Su Ming walked out of the study and let out a long, deep breath.

The autumn sunlight shone on his body, warm and pleasant.

Lin Yu’s voice echoed in his mind, carrying a trace of barely noticeable fatigue and gravity. “Disciple, this Zhou Wenhai is a man of deep scheming. Before him, we must be even more cautious. His agreement to let you stay is both a sign of his regard and, undoubtedly, a way to keep you under close observation.”

“He agreed, didn’t he?” Su Ming’s mood, however, was quite relaxed.

“He did agree, but the way he looked at you was like an old farmer looking at a cabbage that grows gold ingots—satisfied yet calculating!” Lin Yu grumbled. “Anyway, for these three years, we’re safe. For your master’s sake, hurry up and drain that well dry!”

With the storm having passed, Su Ming’s life returned to peace, becoming even more focused than before.

Zhou Yulin left for the prefectural city in October. With one less person frequently seeking him out at the County School, Su Ming enjoyed the quiet, throwing his entire body and mind into cultivation and study.

The sensation of Qi within Su Ming’s body, nourished by the spiritual well water, had grown from a flickering flame into a gentle, warm glow. He could even guide this energy to flow slowly through his meridians. Wherever it passed, a tingling, numbing sensation spread, bringing an indescribable comfort.

After mastering the Aura Concealment Art, his five senses became increasingly sharp. During meditation, he could even clearly “hear” the footsteps of the night watchman patrolling outside the courtyard and “smell” the aroma of food wafting from the neighboring compound.

He began attempting to gather that energy at his fingertip.

This was an incredibly difficult process. That energy was as slippery as a loach; the slightest lapse in concentration would cause it to disperse into his limbs and bones.

For several nights in a row, he ended in failure.

On a snowy night, after countless failed attempts, he finally succeeded. Using his powerful mental will to gently envelop the mass of energy, he guided it to his fingertip.

Su Ming slowly opened his eyes and extended the index finger of his right hand.

There, on his fingertip, a faint white light, the size of a grain of rice, quietly ignited in the pitch-black snowy night.

Though weak, its glow was unwavering.

“Master, I…”

“Shh.” Lin Yu’s voice carried an unprecedented gravity. “Don’t move. Don’t let it disperse. Feel it. Remember this sensation. This is… your first wisp of… spiritual energy.”

The snowy night was silent, all things hushed.

Su Ming stared blankly at his fingertip. That tiny, rice-sized point of white light was a color that had never before appeared in his life. It was not the warm yellow of candlelight, nor the cool clarity of moonlight. It was a pure, self-originating radiance, as if the most distant yet brightest star in the night sky had been plucked and placed upon his fingertip.

“Pfft.”

A soft sound, like the bursting of a tiny bubble. The light point on his fingertip flickered violently for an instant before extinguishing completely.

His fingertip returned to its normal skin tone. The warm, connected feeling that had pulsed with his bloodline vanished without a trace. In its place, a hollowed-out weakness spread from the depths of his Dantian, making him feel as if he had run ten miles of mountain road, with weariness seeping into the very marrow of his bones.

“Master!” Su Ming’s voice held a thread of panic and thick disappointment. “It… it’s gone!”

Lin Yu’s voice drawled lazily in his mind. “Gone is gone. Did you want to frame it and hang it on the wall?”

Su Ming was momentarily speechless, then muttered, “That’s not what I meant, disciple. It’s just… I wanted it to stay a little longer.”

“Remember this feeling. This is the seed of your first wisp of spiritual energy. But you must also understand, this is only the beginning. Without a subsequent method, this state is difficult to solidify, ultimately just a moon reflected in water, a flower in a mirror.”

Lin Yu stretched comfortably inside the ring.

Su Ming carefully pondered his master’s words, and the disappointment in his heart was indeed soothed considerably. Yes, he had been too impatient. On the path of cultivation, one misstep leads to many. Being able to condense the first wisp of spiritual energy was already a tremendous fortune. How could he demand to reach the heavens in a single step?

“Disciple understands the teaching,” he replied respectfully.

“Mmm.” Lin Yu responded with satisfaction. “That’s enough for tonight. Your spiritual energy has just been born, and your soul has consumed not a little. Rest well. Remember the feeling from just now. Continue tomorrow.”

In the following days, Su Ming fell into a cycle of pain and joy.

Every night, he would sit in meditation by the well, repeating the process of condensing spiritual energy. But that wisp of spiritual energy was like a mischievous child, coming and going without any discernible pattern.

Sometimes, after sitting in bitter meditation the entire night, there would be no movement within his Dantian, as if everything before had been but a dream.

