The Lingyun Sect had daily lessons that had to be studied. Newly inducted disciples had to start from the most basic theoretical knowledge. They wouldn’t be going to the martial arena just yet, instead, they would be reciting theory under a Teacher at the lecture hall on Yingzhao Peak. Every day’s curriculum was dull, especially the mental cultivation theory classes.
Classes began at the hour of Chen and ended at the hour of You. All disciples were required to strictly follow this schedule, no slacking off, no tardiness.
Gu Er looked at the schedule and found it acceptable. After all, back in high school, she’d had to get up at five in the morning for school.
The Teacher who taught theory and mental cultivation was surnamed Wu, a white-haired old man who wore a square scholar’s cap and kept a long white beard. He was rigid and stubborn by nature, and during class he always liked to hold a wooden ruler in his hand. If a student he called upon couldn’t answer a question, they’d get their palm smacked with that ruler.
The disciples were all rather afraid of him, terrified that the next moment he might call out their name!
Today, Teacher Wu was lecturing on the foundational mental method for entering the Qi Refining stage. The children were all listening attentively, but for aristocratic youths like Lu Yunqi, this content had long been memorized to the point of boredom. Still, out of deference to the Teacher’s authority, they could only force themselves to stay alert and pretend to listen.
Gradually, the class’s attention began to scatter.
From somewhere, paper balls started flying, tracing arcs through the air as they silently darted between seats.
Time ticked by, minute after minute. Gu Er sat in her seat, her eyelids fighting to stay open, drowsiness creeping up to her brow. Children had limited energy, and every day felt like she never got enough sleep.
She couldn’t help but sneak a yawn, propping her head up with her hand, on the verge of dozing off.
Suddenly, a paper ball landed right at her feet, not a single inch off. Gu Er was still lost in her drowsiness and didn’t react at all.
Just then, Teacher Wu noticed something amiss in the classroom and looked up from his book.
Everyone was sitting upright, except for Gu Er, who was propping her face with her hand, looking completely listless.
His expression hardened. He rose and walked over to Gu Er, tapping his wooden ruler lightly against her desk with a crisp sound that jolted her out of her haze.
“Gu Er, you’re sleeping quite soundly. Have you already mastered everything I’m teaching, or do you have some better insights of your own?” Teacher Wu was somewhat angry, his tone carrying a note of displeasure. “In that case, let me test you. Introduce to everyone the objects that each sect uses to verify one’s identity.”
Gu Er snapped to full alertness in an instant. She took a deep breath to calm herself, recalled that yesterday’s lesson, and answered steadily: “In answer to you, Teacher, they are the jade token, the white feather, the silver bell, the jade stone, and the palace flower.”
Teacher Wu listened quietly, his expression gradually softening. When Gu Er finished, he nodded slightly. “Well said. Then let me ask you another question, regarding the Lingyun Sect’s foundational mental method for entering Qi Refining, the step of guiding Qi into the body. Tell me, how should it be done?”
“Guiding Qi into the body, the key lies in sensing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, using one’s intent as the guide to draw that spiritual energy into the eight extraordinary meridians, then gathering it in the dantian.” Gu Er hadn’t actually been asleep, just drowsy. She’d still taken in what the Teacher was teaching.
“Your answer is acceptable.” But then, the Teacher’s tone shifted. “However, being so inattentive in class, you will copy this foundational mental method for entering Qi Refining thirty times. Let that deepen your impression!”
After finishing the first volume of the mental method, perhaps wanting to give the new disciples time to comprehend, Teacher Wu didn’t lecture much further.
“This volume’s content requires you to ponder it yourselves. Guiding Qi into the body is the first step on the path of cultivation, and it is also a long-term process. Whether you can sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, gather it within your body, and make it your own, that depends on your own comprehension. Some people enter the Dao in a single moment, while others spend their entire lives unable to even touch that threshold.”
The dusk was heavy, the setting sun like blood. Its remaining light filtered through the mottled window lattices, spilling across the blue bricks and casting long shadows.
Teacher Wu stood at the podium with his hands clasped behind his back, his slender figure gilded with a layer of golden light in the sunset, lending him an even more immortal air.
He stroked his beard and spoke calmly: “Ten years from now will be the Grand Immortal Sects’ Competition. If any of you can reach the Foundation Establishment stage within these ten years, you will be qualified to participate. I hope that someone among you can achieve this.”
At last, the long day of lectures came to an end. The disciples were relieved, already exhausted.
Gu Er raised her head, gazing out the window at the slowly sinking red sun. Her delicate brows furrowed slightly as she let out a helpless sigh, she still had thirty copies of the mental method to write.
