This spot halfway up the mountain happened to be tucked into a hollow, keeping the wind and snow outside. Although his master, Wei Long, seemed rather unreliable, the introductory gift he had given was exceedingly practical: a portable cave dwelling. With only a trace of spiritual energy, it could transform into a large house on the spot.
Wen Xu had seen plenty of immortal methods over the past few days, so he was not terribly surprised. Well, he was still very surprised, but he was a reserved person and did not show it outwardly.
Fortunately, when he released the portable cave dwelling, he was the only one present.
Wen Xu had a strong sense of territory. He first used the cleaning spell he had just learned to scrub the place inside and out, then took stock of his few belongings. The advantage of a storage ring was that he could even carry his household with him, rather than, as in the Mortal Realm, only being able to take along some favorite books and writing supplies.
Wen Xu spread everything from his storage ring across the floor. He had a total of 103,056 spirit stones. Of those, 100,000 had been given by his master, 2,000 were his share from the Mountain Examination, and the remaining thousand-odd were his Inner Sect disciple stipend. Probably because of his seniority, it had been doubled according to the Inner Sect disciple standard.
Naturally, compared to 100,000, a thousand was hardly much, but Wen Xu had no intention of touching those 100,000 spirit stones unless he was driven to the end of the road, with mountains exhausted and rivers spent.
Apart from the spirit stones, there were also some talismans—not many, all stuffed into his hands by Bian Chunchou—as well as a Windfold Fan. He had not known it when he accepted it, but now he knew that the one who had given him the folding fan was True Lord Zheng Jin of Artifact Refining Peak.
After putting everything away properly, Wen Xu finally reached for the last two jade slips on the ground.
Wen Xu was already highly familiar with how to read jade slips. He had gone over the beginner's cultivation jade slip given to him by Elder Zhan of Pill Peak hundreds of times. As the saying went, read a book a hundred times and its meaning would reveal itself; that principle remained true in the Cultivation Realm.
At the very least, when it came to basic knowledge of the Cultivation Realm, Wen Xu could now answer fluently without pause.
He infused spiritual power into the two jade slips separately, and Wen Xu quickly learned that one contained a single strike from his master, capable of warding off anything below the Tribulation Transcendence Realm. In other words, it was a life-saving talisman for him. Clearly, his master was quite aware of the fact that he had "old friends" scattered all across the Cultivation Realm.
The other was a cultivation technique.
Generally speaking, cultivators could not simply make things up out of thin air when cultivating. Just like martial artists, they needed cultivation techniques to set their practice on the right path, and naturally, techniques came in good and bad grades.
Heaven, Earth, Profound, Yellow. Heaven-grade was naturally the best, while Yellow-grade was the lowest. Yet even a Yellow-grade technique, if cultivated and comprehended to its utmost, could still allow one to undergo tribulation and ascend. As for whether something was good or bad, it ultimately depended on a cultivator's own fortune, talent, and comprehension.
Generally speaking, cultivation techniques followed one's Spiritual Root. Take Bian Chunchou, for instance. He had a Fire-Water Spiritual Root and could only cultivate fire-water techniques. Fortunately, while Fire-Water Spiritual Roots were rare, they were not unheard of. Yonglu Mountain had a vast foundation, and with a careful search, they could still find one or two fire-water techniques.
Wen Xu had a Mutated Wind Spiritual Root, so his technique naturally could not escape the character "wind." Yet the strange thing was that the technique personally handed to him by Divine Venerable Cheng Wei had absolutely nothing to do with wind.
Myriad Things Arise Art.
Wen Xu had naturally read the Tao Te Ching. He had naturally also read that line: "Attain utmost emptiness, hold fast to profound stillness. Myriad things rise together, and I watch their return." Put plainly, it meant doing one's utmost to keep the heart empty and tranquil, firmly maintaining that peaceful state, so that one could repeatedly observe the cycle of life and death of all things beneath heaven.
The phrase "myriad things rise together" referred to the flourishing growth of all things under heaven. At a superficial glance, it seemed more like a technique prepared for a Single Wood Spiritual Root. Compared with wind... it seemed to be a little off.
But the accomplished came first. Wen Xu was merely a fledgling who had just glimpsed the threshold, while his master not only possessed the body of a Divine Dragon but also the cultivation of the Body Integration Realm. He could not possibly pull out some technique at random and tell Wen Xu to cultivate it.
Wen Xu steadied his mind and continued using spiritual power to read the technique within the jade slip.
To be honest, the contents of the Myriad Things Arise Art were exceedingly obscure and difficult to understand. Even though Wen Xu held the rank of Provincial Graduate and had read quite a few ancient texts and old classics, he had truly read very little concerning Daoist teachings, making it rather difficult for him to understand now.
He could not help fetching brush and ink, intending to copy it down. Yet whenever he put brush to paper, he felt... there was no need. It need not be written. It was as if, once these words fell onto paper, they became vulgar, lost their spirit, and no longer possessed that surging birth of myriad things—
Wen Xu suddenly froze where he stood. Did "myriad things rise together" refer only to all things in this world? Did words not also have moments when they "rose together and flourished"?
He lowered his head and watched the ink slowly bleed across the paper. His mind suddenly became empty, and then a question, a very simple question, leaped forth:
In the mortal world, even in the Cultivation Realm, when did myriad things begin to rise together?
An answer slowly appeared in his heart:
—It was the first breath of spring wind at the Beginning of Spring.
"The spring wind first stirs plum blossoms in the garden,
Then cherries, apricots, peaches, and pears bloom in turn.
In deep villages, shepherd's purse flowers and elm pods alike
Say that the spring wind has come for me."
Only the arrival of the spring wind marked the arrival of spring. In spring, all things revived; only when the first breath of spring wind swept through did the Growth of Myriad Things begin.
It was the spring wind—the mild, warm spring wind.
Wen Xu had already set down his brush, because there was no longer any need to write. Just then, he had finally touched upon the key to entering the Myriad Things Arise Art.
—Wind could influence all things.
Before Wen Xu even had time to assume the five-point upward meditation posture, he entered the first enlightenment of wind in his life.
"Oh my, oh my, my little disciple's comprehension is truly not bad. At last, someone has taken over my Myriad Things Arise Art." Divine Venerable Cheng Wei happily took a sip of wine. It simply did not have enough flavor. Ah, he had stayed on this mountain for too long; the wine in his spatial storage was nearly gone.
**
Bian Chunchou encountered the first hurdle on his path of cultivation, and this roadblock... was incredibly formidable!
He had never imagined that he would suffer for being uncultured! Did that make any sense? Was that reasonable? He, a university student at a top-tier Project 985 school, could handle mathematics, physics, and chemistry with one hand tied behind his back, but this—
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