Ancient Cultivation Is Obsolete!

"As everyone knows, under the governance of the Immortal Mansion, whether Confucian, Buddhist, Daoist, or Demonic, or of the eight hundred side doors and three thousand heterodox paths, all practitioners must start with Qi Refining!" "And the Qi Refining realm is divided into thirteen layers altogether, rising step by step straight toward the ninth layer's completion before one can establish a foundation. If one lacks confidence, one can also cultivate up to the twelfth or thirteenth layer before building a foundation." "Unlike Foundation Establishment or Core Formation, the Qi Refining stage is divided into thirteen layers to signify a long stairway ascending to immortality!" "Among them, the first three layers are about gathering in the dantian, opening the meridians, and nurturing true essence, nourishing the physical body with spiritual energy." "Once your muscles and bones are as tough as iron, your internal organs are woven into a unified whole, and your physical body attains perfection, you can step into the fourth layer of Qi Refining, opening up an 'inner dantian mansion.' Only then have you officially stored Qi within the sea." "In other words, the first, second, and third layers of Qi Refining do not actually open the dantian Qi sea. They merely let spiritual energy gather at the spiritual root within the body and rush along the meridians to nourish the flesh." "And this process is also an opportunity for cultivators to overtake on the bend! What's more, as long as your physical body is strong enough, it will be of immense benefit to your future path of cultivation!" Immortal Mansion, Taiqing City. At the Taiqing Vocational and Technical College of Alchemy, a petite young woman on the lecture podium—standing only about 1.5 meters tall—was spraying spit as she spoke with agonizing earnestness to the dozens of cultivators enrolled under special quotas, laying bare a brutal "truth." "Junior brothers and sisters, I know you were all the cream of the crop among mortals, which is how you passed the examination and earned the qualification to receive spiritual root implants... But you received your implants far too late! Compared to innate cultivators who possessed spiritual roots from birth, you have missed a full ten years of cultivation! How can you possibly compete with those who have innate spiritual roots?!" "Looking at you now, there's only... well, this junior brother named Chen Zhuo. Junior Brother Chen Zhuo is at the second layer of Qi Refining, while everyone else is still stuck at the first layer! Meanwhile, the other freshmen who entered this year are already at the sixth or seventh layer of Qi Refining! With a gap like this, how are you going to make up the distance?" Hearing the young woman's words, the implanted cultivators below looked conflicted, but Chen Zhuo's expression remained completely calm. No other reason: he had a cheat. Over the past three months, aside from emerging once a day to check the daily updates on his spiritual communication jade slip, Chen Zhuo had spent all his time immersed in the small world, greedily absorbing spiritual energy. Making rapid progress, he had successfully broken through to the second layer of Qi Refining, making him one of the top geniuses in the "mortal class." Even so, what this senior sister giving the lecture said was indeed true. Cultivators like them, who had received artificial spiritual root implants later in life, had already squandered ten years. How could they compare to those with innate spiritual roots? Those people were the prominent figures who could go further in the future, the talents with a shot at upgrading from vocational college to a bachelor's degree. As for them... Plainly speaking, they were just secondary vocational students enrolled in this Taiqing Vocational and Technical College of Alchemy. After graduating, their main privilege was priority placement on assembly lines across the Taiqing Sect's various enterprises. Like Taiqing Pharmaceuticals, a massive taxpayer. "However!" Right at that moment, the senior sister on the podium suddenly shifted gears. She cleared her throat and raised her voice: "Fortunately, you applied to our Taiqing Vocational and Technical College of Alchemy! Here at the academy, you can legally take injections and medications to overtake on the bend!" "Ancient cultivation is out of the question! What matters today is scientific cultivation—efficiency comes first!" "Taiqing Pharmaceuticals' latest masterpiece, specifically designed to build a solid foundation for cultivators in the first through third layers of Qi Refining—the 'Wanji Essence-Nourishing Raw Solution, Generation I'—is now available throughout the Immortal Mansion! A single vial costs only 299 spirit coins! It deeply nourishes the organs and drastically boosts physical explosive power, letting you breeze through the first, second, and third layers of Qi Refining!" "Beyond