Yang Wu opened his eyes and looked at the smiley Yu Jing, who had a bit of wine flowing from the corner of his mouth.
"It's so beautiful," Yang Wu muttered, but he certainly wasn't speaking about Yu Jing, "I never imagined the world could look so alive."
"The world IS alive," Yu Jing massaged his beard, "This life is the source of Yuan Qi and one of the biggest mysteries of the cultivation world!"
"What do I do now?" Yang Wu asked, "Should I just keep absorbing this Yuan Qi this way?"
"No way!" Yu Jing shook his head strongly, "It would be too slow to just absorb it aimlessly."
"Aimlessly?" Yang Wu raised his eyebrow and asked, "Is there a technique to speed the absorption and refinement of Yuan Qi?"
"Not bad!" Yu Jing nodded, "I will be passing to you the Nine Heavenly Steps, it's a cultivation technique. It would not only speed up your cultivation but also turn your True Qi purer and denser but has the drawback of not following any particular Element, your True Qi will be average towards all Elements.
"But since your fake mystical root already turns you unable to possess elemental True Qi in the Qi Refining Realm, it won't be a problem."
Yu Jing took a piece of round jade from somewhere, it had a few carvings and seemed rather magical at a simple glance.
"Master, from where did you take all those things?" Yang Wu asked, "I don't see a Storage Ring or Storage Bag on you."
"Kekeke!" Yu Jing pointed to his Dantian, "My Storage Bag is inside my Dantian, it allows me to take things from it without showing the bag to others."
"Inside the Dantian!?" Yang Wu was marveled at it, "Can I do it with my Storage Bag too?"
"Yes, but not now!" Yu Jing explained, "You need first to reach the Foundation Establishment Realm, after the Qi Refining Realm, to do it."
"What a pity..." Yang Wu muttered but his excitement didn't diminish, it was as if he had gone to the past, when he was still young and learning new things every day.
"This piece of jade in my hand is a special kind," Yu Jing changed the topic, "It allows information to be engraved within it, allowing anyone to read or see the things inside after injecting their True Qi into it.
"The Nice Heavenly Steps is a technique full of details, and it's better if you take your time to carefully study it," After saying those things, Yu Jing handed the jade to Yang Wu.
"Be careful to not lose it," Yu Jing added with a grave tone, "Although it's just a Qi Refining Technique, it's very valuable!"
"I understand!" Yang Wu nodded and began to inject his True Qi inside the jade, he received 'an answer' from the jade and information began to surge inside his mind from it.
Nine Heavenly Steps, a basic core technique of the Fifth Peak of Broad Sky Sect. Although it didn't focus on the True Qi elemental affinity, it had the advantage of making the True Qi denser and purer than other techniques, although it also demanded more resources.
"Remember that token?" Yu Jing suddenly said, "You can use it to study all Qi Refining techniques and other miscellaneous books on the Scriptures Pavilion of this Peak, but don't go around practicing aimlessly, you might lose your life!"
"I really need some knowledge about this world!" Yang Wu nodded and asked with a raised eyebrow, "So I won't be able to use techniques involving the elements?"
"You can!" Yu Jing explained further, "But your elemental spells won't be as effective as those of someone with elemental True Qi.
"For example, someone with a fire-type innate mystical root can possess True Qi with highly increased affinity to the Fire Element, which would boost the person's fire spells."
"I understand it now," Yang Wu sighed in relief, "As long as it doesn't impede me to try, I won't be disappointed even if my spells aren't as strong."
"Aren't acting more like a child now?" Yu Jing joked, "You should allow this side of yours to flourish."
"Not in my control," Yang Wu smiled bitterly and was about to say something when someone's voice interrupted him.
"Yu, come outside!" a man's voice came from outside the room, it carried a bit of anger.
Yu Jing's expression immediately changed and he said to Yang Wu, "Quick, let's start your practice of the Nine Heavenly Steps Technique."
"But I haven't studied it yet," Yang Wu was bewildered.
Yu Jing began to panic and simply put his hand on Yang Wu's head, passing the relevant knowledge directly to his head, but only the First Step of Nine Steps, which corresponded to the first layer of the Qi Refining Realm.
"Master, is there a problem?" Yang Wu didn't feel any discomfort with the sudden surge of information but was rather worried about Yu Jing's strange behavior.
"No!" Yu Jing shook his head strongly and sat behind Yu Jing, "I will be aiding and protecting you, so don't be afraid to start your cultivation."
"Yu, don't try to run away from reality, you can't escape!" the man's voice sounded again from outside, it carried a mocking intent.
Yu Jing unexpectedly closed his eyes and put both his hands on Yang Wu's back, "Start your fucking cultivation!"
Yang Wu twitched the corners of his mouth but still obeyed.
He reviewed the knowledge he received and was surprised to find it was completely different from martial arts, both superficially and in essence. He could understand it because of his background as a Martial Sage.
If martial arts were about digesting the world and making it part of oneself, then immortal cultivation was about refining the world to become part of it.
'What...' Yang Wu was marveled, 'Won't it conflict with my martial practice?'
His body "answered" with a no, he could feel both his martial and immortal practices didn't interfere with each other and rather seemed to avoid each other.
