Chapter 12: Inner Breathing Method

Xun knew of two Silver scriptures. The first was one he had practiced in his past life, and the second was one that he obtained after establishing his sect. But neither would be enough to overcome the damage to his channels. He needed something greater.

A cultivator's growth, he knew, was a simple combination of two variables. Scripture and talent.Scriptures taught cultivators how to cycle zhen. Better scriptures allowed a cultivator to cycle more times in a single day. And talent determined how much zhen a cultivator could retain each cycle.Both scriptures and spirit channels were classified into Chalk, Shale, Silver, Gold, and Jade tiers.A Chalk-tier scripture could only support cycling zhen ten times in a single day. Any more and the cultivator would damage their spirit channels. Shale allowed thirty cycles, Silver fifty, Gold seventy, and Jade ninety.So someone practicing a Jade scripture would increase their cultivation at nine times the rate of a cultivator using a Chalk scripture. There was, Xun thought, no justice under the heavens. Those who started high tended to stay there. Those who started low paid the price for their misfortune every day.Chalk spirit channels were as low and worthless as the name implied. They were the unfortunate reality for most people, forever barred from the path to eternity. The walls of their channels were an ashy white color and could only retain ten percent of the zhen that passed through them.The other student-turned-laborers had Shale channels. Their channel walls were dull gray and saved thirty percent of cycled zhen. Silver channels, were the next step up and retained fifty percent. Gold channels retained seventy, and Jade ninety.Xun's previous combination of Gold channels and Silver scripture meant he could cycle fifty times per day at seventy percent efficiency for a net of thirty-five units of zhen.But now, his current spirit channels were so broken that before he could even finish a single cycle, only five percent of the zhen was left. So even with a Silver scripture and cultivating thirty times a day, Xun would only gain one to two units worth of zhen each day. At that rate, it'd take at least two months to reach the hundred units of zhen necessary to open his aperture.To go back to Chalk talent level requires the Seven Turns Pill, a Foundation level pill worth ten spirit stones. But I'm penniless. Xun paced around his hut, feeling the cold wood floor beneath his bare foot.Absentmindedly, he found a corner of the hut and sat down. Reaching a finger out, he began to write on the dusty floor in front of him.He first wrote "Selling Past Techniques and Scriptures."What if I sold some of the scriptures and techniques that I know? Xun spent a few seconds mulling over the idea before dismissing it. While his knowledge was valuable, he was too weak to get the proper value for it. The Chalk scriptures or techniques were useless to the sect, and anything better than that would raise uncomfortable questions he was not prepared to answer.Xun crossed out his first idea. Underneath it, he wrote "Selling Guidance."As a sect leader, Xun had spent plenty of time answering cultivation questions from his disciples and descendants. But unfortunately, while he knew that this knowledge would guarantee anyone a smooth journey to at least the third stage of the Consecration Realm, it carried the same problem as selling techniques and scriptures. He was too weak. No one would believe his advice, let alone pay for it.He crossed out the second idea.Xun wiped the dust words away in frustration as he wrote a third idea. He could, he thought, create a better Scripture.He couldn't describe it but thinking about scriptures gave him a feeling that he was on the right track. Xun closed his eyes to better follow his instinct.I only have two Silver scriptures. Neither is going to be enough for me to really cultivate. Not with my spirit channels in such a weak state. He needed a Gold-tier scripture where he could cycle seventy times a day to have a cultivation pace fast enough to open his aperture before the month ended.The problem was that Gold-tier scriptures were a guarded treasure, restricted heavily even in top sects. Anything better, like Jade scriptures, were so rare that the entire continent only had three of them. Even in his past life, he hadn't seen any of them personally.If I had known that I had the chance to reincarnate, I'd have sold all of my fortune for a Gold scripture. If only whatever chose to reincarnate me had also given me a Gold scripture. Actually, while I'm dreaming, why don't I ask for a Jade scripture, or even a mythical Emerald scripture that promises a hundred cycles each day?~Xun's eyes snapped open.Technically, he had an emerald scripture in his memory. It was one that almost everyone, cultivator or mortal, knew. But among the millions of people who practiced this scripture, the ones who found success could probably be counted on a single hand.Even more famous than its mythical emerald status was its legendary difficulty. It was said that the scripture was notorious for the amount of pain it brought to the cultivator. On top of that, following the scriptures would damage a person's spirit channels. Where the first difficulty deterred most mortals, the second obstacle discouraged most cultivators.Talent was everything for a cultivator. The rule of cultivation was that someone with Silver spirit channels was guaranteed to cultivate further than someone with Shale spirit channels.But Xun's spirit channels had already been ravaged to such an extent that there wasn't much more that he could do to damage them. While he hated pain as much as the next person, he didn't exactly have a choice. An emerald scripture would triple his cultivation speed compared to the Silver scripture.This was probably his best bet.Grabbing a brush pen and scroll from the nearby table, Xun began to write out the scripture.As someone with a Silver scripture in his past life, Xun had paid very little attention to a scripture that only mortals with no other choice would cultivate. The only reason he had memorized the scripture was out of curiosity and the vague notion that it might help his cultivation one day. So there were a couple parts where his memories were fuzzy that he took care to mark out.In the end, he had a couple thousand words splayed across a scroll. And at the top of the scroll were three words: Inner Breathing Method.