Chapter Two: The Tome of Spirit Gathering
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It had been several days since Li Chengzhu arrived in the Immortal Realm. By nature, he was someone who adapted easily to circumstances, and apart from his initial fear and helplessness, he had now completely acclimated to his new environment, marveling at the stroke of fortune that had brought him here.
The Immortal Realm—the dream of countless people, and yet here he was, having set foot in it almost by accident. Li Chengzhu couldn’t help but secretly praise the thunder that had struck him so fortuitously.
As the old man had said, he had forcibly snatched away nearly half of the Summoning Light meant for an ancient immortal maiden. Not only had his body become incredibly robust, with a monstrous capacity for recovery—his previously swollen form had fully healed within days—but his cultivation had leapt in one bound from nothing to the late Revolving Radiance stage. And thanks to the transformation wrought by the Summoning Light, any future cultivation would yield results with half the usual effort.
In the old man’s words: “Kid, you really stepped into a pile of gold.”
A few days of idle chatter had given Li Chengzhu a grasp of the basics of cultivation. In the mortal realm, the path was divided into thirteen stages: Foundation Establishment, Revolving Radiance, Fasting, Opening Light, Fusion, Heart Movement, Spirit Silence, Nascent Soul, Out-of-Body, Distraction, Unity, Tribulation Crossing, and Grand Ascension, each with early, middle, and late phases.
As for the old man dressed like a Shaanbei peasant, he claimed to be the forty-seventh Guide to the Immortal Realm, with cultivation already at the late Grand Ascension stage. In a few more decades, he would be eligible to join the ranks of the true immortals.
The Immortal Realm was not composed solely of immortals. One must understand, it was but one among countless worlds in the vast universe, and not everyone here was invincible. The only difference was that people in the Immortal Realm started on the path of cultivation from a much higher point; every newborn child was already at the Nascent Soul stage, and the exceptionally gifted could reach Out-of-Body or even Distraction at birth.
By comparison, Li Chengzhu now was not even equal to a newborn, having only just reached the late Revolving Radiance stage, not yet even the Fasting realm.
“You really are the first person in the history of the Immortal Realm to be this clueless,” the old man shook his head, “the number one good-for-nothing!”
This was his assessment after Li Chengzhu, driven by hunger, had leapt at a sparrow-sized bird in the forest, only to be turned into an ice sculpture by a volley of ice arrows from his would-be prey.
“That bearded reedling was only a first-rank spirit beast here, yet it left you in such a state. You’re truly something else.”
“How was I supposed to know it could shoot ice arrows? What kind of Immortal Realm is this? It’s a living hell... I’m starving,” Li Chengzhu muttered, clutching his stomach, shivering.
If the old man hadn’t intervened in time, he might have frozen to death at the hands of that little bird.
He had managed to bring his travel bag along when ascending, but its contents had only lasted him a few days. Today, hunger drove him to try his luck with the forest creatures.
“Do you have anything to eat?” Li Chengzhu looked pitifully at the Shaanbei peasant before him. “Or could you maybe help me catch a few spirit beasts?”
The Guide to the Immortal Realm rolled his eyes in exasperation. In nearly a century at his post, every single ascendant had treated him with the utmost respect—and now someone was trying to sponge off him.
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But he couldn’t just watch the boy starve. Before leaving, the ancient immortal maiden had instructed him to take good care of Li Chengzhu. The thought of that fierce woman sent a shiver down the old man’s spine.
“Here, take these,” he said, flipping his hand to reveal several fruits in his palm.
Li Chengzhu’s eyes lit up green with hunger as he snatched the fruits and devoured them in a few bites.
Afterward, patting his full stomach, he grinned and asked, “Are these the legendary immortal fruits of the Immortal Realm? The kind that grant eighty years of cultivation with a single bite? I feel full of energy now.”
The old man’s beard bristled with annoyance. “If only it were that easy. Those are just ordinary fruits from the mortal world.”
Li Chengzhu’s face fell. “Where did you get them then?”
“These were gifts from mortals who ascended and wanted to show respect to your elder.”
Li Chengzhu thought that made sense. Every gatekeeper receives their share of gifts, even when he worked as a journalist, he had to grease the palms of agents to land interviews with celebrities. How much more so for the Guide to the Immortal Realm? And those who could ascend must have been influential figures in the mortal world, so their gifts would have been more generous than this.
His eyes rolled slyly as he rubbed his hands together, grinning. “So, do you have any of those immortal fruits that grant eternal life, so one may shine alongside the sun and moon?”
“No.”
“How about an immortal pill that lets you ascend and join the ranks of the immortals with a single dose?”
“No.”
“Any elixirs that could save me hundreds of years of bitter cultivation?”
“No.”
“Or perhaps—”
“No! Absolutely not!”
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“That’s not the right attitude!” The Guide to the Immortal Realm, driven to distraction by Li Chengzhu’s persistent pestering, finally agreed to his lowest demand: to teach him the way of cultivation.
Today’s encounter with the bearded reedling had made one thing clear to Li Chengzhu: in the Immortal Realm, he was less than nothing, and his only hope was to cultivate. So he latched onto the Shaanbei peasant, insisting he take him as a disciple and teach him the path to immortality.
Although the old man agreed, all the cultivation methods circulating in the Immortal Realm were tailored for immortal physiques. Even though Li Chengzhu had been transformed by the Summoning Light, giving him a body that was at least half-immortal—superior, even, to many natives—attempting to practice the standard immortal methods would almost certainly result in his body exploding from the strain. The Guide to the Immortal Realm, after rummaging through a century’s worth of bribes, finally found a suitable technique in his storage ring.
This cultivation manual, titled “The Treasury of Spirit Gathering,” had been gifted to him by a certain Immortal Hong Xing upon his ascension. At the time, Hong Xing had been an ordinary immortal, but in a mere century, he had ascended to the rank of High Immortal, all thanks to this very method.
“The Treasury of Spirit Gathering” was a technique focused on maximizing the absorption of surrounding spiritual energy for personal use, quite different from the usual methods. Standard cultivation required simultaneous refinement of body and mind; if one’s cultivation outstripped their temperament, the likely result was inner demons, leading to wasted effort at best, or falling into the Demon Realm or total annihilation at worst.
But “The Treasury of Spirit Gathering” took the opposite approach, focusing primarily on strengthening the body, while the mind was to adapt as circumstances dictated, embracing destruction to achieve rebirth—only then could one succeed.
On the planet where Immortal Hong Xing hailed from, this technique was known as the “Devil Cultivation Scripture.” Yet, gifted as he was, Hong Xing had mastered it. Recognizing its dangers, he offered it to the Guide to the Immortal Realm upon his own ascension, rather than keeping it.
Little did he expect the Guide would pass this method on to Li Chengzhu. Had Hong Xing warned of its risks, perhaps the old man would have thought twice.
Serving as the guide for ascendants for just over a hundred years, the old man had mostly received pills and local specialties as gifts; as for cultivation manuals, he’d only ever acquired two. Judging by comparison, “The Treasury of Spirit Gathering” seemed at least of middling quality, perhaps even above average, so he decided to teach it to Li Chengzhu.
Later, Li Chengzhu would suffer greatly because of this technique, and the old man would regret his decision deeply.
PS: The ranks of immortals in the Immortal Realm are: Immortal, High Immortal, Golden Immortal, Great Golden Immortal, Supreme Immortal, Immortal Lord, and Immortal Emperor.