Drawing Spirit into the Body

Kang Dabao did not stay long in Chongming City. How could he have that much time to spare? He had plenty of things to do back home and little time to waste on an older clansman who had so little sense of propriety.

He drove the donkey cart back to the sect compound with his three disciples and gave the place a quick check. Nothing was missing.

There was not much to check, really. He had divided the valuables between his two junior brothers for them to carry, including some of the sect's Daoist scriptures and secret manuals.

The most valuable things left were the cooking utensils in the kitchen. Though they were not Law Artifacts, they had been nourished by spiritual things over the years and counted as rather fine items.

He chose an empty dormitory room, tidied it up, and set the training puppet inside.

Then he restored the Lesser Cloud and Mist Formation exactly as it had been, and the sect was once again veiled in a light mist.

"What an immortal's art!" Jin Shilun, who had seen little of the world, gazed at the banks of mist rising before him. Before he could finish marveling, Han Yundao rose on tiptoe and rapped him on the head, then led him into Kang Dabao's cloud chamber.

"I should not be going out for a while, so you can devote yourselves to cultivating here in the sect. If there is anything you do not quite understand, come and ask me."

The two little ones and the youth all nodded eagerly, their faces bright with joy.

Kang Dabao first took out a Daoist scripture and gave it to Jin Shilun. "I will have your two senior brothers teach you how to draw spirit into your body. It takes the slow work of a millstone, so do not rush it. Remember to balance work and rest. In your spare time, recite the scriptures often. They contain painstaking annotations by generations of our sect's founders and disciples.

"If there is anything you do not understand, ask your two senior brothers about it as well. Do not think reciting scriptures is useless. According to our sect's founder, many Golden Core patriarchs recite them every day. Surely there are benefits, like drops of water wearing through stone, that will serve you endlessly in the future."

Jin Shilun lowered his head and respectfully accepted the instruction.

"As for you two, I will prepare a batch of Spirit Awakening Powder for you tonight. Go back and get ready."

Unable to hide their delight, the two little ones prostrated themselves. "Thank you, Master!"

After sending his three disciples out, Kang Dabao fetched the Spirit Awakening Powder formula and studied it carefully.

Spirit Awakening Powder was an unranked powder to begin with, and its formula was simple enough that it did not need much study.

What Kang Dabao was reading so carefully were the densely packed notes on all kinds of experience that the sect's predecessors had attached to the formula.

This was the greatest difference between down-and-out sect cultivators like Kang Dabao and Rogue Cultivators at the bottom.

Rogue Cultivators had to figure everything out for themselves. The hardships involved were difficult for sect cultivators, who had inherited the legacy of their predecessors, to comprehend.

Take Spirit Awakening Powder: the formula's instructions were simple. "Three qian of Qingxin Grass, leaves removed; two liang of Turning Wheel Fruit, peeled; Sweet Ganoderma, roasted. Boil these three ingredients in three sheng of morning dew until two and a half sheng have boiled away. Remove the dregs, leave for three quarters of an hour, and take once cool."

A Rogue Cultivator following the formula would most likely struggle to succeed on the first try, even without making a single mistake.

Of course, there was nothing wrong with the formula itself.

Merchants would not dare sell a formula that could not work; that would ruin their own reputation. It was just that the formula's success rate was very low.

The formulas Rogue Cultivators bought were actually identical, word for word, to those kept in sect collections.

But a Rogue Cultivator's formula would not have notes saying: Qingxin Grass has too much moisture, so its leaves are best removed with a flint knife or an autumnwood knife. Remove them from root to tip, never from tip to root;

After peeling the Turning Wheel Fruit, leave it to rest for half an hour, wrap it in black cloth, and put both into the medicine cauldron together;

If a flint knife was used to remove the Qingxin Grass leaves, roast the Sweet Ganoderma until its leaves turn yellow but its stem does not. If an autumnwood knife was used, roast it until its stem turns yellow but its leaves do not;

When boiling the three ingredients, start with a gentle flame, then switch to a fierce flame once the water boils.

As for taking the powder once it had cooled, it could be taken with three qian of Black Snake Seed to improve the chances of successfully drawing spirit into the body.

Something like that, which barely qualified as a secret, was even less likely to be written down.

Following the original formula might give one or two chances in ten of successfully making Spirit Awakening Powder.

Following the experience of one's predecessors would raise the success rate to six or seven in ten.

If the person making the powder was well versed in medicinal principles, the rate could reach eight or nine in ten, or failure might even become impossible.

Those with even greater skill could work backward from a finished pill to deduce how it had been made, and even improving and perfecting the method would be no difficult task.

The importance of knowledge was beyond question in any world.

To say nothing else, even if someone read the notes in Kang Dabao's hands aloud, one by one, to Rogue Cultivators who knew nothing of medicinal principles, they would not understand them at all.

They could not even tell an autumnwood knife from a flint knife.

It was like an open-book exam: even with the formula written in some people's hands, they still could not calculate the answer.

They had lost at the root, which was why Rogue Cultivators had never managed to amount to much in the Great Wei Immortal Dynasty.

Besides their handful of Spirit Transformation and Nascent Soul patriarchs, the nuclear weapon those great sects and schools used to maintain their standing—and the deadlier one at that—was their monopoly on knowledge.

Even if a Rogue Cultivator with great fortune was lucky enough to reach Golden Core or Nascent Soul, he would often find a place, take in many disciples, and establish a sect of his own.

After a few decades or a century, he would gradually come to regard himself as a sect cultivator, bid his old self a complete farewell, and do nothing to shake the standing of sect cultivators.

A single low-level formula had so many intricacies to work out, to say nothing of the miraculous pills and medicines admired by everyone in the cultivation world.

