Immortality and Cultivation: Starting with Improved Spirit Rice

Chapter 2 Only Today Do I Realize Who I Am

The carriage swayed and rattled on the bluestone road, the axles creaking and groaning from friction.

Zhao Cheng'an sat in the carriage, his back pressed tightly against the wooden board, his mind uneasy.

The feeling of being watched lingered outside the carriage, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, staring intently at the back of his neck.

The car quickly drove away from Cangwu Mountain.

At the foot of the mountain, on the shore of Mirror Lake, there is a medium-sized market where students from the Imperial Academy and nearby residents usually buy daily necessities. To get from the market to the teahouse, one needs to walk along a secluded path.

Zhao Cheng'an lifted a corner of the curtain, glanced at the terrain outside, and immediately spoke to the guards outside.

"Let's not go to the teahouse, let's turn around and go to Blind Man's Quarters."

The guard paused for a moment, feeling a little strange, but didn't ask any further questions; he simply raised his whip.

"drive!"

The carriage turned at the intersection and headed to the other side.

Blind Man's Quarter is a place similar to the antique street in my previous life. The original owner of this body used to often stroll around here, buying some strange and unusual things, but it was purely out of curiosity, and she never found anything of real value.

We soon arrived at the Blind Man's Quarters.

Zhao Cheng'an had the guards stop the carriage outside, and the two of them went inside together.

Blind Man's Lane is nestled between two tall buildings, dimly lit, and filled with a musty, damp smell.

Here, buying and selling things depends entirely on one's eyesight, and once a transaction is completed, there are no returns or exchanges, which is the origin of the name "Blind Man's Shop".

The space inside wasn't large, but there were quite a few people.

Several middle-aged men in long robes gathered in a corner, talking in hushed tones.

The stalls on both sides were filled with all kinds of old ceramics, dried-out mountain products, some smooth-polished animal bones, and all sorts of strange and unusual items.

Zhao Cheng'an's gaze swept across the stalls, his steps somewhat absentminded.

That feeling of being watched lingered on me like a persistent ghost.

Fortunately, the distance seemed to have increased somewhat. The master assassin appeared to be wary of something in the Blind Man's Quarters and dared not make any rash moves here.

This allowed Zhao Chengan to relax his tense nerves a little.

As he passed a stall filled with old objects, a few rough-surfaced stones that faintly shone caught his eye.

Zhao Cheng'an stopped, casually picked up a worn-out bronze stove from the stall, examined it, and asked nonchalantly, "Boss, how much is this bronze stove?"

The stall owner was a thin, old man who didn't even lift his eyelids.

"Ten taels of silver."

Zhao Cheng'an then pointed to the stones and pushed them over along with the bronze furnace.

"These few broken stones, too, are worth five taels of silver. Want to sell?"

The stall owner hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded.

Zhao Chengan paid the money and put the items into his sleeve.

Just as he stood up to leave, he suddenly realized that the sense of being watched that had been lingering around him had disappeared.

It's like someone who was about to suffocate finally surfacing and breathing their first breath of fresh air.

Zhao Chengan couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.

Only then did he realize that his undergarments were completely soaked with cold sweat, sticking stickily to his back, making him look extremely disheveled.

But he can't worry about that right now.

What he was more curious about was why the assassin had suddenly left.

Zhao Cheng'an subconsciously raised his head and looked towards the entrance of the Blind Man's Quarters.

The heavy wooden door was pushed open, and bright sunlight poured in. A thin old man wearing a tattered straw hat walked in from outside.

Zhao Chengan recognized the old man at a glance.

This is a teacher at the Imperial Academy named Qi Weizhao, who is responsible for teaching agricultural courses. Because he is easygoing and has very low expectations of his students, he never questions them even if they skip class, so his presence at the Imperial Academy is very low.

Why did the master assassin retreat immediately as soon as this old man appeared?

Is it just a coincidence?

Just as Zhao Cheng'an was pondering to himself, he noticed that Qi Weizhao seemed to have unconsciously glanced in his direction.

Zhao Chengan quickly lowered his head, avoiding the other person's gaze.

He wandered around the blind man's quarters for a while longer, and only after confirming that the assassin had really left did he quickly walk out the gate and get back into the carriage.

After all this commotion, he lost all interest in eating out.

"Back to the academy."

Zhao Cheng'an gave an order, and the carriage started again, heading towards Cangwu Mountain.

……

……

As the third prince of the Dayin Dynasty, Zhao Cheng'an held a special status. The Imperial Academy, with its vast grounds, specially arranged a secluded bamboo house for him as his residence.

Back in his bedroom, Zhao Cheng'an closed the door and took out the stones he had bought earlier, placing them on the table.

He was a little puzzled. These stones had rough surfaces and looked ordinary. Why did they suddenly attract his attention at the stall?

He reached out his hand, his fingertips just touching the surface of the stone.

A sudden, electric shock-like pain shot through my finger.

The moment he closed his eyes, a faint white light appeared in his mind.

To be precise, it wasn't seen with the eyes, but rather perceived directly from the depths of consciousness.

As the white light gradually became clearer, a round cauldron with two handles and four legs slowly appeared in his consciousness.

This tripod is made of neither gold nor jade, and its surface gleams with an ancient and profound luster.

The cauldron is carved with patterns of the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, birds, and beasts. Every line flows with a strange Taoist charm, as if the cauldron itself is a world unto itself.

At the same time, a large amount of information flooded into Zhao Cheng'an's mind along with the white light.

He suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils dilating slightly.

In his previous life, he was an independent game developer who once designed a small game simulating cultivation.

There's a key cheat feature in the game called the "Qiankun Cauldron." Its function is to combine low-level spiritual materials into higher-quality ones, with a certain probability of inheriting the superior attributes of both.

The Qiankun Cauldron that appeared in his mind was exactly the same as the setting in the game in his memory!

I actually brought the cheat codes from the game with me!

Zhao Cheng'an looked down at the stones on the table.

A line of grayish-white subtitles slowly appeared above the stone.

[Spirit Stone Fragment: The internal spiritual energy has been severely depleted. Two spirit stone fragments can be fused together to form a single broken spirit stone.]

Upon seeing this line of text, Zhao Chengan's breathing became heavy.

He braced himself on the table with both hands and stood up abruptly, the movement so sudden that it almost knocked over the chair behind him.

He crossed.

Moreover, this is not some ordinary ancient world at all, but a world of cultivation!

The worldview that the original owner had built up over the past ten years was completely shattered at this moment, and Zhao Cheng'an's excited mood could not be calmed for a long time.

To live forever and be carefree.

Who in this world can resist the temptation of immortality?

Zhao Cheng'an turned his head and looked at a ray of sunlight shining in through the window, with tiny dust particles dancing in the golden beam of light.

And now, a road leading to immortality has been clearly laid out before him.