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

Chapter 223 Breakthrough in Realm Requires "Authorization"

The spirit chamber is like a modern person's underwear; it is a very private thing and cannot be easily shown to others.

Strictly speaking, a cultivator's spiritual abode is even more private than a modern person's underwear, because even Daoist partners may not open their spiritual abodes to each other, otherwise, they might accidentally destroy years of cultivation and drop directly from the Core Formation stage back to the Foundation Establishment stage.

After all, among the books that pop up with each upgrade in the library (formerly the [Academy]), many are from cultivation novels that tell stories of male and female cultivators being swindled out of their money and women by cultivators from the Joyful Union Sect, not to mention having their spiritual mansions destroyed, causing years of hard work to be wasted and becoming a laughing stock in the cultivation world...

Therefore, the first lesson for many cultivators who break through to the Core Formation stage is learning how to protect their spiritual palace!
Although limited by the restrictions of cultivation techniques, Zhang Chengdao, who had learned about common knowledge above the Core Formation stage from various secret manuals, did not "set" the permissions of his spiritual mansion, he was certain that if there was a tree in his spiritual mansion, especially such a large one, he would definitely not be completely unaware of it.

and……

'When did I ever throw you in there?!'

Before he could even finish asking the question in his mind, Xunmu had already fallen asleep again.

Are you born in the Year of the Pig?! You sleep so much!?
Unable to find the answer from Xunmu, Zhang Chengdao began to review the events bit by bit.

Ever since I pulled out the [Supreme Wood-Seeking Branch], I seem to have only ever put it into my cheat item inventory...

Wait, a backpack!?

Zhang Chengdao was suddenly stunned.

Could it be that the backpack belonging to the Golden Finger is also part of his "spiritual abode"?
But that's not right. This thing has existed since before I even started to draw Qi into my body. Cultivators below the Core Formation stage cannot have a spiritual palace—their spiritual power cultivation is insufficient to open one!
It can't be that Xunmu made a mistake and mistook the Golden Finger backpack for his own spirit abode.

But if it's mistaken and the backpack isn't a spiritual abode, how can it communicate with itself using its divine sense?
This is a very big deal!
If the Spirit Mansion's "firewall" has a problem, wouldn't I be vulnerable to invasion at any time, and all the cultivation I painstakingly gained from playing Bubble Dragon and Candy Crush would easily be lost?

If the Spiritual Palace breaks down, I'll fall back to the Foundation Establishment stage, which would be a complete waste!

After much thought and deliberation, unable to figure it out, and just as she was feeling worried and conflicted, she heard Murong Ruyan tentatively ask from the side, "Master, has this Xunmu... finished growing?"

Zhang Chengdao then put aside the matter of the spiritual mansion and nodded to Murong Ruyan: "Let's just leave it for now."

It's uncertain when it will grow again.

"That... Xiangwu City..."

Murong Ruyan whispered a reminder.

She wasn't in a hurry, since she had already told her master everything, and it was up to him to decide.

But her master looked a little strange, which made her feel uneasy, and she didn't know what to say.

Zhang Chengdao hadn't forgotten about the "Qin King Ghost" incident, and instructed, "Well, you go ahead first. I still have some things to settle, I'll be there later."

Murong Ruyan nodded and quickly flew away on the wind.

There were some things that needed to be "settled." Besides informing Xu Ying that he was going out, he also planned to open the membership red envelopes he had saved up.

He originally planned to save up 100 and then enjoy them, but given the current situation, he urgently needed some useful items—he had no experience dealing with "ghosts"!
It would be best to get the "Elementary Alchemy Manual". Even if you don't get it, getting some weapons, equipment or magic items will still be useful.

So Zhang Chengdao casually tossed a messenger to inform Xu Ying, then returned to his room and enthusiastically began drawing red envelopes. Although he had washed his face and hands, Zhang Chengdao still made thorough preparations, but unexpectedly, the very first member red envelope he opened flashed with a red light, a feature reserved for top-tier items!
"Obtained the [Heavenly Rhinoceros Horn]".

In the original game, this thing was only used to keep villagers from getting sick. Although it was quite valuable, it wasn't very useful.

I just don't know what use it would be in real life.

Zhang Chengdao, thrilled with his lucky draw, straightened his back, carefully examined the rhinoceros horn, which was as thick as his forearm, before tossing it into his backpack and confidently continuing to draw red envelopes.

"Received 10 servings of [Kudzu Root Soup]".

"Received 30 portions of [Beast Meat]".

A familiar scene.

"Received 10 [Red Iron Ingots]"

"Received 30 [Immortal Peaches]".

……

Twenty consecutive attempts, and not only did I not get any purple or gold quality items, but I didn't even get a single blue one. All I got were the cheapest low-grade spiritual materials!

Zhang Chengdao even began to worry that the seemingly useless [Heavenly Rhinoceros Horn] had absorbed all his good luck!

He gritted his teeth and drew 20 more times, finally drawing two kinds of blue-quality spiritual materials, namely [Heavenly Silkworm Brocade] and [Ginseng]. Only then did he finally draw the cultivation book he had been looking forward to. However, he didn't know if his luck was good or bad. The cultivation book he drew was "Elementary Nascent Soul Book", while his current cultivation level was only the second level of the Core Formation stage.

The "Elementary Nascent Soul Book" was a blue-quality book. Zhang Chengdao flipped through it casually. He could understand what it explained, but he could only read it and couldn't cultivate it because most of the content mentioned required one to cultivate a "Nascent Soul" before continuing to cultivate.

However, the moment Zhang Chengdao tossed the "Elementary Nascent Soul Book" into his backpack, he suddenly noticed that the "cultivation progress bar," which had disappeared, had suddenly reappeared!

The time remaining to break through is exceptionally long, a whopping 260 hours!
The most exaggerated thing is that his hard work in cultivating his skills was not in vain. The moment the "Elementary Nascent Soul Book" entered his backpack, Zhang Chengdao was like a rocket, breaking through his minor realms one after another!

A sudden, enlightening feeling arose within me, as if my spiritual roots were soaking in a warm, comforting hot spring, and the bottleneck that had been blocking me was easily broken through.

Once his cultivation level finally stabilized, Zhang Chengdao sensed something and opened his personal panel. Sure enough, his cultivation level had changed from the second level of the Core Formation stage to the sixth level of the Core Formation stage!

Zhang Chengdao felt extremely fortunate.

The hard work of playing Bubble Shooter and Candy Crush has paid off; thankfully, I didn't slack off because I couldn't improve...

I never expected that I wouldn't need to draw a cultivation manual; all I needed to do was draw a high-level cultivation book, toss it into my inventory, and the "permission" for breaking through to a lower realm would be automatically unlocked...

This is so abstract! Breaking through realms requires "permissions"! Is this really a real world, or some kind of "Matrix simulator cultivation version"?

I should have prayed I'd drawn the "Advanced Mahayana Book"! It would have been so much better to get it all in one go!
Zhang Chengdao calmed himself down with a slight sense of regret and decided to open all the remaining member red envelopes.

Although nothing I drew today was particularly noteworthy, this book, "Elementary Nascent Soul Book," alone was worth it!

(End of this chapter)