"You smell so good!"
Jiang Xiaoyu, eyes sleepy and hair messy like a bird's nest, sniffed around Liu Zhijian like a puppy.
Liu Zhijian held down the restless Jiang Xiaoyu and deftly tied her hair. Lifting his hand to sniff his wrist, he realized there truly was a subtle, refreshing fragrance.
Is this what it's like to ingest qi and enter the Dao?
According to the Daoist scriptures, the 【Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth】 was the manifestation of fragmented laws of the Heavenly Dao.
Ingesting qi to enter the Dao was equivalent to planting these fragments within one's body.
Cultivation methods like swallowing spiritual qi and increasing one's Dao achievement were like watering and fertilizing, allowing the rule fragments to take root, sprout, and grow strong.
At the same time, as the rule fragments grew stronger, they would gradually assimilate the cultivator.
Ultimately, the cultivator would become a part of the Heavenly Dao itself.
If one truly took control of a portion of those rules, one would become a Golden Core 【Fruit Status】 【Perfected Monarch】!
Liu Zhijian was in a great mood.
Having fished outdoors year-round, exposed to sun and wind, he had unkempt clothes and an unpolished look like a vagrant, and he had been called a "stinky angler" behind his back many times.
Now, he had finally held his head high for all anglers!
Putting on her padded winter clothes, Jiang Xiaoyu opened the door and gasped in surprise. "Wow, it snowed!"
With that, she excitedly pounced into the snow, rolling around with joyful laughter.
Liu Zhijian stood at the doorway watching her, a fond smile gracing his face.
By right, after ingesting qi to enter the Dao, he should have immediately returned to Mount Taixuan to report the good news to his master and begin choosing a cultivation technique to practice.
However, the weather was freezing cold and the journey treacherous.
Jiang Xiaoyu was still very young and might not be able to withstand such a long, arduous trek.
After thinking it over briefly, Liu Zhijian made his decision.
He would stay on Mount Yandang for now to stabilize his realm.
When spring arrived and flowers bloomed, he would return to the sect.
...
Mount Taixuan, Ancestral Hall.
Deep within his soul, Li Chengxuan felt a sudden resonance. He paused his cultivation, opened his eyes, and looked to the east.
"Liu Zhijian has ingested qi to enter the Dao!"
Li Chengxuan connected with the 【Two-World Bead】 to sense Liu Zhijian's location and found that he was still staying motionless on Mount Yandang, showing no signs of returning to the sect just yet.
On the blank portrait inside the Ancestral Hall, that faint water stain had fully taken form, turning into a fine, meandering stream of clear water, accompanied by the subtle sound of rippling waves.
Li Chengxuan felt his own Dao achievement surge upward by a significant margin.
"There is someone practicing 【Kan Water】 again; the lineage is not yet extinct."
"Liu Zhijian ingested the Clear Qi of the River to enter the Dao of 【Kan Water】, which naturally doesn't fit the imagery of 【Inherit Extinct Teachings】."
"Still, I brought Liu Zhijian here from Earth and personally guided a mortal into becoming a 【Kan Water】 cultivator. To this world, that is naturally no small 【Merit】."
Li Chengxuan felt immensely pleased.
Right now, his Dao achievement actually exceeded his realm.
This meant that for a short while, he would face no bottlenecks in his cultivation.
The underlying worry about the difficulty of cultivating after entering the Dao via 【Mortal Turbid Qi】 had mostly dissolved.
If he could also guide Hua Chunning to ingest qi to enter the Dao and continue the 【Yimu Wood】 lineage, as well as Duanmu Ren's 【High Shaman】 lineage...
Li Chengxuan no longer felt like continuing his cultivation for the moment. He stood up and headed over to inspect the side hall.
Inside the side hall, Hua Chunning was slumped over a desk, sound asleep.
Numerous Daoist scriptures lay scattered across the desk.
The topmost book was The Spectrum of a Hundred Flowers.
Hua Chunning had been confined to this side hall for nine months.
Truth be told, she was merely a young girl in the prime of her youth who had grown up in luxury and comfort.
At first, she had managed to endure by holding on to her desire to seek the Dao, but as time went on, it became increasingly agonizing.
By now, she was thoroughly listless, drowsy all day long, and visibly emaciated, losing a good deal of her original striking beauty.
Yet Li Chengxuan had no intention of releasing her just yet.
