Returning to the village from the valley, Bai Sui’s mood was very good. Her little short legs took turns stepping, even making her steps much lighter.

Back home, the sky was still early, the sun above big and round, dazzling rays pouring down from the clouds, shining upon the earth.

First she closed the courtyard gate, then dragged a rattan chair under the eaves. Only then did Bai Sui take out the spoils of the day. She first picked up Chronicles of the Xuanming Continent and started reading.

Although she had lived in Spirit Water Village for over two years, in truth Bai Sui’s understanding of the overall situation of this world was still very vague. From memory, she only knew that the great land beneath her feet was called the Xuanming Continent, divided into two main parts: the mortal world and the cultivation world. Among them, the mortal world was boundlessly vast, with many nations standing tall, while the cultivation world was an existence far beyond the reach of the mortal world.

The Spirit Water Village she was currently in was within the cultivation world, located near Jade Pool Market, and Jade Pool Market was one of several loose cultivator bases in Nanyuan City under the jurisdiction of the Crimson Sun Sect.

She knew very little about anything more detailed.

Other than that, there were only a few scattered bits of information from before she came to the cultivation world.

She remembered that she was born in an imperial kingdom called “Great Shang” in the mortal world. This Great Shang was a unified dynasty ruled by an emperor together with scholar-officials. Under the central court were over thirty prefectures, with circuits and counties below the prefectures, then wards and villages. It was very similar to the system of prefectures, subprefectures, and counties of the ancient societies of her past life.

But after obtaining Chronicles of the Xuanming Continent, Bai Sui could more vividly feel the immensity of this world.

First of all, this realm was called the Canghai Realm, containing an immensely huge continent named the Xuanming Continent.

The Xuanming Continent was extraordinarily vast, with varied terrain, densely crisscrossed by mountains and rivers like interlaced dog teeth. Divided by natural barriers, it consisted of five major regions: Central Continent, Eastern Continent, Western Continent, Southern Continent, and Northern Continent.

These five great continents floated atop the vast ocean, yet were connected to one another, together forming the Xuanming Continent.

Jade Pool Market was located in the Northern Region of the Central Continent.

The opening passage of Chronicles of the Xuanming Continent stated: The land under heaven spans three thousand provinces, vast as the ocean, its waves unpredictable. Only when one province constitutes one kingdom can it be a truly prosperous kingdom. The former kings of such kingdoms were obedient, reverently respecting the Heavenly Mandate, their territory four thousand li across, their population counted in the hundred millions.

This meant that the Xuanming Continent had a total of three thousand provinces. To establish a kingdom with the territory of a single province was to be a genuine great kingdom. These kingdoms had submitted to the Heavenly Mandate, with an area roughly four thousand li square and a population often exceeding a hundred million.

Converted, a “province” of the Xuanming Continent was roughly over ten million square kilometers.

Larger than a certain great eastern country of her past life!

And the Xuanming Continent had three thousand such “provinces” in total.

Of course, the three thousand provinces here was a nominal number, a general reference, but the immensity of the Xuanming Continent was clearly evident. Whether in territory or population, the depth of its heritage was terrifyingly vast.

And this was only the mortal world. Though the cultivation world existed within the mortal world, it was a place mortals found difficult to reach, often forming self-contained blessed lands or wondrous realms, equally exceptionally vast, requiring cultivators to pilot flying boats to enter.

This isolated mortals from wantonly barging in and also shaped the cultivation world’s mystique and uniqueness. The spiritual energy here was much denser than in the mortal world, so very few cultivators were willing to leave the cultivation world for the mortal world, because going to the mortal world was essentially equivalent to giving up cultivation.

And the cultivation world was a place where sects and schools stood in great numbers.

According to the descriptions in Chronicles of the Xuanming Continent, if ranked by strength, sects were divided into top-tier sects, first-rate sects, second-rate sects, and third-rate sects.

A top-tier sect needed to have a Nascent Soul stage elder overseeing it. Its name could be crowned with the character “Zong” (Sect), and it was a titan power in the cultivation world, for example, the number one sect of the Xuanming Continent—the Xuanming Sect. Its power was like the midday sun, brilliant and wise, its light boundless.

First-rate sects were a step below top-tier sects, requiring a Golden Core stage grand cultivator in residence. Their name could be crowned with “Men” (Gate), and they were backbone powers of the cultivation world, such as the “Tianluo Gate” near the “Crimson Sun Sect”.

Second-rate sects were yet another step down, requiring a cultivator at the Core Formation stage to oversee them. Their name could also be crowned with “Men” (Gate), though compared to a “Gate” with a Golden Core grand cultivator, the foundation of a second-rate sect was still lacking.

As for third-rate sects, they only had Foundation Establishment cultivators presiding. They belonged to makeshift groups, generally named with “Pai” (School), such as the “South Dipper School” that Bai Sui had joined when she first arrived.

This level of sect was a very weak sect in the cultivation world, generally needing to attach itself to a stronger sect for protection.

Generally speaking, top-tier sects possessed the jurisdiction and highest decision-making authority over all sects within their sphere of influence, capable of adjudicating various conflicts and disputes within their jurisdiction. It was somewhat like the “first-level government” of Earth. And the other sects were equivalent to various “social organizations”.

Simply put, within the Crimson Sun Sect’s territory, there could exist “such-and-such Gate” or “such-and-such School”. These “Gates” or “Schools” needed to accept the Crimson Sun Sect’s management, regularly reporting major changes within the school—a reflection of jurisdiction. And within the territory of a certain Gate, other weaker sects could also coexist, but these sects did not need to accept its management. Of course, periodic “tribute” and maintaining good relations were still necessary.

Bai Sui roughly browsed through Chronicles of the Xuanming Continent, growing more astonished the more she read.

