When Ovid arrived back at the inn, Anna had returned from her shopping trip. Swiftly greeting her, Ovid then went toward the bathhouse that laid at the end of the gravel road, accidentally fumbling upon a rock on his way.
Taking off the stola he had been wearing for more than a month, his white and tender skin that was like the flesh of a peeled egg was revealed to the world. While he always had moral qualms regarding seeing a woman’s body, he was still a practical person foremost. Since his body was soaked in cold sweat, he had no choice but to remove his article of clothing.
Yes, there was no other reason.
Lifting his head toward the sky, a sense of surprise overcame Ovid. When he had entered the gambling den, the strength of the sun was at its peak.
The water was slightly green, perhaps due to the glacial flours that had entered the water stream. Since he was tired, he covered his face with a wet towel. He was not in the mood to look at the stars today.
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps could be heard along the wet marble path of the bathhouse. Taking down the towel on his face, Ovid was fearful that Aeon would once again behave inappropriately. The girl, however, was not Aeon, but rather, Anna, walking toward the open-air bath, when she turned and looked at the corner and saw Ovid, she was extremely happy, “This time is very good.”
To the people of Juliana, bathing was more than an act of cleaning, as it was also at this time that city rumours would be shared communally. Because of this, the time at which the bath is most popular had always been in the morning, where the gossiping spirit was the greatest.
Ovid was a person that did not grow up in such a culture and was extremely unfamiliar with the practice, but at the same time, he was also a person with mysophobia. Ultimately, he compromised and chose to bath after the sun had faded.
Anna had chosen to linger not far away from Ovid, glancing at the tranquil surface of the water, she said, “The city is well known for the quality of its water. It is said to make your skin look fairer, and grant you more vitality.”
Ovid recalled that the last time the water had been changed was a week ago, “The remains of oil and dirt will fester bacteria in such a warm environment.”
Anna slid her body against the wall of the bath, leaving only her head untouched, “Cai Hua’s minor realm has a lot of springs, we can use that if you think this is too dirty.”
Ovid frowned, as a strand of Anna’s golden hair had touched his body, “Cai Hua’s moral quality isn’t good, he might peek.”
Anna’s mouth formed an ‘oh’, she then said, “When we get better at magic, we can probably purify the pool.”
“Cai Hua said that I can only use things that are Yin in nature, I cannot use magic such as purification,” Ovid said, his gaze focusing toward the navy sky.
“Julia once told me that in the human kingdoms, there is a cult that practice diabolism. They have the only manual in the continent that uses dark matter and dark energy. After Cai Hua finds the medicine he is searching for, I think first going to the Northern continent is not a bad choice as well.”
Ovid closed his eyes before opening them, reflecting the silver dots that litter the realm of celestials in his two dark pupils, he said, “That is fine.”
---
Cheating in a gambler’s den had always been easy, the truly hard part was escaping with your wealth. This was a lesson Cai Hua had learned through the most gruesome method, it is also something he hoped Ovid would never learn.
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After he had sent Ovid back to the inn, he stood silently outside the Boat’s Side Casino. Sensing that the gamblers that had surrounded the table had yet to leave due to shock, he waved his hand, causing the marble ceiling of the building to collapse entirely!
This structure that has stood for only two thousand years never had its foundations repaired, a sigh of the structural integrity of the building, seemed like a hut made of leaves and trigs under the influence of Cai Hua’s spiritual essence.
Stepping onto the pile of marble, he looked at Irene and said, “I don’t care if you act carelessly, but if your actions against the woman were spread throughout the city, Ovid would not be able to live peacefully in the city.”
Irene unfolded the leaf umbrella, blocking the starlight from touching her body, she said, “I am stronger than them.”
Cai Hua shook his head, “The life you have been living in is too sheltered, and your thinking, too pure.”
He waved his hands in the air a few more times, but no more building fell. “Forget it, you already lived for so many years, it would be stupid to lecture you.”
Stepping off the rubble, Cai Hua arrived before the inn. Realising that Ovid was in the bath, he did not peek as one would expect he to do, rather, he reached inside the lining of his black scholar coat, and took out a jaded slip.
