Chapter 5

While Tang Yunting and others were reporting to the old lady about what they had seen and heard from Tang Chuyang, Tang Chuyang himself was lying on the bed, feeling a myriad of emotions. Compared to the increasingly science-driven modern society, this world, filled with mythological stories, was more suitable for him, a descendant of the Mayi School, to survive.

Although Tang Chuyang had only gained a vague understanding of the world he was in through the memories he had received and the few words from his second sister, Tang Chulan, this did not hinder his anticipation for this world.

Heavenly soldiers, Sudatta Bodhisattva, Bifang, Jiuying, Zhurong, and Gonggong—these names were almost all familiar to him. On Earth, such beings were limited to various legends and images.

But in the world Tang Chuyang had crossed into, all of these undoubtedly existed. Although he had not yet had the chance to verify it, through his memories and Tang Chulan's explanations, Tang Chuyang could already imagine how fantastical and grand this world was.

On Earth, Tang Chuyang was alone and had no one to rely on. He could only make a meager living by calculating people's eight characters and occasionally naming children. In this world, however, he was a direct descendant of a family!

Although this family now consisted only of a widow and her daughter, and a few dozen loyal servants, it was far better than his previous life. People tend to seek benefits and avoid harm, and Tang Chuyang almost immediately accepted and recognized his new identity.

Of course, with gains come responsibilities. In accepting this new body and identity, Tang Chuyang also had to accept all the people associated with it, such as the entire family of widows and orphans, and Lin Qingyun, who had killed his predecessor. He had to fully bear and accept both his relatives and enemies, because the current Tang Chuyang was him, and he was the current Tang Chuyang!

He repaid kindness and avenged grudges; Tang Chuyang was always a person who clearly distinguished between right and wrong. He would cherish the hard-won family, and those who had offended, oppressed, and schemed against Tang Chuyang and the Tang family would have to pay back, even tenfold, such as the Zhang family and the Lin family!

"Whether it's to protect the hard-won family ties or to take revenge on enemies, one must have sufficient strength! So, what I need to do now is to quickly gain the strength to protect myself. If I can't even protect myself, I shouldn't think about anything else..."

After clarifying his thoughts, Tang Chuyang knew what he should do next. The first step was to understand how to do the necessary things, such as cultivation!

Although the previous Tang Chuyang was unwilling to cultivate, his theoretical knowledge was very rich, thanks to his excellent memory, which was also a part of his outstanding talent.

This point was well received by the current Tang Chuyang. He just casually searched his mind for cultivation knowledge and gained a sufficient understanding of the first realm of cultivators, the 'One Yuan Realm.'

The first minor realm of the One Yuan Realm, the Qi Induction Stage, is actually a process of guiding the elemental energy of heaven and earth into the body to continuously refine and strengthen the cultivator's physical body. In the professional terms of this world, it is called 'Qi Induction to Strengthen the Body.'

This so-called strengthening of the body is not just about enhancing the physical body's resistance to attacks, speed, and reaction. It also involves enhancing the compatibility between the physical body and the elemental energy of heaven and earth, thereby achieving the goal of absorbing more and faster elemental energy, preparing for the breakthrough to the second minor realm and beyond.

In this world called the 'Five Elements Continent,' the biggest difference between the cultivator world and Earth is that the cultivator world of the Five Elements Continent does not have the concept of a 'dantian.'

All cultivators on the Five Elements Continent focus primarily on cultivating their spirit (yuan shen) and secondarily on cultivating their physical body. Cultivating the spirit is to communicate with the heavenly soldiers and Sudatta Bodhisattva to sign a protection contract, while cultivating the physical body is to better control and coordinate with the guardian spirit after 'summoning' it for battle.

Even the most ordinary copper-armored heavenly soldier from the upper realms is millions of times stronger than an ordinary person. Therefore, the most powerful cultivators can summon up to nine guardian spirits at most, while a heavenly soldier can sign contracts with tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of cultivators. They lend a strand of their spirit to the cultivators, but the cultivators pay almost all of their faith!

In fact, after listening to Tang Chulan's explanations about cultivation, the theoretically knowledgeable Tang Chuyang already understood that the relationship between cultivators and heavenly soldiers in this world is essentially an equal transaction or exchange.

The guardian spirits of the upper four realms need the faith of the spirit from the mortal cultivators to accelerate their cultivation and growth, while the cultivators rely on the strand of spirit from the heavenly soldiers and demon soldiers to protect themselves, primarily for battle!

Even though the silver-armored heavenly soldiers are the lowest-ranking beings in the immortal realm, in the mortal world, even a ten-thousandth of their spirit is far stronger than mortal cultivators.

Heavenly soldiers need to rely on the faith and offerings of cultivators to continue their cultivation, while cultivators rely on a strand of the spirit from heavenly soldiers to descend to the mortal world to enhance their strength, and use this to hunt demon beasts to earn crystal jade to buy spiritual medicines and talismans to continue their cultivation and enhance their strength. This is a mutually beneficial and interdependent relationship.

When a cultivator's spirit becomes increasingly powerful and can provide more faith and offerings, and the first guardian spirit, the copper-armored heavenly soldier, can no longer provide the corresponding rewards, the contracted heavenly soldier will recognize the cultivator's strength and allow them to contract a higher-ranking silver-armored immortal soldier!