The vastness of the world completely exceeded her imagination.

Just the Crimson Sun Sect alone, according to the book, governed a full eight great cities, one of which was Nanyuan City, where Jade Pool Market was located!

Each city had a Core Formation cultivator guarding it!

From this, one could see how great the power of the Crimson Sun Sect was!

Truly a solid, sturdy great backing!

In a sense, if one wanted to ride a momentum to soar, joining them would also be a good choice.

Of course, there was no medicine for regret in this world. Since she had already missed it, she no longer dwelled on it. Being a rogue cultivator was also quite good; at least she was free, with no one controlling her, which perfectly suited her psychological preference.

Chronicles of the Xuanming Continent was not thick. It mainly introduced the customs and culture of the Xuanming Continent and the major events worthy of the annals, including many strange tales and anecdotes.

This interested Bai Sui greatly, indirectly supplementing her understanding of this world.

According to the book, this year should be the 8650th year of the Xuanming Calendar.

It was the eight thousand six hundred fiftieth year since the Xuanming Sect became the number one sect of the Xuanming Continent and obtained jurisdiction over the continent.

Tradition held that before the Xuanming Calendar, there were other calendar systems.

They were respectively the Ancient Calendar of untraceable antiquity, the Xiandu Calendar with 15,000 years recorded, the Wanyou Calendar with 26,000 years, the Tianfeng Calendar with 42,000 years, and the Shengwu Calendar of 25,000 years, the closest to the Xuanming Calendar.

At those times, the continent’s number one sects were the Xiandu Sect, the Wanyou Sect, the Tianfeng Sect, and later the Shengwu Sect.

However, with the passage of seas turning to mulberry fields, over a span of more than a hundred thousand years, those once-storm-commanding, universally-looked-up-to supreme sects had all long since been buried in the rolling long river of history.

Now, the seat of the number one sect was securely held by the Xuanming Sect. Even the Xuanming Continent was named after it.

Of course, as the number one sect, the Xuanming Sect also had to give back to this great land that nurtured it. Thus, the Xuanming Art circulated across the entire continent, and the Qi Drawing Art, a primer used for “preschool education”, were generous gifts the Xuanming Sect bestowed upon the cultivation world.

Its act of remembering the source when drinking water and not forgetting its roots despite occupying a high position naturally received unanimous praise from the masses of the cultivation world.

Bai Sui was reading with great enthusiasm and wanted to learn more, only to discover that the Chronicles of the Xuanming Continent in her hands had already been flipped to the last page.

Bai Sui: “…”

She had absolutely bought a censored version.

No wonder it was so thin and the price so cheap—the content was severely missing.

And to say “condensed is the essence”—condensed my foot, that weird uncle was very bad!

The essential content had mostly been condensed and lost!

This half-baked state was really frustrating.

So unpleasant!

Bai Sui exhaled a long breath, so angry she gritted her silver teeth.

Forget it, forget it, forget it!

When she had the chance to go to a proper market later, she’d see if there was a complete version.

Good things took time; she wasn’t in a rush.

After this thought, she sighed and then placed Chronicles of the Xuanming Continent aside.

As for right now…

A hint of anticipation appeared on Bai Sui’s face. She then took out the cultivation-related Qi Drawing Art and Xuanming Art.

She flipped through a few pages of the former, felt it wasn’t very useful, and tossed it directly to the side. The “quality” of this item was indeed mediocre, far less useful than the version Aunt-Master Jiang had given her. If buying the Xuanming Art alone wouldn’t have seemed too conspicuous, she’d rather die than waste money buying this.

The Xuanming Art was different, however. Its content was standard and proper, with no graffiti. It was just that Bai Sui still found it very difficult to understand at her current level. Many of the descriptions within she had not yet touched upon, so she couldn’t deeply comprehend them. It seemed it was just as the stall owner had said: it could only be better read after reaching the middle stage of Qi Refining.

Oh well, haste makes waste. She’d put it away to gather dust for now.

Thinking this, Bai Sui no longer fretted. She then took out the pills that Senior Ge Dan had gifted her.

Two porcelain bottles held the Marrow Cleansing Pills and Qi Condensing Pills. The five Marrow Cleansing Pills were tiny, black like rat poison, and just a glance gave her no appetite. The three Qi Condensing Pills, on the other hand, were grayish-white, round and plump, like peanuts coated in starch.

Marrow Cleansing Pills were generally taken by cultivators before drawing qi into the body. They could dispel illness and remove impurities, guiding the cultivator to better sense spiritual energy and trigger the qi sensation. But now, Bai Sui was already a cultivator at the second layer of Qi Refining, long past this stage.

So the Marrow Cleansing Pills were not of great use to her.

Still, after some thought, she decided to try one, since she had never taken a Marrow Cleansing Pill before.

It was just popping a Marrow Cleansing Pill.

Even if it was ineffective, there were no side effects.

So she poured one out, stared at the “rat poison” in her hand for a long time, finally tilted her head back, and with an “ah-wu” sound, swallowed it.

She smacked her lips a few times.

Mm, salty.

Not very tasty.

Then she held her breath and concentrated, wanting to feel the changes.

Ah, there it was! There it was!

She faintly sensed that at the center of her brow, a light qi sensation seemed about to burst out of her body.

It seemed even though she had missed the ideal consumption stage, it was still effective.

But just as she grew excited, ready to experience it fully,

That qi sensation suddenly felt like a needle prick on the skin; she only felt a sting like a mosquito bite, and then it actually… disappeared!

Bai Sui: “…”

She was a bit dazed. As the saying went, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

To think she had held such expectations—it was truly too disappointing.

Bai Sui glanced at the remaining four Marrow Cleansing Pills and couldn’t help but feel a wave of helplessness.

Tsk, the item was a good item, but not suitable for the current her!