Do Not Get Close to Women

Lu Chuan quickly devoured all the gathered Fire Spirit energy, nurturing Li Essence within his chest and abdomen.

A moment later, he circled his hands outward, signaling the end of his cultivation. His eyes slowly opened, and the light around him gradually faded.

Outside, Shen Gongbao smiled. "Hungry, disciple? Come on. Your master's treating you to a meal at a restaurant."

At those words, Lu Chuan realized just how famished he was. After all, he hadn't eaten for nine days and nights. Even cultivating true qi couldn't keep hunger at bay forever.

Cultivating the Samadhi True Fire could be interrupted. Before becoming an immortal, one was still human. Though more resistant to hunger than ordinary people, humans still needed to eat and drink.

Even after becoming an immortal, one didn't stop eating and drinking altogether. One simply enjoyed fare of a much higher quality.

By then, they would feast on rosy clouds and breathe in qi, eating immortal fruits and delicacies, dragon liver and phoenix marrow, and drinking jade dew and sweet nectar.

For martial artists, this went without saying.

But he hadn't felt hungry or thirsty while cultivating, so he'd continued until he succeeded.

Now that he thought about it, it was probably because of the cup of immortal tea he'd drunk before entering seclusion.

Still, even with the tea, he'd clearly lost weight over the nine days and nights of cultivation. In exchange, his gaze had grown much sharper.

"I'm coming!"

Lu Chuan opened the door and stepped into the courtyard, where Shen Gongbao stood smiling with his hands behind his back.

"Master, I've cultivated the Samadhi True Fire."

Lu Chuan was in an excellent mood. The Samadhi True Fire really was a powerful Daoist art.

If he'd already mastered it when he encountered that female demon outside Chaoge City, he wouldn't have had to flee for his life.

The Samadhi True Fire was the bane of demons, monsters, ghosts, and spirits, and that female demon had been a vengeful spirit.

If he'd just lured her closer and then spat a mouthful of fire at her, she would surely have been burned to ashes, her soul scattered, never to be reincarnated.

"I already know. Come on, let's go look around Chaoge."

Shen Gongbao smiled. "My disciple and I have been living here for over two months, yet we've never gone out to explore!"

"Sounds good!"

Lu Chuan readily agreed. He wanted to have a look around, too.

The two left the shop, one after the other. The sun was directly overhead. Though summer had arrived, the streets were still crowded, especially around the lively Chaoge South Gate.

Their shop was conveniently located not far from the south gate. Though the area was bustling, their wares weren't very good, so customers rarely came by.

"Disciple, I just remembered something I need to warn you about," Shen Gongbao said suddenly as they walked.

Lu Chuan smiled. "Please, Master. I'll keep your words close to heart."

"Until your Dao cultivation is fully developed, you must not get close to women. Otherwise, you might..."

Shen Gongbao put on a stern expression, then paused, considering how to finish the sentence.

"Get close to women?"

Lu Chuan froze and hurriedly asked, "What might happen?"

"At best, you'll ruin your cultivation, and years of hard work will go down the drain. At worst... you'll suffer a bloody calamity!" Shen Gongbao said.

"Ruin my cultivation? Suffer a bloody calamity?"

Lu Chuan was stunned. He hadn't given much thought to women, but Shen Gongbao's warning had caught him completely off guard.

Was cultivating to become an immortal really this demanding?

First, he couldn't eat meat. Now, he couldn't touch a woman until his Dao cultivation was fully developed. But didn't novels talk about Dao companions?

"Mm!"

Thinking of Jiang Ziya's experience, Shen Gongbao nodded in deep agreement.

In truth, Dao cultivation was indeed incompatible with getting close to women. One's untouched state must be preserved—but only in the early stages, before one had attained a certain level of cultivation and self-control.

Early on, one's cultivation was weak, and one's self-control wasn't especially strong either. Relations between men and women also consumed a great deal of one's vital energy and spirit, and were all too easy to become addicted to.

Once someone was caught up in them, their path of cultivation was as good as ruined.

