YM778.TV Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Difficult Cultivation
Yang Ji was finally free.
With Luo Xiong\'s constraints and threats gone, the sky was high, and the earth was wide; he was at ease and could go wherever he wanted.
His emotions, suppressed for eighteen years, burst forth, though he had intended to shout it out, the stuffiness merely rushed to his chest and was heavily exhaled through his nostrils.
With Luo Xiong\'s death, the cause and effect had ended, and unexpectedly, he felt a sense of emptiness.
Shaking his head, Yang Ji extended his hand and pulled out the Flying Sword from Luo Xiong\'s chest.
He then began to search the body and quickly found a Storage Bag, the size of a palm, as he had hoped for.
Yang Ji took a deep breath, his heart pounding with excitement, and hurriedly reached out with his Divine Sense to feel what was inside.
Instantly, his eyes lit up with surprise.
"Indeed! My sword stroke was as fast as the wind, as swift as lightning; my cheap master had no idea it was coming. With one strike, he was severely injured, his spirit weakened, and he couldn\'t even destroy his own Storage Bag. This treasure has fallen into my hands for no cost."
Yang Ji was overjoyed.
His Divine Sense immediately entered the Storage Bag, and after a sweep, his face quickly turned to "loneliness".
Aside from a few old robes and Silver Taels, there was nothing else inside.
"It seems that in order to train me, my cheap master had exhausted all his savings, not even a single Spirit Stone left, no Medicine Pills either."
Yang Ji shook his head repeatedly, but obtaining a Storage Bag was still a win.
Right away, he prepared to cremate his cheap master\'s robes.
But just as he lifted a corner of the garment, his expression suddenly fixed.
"What\'s this..."
"\'Light Body Technique,\' \'Water-Following Sword Technique,\' \'Water Ascendancy Technique\'?"
"Hahaha, my good master indeed. He always refused to teach me all of the \'Water Ascendancy Technique,\' but I never thought the last five layers would be in this Storage Bag. It seems I need to give him a grand burial after all."
Looking at the three secret manuals hidden beneath the robes, Yang Ji was excited beyond measure. With these last five layers of techniques, he would be able to cultivate to the Tenth Layer of Qi Refining.
The acquisition of the \'Water-Following Sword Technique\' and the \'Light Body Technique\' also increased his strength, giving him more confidence to face the as yet fully unexplored Cultivation World.
Yang Ji was in high spirits, he quickly dealt with Luo Xiong\'s body, burying it in the depths of the cave where he was located.
This cave was warm in the winter and cool in the summer, with green stones paving the ground and all the necessities of life on hand; Yang Ji planned to use it for closed-door cultivation.
Looking out of the cave, he now turned his gaze to himself, and various information appeared on his body.
[Name: Yang Ji]
[Spiritual Root: Lower-grade]
[Longevity: 18/100]
[Realm: Fifth Layer of Qi Refining (1/1600)]
[Cultivation Technique: Water Ascendancy Technique]
[Techniques: Water-Following Sword Technique (Uninitiated), Light Body Technique (Uninitiated)]
Yang Ji sat cross-legged, with a dignified aura, his hands forming seals, and soon he entered meditation.
[You begin to comprehend the Water-Following Sword Technique.]
[You have comprehended the wrong direction.]
[You correct yourself in time and ponder again.]
[You once again comprehend the wrong direction.]
[After five attempts, you finally embark on the correct path of enlightenment.]
[A day has passed, and as you continue to ponder, you finally perceive a trace of the true essence of Water Tracing.]
[Water Tracing means following the water; with one stroke of the sword, it aligns with the great current of the water flow, fierce and swift, fast and quick.]
[You have mastered the basics of the Water-Following Sword Technique and comprehended the Smooth Water Sword.]
[Water-Following Sword Technique (Initiated): 1/10]
Looking at the information display, Yang Ji was calm.
The same was true when he started cultivating the \'Water Ascendancy Technique\'; there were prompts for correcting errors.
This was what he found most satisfying about the Golden Finger.
Cultivating Techniques and learning skills could save him from taking wrong turns and make the most of his limited time.
Initially, he had comprehended the first layer of the \'Water Ascendancy Technique\' within a single day and had cultivated a trace of spiritual power; Luo Xiong even exclaimed that he was a genius, truly a prodigy with exceptional understanding.
However, in Yang Ji\'s view, he simply applied his effort in the correct place and achieved results with half the effort.
After entering the doorway of the \'Water-Following Sword Technique,\' Yang Ji immediately stood up, picked up the longsword forged from furnace fire and ordinary iron beside him, and began to practice.
[You have begun practicing the Water Tracing Sword Technique.]
