Innate Magnetic Field

Before dawn, Zhou Qing was already up.

He dug out the only garment he owned without patches, preparing to attend Azure Cloud Sect's once-every-three-years grand disciple recruitment.

In the yard, Old Man Zhou was harnessing the family's Old Donkey to the cart. At the same time, he grabbed a handful of soybeans to feed it, coaxing it kindly and telling it not to throw a tantrum on this important day.

This Old Donkey had served the Zhou family for more than ten years. Now that it had entered its twilight years, its temper had only grown more stubborn.

Sometimes, when it got worked up, it would crane its neck and refuse to budge. Even if you whipped it, you could not make it move half a step.

Old Man Zhou did not want it acting up on such an important day.

"Brother Zhou, is your Zhou Qing going to take the assessment today?"

Carpenter Wang, short and squat, appeared at the gate with his round, cheerful-looking son.

From the sound of it, he clearly wanted to hitch a ride with them.

Old Man Zhou glanced toward the house and said quietly, "How could he not go?"

Carpenter Wang nodded in understanding.

The Zhou family's boy was famous throughout the nearby villages for being obsessed with cultivation.

Ever since he had turned twelve and become eligible for the test, he had gone every time.

He failed the first time, and failed again the second time. Unable to bear the blow, the boy had actually jumped into a lake to end his life.

Though he had been saved, his personality had changed drastically afterward.

At first, he would often stare blankly at one spot, brooding and pondering for most of the day, no one knowing what he was thinking about. Sometimes, he would ask questions that seemed perfectly ordinary to everyone else.

Eventually, he returned to normal. Everyone had thought he had finally let go of his obsession and would no longer think about cultivation, but unexpectedly, his fixation only grew stronger.

Every day, whenever he caught someone, he would ask about cultivation.

The villagers barely knew a few characters between them, so what could they possibly tell him? Thus, he went to Cloud Prefecture City to find people to ask instead.

With Azure Cloud Sect's recruitment day drawing near again, Old Man Zhou understood that he could not stop his son from taking the test. So he had risen early to make preparations.

Old Man Zhou rubbed Wang Xiaohu's round little head and laughed. "Time truly flies. Even Xiaohu is twelve now. This child has had spiritual energy about him since he was young. I'd say he'll definitely make it."

Carpenter Wang chuckled. "Among the children in our village, your Zhou Qing is the smartest. If he couldn't make it, Xiaohu has even less hope. We're mainly going to let him see the world."

Old Man Zhou was about to exchange a few polite words when he suddenly heard footsteps from inside the house behind him. He hurriedly shushed Carpenter Wang, signaling him not to discuss the matter any further.

He turned around and saw that Zhou Qing's expression was unchanged, as though he had not heard their conversation. Only then did he relax and smile. "Everything's ready. Let's be on our way."

Zhou Qing nodded, wrapped some flatbreads for the journey in a bundle, placed it on the cart, and then boarded the donkey cart with the Wang father and son.

Having received its bribe, Old Donkey was in an exceptionally cheerful mood and did not throw a single tantrum along the way.

Zhou Family Village was around thirty to forty li from Cloud Prefecture City. The four of them arrived before noon.

The testing site was not within the city, but on a raised platform south of it.

The platform was called Linxian Platform. It was made of white jade, half a zhang high and more than three zhang across.

At noon, an Immortal Master from Azure Cloud Sect would descend upon the platform and inspect each child who had come for the test.

Beside Linxian Platform stood a building called Immortal Gathering Pavilion.

It had been prepared for the nobles and dignitaries of Cloud Prefecture City.

During the testing, those nobles and dignitaries would ascend the building to observe the proceedings. Whenever a child from some family passed, they would swarm forward to forge a good connection.

It was nearly noon by then, and almost all the children taking the test had arrived. Together with their parents, they packed the area around Linxian Platform so tightly that not even water could trickle through.

There were impoverished families dressed in clothes patched over patch, wealthy merchants clad in silk and satin, and official families adorned with hairpins, tassels, and jade.

Taking in the sight, Zhou Qing could not help but sigh inwardly.

Ordinarily, when poor folk encountered wealthy households, they had to bow and scrape, addressing them as Master. When they encountered high-ranking officials and great magnates, they had to kneel by the roadside and make way from across the street.

Yet now, it was as if all distinctions of status had vanished. Everyone was crammed shoulder to shoulder beneath Linxian Platform.

This was the authority of Immortal Masters.

Before Cultivators, all living beings were but ants!

As for which ants were queens and which were workers, such differences in status might be worth discussing within an ant colony. Bringing them before an Immortal Master would only invite laughter.

Zhou Qing became even more determined to become a Cultivator.

But whether he could succeed, he truly had not the slightest confidence.

In the three years since transmigrating here, he had learned some common knowledge about cultivation through various channels.

It was said that Cultivators used the spiritual roots within the human body to connect with heaven and earth, drawing the spiritual energy between heaven and earth into their bodies to gain cultivation.

Therefore, to cultivate, one first needed spiritual roots.

What the major sects tested when recruiting disciples was precisely one's spiritual roots.

Before he transmigrated, the original owner of this body had already undergone the test twice. Neither time had revealed any spiritual roots in his body. It could be said that he possessed absolutely no aptitude for cultivation.

If his transmigration had not also brought him an ability, there would have been no need for him to come for another test at all.

Zhou Qing discovered that he possessed the ability to generate a magnetic field within a radius of one zhang around himself.

This ability could not be called particularly powerful. At first, he could only use the magnetic field to levitate some iron filings.

Over the past three years, as he continuously trained this ability and grew older, his body had become stronger as well. He could now use the magnetic field to lift around thirty jin of iron objects for two quarter-hours.

If all he could do was generate a magnetic field, he could not see what that had to do with cultivation.

But while exploring his ability, he discovered that this world contained an invisible force capable of disturbing his magnetic field.

This invisible force felt like something similar to a magnetic field, and it possessed different frequencies.

After continuous exploration, along with indirect probing of well-informed people in Cloud Prefecture City, Zhou Qing finally determined that this invisible force was spiritual energy, the very thing Cultivators used for cultivation.

This way, although he could not directly sense spiritual energy, he could indirectly grasp it through his Innate Magnetic Field.

Just as he could not see the wind, but could tell it was there from the fluttering of a flag.

Spiritual energy and magnetic fields could disturb one another.

After repeated experiments, Zhou Qing finally found a way to cut corners.

He could use his magnetic field to capture spiritual energy, thereby making it appear as though he possessed spiritual roots.

Hopefully, he could deceive heaven and cross the sea, successfully passing the test.

Of course, even if he passed, without spiritual roots, he might not be able to begin cultivating smoothly.

He was like a student trying to cheat his way into Tsinghua and Peking Universities. Once inside, he might discover that he could not understand a single thing, and in the end be forced to drop out.

But he could not worry about that now.

He needed to enter the Cultivation World first. Perhaps then he would find another method—perhaps open up spiritual roots, or cultivate by bypassing them altogether.

Having transmigrated into a cultivation world, if he shrank back in fear and let the chance to cultivate slip through his fingers, he feared that even in the middle of the night, he would regretfully slap himself and curse himself for not taking a gamble.