Chapter 8: Cultivating

Translator: Cenniwdyl  Editor: Caron_

When night came, the Mo family’s huge house became completely quiet. Mo Tiange cautiously took out the book she smuggled back home from her bag. She lit an oil lamp, spread a piece of white paper on the table, and started to copy the book.

She learned to read from the age of three. At six years old, she started to go to school. Although the words she wrote weren’t exactly beautiful, they had the correct shapes and were legible.

At the end of the book, Qing Lian included some of his knowledge about cultivation.

For example, he said that most of the cultivation groups in the Celestial Pole were located in the southern area, on the Kunwu mountain range. This mountain range was endless, extending from the west to the east, completely surrounding the southern region of the Celestial Pole. People said there was a dense forest deep inside this mountain range. Numerous monstrous beasts wandered there. Only cultivators who reached the Core Formation realm or higher could cross these mountains and reach the south shore.

The southern Celestial Pole was a vast ocean. Some said there was also land across that ocean. However, Qing Lian had only heard about it briefly, so he couldn’t speak too much about it.

Mo Tiange remembered the Ancestor’s words. South of the sea… It must be Yunzhong, the place where the Ancestor came from.

Qing Lian once again mentioned that spiritual roots very rarely appeared among mortals. Nevertheless, the odds of spiritual roots emerging greatly increased among people whose ancestors were cultivators. According to him, this matter led to the emergence of cultivation clans.

In a cultivation clan, the ratio of cultivators to mortals might reach  1 in 1,000 or even 10 in 1,000 ¹ . If one was a cultivator, the possibility of spiritual roots appearing among his descendants could be as high as 10%. Therefore, in cultivation schools, sects, and clans, they usually encouraged cultivators to marry and have children. Regarding marriage between cultivators, it was equivalent to becoming Dual Cultivation partners. The cultivators would then be known as Dao companions or Immortal companions.

There was also something that greatly amazed Qing Lian. In the cultivation world, the strong cultivators were actually considered seniors. It was only between family members and between masters and disciples that the seniority arrangement was the same as the arrangement in the secular world. For other cases, the seniority order was decided only based on their cultivation stage without differentiating between men and women or old and young.

Qing Lian was especially curious about the equality between men and women. Male cultivators had concubines, but female cultivators also kept male companions. However, time was of the essence in cultivation. Thus, there weren’t many cultivators who kept concubines or male companions. Besides, in the cultivation world, where the strong cultivators were revered, being a concubine or male companion was extremely disgraceful. Unless it was because the master was very formidable or because the person had some unmentionable reasons, very few cultivators willingly became a concubine or a male companion.

However, even with the equality between men and women, the number of high-level female cultivators was still far fewer than male cultivators. First, it was because there were very few female cultivators among individual cultivators. Individual cultivators came from the secular world. Since women rarely left their houses in the secular world, it was difficult for them to encounter fated chances. The second reason was because although they were cultivators, in the end, they were still women – they were emotional and indecisive beings. Therefore, seven or eight out of ten cultivators in the Core Formation realm were usually male.

The latter part of the book talked about the unusual things Qing Lian gathered. It was divided into several categories: medicinal pills, magic weapons, cultivation techniques, formations and so on. His understanding of these items wasn’t deep, thus he only mentioned some examples that were well known in the cultivation world.

After taking about ten days to copy the book, Mo Tiange stealthily returned the book to the library. Unfortunately, the Old Master saw everything.

The Old Master appeared distracted as he flipped through the pages of the book. After a while, he finally sighed and said, “I didn’t believe in the so-called blood connection. But now, I have no choice but to believe it. You’re interested in these things probably because your father’s blood flows in your body. This is fine too. If one day you leave the village, maybe you can find your father.”

Mo Tiange was startled. The Old Master knows about Father? Father also has something to do with cultivation?

“Master, what do you know about my father?”

