Chapter One: Heaven's First Floor

  Sun You and Shen Shi were both afraid to speak, fearing that they would disturb Wang Yun's train of thought. After a while, Wang Yun nodded slightly and said: "Shen Shidi, I have indeed never heard of such a thing, but according to what you say, it should still be due to rushing into cultivation too hastily. There shouldn't be any major problems. Starting from today, try cultivating only once a day and see if the pain caused by the backlash of your physical body will subside. If that's the case, then everything is fine; if the pain worsens again, come find me tomorrow."

  Shen Shi nodded, and upon hearing the words of this obviously highly cultivated Ling Xuan Sect senior brother, he also felt a great deal more at ease in his heart. He hastily expressed his gratitude. Wang Heng nodded but did not respond. The two were just about to take their leave when Wang Heng suddenly glanced at Sun You and said:

  "Junior Brother Sun, stay for a moment, I have something to say to you."

  Shen Shi and Sun You exchanged a glance, then Shen Shi said softly, "In that case, I'll head back first."

  Sun You nodded. After Shen Shi went out and closed the door, the footsteps gradually faded away, leaving only Wang Yun and Sun You in the quiet room. At this time, Wang Yun calmly said to him:

  "Don't casually bring people here again in the future."

  Sun You was stunned for a moment, then looked up at Wang Hou, but Wang Hou had already closed his eyes slightly and didn't say anything else.

  Sun You suddenly sneered and said, "Elder Brother Wang, if it were my elder brother who brought people here, I suppose you wouldn't be speaking like this, would you?"

  Wang Kun furrowed his brow, and his eyes slowly opened again. But at this moment, Sun You was staring straight at him, without any fear in his expression. Wang Kun shook his head indifferently and said, "You're wrong, even if your older brother Sun Heng came here, I would still be the same." He paused for a moment, then continued in a light tone, "In our school, every ten new disciples are assigned a mentor brother to guide and help them. If everyone ignored them and came directly to me, what's the point of having mentors? Even I would be busy to death every day."

  Sun You snorted and seemed to disagree with Wang Huan's words, but in the end didn't say anything. He just nodded his head, then turned around silently and left without saying a word.

  Wang Heng sat on the couch, watching Sun You leave, his brow furrowed, and after a long time, he let out a sigh, his face slightly desolate, before slowly closing his eyes again.

  After Shen Shi left Xuan Ri Tang, he naturally didn't know that a small dispute had occurred between Sun You and Wang Kun later on. In his opinion, since Wang Kun came from the same school as Old Man Sun, he was naturally very close to Sun You, who was a direct descendant of the Sun family - to put it crudely, they were like two people wearing the same pair of pants.

  Thinking of this, he had a deeper understanding of the powerful forces of the aristocratic families in this famous sect, but for him, it was not a problem. Could blaming heaven and others and complaining that his parents did not give birth to him well make things better?

  He asked himself if he had become so weak.

  All the way back to Baiyudong Mansion, the sky was dark again. This day passed quietly without knowing it, and every day on Qingyu Island seemed to be very fulfilling.

  He took a last look at the setting sun that had dyed the last patch of sky with a fiery glow, and turned to walk into his solitary cave.

  The cloud pattern rose, and the starlight pearl shone with a warm light again, illuminating the stone room. Everything in the house remained the same as when he left this morning, without any difference. Shen Shi walked to the bedside, closed his eyes, calmed his mind for a moment, and felt that his spirit was still okay. After hesitating for a moment, he still picked up the spiritual crystal from beside him, took a deep breath, and prepared to start cultivating.

  Speaking of which, he came to Ling Xiao Sect to cultivate. Along the way, until now, he has indeed suffered a lot, with many twists and turns, sometimes even making people feel helpless. However, thinking back to what Wang Huan said that day, "The path to immortality is long and arduous, with countless dangers. Can those with weak hearts succeed?"

  He clenched his fist around the crystal in his hand a little tighter, gritted his teeth, and then closed his eyes.

  This time's cultivation, at the beginning, was no different from before. It still started with feeling the spiritual power of the crystal, then straining to capture it in the darkness, and finally trying to lead this weak thread of spiritual power into the body's meridians.

  Without the help of the Morning Star Temple's law array, Shen Shi still spent a lot of effort to achieve these few steps, just like last night. However, he was completely immersed in his cultivation and didn't feel it; the time he spent tonight was actually less than yesterday evening by a short while.

  At the moment when the spiritual power was about to enter his body, his mood also became tense at the same time, and as he had expected, the signs of backlash from his physical body appeared simultaneously.

  Intense pain once again spread throughout his entire body, similarly like being torn apart from the inside out, causing him to break out in cold sweat and contort his face. For a moment, he could no longer hold on and quickly fell onto the bed, while the cultivation of drawing in air was also interrupted at this point.

  However, Shen Shi, who was lying on the bed with a slightly trembling body, had an expression that, after the initial twisted pain, quickly revealed a hint of excitement and relief. This time's pain was indeed much lighter than yesterday's, it seemed that what Wang Heng said was true, he was indeed too hasty yesterday, if he followed the normal cultivation process, the flesh's backlash pain should indeed be slowly receding like today.

  With this expectation, the future suddenly seemed much brighter, and Shen Shi's mood also improved instantly. Even the rebound pain that was still raging in his body at this moment didn't seem to matter anymore.

  The starlight shone softly and silently fell on the slightly trembling body of the young man, gazing at him until he quietly fell asleep.

