Applied Immortality

Chapter 7: That’s a Joke

On the way to Albion Village, Li Ziye and Xiang Qi introduced Wang Qi to the common sense of modern cultivation, making the trip faster.

Li Ziye sent a village-wide message with his power, notifying the people that the Immortal Alliance was searching for traitors. The two of them were stationed in Albion Village to stop those evil men from attacking it again. Wang Qi poked fun by saying it sounded like bragging, though the villagers were indeed relieved.

To appease them further, he made a show of taking Wang Qi to Daoist Proscribe’s house. Since the Immortal Alliance had made Daoist Proscribe wanted, he made a habit of carrying with him everything he had. Aside from a stack of indecipherable scrolls, the search brought no real results.

Li Ziye began pointing out the modern system to Wang Qi. 

The modern cultivation stages were very distinct from the ancient system. First of all, modern cultivation was split into four stages, Nurturer, Secular, Eminence, and Unfettered. 

The first stage involved no mystical art or gaining spiritual power, but improving one’s lifespan; hence, Nurturer.

The Nurturer Stage was split into three realms, Soulcare, Education, and Reaching Heaven. The first of the three strengthened the soul and broadened the mind, to lay the foundation and feel the world’s breath. Education implied learning the concise knowledge of forebearers pertaining to the world’s nature, in preparation to integrate with the breath of the world. Finally, Reaching Heaven was the official link with the breath of the world. 

Since these realms could be approached at the same time, people referred to them simply as Reaching Heaven. Nurturer’s three realms corresponded to the ancient system’s Awakening, Revolving Illumination, and Soulstice.

The Secular Stage was split into Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment and Golden Core, the most similar to the ancient way. Qi Refining meant leveraging the world to absorb the spiritual power beyond it and turn it into one’s own spiritual power. Foundation Establishment implied using the spiritual power to form one’s base, and Golden Core pointed at forming one’s inner core with that foundation. 

Eminence was also split into three realms, Primordial Spirit, Emptiness, and Nirvana. In this stage, the difference between the modern and ancient systems became clearer.

An ancient Core Formation cultivator needed to grow a spiritual body inside the core, called Nascent Soul. Letting the soul emerge from the core would one enter the Nascent Soul Stage. After the Nascent Soul Stage, a cultivator correlated the Nascent Soul with their soul, to attain Spirit Severing, enabling them to divide their consciousness and perform amazing abilities. Unity Integration Stage implied combining Nascent Soul with one’s body, to mold a nigh impervious body. 

Modern cultivators treated Golden Core as their, well, core, the foundation of their power. They would make of their soul an inner world in tune with the world outside, reaching Primordial Spirit Realm. 

A Primordial Spirit’s inner world resembled the outer one to some degree, making it so one would not need to rely on the breath of the world, able instead to take directly from the great beyond to train their spiritual power, growing without limit and reaching Emptiness.

Lastly, the inner world would drive the body’s growth and reach Nirvana.

Unfettered referred to just one stage, the Unfettered Stage, corresponding to the Great Ascension Stage of ancient cultivation. What this wondrous stage entailed and offered, Li Ziye and Xiang Qi did not know.

Li Ziye ended the summary introduction to modern cultivation and finished by giving Wang Qi a bookcase, no bigger than Wang Qi’s backpack from his old life. Li Ziye said that this little box had no less than a hundred basic books. They were related to the Education Realm but were also included in the sect admission exam. 

Wang Qi felt like a freshman with all the books.

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After giving him the bookcase, Li Ziye added, “Education Realm and Reaching Heaven Realm are the best way to test one’s talent. The average person would take four years to complete, with a genius doing it in just a year. Anyone taking longer than four years has next to no hope at Foundation Establishment, though not absolute. I heard Searing Heaven Manor has a Primordial Spirit Eminence named Su that took five years to finish Reaching Heaven, quite the late bloomer, so to speak.” 

Wang Qi nodded, concluding, “This inspiring story tells us not to give up on every minor setback…”

Li Ziye chuckled, “I see you understand, good. Ancient system’s Spirit Body and modern’s Reaching Heaven are heavily conflicting. I also don’t know how much of a mark the ancient system left on you. First, go through these books and I’ll tutor you in the afternoon. Pay particular attention to Unraveled Mystics and World’s Nature. The latter is mandatory for Reaching Heaven, while the former is abstruse but contains profound knowledge pertaining to the core of modern cultivation.”  

Wang Qi nodded, about to leave when Li Ziye called out, “Oh, let me just seal your spiritual power. The ancient system’s Qi Refining makes it so the flow of your spiritual power would interfere with the spiritual energy flow outside, stopping you from feeling the breath of the world. I need to seal it completely, mandatory to all transitioning to the modern system.”

——————————————————————————————

Noon found Li Ziye sitting cross-legged on an old tree in the Wang clan’s garden, letting the late spring sun’s rays soothe his skin. 

He quite enjoyed basking in the sun. In the Myriad Arts Sect, whenever there was a math problem he couldn’t finish or the routine of the same calculations wore him down, he would go out under a clear blue sky and enjoy the sun.

His fellow brothers hazed him, saying he’d take a Brilliance Palace female disciple one day and have sun all day long. It wouldn’t hurt to spice things up in the sack with a little light show either.  

Li Ziye was an easygoing guy, laughing along at their jokes.

He was not thinking about Hilbert’s 23 Problems and their complex mathematical calculations, his mind was taken back to the days when the tutors offered him guidance.

