Lessons in Slumber and Strategy

Ji Xue sat on the threshold, propping her face in her hands, her gaze fixed on Lin Mo in the small courtyard.

At this moment, Lin Mo, having shed his shoes, stood barefoot on the stone stool in the courtyard, his arms outstretched as if embracing the hoarfrost scattered by the bright moon.

Lin Mo had maintained this posture for half an hour.

“You’ve been in that position for quite a while now,” Ji Xue queried, “May I ask why you’re being so utterly boring?”

“And you’ve been watching for just as long,” Lin Mo retorted, “May I ask why you’re being equally boring?”

Ji Xue, seemingly weary, shifted her posture, leaning against the doorframe as she languidly responded, “Because… I’m exhausted. Constantly circulating the cultivation method… it’s just too tiring… I have no energy left for anything else.”

Ji Xue was currently following Lin Mo’s instructions, ceaselessly circulating the cultivation method within her body.

Initially, it had felt effortless, but as time wore on, the sense of fatigue multiplied exponentially. While her body had indeed grown much stronger, her mental energy was significantly depleted.

Ji Xue, who had never once dozed off in class before, found herself yawning incessantly in the lecture hall today, her eyelids drooping heavily.

The lecture class felt as if days were dragging by.

Given that Host Yun was absent, the substitute elder’s lecture today was exceedingly basic. While it might have held some utility for others, these were concepts their former teachers had long since covered.

For Ji Xue, these already familiar knowledge points only served to deepen her drowsiness.

Her head, propped by her hand, frequently drooped, nearly striking the desk on several occasions.

Yet, this arduous exertion was not without its rewards; maintaining the cultivation method’s circulation for such an extended period had granted Ji Xue a much more profound familiarity with the control over her own meridians.

Although her body was incapable of accumulating excessive spiritual energy, forcing her to release a portion of it, with each continuous cycle, Ji Xue sensed the spiritual energy within her growing increasingly refined.

Moreover, while releasing it consumed mental effort, this very act of release, by circulating through her meridians, paradoxically clarified the pathways of spiritual energy during the cultivation method’s operation.

She believed that before long, she too would be able to affix spiritual energy to a single point, just like Lin Mo, thereby utilizing it with remarkable efficiency.

‘Despite being merely a girl from the countryside, she had discerned the flaws within the Qi Condensation realm in less than a month of commencing her cultivation.’

Ji Xue had also heard about the events of that morning.

Upon hearing the accounts, she was, to say the least, utterly stunned.

He had instantly defeated a Great Perfection Qi Condensation cultivator, and even against multiple opponents, he remained entirely unfazed, dispatching them all with a single strike. Such combat prowess, such innate talent, truly lived up to the extraordinary phenomenon witnessed on that fateful day.

Her teachers often proclaimed: “The common people are like blades of grass, as lowly as ants, born to live lives of muddled ignorance. Only those with the bloodlines of the five great noble clans are destined from birth to command the world’s treasures and absorb the wisdom of the cosmos.”

“How could such vision and grand ambition be attained by mere mortals? In the future, this land and its myriad people shall be governed by us.”

Yet, today, Ji Xue felt even more strongly that her teachers’ words were fundamentally flawed.

Ji Xue’s breath was as tenuous as a silken thread—no, she corrected herself, ‘Was it ignorance?’

If that were truly the case, then this ‘country bumpkin’ wouldn’t be so astonishingly powerful.

She still held firm to her belief in the ancient adage from the forbidden texts within the palace: ‘Among three people walking, there must be one who can be my teacher.’

There were tens of millions of people in the world; if every single one had the opportunity for education, a chance to learn, even if only one percent succeeded, how many brilliant young talents would her dynasty possess?

And if gender were no longer a restriction…

Within the palace, the scholarly talents numbered merely in the hundreds or thousands, and were exclusively female. What if men were included in that count?

What if… what if she were to govern the court…?

Ji Xue swiftly dismissed this ridiculous notion. She was merely a fallen imperial princess, her very title on the verge of being stripped away, left with nothing but a pile of useless spirit stones. Whether she could even return to the palace was a question in itself—how could she possibly dream of governing the court?

After inwardly mocking her own naivety, her gaze refocused on the harsh realities before her.

Chatting with Lin Wan’er, at least, brought a modicum of joy.

“So… what exactly are you doing?” Ji Xue inquired, her voice so faint it sounded as if she were on the verge of death.

“Absorbing Profound Yin Qi! Extracting power!” Lin Mo replied, spreading his arms even wider to embrace the moonlight.

Much of the cultivation knowledge gleaned from various novels also held true here.

A flicker of hope ignited in Lin Mo’s heart—perhaps the moonlight cascading upon the mortal realm truly could nourish his Profound Yin Qi?

Lunar Yin, being the moon, embodies the essence of extreme Yin. If the scorching sun represented ultimate Yang, then this pure, radiant moonlight must surely be a natural breeding ground for Profound Yin Qi, mustn’t it?

He stood still for a long while, allowing the luminous essence to permeate his entire being, meticulously observing the flow of his internal energy. Yet, he failed to detect even the slightest indication of substantial improvement.

Lin Mo slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, a self-deprecating curve forming at the corner of his lips.

‘It seems I was still thinking too simplistically.’

‘Right! I still have my system!’

‘After all these events! I almost forgot, I’m a transmigrator, complete with a system!’

