My Legend Still Exists in the Cultivation World

“Cheep, cheep, cheep, what’re you trying to do? How dare you treat the system like this?!”

The little blue chicken trembled in fear, helpless as the villain caught it in the palm of his hands but unable to resist, it could only shout at the opponent’s divine consciousness.

Jing Yue stared at it for a long while before he guessed, “The blue jade?”

Oops, busted…

The little blue chicken felt a bit guilty at first, but it realized instinctively that the attitude of the villain had softened somewhat, so it immediately jumped up from his palm, “Humph! You’re such an ungrateful person. If I hadn’t saved your soul-mind, you would have totally disappeared by now!”

“Not only did you steal my innate pure-Qi, but also took my eggshell! You, you, you… you’re such a big baddie!”

Jing Yue, “Oh, I see, that blue jade is your eggshell.”

The little blue chicken pointed its beak to the sky, wings crossed over its chest, one claw tapping rhythmically on Jing Yue’s palm, nearly bursting with the arrogant attitude of ‘now that you know I’m your savior, you should be bowing to me in reverence’.

Jing Yue, “So… what are you anyway?”

Before the little blue chicken said anything, though, Jing Yue continued, “And you’d better stop saying that you’re the system, otherwise I might lose control of my fingers.”

The little blue chicken shuddered, “I… I’m the one and only remaining Blue Phoenix left in the world!”

Jing Yue’s pupils constricted at that declaration. Blue Phoenix? Divine Beast from the ancient times?

In his past life, Jing Yue once saw a record of the Blue Phoenix on a stone tablet in a Mid-historic secret realm. According to the texts, blue phoenixes were omnipotent and omniscient, but nobody had ever seen one. So far, the legend of the Blue Phoenix only existed during the Pre-historic era.

Despite all that, as Jing Yue stared at the dumb and cowardly little blue chicken standing on his palm…

Pre-historic divine beast? Omnipotent and omniscient??

A skeptical look crossed the villain’s face, and the little blue chicken felt insulted. Aggrieved by that reaction, it explained, “I’m really a Blue Phoenix! During the pre-historic catastrophe, the entire blue phoenix race sacrificed their lives to save all living things, only leaving behind one living egg, the blue jade that you’d picked up. All this time, I’ve been hatching in that egg. When I saw you struck by lightning, I kindly saved you… cheep, cheep, cheep!”

Jing Yue abruptly squeezed his fingers around the bird, watching as it struggled and squawked, before saying harshly, “You’re lying.”

The little blue chicken froze.

Jing Yue, “When I was sucked into the blue jade, there was no other divine consciousness around. In other words, you were practically a dead egg. When my divine consciousness entered, it injected my living breath into you, giving you the chance to be born. Iwas the one who saved you.”

The little blue chicken stopped struggling and its wings drooped dejectedly.

Jing Yue, “I’ll give you another chance to explain. Start talking.”

Little blue chicken shook out its feathers and started talking listlessly.

As it turned out, the lightning tribulation induced by Jing Yue was an Origin of heaven and earth, and it also happened to be nourishment for hatching the blue phoenix. The blue jade eggshell was trying to absorb the lightning tribulation instinctively, but it accidentally attracted Jing Yue’s soul-mind too.

In a strange turn of events, the living breath in Jing Yue’s soul-mind helped the blue phoenix nurture a bit of spiritual sense. It wasn’t until its spiritual sense was fully developed just a moment ago, that Jing Yue discovered its existence.

Jing Yue, “Although it was only an accident, I’d have completely disappeared if not for the blue jade. I must give you the credit for it.”

The blue phoenix cried, “You’ve finally admitted it!”

After finding out the truth, Jing Yue could not be bothered to argue with the chicken anymore. After all, the blue phoenix came into this world because of him, and that formed a natural causal connection between them.

He thought for a bit and asked, “A while ago, you were talking about ‘slap face’, what was that about? And what does a ‘system’ mean?”

Seeing that the threat was lifted, the blue phoenix puffed its chest proudly, “Since you’ve heard about the blue phoenix, you must be quite knowledgeable, and probably aware that the blue phoenix race is famous for being omniscient. ‘Slap face’ and ‘system’ are terms used in other smaller worlds, it’s normal if you don’t know it.”

At the sight of Jing Yue’s half-smile, it cowered immediately and changed its tone, “But I’m still a baby, and you’ve consumed most of my innate pure-Qi. You’ve even monopolized my eggshell!”

Tears welled up in the blue phoenix’s eyes, “I’m nothing but a handicapped blue phoenix, so I don’t know that much, and a lot of knowledge is very vague…”

Jing Yue: “That’s pretty obvious.”

Blue Phoenix, “…”

Jing Yue stroked its soft feathers with one finger, “As long as you’re obedient, I will treat you kindly even if you don’t know anything.”

After saying that, he put the blue phoenix down, closed his eyes, and started to meditate.

