Zi Feng

The Wuming Cultivation Technique didn't follow the routine of just absorbing spiritual energy and refining it into true qi, it also integrated the principle of filtration.

Only the purest form of true qi can remain in his body, while the impure part is simply discarded. It slowed down his cultivation but was compensated by the already abnormally high cultivation speed of the technique itself.

Theoretically, the technique also enabled him to further refine his true qi into denser forms as much as he wanted, without any limit.

But Wuming was in a very poor environment, so he couldn't act as he wished.

After spending a year in closed-door cultivation, he reached the peak of the first layer of Qi Refining.

It would take him many years to advance, but he wanted a stronger foundation.

So he needed to go to better places with richer spiritual energy.

He left the city after finishing his preparations and headed to the imperial capital, he wanted to spy on the secrets hidden by the noble and imperial families.

But he had a horse! He no longer had to walk all the way through!

He named his horse "Gentleman," because it was always after mares (female horses) in the pastures, and its big grin was full of passion.

As his first companion in that world, Gentleman was cared for by Wuming and was given the best ration in the time he was still cultivating.

Gentleman's fur was bright brown, with magnificent hair and tail. His body was neither thin nor bulky, but he was clearly well-raised and very strong.

It took Wuming little time to learn how to ride a horse, and he was already very comfortable with Gentleman when he left the city.

With fanciful clothes and clearly not lacking money, he wondered if he would soon be attacked by bandits. He was looking forward to that.

Unfortunately, the ordinary world wasn't as dangerous as he thought, or that empire was very safe, he never encountered any bandit, so his plan to play the hero went down the drain.

When he reached the capital, after many days of travel, he was still looking as clean as the day he left the city, an advantage of being a cultivator.

He only needed to take a bath from time to time to wash off bad scents.

He paid the fee and entered the imperial capital without any problem, then he paid for a room in a good inn and for Gentleman to stay at a good stable.

Um! He quite liked the mares of the capital.

That same night, he wore a mask and another set of disposable clothes to infiltrate the residences of the powerful families.

As a result, he discovered he only had strength, but no ability to infiltrate. Every time he tried, he was discovered by the guards.

Knowing it was going to only get harder, he used brute force to knock all guards and even martial artists away as he infiltrated the places he wished to infiltrate.

Therefore, he was labeled as a foreign demon by the whole capital.

Not only he had no talent to infiltrate, but he also had no talent and skill to find secret vaults where what he wanted would be, in this case, books and scrolls.

"Time to use plan B..." he muttered and swiftly kidnapped a high-ranking member of the imperial family, the uncle of the current emperor.

It was easier than he expected, the old guy simply spilled all the beans with just a little pressure.

It was too easy, so he decided to kidnap another one to be sure the information was reliable, this time the eldest princess.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not after your body, but after what is in your head," Wuming said while pointing to his head.

The princess was terrorized, crying and almost losing her wits. To her, Wuming was like a demon who ate brains.

After all, she saw that all her guards and powerful martial artists were easily knocked away as she tried to run away.

"Ahem, tell me what you know about immortals..." Wuming coughed and began to talk business.

After some minutes, he released her and went away with a dumbfounded expression, because...

It was no big deal... Immortals from another continent beyond the sea would sometimes visit their continent in search of talents, that is it.

As long as the immortals liked your talent, you would be given the chance to go to the "immortal continent" to pursue immortality.

For some reason, Wuming had first thought that there was a big plot waiting for him to unveil about immortals, but it wasn't a bit secret at all.

As long as the family had some background, it was possible to know about that information.

Only those with no background at all found immortals illusionary.

"Immortal Shrine..." Wuming thought a little bit and decided to go there.

The Immortal Shrine was the place immortals set foot first when going to that continent in search of talents, it was known only to lasting families.

It was located on the east continental coast, and only the heirs of the most powerful families were allowed to enter it to be chosen by immortals.

Only when the immortals were not satisfied by those heirs would they go to other places and search by themselves.

According to the information he got, the next time an immortal was planned to visit would be after about two years.

Wuming left the capital with Gentleman with a determined mind.