[The sword qi is cold and fierce; a sword shines brightly. With over a decade of foundational experience in fencing, you quickly get the hang of it, and your proficiency continuously increases.]
[In your heart, you possess the true essence of following the water; the spiritual power flows through the sword body, turning into a raging torrent. With your sword following the water, the sword qi roars as if an angry dragon from the deep sea leaps forth, its power astonishing.]
[Your sword moves are like the wind; each strike is swift and fierce. A point of white light suddenly appears in the air, the ultimate speed paired with unrivaled sharpness.]
[After three days of unrelenting, diligent practice, your proficiency in the Water Tracing Sword Technique has increased by +6.]
Boom!
Suddenly, there was an explosive sound; the longsword Yang Ji thrust out violently shattered, turning into countless fragments that shot in all directions.
"The sword burst?"
Yang Ji looked at the hilt that remained in his hand, slightly shaking his head and said, "After all, a regular grade sword is not a magic artifact. Although I have been carefully controlling the amount of spiritual power I imbue, it still burst."
There were no magic artifacts in Luo Xiong\'s storage bag that could be used, which was somewhat regrettable.
Now, without a suitable flying sword at hand, he gave up on that and sat down cross-legged to start comprehending the \'Light Body Technique.\'
Like the \'Water-Following Sword Technique,\' he easily entered the doorway of the \'Light Body Technique\' in just one day.
Practicing in the cave for a while, Yang Ji soon found that due to the size of the cave, the Light Body Skill was difficult to fully deploy.
Deciding that it was better when his proficiency reached 2, he gave up on cultivation of the technique and began to rotate the Ling Water Technique to absorb spiritual energy and improve his cultivation.
Although he had temporarily set aside the \'Water-Following Sword Technique\' and the \'Light Body Technique,\' Yang Ji highly valued the practice of these techniques in his heart.
Luo Xiong had said to him before, "Without cultivating techniques in the world of cultivation, you are at the mercy of others once you step outside."
To ordinary people, cultivation seems carefree and unbridled, little knowing that the path of cultivation is filled with strife. Without the ability to kill enemies with one sword, how can one establish a footing in this world of shadows and slaughter?
Luo Xiong\'s verbal instruction and personal example served as the best warning and case.
He has spoken to Yang Ji about some of his past events.
The reason his foundation was damaged and he could hardly make any progress in cultivation was that he had a dispute with someone, which led to a fight that resulted in his foundation being destroyed.
This was the pain of his lifetime.
One could say that Luo Xiong too was a figure of tragedy, a minor reflection of the cruel world of cultivation.
In this vast world of cultivation, hidden beneath the desire for \'longevity,\' are slaughter, competition, shadows of blades, and blood.
The ladder to the pursuit of longevity is inevitably piled with skeletons!
Despite the hardships of achieving longevity...
But since Yang Ji had learned that he had crossed over into the world of cultivation, his goal had been to attain immortality.
He wished to follow the path of emperors like those of Qin and Han, seeking the immortal path to longevity.
However, constrained by his poor spiritual root and slow cultivation...
Over the past eighteen years, even with Luo Xiong\'s provision of various cultivation pills, Yang Ji\'s cultivation had merely barely reached the Fifth Layer of Qi Refining.
Yang Ji was well aware that his spiritual root was poor, so he cultivated diligently, wasting no time that could be used to enhance his cultivation.
At this moment, he sat on a meditation cushion, forming hand seals, one hand above the other, positioned at the location of his dantian.
As the Water Ascendancy Technique began to operate, the surrounding spiritual energy slowly gathered, like wisps of blue smoke, swirling into the space between his palms.
The spiritual energy was quickly absorbed by the spiritual root and entered the body\'s meridians for the microcosmic orbit.
Finally, after refinement by the cultivation technique, it turned into pure spiritual power that converged in the dantian.
Half a day passed, and after eighty-six microcosmic orbits, Yang Ji slowly opened his eyes.
Yet, looking inside at the almost unchanged spiritual power within his dantian, he couldn\'t help but frown.
"The spiritual energy dispersed in the world is too mixed; my lower-grade root bone has difficulty absorbing it. The amount of spiritual energy refined in one go is too little, and such pure cultivation is really too slow."
"No wonder my foster master used to look at me with a fleeting expression of [disdain] on his forehead."
"Without pills providing pure spiritual energy, the speed of cultivating with my lower-grade root bone has been abruptly reset to its original state."
Yang Ji sighed slightly and murmured unwillingly,
"I didn\'t expect that the days my foster master fed me were actually the happiest times of my cultivation."
At the same time, he was extremely grateful that over the years, his frugal master had not found any other person with spiritual roots but no background, otherwise, he might have been replaced.