Beginning Cultivation of the Profound Method

"Cold Mountain Mine Cave is a forbidden ground. All mineral resources within belong to the court. Concealing them privately is already a grave crime!" Fang Xun said sternly, his face cold.

Li Shun, who stood below with his head lowered as he awaited judgment, could not help but shudder again at those words.

Fortunately, Fang Xun's tone soon eased. "However, considering that you still possess a sense of reverence and took the initiative to hand it over, you may be spared punishment."

"As for your promotion in rank..."

"This official will submit a report on your behalf for the time being."

"However, this matter must pass through layer upon layer of verification and stringent approval by the left and right ministers' residences in the Sacred Capital. This official cannot give you a definite answer just yet. Go back first and wait patiently for news," Fang Xun said mildly.

"You are a heaven-blue lord!" Li Shun cried, as though granted a pardon, immediately weeping with gratitude and bowing again and again.

As Fang Xun watched Li Shun's humble figure retreat respectfully, a faint laugh rose in his heart at having him firmly in the palm of his hand.

Ten days later, on the thirteenth day of the fifth month.

Li Shun received word that the court's reward had been issued. He had successfully cast off his lowly status and been promoted to the first rank of Gongshi.

"I... I've become a Gongshi too?" Li Shun's voice trembled faintly, his eyes red and his face filled with disbelief.

"Hehe, it wasn't easy. After all these years, Cripple, you've finally made something of yourself," Constable Wu Kuang said with some emotion as he looked at Li Shun.

"Enough standing around in a daze. The County Magistrate is still waiting to see you. Hurry and come with me."

Li Shun had just started to step forward when he abruptly stopped himself. "Constable, please wait. Allow this lowly one... allow me to tidy myself up."

As he spoke, Li Shun stretched out his withered hands and hurriedly, yet with utmost solemnity, smoothed out his shabby coarse-cloth clothes. He then straightened his disheveled white hair before lifting his stooped back a little straighter and limping after Wu Kuang toward the county yamen.

When they met again, County Magistrate Fang Xun had completely put away his former lofty official majesty and sternness, replacing it with a gentle, amiable expression.

"Now that you have risen in rank overnight, your circumstances will be utterly different from this day onward. You will no longer have to suffer the hardship of labor service."

Li Shun bowed deeply. "It is all thanks to Your Honor's support and cultivation!"

Fang Xun suddenly asked, "Do you have a courtesy name?"

Li Shun froze for a moment, then narrowed his eyes slightly, seeming to sink into memories from long ago. "I vaguely remember that before I was exiled to Cold Mountain County, my parents had someone give me a courtesy name. It was called..."

"It was called..."

Li Shun racked his brains for a long while before finally recalling it. In a solemn voice, he said, "Tui Zhi! Yes, that's right—it was Tui Zhi!"

Fang Xun nodded thoughtfully. "Li Shun, courtesy name Tui Zhi. Advancing and retreating in proper measure—it is quite a profound and fine name."

No longer dwelling on the matter, Fang Xun's expression turned solemn. With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the attendants. Then, using two fingers as a brush, he wrote the character "Forbidden" in the air with the soaring grace of dragons and dancing phoenixes.

In an instant, streaks of golden light, like tangible shackles, intertwined and spread through the air, completely sealing off the entire study.

Li Shun could not help showing unease. "Your Honor, this is...?"

Fang Xun said calmly, "Tui Zhi, now that you have entered the ranks of nobility, you are qualified to learn the most important cultivation method of our Great Qian."

"The Twelve Longevity Method."

"Today, this official will personally pass this method on to you!"

"Do you still remember Feng Jianwei?" Fang Xun suddenly asked.

Li Shun hurriedly nodded, excitement flashing in his eyes. "Could it be that Feng Jianwei cultivated this method, which was why he regained his youth overnight?"

"Not only him. Within the Great Qian Court, from His Majesty to county officials and petty clerks, all those who hold rank or office, who are soldiers or generals, cultivate this method! Even the Three Teachings and Nine Streams, the Hundred Schools and their masters, cannot escape its reach," Fang Xun said with incomparable gravity.

