Chapter 27

“Clo—closed-door cultivation?!”

Shen Jiu stood frozen in front of Jian Chou’s door, his eyes glued to the wooden plaque that now read “Scripture Pavilion.”

He had the overwhelming urge to grab Fudao Shanren by the neck and shake him to death!

“Master! How can Eldest Senior Sister go into seclusion at a time like this?!”

For heaven’s sake, I finally waited until that damn freak Second Senior Brother was gone so I could come ask for the ‘Skyfire Lamp’!

Shen Jiu was on the verge of tears.

That morning, he had crossed swords with Qu Zhengfeng, and the entire Yashan was still buzzing about their battle prowess.

But for Shen Jiu, it was just the first defeat of his life—that’s all!

Yes, I don’t care at all!

The only thing he cared about was his Skyfire Lamp!

After the fight, Qu Zhengfeng had disappeared to who-knows-where to cultivate in seclusion.

Shen Jiu had scoured all of Yashan but couldn’t find a trace of him.

So he figured, If he’s not around, then asking for the lamp back shouldn’t be too embarrassing, right?

After all, the Skyfire Lamp was a unique treasure.

As a notorious penny-pincher, Shen Jiu couldn’t bear to part with it.

But just as he finally made it to Jian Chou’s door, he ran into Fudao Shanren.

When Shen Jiu asked, the old man casually replied that Eldest Senior Sister was in seclusion?!

He couldn’t accept this!

“Eldest Senior Sister just got here! Has it even been a full day?! Master, you’re absolutely crazy! Have you no humanity?! Female cultivators are meant to be cherished! How could you do this to her?! Let her out right now!”

Fudao Shanren’s eyelids drooped lazily before he suddenly lashed out with a kick, sending Shen Jiu flying.

“Know your place, brat! Yell at me again and see what happens!”

“Ahhh—!”

A black footprint stamped itself onto Shen Jiu’s pristine white robes.

Caught completely off guard, he was sent tumbling down the cliff.

“Three hundred years apart, and you’ve only gotten worse, you old bastard!”

His furious voice echoed from below.

Fu Dao Shanren clasped his hands behind his back and snorted.

“A little runt like you trying to challenge me? Keep dreaming! And don’t even think about laying a finger on your Eldest Senior Sister—pah!”

This time, he had to keep a close eye on this disciple.

No matter what, he couldn’t let her be corrupted by those already-hopeless juniors.

She’s going to be Yashan’s strongest female cultivator!

Thinking about it, it wasn’t easy to find a normal person to take as a disciple.

Maybe once Jian Chou made a name for herself, she could even help salvage Yashan’s reputation as a den of freaks?

Well, well—that was a concern for the distant future.

With that in mind, Fudao Shanren glanced back at the “Scripture Pavilion” plaque hanging on the door before vanishing in a flash.

—

Inside the Scripture Pavilion

The closed door blocked out all outside light.

Yet the pavilion was still illuminated.

The glow came from above Jian Chou’s head.

The moment Fudao Shanren shut the door, the relief carvings on the pavilion’s dome transformed into a vast, inverted galaxy—stardust swirling, casting a brilliant yet gentle radiance that filled the entire space.

Jian Chou tilted her head up, walking from one end of the pavilion to the other before stopping.

The shelf before her held miscellaneous texts—introductions to the cultivation world, basic principles of cultivation—exactly what she needed most right now.

So she pulled out a volume and began reading carefully.

“The Jade Slip Chapter?”

About halfway through, she stumbled upon this section.

Glancing at the countless jade slips floating in the air, realization dawned on her.

She lowered her head and patiently finished the chapter, then smiled.

Standing, she returned the thick thread-bound book to the shelf and approached one of the floating jade slips.

With a light pinch, she plucked it from the air.

The material used for jade slips in the cultivation world was the most common type of green jade.

After refining to remove impurities and engraving with formations, they could store vast amounts of information while remaining incredibly portable.

As for how to use them…

Jian Chou steadied her mind, closed her eyes, and pressed the smooth, warm slip against the center of her brow.

The moment it touched her skin, a faint starlight seemed to scatter from her Zuqiao acupoint—tiny motes of light dispersing into the air.

(T/N: Zuqiao acupoint is an acupuncture point found on the Gall Bladder meridian. It is located on the dorsal aspect of the fourth toe, at the junction of the lateral border and base of the nail, about 0.1 cun from the corner of the nail.)

A flood of information surged into her mind.

She frowned slightly at the discomfort.

The sensation of absorbing so much knowledge at once was dizzying, but she adjusted carefully, adapting.

After a quarter of an hour, she lowered the slip and reopened her eyes.

“So that’s how it works.”

Not only had she learned how to use jade slips, but she’d also absorbed the contents of this one.

Reading via jade slips—if memorization wasn’t necessary—was far more convenient.

A single thought could transfer endless knowledge into one’s mind.

In just this short time, Jian Chou had already filled most of the gaps in her understanding.

Walking along the shelves, she browsed topics that interested her until her steps finally halted before the Qi Refining section.

