"Is this my Sharingan? It really does look different from the Uchiha Clan's. Is it because the curse has been removed?"
Inside his room at the Mortuary, Li Qiuxia looked into the mirror at his own eyes. Within those distinct black-and-white eyes, three tomoe had appeared in each. While the tomoe of the Uchiha Clan were originally black, Li Qiuxia's were a brilliant white-gold, looking far more handsome and magnificent than the original.
Furthermore, when a member of the Uchiha Clan activated their Sharingan, it usually gave off a cold, sinister feeling. However, when Li Qiuxia opened his, there was no such chill; instead, he exuded an air of majesty.
Although the Sharingan had mutated under the Patriarch's baptism, its core functions remained intact. The three primary abilities Insight, Copy, and Genjutsu surfaced in his mind the moment he circulated his Lingqi through his eyes.
"Though I don't know when I might be sent back, I expect it'll be just like when I came here sudden and without warning. I was worried about how I'd memorize Uncle Jiu's books before then, but with the Sharingan's Copy ability, this is going to be a huge help."
Once his Sharingan was activated by Lingqi, Li Qiuxia spent his days diligently reading through Uncle Jiu's various collections, studying Taoist arts and talismans. At night, he went without sleep,
using his mental focus to perceive Lingqi and using that energy to temper his Godly Body. He focused especially on his eyes; since the eyes are connected to the brain, strengthening them acted as a form of mental refinement as well.
Under these conditions, the amount of Lingqi Li Qiuxia could perceive grew steadily. He went from his initial forty-eight strands to sixty-nine the record for the most outstanding disciple in Maoshan history.
Indeed, Li Qiuxia had sensed forty-eight strands at the very start of his cultivation. He could sense so many partly because of the mental boost from his Sharingan and partly due to the Patriarch's baptism.
In his past life, Li Qiuxia had read countless novels and understood the vital importance of a solid foundation. Therefore, he intended to reach absolute perfection at the Sorcerer rank. So what if the record was sixty-nine strands? With his Sharingan, he was determined to surpass that stage entirely.
Upon learning of Li Qiuxia's thoughts, Uncle Jiu was extremely pleased. He had originally intended to advise his disciple to build a strong foundation during the Sorcerer stage to make future breakthroughs easier or at least to give him an advantage over others at the same rank even if he didn't break through. He hadn't expected the boy to realize this on his own.
During this period, people occasionally came to Uncle Jiu seeking help with Feng Shui, ghost hunting, or exorcisms. Li Qiuxia would tag along to observe the Feng Shui cases, but he skipped the ghost hunting and exorcisms.
It wasn't that he was afraid of ghosts, but rather that he spent his nights entirely on cultivation. While practical experience was important, his top priority was raising his cultivation level to ensure he could stay alive.
In the blink of an eye, three months passed. Li Qiuxia had used one month to copy Uncle Jiu's entire collection and the Maoshan chronicles into his mind. While he couldn't guarantee he could use everything immediately, given a bit of time to think, he could likely come up with a counter-measure for almost any situation.
Furthermore, even though he had memorized the Taoist arts and talismans, he couldn't actually perform them yet. For one, he hadn't practiced the forms, and more importantly, they required mana to execute and Li Qiuxia had not yet condensed his mana.
Over these three months, Li Qiuxia had reached the point where he could perceive ninety-nine strands of Lingqi. He was on the verge of breaking through to one hundred, and tonight was the night.
Usually, Li Qiuxia was alone in his room, but tonight, Uncle Jiu was there with him. Li Qiuxia had previously told his master that his goal was to synthesize a single strand of mana from one hundred strands of Lingqi.
He had been stuck at ninety-nine strands for half a month, spending that time using the Lingqi to temper his constitution and his Sharingan. He felt that both his eyes and his Godly Body had reached their current limits. It was time for a Sorcerer to become a Taoist.
As Li Qiuxia's master, Uncle Jiu stood to the side to protect his breakthrough, feeling quite nervous. He was immensely satisfied with this disciple; the boy was polite, hardworking, and even knew how to suggest excellent dishes.
