"Senior Brother, let's cultivate duality!"
Amid the vast mountain winds, a clear female voice rang out, cool and pleasant to the ear.
But the words she spoke were rather startling.
In broad daylight, beneath a clear blue sky, at the tranquil grounds of the Heaven-Gazing Sect—she was openly talking about cultivating duality?
What kind of conduct was that?
Yet when Lu Xuan heard her, his expression remained calm. He only shook his head faintly. "Junior Sister, you mustn't speak nonsense..."
The girl looked anxious and couldn't help raising her voice. "Senior Brother, you failed at Qi Gathering. You and I are no longer Hibernation Academy disciples. In seven days, all our benefits—our residences, the Culinary Hall, Spirit Stones, and everything else—will be revoked..."
"Only by switching to the Golden Armor Jade Body Method and becoming an outer sect disciple can we receive a Dao Salary and continue staying at the Jade Court Daoist Grounds."
"But once we switch to the Golden Armor Jade Body Method, it will be difficult to bear children. Only if yin and yang unite before we switch, leaving behind our essence, can we ensure that we'll give birth to a Spirit Infant in the future!"
"In looks, figure, temperament, and Dao wisdom... I'm one of the best among those who failed the Qi-Refining Grand Rite this time. Senior Brother, we'd make a perfect match. I'll surely bear you a child with excellent aptitude one day. Why won't you agree?"
The girl was baffled and puzzled. She couldn't help lifting her head to ask, "Senior Brother, am I not beautiful?"
Lu Xuan raised his eyes and looked at the girl before him. With her delicate nose, cherry lips, snow-white skin, and black hair, her features looked as if they had been carved from jade. He praised her, "Junior Sister is sixteen, radiant as the morning clouds. Naturally, you're extremely beautiful..."
Lu Xuan wasn't forcing the compliment. How could a girl of this age, with skin like jade and the bone structure of a celestial, not be beautiful?
In the words of his previous life, she was drop-dead gorgeous.
But... having lived a second life, to remain fixated on youthful beauty would be far too shallow.
Besides, a sixteen-year-old girl was naturally beautiful—but what about when she was no longer sixteen?
From the moment he gained the memories and came to understand this world, Lu Xuan had already settled on a course for his life.
The girl didn't understand. She only asked, puzzled, "If that's so, Senior Brother, why won't you agree?"
"Because I don't want to cultivate the Golden Armor Jade Body Method..."
Lu Xuan answered frankly.
At his words, the girl froze, then let out a sigh:
"I know you have ambition, Senior Brother. But don't I?"
"Three years studying writing, three years reading the scriptures, and three years cultivating. Nine years in the Hibernation Academy—who wouldn't want to succeed at Qi Gathering, enter the inner sect, and become a true cultivator?"
"But now... now that we've failed at Qi Gathering, we're like withered dragons in mourning... What else can we do?"
The girl weighed her words, avoiding saying anything too blunt.
But Lu Xuan understood what she meant.
The Golden Armor Jade Body Method was what Hibernation Academy disciples of the Heaven-Gazing Sect cultivated after failing at Qi Gathering. It took a different path, allowing ordinary Embryonic Breath disciples to reach the realm of Qi Refining, and even attain Foundation Establishment. Within the sect, it was considered a force not to be underestimated.
But one's lifespan stopped at two hundred and sixty years.
No medicine could cure its ills, no Spirit Pill could help, and it was difficult to bear children.
The sect's disciples mockingly called it the Withered Dragon Strongman Method.
It meant that Hibernation Academy disciples had failed, and cultivated this method as withered dragons, dried up and dead.
That was the refined way to put it. More crudely, they were "losers who had lost their home."
The girl's meaning was already clear.
We both failed at Qi Gathering, like stray dogs after defeat. What good is ambition now? What is there left to be picky about?
If we wanted to remain in the Heaven-Gazing Sect and at the Jade Court Daoist Grounds, we had no choice but to cultivate the Golden Armor Jade Body Method.
That was also why female cultivators had been coming and going without end at Lu Xuan's residence these past few days.
Unless they had no wish to bear children, anyone who wanted descendants would seek a Dao companion during these few days and settle the matter.
Lu Xuan was the finest in looks and bearing among this generation of Hibernation Academy disciples. He was even among the best of all past generations.
And he was clever, too, naturally making him a favorite among his junior and senior sisters.
The girl was already the third to come "seeking a companion" today.
She was also the most beautiful and shapely of them all.
She had come late because she'd struggled with the matter for a long time. In the end, however, she had accepted reality and decided to preserve their essence first.
Whether she would have a child in the future or not could still be decided later.
But she hadn't expected Lu Xuan to remain completely unmoved.
"Could it be that Senior Brother wants to leave the Heaven-Gazing Sect and seek another path?"
The girl seemed to have thought of something. She stared at Lu Xuan, astonishment in her eyes.
Lu Xuan said nothing.
The girl took his "silence" as "agreement" and hurriedly spoke up. "Senior Brother, don't ruin your own prospects."
"As the saying goes, better to be a strongman of a great sect than a True Disciple of a small one."
"Leaving the Heaven-Gazing Sect would indeed let you seek another path. You could become a disciple of a small sect and gather the residual qi beneath True Qi, then succeed in Qi Refining. But small sects have no Jade Discs and receive no protection from Dao Fruits. It's easy for divine abilities to stir up greed, anger, and delusion. Forget Foundation Establishment—you might die for no apparent reason before you've even lived out the one-hundred-and-twenty-year lifespan of the Embryonic Breath Realm..."
"And Mount-Supporting Continent is no peaceful place..."
"As for the other great sects and great religions, it's even less likely they'd accept failed Qi Gathering disciples from our Hibernation Academy."
