The path of cultivation: strengthen the body, sense spiritual energy, temper the blood. Build the foundation to form the spirit core step by step and finally break the spirit core to form a nascent soul. When the core breaks into a nascent soul, there will be a sign. The more solid the foundation, the more likely one will be to become an immortal. A mere few dozen words for the Spirit Detecting Realm, the Blood Movement Realm, the Spirit Transformation Realm, the Foundation Realm, the Spirit Core Realm, the Nascent Soul Realm. Ye Wuyou was worried that Jiuge would look too far ahead, so he left out the later realms.

The Sanskrit Heart Sutra that Zhao Jiuge had obtained was split into two volumes. The first volume was the main cultivation method of the Sanskrit Heart Sutra. Since the creation of the world, everything has had spiritual energy—not just humans, all living beings could cultivate. The method was to detect natural spiritual energy and absorb it to strengthen one’s body. The second volume of the Sanskrit Heart Sutra was for cultivating one's body. Legend had it that once you reached the peak, the body would not be damaged by any kind of spell.

After Zhao Jiuge finished reading, he carefully put it away. He had learned that this continent was called the Huaxia Dynasty. A mortal wouldn't be able to walk across all the mountains and rivers of the Huaxia Dynasty.

To the east of the Huaxia Dynasty was an endless sea. To the south was the forbidden land, the Southern Barbarian Forest, which was full of poisonous insects. Even powerful cultivators may not escape from this place alive. To the west was the holy land of cultivation, where various large and small sects were located. The north connected to other continents, but it had been a long time since someone returned from there. The north was even more mysterious than the Southern Barbarian Forest—legend had it that only a few immortals had gone there a few thousand years ago.

Zhao Jiuge took a deep breath and looked around the stone cave. He was ready to follow the cultivation method his teacher had left him and open the door to cultivation. If he could not detect spiritual energy, then wouldn’t it mean that he had a treasure he couldn’t use? Looking at the sunrise outside the cave, Zhao Jiuge’s mood became clear and he began taking his first step onto the path of cultivation.

He sat down cross-legged and calmed his mind. He cleared his mind and found a ball of light in his mind—this was the spirit seed his teacher had left him. What he had to do was use the cultivation method inside the spirit seed to cultivate spiritual energy.

He searched the Sanskrit Heart Aura his teacher had left in his mind and something appeared. A six-foot golden curtain of light appeared in his mind and very small, golden words appeared on the curtain of light. These golden words were small but looked like they were carefully carved. Next to them were some blurry images—they were spells from the Sanskrit Heart Sutra.

He had to use the Sanskrit Heart Sutra to control the spirit seed and attempt to use it to break through his meridians to this dantian in order to complete a greater cycle. Only then could one be considered to have entered the Spirit Detecting Realm. Then repeat the greater cycle to absorb more spiritual energy. Once the spiritual energy in the body became dense enough, one would enter the Blood Movement Realm. At that point, one’s blood would become different—it would be filled with spiritual energy.

Zhao Jiuge tried many times until he finally took control of the spirit seed and pushed it forward one centimeter before he stopped. After that, no matter how much he tried, he could not push it forward anymore.

Zhao Jiuge spent half a day like this. He was covered in sweat and his chest was heaving up and down. His eyebrows were furrowed and his eyes were filled with doubt. Could it be that there was too little spiritual energy for him to push into his meridians?

Zhao Jiuge decided to leave the cave every morning to exercise and strengthen his body in the mountains. Then, at night, he would return to the cave and control the spiritual energy in an attempt to push it through his meridians.

On the morning of the next day, when the day just became bright, Zhao Jiuge walked out of the cave with his hunting knife and entered the luscious, green mountain. He looked at a tree that was thicker than his own waist and began to hack at it. Soon, he was covered in sweat.

In order in order to detect spiritual energy and complete a full cycle, Zhao Jiuge endured his tiredness as he chopped at the tree. After he chopped down one tree, he moved on to the next one. After the sun set, he had cut down a dozen trees and went to wash himself near the waterfall before returning to the cave. Ignoring his sore body, he sat down cross-legged and forced himself to calm down. He then began to study the spirit seed in his mind.

It took him a long time to control the spirit seed, and he spent a lot of effort to move it a bit. Zhao Jiuge sighed, but he wasn’t discouraged. He felt that it wouldn’t take him long to reach the Spirit Detecting Realm.

Day after day, Zhao Jiuge continued training his body in the mountains during the day and spent the night fighting to control the spirit seed. Things went as Zhao Jiuge expected and he made progress day by day. However, after ten days or so, no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t advance the spiritual energy inside him for several days.

At first, Zhao Jiuge thought he wasn’t training his body hard enough, so he went from chopping trees to standing in the horse stance under the waterfall. The water fell from the cliff over 100 meters above him. The impact was already strong, and on top of that, he was maintaining the horse stance. Zhao Jiuge was, after all, only a 12-year-old boy—it was fortunate that he had already built the foundation of his body in the last half month.

