What if I don't want to ascend to immortality?

Chapter 13 Anchoring
Being homeless means wandering, while having a place to settle down is like a small boat dropping its anchor. Even if you are surrounded by a vast ocean and rise and fall with the waves, you can still feel a clear sense of relaxation and peace.

Han Jie gazed at the twinkling lights of countless homes outside the window. The scene was completely unfamiliar, yet it drew a delicate thread to his childhood before the age of six.

If most of his life stagnated in that year, then now, some of it is finally showing signs of moving again.

The misty sword in his heart trembled slightly within his soul, as if it were filled with fear.

He ignored it and silently absorbed the knowledge he had just learned.

Meng Qingtong spent over two hours bringing him here, teaching him everything in the house in great detail. Seeing her enthusiasm, Han Jie felt embarrassed to say that the abundant information stored in his mind was more than enough to handle these minor issues.

The room fell silent. He thought to himself, perhaps there was another reason why he didn't say it that way, which was... he wanted the girl to stay a little longer.

Her presence can be a bit noisy, but it feels strangely nice.

With her gone, the little house felt much emptier.

The room has one bedroom, one living room, one bathroom, and a small balcony that can barely fit two people after the washing machine is placed there. It is located on the sixth floor of a seven-story building.

Without even needing to consult his database, Han Jie could tell that this place was far from good. There were probably only two reasons for choosing it: first, he could move in immediately; second, it was cheap.

Standing on the balcony and looking at the opposite window, he immediately added a third reason: it was convenient for communication—Meng Qingtong lived there, and the straight-line distance from here was only about ten meters.

If the curtains weren't drawn, Meng Qingtong's bedroom would be completely visible to him.

She wasn't home yet; the windows were open for ventilation. The bedroom was extremely simply furnished. The larger pieces of furniture were only a bed, a chest of drawers, and a three-door cabinet. The top of the cabinet was piled high with unopened packages of talismans. Besides a large pink thermos on the chest of drawers, books like "The Way of Talismans," "108 Practical Secrets to Speeding Up Spirit Arrays," and "Dancing with Talismans" were scattered everywhere. On the bed was a huge plush teddy bear, which looked quite old, with patches even on its outer skin in several places. Several posters were pasted on the walls, like the charm on her backpack zipper, all featuring ancient-style anime-style handsome boys. Judging from the promotional text, they seemed to be from a well-known mobile game series.

Compared to the apartment Han Jie had just rented, she hadn't added many things to her place. It was unclear whether she was preparing for moving or simply being stingy and unwilling to buy anything.

He rubbed his temples, closed his eyes, and randomly searched through his mind for a few spiritual masters who didn't care much about personal privacy and were willing to exchange their lifestyles for attention. After comparing them, he found that Meng Qingtong was indeed living a rather "unconventional" life.

Putting everything else aside, if she just stopped stockpiling two packs of high-grade talisman paper on top of her cabinet, it would be enough for her to move to a high-end school district apartment across from the main gate of the Second Hospital. Besides, why wouldn't she just move to a cheaper dormitory? It wouldn't be surprising if Dean Fang waived that small fee after a word, right?

Bored, Han Jie released his divine sense and began to observe the living conditions of the people in the two buildings, as a reference for learning.

Eating, drinking, defecating, sleeping, moving, sitting, lying down, walking—stripped of the superficial effects of development, life is actually quite similar to the old days. What has changed is only the state of life, not life itself.

However, it was equally unfamiliar to him. The unfamiliarity of this era was compounded by the complexities brought about by countless changes.

When the young couple, who seemed inseparable, became interested, Han Jie realized something was amiss, so he slowly withdrew his divine sense, opened his eyes, and looked across. Only then did he realize that Meng Qingtong had not yet returned.

From here to the place across the street, given that girl's temperament and agility, even the longest hand of the clock wouldn't be able to make two full rotations.

What was she doing so late?

The moment this question crossed my mind, the doorbell rang.

There was no one else around. In this world, Han Jie only knew Meng Qingtong. The female student who worked part-time as a cashier at the self-service barbecue restaurant during the holidays had tried to chat him up and ask for his contact information, but he hadn't figured out what she meant when Meng Qingtong urged him to leave.

As the door opened, Meng Qingtong walked in, a light sheen of sweat on her forehead, carrying a box. As she unpacked it, she said, "Phew, it's hard to buy a phone for a spirit mage right now. I got a secondhand one from an acquaintance. Just register your contact information according to the instructions. I've already set up the account using your information and deposited the credit. For now, it's a pretty cost-effective plan, just like mine. If you're not satisfied, you can change it yourself after you get your share of the revenue."

Han Jie said softly, "Qing Tong, there's no need to be in such a hurry."