Although there were risks in going to that place uninvited, like being besieged by many Innate Realm martial artists, or even being suddenly killed by an angry cultivator that visits the continent, he had to go.

First of all, there was no news of any kind of cultivation forces in the continent he was, meaning there was no adequate place for cultivation.

If one wanted to be an immortal, he/she had to go to the immortal continent, it was an absolute rule circulating the noble circles.

As for sailing to the seas and searching for the continent by himself, it was ridiculous. If it was that easy to reach the immortal continent, the news about it wouldn't be confined to the noble circles.

It was said that their continent was besieged by monsters' territories and was only allowed to be dominated by humans because of a pact signed by strong immortals with the monsters.

As he traveled, he decided to also try his best to strengthen his foundation, even if the effect was poor because of the thin spiritual energy.

The more he noticed his efforts resulted in few results, the more determined he was to go to the immortal continent.

After more than a year of leisure travel, he reached the Pure Crown city, where the Immortal Shrine was located.

It wasn't a bit city and was rather inconspicuous, but only martial artists were allowed to live there, and it was said that the immortal energy of immortals could help their practice of martial arts.

As a result, there were many Innate Realm martial artists living there, all of them being from different kingdoms and empires.

Wuming was prohibited entry into the city by the guards, and he feigned to obey them, disappearing from their sight.

But he simply found a nice place and made a camp to live until the time was right.

"The spiritual energy here is a little bit denser..." Wuming muttered with a smile, he was indeed happy about that, "I can probably get as strong as someone in the ordinary fourth layer before the cultivators arrive."

He slightly adjusted the circulation of true qi and raised the bar a little for what would be considered pure and acceptable true qi by his body.

As a result, some true qi was expelled from his body and his cultivation base declined because of the filtration characteristic of the cultivation technique.

His cultivation base and strength declined, but he would have more room to develop his foundation.

While taking care of his horse and doing his usual daily chores, he observed as the days and nights flashed.

The nearer the time for the immortals to arrive, the denser the spiritual energy became. It was a happy event for Wuming, but it also made him curious.

But he didn't want to be greedy and waste time, and just followed his previous plan to be as strong as an ordinary fourth layer Qi Refining cultivator while in the first layer.

When the day arrived, he not only was successful in doing it but he was stunned by the marvelous manifestations in the sky.

Bright auroras in the daytime along with bright blue clouds filled the whole visible sky.

Just as he was wondering what was happening, Wuming felt a kind of wave going through him. He didn't know what it was until he remembered the teachings of the guide.

'Crazy... Someone in the Foundation Establishment Realm came, I need to be careful of their magical sense...' he thought in his heart.

He circulated his cultivation technique and made his energy fluctuations weaker, as to not be noticed as someone abnormally strong for his level.

It would be impossible for him to explain to others how he could be so strong in a place like that.

He just hoped that the owner of that magical sense didn't pay enough attention to notice him completely.

After all, although someone with a magical sense could feel everything in its range, it's not everything at the same time. They needed to focus on what they wanted to sense to obtain accurate information.

Time passed and the wonders in the sky didn't vanish and instead got stronger, and the spiritual energy became denser.

After some deep consideration, Wuming didn't jump the walls of the city to go to the shrine and instead waited a little distance away from the main gate.

The guards saw him but didn't bother to chase him away, they were busy talking about the phenomena and immortals.

Although Wuming was confident of being faster than the martial artists inside the city, he didn't want to show his strength by entering without permission, so he just hoped for the coming cultivators to notice him when they left the city.

He calculated in his mind long before and was confident they would try to recruit someone capable of cultivating in that poor environment.

There were some risks, but he had no choice.

While waiting, he also put Gentleman beside the road with some ration, he was sure someone would eventually take him away as he was a good and strong horse.

"Partner, the day has come..." Wuming said while patting his head, "Live well from now on, be obedient to your next owner."

As a horse, Gentleman obviously just did what all animals did when hearing a human, made an animal sound and proceeded with his business.

After a few couple hours, Wuming suddenly looked to the sky and saw a figure flying on a huge golden sphere.

'Being able to fly, he should be the one with the magical sense from before...' he thought in his mind and didn't waste time.

