Zhou Chuan intended to find his sea of consciousness and locate his divine sense right then and there. Once found, he would be able to read the Jade Slips, which supposedly contained cultivation techniques. After figuring this out, he turned and prepared to leave Zhang Yuan's immortal cave.
"Remember to come to me if you have any questions in the future! My prices are the most fair!" Zhang Yuan chased after him, not forgetting to add a reminder.
Zhou Chuan was not afraid of owing money; being clever, he actually saw it as an opportunity. Mercenary people were everywhere, and once he became wealthy, those who had once mocked him might just become his tailgating sycophants.
Ways to make money were always reserved for the clever, and Zhou Chuan had been penniless when he ran away from home. During his travels across the East, he had visited many countries, each with a different currency, so he had to know how to make money, or else he would starve to death. In fact, he had pulled it off, and his methods of making money were manifold, never taking very long.
Back in his immortal cave, Zhou Chuan sat cross-legged in meditation. He had solved a problem as difficult as Qi Condensation; he believed that finding the sea of consciousness would not defeat him.
Closing his eyes, he tried his utmost to search within his mind, going back and forth, bumping around at random.
He did not know how much time had passed when he suddenly broke into a vast space. It was not pitch black, but rather resembled a starry sky, dotted with red light. This space was not yet bright, but it gave a strong sense of spatial depth. Zhou Chuan locked onto it as the sea of consciousness, and the sparse specks of red light were precisely his divine sense.
"Could this red thread be the divine sense Zhang Yuan talked about? Isn't this a bit too scarce and faint!"
"Whatever, I'll try to guide it first and see."
Zhou Chuan held a Jade Slip in his hand, having unconsciously infused it with Spiritual Power. Directing his mind to guide it, the red thread in the sea of consciousness moved, pulled out of the space by his will.
Swish! In an instant, the red thread flickered and entered the interior of the Jade Slip. The feeling was that of a fleeting sweep.
"Hey! This imagery is quite extraordinary!"
Zhou Chuan felt as if a third eye had opened, his field of vision entering a brand-new world.
The new world contained a long passage of text, golden and radiant, very, very large. That was the content recorded in the Jade Slip, which set down the one hundred and eight sect rules of the Water Talisman Sect.
Zhou Chuan did not know how many times the divine sense could be used, so he did not waste the opportunity, reading the sect rules very carefully without missing a single one. Understanding the rules of the sect was essential for better survival—that was certain.
The one hundred and eight rules were committed to memory by Zhou Chuan at a single glance.
After reading them, he smiled brightly. Firstly, he was very satisfied that the Water Talisman Sect's rules were so strict. Secondly, he was thrilled that his first attempt at using his divine sense had succeeded in one stroke.
"I really am a genius! Ha-ha-ha!"
He didn't go hunting. He figured that since he had already borrowed fifteen Spiritual Stones, he might as well borrow a bit more food from Zhang Yuan and pay it all back together later. If he couldn't pay it back, he would just default on the whole lot.
When Zhang Yuan saw Zhou Chuan, he was all smiles.
"Judging by your look, you've found the sea of consciousness!"
"Naturally. I've cleared up all one hundred and eight sect rules. Do you want me to recite them to you?"
"No need for that. You've come to see me, so you surely aren't just here to show off."
"That's right. I'm going into closed-door cultivation recently. Do you have any food here? Lend me some."
"Lending you food, eh?"
"You wouldn't be worried that I won't pay you back, would you?"
"Ha-ha! Let's not mince words."
"You really think I could join a major sect like the Water Talisman Sect without any Cultivation base?" Zhou Chuan had long since hatched a plan.
"What do you mean?"
"I have backing within the sect. Without him, the sect would never have taken me in."
"Who is your backer? Is his status high?" Zhang Yuan was inclined to believe him.
"I can't tell you who he is right now. I can't even ask him for help; this is his test for me. But I can tell you that he is a heavyweight figure at the Elder level."
"An Elder?"
Zhou Chuan's meaning was very clear. If Zhang Yuan helped him now, they would be family hereafter. If anything happened in the future, he could still enlist an Elder to help out. No matter where one was, finding a backer was the number one rule for survival.
