"That's right. When are you going to increase your cultivation base?"
Suddenly turning back to face him, Ling stared into his eyes as she asked.
Feeling by Ling's sudden change of attitude, Jiang Feng fell deep into his thoughts. After a few minutes of silence, he finally spoke.
"Honestly speaking, I don't even know how to cultivate."
"Eh?"
"I said I don't know how to cultivate."
"…"
Being stared by Ling with her eyebrows raised, Jiang Feng didn't know what to do except remaining silent.
"So, what you're saying is, you've managed to reach the entrance of Qi Circulation stage?"
"Qi Circulation? What's that?"
"…"
Another moment of silence ensued as the two stared at each other like they had a bet. Ling's eyes had widened to its limits with her mouth agape, seemingly shocked at how nonchalant Jiang Feng was.
'I guessed the tables changed' Jiang Feng thought.
"Give me a moment, I'll need to take a look at what happened back in the tomb."
Saying so, Ling unwrapped herself as she sat in a lotus position with her eyes closed.
Before Jiang Feng could ask what she was doing, a mysterious feeling arose in him as his eyes caught the trace of an invisible energy enveloping her figure.
Although this came as just a gut feeling, Jiang Feng subconsciously knew that it wasn't good to disturb her for what she was doing at the moment, even if he didn't knew what was going on.
A while later, the pair of mesmerizing blue eyes were revealed back to the world as Ling stared intently at Jiang Feng. Not knowing what that stare meant, Jiang Feng could only stare back in confusion as he waited for her to talk.
"To think you would retain your human form despite accepting the blessing of my 'Ghost Fire'…" Ling murmured.
"'Ghost Fire'? What's that?" Jiang Feng inquired as he heard her last words.
Sighing out loud as if she had given up on something, Ling raised her head and started explaining.
"It's something unique I have. Remember the Undead Soldiers you fought in the tomb, you accidentally took in my 'Ghost Fire' and saved yourself from the dying."
"Normally, only a dead person can receive the blessing of my 'Ghost Fire'. Once they did, the said person would have become my puppet, in other words, something like an Undead Soldier."
"However, it seems your case is different since you took my blessing in a near-death state. You even absorbed the blessing from the Undead Soldiers…I guess that's why you reached the entrance for the Qi Circulation stage."
"Now that you mentioned it, such a thing did happen." Jiang Feng replied as his memories resurfaced before him.
The scene right before his death, the bud of the flame named 'Ghost Fire', he had touched it and somehow came back to life from it. Even now, that was still a mystery for Jiang Feng.
'A flame that can bring a dead person back to 'life'. I wonder if the cultivation world has other weird things like that.'
"Putting this matter aside, I'll be teaching you how to cultivate."
Signaling Jiang Feng to sit before her, Ling stared into his eyes full of seriousness as she began speaking again.
"In your last life, you held a powerful cultivation manual at the Divine rank, marking you as one of the top-level powerhouses in the cultivation world. Although I would like to give you what belonged to you, I do not have that manual with me, so you can only make do with this."
Handing over a tattered manual with a leather cover to Jiang Feng, Ling continued without waiting for him to take a look.
"The name of that manual is 'Basics of Spiritual Energy Absorption'. A low-quality manual for mortals to start their journey with, but it should work miraculously if used by you."
Flipping open the book while being careful not to break with it, Jiang Feng squinted his eyes as he read its contents.
"Basics of Spiritual Energy Absorption"
"Spiritual Energy is the essence of the universe. It comes in all forms and is the source of life and death. To absorb Qi is to enter the cultivation world."
"Spiritual Energy can be absorbed through a rhythmatic way of breathing. Once achieved, concentrate and search for its presence within to circulate it. A breakthrough will be in sight once enough Spiritual Energy is accumulated."
Closing the book, Jiang Feng closed his eyes and began doing as the book said whilst being in a lotus position. Despite the doubt he had towards the authenticity of cultivation, he felt there wouldn't be any harm to try it out.
Seeing this, Ling got off the bed and went to living room.
…
After 4 hours of meditation passed, Jiang Feng opened his eyes as he sighed out in disappointment. Walking out of the room, he spotted Ling laying on the couch with the remote controller of the TV in her hands.
"You learnt how to use the TV already? I thought it was going to take much longer with how you struggled to grasp the basic functions of a phone." Jiang Feng teased as he proceeded to sit next to her.
"Shut your trap, your explaining was confusing unlike this instruction manual. It only took me a few seconds to understand the whole thing." Ling replied as her eyes shifted from the show being played to the small booklet on the table.
"Anyways, how did things go?"
"I couldn't sense the Spiritual Energy at all. Are you sure cultivation really exists?" Jiang Feng asked as he expressed his doubts.
"Of course it does, if it was that easy to sense Spiritual Energy, everyone on this planet would have already become a cultivator."
"If you still don't believe my words, let me give you a demonstration."
Without looking away from the screen, Ling extended her hand in the direction of her bedroom. Confused by her actions, Jiang Feng turned to look at where her fingers pointed.
In the following moment, his eyes and mouth widened as the door opened on its own, revealing the paranormal scene within the room. The bed and the drawers within were all hovering mid-air as if being controlled like a puppet.
Just as Jiang Feng wanted to tell Ling what was happening, his eyes noticed her hand closed except for one finger. That finger then made a twirl as a reaction came from the room, with everything within circling around like a tornado.
"What you've seen is called Spiritual Energy Manipulation, an Art at the rank of Qi Entrance." Ling revealed.
"What's an Art?"
Curious by the mysterious technique, Jiang Feng looked at Ling and asked. In response, Ling turned off the TV and sat up straight with her eyes closed.
"In the cultivation world, there are two ways a cultivator fight. One of them is called an Art, the other being Spells."
"An Art is a cultivation technique, one that relies on Spiritual Energy to be used. The complexity of an Art demands the user to possess mastery and understanding over it for its prowess to be shown."
"Spells, on the other hand, are just manifestation of a cultivator's Spiritual Energy. They consume more than Arts, but naturally possess more lethality. However, if the two were to be compared, Arts would definitely be prioritized for its stable amount of damage and low consumption of Spiritual Energy to the cultivators."
"Only when war is happening would spells be of importance to the cultivators."