In the evening, there was also a banquet.

Another lively banquet at night.

Some villagers were drinking, while others gathered around several bonfires in the village, singing and dancing.

Zhang Feng was dining at the table with the village head and the village elders, planning to continue his journey to see the world after the meal.

However, he hadn’t finished eating yet.

The village head gratefully said, "Daoist, there are some cultivation books and some handwritten notes from the previous Daoist in the village. Shall I get them for you?"

’Secret manuals?’

Upon hearing this, Zhang Feng surveyed the surroundings and realized why these villagers had some insights into cultivation.

Besides being people from the Spiritual Qi World, there was also a legacy of knowledge.

This needed to be taken seriously.

...

The next day.

Through some of the books left here, as well as some old bamboo scrolls from cultivators, Zhang Feng discovered that there were quite a few Golden Core beings in this world, and many large sects as well.

Combining this with the written mention of standard Golden Core perfection, one could make it into the top ten.

Zhang Feng’s desire to venture out into the world was suddenly interrupted.

Because he realized that his strength was just ’barely enough to protect himself.’

Initially feeling that flying was a significant power, he now found that wasn’t the case.

If these Golden Core masters here could break the sound barrier and he ran into them, it would be foolish.

So he decided to stay prudent for a while longer.

It was also a good opportunity to clear his heart demon.

The issue of the heart demon couldn’t be postponed any longer.

Considering this matter.

Zhang Feng spread his spiritual sense over the entire mountain village, deciding that it could serve as a temporary cultivation ground.

It’s crucial to establish a system for conventional cultivation practices from the real world like ’sense of Qi, Qi Cultivation, Foundation Establishment’, and so on.

There were quite a few people in this village, making it a good example and training ground to summarize cultivation and teaching insights.

Through observing their cultivation, it became a form of big data practice, useful for his breakthrough to the Golden Core.

...

That day, Zhang Feng also spread the word about teaching cultivation skills.

The villagers were naturally eager to sign up.

After all, they lived off the land, farming in normal times and occasionally hunting and gathering at the forest’s edge.

Therefore, knowing some ’martial skills’ was very important.

Not to mention, this was ’magic.’

Consequently, Zhang Feng wouldn’t lack food anymore.

In their eagerness to learn magic, the villagers brought whatever they had to him.

Apart from daily necessities, they were almost willing to empty their family savings.

Naturally, Zhang Feng didn’t take too much because the ordinary grains were insufficient to meet his needs.

He relied entirely on Spiritual Qi now.

As for teaching magic, teaching one person was the same as teaching a group.

Moreover, the more people taught, the more data collected.

Currently, Zhang Feng assumed the identity of a ’reclusive master,’ intending to retreat to this small village and turn it into a ’paradise.’

First, experiencing life for ten or twenty years before making further plans.

Also, it was a good time to venture the Golden Core process.

Regarding these matters.

Through years of conventional cultivation practice, Zhang Feng almost understood it.

First, this cultivation was about training the body, but not just the body, it referred to the ’overall functionality,’ and included all the muscles and bones.

Simply put, the focus of Qi operation was the ’middle Dantian’ located in the chest’s center.

The book says, ’Below the heart is the cinnabar palace and golden gates, which is the middle Dantian.’

The Golden Core method also resides in the heart.

Furthermore, as the heart is the ’central power’ of all limbs and bones, if the Golden Core is stored here, it can govern the body’s entire operation.

This governance is their body training.

In mystical terms, it’s akin to what Patriarch Bodhi said in Journey to the West: ’The moon hides the jade rabbit while the sun hides the crow, naturally the turtle and snake are entwined. Entwined, life is strong and thereby grow golden lotus from the flames.’

This phrase and the Golden Core.

Symbolize the reciprocal nature of heaven and earth, i.e., the ’overall harmony’ of Tai Chi.

The practice is about the Daoist ’inner core’ body training.

This body is the robust harmony of life.

Zhang Feng, well-versed in Daoist and Buddha teachings, could broadly infer the meaning, although it’s also a personal theoretical projection.

As for the reality of it, or if there’s any deviation from his assumption.

Zhang Feng didn’t know because he hadn’t entered that realm.

Nor did he want to see if other Golden Cores were the same, as that wouldn’t be much help either.

After all, he understood the principles, but now he needed his own Golden Core, not someone else’s.

After all, he’s practicing ’upper, middle, and lower’ three Dantians together.

Each Dantian has its own cultivation method, and these are entirely different systems.

And what Zhang Feng wanted to achieve was integrating the three Dantians into one, realizing a ’Grand Circulation’ and ’Grand Robust Life.’

Furthermore, in Zhang Feng’s view, this was simpler than Three-in-One Primordial Qi.

Since all Spiritual Qi is fundamentally the same root and origin, and the three Dantians are parallel.

In Zhang Feng’s plan, the lower Dantian stores Spiritual Qi, the middle Dantian commands and mobilizes the body’s energy, and the upper Dantian nourishes the spirit.

Spiritual Thought then leads the three parts.

This is essentially a cultivation of essence, energy, and spirit.

Essence, energy, and spirit are a person’s foundation, inherently whole and indispensable.

In the context of their inherent unity, naturally, they can easily be led together.

Plus, Zhang Feng wanted, based on this unification, to realize the concept of Three-in-One Primordial Qi.

Because once the perspective is broadened, spirit is the mind, Powerful Qi is Qi, and Inner Strength is the essence of the five organs.

Themselves are also a unity.

This is within the basic logic of human anatomical study.

Zhang Feng felt he could deduce the principles of Three-in-One Primordial Qi through the introspection and conceptualization of the Golden Core.

If it can’t be deduced, then it’s not that ’Physics doesn’t exist,’ rather ’Biology doesn’t exist.’

...

After staying in the village for a few days.

Initially, Zhang Feng was still slowly adapting, but on the fifth day, an unexpected visitor arrived.

It was that little carp.

When she approached, the nearby villagers were a bit apprehensive, but those who had previously met her mentioned that Spirit Monsters were good creatures.

Similarly, the little carp was quite scared seeing so many villagers staring at her.

But recalling the handsome and powerful high mage.

She mustered her courage and ran briskly toward the village.

Afterwards, she got lost in the village, not knowing where Zhang Feng lived.

She wanted to ask someone, but couldn’t speak, nor write human words; otherwise, she could write on the ground to ask for directions.

Meanwhile, as she was feeling quite bewildered.

In her faint spiritual sense, she seemed to see a man enveloped in warm sunlight approaching from the distance.

As she turned to gaze with her fins, she realized it was indeed the Daoist she had been seeking, and for a moment, she was mesmerized.

Zhang Feng, upon seeing her and noticing this rather adorable little fish staring blankly at him, knew that the scene from his earliest master’s world, the ’childhood sweetheart chasing him,’ was being replayed.

Except, in this world, the childhood sweetheart was a fish.