The Current State of the Cultivation World

"I know a snack stall that sells shaved ice. It's just up ahead." Su Tingxue offered of her own accord. Zhou You agreed with an odd look on his face. How did she know every place that had food? The two of them parked their bicycles by the roadside, and Su Tingxue led Zhou You to a shaved-ice shop in a little alley. "Boss, one old-style shaved ice." "Sixteen yuan." Sixteen yuan for one shaved ice was expensive enough to make Zhou You click his tongue. What he usually ate was the color-additive shaved ice sold outside the school gate, with brightly colored sweet syrup poured over it—one yuan fifty for a small bowl. As for the large bowl at two yuan fifty, that one he had to split with Chu Xiaoyao. Before long, an old-style shaved ice spread with apricot jam and red beans was set on the table. The owner had thoughtfully provided two spoons. Zhou You had just eaten a ghost and was not very hungry, but he had never had shaved ice this expensive. Out of curiosity he took a bite. It really did taste better than the dyed shaved ice outside the school gate. Su Tingxue ate two mouthfuls. The summer heat eased a little, and she began to speak of the history of the cultivation world. "Immortal cultivation can be traced all the way back to the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of the primordial age." "In the time of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, primordial fierce beasts ran rampant through the human world, and the human race hung by a thread. Back then cultivators lived mixed in among ordinary people. They were revered, they sheltered their tribes, and they fought the primordial fierce beasts." "After the primordial fierce beasts were put down, the fierce beasts withdrew from the stage of history, and the human race became master of the age." "Emperor Zhuanxu carried out the severance of earth from heaven and drew the divide between immortals and mortals. Cultivators were no longer permitted to manifest their power before others." "Cultivators no longer appeared before the people of the world. They banded together to found sects, then hid behind the scenes, concealed in the long river of history." "Jiang Taigong safeguarding eight hundred years of the Zhou dynasty, Xu Fu sailing out to sea in search of an elixir of immortality, Emperor Gaozu of Han slaying the white snake, Xuanzang journeying west... From ancient times to the present, behind all such events there have been cultivators moving in the shadows." "In the modern age, technology and population have exploded, and people's hearts are complicated and restless. The demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters hiding in dark corners can no longer hold themselves back, and one after another they have stuck their heads out." "Take the two Eye-blocking Ghosts we met today. Both of them died in traffic accidents. Chang'an is a big city. In a month, fifty or sixty people can die in traffic accidents—two a day on average. Set that in ancient times, and a carriage hitting someone would still have had a hard time killing them, let alone killing so many. The vengeful ghosts that appear from traffic accidents in modern times far outnumber those of ancient times." "That many people die?" Zhou You was astonished. He knew nothing about this and had thought that, at the very most, two or three people died each month. Su Tingxue nodded. She had been just as astonished the first time she heard this figure. People died somewhere in the world at every moment; she simply had not known. "What's more, someone struck and killed by a carriage in ancient times became an ordinary vengeful ghost, without much that was special about them." "Those who die in traffic accidents are either driving drunk, or playing on their phones and not watching the road, and so on. Vengeful ghosts that appear this way can make a person seem as if they have been drinking, muddle their minds, cover their eyes and ears, and throw all five senses into disorder." "These vengeful ghosts had never appeared before. They are new-era vengeful ghosts." "The appearance of Eye-blocking Ghosts is no isolated case. Because society has changed too quickly over this past century, renewing itself by the day, the situation of demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters is vastly different from ancient times." "For example, there are demons that set up pornographic websites and absorb vital essence across the internet. There are people who die suddenly from overtime, become vengeful ghosts, and drag the boss into working overtime with them. There are people obsessed with going online who, after death, become program ghosts active on the internet..." Su Tingxue counted them off on her fingers. She had heard of all these things, and had even lived through a few herself. With no precedents, the experience left behind by those who came before was useless, and dealing with them was a great deal of trouble. The corner of Zhou You's mouth twitched. Looked at this way, demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters really had changed enormously. "Immortal cultivators in long closed-door cultivation are trouble too. These old seniors shut themselves away for a hundred years at a stretch, and when they come out they know nothing of the outside world." "There are cave abodes that have been turned into tourist sites." "There are magic treasures that got picked up and put in museums. He went out in the middle of the night in a black night-raid outfit to steal his magic treasure back, and was caught in the act by the surveillance cameras." "There are those who went into closed-door cultivation underground, and when they came out found the space overhead sealed shut with reinforced concrete. They finally managed to dig their way out, only to find a missile range up above, and got round after round of missiles smashed into their faces." "The unluckiest was an old senior of the literary path, called Wenchang True Lord." "What is a literary-path cultivator?" Zhou You asked. He had never heard Chu Xiaoyao mention it. "There are two kinds. One kind cultivates by relying on literary fortune. Chanting poems and composing verses, writing books and