The Beginning of Cultivation

Shen Gongbao said softly, "Very well, enough talk. I shall now impart the immortal cultivation methods to you, though you must grasp the various mysteries within them yourself."

Hearing this, Lu Chuan suppressed the excitement in his heart, rose to his feet, knelt solemnly before Shen Gongbao, and kowtowed, saying, "Many thanks, Master, for imparting the Dharma."

"Do not be happy too soon. While I can pass the methods to you, how far you go on the path of cultivation depends entirely on your own fortune."

Shen Gongbao smiled. "Do you know why I was so late to arrive when you encountered that demon just now?"

Lu Chuan was taken aback. "This disciple does not know."

"Nothing more than this: I was observing you to see if you could escape from that female demon on your own."

Shen Gongbao laughed. "Fortunately, your head is flexible enough, and you possess some wit. Even that female demon fell for your tricks, which shows you not only have the natural aptitude, but here..."

As he spoke, he pointed to his own head.

"...here, you are also capable. I, Shen Gongbao, value not only a disciple's natural aptitude but also this."

Lu Chuan was stunned. This Shen Gongbao was truly eccentric and played entirely by his own rules. He had left his disciple to fend for himself against a demon just to see if he was clever?

Of course, Lu Chuan believed that if he truly couldn't escape, Shen Gongbao would have eventually intervened—after all, he had been introduced by Jiang Ziya.

It was just that, in his master's heart, he likely would have been deemed a failure as a disciple.

"I, Shen Gongbao, am not only proficient in the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams, the Mystical Gates and Hidden Stems, medicine, divination, astrology, astronomy, geography, military strategy... and so on and so forth."

Shen Gongbao smiled. "Tell me, if I had taken on a blockheaded, wooden disciple, wouldn't I be the laughingstock of everyone once I brought him out into the world?"

Lu Chuan listened silently from the side, secretly clicking his tongue, for he knew these were no empty boasts; Shen Gongbao absolutely had the capital to say such things.

Shen Gongbao was a rare talent, and having studied under the great Primordial Heavenly Lord, he was not only profound in Daoist arts but also highly skilled in heterodox techniques.

After Jiang Ziya descended the mountain with the List of Conferred Gods, Shen Gongbao had even deceived him with the "severed head that does not die" trick, nearly snatching the List of Conferred Gods for himself.

Furthermore, Lu Chuan knew that his master's most formidable weapon was not any of the things mentioned above, but his—tongue.

A tongue as glib as a reed, capable of turning right into wrong and black into white, swaying anyone to change their mind.

Think of how many extraordinary people in the Conferred God saga, originally living in seclusion away from the dust of the world, were eventually persuaded by him to emerge, only to end up on the List of Conferred Gods.

And do not forget, at the start, the disciples of the Jie Sect and the Exposition Sect looked down on each other; they would essentially trade barbs whenever they met.

Yet, only Shen Gongbao was able to move freely among the Jie Sect; that was true skill!

"Master, suppose—this disciple is just saying, suppose..."

Lu Chuan probed, "Suppose I had needed you to save me just now, then..."

"Then I still would have imparted the Daoist methods and techniques to you, as this was entrusted to me by my senior brother, but..."

Shen Gongbao's tone shifted. "Good disciple, from this day forward, you are my student. I shall teach you everything I know. As for how much you can learn, that depends entirely on yourself."

"Many thanks, Master!" Lu Chuan said, overjoyed.

At the same time, he felt fortunate that he hadn't pinned all his hopes on Shen Gongbao but had instead tried to save himself, ensuring he didn't disappoint his master.

Otherwise...

"Good, now I shall impart the method to you."

Shen Gongbao spoke, and suddenly, his right hand pinched into a sword-finger, striking out rapidly and stopping three inches before the center of Lu Chuan's brow.

Hum!

His fingertips radiated five-colored light, swirling around the top of Lu Chuan's head like a five-colored helmet.

Lu Chuan's eyes widened, his face filled with astonishment.

Then, his entire body seemed to be frozen in place.

Immediately, deep within his eyes, strange symbols emitting five-colored light emerged, eventually coalescing into a scripture.

A moment later.

Shen Gongbao withdrew his hand, channeled his energy, and exhaled slowly. The five-colored light atop Lu Chuan's head dissipated, yet Lu Chuan remained motionless for a long time.

Shen Gongbao glanced at the unmoving Lu Chuan, said nothing more, and simply nodded softly.

A long while later.

Lu Chuan suddenly moved, but because he had been kneeling for too long, his legs went numb, and he collapsed onto the ground.

He was drenched in sweat, his gaze filled with shock, unable to collect his thoughts for a long time.

"How does it feel?"

Shen Gongbao glanced at him, smiled, and reached out with a stick to poke the fire. "This method is called the Five Elements True Origin Formula. It is the method I use for my own cultivation and refining of Qi. You shall try to practice it yourself from now on; if you do not understand something, come and ask me."

"Many thanks, Master, but..."

Lu Chuan said, feeling somewhat embarrassed, "Master, um, this disciple is illiterate."

Crack!

Shen Gongbao's smile froze on his face, and the stick he was using to poke the fire snapped in two.

Lu Chuan: "..."

This could hardly be blamed on him; all things considered, it had only been twenty days since he had awakened and gained consciousness, right?

He had spent the first half-month painstakingly learning how to speak, and the following days were entirely consumed by plotting how to get Jiang Ziya to take him as a disciple. Where would he have found the time to learn how to read?

Besides, this was the oracle bone script—the ancestor of the simplified Chinese characters he had learned in his past life. And this ancestor looked so vastly different from its descendants many generations removed...

"You don't know how to read? Heh, no matter, I shall teach you."

Shen Gongbao chuckled, a sound that sent a chill through Lu Chuan's heart, before he reached out and tapped Lu Chuan's brow just as he had done before.

"Ah..." A miserable cry rang out.

A short while later.

Shen Gongbao looked down at Lu Chuan, who lay sprawled on the ground, drenched in sweat and pale-faced, and asked, "Have you learned it?"

"Th-thank you, Master."

Lu Chuan "saw" the strange characters appearing in his mind and replied in a weak, listless voice.

Learning the oracle bone script in the span of a moment was even more of a crash course than the legendary crash courses themselves.

However, the price of this shortcut was naturally not small; unlike the cultivation techniques from earlier, these characters felt as if they had been carved into his brain, stroke by stroke.

It hurt!

But now that he knew the oracle bone script, he could begin his cultivation. What was a little pain like this? It was worth it!

"Mm!"

Shen Gongbao gave a slight nod.

It was late into the night by now. Shen Gongbao looked up through a hole in the temple roof at the bright moonlight, then suddenly sat cross-legged on the ground, raising his right hand to grasp at the moon.

Hum!

The next moment, it slowly coalesced into a pillar of white light!

Swish!

Shen Gongbao formed a sword-finger with his left hand, and the white light slowly radiated from his fingertips, enveloping Lu Chuan's entire body.

Before long, the stinging pain inside Lu Chuan's head vanished.

Shen Gongbao withdrew his energy and exhaled, while Lu Chuan felt a sense of great wonder. Such methods—gathering the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon—were truly both astonishing and intriguing.

But soon enough, he would be one of their kind as well.

"Very well, the hour is late; you should get some sleep!"

Shen Gongbao closed his eyes to meditate and said, "Tomorrow we head to Chaoge City. Your Master intends to stay in Chaoge for a while."

"Yes!"

Lu Chuan agreed. He was still a mortal, after all, and could not do as Shen Gongbao did—going without food or sleep.