Chapter 857: The Dao of Doing Nothing (Patreon)

Since returning to the Cultivation World, I hadn’t done much except for visiting the people in the sect that were close to me because my main priority was to recover from everything that I had gone through in the Two Suns World.

Unfortunately, while the inhabitants of this world could do amazing things like fly or flatten a city with one strike, they didn’t have a concept of mental health. I remember just a few days ago, in the early part of the morning, I had walked by a disciple staring at a wall, and when I was returning in the evening, I found him in the exact same spot.

From what I could gather from the whispers of the other disciples, the poor guy had returned from an expedition where his teammates were brutally killed while he had been forced to watch. He was lucky to even be alive. What he needed was therapy to recover from such a traumatic experience, but what he got instead was an elder declaring he had a heart demon and handing him a Calm Mind Pill before dismissing him.

And even if something more dramatic than this occurred, like if an elder was to snap and burn down a city, the people would simply say his dao heart had cracked and then send someone stronger to deal with him.

No one really stopped to wonder what exactly was happening and why.

However, I had grown up on Earth, where there were posters in every school hallway warning about the danger of poor mental health and the concept of burnout. Back then, I hadn’t put much thought into it, but right now I was pretty sure I was going through that exact same thing.

Why else would I be feeling tired despite my physical body being better than it has ever been? And why else would I sit down to draw a simple formation and look up an hour later to find the ink dry on my brush and nothing on the ground?

Hell, twice this week, when Zhao Yu had left a tray outside of my bedroom, the sound had triggered my Blink Step rune to flare and my heartbeat to race before I realised what was actually going on.

Clearly, now that the weight that I had been carrying in the Two Suns World has been lifted, I was now getting the chance to realise what I had actually gone through. And it was especially the sight of the giant red eye in the sky telling me it knew exactly who I was while it reached out to grab me that kept haunting me.

The thing was, physical injuries could be healed with pills or even the Blue Sun energy, but there was nothing like that for mental trauma. As for the pills the elders hand out, I knew better than to develop a reliance on them. Instead, I’d rather get through this the right way, which was by meditating and using Azure as my therapist.

Which was exactly why right now I was sitting up to my chest in hot water on the ground floor, watching bubbles rise around my knees while my fingers wrinkled. Without a doubt, the bathing hall was easily the best part of this place, and I couldn’t help but be intrigued by how it functioned.

There were four small wind formations carved into the base of the stone pool which pushed bursts of air up through the water every few seconds, so that it fizzed and rolled against my back. Behind the sliding screen, there was another room where a fire formation glowed under a bed of black river stones. And every few seconds, a water formation in the ceiling dripped onto them to send a cloud of steam hissing up to the rafters.

It was amazing that back on Earth, people paid good money for a sauna and a jacuzzi at a fancy spa, and yet here I was enjoying both because some legacy disciple from centuries ago had decided he deserved it.

“Elder, I’m here with your plum juice,” Zhao Yu’s voice called out from behind the door.

“Come in.”

“This servant had the kitchen chill it with an ice talisman, as you asked,” Zhao Yu shuffled in with a tray.

“Thank you.”

After he set the tray on the edge of the pool, he stood there, shifting from foot to foot while his eyes were fixed firmly on the floor.

“You have something you want to ask?”

“Yes, Elder…is this a secret cultivation method? You’ve been in the water for a long time. The other servants are making bets.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What are the bets?”

“Lu Qin says you are tempering your meridians with fire essence. Little Rin says you are hiding from the Formation Guild.”

After the state I had found Elder Chen Yong a few days ago, Little Rin wasn’t far off.

“Neither,” I laughed. “It’s called resting. You should try it sometime.”

“This servant was a bandit, Elder.” He shook his head with a serious expression. “Bandits who rest get stabbed.”

“Then it’s a good thing that you’re not a bandit anymore, isn’t it?”

He thought about that, nodded slowly, and backed out of the room.

When the door slid shut, I took a long drink of the cold plum juice and realised that for the first time since returning to this world, my head felt clear. I didn’t want to crawl back into bed or stare off into space. I wanted to do something. I wanted to work on my Stellar Realm cultivation.