As he spoke, he turned his wrist and took out a thin sheet of paper glowing faintly with golden light.

He then withdrew a white jade seal from his sleeve and pressed it lightly onto the golden paper with extreme solemnity.

The seal on the golden paper suddenly shattered, revealing that its surface was densely covered in tiny writing.

Only then did Fang Xun solemnly hand the golden paper to Li Shun.

The instant his fingertips touched it, the golden paper broke apart and scattered like starlight filling the sky. Countless dazzling tiny characters transformed into shooting stars and flew directly toward Li Shun.

In that instant, a profound method stretching across several hundred thousand words was firmly imprinted in his mind.

While deeply shaken by the mysterious method recorded in those words, Li Shun did not forget to disguise himself.

He clutched his head with both hands, furrowed his brow, and put on an expression of pain as though his soul could scarcely endure it.

"Is there anything you do not understand?"

After a long while, once Li Shun had fully absorbed the contents of the golden paper and opened his eyes again, Fang Xun finally spoke.

"The Twelve Longevity Method is far too profound. This commoner truly..." Li Shun sighed bitterly, his old face wrinkled in distress.

"It is no matter. Tell me whatever you do not understand, and I will resolve each question for you. Besides, you have now been promoted to the first rank of Gongshi. Stop calling yourself 'this commoner' every other word," Fang Xun reminded him.

"I... Tui Zhi understands." Li Shun nodded, then began to explain the doubts in his heart one by one.

Fang Xun showed not the slightest impatience. He patiently answered every one of Li Shun's questions.

Only at six in the evening, when the setting sun was gradually sinking, did this transmission of the method finally end.

"Once you formally begin cultivating, you will surely encounter many more things you do not understand. Those can only be comprehended by yourself."

"Today, this official can only help you enter the gate."

"Go back and cultivate well. I believe that by sunrise tomorrow, you will shed your mortal frame and exchange your bones." Fang Xun's gaze fell upon Li Shun. Perhaps he had recalled the days when he himself had first begun cultivating, for a trace of emotion unexpectedly entered his voice.

Li Shun cupped his hands and bowed deeply. "Tui Zhi will never forget Your Honor's grace in transmitting the method for all eternity."

With a sweep of his wide sleeve, Fang Xun lifted the seal around the study.

Suppressing the wild joy and excitement in his heart, Li Shun left the county yamen and returned to his dilapidated little courtyard.

Once back in a safe place, he used tremendous willpower to forcibly suppress the urge to begin cultivating at once.

He merely held his breath, sat quietly, and gathered his thoughts.

Only after a new day quietly arrived, and he was certain that the divine ability [Threefold Self-Reflection] had enough room to recover, did Li Shun truly begin cultivating again.

The contents of the Twelve Longevity Method slowly surfaced in his mind once more.

[The Heavenly Dao is profound and distant; life and death follow their constants. When affairs flourish, they decline; when things grow strong, they age.

Yet how could one who stands at the utmost limit of the six directions willingly consign his bones to the Yellow Springs? How could one who commands all living things be content to rot alongside grass and trees?

The mediocre people of the world fear Heaven's mandate and submit to death; those beyond the world flee the red dust and beg for longevity.

These are all inferior paths.

If Heaven seeks to end mankind, mankind must rob Heaven.

Thus, Creation is reversed, and Yin and Yang are derived backward.

Therefore was the Twelve Longevity Method written.]

At the beginning of the cultivation method was the general outline written by Emperor Gan, stating its purpose plainly from the outset.

"The Twelve Longevity stages mean borrowing longevity from Heaven and returning to youth."

"It is as though one lives another life, beginning at the age of sixteen, when vitality is at its peak, and ending in decline and death."

"Passing through twelve stages, they are..."

"Longevity, Mortal Descent, Flourishing Splendor, Formed Image, Established Emolument, Imperial Prosperity, Retreat and Concealment, Gradual Stripping, Seated Forgetting, Hidden Depths, Returning to the Root, and Mysterious Female."

Seated cross-legged, Li Shun slowly began circulating this method that defied Heaven and changed one's fate.