Thus, even though low-level books on the hundred arts of cultivation had spread throughout the cultivation world and could be found everywhere, even in bookshops and Technique Method pavilions in ordinary markets, Rogue Cultivators with a specialized skill remained exceedingly rare.

That was because the cost of trial and error was simply too high for Rogue Cultivators. Even the most brilliant among them would struggle to accomplish anything without some fortuitous encounter.

By contrast, the sects' methods for crafting and making things had been steadily perfected through orderly transmission from one generation to the next, so training their disciples naturally yielded twice the result for half the effort.

Rogue Cultivators with specialized skills were often more famous than their counterparts from sects, probably not because their skills were superior, but because they were rarer and more remarkable, and thus left a deeper impression.

This was true not only of the hundred arts of cultivation, but even more so of cultivation itself.

If cultivation really worked the way most Rogue Cultivators imagined—if all a cultivator needed to achieve something was sufficient resources, a willingness to endure hardship, fearlessness before the obstacles on the path, and a steadfast Dao heart-then cultivation would be far too simple.

Even if a Rogue Cultivator in the same circumstances were given the same cultivation resources as the Dao heir of a great sect, unless he studied and researched more deeply or had some other fortuitous encounter,

By the time the Dao heir reached Nascent Soul, the Rogue Cultivator might only just have touched the threshold of Core Formation.

The difference between the ultimate results of cultivating with and without a complete system of knowledge was as vast as the gulf between heaven and earth.

When Kang Dabao first began cultivating the Dao, the Chongming Sect had already declined, but he still had teachers and elders to pass on cultivation methods and instruct him in fasting rituals, ceremonial rites, the hundred arts, and other skills.

Though his aptitude was ordinary and he could not be said to have any specialized skill, he had dabbled in the hundred arts of cultivation since childhood. Moreover, the method for making Spirit Awakening Powder was not difficult, so in half an afternoon, he managed to make it by the narrowest of margins.

The time, effort, and cost of materials involved were practically negligible compared with what a Rogue Cultivator of the same level would have spent.

He divided the cooled amber powder between two jade bottles, took six qian of top-quality Black Snake Seed from his medicine box, and called Han Yundao and Duan Anle into the cloud chamber.

"Relax. It is only drawing spirit into the body. How could you fail at something so simple?" Kang Dabao spoke gently to ease his disciples' nervousness.

The two little ones looked a little better. Following Kang Dabao's instructions, they took the Spirit Awakening Powder with the Black Snake Seed, then closed their eyes, sat in meditation, and began circulating their Qi.

Kang Dabao stood guard beside them, watching them without blinking, and began reassuring himself as well.

Han Yundao was bright, and Duan Anle was honest and simple. Both had diligently cultivated, practiced breathing exercises, trained in martial arts, and tempered their bodies for more than three years.

Besides, although Spirit Awakening Powder was unranked, it was hardly some powder found on every street. At the very least, the powder he and his junior brothers had used back then was far inferior to it, and had they not succeeded?

Half an hour later, a flash of spiritual light first appeared at Han Yundao's heavenly gate, with Duan Anle following close behind. Kang Dabao's face lit up at the sight.

The surrounding spiritual power turned to mist and was slowly drawn into the two boys' bodies by the spiritual light. Refreshed expressions appeared on their faces, and black, foul-smelling impurities slowly began to seep from the pores all over their bodies.

This was drawing spirit into the body: Spiritual Qi had begun to cleanse their mortal bodies. Now that they had reached this point, it remained to be seen whether the two could withstand the infusion of Spiritual Qi. If they could not, they would likely suffer some internal injuries, which would also hinder a second attempt to draw spirit into their bodies.

Once the heavenly gate opened and the mortal body was shed, those two steps would separate an immortal from the mortal world. Even a cultivator who remained at the First Layer of Qi Refining all his life would be an immortal master envied by every mortal in the world.

"Your disciple Han Yundao greets you, Master." Han Yundao did not disappoint; the entire process went exceptionally smoothly.

Kang Dabao smiled and nodded, then turned to look at Duan Anle. Just under eight minutes later, spiritual power flowed freely throughout Duan Anle's body as well, and he opened his eyes.

Seeing Han Yundao and Kang Dabao looking at him, he felt a faint twinge of disappointment after his initial joy. "Anle greets you, Master, Senior Brother!"

"Good! Good! Excellent! Now both of you, get out and take a bath. Come see me again tomorrow morning. Good thing you did not waste the spirit medicine I spent so many Spirit Stones to make, or you would have seen how I dealt with you!"

Kang Dabao could hardly conceal his excitement. Laughing heartily, he patted his two disciples on the head.

From a certain point of view, taking disciples and having children were really the same thing. All one sought and worked for was to have someone to carry on one's legacy.

From this day forward, Kang Dabao had someone to carry on his legacy.

How long had it been since he had felt this happy? Even when he had picked up all those Storage Bags before, he had not been this delighted.

"Oh, right. After your baths, remember to teach Shilun how to braise pork knuckles," Kang Dabao said, sending his two disciples out and giving them the instruction before closing the door.

"Junior Brother?" Paying no mind to the filth on his body, Han Yundao made a show of straightening his Daoist robe and clearing his throat. He tilted his head and grinned mischievously at Duan Anle.

"Senior Brother." Duan Anle looked a little dejected.

"Junior Brother-"

"Senior Brother."

"Junior Brother--"

"Senior Brother!"

"Junior Brother, haha! Remember, once a senior brother, always a senior brother; once a junior brother, always a junior brother."

"Yes, once a senior brother, always a senior brother! Once a junior brother, always a junior brother!"

Thank you, everyone, for your support. I'm taking the high-speed train back to Ningbo tomorrow, so I might not be able to update then. Please forgive me.