"I already told you that Master has got a good temperament. As long as you work hard and keep improving, even if you can't be the best, she won't abandon you. I'm worse than Yue Liang in comparison, but Master has never once disliked me for having lower cultivation than her."
None of the siblings' conversation escaped Jian Dan's divine sense as it lingered over the arena. After hearing his words, she finally showed a faint smile, her expression softening in the quiet of her cave.
Mo Ran might usually be quiet, but he was clear-headed. Once he noticed the problem with his little sister, he acted immediately, hitting the key point and making her see her own shortcomings.
With that, Jian Dan stopped paying attention to the pair. She trusted that the two little ones would sort things out themselves without further interference.
Just as she withdrew her divine sense, her brows furrowed slightly at a sudden disturbance in the air. She stood up and walked out of the cave abode, her gaze sweeping the horizon, just in time to see Jia Zhēnzūn's escaping light land nearby with a sharp whistle.
After spotting Jian Dan, the other party skipped the usual pleasantries and cupped his hands right away in a hurried gesture.
"Senior Sister Tian Lu, something has gone wrong with Yu Shu. His cultivation has been falling nonstop, and we can't stop it. Please come take a look with me."
The man spoke quickly, his words tumbling out, but Jian Dan heard everything clearly. She knew he wouldn't come to Tianyue Peak in such a state unless it was serious. She didn't waste any words and said only one thing in response.
"Let's go."
She took a single step forward, the space rippling around her, and in the next instant, she arrived at Jia Zhēnzūn's cave abode on Tianhua Peak. The owner of the peak followed just a step behind, his speed barely matching hers.
Waiting anxiously at the entrance was Jia Yu Shu's mother. When she saw Jian Dan, her eyes lit up with a spark of hope. She hurried over, bowed hastily, and spoke at once to explain the crisis.
"Zhēnzūn, Yu Shu was fine the past few days. It was only today, during the chen (dragon) hour (around 8 AM), that after he started cultivating, less than an hour passed before his cultivation began to fall. Spiritual power started leaking out of his body like water from a cracked jar.
We aren't familiar with the cultivation method he is using now, so we didn't dare act rashly or try to force the energy back. We only gave him a longevity pill that extends life by two hundred years to stabilize his foundation."
Although she was visibly anxious, Madam Jia spoke clearly and concisely, explaining the situation in just a few sentences.
"Because of Zhēnzūn's instructions, and because Yu Shu had just switched cultivation methods, we were all staying with him to monitor his progress. That's why we noticed something was wrong right away and had the Ancestor go invite you," the boy's father added, his face drawn with worry.
Is his cultivation still falling?"
Jian Dan asked as she stepped into the inner room where Jia Yu Shu was temporarily cultivating amidst a dense fog of spiritual energy.
"It's still falling," his father replied grimly.
By then, all four of them had entered the inner room. Jia Yu Shu was sitting cross-legged on a cool jade bed, his skin slightly pale. Sensing someone enter, he opened his eyes. The panic in them eased noticeably when he saw Jian Dan standing there.
"Master…"
"Don't panic. Let me take a look first."
Jian Dan spoke gently to calm the young man. Her divine sense immediately enveloped his entire body like a warm shroud, and at the same time, she raised a hand and sent a trace of spiritual power into his meridians to investigate.
The spiritual power flowed smoothly through his meridians and reached his dantian without any obstruction. At that moment, the boy's golden core had already dissipated, transforming into liquid spiritual power gathered within the dantian.
However, the liquid spiritual power seemed to be scorched by an invisible flame, slowly evaporating away. Nearly one-fifth had already turned gaseous, floating in the upper part of the dantian like a thin mist.
Jian Dan first checked the replanted spiritual root and found no issues at all with its condition. After more than ten days of cultivation, it had become even more compatible with his body and was showing signs of healthy growth.
She then followed the circulation route of the cultivation method and took a full round to see how the energy moved. That was when she discovered the true problem. She withdrew her spiritual power and, seeing his tense expression, smiled and spoke.
"It's nothing serious. Your cultivation falling is normal."
The moment Jian Dan said that, all four members of the Jia family gaped in surprise. That wasn't what they had been told to expect before.
