I proved immortality through the imperial examination.

Chapter 60 Initial Stage of the Word Realm
Xue Xiangyuan thought he had asked enough questions and Xie Haiya had explained things in enough detail.

But when Xue Xiang saw the complex and detailed descriptions in Xie Haiya's jade pendant, he realized that he had been making assumptions.

Xie Haiya only talked about the macro-level aspects, and only touched upon the specific cultivation of literary talent.

Only after he finished looking at the jade pendant did he catch a glimpse of the real thing.

Xue Xiang decided not to delay any longer. After all, Xie Haiya had said that there was no risk in cultivating literary energy at the word realm, so he could boldly try and fail.

He sat cross-legged, circulated his literary energy throughout his body for one cycle, and then began to mobilize his spiritual energy to accompany the literary energy.

After another cycle, the literary energy flows from the Xuan Guan Qiao to the Tian Yuan Qiao, while the spiritual energy flows in the opposite direction.

Until the two energies converged at the Xuan Guan acupoint, Xue Xiang felt a black dot appear in his ocean of consciousness.

Then he focused his mind on the black dot, and with a bang, the black dot exploded.

As Xue Xiang thought of the sea, the black dot transformed into an ocean.

Xue Xiang thought of the grassland, and the sea transformed into the grassland.

Finally, the grassland transformed into the alchemy room of the Jiahe Trading Company, and then settled down and ceased to manifest.

This ever-changing space, in Xie Haiya's notes, is called the "Cultural Palace," a magical place said to be only a foot away from the Heavenly Dao of Literature.

Xue Xiang followed Xie Haiya's notes and guided the literary energy into the literary palace without any abnormalities.

Immediately afterwards, he felt a cool sensation between his brows, as if a stream of energy had entered his sea of ​​consciousness. Then, he felt a heat between his brows, as yet another stream of energy entered.

Soon, three streams of air appeared inside the Wen Palace.

The golden one represents refinement, while the other two are white and black.

The white gas cloud was enormous, while the black gas cloud was only one-tenth the size of the white gas cloud.

Xue Xiang's thoughts invaded the white cloud of energy, and he immediately saw him reciting "Two Fishing Poems" in Zhaoyewu, "Riding a Horse in the Spring Breeze" in the examination hall, and "Wanting to See Jiangnan in My Old Age" for the Yunmeng Times.

He immediately understood that this wisp of white mist must be the talent mentioned in Xie Haiya's notes.

In other words, it's the past works that have become so popular that they've come together.

He also wrote in the Trial Realm, "To see the silver mountains crashing against the sky, open the window and let the great river flow in," but this has not appeared here.

When he bid farewell to the female Taoist priest, he also composed the poem "Following you all the way to Yelang in the west," which is also a masterpiece that has been passed down through the ages. However, it is not mentioned here, which shows that it has not yet become widely sung.

At that moment, he withdrew from the thought and turned into the black energy.

First, you see newspapers being distributed.

Then, we saw him assist in the collaboration between Red Lantern Opera House and Jiahe Trading Company.

Later, I saw him traversing Jiufen Mountain.

According to Xie Haiya's notes, the newspaper, the Red Lantern Opera House, and the Jiahe Trading Company should be the specific achievements he has recently accomplished, and the accumulated aspirations he has gathered.

As an official, he naturally shared in the people's wishes by traveling through Jiufen Mountain.

Seeing this, he felt even more emotional, wondering why bureaucrats, regardless of whether they actually did anything, were so desperate to climb the ranks.

The higher you climb, the bigger your slice of the pie from the shared aspirations of the bureaucratic system.

Talent and ambition are both nourishments for literary talent.

Both of these are extremely important if one aspires to cultivate literary skills.

At that moment, Xue Xiang took out the square box given to him by Xie Haiya and released the character soil.

The characters are spread out in mid-air, like a sheet of black paper.

Xue Xiang released his literary spirit, talent, and aspirations, the three dragons converging to guide the words stroke by stroke on the soil of characters.

As soon as he wrote the character "light," Xue Xiang felt a portion of his spiritual energy being drawn out.

Instantly, the entire refining room was filled with bright light.

At that moment, he put aside his talent and ambition, and used only his mind to guide the flow of his writing, writing the character "light".

A candlelight beam was formed.

This means that he has mastered the character "light" and stepped into the threshold of the initial stage of the character realm.

