The five elements

The city wall, over ten zhang tall, posed little obstacle to Lu Mingyue now. At least, with her cultivation at the third layer of Qi Refining, she could easily fly over it.

But doing so would inevitably expose her.

And in a very conspicuous way, at that.

That was not the outcome Lu Mingyue wanted.

After all, although people like her, who lacked an innate Spirit Mansion, were considered to have stepped onto the path of cultivation the moment they opened one...

Apart from strengthening Lu Mingyue's body and sharpening her five senses somewhat, the Spirit Mansion Realm at most allowed her to briefly control the Origin Power within her body, providing some small help at critical moments, such as easing some of Old Lu's suffering as he lay dying...

She could not even cast spells.

Although the Qi Refining Stage allowed her to cast spells, her cultivation at the Third Layer of Qi Refining would only let her cast four or five before her Origin Power ran dry. She absolutely could not fight a crowd alone.

Now I can understand why County Commandant Qin remained so unwavering in upholding the dignity of the Great Ye Dynasty's laws, even knowing that Shen Yulang had opened his Spirit Mansion. He convicted Shen Yulang, who had killed so many people, and had him beheaded in the street!

Never mind Shen Yulang, who had merely opened a houtian Spirit Mansion and did not even count as a cultivator-even I, as I am now, wouldn't dare commit crimes and wantonly take lives!

This was not merely Lu Mingyue lamenting. It really was how things stood.

She could not keep flying on a cloud forever. Even if the constables could not hurt her for the moment, as long as they identified her as a criminal and pursued, surrounded, and intercepted her, she would be caught sooner or later!

As for casting spells to kill the constables?

What a joke!

Those people were not fools who would stand still and let Lu Mingyue's spells hit them.

Even taking ten thousand steps back, supposing Lu Mingyue could kill a few constables, that would only drain her Origin Power faster.

And the Great Ye Dynasty clearly had far more constables than she could currently wipe out with three or five spells!

Forget it. I'll rest here for a while first, then see whether there's any way to "go abroad"!

Glancing at the city guards in their imposing armor, Lu Mingyue felt that the authorities here would probably be even harder to deal with than those in Yangguan City.

So, knowing her own limits, she wandered around Cangzhou Prefectural City for most of the day. Only toward evening did she find an inn on the side nearer the border and take a room.

Just as Lu Mingyue checked into the inn, a man in white also arrived outside Cangzhou Prefectural City.

"Chirp~"

A white sparrow descended from the sky and landed on the white-robed man's shoulder, tilting its beak beside his ear.

"The Dragon Gate Inn... Heh heh, Bai Yunzi, it seems this successor you chose is quite cautious. She clearly wants to leave the Great Ye Dynasty, yet she doesn't dare openly reveal her identity as a cultivator?"

The white-robed man smiled faintly, then put the white sparrow into the pouch at his waist. A ripple of Origin Power also emanated from his body.

"Or perhaps I wounded you too severely, Bai Yunzi, and you had no time to choose your successor carefully before you died, so the successor you chose has no experience whatsoever with the cultivation world?"

The sun sank into dusk, and the twilight deepened.

A bizarre scene unfolded.

As the white-robed man walked toward Cangzhou Prefectural City beneath the evening sky, his figure actually grew somewhat slighter, and even his face began to change.

In moments, the handsome, distinguished middle-aged man in white, with his air of otherworldly grace, had transformed into a young man with an unseasoned face and a hint of immaturity in his expression!

"Miss, my name is Bai Zishan. My greetings to you."

"Miss, I am Bai Zishan, a mere rogue cultivator..."

"Fellow Daoist, I am Bai Zishan, a scion of the Bai Family, a cultivation aristocratic clan..."

Having changed his face and figure, the man muttered to himself as he walked into Cangzhou Prefectural City, which was gradually sinking into the night.

As expected, Cangzhou Prefectural City has more inhabitants, and the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi is even thinner!

Inside the Dragon Gate Inn, Lu Mingyue emerged from meditation and gave a somewhat rueful sigh.

I was worried the money I brought wouldn't last. Well, now I definitely can't stay in this city for long. Otherwise, even after eight or ten years, I'm afraid I still wouldn't be able to break through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining!

Lu Mingyue was not like the man of Qi who feared the sky would fall. The [Five Elements Eternal Spring Art] really was too ordinary. She even suspected that this cultivation art might belong to the sort found everywhere in the cultivation world.

Although the world was filled with the power of the five elements-or rather, the world itself was composed of the five elements.

It was precisely because this five-element spiritual qi was so ordinary that drawing it from the world became exceptionally difficult for Lu Mingyue.

What was more, she possessed spells for only three of the five elements: Fireball Technique, Wooden Caltrops, and Water Mirror Shield. This had left Lu Mingyue somewhat "lopsided in her studies" from the very beginning.

This imbalance had not been much of a problem at first. After all, absorbing one strand of spiritual qi was still absorbing it, and so was absorbing three. Once Lu Mingyue had accumulated enough, she naturally broke through to the third layer of Qi Refining.

But now that she needed to break through to the Fourth Layer of Qi Refining, this imbalance had become a major problem.

That was because more than half of Lu Mingyue's progress to the third layer of Qi Refining had relied on the boost provided by those three spells!

Now, without the support of a fourth element, Lu Mingyue's cultivation at the Third Layer of Qi Refining had brought the Origin Power of those three elements into a state of equilibrium. If she tried to absorb fire spiritual qi into her Spirit Mansion, the Origin Power of the other two elements would repel it.

Likewise, if she tried to absorb wood or water Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi into her Spirit Mansion, the Origin Power of the other two elements would jointly repel it!

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This meant Lu Mingyue needed to absorb a fourth element and break the "peaceful balance" of the three powers standing like the legs of a tripod within her Spirit Mansion. Only then could she ride that momentum into the fourth layer of Qi Refining.

I wonder, once I've cultivated the five elements of Origin Power in my Spirit Mansion into balance, will breaking through to the sixth layer of Qi Refining Stage be just as difficult?

Lu Mingyue pondered with her chin propped in her hand. However, this was clearly not a question she needed to consider at present.

The fourth layer of Qi Refining had already stumped her!

Without metal- and earth-element spells, if I want to gather spiritual qi of those two elements from the world, I'll first have to draw in five-element spiritual qi, then pick out the metal and wood spiritual qi from it...

Leaving aside my aptitude, the thinness of the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi alone makes this a slow grind!

Gathering her thoughts, Lu Mingyue hopped off the bed, tucked away her silver, and opened her room's door.

Since I've already started cultivating, I can't keep giving up and living like a salted fish!

Besides, if I can collect cultivators' corpses, I should be able to gather Five Elements Spells pretty quickly, right?

Of course, Lu Mingyue knew perfectly well that the prerequisite for all this was to first leave the Great Ye Dynasty and enter the true cultivation world!

? ? Thank you to dear "2021...8209" for the monthly vote~

? And to all you dears who cast recommendation votes and leave comments every day, I'm very grateful!

? I've lived alone all these years. Now, with your company, I feel so much warmth. I'm a little socially anxious and don't know how to express my feelings with lots of flowery words. All I can do is write each chapter's plot well, make every character distinct, and flesh out the story's background and detailed setting, letting everyone follow Lu Mingyue's perspective through a different journey of cultivation. With that dedication, I hope to repay your support!