After traveling far, Ao Ding abandoned the Nine Winds Mystic Light Cloud-Riding Art and strolled across the desolate land.
Blue Child said, "Main self! The Hundred Curses Gathering Fortune Ritual has already begun. We need to refine the Collection of a Thousand Spells as soon as possible and record every curse we have learned."
Ao Ding said, "You three list the incantations in order first and sort them into ranks. The rest can wait until we find materials for the Dharma Artifact."
Though he currently possessed substantial wealth, he had no spiritual materials that Ao Ding would find worthy of notice.
Ao Ding figured that, with a fortune in the tens of millions, surely he ought to find a superior Return to the True-grade spiritual material for his Dharma Artifact?
Yet neither the spiritual materials Sun Chen had left behind nor those Green-Eyed Ghost had gathered in the underworld were particularly suitable.
Yellow Child said, "For book-type Dharma Treasures, what matters is simply the material of the book. Divine metals and precious jade, spiritual wood and cloudy mist, or beasts' shed skins and scales... these three categories also correspond to the three grades of cultivation manuals-"
Metal and jade endured without decay and were much loved by immortals.
Red Child said, "Does that even need saying? Naturally, our main self will choose the first kind! We just don't have suitable divine metals or precious jade right now-"
Yellow Child said, "Even if we find the materials, we'll need someone to fashion them into a treasure blank. Our main self's artifact-refining skills aren't sufficient to work on Return to the True spiritual materials yet. When the time comes, perhaps we can trouble a True Person or a Jade Cauldron Sect cultivator for help."
The three spirit offshoots planned Ao Ding's future, each adding his own words. Red Child even went so far as to offer the terrible suggestion that Ao Ding find a female Jade Cauldron cultivator for dual cultivation, then use their relationship as dao companions to slip into the Jade Cauldron Sect and find a master artifact refiner.
Ao Ding ignored Red Child entirely. Instead, he used the Spirit-Seeking Secret Art Sun Chen had once taught him and Lu Xiu to feel out the location of a nearby spirit market.
Understanding immediately dawned on the three children.
Their main self was their main self, after all. He thought of everything.
"No wonder our main self didn't use Qingji's method to head straight for the Mystic Jia Kingdom. So he had this in mind."
Red Child said, "Yes, yes! Naturally, a spirit market is where we should start looking for the spiritual materials needed to make the Collection of a Thousand Spells. And he'll have the three of us in the Primordial Truth Mirror to help. Who knows? Our main self might even pick up a bargain at a street stall and find a spiritual treasure blank whose divine brilliance conceals itself. Failing that, we can at least gather news in the spirit market, learn of some predecessor's immortal abode or a divine tomb coming to light, then go explore the immortal abode for treasure..."
As he spoke, he began daydreaming again about the wonderful prospect of dominating the True Realm in the future.
"Found it-" Ao Ding perked up, spotting a shriveled, stunted tree stump in the middle of the barren land.
He approached it, circling left and right as he chanted.
With his cultivation now profound, he had become increasingly proficient in this Boundary-Piercing Gate Ritual represented by repeated circling. Just one circle in each direction took him through the gateway.
The space was somewhat dim. Rows of small wooden huts stood before him.
A few cultivators were scattered among the huts, tending stalls.
"This is a spirit market?" Inside the Primordial Truth Mirror, Red Child could not help crying out, "Why is it so small?"
Even the Azure Pool Immortal Market, which Sun Chen had scorned for its small scale, had at least possessed a broad street, with clear spiritual water flowing down from a celestial river.
Here, there were only a few rows of wooden huts, with some tall bamboo, pines, and cypresses planted around them. The sparse spiritual energy resembled thin morning mist, ready to disperse at a breath of wind.
Ao Ding looked around for a long while without seeing the Spirit Market's name. He could not even find an ornamental gateway.
Approaching the rows of wooden huts, he found a cultivator tending a stall and asked him.
"Huh? Isn't this what a spirit market is like? What else would it be? Streets broad enough to race horses along? Since when have we cultivators cared so much about outward appearances? Sitting on the ground and exchanging what we have for what we need is enough."
