Although humans prided themselves as the most spiritual of all living things, their innate lifespan was short. Without cultivation, they had at most only a hundred years but a hundred years was just the blink of an eye for trees.
As long as there was no external interference, trees could continue growing, living as long as heaven and earth themselves.
This was the form of life that best aligned with the dicine Master's philosophy.
As for people, people were nothing more than monkeys on the tree.
For humans who wanted to cultivate into immortals and live forever, they first had to abandon their frail flesh and regard themselves as a great tree that lived as long as heaven and earth.
The sixteen volus of techniques in the Senluojing looked different on the surface. Among them was the complete version of the Huanghui Scroll that Li Qiuchen had once seen before but from the underlying structure, they were completely consistent.
In Li Qiuchen's view, rather than calling this a complete immortal cultivation technique, it was more like sixteen great cultivators' personal understandings based on the general outline.
It was like eating raw fish sashimi. The restaurant brings you a sashimi platter with salmon, tuna, arctic clam, sweet shrimp... no matter how many varieties there were, what you tasted in the end all had the flavor of soy sauce and wasabi.
So after forcing himself to finish listening to the first volu, Li Qiuchen had only heard the beginning of the second volu before decisively choosing to give up.
First, being greedy for more ant you couldn't digest it all.
Second, he had already realized that the weight of this knowledge itself was sufficient to wear down his ntal State.
Of the Senluojing's sixteen volus, he only morized the opening Huyang Scroll. This was a technique focused on body tempering, its content simple and direct, balanced and harmonious. Just from the surface, you absolutely couldn't tell it was a cultivation technique of the dicine Master's school.
In other words, it was foundational.
Foundation was precisely what Li Qiuchen needed most.
For example, the Thirty-Three Heavens cultivated by the dicine Master's school were introduced in particularly detailed terms in the Huyang Scroll, resolving many of Li Qiuchen's doubts in his cultivation.
And besides the Huyang Scroll, successfully clearing the trial earned him part of another scroll, the Langui Scroll. Similar to the Huanghui Scroll obtained by old Daoist Fang Hong, it was also a partial fragnt.
After briefly scanning through the information inside, Li Qiuchen felt sowhat disappointed in his heart.
This technique's compatibility with him wasn't very suitable.
How to put it... if the Huyang Scroll's focus was body tempering, the Langui Scroll looked a bit like it was about romance and indulgence.
Setting other things aside, just look at the pill formulas it provided.
The very first one was the Complexion-Preserving Pill.
This was also the only thing that looked sowhat proper.
The things that followed: Golden Jade Soft Fragrance Paste, Six Desires Seven Emotions Incense, Hundred Fruits Immortal Brew, Dragon Tiger Golden Steel Pill...
Just from the nas, they were very improper.
Li Qiuchen had every reason to suspect that the senior who compiled this technique back then, besides daily cultivation, was definitely also running so indescribable side business in secret.
As a proper person like myself, could I learn such improper things?
But there was no choice. Nothing to pick from.
Having sothing was better than having nothing.
The Senluojing's content was extrely complex. Just this one volu of technique plus one chapter of partial fragnts had close to a hundred thousand characters of content, bringing Li Qiuchen enormous ntal pressure. He couldn't even carefully analyze those intelligence clues he had collected in the illusory realm, and could only temporarily set them aside.
Swaying all the way ho, under the worried gaze of sister-in-law Xiulan, Li Qiuchen simply said don't disturb , closed the door, crawled onto the kang, closed his eyes, and began sleeping soundly.
He slept for three full days and nights.
Li Qiuchen slept until he was completely disoriented. In his dreams he beca a great tree, taking root in the earth, the trunk growing upward through the clouds, traveling alongside the sun, moon, and stars...
He almost didn't wake up.
In the end, he was still woken by the clamor in the courtyard.
Liu Po's eldest son had returned.
This was an honest and simple man, broad-shouldered. Dressed in a thick padded cotton coat, he looked like a stone block and showed not the slightest trace of a rchant's precision and shrewdness axnd in fact, he really wasn't any kind of boss. He just partnered with others in business, leading his two donkeys to transport goods from the south and sell them in the north.
Every spring and sumr, countless small rchants like him would converge from various places, forming large-scale rchant caravans heading north. Then they would return to their hotowns before the truly deep winter arrived.
Liu Da was a straightforward good man. After hearing Li Qiuchen's background from his mother, not only did he have not the slightest suspicion, but he responded with twelve parts enthusiasm. The mont he saw Li Qiuchen had woken up, he called him over to drink and eat at.
Li Qiuchen declined, saying he was too young to drink. Liu Da laughed heartily and didn't mind, only saying that people drifting through the jianghu would sooner or later have to knock back a couple cups of strong liquor.
This whole journey had been stifling for him.
In the north, there was a very counterintuitive common knowledge: although everyone liked to drink and everyone could drink, you absolutely couldn't indulge in alcohol on the road.
One careless mont and you would freeze to death.
Speaking of this, Liu Da was very lancholy. He used to have a very close brother who ran rchant routes with him a few years back. One ti, having made a lot of money and feeling happy, he couldn't resist the craving for alcohol and drank a round with people at the cart inn.
Dizzy and confused from drinking, he went out to relieve himself, and this departure ant he never returned.
Liu Da woke up in the middle of the night and reached to the side to find no one there. He put on his clothes and went out looking for him, searching everywhere with no sign of the man.
Only when daylight ca did he see the person lying in a snow pit, already frozen stiff as a stick.
This kind of thing was very common in the north. Not just to say on rchant routes, it also happened even in towns.
Although Liu Da was also a straightforward person, he had an old mother and wife at ho. With them in his heart, he didn't dare gamble with his own life. He didn't touch a drop of alcohol outside, only daring to let himself go freely when he returned ho.
After two or three cups of strong liquor, he couldn't stop talking.
Li Qiuchen was also a bit curious. What exactly was the situation like up north?
He had only heard that Yun County was located in a relatively northern position throughout the entire northern frontier. Past the Blackwater River, going further forward was the primordial wilds.
What did the primordial wilds actually look like?
Seeing that he didn't understand, Liu Da explained.
The Blackwater Garrison's location was the northernmost point of the northern frontier. Past the Blackwater, it was no longer under the court's jurisdiction, but it also wasn't truly primordial wilds.
Three thousand li north of the Blackwater, locals called it the "Border Wilds."
In the Border Wilds, humans and demon clans lived mixed together. There were also Rakshasa tribes and nomadic groups. The composition was complex and order was chaotic.
And north of the Border Wilds was the true "Primordial Wilds," also called the Northern Sea by locals.
That was a forbidden zone for life where even demon clans didn't dare tread lightly.
Chu people traveling north to do business would at most go as far as Mirror Sea.
Mirror Sea was where the Rakshasa Royal Court was located. Rakshasa ghosts were skilled at digging the earth to mine. Chu rchant caravans traveled tens of thousands of li to exchange southern goods for rare ores and furs, with extrely generous profits.
Of course, the risks were also extrely high.
Liu Da didn't have such impressive abilities, and simply partnered with others, trading in small items back and forth inside and outside the Blackwater.
Even so, this was enough to ensure the whole family had food and clothing without worry.
[NEXT CHAPTER]
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