He practiced the Art of Ten Desolate Universe, which contained a set of mantra and swordplay, and this art was categorized as a Heaven-tier cultivation technique.

In the cultivation world, cultivation techniques were divided into five levels: Heaven, Earth, Xuan, Huang, and Mortal, ranging from the highest to the lowest. Very few Heaven-tier techniques existed, and almost everyone that cultivated a Heaven-tier technique would induce a tribulation passage, barring any accidents.

In his past life, Jing Yue was a single spiritual root Water elemental, highly compatible with this cultivation technique. Once mastered, he would be able to manipulate the water element at will, without the need for other water spells.

However, the technique obtained by Jing Yue was incomplete. Over thousands of years, he had progressively perfected this technique by his own talent. When he had made the final adjustment and subsequently comprehended the rudimentary form of the technique, the Ninth-heaven Lightning Tribulation had been inexplicably induced, which resulted in his untimely demise.

Jing Yue activated the skill proficiently, and his divine consciousness lighted up with different colors of gold, green, blue, red and yellow, which corresponded with each spiritual element of metal, wood, water, fire and earth.

The more authentic the spiritual root of a cultivator, the better it would attract the same elemental attributes, thus making it easier to be absorbed.

Droplets of blue light gradually approached Jing Yue, tentatively touching his skin at first, before enthusiastically penetrating into his body.

In a blink of an eye, Jing Yue successfully guided the Qi into his body, crossing into the Qi Refining* stage.

(TN: The term ‘Qi Condensation’ is replaced by ‘Qi Refining’ to better reflect the original text. This term refers to the second stage of cultivation level after Body Forging.)

The pure water spiritual Qi seeped into the meridians along his orifice, going through the internal circulation and performing one big circuit, before it finally morphed into a strand of filament and settled in his Dantian.

“Eh?”

When Jing Yue used his divine consciousness to look at it, he found the strand of blue filament shining with a faint silvery light. Under normal circumstances, the spiritual Qi absorbed by a single spiritual root would only produce a one-color element. Could this be an abnormal mutation?

Jing Yue stretched out a finger and gathered a pool of water at his fingertip, and he found the water surrounded by strands of lightning.

Lightning element? Could it be caused by the Ninth-heaven lightning tribulation?

With a flicker of his mind, the lightning was separated from the water again.

Jing Yue was pleasantly surprised at this discovery. Not only could he control both elements of water and lightning, but he could also combine the two elements as well. He was more excited by this finding than having an Omnispirit body!

“Cheep, this is quite a big perk that you have!” The blue phoenix, grooming its feathers beside Jing Yue, quipped suddenly.

“Perk?”

“The Midas’ Touch!” At the perplexed look on Jing Yue’s face, the blue phoenix said feebly, “I’m trying to say that your luck is very good.”

“Thank you.” Jing Yue stroked the chicken’s head. The flattered blue phoenix froze in a daze, then turned its head so high that it almost broke its neck.

The next morning, a fully refreshed Jing Yue stepped out of the hut. He spent the entire night cultivating, and the tiny filament of spiritual energy in his Dantian was now much bigger.

As Jing Yue used his divine consciousness to hide his cultivation level, Old man Liu did not notice anything different, and passed a set of garment to Jing Yue, “I modified it from some old clothes, just bear with it for a while.”

Immediately, he noticed the bird perched on Jing Yue’s shoulder, “Where did this little chick come from, it even has blue feathers?”

The blue phoenix crooked its head regally, beady eyes focused on Jing Yue, waiting for his introduction.

Jing Yue, “This wild pheasant flew in from the window yesterday evening, and it kept following me around for some strange reason.”

Blue phoenix, ‘???’

Lil Pebble, who was in Old man Liu’s arms, looked at the blue phoenix curiously and said softly, “Big Brother, does the bird have a name?”

“Chirp-chirp or Ji-ji, perhaps,” Jing Yue said nonchalantly, since those were the sounds it made.

Unexpectedly, that resulted in a fierce resistance from the blue phoenix. Although its wing-feathers were not fully grown out yet, it flapped its furry little wings and flew to the top of Jing Yue’s head, clawed at his hair and squawked at his divine consciousness, “I don’t want to be called Ji-ji!”

In some worlds, Ji-ji meant ‘that thing’!

(TN: Jing Yue was referring to 叽叽, the sound made by birds. The Blue Phoenix, on the other hand, was referring to 鸡鸡, a slang word for the male anatomy. Both terms sound the same.)

Jing Yue made a grab for it and grinned widely, “I’ve decided, its name will be Ji-ji.”

Blue phoenix, “…”

Old man Liu led the two humans and one ‘pheasant’ to Minisun Town, steeled his heart and paid the 2 taels of silver for the entrance fee, and that was only because Lil Pebble was still a child that he was not charged extra.