The cultivator flying was fast, but Wuming was also punctual with his shout.

"Senior, please give me some of your attention!"

The middle-aged man flying on the huge golden sphere, which was as large as a small house, looked at him after hearing his voice.

He was bald and was wearing a seemingly ordinary brown robe, and had a collar of

golden pearls hanging on his neck.

"A monk?" Wuming muttered unconsciously.

The man changed direction mid-air and flew towards Wuming with an expressionless face.

"Did you call? Donor..." he said after getting close to Wuming.

"Senior, you can see I am cultivating in this harsh place, but I have no future here, please take me to the immortal continent if possible..." Wuming said very politely, giving the man a proper ritual given to seniors and people of higher status.

He held a fist with another hand and bowed slightly towards the man while keeping his feet aligned.

He learned those things while traveling all over the continent.

"Hmm," the man scanned Wuming with his magical sense and frowned, "You have a low-grade spirit root, but managed to cultivate in this place?"

'This guy can actually see others' spirit roots with just his magical sense?' Wuming was shocked in his heart but didn't show it.

In fact, he already considered the possibility of his talent being discovered long before.

"Senior doesn't know, but I only managed to cultivate to this level thanks to a legacy I found by accident.

"Although I only obtained a fragment of a cultivation technique, the originator left some spirit stones behind."

Then, Wuming took out a useless broken spirit stone from his pocket along with a scroll.

He obtained the broken spirit stone in his travels, it was found in the corpse of a road bandit. The scroll was something he made with great effort, with old paper and rubbish ink.

The old paper was crumbling, and the rubish ink made it look very old. Moreover, he left this scroll open to the sun for many days, to erase any remaining moisture.

As for the content of the scroll, it was something Wuming created alone.

For someone with a complete inheritance and optimal foundation like him, it wasn't too difficult to create an incomplete cultivation technique.

His Wuming Cultivation Technique not only contained the practical technique, but also the deep theories behind it.

The man on the golden sphere read the scroll and returned it to Wuming after a while, obviously not interested in it.

"This cultivation technique is not bad, but it's incomplete, you will eventually need to switch," the man said while observing the broken spirit stone, "And it's really rare for someone from outside to come and die here... Perhaps he was exiled since a Qi Refining practioner can't get to this continent."

Wuming almost swallowed his saliva after hearing the middle-aged man, he noticed his tale had a critical flaw.

"Or maybe, he wasn't a Qi Refining practioner..." the middle-aged man looked to Wuming meaningfully.

What he implied was clear to Wuming. Someone above the Qi Refining Realm wouldn't leave such an incomplete technique behind, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to cultivate to that level.

"Hahaha..." the man laughed and shook his head, "Donor, you don't need to worry, I am not after your opportunities, wherever they are."

"Senior is of course not after small things," Wuming said respectfully.

"Seeing you are destined to meet me in this desolate place, what about coming with me to the immortal continent?" the middle-aged man grinned with his palms pressed together.

"It would be my great fortune, senior!" Wuming was overjoyed and nodded hastily.

The man made a gesture with a hand and a powerful wind took Wuming to above the golden sphere, who sat cross-legged there like him.

"My dharma name is Qingjin, and my given name is Zi Feng. I'm an outer disciple of the Western Wind Temple."

"My name is Wuming (meaning nameless) because I was given none," Wuming also presented himself.

"A peculiar name, indeed," Zi Feng grinned and controlled his flying treasure, "We will be visiting some places with potential talents first."

"I am not in a hurry," Wuming nodded.

Secretly, Wuming was rejoicing in the fact he apparently met a cultivator with a non-evil behavior.

What he didn't know...

"Are you interested in joining the Western Wind Temple?" Zi Feng asked leisurely while controlling his flying treasure to pierce the sky.

Wuming was afraid of offending him, but also afraid of entering the tiger's den, but after judging the pros and cons, as well the potential risk both in the present and in the immortal continent... He accepted.

"It would be a great honor, senior..." Wuming nodded.

Zi Feng smiled and began to explain the situation of the Western Wind Temple.

It was an evil sect!