Dozens of jade slips floated before her. Her gaze swept over them before landing on one titled “Sealing the Disc and Establishing the Foundation.”

She took it and began reading.

Foundation Establishment was about building the bedrock of one’s cultivation.

Only after truly establishing one’s foundation could one be considered a cultivator.

Every Kun line on the Battle Disc represented a meridian in the human body—some large, some small.

Every Dao Seed represented an acupoint—some bright, some dim.

The Qi Refining stage was about refining essence into Qi, drawing the essence of heaven and earth into one’s meridians.

Continuous circulation would gradually unblock them.

On the Battle Disc, this manifested as one Kun line after another lighting up.

Thus, the essence of Foundation Establishment was to unblock as many meridians as possible, clearing obstructed acupoints to lay a solid foundation for future cultivation.

With this understanding, Jian Chou nodded to herself.

The jade slip contained the accumulated wisdom of predecessors—different meridian pathways, different approaches, methods to unblock more meridians—all meticulously recorded.

After some thought, she set the slip aside, sat cross-legged on the pavilion’s clean floor, and closed her eyes.

Her innate Battle Disc gradually materialized.

Threads of spiritual energy were drawn toward her, flowing into her acupoints.

Jian Chou’s cultivation had officially begun.

One by one, the Kun lines lit up.

The process lasted so long that Jian Chou herself lost track of time.

Countless meridian pathways were etched in her mind.

Each time spiritual energy flowed through, it met zero resistance—smooth as if the pathways had always been open.

Unlike other cultivators, she encountered no blockages, no “unusable” meridians.

The size of one’s innate Battle Disc represented their talent and potential.

The larger the disc, the more Kun lines it had—meaning more meridians in the body.

But how many lines one could light depended on individual capability.

Some meridians remained eternally blocked, leaving their corresponding Kun lines forever dark.

In the cultivation world, there was a term—”Perfect Battle Disc,” also called the “Heavenly Disc.”

It referred to a Myriad Phenomena Battle Disc with every single line illuminated.

As she cultivated, Jian Chou began to feel something was… off.

One Kun line after another lit up as she unblocked meridian after meridian—faster and faster…

Spiritual energy surged through her body without the slightest hint of stagnation.

She couldn’t help but glance down at her Battle Disc, counting carefully…

One, two, three…

Too smooth. Suspiciously smooth.

She remembered Fudao Shanren’s words before her seclusion: “Your Battle Disc is ten feet wide. Lighting up half would make you exceptional; lighting up seventy to eighty percent would let you crush those idiot junior brothers of yours!”

She might not recall the exact phrasing, but that was the gist.

Yet now…

Every meridian recorded in the jade slips had been unblocked, every corresponding Kun line lit.

The disc’s edges had even expanded by over a foot.

The remaining unlit lines corresponded to meridians she had no clues about—ones not even mentioned in the jade slips.

Normally, once a cultivator unblocked all the meridians they could, they would “seal the disc” and establish their foundation.

Meaning Jian Chou could advance to Foundation Establishment right now.

But…

She hesitated.

Ninety-nine percent of her Kun lines were lit.

Only a few remained.

If she could light those, she’d possess something terrifying—a Heavenly Disc of ten feet!

Heavenly Discs were rare to begin with, let alone one of this size!

Should she keep researching the relationship between Kun lines and her meridians?

Or just seal the disc and establish her foundation now?

The two choices warred in her mind before she finally looked around at the countless jade slips and stopped cultivating.

Even if she established her foundation now, she’d still be exceptional.

She didn’t consider herself a perfectionist, but… if perfection was within reach, why not aim for it? Besides, she still only half-understood the connection between Kun lines and meridians.

And that was crucial to her.

Her mind flashed back to the patterns she’d drawn on Severing Karma Island and Ascension Island.

The symbols she’d stumbled upon outside Qingfeng Temple and the Secret Realm—both were Dao Seals.

Dao Seals were combinations of Dao Seed, which represented acupoints.

Spiritual energy passing through different acupoint combinations could unleash different effects—what ordinary people called “spells.”

Now that she knew about Dao Seals, it wasn’t impossible to reverse-engineerate the acupoint pathways.

In fact, for someone with strong deductive abilities, it was absolutely doable.

Jian Chou had those Dao Seals etched into her memory—even the dazzling golden light piercing the heavens, the boundless shock it had given her.

That scene had been beautiful.

The Dao Seal cast into the clouds alongside that light—could it be ordinary?

Jian Chou was an ordinary person, but even she could tell this was extraordinary.

So her choice was clear: Study it.

—

Days passed.

Jian Chou neither ate nor drank, yet she felt no exhaustion—as if she’d long since entered a state of abstinence from grains.

She pored over jade slips while experimenting with her meridians.

By sheer trial and error, she effortlessly forced open several more meridians.

One by one, the remaining dark Kun lines on her Battle Disc lit up…

Had anyone been present, their jaw would’ve hit the floor in horror.

Jian Chou herself had no idea how monstrous her actions were.

Instead, she fell into a strange, hyper-focused state, unbothered by the tedium.

