Chapter 3: Cultivation

Chapter 3: Cultivation

Shang Yunduo was well aware of his own flying abilities.

He thought he'd fly with them for a bit to keep up appearances, then when he started to wobble, he'd use the excuse of his lingering injuries to stop and let Yan Jia and Wang Ming go on ahead.

Then, after resting, he'd slip away himself.

After all, he never really planned to find any Midnight Lotus, Fire Toad, or Cold Toad in the first place.

Counting the pills in his storage pouch, Shang Yunduo decided that once he was ready, he'd head away from the Taiyuan Sect, flying for at least ten days to half a month. With everyone focused on the secret realm now, no one would pay much attention to a rogue cultivator. By the time they came out of the secret realm, every sect would have lost quite a few disciples—one more or one less wouldn't make a difference, and by then, even fewer people would notice him.

Once he flew out of the Taiyuan Sect's territory and shed his original identity and the novel's plot, he'd find a small town or a cave to digest the basic techniques in his storage pouch.

Cultivation was actually pretty fun—light on his feet, full of energy, sharp senses, and the ability to fly.

Too bad he'd only learned for such a short time, practicing half-understood and haphazardly. After months of nonstop effort, day and night, he'd barely managed to master the Sword Flight Art, Flame Control, and the Singing Wind Sword Art.

And even that "mastery" came with a huge asterisk.

After all, he couldn't fly on his sword for more than half a day, his sword control precision was lacking, and his flame control only let him form a few fireballs with hand seals, barely able to adjust their size or stretch and flatten the fire in his hand. His sword art progress was a bit faster—he'd already reached the fifth level, and practicing it alongside Body Techniques made it come quickly.

Shang Yunduo guessed it was because the original "Shang Yunduo" had practiced all of these before. Picking them up again was like reviewing—the muscle memory was still there, and the spiritual energy flowed smoothly, so mastering them was especially fast.

Even though his sword flying wasn't great, Shang Yunduo still found it quite satisfying.

This was way more thrilling than skiing down an advanced slope. Flying, leaving the ground behind, without being stuck in a cockpit, weaving through mountains on a sword with the wind blowing in your face and against your body—that kind of freedom was something even extreme sports couldn't offer. After all, paragliding depended on wind and natural conditions, and a skateboard's high jump and landing lasted only a brief moment, but sword flying ignored the weather, let you control the time, and once you got the hang of it, you could twist and turn in the sky however you wanted.

This feeling of having the whole world beneath your feet, of going wherever you pleased, was incredibly addictive.

No wonder everyone wanted to cultivate immortality.

Flame Control and swordsmanship also had great potential.

Even though he'd only learned the basics, once Flame Control reached the fourth level, you could control the temperature of the fire. A Golden Core or Nascent Soul cultivator with a Fire Spirit Root could reduce someone to ashes with just a tiny spark.

And swordsmanship, while foundational in cultivation, had limitless potential. The Singing Wind Sword Art was just a basic technique, but at the fifth level, he could already carve a foot-deep gash into stone with a single strike—so strong it even scared himself.

With these skills, if he went to live in a city of ordinary people, he could easily dominate and never be bullied.

If he ever got his hands on higher-level techniques or sword arts in the future, he'd want to learn them too.

As for Golden Core or Nascent Soul, Shang Yunduo didn't dare to hope for that.

Sure, in the later parts of the novel, Golden Cores were a dime a dozen and Nascent Souls everywhere, but just thinking about those seven or eight million words he hadn't even fully read gave him an idea of how hard cultivation was.

That kind of thing was best left to Xiao Chi to strive for.

He was just an ordinary cannon fodder—couldn't get into top schools, couldn't win competitions—what difficulty could he set for himself in cultivation?

Defying fate and escaping a certain death must have already used up two lifetimes' worth of luck. Dreams had to be practical.

Shang Yunduo secretly set a goal he thought was realistic and achievable: Foundation Establishment.

The original body was at the peak of the Qi Refining Ninth Layer and just one step away from Foundation Establishment—he'd take that step!

But becoming a Foundation Establishment cultivator as a rogue cultivator was still extremely difficult. Even with his single fire-attributed Heavenly Spirit Root, without sect support, it relied heavily on luck.

