Chapter 2 : The Unnad Book
I ultimately agreed to Yun Qingping’s condition, joining that mysterious organization whose na I didn’t even know.
I had no choice, after all.
As for the organization’s na, size, or main operations, I didn’t ask, and Yun Qingping didn’t seem inclined to tell .
Likely, she’d only reveal it once I truly stepped onto the path of immortality and gained enough strength to qualify as an “outer mber.”
The privileges were for the future; the responsibilities started now.
I didn’t dare complain.
I figured Yun Qingping had so intent to protect .
Her organization… even if her earlier words were exaggerated, the gist was clear: the cultivation world, both righteous and demonic paths, despised this unnad group.
They probably all held grudges against it—a real street rat of an organization.
Knowing less might actually keep safer.
At so point, Yun Qingping had produced a ditation cushion and sat on it, composed like a deity:
“Back to business. Let check your bone structure. Your comprehension, little rascal, is probably decent. If your bones are good too, you should quickly sense qi and generate your first strand of true qi… Xun Qiu, what kind of cultivation thod do you want to practice? I can’t give you so peerless divine technique, but I have plenty of secret manuals from ordinary sects. As long as you don’t go blabbing about them later, practicing them is fine.”
Having willingly signed my indenture, I dropped my mournful expression and asked earnestly:
“Just take a manual and start practicing? That's simple?”
“Of course it’s not that simple. If you were six, I’d have you temper your body, soak in dicinal baths to build a foundation, and study Taoist and Buddhist scriptures to hone your comprehension. Then, a year later, we’d plan further,” Yun Qingping sighed.
“But you’re already fifteen. Though you look scrawny, your bones are set, and the innate clear qi from your fetal stage is gone. Building a foundation now… bluntly, you’d die of old age before finishing. Better to start practicing directly.”
“Starting at fifteen—will I never amount to anything?”
I clenched my fist.
“Not necessarily. The sa person starting at fifteen won’t match one starting at six, but people differ. So, nurtured from youth with perfect bones and ridians, barely progress. Others, with ordinary thods, achieve world-shaking cultivation. So, born to great sects with high talent, waste their lives. Others, with poor bones and comprehension, grasp the Dao overnight and enter immortality,” Yun Qingping explained patiently.
“Xun Qiu, understand? Bones, comprehension, spiritual roots, talent—they’re superficial. In the end, it’s about the person.”
It sounded like motivational chicken soup, but I sensed the emotion in her words.
How to describe it?
Regret, envy, complexity—hard to pin down, but undoubtedly sincere.
I knew not to pry when we weren’t close, so I just nodded to show I understood.
I suddenly rembered the Unnad Book Bo Qiuyun gave .
That old thing was hardly upright and likely used as a scapegoat, but… what if?
What if he was right about my peerless talent?
What if the Unnad Book was truly a peerless divine text?
Trying it wouldn’t cost anything.
Learning my thoughts, Yun Qingping had no objections.
She casually opened the rectangular jade box, took out the plain white ancient book, and flipped through a couple of pages.
Then her expression changed.
She flipped a few more.
Sitting upright, Yun Qingping began reading carefully from the start.
After a full quarter-hour, shivering from the cold and rain, I couldn’t help but speak:
“Immortal Lady Yun, how’s the book?”
“Hm? Oh… ah, that…”
Yun Qingping, imrsed in the text, snapped back to reality, pondering briefly.
“Unnad Book—your guess was right. It’s indeed a peerless text. Its approach is unconventional, but its thods are remarkably practical. The only issue is…”
“The issue is…?”
Yun Qingping waved the white book:
“To practice its opening ‘Enlightennt’ chapter, you need to die once.”
I froze.
Die once…?
If you’re dead, how do you cultivate?
I couldn’t help but ask:
“That’s not literal, right?”
“Of course not a death where your soul is annihilated, but it’s close. You’d strip away your body, grind down your three souls and seven spirits, leaving only a spark of true spirit, then rebuild your body and soul.”
Yun Qingping said, flipping through the book.
“It seeks a ‘new’ beginning, starting from scratch. It demands strong bones, comprehension, and unyielding will. One mistake, and your soul is destroyed.”
My budding interest in the Unnad Book was snuffed out.
I wanted to cultivate, sure, but dying for it?
No thanks.
Yun Qingping clearly understood.
