Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 182 Abstract Qi Induction

“Cultivating immortality is not difficult; what is truly difficult is giving up martial arts cultivation.”

That evening, Chang Ping'an gave a lecture to the disciples of the Taiyue Sword Sect, and even Zhuang Wansong and Qu Zhiweng listened in.

“Cultivating immortality is going against the heavens. You have to give up something to gain something. I have seen many people who, because they are unwilling to give up their true qi cultivation, have been practicing hard for more than a month without being able to enter the gate, even though they can sense qi long ago. It is a pity and a lamentable thing.”

Because he had been teaching his junior brothers and sisters in Baishi Mountain, Chang Ping'an's teaching skills were now quite proficient. He explained things in a simple and easy-to-understand way, and many Taiyue Sword Sect disciples immediately began to cultivate according to what Chang Ping'an taught.

Cultivating immortality doesn't actually require much skill; otherwise, there wouldn't be any wild spirits or demons cultivating immortality in the world.

Because most of those wild spirits and demons cultivate by comprehending the Dao on their own, either by worshipping the moon or by absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Sensing and drawing Qi into the body is something most people can do, as long as they have enough spiritual energy and know a little about the principles or follow their instincts. Even those Foundation Establishment cultivators who practice unorthodox methods are not uncommon. This is the true meaning of "fate to immortality".

What's truly difficult are cultivation techniques and magical abilities. The latter is manageable; even exceptionally talented cultivators can master them. However, the former is almost always passed down through generations. Only a once-in-a-millennium genius can create a complete set of immortal cultivation techniques.

The so-called immortal cultivation methods are a set of internal cultivation techniques that can stimulate one's own cultivation based on one's own spiritual roots and temperament.

Just like internal energy cultivation techniques in martial arts, the more profound and powerful the technique, the more precious it is, and the more difficult it is to cultivate. Some techniques also have extremely demanding cultivation conditions, such as limiting one's spiritual root or gender.

Furthermore, one cannot choose a single cultivation method and then stick to it forever. If one has enough energy, one can cultivate hundreds or even thousands of different methods at will. However, many cultivation methods are mutually conflicting. If one forces oneself to cultivate under such circumstances, one may suffer a loss of cultivation at best, or even suffer from qi deviation and complete loss of cultivation at worst.

For example, the White Stone Immortal Sect has only opened a dozen or so cultivation techniques in its library so far. These are all very basic techniques with more skills and less internal cultivation content, and none of them are particularly valuable.

Of course, there are good ones too. Disciples like Chang Ping'an and Murong Ruyan can go to the Floating Pagoda, which contains extremely precious cultivation manuals. However, these manuals often have high requirements and cannot be practiced by anyone who has reached the Golden Core stage. Therefore, even Chang Ping'an, who has the highest cultivation level among all the disciples, cannot learn them.

In comparison, spells and supernatural powers are far more complex. There are hundreds of low-level spells and supernatural powers collected in the library alone. Moreover, he discovered that his master would add new spells and supernatural powers every now and then, which shows how common these things are. Even Ye Shuyun, a cultivator in the Qi Refining stage, can create his own spell.

It is said that when cultivators reach a certain level of cultivation, even a casual move can be considered a magical technique or supernatural power, which is worth studying and learning by cultivators with lower cultivation levels.

Just like his master, he could send messages with paper birds he could casually cut, and ordinary mortal swords he could summon at will could be used as spiritual swords. He was truly unfathomable!

Chang Ping'an taught the Taiyue Sword Sect for five or six days in a row, and finally the first person to guide Qi into the body appeared. It turned out to be Dai Liang, who liked to sleep with his sword!
"Senior Brother Chang, I can feel my 'hero's' emotions! It loves me so much!"

As soon as he drew in his inner energy, Dai Liang, clutching his sword, excitedly ran over to Chang Ping'an to report his situation.

Chang Ping'an scratched his head awkwardly: "Well... your situation is indeed quite rare..."