“Alright, that’s all for today.” Teacher Wu’s voice rang out again. “Tomorrow’s class, no skipping, no arriving late, no leaving early. If I catch anyone violating the sect rules, then you can wait for this old man’s ruler to teach you a lesson!”
The bell for dismissal rang out leisurely, and the students gradually dispersed. Gu Er was staring at the densely packed mental method text, feeling troubled.
Just then, Zhong Daoxue trotted over to Gu Er’s seat, her cheeks puffed up with indignation: “Want me to help you copy some of it? You already answered the questions correctly, why does the Teacher still have to punish you with copying? That’s so unfair!”
Gu Er’s lips curved upward into a faint smile as she reached out and gently squeezed Zhong Daoxue’s puffed-up cheeks. “It’s alright, Sister Daoxue. It’s only thirty times, I’ll finish copying it in no time. You go on back first. I’ll return to the room once I’m done.”
Because they were to study at Yingzhao Peak for three years, most inner disciples returned to Yingzhao Peak to reside, except for Yan Mingchuan and a few others who still had to go back to Chuyun Peak to learn specialized sword techniques.
Night fell, and Gu Er returned to her room. Candlelight flickered within, shadows dancing across the walls.
Following the descriptions in the book, she sat cross-legged on the bed, palms and soles facing upward toward the heavens, and began to breathe deeply, attempting to draw spiritual energy into her body.
The moment she closed her eyes, Gu Er’s world plunged into darkness.
Time passed second by second. All was silent, save for the occasional chirping of insects drifting in through the window.
Gradually, Gu Er’s heart grew calmer and calmer, and the things around her seemed to recede further and further away.
When everything vanished completely, a glimmer of light seemed to appear in the darkness that had enveloped Gu Er’s world.
Multicolored specks of light flickered faintly, rising slowly from the boundless darkness. These specks were the physical manifestation of heaven and earth’s spiritual energy, drifting lazily through the air.
Growing brighter, specks of warm yellow light slowly drifted closer to Gu Er.
Little by little, the yellow specks multiplied.
Gu Er focused her will, carefully guiding these specks of light.
Countless yellow specks began to converge toward her, but when they touched her body and tried to enter her meridians, they encountered blockage.
The specks seemed trapped in a quagmire, advancing with extreme difficulty, every tiny movement seemed to drain all of Gu Er’s mental strength.
Her forehead was covered in sweat, and beads of perspiration the size of beans rolled down her cheeks, dripping onto the bed. Her face flushed red from exertion, and her hands unconsciously clenched into fists, fingertips turning white.
Time passed, and the room was so quiet that only Gu Er’s slightly rapid breathing could be heard.
The yellow specks continued to hover outside her body. Occasionally, one or two managed to enter her meridians, but they could only struggle forward a very short distance before stalling again.
Just as she felt exhausted and on the verge of giving up, a sudden tingling sensation ran through her meridians, one speck had actually broken through a blockage and advanced a small distance toward her dantian.
Gu Er felt a surge of excitement. She gritted her teeth and continued trying to draw spiritual energy into her body.
…
Time flew by. The introductory mental technique was only studied for two months, and after those two months, Gu Er and the others were to follow Elder Fang Zhiran to learn swordsmanship.
This sword technique was mandatory for everyone in Lingyun Sect. Array cultivators and talisman cultivators might not need to use it, but they were required to know it.
The sword techniques of Lingyun Sect were largely similar. This particular manual had been passed down from generation to generation since the sect’s founding, and it was the first book every disciple of the inner and outer peaks encountered.
Although Gu Er absorbed spiritual energy slowly and had only just managed to draw it into her body, her speed in learning the Lingyun Sect’s Lingyun Sword Art was anything but ordinary.
According to the senior brothers and sisters who had joined earlier, even the senior disciple had taken over a decade to fully comprehend this sword technique. One could only say she had natural insight, but a weak foundation.
Morning sunlight spilled across the training grounds, casting a cold gleam on the sword blades. Gu Er wore a moon-white training robe and held a longsword in her hand.
She gently wielded the sword, her movements flowing like water, each stance executed with precision and grace, as if she had become one with the blade. A gentle breeze swept by, causing her sleeves to flutter and her hair to drift lightly.
“Gu Er, you’re amazing! You learned it so fast!” Zhong Daoxue watched from the side, clapping happily, her eyes full of admiration.
Gu Er felt a little flustered. She scratched the back of her neck and gave an awkward smile without saying anything.
She didn’t know why herself, every stance felt familiar, and she simply performed them naturally.
