Chapter 14 : Chapter 14
Chapter 14: Traditional Cultivation Experience Center
Zhou Heng added, “As for the specifics, you can figure them out for yourself.”
“As for the choices I gave you, go back and think them over carefully. Just come to the Technique Pavilion within the next two days and give me your answer.”
Ning Ri immediately said, “Many thanks, Elder Zhou. Please go and attend to your business.”
Zhou Heng nodded, then swiftly vanished from sight.
After watching Zhou Heng leave, Ning Ri turned and walked into Jingui Garden, intending to return to his little room.
But just as Ning Ri was heading back to his quarters, thoughts turning in his mind, a building by the roadside suddenly came into view—
【Traditional Cultivation Experience Center】.
“Traditional Cultivation Experience Center? What is that?”
When Ning Ri saw those words, a slightly stunned look appeared on his face.
What kind of place was this?
Inside the Traditional Cultivation Experience Center sat several black-robed cultivators, both men and women, while no one else was around.
Those disciples who had just returned to Jingui Garden earlier had already vanished without a trace. Ning Ri guessed they had all gone back to their own rooms.
And the moment those people in the experience center saw Ning Ri arrive, their eyes lit up at once, as though they had just caught someone. They stepped forward, cupped their fists, and said, “May we ask if Junior Brother has only just entered the sect?”
Ning Ri nodded. “Greetings, Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters. This junior brother entered the sect today.”
Another person asked, “Then does Junior Brother intend to cultivate by the Defying Heaven path in the future?”
Ning Ri nodded again. “That is right!”
Then one of the senior brothers spoke up and asked, “Now that you have chosen the Defying Heaven path, you may not get to experience traditional cultivation in the future. Since you have not yet entered the Inner Sect, would you like to try it?”
Ning Ri’s eyes lit up. “You can actually experience that?”
That senior brother nodded. “Of course.”
Naturally, Ning Ri wanted to experience what exactly “traditional cultivation” meant. Since this sort of thing could actually be experienced, could it be some kind of illusion spell that would let him become a powerful expert in a dream?
And besides, this experience would also help him properly adjust to the cultivation atmosphere of the Defying Heaven Sect. He wanted to know what the dynamics between the disciples of this sect were like.
But before trying it, Ning Ri asked a soul-piercing question:
“Does it cost money?”
His current state could not quite be called destitute, but it could certainly be described as owning next to nothing.
Hearing that, the group could not help bursting into laughter. “Hahaha, of course it is free. Traditional cultivation is detached and natural, peaceful and serene. Talking about money hurts feelings.”
Only then was Ning Ri relieved. “Then I will trouble you, Senior Brothers and Senior Sisters.”
A tall senior brother in black robes said, “Good! Then please, Junior Brother, go back to where you came from just now and walk over here again.”
Ning Ri immediately turned around, went back, and then walked over once more.
He had not gone far when that black-robed senior brother suddenly jumped out, baring his teeth in a sinister grin. “Stop right there. You are the disciple who entered the sect today, aren’t you?”
Ning Ri could not help freezing slightly. “Y-Yes, it is I, a handsome and upright disciple. What about it?”
He thought to himself, What is this supposed to be?
And when the other party heard Ning Ri’s answer, he also froze for a moment before sneering again. “What about it?! The first rule of joining our Golden Stratagem Immortal Sect is that you must pay money to your senior brothers and sisters. Do you know that?”
Ning Ri: “?”
Good grief. I impersonated someone from Golden Stratagem, and now you are impersonating someone from Golden Stratagem too? Are you people just determined to fleece the Golden Stratagem Immortal Sect?
Then Ning Ri pondered for a moment and said, “But I do not have any money. What should I do?”
The black-robed senior brother sneered again, his face fixed in an extremely rigid expression of contempt and disdain. “No money? If you have no money, then you are going to suffer.”
With that, the black-robed senior brother whipped out a sword with a flash and let out a sinister cackle...
At once, Ning Ri heard a senior sister’s voice from nearby: “All right, Junior Brother, that is enough emotion. Now you can throw your punch.”
Ning Ri let out an “Ah?” and instinctively threw a light punch.
And yet, the moment that punch lightly landed on the black-robed senior brother, the man suddenly revealed a look of utter disbelief. He pointed at Ning Ri and cried out in horror, “Y-You... did you not just enter the sect? How can you possess such terrifying strength? Ah!”
As soon as he finished speaking, the black-robed senior brother’s face flushed red. He abruptly spat out a mouthful of blood, then flew backward for no reason at all and crashed to the ground...
Ning Ri: “???”
Why are you spitting blood? Why are you flying away?!
What did I even do to make you go flying?!
He was still bewildered when a round of clapping suddenly rang out beside him. The several senior brothers and senior sisters from before stepped out, applauding with approving expressions. “Well done, Junior Brother!”
“You have removed a scourge for our Golden Stratagem Immortal Sect.”
