Chapter 3: Moonlit Dawn

  "I, Chu Yu, have been cultivating in the Central Plains for over a hundred years, calling the wind and rain, but now I've fallen to the point where I don't even have half a bit of magical power or divine ability. My treasured artifacts are all gone, and everything has to start from scratch again. It's truly laughable... how ridiculous!" Lying on his bed in his own room, Xiao Yi, who had become Chu Yu's reincarnation, couldn't help but let out a soft laugh at himself.

  Xiao Yi, a 15-year-old student in the first year of junior high school at CY Middle School in Shanghai. His father is a taxi driver and his mother is a salesperson at a large shopping mall. He has poor grades and is considered to be one of the weakest students in his class, which is known for being highly competitive. He also has a somewhat timid personality...

  Chu Yu, who had fully merged with Xiao Yi's spiritual consciousness, naturally understood everything about this "brand new self". After summarizing the brief life and experiences of 15-year-old Xiao Yi in his sea of consciousness, he couldn't help but think to himself, "Since I, Chu Yu, have taken your physical body for my own use, I owe you a favor. The unfulfilled wishes you had, I will complete them on your behalf."

  She gathered her emotions, Chu Yu sat up from the window and gazed at the bright moon hanging high in the sky. Her heart surged with emotion as she thought to herself: "It's been many years since I last entered the mortal world. Although this time I was reborn after being beaten back to my original form, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Starting from scratch has its own advantages, and it's better than flying up to the immortal realm only to discover that I'm so weak that I get bullied."

  "This old master's treasure must be refined, and his own cultivation must be grasped tightly. The flesh must be made sacred, the power of the law must be cultivated to communicate with the gods. In short, as long as everything that can strengthen oneself is cultivated to completion. Hmph, you treacherous Old Heaven, by the time of the next Tribulation, this old master will definitely cultivate to the realm where he can withstand even the most powerful Great Demon Tribulation in the heavenly calamity, known as the Five Elements' Annihilation Thunderbolt. If you have the ability, try to plot against me again..."

  Chu Yu steeled himself and refocused his gaze on the bright moon in the sky, silently vowing: Let everything start anew!

  From the beginning, of course, it is to lay the foundation first. This is the first step for ordinary people to embark on the path of cultivating truth, and it is also one of the most difficult steps in the cultivation process, second only to forming the elixir and completing the tribulation.

  The three arrivals of Xiūzhēn at Kǎn refer to Jīdì (Foundation Establishment), Níngyīng (Embryo Condensation) and Dùjié (Tribulation Crossing).

  To know that in the Zhongtu Xiuzhen realm, building the foundation is difficult to achieve, it's hard because if an ordinary person who only knows the cultivation method wants to complete this step, even if they are talented and intelligent, it will take ten years or more; it's easy because with the help of a high-level cultivator, building the foundation often only takes a few days or even less time to complete. Of course, if no one assists you, having enough spiritual pills can also work, at most it would take about a month or so.

  Nowadays, Chu Yu has nothing. It's impossible to build a foundation with this spiritual pill. With his arrogant personality, even when he only had a thread of divine consciousness left, he never asked anyone for help. Now that he has regained his physical body, how could he possibly ask someone else to build a foundation for him?

  Fortunately, Chu Yu had obtained a superior foundation-building cultivation method from an overseas loose immortal with a third-rate treasure decades ago. At that time, he was considering passing it on to his disciples when he accepted them in the future, but unexpectedly, he ended up cultivating it himself before accepting any disciples.

  The key is that this foundation-building heart method is not like the usual ones, which require years of hard work to cultivate internal energy. When this heart method is activated, it can absorb the essence of the sun and moon to enhance the internal energy storage in the body. The speed of cultivation is dozens of times faster than searching for other methods. This is also why Chu Yu was willing to exchange with that overseas loose immortal at first.

  At this moment, it was already midnight. Chu Yu's eyes were slightly closed as he sat cross-legged in front of the bed, facing the window. A faint silver glow could be seen on his forehead, which seemed to be the moonlight shining down on him. In reality, this was a sign that he was currently circulating the "Ethereal Moon and Radiant Sun Heart Method". At this moment, he was continuously absorbing the moon's essence, guiding it into his body through the Spiritual Platform, and using the heart method to transform it into his own innate inner energy.