‘Perhaps… it’s already activated this time!’

With a heart full of trepidation, he trembled as he summoned the system panel!

However, upon opening the system panel, the same message still appeared: “System not yet activated~ Please, Host, continue to strive to survive until the system activates!”

….

The smile that had just bloomed on his face instantly crumbled.

How could he explain it?

Qiu Yue made Lin Mo feel an unprecedented amount of pressure.

His encounter in the private room that morning had unequivocally revealed the vast disparity between them.

If his cultivation couldn’t break through to Foundation Establishment within a short period, it would likely be insufficient. Yet, cultivation was not a matter to be rushed; his current impatience and wild thoughts would only disrupt his footing.

While Qiu Yue was indeed formidable, it had only been a few days. Worrying about what would happen if he lost was far too premature.

‘Focusing on the present was paramount!’

Lin Mo took a deep breath, quickly adjusting his mindset. Then, after squatting down, he scurried over to Ji Xue’s side, squeezing in beside her on the threshold.

“Ugh… must you really squeeze in next to me?” Ji Xue asked, her voice still weak.

“I just wanted to ask you a few things! My dear boss.”

As the saying goes, ‘Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.’ Since a breakthrough in cultivation wasn’t feasible, it was better to approach the problem by understanding the disparity.

Confronting and comprehending the gap between them was essential.

This was his primary objective.

“…What do you wish to ask?”

“How vast is the difference between Foundation Establishment and Qi Condensation?”

Ji Xue’s brow furrowed slightly, but being mentally and physically exhausted at that moment, she lacked the energy for extensive inquiry or much complaining. She merely whispered, “A world of difference.”

After that, she offered no further explanation.

A quarter of an hour later, Lin Mo finally asked, his brow still furrowed, “A world of difference, a world of difference! But you have to elaborate!”

“Isn’t that enough?”

“Be more specific! I know it’s a world of difference! I want to know what that difference entails!”

“Hmph~ Beg me.”

“I beg you!”

‘Asking questions of those beneath oneself was a noble tradition; there was no shame in pleading, and he would even kneel if necessary.’

Ji Xue, however, had not anticipated Lin Mo’s straightforwardness. Without holding back, she began to divulge everything she knew.

“Firstly, the Qi Condensation realm—it’s a diligent striving amidst the minuscule, a hesitant wandering along a stream. Cultivators guide the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into their bodies, like moving stones to build a fortress, accumulating it drop by drop within their dantian and meridians. At this stage, the spiritual energy is impure and unruly, akin to a wild horse, requiring immense mental effort to rein in its nature; a moment’s lapse—”

“Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop…” Lin Mo immediately cut her off, sighing as he pressed a hand to his forehead, then tugging at Ji Xue’s arm. “Please… say something I can actually understand. My dear sister, I’m just a country bumpkin; how am I supposed to comprehend such elaborate prose?”

“How am I supposed to understand it? Use your own interpretation! Explain it in simpler terms!”

“Hmph, you illiterate bumpkin. You sure have a lot of demands,” Ji Xue scoffed disdainfully.

However, upon reflection, she realized she had merely memorized most of it by rote. While she understood the meaning, she hadn’t truly delved into its nuances herself.

Thus, she found herself at a loss for how to explain it in simpler terms.

A quarter of an hour later, she began anew, “Hmm—how should I put this? Perhaps an analogy with water would make it easier to understand.”

“We cultivators are like a plot of land, and spiritual energy is akin to water. This land needs to be nourished by water for the crop called ‘realm’ to take root and sprout—”

Ji Xue then proceeded to explain for roughly an hour. She spoke until she grew drowsy, eventually falling into a deep slumber, her head resting against the doorframe.

Fortunately, her explanation had been quite straightforward and easy to grasp.

Lin Mo carefully lifted Ji Xue, carrying her back to her own bed.

It had to be said, Ji Xue was far more endearing when she was asleep than when she was awake.

In her slumber, Ji Xue seemed to shed all her sharp edges, revealing a rare and endearing innocence she seldom displayed when conscious.

On her unguarded sleeping face, the softness she usually concealed quietly emerged. Her small nostrils flared gently with each breath, and her thick eyelashes rested like quiescent wings, casting a soft, curved shadow.

What a pity, though… despite such beautiful features, her chin was sharply pointed, forming a ‘snake spirit’ face that could practically pierce someone to death.

Nevertheless, this did not diminish Ji Xue’s cuteness in Lin Mo’s eyes. Lin Mo wasn’t one to judge by appearance; he simply found her company rather pleasant.

Moreover, ever since Ji Xue had become his personal ATM, she seemed to possess no flaws whatsoever!

There was simply no denying it; she gave far too generously!

Dozens of spirit stones!

‘To casually hand over dozens of spirit stones! How extravagant!’

‘Long live Her Royal Highness!’

With this silent cheer in his heart, Lin Mo covered her with the quilt before returning to his own bed.

He had no intention of sleeping; instead, he planned to meticulously review everything Ji Xue had explained, replaying it in his mind.

From this, he would devise strategies to deal with Qiu Yue, pondering whether to cultivate Ji Xue as an ally…?

No… perhaps not. Ji Xue was barely able to protect herself; he shouldn’t consider her for such a role.

For now, focusing on how to contend with Qiu Yue in the future was far more practical.