After sunset, Yang Junshan slid into the vegetable garden behind the house and walked to a well.
The well edge was made of bluestones, and a windlass was set over the mouth of the well. Listless because of the night, Yang Junshan looked down and felt a current of cold air blew on his face, which refreshed him right away.
This well was dug by the Yang Family when they moved to Tuqiu Village. With the help of Yang Clan, Yang Tiangang got the position of village head. After dividing the farmland, Yang Tiangang dug three wells in his farmland for irrigation.
Unexpectedly, the luck had turned in Yang Tiangang's favor since he dug the third well. Wisps of faint nimbus exuded from the water.
Incredible!
Although the nimbus in the well water was poor, this spiritual well was rare for farmers in Tuqiu Village.
Originally, villagers were hostile to Yang Tiangang because he became their village head suddenly. Thus, they united together to fight with Yang Tiangang to get the spiritual well.
Yang Tiangang, relying on his cultivation of Turbid Qi Expiration, the second level of Warrior Realm, with the help of his wife Han Xiumei who had reached Spell Casting, the fifth level of Mortal Realm and other two brothers of Yang, fight against villagers. Yang Tiangang used his top-grade Tobacco Pot which worth half of his family property to crack front teeth of two people, scapulae of four people, arms of five people and one leg. This kind of power made the entire village frightened, which not only retained the spiritual well, but also declared he was the No. 1 badass in the Tuqiu Village. From that day on, villagers no longer coveted the position of village head.
After the fight, Yang Tiangang settled down beside the spiritual well directly in order to guard the spiritual well at any time. This spiritual well had become the treasure of Yang Family.
Yang Tiangang could always gain 18kg-30kg more spiritual grains each 0.067 hectare than others' harvest because of the spiritual well. Three years later, Yang Family's life turned better by degrees.
Yang Junshan came backed to the Yang Clan in Chenyu County for the intelligence test one year before. There were two spiritual acupoints in his body, so he got a result of fourth-class intelligence. But it wasn't a kind of good intelligence.
Intelligence was the first step for a practitioner to enter cultivation world. Though it was not a conclusive factor for a practitioner to find out his utmost, people still consider it was vital.
Overall, there were two kinds of intelligence. One was the spiritual acupoint existing in the body naturally and could absorb the nimbus from the sky and earth. Another situation was one didn't have a spiritual acupoint in the body and couldn't cultivate by himself. At this point, Yang Junshan was lucky because he had two spiritual acupoints in his body. Therefore, he was able to cultivate on his own.
However, people who had the spiritual acupoint naturally were divided into five classes. A person who could own five spiritual acupoints at most. The one with five spiritual acupoints was definitely the first-class talent. Thus, Yang Junshan was only better than the worst class.
Junshan spent a year on cultivation. Now he could barely catch the faint nimbus and guide it into his body. This was Nimbus Guiding, the first level of Mortal Realm.
With closed eyes, Yang Junshan was sitting on the bluestone beside the well, concentrated, saying some incantation from his memory of prelife and feeling the two spiritual acupoints in his body in order to use the faint nimbus out of the well to awaken his spiritual acupoints. This was Spiritual Article Awakening, the second level of Mortal Realm.
However, there was still a long way to go for Yang Junshan to reach the second level of Mortal Realm. In fact, for Yang Junshan who had only fourth-class intelligence, it must take a long time to reach the second level of Mortal Realm merely by absorbing nimbus.
Therefore, a spiritual article was needed for shortening the cultivation time and accelerating to awake spiritual acupoint. This was the origin of "Spiritual Article Awakening", the name of second level in Mortal Realm.
According to his prelife memory, Yang Junshan was unsatisfied with being rated as the fourth class, so he spent one year sparing no efforts to perfect archery skills and prepared himself for the visit to Pehchao Mountain one year later; he had a narrow escape from the fatal attack of a fierce boar; anyway, he accidently gained a low-grade spiritual article in the end and brought it back home; at last, he reached the second level with the help of the Khaki Spiritual Stone.
At this time, he was certainly not as weak as his prelife and he had got a big plan on this trip to Pehchao Mountain.
Junshan was thinking to cultivate himself more and increase his power as much as possible during the last three days before visiting Pehchao Mountain. There were five levels in Mortal Realm: first, Nimbus Guiding; second, Spiritual Article Awakening; third, Spiritual Acupoint Actuating; fourth, Spiritual Foundation Laying; fifth, Spell Casting. Junshan only learnt the skill to guide nimbus though he had completed one- year cultivation, far from mastery.
Spiritual Incantation on Earthshaking, a smriti of Yang Clan, was passed from generation to generation in Yang Clan. It was said that this book was a simplified version of Valuable Incantation on Earthshaking, which was composed by Heaven-shocking Sect. No one could ensure the authenticity of this story, but Spiritual Incantation on Earthshaking was quite popular in various regions which under the rule of Heaven-shocking Sect in Yu Prefecture.
Thanks to the lineal descent of Yang Clan in Qingshi Town, Chenyu County, Yang Junshan could learn the Spiritual Incantation on Earthshaking though his intelligence of cultivation was not good enough. While the descendants from branches of Yang Clan could only learn Magic Incantation on Earthshaking, which was inferior relatively.