It had been many years since he looked at a manual, although his memories possessed no flaws after he had obtained immortality, it was still a good idea to revise his knowledge.
Ovid and Anna had returned a bit after he finished reading the slip, so Cai Hua brought the two into their room on the second floor, taking out a praying mat, he sat down with his legs crossed.
“The most important thing about cultivation is to cultivate,” Cai Hua started with this sentence.
“If one lacks the desire for cultivation or a strong obsession with the mortal world, it is nearly impossible for a human to become an immortal. Talent is something I don’t even have to mention, without talent, you are nothing.”
Ovid was sitting at the side of the bed, his cheeks a little flushed from the bath, as an aspiring scientist, he would naturally like to specify things to it’s most precise, he asked, “Near impossible? Is this a theory, or has it been proven?”
“Of course it had occurred, the history of the world spans back millions of years, so no one actually knows the number of humans who became immortal without following that line.”
“Look, this is my first time lecturing. If you want, I will take back the first line.”
“Anyway, the cases of immortals appearing from a human who has no desire for cultivation and a strong presence in the mortal world has been recorded at least three times, the best-recorded case would be that emperor. In history, the royal family has always been suppressed by the generals and eunuch since they are too tainted by the darkness of court intrigue… but the current emperor, after sitting on the throne for thirty years, on his dying breath, managed to gain enlightenment, and directly enter the realm of immortality.”
Listening to what Cai Hua said, Ovid remained silent for a long time. He thought about Cai Hua’s previous boasting and asked, “Didn’t you say you are the most talented?”
Cai Hua did not expect this question, after playing with his thumb ring, he answered, “The emperor has no chance to ascend to the next realm while I can. This is due to his karma as the emperor, who is connected to the karma of his empire.”
Cai Hua looked at Anna, recalling the figure that raised the girl, he added, “This was actually used by Julia to prevent herself from ascending, among other reasons. Unless the emperor like Alexander, who was willing to abandon his position and sacrifice his army, it is impossible for the bastard to ascend.”
“I meanwhile, have very little karma, aside from you and my wives, there are no connections between me and the mortal world. Anyway, these are things you will actually need to understand after you arrived at the stage of nascent soul.”
Cai Hua looked at Ovid, his hand reaching within his lining. “The stage of Spiritual Essence Manipulation, the first step toward immortality, is honestly pretty simple. You just need to complete nine rotation of qi around your twelve primarily meridians, the other sixty jingmai, you generally don’t need to unlock to be able to cultivate. However, they are important in determining a person’s talent, and the amount of spiritual essence that flows through your body.
Cai Hua’s hand clenched within his robe, wondering what kind of idiot wrote the slip, he added randomly, “When entering Spiritual Essence Manipulation, you can choose a total of six recorded paths… the jade slip wrote four, but it is wrong. The six paths are based on how you use the spiritual essence you manipulate. A person that places spiritual essence into weapons is called a sword master, which is quite a bad name. A person that places spiritual essence into paper is called a formation master, a person that directly manipulate spiritual essence is called a psyche master, while the person that uses their spiritual essence to enhance tools are called tool master.”
These names were quite forming and straightforward, but Ovid was quite used to such bland names. Since the names given to things by scientists are equally boring.
“Anyway, the last two, which wasn’t included in the slip is the demonic practitioner, who fuse spiritual essence with the tissue of their bodies, and the person who uses their spiritual essence to peer into the future is something so rare that there isn’t a name for them.”
Cai Hua knocked his palm against the floor, his slim arm shaking the building, “More on the demonic practitioner, it was said that the first person to do so was a cultivator who had failed to attain immortality, yet managed to peer into the mystery behind it. Afterwards, he managed to achieve the same sort of physical strength as the immortals, but lack the same level of spiritual essence manipulation… in fact, he found out that he can no longer sense spiritual essence after cultivating his body.”
Cai Hua twisted one of the rings, manifesting a sheepskin manual. Briefly glancing through the words, he said, “As for how to become a saint…”