Shang Yunduo figured he'd first try being a carefree rogue cultivator on his own, and if that didn't work, he'd find a small sect to rely on.

If all else failed, restoring his original cultivation level would be fine too—Qi Refining Peak, a hundred years of life, enough to make anyone envious.

He'd thought about how to leave and where to go, but the one thing Shang Yunduo hadn't expected was that other people's sword flying skills weren't much better than his!

Before he even got tired from flying, they'd already caught up with two groups of rogue cultivators heading west.

Shang Yunduo thought to himself, *Can these people... even make it?*

And what about those running on the ground?

By the time they arrived, the Midnight Lotus would probably have had its roots dug up by someone else.

His traveling companion Yan Jia was also struggling.

He had just stepped into the seventh layer of Qi Refining, his cultivation a bit weaker than Wang Ming's. After flying all morning, even using a spirit stone to replenish his spiritual energy once, he was now completely drained.

Seeing that Shang Yunduo and Wang Ming showed no signs of stopping, he had to speak up: "Senior Brother Shang, Senior Brother Wang, there's a small town up ahead. Let's rest there."

Shang Yunduo grunted, but inwardly, he was shocked.

He remembered that when they formed the team, Yan Jia said he was at the seventh layer of Qi Refining. Seventh layer of Qi Refining, and it couldn't compare to his fake Qi Refining Peak?

Shang Yunduo was deeply shaken.

Those inner disciples of the Taiyuan Sect flew through the mountains like they had Wind Fire Wheels under their feet—*whoosh*, they were gone in an instant. To avoid collisions, he never dared to fly high, sticking to low altitudes every day, skimming along the mountain edges to sneak into the introductory lectures.

Watching them fly like that every day, Shang Yunduo had subconsciously assumed that all Qi Refining stage cultivators could fly that well. He never expected the gap between outer and inner disciples to be so huge.

No wonder everyone wanted to enter the inner sect and reach Foundation Establishment.

Shang Yunduo belatedly realized that maybe he wasn't so weak after all.

Although he hadn't fully mastered the techniques the original "Shang Yunduo" knew, the body honed over years of training was genuinely at Qi Refining Peak.

It was like a martial arts master who had forgotten their moves but still had their physique and inner strength—swinging fists wildly could easily take down an ordinary person.

Shang Yunduo blinked, thinking, *Holy crap?!*

He glanced at Yan Jia, who immediately swallowed a Qi Recovery Pill after stepping off his flying sword. Wang Ming also looked exhausted, while he still had a good portion of his spiritual energy left!

Shang Yunduo's eyes lit up.

Yan Jia was at the seventh layer of Qi Refining, and Wang Ming was also at the seventh layer of Qi Refining. That meant his spiritual energy and flying ability were better than a seventh layer of Qi Refining cultivator!

Yan Jia: "Senior Brother, should we find a place to rest?"

Shang Yunduo, in a good mood, replied, "Sure!"

They landed in a small mortal town. Since it was near a sect, cultivators occasionally stopped here. Seeing them descend from the sky, the townsfolk were curious but not particularly scared, only timidly watching.

Qi Refining Cultivators hadn't yet reached the level of fasting, but they generally only ate food infused with spiritual energy. Mortal meals could only satisfy their appetite, not replenish spiritual energy, and eating too much was harmful to their bodies. The Taiyuan Sect required disciples to detach from the mundane—once they joined, whether inner or outer disciples, except in special circumstances, they were forbidden from eating mortal food.

In the past, a disciple who loved alcohol joined the sect but couldn't afford spirit wine. When his craving hit, he sneaked off to a mortal city to buy wine, got drunk, and slipped back into the sect. By the time he sobered up, he'd already been expelled from the Taiyuan Sect.

Since then, no disciple dared to bring mortal food into the sect. If they craved it, they only dared to sneak a bite or two while alone on a mission, digesting it completely before returning.

Naturally, Yan Jia and Wang Ming didn't dare to eat either.

Plus, they were wiped out spiritually and were desperate for energy, so they couldn't be bothered with food cravings. They rented a private room, sat down, ordered only a pot of tea, and each began to meditate and recover.

Shang Yunduo had it rough.

He'd been popping pills for six months—his taste buds were practically shot.