But the embarrassing truth was, despite being a Stellar Realm cultivator, I wasn’t entirely sure how cultivation worked in this realm. The problem with cultivation shooting up too fast, it meant that techniques tend to be left behind. The only technique that was genuinely Stellar Realm level was turning into a massive tree. But with the risks associated with it, I’d rather avoid it as much as possible.

One of my most used offensive techniques was Phantom Strike, but it was a Qi Condensation technique, so it couldn’t efficiently handle Stellar Realm energy, which meant that most of it would leak out before connecting with my target.

If I had to guess, I would say because of my familiarity with manipulating the wood element through the Primordial Wood Arts, most of my techniques were Elemental Realm even when I was at the Qi Condensation Realm.

After all, it was at that cultivation stage where a cultivator learned to transform qi into elemental energy, such as fire, water, or earth. Even though most cultivators chose one element and stuck to it for life, using more than one was possible, but it came with its own issues.

Two elements meant two sets of techniques to master, but more concerning was that opposing elements fought inside the meridians and inner world whenever the balance slipped. And in a real fight, every moment spent switching elements was a moment where someone could put a fist through your chest.

My time in the Elemental Chamber meant that I could manifest more elements than most, but that didn’t mean that I had a high affinity with all of them. My strongest affinity was still wood. The other affinities took at least twice the effort to summon forth and control. Though that didn’t matter to me because I didn’t want to become a jack of all trades and master of none.

Wei Lin was better suited for that with his merchant cultivation method; I’d rather just focus on wood for now. Then again, once I became a Level 3 Formation Expert, I could link an elemental formation to my Symphony Shield so it changed elements depending on the attack, the thrones in the Cathedral could feed it, and if I added a second layer—

“Master,” Azure cut in. “You’re getting lost in your ideas again.”

I blinked and looked down to see that I had been idly tracing overlapping circles in the water with my fingertip “Right,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. “Thanks, Azure. I can’t get distracted, I need Stellar Realm techniques before I focus on anything.”

But the question was: where would I get Stellar Realm techniques?

Sure, with my connection to the Celestial Trade Nexus, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find some as long as I had something worthy to trade. However, that place was a secret that no one below the Life Realm knew about since connecting to it with a weaker spiritual sense would drive them insane. So, what did every other Stellar Realm cultivator do?

“Zhao Yu,” I called out.

The door opened and Zhao walked back in, keeping his eyes fixed on his feet.

“If an elder needs a new technique,” I began, “where does he get it?”

“In my old camp, Elder, the boss took his techniques from whoever we robbed.”

I stared at him.

“I meant inside the sect...”

“Ah. Yes. Of course, Elder.” His face reddened as he scratched the back of his neck. “The disciples spend contribution points to buy them from the Technique Pavilion, but I heard that the top floors are only open for elders. The elders divide the good manuals between themselves at the council meetings.”

“Council meetings?”

His face went pale, and he quickly pulled a jade slip from his sleeve and held it out with both hands.

“Erm, this…this arrived three days ago, Elder.”

“Three days ago?” I put out my hand from the water to grab a hold of it. “Why am I only seeing it now?”

“The senior servants said legacy elders never attend, and the invitation is only sent out of courtesy.” He bowed his head lower. “This servant didn’t want to disturb your…resting.”

Good point. I never did show any indication that I was interested in sect politics or the other elders, so I couldn’t really blame him. With a sigh, I pressed the slip to my forehead, allowing the message to flow into my mind. The message was pretty simple, there was an Outer Elder meeting taking place today, but for some reason there wasn’t a specific time mentioned.

“Zhao Yu, when exactly does this meeting start?”

“It…it started a little while ago.”

Well, I guess it was time to meet my fellow elders.

Crashing a council meeting wasn’t my preferred approach for a first impression, but I couldn’t be too picky since I needed to upgrade my techniques before some arrogant elder who believed that I didn’t deserve my status challenged me.

Honestly, I was surprised nobody had tried yet because in a cultivation world, a month without a challenge was practically a miracle, but then again, the month had yet to end...

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