"Senior Daoist!"
Zhou Xuan was stunned for several seconds by the suspended wooden sword before finally coming back to his senses.
Then, the young Daoist knelt before Su Ping, his voice trembling and tearful: "Thank you, Senior Daoist! Today, I have witnessed the true Dao and resolved my Heart Demon of many years!"
"It's just... Senior Daoist!"
"Please enlighten me!"
"This junior's Dao Heart is firm; in this life, I truly only wish to pursue the Great Dao!"
Su Ping looked at the emotional Zhou Xuan, unsurprised.
The temptation of the extraordinary—how many in this world could resist it?
Especially these Cultivators who spend their days and nights pondering how to transcend, different from ordinary people?
"Cultivation cannot be achieved by merely having a firm Dao Heart."
Su Ping retrieved the wooden sword.
In this mundane world, it was still necessary to conserve magical power where possible.
Then, as he spoke, he gently extended his right hand and grasped Zhou Xuan's arm, who was kneeling on the ground.
Zhou Xuan felt an incredible surge of power from the hand opposite him.
He was lifted from the ground like a chick and then, in a daze, found himself seated in a chair.
This made Zhou Xuan admire Su Ping even more.
Though he appeared slender, he had been exercising since childhood, and there was a lot of muscle beneath his Daoist robe!
He weighed at least 140-150 pounds.
Yet, he could be tossed around with a single hand!
Such strength... Zhou Xuan had never witnessed anything like it!
"You must know that Cultivation requires wealth, companions, techniques, and land."
"However, in today's mundane world, compared to wealth and companions... techniques and land are the key."
"Land is the key, could it be..."
Hearing the enlightened expert before him offer guidance, Zhou Xuan, combining it with his own cultivation experience, suddenly thought of a terrifying answer.
"As you imagine, and even more severe."
Su Ping looked at Zhou Xuan; as a Cultivator, he did not speak falsely:
"In this mundane world, whether it be famous mountains and great rivers or so-called blessed lands and grotto-heavens."
"You... should not be able to cultivate any Divine Abilities or Immortal Arts!"
"After all, Spiritual Qi does not exist in the mundane world!"
"And methods that attempt to cultivate without Spiritual Qi also do not exist!"
Su Ping shook his head and said no more.
In Zhou Xuan's eyes, he imagined that perhaps this enlightened expert was deliberately acting this way because he did not wish to recall the painful reasons that caused all of this.
"I see your determination to cultivate."
"It just so happens that you have taken over the East King Temple, which means you are fated with me, and that is very good."
"I will first impart to you the Qi Refining method; you can practice it first."
"Once you achieve something, there will be a set of methods to test your Aptitude and root bone."
"If you truly have an Immortal destiny..."
Su Ping paused, drawing a picture for Zhou Xuan that he could never give up on:
"I can make the decision to take you to our sect's grotto-heaven Secret Realm."
"There, you might have that one-in-a-million chance to defy Heaven and strive for eternal life!"
"However, even with an Immortal destiny, how easy is it to cultivate and achieve eternal life?"
"Since ancient times, those who could achieve Immortal Ascension are few and far between in recorded texts; what I have seen more often are merely those who achieved Foundation Establishment and lived for 200 years, or those who achieved Golden Core and lived for 500 years."
The more Su Ping emphasized the difficulty of Cultivation and eternal life, the more Zhou Xuan believed his words.
And he was incredibly excited by the small goals revealed in Su Ping's words!
Even if he couldn't achieve eternal life, living two hundred years after Foundation Establishment would be excellent!
Having consumed the grand vision Su Ping painted.
Zhou Xuan felt full of energy even without dinner.
His intelligence, which had gone offline after a series of shocking impacts, reoccupied his brain.
He immediately adjusted his posture and position, carefully put away the gold bars Su Ping gave him, and then respectfully and meticulously inquired about what he should do and if there was anything he needed to pay attention to.
Su Ping was naturally satisfied with this.
Forget about being a riddle-man or acting mysterious; that's for outsiders.
Under normal circumstances, when dealing with one's own people, a superior wishes they could break down every detail and feed it to the other party, fearing that the other party might act on their own initiative and cause harm with good intentions.
Watching Zhou Xuan obey his instructions and leave the room to prepare Materials for him.
Su Ping sat in the chair, took out a tea set and snacks from his Storage Pouch, and brewed himself a pot of good tea.
At the same time, he picked up the spare phone Zhou Xuan had given him from the table.
Smartphones had already begun to become widespread before Su Ping's Transmigration.
He was not unfamiliar with phones; he just found them lighter, thinner, and more user-friendly.
Moreover, the screen could temporarily expand from a phone to a tablet size for convenient viewing or reading.
In addition, there were matching smart earphones with air projection capabilities.
Su Ping played with various functions for a while, but ultimately focused his attention on searching for information.
First was the time!
It seemed that twenty years had passed in both the Cultivation World and Water Blue Star; even if their time flow speeds were not synchronized, they wouldn't differ too much.
Then, in these twenty years, Water Blue Star Human Civilization had been relatively stable overall.
Although there were various disputes and accidents along the way, it continued to move forward and develop through bumps and scrapes.
Although controllable nuclear fusion still needed fifty years to achieve commercial success.
Space technology, however, had made significant progress with the strong support and stimulation of the Eastern Ancient Country.
Multiple super-large space stations had appeared in outer space.
Returnable outer space vehicles had also been put into practical use.
This made intriguing outer space travel no longer exclusive to the wealthy.
Furthermore, humanity had finally established its first long-term manned scientific research base on the Moon.
Further development of the Moon was also put on the agenda.
In addition, Su Ping also noticed that recent news was hyping up the Space Elevator project, which seemed like science fiction twenty years ago!
The Materials problem, once considered insurmountable, actually had a semi-finished product at that time.
With twenty years of experimentation and effort, the semi-finished product was perfected.
This made the impossible world wonder a possibility!
Su Ping, who was deep down a fan of wonders, used Zhou Xuan's account to like and vote in favor of this proposed plan.
Then, Su Ping's finger paused on the search bar.
For a moment, Su Ping wanted to search for information about old acquaintances.
However, he thought that if he accidentally or unexpectedly got targeted by a major power.
Then... all the operation information on this phone would probably be analyzed thousands of times by professionals.
Su Ping's heart stirred, and he erased this impulse.
As an extraordinary being, with the Fishing System and an entire Cultivation World at his disposal, he must never leave a weakness for others to exploit before he grows stronger!
Su Ping directed his attention to historical events, current affairs, and technological developments, and continued browsing.
The sky gradually darkened; he didn't know how much time had passed.
Su Ping suddenly let out a surprised sound; it was his contracted Spirit Rat actively calling him.
Su Ping slowly closed his eyes and connected with the two Spirit Rats, learning the situation.
It turned out that after Su Ping went to the East King Temple, the two Spirit Rats, Little White and Little Gray, having no new instructions, teamed up and infiltrated the sewer System of this small city.
Here, they were in their element, and in a short time, many rats had gathered and followed them.
Then, they gathered more and more, already forming the Prototype of a rat tide!