Infinite Professions-Chapter 134 - 55: Cultivation

According to this person’s confession, his name is Liang Feng, and he was originally an ordinary fisherman in the eight hundred miles of Dongting Lake.

But a hundred years ago, while fishing, he unintentionally fished out a corpse from the water and found a martial arts manual and this storage pouch on the body.

He knew a little about Immortal Fate, so he kept quiet about it, still acting as a fisherman on the surface, while secretly using martial arts and experience to gather treasure fish to support his cultivation.

But no wall in the world is completely windproof, and if you walk the night often, you will eventually encounter ghosts. His anomalies were eventually discovered and reported to the Iron Palm Gang.

That’s right, the Iron Palm Gang. He obtained the Immortal Fate a hundred years ago, at that time there was no Golden Fish Gang, only the Iron Palm Gang.

The Iron Palm Gang heard the news, rushed to his home, captured his wife and children, and led a siege to kill him. Though he fought to break through and escape, his entire family perished at the hands of the Iron Palm Gang.

Afterward, he vowed to destroy the Iron Palm Gang, hid in Dongting Lake, and painstakingly practiced the martial arts in the manual, ultimately cultivating Gang Yuan and using it to open the storage pouch that had been sealed for decades.

With some pills and talisman from the storage pouch, he infiltrated the Iron Palm Gang’s lair in the Prefecture City, slaughtered the Iron Palm Gang from top to bottom in a bloodbath, but also alarmed the hidden cultivators in the Prefecture City.

Previously, he had only cultivated martial arts, and faced with the cultivators who had cultivation methods and Dharma artifacts, he was no match. He barely escaped alive using several talismans from the storage pouch.

From then on, he realized the terrifying nature of cultivators, once again hid in Dongting Lake for cultivation, and acted under the name of ’Fishing Elder,’ gathering those whose families were destroyed by the Fish Gang or other forces as disciples, secretly developing his power.

And his purpose in cultivating disciples and expanding his power was simple—to help him capture a cultivator, interrogate them for information about the cultivation realm, and then open the gate to the cultivation realm.

Thus, the battle on the lake today occurred.

His original target was not the Fox Fur Young Master who wielded the flying sword, but the Golden Fish Gang’s Young Master and other wealthy scions. He intended to use them as bait to lure out a few cultivators with ’Gathering Spirit’ cultivation.

Unexpectedly, among these wealthy scions was a formidable character, a sword cultivator whose cultivation reached the ’Cultivation Technique’ realm and wielded a flying sword at the middle-grade Dharma artifact level.

The flying sword was sharp, its attacks superb, and the power of that middle-grade flying sword was more terrifying than ordinary upper-grade Dharma artifacts. If he hadn’t cultivated Gang Yuan and left a few talismans for protection, he would have been killed by that Fox Fur Young Master’s sword long ago.

What followed was being severely injured and falling into the water, then being rescued by Shen Hex.

Such are the wonders of fate; back then, he caught a dead man and gained an Immortal Fate, and now the story repeats, except the roles are reversed, and he became someone else’s Immortal Fate.

But he brought it upon himself; who asked him to make a move on Shen Hex?

Actually, Shen Hex understood his actions. After all, destitute places often produce lawless people. Under the pressure of a harsh life, many human evils are magnified, and the fishermen of Dongting Lake are no exception. Countless people bullied the strong and robbed the weak, fishing by day and committing robbery by night, deeds like serving knife-cut noodles (a term indicating ill-gotten gains) were common.

Liang Feng himself did plenty of that back in the day.

Thus, from his perspective, confronting a peer like Shen Hex, it was only logical for him to strike first to ensure his safety.

Shen Hex could fully understand.

But understanding does not mean tolerating!

Having lived through many lives and seen much, Shen Hex could understand many things about the world.

But understanding is one thing, tolerance is another.

Just like reasonable existence, the existence of things certainly has reasons, but having reasons does not mean it’s reasonable, and reasonable does not mean one must tolerate or accept it.

The same goes for Liang Feng. His reasons do not change the fact that he made a move, nor can they change the result of him becoming breakfast for the Tuo Dragon Group.

