Just as important was the dao path that a cultivator was on during this period. Of course, it was not of the same level of importance as during the Nascent Soul stage. After all, during the Nascent Soul stage, a cultivator was beginning to embody the dao that cultivator studied. Only if he embodied it fully could he ascend.
Still, for all that, Wu Ying could not help but think that this was the most presently useful exercise. It would increase his strength and his chance of breaking through to the next stage, and it could provide benefits in the future.
The last cultivation exercise puzzled Wu Ying. After staring at the book once again, Wu Ying pulled it open and reread its contents and the notations made by the Elders. Once he was done, Wu Ying sighed. Like before, he was still uncertain about the exercise. He could not understand why Elder Ko had offered it to him.
Sure, the cultivation exercise allowed him to recharge his empty dantian faster. However, it was most effective when his dantian was empty. Regeneration rates would reduce as he grew fuller. And as Elder Ko had mentioned, it would be much less effective when he tried to overfill his dantian for breaking through to the next stage.
Of course, the most interesting thing about the cultivation exercise was the way it was built. Increasing his regeneration rates came in three forms. Firstly, he would pick the type of chi that entered his body during the acceptance stage from the world. It required an adjustment of his aura, allowing him to individually tease out the strands of chi that most closely suited his body. In this case, since he practiced the Yellow Emperor’s cultivation method, it would be unaspected chi. The way the exercise required him to alter his view on the world, the way he sensed it, was the semi-heretical part. It didn’t mean looking at the five elements but at much, much more, as each element that Wu Ying sensed had a “spirit” of its own. As such, even what he would consider “unaspected” chi might have spirits that required filtering out.
Next, he had to convert the chi within his body from unknown, unaspected chi to one that suited his body. It was like stamping his own mark on the energy. In normal cultivation, he would be converting aspected and unaspected chi types before he made it suitable for his body. Here too, the cultivation exercise was different as it taught Wu Ying a new method to imprint his own mark, his will on the chi at a greater pace.
Finally, the third aspect of the cultivation exercise created a small vortex flow within Wu Ying’s dantian so that he drew in chi from the world faster. It was like a small whirlpool in Wu Ying’s dantian, a complex flow of energy that was dictated by his level of mastery of the exercise. Of course, it looked nothing like a whirlpool, instead made up of multiple whirls and whorls.
The simple cultivation exercise had multiple aspects to it, all of which would force Wu Ying to stretch himself. And he had to admit, most of those exercises would probably be useful even if he ascended to a higher cultivation stage. Whether it was to strengthen his aura or being taught to process the chi of the world at a faster rate, it could not be harmful. At least in Wu Ying’s mind.
Yet Wu Ying hesitated long and hard over his choices. Elder Ko’s advice was generally extremely incisive. However, the Elder was also known to test cultivators. In that sense, blind faith in another could be harmful.
Cultivation, at its heart, was a lonely exercise. Finding one’s dao was something that only an individual could do. A Master and Elder might provide a few signposts along the way, but it was a cultivator who had to walk the path. Knowing one’s heart and knowing what one truly desired, and being willing to take the risk, was the only way a cultivator could truly ascend to the heavens.
Knowing all that, Wu Ying sat quietly with the cultivation exercise before him and considered his next step.
***
A week later, Wu Ying was in the gardens behind Elder Li’s residence, hauling big baskets of compost into the greenhouse. As spring arrived, the entire gardening and gathering section of the Sect was thrown into high gear. That meant everyone, from inner sect members to outer sect servants, were forced to do the most menial of tasks. Unlike any of the other departments in the Sect, there were no complaints. Gardening or gathering, herbology at its base roots was about getting your hands dirty. Those who could not, would not, accept that simple truth were of no use to Elder Li and were discarded in short order.
That did not make hauling woven bamboo baskets full of compost back and forth a particularly agreeable task. Unfortunately, being both a martial specialist and specializing in external herbal gathering, Wu Ying was one of the more suited members to this task.
“Good job.” Senior Goh slapped Wu Ying on the shoulder. “Two more runs and you should be done.”
Wu Ying grunted, trotting into the warm greenhouse. The greenhouse was built with a large retaining wall along the backside, facing perpendicular to the movement of the sun. That allowed the heat from the sun to enter the greenhouse through the entire day, warming not just the main section within the greenhouse but the back retaining wall. Smaller sections within the back wall itself circulated heated air through the greenhouse, the fires being fed from the outside. Of course, living as far south as they did, the semi-transparent glass that made up the ceiling of the greenhouse and the embedded ritual wards were sufficient to keep the greenhouse warm during all but the coldest winters.
Within the building itself, soil was stacked three levels high on standing, movable shelves. Gardeners worked each shelf of plants, mixing soil and compost together with other, more specialized fertilizers to ensure the growth of the spirit herbs. Wu Ying had vivid memories of gathering some of that fertilizer—fire beetles, fruit bat dung, and the innards of golden koi were the least objectionable types. In addition, each gardener had a few bags of crushed demonic cores to disperse into the soil as they worked. More than once, Wu Ying felt the tremors of wood and earth aspected chi flow from a cultivator into the soil.
Every single cultivator worked with intense focus, driven even higher when Elder Li, with her wooden cane, strolled by, peering over their shoulders. At times, the old woman would provide words of encouragement or correction before moving on. Wu Ying quickly dumped his bag and trotted out, not wanting to engage the Elder at this time.
In short order, Wu Ying finished delivering the compost bins and trotted over to Senior Goh. He breathed deeply, clear of the burdensome containers, circulating his chi through his body as he tried to reenergize himself.
“You look tired,” Senior Goh said, frowning. “The bags weren’t that heavy.”
“It’s an exercise,” Wu Ying replied.
Ever since he had made the decision to go with the regeneration exercise—amusingly entitled the Never Empty Wine Pot—Wu Ying had been training with his dantian as empty as he could. That required him to continually speed up the flow of his chi, an exercise that would also toughen up and train his meridians. If only marginally. More to the point, by setting up the first of the eight levels of chi vortexes within his dantian, he was working on improving his regeneration rate. At the same time—because, in theory, setting up the vortex was a one-off act which just needed to be continued—Wu Ying was adjusting his aura. Since he was “stuck” in the Aura Strengthening phase of his aura development, this would allow him to continue his progression in his studies there as well.
“Carrying bags of compost? At your cultivation level?” Senior Goh snorted.