"The sooner you learn everything, the less likely you are to be found out." She handed over the phone that was waiting to be entered into the system, and looked around the room. "I'll buy you some daily necessities when we get back from Suiyin. There's no need to cook in the kitchen. When we're busy with the project, we can eat out. When we're not busy, we can eat at the nearby stalls. The restaurants around here are good and inexpensive, enough to feed both of us."

She glanced at the wall clock. "Alright, if there's nothing else, I'll head back. You can rest if you want, or cultivate if you want. This place isn't far from the Second Academy, and there are a few spiritual cultivation schools nearby, so the residents are a bit more knowledgeable than the average person, but they don't really know much, making them the easiest to fool. There's not much to worry about."

As she spoke, she walked towards the door, her manner of doing things matching her speaking speed, leaving no opportunity to interrupt.

By the time Han Jie finished recording the message with a frown and felt he should politely say goodnight, Meng Qingtong had already closed his front door behind him.

Sure enough, just as he expected, he had only opened a social app for spiritualists on his phone and hadn't even started filling in the registration information when he heard Meng Qingtong open the door in the opposite room.

The curtains over there were quickly drawn shut, and then quickly opened again a moment later.

Han Jie walked to the balcony and, unsurprisingly, found Meng Qingtong half-lying on the windowsill, resting her chin on her hands and looking in his direction.

She changed into a sports vest and shorts, and even wore a sweat-wicking headband, seemingly preparing for a pre-bedtime workout.

Not knowing how to start a conversation, Han Jie pondered for a moment, then decided to look down and continue studying his phone, waiting for her to finally speak.

"Han Jie".

"Ah."

If I bought you traditional Chinese style pajamas, would you wear them?

"Hmm." He felt that this was too perfunctory, so he looked up and said seriously, "I'm more used to that kind of dressing anyway."

Meng Qingtong looked at him with a smile, "It's okay, you don't need to force yourself to talk more. My problem is that I'm a bit long-winded, and our cooperation complements each other perfectly. If you like to say 'uh-huh,' then say 'uh-huh,' and if you don't like to say 'uh-huh,' just move your chin slightly and I'll take it as a nod."

He went along with it and nodded.

After setting up the spirit pattern on his phone and activating the corresponding telepathic communication function, he thought for a moment and then called the number Meng Qingtong had left behind.

By attaching to cell phone signals and using spiritual energy as a bridge, even the weakest spiritualist can travel thousands of miles in an instant; it is indeed a remarkable invention.

As he was pondering this, the girl on the other end answered, staring wide-eyed and pursing her lips in confusion as she spoke telepathically: "What's going on? It's true that calling like this doesn't cost money, but it's very mentally taxing."

"Uh..." He thought for a moment, then changed the subject, "I wanted to ask, is there any conclusion about the origin of the Nine Demon-Suppressing Cauldrons now?" "No. I thought you knew, and I was planning to ask you when we were more familiar. The earliest records we can find go back to about 1,800 years ago. Could it be that you created them and then forgot about them after exhausting your spiritual power?"

“It wasn’t me.” He asked again, “The names of the four Venerables of the East, West, South, and North are easy to understand, and I can also roughly understand the names of the four Venerables of the Flame, Ice, and Emperor. But what about the Wuding? Why is it called that? Does it exist or not?”

"Hmm..." Meng Qingtong thought for a moment and replied, "Yes and no. The Wuding District has been researching for so many years, but still hasn't found any trace of that Demon-Suppressing Cauldron. However, the spiritual energy is indeed attracted by that large open space in the center of Wuding City. Nothing can be built there; no matter what you do, it will be restored by some mysterious power. Anyone who tries to force it will be in trouble. The other eight cauldrons have remained unchanged for thousands of years, but that open space in Wuding City is said to have expanded three or four times in the last few decades. Almost all the top spiritualists from the nine districts have been there, but no one has come up with any results. As for the name... that's what it's called in the ancient books. Years ago, someone suggested changing it to Empty Cauldron, but it wasn't approved."

Legend has it that it was thanks to the suppression of the Nine Cauldrons that the mortals were able to survive the invasion of evil spirits until the emergence of spiritual cultivation. Therefore, people have settled around the Demon-Suppressing Cauldrons since ancient times. Today, the Nine Demon-Suppressing Cauldrons are the core of the nine major regions. Meng Qingtong, a seventeen-year-old student, could not possibly know too many secrets even in this era of advanced information networks.

He would have to see it for himself sooner or later. Having made up his mind, Han Jie stopped asking questions and returned to silence.

Meng Qingtong rested her chin on her hand and admired his appearance for a while. She glanced at her watch, smiled, waved her hand, and said, "I have to exercise now. I don't look good. I'm pulling the curtain closed. Goodnight, see you tomorrow morning."

