Chapter 10: Teaching My Beautiful Disciple (1)

Su Wan’er set her empty porcelain cup onto the stone table and rose gracefully to her feet, smoothing out the azure silk of her robes.

"Alright, I should head back to the main hall before the Council elders start another riot," she said, looking down at me with a soft, lingering warmth in her eyes. "Honestly, Lu Chen... I’m really happy for you. Seeing you break through that stubborn bottleneck after so many years, and finally having someone to share this mountain with, it takes a huge weight off my chest. I hated watching you isolate yourself, growing more and more lonely up here."

She smiled, a rare, unguarded expression that completely melted her icy Sect Master facade, and patted my shoulder before turning to summon her flying sword. With a crisp chime of steel and a gentle gust of wind, she vaulted into the azure sky, disappearing beyond the misty sea of clouds.

Shen Qingxue stood beside the pavilion railing, watching the shimmering trail of azure light fade into the distance.

"Master and the Sect Master seem exceptionally close," she remarked softly, her dark obsidian eyes carrying a trace of curious awe.

To a mortal from a fallen border clan, the legendary Nascent Soul ruler of a grand cultivation sect was practically an untouchable deity, yet she had treated my lazy self with such familiar warmth.

"We’ve known each other for three decades," I chuckled, pouring myself another cup of tea and taking a slow sip. "We joined the outer sect on the exact same day as scrawny kids, shoveling spirit beast dung and scrapping for basic medicinal herbs side by side. She climbed to the top while I dragged my feet, but she has always had my back. Remember this, Qingxue: if an emergency ever happens and you can’t reach me for whatever reason, you can always go directly to Wan’er. She looks terrifying when she’s mad, but she will never let anyone hurt someone from my peak."

Shen Qingxue nodded solemnly, etching every word into her heart.

"Now then, let’s get down to actual business," I said, setting my cup down and gesturing toward the stone bench across from me. "Sit down. Since you’re officially my disciple, it’s time I teach you how this world actually works. Tell me, how much do you know about cultivation."

She sat down obediently, smoothing her plain white robe over her knees, looking slightly embarrassed as she lowered her gaze.

"Only what the mortal storytellers and wandering mercenaries spoke of, Master," she admitted quietly. "They said that cultivators are like living gods who can fly on swords, shatter mountains with a palm, and live for hundreds of years. Beyond that... I know nothing."

I smiled faintly, leaning forward against the table. "That’s normal. In the mortal world, people worship cultivators because of the immense gap in power, but at its root, cultivation is simply the art of wresting control over your own mortality from the heavens. Every living being is born with a finite pool of vitality. As mortals, that vitality steadily leaks out like water from a cracked bowl until you grow old, wither, and die. Cultivation is the process of patching that bowl, making it nearly indestructible, and then filling it with the boundless spiritual energy that permeates heaven and earth."

Qingxue listened with rapt attention, her back straight and her breathing slow, drinking in my words like a parched traveler finding a spring in the desert.

"The world you see is permeated by invisible spiritual qi, the breath of the universe," I continued, tracing a small circle on the stone surface with a wisp of golden energy. "The mountains, the rivers, the sun, and the stars all radiate this power. Mortals cannot perceive it because their flesh is weighed down by mundane impurities, and their meridians are blocked by mortal food, grief, and poison. To cultivate, you must learn to harmonize your breathing with the rhythm of the world, draw that spiritual qi through the acupuncture points of your skin, guide it through your twelve primary meridians, and store it within your body. The purer your intent and the more refined your technique, the more terrifying the power you can wield. It is not magic, it is an absolute, systematic transformation of the self from fragile clay into divine jade." ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Her eyes flickered with understanding, the raw intelligence behind her Asura Dao Heart grasping the core philosophy effortlessly.

"So the body must be prepared before it can bear such immense energy?" she asked, leaning in slightly.

"Precisely," I nodded, pleased with her sharpness. "Which brings us to the actual hierarchy of realms. The very first threshold of the immortal path is the Body Strengthening Realm. Before you even attempt to guide spiritual qi into your inner organs, you must temper your mortal shell. You strengthen your muscles, harden your skin, and reinforce your sinews through rigorous physical training and medicinal nourishment. If a fragile mortal tries to channel violent heaven-and-earth qi directly into unrefined flesh, their blood vessels would simply rupture like overfilled waterskins."

Qingxue touched her forearm, feeling the firmness beneath her pale, newly purified skin. "The pill Master gave me... did it skip that struggle for me?"

"It cleansed your bone poison and washed away the mundane grime, giving you a physical foundation cleaner than ninety-nine percent of outer sect recruits," I explained with a smirk. "Which means you can step directly into the second realm after your body is strengthened enough, the Qi Gathering Realm, commonly known across the sect as the Qi Condensation Realm. In this stage, you sit in meditation, sense the ambient spiritual qi, draw it into your meridians, and store it within your body so you can circulate it at will."

"How does one measure progress in these stages, Master?" she asked, her brows knitting slightly as she tried to visualize the process.