Chapter 2

As night fell, Yang Junshan quietly came to the well beside the vegetable garden behind the house.

The well was lined with green stones, and a pulley was set up at the wellhead. Peering into the well, a chill struck Yang Junshan, instantly invigorating his spirit, which had been somewhat listless due to the night.

This well was dug by Yang Tiangang when his family first moved to Tuqiu Village. At that time, Yang Tiangang, with the help of his clan, secured the position of village chief in Tuqiu Village. After dividing the land, he dug three wells on his share of the land for irrigation.

What Yang Tiangang did not expect was that his luck seemed to gradually improve after the division of the family. When he dug the third well, a faint spiritual energy suddenly emerged from the well water!

This was no small matter!

Although the spiritual energy in the well water was extremely thin, for the spirit-farming peasants of Tuqiu Village, who lived by farming, the value of this spiritual well was immeasurable.

The spirit-farming peasants of Tuqiu Village, who had already harbored hostility towards Yang Tiangang due to his sudden appointment as village chief, united to launch a fierce armed conflict over this spiritual well.

Yang Tiangang, with the cultivation of a second-stage martial artist who had just advanced to the second stage of transforming煞qi, and with the assistance of his wife Han Xiumei, who had reached the fifth level of the Mortal Realm and could cast immortal techniques, and two of his clan brothers, held a high-quality magical weapon, a pipe bowl, which had cost half of his family's wealth. He smashed the front teeth of two people, the shoulder blades of four people, the arms of five people, and the thigh of one person, thus intimidating the entire Tuqiu Village. Not only did he protect the spiritual well, but he also established his reputation as the first great expert in Tuqiu Village, and no one dared to covet his position as village chief anymore.

After that, Yang Tiangang moved his family to live beside the spiritual well, guarding it day and night. The well had become the treasure of the Yang family.

Thanks to the irrigation of the spiritual well water, the spirit grains planted by Yang Tiangang always yielded three to five more bushels per acre than those of other families. Over three years, their life gradually improved.

A year ago, Yang Junshan returned to the main family in Chenyu County to participate in the talent test. He was found to have two immortal spirit acupoints in his body and was rated as fourth-class talent, which was not a very good rating.

Inborn talent is the first threshold for cultivators to enter the cultivation world. Although it is not a decisive factor in determining the ultimate level a cultivator can achieve, it is still highly valued.

In general, there are two types of inborn talent: one is having spirit acupoints in the body, which can absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth; the other is having no spirit acupoints in the body, and thus being unable to cultivate on their own. In this regard, Yang Junshan was fortunate, as he had two spirit acupoints in his body, allowing him to cultivate.

However, those born with spirit acupoints are further divided into five classes based on the number of spirit acupoints in their body. A person can have a maximum of five spirit acupoints, and such a talent is considered the best, the first class. In this regard, Yang Junshan's fourth-class talent was only slightly better than the lowest class, which has only one spirit acupoint.

After a year of cultivation, Yang Junshan barely managed to capture the faint spiritual energy in the air and introduce it into his body. This is the first level of the Mortal Realm: Guiding Spiritual Energy.

At this moment, Yang Junshan sat cross-legged on the green stone beside the well, closed his eyes, and focused his mind. He muttered incantations, feeling the two immortal spirit acupoints in his body, and tried to capture the faint spiritual energy escaping from the wellhead to awaken the immortal spirit acupoints. This is the second level of the Mortal Realm: Awakening Immortal Spirit.

However, Yang Junshan was still far from advancing to the second level of the Mortal Realm. In fact, for someone with fourth-class talent like Yang Junshan, it would be a long process to reach the second level of the Mortal Realm solely by absorbing spiritual energy.

Therefore, it is necessary to use immortal spirit objects to shorten the time it takes for a cultivator to advance to the second level, which is also the origin of the name "Awakening Immortal Spirit."

In his previous life, after being rated as fourth-class talent, Yang Junshan was not satisfied and practiced archery for a year, preparing to participate in the Baique Mountain hunting ground the following year. Unfortunately, he almost died from the charge of a fierce wild boar, but he did not come away empty-handed. He eventually obtained a low-grade immortal spirit object and returned home, ultimately refining the earth-yellow stone to advance to the second level.

This time, when Yang Junshan went to Baique Mountain, he would not be as weak as in his previous life. In fact, Yang Junshan had a grand plan.

However, as the saying goes, "grinding the spear before the battle," although there were only three days left, Yang Junshan still wanted to increase his strength as much as possible.

The Mortal Realm is divided into five levels: the first level is Guiding Spiritual Energy, the second level is Awakening Immortal Spirit, the third level is Opening Spirit Acupoints, the fourth level is Laying Immortal Roots, and the fifth level is Casting Immortal Techniques. Although Yang Junshan had been cultivating for a year, he had only just completed the first level, and it would take a long time to reach perfection.

The Yang family had a family-transmitted cultivation technique called the "Earth Covering Spirit Technique," which was said to be a simplified version of the "Earth Covering Treasure Technique" of the Heaven Shaking Sect, though it was unknown whether this was true. However, this spirit technique was widely taught among the various forces under the control of the Heaven Shaking Sect in Yu Prefecture.

Because Yang Junshan was a direct descendant of the Yang family in Qingstone Town, Chenyu County, although his cultivation talent was low, he could still learn the "Earth Covering Spirit Technique." If he were a branch descendant of the Yang family, he would only be able to learn the lower-level "Earth Covering Technique."

