Crystal Stone

Wan Kuo took out the book and opened to its first page. A slip of paper was tucked inside.

Note: Dao Yuan Era 3932, nine hundred taels of gold, this method was purchased from Daoist Zhang of the Six Harmonies Sect on Cloud Forest Mountain.

Alas, the Wang Family had no affinity with this method. For fifty years, none of the Wang Family descendants had been able to cultivate it.

A great deal of resources had been wasted for nothing. Today, this book was sealed away in this chest. Should a descendant of the Wang Family happen upon this book, cultivate with caution!

Dao Yuan Era 3984.

"Dao Yuan Era 3922! If I remembered correctly, it was now Dao Yuan Era 4019. This was nearly ninety years ago."

"Maybe it's some kind of great treasure. Did the Wang Family forget to take it?"

Wan Kuo felt as though he had picked up an enormous bargain. Satisfied, he headed out. As for the other chest, he could only make plans after finding a saw.

Half walking and half running, Wan Kuo rushed home. He impatiently opened the Li Huo Art and read it closely.

"Just the introductory part?" Wan Kuo shook his head in disappointment.

This cultivation method only explained how to draw qi into the body and become a Qi Refining Realm cultivator. For Wan Kuo, a newborn calf unafraid of tigers, that was far from enough.

"Calm down, calm down. It's already good enough to have something to cultivate," Wan Kuo consoled himself.

Following the method's instructions, Wan Kuo sat cross-legged and adjusted his breathing.

An hour later.

"Why don't I feel anything at all? Don't tell me I'm like those Wang Family people, with no talent whatsoever?" Wan Kuo could not help doubting himself.

"If cultivating immortality were so easy, cultivators would already be everywhere," Wan Kuo finally convinced himself and continued meditating.

Night was drawing near, yet Wan Kuo still had no clue what he was doing. He could only hurriedly boil some water, enter his room, and seal the door.

Cultivating blindly like this definitely was not the way. I should find some tools and open that chest to take a look, Wan Kuo thought to himself.

"Right!"

Wan Kuo took out the jade bottle beside the book. He had been so dazzled by the Li Huo Art all day that he had nearly forgotten about it.

Wan Kuo quickly pulled out the wooden stopper sealing the jade bottle and poured out its contents.

A pitch-black pill rolled out.

Wan Kuo certainly did not dare swallow a pill of unknown origin at random. After hesitating for a moment, he put it back into the jade bottle and sealed it up, deciding to wait until he could identify it.

Wan Kuo had intended to replace sleep with cultivation, but for an ordinary person without cultivation, meditation alone would not do.

Wan Kuo sat cross-legged on his bed for only an hour before collapsing into sleep. Perhaps because of the cultivation method, he slept exceptionally soundly.

When he woke the next day, Wan Kuo felt unusually full of strength.

This frail body of his was finally beginning to improve little by little.

Wan Kuo carefully sensed the changes in his body and nodded in satisfaction.

"It's time to pry open that other wooden chest," Wan Kuo muttered.

Wan Kuo did not find a saw, so he could only find a wooden hoe used for tilling fields and see whether he could smash it open with brute force.

The wooden chest was wrapped in iron plating, exceptionally sturdy and heavy. Perhaps that was one reason Master Wang had not taken it when he fled in haste. Or perhaps he had thought this place hidden enough, believing he might have a chance to return after the strange horrors disappeared.

Wan Kuo returned to the cellar once more. It seemed Master Wang's household truly had nothing left in plain sight. Over the past two days, Wan Kuo had not found any traces of other people. They were probably all hiding at home, too afraid to come out.

Wan Kuo raised the wooden hoe and smashed it down on the chest with all his strength. Once... twice... ten times...

Wan Kuo did not know how many times he swung it. By then, he was already drenched in sweat, and his arms had gone limp.

The chest had been smashed open with a large hole. Wan Kuo sat on the ground, gasping for breath.