Yang Junshan had been directed by Yang Tiangang since the he started the cultivation of Spiritual Incantation on Earthshaking. Due to his fourth-class intelligence, the cultivation course had been carried forward slowly for one year though Junshan had never be lazy nor diligent in cultivation. Till now his cultivation remained on the first level of Mortal Realm. Naturally he was even more eager to obtain a spiritual article in Pehchao Mountain.
Intelligence was part and parcel of cultivation in this world, but definitely not a decisive factor. The comprehensive effects from various aspects determined the development of practitioners. Yang Junshan could make full use of more than one hundred years' experiences so as to reach a promising future better than the one in his dream.
Instead of learning Spiritual Incantation on Earthshaking, the heirloom of Yang Clan, Junshan was practicing 5H-earth Spiritual Incantation, one book from a disciple of Heaven-shocking Sect in his prelife. Junshan was thinking to use the nimbus cultivated by 5H-earth Spiritual Incantation to update the nimbus he cultivated by Spiritual Incantation on Earthshaking before everything was settled to be irreversible. Otherwise, it would be harder for Yang Junshan to change the art of cultivation if he reached the second level - Spiritual Article Awakening.
As for the art of cultivation, spiritual incantation was superior to magic incantation, but inferior to valuable incantation.
After practicing Magic Incantation on Earthshaking, one could learn into Spiritual Incantation on Earthshaking and then continue to study Valuable Incantation on Earthshaking which was superior to 5H-earth Spiritual Incantation, the one that Junshan was practicing.
Spiritual Incantation on Earthshaking and 5H-earth Spiritual Incantation were both originated from Heaven-shocking Sect, but they totally differed from each other.
Valuable Incantation on Earthshaking was superior to Spiritual Incantation on Earthshaking. It was the advanced cultivation art for the latter, and also the Heaven-shocking Sect's secret that couldn't be imparted to outsiders. Yang Clan had sought for it many times but failed, since it was no more than a reputable clan in a town.
According to the practitioner who imparted the 5H-earth Spiritual Incantation to Yang Junshan in his prelife. There was 5H-earth Valuable Incantation superior to 5H-earth Spiritual Incantation. Although 5H-earth Spiritual Incantation was inferior to Valuable Incantation on Earthshaking in the Heaven-shocking Sect, the former was also a secret that couldn't be imparted usually.
The dividing standard of grades for cultivation arts was the maximum level of cultivation, and according to the difference of cultivation speed and degree of difficulty, arts on the same grade were also distinguishing.
Take Valuable Incantation on Earthshaking and 5H-earth Valuable Incantation for example. They were both secret arts of Heaven-shocking Sect and could be practiced until Saint Realm. As for degree of difficulty, the former was easier; in terms of cultivation speed, people who practiced the former were definitely faster than those who practiced the latter. Therefore, the former was rated as a medium-grade valuable incantation. It was known in Heaven-shocking Sect that those who practiced the latter were slow in cultivation and there were many harsh terms in the process of cultivation. It could be said that 5H-earth Valuable Incantation was one of the most difficult arts; therefore, almost no one was willing to practice it, and it was only a low-grade one among valuable incantations.
However, according to the apprentice of Heaven-shocking Sect who impacted 5H-earth Spiritual Incantation to Yang Junshan, Yang knew that there was a legendary cultivation art superior to 5H-earth Valuable Incantation, and this series of incantations, as true smriti of Heaven-shocking Sect, came down in one continuous line. Unfortunately, the legendary incantation had never been found, which meant the deficiency of the true smriti and caused few apprentices of Heaven-shocking Sect practiced 5H-earth Valuable Incantation.
The complete smriti once appeared when the Heaven-shocking Sect was destroyed, but it was rapidly torn in the fight, and finally it was thoroughly lost.
Night breeze blew gently. Yang Junshan was striving to practice 5H-earth Spiritual Incantation. The nimbus he had cultivated in the past year was assimilated by the new nimbus bit by bit. Because of the new incantation, the condensed nimbus was only half the original nimbus.
Yang Junshan smiled helplessly. It was the reason why nobody liked 5H-earth Spiritual Incantation. As much nimbus was condensed as possible, compared with those who practiced other spiritual incantations, he would be pretty slow in cultivation certainly. Since it was so difficult to practice the spiritual incantation, we could imagine how difficult it would be to practice 5H-earth Valuable Incantation. No wonder no one wanted to practice this spiritual incantations in Heaven-shocking Sect. But Yang Junshan soon found that the new nimbus was several times thicker than before, which meant that if he fought with his enemy in the future, his power would be greater than that of his enemy in the same magic arts and he could consume less energy at the same time.
Besides, when practicing 5H-earth Spiritual Incantation, he could absorb nimbus faster. Yang Junshan estimated that the speed of nimbus absorption when he practiced 5H-earth Spiritual Incantation was at least a quarter faster than that when he practiced Spiritual Incantation on Earthshaking. But once the nimbus was condensed by 5H-earth Spiritual Incantation, cultivation would be slower.