Hardworking people could cultivate even in the classroom (thanks to Xuxia JL for the alliance leader pledge)

Chen Shi'an and Wen Zhixia went off for their lunch break.

He returned to Class Five, and she returned to Class Eleven.

He checked the time. It was already twelve forty-five, with only forty-five minutes left before afternoon classes.

He did not know whether Wen Zhixia would take a nap. Presumably, she had gone back to her classroom to study as usual; otherwise, she would not have looked a little run-down from lack of sleep.

Just as Wen Zhixia had said, although he was the only day student in his class, seven classmates were still studying in the classroom at this hour.

Students who came to study outside the hours required by the school certainly needed no reminders to work hard. All seven sat quietly at their own desks, reading or working on test papers. Nobody spoke, and five of them were girls.

Having only just joined the class, Chen Shi'an was not yet familiar with his classmates, mainly because he had no roster to match their names to their faces. Apart from those few monkeys whose names he knew, there were many classmates he still could not name, though he had memorized every face.

Of the seven present, the only one he could name was the deputy class monitor, Qiu Yufu. He had also seen her name on the Honor Roll that morning: twenty-seventh in the science stream across their year, with a total score of 656.

At an ordinary county high school, that score would have easily placed her among the top three in her year. Here in Class Five, however, it did not even put her in the class's top ten, much less anywhere near Lin Meng Qiu's score of over seven hundred.

Chen Shi'an entered the classroom quietly.

Four of the seven students studying looked up at him. The other three only noticed a little later that someone else had entered the room.

There was none of the rowdiness that came with a crowd. Without that group atmosphere to egg them on, all seven appeared quiet and well-mannered, finally living up to the stereotype of top students.

No wonder the school divided students into so many different classes. Atmosphere really mattered.

Chen Shi'an sat down at his desk. Lin Meng Qiu's seat was empty, and he found it a little strange-on that point, their positions had been reversed. She had felt strange because she suddenly had a deskmate.

With only forty-odd minutes remaining, Chen Shi'an decided not to take a nap.

He sat comfortably on his chair, legs naturally apart, arms lowered and hands resting loosely on his knees, and began to meditate.

He did not sit cross-legged, mainly because the chair was small and the space between the desk and chair was cramped. In fact, posture did not matter much for meditation. Whether sitting cross-legged, standing, or lying down, all that mattered was quieting the body and mind and entering a state of cultivation.

Seated meditation was both the first lesson in cultivation and an important method of practicing it. Chen Shi'an had been learning it for as long as he could remember. No matter how busy his day was, he always made some time to sit and meditate.

Cultivation did not inherently have distinct realms. His master had divided it into several stages simply to give Chen Shi'an a framework.

The first stage was body stillness. At the beginning of cultivation, the priority was to bring the body into a quiet state, adjusting the breath and relaxing the muscles to free oneself from outside distractions.

The second stage was conscious spirit stillness. The conscious spirit was acquired consciousness, the most active part of everyday life. People used it to process information, make decisions, and interact with the outside world. During cultivation, however, this conscious spirit had to quiet down before the voice deep within could reveal itself.

The third stage was mind spirit stillness. The mind spirit was innate consciousness, belonging to the subconscious. It held people's deep emotions and memories and was often beyond their conscious control. Many people could not reach this stage in their entire lives. It depended on talent, as well as the environment in which each person lived and grew up. It was a process of returning to zero.

The fourth stage was body-mind stillness, a further refinement that combined the first three stages. Upon entering this realm, one could feel the unity of body and mind and experience their profound tranquility, while one's thoughts remained exceptionally clear. It was as though one could perceive all things in the world, beginning to sense its wondrous spiritual resonance.

The fifth stage was entering stillness, treading the void. At this realm, cultivators could draw the world's intangible spiritual resonance into their bodies to nourish their spirits, producing wondrous, indescribable changes in both body and mind. Only then did they enter the Dao.

The sixth stage was unity of heaven and man. After reaching this realm, one could break through the boundaries of the individual body and mind, harmonizing and resonating with the primordial energy and natural laws of heaven, earth, and the universe, then drawing upon that mysterious spiritual resonance. This was the magic of the Dao. During seated meditation, one could even extend one's thoughts outward, breaking through the limits of one's own sight and hearing.

This realm was far too vast. It was like starting in a puddle, walking on and discovering something larger called a pool, then walking farther and finding a pond, then a lake, only to discover that the destination was a boundless ocean.

Abilities such as projecting one's soul out of the body or transmitting one's voice over a thousand miles would all emerge within this realm. Their strength merely varied according to the cultivator's own attainment.

Chen Shi'an had once asked his master whether there were any other realms beyond the sixth.

His master had said he did not know. After all, these were divisions he had devised himself to help his disciple understand.

