The Heaven-Tier Cultivation Method Is Right There

The clear Qi left behind from High Antiquity...

Tribulation Qi seized between life and death...

Yu Tunzhou's attention was drawn to the voice behind the door.

He could still imagine the first two, but when he heard about the twenty-four solar terms, he could not help feeling dazed.

Qi Ingestion had been spoken of since ancient times, but he had never heard of anyone "feeding" on the twenty-four solar terms.

Then there was fortune transformed into a green lotus, and the fortune of immortals...

Yu Tunzhou could not stop his heart from trembling.

First the solar terms, and then even something as mysterious as fortune could be swallowed and transformed into a Dao foundation?

The cultivation system of this world truly opened his eyes.

He longed to push open the door and ask for the full story, but this was clearly not the time.

Inside the house, Senior Zhang's voice continued at the same unhurried pace:

"Only by forging a supreme Dao foundation will you have a ninety percent chance of leaving the town and, in the future, competing for the Dao Sprout Immortal Embryo, the culmination of internal and external refinement."

As soon as his voice fell, a youth inside asked in a clear voice, "Granduncle-Master, how many people in the sect's history have forged a Dao Sprout Immortal Embryo?"

Hearing the voice of someone his own age, Yu Tunzhou was momentarily lost in thought.

In every previous round, each household in town had only one place. This fellow traveler's appearance meant the hope he had held onto had come to nothing after all.

The conversation inside continued. Yu Tunzhou stood beneath the eaves, torn between heaven and man.

It was clearly improper to keep eavesdropping, but every word spoken behind the door concerned the great path of cultivation that haunted his dreams. He could not bear to leave.

All at once, Yu Tunzhou realized-

With Senior Zhang's cultivation, how could he fail to notice someone outside the door?

Creak-

The door suddenly opened of its own accord, without a sound.

A gaunt middle-aged man stood inside. His temples were thick with frost-white hair, and his expression was cold, giving off an inexplicably chilling, sinister impression.

But the look he gave Yu Tunzhou was no different from the one he gave his own disciple, as though he treated them equally.

"If you're interested, you may stand outside and listen. Consider it a settlement of the good karma you earned bringing me fish these past three years."

Zhang Qingtong's tone was flat and unruffled.

Yu Tunzhou set down the fish basket and thanked him solemnly. "Thank you, Senior Zhang."

A youth sat cross-legged inside, studying Yu Tunzhou. Suddenly, he cupped his hands, a smile on his face that carried something of jade's gentle warmth.

"Xie Linchuan of the Xie Household of the Northern Plains."

"Yu Tunzhou."

"Silence."

The two words fell lightly, and the two youths immediately held their breath, not daring to speak further.

The middle-aged man named Zhang Qingtong continued imparting the Dao, his voice like an ancient stone chime striking the heart:

"Nature cannot stand without life, and life cannot exist without nature. Thus, the great Dao today emphasizes cultivating nature and life together."

"The arts of nature cultivate the heart and refine the spirit, while the arts of life refine the form and strengthen the body. Only those who possess both spirit and form can glimpse the great Dao that reaches to heaven..."

Xie Linchuan had heard these words so often at home that calluses had practically grown on his ears. They were clearly not meant for him, either. He glanced at Yu Tunzhou in surprise, somewhat taken aback by his granduncle-master's attitude toward him.

"You two are already within the Luofu Grotto-Heaven. Your first priority now is to prepare for Qi Ingestion and Meridian Opening."

"Qi Ingestion and Meridian Opening involves inner Qi and profound Qi."

"When you take the first steps in a Qi Ingestion Method, inner Qi arises of its own accord. It can open and expand the Dantian and clear and strengthen the meridians. Though inner Qi can alter one's constitution, it cannot break free of the confines of mortal flesh."

"Profound Qi, on the other hand, is drawn from without. 'Profound' refers to the profundity of the great Dao. Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi and the essence of the sun and moon gathered through Higher Vehicle methods are all profound Qi of the lowest grade, yet they possess the power to break through the confines of the flesh."