The Old Master put the book back and said, “I’m not too sure either. It was years ago when I met your father; I vaguely sensed that he practiced the Law of Immortality. However, when I asked him, he neither admitted nor denied it. Later, when your father was about to leave and bid his farewells, he admitted that his journey was dangerous and asked me to take care of you and your mother. At the time, you weren’t born yet, but he already knew you were a girl. Therefore, I believe he must’ve possessed the Law of Immortality.”

The Old Master then stroked her head and said, “You don’t have to worry about this. The Law of Immortality is hard to find. If you can’t find it, you just need to study well.”

Although she saw the Old Master leaving while shaking his head, Mo Tiange actually felt very excited.

Father possessed the Law of Immortality. If I practice that thing called the Art of Sunu, will I be the same as Father? Will I be able to find him?

With that idea in her mind, she started to earnestly think about her dream.

It was weird. She usually forgot her dreams when she woke up, yet this dream seemed like it had been engraved in her mind. Every word her Ancestor said, especially about the Art of Sunu, she remembered clearly.

Once school was over and she returned to the ancestral house, she shut herself into her room and thought about the Art of Sunu. She wasn’t even in the mood to play with Tianqiao.

The Ancestor said only female cultivators with a Pure Yin Constitution could cultivate the Art of Sunu. Using this cultivation technique, their cultivation would progress faster with half the effort. Despite having the Art of Sunu, since she possessed five elements spiritual roots but didn’t have a specific cultivation technique, her cultivation would still progress very slowly.

Mo Tiange was confused thinking about it. She had a body with a Pure Yin constitution, thus she had to cultivate the Art of Sunu so her cultivation could progress faster. But since she had five-elements spiritual roots, she needed another cultivation technique to cultivate. In the end, what kind of technique should she cultivate with?

Mo Tiange pondered it and came to a decision. No matter what technique she actually had to cultivate with, she only had the Art of Sunu for now. She had no choice but to cultivate with this first.

The first step of cultivation was letting aura into one’s body.

She sat cross-legged with a straight back with her soles and palms towards the sky according to the technique then she emptied her mind.

A child’s mind was very simple. In just a short while, she already entered a stage of meditation.

For her, it felt wonderful. The whole world seemed empty. Her body felt like it was floating softly, like a grain of sand blown by the wind. As time passed by, she started to feel like she was surrounded by water. It felt warm and safe, like her mother’s hug.

Inside this warmth, it felt like time didn’t exist. It felt like she herself didn’t exist.

After an unknown period of time, she was roused by the sounds outside. Opening her eyes, she finally saw that the sky was already bright while she was still in her cross-legged sitting position.

This… Did I succeed? However, she didn’t feel that spiritual aura thing. Did I fail?But she hadn’t sensed the passage of time and felt very invigorated instead. She didn’t feel like she stayed up for the whole night at all.

She didn’t have time to think about the matter thoroughly because Aunt Lin came and knocked on her door. She knew Aunt Lin must be telling her to work because her grandmother ordered her to. Otherwise, Uncle He and the others wouldn’t pretend like they didn’t see anything when she did.

Since she had no choice, she was forced to have to think more deeply about the matter later.

Her legs were numb from sitting the entire night. She almost fell when she tried to get down from the bed. Fortunately, her mood was great.

In the following days, Mo Tiange went to school with Tianqiao and helped Aunt Lin do various jobs during the day. At night, she continued to cultivate.

Although many days passed, she never felt the so-called spiritual aura – she always felt unnerved every time she finished cultivating. But once she remembered that this was related to her father, she gathered up her courage and began cultivating again.

In fact, she benefitted quite a bit from cultivating. For example, she no longer needed to sleep. She felt refreshed every time she finished cultivating. She also had improvements in her memory – whatever the Master taught, she only needed to listen to him once to remember the details. When she read in the library, she could understand the book without having to study it for too long. Even her strength became far greater now. Now she could carry one bucketful of water and wouldn’t feel tired when she worked with Aunt Lin.

Yet she also felt quite anxious because she never felt any spiritual aura. Is my cultivation method wrong?