Cat Garden (Part 1)

This time, the "good person" was none other than Zhou Yu's own younger sister, Zhou Tong, a fellow Rogue Cultivator from Plum Blossom Mountain.

After a fierce argument between brother and sister, Zhou Yu reluctantly gave way.

Zhou Tong became the third member of their party.

After some thought, Hu Mang took out the Law Artifacts he had seized earlier and let each of them choose two.

Old Chen Sheng snatched up the Demon-Subduing Copper Coin Sword without hesitation, but under Hu Mang's calm gaze, he gave an embarrassed laugh.

"Borrowing it. Consider it borrowed."

As for Zhou Tong, under Zhou Yu's guidance, she chose a shield Law Artifact and three Emei piercers that looked somewhat familiar to Hu Mang.

Then the sister-obsessed Zhou Yu looked pleadingly at Hu Mang, nearly making him laugh.

"If I have the capacity to spare."

"Thank you! Thank you so much!!"

And so, in the newly formed trio, Hu Mang was unquestionably the muscle, while old Chen Sheng was the know-it-all. Zhou Tong, meanwhile... was mainly responsible for emotional support.

She knew she was of little use to the group, so her words were as sweet as if she had smeared honey on her lips. Not only did she coax old Chen Sheng into grinning from ear to ear, but when she learned that Hu Mang, the fake monk, was no monk at all, she called him Brother Hu at every turn, sounding even closer to him than to her own brother.

But that was just a minor interlude. Hu Mang's attention remained focused primarily on the Mysterious Yin Devil Moon, which he had successfully visualized the night before.

The human body had three Dantians.

The upper Dantian, the Niwan Palace, governed spirit.

The middle Dantian, the Crimson Palace, governed Qi.

The lower Dantian, the Sea of Qi, governed essence.

From that perspective, once Hu Mang understood the principle behind Three Flowers Gather at the Cauldron, it did not seem all that unfamiliar.

Essence, Qi, and spirit becoming one—it was not as though he had never heard of it.

In the Heavenly Gate, it was usually called Unity of Heaven and Man.

He also understood why the Law Power of this realm's cultivators was so abundant, and their essence and Qi so terrifying, billowing like wolf-dung beacon smoke and rising like pillars.

During their first stage of cultivation, Refining Essence into Qi, they cultivated all three Dantians at once.

If they truly refined the Three Flowers, wouldn't that mean they spent every day and night in a state of Unity of Heaven and Man? How could that not be monstrous?

That alone told Hu Mang that the cultivators of this realm were not to be underestimated.

The cultivation path of the Heavenly Gate—or rather, of Earth Star—was entirely different.

Cultivation began with the lower Dantian. Only after cultivating it to Foundation Establishment Perfection could one condense a Golden Core.

But the Golden Core was not cultivated from the lower Dantian. It rose upward and settled in the Crimson Palace, which was the middle Dantian.

As a poem went: "The Crimson Palace stores Qi, guarding the mystery within; a thread of divine light forms the sacred embryo. The core complete, pearly radiance condenses in the Purple Mansion; spring warms the Dantian, and all fateful ties unfold."

Whether it was the "completion of the core" or the "warming of the core," both concerned the middle Dantian and had nothing to do with the lower Dantian.

Once the Golden Core reached perfection and could be broken to form an infant, one then rose from the middle Dantian to the upper Dantian, the Niwan Palace.

These things were not only taught in cultivation classes; there were even dedicated videos explaining them. Whether one succeeded or failed in forming an infant, there was a wealth of detailed information available.

This was one of the advantages of cultivating immortality under the Heavenly Gate's system.

Comparing the two, the cultivators of this realm, the Azure Mysterious Realm, cultivated essence, Qi, and spirit together from the very beginning, entering a state of Unity of Heaven and Man while laying their cultivation foundations.

In the Heavenly Gate, one had to reach the Nascent Soul stage to attain that level.

From that perspective, the Azure Mysterious Realm seemed a little more formidable.

Could it be related to industrial Spiritual Qi?

Hu Mang wondered silently.

According to what he had learned in history and geography classes, Spiritual Qi had been scarce on Earth Star from the start. While it was not entirely absent, there might as well have been none.

It was a standard low-grade Spiritual Qi region, in the 1-30 range.

Thus, from the Five Dynasties onward, the highest cultivation anyone attained was the Golden Core stage.

Even a heaven-gifted genius like Xie Xianyu, who, according to Hu Mang's mother, possessed extraordinary aptitude with the word "innate" at its head, had only managed to cultivate a pseudo-Golden Core. Then he had given up cultivation and begun studying how to launch a northern expedition.

His mother had always deeply regretted not urging Xie Xianyu on. If Xie Xianyu had continued cultivating and truly condensed a Golden Core, he would not have worn out his mind and strength and worked himself to death back then.

That was why his mother had kept such a tight grip on his cultivation, even making his attainment of the Golden Core an obsession.

The situation was only barely remedied after the old Heavenly Gate ushered in the "age of steam cultivation."

A series of steam Law Artifacts were invented in that era. They served only one purpose: to purify and distill low-grade Spiritual Qi. After a series of processes, it could be raised to mid-grade Spiritual Qi, barely enough to support a cultivator's normal cultivation.

But that had not truly solved the problem.

The "Spiritual Qi problem" was not truly solved until Tribulation Qi and Tribulation Oil began to be extracted. Through a series of modern cultivation industry processes, these two cultivation resources could be continuously converted into "new Spiritual Qi," the so-called "industrial Spiritual Qi."