"You two need not concern yourselves with where profound Qi comes from. There are fortuitous opportunities here. What you must do is master the state of calming the heart and entering meditation as soon as possible, and develop your Qi Ingestion Methods to at least the seventh level."

Yu Tunzhou's eyes shone. It seemed he was drawing ever closer to Martial Dao cultivation.

"Senior Zhang, may I ask what the state of calming the heart and entering meditation means?"

Taking advantage of Zhang Qingtong's pause, Yu Tunzhou seized the chance to ask.

Everything Senior Zhang had just emphasized concerned the Qi Ingestion Method, except for calming the heart and entering meditation.

Zhang Qingtong said slowly:

"Entering meditation is the first hurdle in cultivating nature. Unlike cultivating life, each school has its own exclusive methods. Buddhists have precepts, stillness and wisdom; Daoists have fasting the heart and sitting in forgetfulness; Confucians have knowing where to stop, then attaining composure, stillness, peace, deliberation and realization. But whichever school one follows, entering meditation comes first."

"Only those who can calm their hearts and enter meditation are qualified to sense where profound Qi lies."

He suddenly glanced at Yu Tunzhou, paused for a moment, and said:

"Normally, visualization methods are used to help one enter meditation. But even without a visualization diagram, one can enter meditation through quiet sitting and contemplation."

Hearing this, Xie Linchuan could not help taking a close look at Granduncle-Master Zhang, confirming that he was not joking.

An ordinary person, without the slightest cultivation, without a visualization diagram, and without the protection or assistance of an elder from his school, entering meditation all by himself?

Granduncle-Master had gone too far with this joke.

Strictly speaking, such people did exist in the world, but every one of them was a person who had read widely among the classics of every school and spent half a lifetime immersed in them, chewing their essential teachings to pieces and blending them into bone and blood, truly leaving no dust in the heart.

Among Confucians, even if they were not great scholars of their generation, they would at least be upright gentlemen and sages of impeccable character;

Among Buddhists, even without understanding cultivation, they could become abbots versed in Buddhist principles;

In the Daoist schools, they would be either "True Persons" who had spent years comprehending the Dao and contemplating its mysteries, wearing away their worldly hearts and mundane thoughts, or Daoist talents whose Primordial Spirits were innately clear!

Zhang Qingtong looked at Yu Tunzhou and said meaningfully:

"For you, the real hurdle is still how to obtain a Qi Ingestion Method."

"Yu Tunzhou, I can tell you plainly that before you, another 'cowherd boy' left this town and brought troubles of all sizes to every household and sect. Those who invested in him suffered heavy losses because of it."

"The lesson of that precedent remains vivid. That is why none of the thirty-nine households and sects remaining in town will take you in."

"Even if I admire your character, I must follow my school's arrangements and accept this boy. I cannot possibly break my school's rules for your sake."

The "boy" in question, Xie Linchuan, opened his mouth, then shut it again in dismay, only daring to grumble about his granduncle-master in his heart.

So if the sect hadn't arranged it, you wouldn't even have wanted me...

He looked at Yu Tunzhou with a few more degrees of scrutiny.

He had previously heard only that this youth was a person with a poor fate and scant blessings, and had taken him for an insignificant passerby. He had not expected him to catch Granduncle-Master's eye.

As for Senior Zhang's blunt words, Yu Tunzhou could only lower his head in silence.

In truth, he knew very well that by now, there was little hope left.

For three years, he had walked every street and alley in town, wearing through his shoe soles, yet no one had seen his "exceptional talent."

Now, at the very end, how could he expect someone suddenly to favor him, neglect their own disciple's training, and take in a nobody like him?

He was merely in the habit of doing everything he could at the moment, just as he had in his previous life.

And now, Senior Zhang had punctured the last of his illusions.

"No one will take you in. The town's guardian is bound by its rules and cannot help you either. So even if you can enter meditation on your own, without a Qi Ingestion Cultivation Method, you still cannot step through the gates of the Martial Dao."