Sometimes, the moment he entered meditation, that point of light would appear obediently at his fingertip in response to his thought. But the instant he tried to do something with it, even just make it linger for one more breath, it would ruthlessly extinguish with a “pfft,” taking with it a large portion of his vital energy and spirit.

“Master, it ran away again!”

“Master, this time it lasted for three breaths!”

“Master, today I seemed to be able to make it shine a little brighter… Ah, it’s gone again.”

Lin Yu, who had initially been patient and used various grand principles like “the Dao follows nature” to guide him, eventually switched to a semi-dormant mode, letting Su Ming figure things out on his own.

In truth, Lin Yu was even more anxious than Su Ming.

Taking advantage of the time while Su Ming was outside “repeatedly failing and fighting, repeatedly fighting and failing,” Lin Yu’s Soul Body sank deep into the ring, beginning the most serious strategic planning session of his five-hundred-year transmigration.

Before him lay two paths.

The first path: his “gaze” fell upon the three jade slips within the space. One of them recorded the Greenwood Longevity Art.

This thing was right in his own home, within easy reach.

He hadn’t dared to give it to Su Ming before because Su Ming barely knew a few big characters and had not a shred of spiritual energy, making it impossible to activate the jade slip, let alone comprehend its profound cultivation formulas.

But now it was different.

Su Ming had spent over half a year immersed in the County School’s library tower. The books he had read far exceeded what Lin Yu had read in two lifetimes combined. His comprehension ability was already worlds apart from before. Most crucially, he could now condense spiritual energy! Even if it was just a wisp, even if it was extremely unstable, it was ultimately the “key” to activating the jade slip!

As long as he could successfully inject that wisp of spiritual energy into the jade slip, he could read its contents.

This seemed to be the safest, and indeed the only, choice available at the moment.

Yet Lin Yu still felt uneasy.

The enormous hidden danger lay in this: Lin Yu himself knew nothing about this world’s cultivation system! He had transmigrated as a remnant soul. His only “experience” came from the chaotic, evil memory fragments obtained when devouring the Wailing Woman Lantern, which were completely incompatible with, and might even conflict with, the orthodox Greenwood Longevity Art. He didn’t understand the crucial points within the cultivation method and couldn’t discern whether Su Ming’s energy flow during cultivation was right or wrong. If Su Ming made a misstep, the light consequence would be damaged meridians; the severe consequence would be Qi deviation. And he, as the master, might not be able to tell at all, let alone offer guidance and correction. This was no different from letting one blind man teach another to walk a tightrope.

On the path of cultivation, there was no chance for a do-over.

Lin Yu shifted his gaze to the second path.

The path leading to that dilapidated temple where the “Wailing Woman Lantern” was buried.

Lin Yu closed his “eyes.” The memory fragments from that night surfaced again. From the resentful spirit’s memories, he knew that dilapidated temple was the ruins of a minor immortal sect, and something was hidden within the mountain’s belly. The master of that resentful spirit had placed the Wailing Woman Lantern there, clearly taking advantage of the location’s earth vein Yin energy.

Perhaps within that mountain belly lay some cultivation insights left behind by predecessors.

Moreover, after this period of “digestion,” Lin Yu was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Wailing Woman Lantern’s most refined Yin energy had been completely absorbed by him, transformed into nourishment to strengthen his Soul Body. As for those resentful, insane memory fragments and the so-called “tracking mark,” he had used a newly comprehended technique to package and compress them into a walnut-sized black sphere, tossed into a corner of the ring’s space, where they could no longer stir up even the slightest trouble.

He could sense that the fellow who had refined the Wailing Woman Lantern was very, very far from here, so distant that the faint, barely-there connection could almost be ignored.

Going treasure hunting seemed like a decent choice. High risk, high reward.

This path carried extremely high risk. That place was sinister and eerie, a location arranged by an evil cultivator. Who knew what residual traps or evil entities remained? Taking the initiative to go there was equivalent to putting oneself in danger.

But the sole hope and basis also lay here: he possessed partial memory fragments from the Wailing Woman Lantern. Within these chaotic memories, there was a vague indication that deep within that lair, something seemed to be hidden—perhaps some legacy or resource left by that evil cultivator, different from the Greenwood Longevity Art.

Though these memories were fragmented, they were, aside from the jade slip, his only bit of “advanced information” in this world.

More importantly, Su Ming’s previous long-term meditation practice had forged mental perception and a calm disposition far surpassing ordinary people. This might not be an absolute guarantee for survival in combat, but in detecting danger, avoiding traps, and noticing subtle anomalies, it might be more useful than a half-baked offensive technique.

But this thought only lasted three seconds before Lin Yu himself snuffed it out.