“So what if she practices well? Isn’t she still a useless waste who can’t even draw spiritual energy into her body?” A disciple standing in the distance spoke with disdain, a hint of contempt in his eyes.
“What did you say?” Zhong Daoxue grew angry at those words, her eyes wide as she drew her sword, ready to confront him.
Gu Er quickly grabbed Zhong Daoxue and shook her head at her. “Forget it, Sister Daoxue.”
Zhong Daoxue stamped her foot, still somewhat angry, her cheeks flushed. “Gu Er, you’re just too easygoing.”
Gu Er said nothing more. She smiled sweetly at the other party, but there was a barely perceptible depth to her smile.
Only those who knew Gu Er well understood that the other person was in for trouble. A gentleman avenges himself ten years later, she wasn’t retaliating now simply because it wasn’t the right time.
Seeing Gu Er’s face, the disciple’s ears tinged slightly red, and he muttered, “Waste.”
Meanwhile, in the sect’s Elder Pavilion, sandalwood incense curled upward in a tranquil atmosphere.
Fang Zhiran and Bai He sat facing each other, two cups of clear tea on the low table between them, steam rising gently.
Fang Zhiran frowned, his fingers tapping lightly on the table, a puzzled expression on his face. “How strange. This Gu Er clearly has a thunder spiritual root. By all logic, she should absorb spiritual energy extremely quickly, so why is she so slow?”
“Perhaps she hasn’t fully comprehended it yet. It’s only been two months, why rush?” Bai He raised her teacup, taking a gentle sip with a leisurely demeanor.
“But fortunately, although this child lacks spiritual power, her comprehension of swordsmanship is indeed astonishing.” Elder Fang Zhiran observed from the side, inwardly admiring. “Yesterday I watched her practice her sword forms, every stance and movement carried a hint of that person’s former grace.”
Seven hundred years ago, the head disciple under the Lingyun Sect’s Sect Master also possessed a thunder spiritual root, and was exceptionally gifted.
Her enlightenment in cultivation was extremely high. What others needed vast amounts of time to understand, she could often grasp with ease. When building her foundation and forming her nascent soul, she accomplished it all in one smooth flow, as effortlessly as drinking water.
The world all said that Immortal Lord Qingheng was the foremost prodigy of the cultivation world, but only those who had witnessed the Grand Sect Competition five hundred years ago truly knew what a real genius looked like.
It was a pity that in the four-hundred-year Immortal-Demon War, so many geniuses fell, and now only a handful of survivors remain.
The moment Bai He heard this, she knew who Fang Zhiran was referring to, and recalled with regret, “Yes, she was broad-minded and transcendent, with extraordinary comprehension, yet in the end, she fell into the demonic path.”
…
Every year, the Lingyun Sect organized a group of disciples to descend the mountain for a month of training. These disciples were all direct students of the elders of each peak, and the training grounds were mostly the surrounding towns at the foot of the mountain. Only high-level cultivators could travel further to cultivate.
As newly inducted disciples, Gu Er and the others, even as direct disciples of elders, were temporarily unable to participate in the training. She found this extremely regrettable; the monotonous days of meditation and memorizing scriptures were driving her mad.
Fortunately, aside from the annual training, there was also the opportunity for inner disciples to go to the outer sect to teach.
Although Gu Er had only just drawn qi into her body, her sword forms were precise and beautiful, more than enough to teach the outer disciples. Besides, this was a perfect chance for her to go to the outer sect and see if Cen Shiqing was there.
The next day, before dawn had fully broken, a soft morning light had just begun to spread across the sky, tinged with a hint of pale white.
Gu Er was awakened from her dreams by an urgent call.
“Gu Er, get up quickly, we’re going to Half-Mountain Peak to teach the outer disciples!” Zhong Daoxue’s voice carried a note of urgency, clear and distinct in the quiet room.
Gu Er groggily turned over, her long black hair a tangled mess, like a bird’s nest.
Her eyes were still heavy with sleep, carrying a hint of laziness and confusion, as she mumbled, “Let me sleep a little longer…” The words had barely left her mouth when she suddenly snapped awake, remembering that today was the important day for teaching the outer disciples.
In an instant, her spirits lifted, and her previously hazy eyes became clear and bright.
She quickly sat up, deftly straightened her robes, and simply combed through her hair, tying it into a neat ponytail. Then, following Zhong Daoxue, she walked briskly toward the outer sect.
When they arrived at the outer sect, they saw a crowd of outer disciples already standing in neat rows, all craning their necks in anticipation, their eyes filled with a thirst for knowledge. A gentle breeze swept by, rustling the disciples’ robes with a soft swishing sound.