If the Spiritual Qi purified by steam Law Artifacts could still barely be considered the product of "ancient pill-refining methods," then the Spiritual Qi produced from Tribulation Qi and Tribulation Oil had essentially nothing to do with natural Spiritual Qi.

Back when he was pursuing further studies at the academy, he had enrolled in an elective called "Insight Studies." One of its classes was titled "The Inevitable Connection Between Insights into Heaven and Earth and the Properties of Spiritual Qi."

At the time, a professor had lamented that one major reason modern cultivators entered states of "sudden enlightenment" less and less often was that the properties of Spiritual Qi had changed, and it no longer possessed the function of granting "insight."

Viewed from another angle, the Azure Mysterious Realm's Spiritual Qi resources were so abundant, and all of it was natural Spiritual Qi. It made considerable sense, then, to follow a cultivation path that cultivated essence, Qi, and spirit together, sensed heaven and comprehended earth, and joined man and spirit in communion.

After all, immortals had even descended into this realm!

The descent of immortals meant there had to be an Immortal Realm. If any random place in this realm was equivalent to a "high-grade Spiritual Qi region," what level would the legendary Immortal Realm be?

My spiritual power detector would probably max out on the spot.

"...Brother Hu, Brother Hu."

"What is it?"

Hu Mang calmly lowered his head and looked at her.

Ever since cultivating the Mysterious Yin Devil Moon, he had found that, whenever he wished, his mind could remain in a state similar to Moon in the Well at all times.

His heart was still as water, a clear mirror reflecting all things, without self or attachment.

One major benefit was the ability to divide his attention among multiple tasks.

Not just two, but three, four, or five.

Thus, although he had been absorbed in comparing the two cultivation systems, he had not let down his guard against his surroundings.

The main reason he had not joined the conversation was that this young woman talked too much—and was a little annoying.

"We're almost at the Cat Garden."

Zhou Tong looked into Hu Mang's eyes. Outside of combat, his Demon Race bloodline did not show, but the moment her gaze met his, she felt as though every little thought of hers was reflected in his eyes, which shone like bright moons.

The strange sensation frightened the young woman into a shiver.

"Why are you picking on the girl?" Old Chen Sheng, who had already been coaxed into a merry mood, hurried over to smooth things out. But after looking Hu Mang up and down, his expression grew even more puzzled.

"Your eyes... the Moon in the Well State of Mind? Impossible, it's only been one night..."

Hu Mang ignored him and fixed his gaze on the Cat Garden ahead.

Amid buildings that had either been charred black by lightning or left dangerously unstable, the Cat Garden was a rare, refreshing sight.

The Cat Garden stood with its back against a Sha-suppressing stone wall and an evil-cleansing spiritual stream flowing before it. Built entirely of blue-gray, evil-suppressing dark stone, it was small and elegant in layout, yet bore a stern air of demon-slaying.

Its entrance was a crescent-shaped jade arch carved with demon-suppressing cloud patterns. A black jade plaque hung above it, bearing the four characters "Spirit-Taming Cat Garden." On either side stood a white jade statue of an evil-suppressing cat. Their eyes were set with deep-blue spirit crystals, making them seem alive as they silently kept evil at bay in all directions.

Hu Mang stared at the two evil-suppressing cat statues. For some reason, he felt an indescribable sense of familiarity.

"We're here already?" Zhou Tong said, somewhat disappointed. The journey had been peaceful, so peaceful that it seemed they were not in Demon-Subduing City at all, but back on their own Plum Blossom Mountain.

At that, old Chen Sheng's face turned solemn.

"Young Zhou, I led us around at least three disorienting formations along the way. Outside one of them, someone was clearly watching from the shadows. If Brother Hu hadn't used the 'immortal weapon' in his hand to intimidate them and directly break their formation, we might well have ended up in a major battle."

"And the Cat Garden is one of the thirteen demon-suppressing sites in this city. The dangers inside will only be greater. If you're still this careless, you should stay out. Because if you go in and ruin something important, never mind Brother Hu-even I am afraid I would have to apologize to Brother Zhou."

Zhou Tong stared at him in a daze. A trace of unfamiliar Sha Qi had appeared in the eyes of the old man, who had seemed so flippant.

"If you still can't set your mind straight, you might as well stand guard for us outside the Cat Garden. That way, we'll have something to tell Brother Zhou."

Zhou Tong looked at Hu Mang and saw that his face was expressionless. He was not even looking at her.

She had failed to notice entirely that Brother Hu, who had seemed lost in thought along the way, had already driven back a group of enemies.

She took two deep breaths. "I understand, Brother Hu, Grandpa Chen. I won't be so careless again. If I go into the Cat Garden with that same attitude and come to harm, it'll be my own fault. It will have nothing to do with either of you."

As though he had not heard her, Hu Mang stepped straight onto the little bridge over the evil-cleansing spiritual stream. Almost the instant he set foot on it, demon markings surfaced all over his skin, and his demonic eyes were forced into view.

A surge of vicious Sha Qi erupted from him.

Zhou Tong shuddered again. It was as though she were facing not a cultivator, but a humanoid demon.

Old Chen Sheng followed without a word. Zhou Tong hesitated for a moment, then gritted her teeth and followed them.

Not long after the three entered the Cat Garden, several more cultivators appeared outside it. They were shocked at first, then wild with joy. After exchanging a few glances, they rushed in without hesitation.