Chapter 5: Reaped

Wen Xu had not expected that the moment the King Danxiang Grass was plucked, the Danxiang Grass covering the surrounding hills would wither away in the span of a single breath, as if their sole purpose in existing had been to nurture the king grass to maturity.

He could not describe the feeling in his heart, but in the very next instant, everyone, including Bian Chunzhou beside him, vanished from the spot. He was the only one left on the vast, empty hills.

Wen Xu lay on his back upon the withered remains of the Danxiang Grass. The rich, herbal scent beneath his nose was gradually fading. Would his benefactor, Bian, return to save him?

Wen Xu remained calm. After all, when placing one’s life in the hands of another, one had to be prepared to be abandoned. He had always possessed this self-awareness.

Thus, when Elder Zhan rushed in hot haste to Danxiang Slope in the Poyun Secret Realm, what he saw was a young man with a grayish-black cloth tied over his eyes, seemingly fast asleep.

Of course, with Elder Zhan’s high-stage Golden Core cultivation, scanning a mere mortal was as easy as turning his hand. What astonished him, however, was that this youth had already opened his Qi sea and entered the Qi Refining stage. No wonder he had been able to find the King Danxiang Grass.

Growing increasingly delighted, he intentionally made his footsteps heavier to alert the boy pretending to sleep on the ground of his arrival.

In the next moment, the boy on the ground sat up just as he had expected, a trace of wariness on his face. “Who is there?”

Had Bian Chunzhou returned? Wen Xu felt a touch of joy. Just as he was about to peek through a gap in the cloth to confirm, he heard a slightly deep voice. It was definitely not the voice of a young man.

“Are you Wen Xu?”

Seeing the youth nod, Elder Zhan forced his expression to soften. “Do not fear, young friend. I already know everything about your ordeal. Why don’t you leave the secret realm with me first, and we can make plans from there?” I’ll take him back first. Convincing him to become my disciple after that will be a piece of cake.

So this was the helper Bian Chunzhou had found? Someone from Yonglu Mountain, the masters of this place?

A look of joy appeared on Wen Xu’s face, and he immediately asked, “Did Brother Bian ask you to come find me?”

Elder Zhan tried to recall. Yes, that kid’s surname was indeed Bian. “Indeed. He handed over the King Danxiang Grass, mentioned your presence, and even said you were the one who found it. He begged me to bring you out of the Poyun Secret Realm.”

My benefactor truly has a good heart, Wen Xu thought, rubbing his fingers together. He then brushed the grass clippings off his clothes and performed a respectful bow of the mortal world. “Thank you for making the trip.”

“No matter. Your eyes…” Elder Zhan only noticed this now.

“It is no trouble. I simply cannot see.”

He opened his Qi sea but still cannot see? Elder Zhan found it strange, but he did not dwell on it. After all, what kind of miraculous pills did Alchemy Peak not have? Curing a pair of eyes would be child’s play. “I see. Stand firm, then. I will take you out.”

Wen Xu felt a brief moment of dizziness. In the next instant, he realized the soft soil beneath his feet had turned into hard stone slabs. He took an uneasy step back. Having never experienced a secret realm teleportation before, his sense of balance was not as good as he had imagined. If someone had not supported him, he would have fallen awkwardly to the ground.

“Thank you. I can stand on my own now.”

Elder Zhan took a bottle of pills from his storage ring and handed it over. “You have only just opened your Qi sea and do not yet know how to circulate your Qi. These Qi Replenishing Pills can help you regulate the Qi sea within your body.”

Qi Replenishing Pills. It was yet another entirely new term.

Wen Xu did not act coy. Although he disliked dealing with people, he had his own way of navigating the world. The elder before him clearly held a favorable impression of him. Though he did not know where this goodwill came from, a clever junior should not reject an elder’s kindness. “May I accept this?”

“Of course. Once you have spent more time in the cultivation world, you will realize these Qi Replenishing Pills are barely worth a few spirit stones. Take them.”

Wen Xu happily accepted the medicine. After all, he was currently penniless. Since someone was willing to give them to him, he had no reason to refuse.

“And this jade slip. Since you have already opened your Qi sea, it saves me a lot of explanation. Even if you cannot see right now, you only need to cover the jade slip with the spiritual energy in your body, and you will know what is written inside.”

It was actually that miraculous? Wen Xu found it increasingly intriguing.

“Very well. Read the jade slip here first. It does not matter if you are slow at the beginning. I must attend to some matters first, but I will return to meet you in the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.”

Having said that, Elder Zhan left in a hurry, clearly off to announce the results of the preliminary trial.

Hearing the door click shut, Wen Xu finally opened his eyes slightly to look around. Through the gray cloth, he could see that this was likely a guest room. The decor was quite simple and ancient, though there was little furniture or decoration. After looking around for a brief moment, he focused his attention on the Qi Replenishing Pills and the jade slip in his hands.

He did not plan to take the Qi Replenishing Pills just yet, but as for the jade slip…

Wen Xu tried to mobilize the somewhat sluggish spiritual energy in his Qi sea, but they seemed to ignore him. Even if they stirred slightly, they quickly sank back to the bottom of his dantian.

He was not one to admit defeat, and his interest was instantly piqued. He might not be able to match others in other areas, but when it came to patience, even the monks in the temples probably could not sit as still as him.

Before long, he managed to draw a thread of spiritual energy from his dantian with great effort. However, once drawn out, the spiritual energy quickly dissipated, giving him no chance to channel it into the jade slip.

It seemed there was a loss of spiritual energy as it moved through the body.

Wen Xu frowned instinctively, but soon realized that this was likely why the elder had given him the Qi Replenishing Pills.

It seemed he had no choice but to take them. Leaving him here to read the jade slip was clearly a test.