setting down biographies—all of these can raise their cultivation. Many of the authors and poets you know are this kind." "The other kind mixes in officialdom and binds official fortune tightly to cultivation. If they want to raise their cultivation, they must hold office. The higher the post and the greater the real power, the more their cultivation rises." "Senior Wenchang's writing was only average, so he chose the second kind, cultivation through official fortune." "He once rose as high as chancellor. His power overshadowed the whole court, and his cultivation was unfathomably deep." "Then the dynasties changed. In order to go on holding office, Wenchang True Lord entered closed-door cultivation to prepare for the imperial examinations. He studied the eight-legged essay with all his heart and knew the Four Books and Five Classics by heart. He planned to take first place in all three examinations, leave his name in history, and climb another level in cultivation." "Unfortunately, when he emerged the imperial examinations had been abolished. All that was left was the civil-service exam. The eight-legged essay had been studied for nothing, and the exam also had an age limit. Candidates could be no older than thirty-five." Zhou You asked, curious, "Can't he cheat with a spell and change his age?" Su Tingxue shook her head. "No. Literary-path cultivators have strict limits. Everything has to follow the rules of officialdom. He can't do that." Zhou You felt this old senior really was unlucky, and feared he might never be able to cultivate again in this life. "So where is he now?" "Sighing in his cave abode, I suppose," Su Tingxue said. If it were her, she would have reacted the same way as the old senior. After thinking it over briefly, Zhou You asked offhand, "Would going abroad to run for president work? Running for president in a foreign country doesn't take an exam, and there's no age limit either." Su Tingxue was silent at first, thinking. Then her eyes gradually brightened. "It seems... it could work." Zhou You gave a start. "It really could? I was just saying it." "It's a line of thought. Later I'll suggest it to the old senior. It ought to be workable." Su Tingxue felt Zhou You was truly a talent, and that it was a pity for him to stay at the Carefree Sect. "In any case, facing the tangled situation of modern society, sects no longer choose to hide completely behind the scenes. Instead they put on a layer of modern identity and appear before the public—founding travel companies and the like. Those that have become listed groups are not few." "Sects choosing to stop living in seclusion is, on the one hand, to deal with demons, devils, ghosts, and monsters, like what happened today. On the other hand, the population has grown, and people eat their fill and dress warmly. That means more geniuses of immortal cultivation appear than in any age before. Sects want to take disciples, expand their strength, and reshuffle the board." Zhou You nodded. This was easy to understand. What kind of conditions were those in ancient times? If it was not natural disaster, it was the chaos of war. The population was sparse. Even adults had a hard time surviving, let alone children. Someone with a talent for immortal cultivation could starve to death too. Even if they did not starve, and a sect luckily found them, hunger and cold in their early years would leave a root of illness in the body, unfavorable to immortal cultivation. Modern conditions needed no explaining. Children's lives were better than those of the great landlords of ancient times. Polished white rice and fine flour, extremely expensive in ancient times, were practically free in the modern age, and meat, eggs, and milk were supplied without limit. Every one of those children was bursting with life, strong as a calf, every one of them ruddy-faced and brimming with yang qi. Never mind starving to death—going hungry for even a single meal was impossible. "Sects began using all sorts of methods to look for geniuses of immortal cultivation. I, for example, went to a Mount Longhu summer camp when I was little. Mount Longhu found that my talent was excellent and took the chance to accept me as an inner-sect disciple." "There are also those on good terms with the local education bureau. During the physical for the high-school entrance exam, they quietly add an aptitude test. When they come across someone with good aptitude, they contact the student's parents in private. That is the most efficient way of taking disciples." "How are the cultivation realms divided?" This was what Zhou You most wanted to know. Su Tingxue thought for a moment and held up five pale, slender fingers. "As for cultivation realms, they can be divided into five great realms: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Creation, and Ascension." "In the Qi Refining stage, one uses the spiritual qi of heaven and earth to temper the body, wash away filth, and strengthen the five senses. Sabers, spears, swords, and halberds cannot harm the body, and shattering bricks or splitting walls comes easily." "In Foundation Establishment, the acquired returns to the innate, and one achieves an innate body, rides the clouds and mist, and is revered by tens of thousands. Ordinary firearms can no longer injure them, and a full-force blow can bring down a building." "In the Golden Core stage, one condenses the great Dao of the golden core, cultivates the true self, and becomes one with heaven. Earthly immortals, Daoist perfected ones, and the arhats of the Buddhist school all refer to this realm. A single move can destroy an entire street." "As for the Creation stage and the Ascension stage after that." Su Tingxue shook her head with regret. Her realm was not high enough, and Mount Longhu did not teach these. "Realms of that level are too high. I know very little of them." "I've heard that the mighty ones of the Creation stage cannot be fathomed, and that Ascension is only a legend." Zhou You nodded again and again. For every sentence Su Tingxue spoke, he silently recited one after her, working hard to remember this knowledge, so that when he got back to school for evening self-study he could explain it properly to Chu Xiaoyao.