In cultivation he had merely gone through the motions, and at work he had done the same.
It was mine to begin with; taking it was only natural, and only by obtaining more should I feel satisfied.
Power, resources, a voice.
The monthly quota of eleven bottles of life supplement was hard-earned money paid in blood and sweat—it was rightfully his from the start. That included the merits, too; they had always belonged to him.
I need more: station commendations, extra quotas of life supplement, faster promotions, and so on.
As Lu Zhao's thoughts cleared and aligned, his consciousness body solidified another fraction.
He said, "Thank you for your guidance, Teacher."
The old Taoist seemed to sense the change and praised, "Not entirely foolish after all. Let us continue the lesson.
"As for nature cultivation, the new dynasty seems to place its hopes entirely upon divine powers alone, asking only to pass without making mistakes. Doing so is wrong."
He paused, then asked, "Lu Zhao, do you think your teacher is mistaken?"
More convinced than ever of the old Taoist's petty streak, Lu Zhao nodded like a pecking chick and answered, "Teacher sees through everything clearly. There are indeed materials in school stating that life-force development is a simplified version of ancient methods."
The old Taoist asked again, "Let me ask you: does the present method of life cultivation temper skin, sinew, bone, and flesh one by one?"
Lu Zhao answered truthfully, explaining the modern system of life-force development to his teacher.
Modern life-force development was straightforward: life force points visualized one's stage of development, with stages serving as realms.
Setting aside differences in divine powers, a first-rank superhuman had between 10 and 50 points of life force. Their hallmark was the ability to wield divine powers and an enormous boost in physical attributes.
This manifested at ten points with reinforced muscle and increased strength; at twenty points with increased density in the dermis layer; and at thirty points with reinforced fascia capable of withstanding some piercing damage and impact. At forty points, the muscles could actively contract to stem bleeding on their own.
Finally, upon reaching fifty points, backed by the triple reinforcement of dermis, fascia, and muscle, the physical body could withstand small-caliber handgun bullets.
In practice, bullets could not effectively penetrate the dermis, and muscle contraction could arrest bleeding.
Advancing to a second-rank superhuman followed naturally from there.
A score between 50 and 200 points belonged to a second-rank superhuman, marked by Qi sense and regenerative capabilities.
A peak second-rank superhuman could regenerate any part of the body except the brain. Even if the heart stopped, the entire body's muscles alone could circulate blood to sustain bare-minimum vital functions.
Further up, at the third rank, firearms no longer had any effect, and the defining trait was the danger-anticipating intuition that stemmed from extended Qi sense.
Life-force development had no discrete realms, only progressive stages; all abilities accumulated incrementally.
"The new dynasty's life cultivation is passable."
Having heard this, the old Taoist nodded in fair approval. "Today, I shall rectify your prior deficiencies so that you may reach completeness.
"Condensing an outer form in the first rank cannot be confined to mere appearance; you must also gather the five senses, forging the embryonic divine intent within."
Lu Zhao asked, "Teacher, is the embryonic divine intent an inner landscape?"
He could understand the five senses; that belonged to the second-rank psychic superhuman's consciousness body transformation, developing inward from a simple physical form.
Endowing the consciousness body with the five senses also enabled one to distinguish illusions and guard against madness.
Yet he had never studied divine intent. If this concerned the third rank, a psychic superhuman formed an inner landscape to build their mental palace.
Touching upon the third rank while still in the first was simply too fantastical.
The old Taoist nodded. "In the matter of cultivation, one must look three steps ahead for every step taken—just as a child learning characters cannot merely learn the words, and a youth chanting scriptures cannot merely recite the text.
"The righteous path of the dual cultivation of nature and life demands refining the five senses in the first rank to coalesce embryonic divine intent. In the second rank, you manifest the imagery of the five viscera palaces, constructing the circulation of vital energy to blend internal and external. In the third rank, you construct an inner landscape to forge an ethereal terrace.
"Only thus does one achieve Foundation Establishment and hear the first whisper of the Great Dao."
Lu Zhao's breath grew slightly heavy. He could only feel that what he had learned in the past had remained far too superficial.
He asked, "Teacher, what realm are you in?"
The old Taoist smiled faintly, pointing a finger to the heavens. "Your teacher is merely one realm higher than you, having walked only one step further than the mortal multitudes."
His tone was calm, yet carried an unspeakable transcendence.
"Above Foundation Establishment, a Golden Core True Immortal."
***
Sunlight spilled into the barren room.
Lying on the hard wooden bed, Lu Zhao opened his eyes, his handsome face instantly masked by dead-fish eyes.
Counting the days, he had not had proper rest since returning from the border rotation—it had been roughly a week now.
Though he had long grown accustomed to staying awake for over a hundred and eighty hours, today he felt exceptionally exhausted, his head still buzzing.
The old Taoist's—or rather, Teacher's—voice still echoed in his mind:
'Your thoughts are muddled, your Qi circulation clumsy, and not a single trick of yours is right! A fellow like you actually dreams of Foundation Establishment!'
Wielding a ferule, the old Taoist had brought it down strike by strike onto Lu Zhao's consciousness body.
Compared to their initial mutual courtesy, the old Taoist had become an entirely different person after accepting him as a disciple, shifting from an immortal-like sage to an austere teacher.
In the old Taoist's words, Lu Zhao was like a middle-school dropout suddenly thrown into his senior year of high school to cram for the college entrance exams; it would take a hundredfold effort to make up for lost ground.
While the reasoning was unassailable, Lu Zhao still suspected the old man was using public duty to avenge a personal grudge. Why else would he pull out the ferule?
"Hss!"
Lu Zhao rolled over, and a sharp pain flared across his back. Reaching behind, he felt no wounds or bruises.
Yet the memory engraved into his marrow was so vivid it acted upon his physical flesh, producing phantom pain.
Once the pain passed, Lu Zhao's heart could not help but race as he calculated and envisioned his future.
He had apprenticed himself to a teacher suspected of surpassing a Martial Marquis.
In the past, the greatest divide between him and the top ten geniuses of his year had not been talent or diligence. At a starting line where both sides possessed both, Lu Zhao had lacked resources and a mentor.
Dijing University commanded the finest educational resources in the world, but Lu Zhao was competing against the top ten—the elite prodigies destined to hold the reins of power in the future.
A master leads you through the door, but cultivation depends on the individual; yet without a master, you might never even find the door.
The broader Lu Zhao's experience grew, the more deeply he appreciated the importance of a guide. What Teacher taught was likely still recorded somewhere today, only buried by the popularization of life-force development and intellectual monopolies.
Even his own academy mentor might know only half of it.
Now, though his resources remained scarce, he had found a worthy mentor who had pointed out a path for him.
A Great Dao pursued by ancient sages—one that throughout the dynasties only two kinds of people had ever been permitted to attempt:
Emperors in imperial courts, and patriarchs of divine sects.
Only formidable figures capable of mobilizing and ruling tens of millions were qualified to touch it.
As long as he succeeded in Foundation Establishment, his chances of advancing to Martial Marquis would increase by thirty percent. Each year, among the graduates of Dijing University and Chishui, the rate of attaining Martial Marquis was a mere 0.1 percent.
Out of tens of millions of examinees, only a few thousand entered the premier academies, and of those thousands, only one in a thousand ever became a Martial Marquis.
Yet Teacher was giving him at least a thirty percent chance.
Suppressing the excitement in his chest, Lu Zhao began examining the cultivation method Teacher had imparted the previous night.
The cultivation method capable of rectifying his past deficiencies and bringing him to first-rank completeness in nature cultivation was named the Visualization Method.
Chapter 34