Chapter 120: Foundation of Cultivation  

Ash Editor:Geoffrey_

"I guess that's right."

Li Yao touched his head as he agreed with the argument given by the cultivator's assistant.

With just a casual wave of their hand, a powerful cultivator could blast apart a building, raze a city, and cause mayhem. Their destructive capabilities were a hundred times stronger than that of a T-rex. If they weren't bound by a set of laws, then the world would have already plunged into chaos.

If there were no laws in the cultivation world, perhaps the world would have forever remained in the medieval era where the strong devoured the weak, making it impossible for it to have developed into the current civilized society.

Suddenly, Li Yao felt a cool and refreshing feeling burst forth in his brain as numerous streams of information akin to streams of water plunged into his neural field. These streams of information, to be precise, were a total of 700 articles on the <Basic Laws of Cultivators>.

"Telepathic thoughts transmission?" Li Yao clucked his tongue in wonder.

In regards to communication, telepathic thoughts transmission was a hundred times better than speech or text.

For instance, if speech was used for communication, let's say between Zhang San and Li Si, where Zhang San said, "I just had lunch."

Li Si could at most know that Zhang San had lunch, only this information. He would be unable to grasp any more details.

However, if Zhang San conversed through telepathic thoughts transmission, the thought "I just had lunch" would be directly transmitted into Li Si's brain, which would allow Li Si to know in an instant which dishes Zhang San actually had along with the fragrance of the dishes, where he ate, and even Zhang San's mood when he ate could be vaguely perceived.

Such an amount of information could not be explained with just a few words.

However, for telepathic thoughts transmission, not only was a special tool required, the neural field of ordinary people was extremely fragile, thus it was very difficult for ordinary people to bear a surge of such a large amount of telepathic thoughts. At most, they could do it occasionally.

Since Li Yao was already a cultivator, his neural field had already been well developed due to the spiritual energy. The lengthy <Basic Laws of Cultivators> had been completely transmitted into his brain in just a minute!

"So it was like this!"

In the blink of an eye, Li Yao had a rough understanding of the <Basic Laws of Cultivators>.

They were completely different than what he had imagined. These <Basic Laws of Cultivators> did not place too many restraints on the activities of the cultivators. At the very start, it just introduced some of the duties of cultivators, rules, and other basic knowledge of the cultivation world.

The later part of the content was mostly like "cultivators can not intentionally kill people", "cultivators can not use spiritual abilities to tempt ordinary people", and so on. The laws of cultivators were not much different than the <Criminal Code> for normal citizens.

If one violated the <Basic Laws of Cultivators>, one would be treated as an evil cultivator, and naturally, a special anti-devil cultivator task force would be mobilized to let the devil cultivators know that "cultivators also need to have basic laws".

After the introduction of the <Basic Laws of Cultivators>, the cultivator's assistant began introducing the "spiritual energy cultivation exercises" to Li Yao.

Li Yao's pair of eyes lit up. "Cultivation exercises" were more appealing than the "Basic Laws of Cultivators".

Spiritual energy was omnipresent in the endless star sea; it was the most basic energy in the infinite universe.

There was a theory that believed that the entire universe came into existence through the transformation of spiritual energy. From the biggest sun, the moon, and stars to the mountain and rivers, and even the smallest of ants and bacteria, all were congealed from spiritual energy through all kinds of ways!

The cultivation of spiritual energy was a way for humans to break away from the restrictions of their corporeal body and was the only way for humans to step onto the infinite road of endless evolution.

For cultivators, spiritual energy was everything!

Low-level cultivators used spiritual energy to temper their physique and strengthen their soul to reach the limits of their corporeal bodies, only to break through their limits time and time again

Intermediate-level cultivators could make their own spiritual energy produce "resonance" with the spiritual energy of the heaven and the earth in the surroundings, as a result of which they could display all kinds of inconceivable and strange supernatural abilities.

