Three Great Incantations!

Hearing his mother call, Jiang Xuan immediately rose from the cushion in the main hall and headed outside.

Outside, Shen Yuerong had already prepared his meal—several rice balls wrapped in green lotus leaves.

They were not large, but they were far from cheap.

The rice within was crystalline and translucent, like pearls and white jade. It was spirit rice, grown in spirit fields; it contained little turbid qi and could nourish the body, making it most suitable for Daoist cultivators.

After handing the rice balls to Jiang Xuan and straightening his clothes, Shen Yuerong finally let him leave.

"Phew..."

Once outside, Jiang Xuan glanced at the sky, which had not yet fully brightened, and hurried toward Star Daoist Academy.

Jiang Xuan was not alone on the road. Along the way, many youths about his age were likewise heading toward Star Daoist Academy.

Some of them knew him, and most traveled in groups, discussing cultivation as they hurried along.

"How many apertures have you opened?"

"Two. What about you?"

"Same... Aperture Opening is too difficult..."

"I'm doing a little better than you. I've opened four, but opening all thirty-six apertures within fifteen days is simply a distant dream..."

From their conversation, Jiang Xuan learned that with three apertures opened, his cultivation speed was not considered poor among the academy's students.

But he knew even better that merely not being poor was absolutely not enough if he wanted to be rated excellent or good and enter the Dao-Bearing Class.

"Heart purification, mouth purification, body purification... I hope these incantations work."

Murmuring to himself, Jiang Xuan arrived at Star Daoist Academy.

By then, more than half of the academy's students had already arrived.

Rather than going to the enclosed classrooms, Jiang Xuan followed the crowd to a plaza built halfway up the mountain.

At that moment, those who had arrived earlier had already taken up most of the space in the plaza.

The spots appeared to have been chosen at random, but a closer look revealed that the front rows, closest to the instructor, were mostly occupied by talented students and direct descendants of cultivation lineages.

Even if those people did not come, no one dared sit in their places.

The sight made Jiang Xuan sigh inwardly.

"Everyone's class had already roughly taken shape at this point."

"Fortunately, there is still a chance to change it."

Though he thought so, Jiang Xuan had no intention of heading to the front.

For now, those spots represented only prestige and brought no special benefits, so Jiang Xuan had no desire to fight and scheme for them.

He found an unoccupied corner near the back and stopped there.

Rather than sitting down immediately, he began making preparations according to the ritual knowledge in his mind.

"Rustle..."

Bending over, Jiang Xuan tidied the place where he intended to cultivate.

He swept the fallen leaves aside, removed the pebbles, and even sprinkled some water from his flask onto the ground to keep dust from rising.

The next moment, Jiang Xuan pressed his palms together and sincerely bowed in worship toward the land before him.

Though he had yet to learn the Land God-Pacifying Incantation, hanging the words "Heaven and Earth" on his wall had made Jiang Xuan first worship Heaven and Earth whenever he practiced as a Daoist Acolyte.

After that, Jiang Xuan stood where he was and meticulously arranged his clothes. He then used the water in his flask to wash his palms—this was body purification and hand purification.

Next, Jiang Xuan rinsed his mouth with clean water—this was mouth purification.

Of course, such actions alone were naturally not enough.

While cleansing his body, the chanting of incantations in Jiang Xuan's heart never ceased.

"Crimson Vermilion Mouth God, spit out filth and dispel foul vapors; Tongue God Zhenglun, connect life and nourish the spirit; Luo Qianchi God, drive evil away and guard truth..."

This was the Mouth-Purification Divine Incantation.

"Celestial Worthy of Numinous Treasure, soothe this body's form; disciple's soul and spirit, five viscera profound and dark..."

This was the Body-Purification Divine Incantation.

When Jiang Xuan completed these rituals and finished reciting the incantation formulas in his heart, the game interface sent him two messages.

[You used a ritual to cast the Body-Purification Divine Incantation. Your casting succeeded, and you gained the "Untouched by Dust" effect.]

[Untouched by Dust: Duration, one cup of tea.]

[You cast the Body-Purification Divine Incantation once. Body-Purification Divine Incantation experience +1.]

...

[You used a ritual to cast the Mouth-Purification Divine Incantation. Your casting succeeded, and you gained the "Purification of Verbal Karma" effect.]

[Purification of Verbal Karma: Duration, one cup of tea.]

[You cast the Mouth-Purification Divine Incantation once. Mouth-Purification Divine Incantation experience +1.]

"It really worked!"

Once he confirmed it was effective, Jiang Xuan showed no reaction on the surface, but his subsequent movements became even more earnest and devout.

"Rustle..."

He examined himself from head to toe, and only after confirming that his clothes, hands, and mouth were all clean did Jiang Xuan sit down in his spot.

At that moment, he began reciting the final, and also the first, divine incantation—the Heart-Purification Divine Incantation.

"Supreme Platform Star, respond to change without ceasing; drive evil away and bind demons, preserve life and protect the body..."

Cultivation of the heart required no outward preparations—or rather, its preparations had to be made beforehand.

"When conducting the ritual, I need to eat vegetarian food, abstain from alcohol, and keep stray thoughts from arising in my heart. This clean heart and few desires are the preparations before casting the Heart-Purification Divine Incantation, and also why it is called an anchor of the Dao heart."

"I have already completed all of that in advance."

As he silently reflected, Jiang Xuan also recited the Heart-Purification Divine Incantation once.

Then, the status [Clarity of the Spirit Platform] settled upon Jiang Xuan's mind.

[You cast the Heart-Purification Divine Incantation once. You gained the "Clarity of the Spirit Platform" effect. Heart-Purification Divine Incantation experience +1.]

"Whoosh..."

After completing the entire ritual, Jiang Xuan felt as if his body had grown lighter, and he even had the feeling that there was not a speck of filth anywhere upon him.

As Jiang Xuan experienced the blessings brought by the three great divine incantations, Song Zhou, an instructor of Star Daoist Academy, happened to appear by the cliffside.

He raised his head and looked eastward. Seeing that the sun was about to rise, he immediately gave the command.

"Cultivation begins!"

"Phew..."

Upon hearing his voice, the more than three thousand boys and girls in the plaza immediately faced the rising sun in the east and began breathing in and exhaling together.

Jiang Xuan did the same.

Very quickly, he noticed the benefits granted by the three great divine incantations.

First came body purification. "Breathe in... breathe out..." As Jiang Xuan inhaled and exhaled, spiritual energy was immediately drawn into his body.

But as everyone knew, there had never been only one kind of gas in the air.

In his previous life, there had been oxygen, carbon dioxide, other gases, and vast quantities of tiny dust particles.

This world was even more complicated. Besides oxygen, spiritual energy, and dust, there were also turbid qi and Killing Intent in the world.

Ordinarily, when Jiang Xuan activated the Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Method, he would inhale all those gases into his body as well.

But as the "Untouched by Dust" effect of the Body-Purification Divine Incantation took effect, the world's turbid qi, dust, and certain other foul gases could no longer enter Jiang Xuan's mouth or nose.

With the impurities gone, the pure spiritual energy not only made Jiang Xuan's breathing feel comfortable, but after filtering it once, he also found it much easier to imprint ownerless spiritual energy with the power of his qi, blood, and heart-soul.

"So the poor results of my previous refinement were also because the spiritual energy was impure..."

As realization dawned on him, Jiang Xuan discovered something even more shocking.

"With only the body-purification incantation, my cultivation efficiency has increased by more than thirty percent!!!"