After recovering some strength, Wan Kuo stood up, picked up the oil lamp, and peered into the chest.

In such a dim environment, he could not see much through a single hole, so Wan Kuo had no choice but to reach his arm inside.

After feeling around for a while, Wan Kuo pulled out everything in the chest.

There were twenty silver ingots in all, along with a transparent crystal.

"What is this?" Wan Kuo turned the crystal stone over in his hand in confusion.

"Could it be..." As Wan Kuo attempted to draw qi into his body, he sensed the pure aura emanating from the crystal stone.

To be safe, Wan Kuo hurried back home with the twenty silver ingots and the crystal stone.

"This time, I've struck it rich. One silver ingot is worth fifty taels, so twenty ingots make one thousand taels of silver. I can't use such a huge sum now, but once I survive this strange disaster, I'll never have to worry about food or drink again."

Wan Kuo suppressed the excitement in his heart, held the crystal stone, and sat cross-legged in the room.

"When I get the chance, I need to get myself a meditation cushion. Sitting on the ground just feels too awkward." Wan Kuo shook his head helplessly.

Following what the Li Huo Art described, Wan Kuo tried to draw qi into his body.

Unlike yesterday's cultivation, Wan Kuo clearly sensed the existence of spiritual qi this time and successfully drew a wisp of it into his body.

Wan Kuo secretly rejoiced and pressed his advantage, drawing one wisp after another of spiritual qi into his body.

After roughly three or four hours, Wan Kuo rose from the floor.

"It worked!" Wan Kuo delightedly sensed that his Dantian had just opened, with a thread of pure spiritual qi resting within it.

Unfortunately, he had only succeeded in drawing qi into his body. Wan Kuo still did not know how to use this small wisp of spiritual qi.

"Looks like I do have some talent after all," Wan Kuo quietly mused.

This crystal stone had been discarded here, which meant that even with it, the Wang Family had been unable to draw qi into their bodies.

They had sat on a treasure mountain without knowing it.

Thinking of how his body had felt that morning, Wan Kuo made a guess.

Drawing qi into the body meant using the vague, intangible talent of one's spiritual roots to absorb the primordial qi of heaven and earth, guide spiritual qi into the body's limbs and bones, and finally gather it in the Dantian, opening the Dantian that had originally been blocked within the human body and thus truly stepping through the gates of cultivation.

Night was about to fall. As the dim sky gradually lost its last traces of light, Wan Kuo sealed the doors and windows, then applied the evil-repelling liquid.

Wan Kuo returned to his bed, sat cross-legged, and tried to mobilize the spiritual qi within his Dantian.

He clutched the crystal stone he had found at the Wang Family estate in his hand.

Even after Wan Kuo had used it to draw qi into his body, the crystal stone remained bright and translucent.

"It seems the spiritual power consumed in drawing qi into my body this time was nothing much to this Spirit Crystal. Looks like I won't need to worry about a lack of spiritual qi for my cultivation these next few days."

After enduring such immense pain, the benefits were plain to see. Wan Kuo felt that as the impurities within his body were expelled, the speed at which he drew qi had noticeably increased.

The night passed without incident.

Immersed in cultivating immortality, Wan Kuo unknowingly cultivated through the entire night.

After breaking through to Qi Refining, cultivation truly could replace sleep.

Yet without the restoration and nourishment of sleep, one's spirit and will were in fact put to a great test.

Cultivators newly entered into Qi Refining could not completely make up for what their bodies lacked through cultivation alone. They still could not do without sleep.

Having only just stepped onto the path of cultivation, Wan Kuo was excited and curious, so he became absorbed in meditation and cultivation.

But a cultivator merely at the early stage of the Qi Refining Realm would gradually grow tired from cultivating continuously, and their efficiency would decline as well.

Wan Kuo had planned to keep cultivating until his stomach could not take it anymore, but what he had not expected was—

Before his stomach even began to grow hungry, his head could no longer endure it. Before noon arrived, he was so exhausted that he fell unconscious asleep.