Chapter 11: Do You Remember, Immortal Asking the Way

By the babbling brook, the boy gripped his small wooden sword, his eyes fixed on the white-haired man who had arrived on a flying sword.

"You have good potential. Would you like to come with me?" the white-haired man said.

Though young, how could he not see the allure of soaring through the heavens? He was about to agree when a stubborn voice rang out beside him, "Take me instead!"

The voice belonged to his playmate, the one he had just defeated in their "sword fight."

The boy knew his friend's stubbornness well. Like today's "sword fight," he had lost count of how many times they had fought. But because his friend had lost once before, he was determined to win back the victory.

The boy thought, perhaps they could cultivate together.

He couldn't remember many details, but he remembered the white-haired man's eyes. They were as clear as the stream and as vast as the sky.

The white-haired man looked at them with those eyes, at the two children who had been inseparable since childhood, a subtle smile playing on his lips.

"I only take one disciple," the white-haired man said.

He repeated, "You are both good, but I will only take one."

What to do? the boy wondered then.

But he only had time to think for a moment. The next instant, he was pushed into the river.

Splash!

The sound of water erupting.

His friend, the friend he had played with since they were naked, still just a child, had pushed him into the water without hesitation!

Through the rippling water, he saw his "friend's" expressionless face and the white-haired man's unchanging, calm gaze.

Then, a frosty white sword light soared into the sky.

His friend and the white-haired man were enveloped in that gorgeous and dazzling sword light, like a sudden clap of thunder, arriving abruptly and leaving just as abruptly.

Like countless legends of immortals seeking enlightenment, brushing past pitiful and ordinary mortals.

Leaving behind only unresolved feelings, disbelief, and countless midnight awakenings!

...

Jiang Wang opened his eyes, the pitch-black night enveloping everything around him. The dormitory was exceptionally quiet, with Linghe and Du Yehou's breathing long and rhythmic.

Jiang Wang knew they were practicing basic breathing exercises. Though simple and fundamental, only inner disciples were taught this. It was the foundation of the Zhuang Country Taoist Academy, unchanged for a hundred years.

There were few surprises in the selection of inner disciples at the Maple Forest City Taoist Academy. Linghe, Du Yehou, and Zhao Rucheng became new inner disciples, their names recorded on the Taoist jade slips enshrined in the sacrificial hall.

However, they were not considered formal hemp-robed Taoists until their Taoist meridians were revealed.

Meridian Opening Pills were worth a thousand gold pieces, and even though the Maple Forest City Taoist Academy was supported by the state, it couldn't give them out for free to every disciple. As the best of the outer disciples, they were selected into the inner sect and would generally have to wait at least a year, accumulating enough merit to be eligible for the Meridian Opening Pill.

The first in contribution among outer disciples each year can exchange contribution points for one Meridian Opening Pill. This is a special incentive for the outer disciples from the Taoist Academy. Since Jiang Wang appeared in this class, no one else could replicate his path.

Even so, Jiang Wang accumulated merit by fighting a life-and-death battle, to the point of exchanging for a Meridian Opening Pill. Now there was no other West Mountain bandit within a hundred miles of Maple Forest City to be exterminated.

Joining the outer sect of the Taoist Academy, working hard to cultivate, defeating countless competitors to enter the inner sect. After entering the inner sect, continuing to work hard to cultivate, accumulating mission contribution at the same time, and finally being granted the Meridian Opening Pill, stepping into the extraordinary. This is the normal path of Zhuang Country cultivators. It can be considered a clear and broad road.

However, compared to those who were born with Taoist meridians exposed, directly entering the inner sect to begin cultivating Taoist arts, these young people who take the outer sect promotion route do waste too much time.

On the road of cultivation, a step slow leads to every step being slow. This is why Jiang Wang worked so hard to complete tasks when he was in the outer sect, and it is also why Fang Pengju could not restrain his greed. No one wants to wait so many years!

Therefore, Jiang Wang understood Fang Pengju's desire but could not forgive his methods.

Like them, exceptional martial artists, whether Linghe or Du Yehou, who would be less eager for the extraordinary than Fang Pengju? But none of them did such despicable things.