"..."
Ao Ding said nothing. Only after making another circuit did he belatedly realize something.
There were no spirit creatures here, only human cultivators.
So... was that why there were no broad spaces to accommodate spirit creatures' true forms?
That wasn't right either-if one of us cultivators used a technique to assume the stature of heaven and earth, wouldn't one kick smash this place apart?
But when he asked the stallholder again, the man did not even know what "assuming the stature of heaven and earth" meant.
Only at that moment did Ao Ding seem to understand what the true bottom rung of the True Realm looked like.
As he silently passed stall after stall, looking at cultivation goods priced at one or two cowrie leaves, Red Child inside the Primordial Truth Mirror had long since given up any hope of finding bargains.
"Homemade talismans? Pills rolled out of mundane medicinal herbs... they even have the nerve to call things made from scrap metal Dharma Artifacts?"
Red Child covered his face, truly wishing he could erase today's memories.
Wasn't this place far too shabby?
Ao Ding remained silent.
He had a peculiar feeling.
It was like a great swan learning to fly from a phoenix, accustomed to seeing peacocks and goshawks every day. Then, one day, it suddenly flew among a flock of sparrows and parrots and watched them peck at grains of rice.
Only then did he suddenly discover that sparrows and parrots lived quite differently from peacocks and goshawks.
In this entire spirit market, never mind Return to the True-grade spiritual materials-Ao Ding had not even seen a single chain-form spiritual material.
As for Spirit-Nurturing ones...
There was only one, and its stallholder treasured it so highly that he insisted on exchanging it for a cultivation manual.
This counted as a spirit market?
"Main self, stop looking-let's leave sooner rather than later." Yellow Child had the gentlest disposition, but even he was struggling to keep his composure.
There was nothing whatsoever to gain here.
Suddenly, Ao Ding stopped before a stall in a corner. Looking at its stone spheres of assorted colors, he asked curiously, "Old sir, what are these? I've never seen them before."
"Never seen them? Whose little youngster are you... hmm, did you come with your master?"
The old man's eyes and ears were dull, and he could not discern Ao Ding's cultivation. Pointing at the spheres on his stall, he said, "These are prepared for young cultivators like you in Qi-Seeding and Foundation Establishment. Each sphere contains a sealed strand of true Gang. Their attributes and Dao resonance differ. When we practice Gang Refining, we must select the highest quality from the myriad kinds of Gang qi."
Wait-
The highest quality?
Shouldn't it be whatever suited you best?
Ao Ding's face was full of incomprehension.
Seeing the youth's confusion, the old man felt an urge to explain.
"Come, come, let me tell you-have you heard of the Seven Grades of Qi Seeds in our qi refinement?"
"Seven Grades of Qi Seeds?" Ao Ding looked utterly bewildered. "What's that?"
"You little youngster, you don't even know that? Depending on the strength of the qi seeds we form, they're divided into seven grades."
The old man launched into an unending account of the seven grades of qi seeds.
But the longer Ao Ding listened, the more wrong it felt.
Wait, weren't all six kinds besides these so-called first-grade qi seeds just rubbish?
What did he mean, a qi seed that was scattered rather than condensed counted as fourth grade?
What did he mean, a slightly flawed qi seed counted as second grade?
Qi seeds were the starting point of the Great Dao. Without laying a solid foundation, how could you cultivate in the future?
Apart from "first-grade qi seeds," what even were those other things?
Wouldn't any outer-court disciple picked out of the Seven Spirits Sect have a first-grade qi seed?
Why bother studying that sort of substandard dross?
How could Ao Ding have known that, though the theory of seven grades of qi seeds circulated throughout the True Realm, it lay outside the lineages of the Six Sects and was disdained by their true inheritors?
Sun Chen was a true immortal who had attained the Dao, so naturally he knew of such claims. But in his eyes, they were merely strained rationalizations some failures had invented to excuse themselves.
The Six Sects stated it plainly: judge quality by whether Foundation Establishment was achieved within a hundred days.
Those who could not truly establish their foundations with a qi seed within a hundred days were eliminated and sent down the mountain to enjoy worldly wealth rather than waste their lives.
