In the blink of an eye, autumn gave way to winter. When the last yellow leaf fell from the ginkgo trees at the Knowledge and Practice Institute, the first snow descended on Luoyang, the Capital.
Amid the fluttering snow, people sat packed around the open ground on the institute's rear hill. From a distance, they formed a dense, dark mass.
The institute's new students brimmed with excitement. They had waited far too long for this day.
Today, Chen Sangyu, a renowned cultivator and a teacher in the institute's practical division, would deliver a lecture.
Among the institute's many instructors, Chen Sangyu unquestionably ranked in the top three when it came to imparting the Dao, teaching students, and resolving their doubts. Rumor had it that the Dragon Gate Academy had offered him three times his current remuneration, but he had remained unmoved.
Before this, the practical division had already offered several courses, primarily teaching traditional foundational martial skills such as fist and palm techniques, saber, sword, and spear techniques, hidden weapons, mounted archery, and bow techniques. Today marked its first public lecture on the deeper aspects of martial cultivation.
He An and Fan Dazhi stood among the onlookers. Though this place was called the institute's rear hill, it was really just a large earthen mound beside the enclosing wall, normally covered in low shrubs. Now the tall mound had been cleared and leveled, all the withered grass removed, and a chair placed on top.
As countless students craned their necks in anticipation, a middle-aged man of about forty ascended the platform. He wore a tall ceremonial hat and a broad sash, his flowing sleeves spread wide, and wooden clogs on his feet. Through the falling snow, he slowly climbed onto the raised ground.
The wind sent his robes fluttering, making him look like an immortal banished to the mortal world. Chen Sangyu's mere entrance won a thunderous ovation from the students below.
"Being, nonbeing, being; reversal upon reversal; mystery within mystery-the true Dao must be passed from mouth to ear! Follow the flow and remain mortal; reverse it and become immortal. The profound mystery lies in that reversal alone. Heaven and earth contain primordial energy, though ordinary people cannot perceive it themselves. For a cultivator, controlling Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy is the most fundamental ability..." Chen Sangyu began to explain slowly.
His voice was not loud, yet the thousands of people below heard every word with perfect clarity, as though he were speaking directly into each person's ear.
As he spoke, he slowly extended a hand, palm open, to catch the falling snow. Flake after flake settled in his palm, some crystalline, others like goose down.
In an instant, countless snowflakes in the sky seemed to answer some unseen summons, swirling toward his hand.
Standing on the platform, Chen Sangyu raised his palm high. Snowflakes rushed toward it from every direction, gradually forming an enormous snowball.
The snowball slowly revolved in midair, giving off a brilliant, crystalline radiance. At that moment, everyone below fell utterly silent, shaken beyond measure by the sight before them.
A gleam broke through the gloomy sky. The sun struggled out from behind the thick clouds, and its cold light spilled down upon Teacher Chen Sangyu. His tall figure, hazy and gilded with sunlight, looked almost divine.
He An watched quietly from the crowd. He had witnessed Fang Yizhi fight Huang Daogong, and had also seen Wei Zhilin teach Huang Daogong a lesson, so Chen Sangyu's wondrous feat did not astonish him too greatly. One thing was certain, however: only by becoming what the teacher called a cultivator would he have a chance to become truly powerful in this world.
He felt as though a new door had opened before him. Within lay another world he could reach out and touch-the very world Fang Yizhi had once spoken of.
He An had already encountered many experts, and every one of them had been a cultivator. He himself had practiced martial arts since childhood, yet his uncle had never mentioned anything about this.
He An glanced at Fan Dazhi. The fellow was quieter than he had ever been, staring intently at the platform, his expression changing sharply. He An followed his gaze and saw that the snowball above Chen Sangyu's palm was growing larger and spinning faster. Snowflakes still danced through the sky, streaming into it without end. Clouds as heavy as lead covered the sun once more, and the sky darkened again.