Jiang Wang's father once said a sentence: People are defined by their choices. Jiang Wang deeply agreed.

And he was previously caught in a difficult choice.

As everyone knows, there are nine ranks of cultivators, with the first rank being the most revered, and the ninth rank being regarded as the beginning of the extraordinary. The sign of achieving the ninth rank is the formation of the Taoist vortex, where Taoist essence is self-generated.

Cultivators have passed through a long and immeasurable history, and there is naturally very detailed and in-depth research on this first step of the extraordinary.

The spine is regarded as the great dragon of the human body, and the Taoist meridian is hidden within the spine. After the Taoist meridian is revealed, the cultivator can use the power of Qi and blood to feed back to the Taoist meridian, thereby generating Taoist essence. Taoist essence is the foundation of all Taoist arts and the basis of the extraordinary.

Taking Jiang Wang's Earthworm Meridian as an example, each time he mobilizes the "Earthworm," he needs to mobilize a considerable amount of Qi and blood, and only after running through the entire spine can he generate a Taoist essence. Cultivators at Jiang Wang's level can only practice meridian flushing twice a day, accumulating two Taoist essences. It is not that he is not working hard, but his body does not allow it. Excessive consumption of Qi and blood damages the source and harms the spirit, which is completely not worth the loss.

After accumulating Taoist essence, the next step is to control the Taoist essence with the spirit, completely arranging the corresponding array points according to the foundation array map. Once the array is formed, the Taoist vortex is born.

As a cultivator who has already opened his meridians, the Maple Forest City Taoist Academy naturally taught the foundation array map. It is the common Primal Return Array in Zhuang Country, with a total of eighty-one array points. That is to say, if he can list the foundation array map without any errors, he will need at least forty-one days, nearly a month and a half, to truly become a ninth-rank cultivator. (The two Taoist essences Jiang Wang had accumulated before have been exhausted in battle.)

Of course, there was nothing difficult for Jiang Wang before this, but now that he has unexpectedly entered the Mirage of Taixu and inherited Zuo Guanglie's "Dongzhen Ruins Blessed Land," unlocking the corresponding Sword Discussion Stage and Enlightenment Stage, he also has new troubles.

Yesterday, after he obtained the Primal Return Array Map, in order to test the effect of the Enlightenment Stage, he invested all 1850 merit points into the deduction of the foundation array map. In the end, he obtained an extremely complex Stellar Array Map. The entire foundation array map has three hundred and sixty-five array points!

Not to mention the difficulty of listing the Stellar Array, even if he can perfectly replicate the foundation array map, it will take at least half a year to generate the first Taoist vortex.

And after that, from the ninth rank to the eighth rank, three Taoist vortices need to be established, and from the eighth rank to the seventh rank, nine Taoist vortices need to be established.

Calculated in this way, the time is too long!

The Stellar Array is undoubtedly stronger than the Primal Return Array, but the long time required for its foundation is exactly what Jiang Wang is hesitating about. He needs to improve his cultivation as soon as possible in order to catch up with those cultivators who are born with Taoist meridians exposed, but time waits for no one.

But after waking up from his dream tonight, he has made a choice.

Jiang Wang closed his eyes and activated the only Taoist essence generated yesterday, slowly moving it in his spine. In the vague world of perception he used to control Taoist essence, it was a vast and boundless space.

Because the great dragon lives here, it is also called the Spinal Sea.

But in the word of mouth of cultivators, it has a more resounding name—Tongtian Palace!

Penetrating Tongtian Palace and opening the Gate of Heaven and Earth is the transition from a beginner cultivator to an intermediate cultivator.

In the boundless Tongtian Palace, a Taoist essence is as small as a speck of dust. But it does not drift with the tide, but firmly and stubbornly carries out Jiang Wang's will. Moving, moving, finally hovering in the ideal place.

That is the position of the sun star in the Stellar Array Map.

When this Taoist essence hovered, Jiang Wang seemed to see the eyes of the white-haired cultivator when he was young again.

He will never forget when he was pushed into the water.

Those eyes seemed to be saying to him—

"The road of cultivation is competition."