The next day.
Fan Wubing groggily opened his eyes and vaguely saw something round and plump hanging above his face. In that moment,
[You've been startled, Qi and Blood surging violently, Life Value -0.2]
After seeing the person's face, he breathed a sigh of relief, then let out an awkward laugh,
"Senior Sister, why are you lying on my bed?"
Fu Ming pouted and rested her chin on her hand, saying,
"Just confirming if I really have a junior brother now."
"It's true, without a doubt."
Fu Ming's eyes sparkled immediately,
"Wubing, Senior Sister is going to take you to cultivate immortality today!"
"Where's Master?"
"In seclusion."
"Huh?"
Fu Ming patted her lively chest and said,
"Don't worry, my teaching is as good as Master's."
Fan Wubing looked at her confident demeanor, feeling a strange sense of familiarity... it seemed like she had said the same thing yesterday before helping him tidy up his bed. He replied reluctantly,
"Perhaps we should wait for Master to come out of seclusion?"
"That would take at least ten years. Master will be in seclusion for a long time this time."
"..."
...
In the practice room,
"Firstly, the cultivation we often talk about is essentially to absorb the celestial qi of the heavens and earth for personal use, ultimately shedding the mortal form and achieving immortality. Based on the degree of utilization, it is divided into multiple realms:
"Getting familiar with celestial qi is Qi Refining; nurturing oneself with qi is Foundation Establishment; internalizing an Immortal Pill is Golden Core; nurturing an Immortal Embryo is Nascent Soul; one day feeling the movement of the embryo; distinguishing between the mundane and the divine by distraction; tirelessly pursuing the Great Dao ultimately to combine; myriad paths, reaching Mahayana, overcoming tribulation, opening the Celestial Gate.
"These are the nine major realms: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Fetal Movement, Distraction, Combination, Mahayana, and Tribulation Crossing."
"What realm is Senior Sister in now?"
Fu Ming replied ashamedly,
"I am, just a mere First-Layer Nascent Soul, but Master has already reached the peak of Ninth-Layer Golden Core!"
Fan Wubing blushed, not knowing whether she was praising or belittling their Master with those words.
"Ahem, my philosophy on cultivation is, there's no philosophy, just cultivate. For example, this cultivation technique 'Profound Movement Qi Manual' focuses on integrating meridians, viewing the countless meridians throughout the body as a river. Let me ask you, what does a river need?"
Fu Ming asked earnestly.
Fan Wubing answered,
"Water."
"Correct. Just channel celestial qi into the river like water, and that's it."
"And then?"
Fu Ming said,
"Then you've completed this cultivation technique."
Fan Wubing fell into silence,
"Senior Sister, may I ask, how long did it take you to get started with this technique?"
"Get started?" Fu Ming raised her eyebrows confused, "Is getting started necessary? I just read it through once, and that was it."
Fan Wubing gaped,
"Senior Sister, are you a genius?"
"Ehh, some people have said that about me. But no matter, Junior Brother, it's easy, give it a try."
Then Fan Wubing began practicing the cultivation technique under Fu Ming's guidance.
Even though Fu Ming's guidance was essentially, "do this first, then that, and then you're done," Fan Wubing managed to attempt it thanks to his good comprehension.
When Fan Wubing tried to draw in celestial qi, Fu Ming suddenly said,
"Oh right, the first time practicing this cultivation technique, with celestial qi entering the meridians for the first time, you may feel some discomfort, you bear with—"
But it was too late.
The moment the celestial qi made contact,
[You've been attacked by celestial qi, Life Value -3, current Life Value 1.1/4.1 points]
Blood spurted out again. Fan Wubing's eyes rolled back, his legs straightened, and he collapsed.
"Junior Brother, Junior Brother!"
...
Fan Wubing gradually woke up, once again seeing Senior Sister's energetic peaks before his eyes.
Seeing him awake, the peaks covered his face at once,
"Junior Brother, are you okay!"
[You're emotionally agitated, Life Value -0.2, current Life Value 3.9/4.1 points]
"No, no. Senior Sister, please let go, I can barely breathe."
Fu Ming, looking distraught, said,
"It's all my fault... I'm sorry, Junior Brother, actually, this is my first time teaching someone cultivation."
"Uh, I could tell that."
"Huh?"
"No, I mean it's alright. Let's switch to a gentler cultivation technique."
"Mm."
Fu Ming waved her hand, and immediately, dozens of cultivation techniques emerged from her brow, encircling her.
"Junior brother, I know all of these. Choose one."
Fan Wubing was dumbfounded,
"Senior sister, you really are a genius."
In cultivation, techniques shape one's foundation. Generally, a person can only learn one technique at a time. Having two is exceptional, three implies genius, and four is as rare as phoenix feathers.
But senior sister... she's got a wholesale business here!
Then, after a whole day of hard training, one fact was finally confirmed,
Fan Wubing simply couldn't cultivate immortally. As soon as he channeled immortal energy, his blood reversed immediately.
After a busy day, with such a result, senior sister Fu Ming was more devastated than him, almost on the verge of tears.
