The western end of Spirit Water Village was marked by undulating mountain ranges. Facing the village, the mountainside had been opened up into many simple little courtyards of similar design.

These courtyards were laid out in a charmingly haphazard fashion, all wooden sheds, and between the houses stood no fewer than a hundred ancient pines with greenish bark, creating a scene wrapped in verdant greenery.

Bai Sui’s home was among them.

Arriving at her familiar doorstep, she was met by a row of low wooden fence. Pushing the gate open, a little courtyard of forty to fifty square meters came into view.

Bai Sui’s house stood directly ahead of the courtyard. She walked straight to the front of the house, placed her bamboo basket and machete under the eaves, gently untied the rope fastened to the door handle, then pushed the door open and stepped inside.

The small room was clean and cozy. Because a large window had been opened, the entire room was brightly lit.

However, the furnishings inside seemed rather sparse: just one bed, one table, one wardrobe, and a few bamboo chairs. There was also a cooking stove off to the side, along with some tools for lighting a fire and preparing meals.

The most conspicuous object in the room was a huge brownish-red rice vat beside the stove.

The former Bai Sui had suffered from hunger, and thus had an almost pathological attachment to food.

After settling down in Spirit Water Village, she had finally resolved her safety concerns. Then, to live, she had to acquire various household items, and this rice vat was something she had specially bought from a shop in the village once she had money.

Lifting the wooden lid of the vat, all she saw inside was gleaming white rice.

Each grain was plump, white, and lovely, filled right up to the neck of the vat.

For some reason, seeing this sight, what surged in Bai Sui’s heart was not satisfaction, but a sour feeling.

Her appetite was small; this rice was enough for her alone to eat her fill for a full year or more.

Finally, she no longer had to worry about going hungry!

‘My past self was just too pitiful!’

If there had been this much grain back then, the old beggar wouldn’t have starved to death either.

Ah!

Bai Sui shook her head, no longer dwelling on these old matters long buried deep in her memory.

Instead, she went over to the stove, dug up a stone slab, and deftly took out a wooden box with a capacity of about three to four liters. Then she placed the eighteen patterned coins she had earned today into the box.

This was Bai Sui’s “savings”!

A rough count showed at least seven or eight hundred wen.

In Spirit Water Village, this wasn’t tremendous wealth, but it was a tidy sum—a guarantee that she needn’t worry about “having not a stitch to wear.”

After all, top-quality rice at the grain shop sold for only two wen per jin.

Moreover, this wasn’t even Bai Sui’s entire fortune.

She understood the principle of a cunning rabbit having three burrows. There were four such hidden compartments in the entire room. One of them she had deliberately arranged outside the house, somewhere under the eaves.

That hidden compartment was the most important, and also Bai Sui’s greatest secret.

Hidden inside it were several spirit stones she had carried with her when fleeing from the South Dipper Sect!

Yes, when the enemy attacked back then, in the little bundle that Aunt-Master Jiang had given her, besides some of her daily clothes, there was also a tiny storage pouch. Inside this storage pouch were the cultivation art Qi Drawing Art that Aunt-Master Jiang had originally planned to teach her, several jars of common spirit plant seeds, and besides these, over a dozen spirit stones of varying quality.

Among them were several mid-grade spirit stones!

As the saying goes, “The innocent commoner’s possession of a jade is a crime.” In the cultivation world, spirit stones were an even more important hard currency than gold, usable not just as money but even helpful for cultivation. Thus, cultivators would often fight tooth and nail over just a few spirit stones.

Although young at the time, Bai Sui understood that if others knew she had so many spirit stones, it would definitely invite fatal disaster.

Therefore, even though she held such a “windfall,” she dared not use it, and ordinarily had to feign the appearance of “struggling to make a living.”

Before possessing the power to protect herself, she must never reveal any news of the spirit stones.

The essence of the Dao of Gou is nothing more than the word “follow the heart”—cowardice forging a patch of sky, Gou steering a new life. And before that, one must learn to hide one’s clumsiness, endure loneliness, endure poverty, endure temptation, endure humiliation.

Having read countless fantasy novels in her previous life, she wholeheartedly agreed.

She also secretly admired her former self; indeed worthy of being her own reincarnation, just as sharp-witted.

After putting away the money she had earned, Bai Sui washed the rice, cooked, and then sat alone at the table and finished dinner.

The rice she ate was only ordinary rice, not the spirit rice that cultivators ate, but even so, the meal was extremely fragrant and delicious.

Afterwards, she sat on her bed and began silently cultivating according to the cultivation art of the Qi Drawing Art.

This was a cultivation world teeming with strong experts and lurking crisis everywhere; “sitting at home, disaster comes from the heavens” was no joke.

Only formidable strength was the guarantee for everything!

The night in Spirit Water Village was quiet.

A gentle breeze brushed past, making the ancient pines rustle, carrying a hint of coolness.

The bright moonlight, filtered through the carved latticework of the window, shone into the room, scattering upon the floor into patches of crystalline dappled light.

