Chapter 24: The Pig-Raising Plan
"In the end, Strategist Ji was left with only one method, to personally find a mortal with spiritual roots, then raise him until he reached the peak of the first level of Qi Condensation, and at that point, he could freely extract that person's physical and spiritual energy.
To put it bluntly, it was just like raising a pig on a farm, once the pig was fat and plump, it would be time to slaughter it."
At this point, Li Yan already understood his and that deceased senior disciple's fate. He felt a chill running down his spine, a coldness seeping through his entire body.
But then, how exactly did that senior brother die? Since Strategist Ji found him and later moved on to Li Yan, did that mean the senior brother's spiritual energy wasn't enough for Strategist Ji to absorb?
"Once Strategist Ji had a direction, the next step was to search for people with spiritual roots. The only method he had was the most basic one, testing with silver needles.
That was something the Foundation Establishment cultivator had casually taught him out of pity, a primitive and lowest-tier method.
But this method required direct contact with the target's body. Who would allow a stranger to stick needles into them for no reason? And once the needle was inserted, it would either have no reaction or cause extreme pain.
Even if he claimed to be an immortal recruiting disciples, people had to believe him.
So, he racked his brain and finally came up with the idea of joining the military. Military camps were filled with strong young men, and the numbers were plentiful. As long as he joined the army and gained a high rank, he'd have opportunities.
Then, by displaying his martial skills and establishing supreme prestige, he could announce that he was looking for disciples, then pick and choose as he pleased. It seemed like a solid plan.
For someone like Strategist Ji, entering the army was easy. With the martial arts he'd learned in the Immortal-Seeking Lineage and supplemented with his spiritual power, it was more than enough.
Even basic techniques, when empowered by spiritual energy, would carry a trace of immortal might. Pretending to be a peerless martial arts master was more than doable.
After entering the military, he spent several years before finally finding someone. That man had an Earth Spiritual Root, with wood among his three elements. Although wood wasn't his strongest attribute, cultivation progress was relatively fast.
However, this time, when re-cultivating the entry-level method, Strategist Ji couldn't gather the two essential balancing herbs. Last time, he had gotten one by sheer luck.
But now, he simply didn't have time to go searching. He knew that if he spent time searching, the fire poison would erupt and kill him first.
So, he had no choice but to use the incomplete formula to forcefully cultivate the man. As for the outcome, you know firsthand how painful the process was.
Strategist Ji lacked one herb last time and became like this, what more when lacking two balancing herbs?
The result was that not only was the absorption process exponentially more painful, but on the forty-ninth day, during the breakthrough to the first level of Qi Condensation, it became a near-death trial. That man failed to break through on the forty-ninth day and died.
Li Yan opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, remained silent.
The gray-robed elder seemed to see through Li Yan's thoughts at a glance, and his heart filled with helplessness. If Li Yan already knew the reality of cultivation, and understood the power of the Five Immortals Sect, he wouldn't need to waste so much time explaining.
A few words would be enough for Li Yan to eagerly beg to become a disciple. But having encountered someone who knew nothing at all, he could only explain bit by bit. Otherwise, how could the boy willingly cultivate? And the elder's time was already running out.
"You're probably thinking—since I'm so powerful, why didn't I save that first person with spiritual roots?"
Li Yan thought, 'This old monster... how did he know what I was thinking?'
After all, he was just a teenage boy. How could he accept seeing an innocent person die so easily? So, he nodded and answered honestly:
"Yes. With your abilities, saving that senior brother of mine would've been easy. Why let an innocent person die such a senseless death?"
The gray-robed elder sighed, this is what happens when you teach someone who knows nothing about cultivation. So much time gets wasted. But he couldn't force him to become a disciple either.
"Though I am merely a strand of divine intent separated from my true body, a million years ago, killing a cultivator like that would've been as simple as a thought.
But now, this divine intent is nearly depleted. If I had used any power back then to kill him, I would've vanished within a few years. How then could I continue searching for a successor?