High-level cultivators could even more freely utilize the spiritual energy of the universe, making it possible for them to derive the 3,000 great daos and display an infinite number of supernatural powers.

According to legends, high-level cultivators with the deepest of cultivation could even completely transform their own body into a spiritual energy form and become one with the spiritual energy of the universe. They could even open a "small universe" of their own!

According to legends, amongst all the cultivators in the forty millenniums of cultivation, the strongest cultivator ever known as the "Emperor" had converted all of his spiritual energy into a world fragment, creating a small universe known as the "World's Horizon". In depths of the “World’s Horizon” was a sacred golden throne where he sat alone and became immortal after a thousand years of effort!

Whoever found the World's Horizon would discover the secrets of the sacred golden throne, thereby being able to inherit the Emperor's inheritance and become the strongest cultivator in the vast universe.

However, from the most basic point of view, Li Yao always scoffed at this illusory legend.

"There are two types of spiritual energy cultivation exercises. One is breathing exercises and the other is utilization exercises! Simply speaking, if spiritual energy was money, then breathing exercises would teach you the way through which you could earn money, whereas utilization exercises would teach you how to spend the money!"

Li Yao repeatedly nodded his head. The cultivator's assistant explained the profundity in simple terms, using a very simple metaphor to allow Li Yao to understand within a second.

The breathing exercise was the foundation; if one learned a good breathing exercise, one could breathe in more spiritual energy of the heaven and earth. You could say it would be like a human who had earned a tremendous amount of money but was still afraid he would be unable to learn how to spend.

Even if they didn't learn how to spend, he could still convert all his money into coins and smash his opponent to death!

Of course, it was not so easy to "make money". In normal circumstances, everyone's talent was just about the same, and at the same level, their spiritual energy reserve was also roughly the same, so one must find a way to utilize it more than anyone else—or in other words, “spend more money” than the others.

When utilizing, it was also quite possible to win big using a small amount of effort.

"In short, breathing exercises are the foundation of cultivation. I'll first let you test a breathing exercise!"

Li Yao, with all his concentration, continued telepathic thoughts exchange with the cultivator's assistant.

In the world of cultivation, the absorption of spiritual energy was the most important thing. Naturally, the common, popular breathing exercises in the federation were a dime in a dozen.

However, a vast majority of the acclaimed and effective breathing exercises belonged to various major sects. If one wanted to learn them, they would need to pay a price.

The cost of these acclaimed and effective exercises was frighteningly exorbitant; there were even some exercises, where you are required to join the respective sect, while some require you to make a special contribution to the sect, only then would you be able to learn.

Whereas, cultivation efficiency of the majority of the low-priced and free breathing exercises was low and had hundreds of loopholes and even fatal flaws. If used for cultivation, one could easily have Qigong deviation.

Cultivators who released these free breathing exercises did so in order to find someone who would act as their "guinea pig", helping them test these breathing exercises for free.

Contrary to their low price, some breathing exercises were of good quality and had high efficiency to absorb spiritual energy and were even especially taught by famous masters who would not take any sort of payment. These acclaimed masters would even send a variety of strengthening agents and auxiliary magical equipment in order to help the cultivators cross the threshold.

The cultivator's assistant told Li Yao that whenever he found such breathing exercises—he must check again and again, and he must be careful not be swindled and choose appropriate exercise, lest he picks the wrong exercise which would ultimately doom him.

"The breathing exercises themselves often don't have any problems, and they were indeed genuine goods and were even sold at a loss!

"But, they have one fatal problem—they have poor compatibility!"

"After cultivating using these kinds of breathing exercises, one needs to follow up with a higher subsequent breathing exercise and would even need to practice a compatible supporting utilization exercise. You are also unable to change it to another exercise."

"For example, there is a very popular breathing exercise called <Five Tiger Examining Heart Technique> available on the net. It is released by the cultivation sect called 'Five Tiger Clan' and could be downloaded free of cost. Moreover, the Five Tiger Clan would even regularly hold seminars and training camps and would teach the <Five Tiger Examining Heart Technique> to cultivators free of charge. Many cultivators who are looking for cheap exercises would spend a large amount time and energy, and sure enough, they would finally be successful in practicing the <Five Tiger Examining Heart Technique>!"

