Immortal Destiny

Chapter 8: Nine Heavens Manual

“I won’t be fishing again for the rest of my life!”

Xiao Fan kept cursing all the way home from the lake where he and Li Hao fished. He didn’t expect that he would almost lose his life from fishing.

The lake that the two of them visited turned out to be filled with Demonic Beasts living in the water. Had Li Hao been a bit late to save him, Xiao Fan would have been swallowed alive by one of the fish-shaped Demonic Beasts.

“I told you already, it’s a good thing you didn’t die…” Li Hao shook his head and carried a man-sized fishtail with him.

“At the peak of my power, I could kill all the inhabitants of that cursed lake with a snap of my finger! Even now I can still use my poison to do that if I don’t think of them as a food source!” Xiao Fan said furiously.

Li Hao just nodded without taking it too seriously. Xiao Fan continued complaining and defending himself all the way, his mouth only stopping when they were near the house. The reason he stopped talking was because something happened in front of him.

“I found it! I found it!”

They saw Fang Mu screaming hysterically while running around his own house. He showed great enthusiasm and had a satisfied look on his face.

“Hm… So this is how people feel when they see me discovering a new poison…” Xiao Fan muttered under his breath.

“Did you say something, Uncle?” Li Hao was as surprised as Xiao Fan at Fang Mu’s actions.

“Ah, I just remembered, I was also like that when an invention of mine was successful. Even though it looks like lunacy, it’s a reaction that shows good news.” Xiao Fan nodded slowly.

Li Hao scratched his head. Sometimes, he couldn’t understand Fang Mu and Xiao Fan’s mindsets. To him, the current Fang Mu looked like a person who had lost his mind.

***

“Nine Heaven Manual?” Xiao Fan scratched his ear, making sure he didn’t mishear Fang Mu’s words.

When he regained his composure, Fang Mu explained his findings to Xiao Fan and Li Hao. Fang Mu felt that he had found a solution to Li Hao’s five elemental Spirit Root problem—the Nine Heavens Manual.

“Uncle, what is this heaven manual about?” Li Hao didn’t understand Fang Mu’s explanation at all.

Fang Mu took a deep breath before starting to patiently explain. He understood that Li Hao was still very new to the world of cultivators.

“There are many paths that a cultivator can take to practice immortality, there are many directions that can be used according to the cultivator’s needs…”

In short, manuals are instructions for someone to become a cultivator, and each manual has its own characteristics and advantages. Besides that, manuals also have compatibility. There are manuals that can accelerate the development of people who have a water element Spirit Root up to five times, but if someone with the fire elemental root practices those manuals they will meet more obstacles.

“There are all kinds of manuals—ones that only cultivate Forging Qi or ones only for Nascent Soul—but great manuals will have instructions for all cultivation levels…”

Li Hao nodded slowly, starting to understand it a little.

Xiao Fan then added, “A manual is probably one of the most important foundations for a cultivator. It can raise the rank of a sect or group that practices it. All the major sects on the Eastern Star Continent have great manuals that help them reach the highest level…”

Without manuals, no matter how talented a person is, he or she will arrive at a wall that they can’t climb over. Because of that, everyone tries to enter the big and powerful sects in order to obtain the manuals that suit their needs.

“Hao er, do you still remember the history of the world that I told you about a few days ago? About the two human godlike humans who liberated humanity from the subjection of Divine Beasts?” Xiao Fan asked.

Li Hao nodded. He liked the story so much that he remembered everything clearly.

“When these two godlike humans taught humanity cultivation so that they could deal with Demonic Beasts, they passed it down in the form of ten manuals. From these ten manuals, new manuals were born based on the experiences of cultivators…” Xiao Fan explained.

“Among the first ten manuals, there are only two that still remain on the Eastern Star Continent, while the other eight have been lost to time. These two manuals are the Nine Heavens Manual and the Nine Hells Manual,” Fang Mu added to Xiao Fan’s explanation.

Fang Mu said the Nine Heavens Manual and Nine Hells Manual were actually considered lost as well until several hundred years ago when these two manuals were rediscovered. After a long struggle, the Heaven Mountain Sect managed to obtain Nine Heavens Manual. The whereabouts of the Nine Hells Manual were still unknown, but it was believed that the evil factions were still fighting over it.

“In the Nine Heavens Manual, there are instructions for practicing from Forging Qi to Nascent Soul. Besides that, there are about thirty pages that have not been translated successfully. It is believed that this script whose language is not yet understood is the key to attaining a higher stage than Nascent Soul.”

Fang Mu took out a book whose cover emitted a golden light. Written on the cover was, “Nine Heavens Manual.”

“In that case, have you practiced this manual? It sounds like a really great manual.”

Li Hao’s question made Fang Mu and Xiao Fan smile awkwardly. Li Hao realized something was wrong.

“The Nine Heavens Manual is indeed believed to be the best manual in the cultivator’s world, and only the Nine Hells Manual can match it… Initially, many tried to snatch this manual from the Heaven Mountain Sect’s hands, but eventually, they stopped.”

Fang Mu looked hesitant to explain so Xiao Fan joined in.

“The Nine Heavens Manual produces extremely pure qi for those who practice it; its practitioners are invincible in their cultivation stages. The problem is, to advance to the next stage of cultivation, training with this manual requires ten times more qi than those who practice other manuals…”

Li Hao took Xiao Fan’s explanation seriously, but he couldn’t find the problem.

“Doesn’t that mean just training longer and harder than everyone else? What’s the problem?” Li Hao asked innocently.

Fang Mu and Xiao Fan looked at each other before Fang Mu explained.

“In the world of cultivators, speed is of utmost importance, as well as resources. The ten times as much qi required might not be that significant at the Forging Qi, but it’s a different story when one enters the next stage of cultivation, especially when it comes to Nascent Soul…”

This was why no one tried to practice with the Nine Heavens Manual, which consumed too many resources. Even the Heaven Mountain Sect didn’t want to risk wasting resources.

TL Note: Sorry for the late update, I had many matters going on in rl, and thank you for waiting