Zhang Qingtong's voice grew colder, every word a knife cutting straight into the heart.

"Well?"

"For three years, you rose early and slept late, never daring to give up for a moment. Yet in others' eyes, you were nothing but a joke from beginning to end."

"Like a fish tangled in a net, the harder you struggle, the tighter it binds you, until all you can do is wait for death."

"Yu Tunzhou, do you feel that heaven and earth are vast, yet somehow there is no place for you? How much resentment and unwillingness do you harbor now?"

Hearing his granduncle-master's utterly cold words probing the heart, Xie Linchuan's pupils contracted slightly. He could not help looking sympathetically at the youth outside the door.

He was already trapped in a desperate situation, and now Granduncle-Master was stabbing straight at his heart. If he failed to hold on, the strings of his heart might snap on the spot.

Outside the door.

Yu Tunzhou's face was pale as he searched his heart.

Powerlessness?

Unwillingness?

And did he harbor resentment?

After a long silence, he said softly, "I suppose it's like being a farmer who depends on the heavens for his food."

Beside him, Xie Linchuan blinked, utterly bewildered. What did that mean?

Hearing this, Zhang Qingtong, who had once tempered his heart in the mortal world to cultivate the arts of nature and refine his Primordial Spirit, looked even more deeply into the distance.

A farmer faced the yellow earth with his back to the sky. However hard he worked each day, never daring to slack off in the slightest and doing everything he ought to do, natural disasters never asked a person's permission. When the wind swept dust past his straw sandals and toward the seedlings in the fields ahead, withered into thin, scorched-yellow threads...

The farmer crouched on the drought-cracked furrows did not really hate heaven or earth. He simply sat in silence, helpless and at a loss, as though even his sighs had been dried up by the heat waves in the air.

Zhang Qingtong looked at the youth, who had lowered his head and seemed somewhat discouraged. Suddenly he spoke, his voice like a great bell, striking straight at Yu Tunzhou's heart and rousing the deaf:

"As heaven moves with vigor, so the gentleman strives unceasingly to strengthen himself-"

Yu Tunzhou looked up at Zhang Qingtong in a daze. He seemed to remember something, and light kindled in his eyes once more as he smiled.

"Senior Zhang, I cast a divination for myself this morning, and it happened to be the Qian hexagram!"

The Qian hexagram: its image says, as heaven moves with vigor, so the gentleman strives unceasingly to strengthen himself.

"Senior Zhang, don't worry. I understand it all, and I got used to it long ago."

Yu Tunzhou spoke calmly, with a stubborn resilience in his voice.

"Those who blame heaven lack ambition; those who blame others have impoverished hearts. Many things are decided at birth. Should I resent my own bad fate? But resenting fate is no use either. In the end, through a thousand hardships and ten thousand sufferings, you can only endure them yourself."

"I know some people are just waiting to see how I die, but I don't want to die. Being alive is already a wonderful thing."

"Even someone born with a poor fate can, as long as they live on, wait until the day misfortune reaches its end and fortune returns. So I'll live on, especially when someone doesn't want me to."

Yu Tunzhou seemed to be answering Zhang Qingtong, yet it was more as though he were talking to himself, giving himself an answer.

Just then, the rain cleared. Warm spring sunlight fell on his face from outside, outlining its distinct angles and casting the light and shadow found only in youth.

His tone was resolute. Though his features had yet to mature and were unremarkable, his contours plain and ordinary, he carried a calm that moved the heart.

"Buddhists say the human world is a place of practice, where lotuses grow from the mud; Daoists say heaven and earth are a furnace in which one refines oneself into truth... The hardships of the world all serve to hone and temper us. I hope that one day, for me, Yu Tunzhou-"

"Every stain of mud will scatter with a shake of my robes!"

The youth's words rang out with force, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.

Even Zhang Qingtong, whose temperament was as undisturbed as an ancient well, could not help being slightly moved. In the end, a hint of a smile appeared on his rigid face, and he nodded.

