Chapter 10: The Wrong Path

It's quite comfortable to be alone in silence, but it would be a bit awkward if there was one more person.

Ji You raised his bloody hand and scratched the side of his face.

"You...what on earth happened to you?"

"I was in seclusion for two days and didn't eat anything. At noon, I fought with the leader of the guards of Fengxian Villa, which consumed a lot of my physical strength. So I realized this skill of coughing up blood while I was hungry..."

You are so stubborn.

Kuang Cheng's mouth twitched as he said, "There are only people in this world who can't get enough food. Some faint from hunger and some die from starvation. But I've never heard of anyone being so hungry that they vomit blood."

Ji You thought for a moment: "Maybe only immortal cultivators like us can do this?"

Kuang Cheng remained silent, staring at the bloodstains spreading on his collar.

Ji You recalled the scene when he held the scroll and asked him to find Fang Ruoyao. He restrained his smile and said, "Well, two days are not enough. I was in too much of a hurry and went astray. Now I am suffering from the backlash of the immortal way."

Humans are born with true spirits in their bodies. The first step in spiritual practice is to sense the true spirit in one's body and allow it to communicate with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. This is called awakening the spirit.

Afterwards, he continued to condense his true spirit, strengthen his body, and warm his limbs and bones until a faint spiritual light appeared in his body.

These two realms actually depend entirely on ascetic practice, and are roughly the same for everyone.

When one reaches the Condensation Stage, one needs to draw the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the body to condense it, and then merge it into the spiritual spring to make it continue to grow.

Finally, the spiritual spring that gathers the true spirit will be condensed into a spiritual essence, which is the so-called perfection of the lower three realms.

It is said that it had another name before ancient times, called Jiedan.

But later, for some unknown reason, that path of cultivating immortals was suddenly abandoned by humans, and no one knew where it started, but some people switched to the practice method of the three or five realms.

When orthodox cultivators go through this step, they are usually guarded by immortals in their family, who can stop immediately if there is any danger.

But Ji You didn't.

Not only did he have no immortal to protect him, he also had no way to find any books related to cultivating immortals.

It is not an empty statement that Daxia strictly prohibits civilians from practicing Taoism. The relevant Taoist books and scriptures are strictly controlled. Even if there are a few fragments circulating among the people, no one dares to read them.

And this part of content happened to be missing in his immortal book.

It’s not that there’s a lack of dramatic coincidence in the number of pages, but that it’s not there in the first place, and the lower three realms are not complete.

So Ji You could only study on his own.

At first, he was able to introduce the spiritual energy of heaven and earth smoothly, but when he was condensing the spiritual essence, he felt a strong sense of disobedience.

This sense of disharmony almost made him immersed in the mysteries of the Great Dao and unable to wake up. When his divine consciousness returned, he discovered that his spiritual spring had not condensed into spiritual essence, but had directly burst the dam...

Be it the true spirit in his body or the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, at the moment of the dam breaking, they were all dispersed in his body, everywhere, mixed into one, and difficult to separate.

But then he discovered that he had all the means that were only available to those who had reached perfection in the lower three realms, such as the connection between heaven and man, the control of external spiritual energy, etc.

Ji You thought that he had turned a disaster into a blessing and achieved a different kind of perfection, but it was not until he fought with Commander Bao of Fengxian Villa that he realized he was wrong.

Backlash may be late, but will never be absent.

A perfect night is really an arrogant wishful thinking.

Kuang Cheng looked at his solemn expression and couldn't help but ask: "Will he die?"

"No, it's just a bit of burning pain, it will be fine after a few days of recuperation, but I don't know if I still have a chance to reach the fifth realm."

"Why would you rather do this than ask Fang Ruoyao to give it a try?"

Ji You coughed up a few more strands of blood foam before speaking, "If you're going to do it, do it thoroughly. Fang Ruoyao is not strong enough. Even if she is willing to help, she may not be of any use after she leaves. I have perfected the lower three realms to let people know that I am destined to enter the upper five realms, and I will fight back."

Kuang Cheng could not help but shake his head when he heard the coldness in his words: "This move is really too risky."

"I was the one who brought the spiritual energy into Qiu Ru's body."

"I've already guessed it..."

Ji You took a deep breath: "There is also Haiwa who is herding sheep, Niuniu from Liu Qiaofu's family, and the disabled child picked up by Dazui's family..."

