Chapter 1

Mid-April, the late spring season. On this night, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse.

Young Wang Qi was sitting in the courtyard, meditating by the moonlight.

At this moment, the moon was high in the sky, and the bright moonlight illuminated the courtyard, revealing its scene. This was the backyard of a large house, about ten square meters in size, but it was neglected, with overgrown paths and no pines or chrysanthemums. There was some newly turned soil on the ground, and some shallow trenches about an inch wide, which had clearly just been dug. However, the owner of the courtyard was not digging to plant flowers. By the moonlight, one could see a thin layer of cinnabar in the trenches, forming a strange pattern. There were even large pieces of jade at the nodes of the pattern.

This was a basic spirit-gathering array, a common array used by low-rank cultivators on the Divine Continent, a classic that had lasted for seventy thousand years. However, it was not a grand array, just a simple beginner's array that could slightly gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, which was just enough for Wang Qi, who had just begun to sense the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Due to the effect of the spirit-gathering array, Wang Qi could see the mixed spiritual energy around him even with his eyes closed.

Drawing a thread of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into his body permanently, refining it into his own magical power, this was the first step of cultivation, the first step in seizing the power of heaven and earth.

The spiritual energy flowed naturally into Wang Qi's body. Before long, the concentration of spiritual energy in his body reached its peak.

Suddenly, Wang Qi changed his hand seals, raised his head, and opened his mouth wide, like a toad swallowing the sky, taking a long breath. This breath was like inhaling a pound of ice-cold liquor, refreshing and invigorating, but with a different, rich force spreading throughout his body! Wang Qi's mind focused, trying to control this spiritual energy, and at the same time, he leaped up and began a set of boxing techniques as if he had practiced them thousands of times.

This boxing technique was not an ordinary one. If used for fighting, it might not be as effective as the rough techniques of hooligans. However, the young man knew that this set of boxing techniques was more of a guiding technique, a method for cultivating qi.

The boxing technique not only moved Wang Qi's entire body but also the spiritual energy he had introduced into his body. Under the influence of the boxing technique, the spiritual energy reluctantly circulated in Wang Qi's meridians, gradually changing its nature. Gradually, the flow of spiritual energy began to obey Wang Qi's command!

After completing the set of boxing techniques, Wang Qi had complete control over the spiritual energy. In his inner vision, the spiritual energy was no longer mixed but had turned into a pure, transparent black.

This was magical power!

The cultivation realms, from lowest to highest, were: Circulation, Enlightenment, Fasting, Qi Cultivation, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul, Soul Separation, Body Union, and Great Perfection.

Among these, the Circulation, Enlightenment, and Fasting realms were collectively known as the "Spiritual Body," a step to change the body's foundation and pave the way for cultivation. At this step, the cultivator's body gradually became stronger, and if not killed in battle, they could live up to 120 years. However, without magical power, this was only considered a trial version of cultivation.

The mark of the Qi Cultivation stage was the cultivation of magical power. Wang Qi perceived a black stream of energy in his body through his inner vision, marking his entry into the path of cultivation, with the prospect of immortality.

Wang Qi, who was usually cheerful, showed an excited expression when he sensed the thread of magical power in his body. He immediately began to play with that force. However, after a while, his expression turned to one of disdain.

At this moment, a jade ring on Wang Qi's hand vibrated slightly, and a cold sensation extended from the ring, piercing his head. Then, an old voice echoed in Wang Qi's mind: "With magical power, your strength can rival that of a wild ox, and your speed can match that of a galloping horse. What more do you have to complain about?"

Wang Qi pouted: "Three years of hard cultivation for this? It feels like a loss... The money I spent on herbs and cinnabar could have bought many oxen and horses. Besides, if we use machinery to harness the power of water, ten oxen can't compare."

The old man was furious: "What are you saying, brat! Can those external forces be compared to the power of the Immortal Way? Don't forget that every bit of the Immortal Way's power is your own!"

"Every trick for taming livestock and every design for machinery is the accumulation of wisdom from our predecessors. Is wisdom also considered an external force?"

"You brat, where do you get all these twisted ideas?"

Seeing the old man's attitude, Wang Qi said nothing more and lay on the ground, muttering: "Boring."

This was probably the biggest cognitive gap between technological civilization and the Immortal Way civilization?

The young man thought with some helplessness.

It had been fourteen years since he had crossed over from Earth to this world. He had long accepted the reality of his crossover and was no longer as desperate as he was in the first few years. However, his way of thinking from his previous life was still hard to change.

Wang Qi's previous life was on a place called Earth. Due to an accident, his soul had crossed over into the body of a baby on the Divine Continent. This life of Wang Qi was not very smooth. His father was weak and died early, and his mother died in childbirth. He was raised by his grandfather. The grandfather, feeling sorry for his grandson's background, named him "Qi." The Wang family was considered a landlord, with a comfortable living, and although there were no strong laborers in the family, life was still comfortable. However, without entering the Immortal Way, one could not escape the fate of a handful of yellow earth. The old man enjoyed a few years of family happiness with his grandson before passing away peacefully.