"Very good. But you spoke those last words too soon. Once you truly stand atop the mountain one day, it won't be too late to say them."

Yu Tunzhou scratched his head, a little embarrassed.

Beside them, Xie Linchuan's heart had long since been shaken.

Could this boy be Granduncle-Master's blood descendant?

That Granduncle-Master, who was always known in the sect for his iron face and lack of mercy, had actually been comforting someone just now, and was even teasing the youth?

He came from an Aristocratic Clan a thousand years old and had a broad view of the world, so he could roughly tell what Granduncle-Master had been doing.

First, he had deliberately used questions that probed the heart to stir up the negativity long pent up in Yu Tunzhou's heart, driving him to an extreme, before offering guidance. It was a means of "setting the heart right."

In many sects with deep foundations, before disciples carefully calmed their hearts and entered meditation, their elders would set their hearts right and sort through their distracting thoughts, allowing them to enter meditation with nothing weighing on their minds.

Unexpectedly, this youth named Yu Tunzhou had emerged from it almost entirely on his own, with little guidance from Granduncle-Master.

Xie Linchuan could not hide the curiosity and scrutiny in his eyes. Could it be that Granduncle-Master had not been joking earlier, and this fellow really could calm his heart and enter meditation on his own?

The sky cleared after the rain, and the air was fresh.

Inside the house, Zhang Qingtong's voice rose once more as he answered questions and imparted his teachings. Every word was a pearl, expounding the True Intention of cultivating the arts of life.

Yu Tunzhou wore a serious expression and listened with utmost care.

"...Qi Ingestion, Form Refinement, Divine Ability, External Scenery, and Dharma Aspect are the five great realms of cultivation today."

"Of these, Qi Ingestion and Meridian Opening is the beginning of laying the foundation, breaking through the confines of mortal flesh."

"Upon reaching Form Refinement and Acupoint Opening, even someone who has only just entered it has the strength to fight and kill tigers and bears with ease. In the various households and sects, such people are counted as formal disciples. If they choose to join the army, they can take command of a hundred men as soon as they enlist."

"At the pinnacle of Form Refinement, the body becomes a Divine Embryo. Once the Divine Embryo has just formed, a Divine Ability can be planted within it. This is the Dao Embryo realm."

"At this stage, those of heaven-given talent and extraordinary destiny can harmonize dragon and tiger within the Dantian and knock on the profound gate between life and death, ultimately forging a Dao Sprout Immortal Embryo."

"One step further is External Scenery. One's inner heaven and earth can shake the heaven and earth outside, and the power of one's Divine Abilities increases tenfold or a hundredfold. Looking across the world today, such a person is at least a first-rate expert, capable of holding a region in their own right."

"As for the still higher realm of Dharma Aspect, those who reach it are already akin to immortals walking the earth. Only the foremost powers, leaders in their respective paths, might produce an expert of that caliber."

"The town beneath your feet is in fact the Luofu Grotto-Heaven. Deep within it, a former unrivaled champion of the world, at the peak of the Dharma Aspect realm, is suppressed."

"Using the Book of Changes left behind by the Dao Venerable as a foundation, this person created a cultivation method in which nature and life informed one another. He also drew on a Buddhist art unparalleled in the world, ultimately demonstrating what Daoism and Buddhism held in common and achieving a shared origin of Dao and Buddha, cultivating immortality and Buddhahood together."

"Before him, though the Martial Dao under heaven cultivated both nature and life, it distinguished between which came first: either nature before life, or life before nature. After him, however, nature and life informed one another..."

At this point, Zhang Qingtong's voice grew slightly lower. His gaze passed beyond the roof beams toward a green mountain peak outside the town, and he seemed to sink into distant memories.

Yu Tunzhou listened without looking away, not daring to miss a single word.

He clicked his tongue inwardly.

There was actually a powerful being equal to a god or devil suppressed beneath this town?

He suddenly recalled the fortune of immortals Zhang Qingtong had mentioned earlier, and a bold conjecture surfaced in his mind.

