A Local Spirit's Cultivation

When Li Banfeng opened his eyes, an exquisitely beautiful woman was wiping down his wounds. Halfway through cleaning him, she marveled, "This little fellow is quite spirited!" Li Banfeng scrambled to his feet in a panic, pulled up his clothes and trousers, and looked at the woman. "Do we know each other?" The woman laughed. "You just broke ground on my territory, and now you turn around and pretend not to know me?" "You're the local spirit?" The woman nodded. "I am Meng Yuchun. What's your name?" "I am Li Qi. All of this should have been written into the covenant deed." "I've already prepared the covenant deed. Go ahead and write your name." Li Banfeng wrote his name, pressed his thumbprint, burned the covenant deed, and sprinkled his blood on the edge of the plot. "These are all things that should have been done before breaking ground." Meng Yuchun explained, "I'm not like other local spirits. In the past, whenever someone broke ground here, this was always the rule!" "How many people broke ground here before?" "Just you. That's why I say it was always the rule." Li Banfeng looked at the woman before him. "Don't you think that rule is a bit too slipshod?" Meng Yuchun shook her head and chuckled. "More than half a year has passed since I became a local spirit, and you are the first living person to enter my parcel. This place is desolate to such an extreme; if I still fussed over all those useless rules and restrictions, when would I ever see my hardships end?" This place was indeed desolate. Li Banfeng looked around and asked, "Why did you insist on choosing such a place back then?" "Was it mine to choose? Whatever land the Inner States gave me was what I had to take." The origins of the local spirits were precisely what Li Banfeng wanted to know. Meng Yuchun spoke with an open, forthright air—even more forthright than Qiu Luoye. As long as he treated her with sincerity, he should be able to learn a few things. "Does one have to go to the Inner States to become a local spirit?" "Of course. How else could you advance a tier?" Advance a tier? Li Banfeng asked, "What tier is your cultivation at right now? If you don't want to say, forget I asked. I know one shouldn't casually pry into someone else's cultivation." Meng Yuchun smiled. "Even if I don't say, you should be able to guess. I'm only at tier one. I've only been in the newland for half a year; how many tiers could I possibly advance in a godforsaken place like this?" Li Banfeng had not guessed it. "What do you mean by this 'tier one'?" Meng Yuchun was taken aback. "Your cultivation isn't low, yet you have so little worldly knowledge. I'm certainly not talking about ground-crust tier one." Ground-crust tier one? The concept sounded familiar. Right, the coachman had mentioned it before. The first time Li Banfeng rode the Yaowanggou coachman's carriage, Monkey Qiu had asked the coachman about his cultivation, and the coachman said he was a ground-crust tier-one cultivator. Li Banfeng had still been a white lamb back then and hadn't paid much attention to the phrasing. Thinking back on it now, the words "ground-crust" did not refer to a specific tier, but represented an entire stage of cultivation! In Puluo Province, within Li Banfeng's familiar world, all the cultivation tiers were probably in the ground-crust stage! "Then what is your current tier one called?" Meng Yuchun said, "Right now I am at Cloud First Tier. Stop trying to coax information out of me. I'm not your master, nor am I your wife. Why should I teach you so much?" Li Banfeng sat down beside Meng Yuchun and asked in earnest, "I'm a seasoned pioneer. In the future, I can clear quite a bit of wasteland here. If you give me some guidance, I can do a lot of work for you down the road." Meng Yuchun gave Li Banfeng a sideways glare. "What good does it do if you're the only one pioneering the land? The human presence on my territory still won't grow!" "It can grow. I know plenty of seasoned pioneers. I'll bring them all over. A little adds up to a lot, and this place will slowly turn into proper land." Meng Yuchun frowned. "Why should I believe you?" "If you don't believe me, we can draw up a covenant deed. If I bring more people to clear wasteland within a month, wouldn't that be far better than waiting here for more than half a year without seeing a soul?" Meng Yuchun pondered