When the waterfall hit Zhao Jiuge’s body, the water was so cold that it felt like needles were stabbing him. After enduring it for a day, he dragged his tired body back to the cave.

Due to holding the horse stance under the waterfall all day, his legs were numb and would not listen to him. He had to use his hands to force himself into the cross-legged position. He calmed himself and instantly took control of the spirit seed in his mind. After half a month, Zhao Jiuge was very familiar with this process, so his mentality was quite stable at the start.

As time slowly passed, the spirit seed didn’t move at all, and he gradually became anxious. He became restless, and the fatigue finally caught up to him, causing him to lose control. Zhao Jiuge looked at the ground with a look of loss on his face, his eyes filled with confusion and anxiety. 

However, he was filled more with reluctance than anything else. A mountain village boy had just experienced his only relative parting, experienced killing the person he hated the most, and had a miraculous encounter. However, now he was suffering from the pain of having a cultivation method but being unable to use it.

After so many days of loneliness and bitterness, he couldn’t help but think of his grandpa and his teacher, who he had just met, and finally cried. After crying for a while, Zhao Jiuge felt tired and decided to leave cultivation to tomorrow. He dried his eyes, though they had become a little red from crying. There were still a few drops of tears left on his handsome face.

Just as he was about to sleep, Zhao Jiuge saw something out of the corner of his eye, and it shocked him. The surroundings were covered in golden specks of light—even the mountain outside the cave was different.

Every blade of grass and tree had become extra clear. Some plants had dense spiritual energy and some barely had anything. Zhao Jiuge’s shock turned into joy and he began to laugh with some tears still in the corners of his eyes. “Haha, I can detect spiritual energy, I can detect spiritual energy!” Although he didn’t know how such a strange thing had occurred, now he could cultivate. Zhao Jiuge was so happy that he forgot how to speak.

After detecting the surrounding spiritual energy, Zhao Jiuge immediately activated the Sanskrit Heart Sutra. The surrounding spiritual energy quickly gathered toward the spirit seed in his body, causing the spiritual energy in his body to become more dense and transforming it into spirit force.

He continued to direct the spirit force into his meridians. As spiritual energy gathered, the spirit force from the spirit seed continued to move through his meridians. With spiritual energy to replenish himself, this process was not as difficult as it was before. Soon, his spirit force got close to his dantian. Its path was filled with curves, and the further it went, the more difficult it became. Finally, at the end, the entire meridian path for the greater cycle was opened.

The path that was opened was like a circular stream, and the spiritual energy that transformed into spirit force was like the water in the stream. It continued to flow through his meridians.

This meant that Zhao Jiuge had finally entered the door of cultivation and reached the early stage of the Spirit Detecting Realm. Right now, the spiritual energy in his body was very thin, but now he only needed to continue to practice the Sanskrit Heart Sutra to absorb spiritual energy into his body and transform his body. Once he gathered enough spiritual energy, he would enter the Blood Movement Stage.

After completing the greater cycle, Zhao Jiuge had a huge smile on his face and was filled with joy. All the sense of loss he felt before was gone. Even the world outside the cave looked different—the blue sky, the white clouds, the mountains, the river, the trees, and the calls of the insects were all so clear to him.

According to the jade tube his teacher had left him, Zhao Jiuge decided to cultivate in the mountains as he traveled through them to reach the outside world. The deeper he went into the mountains, the more dense the spiritual energy became. Even in a small mountain village, everything depended on strength, and the outside world would be even worse. Once he had the strength, he would go find a sect.

The start was already this difficult, and it had taken him this long to figure it out. The further he went down this path, the more difficult it would become, and without anyone to teach him, he would encounter a lot of detours. Zhao Jiuge also remembered what his teacher had told him about Carefree Valley. Although he didn’t know what it was right now, he believed that once he was strong enough, he would be able to find it. It wouldn’t even be impossible for him to one day stand above the high heavens.

He grabbed his hunting knife and tied his bag behind his back. He looked at the cave, where he had met his teacher, where his life had changed, before he walked out and made his way into the mountains. He traveled during the day and found a large tree at night, where he cultivated the Sanskrit Heart Sutra. The more he did this, the more familiar he became with the action.

Zhao Jiuge thought that this was just the beginning. There was also the Sanskrit Holy Body that he was not qualified to practice yet. The Sanskrit Heart Sutra’s internal and external cultivation methods reflected and complemented each other. There was no concept of time in the mountains; days passed one by one as his strength increased. His movements now were faster and lighter.

His spiritual energy unknowingly became more dense than it was at the start, and he eventually reached the mid stage of the Spirit Detecting Realm. The increase in cultivation level made Zhao Jiuge yearn for more strength, and he spent more and more time absorbing spiritual energy. He didn’t find it boring at all.