Could He Really Be a Heaven's Chosen?

The sudden change in his mind gave Jiang Man, who had "only just arrived," a profound understanding of "karmic retribution."

But why had someone whom he had to pay a price merely to marry been caught in the old yellow ox's scheme?

Was the old yellow ox no simple creature either?

Besides, "Qi Introduction in three days" worried him even more.

If he failed, these three days of clear-headedness would probably be his last.

Jiang Man carefully examined the Fate Pattern in his mind and confirmed a cruel fact: he had the Fate Pattern, but no sign of talent.

Just as he was about to withdraw his attention, he suddenly saw another glow gathering.

Then a book so enormous that it nearly filled his entire sea of consciousness slowly materialized.

An arcane light blossomed from the book.

The four large characters on it entered his mind-Heavenly Mirror of a Hundred Books.

The instant the book appeared, it resonated with the Peerless Heaven's Chosen Destiny.

Then its pages began turning rapidly.

They finally stopped at page nine.

Lines of text appeared on the previously blank pages.

[Peerless Heaven's Chosen Fate Pattern: A racial inheritance condensed in High Antiquity by countless powerful beings in accord with the great array of heaven and earth, following the trajectories of the Great Dao. It later became a curse passed down through the ages. Those bearing this Fate Pattern have short lives, and none meet a good end. Cannot be removed or sealed. Can be unlocked layer by layer to obtain the inheritance and make one's name resound throughout one's wife's clan.]

[Recording the Peerless Heaven's Chosen Destiny grants one wisp of cultivation method purple qi (available to claim).]

Heavenly Mirror of a Hundred Books? Jiang Man was astonished. There was actually something like this, too.

Could it record anything?

He instinctively touched his sour-smelling clothes and tried to activate the Heavenly Mirror of a Hundred Books.

Sure enough, the pages began turning, then stopped at the last page.

Text appeared.

[Not worth mentioning.]

Then the writing vanished.

Jiang Man: "..."

Next, he gripped his own hand and activated the Heavenly Mirror of a Hundred Books again.

The pages turned again, once more stopping at the last page.

Text appeared again.

[Does not record ants.]

Jiang Man: "..."

He felt offended.

Then Jiang Man began examining the cultivation method purple qi.

Although he did not know what it was, he could extract it.

It ought to be something good.

Just as he was about to extract it, footsteps suddenly sounded beside him.

The old yellow ox had come right up beside him, followed by its sarcastic remark: "Your wife's gone."

Jiang Man glanced at it and found the old yellow ox looking melancholy, exasperated that iron would not become steel.

"Don't look at me. Looking at me won't get you a wife, either. All my power was only enough to get you married once," the old yellow ox said.

"Well..." Jiang Man said, somewhat awkwardly, "something unusual happened."

In his memories, the old yellow ox was extremely docile.

Although it was an evil god, if it wanted to harm him, it should not have needed to wait until now.

It would not do to keep playing the fool, mainly because he had questions to ask.

Hearing this, the old yellow ox froze, somewhat taken aback. "You're not an idiot anymore?"

Then it muttered that the wedding had actually driven the affliction away.

Jiang Man paid no attention to this and instead told it about the Peerless Heaven's Chosen Destiny, as well as the fairy's intention to take revenge on the old yellow ox.

He left the strange book unmentioned for now.

Hearing this, the old yellow ox was somewhat puzzled. "How could this so-called Peerless Heaven's Chosen Destiny have appeared?"

Then it looked at Jiang Man with some sympathy and said, "Qi Introduction in three days? I'm afraid you haven't got long to live."

"Is three days very difficult?" Jiang Man asked.

The old yellow ox spoke bluntly. "No. With enough talent and resources, you can achieve Qi Introduction in half a day. If those Heavenly Prides are willing to spend even more resources, achieving Qi Introduction in three breaths isn't impossible.

"But you haven't managed Qi Introduction in two years. You tell me whether it's difficult."

"Even taking ten thousand steps back, even if your talent were outstanding, without resources, you'd still die with bitter regret when faced with achieving Qi Introduction in three days."

Jiang Man had left his village at sixteen and come to the Azure Cloud Pavilion.

The Azure Cloud Pavilion was in Falling Cloud City.

It was one of the Three Towers and Six Pavilions that selected disciples for the Wuyun Sect.

The Three Towers and Six Pavilions belonged to the Cloudfront Office.

Jiang Man fell silent for a moment, then said, "I want to try."

"You want me to teach you?" the old yellow ox asked.