Han Jie nodded, beckoned with his finger to pull a chair over from a distance, sat down by the balcony, and continued fiddling with his phone.

Based on his hastily gathered, rudimentary understanding, the kind of exercise girls her age talk about probably involves doing aerobics on a yoga mat. However, Meng Qingtong's figure didn't seem to be the result of that kind of training; she likely used some more extreme methods. He couldn't think of anything unattractive about it.

Having seen so many ethereal, otherworldly senior sisters, Meng Qingtong's appearance, in contrast, exudes a fresh, earthly charm. Even when she's covered in sweat and panting heavily, her vibrant energy is undeniably beautiful.

He was just considering whether it would be offensive to send a wisp of his divine sense over to take a look when he realized that the situation on the other side was not as he had thought.

Behind the curtain, a very clear, even strong, spiritual energy fluctuation came from.

What is she doing?

Han Jie turned his head and immediately understood—the girl was drawing talismans.

That's true. Spiritual practitioners in this world don't have that much spiritual energy from heaven and earth to use, and their own spiritual power is extremely limited. They do need to replenish their commonly used talismans whenever they have the spare capacity.

Since Meng Qingtong's major is spirit talisman, using the spiritual energy she can recover during a nap before going to bed at night to replenish it is both a review and a form of training, which is not bad.

He continued fiddling with his phone, a little curious. It was just drawing talismans, why change into sportswear? How bad could it look? Surely she wasn't some kind of genius who had invented some bizarre pose to draw talismans faster and better?
After thinking about it, he still felt that spying was not a good idea, and decided to ask directly tomorrow.

Half an hour later, Han Jie caught the sound of heavy breathing coming from the other side.

Drawing talismans...is that tiring?

Soon, his panting even carried a clear hint of pain.

Han Jie turned his head and looked over.

The curtains were too thick; it was impossible to see anything.

So he was just hesitant, afraid that momentary curiosity might lead to inappropriate offense and damage the fragile relationship that the two had built up through their collaboration.

He didn't want the boat to capsize so soon after he lowered an anchor.

Soon, the painful gasps gradually turned into restrained groans. It was clear that Meng Qingtong was trying very hard to endure it, so that the sound wouldn't carry outside.

Only a powerful individual like Han Jie, with exceptional hearing, could hear it without using his divine sense.

After considering several ideas and combining them with the explanation of the exercise, he suddenly guessed a possibility.

In his past world, no one needed to do this, because the spiritual energy between heaven and earth was abundant enough. What cultivators needed to learn was how to more efficiently convert spiritual energy to enhance their own spiritual power.

In today's world, the transformation techniques from scarce to powerful spiritual energy have lost their meaning. Cultivators are focusing more on how to efficiently utilize their limited spiritual energy, and have even created systems for this purpose to further refine their skills and conserve unnecessary spiritual energy.

Therefore, compared to the dazzling array of spiritual techniques that dazzled him, the cultivation methods for building one's own spiritual power in this world were simply insignificant. If it weren't for the fact that sects disappeared after the war and the cultivation field underwent a great fusion of knowledge, and that general cultivation methods had improved their conversion efficiency through the research of idle scholars, these students would not even be able to completely absorb such sparse spiritual energy.

So, if you're not satisfied with the speed at which your spiritual power is increasing, you'll have to figure out a new path.

Without a doubt, Meng Qingtong is the kind of genius who is willing to delve into things.

She actually guessed a method that a normal cultivator would never think of.

That's overdraft.

Spiritual power comes from spiritual energy, which in turn comes from the souls of all living beings and all things in the universe. Humans are the most spiritual beings, so the soul of a spiritualist can naturally extract some spiritual energy and temporarily convert it into spiritual power.

Han Jie had witnessed countless battles where, at crucial moments, people had to squeeze out their souls and overdraw their spiritual power. But in both his lifetimes, this was the first time he had ever seen someone use this as a means of training their spiritual power.

He guessed that Meng Qingtong must have drawn inspiration from methods of physical training.

Muscles that are constantly strained to the point of extreme fatigue and even pain will become stronger after recovery. If spiritual energy is depleted to the point of exhausting the soul, will there be a similar effect after recovery?

Judging solely from the results, it should be effective. Otherwise, no matter how talented a girl is, it would be impossible for her to possess such profound spiritual power at the age of seventeen in such a world.

But this also means that she probably started using this method of gradual accumulation from a very early age, which complemented her normal cultivation.

What exactly made her willing to endure such suffering every day since childhood, so eager to force herself to become stronger?
Now, Han Jie understood the fundamental reason why she chose to major in the Spirit Talisman system.

The only way to avoid wasting her training method is to convert it into a talisman that can be stored for future use.

What a pitiful, stingy person...

(End of this chapter)