Before Sara could leave in sorrow, however, the situation in the room took another turn.
Li Fusheng actually agreed. Hearing this, Sara left the room with a blushing face, needing to return to her own quarters to calm her emotions.
Originally, Saya had intended to publicly announce Li Fusheng as Sara's fiancé tomorrow.
However, Li Fusheng felt there was no need to make a public announcement just yet. It was enough for the individuals directly involved to know for now. After all, Sara still had a few years before coming of age, and it would not be too late to make their relationship public once they had built a solid foundation of affection.
Seeing how earnest he was, Saya thought it over and did not press the matter further.
After seeing the Queen out, Li Fusheng sat back down on the bed.
Having inexplicably arrived in this world while searching for immortal fate, he had found Spiritual Energy, and now he had even found a future wife.
Moreover, Sara was able to soothe his turbulent Spiritual Energy; perhaps she was part of his immortal fate as well. Thus, Li Fusheng did not resist.
Still, this was one of life's major milestones, and it left his emotions somewhat unsettled. He sat in meditation for half the day without being able to enter the proper state.
He then silently recited the Calm Heart Incantation once more, and it proved to be quite effective. Not only did it help him calm down, but it also enhanced his spiritual power to a certain extent.
Perhaps the previous events had dealt him too strong a shock, but as Li Fusheng began using the Calm Heart Incantation to refine his spirit, he found that he could vaguely sense the existence of his own spiritual power.
This change caught him by surprise and filled him with joy.
Early the next morning, Sara brought Li Fusheng's breakfast as if nothing had happened. Yet, judging by her frequent glances and flushed face, Li Fusheng could tell at a glance that Saya must have already spoken with her.
The young girl could never keep secrets in her heart, but Li Fusheng chose not to expose her.
After finishing breakfast, he began teaching her the pronunciation of the incantation, only to find that Sara's mind was not on it at all.
At this, Li Fusheng could only feel a mild sense of helplessness. Reaching out, he ruffled Sara's neatly combed hair into a mess and said, "Focus. Since you want to learn, put your heart into it. I wouldn't teach just anyone, you know?"
Fortunately, Sara was no Hinata. Hearing Li Fusheng's words, she quickly adjusted her mood and began to study earnestly.
Though she did not know that the chant she thought of as a mere song could be used to temper spiritual power—a secret technique kept strictly under wraps even among the major Shinobi Villages—she knew it was the language from Li Fusheng's homeland. On that ground alone, Sara decided she had to master it.
Since it was her first time encountering it, the pronunciation and intonation of the incantation were far more difficult than standard Mandarin. Even someone from Li Fusheng's homeland would not find it easy to master completely, let alone Sara from another world.
After an entire day, she could not even read through the whole passage smoothly, stumbling over every line.
Li Fusheng did not push her too hard on this. Back then, even with his family's tradition of cultivation lore, it had taken him many days to fully master it.
To put it without exaggeration, when it comes to reciting the Eight Divine Incantations, probably even the younger generation of orthodox Daoists could not match his standard.
Without Spiritual Energy, whether the pronunciation was standard or not did not matter much. But if one truly wanted the incantation to be effective, being off by even a single syllable was a major problem.
In the blink of an eye, another half-month passed. With Li Fusheng's help, Sara was finally able to recite the entire Calm Heart Incantation without missing a single character.
And with Sara's unwitting assistance, Li Fusheng had refined even more spiritual power. Most importantly, although his spiritual power still could not extend outside his body, he was now able to look inward and examine his own body with much greater clarity.
His internal perception was far sharper than the vague awareness he had before.
With the aid of spiritual power, his cultivation of the Earth Release Technique also progressed significantly. The spiritual power flowed smoothly through his body along the pathways required for the Earth Release Technique.
He had finally taken his first steps into the Earth Release Technique.
With the basics of the Earth Release Technique mastered, Li Fusheng still could not travel a thousand miles in a single escape or burrow hundreds of meters underground.
However, shifting his position by a dozen meters or so was no longer a major issue.
He could also use a few minor tricks related to the earth attribute. At the very least, pretending to be a Chunin skilled in earth-release ninjutsu in the Shinobi World would not be a problem.
Jutsus like Earth Release: Earth Rising Spear or Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall could be summoned with a single stomp, requiring no hand seals at all.
He could even mimic the Hell Swamp, though the area of effect was not very large.
Aside from mimicking ninjutsu, earth-type spells were the primary direction of Li Fusheng's cultivation. Rock Fall Technique, for instance; learning this trick would ensure he never starved if he went out to help carve mountains and mine stone.
Earth Armor Technique allowed him to clad himself in a layer of spell-enhanced rock armor. Although it appeared somewhat bulkier in form compared to Kakuzu's Earth Release: Earth Spear technique, its defensive power was in an entirely different league from the Earth Spear.
Moreover, while earth-release ninjutsu were normally countered by lightning release, Li Fusheng's Earth Release Technique would not be countered by lightning-release ninjutsu.
The only way to counter earth release was through Wood Release. Yet in the Shinobi World, there was not even a single publicly known Wood Release shinobi at present, let alone anyone who actually understood the technique.
Li Fusheng's existence entirely defied the rules and was not constrained by the fundamental rules of the Shinobi World at all. Lightning counters earth? That is a matter for your shinobi. Can a cultivator like me really be restrained by your rules?
Of course, while it was not countered for now, that did not mean shinobi had no way to break through his defense.
As long as the force was great enough, miracles would always happen. After all, he was currently just a rookie who had only recently started cultivating immortality; he had not yet reached the level where he could ignore the heroes of the world.
Therefore, the Earth Armor Technique was a decent choice for the early stages—but only for the early stages.
Once his cultivation level rose, not only would he look down upon such low-level spells, but the enemies he might encounter would likely not even be troubled by this level of defense.
Beyond that, there was the Earth Puppet Technique, which allowed him to condense earth and stone and imbue them to form puppets. They could assist in combat, serve as temporary mounts, or transport heavy objects.
Earth-type spells still offered quite a few good things to learn.
While Li Fusheng was keeping a low profile and cultivating in the Kingdom of Loulan, the outside Shinobi World was once again beginning to churn with undercurrents.
Four or five years had passed since the Second Shinobi World War, and certain people were starting to stir up trouble again. Among them, the thuggish Kumogakure had once again resorted to kidnapping, targeting Konohagakure's Kushina—an incident that gave rise to Minato's legendary scene of wooing a girl under the moonlight.
Friction was also gradually beginning to arise among the other Shinobi Villages.
Yet none of this could affect Loulan for the time being.
Through his studies over this period, Li Fusheng had gained a rough understanding of Loulan's geographical location.
To the southwest lay the capital of the Land of Wind and the direction of Sunagakure. Directly to the north were the borders of the Land of Rain and the Land of Birds. To the east lay the Land of Rivers, and past the Land of Rivers was the Land of Fire and Konohagakure, where the protagonists of the shinobi world resided.
He had learned all of this from Sara and Saya. Li Fusheng was not entirely certain whether these directions were completely accurate, but they should be broadly correct.
Furthermore, over the past few days, influenced by the enhancement of his spiritual power, even though he still could not project his spirit outward, Li Fusheng's five senses had become sharper than ever before.
He constantly felt as though someone harbored malicious intent toward him, though he could not find the source. To this end, he even deliberately took a trip outside to try and flush them out, but came away empty-handed.