Chapter 2: Drawing Qi
Whoosh!
Gu Mo closed the diary and let out a long breath. From the original owner's entries, he vaguely felt that the lack of progress in cultivation might not be natural—perhaps someone had tampered with him.
Otherwise, how could it be possible that, even with a spiritual root, taking a Qi-Guiding Pill still wouldn't allow him to draw qi into his body? The Qi-Guiding Pill was the best introductory elixir for cultivating immortality. Even mortals without spiritual roots had a tiny chance of drawing qi into their bodies after taking it, let alone someone who actually possessed a spiritual root.
The moment Gu Mo transmigrated into this world, he felt a deep malice surrounding him. This made him extra cautious—he had no desire to die mysteriously right after arriving in this new world.
He glanced at the Spirit Refining Manual in his hand. This was an evil cultivation method that needed to be dealt with immediately. If anyone discovered it, he wouldn't be able to explain his way out of trouble.
But the material of this Spirit Refining Manual was rather peculiar—it couldn't be torn apart or burned. Simply tossing it away wasn't an option either. Who knew if there were some tracking techniques embedded within it?
"I've got it!"
An idea struck Gu Mo. The Spirit Refining Manual suddenly vanished from his hand, as he threw it into that dark misty space. With that, there should be no risk left.
After dealing with the Spirit Refining Manual, Gu Mo rummaged through the bedside cabinet and found another booklet. This was also a cultivation manual, but unlike the shady Spirit Refining Manual, this was a legitimate and openly distributed cultivation technique. It was the very one that Qinglu Sect provided to its servant disciples for training.
The name of this technique was straightforward: Qi-Guiding Technique. It was a basic method that taught how to guide qi into the body.
In addition to the thousands of words explaining the technique, the booklet contained many notes from the original owner. Qinglu Sect didn't just hand out the manual and leave disciples to fend for themselves; there were instructors specifically assigned to guide the cultivation process. The middle-aged man in the green robe was the teacher responsible for mentoring servant disciples like them.
From the densely packed notes, it was clear that the original owner had put considerable effort into cultivation. These notes also helped Gu Mo quickly grasp the basics of the Qi-Guiding Technique.
As someone who had received higher education before transmigrating, Gu Mo's reading comprehension was naturally strong. Combined with knowledge from another world, his aptitude was no worse than any so-called genius.
After understanding the principles of the Qi-Guiding Technique, Gu Mo couldn't wait to start cultivating. Having arrived in a world of immortal cultivation, how could he not try his hand at it?
He took out three jade stones from the cabinet, each about the size of a coin. These were the three lower-grade spirit stones issued by Qinglu Sect. Even without a Qi-Guiding Pill, spirit stones could assist in cultivation.
Once everything was ready, Gu Mo followed the method described in the Qi-Guiding Technique and began sensing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Unfortunately, due to his inferior spiritual root, his sensitivity to spiritual energy was extremely weak. It took a long time before he finally felt a faint trace of spiritual light from the stones in his hand.
Gu Mo knew this was the spiritual energy mentioned in the Qi-Guiding Technique. It was all thanks to the spirit stones—without them, who knew how long it would've taken to sense even a hint of spiritual energy?
Without hesitation, Gu Mo captured that wisp of spiritual light and guided it into his body. As long as he could lead this trace of light into his dantian and merge it with his qi sea, he would have successfully drawn qi into his body.
"Could I actually succeed on the first try?"
Seeing that the wisp of spiritual light was smoothly entering his body, Gu Mo felt a surge of excitement. But just as he began to feel hopeful, the light dissipated. The guided spiritual energy was too thin and got consumed during the process of entering his body.
"Let's try again!"
Taking a deep breath, Gu Mo calmed himself and resumed cultivating. After several attempts, he finally succeeded in guiding a thin wisp of spiritual energy into his dantian. He thought this time he would surely succeed in drawing qi into his body.
However, the moment the spiritual light entered his dantian, it was devoured by a wisp of black light.
At that instant, Gu Mo was certain—the original owner's inability to draw qi into his body was indeed due to sabotage. With that black light entrenched in his dantian, it was impossible for Gu Mo to complete the process—at least, not within three days.
If he couldn't draw qi into his body within three days, Gu Mo would be expelled from Qinglu Sect, cutting off his path to cultivation. Becoming a rogue cultivator wasn't a viable option either, given his inferior spiritual root—it was practically a dead end.
While rogue cultivators enjoyed more freedom, they had to fight for every cultivation technique, elixir, and spirit stone, often at great personal risk. If Qinglu Sect didn't have strict requirements for personal background, they could easily recruit many rogue cultivators with actual cultivation levels.
Since conventional methods wouldn't help him draw qi into his body, Gu Mo turned his attention to the Sunflower Seed he had obtained from the dark mist space. If he could successfully grow the sunflower and obtain its Solar Essence, perhaps it could aid him in his cultivation.
Gu Mo felt certain that the Solar Essence would bring him unexpected benefits. However, the problem was that the sunflower required a spiritual field to grow. Qinglu Sect certainly had spiritual fields, and some of the servant disciples would eventually be assigned to manage them.
But that was only after they officially became servant disciples with cultivation. For now, Gu Mo and the others were confined to this area. Anyone who left without permission would be immediately expelled.
Feeling stuck, Gu Mo decided to go out and gather some information. After all, staying holed up here wouldn't solve anything.
Leaving his small hut, it was already midday of the second day. Though they were only servant disciples, Qinglu Sect provided each person with a separate hut for a simple reason—cultivation required an undisturbed environment. Living with others would make it impossible to focus on cultivation.
The first place Gu Mo went to was the dining hall. He was still a mortal and needed to eat. Even after drawing qi into his body and stepping onto the path of cultivation, he wouldn't be able to practice breatharianism right away.
The diary had notes about the dining hall, so Gu Mo easily found the location. Surprisingly, there were very few people inside, even though it was mealtime.
The reason for this sparse crowd wasn't hard for Gu Mo to guess—everyone was busy cultivating. With inferior spiritual roots, the only way to make any progress was to spend more time on cultivation.
The dining hall provided free, ordinary meals. By mortal standards, the food could be considered a delicacy. However, better options like spiritual grains and spirit beast meat required additional payment, and not with mundane gold or silver, but with spirit stones or sect contributions.
After finishing his meal, Gu Mo headed straight to the library. The library accessible to servant disciples obviously didn't contain anything extraordinary. It mostly housed books related to various aspects of immortal cultivation and some basic, low-level spells.
Since servant disciples were destined to handle various chores related to immortal cultivation, it was necessary for them to familiarize themselves with such knowledge in advance.
Gu Mo's goal was precisely these books, especially those related to spiritual fields. If he could solve the issue of the spiritual field, he could grow the sunflower.
"There it is!"
Soon, Gu Mo's eyes lit up with excitement. He had indeed found a solution in these books—a method that allowed him to grow the sunflower without needing an actual spiritual field.
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