"This Yellow Dragon Fruit of mine has an exceptionally good filling effect. It's all I have left." After thinking it through, Zhang Yuan took out the spiritual fruit.
"This fruit isn't very big, though!"
"Never mind the size, it's all about the effect. Eat this, and you won't feel hungry for a whole day."
"Fine then, how much?"
"Six low-grade Spiritual Stones for a single fruit."
"That's so expensive!"
"If you buy twenty, I'll give them to you at five each. The unit price is non-negotiable." This was clearly a bundled sale.
"That comes out to one hundred."
"Plus what you owed before, that makes one hundred and fifteen low-grade Spiritual Stones in total."
"Are you selling your storage bag?"
"I am!"
"How much?"
"One hundred low-grade ones."
"I'll take it, otherwise I won't have anywhere to put the spiritual fruit."
"Alrighty then!"
Thus, Zhou Chuan took a storage bag, and the spiritual fruit was placed inside. Although Zhang Yuan did not ask Zhou Chuan for a repayment date, he demanded that Zhou Chuan write an IOU.
After taking the IOU, Zhang Yuan laughed like a maniac. Both the spiritual fruit and the storage bag were sold at the Baili Pavilion in the immortal sect. The spiritual fruit only cost three low-grade Spiritual Stones, and the storage bag only cost sixty low-grade ones.
Zhou Chuan was also extremely excited, as this was his first time using a storage bag. Using a storage bag was much simpler: one just needed to input Spiritual Power.
"Having a storage bag finally makes me look like a cultivator instead of acting like some bumpkin! Well! He is, after all, a top imperial scholar!"
Zhou Chuan discovered that he actually couldn't finish reading all the Jade Slips in a single day because the red threads in his sea of consciousness were completely used up. Recovery of the divine sense was not like Spiritual Power; Spiritual Power would recover seventy or eighty percent after circulating for one complete heavenly cycle. But the divine sense could not be circulated through a heavenly cycle in that manner.
The only course of action left to him was to elevate his divine sense. He couldn't get his hands on any cultivation techniques right now because he lacked both contribution points and Spiritual Stones, so he had no choice but to cultivate using the asphyxiation method Zhang Yuan had mentioned.
Asphyxiation—wasn't that just not breathing? Time to hang himself. This time, Zhou Chuan hung himself for three days!
"Zhou Chuan! What are you doing!"
Today, Zhong Xiu finally managed to carve out half a day of leisure to visit the Zhou Chuan she had been thinking about day and night. Zhou Chuan's immortal cave had no defensive restrictions set up, so anyone could walk right in. As soon as she stepped through the door, she witnessed the scene of Zhou Chuan hanging himself.
A flying knife pierced and severed the hanging rope. Zhou Chuan tumbled to the ground, unable to speak, coughing incessantly.
"Why would you seek death! Why would you seek death!" Zhong Xiu's tears were genuine.
Had she not met Zhou Chuan, Zhong Xiu would never have been able to step through the mountain-opening gates of the Water Talisman Sect. She often dreamed of the scene where the two of them climbed the mountain together while singing folk ditties—it was truly heartwarming.
Therefore, losing Zhou Chuan would make her feel as though she had lost something vital, her heart aching as if cut by a knife.
"Listen to me, I was cultivating." Zhou Chuan finally managed to catch his breath.
"You're lying to me! You're lying to me!" Sob! Zhong Xiu cried even louder.
"I'm not lying to you. Didn't you notice I succeeded at Qi Condensation?" Zhou Chuan's sentence was much smoother this time.
Upon hearing this, Zhong Xiu swept Zhou Chuan with her divine sense and immediately stopped crying.
"You! You're at the 1st Layer of Qi Condensation!" Zhong Xiu exclaimed in disbelief.
"That's right! Senior Sister gave me a mental cultivation method, and it took me a month to successfully condense Qi. Would you say I'm a genius or not?"
"So full of yourself... What! Ha, it only took a month!" Zhong Xiu had wanted to put him in his place, only to be struck dumb with astonishment by Zhou Chuan's comprehension.
Zhong Xiu recalled that it had taken her a full two years to condense Qi, and that was with a lot of help from her father and pointers from her uncle.