Above the Higher Vehicle, one could ingest the fortune of immortals as a foundation!

Yu Tunzhou's heart pounded. Was this the truth of the town?

Though absurd, it fit perfectly.

No wonder this place had become a ground for the various households and sects to raise gu!

Xie Linchuan came from a great clan and knew something of the town's situation and history, yet his breathing still grew heavier. He asked in a low voice to confirm:

"Granduncle-Master, does that person truly possess the legendary foremost of all classics?!"

The Daoist Book of Changes was known as the foremost of all classics, the source of all methods, and the king of the great Dao!

"Correct. It is indeed the Book of Changes, long lost to the ancestral courts of Daoism," Zhang Qingtong said with a soft sigh.

Xie Linchuan took a deep breath. "Granduncle-Master, I heard that person left all his inheritances in this grotto-heaven..."

Zhang Qingtong suddenly gave him a cool glance, like a basin of cold water poured over his head, extinguishing the youth's imaginings.

He did not continue. Instead, he looked at the dragon fish in Yu Tunzhou's hands and said pointedly:

"This creature is called a dragon fish. It looks unremarkable, but the town's guardian has treated it. For those practicing Qi Ingestion and Meridian Opening, it is a supplement of the highest quality, and it can also help them develop their Qi Ingestion Methods."

"Since you wish to step onto the path of cultivation, you could perhaps use it as a bargaining chip, bartering it for a Qi Ingestion Method."

"Don't bother hoping for a top-tier Qi Ingestion Method. But if you can exchange it for a Higher Vehicle method, you'll have hope of turning your circumstances around."

Yu Tunzhou said solemnly, "I'm willing to exchange my remaining three dragon fish with you, Senior, for a Qi Ingestion Method!"

A smile appeared on Xie Linchuan's face.

As Evergreen Mountain's "Immortal Seed" in this selection, he would naturally be the one to eat the dragon fish if the trade went through.

Xie Linchuan couldn't help wondering whether his grandmaster-uncle had set his sights on Yu Tunzhou's dragon fish long ago, and had been laying the groundwork all along.

However.

"I can't help you with that."

As Zhang Qingtong shook his head, Xie Linchuan's smile froze on his face.

"The Qi Ingestion Methods I possess all come from my sect. I cannot pass them on to outsiders. I answered your questions today because of the goodwill you've shown these past three years."

"Go. I hope that one day, you truly can stand atop the mountain and shake the mud from your robes."

Under Xie Linchuan's reluctant gaze, Yu Tunzhou bowed deeply and took his leave.

Besides the two dragon fish allotted for the week, he had deliberately left one extra to thank Senior Zhang for teaching him and answering his questions.

He didn't know what it meant to act with an upright heart, but he could sense the kindness Senior Zhang had just shown him.

After Yu Tunzhou left.

Xie Linchuan immediately asked, "Grandmaster-uncle, why do you hold this man in such high regard?"

When he noticed that the young man had left an extra dragon fish, he raised an eyebrow and said:

"He's openhanded. I'm starting to appreciate him too."

Zhang Qingtong's expression turned cold again:

"In our eyes, those who accomplish great things in this world possess not only extraordinary talent, but also an indomitable will."

"Even here, I've heard a little about your glorious exploits, Xie Linchuan."

"If you could learn even seventy or eighty percent of that boy's temperament and resolve, your grandfather wouldn't have to worry whether you'd make it out of this grotto-heaven alive."

Xie Linchuan thought nothing of it. His eyes darted, and he asked another question:

"Grandmaster-uncle, I once heard Grandfather say that the greatest fortuitous opportunity in this town isn't just that immortal fortune. Supposedly, the Book of Changes..."

"Your ambition certainly isn't small, but do you have the appetite for it?"

Zhang Qingtong interrupted him with a cold snort. Raising a hand to point at a mountain outside, he said, word by word,

"It's not just the Daoist Book of Changes. Rumor has it that the Buddha left an unsurpassed method for the people of the world to face the final calamity: the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic, a supreme art passed down through the ages, said to turn decay into wonder. It's in that person's hands too!"