The market in this town was different from the one in the village, with a touch of prosperity to it. Jing Yue wandered around to his heart’s content and soon realized that herbs were only found in medicinal shops, while the stalls around sold ready-made pills.

Jing Yue got some taels from Old man Liu and purchased some pills that were used by Body Forging cultivators so that he could examine it. To his dismay, the effects of the pills were so poor that he would have had trashed it during his past life.

Jing Yue suspected that there was a lost gap in the cultivation civilization in the past ten thousand years. Ignoring the constipated look on Old man Liu’s face, he bought more pills for research purposes, and gradually formed some hypotheses after careful observation.

After that, he found a refining shop and sold the remaining materials extracted from the desert wolf, and bought a pill furnace.

Old man Liu exclaimed in surprise, “Do you know how to refine pills?”

Jing Yue, “A little bit.”

He did not explain any further to Old man Liu, merely asking him for the location for herb-picking, and said, “Tomorrow, we shall go to the back of the mountain to pick some herbs. Now, I will be heading to the bookstore. You can walk around with Lil Pebble.”

“What do you want to find out? You can ask me,” the blue phoenix chirped in Jing Yue’s divine consciousness.

“Do you know what happened in the last ten thousand years?”

Blue phoenix, “That is, I have a faint idea… ermm, the sky was blood-red, the ground was full of corpses, and the two lands were split apart…”

“That’s enough, be quiet.”

“…”

When Jing Yue found the book General History of Ten Millennium, he realized that the blue phoenix was not too far from the truth.

Eight thousand years ago, the Order of Heaven and Earth went into chaos. To seize the opportunity, a great battle ensued between the Yao tribe and the mortal world. In the end, a mortal powerhouse slaughtered the Yao Saint in one strike, set a barrier, and imprisoned the Yao tribe in the Yao Detention Mountain.

After the great battle, however, the world went through a metamorphosis. The two mainlands that the mortals used to live in had split into seven, and the Bipolar World had now become the World of Seven Continents. Countless elites perished in the fight, which resulted in a loss of inheritance and legacy within the sects, and the cultivation civilization dwindled to almost nothing.

The only sects that survived from ten millennia ago were the Frostcloud Sect and Sword Inscription Sect of the righteous Dao, the Lurking Ghost Sect of the demonic Dao, the Three Realm Temple of Buddhism, and the Dragon Palace of the Dragon race. If not for the firmly entrenched background and profound heritage of these five distinguished schools, the entire civilization of the cultivation world would be lost forever.

Jing Yue sighed deeply. He never expected that two thousand years after his death, such a big event would have happened, and that the Frostcloud Sect had tenaciously persevered.

No wonder when he was practicing the night before, he felt that the spiritual Qi was more abundant than ten millennia ago. It turned out that after the great catastrophe, the mortal world had had eight thousand years to recuperate.

“Eh? There are lots of opportunities to slap face!” The blue phoenix chirped from the top of Jing Yue’s head.

“Mm?”

The blue phoenix sounded very excited, “With so many ancient secret recipes lost, there are bound to be lots of valuable items and ingredients that the people don’t know of, and treated as useless scrap. But you know about it, and I know about it, so that provides the foundation to slap their faces with.”

“Just imagine this. When you go into a shop to buy the cheapest material, the shopkeeper will ridicule you for being too poor to afford something better. You laugh evilly and tell them the true value of that item, dazzling everyone in the process, and the shopkeeper will regret his words.”

“Imagine another scenario, you use a spiritual herb to refine a pill, but that herb was treated like wild grass. You’re laughed at, but you’ll produce a premium-quality pill, and slap their faces into oblivion. Cheep, cheep, cheep, I’m so looking forward to it!”

Jing Yue closed the book unhurriedly and said, “You’ve such an active imagination. Is that the knowledge from the other worlds?”

“Humph! All the cultivation novels were written that way. I love plotlines that involve a wolf in sheep’s clothing!” As the blue phoenix was talking, it suddenly saw a book and smacked its knee, “Ah! There’s one! Look!”

Jing Yue turned around, and his gaze fell on a set of books displayed prominently on a bookshelf. The title of the book: The Cultivation Chronicles of Daoist-Master Jing Yuan.

Jing Yue, ‘???’

Author’s Notes:

Today’s mini theater

A long, long time ago, a baby named Jing Yuan was born. On that day, the sky was full of colorful clouds, the village’s dogs barked and the cocks crowed, and even the old folks within a ten-mile radius grew their teeth back and the hair turned black.

Such a vision showed that Jing Yuan was not an ordinary person.

He was indeed unusual. He could talk right after leaving his mother’s womb, and the first sentence he said was, “I’m Jing Yuan and I want to cultivate immortality.”

At one-year-old, he successfully forged his body and could lift a thousand catties of boulder. At the age of three, his fame spread through the world and countless great forces fought to accept him as a disciple. When he was five…

Jing Yue tosses the book down: What the heck is it writing about?!