“We never expected that on your very first day after entering the sect, you would display such divine might. For Golden Stratagem to receive a powerful person like you truly is a blessing accumulated over tens of thousands of years!”
Then one senior sister said worriedly, “But this man’s master is the famed Perfected Abundance of the Inner Sect. Junior Brother, now that you have offended him, things are going to be bad.”
“If you do not hurry and find a backer to support you, then you are in real trouble.”
After saying that, everyone sighed in unison.
Ning Ri: “Huh?”
At that moment, the black-robed senior brother who had vomited blood and flown away walked back over, patted the dust off himself, and said with a smile, “Junior Brother, well? This is traditional cultivation.”
Ning Ri was completely confused. “This is traditional cultivation? Did you not say it was detached and natural, peaceful and serene?”
The black-robed senior brother smiled and said, “How is this not detached? How is this not natural? After you beat up a hideous, arrogant, contemptuous villain like me, do you not feel at peace?”
As soon as he said that, everyone burst into laughter, and for a moment the air was filled with the cheerful spirit of traditional cultivation...
Ning Ri: “...”
Detached my foot.
This was not cultivation. This was a low-budget skit.
Someone at the side explained, “Junior Brother may not understand our method, but in truth, this is precisely the path of Defying Heaven cultivation.”
Ning Ri humbly said, “This junior brother truly does not understand. I ask Senior Brother to enlighten me.”
That person said, “We appear to practice traditional cultivation, but in secret we cultivate by defying heaven, so that the Heavenly Dao remains completely unaware. In that way, we achieve the goal of secretly defying heaven.”
“But we are still training. If you want to join us, you may come find us at any time. We just so happen to be missing an upright role right now, and I think Junior Brother is perfectly suited for it. If you are interested, I can explain to you the classic traditional cultivation routine where after you beat the younger one, the elder comes for revenge.”
“Or, if you want to flesh out what just happened a bit more, that would also be fine. For example, would you like some indispensable traditional cultivation elements, like jealousy over a dao companion, drawing your blade to help the weak, or killing for treasure?”
Ning Ri said, “Ha... haha, no need.”
He understood completely now. These people were not cultivating at all. They were putting on a performance, were they not?
Someone patted Ning Ri on the shoulder. “Hey, no need to be polite, Junior Brother. When the time comes, we can openly practice tradition while secretly defying heaven together.”
Ning Ri: “........”
Forget secretly defying heaven. I think you people are already far too heaven-defying. Are all the Inner Sect disciples of the Defying Heaven Sect like this?
Why did he suddenly want to withdraw from the sect a little?
Then he turned his head and looked elsewhere, only to discover that inside the Outer Sect disciple dormitories, a group of Outer Sect disciples were secretly watching this side, each of them wearing expressions that looked on the verge of cracking...
Ning Ri: “.”
Now he understood why there had not been a single person at the experience center.
...
After bidding farewell to that group of absurd Inner Sect disciples, Ning Ri returned to his little room in utter mental exhaustion.
The room was simply furnished, containing nothing more than a table, a chair, a bed, and a meditation cushion.
On the table was a pot of water and a bottle of fasting pills. One still could not go without food at the Qi Refining stage, so using fasting pills was the most convenient option. They were extremely filling.
Fasting pills came in many flavors, including braised, stir-fried, roasted, boiled, simmered, and stewed. Ning Ri had eaten one with a clear-broth flavor the day before yesterday. It had been light and not greasy, and he still was not hungry.
The room was pleasantly cool. Beside the small window, sunlight like gold leaf spread across several little green plants, and a faint trace of spiritual energy drifted from them.
Ning Ri had sat on that meditation cushion two days ago, and it had been quite comfortable.
It was clearly nothing more than a round seat woven from cattail grass, with no structure whatsoever to support the waist or abdomen. It looked utterly ordinary, yet somehow it was simply comfortable to sit on.
When Ning Ri meditated on it, the legs he folded beneath him did not ache, the muscles of his lower back did not strain, and even his neck naturally settled into a comfortable position...
It was marvelous!
Earlier, he had even wondered whether people with poor posture would end up with herniated discs from sitting in meditation to cultivate.
Now it seemed that cultivation naturally resolved such problems.
After returning to the meditation cushion, Ning Ri first set the disciple robes aside, then took out the disciple token. Using the sect-issued 【Painless Needle】, he painlessly drew blood and let it drip onto the two characters of his name on the token’s surface.
This was the method of binding it as one’s own that Zhou Heng had explained when distributing the tokens.
The 【Painless Needle】 existed mainly because some children in the Outer Sect found it inconvenient to draw blood, and sometimes children cried too loudly. The 【Painless Needle】 neatly solved both that difficulty and the noise nuisance that came with crying.
After Ning Ri’s blood fell onto the token, the disciple token quickly bound itself to him.
