Planning for the Future

The sky was cloudless for ten thousand miles, with only a great sun hanging high above, spewing boundless true fire that turned all of West Province into a furnace.

Yet no matter how scorching the sunlight was, it could not stop the cultivators swarming in. Sand City welcomed another new day. Countless shops opened their doors, buying up the innumerable rare treasures cultivators had risked their lives to obtain, while also selling all kinds of cultivation resources those cultivators needed.

At this moment, travel-worn from head to toe, Wang Ding had endured ten days of arduous journeying through the desert and finally returned to Sand City. During those ten days, Wang Ding had run into danger several times, but each time he had relied on talismans and Magic Tools to turn peril into safety. He had also gained many materials, among them an Inner Core belonging to a Sand Lizard comparable to one at the Qi Training Realm. The creature looked like a lizard, with barbs growing from its tail, bone spurs along its spine extending from its head all the way to its tail, and it could spit venom. It could be said that every part of its body was a vicious weapon. If Wang Ding had not exhausted all his offensive talismans, then added his Magic Tool and launched a dense barrage of attacks, he likely would not have been able to kill it. Even so, Wang Ding had still been injured. He used three Vitality Talismans in a row, took several pills, and rested for a full three days before his wounds were healed.

"I'm finally back. This desert really isn't a place for people to stay. This time I have to get a good rest and digest what I gained. Right now I only have a few Spirit Stones on me, so I'll go get some Spirit Stones first, then find a place to stay and rest properly for the night. I'll talk about everything else tomorrow."

After entering Sand City, Wang Ding went straight to a shop and exchanged the materials and Inner Core in his hands for Spirit Stones. Altogether, he received more than three hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones. The Inner Core alone was worth over one hundred and fifty, while the remaining materials added up to another hundred and fifty or so. "One trip earned me three hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones. That's equal to half a year of my income from making talismans."

In truth, Wang Ding was thinking about it wrong. An ordinary cultivator generally did not have a Magic Tool; they only used ordinary weapons. It was impossible for them to kill a demonic beast that had formed an Inner Core like he had. After a whole trip of hard running and toil, their income would only be a few dozen Low-grade Spirit Stones.

After that, Wang Ding spent one hundred and fifty Low-grade Spirit Stones to buy thirty bottles of different pills: ten bottles each of Human Origin Pills, Jasper Pills, and Return to Origin Pills. At the same time, he spent another hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones on blank talisman paper and cinnabar. In just a short while, he had spent over two hundred Low-grade Spirit Stones. Looking at the Spirit Stones he had left, Wang Ding thought to himself, It came fast and went fast too. Fine. If the old doesn't go, the new won't come.

After packing up his things, Wang Ding left the shop under the shopkeeper's warm send-off and walked toward a small inn in the north of the city. When he arrived at the inn's entrance, he saw that it had three floors, with carved railings and jade-like masonry, quite extraordinary as well. As soon as he entered the inn, a young attendant came forward and asked with a smile all over his face, "Honored guest, are you here for a meal or lodging? If you're here for a meal, our humble shop has top-grade spirit grain, spirit vegetables, and refined meat from demonic beasts. If you're staying, we have three kinds of rooms: Heaven-rank, Earth-rank, and Human-rank. The Heaven-rank rooms are courtyard residences with restrictions set up; aside from the key holder, no one can enter. They cost fifty Low-grade Spirit Stones per day. The Earth-rank rooms are on the third floor and cost ten Low-grade Spirit Stones per day. The Human-rank rooms are single rooms in the rear courtyard and cost one Low-grade Spirit Stone per day."

The attendant did not mind Wang Ding's travel-worn appearance in the slightest and very professionally introduced all the inn's various services to him. There was no looking down on people with dog's eyes at all.

"One Human-rank room. I'll stay ten days," Wang Ding said after considering it for a moment.

When he heard that a Heaven-rank room cost fifty Low-grade Spirit Stones a day, Wang Ding could not help clicking his tongue. He had risked his life and fought desperately, yet what he had earned was only enough for one room's fee. And this was merely the money-sucking ability of a tiny inn. He could not help thinking of the financial power and resources possessed by those super sects that occupied an entire province, and this strengthened his resolve to join a sect even further.

