Another Self

Techniques encompassed martial arts and Technique Methods.

Whether learning martial arts or Technique Methods, one needed to infuse Qi and Blood or Law Power throughout the body. Upon reaching a certain limit, one could use the power of medicine to break through and create a starting point.

This starting point was called Realm Entry.

Before Realm Entry, whether martial arts or Technique Methods, both relied purely on human strength to be performed and differed only in their degree of refinement. Most Technique Method cultivators could not even use Technique Methods and were no different from ordinary people.

After Realm Entry, however, both began to develop true power.

"After Realm Entry, whether Qi and Blood or Law Power, it will circulate through the meridians throughout the body, becoming a force one can truly wield. Then one can unleash the various Techniques that require special power!"

Lonely Rogue Person spoke at length.

Looking at Zhang Xuezhou, who asked questions from time to time, he felt that Daoist Kongxu's student had a very earnest attitude toward learning. He asked about even the smallest matters related to cultivation, leaving almost nothing unexamined.

"This is the realm you will face after Realm Entry: Meridian Circulation!" Lonely Rogue Person said. "The fortuitous opportunity for Realm Entry has already arisen within your body. As long as you follow the Realm Entry method in the Yin Yang Great Compassion Nine Heavens Incantation and guide the Realm Entry Seed to circulate continuously, its power will surely travel through the meridians in all directions, allowing you to enter the realm and reach the lower-grade threshold of Meridian Circulation!"

"If I cultivate diligently, how long will it take me to enter the realm?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

"As little as three to five days, or as long as three to five years," Lonely Rogue Person said. "Since Kongxu holds you in high regard, your aptitude must be excellent. It shouldn't take you too long to cultivate and enter the realm!"

"That's wonderful," Zhang Xuezhou said. "I used to think it would take at least eight or ten years of cultivation to enter the realm!"

"How could that be?" Lonely Rogue Person said with a laugh. "Life is short. If it routinely took eight or ten years just to begin cultivating, one wouldn't be able to do much else in a lifetime. Besides, after Meridian Circulation, there are eight major realms, including Blood Penetration, Body Control, and True Spirit. Each level is harder than the last. The cultivation path that comes afterward is where the time and effort go."

"So many realms. Cultivation is truly complicated," Zhang Xuezhou exclaimed.

"Each realm is further divided into lower, lower-middle, middle, upper-middle, and upper grades for classification, making forty-five realms in total," Lonely Rogue Person said with a smile. "Each level is different. You'll understand as you gradually hone yourself in the future!"

"I wonder what marvelous level you've cultivated to, Daoist?" Zhang Xuezhou asked.

"I'm only a rogue person, and my cultivation isn't very high. I'm just a minor cultivator at the middle grade of Consciousness Creation, ranked in the twenty-third realm!"

Lonely Rogue Person's words were full of humility, but judging by the self-satisfaction on his face, his cultivation level surely made him someone of note.

Zhang Xuezhou clicked his tongue in wonder.

After witnessing people draw bows and shoot arrows in Zhang Household Village for more than a decade, Zhang Xuezhou had never imagined that the world outside was far broader than he had imagined.

Doctor Ren's Essential Instruction for Recuperation must have taken effect, causing my dream world to spread and expand!

Zhang Xuezhou pondered this, but did not find it strange.

After more than a decade of being accustomed to it, nothing that appeared in his dreams could surprise him.

Generally speaking, everyone created dreams of their own. Even if someone dreamed of creating the world and mankind, it would not be unusual.

His present goal was to make himself stronger and avoid being swallowed by nightmares. Once the treatment took effect in reality, he would surely be able to escape this dream world.

He fixed his gaze on Lonely Rogue Person and thought he could see a few traces of darkness hidden beneath the man's complacent expression. This suddenly reminded Zhang Xuezhou of something he had previously overlooked.

He seemed able to use the abilities of the Sequel to the Essential Instruction for Recuperation here.

The ability of the Sequel to the Essential Instruction for Recuperation seemed to reveal not only signs of his own illness flaring up, but also signs of illness in other people.

But Zhang Xuezhou needed to test it repeatedly before he could be certain.