for a moment and said, "Your cultivation truly isn't low, and you'll find out about some things sooner or later anyway. What I can say, I'll say; what I can't say, don't force me." Li Banfeng nodded. "Let's start with Cloud First Tier. Does one have to cultivate to ground-crust tier ten before advancing to Cloud First Tier?" "Naturally. And it must be a fully formed ground-crust tier ten." "What does 'fully formed tier ten' mean?" Meng Yuchun explained patiently, "Going from nine to ten requires passing through a life-and-death tribulation. If you pass the tribulation, you can ascend to the clouds. Only after reaching the clouds can you go to the Inner States, and only after going to the Inner States can you obtain Cloud First Tier cultivation." "What if you fail the tribulation?" "Then things become troublesome. But it also depends on the degree. The so-called passing of the tribulation means the physical body is destroyed, while the soul advances completely intact. If the soul suffers damage, there is still some leeway. If the damage is under twenty percent, it can still be repaired through various means. Once it is fully restored, there is still a chance to go to the Inner States. If the soul's damage exceeds twenty percent but is under fifty percent, it becomes difficult to repair. Such souls wander Puluo Province, known as Injured Demon Fiends. They are the fiercest among the evil spirits of Puluo Province, and being able to survive in the world for a long time can be considered a destination of sorts. If the soul's damage exceeds fifty percent, it falls into a slumber within the earth until it slowly dissipates. A small number of souls are nourished by dwellings and become dwelling spirits. Such dwelling spirits are rare. If a Dwelling Cultivator happens to encounter one, it is a great blessing." Li Banfeng nodded repeatedly. His wife's level was certainly far beyond tier ten. Who could ever compare to the fortune he had received? Li Banfeng asked again, "What if the soul is entirely ruined?" Meng Yuchun paused, surprised. "You mean the soul is ruined, but the physical body remains?" Li Banfeng nodded. "That is a broken-cocoon pupa, the most wretched kind. When undergoing the tribulation, those people followed the wrong sequence and became walking corpses, unable to die and unable to truly live. Some are even raised like livestock." Li Banfeng had seen a broken-cocoon pupa before—the Eldest Senior Brother on Jianrengang. In the Sage's eyes, he was probably just livestock that knew how to fight. Li Banfeng continued asking, "Once you pass the tribulation and arrive at the Inner States, do you become Cloud First Tier?" "No. Arriving at the Inner States only counts as reaching the clouds, just like a cultivator who has barely stepped through the doorway—without any tier at all. One's lifespan also remains identical to an ordinary mortal's, completely unchanged." "No change in lifespan? Doesn't it triple?" This did not match the knowledge Li Banfeng had gathered. Meng Yuchun shook her head. "That is a rumor spread among common folk. If you want a threefold lifespan, you must have Cloud First Tier cultivation. And if you want to reach tier one, you must receive a reward from the Inner States." It even required a reward? "How does one obtain that reward?" At this point, Meng Yuchun hesitated. She did not want to speak directly of matters concerning the Inner States. "I don't want to say it. Would it be alright if I just showed you?" "Show me how?" Li Banfeng couldn't comprehend. Meng Yuchun gave a bitter smile. "Perhaps because I've grown older, I no longer know any shame." She turned her back to him and untied her robe. The robe slowly slipped down past her knees. Li Banfeng saw fair, pale skin, covered in dense, crisscrossing scars. Meng Yuchun said, "Do you see? That is how the bestowal was bought. I wouldn't surrender my body to serve them like other women did. I was willing to be an enforcer, or even a servant. Whether as a servant or an enforcer, it's actually no different from being livestock. I've lost count of how many beatings I took, and I can't remember how many years I was beaten, all to trade for Cloud First Tier cultivation and earn the qualification to become a local spirit." The corner of Li Banfeng's eye twitched. He first asked Meng Yuchun to put her clothes back on, then asked, "How did you endure