As Xie Haiya said, he can only count the "various aspects" within the realm of words at present.

When writing about light, one can only evoke one of the most familiar light sources.

Therefore, the two instances of writing light resulted in different forms of light.

Even so, Xue Xiang was excited enough.

According to Xie Haiya's notes, unless one's own literary talent is exceptionally high, it would be difficult to compose even a single word in three to five days. How could he compose it in one stroke? Besides his own extraordinary intelligence, the golden literary talent must have played a significant role.

Xue Xiang was basking in his own glory, completely unaware of what was truly pleasurable.

Little did he know that because of him, the Hangu Ruins collapsed, the cultural essence within them was destroyed, and the Wendao Stele guarding Canglan Prefecture was indirectly damaged.

This extraordinary act didn't allow him to extract golden literary energy, but rather a wisp of literary vein. (See Chapter 55 for details.)
He now refines his words using literary style, like using a Gatling gun to fire at a block of tofu—how could it not be sharp?

After finishing the character “光” (light), Xue Xiang, remembering that he would be traveling that evening, began writing the character “风” (wind).

It was a done deal.

In the blink of an eye, half an hour had passed.

Xue Xiang stopped writing, mainly because his spiritual energy could no longer sustain it.

He needed to conserve some spiritual energy for his journey.

He then returned to his suite, lay down on the soft couch, and carefully evaluated the act of "refining the words".

Based on his own experience, he believes Xie Haiya is absolutely right.

Talent and ambition are the nourishment for literary talent, but this nourishment cannot be consumed directly; it must be integrated through the method of refining words.

He had only written a dozen or so words when his meager aspirations were completely exhausted, though he still had a lot of talent left.

However, relying solely on talent to supplement literary style, when reflected in word choice, is clearly not as effective as having both talent and aspiration simultaneously, resulting in a more fluent writing style.

Although he couldn't see any improvement in his writing style during those short half-hour writing sessions, he felt that his writing was more refined than before.

He took a short nap and woke up around 5 PM. He quickly got up and went out.

He flagged down a horse-drawn carriage, went home first to collect a package, then took another carriage to the shore of Suiyang Lake, rented a small boat, and headed towards Zhaoyewu.

After rowing a hundred feet from the shore, Xue Xiang stopped rowing, softly uttered the word "wind," and his literary energy surged forth, gathering into the character "wind," while his spiritual power was activated.

Suddenly, a gentle breeze swept by.

Xue Xiang dispersed the character "风" (wind) and then reformed it.

This time, however, a strong wind was summoned, and he quickly dispersed the word "wind".

The little bit of spiritual power within him, even if it turned into a gale, wouldn't last long.

He had to have a "fist" thirteen times before he finally got the wind he wanted.

A breeze blows the boat against the current, and the bright moon hangs in the sky. He feels as if he is an immortal riding the wind.

Only after cultivating to this level did he begin to understand its meaning.

When the boat reached Zhaoye Dock, it was completely dark and silent. He then went to the pavilion in the middle of the lake, but there was no one there either.

He was disappointed, yet unwilling to give up. "Is there any powerful figure I can't climb up to?"

With this thought in mind, he steered his boat toward the Xiang River.

As soon as the boat left the Xiang River, a magnificent and wondrous scene came into view.

Above the night sky, the stars shone like dew, and a beautiful woman in white robes danced gracefully, like a fairy.

Above the starry sky, large characters, like pillars, gather to form poetry:

The clouds billow, the moonlight shines anew; jade sleeves flutter, untouched by dust.

The stars shimmer, their light like cold pearls; the wind and dew of the heavens condense into my form.

Xue Xiang knew that this must be a manifestation of literary talent; someone was organizing a poetry gathering and using literary talent to create an atmosphere.

Xue Xiang felt a surge of excitement; he couldn't miss this scene of people dressing up in revealing clothes.

He's no longer wearing a sweatshirt just to look like a boy.

After donning the robes, the poems and essays can gain wider recognition and be quickly transformed into literary talent, nourishing one's literary spirit and aiding in self-cultivation.

In other words, wearing a sweatshirt has become a necessity for him.

Immediately, he urged the small boat onward toward the strange phenomenon in the sky.

…………

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(The author would like to add a special note: talent and ambition are merely nutrients for literary talent, not additional systems. There are still only two major systems: literary talent and spiritual talent.)
　I'm adding an extra chapter as promised. Thank you all, everyone.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)