Immortality and Cultivation: Starting with Improved Spirit Rice

Chapter 39 The Taoist Canon's Gift, an Extraordinary Genius

Zhao Cheng'an frowned slightly as he watched Guo You being dragged away.

The fall of the Northern Wei imperial family and the southward advance of the barbarian army were no ordinary wars. He recalled the barbarian secret medicine that Zhao Jingting had given him before, the method of overdrawing life's potential was eerie in every way.

There is likely a demonic cultivator behind this.

Upon returning to the bamboo house, Zhao Cheng'an immediately spread out a sheet of paper and began writing a secret letter.

In the letter, he detailed his suspicions about the involvement of demonic cultivators, reminding Zhao Jingting to be extra vigilant and not to let his guard down. After sealing the letter and entrusting it to Xiao Wu to be sent out through secret channels, he finally calmed his mind and turned his attention back to his cultivation.

The Grass Sword Technique, as a low-level offensive spell, contains a total of five runes.

Two of the runes need to be inscribed into the cultivator's body using their true spirit. One is the manipulation rune used to control the flight trajectory of the sword-leaf grass, and the other is the channeling rune used to establish a spiritual energy channel, continuously supplying spiritual energy.

The remaining three runes grow naturally on the leaves of the sword-leaf grass.

These are the Vitality Pattern that maintains the life of the grass blades, the Sharpening Pattern that makes the edges of the grass blades as sharp as a knife edge, and the Stabilizing Pattern that keeps the sword stable and intact during high-speed flight.

Three months passed in the blink of an eye.

In a secluded, unnamed valley on the back of Cangwu Mountain.

Zhao Cheng'an stood on a flat boulder, his eyes slightly closed and his breathing steady.

He raised his right hand, his index and middle fingers joined together to form a sword-like gesture, with a piece of emerald green sword-leaf grass between his fingertips.

As the guiding and controlling runes within his body lit up simultaneously, a surge of pure wood-attribute spiritual energy flowed into his fingertips along his meridians.

The originally soft sword-leaf grass instantly straightened, and a layer of chilling blue sword light appeared on its surface.

"go."

Zhao Cheng'an gave a soft shout and suddenly swung his sword forward.

Whoosh!

A bluish-green afterimage tore through the air, emitting a sharp whistling sound.

A dozen meters ahead, a century-old tree, as thick as two people could hug, shook violently.

The green awn pierced straight through the thick tree trunk, leaving a narrow, smooth cut in the bark. Its momentum continued, severing several more branches as thick as a thigh behind it. A large flock of birds frantically flapped their wings and flew into the sky.

Then, with a piercing whooshing sound, it spun back into Zhao Chengan's hand.

"good!"

Zhao Cheng'an reached out and gently brushed the blade of the sword, then put his hands behind his back.

A gentle breeze was blowing, causing the clothes on my body to flutter.

Zhao Cheng'an felt that he now possessed a few points of the demeanor of a sword immortal.

Zhao Cheng'an calmed himself for a few breaths before lightly leaping down from the rock. He approached the ancient tree, examined the through wound, and nodded in satisfaction.

This was the first truly lethal spell he had mastered.

The destructive power is indeed astonishing.

In actual combat, such a concealed and swift strike is enough to penetrate the enemy's vitals in an instant.

However, the drawbacks of this technique are also obvious.

First, it consumes a great deal of spiritual energy. With Zhao Cheng'an's current cultivation level of the second stage of Qi Refining, if he uses the Grass Sword Technique five times in a row, most of the spiritual energy in his body will be drained.

Secondly, as a medium for casting spells, sword-leaf grass is too fragile to withstand prolonged combat.

Zhao Cheng'an recalled the classics that Shen Yanshan had given him.

According to the book, in addition to sword-leaf grass, the casting medium for the Grass Sword Technique also includes several other spiritual plants such as green-edged grass and sword-embryo bamboo.

These spiritual plants each have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Green Edge Grass has a larger rune capacity, while Sword Embryo Bamboo is tough but flies slower.

Zhao Cheng'an stroked his chin, an idea popping into his mind.

Since the Qiankun Cauldron can combine the superior properties of different spiritual rice, can it also be used to synthesize these spellcasting carriers?

If a perfect sword herb could be cultivated that is sharp, resilient, has a larger rune domain, and can self-repair, then the power of the Grass Sword Technique would definitely reach a new level.