And these so-called second- and third-grade qi seeds actually belonged to people who had failed Foundation Establishment. They forced substandard qi seeds to circulate as they practiced, vainly seeking the Dao fruit of immortality.
The old man continued, "By the same principle, the true Gang of the Mystic Gang Realm has corresponding grades. Hun-tian True Gang and Five-Element Unity True Gang, for instance, are both first-grade true Gang. Split the five elements apart, and they become five strands of second-grade true Gang. All of us cultivators aim to refine first-grade true Gang. But that's the Dao Path of the exalted immortals of the Six Sects. Ordinary cultivators like us make do with refining some earthly baleful qi or the spiritual qi of mountains and marshes."
Main self, what was he talking about?
The three children spoke in unison, their faces full of confusion.
Ao Ding, too, could no longer keep his composure.
Dao qi accorded with one's innate nature and had to match one's own Dao truth. What distinction of high and low could there be?
What suited you was best.
By honing the qi of mountains and marshes, one could likewise refine back to the innate state and become a True Person.
But choose True Qi that did not suit you, even something like five-element True Qi, and you would never cultivate into a True Person.
Becoming a True Person meant comprehending the Dao and seeking truth, not pursuing some quality ranking of Gang qi!
Ao Ding cautiously offered his own argument, only for the old man to dismiss it with a wave.
"What do you know, little youngster? These are genuine principles worked out by so many predecessors. How could they be wrong?"
What followed was another lengthy series of lofty discourses, but Ao Ding no longer had the heart to listen.
He found an excuse and hurried away.
He couldn't stay. He couldn't remain in this place.
Staying too long would make Ao Ding question his life.
The basic understanding of cultivation Sun Chen had established for him was completely overturned here.
He did not want to concern himself with who was right and who was wrong.
Ao Ding knew only that his current True Heaven Golden Gang suited him best.
Blue Child said, "Main self, what he said was wrong-don't listen. The True Person probably didn't tell us because these are fallacies unworthy of our ears."
"I know."
That was indeed the case.
How could Sun Chen not have known about the theories of Seven Grades of Qi Seeds and Nine Grades of True Gang circulating outside?
But neither the Six Sects nor even their many branch lineages took these bizarre theories seriously.
How had five-element qi seeds and five-element Heavenly Gang come to be regarded as first-grade qi seeds and first-grade Heavenly Gang?
How had earthly baleful qi seeds come to be considered second-grade qi seeds and second-class true Gang?
It came back to the same point: whatever suited you and matched your true nature most closely was first grade for you.
If they were in a good mood and took a liking to you, they would volunteer that these things were baseless, and that you should not waste your time and effort on them.
Thus, Sun Chen would never discuss such incomprehensible nonsense with Ao Ding.
Hearing too much of it would only unsettle his foundations.
Striding out of the spirit market, Ao Ding looked back at the dead tree stump and sighed.
"Only today did I learn the breadth of heaven and earth, and the narrowness of the marketplace."
Having beheld Lingyun Peak and met a true immortal, to then make him abandon that expansive vision and return to the bottom of the True Realm, quibbling every day over the value of a single cowrie leaf-
That feeling even frightened Ao Ding!
I!
I must never let myself fall to such a state and lose the vision to gaze out over boundless heaven and earth.
Having come into this world, if I couldn't contend for heaven's summit, wouldn't I have lived this life in vain?
With that thought, his Dao heart stirred.
Without his realizing it, his cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds, and his True Heaven Golden Gang grew somewhat more lively.
Blue Child silently recorded this change, thinking to himself, Our main self truly made the right choice in descending the mountain for experience. In just a few days, his state of mind is already very different from when he was on the mountain.
On the mountain was pure cultivation beyond the world; below it was tempering amid the mortal world's turbid dust. The two were as different as heaven and earth, yet both were essential lessons for every cultivator.
"At our main self's current pace, once he reaches the Mystic Jia Kingdom and soaks in that spiritual pool again, he'll probably attain full mastery of the Profound Gang Upper Realm."
Before you continue