Though Li Qiuxia couldn't cook them himself, under his guidance, Wencai's culinary skills had improved significantly. Beyond that, whenever they went out for Feng Shui consultations, having Li Qiuxia by his side gave Uncle Jiu a great deal of "face."
As Li Qiuxia circulated his cultivation method, the surrounding Lingqi began to gather. Five strands, ten, twenty, fifty, seventy, ninety... Only after reaching ninety did the pace begin to slow. Ninety-one, ninety-two, ninety-three... ninety-nine. After the ninety-ninth strand arrived, the Lingqi paused. After a short while, one more strand appeared.
The moment the hundredth strand of Lingqi gathered outside Li Qiuxia's body, the previously still ninety-nine strands instantly surged together and fused. They formed a single wisp of mana in the air, which then flowed into Li Qiuxia through his Baihui Point.
Watching from the side, Uncle Jiu was momentarily stunned. "So, when Lingqi reaches a hundred strands, it automatically fuses into mana on the outside? That saves a lot of effort; he doesn't even need to move them to his Dantian to merge them."
There are two main difficulties when a Sorcerer breaks through to become a Taoist: one is finding the location of the Dantian in the meditative void, and the other is fusing the Lingqi into a single strand of mana.
For Li Qiuxia, these two hurdles were not difficult at all. With his powerful mental strength, finding the Dantian was easy. As for the fusion, the Lingqi had already merged outside his body; he simply had to draw it into his Dantian to finalize the mana.
Once the mana entered his body, Li Qiuxia quickly guided it to the location of his Dantian under mental control and merged it within.
The Dantian, which had been pitch-black and devoid of light, suddenly brightened as that single wisp of mana settled inside.
Seeing that Li Qiuxia had successfully incorporated the Lingqi and transformed it into mana, Uncle Jiu stepped out of the room. The dangerous part was over; the rest didn't require his supervision.
However, now that Li Qiuxia had become a Taoist, he needed to learn other things, such as boxing and talisman drawing. Especially talismans as a Taoist, if you couldn't even draw a basic talisman, how could that be considered reasonable?
It might be acceptable for other Taoists, but for Lin Fengjiao, it was absolutely unacceptable. Even if a disciple's work looked like "ghost scribbles," they still had to know how to draw and at least understand what a hex was. Otherwise, word would get out that Lin Fengjiao didn't know how to teach his students.
After a night of cultivation, Li Qiuxia finished his session the next morning only to be given a schedule by Uncle Jiu. Boxing in the early morning, drawing talismans in the late morning, and studying Taoist arts in the afternoon subjects like the Exorcism Incantation, Stanching Incantation, Body Protection Incantation, and Fire Ignition Incantation.
Furthermore, now that Li Qiuxia was a Taoist, Uncle Jiu handed him the Guyi Cultivation Method, a Maoshan technique developed for the Taoist rank. It allowed a practitioner to refine Lingqi from food to increase their mana and create a mana shield for protection.
As the teaching progressed, Uncle Jiu grew more and more satisfied. Li Qiuxia understood everything instantly, wasn't afraid of hardship or fatigue, and even knew how to be frugal. For example, during the morning talisman practice, Li Qiuxia would draw on stones or a sand tray,
only moving to paper once he could complete the entire design in a single stroke. Even though he had already memorized every talisman in the collection, if Uncle Jiu told him to draw a specific one, he wouldn't touch anything else all morning. Even if he had already mastered it, he would give himself extra tasks.
At night, it went without saying that he replaced sleep with cultivation. He was incredibly diligent. Through their time living together, Uncle Jiu had come to understand Li Qiuxia's personality. The reason the boy worked so hard and was so industrious was partly because he truly loved Taoist arts, but the other part was a simple fear of death.
Li Qiuxia had told Uncle Jiu before that he didn't know when he might be whisked away just as he had arrived. Therefore, he had to cultivate with everything he had before that happened. If he could return later, that was fine, but if he couldn't come back, wouldn't he be finished?
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