Lingxiao Explanation

The next day, Gu Fan woke up early.

He took out a cyan jade bottle from his storage bag, poured out a Bigu Pill and swallowed it. A warm current surged from his abdomen, and he immediately felt full.

After placing the cyan jade bottle down, Gu Fan picked up the white jade slip and placed it on his forehead to read the "Hundred Explanations of Lingxiao" inside. A large amount of text immediately appeared in his mind, with various kinds of information written in different categories.

Only then did Gu Fan gain a basic understanding of the cultivation world.

The Wei Kingdom is located in the Eastern Continent and has three major sects: Lingxiao Sect, Bailian Sect, and Hualing Sect, as well as many large and small cultivation families affiliated with these sects. They are required to pay tribute to the three sects on time every year.

The Lingxiao Sect is located on the western side of the Wei Kingdom, adjacent to the Cloud and Mist Sea, and faces the Chen Kingdom of Xizhou across the sea. The land extending from the two countries into the sea forms a strait, the closest point of which is only a hundred miles away.

To the north of Wei lies Yan, to the east Wu, and to the south the desolate mountains.

According to the jade slip, the cultivators of these two countries were regarded as demonic sects by the Wei Kingdom. As for the Desolate Mountain, it spans the eastern and western continents and is inhabited by countless demonic beasts.

Gu Fan finally understood what the golden lotus and white light he had seen yesterday were.

The white light was naturally part of the sect's protective formation; he had even passed through the formation spirit's belly yesterday.

The golden lotus is the Dao Ancestor's Dharma Seal.

The Dao Ancestor is the source of all paths. Just as in Gu Fan's memories of his previous life, cultivators all worship the Three Pure Ones, and all sects worship the Dao Ancestor. However, due to different lineages, the Dao Ancestors they worship are also different.

The three sects of Wei worshipped the Dao Ancestor of Creation, Wu worshipped the Primordial Demon Lord, and Yan worshipped the Heavenly Lord of Calamity Extinction.

The true face of the Dao Ancestor is unknown and cannot be seen; only his Dharma seal remains in the world for practitioners to worship.

The rest of the contents of the jade slip are the precautions for the Lingxiao Sect.

All outer disciples receive a monthly stipend of five low-grade spirit stones until they reach the age of sixty. New disciples can use their tokens to receive one basic cultivation technique and four spells at Wendao Peak.

If you want to obtain more resources for cultivation, you need to do some chores in the sect or go to the Duty Hall to receive sect tasks. The reward you get is called merit points, which can be exchanged for pills, spirit stones, cultivation techniques and secret arts.

It's worth noting that merit points cannot be exchanged for resources like spirit stones.

As a perk, each new disciple receives ten merit points, which surprised and delighted Gu Fan.

After digesting the information in "Lingxiao Baijie", it was already noon. Gu Fan changed into the red Taoist robe he had received yesterday and sorted his original luggage into his storage bag.

After collecting a few silver ingots, Gu Fan stopped with a soft exclamation.

He picked up a silver ingot with his fingers and held it up to his eyes. Sure enough, he saw several small characters and patterns engraved on the bottom of the ingot.

He had obtained this silver ingot a few days ago when he went down the mountain to pawn his mother's belongings. He usually kept it in his personal money bag and never looked at it closely, so he naturally didn't know the inscription on it.

Gu Fan calmed himself down and focused his mind on the silver ingot, activating his Myriad Manifestations Dharma Eye. The silver ingot in his hand immediately emitted wisps of gray aura, which startled him so much that he quickly threw the silver ingot to the ground.

Although he didn't know what the gray aura was for, he felt a chill run down his spine.

Grinding ink on the table and writing on it, Gu Fan copied the Dao patterns onto several sheets of paper. After confirming that there were no errors, he took out his gray sword and crossed out the Dao patterns on the silver ingot. He then used his Myriad Manifestations Eye to check again and only felt relieved after confirming that there was no longer any gray aura.

Gu Fan's face was gloomy as he pondered the problem of the silver ingots.

Is someone trying to harm me?

But he had never been to that shop before, and he had no enemies in the secular world, let alone cultivators who could inscribe Daoist texts.

After racking his brains without finding a solution, Gu Fan had no choice but to put the matter aside and leave it for future investigation.