Fan Wubing comforted her,
"It's okay, senior sister. If I can't cultivate immortally, then I just won't. I can still practice martial arts. My family is a martial arts family; maybe I have some talent for it."
Looking at the situation, anyone unaware might think Fu Ming was the one who couldn't cultivate.
"Junior brother, it's the senior sister's incompetence. I will definitely find a suitable cultivation technique for you! I'm not proficient in martial arts, but I have a secret manual about it. I hope it will be useful to you."
Fu Ming felt terribly guilty and distressed. After handing the secret manual to Fan Wubing, she went off alone to find a place to cry.
Fan Wubing opened the manual, and a prompt popped up immediately,
[Unwarranted Qi Creation Skill]
[Inner Strength Secret Manual]
[Quality: Supreme Grade of the Profound Rank]
[Effect One: When operating, life value slowly recovers, 0.1% per second]
[Effect Two: When cultivated to perfection, it can become passive]
[Cultivation Progress: 0/100]
"Ah, this..."
He recalled that in a game instance in "Immortal Path", after defeating Fu Ming, this thing would drop.
The "Unwarranted Qi Creation Skill", once perfected, granted the rare passive healing effect in the game. Though it was only 0.1% per second, it was unlimited. As long as you weren't dead, no matter how serious the injury, you'd recover.
In the game, filling up from zero took over ten minutes. An instance was usually solved in a few minutes, making it a tasteless yet wasteful item to discard.
But here is not a game! It's the real world. Think about it, as long as you're not dead, you'd be at full health within a quarter of an hour—how incredible!
"Senior sister, you're really my dear senior sister!"
But, Fan Wubing wondered, with something so good, why was it only a supreme grade of the profound rank?
Immortal, Spirit, Profound, Mortal.
In "Immortal Path", treasures, pills, cultivation manuals, etc., were all divided into these four major levels, each with lower, middle, upper, and supreme grades.
Fan Wubing pondered for a while and seemed to realize that these items with panels possibly only affected players with panels like him.
If someone else practiced the Unwarranted Qi Creation Skill, the effect might not be the same.
...
Although Fu Ming was determined to find a suitable immortal cultivation technique for Fan Wubing, his problem wasn't about the suitability of the technique but rather his constitution, which couldn't be resolved through this.
The Broken Heaven Body, no matter how much cultivated, it leaks out.
After some communication, Fu Ming finally gave up searching everywhere.
Fan Wubing considered whether to ask his senior sister to find him a healing item, but after careful consideration, he decided against it. Better to let this secret stay hidden; the cultivation world isn't really a game.
For a long time afterward, Fan Wubing had only two tasks: meditate and reflect in front of the Enlightenment Stele to increase his life limit by 0.1 each day and practice the "Unwarranted Qi Creation Skill."
His daily cultivation became a slow and idle accumulation.
He could truly feel the "bitterness and chill of the Immortal Path."
However, it was precisely as he wished.
No one disturbed him; he didn't need to compete with anyone, with a good senior sister who spent her days looking for herbs to help him nourish his body.
Although the herbs that the good senior sister found were all good stuff, they couldn't increase his life value.
But, as a bath after a day of cultivation, it was still nice.
Gradually, he discovered that although the medicinal baths prepared by his senior sister couldn't heal him, they seemed to enhance his basic physical qualities and could calm his heart and nurture his qi.
Previously, any emotional agitation would cause his qi and blood to surge and he'd start losing health—walking a few steps would leave him gasping, then losing more health.
But now, things were much better, with the support of the Unwarranted Qi Creation Skill, he basically didn't need to worry about sudden death.
The most dangerous, naturally, was the once-every-five-years Ying Huo's Eclipse.
At the age of ten, after meditating day in and day out before the Enlightenment Stele, he had accumulated 186.5 points of health.
Even if 99.99% was directly deducted, leaving only 0.01865 points, the Unwarranted Qi Creation Skill would allow him to recover 0.1% in a second, making it through the blood-draining stage wasn't a problem.
Despite having plans to find a remote place to avoid being noticed,
the Eclipse at age ten was even more extravagant than at five, with a terrifying scene as a huge crimson ferocious whirlwind convoluted in the sky with blood clouds, and it prompted the entire Eternal Immortal Sect, both inside and outside, to be on alert, thinking some demonic creature had invaded.
This time, the Eclipse even had residual damage afterward.
But fortunately, he had prepared in advance with the Spirit-Extending Grass given by his father, Fan Qi, so he didn't die immediately from the Eclipse and passed through it safely.
But,
he still remembers it vividly; just as the Eclipse struck, senior sister Fu Ming came rushing out from nowhere, holding his weakened self and running back.
That day, it rained heavily; he didn't know if senior sister had shed tears.
Afterwards, he suddenly realized that, unknowingly, he had been living with his senior sister for such a long time already.
After that day, the senior sister who always loved to play with him became more reserved, spending more time outside and often being gone for months.
As for what she was doing out there, Fan Wubing had some idea, but some things are unspeakable.