With this thought, he decisively took out a Qi Replenishing Pill and swallowed it. The pill took effect extremely fast. Soon, Wen Xu felt his Qi sea beginning to stir. He suddenly understood: he needed to use Qi to guide Qi.

But what if he did not have the Qi Replenishing Pills? What would he do then?

And the thing he was most curious about: when exactly had he opened his Qi sea? Let alone others, even he himself was completely in the dark. Wen Xu shook his head. Ever since he arrived here, the doubts in his mind had only accumulated. He wondered if being a cultivator was easy or not.

As the Qi Replenishing Pill took effect, Wen Xu was finally able to mobilize the spiritual energy in his sea of Qi. After the energy circulated through his body for a full cycle, he was finally able to freely control a wisp of it and inject it into the jade slip.

This was truly exhausting. Wen Xu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, but in the next moment, information about the cultivation world from the jade slip rushed into his mind.

He stared blankly for a good while before lowering his hand.

So that was it. It was actually like this!

A blessing in disguise indeed. He never expected that he would one day have such a miraculous encounter!

Wen Xu couldn’t help but chuckle. If the culprit who had hunted him down knew that he had gained such a fortuitous opportunity because of it, they would probably grind their teeth to dust.

Thinking of this, the frustration in his chest finally dissipated quite a bit.

This continent was named the Hengze Continent. The continent was vast and wide; Bizhou Prefecture and even the country he resided in were but a drop in the ocean. Mortals experienced birth, old age, sickness, and death, their lifespans short. However, cultivators received the creation of heaven and earth, possessing talents far beyond ordinary people. If they succeeded in their cultivation, they could escape the cycle of reincarnation and enter the immortal path. Yet, even a cultivator who had only just crossed the threshold was, to a mortal, a deity capable of moving mountains, draining seas, and summoning wind and rain with a wave of their hand.

Wen Xu had not expected that the stories fabricated by those pedantic scholars were actually all true!

What delighted him even more was that he was one of the talented few among tens of millions.

In other words, as long as he learned a few skills, he could return for revenge and have those who wanted to kill him dancing in the palm of his hand.

This sounded too much like a pie falling from the sky. Wen Xu even suspected that this might be a beautiful dream he was having before death. But on second thought, his imagination was not actually that rich; even in a dream, he could not have imagined such an absurd development.

Further down in the jade slip was a brief introduction to cultivation, such as the quality of a cultivator’s spiritual roots, the division of cultivation realms, how to earn spirit stones (the common currency), instructions for taking common pills, famous sects on the continent, a rough map of the continent, and so on. It was all very useful information.

Wen Xu focused on the information regarding Yonglu Mountain.

Yonglu Mountain was located in the Yonglu Mountain Range in the southwestern part of the continent. It occupied a vast area and was one of the Five Great Sects of the world. Although it was at the bottom of the list, various Qi Refining cultivators still squeezed their heads to get in.

And unlike the other three major sects; yes, although they were called the Five Great Sects, there were actually only four. The one ranked first was called the Hehe Sect, derived from the meaning of “harmony between heaven and man, letting nature take its course.” According to the jade slip, the Hehe Sect used to be two major sects, but they later merged into a single colossus. Thus, there was also the saying, “Of the Five Great Sects, only Hehe permanently ranks first.”

The one ranked second was called the Suitian Sword Sect. From its name, one could see a spirit of defying heaven. The number one sword cultivator in the world was the Supreme Elder of the Suitian Sword Sect, and rumor had it that he was also one of the two people closest to ascension.

The third major sect was called the Kudu Temple. Wen Xu originally thought it was a Buddhist temple, but looking at the introduction, there seemed to be a fundamental difference between monks and Buddhist cultivators.

Yonglu Mountain ranked fourth. Looking at the sect’s introduction, it was an all-inclusive sect. For example, the Hehe Sect had a clear external regulation that they would not accept disciples with four or five spiritual roots. Yonglu Mountain was different; if a cultivator had a talent different from ordinary people, even if they had the most difficult-to-cultivate five spiritual roots, they could still become inner sect disciples.

After roughly reading through the entire jade slip, Wen Xu immediately realized that cultivation was something that heavily tested talent. Hard work might lead to success, but without talent, it was absolutely difficult to succeed.

Furthermore, according to the information revealed above, there seemed to be a hierarchy of spiritual roots in the cultivation world. A single spiritual root was the best, with geniuses of various Mutated Spiritual Roots and special constitutions being the absolute best. After that came dual spiritual roots. Of course, dual spiritual roots were also divided into those where the two elements were equally matched and those where one was strong and the other weak. As for triple spiritual roots, they were neither good nor bad. Further down, there were too many spiritual roots, resulting in a mixed bag. It was just like the imperial examinations; others only needed to specialize in one subject to pass, but a cultivator with five spiritual roots needed to study five subjects simultaneously, and all five had to progress at the same pace. Few people could achieve this with such perseverance and talent.

So, he shouldn’t be an unlucky five-spiritual-root cultivator, right?

As Wen Xu was thinking this, he heard someone pushing the door open with cheerful footsteps. Before the person even arrived, their voice came first: “Wen Xu, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have doubted your words. How are you? Are you still hungry? Do you want another Fasting Pill?”

This time, he didn’t even need to open his eyes to confirm the visitor’s identity.

“Brother Bian, I’m fine. Thanks to you, I was able to leave the Poyun Secret Realm.”

Bian Chunzhou thought to himself, Thanks to me for what? I’m the one who got carried by you. If not for Wen Xu, he might not have even passed the preliminary trial. “No need to call me Brother Bian, just call me by my name. Names are meant to be called, after all. I have good news for you: I passed the preliminary trial! Wen Xuxu, do you want to join the disciple selection for Yonglu Mountain with me?”

Wen Xu: …