However, the turning point came on the day of Wang Qi's grandfather's burial. While building the grave, he dug out a ring—the typical "cheat" of a crossover.

That night, he had a dream. In the dream, he sat opposite an old man in a black robe.

"You say your name is Zhen Chanzi, the patriarch of an ancient sect, and that in a massacre, your body and nascent soul were destroyed, and your remnant soul has been hiding in this ring, barely surviving. Now you want to take me as a disciple, hoping that one day I can help you rebuild your body?"

Wang Qi asked this question with a look of disbelief. The old man in the black robe was very satisfied with Wang Qi's expression. However, he did not know that what Wang Qi was thinking was completely different.

"Damn, isn't the ring-grandfather a standard trope for crossovers? Isn't it supposed to be out of fashion these days? Which lousy author came up with this cliché plot..."

These words churned in Wang Qi's mind for a long time.

In any case, Wang Qi's path to immortality began like this.

At the beginning of his cultivation, Wang Qi suspected he was the protagonist of a lousy work. The Spiritual Body stage was the best time to distinguish human talent. Those with slightly inferior talent needed to rely on elixirs to improve, and those even worse needed decades of hard work if they did not have the help of an elder.

But what about Wang Qi? He had never taken a single elixir since he started cultivating, yet his cultivation could rival that of a true disciple of an ancient great sect, as Zhen Chanzi had said.

Hasn't the trend of ordinary people cultivating to immortality already passed? If I have a heaven-defying talent and a ring-grandfather, shouldn't there be an arranged marriage where a fiancée comes to break it off? But the Wang family had never been prosperous for eighteen generations, so it was unlikely that a second-rate family with some wealth would have betrothed their daughter to him. A marriage arranged in infancy? Ha, his mother, whom he had never met, was a child bride. How could there be a good friend who would sell their future descendants?

But no matter how much Wang Qi complained about his cliché and unoriginal life, his path to immortality began smoothly.

The old man in the ring sighed: "With your world-class talent, why don't you work hard?"

The old man was slightly angry: "Achieving the Immortal Way, you can live as long as the heavens and earth, move mountains and fill seas with one hand, and be revered by all. If you are compassionate, you can save thousands of lives with a single thought; if you are ruthless, you can kill a man every ten steps and leave no trace for a thousand miles. In short, you can do anything in the world..."

"Ha." The young man scoffed at the old man's words: "I have seen things that you cultivators cannot believe..."

... Spaceships burning in the edge of the Orion constellation; C-rays shining in the darkness near the star gates, all these moments will be lost in the river of time, like tears in the rain... Wang Qi silently recited the lines from "Blade Runner" in his heart.

The old man was amused by his anger: "I have climbed the peak of Kunlun, toured the Heavenly Horse, descended and ascended the Heavenly River, entered the Azure Heavens, and dived into the Nine Depths, even traveled to the outer seas. What scene in this world have I not seen?"

What a provincial statement... Wang Qi thought. This is like an Earthling climbing Mount Everest, touring Guilin, descending and ascending the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and taking a flight and diving into the Mariana Trench. Something that anyone with a bit of money and strength can do.

Old man, do you want to talk about knowledge? Do you want to talk about experience? I have traveled between the most distant stars, witnessed the birth of a black sun, and seen all the dark energy in the real world... Okay, this is Zeratul from "StarCraft," but I have at least seen the game's CG, haven't I?

Wang Qi spouted inside jokes that no one could understand, but soon found it boring and stared blankly at the moon.

The old man in the ring, seeing Wang Qi's state, sighed: "With your world-class talent, why don't you work hard?"

"I hate the words 'effort' and 'cheer up' the most in my life," Wang Qi said indifferently. "I only do what I like. If it weren't for the prospect of immortality, I wouldn't bother with cultivation."

The old man snorted: "You're already a teenager, why do you still act like a child, always thinking about playing? With higher cultivation, what can't you play with?"

Wang Qi countered: "Do you know what I like to play?"

The old man said: "Tell me, what do you like? Besides joking around, I haven't seen you have any hobbies."

Wang Qi was taken aback. He looked at the full moon and fell into deep thought.

"Do I even need to ask?" Finally, Wang Qi looked at the sky and smiled: "Isn't life all about living it to the fullest?"

-----------------------------------------

Not far away, a girl in red was looking in Wang Qi's direction and whispered: "Unexpected situation, a worm has advanced to the Qi Cultivation stage, Senior Brother."

In the void, a man's voice echoed: "Be careful. What you are doing involves a legendary great being, so don't be careless."

The girl shuddered and said: "We are on the same path, right?"

"Maybe not." The man paused and asked: "What do you mean by a worm?"

"What else? A remnant of the ancient method."

The man pondered for a moment: "Based on your discovery... come back first. We'll try a gentler approach."