Let’s not talk about the dead for now.

Let’s first look at the storage pouch in front of us.

This is a kind of spatial Dharma artifact, similar to the Spirit Control Ring of the Spirit Control Realm.

But the Spirit Control Ring of the Spirit Control Realm is not made by the Spirit Control Masters.

To be precise, all implements and armaments of the Spirit Control Realm are not crafted solely by the Spirit Control Masters; rather, they borrow the power of spirit beasts and spirit crystals.

For instance, the Spirit Control Ring requires a spirit crystal with a void attribute as material, along with a void attribute spirit beast to infuse the power of the void spirit beast into a void spiritual stone to craft a Spirit Control Ring.

To put it bluntly, the technical content is extremely low, entirely reliant on materials and spirit beasts.

But this is understandable, after all, it’s just a Small Thousand World, and all dharma gates are still in the developmental stage, low technical content is expected.

But this storage pouch is different.

The cultivation system of the real world also has storage pouches, but they are already antiques.

High-tier cultivation professionals have invented more advanced storage rings, and various spatial treasures or even immortal artifacts—not only can they store items, they can even store rivers, lakes, seas, and even planets.

Moreover, these spatial treasures have extremely high technical content, which, although requiring some material support, is not entirely material-dependent, with technology playing an equal part.

For low-tier artifacts like the storage pouch, no specific materials are needed; a single void talisman can turn decay into magic, transforming an ordinary hemp sack into a storage pouch.

But that’s in the real world, among the cultivation professionals of the Human Empire.

This world...

Shen Hex looked at the storage pouch in front of him, condensing the Gang Qi within his body into Gang Yuan and then connecting to it.

As soon as the Gang Yuan connected, a flash of light appeared, and the storage pouch, tightly sealed without a string, instantly loosened its opening.

"A bit crude, isn’t it? It has no recognition mechanism; you just need enough energy input to open it?"

"But it makes sense, after all, it’s just a low-tier Dharma artifact, and this world is only Middle Thousand level, crude technology is understandable."

Shen Hex muttered softly, then opened the pouch. Inside was a space, its edges appearing chaotic, various items neatly arranged inside, clearly organized.

Shen Hex took everything out and counted them one by one, ultimately coming to a conclusion.

A pile of gold and silver, insignificant.

A manual, the Primordial Element Qi Skill, a martial arts technique that can be cultivated to Tier Four True Essence Realm, but of no value to him.

A jade slip, a cultivation technique named Spring Breeze and Rain Technique.

Finally there were some miscellaneous items, all kinds of rare treasures that Liang Feng, this Fishing Elder, had collected from Dongting Lake, along with the spoils from eliminating the Iron Palm Gang and some other small forces.

No Spirit Stones.

No pills.

No Talismanic Dharma Artifacts either.

But that’s to be expected. Even if there were Spirit Stones and pills, such consumables would have been used up by Liang Feng over the years, and the same goes for Talismanic Dharma Artifacts. After a few near-death escapes, it’s impossible not to pay a price.

The gains were mediocre.

But Shen Hex didn’t mind. He rummaged through the pile of odds and ends and finally found a bundle of snow-white, pliable rope.

Though called a rope, it actually resembled some kind of spider silk or silkworm thread, tens of meters long, emitting a faint plant-like fragrance. Shen Hex pulled it forcefully and found it extremely flexible; without utilizing his Inner Yuan, he couldn’t tear it apart.

"Good stuff!"

This greatly pleased Shen Hex, who promptly tucked it into his Storage Pouch.

He was just in need of a fishing line, as hemp rope worked fine for ordinary fish but couldn’t withstand the stress of Spirit Fish, making every fishing attempt thrilling, worried that the rope might break after hooking a fish. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Now with this long line, he could enhance and expand his fishing enterprise.

But having a line wasn’t enough, so Shen Hex rummaged through the pile again and indeed found several fish hooks, made of Profound Iron and Refined Steel, seemingly hard as nails.

Needless to say, these must be special fishing tools crafted by Liang Feng, dedicated to fishing Spirit Fish from Dongting Lake, now falling into Shen Hex’s hands by a stroke of serendipity.