As Zhuangzi had said, "Heaven and earth were born alongside me, and all things are one with me." Perhaps cultivating the Dao had no such thing as realms. "Becoming one with the Dao," ultimately returning to "perfectly clear original enlightenment," was the true essence.

Actually, Chen Shi'an did not entirely agree with his master's divisions. His master said reaching the fifth stage counted as entering the Dao, but he felt that only upon reaching the sixth had one truly entered it.

The farther he traveled within this realm, the more deeply he understood the boundlessness of the Dao's magic. With no predecessors' experience to draw upon, he had to comprehend and explore everything himself.

Seeking the Dao was, ultimately, a process of seeking knowledge.

Spiritual resonance came from heaven and earth and was put to use within oneself. Without understanding the sun, moon, stars, heaven, earth, the human world, and its countless living beings, how could one seek knowledge or the Dao?

Thus, his master had left the mountain to travel three times in his life, spending twenty years on each journey. It was only on the last journey that he found Chen Shi'an, who inherited his mantle.

If there was one great difference between master and disciple, the first was talent.

"Heh, heh. Though I failed to attain the Dao, I've still managed to surpass my teacher."

"How so? Master, is your attainment greater than Grandmaster's?"

"No. I merely taught a disciple better than his disciple."

"..."

The second difference was probably their outlook.

Chen Shi'an had reached the sixth stage at a very young age, whereas his master had only reached it at sixty. Faced with the vast ocean of this realm, the elderly Daoist and his youthful disciple naturally had different outlooks.

Whether anyone had gone before him, Chen Shi'an did not know. But there truly was no road ahead, and he would have to explore everything himself. He actually enjoyed the fascination of the unknown.

Attaining the Dao had never referred to a result, but to a process. How far one could go depended entirely on oneself.

Using the magic of the Dao to analyze the world, and using mathematics, physics, and chemistry to analyze the

world were not fundamentally different; only the methods of finding answers differed. Leaving the mountain to study and travel was a rare opportunity for Chen Shi'an to broaden his horizons and open his mind. The longer he spent out in the world, the more he appreciated his master's painstaking care.

His classmates were working toward university admission, while he was seeking the Dao. Their paths differed, but they could still work together!

Sitting upright at his desk, Chen Shi'an closed his eyes. In scarcely ten breaths, he had already entered a meditative state.

The thin yet mysterious spiritual resonance between heaven and earth began to harmonize and resonate with him. An indescribable stillness and movement began to radiate around him.

The classroom was quiet at midday, with only the sounds of writing, turning pages, and the spinning fan.

The school centrally controlled when the air conditioning switched on and off. During the lunch break, there was no air conditioning, only fans, so it was inevitably a little hot and stuffy.

Yet, inexplicably, all seven students studying in the classroom felt a coolness.

Unlike the cool air from an air conditioner, which chilled them from the outside inward, this coolness spread from within. Not only did the stuffy heat vanish, but their bodies and minds grew calm and clear as well.

This coolness did not arrive suddenly. It developed gradually, little by little, so some students engrossed in their studies did not even notice. Others, who had struggled to settle down because of the heat, did notice, but simply could not figure out why it suddenly felt less hot...

Occasionally, a student would glance at Chen Shi'an.

The Daoist Master really lived up to his name! Even his naps were different-he slept sitting up?!

At that very moment, Chen Shi'an's consciousness had already extended outward. He had not yet reached the point of projecting his soul out of his body, but he could break through the boundaries of his own sight and hearing while meditating.

His sight was still indistinct. Within his sea of consciousness, he could perceive only blurred light and shadow.

But his hearing was exceptionally clear. Within a radius of roughly two kilometers, he could hear every faint sound if he wished.

The blurred light and shadow formed the outlines of the campus within his sea of consciousness. He transformed his awareness into a butterfly and merged with nature, drifting out of the classroom and beyond the campus. Outside lay a noisy street, with clumps of light and shadow moving swiftly along...

"Meow."

"Huh? Where did this stray cat come from? We're closing for our lunch break. We don't have anything left for you to eat."

"Meow..."

"All right, all right, I'll cut you a piece..."

At the sight of that small, cat-shaped patch of dazzlingly bright light, and the sound of that familiar meow, Chen Shi'an's face twitched.

You little rascal, Fat Ink! I told you to watch the house, and here you are roaming the streets, scamming food and drink!

All the honor I bring Pure Dust Temple isn't enough to make up for the disgrace you bring it!

The Black Cat, sitting outside the fast-food shop waiting for food, sensed something and turned to look toward the school. As soon as the chicken was in its mouth, it took to its heels...

"Oh, you naughty cat! You ate my food and won't even let me pet you!"

(Thank you to Xuxia JL for the alliance leader pledge~! What a generous boss! May you make a fortune! Thank you so much for supporting the new book~!)