In a galaxy far, far away, easy breathing has become bothersome to another Thundering Tortoise Sect elder as well.

Not the normal sucking in of air mind you, but the sacred cultivation art and breathing technique of the divine black tortoise beast!

“I see, so this is the legendary guixigong.” It is already well after nightfall, yet Jian Cheng is still awake sitting cross-legged on his bed. A thin booklet, copied off the jade slip his father now has, is in his lap.

Sitting on his small pine pallet, rivulets of sweat pouring down his face, he works hard to further hone the complicated technique given to him by esteemed elder brother Wang.

Beside him, a tiny rodent scoffs the contents of a small bowl, then begins gnawing on the edges of the crockery itself...

Jian Cheng sighs. It is not part of the guixigong technique, rather it is aimed at his garbage guts companion. Unbelievable, the wee beast could and would eat anything... Nutritional value be damned... Yama will indeed be the death of him...

Echoes of Kong Wang’s wild guffaws still haunt him, has Jian Cheng unwittingly become a galactic laughingstock?

Deep down though, he cannot begrudge his benefactor his fun. He owes Kong Wang so much. He is still benefiting today. And not only from the actual physical gifts of the spatial belt, the nine jade slips, the spiritual stones, the armoured robe, the leather boots... Hell, even Yama is a little bit cute...

Nor is he referring to the miraculous healing of his meridians... Or the powerful drop of divine beast blood that broke him through three tiers all at once...

No, the blessing he was counting today was benefactor’s hands-on instruction...

Relaxing somewhat, he recalls the lore surrounding cultivation that his father imparted to him at an early age.

It’s common knowledge that mortals are born with three immortal treasures of the body, soul and spirit.

Essence energy or lifeblood related to physical prowess. It focuses on body strengthening, and is upgraded with pills, painful training and actual fighting.

Soul treasure refers to mental power. It is improved through mental exertion, usually by meditation, to achieve the understanding of concepts... Or through the supplementary cultivation arts of alchemy, talismans, inscriptions and formations, which all promote progress in this field.

Then there is the mainstay of most cultivators, spirit qi energy - circulating external energy, expanding meridians and collecting qi to eventually form a core within the dantian area, just below the belly.

This is the holy grail that the mainstream jianghu chase, often to the detriment of the other two areas. It is the fastest way to advance after all... However, the guixigong of the Thundering Tortoise Sect eschewed such short term gains, to create a more solid base developing all three elements at once.

That’s what Jian Cheng is doing at the moment. Cementing the guixigong in his mind. After all it is the cornerstone of his foundation. The rock upon which all his future successes will be built... After meeting Kong Wang, he has raised his sights significantly. Now ninqi, zhuji, jidan, yuanying and even chengxian, will simply be floors in the overbearing tower he is planning...

The way Jian Cheng’s father explained the various stages to him, was in terms of destinations. Life is a journey and everyone’s personal journey is different, he said. The various stages are all crossroads, with a myriad of paths leading to and from. Your winding journey continues in a roundabout way, yet always passes through certain crossroads until you reached the ultimate destination - immortal ascension of the chengxian stage.

However, the amount of everyone’s talents is different. Moreover, life is random.

His father claims that on the other side of each crossroad is a city.

“Once you get in the gate you’ll see all sorts of people: Big, small, male, female, young, and old, strong and weak... At this moment you’re all passing through the same place, but you are not nearly the same people are you?”

Zhao Cheng sighed then, recalling his own demise.

“It’s a shame each stage gets such a significant boost in overall power, or you could safely ignore them altogether.”

After finally becoming a cultivator Jian Cheng passed the first major crossroad. He is now into the ninqi stage which, as the name suggests, is primarily concerned with collecting and circulating qi to open up and hone meridians etc.

Nine levels of ninqi set up the qi-gathering system as support for the second stage, zhuji, which is clearly concerned with the physical body foundation.

To get to zhuji, only a large amount of qi is necessary, your body and soul strength aren’t a requirement. Besides, those areas naturally get a boost at the time of every advancement, therefore most cultivators concentrate solely on qi accrual and race hell for leather for the ninqi finish line. The front-runners tend to be either naturally talented or - more commonly - highborn pill-popping silkpants. At the zhuji level, these hothouse flowers willl simply switch pills and then finally pick up their fancy swords...

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They aren’t necessarily wrong to do it this way either, as jidan the third stage - where one coalesces a crystal core in the dantian - is also primarily a qi stage.

