similar to those of the people of the Dragon Kingdom. The Dragon Kingdom is the only ancient civilization on Blue Star with a history of more than five thousand years. I suspect that the earliest people of the Dragon Kingdom were extraterrestrial humans who came to Blue Star. Otherwise, the Dragon Kingdom's civilization wouldn't be so unique.

"And its civilization is completely different from all the other civilizations in the world. Although no country openly admits it, the fact is that, in the eyes of their elite classes, the Dragon Kingdom's civilization is far more advanced than any other on Blue Star. Its writing is also the most elegant and pictographic in the world.

"In fact, though every country on Blue Star has its own myths and legends, only those of the Dragon Kingdom are truly special. The people of the Dragon Kingdom believe that humans can triumph over fate. Taoism, the faith followed by the people of the Dragon Kingdom, has long passed down methods by which humans can cultivate themselves into immortals. Unfortunately, those methods were lost long ago.

"Now the people of the Dragon Kingdom have discovered the remains of an extraterrestrial cultivator on Mars, and have even brought back a cultivation method. That's why the Dragon Kingdom's government made such a public display of the Big Dipper Long Fist a few months ago and called on the whole nation to practice it.

"The Dragon Kingdom is trying to raise a few immortals! If it really has immortals who can summon wind and rain, how can our island nation possibly fight it? Our island nation already has a deep-rooted feud with the Dragon Kingdom. And in recent years, the Dragon Kingdom's national strength has continued to grow rapidly. It's only because we rely on Beautiful Country's nuclear deterrent that the Dragon Kingdom has held back. If it really raises immortals and gains a way to resist nuclear threats entirely, then sooner or later the Dragon Kingdom will settle accounts with our island nation, and all of Blue Star will belong to the Dragon Kingdom.

"So I risked my life to infiltrate the secret base of the 749 Bureau and photograph the Small Heavenly Cycle Art. Yamamoto, you must arrange for experts proficient in ancient Dragon Kingdom writing to study and translate it in secret, then have the young people of our island nation learn and practice it. As long as our island nation has immortals too, we won't have to fear the Dragon Kingdom!

"While I was making this USB drive, the bureau was already checking the surveillance footage and conducting a full search. They may discover me soon. But even if it costs me my life, I'll do everything I can to get these files into your hands for the sake of our island nation's future. Respectfully, Rika Keiko!"

Zhang Shuai stared blankly for a long time after reading the contents of the USB drive.

The education he'd received growing up had taught him to believe in science and not superstition. But what was going on now? Cultivators had appeared, and there were cultivation techniques too?

A realization dawned on Zhang Shuai. The flying craft shaped like a dragon boat that he and Wang Qiang had seen as children might have been a cultivator's magical artifact, not some UFO. And perhaps he'd lost his memories because those two cultivators had used something like the soul-searching technique from cultivation novels to make a complete copy of them.

What left Zhang Shuai most speechless was that this woman had actually claimed the ancestors of the Dragon Kingdom's people came from an extraterrestrial civilization. So the people of the Dragon Kingdom, who called themselves descendants of the dragon, were all descended from aliens? Was the Dragon Kingdom's civilization actually an extraterrestrial civilization that had ended up on Blue Star?

Zhang Shuai couldn't make sense of it. Hadn't the Dragon Kingdom only just completed the South Heaven Gate Project? How had it already reached Mars? The news hadn't reported anything about that!

And the woman said the Dragon Kingdom's government had announced the Big Dipper Long Fist to select people with the aptitude for cultivation and train them to become immortals. Wasn't that a little absurd?

The USB drive had revealed far too much. It seriously challenged Zhang Shuai's worldview, and it took him a long time to process the information.

So the woman who'd hit him with her car was a spy from the island nation. After stealing the 749 Bureau's secrets, she'd tried to escape. Zhang Shuai guessed that she'd run him over to cause an accident and hold up the people chasing her.

As for why she'd thrown these things out of the car window, perhaps she'd realized she couldn't make it back to the island nation. Seeing how ragged he was, she'd assumed he was poor and would be tempted by money into helping her send the USB drive back to her country.

Unfortunately, the woman from the island nation had misjudged Zhang Shuai. He was poor, but he wasn't stupid. Ten million was an enormous sum. How could it not make anyone suspicious? And the spy had underestimated human curiosity. Wouldn't anyone who found a USB drive want to see what was on it?

Zhang Shuai felt a little excited. He'd only just become a martial arts master, and now a cultivation technique had appeared?

If the Small Heavenly Cycle Art really was a method for cultivating into an immortal, could he do it too?

Zhang Shuai had read plenty of cultivation novels and envied the cultivators in those worlds, who could live freely and settle their grudges. He'd never imagined he would discover that cultivators really existed—and that he'd already obtained an authentic cultivation technique!

The problem was that the Small Heavenly Cycle Art was written entirely in ancient Dragon Kingdom characters. Zhang Shuai couldn't understand a word. He'd have to find an expert in ancient Dragon Kingdom writing to decipher and translate it. But if he did that, the contents of the Small Heavenly Cycle Art might get out. If the government traced it back to him, he wouldn't be able to explain himself, and that could be a problem.

But the mysterious Small Heavenly Cycle Art was right there in his hands. Zhang Shuai would deeply regret missing out on an opportunity like this. Who didn't long for immortality?

After thinking it over, Zhang Shuai decided he would study ancient Dragon Kingdom writing by himself. If he put in the time, he believed he could figure out how to practice the Small Heavenly Cycle Art.

There was still plenty of time before the dinner gathering they'd arranged for that evening, so Zhang Shuai went online and found more than a dozen specialized books and courses: Evolution Process of Dragon Kingdom Ancient Characters, Origin of Dragon Kingdom Characters, Ancient Character Studies, Introduction to Epigraphy, Shuowen Jiezi, Introduction to Dragon Kingdom Paleography, and more. He downloaded them all to his phone, ready to study them carefully.

Once the downloads were finished, Zhang Shuai began with the scholarly work Origin of Dragon Kingdom Characters, learning about the origins of the Dragon Kingdom's pictographic writing bit by bit.

Zhang Shuai had always been a determined and persistent person. After losing his memory at the age of twelve, he'd never gone back to school. He'd taught himself everything, bit by bit, from elementary, middle, and high school subjects to some university-level material.

Now, though these lessons on the evolution of ancient characters were dry and tedious, Zhang Shuai could only patiently study them for the sake of his dream of becoming an immortal.

Of course, to decipher the Small Heavenly Cycle Art accurately and in its entirety, he would need to attain a very high level of expertise in ancient writing. That couldn't be achieved overnight; it might take months or even years.

But no matter how long it took, Zhang Shuai wouldn't give up easily.

Now that he knew it was possible to cultivate into an immortal, and had a cultivation method in his hands, how could he let such an opportunity pass him by?