Chapter 4

Early the next morning, when Chun Chou awoke, Ling Wuji was already up—and had even finished bathing.

Though Ling Wuji was unable to walk, a cultivator was far more capable than an ordinary person. He could employ numerous minor spells to assist himself. Moreover, his ice spiritual root was exceptionally strong, and his mental strength surpassed that of cultivators at the same level. Thus, in daily life, cultivation, and even combat, he was entirely self-sufficient.

Chun Chou had always been at ease about that.

What he hadn’t expected, however, was that Ling Wuji could not only take care of himself—but could also cook.

After washing up, Chun Chou sat at the table and stared at the spread before him: spirit rice porridge, steamed soup dumplings, osmanthus cakes, a small dish of pickled cucumbers, another of century egg with tofu, and a plate of neatly sliced spirit fruits.

He looked up in surprise. “Did you buy all this? Or did you make it yourself?”

Ling Wuji replied lightly, “You’re forever unable to let go of your appetite, and you’re hopeless in the kitchen. I had to learn a thing or two.” As if it were nothing, he placed a soup dumpling into Chun Chou’s bowl. “Try it.”

Chun Chou naturally caught the meaning beneath those words. He cleared his throat, picked up his chopsticks, and took a careful bite of the dumpling.

“…Hm?”

After finishing it, he sampled the rest one by one. A faint flush crept onto his cheeks.

Ling Wuji still asked, as though unconcerned, “Well?”

Chun Chou coughed again before lowering his head to sip some porridge. In a small voice, he said, “It tastes just as good as the ones you used to make.”

Only then did he realize—back when he had eaten at the Ling household, many of those meals had likely been cooked by Ling Wuji himself. At the time, servants were present, and he had simply assumed they were the ones preparing the food. Ling Wuji never explained, and so the truth had been quietly overlooked until today.

Warmth filled Chun Chou’s heart. He had always known Ling Wuji treated him exceedingly well. Still, such matters inevitably took time away from cultivation. When the opportunity arose, he ought to have a word with him—doing it occasionally would be fine, but there was no need for it to be a daily habit.

For now, however, the atmosphere was too pleasant to spoil.

The two finished their sweet, quiet breakfast together. Ling Wuji did not allow Chun Chou to clear the dishes, handling them himself instead.“I’ve sorted most of the items I plan to sell,” Ling Wuji said. “You should finish packing yours too. We’ll head to the market at noon.”

They had agreed upon this the day before. Yet many of Chun Chou’s belongings had once been used by his younger brothers and sisters, and he found himself reluctant to part with them. That was why he had yet to finish.

But one must give up something to gain something.

He could leave the house and those belongings behind—perhaps one day, when his siblings returned, they could reminisce.

Yet there was another possibility.

That what returned would not be his siblings—but their enemies.

They would come, slaughter indiscriminately, and leave nothing behind.

A sliver of unease surfaced in Chun Chou’s heart. The dream from that night still lingered in his mind, vivid and unsettling. Somehow, he felt it had been real. And if it truly was, then perhaps his younger brothers and sisters were not living well in the cultivation world.

Back when the people from the cultivation world had come to recruit disciples, they had called names according to the town registry. Those who did not meet the criteria were rejected outright. Those who did, were required to present themselves for spiritual root and physique testing—no exceptions.

Once the testing was complete, who would be taken away was not something Chun Chou—a mere low-level cultivator of the Mortal Realm—had any power to prevent.

After they were taken away, whether they lived well or poorly was something Chun Chou had no way of knowing.

At the time, the town mayor had comforted him, saying that everyone had their own fate. If he tried to stop them, he might instead earn their resentment in the future. After all, who wouldn’t want to go to the Cultivation World, where spiritual energy was abundant, rather than remain in the Mortal Realm, where it was thin and sparse? Besides, Chun Chou had no ability to stop it anyway.

Chun Chou thought again of his younger brothers and sisters. But longing was useless. He could only set those thoughts aside for now and calculate his current situation.

He had two storage pouches, each with less than thirty cubic meters of space.

In addition, he possessed three spatial jade talismans.

These spatial jade talismans had been drawn by Ling Wuji. Their capacity was even smaller—around ten cubic meters each—suitable only for small items. Moreover, they had a “shelf life.” Once activated, they would remain functional for only three months. After three months, the talisman would shatter automatically, and everything stored inside would be ejected.

In the Cultivation World, such items might attract little interest. But in the Mortal Realm, where storage pouches were exceedingly rare, they were quite popular.

Ling Wuji could also draw another kind of spatial talisman—a simple paper talisman with space comparable to a storage pouch, but with a “shelf life” of only ten days. In the Mortal Realm, this type was even more sought after.

It was precisely because he excelled at talisman drawing—and could even create spatial talismans—that Ling Wuji could decisively sever ties with his family without hesitation.

