Ancient Clerical Script

"What is it?" Wang Yan hurriedly picked up the jade slip and asked the Card Fairy. He did not understand how she could see what was inside. Didn't cultivators have to channel their magical power and press a jade slip to their forehead to read it? Still, he no longer cared about such details. Anything the Card Fairy called a good find had to be something worthwhile, and naturally, he felt rather delighted.

"Tsk, tsk! This thing is perfectly suited to you!" the Card Fairy said, smacking her lips repeatedly and looking thoroughly mysterious.

"Hey! What exactly is it?" Wang Yan quickly asked. "And what kind of writing is this?"

"This writing should be an ancient script-Ancient Clerical Script!" the Card Fairy replied solemnly.

"Ancient Clerical Script?"

"You wouldn't understand even if I explained. Anyway, it's the writing ancient cultivators used!" the Card Fairy answered offhandedly, too lazy to explain it to Wang Yan. After a pause, she continued, "What's recorded in this Ancient Clerical Script is an art for cultivating your state of mind! It's called the Heart-Control Art!"

"The Heart-Control Art? It only cultivates your state of mind?" Wang Yan sounded slightly disappointed. He would have been more interested in something that taught powerful Divine Abilities or spells, or could raise his cultivation.

"Hey! Don't underestimate your state of mind!" the Card Fairy said solemnly, her voice taking on a grave note. She paused before continuing, "Your state of mind affects your ability to resist Heart Demons when advancing, and it can improve your intelligence and spiritual sense. Haven't you been planning to learn artifact refining from me lately? Didn't I tell you your mind wasn't steady enough? If you cultivate this properly, it'll be far more useful than learning some spell!"

"In that case, why didn't you give me a mental cultivation art?" Taken aback, Wang Yan hastily asked. This Heart-Control Art had merely come from that female cultivator. She had only reached major completion of the Cultivation Realm, so what good thing could she possibly have possessed?

"Hey! My cultivation arts aren't suitable for you!" the Card Fairy replied. "Besides, this Heart-Control Art isn't that simple. What's in this jade slip seems to be only a third of the full art, yet I already find it extremely impressive. If you could gather all of it, it might even be more powerful than my cultivation arts!"

"No way! Is it really that impressive?" Wang Yan asked in surprise.

"Tsk! Won't you find out once you try cultivating it?" the Card Fairy replied.

"True!" Wang Yan nodded, then quickly added, "But I don't understand Ancient Clerical Script!"

"I do! I'll help you when the time comes!"

"That's exactly what I was waiting to hear!" Wang Yan said happily. After a pause, he hurriedly pointed to the beast-hide map. "Card Fairy, can't you make anything of this?"

"Tsk! It's not as though I'm from your..." the Card Fairy began offhandedly, but immediately changed her wording. "I've never been to this place. How would I know? Just keep it...!"

"All right!" Wang Yan nodded, no longer pressing her. Then he began making plans and murmured, "Then we'll cultivate here until the cave runs out of spiritual energy, and leave this mountain range afterward... how does that sound?"

"Of course that sounds good. I haven't been out in several... in ages. It'll be nice to go out and have a look!"

"Then I'll keep cultivating!" With that, Wang Yan took out a small bottle and tipped out a pill no larger than a grain of rice, which gave off a rich fragrance. He swallowed it in one gulp, then glanced inside the little bottle and murmured, "Ah! I'm almost out of Cultivation Pills. There are only three or four left!" He closed his eyes and settled his mind. Waves of red light swirled around his body as he resumed cultivating...

These pills were called Cultivation Pills, spoils taken from the burly male cultivator and the female cultivator of the Ma Family. Between the two of them, he had obtained a dozen or so, and over these past few days of cultivation, Wang Yan had used up almost all of them...

Cultivation Pills were practically the lowest-grade pills used by immortal cultivators to aid their cultivation. Even so, whether in the Wang Household or the Ma Family, only inner Lineage disciples at minor completion of the Cultivation Realm or above received one or two each month. Wang Yan had never been entitled to any, though he had managed to obtain a few before.

Taking them continuously like this while cultivating was indeed highly effective. It also led Wang Yan to speculate about the standing of the burly cultivator and the female cultivator in the Ma Family. It seemed their positions there had been rather high...

That reminded Wang Yan of something. When he killed the female cultivator, the burly cultivator had said she seemed to be the granddaughter of one of the Ma Family's elders. That explained why she had possessed a spiritual artifact despite only being at major completion of the Cultivation Realm...

Yet Wang Yan was not afraid in the slightest. Instead, he gloated inwardly, positively wishing the Ma Family would leap and thunder with rage. If this could avenge her a little, he could not have been happier.

Over the next few days, Wang Yan remained in the cave cultivating and almost never went outside. Such an opportunity had not come easily, and naturally, he would not waste it. He still had so many things to do...

Fortunately, although he had been terribly unlucky before, things had improved considerably since he obtained the Immortal Card Artifact and the Card Fairy's help. He had encountered plenty of danger, but at least he no longer spent every day trembling with fear, with no idea what to do next.