The fourth stage yuanying is naturally spiritually orientated with one forming a nascent soul, also known as an origin infant. However the vast majority of cultivators never make the jidan stage let alone yuanying... Most cultivating adults stall somewhere in the zhuji, when it becomes too difficult (mostly due to poor techniques) expensive or painful to push on.

Furthermore, cultivators normally only reach yuanying after middle age, after naturally accruing the wisdom and insights needed to develop the soul over the course of time through various experiences.

Kong Wang admitted the Thundering Tortoise Sect technique is at a disadvantage in the latter stages of ninqi and jidan levels because of its slow and steady wins the race approach, which stimulates all three talents across the board.

Gradually gaps between him and his peers would widen during these latter stages, until he will be bringing up the rear. Naturally he’ll make the ground up quickly during the zhuji and yuanying levels... However, he ran the risk of being deemed a failure from early on and getting marginalised within a normal sect - as with the tortoise and the hare parable, he’ll always be chasing from behind...

Jian Cheng nods to himself. Thanks to his father’s helpful metaphors, he now has a rudimentary grasp of cultivation concepts, which has been further cemented in place by his three actual breakthroughs.

Thankfully he also can rely upon Kong Wang’s wisdom. Surprising wisdom some would say, but the simple teen is a natural born generational genius when it comes to cultivation. His insights are all invaluable...

One should know that, when a sect disciple receives a cultivation slip, they are usually left to their own devices. If they are lucky, an elder would offer them some pointers... This elder might only be a few tiers above the disciple, so what do they really know?

Not only was their advice questionable, the actual technique is likely second rate and riddled with errors... Jian Cheng has been gifted the actual guixigong of legend and taught it personally by a yuanying expert...

In the Nu-Man Continent, yuanying experts are known as emperors. They are also as rare as hen’s teeth and are likely to be a 100 years-old and probably the patriarch, or matriarch, of their own sect!

The difference is like day and night. Jian Cheng has a legendary technique and teacher. He didn’t only receive empirical advice either. Kong Wang grabbed his chest and forcefully instigated the complicated qi circulation routes for a period of time. Only a yuanying could do such a thing... It was a one in a million lucky chance, turning a novice 12 year-old into an instant expert.

He was now years ahead of his peers... He has even offered pointers to his parents... And Fen Ling’s parents, plus Li Feng’s grandfather. He taught them all the guixigong. After painstakingly transcribing it from the jade slip into several thin booklets, he gifted them each a copy. Although he named it something else naturally...

Why did he do it?

The guixigong, now known locally as Karmic Chameleon Breath Technique, is not only a lifesaver in times of danger, but is, without any shadow of a doubt, the most sneakily effective cultivation technique in the continent.

Wars would be fought for such a method...

These people are all important in his life and the benefits to them will be tremendous. His father is already on the brink of breaking through to zhuji...

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Still sitting, cross-legged lotus style, Jian Cheng closed his eyes again and began the guixigong again. In his lap, a verdant green spirit stone shone brightly, matching the rhythm of his breaths...

This was a common method described in his thin manual. It made cultivating much smoother, using the aid of an outside spiritual source, such as a spirit stone, rather than sucking it in yourself then filtering it.

Other common methods included medicinal pills or elixirs. However they were far more difficult and prohibitively expensive to obtain. Thus they were typically reserved for breaking through a bottleneck by providing a timely boost...

As of right now, Jian Cheng is still fairly new to this qi extraction method. He estimates that this stone will likely last no more than nine days at this current rate. After that he only had four left - he tried to share the stones among his family, but had been rebuffed. This looming shortage of resources causes his face to appear slightly perplexed. It became even more unsightly, when he noticed little Yama was nibbling at the corner of the stone, gouging out a significant chunk out of it.

“No Yama, no,” he shoos the small rodent away. The mischievous little imp would eat anything, yet for some reason found good foods and items the most alluring. Sadly, the little devil seems to have been blessed or cursed with expensive tastes...

Sniffing disdainfully, the young rat scampers toward the spatial storage belt buckle, also in Jian Cheng’s lap, and disappears. How does he do that?

At the moment though, the boy has bigger fish to fry. With the small amount of qi that he has recently accumulated, if he doesn’t master the guixigong and gather more within a month or so, his progress might actually regress...

The jianghu was all about always going forwards, and Jian Cheng’s next step will be towards the Misty Cloud Sect... Fen Ling, hold on, I am coming!