This sense of binding made Ning Ri feel a strange itch at the top of his head, as though something had grown there, and that newly grown thing allowed him to sense the token...
That was what successful binding felt like.
As soon as the binding was complete, a calm voice came from the token: “Congratulations on successfully joining the Defying Heaven Sect. From this moment onward, you will begin your journey to immortality. In the Defying Heaven Sect, what you can gain will far exceed your imagination.”
The voice was calm and deep, rich beyond compare, and it gave one a sense of inner stability.
Hearing it, Ning Ri showed a look of astonishment—
There really was an artifact spirit?!
The token continued, “Future mighty figure of the cultivation world, the first step on your vast immortal path is to learn how to use the disciple token in your hand.”
“To learn how to use your disciple token, you must first master me!”
“Now then, begin mastering me!”
“Please choose the role I will play and the manner in which I will interact with you. Please choose carefully. You may only make this choice once every three days.”
“Please note that mortals without cultivation cannot choose freely.”
As soon as the voice fell,
a row of light orbs popped out from the disciple token:
【Elder】【Mentor】【Friend】【Companion】【Nemesis】【Fellow Disciple Who Is Both Rival and Friend】【Childhood Sweetheart Lost for Many Years】【Childhood Friend Reunited After Many Years, Only to Find You No Longer Have Anything in Common】【Servant Who Both Loves and Hates You】...
At the same time, a second row of light orbs popped out:
【Calm】【Stern】【Hot-Tempered】【Emotionless】【Warm and Caring】【Benevolent】【Indifferent】【Doting】【Overbearing and Arrogant】【Sharp-Tongued】...
Ning Ri stared at the mass of light orbs that had popped out, his gaze turning vacant.
What the hell, brother, you...
This sect of yours is far too heaven-defying. Far too anomalous!
This is what you call an artifact spirit?!
What kind of bizarre nonsense is this?
This was no artifact spirit. It was obviously a custom-built person!
And now he also understood why mortals without cultivation were not allowed to choose these things on their own...
This was not something ordinary mortals could handle...
He thought it over and planned to first choose a 【Calm】 【Mentor】.
He had come here to cultivate.
Not to fool around with any of this weird nonsense.
Those who troubled his heart today only multiplied his cares.
Enough of this ridiculousness.
What the hell even were all these options?
Those messy ones in the back were definitely something cooked up by Joyous Union Courtyard, were they not?
He ignored those bizarre tags altogether.
But after pondering for a moment, and after hesitating for a while, he still withdrew the finger that had been about to tap down...
It was not that he wanted to get up to anything strange.
He was just curious...
What exactly would a warm and caring nemesis be like? Or a benevolent fellow disciple who was both rival and friend? Or a childhood sweetheart who, after years apart, had become overbearing and arrogant? Or a servant who both loved and hated him, yet still doted on him... what kind of creatures would those be?
Besides, he had already learned some artifact refining, so there was no harm in taking a look.
...
...
In the end, Ning Ri chose a 【Warm and Caring】 【Nemesis】.
After selecting it, he waited quietly...
He had no idea what kind of thing would pop out.
Once he finished choosing, all the light orbs above the disciple token withdrew, and then a voice slowly sounded from the token:
“It has been a long time.”
“Ning Ri, I never imagined that you, too, would join the Defying Heaven Sect.”
“Heh, but you did not expect this, did you? You can no longer catch up to my realm. You truly are useless...”
“Very well. For the sake of our someday discussing the Dao at the peak, let me personally nurture you.”
“Do you have any questions?”
As Ning Ri looked at the disciple token, he thought to himself that “warm and caring” was being expressed through “personally nurture,” while “nemesis” was being built through “discussion of the Dao at the peak.” Was this character setup not a little too superficial?
After pondering for a moment, Ning Ri decided to say, “And what makes you worthy?”
The disciple token: “...”
Ning Ri looked at the silent disciple token and could not help feeling curious about what it would say next.
After remaining silent for quite a while, the disciple token finally spoke:
“Your question is too complex. The token was unable to understand it. Please ask again.”
Ning Ri: “?”
So when you cannot understand something, you just play dead?!
At that point, he finally understood why Zhou Heng had said the disciple token only “sort of” had an artifact spirit.
When it ran into something it could not process, it simply vanished into silence. Naturally, that did not count as a true artifact spirit.
But...
then again, were normal people not the same?
When faced with a question too hard to answer, they simply did not answer it.
After the artifact-spirit token had gone silent for quite a while, Ning Ri decided to try again. Politely, he asked, “What I mean is: what qualifications and confidence do you have to claim that you can nurture me?”
This time the disciple token responded normally, speaking in an airy, detached tone. “Naturally, I possess such qualifications. Ning Ri, you do not know how much more I have experienced than you.”
“Before you entered the Defying Heaven Sect, I was already the most knowledgeable existence in the entire Defying Heaven Sect.”
Ning Ri scratched his head...