"After all, once you leave the Heaven-Gazing Sect, you have to sign a Heart Mirror. In the future, if you encounter a Heaven-Gazing Sect disciple, you must keep three paces away. Which great sect would accept a disciple with such a disadvantage?"
The girl said all this in one breath. She was clearly worried and didn't want Lu Xuan to stray down the wrong path.
What cultivator didn't want to refine qi? Who didn't want to attain Foundation Establishment?
It was like asking who among the common folk didn't want a fortune in family wealth and the highest rank among ministers.
But we both failed at Qi Gathering, and we're not disciples of an Aristocratic Clan. Shouldn't we accept our fate?
Failing to enter the inner sect and becoming an outer sect disciple was still a fine arrangement. We could travel across the continent with some protection, instead of dying and vanishing for no apparent reason. Countless cultivators could only dream of such an opportunity.
After all, this was the Heaven-Gazing Sect, a true Immortal Cult and great sect.
"Thank you for your concern, Junior Sister. I understand all the consequences."
"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing..."
Hearing her, Lu Xuan merely smiled at the girl's concern.
"Then... you're willing?"
The girl blinked her bright eyes, seeming to sense that Lu Xuan was relenting.
But Lu Xuan didn't agree. He only shook his head. "We can discuss becoming Dao companions another day. Junior Sister, please go back for now..."
"Senior Brother!"
The girl stood up, growing anxious.
"I understand your feelings, Junior Sister. But please go back for now..."
Lu Xuan didn't budge. He only repeated himself.
The girl had no choice but to leave, though before going she said, "Time waits for no one. I hope you'll think this over carefully. If you change your mind within five days, come find me. I'll welcome you with my bed swept clean!"
She put extra emphasis on the final words, "bed swept clean," making her hint unmistakable.
But Lu Xuan neither accepted nor rejected it. He only said, "Please tell the junior sisters waiting outside that I have important matters to attend to and can't receive guests. Ask them to leave..."
Hearing this, the girl's expression brightened. Her voice held certainty. "Don't worry, Senior Brother. I'll drive them all away!"
With that, the girl bowed gracefully to Lu Xuan, then turned and strode out of the residence.
Before long, a clear voice rose outside, mingled with commotion and indignation. Then jade talismans rang, followed by the sound of clouds taking flight. At last, silence returned to the grounds.
Lu Xuan sat alone on a stone chair in the residence. He closed his eyes and pondered for a while, then opened them and gazed beyond the courtyard at the sea of clouds and boundless sky. He sighed to himself, "Embryonic Breath, Qi Refining..."
He had been in this body for several days. After absorbing its memories, Lu Xuan had already gained some understanding of this world.
But the shock still hadn't faded.
This was a world of cultivation, vast beyond measure, boundless and immeasurable. It was known as the Five Realms and Four Seas, the Eight Extremes and Twelve Continents.
The Five Realms were the five great regions. Each realm had eight extremes, and each extreme held twelve great continents. Every continent teemed with countless living beings, Spirit Monsters, cultivators, and sects.
The Four Seas were even more boundless.
The realms of cultivation were divided into Embryonic Breath, Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Violet Palace, Sitting in Oblivion, Golden Core, Dao Embryo, and other stages...
The Dao Realm above them was beyond the guesses of ordinary cultivators.
In a world like this, he was supposed to stop at Qi Refining and become a strongman?
Even though in his previous life he'd had nothing but a frail, sickly body, a lifespan of only a few decades at most, and less than a hundred pounds of strength, and though he could now fly through the skies and burrow beneath the earth, with a lifespan of two hundred and sixty years, he still refused!
Having been given a second life, he would seek the Dao and pursue immortality. Even if he died as if in a dream, he would have no regrets!
Otherwise, what would have been the point of coming here?
Still, he wasn't just imagining things out of thin air.
If he wanted to seize the greatest freedom, he naturally needed something to rely on.
Lu Xuan sank his mind. His consciousness seemed to enter a hazy space.
There was no up or down, no east or west in the space. It was entirely white and misty, with only a palm-sized green jade disc glowing softly, illuminating a small area around it.
On the jade disc, he could just make out an ancient seal character.
The Lu Xuan of the past might not have recognized it, but he had spent nine years cultivating at the Heaven-Gazing Sect. For the first three years, he'd studied nothing but writing, so he recognized the character.
It was an Ancient Huangjie Script character, read as "Diligence."
Lu Xuan didn't know when the jade disc had appeared, but it hadn't been in his predecessor's memories.
So he guessed it might have something to do with his transmigration into this world.
Beyond that, he couldn't make any further guesses.
After pondering for several days, Lu Xuan had decided to stop worrying pointlessly and focus on figuring out how to use the object.
The object seemed to possess a spirit. When Lu Xuan sank his mind into it, understanding came to him, and he gradually learned how to use it.
What use was the character "Diligence"?
Lu Xuan had already settled on an answer.
It was precisely because he understood how to use the object that Lu Xuan had decided not to cultivate the Golden Armor Jade Body Method.
Of course, he wouldn't leave the Heaven-Gazing Sect to join another sect, either.
His junior sister was right. The Heaven-Gazing Sect was a true immortal sect, a great religion. Countless people dreamed of cultivating there.
A small sect's disciples could have their greed and anger stirred by some divine ability and perish. In this vast cultivation world, they were like a tiny boat in the sea. Even with an unexpected stroke of fortune to aid him, he could still fall prey to someone's schemes and die for no apparent reason.
Only by cultivating in an Immortal Cult could he have a glimmer of hope.
If he wouldn't cultivate the Golden Armor Jade Body Method and wouldn't join another sect, then only one path remained.
He had to attempt Qi Gathering a second time, break through the Embryonic Breath Realm, and enter the inner sect once more.
But cultivation in this world was different from what he knew; it required a Grand Rite.
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