But there are two major problems here!

That is, Zhao Cheng'an had neither the money nor the place to buy these materials!

Even a skilled cook can't cook without rice; the only way to achieve this is in a dream.

With this regret in mind, Zhao Cheng'an turned and left the valley.

Back in the bamboo house.

Xiao Wu had already set out the food in the courtyard. Just as the two sat down and picked up their bowls and chopsticks, a series of light footsteps came from outside the courtyard gate.

Lingwei, dressed in a gray cloth dress, walked in quickly.

"Young Master Zhao, please don't eat yet."

Lingwei's face lit up with joy, and her voice was clear and melodious.

"The High Priest requests that you proceed to Thousand Harvest Valley immediately. There has been a reply regarding the manuscript you submitted earlier."

Upon hearing this news, Zhao Chengan was immediately filled with joy.

After thinking about it day and night for so long, it's finally come to an end!

He immediately put down his bowl and chopsticks and stood up.

"I'm coming right now."

Zhao Cheng'an strode out of the courtyard and hurried along the mountain path, soon arriving at Qiansui Valley.

On the open ground at the edge of the sacred field.

Qi Weizhao and Shen Yanshan were standing there.

Qi Weizhao held a large handful of golden spirit rice in his hand and was feeding it little by little to the gray-feathered spirit pigeon that was perched on the rock.

The pigeon ate with great relish, making constant cooing sounds in its throat, its plump body swaying back and forth.

Upon seeing Zhao Cheng'an approach, Qi Weizhao stopped feeding him and waved to him with a smile.

"Cheng'an, come here quickly."

Shen Yanshan also turned around, his gaze falling on a delicate cloth bag hanging around Lingge's neck.

"The carrier pigeon just arrived recently. Master Qi and I discussed it and felt that this crucial moment should be revealed by you personally. After all, it's the first article you've ever published, so it would have a more ceremonial feel."

"Thank you, Master of the Mountain! Thank you!"

Zhao Chengan took a deep breath to calm his somewhat excited emotions.

He walked up to the spirit pigeon and reached out to untie the cloth bag.

The bag is made of very soft material and feels slightly cool to the touch.

Zhao Chengan untied the drawstring of the bag and took out several items from it.

At the top was a letter sealed with sealing wax, below which were several beautifully bound sample magazines and two jade bottles for holding elixirs, which seemed to be gifts from the Qingmu Dao Academy.

Zhao Cheng'an put the letter and the jade bottle aside and picked up the sample magazines.

He originally thought he would see the four characters "Changqing Lingpu".

The cover is made of neither paper nor silk, but has a faint, shimmering sheen. Instead of the words "Changqing Lingpu" (Evergreen Spiritual Manual), it bears two large characters printed in an extremely magnificent and grand ancient seal script.

The Daoist Canon.

Zhao Cheng'an frowned slightly as he looked at the two words, his eyes filled with doubt.

Shen Yanshan and Qi Weizhao, who were standing to the side, became somewhat nervous when they saw that he hadn't spoken for a long time.

"What's wrong?"

Qi Weizhao couldn't help but ask.

"Was the manuscript rejected? It's okay, it's common for the first submission to be rejected. We can just revise it and submit it to another publication."

Shen Yanshan also offered words of comfort.

Zhao Cheng'an scratched his head. "Master, I'm not quite sure what's going on either."

"Something's strange. We clearly sent the letter to the Qingmu Daoyuan's 'Changqing Lingpu' publication, but the sample copy that was sent back isn't that publication."

Shen Yanshan and Qi Weizhao exchanged a glance, both seeing confusion in each other's eyes.

"Not the 'Evergreen Spirit Manual'?" Shen Yanshan couldn't help but ask. "Then what's written on it?"

Looking at the two magnificent ancient seal characters on the cover, Zhao Cheng'an answered truthfully:

There are only two words on it.

"The Daoist Canon".

The two words that came out of Zhao Cheng'an's mouth seemed to possess some kind of strange magic.

The surrounding air seemed to freeze for a moment.

After Zhao Cheng'an finished speaking, he looked up and found that the two old men in front of him had their mouths wide open, completely lacking the demeanor of their former teachers, their eyes fixed on the sample magazine in Zhao Cheng'an's hands.

They stood motionless, their breaths stopped, as if the upper cultivator had cast a spell on them.