"Can you?" Jiang Man looked at it.

"If I dare teach you, would you dare learn?" the old yellow ox said solemnly. "Immortal cultivation methods are uniformly distributed and revised by the Immortal Gate, and contain unique auras to establish identity. To prevent what happened three hundred years ago from happening again, the Immortal Gate exercises stricter control than you imagine.

"Once they discover anything unusual, they can brand you as a Heretical Demonic Outer Dao.

"Even if you happen to obtain an ancient cultivation method, you'll have to consider whether to cultivate it. Once you do, you're certain to be discovered as soon as you enter territory under the Immortal Gate's jurisdiction.

"If you're lucky, they'll capture you alive. If not, they'll slay a demon to defend the Dao."

Jiang Man had heard a little about the so-called events of three hundred years ago. It was said that over three hundred years ago, peerless powerhouses had fought, not only shattering mountains and rivers but also draining all the nutrients from the soil, along with vast amounts of spiritual qi.

For the next two hundred years, crops failed completely, and the starved lay dead across the land.

Even cultivators could not escape the calamity. Spirit medicines and spirit trees no longer grew.

Only a hundred years ago had the Four Great Immortal Gates jointly introduced a new cultivation system, established various cultivation venues, drawn people into cultivation, and sent people into villages to provide guidance.

From then on, cultivation was no longer constrained by talent. Everyone could cultivate, allowing them to irrigate the barren land with spiritual qi and barely grow some grain, so that the surviving humans could cling to life.

This had continued to the present.

And Jiang Man was now within the jurisdiction of Wuyun Sect, one of the three affiliated sects under the Immortal Gate's rule.

But he had not expected cultivation methods to be controlled so strictly.

"Is that rumor about three hundred years ago true?" Jiang Man asked curiously.

"Half true, half false," the old yellow ox answered casually. After considering for a moment, it continued, "If you want to learn, you can learn the Azure Cloud Pavilion's 'Simple Qi Refining Method.'"

As it spoke, it glanced toward a corner of the table.

Jiang Man saw that there was indeed a book propped underneath it.

When he was an idiot, he really had been capable of doing anything.

Taking out the book, Jiang Man asked as he read, "Senior, who is that fairy? Where does she come from? Will she really appear at any time?"

The old yellow ox looked at Jiang Man with its bronze-bell eyes and said, "Let's talk about that once you survive this three-day brush with death."

Achieving Qi Introduction in three days was as difficult as ascending to heaven for an ordinary person.

Even a heaven's favored child needed resources and reserves.

To go from nothing to something.

There was far too much to learn.

Jiang Man gave the qi refining method a quick look and discovered that even the Simple Qi Refining Method would take some time to learn.

Especially since the qi refining method had nine levels.

Who knew how long mastering it completely would take?

Then Jiang Man thought of the Heavenly Mirror of a Hundred Books.

He immediately looked inward at his sea of consciousness and, sure enough, saw the book again.

Then he opened it to page nine.

He could indeed extract one wisp of cultivation method purple qi.

If he extracted it, would that count as achieving Qi Introduction?

"Is achieving Qi Introduction in three days really that difficult?" Jiang Man looked at the old yellow ox.

The latter looked at Jiang Man and said, "That depends on whether you're a Peerless Heavenly Prodigy."

"What if I am?" Jiang Man said.

Hearing this, the old yellow ox looked at Jiang Man and smiled without speaking.

"Under the Immortal Gate's rule, geniuses are too numerous to count. Why can't there be one more—me?" Jiang Man spoke again.

The old yellow ox continued looking at him in silence.

Its meaning went without saying.

Stop dreaming.

Seeing this, Jiang Man thought no further about it.

Instead, he opened the Heavenly Mirror of a Hundred Books and unhesitatingly chose to extract the cultivation method purple qi.

Then a wisp of light descended from the Heavenly Mirror of a Hundred Books.

In the blink of an eye, it merged into his meridians, flowed downward, and settled within his dantian.

A surge of spiritual qi emanated from it.

From the inside out.

It was precisely the sign of Qi Introduction.

Seeing this, the old yellow ox froze on the spot.

Its eyes widened even more like bronze bells, and it even wondered whether it had seen incorrectly.

He achieved Qi Introduction in an instant?

Had it missed some crucial action?

For a moment, an absurd thought arose: Could he really be a Peerless Heavenly Prodigy?

Just then, Jiang Man's voice suddenly reached it. "Senior, can I touch you?"