He's never seen it before!
Normally, all the junior disciples he had encountered cultivated by first sensing Qi, then guiding it into their bodies to become Qi Refining cultivators. But Dai Liang was different; he actually "sensed the sword" first!
Of course, the term "sword sensing" was a summary given to him by Chang Ping'an. Simply put, it means that Dai Liang felt a connection with his sword called "Great Hero" even before he could sense any spiritual energy. For example, he could even make "Great Hero" vibrate out of thin air—this was definitely not the art of sword control! After all, Dai Liang couldn't even sense spiritual energy!
According to Dai Liang, at that time he could sense the "hero's" emotions. He seemed very excited and eager to fly in the air again. This was probably a side effect of his master using the "Ten Thousand Swords Return to One" move to summon the hero a while ago.

To this end, the "hero" even shook his body with all his might, which made the sword appear to vibrate out of thin air!

As someone who couldn't even sense qi, Dai Liang's successful process of drawing qi into his body was also very abstract.

It was only after he grasped the "Great Hero" that the Great Hero drew a small amount of spiritual energy and poured it into Dai Liang's body, allowing him to successfully sense the energy.

Afterwards, Dai Liang practiced with the "Great Hero" and sure enough, his sense of Qi became more and more obvious, and it was also much easier to draw Qi into his body. He succeeded in less than three days from "sensing Qi" to "drawing Qi into his body"!
He's almost comparable to Chang Ping'an!

Chang Ping'an was amazed by this and couldn't understand it at all.

"The Great Swordsman" is indeed a precious sword. Its raw material is a piece of ancient white stone iron that has been tempered many times. Legend has it that it was passed down from the ancient Zhou Dynasty and was accidentally purchased by a local swordsmith.

Dai Liang spent hundreds of strings of cash he had saved from his childhood to afford the custom-made sword. The dimensions of the sword were made by the swordsmith according to Dai Liang's preferences. Even the hilt was carved by Dai Liang himself from precious blackwood. As a result, none of his ten fingers were intact!
But no matter how precious it is, it's not a spirit sword!
As for the Taiyue Sword, my master mentioned it before I left, saying that it would become a spiritual sword in time. But my master never mentioned "great hero"!

How come the "Great Hero" sword looks more like a spirit sword than his own Night Talk Sword and White Egret Sword?!

It can even actively help the sword master guide and sense qi; I've never even heard of such a thing!

Is this right!?

Chang Ping'an, who couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he tried, suggested in a very uncertain tone: "My master once said that there are countless great paths in the world, and many of them, when studied to the extreme, are close to the path of immortality and can even lead to immortality."

"Perhaps your Taiyue Sword Sect can develop a new way of swordsmanship, using the way of swordsmanship to enter the path of immortality, who knows..."

After all, he was the first person in the Taiyue Sword Sect to cultivate Qi into the body, so Chang Ping'an felt a sense of satisfaction. He took out a Celestial Dew Grass from his Qiankun Bag and handed it over with great care, saying, "This is a celestial item, which has never existed in the world before. It is called 'Celestial Dew Grass.' Every time you break through a realm, eating it will greatly increase your spiritual power and greatly benefit your cultivation. I bought this one with spirit stones before I left the sect. Fellow Daoist, you may wish to use it!"

Dai Liang stared in astonishment at the lush green fairy dew grass, which was covered with three drops of "dew" and exuded a delicate fragrance and spiritual energy.

Just from Chang Ping'an's careful and precious attitude, one can see the value of this Immortal Dew Grass. It is probably not just a "fairy grass" but an extremely rare and expensive treasure!

Dai Liang was both tempted and disgusted with himself for coveting someone else's treasure. His face was full of conflict, and he didn't even dare to reach out and touch it. He just swallowed hard and said, "This, this is too precious! How can I accept this!"

As he spoke, his face fell again, and he added in a low voice, "I've spent all the New Year's money I've saved up for over twenty years, I'm afraid I can't afford this magic herb..."

(End of this chapter)