If one wanted to defy fate and change one's destiny, enduring hardship was unavoidable.
Moreover, Hua Chunning's current state subtly aligned with the imagery of 【Yimu Wood】 during winter—dormant and concealing its vitality.
When spring arrived, letting her step outside to condense 【Spring Qi】 would perfectly match the imagery of winter yielding to spring and the awakening of all living things.
Li Chengxuan cast a glance at her, turned around, and walked away, heading down the mountain to summon Hua Mingcheng.
Since this concerned Hua Chunning's Dao path, Hua Mingcheng naturally cared deeply about it.
When the Hua family split between the direct and collateral branches, Hua Mingcheng had brought along more than half of the family's assets, which could finally be put to good use.
For his granddaughter's future, he had truly spared no expense this time.
However, gathering a hundred types of spring flowers on such short notice was still a bit of a stretch.
Li Chengxuan did not mind this at all.
It was only normal for gathering qi to be difficult.
If she couldn't gather enough 【Hundred Flowers Fragrance】 next spring, there was always the year after.
Someone like Liu Zhijian, who succeeded in gathering qi within a single year, was an anomaly.
...
In the blink of an eye, ice and snow melted, and all things began to sprout.
"Today marks the 【Beginning of Spring】."
Li Chengxuan finally released Hua Chunning from the side hall and asked, "Now that winter has passed and we are going to gather seasonal imagery, are you prepared?"
Hua Chunning looked gaunt and forced herself to perk up, though she was still somewhat listless. "This disciple will definitely not disappoint the Sect Master!"
"It is your own Dao path; why care whether I am disappointed or not?"
Li Chengxuan shifted his thought, establishing a link with the 【Two-World Bead】.
In the blink of an eye, Hua Chunning found herself inside the grotto-heaven's 【Taixuan Villa】.
By now, this place had undergone a complete transformation.
The clumsy construction machinery that had been here before was now gone.
On the leveled ground, all sorts of flowers had been planted according to the Hua family's 【Forging Spiritual Atmosphere Method】.
Right at her feet, a patch of golden winter jasmine stood proudly in the breeze.
In a corner, several plum blossom trees were blooming vibrantly, with remnants of lingering snow beneath them.
Further away, daffodils and camellias defied the lingering cold and wind, flowering in full bloom.
Hua Chunning drew a deep breath. She felt as though her long-confined body was a parched land receiving a timely rain, fully drenched in the vitality of spring, making her feel much lighter and refreshed.
"Thank you, Sect Master!"
After taking in the sight, Hua Chunning bowed respectfully.
The entire layout of 【Taixuan Villa】 had been redesigned with extreme care, all to help enrich the seasonal imagery for Hua Chunning.
"There is no need to thank me," Li Chengxuan replied with a gentle shake of his head. "I have only come to inspect the place a few times."
A moment later.
The true contributor arrived.
Duanmu Ren was taken aback when he saw Hua Chunning's pale face and frail, sickly appearance, akin to Xi Shi holding her heart.
Hua Chunning knew the unusual symptoms on her body were merely meant for condensing spring qi, yet she was equally astonished by the drastic change in Duanmu Ren's appearance.
A year ago, Duanmu Ren had looked somewhat like a middle-aged, slightly plump corrupt official with deep calculation.
Now, he was emaciated with prominent cheekbones, wearing black-rimmed glasses and looking like a schoolteacher who had just recovered from a severe illness.
"Fairy Hua, you..."
Duanmu Ren had a complex expression on his face, hesitating as if wanting to speak. He assumed Hua Chunning, like himself, had been punished with magic by Li Chengxuan.
Hua Chunning's expression changed slightly as well, assuming that Duanmu Ren had fallen ill from exhausting himself over the redesign of 【Taixuan Villa】.
Li Chengxuan paid no mind to their complicated thoughts and spoke directly: "An 【Yimu Wood】 spiritual array has been laid out inside this villa. Though there is no spiritual qi here—rendering it devoid of any profound magic—it is still sufficient for condensing the imagery."
"However, this place is desolate and uninhabited, so it can only condense a desolate spring or a wild spring. Therefore, it still needs the empowerment of 【Mortal Qi】."
"Only by bringing a steady stream of people here—so that visitors naturally feel the warmth of spring, the blossoming of flowers, and the awakening of all living things—can we condense a living spring."
"The two of you discuss it and open the villa to the public as soon as possible!"
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