He quickly packed up the rest of his belongings, got up, and walked towards the foot of the mountain.

As for the silver ingot, he threw it into a crevice in the mountains.

......

At the foot of Lingxi Peak, not far away, there is a pool of water where several white cranes are flapping their wings and dancing happily.

Those cranes were extremely large, with a wingspan of over ten feet, and their calls were clear and loud.

As Gu Fan approached the pool, the cranes quieted down and looked at him. Being stared at by so many tall cranes, Gu Fan felt a bit like he had faced a flock of geese when he was a child in his previous life.

"My name is Gu Fan. I wish to go to Wendao Peak. I wonder which Brother He would be willing to give me a ride?" Gu Fan asked tentatively, cupping his hands in greeting.

The flock of cranes stirred for a moment, and then a spirit crane emerged, crouching down with its back to Gu Fan.

Gu Fan knew that the crane had agreed. He climbed onto the crane's back in a few steps, and the crane quickly flapped its wings and ran. After a dozen steps, it leaped into the air and soared into the sky.

This flight experience was very different from the previous two.

Whether it was the white jade boat or the willow leaf boat, Gu Fan felt as if he were walking on flat ground, without any swaying.

But now, perched on the back of the crane, with his arms around its neck, floating up and down in the air with the flapping of its wings, the breeze blowing his long hair wildly, his skin feeling cool, and the occasional cry of a crane passing through a white cloud, made Gu Fan exclaim with excitement.

After flying for a moment, the crane landed on the top of a mountain.

The mountaintop is covered with lush bamboo, forming a bamboo forest. A gentle breeze rustles through the bamboo. Surrounded by the bamboo forest, a tall pavilion built entirely of black stone stands, with the three characters "Chenxing Pavilion" inscribed on its plaque.

Gu Fan poured a spirit beast pill from the white jade bottle, raised his hand and fed it to the spirit crane, telling the crane to wait there.

The crane cried out, as if in response.

Gu Fan turned and walked towards the pavilion, knowing that such an important place must be protected by multiple arrays, and dared not rashly use his Myriad Manifestations Eye to look around.

Upon reaching the gate, they found a middle-aged Taoist priest with a square face, engrossed in examining a book.

Gu Fan's expression was somewhat strange, because the book in the middle-aged Taoist's hand had the title "A Compendium of a Hundred Beauties" on the cover. He had heard of it before he went up the mountain to cultivate Taoism; it seemed to be a popular biographical novel in the mortal world.

Approaching the distance, Gu Fan coughed lightly and bowed, saying, "Disciple Gu Fan greets Senior Uncle."

The middle-aged Taoist priest then came to his senses, silently tucked the book into his sleeve, straightened his robe, and looked up at Gu Fan, asking, "Do you wish to exchange for cultivation techniques and secret arts?"

Gu Fan took out the jade ring and replied, "This disciple entered the outer sect yesterday and, as is customary, has come to select basic cultivation techniques and spells."

"Oh." The middle-aged Taoist nodded. "My name is Zhou Furui. You can call me Uncle-Master Zhou. The basic cultivation techniques are all on the first level. Outer disciples cannot go up to the second level. You can check my replica jade slip later."

Gu Fan nodded in agreement and stepped into the attic.

On the first floor were rows of wooden shelves, each with a jade plaque hanging from it. Gu Fan went up to examine them and found that the colors of the jade plaques matched the attributes of the cultivation techniques. Not only were there the five elements, but there were also cultivation techniques corresponding to mutated spiritual roots such as wind, thunder, ice, and darkness. The saying that there were countless profound and wonderful techniques was not an exaggeration.

In addition, there is a wooden shelf without a jade plaque, but instead a black stone hanging on it. The material of the stone is the same as that of the pavilion. There are also several other bookshelves with neither jade plaques nor stones.

Gu Fan walked straight to the bookshelf where fire-attribute cultivation techniques were placed. The bookshelf had three shelves. He picked up the jade slips from top to bottom and quickly discovered that the three shelves corresponded to the upper, middle and lower grades of cultivation techniques that Chen Suzhen had mentioned.

Without hesitation, Gu Fan abandoned the low-grade cultivation technique. After a slight hesitation, he picked up a jade slip containing a high-grade cultivation technique and began to examine it.