What a joke! Go explore a place marked as a “zone of great calamity”? That place had been occupied by the Wailing Woman Lantern for over a hundred years. Who knew what strange and bizarre things had bred there besides Yin energy? What if some centuries-old zombie popped out, or some great demon lord was sleeping underground? His little disciple going over there wouldn’t even be enough to fill the gaps between their teeth.

The first principle of the Way of Survival: never actively explore the red danger zones on the map!

This path? Pass!

“Tough situation…” Lin Yu’s Soul Body sat cross-legged, putting on the appearance of a master deep in thought, though in reality, he was so worried he felt like tearing out his non-existent hair.

Not long after, a letter from Anyuan Prefectural City arrived at the A-rank courtyard.

It was from Zhou Yulin.

In the letter, with flying brushstrokes, Zhou Yulin described the grand occasion of the Provincial Examination and the bustle and prosperity of the prefectural city. He had passed the exam without any suspense and had been taken as a disciple by a great Confucian scholar at the Prefectural School. He had decided to stay in the prefectural city to continue his studies.

At the end of the letter, he wrote in a somewhat emotional tone: “Junior Brother Su, Father writes often, saying you immerse your heart in learning, far surpassing me. At first, I was somewhat unconvinced, but now I understand your… aspiration. Three years from now, we shall meet again in the capital. Your foolish elder brother awaits good news quietly.”

After reading the letter, Su Ming silently folded it, his face showing neither sorrow nor joy.

“Master, what do you think the ‘aspiration’ he mentions in his letter refers to?”

“He refers to you topping the metropolitan examination, achieving a golden name on the placard. But your master knows your aspiration is immortality and eternal life.” Lin Yu answered lazily. “Different paths do not make for common plans. He walks his broad, smooth road; you cultivate your single-plank bridge. Quite fine.”

“Quite fine.” Su Ming nodded, putting away the letter.

His life, from the moment he became a disciple, had turned onto a completely different path.

“Disciple.”

Right then, Lin Yu’s voice suddenly turned serious.

“Hmm?”

“You have been condensing spiritual energy for three months now. Repeated failures. Do you know why?”

Su Ming replied solemnly, “Disciple’s disposition is impure, too eager for quick success.”

Lin Yu scolded without mercy, “If your disposition is impure, kid, then there aren’t many honest people left in this world. The reason you fail is because you lack one thing.”

“Please, Master, instruct.”

“A cultivation method!” Lin Yu enunciated each word. “Right now, you are like a strong man possessing immense strength, yet only knows how to swing his fists wildly. Every time you condense spiritual energy, you are forcibly squeezing your vital energy and spirit, achieving half the result with double the effort, and damaging your foundation in the process. You need a cultivation method to teach you how to breathe, how to guide, how to truly make the heaven and earth’s spiritual energy your own.”

Su Ming’s mind shook, his breathing quickening slightly.

A cultivation method! He had waited for these two words for far too long!

“Then… Master…”

“Your master does have one here.” Lin Yu’s tone became profound and mysterious. “However, this method is no ordinary matter. Your master needs to observe you for a while longer, to see if your disposition is truly capable of mastering it.”

In reality, Lin Yu wanted to use this final period to take the opening three hundred characters of the Greenwood Longevity Art, break them apart, grind them to pieces, think of a hundred possible errors that could appear, and formulate a hundred corresponding solutions.

He wanted to ensure absolute safety.

“Disciple understands!” Su Ming suppressed the excitement in his heart and nodded heavily.

Lin Yu responded with a satisfied “Mmm,” then changed Su Ming’s cultivation plan.

“From today onward, set aside the matter of condensing spiritual energy for now. Your cultivation focus has only one task—meditation!”

“Meditation?” Su Ming was somewhat puzzled.

“Correct.” Lin Yu explained. “Your soul is the ‘vessel’ that carries everything. If the vessel is not strong, how can it hold rivers, lakes, and seas? During this period, your soul has been excessively depleted, showing signs of emptiness. You must replenish it, and moreover, make it stronger, more resilient!”

“Your Aura Concealment Art has reached great completion; your five senses and six perceptions far surpass ordinary people. Next, you must use meditation to nourish your ‘soul’!”

Lin Yu’s voice carried a strange allure.

Su Ming had no more doubts. He immediately sat down cross-legged and began his brand-new cultivation.

Days flew by in the monotony of meditation.

A month later, his perception range had expanded to encompass the entire A-rank courtyard area. He could “hear” the student in the neighboring courtyard, the quiet and reserved one, murmuring and reciting scriptures over and over in the dead of night.

This feeling was as if he possessed invisible eyes and ears, freely roaming every corner of the County School.

And his soul, in this daily expansion and perception, became solidified, powerful, far beyond what it was in the past. The mass of Qi sensation in his Dantian, though not deliberately cultivated, also became increasingly gentle and substantial under the strengthening of his soul.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep