Innate Earth-Wood Holy Body

"Attention, passengers. This is your captain speaking."

"Our flight will soon be landing at Heavenly Gate–Zhongshan Holy Land International Airport. The Heavenly Gate–Zhong Mountain Spirit Vein node will now announce the entry requirements. All passengers, please keep your Divine Sense clear and cooperate with the inspection."

"In accordance with the Heavenly Gate Spiritual Power Safety Law and Heavenly Gate's entry regulations, all arriving passengers must observe the following rules-"

"After landing, please keep your Dantian's spiritual pressure below 100. If you are a cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Realm or above, please activate a Breath-Concealing Talisman at your seat in advance or wear an Entry Spirit-Suppression Ring, available from the cabin crew."

"Law Artifact declarations: all flying swords, Law Treasures, and Storage Bags must be truthfully declared on your entry card. Unregistered Artifact Spirits, recordings of demonic and Evil Dao Cultivation Methods, and overseas black-market Cultivation Method Jade Slips are strictly prohibited."

"No spirit pets: spirit pets that have not undergone quarantine are prohibited from entering. Violators will be handed over to the Spirit Suppression Bureau..."

As the doors of the spirit-powered flying vessel opened, the passengers on the international flight let out heartfelt exclamations almost in unison.

"Finally, I'm back!"

"My spiritual power is recovering thirty or forty percent faster."

"As expected of Heavenly Gate Holy Land. Even an airport has a high-grade Spirit Vein."

"Overseas really is a barren land."

"Heavenly Gate is still the best~"

As pale cyan Spiritual Qi coiled around them like silken ribbons and flowed into their bodies like warm water through their meridians, filling their Dantians twice as fast, everyone instinctively activated their protective spiritual light.

There were Qi Refining Realm cultivators, Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators, and even two or three at the Golden Core Realm.

Most of those at the Qi Refining Realm were young fellow Daoists or elderly people whose meridians had deteriorated. The majority were at the Foundation Establishment Realm, though their spiritual light varied in brightness, while the protective spiritual light of the few Golden Core Realm cultivators shone as brilliantly as top-grade Spirit Stones.

"Excuse me, coming through, coming through."

The middle-aged Golden Core man reacted before anyone else. He carefully avoided several elderly people, then hurried over to the luggage carousel, picked up a briefcase, and rushed outside.

Hu Mang withdrew his gaze. While most of the others were still immersed in the nourishment of the Spirit Vein, he left the crowd, went to the carousel, and waited for his suitcase.

As he picked up the suitcase, he caught his reflection in the smooth floor: a man's face with sharply defined features, high brow bones, and deep-set eyes. When he narrowed his eyes slightly, he looked like both a fox and a wolverine, with a sense of danger rarely found in cultivators in peacetime.

But paired with his messy rooster-comb hairdo, worksite clothes even more disheveled than his hair, and dark, grimy skin, he looked at least forty, about the same age as the middle-aged man from earlier.

"Civil engineering ages a man."

After that reflection, Hu Mang glanced at the food and prices at the airport and promptly decided to eat at home.

He looked around to determine which exit he needed, then took one last look at the airport interior. More eye-catching than the passengers in ancient and modern dress was the Spiritual Qi in the airport.

It gathered without dispersing, flowing with pale cyan light, its particles visibly pulsing. Many masses of spiritual power could directly drag heavy objects.

Hu Mang pulled an industrial-grade handheld Spiritual Qi detector from his pocket and pressed a button. Before long, the detector gave him a number: 57.

"Cloud-surge grade, huh."

That was what civil engineering people called it. In other words, it was a high-end version of intermediate-grade Spiritual Qi.

But apart from a few public lounges where the Spiritual Qi was dense enough for direct cultivation, the Spiritual Qi in the main hall was not in a state that allowed deep absorption. With people coming and going, entering deep seclusion was even more impossible.

"Too bad I can't steal any Spiritual Qi."

Hu Mang muttered to himself.

He grabbed his luggage and headed outside. After passing through two security checks, he soon left the hall and found the airport's public jiao bus-

The wheels had been eliminated entirely. Beneath the body was an evenly distributed ring of maglev spirit-pattern arrays, emitting a soft white light.

There were no conventional doors. The "scales" on both sides of the vehicle were movable in certain places.

When it stopped at a platform, several "dragon scales" in designated areas would silently slide open.

The thick "spiritual power dragon sinew" along its back further proved that it was, in the literal sense, a public jiao.

"The male jiao is mighty of build, its scales thick and robust, a great sinew rising along its spine..." Hu Mang had memorized that passage in his demonology class.

Just as Hu Mang was about to board, his trouser pocket vibrated. A phone at least three generations behind the latest model began to ring.

On the caller display was a name both familiar and somewhat unfamiliar-Counselor

"Counselor, looking for me?" Hu Mang asked, somewhat surprised.

"You brat! You really do treat me like an outsider. You came back without even telling me! If Chen Xiaosan hadn't said he wanted to get a meal with you, I wouldn't even fucking know you were back in the country!"

A warm voice came through the phone.

"Counselor, I've already got my academy diploma. What use could you still be to me? I still remember all those times you came to our dorm and helped yourself to our booze."

Hu Mang relaxed too and sat lazily on a chair outside. It looked like he would miss this jiao bus.

"That was so many years ago. How did a trip to Java Country make you so stingy..."

The counselor was also a graduate of Southern Capital Academy, and they had been the first class he had supervised. He had also led the Immortal Ladder Project group to study at Shencheng Dao Arts Academy back then. He knew the students in Hu Mang's year well, and they had given him the nickname "Civil Engineering Eldest Senior Brother."

