I Am Winter, and Winter Is Me

While Di Chuan buried himself in bitter cultivation and Wu Shan ran about in busy haste, Jiang Xuan devoted all his mind and spirit to comprehending the Winter Intent within his body.

This process... went unexpectedly smoothly.

The power of winter, along with the death and stillness it brought, was the purest power of heaven and earth. Three Purifications Spell: Truth Communion was precisely a ritual secret art born to purify the Dharma body and receive the power of heaven and earth.

With this ability, coupled with the Clear-Heart Sword Disciple and the aid of [Heart: Sincerity], Jiang Xuan felt himself gradually melding with the icy power within him until they became wholly one.

"I am Winter, and Winter is me!"

Under such profound resonance, that very night, Jiang Xuan pushed open the gates to the first form of the Returning to Stillness Annihilation Sword—Winter Solstice.

[Winter Solstice: First Sword of Returning Extinction]

[Realm: First Realm · Beginner (19/900)]

[Characteristic: Winter Is Coming]

After entering the beginner stage, this cultivation art advanced even more swiftly.

As Jiang Xuan immersed himself in it wholeheartedly, the prompts ringing out in the depths of his sea of consciousness were never scattered +1s and +2s, but rather:

[You used the Clearheart Mirror to examine yourself inwardly. You sensed the chill within your body. Enhanced by Three Purifications Spell: Truth Communion and Heart: Sincerity, your Returning to Stillness Annihilation Sword experience +7]

[You deeply resonated with the icy power of Winter. Your Returning to Stillness Annihilation Sword experience +13]

[Your Clear-Heart Sword Disciple profession experience +7]

[Ding. System notification: You have comprehended a faint Severe Winter Dao Resonance. Your Sword of the Mind may now be imbued with the power of Winter. Upon striking an enemy, your Sword of the Mind will use icy power to erode the enemy's soul.]

The many abilities that increased comprehension stacked layer upon layer. This made Jiang Xuan an unquestionable genius in Winter Solstice and swordsmanship alike, and his progress thus advanced a thousand miles a day.

"I remember that whenever any cultivation art, spell art, or sword art reaches the third realm, it undergoes a qualitative transformation. I wonder what effect minor mastery of Winter Intent will bring."

Because his progress was visible to the naked eye, Jiang Xuan became even more driven in his comprehension of Winter Intent.

However, while there was good news, there was also something far less encouraging for Jiang Xuan.

—Because his body had remained under the erosion of cold, even though his Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Art could achieve Cosmic Cycle Circulation, the amount of Dharma power he refined had still greatly decreased.

"It really is difficult to practice cultivation arts and spell arts at the same time."

Just like in his previous life, few people could master both theoretical science and practical science.

Yet Jiang Xuan had no choice but to cultivate both cultivation arts and spell arts. As an Inner Disciple, the face and main pillar of a Dharma lineage, Jiang Xuan had to be proficient in everything. Only then could he support a Dharma lineage and preserve its standing amid the fierce competition within the Divine Firmament Sect—or even take it up another level.

This was also why the major Dharma lineages accepted only geniuses into their inner ranks—only heaven's chosen could shoulder the future of a sect and its lineages.

As for the remaining Outer Disciples, they were all servants who attended to heaven's chosen, elders, and lineage masters.

Dragged down by the cold, Jiang Xuan cultivated until eleven at night that day, yet only barely opened six acupoints.

The one thing that comforted him was that, tempered by the power of Winter, the Dharma power he condensed was purer, while the acupoints he nurtured were exceptionally resilient. Not only could they contain more Dharma power, they also brought a long-term benefit.

"When I later switch to the Myriad Manifestations Spirit-Seeding Scripture, I will condense a Spirit Seed. This Spirit Seed will be the manifestation of my Dao, and may be called a Dao Seed."

"Since it is a seed, it will naturally sprout branches and buds like a great tree, spreading out its limbs and leaves."

"And what grade of spiritwood it can ultimately grow into will be determined entirely by my comprehension of Dao Resonance, my physical foundation, and the purity of my Dharma power."

"And the grades of spiritwood differ as vastly as heaven and earth. Some can transform into divine wood after surviving a single death tribulation, while others possess only feeble abilities—the quality of one's spiritual acupoints is precisely one of the keys that determines a spiritwood's grade."

"Trading cultivation speed for future potential... I can accept that."

That night, Jiang Xuan, whose mind and spirit had been exhausted by the cold, did not return home.

For this reason, Xia He specially sent an Outer Disciple to inform Jiang Xuan's mother that he would not be returning.

From then on, Jiang Xuan settled down in Yellow Mud Village.