At this moment, Bai Sui sat cross-legged, gathering the spiritual energy in the air and continuously drawing it into her body. Then, according to the specific method described in the Qi Drawing Art, she refined it and made it her own.

The Bai Sui of her previous life had certainly never encountered cultivation, but fortunately, her current self had already cultivated for two years. Though young and with no one to teach her, the process had been stumbling. Yet with the experience of her previous life, the originally fuzzy concepts described in the book seemed to suddenly become clear.

The cultivation process also became much smoother.

After a long while, she opened her eyes, and a panel appeared in her vision:

[Character: Bai Sui]

[Lifespan: 10/75 years]

[Cultivation: Qi Refining First Layer: 95/100]

[Cultivation Art: Qi Drawing Art 'Initiation': 48/100]

[Skills: Wind Brushing Technique 'Initiation', Fire Ignition Technique 'Proficient', Planting Technique 'Ordinary']

[Talents: Pure Ice Jade Body 'Cultivation Talent, Calm Amidst Collapse']

“Huh?”

Bai Sui raised her eyebrows in surprise.

This panel had suddenly appeared a month ago when she had awakened her memories.

Her former self had also secretly cultivated, but there had absolutely never been any such thing as an “attribute panel.”

Yet after awakening her previous life’s memories, such a panel had appeared before her.

Even more magically, ever since this panel appeared, it was as if she had gained sudden enlightenment; every cultivation session brought progress.

The “Cultivation” column had risen from 33 at the start to 95 now, an increase of a full 62 points. Every cultivation session brought considerable improvement, unwavering!

As if there wasn’t the slightest barrier at all.

One must know that she had cultivated for over two years before, and had only just barely stepped through the door, merely reaching a value of “33”!

Even if it was because she had been “groping blindly” on her own back then, wasn’t she also groping blindly on her own right now?

In just a short month, she had achieved such results, like the difference between clouds and mud compared to the past.

It seemed much of the credit must go to this miraculous attribute panel!

She believed that in not too long, she would be able to step into the realm of Qi Refining Second Layer! Then she would possess a certain ability to protect herself!

And once Qi Refining Second Layer was reached, could Qi Refining Third Layer be far off?

Taking it a step further, becoming a high-level Qi Refining stage cultivator wouldn’t be impossible either!

What was this, longing for Shu after conquering Long? The unlimited expansion of thought, the endless extension of desire, like nesting dolls continuously elevating expectations. Placed in reality… that would be called daydreaming.

But right now.

It might not be unattainable.

With this miraculous attribute panel, Bai Sui could figure out even with her toes that her future had perhaps already been rewritten.

Of course, a journey of a thousand miles begins beneath the foot. Even the most magnificent building cannot rise from flat ground without the builder’s hard work. Idle fantasies are useless; focusing on reality and not aiming too high is the proper path.

Having such expectations, Bai Sui was instead not as excited as she had been the first time she cultivated.

She prepared to take one step at a time and slowly put it into practice.

The Qi Drawing Art that Aunt-Master Jiang left her described the cultivator’s realms in detail at the very beginning.

The initial stage was the Qi Refining stage, divided into nine layers. The first, second, and third layers were the early Qi Refining stage; the fourth, fifth, and sixth were the middle Qi Refining stage; the seventh, eighth, and ninth were the late Qi Refining stage.

After reaching the ninth layer of Qi Refining, one could accumulate strength to break through to the next phase, where spiritual energy gradually liquefies, known as the “Qi Refining Great Perfection” period.

In other words, the Qi Refining stage had ten small sub-levels in total, after which one truly entered the broad path of cultivation.

Subsequent realms, based on the cultivator’s mental-spiritual intensity, could be divided into: Spiritual Rotation Stage, Opening Light Stage, Fusion Stage, Heart Moving Stage, Spiritual Silence Stage, Golden Core Stage, and so on.

Among them, the first three realms were critical periods for a cultivator to lay a firm cultivation foundation, hence they were collectively called the Foundation Establishment stage.

The later Heart Moving Stage, Spiritual Silence Stage, and Golden Core Stage, as they ultimately formed the Golden Core, were also referred to as the Core Formation stage.

After that came shattering the core to give birth to the infant, forming the Purple Palace Nascent Soul, becoming a Nascent Soul stage grand cultivator.

As for what realm lay above Nascent Soul, the Qi Drawing Art no longer introduced it, for this level was already an existence many cultivators could only dream of and never reach. Excessive description not only wouldn’t aid cultivation but would rather be detrimental to the psychological fortitude of cultivators.

[AN: Regarding the realms, this book follows the earliest traditional cultivation novels, namely twelve layers: Spiritual Rotation, Opening Light, Fusion, Heart Moving, Spiritual Silence, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Out-of-Body, Spirit Split, Unity, Tribulation, Great Vehicle. There is no independent “Foundation Establishment” as a single realm; Spiritual Rotation is the first realm, but as novels evolved, Foundation Establishment gradually appeared as a substantive realm. This book references the earliest cultivation novel settings, so to fit the Lesser Thousand Worlds setting, Spiritual Rotation, Opening Light, and Fusion are collectively termed the Foundation Establishment stage.]