  Time flies, and before he knew it, the moon had fallen and the sun had risen. Since it was during the National Day holiday period, Chu Yu didn't expect anyone to come disturb him. In these six days, he only went downstairs to eat and said hello to "Xiao Yi's parents" on the second day, and made a phone call to Su Jingyi, mainly because he was afraid that this little girl would tell others about his attempted jump into the river or come to bother him. Apart from that, he stayed in his room all the time, staring out of the window, without ever stopping for a moment.

  Xiao Yi's parents also seemed to be accustomed to their son's behavior of staying at home and did not show any surprise. Moreover, both of them worked in jobs that had no holidays, so even on National Day, they still went to work as usual, busy with overtime to earn extra pay.

  After six days and seven nights of absorption and condensation, what made Chu Yu feel relieved was that he had already cultivated internal energy from scratch in his dantian qihai, although it was still very thin. However, being able to reach this level of internal energy cultivation within a few days without any external assistance was quite rapid. This was mainly due to the subtlety of the "Yuè Yuè Xīn Fǎ".

  "Xiao Yi, get up! Today's the first day of school, hurry down and finish your breakfast."

  Hearing his mother's call from downstairs, Xiao Yi responded with a hint of helplessness, "Coming."

  He hastily finished his breakfast and reluctantly went out under his mother's urging.

  "It's really troublesome being a middle school student!" After leaving, Chu Yu sighed and thought to himself: "For now, I'll just keep being Xiao Yi. After all, I've taken over someone else's body, this is a huge favor, before I help him fulfill his unfulfilled wishes, how can I just leave like that?"

  Chu Yu is notorious for his arrogance in the Zhong Tu Xiu Zhen realm, and he indeed has the capital to be arrogant. Regardless of whether they are righteous or evil, he treats everyone equally, not giving any face even to the leader-level figures from both the righteous and evil sides of the Zhong Tu Xiu Zhen realm.

  However, he was a typical softie who couldn't handle the hard stuff. The infamous Southern Old Demon of Zhongtu's Xiuzhen realm had once tried to force Chu Yu to refine artifacts for him through brute strength, but in the end, he was killed off by Chu Yu using over ten top-grade artifacts in succession.

  To be honest, the old demon from southern Xinjiang's cultivation and strength are absolutely above Chu Yu's, but when it comes to fighting between cultivators, the key to winning or losing often doesn't lie in one's own strength. Having a top-notch treasure can guarantee victory even if the difference in strength isn't huge. Not to mention that Chu Yu has more than one powerful treasure - he owns six of the top ten treasures in the Central Plains. Let alone an old demon from southern Xinjiang, even the leader of the evil sect, Tian Mo Zu Shi, wouldn't dare challenge Chu Yu easily.

  After this incident, almost all the cultivators who hoped that Chu Yu would refine the law treasure for them became even more respectful, offering far more than the required materials for refining the law treasure, and answering every question they had, responding to every request, as long as Chu Yu agreed to refine the law treasure for them, no matter how difficult the conditions were.

  Apart from this kind of person, Chu Yu also refines magic treasures for another type of person, that is, his fellow disciples or cultivators who have owed him a favor. He unconditionally refines the magic treasures they need. Although Chu Yu is arrogant, he is absolutely clear about gratitude and resentment. As long as someone has shown kindness to him, he will repay them tenfold or even a hundredfold.

  At that time, in the Zhongtu Xianjing, as long as you went out and said a word, "The Chu Sect Master of Lianbao Pavilion owes me a favor." That was absolutely a matter of great face! Even when fleeing from the light and flying, it was still possible to hold one's head high and walk with pride.

  With Chu Yu's personality, in his view, he owed Xiao Yi this child a favor that was too great to repay, and it would not be possible to clear the debt in a short time.

  Anyway, Chu Yu was not in a hurry to avoid the world and cultivate himself. Firstly, he had not yet succeeded in building his foundation, and secondly, he planned to use the financial empire he had built up over the past thirty years to foot the bill for his costly cultivation path. In Chu Yu's plan, before reaching the stage of Yuan Ying, he would have to continue staying in this mundane world, and this student would have to continue playing along, treating it as a form of worldly training.