With a flick of her hand, she tossed the jade box with the Unnad Book and Bo Qiuyun’s bag to :
“Keep it. Even if you don’t practice, you could sell it to a great clan or sect for sothing. But the risks are yours to weigh.”
I deftly caught both items:
“I know nothing, so I’ll follow your arrangents, Immortal Lady.”
“Heh, of course you’ll follow my lead… Hand over here. Let check your bones.”
I had no reason to refuse.
I extended my right hand, and Yun Qingping’s hand rested on my wrist the next mont.
She hadn’t looked closely before, but now her brow furrowed—not at my bones, but at my hand… terrifyingly thin, believable as an eight- or nine-year-old’s.
Probably never ate a full al, wasting even the best bones.
Those sect prodigies grew up on heavenly treasures.
Yun Qingping’s brow furrowed.
Her boundless, ocean-like true qi surged through my ridians, withdrawing after a mont, her expression unreadable.
Seeing her face, I had a hunch and asked, hiding my disappointnt:
“Immortal Lady Yun, are my bones terrible?”
Yun Qingping glanced at , blunt as ever:
“Terrible? Of course they’re terrible!”
I shrank back, my voice lowering:
“Even if they’re bad, no need to get so mad…”
“I’m not mad because your bones are trash!” Yun Qingping glared, actually swearing.
“Damn it, do you know how good your foundation is? In my life, I’ve never seen bones and ridians so naturally suited for cultivation! And damn it, I never expected such immortal-worthy potential to be ruined into dog shit! Malnutrition and stunted growth are bad enough, but injuries too? If this were a hundred years ago, I’d drag your irresponsible parents up and chop them into a thousand pieces—”
She looked furious, her emotions even more intense than when she ca to kill.
My only thought was—huh, that old thing didn’t lie?
Seeing her anger escalate, I quickly spoke:
“Don’t get worked up! First, I don’t rember much, but my parents were murdered, so you’d be chopping the killers, not them. Second, think again—is my foundation really unsalvageable?”
“Salvage what? I’m tempted to chop you for making worry and rage! Your ssed-up bones can’t even enter the path! The issue isn’t that you can’t cultivate—it’s that letting you try would kill you! Your ridians are so chaotic that a single strand of true qi would rampage and crash you to death!”
Yun Qingping sat back on her cushion, fuming.
Her slender sword at her waist humd softly, sensing her mood.
“Let think… I should have a gentle-natured thod. It won’t get you past qi refining, but it’ll let you live a few more years…”
She reached for a jade pendant at her waist, her divine sense probing it, but I spoke calmly:
“Immortal Lady, don’t we have a thod perfect for right here?”
“What?”
Yun Qingping looked up, frowning, seeing the jade box in my hand.
“Unnad Book…?”
“Exactly.”
I couldn’t help but smile:
“This thod is so risky and demands good bones, but think about it—people with good bones wouldn’t touch an obscure technique that could kill them. The only ones who’d consider it are people like , with great bones but unable to practice normal thods, right?”
I tapped the jade box lightly:
“Immortal Lady, don’t you think it’s a match made in heaven?”
Yun Qingping set down her pendant, then asked again:
“Xun Qiu, why do you want to cultivate?”
“To co and go like the wind, to be free and unfettered, to eat my fill, to avoid scornful looks, to live forever, to roam the vast world without limit.”
After a long pause, Yun Qingping sighed:
“I understand your resolve, but there’s one more thing you need to know.”
My mindset was utterly relaxed.
I didn’t even fear death—what could I worry about?
“Go ahead.”
“Rebuilding your body and soul costs money.”
“…”
“You need heavenly treasures to revive flesh and bone, immortal pills to protect your true spirit, dicinal baths to nurture your new body and soul, people to guard you, arrays to assist…”
Yun Qingping counted on her fingers.
“Let’s calculate the cost. Oh, mortal gold and silver won’t do—you need spirit stones. Bo Qiuyun’s bag had two top-grade ones. At that quality, you’d need… one billion, three hundred ninety million, roughly. Cash, cash, or cash?”
I dropped to my knees with a thud.
I never imagined my path to immortality would start not with thirty years of rise and fall, nor with finding a little bottle, nor joining a Shaolin Temple as a nial disciple.
But with a debt of one billion, three hundred ninety million top-grade spirit stones.
No money, no immortality.
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