“Close your eyes and relax.”

‘It’s a fucking yoga manual.’ Jun thought as he read the first line of sensing spiritual force.

“When your heart is at peace, let your mind wander. Feel the air around you, listen to the world in front of you. It is present in every breath you take and in every movement you make—a wild, chaotic force that nourishes all beings, giving life to plants, beasts, and men. Focus on the sensation, let your spirit roots connect to the heavens.”

Chen Hao breathed in deep, sitting in a lotus pose. Soon, a steady rhythm took place as he relaxed his shoulders.

‘How am I supposed to meditate?’

He tried to bend himself in various ways to imitate the pose, but eventually, he just gave up and lazily laid on the floor, letting his body relax. Closing his eyes, the world of scents depicted a vague picture in front of him. Still, he ignored it, focusing on feeling the air.

‘Wait a damn minute.’

It wasn’t hard. In fact, he noticed spiritual force instantly. Just like the book described it, it was a wild, untamed force of energy that seeped in and out of his body with every breath.

‘It can’t be this easy, right?’ he thought, recalling his memories. He had first sensed spiritual force when they broke through the illusion formation. It hit him like a wave of wild wind. Then, when they were next to the lake, it overwhelmed his senses just by how pure it was. He thought and thought about what could have caused it before coming to a conclusion.

‘It’s because I’m from Earth, right? There’s no spiritual force there. Or maybe it’s just because animals sense the world differently.’

Then, he broke out into a wild grin.

‘Who am I kidding? It’s because I’m a once-in-a-million-year cultivation genius. I was wrong, Chen Hao. You don’t have any special physique. It’s just that I’ve got a Heavenly Dog Body!’

He spent the next few minutes rolling around the floor, indulging in various fantasies. Then, he sneakily went over to the manual, flipping over to the next page.

‘Tough luck, buddy, I’m moving ahead of ya.’

“Now that your spiritual roots are connected to the heavens, breathe in the spiritual force as deep as you can. Focus your mind on the sensation and wrest control over it, forcing it to obey your will. Now, guide it into your meridians. The spiritual force will disobey, and your meridians will be clogged, but when you finally complete a full cycle, you will be ready to begin cultivating.”

Once again, Jun lay down on the floor and relaxed, clearing his mind. Taking a deep breath, he sensed the wild spiritual force. His mind was like an iron vice, gripping down on it. His will was unbreakable, now exerting itself on the spiritual force. Never before had he been so focused as now.

‘Something’s supposed to happen, right?’

He exhaled, feeling absolutely nothing change. If anything, it had given him a headache.

‘No. Calm your mind. I succeeded in the first step too easily. This must be the difficult part.’

An hour passed, then two. The sun went down, and night claimed the sect. No matter how much he tried, the stupid spiritual force refused to even remotely move. He stopped when Chen Hao stood up, stretching his body.

“It’s vague, but I can feel something in the air around us. How mysterious,” he said, smiling towards Jun, who was in a foul mood.

He spent the next hour petting Jun, who was too lost in his thoughts to care. Eventually, both of them had to call it quits. When the next morning arrived, a box with two grain pills stood outside their door. The stupid grain pills made Jun even more disgruntled. He was practically drooling at the idea of a nice rib-eye steak, but instead, he had to settle for this.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“I’m not giving up until I sense it. A few more hours and I should be able to do it,” Chen Hao said after eating his grain pill. After making sure that Chen Hao was meditating, Jun sneakily opened the door and ran out.

He expertly navigated through the house, dodging the white-robed servants who curiously stared at him. Going outside, he basked in the morning sun for a few moments before taking off in a dash. The other cultivators also glanced at him, but no one tried to stop someone’s pet. God forbid it belonged to someone important and they got into trouble because of it.

Jun’s steps became light as feathers as he ran closer and closer to the Bottomless Lake. The cultivators that lingered here were colder, more arrogant, but also more powerful. Still, no one tried to stop him. Even the cultivators with special “Hall of Justice” robes spared him no more than a glance.

He lay down on a secluded street between two cultivation villas and calmed his mind. A disciple who tried to cultivate on someone’s private property would be in serious trouble, but he was a dog, so what did it matter? This would be his big breakthrough!

Two hours of breathing in dense spiritual force and still, nothing.

“Alright, screw this. Maybe it’s the other way around.’

Then he risked a journey to the very edges of the outer sect. The buildings there were simpler, the white robes more frequent, and cultivators more violent. The slums of the sect, despite each of the buildings being a hundred times better than that in a village. He carefully snuck around, using his keen nose to avoid any cultivators who would make him into a rug.

He spent another three hours trying to move spiritual force here, where it was much, much thinner, but even that did nothing for his progress. In the end, Jun could only sigh in defeat and head back to his new home.

On the way back, he caught the scent of Chen Hao, who was happily whistling a tune while walking down the street.

“Oh. There you are. You don’t know how much of a surprise I got when I found you weren’t in my room.” Chen Hao said, picking Jun up. It was surprisingly nice to be carried. He lazily snuggled against the boy’s arm, staring off into the sunset.

“But then again, you would probably go insane if you had to spend all day in my room. Just be careful, okay?” Jun nodded, sniffing the air curiously.

Spending so much time sensing spiritual force, he could now discern its unique scent. The brat had something on him that smelled good. Seeing his actions, Chen Hao hurriedly covered his pocket.

“No. Bad dog. You can’t eat the pills this time. The spiritual force will run wild in your body.”

Jun put two and two together. Chen Hao must have claimed his ten spirit stones and three Meridian-Cleansing Pills. He was half-tempted to eat one of them, but what was the point when he couldn’t control spiritual force? Early death didn’t seem too appealing.

When they made their way back home, the kid made him even more infuriated. He had finished sensing spiritual force and was now moving it.

“Ah. It’s so hard. I keep trying to move it, but it always slips out of my grasp. It’s so hard to make it still,” he said after finishing a meditation session. Just by saying those words, he proved that he was miles ahead of Jun. The stupid thing wouldn’t even budge for him.

The following few days were filled with struggle and desperation. Something had to change—the damn spiritual force did not move no matter what he did. Slowly and meticulously, he began plotting out a new course of action that would hopefully get him closer to that goal.

During this time, the two of them visited all four halls. The Hall of Medicine and the Hall of Artifact Refining were a bust for both of them. Chen Hao didn’t seem interested, and Jun didn’t have opposable thumbs to properly make medicine or artifacts.

The Hall of Magical Techniques was a big hit among every disciple. Who didn’t want to know how to fight? While most still couldn’t even properly use magical techniques, the elder there would frequently demonstrate flashy techniques, going into detail about human meridians and how to properly circulate spiritual force. During practical lessons, they learned about how cultivators properly fought, and they even had a few spars. It was after this lesson that Chen Hao finally managed to clear his meridians.

A thick, black substance came out of his body, reeking of death, poison, and everything bad in the world. Jun directly threw up when it happened, and fortunately, the white-robed disciples were ready to assist in the case of such an event. The smell was burned into his mind for the rest of the day, but Jun finally realised why cultivators smelled “pure”.

While Chen Hao found his passion in the Hall of Magical Techniques, the Hall of Formations was Jun’s big break. The elder there was old, his white beard trailing all the way to his stomach in an impressive display of self-neglect. His wrinkles told a story of hundreds of years, and he had an aura around him that made everyone else listen. Like a sage educating mortals, he gracefully explained the mythical art of formations.

“You lot are worse than monkeys. Give a monkey a stick, and with enough time, he will draw the world’s greatest formation. Then, he will unknowingly activate it and blow up the entire jungle. You should all aspire to be like that monkey.”