it?" "What else could I do but endure? And that wasn't even the hardest part. The hardest part was... was..." Meng Yuchun paused for a moment. "They killed my dwelling spirit. Right in front of my eyes, they swallowed it raw and skinned it alive. I was a coward; I didn't dare make a peep back then." A long silence fell between them. Meng Yuchun lowered her head and said, "I shouldn't have told you these things. They don't permit us to speak of their affairs. I haven't spoken to anyone in so long. In the Inner States, no one was willing to speak to me, and out here, I don't see a single living soul." Li Banfeng sighed. "So you're a Dwelling Cultivator." Meng Yuchun nodded. "Dwelling Cultivators across the world hate Journey Cultivators, which is why I went quite hard on you earlier." Li Banfeng lowered his head, pressing his hand against the space between his brows. He had been striving to advance his cultivation all this time, dreaming of the day he could reach tier ten and attain a threefold lifespan. Yet what was the price behind that threefold lifespan? Serving as someone's livestock? Was that something he could accept? "Once you reached Cloud First Tier, you returned to Puluo Province?" Meng Yuchun nodded. "I returned. They rewarded me with a piece of newland and made me a local spirit. I could have chosen not to return as well. If you gain their favor, you can remain in the Inner States as a servant and continue cultivating." "Still as a servant?" "Many people want to be servants; it depends on whether they're willing to grant the charity." "What's so good about being a slave?" Li Banfeng could not understand. "If you stay in the Inner States, your cultivation can keep growing." "Can't your cultivation grow outside the Inner States?" "It can, but you need human presence." Meng Yuchun pointed at the surrounding wasteland. "A local spirit's cultivation relies on human presence to sustain it. The more flourishing the human presence, the faster the cultivation grows. But look at this place—does it look like somewhere with any human presence? Cultivators at Cloud First Tier generally have a lifespan of around three hundred years. It can be extended for some years through medicinal pills, but at most, it won't exceed five hundred years. By the day I die of old age, I'm afraid I still won't be able to reach Cloud Second Tier." Li Banfeng said, "Does advancing to Cloud Second Tier increase one's lifespan? Or does lifespan only change once you reach Cloud Tenth Tier?" Meng Yuchun shook her head. "I don't know. I don't know if there even is a Cloud Tenth Tier. I don't even know what the situation is for Cloud Second Tier. No one ever told me. In the Inner States, I was no different from a beast. No one wastes extra words on livestock." Did all local spirits go through this? Had figures whose strength surpassed the local spirits also endured this? The peddler, Grandpa Train, Granny Bitter—did they all have similar experiences? That shouldn't be! With temperaments like theirs, how could they have gone to the Inner States to serve as menials? Li Banfeng asked, "Is it impossible to reach the clouds without going to the Inner States?" "It is possible!" Meng Yuchun spoke only three words, yet they jolted Li Banfeng's spirits. "How?" "Stealing and robbing." Li Banfeng shook his head. "I am an upright man. Let's talk about the robbing first." "Robbing means snatching it from the hands of a local spirit—stealing their status, their identity, and their cultivation." Li Banfeng instantly grew serious. "How do you rob it?" Meng Yuchun said, "Do you know Lüshui Beggar, the local spirit of Lüshuiwan?" "I don't know him, but I've heard of him." "His cultivation was robbed. He robbed it when he was at tier nine. Lüshuiwan was originally called Huaziwan. That wasn't his domain, but the territory of the Beggar Cultivator Yuan Shoulu. Back when Lüshui Beggar was at tier nine, he defeated Yuan Shoulu, who was at Cloud Second Tier, seized the seat of the local spirit, and forcibly devoured Yuan Shoulu's cultivation and status. He advanced directly to Cloud Second Tier, preserving both his soul and his physical body, becoming the most formidable local spirit!" Li Banfeng rubbed his chin, unable to fathom how such a thing had played out. A tier-nine fighting a Cloud Second Tier? How many tiers apart was that? How could anyone win that kind of fight?