"However, therein lies the problem! The free-to-download version of the <Five Tiger Examining Heart Technique> is incomplete and only has the first seven stages. For the later seven stages, you would have to purchase them, and the cost is even higher than the complete breathing exercise released by other sects!"

"This is still nothing because the <Five Tiger Examining Heart Technique> compatibility is poor. After cultivation, you will find that it is simply incompatible with the utilization exercises of other sects. You could only choose to train in <Five Tiger Soul Severing Technique>, <Five Tiger Slaughtering God Exercise>, and other utilization exercises provided by the Five Tiger Clan. By then, you will have only two choices: one, you can choose to enter the Five Tiger Clan, and two, you can spend an exorbitant sum to buy the utilization exercises from the Five Tiger Clan. At that time, you would be nothing more than a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered by the Five Tiger Clan again and again!"

"If you don't want to choose these two roads, you could only choose to disperse your cultivation and make a fresh start to practice another breathing exercise."

"However, dispersing your cultivation is equal to wasting the large amount of time and energy that you have spent in cultivation. Moreover, a little carelessness will damage your spiritual root and meridians, which is extremely unfavorable for future cultivation."

"Many cultivators, upon this point, would be in dilemma. It would be too late to regret, and you would be unable to go back."

"By relying on this kind of sinister method, the Five Tiger Clan, in just a short span of ten years, became one of the most powerful sects in the federation whose current population is monumental from an unknown little sect."

"Although the sect doesn't have many experts, they have a large number of low-level cultivators who have either been deceived and unwillingly joined them or joined them because of their clever words. Over time, like little drops of water forming into a mighty ocean, they have become an influence that can not be underestimated.”

"The behavior of the Five Tiger Clan does not violate the <Basic Laws of Cultivators>. On their download page, the features of the <Five Tiger Examining Heart Technique> have also been specified, thus if one paid enough attention, no new cultivator would be fooled."

The cultivator's assistant, while speaking, opened the download page of the <Five Tiger Examining Heart Technique> and opened the "term and conditions".

Sure enough, a paragraph was mixed in among a big article written in dense, ant-like, small characters: "This exercise is created by the previous leader of Five Tiger Clan. It may be incompatible with other sects' exercises. Fellow daoists, please exercise caution."

This sentence was hidden in between a few thousand lines of warning. Not to mention "a little carelessness", even if one looked bit by bit with "extreme concentration", it would still be easy to overlook it!

Moreover, at the bottom, there were also comments:

"The Five Tiger Clan holds the final right to teach this exercise. Fellow daoists, please download."

And in the comments section next to it also had...

"Awesome, it is truly awesome! The <Five Tiger Examining Heart Technique> is worthy to be called one of the top breathing exercise of the cultivation world. The speed of cultivation is so fast, the efficiency is so high, and there are almost no side-effects! Moreover, it is easy to practice and quick to learn. In just one month, I have achieved mastery and had practiced it to the third level in one breath! Fellow daoists who have newly entered the world of cultivation, why hesitate? Quickly download with me and cultivate!"

"Yes, now in the cultivation world, everything requires money. All the cultivation sects only have money in their eyes. Forces like the Five Tiger Clan who have such a sense of social responsibilities and makes contributions to the public welfare are not many!"

"At the beginning, I did not believe what the previous commenters were saying. It was a free exercise, so how can it be so good? Reading everyone's comments, I skeptically downloaded the <Five Tiger Examining Heart Technique> and cultivated, but hey, in just half a month, I could feel my body strengthening and my soul has also become stronger. In the past, I found it hard to control magical equipment, but guess what? Now, I can simultaneously control five magical equipment! I can now operate them as if they were flying! The <Five Tiger Examining Heart Technique> is truly divine!"