Exploring Immortality Cultivation-Chapter 257 - 11 Change
Wang Qi still remembered this place. It was where he had his first experience with a life-or-death battle. The place where Li Ziye fell in battle.
The young man sat on the ground at the edge of the pit. At this moment, the sun was setting, stretching his shadow so long that it reached the opposite side of the large hole. Looking at the pit now covered in shadow, almost too deep to perceive, Wang Qi let out a soft sigh.
Time is quite the enigma. Sometimes, revisiting old haunts can evoke some peculiar feelings.
A year ago, when he was at the bottom of the pit, he had just begun his Qi Cultivation, just encountered Modern Cultivation, not understanding a single spell. A year later, he was in the mid-stage of Qi Refining, and on matters of magic and martial arts, he was unmatched among his peers. If he looked closely, he'd even grown taller.
His cultivation had grown, his knowledge had grown, and he had certainly grown in height. But one aspect of his heart had not changed at all,
In this past year, the more Wang Qi cultivated, the more he felt the injustice of Li Ziye's death.
Nearly perfecting the Yao Ding Calculating Scripture, alongside possessing the Heavenly Sword, just a Nascent Soul Stage Ancient Method Practitioner, just Nascent Soul Stage... He could have easily been slain with a single stroke of the sword!
Yet, he died on that gloomy morning when the sun was invisible. What a suffocating way to go.
Wang Qi shook his head, dispelling the stray thoughts in his heart, and then pulled out a stack of papers from his Storage Bag. They were all papers on mathematics and physics, a few were pioneering theories from Shenzhou that Wang Qi had exchanged for, and several were review papers he had written himself, with advanced mathematics from Earth also mixed within.
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"I'm sorry, Senior Brother, most of the answers you wanted to know haven't been solved yet. I'll send you these few papers as a small comfort," Wang Qi spoke softly as he charged the papers with Heavenly Entropy Technique mana, heating them to the point of ignition. After the flames appeared, Wang Qi tossed the papers into the large pit: "I was planning to burn these at your grave, but this shouldn't be breaking any rules, right?"
Li Ziye hadn't specified where he wanted to be buried, so by rule, his body was sent to the Wanfa Sect. According to Su Junyu, the Wanfa Sect had purposely chosen a sunny hillside, which Li Ziye would have preferred. Unfortunately, Wang Qi couldn't step foot into the grounds of the Wanfa Sect, let alone pay respects at the grave.
Watching the papers burn away, Wang Qi stood up: "As for saving my life, I won't say much more. Anyway, it won't be many years before I'll visit your grave in person. And... I won't leave a single one of the Emperor's Extreme Split Sky Dao intact.
Having said that, the young man walked toward the village.
After paying respects to an old friend, it was time to see the family.
However, Wang Qi had not yet entered the village when he frowned.
There were lights, signs of people!
Yin Qi harms the body, and Wang Qi didn't believe any mortals would choose to live in a place where so many had died. Sensing his thoughts, Zhen Chan released his Spiritual Sense to scan the village as they approached.
A moment later, Zhen Chan said, "There are over ten people. Among them, eight possess cultivation, mostly at the Learning Stage or Heavenly Communication Stage, one at Qi Cultivation, and one at Foundation Establishment. Judging by their techniques, they seem to be from the same sect."
Wang Qi frowned, "Which sect might that be?"
"Not from any of the great sects," Zhen Chan replied. "Their Mana Power Intent isn't all that impressive. By your terms, they would probably be considered 'Intermediate Skill Cultivators'."
Intermediate Skill Cultivators wasn't a formal term; it was neither found in textbooks nor recognized by the Immortal Alliance Law—which in fact, prohibited the use of this derogatory label. It referred to those who had defected from Ancient Method Practitioners, whose techniques had been rewritten to draw upon the breathing of Heaven and Earth rather than absorbing nature's spiritual energy, but who had not changed the essence of their techniques, nor integrated into the axiomatized system of Modern Cultivators. In simple terms, they were Ancient Method Practitioners cloaked as Modern Cultivators.
This superficial update meant they were unable to utilize the system of Modern Cultivation and could not tap into its divine essence. Although their use of the breathing of Heaven and Earth was somewhat more efficient than directly absorbing nature's spiritual energy, hence the amount of mana they could wield was greater than with the Ancient Method, from the perspective of Modern Cultivators, Intermediate Skill Cultivators weren't much stronger than those of the Ancient Method.
"My current weighted value is around ten, which roughly equates to a three at early-stage Foundation Establishment... What's the level of that Intermediate Skill Cultivator over there?"
"Early-Stage Foundation Establishment," Zhen Chan answered.
"Even if they are villains over there, they won't be able to kill me," Wang Qi considered. "Let's see what the situation is first."
Zhen Chan said, "There's no need to be so cautious. There are also a few mortals among them. If Cultivators wanted to commit foul deeds, they wouldn't bring along mere mortals, would they?"
Wang Qi thought for a moment and then smiled bitterly, shaking his head, "Maybe it's just a psychological effect... I just don't believe any psychologically normal fellow would stay in a graveyard."
As they conversed, they were nearing the village.
From a distance, the layout of Dabai Village hadn't changed much. Houses that had been collapsed by the freelanced spells of a Nascent Soul Ancient Method Practitioner a year ago were still not entirely cleared away, leaving only foundations. Half of the fields had become wild, the other half had been turned into rows and rows of burial mounds—probably because there were too many deaths to find suitable burial plots for each of them. The only relatively intact houses left in the village were two: one was a newly built large house in the center of the village, and the other was Wang Qi's own home—back then, Xiang Qi had stood on his rooftop, inadvertently blocking the enemy's attacks.
"That house doesn't look like it was built by villagers..." Wang Qi squinted his eyes, looking at the large new house. At least five stories tall, with a faint aura of Spiritual Power around it, it must have been built by Cultivators.
Zhen Chan also noted, "This style seems familiar. And I'm sure it's from ten thousand years ago... though the style has features of this era, it's still from ten thousand years ago."
Just as Wang Qi entered the village boundaries, a figure ran up from not far away, "Hey! Who's there? What business have you with my Red Sun Sect?"
Wang Qi frowned, "I'm returning to my own home. Since when did your so-called Red Sun Sect take over our land and decide I can't come home?"
"Your home? Ridiculous, how could this place..." The man began to rebuke Wang Qi but then remembered something, suddenly grabbed Wang Qi's shoulder and asked, "You... are you...?"
Since the sun had set, the man couldn't see Wang Qi's face clearly and tried to pull out a fire striker or something from his waist to see better. Wang Qi waved his hand, creating several light orbs with the Heavenly Song Power. The orbs illuminated a face that seemed vaguely familiar. Wang Qi couldn't help but ask, "And who are you?"
Having lived two lives, Wang Qi, as a youth, didn't play much with the other children in the village and had a faint impression of his peers. But who didn't know the children of the village's landowners? The honest young man suddenly burst into tears, "You are... You're Wang Qi! So, you really did go out to Study Immortality! Really!"
"Who exactly are you, big brother?"
"Me! It's Tie Zhu!" The honest young man named Tie Zhu didn't give Wang Qi time to react, pulling him into the village, "Folks! Come out! Come out! Wang Qi! Wang Qi really isn't dead!"
