The Integration of Mind and Method

Night fell.

In front of the cafeteria on Yaoguang Floating Island, five large round tables were already laden with dishes that were as delicious as they were enticing. Each table was surrounded by numerous people, with only a few seats left empty.

For the past three years, the Lingxian Sect’s cafeteria had prepared dinner on time every day without fail.

Over the years, as his cultivation had improved, Jiang Youfu’s cooking had become increasingly outrageous. It was precisely because of this that everyone in the Lingxian Sect had not gradually lost interest in eating the same foods day after day, despite their bodies requiring less and less nourishment as their cultivation advanced.

No matter how busy they were, most people would still make time to come and enjoy this evening meal. Only major matters that could not be interrupted, such as entering seclusion to break through a cultivation bottleneck, would keep them away.

This was also one of the few opportunities the increasingly busy members of the Lingxian Sect had to gather together, relax, and chat properly.

“I wonder when the sect master will emerge from seclusion this time. It’s already been a year.” Yuan Qing gazed at one of the empty seats while enjoying the delicious food and sighed.

Beside him, Liao Pantu continued eating as he said, “He’s advancing from the Core Formation Stage to the Nascent Soul Stage. It won’t be that quick. Just be patient.”

Lin Xiao had begun his retreat to break through to the Nascent Soul Stage in June of the previous year. If Liao Pantu had not personally watched him cultivate step by step, with his cultivation growing rapidly day by day, he would never have believed that someone could hope to reach the Nascent Soul Stage after cultivating for only three years—at the age of sixteen, no less!

Even the most highly gifted disciples of the so-called great sects in the cultivation world would likely struggle to match such a cultivation speed.

Yet within the Lingxian Sect, it somehow seemed perfectly natural.

Everyone admired and marveled at Lin Xiao’s rapid cultivation, but with several Core Formation cultivators—Sun Yigao, Mo Yuanjiao, and Little Luan—and a group of late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators close behind, including Jiang Youfu, Lin Yun, Fang Tuantuan, Yang Jinshu, and Liu Yunan, it no longer seemed quite so unbelievable.

Any one of them, if placed in the cultivation world, would at the very least be considered a talented cultivator, if not a genius.

But the people of the Lingxian Sect did not feel this very deeply. After all, everyone around them cultivated at roughly the same pace. Only some of the elders who were too absorbed in their personal hobbies cultivated somewhat more slowly.

Besides, Brother Xiao was their sect master. Wasn’t it only natural for his cultivation to be a little higher than everyone else’s?

Speaking of those in the Lingxian Sect who had now reached the Core Formation Stage, apart from Sun Yigao, Mo Yuanjiao, and Little Luan—the latter having relied on devouring demon cores to reach that stage—there were two others.

One of them was Liao Pantu.

Before Lin Xiao entered seclusion, he had taken the soul-nourishing jade pendant containing Senior Liao and ventured into several Core Formation secret realms in the cultivation world. He had successfully found part of Senior Liao’s soul within one of those secret realms.

Now, only the final portion of his soul, sealed away in a Nascent Soul secret realm, remained to be found. Once that fragment was recovered, Liao Pantu’s soul would be complete. At that point, he would only need to find his physical body to return to the peak of his former strength.

After the fragments of his soul were reunited, combined with the cultivation Liao Pantu had undertaken within the sect over the past few years, his soul had recovered to the strength of the late Core Formation Stage.

In truth, however, this speed was still relatively slow compared with Sun Yigao and Mo Yuanjiao. After all, Liao Pantu’s aptitude had been rated by the system as “exceptionally outstanding,” while the soul fragments he had recovered already possessed the strength of the mid-Core Formation Stage. In other words, over the past three years, all he had cultivated was the portion of power between the mid and late Core Formation Stages.

Given his aptitude, this should not have been the case.

The reason was simply that he had not fully cultivated the Lingxian Sect’s cultivation method.

Liao Pantu already cultivated his own Soul Refining Formula, and after joining the Lingxian Sect, he had not immediately abandoned it in favor of the sect’s cultivation method.

Although the Lingxian Sect’s method allowed for faster cultivation, the Soul Refining Formula represented several hundred years of his painstaking effort.

Back when his soul had been trapped inside a secret realm and he knew he would have difficulty escaping, all he had hoped for each day was to choose a disciple from among the cultivators who entered the secret realm—someone who suited his wishes—so that his life’s work could be passed on.

Someone like Liao Pantu naturally could not bring himself to discard his life’s work simply because he had joined the Lingxian Sect and witnessed the heaven-defying nature of its cultivation method.

Thus, he had sought another path. Over the past few years, he had cultivated while researching how to combine his Soul Refining Formula with the Primordial Heart Scripture.

He had originally studied the Myriad Void Peach Blossom Paradise Formula in order to answer the sect members’ questions about cultivation, but at the same time, he had also carefully studied other cultivation methods. As a result, he had come into considerable contact with the Primordial Heart Scripture as well.

When he had first skimmed through the Primordial Heart Scripture, he had found it extraordinarily profound. Its contents seemed highly esoteric, yet at the same time, they gave him the faint sense that he could understand them—that they could reach deep into his heart.

It was only after he saw that little fatty Jiang Youfu, through a fortunate coincidence, had managed to nurture a unique, personalized cultivation method from the Primordial Heart Scripture during his cultivation—the Primordial Heart Scripture: Immortal Cuisine Chapter—that Liao Pantu realized how special this cultivation method was, as well as the unprecedented diversity of its potential for growth.

At the time, he had begun wondering whether his own Soul Refining Formula could also follow Xiao Fuzi’s example and carve out a unique path based on the Primordial Heart Scripture.

Unfortunately, Jiang Youfu was special, in addition to being exceptionally lucky. Though Liao Pantu had devoted himself to research for three years, the results had not been particularly obvious.

Still, with several hundred years of cultivation experience behind him, he was not discouraged. In the past, he had researched countless subjects and encountered innumerable setbacks, yet he had never once considered giving up lightly.

Alchemy was one example. Hadn’t he continued persevering with it even now?

Besides, combining cultivation methods was inherently extremely difficult, so Liao Pantu’s state of mind remained remarkably steady.

In fact, the more difficult it was, the more he looked forward to the results he would obtain when he finally succeeded.

For this reason, Liao Pantu’s cultivation speed had not increased by much. It remained as slow as it had been when he was in the cultivation world—a pace that could only be described as tortoise-like by the standards of the Lingxian Sect.

The others, however, had not noticed this.

In the hearts of the Lingxian Sect’s members, Liao Pantu had always been a great expert from the cultivation world. He knew an incredible amount, and whenever anyone encountered a question in their cultivation, he could always provide an excellent answer. Thus, no one had ever paid attention to his cultivation speed. In everyone’s eyes, Liao Pantu would forever be an incredibly formidable senior.

The Lingxian Sect’s other Core Formation cultivator was Liu Chun, who was still far away in the cultivation world, accompanying his younger sister while she underwent treatment.

Liu Chun had originally been a rogue cultivator. Later, he became a retainer by relying on his skill in talisman crafting, but he had never been able to obtain a particularly good cultivation method. Therefore, after joining the Lingxian Sect, he readily switched to the sect’s method.

At first, he cultivated the Myriad Void Peach Blossom Paradise Formula.

Later, after occasionally browsing through the other cultivation methods in the cultivation chamber, he discovered that he seemed more drawn to the Primordial Heart Scripture. After giving it a tentative try, he also felt that the method suited him better. From then on, he switched to cultivating the Primordial Heart Scripture.