The attendant led the way ahead, passing through the main hall. After quite a while, he brought Wang Ding to the door of a room in the rear courtyard, opened it, and guided Wang Ding inside. Then he said to Wang Ding, "Honored guest, this is your room. Please make yourself at home. If you need anything, you can pull the alarm bell by your bed, and we will know."

After saying this, he closed the door and respectfully withdrew.

Wang Ding bolted the door and carefully examined the room. There was a marble floor, a set of wooden tables and chairs, a bed, a set of washing utensils, and a tea set, with nothing else besides. Placing the bundle he had been carrying on his back onto the bed, Wang Ding directly collapsed onto the bed, covered his head, and fell asleep. The fatigue of the past days had left Wang Ding without a single stable night's rest, and his spirit had already reached its limit. He slept for a full three days, only waking at noon on the third day.

The sun was at its zenith, the Golden Crow hanging high in the sky. It was precisely the most bustling time of day. Wang Ding shook his groggy head, got up, washed, and then began considering his plans for where to go from here.

"First, I must raise my Essence cultivation to the limit of eighty-one drops. Second, I'll take the Pure Yang Creation Fruit, break through the limit, and accumulate my Essence to one hundred and eight drops, the number of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. Third, I'll enter the Innate Realm and condense a wisp of Innate Qi; from then on, the immortal path will be within reach. Fourth, I'll head to the West Sea region and find a sect that can shield me from wind and rain before I have the power to protect myself, then join it," Wang Ding planned his future with clear thoughts.

Originally, Wang Ding's plan had been to head directly to the West Sea and seek a master, but after his trip through the desert and discovering the cruelty of the cultivation world, he no longer dared act rashly. People with his cultivation at the Qi Refining Realm's Meridian Opening Stage were everywhere here. On what basis would a great sect take him as a disciple? So Wang Ding planned to break through to the Innate Realm within a short time. At that point, with this physical body breaking through to Innate before the age of twenty-five, he would certainly enter the sight of the various sects of the West Sea.

Once his plan was complete, Wang Ding began a regular life. Every morning, he practiced fist techniques, then consumed various pills to accumulate Essence. In the afternoon, he began making talismans. Day after day after day, more than two months passed in the blink of an eye.

During this period, Wang Ding could be said to have entered seclusion and cultivated bitterly. He only went out twice, both times to exchange the talismans he had made for Spirit Stones to pay for his room. Now, after finishing all his pills, Wang Ding had finally accumulated his Essence to the ultimate realm, the number of nine nines, eighty-one.

At this moment, Wang Ding's qi and blood seethed, the vital energy throughout his body was full, his skin was snow-white and fine, and his physical body had grown even more condensed, seamless as one whole. If before he had been a piece of rough iron, then now he was a piece of refined iron. When Wang Ding's Essence reached the number of nine nines, his strength also increased again by half a flying dragon's power. With his current realm at the Meridian Opening Stage, he possessed three and a half flying dragons' worth of strength. It could be said that aside from the genius disciples of those ten great sects, very few others could stand shoulder to shoulder with him.

At this point, it would not be an exaggeration to call Wang Ding a genius.

"Very good. Now I've already reached the limit of cultivation at the Meridian Opening Stage. Next comes swallowing the Pure Yang Creation Fruit to break that limit. I've waited a long time for this day," Wang Ding thought, unable to keep excitement from rising in his heart. Thus, Wang Ding decided that three days later, he would formally consume the Pure Yang Creation Fruit.

For the next three days, Wang Ding bathed and changed his clothes daily, burning incense and praying in his room, causing his spirit to enter a state of no thought and no contemplation, a spiritual realm where heaven and man were united as one.

At midnight on the third night, Wang Ding reached his optimal condition. He opened the jade box before him, took out the dragon-eye-sized, crystalline and translucent Pure Yang Creation Fruit, and swallowed it in one gulp.