"Counselor, I heard you landed a permanent post. Any feeling you're about to break through to Golden Core? I also heard you managed to pledge yourself to a big shot and became a lackey under our civil engineering department's vice dean. So, did your old geezer have a son in his old age, go wild with joy, comprehend the Great Dao, and break through to Nascent Soul?"

"Keep talking out of your ass. Unless the old man succeeds in going into business, what instructor at an academy in a blessed land could break through to Nascent Soul? If he really broke through to Nascent Soul, how could he possibly stay at our academy? He'd have grabbed his bucket and run long ago. It's not like he's one of Heavenly Gate's grandmaster-level big shots."

"But come to think of it, the old man really does remember you. You were the only one in our department back then who reached the fifth level of the True Explanation of Reinforced Concrete Spiritualization while still in school. According to him, you're a civil engineering talent seen only once in a century, an Innate Earth-Wood Holy Body!!"

"Oh, give me a break. If my mom hadn't insisted I go to a top local academy when I applied, and if my dual Earth and Wood Spirit Roots hadn't earned me bonus points at Southern Capital Academy, I'd have grabbed my bucket and run ages ago. Looking at it now, I still ran too late. The days of massive infrastructure construction are long gone: an immortal residence every three years, a new mountain gate every five, shifting earth veins and refining the universe with techniques. It was damn satisfying."

"Remember Zhao Ruirui, our junior sister from civil engineering? I heard she's about to change careers and become a cultivator who posts suggestive content. It used to be other people dancing for us to see, but now the wheel of fortune has turned."

"Ahem, it's not that bad, not that bad. Our prospects are still quite broad. New sects need secret realms and cave abodes built, Heavenly Gate needs spirit ports and mountain passes constructed, market towns need arcane railways, post roads, and jiao bus depots, the Evil Suppression Bureau needs Sha-suppressing barriers, and pill academies and medicine lodges need spiritual land set aside for nurturing. There are also all sorts of major infrastructure projects overseas, like that spiritual pressure power station you worked on in Java Country. There are still plenty and plenty of opportunities."

"...Are you sick? Or have you been practicing a demonic Cultivation Method in secret? Have evil thoughts invaded your body from practicing it? What kind of birdshit are you spouting? I'll give you three breaths. If you don't explain yourself, I'm calling the Demon Suppression Bureau."

"Ahem, ahem, here's the thing. New students report in August, right? The old geezers want to find a few outstanding civil engineering graduates to come back to the academy and give the freshmen talks about the grand prospects and bright future of our spirit construction engineering field. So I thought of you, our exceptionally gifted concrete-pouring guy."

"Our old geezer even said that with your aptitude, really, if you'd fine-tuned the values of your Earth and Wood Spirit Roots a few years earlier, you definitely could have made a bid for the Innate Earth-Wood Holy Body. And if you'd caught the great infrastructure era back then, you'd most likely have been able to push through to Nascent Soul. Really, think about it..."

Hu Mang tilted his head. The pillar opposite reflected the same face, except its eyes looked as though they were veiled in a faint layer of gray.

"It's not as though I can't. As a member of the Spirit Construction Engineering Department, I should give back to my alma mater and bring honor and glory to our academy."

The person on the other end was delighted.

"Then it's settled! I'll send you the time and place later. No, no, I'll just fly over and pick you up myself when the time comes. We brothers haven't seen each other in ages."

"There's just one little problem."

"If you need anything, say the word!"

Hu Mang pinched a fingertip. A tiny red dot appeared, as if it might glow red at any moment, but a trace of gray quickly swallowed it whole.

"I don't know whether the parents will be satisfied with an outstanding Qi Refining Realm graduate like me. Will they think my cultivation is too high, and their children aren't worthy of someone with such grand prospects as me?"

"...Qi Training, Qi Training Realm? Didn't you successfully reach Foundation Establishment in your first year?" the person on the other end asked in astonishment.

"Yeah, there was a little construction accident, and I fell back down. All right, when are we giving the talk? Send me the time and place."

"Buddy, quit messing around. No... how's your health now?"

"Still okay. Not dead. Isn't that why I came back for treatment? Otherwise, why did you think I came back now? The second phase of the project over there isn't finished yet," Hu Mang asked in return.

"..."

"All right, come pick me up when the time comes."

"..."

"I might not be able to give a career talk, but I can give one on safety. Really, trust me, I've got plenty of practical experience."

"...You, stop it. Focus on recovering from your injuries. Go to the hospital first, then call me later. I'll see if I know anyone who cultivates at a hospital. Wait, where are you hurt?"

"You should ask where I'm not hurt. Let me count: the meridians involved in cultivation, the five organs, the three Dantians... well, there aren't many places that aren't hurt."

The two went on making a few more lukewarm, awkward remarks, then finally ended the call.

The smile vanished from Hu Mang's face. He shouldered his luggage and boarded a jiao bus, after letting three buses pass.

"Huh?"

After boarding, Hu Mang raised an eyebrow. He placed his palm on the front of the vehicle, then felt the window and the wall, his expression uncertain and suspicious.

His uncertainty and suspicion made the veteran driver beside him uncertain and suspicious as well.

"What's going on, brother?"

"Driver, something's wrong. A high-grade transport Law Artifact like this isn't giving off any spiritual power fluctuations while it runs. Something must be broken!" Hu Mang said with a serious, solemn expression.

The driver and the surrounding passengers all looked at him with complicated, peculiar expressions. In the end, the driver spoke first.

"Brother, this bus runs on electricity."

Understanding dawned on Hu Mang, and he sighed in admiration.

"So that's it. Advanced Dao arts!"