  In the following days, Shen Shi spent his time in a fulfilling and regular manner, and he gradually became accustomed to this life on Qingyu Island.

  Daily persistence in cultivation, no longer daring to do more, the signs of physical backlash also gradually subsided with each passing day, and it seemed that they would soon disappear.

  Every morning, he still goes alone to Hong Bang Village, under the supervision of the sea star girl, peeling shrimp. On the third day, he peeled ten shrimps; on the fourth day, he peeled twelve shrimps. The phrase "practice makes perfect" seems to be the same everywhere and at any time.

  He gradually came to understand and familiarize himself with the bodily structure of the giant prawns, especially the subtle twists and turns of their shells. As he did so, his speed at peeling them grew faster and faster, until on the fifth day, his speed suddenly skyrocketed, and in one day he peeled a whole twenty giant prawns, even startling the sea stars.

  By the way, in the remaining time after peeling shrimp every day, Haixing also started teaching him some basic swimming skills. However, compared to Shen Shi's skill in peeling shrimp, his talent for learning how to swim seemed to be far inferior. After several days passed, under Haixing's constant teachings, he still hadn't learned how to swim and could only hold his breath underwater and float up to a certain extent.

  The starfish was very dissatisfied with Shen Shi's clumsiness in swimming and ridiculed him for several sentences. Shen Shi was so depressed by her words that he asked her how many days it took her to learn swimming when she first started, but the starfish looked at him disdainfully and waved her hand, saying: "We red clam people are born in water and can swim naturally, no need to learn."

  Shen Shi was stunned for a moment, speechless and shaking his head.

  The days passed slowly, the excitement and enthusiasm when they first arrived on the island gradually subsided in each of the young men's hearts, everyone quickly blended into life on Qingyu Island, quiet and focused on their cultivation.

  On the ninth day after ascending to the island, the signs of flesh rebounding finally disappeared from Shen Shi's body. It was also on this day that he introduced a thread of spiritual energy into his physical meridians for the first time in his life.

  It was a strange feeling, like a warm ocean current entering his body, flowing slowly along the meridians, leaving a warm and cozy sensation wherever it passed. As for Shen Shi, he didn't have too many thoughts about it. Cultivation for humans was always a long-term process that required persistence to see results. Drawing in the spiritual energy was just the first step on this long journey, and everything was only just beginning.

  According to the Xingluo Gongfa Jue, once the step of guiding the spirit into the body is achieved, it can be considered as officially entering the Lianqi realm and starting cultivation. After the secret method guides the spiritual power to run through the meridians for a week, this strand of spiritual power will stabilize in the physical meridians. However, the spiritual power absorbed at the beginning is really too weak, and it cannot play any role in tempering and transforming the physical body. Only by persisting in cultivation day after day, the absorbed spiritual power gradually becomes thicker and more abundant, and as the realm rises higher, the physical body will gradually undergo changes.

  Of course, this change has its pros and cons, but overall, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

  The spiritual power obtained through the cultivation of the Refining Qi Realm is all scattered and disordered in the meridians, like disobedient soldiers who are difficult to command. This is also the fundamental reason why cultivators in the Refining Qi Realm cannot cultivate various powerful Daoist magic and divine abilities. Only by breaking through this realm and reaching the Condensing Yuan Realm, where the "Jade Mansion" (also known as "Qihai" or "Dantian") is opened in the lower abdomen, can the spiritual power throughout the body be like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, all converging into the Jade Mansion. At that time, the cultivator can easily command and control the spiritual power within their body, and thus cultivate and display various divine abilities. It is only then that the cultivators have truly taken the first step towards ascending to immortality.

  Since ancient times, the Condensing Yuan Realm has been known as the first step in the great path of cultivating immortals, and it is also the dream of all Qi Refining Realm cultivators.

  On the ninth night, Shen Shi completed the first step of summoning the spirit into his body. After feeling a warm and gentle spiritual energy slowly flowing through his meridians, he only felt extremely spiritually exhausted, with a headache that seemed to split his head open. However, this headache was not particularly severe, nor was it a sign of his physical body rebelling like in the previous days, but rather purely due to excessive mental exhaustion.

  Shen Shi was not worried about this, every time he practiced, spiritual fatigue was a normal thing, and it wasn't just him alone. He had also asked Sun You and others privately, and they were all the same after each practice, only the recovery time varied from person to person.

  Lying on the bed, he rubbed his forehead with his hand and gently massaged the center of his eyebrows, as if this could slightly alleviate the fatigue of his brain. However, at this moment, his mood was still quite good, after all, it was the first time he had successfully summoned a spirit into his body. Although, considering the days that had passed, he was nine days later than Sun You, He Xiaomei, and Jiang Hongguang, but the road ahead was long, and he should be able to catch up, right?

  He closed his eyes, feeling a bit tired, and breathed slowly. In the daze, he had some sleepiness, but suddenly some words flashed through his mind. At first, they seemed to have no meaning, appearing somewhat disorganized, but later they gradually fell into order, vaguely resembling an incantation.

  He was dazed and also felt tired and exhausted, didn't think much, but seemed to remember seeing words similar to "refreshing and refreshing", and then subconsciously thought about those words for a while, after which he slowly fell asleep.

  In the meridians of his body, that one strand of extremely weak spiritual power, he didn't know when it started, from its original state of lying still in a certain place in the meridian, suddenly began to move, slowly flowing along the meridian, and finally flowed all the way to a certain place on his forehead, where it stopped and no longer moved.