Over the following days, his cultivation gradually fell into a proper rhythm.

Every morning, he would conduct a Feast Ritual and consume large quantities of spirit fruits and vegetables.

Afterward, he would quietly comprehend the chill of Winter while allowing the Nine-Breath Qi-Absorption Art to operate on its own and refine Dharma power.

At noon, after another Feast Ritual, Jiang Xuan would once again consume a great deal of spirit fruit. Yet after filling his stomach, he would not immediately enter meditation for the entire afternoon.

During his free time in the afternoon, he would visit the Scripture Repository in Four Seasons Valley and read the books within.

This was both preparation for becoming a Scripture Mystic Daoist and a way to broaden his horizons, experience, and foundation of knowledge.

To Jiang Xuan's delight, studying the classics not only did not delay his swordsmanship cultivation, but instead sent Winter Solstice's progress soaring forward by leaps and bounds.

[You read the cultivation notes of the seventh Valley Master of Four Seasons Valley. Your understanding of Winter Solstice deepened. Your Winter Is Coming experience +72]

[You browsed the "Incomplete Draft of the Four Seasons Reincarnation Art" left behind by the previous Valley Master. Your understanding of the Winter Storing realm deepened. Your Winter Solstice experience +83]

[You studied the Winter Solstice chapter of Collected Explanations of the Seventy-Two Seasonal Terms. You gained insight into the Dao Resonance of Winter Solstice's three seasonal signs. Your Winter Is Coming experience +52]

[...]

"Reading is actually faster than comprehending things alone... As expected, books hold houses of gold, and books hold beauties fair as jade. The ancients truly did not deceive me."

What Jiang Xuan, immersed in emotion, failed to notice was that Zhou Qing had specifically taken time to bring him some fruit to quench his thirst and satisfy his cravings. Upon hearing Jiang Xuan's sigh, Zhou Qing's expression immediately became incomparably complicated and strange.

Could reading the notes of predecessors increase one's cultivation progress?

Of course it could. Otherwise, the Scripture Repository of Four Seasons Valley would not have collected so many cultivation insights left behind by past generations.

But was it an easy thing to do? Of course not!

To gain something from the cultivation insights of predecessors, one had to truly understand what one read and possess the ability to analyze and distinguish, so as to extract the portions beneficial to oneself from that vast sea of information.

None of that could be achieved through high comprehension alone.

Jiang Xuan could accomplish this because the Three Purification Incantations gave him Clarity of the Spirit Platform, because [Heart: Sincerity] kept his mind free of distracting thoughts, and because the scientific education he had received in his previous life taught him logical thinking, analysis, induction, and summary—and how to compare things against himself and verify them against one another.

With all this, he could finish reading a notebook in one or two hours, thoroughly grasp its core, and extract the insights most suited to his Dao of Winter. For anyone else, being able to completely understand one book within three days would already count as exceptional comprehension.

"Is this... a true genius?"

Because Jiang Xuan had placed his whole heart and mind on the books, he did not notice Zhou Qing's arrival or his complicated expression at all.

Later, having discovered that studying the writings left behind by predecessors advanced him far faster than sitting alone in dry meditation, Jiang Xuan simply spent most of every day in the Scripture Repository, researching with focused dedication.

Of course, Jiang Xuan still understood that knowledge and action must be united. Thus, he did not abandon his morning habit of comprehending himself.

Such fulfilling and rewarding days of cultivation left Jiang Xuan quite satisfied.

If there was one hardship, it was that every two or three days, Granny Blue would sink him to the bottom of Winter Lake, making him experience another near-death ordeal and allowing the slightly weakened icy intent to solidify once more.

"No wonder Granny Blue said at the beginning that cultivating this art was asking for suffering. That truly was not false in the slightest."

Fortunately, Jiang Xuan's cultivation was not lonely. Each time he was sunk into the lake, Di Chuan would accompany him, and sometimes Xia He would be sunk into the lake as well.

During breaks in cultivation, Jiang Xuan could return home. Yet the first time he did, something happened that left him both conflicted and utterly speechless.

It was Jiang Xuan's third day in Four Seasons Valley. Not wanting his mother to worry, he specifically took time to return home.

But the moment he reached the entrance, his steps halted, and he froze where he stood.

"This is my home?"

He could not be blamed for reacting that way. He truly had not expected his family's ordinary little farming courtyard to have been completely renovated and expanded. The estate now covered the area of a small manor, with elegance and exquisite craftsmanship everywhere.

Before he could recover, an even more absurd scene unfolded before him.

"Young Master has returned."

"Huh?!"