Chen Sangyu suddenly clenched his raised hand, then opened it again. At his gesture, the enormous snowball stopped dead before bursting apart without a sound. A blizzard seemed to descend upon the platform. White masses of snow tumbled down around Chen Sangyu, swiftly forming a vast circle with him at its center.
This wondrous, magnificent sight drew cheers that roared like mountains answering and seas surging from the crowd below.
"Wow... that was amazing!"
"Ah... how beautiful!"
"Teacher Chen, I love you!"
"Teacher Chen, teach me! Teach me! I want to learn that too!"
Chen Sangyu stood at the center of the circle of snow, calm and composed. A faint smile rested on his face as he watched the excited, fervent students below.
Only after some time did the seething crowd finally settle. He continued, "What I just demonstrated was merely a simple method of controlling Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy. Some of you may find it wondrous and astonishing, but in truth, everything in this world follows patterns that can be traced. Primordial energy exists everywhere between heaven and earth-in mountains and forests, fields and plains, the earth and lakes. It is right beside you and me. Like air, it cannot be seen or touched, but... you can sense it. Perceive it with your mind and spirit, then control and direct it with your mental power. As the saying goes, a Divine Ability manifests within a single thought. This is called divine sense!"
Chen Sangyu's clear, resonant voice rang in everyone's ears. He slowly stepped back and sat in the chair, then continued his lecture. "Perhaps... many of you are still confused by what I have said. Let me tell you a story! It is said that more than two thousand years ago, during the Great Wei Dynasty, a gifted young man named Lü Tuan was born into a family renowned for medicine. Not only was this young man proficient in the healing arts, but to strengthen his body, he also practiced a qigong cultivation method recorded in ancient texts. During an otherwise ordinary meditation session, he unexpectedly felt the 'Nirvana Palace' at the crown of his head open like a skylight. A stream of Pure Void Energy descended and spread throughout his body. He felt his body slowly absorb this Pure Void Energy as it traveled through his acupoints and meridians before finally flowing into his Dantian. In the years that followed, he cultivated day and night according to the method he had stumbled upon, becoming the world's first cultivator. Later, Lü Tuan established the first cultivation sect, the True Martial Sect. Even today, a portrait of Patriarch Lü Tuan is enshrined in its True Martial Hall."
"Over the centuries, the cultivation world produced generations of talented individuals, and countless cultivation methods and arts emerged. Whatever method they practiced, all cultivators had to absorb that Pure Void Energy from heaven and earth. Later, they named it primordial energy. Where, exactly, does the primordial energy between heaven and earth come from? No one knows! Then, five hundred years ago, an elder of the Spirit Cloud Sect named Kong Daoling obtained a map from some unknown source. The pictographic symbols on that map were said to reveal the secret of primordial energy. Afterward, Kong Daoling traveled throughout the world, searching for the locations marked on the map and investigating primordial energy's mysteries. Since then, his whereabouts have been unknown."
Seeing how eagerly everyone below listened, Chen Sangyu continued, "Cultivators absorb primordial energy from heaven and earth and store it in the Dantian in their lower abdomen, forming a Dan Foundation. The Dan Foundation converts it into true qi. The Sea of Consciousness controls the flow of true qi through the body's meridians, after which cultivation arts release it outward, where it condenses into primordial energy again. Thus, primordial energy completes a cycle from outside to inside, then outward once more."
"From lowest to highest, cultivation is divided into six realms: the Qi Transformation Realm, the Spirit Refinement Realm, the Void Return Realm, the Dao Integration Realm, the True Self Realm, and the True Self Peak Realm, commonly known as the Grandmaster Realm. An ordinary person who reaches the Qi Transformation Realm can strengthen the body and prolong life. Upon reaching the Spirit Refinement Realm, the body becomes light as a swallow and all six senses sharpen. In the mundane world, such a person can already be considered a first-rate expert. Those who cultivate to the Void Return Realm can scale walls and cross rooftops as though walking on level ground, impervious to blades and spears, unharmed by water or fire. At the Dao Integration Realm, one becomes an expert found scarcely once in ten thousand. On a battlefield, breaking through enemy formations, such a person is what the world calls a match for ten thousand men. Yet... some people spend their entire lives unable to reach the Dao Integration Realm. Others endure a thousand hardships to reach it, only to remain there for the rest of their lives, unable to advance another step."