The only improvement came once, when he ran into some outer disciples secretly selling spirit fruits on his way to sneak into a lecture. Those fruits were sour and puckery, numbing his whole tongue. Even then, he couldn't bring himself to eat the last three; instead, he'd dice them, dry them, and brew them as fruit tea—steep them until the water was tasteless, then eat the soggy, bleached cubes.

He lived worse than a dog—heck, even the pigs in those online videos ate better.

They hit town at noon, right when everyone was cooking lunch. As soon as he stepped in, Shang Yunduo caught the scent of various foods, his mouth was watering like crazy.

That's when the downside of cultivation hit: not only was his vision and hearing sharper, his nose was too. Sitting in the town's largest restaurant, the smells from downstairs were slapping him right in the face, while on the table there was only a pot of tea.

No one had even touched the tea—Yan Jia and Wang Ming didn't even take a sip of water.

Shang Yunduo sat there, bored out of his mind.

He didn't do that whole meditation thing.

At first, he didn't know how, and later when he learned, things never went smoothly.

Whether due to his injuries or a conflict between the sect's basic cultivation technique and the technique Shang Yunduo had practiced before, whenever he meditated with the basic technique, not only did he fail to recover spiritual power, it actually clogged his spiritual energy and made his whole body ache and swell.

After a few tries he gave up. When hungry, he'd pop a pill or nibble a fruit; otherwise he'd just sit around, waiting for his body to slowly recover spiritual power naturally. Without his intervention, letting his spiritual energy flow naturally worked way better than meditating.

After a long silence, Shang Yunduo was getting hungrier. Seeing the other two still deep in meditation, he finally said, "I'm gonna take a walk."

It didn't matter if he sat, walked, or lay down—his spiritual power recovered at the same speed anyway.

Yan Jia and Wang Ming were taken aback for a second, then nodded.

They silently envied his spiritual power and quickly got back to regulating their breath.

Too embarrassed to order food in the restaurant, Shang Yunduo went to the street and found a shop selling roast chicken. He bought a whole roast chicken, didn't budge an inch, and stood right outside gnawing on both drumsticks first.

The owner's family was dumbfounded. After snapping out of it, the dad called to his kid: "Gou'er, go fetch a stool for the immortal master."

A little boy of five or six, still wearing a little belly wrap, responded and ran inside to bring Shang Yunduo a stool, while his mother also brought a pot of tea.

Shang Yunduo smiled, said thanks, and dug right in. He was starving—hadn't had a real meal in half a year. The more he chewed, the more his eyes welled up; he almost cried.

He wolfed down one chicken in silence, then ordered two more, tore off a drumstick, wrapped the rest in lotus leaves, and stuffed them into his storage pouch.

He had no silver coins, so he took out a spirit stone. The owner said he couldn't make change and had his son take Shang Yunduo to the biggest shop in town to cash it.

One low-grade spirit stone was exchanged for an entire pouch of loose change. Shang Yunduo generously gave the owner double the price and gave the kid a piece of silver for his trouble. "What else is there good to eat in town? Take your big brother here to buy some, and I'll give you another piece."

The boy beamed and led Shang Yunduo to buy a whole bunch of goodies, plus a basket of nice fruits.

To keep the flavors from mixing, he bought several large food boxes, packed everything neatly, and stuffed them into his pouch. He also downed half a pot of tea and ate some rice cake pastries. Satisfied, he wiped his mouth and strolled off to find Yan Jia and Wang Ming.

The two caught the roast chicken smell on Shang Yunduo and looked at each other in disbelief. They never thought cold-and-quiet Senior Brother Shang would sneak off to eat roast chicken!

That afternoon, they sword-flew for another half day, and at dark they found a cave to crash in.

The next day they did the same thing and even saw more rogue cultivators, some flying, some running.

Their cultivation levels were even lower than Yan Jia's. One guy was wobbling all over on his sword, and two Qi Refining Third Layer cultivators started arguing, cussing and throwing punches at each other.

The more Shang Yunduo flew, the more confident he became.

If these losers dared to come, why was he running? He should give that forest with the so-called Twin Lotus a shot too.

Author's Note:

If the sect were a school, roughly—

Yan Jia, Wang Ming: Senior Brother, no takeout allowed on campus!

Yun Duo: I'm practically dropping out, the school can't tell me what to do (munch munch).