The First Step of Cultivation

Lu Qing did not interrupt, but he kept listening intently.

"Why is this year different? Could it be that these freakish geniuses also have to take the exam and enter the Inner Academy like us?"

One disciple looked dazed, deeply shaken.

"No way, right?"

Within the lecture hall, even the placement of meditation cushions carried its own significance.

Some people clearly dressed in silks and brocades sat together, while the rest gathered in separate groups.

The voice revealing the inside story came from the cushions at the front.

"Even these geniuses can't enter the Inner Sect?"

"That seems pretty fair, doesn't it?"

"Hehe, it's true. They have to undergo the same assessment as us."

"But you're imagining things too beautifully. When the time comes, you'll have to compete against them in the Entry Trial Tournament. Your ranking will determine your monthly stipend afterward. There's a guaranteed stipend, but if you want better resources, you'll have to fight your way upward."

A proud-looking youth rose to his feet, swept his gaze around the room, and sneered.

"Besides, they may not be entering the Inner Academy, but teachers have long since been assigned to them within the Inner Sect. What do they have to fear?"

"You're dreaming too much."

The youth spoke with a cold sneer, plainly looking down on everyone around him.

The surrounding crowd erupted.

"You!"

But when some people recognized his face, their indignant expressions quickly fell silent.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed? His name is Gu Xing!"

"He's from the Gu Family. Gu Xuantian is his elder brother."

A disciple hurriedly grabbed the person beside him, who had been about to argue, and quietly explained Gu Xing's background.

Someone from the Gu Family.

Lu Qing immediately understood why the lively discussion had slammed to a halt the moment this youth spoke.

People from the Gu Family were clearly no ordinary people.

But judging from Gu Xing's tone, there was probably some hidden matter beneath it all.

These were matters of great cultivation lineages. Lu Qing did not dwell on them. Instead, he thought of one point Gu Xing had raised: cultivation resources were extremely important.

This batch of freakish geniuses had not entered the Inner Academy, but would instead compete alongside these Outer Sect disciples. The scene would surely become intense.

The disciples who had heard this wore all sorts of expressions.

Lu Qing sat steadily in place. He only needed to cultivate methodically, step by step. Besides, just moments ago, this month's Lifespan drop effect had appeared.

[Skill effect activated: randomly gained 10 years of Lifespan.]

Receiving ten years of Lifespan out of nowhere, Lu Qing felt delighted.

Of course, his expression remained much the same as those of the disciples beside him. They all pretended to be deep in thought, while in truth their minds had already wandered beyond the clouds.

He was destined to be a Longevity Species. Fighting and killing were not suited to him.

"They're here." The crowd grew noisy.

It was as though some great celebrity had appeared. Lu Qing followed the crowd's gaze as well.

It was safest not to stand out by blending into the crowd, and to focus on cultivating steadily.

More than a dozen figures appeared.

There were both men and women.

Uh.

He heard the people beside him praising them.

"Wow, they really are geniuses. They're extraordinary indeed."

Forgive him for saying so, but he looked with his left eye and then his right, yet could not see anything extraordinary about them. At most, they were dressed more lavishly and carried themselves more calmly.

As someone whose Divine Soul had already matured for decades, Lu Qing could not bring himself to sigh in admiration. He could only look with his eyes as a faint complaint flashed through his mind.

Of course, in the cultivation world, cultivation made one forget the passage of time. The next time they met, perhaps every one of them would carry the exceptional aura of a heavenly prodigy.

That was what he thought inwardly.

The cushions at the very front had remained unoccupied.

Lu Qing had been puzzled by them earlier, and had even briefly wondered whether the cultivation world also had a tradition of obedient students who followed classroom rules.

Now it seemed he had overthought it.

Those places at the front had clearly been reserved for this group.

Lu Qing's seat followed the middle path. Looking left and right, no one would want to fight him for it, yet he would not end up at the back either, receiving scornful looks and being looked down upon before staging some thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river reversal.

An elder soon appeared.

He was another white-haired old man, with the bearing of an Immortal, seated upright upon a cloud couch.

Without even glancing at those below, he immediately began explaining matters requiring attention in cultivation, even skipping introductions.

He seemed to have rushed over just to teach them this lesson.

Because Lu Qing recognized who this old man was.

He had caught a fleeting glimpse of him on White Crane Boy's back, seen by chance just moments ago.

That was also why Lu Qing suddenly found something faintly strange. The man was obsessed with alchemy; one could tell from the explosions alone.

Now that he had come to teach, his pace would surely be swift.

Lu Qing focused with all his heart. There was no paper or brush here; he had to rely entirely on his own mind.

He memorized as much as he could hear. Even if he had a brush in hand, whether he could keep up with Elder Yu's speaking speed was another question entirely.

"Cultivation begins with Meridian Opening. Our Dao Academy possesses a dazzling array of methods, but Divine Visualization is most suitable for beginners. Now follow my words, look at the visualization diagram before you, and enter meditation with your eyes closed..."

A luminous diagram appeared before Elder Yu.

The object of visualization was a field of magma.

Scorching heat waves rolled through it. Wave after wave rose within the magma, then vanished back into it.

Lu Qing looked over, and a blast of heat rushed straight into his eyes.

"Heaven makes up what is in excess, the fleshly body lacks what is wanting, Spiritual Essence moves on its own, the root of the Dao..."

Lu Qing instinctively closed his eyes. At first, he could still hear Elder Yu's voice clearly by his ears.

But soon, threads of burning heat spread from between his brows. Then, from the crown of his head, they slowly spread through his limbs and bones, and traces of warmth appeared within his sinews and bones.

The sensation was incredibly distinct.

He felt streams of heat, as though magma were flowing through them, pass from the air into his fleshly body. The crown of his head, between his brows, his back—every bodily meridian seemed to be washed through by that burning current.

Hot!

Hot beyond imagination!

The next moment.

He did not know how much time had passed.

Lu Qing felt that a river of magma had appeared within his consciousness.

Rumble!

No words were needed.

A burst of vitality suddenly flared within his spirit.

Crack!

Crack!!

His bones and meridians resounded.

His fleshly body rang from within—he had successfully entered the Meridian Opening Realm!

Lu Qing's mind cleared, and he immediately felt his body become a hundred times lighter, as though he had previously been dragging a heavy corpse through the world.

But now, he was weightless. The sensation of lightness was beyond imagination.

There was only one word for it—refreshing.

"Hahaha, I've entered the realm!"

"Hehe, I've entered it too!"

When Lu Qing opened his eyes, those talented people at the front had already opened theirs.

After the time it took for an incense stick to burn, quite a few more people gradually entered the realm. Some were overjoyed, while others wore unwilling expressions.

When he looked up again, he discovered that Elder Yu had vanished at some unknown point.

The luminous magma diagram still hung in the air.

The dozen or so young men and women on the cushions at the front, who had also entered the Meridian Opening Realm, rose and left one after another.

As for the many others who had not yet entered the Meridian Opening Realm, no one paid them any attention.

As a newly initiated disciple, Lu Qing felt that after today, the newcomer protection period might be over.

His road of Immortal Cultivation was about to formally begin.

Meridian Opening was only the first step.

What he needed to consider now was that he was preparing to learn spells.

Lu Qing's mind was clear, his consciousness awake.