He discussed matters with Lonely Rogue Person and also figured out that many of the technical terms in the Yin Yang Great Compassion Nine Heavens Incantation referred to meridians. Only after he had gained a rough understanding did Zhang Xuezhou casually mention Lonely Rogue Person's health.

"Daoist, you must be exhausted after traveling so far. I can see a few signs of illness brought on by overwork between your brows. Please rest here for a while," Zhang Xuezhou said.

"Are the symptoms of the Golden Toad Poison I'm afflicted with so obvious?" Lonely Rogue Person exclaimed. "You can already see signs of illness between my brows?"

"So you've been poisoned with Golden Toad Poison, Daoist," Zhang Xuezhou said in realization. "Judging by those signs of illness, it seems there's still some time before it flares up?"

"Not much longer," Lonely Rogue Person said. "Only eight or ten days remain. Once the time comes, I really won't be able to suppress that monster's poison. It'll torment me until I'm half dead!"

"So you came looking for my teacher to cure the poison," Zhang Xuezhou said.

"Exactly," Lonely Rogue Person said. "All I can do now is wait here and see when Kongxu returns so he can sell me that secretly refined great pill of three insects and three flowers!"

The monk might run away, but the temple could not. Lonely Rogue Person firmly believed that Zou Bugui would return to the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple.

Compared with wandering about in search of another way to cure the poison, waiting for Zou Bugui to return and buying a pill was clearly the most effective option.

To pass the time, he kept chatting idly with Zhang Xuezhou, who could only keep him company.

He only hoped Zou Bugui would not return. If Zou Bugui came back to the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple, Zhang Xuezhou's two made-up identities would most likely be exposed in front of him and Lonely Rogue Person.

Although he would not be beaten to death, he would surely be unable to escape some suffering.

Should I wait for Father and Mother to return from hunting on Sunny Slope? Or should I try cultivating and see if I can enter the realm and improve my body, so I can travel through the wilderness and leave the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple early to get away from this trouble?

Zhang Xuezhou kept weighing his options.

Lonely Rogue Person had said that entering the realm through cultivation could take as little as three to five days. Zhang Xuezhou considered how quickly he had learned the Essential Instruction for Recuperation and felt that cultivating to Realm Entry in a dream should take no longer. If he was a little luckier, perhaps he could succeed in a single day.

Having thought it through, Zhang Xuezhou asked several more questions. Once he had a rough understanding, he entered the Daoist temple's main hall and sat upright beneath the three statues.

He murmured under his breath, repeatedly reciting the Yin Yang Great Compassion Nine Heavens Incantation as he tried to sense his Realm Entry Seed, which had sprouted a leaf.

Zou Bugui has taken in a good student. This young man is earnest, and he studies actively and diligently. He's far better than those second-generation heirs who rely on their resources!

Lonely Rogue Person pondered for quite a while, comparing the diligent young talent with those second-generation heirs backed by abundant resources. In the end, he had no choice but to spit.

Compared with the young talents who lacked a solid foundation and had to rush about seeking resources, the second-generation heirs possessed far too much. Their foundations were enough to let them advance rapidly even while taking it easy.

Indeed, compared with the former, the second-generation heirs held every advantage in the early stages of cultivation.

And most people who embarked on cultivation spent their whole lives muddling through those early stages. Few reached the middle or later stages, much less the end of the cultivation path.

In a sense, the second-generation heirs could thoroughly trounce ninety percent of young talents.

After all, that's how I got here!

Lonely Rogue Person muttered the thought gloomily to himself.

Apart from diligence, he seemed to have no strengths he could point to.

Perhaps being a cut above others at the same level is something I can be proud of?

This was perhaps one of the few advantages of the diligent: they were difficult to defeat in a challenge across realms and stood at a high level among their peers. Their low-level Technique Methods, tempered through countless trials, could contend with the advanced Technique Methods that second-generation heirs had only dabbled in.

But that seemed to be all.

Lonely Rogue Person realized that he had clearly reached the end of his own cultivation path in this lifetime.

Watching Zhang Xuezhou cultivate diligently, Lonely Rogue Person, in a daze brought on by the Golden Toad Poison, felt as though he were looking at another version of himself, retracing his own cultivation path.