"How is it possible?" Yang Wu couldn't help but mutter, his common sense said to him he should have been suffering a lot of inner conflicts, for it was impossible for energies with completely opposite essences and characteristics to calmly co-exist, just as water and fire tend to reject each other.
But then, he remembered a theory from his predecessors from his first life: "Turning yourself into a world, but still ultimately being part of a broader world. Turning yourself part of a broader world, but still ultimately being yourself your own world."
Different, opposite, incompatible, but... Paradoxically reaching an incomprehensible balance.
"Why are you hesitating, start!" Yu Jing muttered with anger, "That old bastard is losing his patience!"
Yang Wu couldn't help but temporarily stop his insights, he began to circulate his True Qi according to the technique.
Nine Heavenly Steps. Each Step corresponded to one of the Nine Layers of the Qi Refining Realm. The technique carried the same principle of folding iron and hammering it to forcefully remove the impurities and keep what was useful.
The Dantian was like the anvil, the Yuan Qi was like the hammer, and his True Qi and fake mystical root were like the iron, and Yang Wu's will was like the smith controlling the process.
He absorbed the Yuan Qi to the limit of his body and then circulated it through specific Qi Meridians before hammering his True Qi and fake mystical root, which were both sealed by him in his Dantian.
Rather than refining the Yuan Qi directly, he was using it to temper his cultivation and foundation, forbidding himself to accumulate more True Qi until his available cultivation reached the limit of tempering.
And there were lots of impurities... Just after the first round of tempering, his little True Qi shrank by half, and his fake mystical root turned weaker. The impurities were like black gases, he was about to expel them from his body when he had the idea of re-using them with his Martial Art, but he didn't do it because he was still a bit wary of his master.
He simply expelled the impurities through his pores, they quickly turned into something like ashes and fell on the ground.
"Since your body is stronger than the norm, you can continue your cultivation," Yu Jing suddenly said, "Other people would normally have to rest after a round of tempering, but your body is actually equivalent to someone in the Middle Layers of the Qi Refining Realm, much stronger than your First Layer Qi Refining cultivation, it can bear the burden."
Yang Wu naturally noticed that the tempering process would burden the body, but his martial practice turned it much stronger than his current cultivation.
He concentrated and the Yuan Qi around him began to be quickly absorbed through specific Qi Meridians, as detailed in the Cultivation Technique, forming something like a vacuum effect, accelerating the rate of absorption and forcing his fake mystical root to refine more True Qi.
When he reached the same quantity of True Qi as he had before the round of tempering, he stopped refining more and began another round of tempering.
He repeated the process nineteen times, and only stopped because his body began to feel highly burdened.
When Yang Wu opened his eyes, he noticed Yu Jing was there no more, but he knew his master wouldn't be hurt within his own sect unless he carried his plans of betrayal ahead of the time.
His True Qi had the same quantity as before, but its density and purity were several times higher, he could feel it was close to the limit of tempering.
According to the cultivation technique, the normal limit amount of tempering of each layer of the Qi Refining Realm was 25 times, after which he would need to break through to the next layer before tempering his True Qi and fake mystical root again.
Of course, if someone had a body strong enough, they could easily surpass that limit.
Yang Wu grasped the opportunity of being alone and began to circulate his Qi Blood, he again noticed an increase in efficiency when practicing martial arts. Now that he was an immortal cultivator, he could clearly feel that the Yuan Qi and True Qi were acting like fertilizers to his body, from which the Qi Blood was naturally generated.
He channeled his True Qi and Qi Blood at the same time, testing if he was able to control both at the same time, and he could since both systems didn't interfere with each other. But when he tried to merge both energies, he could feel the impending doom approaching, both his body and soul warned him of the danger.
He stopped on his track and sighed, not disappointed, but full of expectation for the future. He wanted to try and see the height he could reach, this time without the burden of being a self-righteous hero or without the trauma of being a defeated hero.
He took his storage bag and began to study it more thoroughly.
After a while, he took the inner disciple's standard robe from inside and began to wear it. It was mostly white but also had some red in some places. It had the word 'River' engraved on the left chest side, referring to the peak's name, River's Peak.
His token had the following phrase, "A fish seeing the River."
He hung the token on his waist and put the storage bag inside his robe, hiding it carefully but also making sure he could use it at any moment.
He then took a book from the storage bag, it wasn't there before and was probably added by his Master. It contained the rules of the sect.
On the first page, there were five rules written with great relevance, they were the following:
"1° Rule: Don't disobey the Sect.
2° Rule: Don't harm other disciples, unless you are permitted by the Sect. Don't judge and execute your judgment on other disciples without permission. Judgment will always be left to the punishment Peak.
3° Rule: All disciples, regardless of their rank and status, need to work for the Sect with frequency, be it by completing missions or taking on regular jobs given by the Sect, from farming to killing. Judgment will always be left to the punishment Peak.
4° Rule: All disciples must do their best to cultivate, those who stop cultivating without a proper reason will be badly punished, but judgment will always be left to the Punishment Peak.
5° Rule: Those who act unrighteously and hurt innocent people without a proper and selfless reason will be badly punished. If they kill innocent people, they will be killed! If they rape innocent people, they will be castrated and publicly humiliated!"
"Rules..." Yang Wu muttered with a sneer, "I will see if they were truly Rules or just a facade.
"I'm too familiar with hypocrites."