She read jade slips, guided spiritual energy through her body, observed the glowing trails on her Battle Disc—all simultaneously.

The Battle Disc mirrored the body.

Wherever spiritual energy flowed, she could both feel and see it.

This made deducing nearby meridians much simpler.

The last unlit Kun line was at the very edge.

Jian Chou raised her right hand, studying her fingertips.

She flexed them slightly.

A glimmer of light traced over her fingernail, and a cluster of brightness flared beside the dark Kun line on her disc.

There!

With a thought, she guided a wisp of spiritual energy into the impossibly fine meridian at her fingertip.

Like piercing a thin film, the hidden meridian finally accepted the energy.

On the Battle Disc, the final dark Kun line shimmered as if touched by a trickling stream… and slowly brightened.

At that moment, the entire disc glowed with a soft, misty light.

Jian Chou sat cross-legged as the stardust-like particles floating in her Tianyuan (Celestial Origin) suddenly thickened, condensing into droplets that fell like rain.

Thus, the Tianyuan—once resembling a tiny starry sky—transformed into a small jade bowl filled with liquid.

She could sense the rich, potent energy within it.

Her hands, resting on her knees, suddenly formed a series of seals!

Jian Chou brought her palms together at her chest, then began executing hand signs one after another.

Spiritual energy followed specific trajectories through her body, stabilizing each meridian’s pathway.

This was the sequence for Sealing the Disc and Establishing the Foundation.

Being unfamiliar, she performed each sign with extreme care.

With every completed seal, a Kun line’s glow solidified further.

By the time she finished the final seal, fine beads of sweat dotted her forehead.

When she reopened her eyes, her innate Battle Disc had expanded to eleven feet and three inches—with not a single shadowed area.

Every Kun line was lit.

The Heavenly Disc was complete.

Having read countless jade slips, Jian Chou vaguely understood how terrifying this was—but lacked a visceral reaction.

So she merely glanced at it, thought “Not bad,” and moved on.

Now that Foundation Establishment was done, she set it aside for the moment.

While unblocking her meridians, she’d become intimately familiar with their connection to Kun lines.

But the relationship between Dao Seed and acupoints remained unclear.

She had several Dao Seals and wanted to reverse-engineerate the acupoint pathways to deduce spellcasting methods.

This was far harder than deducing meridians.

The Dao Seals weren’t hers—she couldn’t be sure of any acupoint’s exact position.

She could only experiment based on their arrangements.

But…

From another angle, it was simple.

Most spells relied on limbs or sensory orifices—few deviated from this.

Thus, Jian Chou could focus on acupoints in her limbs and head, treating them as endpoints for the Dao Seals.

This narrowed things down significantly.

“Then… where to start…”

Holding a jade slip in one hand and a hand-drawn Dao Seal in the other (using the pavilion’s brush and ink), she paced thoughtfully.

Then she looked down at her feet.

“One hand’s holding the slip, the other’s holding the seal… Might as well start with the legs.”

This particular Dao Seal—the one from the golden light outside Qingfeng Temple—had seven Dao Seed, forming a shape like a ladle’s handle.

With a thought, spiritual energy flowed from her Zuqiao down into her legs.

A seven-acupoint combination, possibly located at…

Zusanli.

(T/N: Zusanli is located on the lower leg, about 3 cun (approximately 2–3 inches) below the lower edge of the kneecap (patella) and one finger width lateral to the anterior border of the tibia (shin bone))

Yang Sanjiao…

(T/N:Starts at ring finger’s outer nail corner, runs up arm’s back, shoulder, neck, around ear, ends at outer eye corner.)

…

And the last one—Yongquan?

(T/N: Yongquan (KI 1) is located on the sole of the foot, in a depression between the second and third metatarsal bones, about one-third of the way from the toes to the heel, at the junction of the anterior one-third and posterior two-thirds of the sole.)

She was just testing whether this energy flow would produce any effect.

Powerful spells would manifest their effects upon completion.

So when the energy reached Yongquan, she instinctively lifted her foot.

Instantly, her sole burned as if a whirlpool had opened—sucking at all the spiritual energy in her body!

This feels familiar!

Realizing the danger, Jian Chou—though freshly advanced to Foundation Establishment—reacted swiftly.

A hand seal locked her Zuqiao, cutting off further energy leakage!

No more energy spilled out, but what had already flowed down gathered at her foot—

And then, she witnessed something she’d never forget.

Facing the Scripture Pavilion’s door, she lifted her soft-soled satin shoe…

A colossal phantom leg—absurdly massive by Foundation Establishment standards—manifested and slammed into the door!

BOOM!

A deafening crash.

Dust billowed.

The Scripture Pavilion’s door now had a gaping, leg-shaped hole—even part of the adjacent cliff wall had been obliterated.

Jian Chou stood blankly inside.

The galaxy on the dome dimmed as outside light poured in, reverting to mere carvings.

The sounds of Yashan suddenly became much louder.

At this moment, Jian Chou’s mind was eerily calm.

…Would using my hand have been better?