Kuang Cheng was stunned when he heard the voice, and looked up at him in disbelief.

He remembered that these children were either sick or on their last breath, but later they recovered inexplicably. Only then did he realize that it was his doing.

"I'm not a good person, I just do it casually. Look, this is an immortal."

Ji You couldn't help but frown when he mentioned the word "Xian". "But the people from Tianshuyuan can't stay in Yuyang forever. If those people from Fengxian Villa didn't do it the first time, they would do it the second time, and then the third and fourth time..."

After hearing this, Kuang Cheng pursed his lips and said, "Indeed, since the news of your perfection in the lower three realms spread, Fengxian Villa has become more disciplined. Master Fang even confiscated the offerings from the Qiu family."

“So effective?”

Ji You showed his red and white teeth and said, "If I become a godfather to any of the wealthy families in the county, with only a small amount of gift money, wouldn't it be possible to become rich right here?"

Kuang Cheng: “?”

The fact that Ji You was still able to think freely proved that he was indeed not in danger of his life.

But he didn't know what impact the bursting of the spiritual spring would have on his future practice. After all, he hadn't condensed spiritual essence, so how should he practice next?

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

Although Kuang Cheng was well-read, he knew nothing about cultivating immortals, so he could only help him up and bring him some water to rinse his mouth.

After resting for a while, Ji You felt much better and couldn't help but advise: "I will be fine after a few more cycles of practice. Don't tell anyone else about this. Now that Qiu Ru can survive is the best result."

"Isn't it the best outcome for you to be admitted to the Heavenly Academy?"

"I never thought about going to Tianshuyuan. This fact was accidental."

Kuang Cheng was surprised when he heard this: "Do you just want to hide among the people and practice secretly? What's the point of this?"

Ji You shook his head: "You insulted a man's ambition. Although I don't want to be an orthodox cultivator, I have plans for my life. If the Qiu family incident hadn't happened, I would have gone up the mountain to become a bandit next year."

"?"

"There is a bandit den to the west of Yuyang County. There are many private practitioners in it. They speak well. I heard that if a cultivator who has reached perfection in the lower three realms is willing to go up the mountain, he can at least apply for a position as a hall master. Then I will bring Old Qiu's family to the mountain, and we can eat and drink well."

Kuang Cheng had never thought that he would actually make such a plan. He could not help but frown after hearing this: "You can obviously be an orthodox cultivator, but you insist on going to the mountains to practice private cultivation. Why?"

Ji You coughed twice, not knowing where to start. After thinking for a while, he said, "I didn't know I could succeed at first. Another reason was that I didn't want to eat human blood as an offering."

“What is a human blood offering?”

"The immortal cultivators never do anything, but they have swallowed up most of the world's resources and spiritual veins, causing the common people to be hungry and miserable. Although I don't have much ability, I can always choose not to be one of the straws that break the camel's back."

Ji You raised his head after saying this: "However, it is said that the Tianshu Academy is the one that receives the least offerings among the seven immortal sects, and they don't use living people to make medicine. This is a blessing in disguise."

Kuang Cheng was stunned for a moment, then raised the scroll in his hand: "But the book says that only those who have entered the upper five realms and have been selected into the inner courtyard are eligible to enjoy the offerings of the people."

"?"

Ji You was stunned for a moment, then his eyes widened: "You mean, I have entered Tianshuyuan and I still have to work and study?"

At that time, he was only concerned about being a bandit and did not read carefully about being an orthodox cultivator. He was completely stunned at this moment.

"Didn't you say you didn't want to eat human blood as an offering? This is not a good thing for you." Kuang Cheng looked at him puzzled.

"I can be a bandit and rob immortals to help the poor, and I can get a share of the profits!"

Da Xia pays tribute to the major immortal sects every year, but how it is distributed specifically is an internal matter of the sects.

Taking Tianshu Academy as an example, the offerings they received were mainly distributed among the inner court disciples and teaching affairs. Regardless of whether they were in the upper realm of Chuhua or the perfection of the lower three realms, they were still outer court disciples after all, so they could not occupy the share of offerings.

Just when Ji You was doubting his life, Kuang Cheng spoke again: "Actually, I will also go to Shengjing in two days."

Ji You came back to his senses: "What are you going to Shengjing for?"

"The imperial examination."

(End of this chapter)