They looked at the boy again and found that his cultivation had already fallen to the early Qi Refining stage and seemed to have stabilized there. It wasn't dropping anymore. It was just that the sudden fall in cultivation made him look noticeably older, his features losing some of their youthful luster.
"Let's go out and talk."
Jian Dan waved her hand and led the way out of the inner room to the reception hall.
Once everyone was seated, all eyes turned to Tian Lu Zhēnzūn, waiting for her explanation, including the boy himself. Now that his cultivation had stopped fallen, his expression was far less tense than before.
"Yu Shu's cultivation fell because of the cultivation method I gave him."
Jia Zhēnzūn seemed to realize something about the secrecy of the art and raised his hand to set up a sound isolation barrier around them. Jian Dan was quite satisfied with his quick thinking and then began explaining.
"Junior Brother Jia, you should know that I joined the Heavenly Sword Sect halfway through my path. I started with five spiritual roots. It's only because I cultivated an ancient method that, over time, my uneven roots were nurtured into a full five-element Chaos spiritual root."
This was the first time Tian Lu Zhēnzūn had spoken about her specific cultivation method. The Ancestor, the boy, and his parents all pricked up their ears in silence. When they heard it was an ancient method, they exchanged glances but didn't interrupt the narrative.
"The method I passed to Yu Shu is precisely this Primordial Chaos Art. It comes from ancient times and is extremely domineering. Yu Shu has been cultivating it for several days now, so you should have noticed something unusual by now, right?"
"Yes, Master. The spiritual power I cultivated anew seems incompatible with my previous spiritual power," he replied with a frown.
"That's because you previously cultivated wood-attribute spiritual power. When I replanted your spiritual root, I used my own spiritual power as a guide and helped you convert that wood spiritual power into Chaos spiritual power. That's why your cultivation only fell to the Golden Core stage back then.
But that converted Chaos spiritual power isn't the same as the Chaos spiritual power you cultivate yourself. To put it simply, if you cultivate wood spiritual power and someone tries to inject fire-attribute spiritual power into your meridians, your meridians will definitely reject it. Even if it's disguised, your body will instinctively resist.
Chaos spiritual power itself is domineering. Before, the amount you cultivated on your own was too little, and my remaining aura was suppressing things. So the Chaos spiritual power in your body only rejected the converted power. Once you reached early Qi Refining, and the aura I left behind weakened, it started expelling all the spiritual power that wasn't cultivated by you through your Chaos spiritual root."
"So that's how it's," the boy said softly. He then cupped his hands toward Jian Dan in gratitude.
"Master, according to what you said, I just need to cultivate again and accumulate enough Chaos spiritual power to recover to the Nascent Soul stage?"
"Yes. Your meridians' width and capacity already reached the Nascent Soul stage long ago. You just need to fill them with spiritual power again. You probably won't even need to face a thunder tribulation," Jian Dan replied with a smile, holding her round fan. The atmosphere in the reception hall finally relaxed, the heavy tension dissipating.
If you're worried about Yu Shu, let him go to Tianyue Peak. He is my registered disciple to begin with, and my three direct disciples have all opened their own peaks and residences. Their childhood cave abodes on the eastern side peak are still there, and the spiritual energy there is no worse than here."
After hearing these words, the family's Ancestor and the parents all smiled. With that assurance, they felt much more at ease about his future.
To Jian Dan, it was the same logic as always. Ninety-nine steps were already taken, so this last one didn't matter. She just hadn't expected the cultivation method to be this domineering. The reason she herself hadn't run into problems while cultivating both dao and demon paths was largely due to the existence of the Yin Yang Taiji Disc.
"Thank you for your care, Master. For the next couple of days, I want to stabilize my cultivation first. After attending your grand ceremony, I will move to Tianyue Peak. Would that be acceptable?"
===
I just changed how I write Chinese Zodiac hours in my translations. If I find something like "mao hour" in the source text, instead of writing "mao (rabbit) hour (5 AM to 7 AM)" like in the previous rule, I am now using a new approach.
For example, if the context is about breakfast, I will write it as "mao (rabbit) hour (6 AM)." The same logic applies to other daily activities that do not have a strict time and are usually understood as happening around a certain hour. If the context does not allow for a reasonable estimate, then I will still use the full two hour range.