Chương 46: Chapter 45 – A Return to the Basics

"Zhao Ren, don't get lost in your cultivation and make sure to come meet us!" Mei Ling was sternly remonstrating Ren.

"I know we all have our own matters, and with how the sect encourages us, we are left to find our own paths. But now that we are all separated by distance and spirit beasts, it is more important than ever to remember your friends!"

"I will, I will! But if I forget, you can always come remind me!" said Ren, knowing he could be unreliable about such things. Hua was silently laughing behind Ling.

"My Master will let me come visit too, I'm sure!" Xi Yuan had gotten to be good friends with Ling in the past few days. Because she lacked any friends beyond her master's other disciples, she was eager to meet again. They parted ways after making plans to meet after a month at Mei Ling's home. Before heading back to his mountain, Ren still had some matters to take care of. He had been expecting a reply from his family that should have arrived by now.

He also wanted to visit the Hall of Scripture and find out how comparable it was to the library maintained in the inner sect. Finally, there were some people he wanted to meet before leaving. The letter had arrived, and it had been written by the family head, his grandfather. He read it as he slowly walked to the library.

It had the flowery and verbose style his grandfather preferred, but it essentially could be summarized as joy that Ren had survived, shared grief over Uncle Tao, and an inquiry on what Ren was planning to do next. The tone of the letter was apprehensive. It was an unfamiliar sentiment to attribute to his grandfather, who had always seemed like a steady rock the family relied on. Yet it made sense now.

Ren was a foundation establishment realm cultivator, and he had achieved it within 2 years, unlike his less talented uncle. Their standings were very far apart now, and he was no longer answerable to his family. A selfish cultivator would want to be rid of this stone holding them down. Maybe it had to do with the large sum of spirit stones he had sent back before the trial. He had sent it in case he didn't return from the trial.

To clear his debt and move forward, he had sent back enough to at least repay his family for nurturing him and raise another generation instead. It was possible they had misconstrued it as severing ties because they couldn't have known about his karmic cultivation method. He contemplated actually severing ties, but he nevertheless adhered to his original inclination to continue sending back anything he could spare.

Cultivators were encouraged not to get too involved in mortal matters, but his family still had roots as a cultivator clan, so it wasn't exactly the same. He was still grateful to his family and hoped to see them prosper once again. Also, now that the debt had been settled in his opinion, anything he sent back from here on would be a personal choice. Furthermore, over the past few days and after all he had seen, Ren had committed to his cultivation manual.

The true potential of the elites and the consequences of weakness had both been burned into his mind. If he ever wanted to stand tall and weather the strongest winds, if only to shelter other saplings, then he needed to become strong. Ren couldn't afford to be indecisive any more. He had remained cautious and apprehensive about forming ties that might burden him with sin, or worse, feared that he was stealing providence, but the Dao of Karma was clearly more complex than that.

The ties he had formed to advance to the second layer of the foundation realm had reassured him. There was a lot he didn't understand, terms and concepts that remained far beyond his means at this time, but even from the fragments of the original Causality of Karma, he could tell it was supposed to follow the orthodox law of balance. He had hesitated because he was unsure and afraid. Whatever he was gaining was obviously being balanced with something.

He could clearly recall the sensation of something flowing back through the connections at the moment of his breakthrough, even if he didn't quite understand what it was. So, he was now ready to move forward. Of course, that wasn't a guarantee that it would always remain thus. If he formed poor connections and absorbed too much karmic sin, then it was entirely possible he would follow in the footsteps of the corrupted monk and be led astray.

Yet if he maintained balance, adhered to his personal dao, and formed positive connections, then his path couldn't possibly be a demonic one. With that resolve, he had embraced the manual and began to be more free with forming connections. He would just have to trust that he could sever ties if a connection ever became too undesirable. His dao and the cultivation method that now supported it were extremely unusual, but the results couldn't be denied.

With 3rd order spirit roots, he was already progressing extraordinarily swiftly without any bottlenecks. Granted that Ren's research had informed him better about the nature of spirit roots, but his pace was still significantly faster even after he had made it to the foundation realm. Spirit roots were a necessity to begin cultivation, and they determined the speed at which one could progress through the qi gathering realm. After that, they still helped absorb qi, but the manual one followed was more important.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. A great manual like the ones the sects had offered as prizes would ensure that even a moderately talented disciple could advance to the peak of the foundation establishment realm in a few years instead of the decades it could take with a poor one. Even Ling had already said that she expected it to be a few months before she broke through to the second layer.