Although Ling Wuji always claimed that when drawing spatial talismans, Chun Chou had to cultivate beside him, stirring the surrounding spiritual energy to help him succeed, Chun Chou still believed it was ultimately Ling Wuji’s own skill. Once they reached the Cultivation World, where spiritual energy was plentiful, perhaps Ling Wuji would be able to draw spatial talismans freely without needing him nearby.

And because of this, Chun Chou reasonably deduced that among his many mixed spiritual roots, aside from his relatively prominent wood root, his spatial root must also be quite strong.

Unfortunately, in the Mortal Realm there were no records whatsoever regarding spatial spiritual roots or related cultivation techniques. Up to now, Chun Chou only knew a few wood-element spells. As for cultivation techniques, he practiced only the most basic one known to both the lowest cultivators of the Cultivation World and the Mortal Realm alike—the Longevity Art (Chángshēng Jué).

Cultivators defied heaven in pursuit of immortality; thus, the technique was named the Longevity Art.

Due to his mixed spiritual roots, Chun Chou had struggled to choose a suitable cultivation method. In the end, he could only cultivate this universally known technique.

As for body refinement, he practiced a foundational set that everyone knew. It did not even have a proper name—it was simply called Basic Body Refinement.

In Chun Chou’s view, it was truly basic—somewhat like the advanced martial arts he had seen in wuxia dramas. Cultivators merely had better physical foundations and thus cultivated it to greater effect.

Still, aside from specialized body cultivators, body refinement for ordinary cultivators was merely supplementary to spells—ensuring agility and lightness. In combat, the most important factors were always spells, magical artifacts, and talismans.

In terms of spells, since only his wood spiritual root was relatively prominent, Chun Chou had spent spirit beads to purchase three wood-element techniques: Growth Technique, Binding Technique, and Spring Restoration Technique. As the names suggested, Growth Technique accelerated the growth of spiritual plants; Spring Restoration was a healing spell, capable of treating both cultivators and diseased or pest-infested plants. For someone like Chun Chou, who relied on cultivating spiritual plants for a living, these two spells were indispensable.

Binding Technique, meanwhile, was offensive. When used in conjunction with Growth Technique, it could provide a certain advantage in combat—

Provided one had suitable spiritual plant seeds for battle.

Unfortunately, Chun Chou had previously needed to support four younger siblings in cultivation school. The family had never had enough spirit beads to purchase combat-grade spiritual seeds for him. Moreover, with four younger siblings depending on him, he had cherished his life greatly. Aside from being taken outside town to the demon beast forest by his adoptive parents when he was young, he had never left town again.

According to the rules of Red Leaf Town, fighting was forbidden within the town. Living in such stability, Chun Chou had virtually no experience in actual combat.

He did not even possess proper battle-ready seeds. As for the wood-attributed spiritual whip gifted by the town mayor—it was the first of its kind he had ever seen.

The whip was naturally very useful to him.

But aside from this whip, perhaps he should also select several suitable spiritual plant seeds, just in case.

Chun Chou flicked the whip experimentally, channeling spiritual power into it. The originally dull gray whip immediately shimmered with emerald light. Sharp barbs along its length stood upright. Though technically an unranked magical artifact, to Chun Chou it was the finest weapon he had ever possessed.

Holding the whip, he fell into thought.

He was only at the fourth level of Qi Refinement. In combat, he would not originally hold the advantage—especially without a suitable magical artifact. However, the priceless pearl Ling Wuji had given him could store an amount of spiritual power equal to his own cultivation level and would automatically replenish his spiritual energy during battle. For him, this was equivalent to doubling his combat strength.

Though the wood-element whip was unranked, if he could devise other methods—and obtain suitable battle seeds—his confidence would greatly increase.

Moreover, Ling Wuji excelled in talismans. Previously, since he could not remain at Chun Chou’s side at all times, he had been extremely worried and had equipped Chun Chou with numerous talismans. Half were for daily convenience; the other half were offensive and defensive.

With all these preparations, Chun Chou could travel to the Cultivation World with peace of mind.

As he was thinking this, he heard a knock at the door—three long, one short.

He did not even need to look to know it was Ling Wuji.

The youth glanced at the fully packed storage pouches, spatial jade talismans, and donkey cart. Scratching his head, he sprang lightly to his feet and in a few steps reached the front gate and opened it.

As expected, Ling Wuji was outside.

He had brought only his wheelchair and nothing else. It was not because he could draw spatial talismans—but because he possessed a storage ring. A storage ring had far more space than a storage pouch, and the spiritual energy within was more abundant. It could even temporarily store spiritual plants—keeping them viable for up to two hours without issue. Thus Ling Wuji had traveled light.

Chun Chou found nothing strange about this. He greeted Ling Wuji, hitched the small donkey to the cart, and gave its rump a light smack. The donkey brayed and began pulling the cart—loaded with spiritual herbs and plants—out of the courtyard.

After locking the gate, Chun Chou leapt lightly onto the front of the cart.

Together with Ling Wuji in his wheelchair, chatting and laughing, they headed toward the market.

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