Xie Linchuan's eyes burned with fervor.

The Buddhist school had a saying:

A worldly method that could deliver all beings from the sea of suffering in this life was a superior method.

Only a worldly method that could let all beings transcend the confines of this life was an unsurpassed method!

There were hundreds of versions of the "Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic" in the world, but only the method left behind by the Buddha was worthy of being called an "unsurpassed method," on par with what the Dao Venerable had left behind!

Zhang Qingtong knew full well that the young man still hadn't given up, and couldn't help sneering:

"A thousand years ago, after that person's defeat, he left the Martial Dao will he had cultivated throughout his life here. That mountain can be regarded as a 'supreme fist manual'!"

"Yet in the thousand years since, only a handful have gained any insight from this place. Every one of them was a true heaven-gifted genius with a great fortuitous opportunity. You, Xie Linchuan, dare compare yourself to them?"

Xie Linchuan's expression shifted. He pressed on, "May I ask, Grandmaster-uncle, did any of those figures comprehend the mysteries of both Changes?"

He still refused to give up. They were not only the foremost of all classics and the source of the Great Dao, but also the unsurpassed method left behind by the Buddha!

Yet Zhang Qingtong's words made the hairs on his body stand on end.

"No."

Zhang Qingtong's tone grew distant and uncanny.

"Nor could there be."

Yu Tunzhou walked toward a distant mountain, a fish basket on his back.

There was no place for him in town, so he had built a thatched hut on a nearby mountain and lived there for three years.

The Book of Changes... could what I obtained be the Book of Changes?

He looked toward the distant mountain and murmured to himself.

Old Mo had once told him that fortuitous opportunities were everywhere in this town, because someone had once left a "supreme fist manual" here.

What one could comprehend from it depended on understanding, natural endowment, and, above all, affinity.

And if one truly did comprehend something, it was best to bury that secret deep in one's heart.

Three years had passed since he transmigrated, and he still hadn't heard the "ding" that signaled the arrival of a cheat. The only unusual thing about him was that he had good affinity.

On his first day in town, he had merely looked at that mountain, and a string of golden characters that seemed visible only to him had flooded into his mind.

Yet for three years, no matter how he pondered and experimented, or borrowed Daoist and Buddhist scriptures in an attempt to draw connections, those golden characters remained like a heavenly book to him. He couldn't fathom them in the slightest.

That sense of helplessness was like someone in his previous life who had never even studied elementary mathematics being handed a book on calculus.

No matter how stupid someone was, couldn't they still learn calculus?

But in fact, let alone learning it, even making sense of it was as hard as ascending to heaven.

It left him utterly helpless.

A "heaven-tier Cultivation Method" was right there, yet he couldn't understand it.

To this day, he could only "read" eight of its characters:

[All dharmas are equal; none is higher or lower]

And that was clearly a Buddhist teaching.

The Book of Changes, however, belonged to the Daoist school.

At the thought, Yu Tunzhou's feelings were complicated.

Because of Old Mo's warning, he had never dared tell anyone about it, not even Old Mo.

Earlier, when he heard that trouble was about to stir in town, he had worked up the courage to come clean to Old Mo, only for Old Mo to interrupt him. He didn't know whether Old Mo had seen something beforehand...

The mountain path was a muddy mess after the rain, and murky rainwater filled its potholes.

Yu Tunzhou's mind was unsettled. He accidentally stepped into the mud, and soft muck welled up and swallowed his straw sandal.

He couldn't help looking down at the sandal sunk in the mud.

Stepping on the town's bluestone paving and stepping in the wild mountain mud were indeed entirely different sensations.

Then what sights did the vast world beyond the town and its towering experts hold?

Yu Tunzhou lifted his head and gazed at the rolling mountains in the distance. In his heart, he told himself:

A fish that can swallow a boat does not swim in little streams.

Yu Tunzhou, you must go and see the vast world outside!