She had 3rd order spirit roots like him, even joining the sect at the same time. So it had to be his manual that was the cause of his progress in the foundation realm, which meant it was of a relatively high quality. Ren had long since arrived at the Hall of Scripture by the time he finally pulled away from his racing internal thoughts. Even though the ceremonies had ended just a few bells ago, the elder was back at his post with a new book.

Ren peeked surreptitiously and saw the title, " Passionate dual cultivation on the star mountain."

'The author of the Passionate Dual Cultivation series certainly has a swift pen to come up with so many books! And why are these cultivators so obsessed with the outdoors?!' Ren swallowed the words he really wanted to say as he bowed to greet the Elder. Whatever the reason, the elder was in a good mood with a small smile on his face, so Ren seized the chance and asked if he could find the resources of the Hall within the inner sect library as well.

"Naturally, young Ren! Anything the outer sect has will obviously be available to the inner sect. Now let me ask you something." Ren was a little taken aback but quickly agreed. To whatever degree, Elder Yun Peng was his benefactor. He welcomed the chance too, because the last time the elder had asked him questions, his understanding of cultivation manuals had taken a leap forward. The experience of elders should never be discounted out of hand.

"Are you walking a righteous path?"

"Yes." Ren said without thinking. Then he stopped.

"Huh, wha…?"

"Very well. Be on your way then." The elder was back to ignoring him already. Ren didn't know what to make of it. Why didn't he ask about the book he had given Ren last time, Meditations on Karma, or even something about his cultivation? Of all the possible topics he could bring up, Ren could never have expected such a question! Now the old man was back to his lewd book like nothing had happened. Ren opened his mouth to ask for a reason but then slowly closed it and walked away after a bow.

This was still an Elder of the sect, and Ren couldn't forget his place after being dismissed.

'But why ask me that? Was it just an interested elder asking after a junior, or is there more to it? And how could I answer without hesitation like that? Aiyaa! Why do these elders have to act so damn inscrutable?! I'm going to be thinking about this encounter for weeks now!' He was distracted for the rest of the day as he met some acquaintances and friends to let them know to reach out to him if they made it to the inner sect. When he was done, he climbed onto his flying sword and began his return.

Ren couldn't stress enough just how much he enjoyed returning to peaceful cultivation! Not much had changed on his mountain. The formation on his mountain had degraded a little, but it quickly recovered. The treasures that made up the core of the formation were doing well. The trees and spirit plants were healthy, and the yin flame was still growing.

The flesh-eating moss was finished with the pile of corpses he had left it and showed signs of expanding, and the blood pool had finished converting all the extra blood he had added to it. Only the metal staff looked the same as ever. His pets were also perfectly content. The tortoises enjoyed finding spots rich in qi to bask in. Some had taken up semi-permanent residence beside the treasures that made up the eyes of the formation. Of the 18 tortoise babies, 11 had to be very close to settling on an a qi attribute.

Ren decided to watch them carefully, as they could still change at the last moment. The other 7 preferred to absorb all types of qi and instead munch on the various beast cores that Ren gave them. Replenishing his stock could be troublesome without a beast tide to provide a ready supply. He might be forced to limit the qi types to ones he could easily procure. The cocoons were also showing signs of hatching. He would finally be able to find out what insects were growing within that needed life qi to grow.

But until then there wasn't anything he could specifically do for them. The spirit spring at the center of the formation was still emanating impure qi, but after over a week, Ren could tell there had been a tiny improvement. The tiny change was significant because he had observed this during the daytime and not when the formation was at peak efficiency! The carp eggs he had left in it had also hatched, and the tiny fish were swimming around.

But it would be a long time before they showed any usefulness other than as a meal. Ren would also have to continue working on the formation around the mountain. The storm of qi surrounding the mountain showed no signs of abating, so until it was finished, he would continue to lose progress if he slacked off for periods of time. Fortunately, he would still have time to explore the inner sect and take up tasks to earn merit. There were many things Ren wanted.

After the frantic pace leading up to the trial, it was time to slow down. It was a common pattern with cultivators. Enduring hardships and obtaining resources followed by a period of accumulating strength built on those experiences and inevitably setting out once more to begin the cycle again. He had held off on a lot of his interests for the sake of progress, and now that he had time, he wanted to return to the fundamentals. Ren wanted to continue his studies and pry into the mysteries of cultivation.

To practice real weapon forging beyond the basics and learn alchemy to make pills. To grow spirit herbs and plants of a higher realm and record what the best combinations were. To set up challenges for others to test themselves. He wanted to write books so the ones who came after could learn from his experiences. To advance his understanding of legacy.

"Let's start."