"...How distant the road of cultivation stretches! How long and difficult the ascent through its realms!" Chen Sangyu sighed, then shook his head and continued, "As for the True Self Realm... those who can cultivate to this realm are rare indeed. Every one of them possesses heaven-bestowed talent. At the True Self Realm, a single thought can carry one a thousand miles in an instant, and a raised hand can transform the winds and clouds. Even confronting an entire nation's army alone is not impossible... As for those who reach the True Self Peak Realm, they can be counted on one's fingers. The head of our Knowledge and Practice Institute, Imperial Preceptor Li Xingzhi, is at the True Self Peak Realm. Those who reach this realm... are said to have broken free of this world's constraints of time and space. They can roam the eastern sea at dawn and reach Cangwu by dusk. Their Divine Abilities are unfathomable even to gods and ghosts, reaching through heaven and earth..."
At this, the students below burst into exclamations of wonder. Only today did most of them realize how vast the world was, and how nothing was too strange to exist within it. The Knowledge and Practice Institute truly deserved its great reputation.
Chen Sangyu continued, "Every ascent through these six realms brings a transformation like shedding one's mortal flesh and remaking one's bones. Are there realms beyond the Sixth Realm? Perhaps there are, perhaps not, because... for countless centuries, no one has broken beyond the Sixth Realm. The world's four great grandmasters are all at the True Self Peak Realm. Having cultivated to the end of the martial path, they are all trying to feel their way toward a higher realm. But how could exploring a heaven beyond heaven, through a thousand trials and ten thousand obstacles, ever be easy? There are myriad sects under heaven, and each has its own strengths in cultivation arts and secret techniques. Cultivating the True Martial Sect's 'True Martial Scripture' grants a Dan Foundation of unmatched capacity; the Vertical Sword Sect's 'Ten Thousand Swords Art' allows true qi to circulate within the body at a speed none can surpass; cultivating the Buddhist Sect's 'Abhidharma Sutra' grants a Sea of Consciousness of unparalleled strength. As for our institute's 'Record of Knowledge and Practice,' its control over the transformations of primordial energy reigns supreme under heaven..."
Everyone below listened spellbound as Chen Sangyu explained, hearing many things they had never encountered before.
He An stood silently in the crowd and quietly circulated the cultivation method he had practiced for years. He felt tiny wisps of what the teacher called Pure Void Energy slowly flowing into the Dantian within his body. Though his expression remained calm, his heart blazed with wild joy. Was the method I've practiced diligently for so many years truly this profound? Could I already be what the teacher calls a cultivator?
Chen Sangyu's clear, resonant voice rose again. "Tomorrow, the institute will test whether you possess the aptitude for cultivation. If you do, do not let arrogance lead you astray. You must understand that cultivation is like defying heaven; fewer than one in ten reach the Void Return Realm. If you do not, do not be discouraged. By devoting yourself to scholarly pursuits from then on, you may yet become a marquis or a minister and accomplish great deeds. Nothing is absolute. If you lack aptitude but still wish to dedicate yourself to cultivation, there remains a chance. In the major examination for new students one year from now, the top scorers in both the literary and martial examinations will each receive a Spirit-Returning Pill. The Spirit-Returning Pill is a supreme spiritual medicine refined in Immortal Birth Valley. Those without aptitude who take it have a seventy percent chance of gaining the ability to perceive Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy, thereby setting foot upon the path of cultivation. If a cultivator takes it, there is a high chance of advancing one realm, but the higher the realm, the lower that chance becomes. Remember this, remember this!"
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