Three Breaths Up the Mountain, One Tael of Silver per Trip

"Heavenly Dao recognition?"

Fat Dragon shrugged helplessly. "Then the requirements are fairly steep. First, the person founding the sect must be in the Early Golden Core Realm. That's a hard requirement."

"I looked into it. You can get around it by finding someone with Golden Core Realm cultivation to help establish the sect, then have them step down as sect master and transfer the position to you."

"For a second-generation sect, there's no cultivation restriction. The cost for that is around 100 Spirit Stones."

"Besides that, you also need to own a mountain as the sect's foundation, and you need five disciples to found the sect alongside you, and so on. It's extremely complicated. All told, it'll cost at least 200 Spirit Stones."

Chen Qiu nodded and did not ask further. Two hundred Spirit Stones was a little too much. Establishing a sect would have to be put off for now; at the moment, they simply did not have the means.

He then turned his awareness inward and looked at the panel within his body, shrouded in clouds and mist.

-

"Name": Chen Qiu.

"Cultivation": Third Level of the Qi Refining Realm (1%).

"Traits": 'Rise at Every Step,' 'Delayed Foundation Establishment,' 'Vengeful Spirit Summoning.'

"Cultivation Method": 'Withered Wood Rejuvenation.'

"Techniques": 'Earth-Escaping Technique,' 'Illusion Technique.'

"Spirit Beast": None.

"Faction": None.

"Nation": Great Xia Kingdom.

-

So far, his three traits had each existed independently, without much connection between them. If treated as a trait set, they clearly were not a particularly good combination. Fortunately, he would have many more chances to obtain traits in the future.

So long as he lived long enough.

The Earth-Escaping Technique and Illusion Technique were also techniques he had obtained from the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm. Once learned, they directly reached Major Accomplishment, making them incredibly useful.

It was precisely because of those two techniques that he had been able to escape so smoothly with Fat Dragon.

From what he had learned from Fat Dragon, killing demonic beasts could increase one's cultivation, but it was not a lasting method—or rather, it could only be considered a shortcut for the early stages.

When one's cultivation was still low, killing demonic beasts could indeed rapidly increase one's cultivation.

Among the clans of great Lineages, once their members came of age, the clan would prepare a large number of heavily wounded demonic beasts. In basically one day, they could reach Qi Refining Realm Great Perfection.

Did that count as cheating?

Naturally, it did.

There was simply nothing anyone could do about it.

But further on, at the Foundation Establishment Realm or Golden Core Realm, trying to improve one's cultivation by killing demonic beasts became exceedingly difficult. Demonic beasts at that level had basically developed intelligence and looked out for one another. It was hard to find a demonic beast of the same realm wandering alone.

The most common method of raising cultivation was—

"Absorbing and exhaling spiritual energy."

By circulating one's cultivation method, each complete cycle through the body would draw the spiritual energy of the outside world into one's body. Every circulation would raise cultivation progress a little. The absorption speed depended on the grade of the cultivation method and the density of spiritual energy in the surroundings.

His cultivation method, Withered Wood Rejuvenation, was the only Yellow Grade, Middle Class cultivation method in this small world. It was considered fairly good.

Because it was a "Heavenly Dao cultivation method" produced by a small world, once he learned it, it had directly reached Major Accomplishment.

On the road, he sat cross-legged and tried circulating his cultivation method to absorb and exhale spiritual energy. With the grade of his cultivation method, in an environment with normally dense spiritual energy, it would take roughly three days to break through to the Fourth Level of the Qi Refining Realm.

That was not slow.

Much faster than he had imagined.

Cultivating immortality did not seem all that difficult.

As though he had seen through Chen Qiu's thoughts, Fat Dragon, seated opposite him, sighed helplessly. "Brother Chen Qiu, I think you've developed a bit of a misunderstanding about the path of cultivation. What ordinary person at the Third Level of the Qi Refining Realm gets the chance to come into contact with a cultivation method?"

"Not to mention a cultivation method produced by the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm—once you learn it, you directly enter the Major Accomplishment realm."

"Both of those opportunities are extremely rare. With those two things, cultivation naturally proceeds much faster."

"But in truth, the road of cultivating immortality is very difficult."

The two of them kept the things they could use, planning to sell the rest at the market.

He did not take the cultivation method. Instead, he took a blade-type spirit treasure.

He himself had once luckily picked up a cultivation method. Though it was only Yellow Grade, Lower Class, and he had cultivated it only to Minor Accomplishment, it certainly could not compare to a "Heavenly Dao cultivation method" that reached Major Accomplishment the instant one learned it.

But... every cultivator only had three chances in their lifetime to switch cultivation methods without paying a price.

After that, changing cultivation methods required paying a certain cost.

Learning one's first cultivation method already used up one of those chances. The remaining two were exceedingly precious, and he did not intend to waste one merely to switch to another cultivation method of the same grade. If he was going to switch, he should at least switch to a Yellow Grade, Upper Class cultivation method, right?

Nothing unexpected happened at the inn. After the two had eaten and drunk their fill, they scattered a handful of copper coins across the table and continued on their journey.

They rented a horse at the inn, and the two of them rode onward on that single horse.

Chen Qiu could not ride a horse. He had never learned before, so he could only sit behind Fat Dragon. Though he felt somewhat uncomfortable inside, for the sake of safety, he could only wrap his arms around Fat Dragon's waist and watch the scenery whistle past his ears.

By the time the sun hung high in the sky—

"Whoa—"

Fat Dragon turned and leaped off the horse, handing its reins to an inn attendant at the side. Then he planted his hands on his hips and looked toward a towering mountain beside the inn, clicking his tongue with emotion. "We're here, Brother Chen Qiu. This is the market I told you about."

"It's built atop the mountain."

"If you can fly on a sword, just fly straight up. Or you can climb along the mountain path. If you can neither fly nor want to climb, you can take the fast route beside it."

Beyond the official road was a winding little path that circled the mountain upward. This was the road poor people took to climb the mountain.

Besides that, there was a middle-aged man standing there with a sign in hand. He had a face full of whiskers, a rather short stature, and an astonishing amount of body hair.

"Fast route. Up the mountain in three breaths. One tael of silver per trip."

"Up the mountain in three breaths?"

Chen Qiu swept a doubtful gaze over the sign, then looked up toward the mountain peak in the distance, which pierced the clouds. It had to be several thousand zhang above the ground—a mountain among mountains.

Up the mountain in three breaths? Even sword flight could not be that fast, could it?

"Heh."

Fat Dragon merely grinned beside him, waggling his brows. "Brother Chen Qiu, you'll know once you try it. All I can say is, it's absolutely unique."

Chen Qiu said nothing more. It was only one tael of silver; he could afford that. They had harvested plenty of broken silver and copper coins in the small world, so he was not lacking such small change. He casually tossed two taels of silver into the whiskered man's hand.

Before he could say anything—

He saw the whiskered man's right hand suddenly shoot out and clamp tightly onto his shoulder. Then Chen Qiu felt an intensely powerful sensation of weightlessness beneath his feet. The scenery around him seemed to turn into countless specks of light, and in less than one breath, everything instantly returned to normal.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already standing at the cliffside of that towering mountain.

A wooden platform had been laid across the ground. Beside it sat a young man cross-legged, cracking sunflower seeds while reading an illustrated storybook. A sign was also planted in the ground, marked with an arrow.

"Heaven-Question Market →"

Before he could even figure out what had happened, he saw the whiskered man beside him release his shoulder. The man took a deep breath, then sprinted fiercely toward the cliff's edge and plunged straight down into the abyss.