Besides, I was still in slumber, my main divine intent could not be awakened in just a moment's time.
You, with that temperament of yours, it must be changed in the future. Cultivation is a path that goes against the heavens. The dangers you'll face are not things you can comprehend now. A single misstep, and it will all be over.
In the cultivation world, there are no 'good' or 'bad' people. Only yourself or those closest to you can be relied on. If you act on 'compassion' too much, all that awaits you is an early grave."
Li Yan listened and only nodded, but in his heart, he thought, 'When did I ever say I wanted to become a cultivator? If I find the chance to escape this Great Qing Outpost, I'll go back, take my father, mother, brother, and sister somewhere safe. The world is vast, surely I can find a place for us. Living together with my family… wouldn't that be better than being some so-called immortal?'
The gray-robed elder knew well, it was impossible for an ordinary young man to suddenly become decisive and ruthless in such a short time.
"After your senior brother died, Strategist Ji became even more anxious and desperate to find someone with spiritual roots. Unexpectedly, his luck was almost too good, in just over a year, he found you.
My wandering divine sense could only scan a range of about 100 li, so it wasn't until the day you entered that range near Great Qing Outpost that it sensed you and began to awaken my sleeping main intent.
But I was too weak, and awakening would take about two months. And you, by sheer coincidence, joined the military and were discovered by Strategist Ji.
You probably saw him holding that strange book, right? That was just him crudely binding the jade slip and the transformed jade book with spiritual power, for easy carrying.
Ever since obtaining the jade book, he'd been obsessed with unlocking its secrets, but with his little bit of spiritual power, there was no way to open it. The more he failed, the more he believed the book contained profound techniques, possibly even a cure for his fire poison.
So he obsessed over it day and night.
My wandering divine sense had always been residing in the transformed jade book. When I saw you enter Strategist Ji's sect and begin cultivating that poison-based technique, I became extremely anxious.
But at the time, I had deliberately limited that divine sense's power to reduce consumption, it could only detect spiritual root types and had no other abilities.
The main divine intent still hadn't awakened, so all I could do was disrupt the spiritual energy around you whenever Strategist Ji came near, to slow your progress and buy time for my awakening."
Now, Li Yan finally understood. No wonder every time Strategist Ji was nearby, his cultivation felt obstructed and sluggish.
He had always assumed it was just the oppressive aura of his master's superior cultivation, never once thinking someone was deliberately sabotaging him.
The gray-robed elder, now ignoring Li Yan's thoughts, continued:
"But what I didn't expect was that despite your mixed spiritual root, even with the interference of that divine sense, you still completed the full forty-nine days of initial cultivation.
But in the end, your result was no different from your senior brother's, lacking the two critical balancing herbs, and with today's concoction several times stronger than before, how could your meridians withstand it?
Even though Strategist Ji pulled you out from the pool, he had no power to revive you.
At that moment, my divine sense sensed your impending death. I immediately transferred all its memories to the main intent and self-destructed, forcibly shocking the main intent awake from slumber.
But doing so not only woke me up, it also injured my core, making my already-weak state even worse.
When I finally awakened, I found that your organs were damaged, your vital energy reversing, and death was only moments away.
So I used my last bit of power to realign and repair your meridians. But as I neared completion, you were stimulated by the remnants of Strategist Ji's spiritual energy, briefly regaining consciousness.
At that moment, you tried to sit up and continue cultivating, so I had no choice but to shout and knock you out, allowing me to finish repairing your body.
Unfortunately, by now, my power is far too weak. Though I pulled you back from the gates of death, I was unable to expel the poison from your body. All I could do was seal it within a corner of your dantian.
From now on, as long as you don't continue cultivating that poison-based technique, the poison will remain dormant.
But if you try to cultivate that technique again, with your current condition, it won't take long before you meet certain death."
By the time he finished, the gray-robed elder's figure had already become translucent.
(Chapter End)