Cultivating Immortality Begins with Acting as a Girl Chapter 134

The first rays of dawn painted the horizon in gentle hues of blue and purple. Distant mountains, like ink-brushed peaks, rose and fell, half-hidden in the thin mist.

A great river, like a silver dragon, flowed from north to south, winding through the mountains, carrying the freshness of morning dew and the wild charm of the forests, surging endlessly.

As the great river gradually moved away from the majestic mountains, the terrain became gentler, and the river itself softened, no longer so turbulent. The river surface widened and became serene, like a giant mirror, perfectly reflecting the blue sky, white clouds, green mountains, lush trees, and the occasional fleeting shadow of a bird.

At this moment, upstream, a bamboo raft was drifting downstream.

On the bamboo raft, a remarkably handsome young man lay lazily. Beside him was a maid in green, holding a long pole. The maid propelled the bamboo raft with skilled and powerful movements, each push perfectly timed, allowing the raft to glide smoothly across the river.

“Young Master, if we continue along this Raoyang River for three more days, we will enter the territory of Zhao,” Ni Huaijun, the maid in green, said softly to Song Ling.

Since avenging himself by slaying Yuan Honghui in Xiangding City, Ni Huaijun had followed Song Ling south, traversing the countries of Rong and Dai, and arriving at the current country of Shen.

During this time, Song Ling had entrusted all the trivial matters to Ni Huaijun, content to indulge in the beauty of nature, enjoying his carefree life.

“Mm.”

Song Ling let out a slight hum from his nose, put down the book in his hand, and looked into the distance.

During this period, he had repeatedly read through all the books he had previously acquired: “Mingxi’s Travels,” “Yunqi Jue,” “Basic Talisman Making,” and “Liuchuan Spirit Nurturing Art,” almost committing them to memory.

Even though he hadn’t officially embarked on the path of immortality, the common knowledge and theories of early-stage cultivation had already taken root in his mind, laying a solid foundation for him.

Furthermore, Song Ling had formulated a preliminary plan for how to act after entering Zhao.

Currently, he possessed the Grade A spiritual essence, Brocade White Rain, within his body. If he wished, he could use the “Liuchuan Spirit Nurturing Art” at any time to formally enter the “Qi Nurturing Stage” of cultivation. However, the “Liuchuan Spirit Nurturing Art” was merely an ordinary-grade Spirit Transformation and Qi Nurturing Art. Even with the Grade A spiritual essence, Brocade White Rain, there was only a ten percent chance of cultivating the top three grades of “Innate Qi.” Therefore, Song Ling was unwilling to settle.

Innate Qi was the foundation of all subsequent cultivation, affecting every aspect of a cultivator, including but not limited to the upper limit of cultivation in this life, the difficulty of overcoming bottlenecks on the cultivation path, and even the power and strength of spells…

For example, a cultivator with decent innate talent who cultivated a low-grade Innate Qi would find it extremely difficult in the Qi Refinement stage and would basically have no hope of achieving Foundation Establishment in this life.

Although it wasn’t absolute, and there were indeed cultivators with low-grade Innate Qi who became great cultivators, these were rare exceptions, and such opportunities and fortuitous encounters were hard to come by.

Therefore, Song Ling’s primary goal was to obtain a Flawless-grade, or even a Pristine-grade, Spirit Transformation and Qi Nurturing Art.

If he obtained a Flawless-grade one, his probability of cultivating top-grade Innate Qi would be thirty percent. If it were Pristine-grade, he would have a full fifty percent probability.

The reason why even the highest-grade spiritual essence combined with the highest-grade cultivation technique couldn’t reach a hundred percent probability was due to the existence of “cultivation aptitude.”

Aside from those born with top-grade Primordial Qi, known as “Immortal Seedlings,” other cultivation aptitudes had no precise fixed. Usually, major sects had their own testing methods to differentiate them.

Song Ling didn’t know what his aptitude was, so he could only strive for the best Spirit Transformation and Qi Nurturing Art possible.

“Mingxi’s Travels” recorded that while Flawless-grade Spirit Transformation and Qi Nurturing Arts were not rare in regions with Grade 3 spiritual energy concentration and above, and could be bought in ordinary markets if one had enough spirit stones, for a Grade 1 spiritual energy concentration country like Zhao, the only hope of obtaining one was to become a direct disciple of a major sect.

Song Ling’s plan was to head directly to the Purple Radiance Sect, one of the Six Profound Gates, after entering Zhao.

According to information obtained from Senior Brother Chang of White Cloud Temple, the Purple Radiance Sect held a disciple recruitment assembly every year on the second day of the sixth month in Linyao Town, which was built at the foot of the mountain below the sect. Anyone interested in joining the Purple Radiance Sect, regardless of their background, as long as they were under fifteen years old, could sign up to participate.

On this day, hundreds or even thousands of youths who admired the Purple Radiance Sect would come from various places to participate in the assessment. Therefore, to save time, the age screening step would not use time-consuming and laborious soul detection methods, but primarily rely on appearance and bone age for quick identification.

This way, Song Ling, relying on his “Thousand Transformations” ability, would be able to pass.

He hadn’t rushed too much on this journey, also to coincide with this day. Of course, he had also reserved half a month as a buffer to avoid any unexpected delays.

“Young Master, someone is waving at us over there.” Just as Song Ling was pondering some future action details, Ni Huaijun raised her hand and pointed to the right bank.

Song Ling looked over and saw a young man holding a red silk ribbon, constantly waving at them.

“Red Silk Feast?” Song Ling raised an eyebrow.

The Red Silk Feast was a traditional custom in the country of Dai. It basically meant that if there was a joyous event in a household, the host family would invite passing guests with red silk ribbons nearby. The greater the joyous event, the more guests were invited, usually in multiples of nine.

People believed that through this method, the good fortune brought by the joyous event would remain in their home for a long, long time.

However, many parts of the country of Dai were currently suffering from natural disasters, and food harvests were poor. Few poor families still maintained this custom; those who did were mostly wealthy households.

“How much food do we have left?” Song Ling asked Ni Huaijun.

Ni Huaijun opened the package on the bamboo raft, looked inside, and shook her head, “To answer Young Master, we have been drifting on this Raoyang River for almost ten days, and our food is almost depleted.”

“Is that so? Then we’ll go over and get a meal, and bring some food back too,” Song Ling said casually.

“Yes, Young Master.”

Ni Huaijun responded, deftly adjusted the long pole, and maneuvered the bamboo raft slowly towards the man waving the red silk.

Before long, the bamboo raft steadily docked by the shore. Song Ling stood up, tidied his clothes, and stepped onto the bank. Ni Huaijun followed closely behind, carrying a satchel. She inserted a stake, connected to the bamboo raft by a rope, into the soil on the bank to prevent the raft from being carried away by the current.

Seeing this, the young man hurried over. He glanced at the two, immediately discerning their master-servant relationship, and smiled broadly at Song Ling:

“Greetings, Young Master. My master passed the provincial examination, and my mistress specifically instructed me to host a Red Silk Feast here. If Young Master doesn’t mind, please follow me to the mansion to celebrate this joyous occasion?”

“Of course not,” Song Ling smiled.

…