LGHTNOVELBOOK 5: Innate Spirit Body
Tantai Ming hurriedly said, “Although our Lingqing Sect is a bit short on people now and has fallen on hard times, it’s a great sect with tens of thousands of years of heritage!”
“Even the Eight Great Sects outside have only been established for a few thousand years.”
“Especially our sect’s library, it’s even better than those of the Eight Great Sects. There are thousands upon thousands of books inside, even some sole surviving copies of ancient texts from over ten thousand years ago!”
He enthusiastically encouraged, “Little Junior Sister, do you want to take a look? You definitely won’t be disappointed.”
Library?
Chu Sang became interested.
Tianyan Sect’s library also had quite a few books, but it couldn’t really be considered rich, especially in rare books on talismans, pills, and formations. Ordinary disciples could only borrow those low-level books.
She wondered what this sect’s library was like?
Tantai Ming saw her curiosity. He summoned that dark iron sword from earlier, which grew with the wind until it was large enough to accommodate two people.
He stepped onto the sword with a leap, looking dashing, and extended his hand to her, “Come on, Little Junior Sister, I’ll take you over to have a look!”
Chu Sang looked at him with dead fish eyes, “Can I trust you?”
Tantai Ming pulled her onto the sword, “Trust your Seventh Senior Brother, last time was just an accident!”
The two flew to the library in a whirlwind.
Chu Sang had the privilege of experiencing a cultivator’s version of a roller coaster.
“Urgh~”
Upon arrival, she nearly vomited.
Indeed, men’s words are as unreliable as ghosts.
Chu Sang took a moment to recover before following Tantai Ming into the library. The look of surprise never left her face.
Although Lingqing Sect was just an obscure small sect, the library was indeed ridiculously large, with a full nine floors!
Even the libraries of the Eight Great Sects only had five floors, and the area of each floor was only half that of Lingqing Sect’s library… Chu Sang had a feeling that this sect wasn’t as simple as she had thought. Perhaps it really was a sect that had fallen into obscurity tens of thousands of years ago, which was somewhat lamentable.
Chu Sang spent the entire day immersed in the library. During this time, Tantai Ming went out for a while, but she didn’t pay attention, fully engrossed in the sea of books, studying tirelessly.
From the first floor to the sixth floor, she didn’t miss a single one.
Mental cultivation methods, sword techniques, pill refining, artifact forging, talisman drawing…
The library had everything.
Whenever she encountered interesting classics or mental cultivation methods, Chu Sang would study them tirelessly. Even though her ability to read ten lines at a glance and never forget was already extraordinary, after a day had passed, she had only glimpsed a tiny corner of the vast sea of books.
Chu Sang decided that the library would be her home from now on, but unfortunately, she could only access up to the sixth floor.
Tantai Ming had warned her before that books above the sixth floor were not accessible to ordinary disciples.
Even below the sixth floor, the collection of books and jade slips was already astonishingly vast, and there were many high-level classics and ancient sole surviving copies that had long been lost. Although Chu Sang was enthusiastic about all cultivation texts, the path of cultivation emphasized gradual progress and not being too ambitious. Her immediate priority was to improve her talisman skills.
Chu Sang had already gone through the beginner’s talisman books.
She wanted to learn some more advanced talismans, so she took out a jade slip containing intermediate talisman techniques and pressed it to her forehead. But the next second, her sea of consciousness was hit with a sharp pain, forcing her to withdraw.
Chu Sang knew her comprehension wasn’t enough.
She could only memorize the talisman content for now and slowly ponder it when her comprehension improved in the future.
Time flew by, and Chu Sang heard Tantai Ming calling her from outside. She realized the sky outside had already turned completely dark.
She rubbed her sore temples, picked out two more jade slips and stuffed them into her storage bag, tidied up a bit, and then left the library.
“Seventh Senior Brother.”
She jogged over to walk alongside him.
“Little Junior Sister, you didn’t spend the entire day in the library, did you?”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“How can you look at such boring things for so long?” Tantai Ming scratched his head, looking incredulous, “When the old master was still here, she always urged us to study more in the library, but as soon as I see those dense words, I get a headache and can’t read a bit…”
Tsk, this senior brother was quite lazy.
If you don’t work hard when you’re young, when it comes time to solo against the male protagonist later, Senior Brother, you’ll be beheaded with one slash!
Chu Sang decided to motivate Seventh Senior Brother to work hard together with her.
She wanted to help Seventh Senior Brother escape his tragic fate!