He had nothing but admiration for Wang Qi, who was a cut above the rest that only craved more and more power. The child only saw cultivation as an exciting activity that was fun and enjoyable; a great seed for modern cultivation. 

“Senior brother Li!” Xiang Qi broke him out of his thoughts.

Li Ziye looked below to find Xiang Qi skipping over with hovering plates of food with the help of her spiritual power.

Li Ziye shook his head, “Junior sister Xiang, how much money did you bring?”

Xiang Qi blinked, “Eh?”

“You can’t just always resort to taking another’s food.”

Xiang Qi finally reacted, “The villagers pushed all these on me.”

Li Ziye gave a skeptical look at all the food floating about Xiang Qi. Fine potato slices — though not at the level of a high-class chef — beans, eggplants, and other vegetables glistening on the plates, stir-fried or steamed, the meat was the best quality tenderloin. And let’s not mention the chicken and duck soups. 

“Mortal living has reached such high standards?”

Li Ziye doubted. Based on Albion Village’s population, landscape, and vegetation data he had, it was clear that the village would need a year of income to reach such a level. 

Xiang Qi smiled, “They say since there’s an immortal here, they should celebrate and bask in their grand presence. Hey, senior brother Li, are we to bask in that guy’s lame ‘presence’ as well?”

[What a bunch of adorable villagers.]

Li Ziye chuckled and jumped down from the tree, twirling a piece of roasted meat in front of Xiang Qi, “It’s crispy too. How long has it been since I’ve enjoyed a farmer’s cooking?” 

“Right?” Xiang Qi let the meals down on a stone table in a chipper mood. Li Ziye found a pair of plates and chopsticks in the kitchen, and the two enjoyed the lavish meal.

“How’s the kid doing?” Xiang Qi asked.

Li Ziye said, “I just left him books to study. Speaking of, I thought you didn’t like him.”

Xiang Qi scoffed, “He’s an ancient cultivator, isn’t he? They always end up harming others and themselves. I admit he has a sharp tongue, though funny as hell.”

Li Ziye oohed, changing topics, “Junior sister Xiao, your sect mission should be finished with this, yes?”

She nodded, “Guarding for a year can be said to be a challenging and rewarding mission, but finished at last.”

“Do you have any plans now?”

“I have enough merits to buy materials to refine a few swords from the Celestial Blade Discs’ fourth period. I want to attempt refining the fourth period in Foundation Establishment.”

Li Ziye clapped, “How bold! The average Scorching Metal Valley cultivator refining Celestial Blade Discs starts off with easier swords. Your attempt is almost on par with Celestial Periodic Blade Meng Jiefu.” (Tamon: Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev, inventor and chemist that formulated Periodic Law) 

Xiang Qi shook her head, “I could never measure up to Swordmaster Meng’s level. Achieving all 118 swords of the Celestial Blade Discs will only be a dream. Besides, there are rumors in Scorching Metal Valley that Swordmaster Meng is attempting to refine the impossible and nonexistent 8th period.” (Tamon: the periods here are the row of elements in the periodic table.)

Li Ziye sighed, “Senior’s genius is beyond everyone’s comprehension. But this shows junior sister Xiao has a whole future ahead of you.”

Li Ziye poured a cup of rice wine, “A cup of unfiltered wine will help junior sister’s cultivation by leaps and bounds.” 

“But not enough to reach senior brother Li.” Xiang Qi was stern, “You are a genius Myriad Arts Sect disciple, finishing the first problem of Hilbert’s 23 Problems before having reached Golden Core. And after attaining Golden Core, “Xiang Qi paused, eying the sword case on his back, she resumed, “you passed the Heavenly Sword Mind Trial. You took half a year to attain Reaching Heaven, and it’s become widespread knowledge that the sky’s the limit for senior brother Li.”

A cryptic spiritual power flowed across the garden just then.

Li Ziye beamed, “It’s… Reaching Heaven…”

Xiang Qi sounded unsure, “Reaching Heaven?”

Li Ziye nodded, “Rea-” His smile froze.

There were only three cultivators here, and only one who hadn’t attained Reaching Heaven.

Pa!

Xiang Qi’s stone chair cracked.

Pa!

Li Ziye’s chopsticks snapped in his hand.

Crack~

The stone table sported bigger and bigger cracks as well.

This was the result of leaking spiritual power from a cultivator with an unsettled mind.

“Who was it again, the fastest in history…”

Xiang Qi found herself hardly able to formulate words.

“Transcendent, Reaching Heaven in half a month.” Li Ziye felt he was dreaming, “Supreme Lord and Daoist Proscribe got it around the same time. Heavenly Lord…”

Each and every renowned genius that left his mark on history came to Li Ziye’s mind, yet none of them came close to Wang Qi’s display.

The hard part of Reaching Heaven was blending with the breath of the world. It required one to know the fundamentals of the world, its nature and laws, or Dao, so that one would form the basics of Dao within themselves.

This was done by going through many different authors’ works and theories on Dao.

It was a lengthy process, of course. Attaining Reaching Heaven in a year meant one had the right to become a sect’s inner disciple. While the basic condition for a cultivator to become Unfettered was to do it in a month at the very latest. 

Wang Qi had only got introduced to modern cultivation this morning and had been perusing the bookcase Li Ziye gave him only for the length of a meal.

Yet that was all it took for Reaching Heaven?

This was no longer a legend.

[T-this is nothing more than a sick joke!]