Yang Junshan had been taught by Yang Tiangang since he began cultivating the "Earth Covering Spirit Technique." Although he was not particularly diligent, he did not slack off. However, due to his fourth-class talent, his cultivation progress was indeed slow, and he had only just completed the first level. Therefore, Yang Junshan became increasingly eager to obtain the immortal spirit objects from the Baique Mountain hunting ground.

In the cultivation process of cultivators in this world, inborn talent is an important factor, but it is not the decisive one. How far a cultivator can go in the cultivation world ultimately depends on a combination of various factors. With his over a hundred years of experience from his previous life, Yang Junshan could now make full use of it to ensure his future would be even better than in his dreams.

However, the cultivation technique Yang Junshan was currently practicing was not the family-transmitted "Earth Covering Spirit Technique" of the Yang family, but a technique he had obtained from a surviving disciple of the Heaven Shaking Sect in his previous life, called the "Earth Spirit Technique." Yang Junshan wanted to quickly replace the spiritual energy he had cultivated with the "Earth Covering Spirit Technique" with the spiritual energy cultivated with the "Earth Spirit Technique" before he advanced to the second level, as it would be much harder to change his cultivation technique after that.

In terms of cultivation techniques, techniques are inferior to spirit techniques, and above spirit techniques are the legendary treasure techniques.

After cultivating the "Earth Covering Technique," one can change to the more advanced "Earth Covering Spirit Technique," and then continue to change to the even more advanced "Earth Covering Treasure Technique," which is a cultivation technique of a higher grade than the "Earth Spirit Technique" that Yang Junshan was currently cultivating.

Although the "Earth Covering Spirit Technique" and the "Earth Spirit Technique" of the Yang family are both from the Heaven Shaking Sect, they are two different cultivation techniques.

Above the "Earth Covering Spirit Technique" is the "Earth Covering Treasure Technique," which is an advanced cultivation technique. However, it is a closely guarded secret of the Heaven Shaking Sect, and the Yang family has never been able to obtain it, despite multiple attempts. After all, the Yang family is only a prominent family in a town.

According to the cultivator who taught Yang Junshan the "Earth Spirit Technique" in his previous life, there is also an "Earth Treasure Technique" above the "Earth Spirit Technique" he is currently cultivating. Although the "Earth Treasure Technique" is of a lower grade than the "Earth Covering Treasure Technique" in the Heaven Shaking Sect, it is also a closely guarded secret of the Heaven Shaking Sect.

The classification of cultivation techniques is based on the ultimate level they can reach. Even within the same grade, cultivation techniques can be further divided based on their cultivation speed and difficulty.

For example, both the "Earth Covering Treasure Technique" and the "Earth Treasure Technique" are true transmission techniques of the Heaven Shaking Sect and can be cultivated to the Immortal Realm. However, the former has a faster cultivation speed and a relatively easier cultivation process, so it is rated as a middle-grade treasure technique.

The latter, however, is notoriously slow in cultivation speed and has many stringent conditions, making it a particularly troublesome existence among the true transmission techniques of the Heaven Shaking Sect. Therefore, almost no one in the Heaven Shaking Sect is willing to cultivate this technique, and it is rated as a low-grade treasure technique.

However, Yang Junshan learned from the Heaven Shaking Sect disciple who taught him the "Earth Spirit Technique" in his previous life that the advanced technique of the "Earth Spirit Technique," the "Earth Treasure Technique," is also part of a higher-level advanced technique of the Heaven Shaking Sect. This entire lineage is the true orthodox transmission technique of the Heaven Shaking Sect. Unfortunately, the higher-level advanced technique has never been discovered in the Heaven Shaking Sect, causing a gap in the entire lineage. This is why few disciples of the Heaven Shaking Sect are willing to cultivate the "Earth Treasure Technique."

However, this technique once appeared when the Heaven Shaking Sect was destroyed, but it was quickly shattered in the struggle and ultimately lost.

The night breeze blew, and Yang Junshan diligently circulated the "Earth Spirit Technique" on the green stone beside the well. The meager spiritual energy he had accumulated in his body over the past year was gradually assimilated by the new spiritual energy condensed by the new spirit technique. Due to the cultivation of the new spirit technique, the original spiritual energy, after being re-condensed and compressed, was reduced to half of its original amount.

Yang Junshan secretly smiled bitterly. This was the reason why the "Earth Spirit Technique" was not favored. A large amount of spiritual energy is condensed as much as possible, which naturally greatly reduces the cultivation speed compared to other spirit techniques. If the cultivation of a spirit technique is so difficult, it is easy to imagine how difficult the cultivation of the "Earth Treasure Technique" would be, no wonder no one in the Heaven Shaking Sect is willing to cultivate this technique.

However, Yang Junshan soon discovered that the spiritual energy condensed by the "Earth Spirit Technique" was indeed several times purer and heavier than before. This means that in the future, when he engages in combat with an enemy, the same technique he casts will be more powerful than his opponent's, and his own consumption may even be less than his opponent's!

Of course, the "Earth Spirit Technique" also absorbs spiritual energy very quickly. According to Yang Junshan's estimation, the speed of absorbing spiritual energy when cultivating the "Earth Spirit Technique" is at least one-quarter faster than when cultivating the "Earth Covering Spirit Technique." However, once it is condensed and compressed, it is still not as fast as the latter.