"The spiritual Qi here is quite good, so the effect is much better. It's not that I'm outstanding; the environment leaves you no choice!"
"Suddenly being modest?"
"Hehe. Thanks for coming to see me!"
"Here's the question: can hanging yourself really cultivate Spiritual Power? Your Spiritual Power cultivation is progressing quite fast, approaching the peak and almost catching up to me."
"I'm not cultivating Spiritual Power; I'm cultivating my divine sense. I'm using the asphyxiation method."
"Oh! So it's the divine sense."
"I can't get a cultivation technique for the divine sense, so I'm temporarily using a self-torturing method. Xiu younger sister, let me treat you to a spiritual fruit."
Zhou Chuan suddenly remembered he needed to repay the kindness of that flatbread and decisively took out two spiritual fruits.
"Wow! These are spiritual fruits. Where did you get them?"
"I bought them from a fellow sect member. The price wasn't expensive either, eat to your heart's content." The kindness of the flatbread was something he engraved in his heart.
"It seems you get along quite well with your fellow sect members."
"That goes without saying. Look at me, didn't I get much fatter?" Zhou Chuan didn't want Zhong Xiu to worry about him, so he lied.
"Mhm! You really do look quite different."
Zhou Chuan had eaten a large number of spiritual rabbits, nourishing his body, and his physique was much sturdier than it had been during the trials. Especially drinking the spiritual rabbit's blood, which had put his spiritual roots into a state of explosive growth, making his efforts yield twice the results when he condensed Qi.
Zhong Xiu had been very anxious about Zhou Chuan's situation, which was why she had gone to great lengths to find an opportunity to visit him. After arriving at the sect, she discovered that becoming a disciple didn't mean you were set for life; you had to complete a sect mission every year just to stay. If one lacked Spiritual Power, it was basically impossible to complete any mission. Now, seeing that Zhou Chuan had successfully condensed Qi, become a true cultivator, and was getting along harmoniously with his peers, she realized her worries had been redundant.
Crunch! Zhong Xiu bit into the thin, crispy spiritual root and began to eat. Seeing that Zhou Chuan was doing completely fine, her mood relaxed greatly.
Zhou Chuan only had those few spiritual fruits left, but watching Zhong Xiu eat, he didn't feel the least bit of heartache. He stuffed the remaining spiritual fruit into Zhong Xiu's embrace, telling her to take it back with her. In doing so, he ended up holding Zhong Xiu's hand.
Zhong Xiu grew shy, her flushed face resembling a juicy peach. She had always found Zhou Chuan pleasing to the eye, and now discovering that he had successfully condensed Qi in a single month meant his future prospects were limitless, increasing her admiration for him by several notches.
"Xiu younger sister, is there something you needed me for?" Zhou Chuan noticed the awkwardness, immediately withdrew his hand, and changed the subject.
"I just came to see how you were getting by. Since you hadn't condensed Qi, you certainly couldn't take on mountain gate missions, fly, or read Jade Slips. I originally came to see if there was anything I could help with, but now it seems I'm no longer needed."
Zhou Chuan was somewhat moved. Zhong Xiu had thought things through very carefully; prior to Qi Condensation, those were indeed favors one desperately needed help with. Even if he didn't need them anymore now, he could still read the care Zhong Xiu held for him.
"Since you've come, then I won't stand on ceremony with you. I want to look at the cultivation techniques, spell formulas, and so on that you have on you. This is my first time cultivating, and even if I can't practice them, I want to broaden my horizons and witness them. Can I?" What Zhou Chuan lacked most right now were cultivation techniques and spell formulas, and since he had neither money nor Spiritual Stones on him, he could only borrow them. He figured that throughout the entire Water Talisman Sect, Zhong Xiu was probably the only one willing to lend them to him.
"Alright!" Zhong Xiu didn't waste words, pulling a large pile of Jade Slips out of her storage bag.
Half an hour later, Zhou Chuan had finished reading thirty of those Jade Slips, with twenty-odd blocks still unread. It wasn't that Zhou Chuan didn't want to read them, but rather that the divine sense in his sea of consciousness could only support him in reading this much. He hadn't officially cultivated his divine sense yet, so his meager amount of divine sense had been completely used up all at once.