Advancement

What was all this?! Was there any inevitable connection between these words? Look, look carefully—when the words in these cultivation manuals were put together, they were as incompatible as his Fire-Water Spiritual Root, weren't they?!

"What's wrong with you? You look so listless."

Yonglu Mountain had a gigantic Scripture Repository Tower at the very peak of Disciple Peak. It gathered more than a hundred thousand cultivation manuals of all kinds, and Bian Chunchou had managed to dig up four manuals even for Fire-Water Spiritual Roots.

Then, based on his own preferences, he chose the one currently in his hands, Water-Fire Harmonization.

So-called Water-Fire Harmonization was actually a derivative hexagram of the Eight Trigrams. In the Ji Ji hexagram, Kan was above and Li below, supporting one another. Kan represented water, Li represented fire, and Ji Ji meant water and fire joining together for use.

With Bian Chunchou's literary attainments, after reading this far, he... couldn't understand a single bit of the water-and-fire knowledge that followed. The descriptions were far too abstract, far too unbridled and fantastical. Water and fire had somehow been described as things interwoven between substance and illusion.

How was a science student like him supposed to understand that? By conducting experiments?

"Don't say any more. Cultivation manuals are so hard."

When Chen Zui heard this, he revealed an expression of deep mutual sympathy. "I understand you."

"You can't understand them either?"

Chen Zui admitted frankly, "This morning, I was scolded by Master too."

Bian Chunchou wanted nothing more than to clutch someone's head and weep together. It was too hard, truly too hard. Was there a literature tutoring class in the cultivation world? He would sign up—he would sign up, all right? How could anyone write cultivation manuals in a way that nobody could understand?

"I was scolded by Master too, boohoohoo! Master was so fierce!" Yet he still couldn't bring himself to dislike Master.

Chen Zui took three steps back in disgust. "Don't wipe that on me. Dirty."

"You think I'm dirty! Back then, who was it with a huge beard? Anyone who didn't know better would have thought—"

"Thought what?"

Bian Chunchou wiped away tears that did not exist. "Nothing. I've decided to go to Six Lectures Peak for a lecture later. Maybe if I listen more, I'll gain some insight into cultivation manuals."

"That makes sense. I'll go with you."

"Should we ask Wen Xu to come too?" After thinking it over, Bian Chunchou sent over the simplest communication talisman. This was also the only simple low-grade talisman he had learned so far.

"Ah, he didn't reply. He probably has something to do." Bian Chunchou pulled Chen Zui out the door. "Let's go save seats first. If Wen Xu sees the communication talisman and wants to come, at least he won't have nowhere to sit."

Saving seats was a college student's specialty, after all. He was the—

"So many people!"

Bian Chunchou looked up at the sea of people and asked a senior brother about it. Only then did he learn that today's lecture was being given by Sui Yuan True Person of Pill Peak. Sui Yuan True Person was the one who had plucked the Fragrant Elixir King Grass fifty years ago. He had now advanced to the Golden Core Stage, and for Qi Refining Stage and Foundation Establishment cultivators, his teachings would more or less benefit them.

"Especially disciples with Wood or Water Spiritual Roots—they're all up front. If you hadn't come earlier, now you can only sit in the back like us."

Bian Chunchou: ...

Advancement

Before long, Sui Yuan True Person arrived with unhurried grace.

Yonglu Mountain had no rigid rules regarding attire. Once disciples received their disciple robes, they could alter them according to their preferences. They could add padding, adjust the length, layer formations onto them, embroider runes—everything was permitted. They could even change the style if they disliked it, so long as the Yonglu Mountain insignia remained on the sleeves.

Sui Yuan True Person wore a moon-white Daoist robe. As he walked, his fluttering sleeves seemed to ripple with flowing light; clearly, quite a few runes had been layered onto it. He was eighty-two this year, yet he already possessed Golden Core Middle Stage cultivation. He was an outstanding figure among the younger generation of cultivators on the Hengze Continent. At the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion in the very center of the Hengze Continent stood a Hundred Prodigies Ranking. As its name suggested, the Prodigies Ranking recorded the favored children of heaven among cultivators, and those listed faced extremely strict requirements of age and cultivation: they had to be Golden Core cultivators or above under a hundred years old.

Thus, every person on the ranking was a cultivation genius with a renowned name.

It was worth mentioning that although this ranking stood in the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion's plaza, it was not compiled by the pavilion's members. According to the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion's public explanation, the Prodigies Ranking itself was an unprecedented top-grade artifact. Thus, it could communicate with heaven and earth, detect the cultivation levels of prodigies, and automatically arrange the rankings accordingly.

At the top of the Prodigies Ranking stood Qi Yu True Lord, the current senior brother of the Hehe Sect.

According to unreliable gossip, Qi Yu True Lord had already reached the Nascent Soul Middle Stage. But he was already ninety-nine this year, so he likely had no chance of advancing to Spirit Transformation before being removed from the ranking.

In fact, the cultivation world had never seen a Spirit Transformation cultivator under a hundred years old. Even someone as gifted as Jun Zhaoying had only found the threshold of Spirit Transformation when she was just over a hundred. From Nascent Soul to Spirit Transformation, that threshold appeared to be only a single step away, but only cultivators who had truly advanced knew that it was the hardest step to cross. As for why, only those who had truly touched that threshold could feel it most directly.

Foundation Establishment cultivators lived two hundred years, Golden Core cultivators five hundred, while Nascent Soul cultivators had a lifespan of one thousand years. Some Nascent Soul True Lords advanced to the Nascent Soul Stage early and had even been renowned cultivation geniuses in their youth—but so what? There were countless Nascent Soul True Lords whose lifespans were nearly exhausted, yet who still found no path to advancement.

Yonglu Mountain had two people in the top ten of the Prodigies Ranking. One of them was Zheng Jin, the junior martial uncle of Artifact Refining Peak.

As for Sui Yuan True Person, he had a Wood-Water Spiritual Root and Golden Core Middle Stage cultivation, placing eighty-second on the Prodigies Ranking. It did not sound particularly high, did it? But one had to know that this ranking counted every cultivator in the cultivation world under a hundred years old.

In other words, he had defeated at least 99.99% of the cultivators under a hundred on the entire continent to make the ranking.

Bian Chunchou stretched his neck to look toward the lecture grounds at the very front. Cultivators possessed exceptional eyesight, but his cultivation was low, so he did not dare use spiritual power. He could only make out Sui Yuan True Person's tall ceremonial crown, broad sash, and relaxed, elegant bearing.

As for what he looked like, Bian Chunchou could not see him clearly at all. After all, his current seat was no different from sitting at the very top of a mountain during a concert.

But once Sui Yuan True Person settled down and began lecturing, Bian Chunchou and Chen Zui did not dare make the slightest movement. This was the most basic respect owed to one's elders and teachers. Besides, Qi Refining Stage cultivators could never pull little tricks beneath the nose of a Golden Core True Person—how was that any different from courting death?!

"Today's lecture concerns the two words, 'intent of the heart.'"