For example, when Tang Chulan broke through to the Three Talents Realm, the faith and offerings she could provide to the copper-armored heavenly soldier and the silver-armored immortal soldier had already exceeded the limit they could return. Therefore, Tang Chulan has now been allowed to contract a higher-ranking golden-armored divine soldier!

The One Yuan Realm can contract the lowest-ranking copper-armored heavenly soldier, the Two Instruments Realm can contract the second-ranking silver-armored immortal soldier, and the Three Talents Realm can contract the third-ranking golden-armored divine soldier. The higher the realm, the stronger the power.

Even if Tang Chulan's cultivation is considered quite outstanding among the younger generation in the entire Jingyun County, she cannot help Tang Chuyang understand more about 'summoning' the spirit. However, for the current Tang Chuyang, who hasn't even reached the Qi Induction Stage, this knowledge is enough for now.

Thinking about cultivation, Tang Chuyang, unable to sleep, sat cross-legged on the bed, assuming the cultivation posture of 'unmindful to the sky,' and began to focus his mind on the spiritual platform, trying to sense the omnipresent elemental energy of heaven and earth.

Originally, Tang Chuyang thought cultivation would be very difficult, as Tang Chulan had said it took her three years to break through from the One Yuan Realm to the Two Instruments Realm. Tang Chuyang thought that even though his second sister had said his cultivation potential was better, it would still take at least one or two years to complete the initial One Yuan Realm.

Even if he calculated the most exaggerated one year to break through the One Yuan Realm, the One Yuan Realm has three minor realms. In Tang Chuyang's view, the first step of any endeavor is usually the most time-consuming. He estimated that the first minor realm, the Qi Induction Stage, would take at least half a year to achieve some success.

However, it was not like that. When Tang Chuyang focused his mind on the spiritual platform and shifted his entire attention to his brow, he felt a moment of darkness. When he could see again, he found himself in a vast, silent space. In this vast space, besides himself, there were five faint, fist-sized, colored light orbs around him: gold, green, blue, red, and brown.

The theoretical knowledge in his mind instantly made Tang Chuyang understand that he had entered his sea of consciousness in a spirit state. The five differently colored light orbs were the innate Five Elements Guardian Seals, also known as the 'Five Realms Seals.' Each attribute of the guardian seal corresponds to a realm and system in the upper realms.

The gold attribute seal corresponds to the Heavenly Realm, belonging to the Heavenly Emperor system. If a cultivator communicates with a heavenly soldier while traveling to the upper realms and successfully signs a contract, the gold attribute seal will automatically activate and become bright and vivid.

The wood attribute seal corresponds to the Demon Realm, belonging to the Demon Saint system. The fire attribute corresponds to the Demon Realm, belonging to the Demon God system. The earth attribute corresponds to the Lesser Western Heaven, belonging to the Western Holy Land system, also known as the Western Heaven system.

The water attribute is the cultivator's own destiny. The Heavenly Dao says, "Water has no constant form, and destiny has no constant state." A person's destiny is like countless streams, and no one knows where it will go next or what form it will take. Besides cultivating the spirit, cultivators also cultivate the water attribute seal because the water attribute seal is the cultivator's own body. The stronger the seal, the stronger the body!

The speed at which cultivators absorb and refine the elemental energy of heaven and earth is directly related to the strength of their spirit. The stronger the spirit, the faster the absorption and refinement of the elemental energy, and vice versa.

In Tang Chuyang's view, the spirit is essentially the soul of the cultivator. Cultivation is the process by which cultivators control their spirit to sense the elemental energy of heaven and earth and guide it into the sea of consciousness to continuously strengthen the water attribute seal and the spirit. Therefore, after discovering that he was in a spirit state, Tang Chuyang began to release his perception to sense the elemental energy of heaven and earth.

The perception was like invisible, ring-shaped radar, instantly spreading from his brow through the sea of consciousness to all directions. Then, Tang Chuyang felt that he 'saw' a colorful world. The trees and flowers were green, the long sword hanging on the wall was golden, the earth was brown, and the burning candle was red.

In the air, there were countless specks of light of various colors, drifting and floating like colorful fireflies. The most numerous were grayish-white specks, almost dozens of times more than the other colors.

"These colorful specks should be the Five Elements elemental energy, and the most numerous grayish-white specks should be the unattributed elemental energy most suitable for beginner cultivators to absorb!"

After sensing the elemental energy of heaven and earth, the next step was to guide the elemental energy into the sea of consciousness for refinement. Tang Chuyang remembered that his second sister had said that with her current Three Talents Realm spirit strength, she could guide over two thousand specks of light for refinement at once. For the initial Qi Induction Stage, even the most talented could only guide ten specks of light at once.

One speck of light is one unit of elemental energy.

Generally, when cultivators start cultivating, for safety, they usually guide only one unit of elemental energy into the sea of consciousness at a time. Although the specks of light look small, they contain a lot of energy. One unit of elemental energy, even after refinement, is enough to cast a low-level spell.

PS: During the new book period, everyone knows how important recommendations, collections, and clicks are for a new book. These are all within your capabilities and do not require any cost to support the author. Well, perhaps it might take a few dozen seconds? But Xiao Zhu really needs this support...