But once Lu Chuan cultivated the Five Elements Formula to an intermediate level and gained a certain degree of cultivation and discipline, none of those concerns would matter anymore.

Still, Shen Gongbao really was saying this for Lu Chuan's own good.

Just look at what had happened to his senior brother Jiang Ziya. The consequences of getting married and sleeping with a woman had been truly serious and terrifying.

He'd deliberately put off raising the difficulty because he reckoned that by the time Lu Chuan's Dao cultivation was fully developed, he would have reached the realm of Refining Spirit to Return to Void.

By then, Lu Chuan's feelings for women would surely have weakened. If he turned out to be even more promising, perhaps he could sever those desires altogether.

With nothing to distract or entangle him, Lu Chuan would have a far better chance of becoming an immortal.

"Disciple, don't thank me. One day, you'll understand how much thought your master put into this."

Shen Gongbao felt very pleased with himself. He imagined telling his disciple the truth after Lu Chuan became an immortal—

That kid will be so touched, tears streaming down his face!

Beside him,

Lu Chuan fell silent, lost in thought.

"Dao cultivation fully developed?"

Shen Gongbao had said it would take ten years for his Dao cultivation to reach that point. He was sixteen now, so in ten years he'd be twenty-six...

That's not so bad. I won't be too old by then.

Lu Chuan felt relieved. As for women... he still felt the same way: he wouldn't force it. He'd just let fate decide.

In this world, if fate brought you together, there was no stopping it. If you weren't destined to meet someone, well, you'd just have to keep living the bachelor life!

Lu Chuan suddenly thought of a... emmmmm... very interesting question.

A choice between two answers: one meant becoming an immortal but never having a woman again; the other meant having a woman but never becoming an immortal. If men in this world could only choose one, which would they pick?

The master and disciple walked side by side. They were thinking about the same thing, yet their thoughts were poles apart—completely opposite.

Fortunately, Shen Gongbao had no idea what was going through his disciple's head. Otherwise, he might have been tempted to strike the ungrateful brat down with a single palm.

You ungrateful brat! I've racked my brains to make your path to immortality easier, and you still dare think about women...

The two fell silent and continued walking, each absorbed in his own thoughts.

"Disciple, you must remember what I just told you."

Shen Gongbao looked stern. "You absolutely must not touch a woman before your Dao cultivation is fully developed. If you break your untouched state too soon and release your primordial yang, your Dao cultivation really will be ruined. Your training will go to waste."

His words were half true and half false, which made it even harder for Lu Chuan to see through him.

Before one had reached the stage of Refining Essence into Qi, one's untouched state absolutely could not be broken. Otherwise, the premature release of one's primordial yang would destroy one's still-shallow foundation in Dao cultivation.

Lu Chuan hurriedly nodded. "Master, I'll remember."

Shen Gongbao sounded so serious that Lu Chuan didn't dare doubt him for a moment. He committed the warning firmly to memory. After all, he didn't want to gamble with his cultivation.

"By the way..."

Shen Gongbao suddenly stopped. "Are you still a virgin?"

"Master, before my spiritual aperture opened, I was a fool for sixteen years."

Lu Chuan's face immediately went dark. "I may be handsome, but what woman would like a fool?"

"A normal person wouldn't. But another fool might."

Lu Chuan: "!!!"

He could almost hear a crow cawing as it flew overhead. That old man was really... something. Just a few words, and he'd managed to inflict internal injuries.

But...

He could learn a thing or two from him. Not only should he study Daoist arts, but he should also learn to wield words like swords. The more skills, the better; who knew when they'd come in handy?

"Sorry, coming through! Excuse me!"

After the two had walked some distance into the city, a man came toward them at a three-way intersection. He squeezed between them and headed left.

"Hey, brother, wait a moment."

Lu Chuan spun lightly, and in a few swift turns, he was standing in front of the young man. With a smile, he raised a hand to stop him.

"You..."

The man glanced behind himself, surprised by how Lu Chuan had gotten in front of him. Still, he asked politely, "What can I do for you, young brother?"

"Brother, as we came along," Lu Chuan said, "we saw several people just like you hurrying that way. Is there something interesting going on over there?"