Newcomer Yang Wenqing

"Ring-ring~"

The harsh ringing made Yang Wenqing, fast asleep, snap his eyes open. With the help of the dim light filtering in through the window, he saw the mottled ceiling.

After a daze for a split second, Yang Wenqing reached out and turned off the mechanical alarm clock beside his pillow. The cool spring breeze seized the opportunity to sneak under the blanket, giving him a fit of goosebumps and waking him up completely.

He got out of bed, instinctively stretching his back before looking around out of habit. The room he was in was very small, with a bed taking up most of the space, and a wooden desk positioned by the window holding various daily necessities.

In the corner to the left of the wooden desk were a few wooden buckets. Nearby, close to the left side of the window, there was also a small tea table holding a small boiler, with bowls and chopsticks placed haphazardly beneath it. These, along with the shabby wardrobe near the door, made up all of Yang Wenqing's possessions.

Yang Wenqing simply stretched his limbs by the bed before walking over to the wooden desk by the window, picking up his toiletries and half a pack of tissues. He habitually looked out the window at the half-moon hanging in the sky. The moon emitted a pale blue halo, and beneath the starry sky behind it, an even larger full moon loomed faintly.

"Hoo~"

After exhaling a breath of stale air, Yang Wenqing cleared away the thoughts that had surfaced in his mind, picked up his toiletries and keys, and walked out the door. Outside was a quiet corridor, with densely packed doors lining both sides, looking for all the world like some dormitory hallway.

Pulling the door shut behind him, he walked to the right-hand end. Because he woke up extra early, the public washbasins and toilets here were completely empty right now. He washed up at top speed, used the restroom, and returned to his room to put his toiletries away before taking out a square wooden box he carried with him.

"Open!"

After placing the wooden box on the wooden desk, Yang Wenqing formed a spell gesture with his left hand, opening the preservation array on the surface of the box. He took out the remaining small piece of White Dragon Ginseng inside and expertly sliced off a tiny fragment to drop into a glass.

"Splash~"

As the boiling water from the thermos was poured into the glass, the sliced fragment of White Dragon Ginseng immediately melted at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Yang Wenqing closed the wooden box and re-activated the preservation array on its surface. Quietly waiting for the White Dragon Ginseng to finish dissolving, he picked up the glass and drained the medicinal broth in one gulp, then returned to the bed at top speed to sit cross-legged in meditation.

When his mind sank inward, a golden light instantly appeared in his mind. That was a Golden Core converging within his spirit platform, and when his consciousness entered the Golden Core, he saw a space a hundred meters across and wide. In the center of this space was an illusory figure sitting cross-legged in meditation.

This was precisely Yang Wenqing's projection. Here, his body felt both illusory and real, and the spirit veins inside his body were clear enough to see the state of spiritual Qi flowing through them. Right now, the lower Dantian where his spirit veins converged was rapidly generating spiritual Qi, and a beam of white light was constantly spinning at the center of the Qi Sea. That was the power of the Golden Core digesting the energy of the White Dragon Ginseng.

When all the power of the White Dragon Ginseng transformed into the spiritual Qi of the lower Dantian's Qi Sea, Yang Wenqing followed the techniques of Basic Qi Refining, circulating the spiritual Qi through his spirit veins. He expanded the spirit veins while absorbing the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth from the outside.

Time passed unawares. After the spiritual Qi completed three Greater Circulations within Yang Wenqing's body, the spiritual Qi gathered by the White Dragon Ginseng had already been exhausted. Pity that the spiritual Qi in his body still had not formed a cyclical circulation, yet a vague sense of Qi remained, allowing him to retain the Qi Sea in his lower Dantian.

The spirit veins are damaged again!

Yang Wenqing sighed inwardly. Based on the illusory figure within the Golden Core World, it was very easy for him to spot the minute damage that had appeared in the spirit veins during his recent cultivation, and he quickly mobilized the small portion of successfully refined spiritual Qi in his body to repair it.

His condition, according to common parlance, meant that he lacked aptitude. To truly cultivate to the Qi Refining Stage would require at least thirty years of bitter toil, and any further progress beyond that would be utterly impossible.

Yet his Sea of Consciousness possessed a Golden Core. Not only could it ignore aptitude, but it could also purge all toxins from herbs and medicinal pills within his body. He could take the White Dragon Ginseng once daily, allowing his cultivation to grow day by day, and he had already successfully cleared the spirit veins in his body.

Only, his spirit veins were overly narrow, unable to make the spiritual Qi of his Qi Sea circulate autonomously. They required daily guidance; otherwise, his cultivation would regress instead of advance, and as time passed, the spirit veins would slowly close up once more.

This Golden Core in Yang Wenqing's Sea of Consciousness had suddenly formed when he was five years old and gained understanding. At the same time this Golden Core was born, a memory had extraed itself in his mind—much like the memory of a past life. He had already forgotten most of this memory, but it endowed him with the talent of knowing from birth, and also made him grow up overnight.

When he awoke from his meditative trance, mottled sunlight was already shining in through the window. Yang Wenqing rose and walked to the window, forming a spell gesture with his hands. A line of white rune script instantly manifested before him—this was the incantation for the "Immobilization Spell".

With the help of the Golden Core World, he only needed to conjure the incantation patterns of this spell in his mind to cast it with ease, operating at several times the speed of ordinary cultivators when casting spells. It was just that currently, he could cast it at most twice a day before the spiritual Qi in his Qi Sea was declared depleted.

Fortunately, rune technology was quite advanced in this realm. He was seen reciting the spell while taking out a piece of black talisman paper inscribed with the incantation, carefully putting it away after imprinting the spell onto it. It could be sold for money, or thrown out during magical combat.

Confirming that the spell imprinted on the talisman paper was free of errors, Yang Wenqing put the wooden box containing the White Dragon Ginseng into his pocket, then walked over to the wardrobe by the door and pushed open the door, revealing four sets of summer clothes inside, two of which were pale blue uniforms.

The year he turned five, as soon as Yang Wenqing gained understanding, he ran to the clan school to audit classes. In the span of a year, he learned most of the commonly used characters in this world and read through all the books the clan made open to the public, learning that this was a civilization where Daoist sorcery and technology coexisted, with technology primarily taking the form of rune technology.

After pondering for a period of time, Yang Wenqing decisively made the decision to join the City Defense System of the nation he resided in, because this was a nation of order, and order was maintained precisely by the City Defense Bureau. Furthermore, this was also the only place where ordinary civilians could acquire secret cultivation techniques.

After putting on his uniform, Yang Wenqing pinned his work badge to his left chest, picked up a mechanical watch to glance at the time, and walked over to the boiler to pick up a hard rice cake, biting down on it. He casually grabbed the kettle from the wall, expertly filled it with boiled water, and carried it in his hand as he stepped out the door.

By this time, the corridor outside was already bustling. Most of the people here were teachers from nearby schools, and all of them had families in tow. They greeted Yang Wenqing politely when they saw him, and Yang Wenqing responded politely in kind.

Yang Wenqing was only temporarily accommodated in this place, but if he lived a life of mediocrity, this place might well become his final destination.

Walking out of the dormitory building, there was a large courtyard outside. Stepping out of the small yard led to a flagstone path, where most of those on the road were workers hurrying off to work at nearby factories.