Who says peers are rivals? Isn’t this guy quite decent?

Shen Hex stored these items back into the Storage Pouch, leaving only the Cultivation Technique Jade Scroll.

The Spirit Control Technique stimulated the mind, combined with Gang Qi, condensed Yuan infused, soon the jade scroll started flashing with Spirit Light, and a cultivation technique named "Spring Breeze and Rain Technique" directly imprinted itself into Shen Hex’s mind.

Shen Hex wasn’t lacking in cultivation techniques, as in reality, the Human Empire also had a cultivation system, a rather formidable one, with numerous cultivation techniques available for purchase online.

Although he didn’t have a Spiritual Root, making cultivation difficult, Shen Hex still used funds obtained from the Divine Martial Battle Net to purchase a batch of basic cultivation techniques to deepen his understanding of the cultivation system.

After all, know yourself and your enemy, and you’ll never lose.

You can choose not to cultivate, but you mustn’t be ignorant of it, for you can’t guarantee your future enemy won’t be a cultivator.

So Shen Hex had some cultivation foundation, at least he wasn’t lacking in techniques.

But that didn’t prevent him from reading the Spring Breeze and Rain Technique.

Still the same principle: know yourself and your enemy, and you’ll never lose.

The two worlds must have differences; reading these techniques allows him to compare the differences between cultivators of both worlds and deepen his understanding of this world.

Soon, he finished reading the content of the Spring Breeze and Rain Technique.

According to this method, the first five cultivation realms are Gathering Spirit, Cultivation Technique, Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Core Formation.

Tier One Gathering Spirit, as the name suggests, involves absorbing the wandering Spiritual Qi between heaven and earth via techniques and Spiritual Roots to achieve Gathering Spirit into the body. Cultivators at this stage aren’t much different from True Qi Martial Artists, only with a stronger Primordial Spirit, enhancing health and longevity.

Tier Two Cultivation Technique involves refining Spiritual Qi into Magical Power based on Gathering Spirit. Cultivators who refine Magical Power can learn various magic techniques and use Talismanic Dharma Artifacts, greatly enhancing combat power, truly qualifying as "Mages!"

Tier Three Qi Refining further condenses Spiritual Qi and Magical Power, achieving Essence, Qi, and Spirit completeness, preparing for the next Foundation Establishment.

As for Tier Four Foundation Establishment and Tier Five Core Formation...

Sorry, the Spring Breeze and Rain Technique doesn’t cover them.

This is a low-level cultivation technique, only reaching the third tier, Qi Refining Realm. Besides mentioning it briefly in the general outline, it doesn’t contain content on Foundation Establishment and Core Formation.

But the first three tiers are comparable; Shen Hex compared and found that the first three realms in the Human Empire’s cultivation system are similarly described, although they don’t mention Gathering Spirit and Cultivation Technique, collectively termed early-stage, mid-stage, and late-stage Qi Refining.

Though the names differ, the content isn’t much different, so there’s no need to fuss.

The real issue is how to cultivate!

Does he have Spiritual Root aptitude in this body?

It seems so, yet also seems not.

It’s vague because Shen Hex had tried cultivating various cultivation techniques before, almost with no effect, except for absorbing a little Spiritual Qi while consuming Spirit Fish.

Is it because Dongting Lake’s Spiritual Qi is too scarce, or does he have a garbage Spiritual Root, or even a Pseudo-Spiritual Root, making cultivation inefficient?

Shen Hex couldn’t quite say.

But it doesn’t matter. With Cheating, aptitude is irrelevant.

The current top priority is to elevate the "Spirit Fisherman" Professional Rank and explore the Cultivation Realm, blend in, and develop covertly.

But how to elevate, how to explore?

Shen Hex looked at the Storage Pouch before him, deep in thought.

Just when he was strategizing his next move...

"Bang!"

A light noise woke him.

Shen Hex’s gaze sharpened, stepping out of the cabin, only to find a Tuo Dragon paddling and wagging its tail in the water, hitting his boat, while a large ship and numerous skiffs appeared on the distant lake.

It’s... the Golden Fish Gang!