One day.

Hiss, hiss! Wang Yan was sitting in meditation, cultivating. The red light emanating from his body grew increasingly intense. Clearly, his cultivation had progressed wonderfully over the past few days.

But!

He had only been meditating for a little over an hour when the red motes of spiritual light in the air began to dwindle, finally fading away altogether.

"Hm?" Wang Yan stirred inwardly and hurriedly opened his eyes. Drawing in his aura, he abruptly stood up and murmured in disappointment, "Tsk! What a pity. Has the spiritual energy already run out?" He narrowed his eyes at the tiny, rice-grain-sized fragments of spirit stone embedded in the cave walls and ceiling. They had already gone dull and lightless...

Had these spirit stones been large enough, Wang Yan would never have cultivated here like this. He would have dug them all out long ago and used them to buy spirit herbs, pills, and the like, which would have been much more worthwhile. As for the pills he had obtained from the Ma Family cultivators, he had used them up two or three days earlier.

Still, if it was gone, it was gone. Being disappointed served no purpose. With that thought, Wang Yan got to his feet and murmured, "I'd better leave this damned place. It reeks of Demon Beast."

This had always been the Fang Bear Beast's lair, and a Demon Beast's rank odor lingered here. Although Wang Yan had tidied and cleaned it, making the smell much weaker, faint traces still remained. Had he not sealed off his sense of smell, he would have found it unbearable long ago. Still, in just over half a month, Wang Yan's cultivation had increased by a full fifty or sixty percent, making him quite formidable among those at minor completion of the Cultivation Realm.

Just then.

"Oh! You little brat! Has this cave run out of spiritual energy?" the Card Fairy asked.

"Yes!" Wang Yan replied. With nothing much to pack, he got up and walked straight out of the cave.

Outside, the weather was pleasant, and it was already afternoon. Before him stretched a rather barren valley, with a faint scent of sulfur in the air. This place must once have been a volcano or something similar.

"Oh, right! Card Fairy, have you finished working out that Heart-Control Art?" Wang Yan hurriedly asked. The Heart-Control Art was written in Ancient Clerical Script, which he could not read, and the Card Fairy had promised to decipher it for him. Now that he remembered, he naturally asked about it.

"Oh! I've deciphered it, but I want to make a few changes so it'll be better suited to your cultivation!" the Card Fairy replied.

"Hm! You're still making changes?" Wang Yan asked with a frown. As they spoke, he had already left the valley.

"Yes! By the way, you little brat, what are you planning to do now?" the Card Fairy asked.

"Me? I'm going back to the Wang Household!" At her question, Wang Yan paused. A trace of killing intent surfaced as he narrowed his eyes and answered coldly.

"Back to the Wang Household? Why bother going back to a little Lineage like that?" the Card Fairy said disdainfully. Then she paused, suddenly realizing. "Oh! Is it because of Wang Ziling?"

"Yes!" Wang Yan nodded. "Wang Ziling is exceptionally talented, and so cunning and sinister. If his cultivation advances any further, he'll only become harder and harder to deal with!" After a pause, he continued, "I reckon he's at least reached minor completion of the Cultivation Realm by now...!"

"That's right! From what you've told me, that boy certainly won't be easy to deal with!" the Card Fairy agreed. "You have two of my Immortal Cards. Even if he's at major completion of the Cultivation Realm, he shouldn't be able to withstand a blow from the Water-Fire Blast Technique!"

"Exactly!" Wang Yan said gravely. "But it won't be easy to find him within the Wang Household's inner Lineage. It looks like I'll have to get there first and figure something out. Thinking about it here won't do much good!"

"Indeed! You're quite a clever little brat!" the Card Fairy said with a laugh.

"Ah! Enough about that! I'll go retrieve those things first, then take a bath!"

"Suit yourself!"

"...!"

Before killing the Fang Bear Beast, Wang Yan had slain quite a few Demon Beasts along the way. Although they had all been at minor completion of the Cultivation Realm, they still represented a sizable income, along with plenty of materials. Since he had not had a Storage Bag before, he had hidden nearly everything nearby in large trees or caves. Now that he was heading back, he naturally had to collect it all.

Although the light was growing dim, there were not many Demon Beasts in this forest. Wang Yan raced ahead at an astonishing speed, and the journey was safe enough...

He hurried swiftly along. With his memory, he naturally would not forget where he had hidden those things.

Only after nightfall did Wang Yan reach a pool. He murmured, "Looks like I'll be having fish tonight." With that, he stripped off his tattered clothes, plunged into the water, and swiftly dove toward the bottom...

Wang Yan had always lived in hardship. Back at the Wang Household, he had often slipped out to hunt and catch fish. Thinking back on it now left him somewhat nostalgic.

However.

Wang Yan had only just entered the water.

Suddenly!

"Awooo!" An enraged roar rang out from some wild beast or Demon Beast.

Then!

Bang! A muffled blast sounded, and everything fell silent.

What happened? Wang Yan's heart tightened as he wondered in surprise.