“Gurgle~”
She rubbed her stomach. She was hungry.
Well, before starting to work hard, she needed to eat her fill first.
Disciples before the Foundation Establishment stage still needed to eat three meals a day. Tantai Ming had long since reached Foundation Establishment and had unconsciously forgotten about this important matter. Seeing his little junior sister looking hungry, he suddenly realized and slapped his forehead, “Junior Sister, wait for me a moment!”
He left in a hurry and returned just as hastily half an incense stick’s time later.
Tantai Ming jumped off his flying sword, one hand carrying a bag of rice, the other carrying a string of fresh beast meat, with a good mix of fat and lean.
As soon as Chu Sang opened the rice bag, the mellow fragrance of rice containing traces of spiritual energy wafted out. Just one whiff was refreshing and appetite-inducing.
It was spirit rice!
Cultivating spirit rice required special spirit soil and spirit fields, irrigation with spirit spring water, and dedicated wood element cultivators to monitor the growth conditions day and night. The requirements for temperature, soil quality, fertilizer, and so on were extremely strict… It could be said that to harvest one mu of spirit rice required a huge investment of wealth and labor.
Because spirit rice was extremely difficult to cultivate and the yield was low, its market price was also extremely expensive. A hundred or so spirit stones could only buy a fist-sized amount of spirit rice.
The spirit rice Tantai Ming brought back was of the highest quality, something she had rarely eaten even in Tianyan Sect.
The meat wasn’t the common pork or mutton found in the market, but delicious spirit beast meat. When cultivators ate it, it wouldn’t produce impurities in their bodies that would affect future cultivation. On the contrary, the spiritual energy contained in spirit beast meat was beneficial for strengthening the body.
Chu Sang couldn’t help but feel touched. She hadn’t received such good treatment even as a personal disciple in Tianyan Sect. Unexpectedly, coming to such a small sect, she experienced the feeling of being a pampered little junior sister.
To show her gratitude, Chu Sang showcased her skills and prepared a sumptuous feast.
“It smells so good…” Tantai Ming swallowed hard. As soon as Chu Sang put the dishes on the table, he pounced on the food like a hungry dog, devouring it like a swarm of locusts, “It’s so delicious, wuwu, much better than Second Senior Brother’s cooking. This is truly the best meal I’ve ever had in my life!”
Chu Sang looked at his exaggerated expression and couldn’t help but twitch the corner of her mouth, “It can’t be that good.”
“Is that Second Senior Brother’s cooking really that bad?”
Tantai Ming put down his chopsticks, his expression solemn and filled with pity, “Back then, I was almost poisoned to death by his cooking, so I forced myself to break through to Foundation Establishment within a year of joining the sect.”
Chu Sang was shocked. Could it be that mysterious? Then she thought something seemed off, “Wait, Senior Brother, didn’t you say earlier that the sect hasn’t recruited new members for ten years?”
“You broke through to Foundation Establishment within a year of joining the sect, but your cultivation is still at the early stage of Foundation Establishment. Does that mean you’ve made almost no progress in your cultivation for nine years?”
Moreover, ten years ago he was only about seven years old. Breaking through to Foundation Establishment at just seven years old was almost as abnormal as Mo Qingchen. How could he have made almost no progress in cultivation for nine years?
“I have an Innate Spirit Body,” he burped.
Chu Sang suddenly remembered that although Tantai Ming’s spirit root wasn’t top-tier compared to the prodigies of the Eight Great Sects, his physique was a once-in-a-thousand-years Innate Spirit Body.
What did an Innate Spirit Body mean? It meant that even if he did nothing every day, just eating, drinking, and sleeping would increase his cultivation. As long as he wasn’t completely lazy and made a little effort, his cultivation would advance by leaps and bounds, leaving others in the dust.
Chu Sang looked at her Seventh Senior Brother with a complex gaze. It seemed he had been forced to work hard for that one year after joining the sect, and then had been completely lazy for the remaining nine years.
This wouldn’t do.
The thought of the Innate Spirit Body reminded Chu Sang of another matter.
An Innate Spirit Body was indeed a good thing, but throughout history, good things have always been coveted by others.
In the original story, the real reason Tantai Ming fell into the demonic path after being troubled by love was that during a secret realm adventure, a remnant soul of a demon lord had set its sights on his Innate Spirit Body. Tantai Ming wasn’t strong enough and was possessed by it.
“…” As Chu Sang thought of this, her heart suddenly sank.
“Junior Sister, what are you thinking about?”
Tantai Ming waved his hand in front of her face.