that, we have classic formulas waiting for you, such as Iron Marrow Essence-Supplementing Injections, Spirit Flow Voltage-Stabilizing Injections, Profound Sinew Silicon-Based Solution, and more! They're all produced right here by our college, and students get discounted rates!" "Of course, some of you might not know my name yet. I'm Si Jing. Follow my account on the Lingxun platform, and tune into my livestream every night at eight o'clock! I'll be handing out exclusive promo codes, and with them, you can enjoy a two percent discount when buying medicine on the college platform!" The moment she said this, the entire room erupted. Everyone looked worked up, yet hesitation lingered in their eyes. Chen Zhuo wore an unperturbed, composed expression. While he felt plenty of desire for those pharmaceuticals, reason told him that ancient cultivation suited him better. Becoming an ancient cultivator wouldn't be half bad either; in the future, delivering takeout or working as a security guard would both be decent career options. The reason was simple. He was broke. If you had money, who wouldn't want to dose up heavily? Who would even think about ancient cultivation? It was all because of being penniless! Chen Zhuo felt that this Senior Sister Si Jing was purely messing around. Expecting guys like them—who had to wait until after age sixteen and rely on outstanding exam scores just to earn a quota for an artificial spiritual root implant—to spend money on doping? How could that be possible? Right then, a bespectacled boy who had just reached the first layer of Qi Refining seemed tempted, though he hesitated before weakly raising his hand: "Senior Sister, we don't have spirit coins..." Senior Sister Si Jing glanced at the roster and immediately declared, "Well said, Junior Brother Meng Yan! What should you do if you don't have spirit coins? Please check out the microloan platform 'Xiuxiutong'! Short on spirit coins for Qi Refining? Take a spirit coin loan, funds in hand that very day!" "'Borrow and repay whenever you like with zero delay, no more worrying about coins while cultivating night and day!'" "Loans start as low as 10 spirit coins per draw, with credit limits allocated based on your individual cultivation progress!" "'Xiuxiutong'—your helpful companion on the road to immortality! Enter the promo code 'Senior Sister Si Jing Is Awesome' for three months of interest-free borrowing!" Chen Zhuo: ? Holy crap, a one-stop shop for drug peddling and loan sharking? After the room fell into a restless stir, Senior Sister Si Jing tapped on the lectern and suddenly spoke with great gentleness: "Of course, the path of cultivation ultimately depends on yourself. If you truly have no talent, then don't take out loans. Just honestly attend online classes, wait twenty years until graduation, and work on an assembly line. Don't overthink things." "If you consider yourself a favored child of heaven and want to take a loan or buy pharmaceuticals, you can add me on Lingxin later for a detailed chat. I can help plan your early Qi Refining career path and future growth potential free of charge." "Alright, class dismissed. Enjoy your college life!" "..." Si Jing walked out of the classroom, and the entire room instantly erupted into chaotic clamor. Those final words had truly stirred the blood of these sixteen- and seventeen-year-old kids. "Taking an injection isn't actually a big deal. We're already three to five thousand spirit coins in debt anyway. If we borrow another two or three thousand to buy some pharmaceuticals and stuff, there's a good chance we could break through to the sixth layer of Qi Refining within twenty years. Then we could graduate early." "How come I heard... these drugs have side effects?" "If it can drastically boost cultivation speed and nourish the body, a few side effects are acceptable, right?" "It took me three whole months just to reach the first layer of Qi Refining, and each layer after this gets harder. If I don't dope up, I might stay stuck at the fourth layer for the rest of my life." "I'll go home and ask my dad. He's an implanted cultivator too, currently at the fifth layer of Qi Refining. I'd better get his opinion first." "..." Honestly, the senior sister's parting words had struck a chord with these young folks. Those who qualified for spiritual root implantation surgery at this age were all top achievers who had studied relentlessly among mortals. None of them considered themselves trash; every single one believed they were the best in the world, capable of shouldering the burden. Thus, Senior Sister Si Jing's closing words might have looked like consideration for them, but they were actually goading them to spend. What a wicked woman! Chen Zhuo let out a long sigh, then picked up his spiritual communication jade slip and added Senior Sister Si Jing's contact info. "Hello, Senior Sister. I'm the freshman Chen Zhuo. I'd like to consult you about the Xiuxiutong microloan..."