Starting My Cultivation With Time Management

A boat was sailing on Dongting Lake.

"Why does Sister Han Yuan have white hair?" Xu Yinglian asked curiously.

"I was afflicted with a cold poison while in my mother's womb," Luo Baiyuan replied. "My innate physical body had deficiencies, hence the white hair."

"I hadn't realized Sister's journey was so challenging," Xu Yinglian said, moved. "To have now secured the position of Chief Disciple in the Golden Core Realm is truly admirable."

Qiu Changtian didn't join in the conversation, merely listening quietly at the side.

He knew that Junior Sister Xu was most fond of these "success through hard work" stories, and since Sister Luo started from a low point, became a Chief Disciple, and was also a woman, she could win Xu Yinglian's empathy all the more.

"There is nothing worthy of admiration," Luo Baiyuan replied. "It was just luck."

"Luck?" Xu Yinglian said with a dismissive smile. "If one can attain the position of Chief Disciple in the Golden Core Realm by luck, then I really don't know if there are any challenges left in the world."

After many years of training by Qiu Changtian, she now had a strong immunity to this kind of "top-student-style modesty."

Luo Baiyuan seemed puzzled and said honestly:

"Sister Qiong Ying, I'm not lying to you, it was indeed just luck... Among my peers, there were three senior brothers who were much stronger than me; they all advanced to the Nascent Soul. My cultivation speed was too slow, so I stayed in the Golden Core Realm as the Chief Disciple."

Xu Yinglian: ...

Qiu Changtian turned his head to suppress a laugh, which Xu Yinglian promptly noticed, shooting him a sharp glance.

She was reminded of how her senior brother Dog had achieved Core Formation ahead of time and had left the position of Chief Disciple in the Foundation Establishment Realm to her. Seeing her husband laugh, she suddenly felt somewhat infuriated.

"Sister Qiong Ying and Brother Changgeng have a truly wonderful relationship," Luo Baiyuan said enviously. "To have a confidante in life is fortunate; to end up together is doubly so, an incredibly rare blessing."

"Sister is joking," Xu Yinglian replied with uncharacteristic shyness. "With Sister's exceptional qualities, you certainly won't lack a worthy match."

The two began to enter the phase of mutual adulation typical of women meeting for the first time, and their rapport warmed quickly.

Qiu Changtian was very aware and didn't rashly interrupt their budding friendship, instead standing hands behind him at the bow of the boat, gazing into the distance.

The reason the three of them chose not to fly on swords, but rather to travel by boat, was naturally to avoid drawing attention—according to reports, the traitor from the Xu Family had not flown on a sword either, but had disguised himself as a commoner and traveled down the river.

Boarding the boat from Dongting Lake to the Xiang River, Xu Yinglian stopped idly chatting with Sister Luo and instead started to pay close attention, carefully observing their surroundings.

According to records from the Xu Family's search for the traitor, the last known location of the culprit was along the banks of the Xiang River.

After that, they completely lost track of him... A check using Art Calculation more or less confirmed that the person had perished.

In fact, over the long search, whether it was the villages on both sides of the Xiang River or the forts in the nearby forests, the Xu Family had likely searched them all without finding any trace of the traitor.

Although the relic left behind by Feng Tong was precious, the most important aspect was its significance as 'an ancestral heirloom'; naturally, it wouldn't be feasible to continue the fruitless search generation after generation.

Xu Yinglian guessed that the person must have entered some secret realm.

Only an independent secret realm forming its own world could have hidden a cultivator's body until now without being discovered.

However, without any leads, searching the entire Xiang River for an entrance to an unknown secret realm was as futile as finding a needle in the ocean, wasn't it?

"Ah Jing!" Qiu Changtian probed. "Is there a way to scan the entire Xiang River?"

"Sure," the Kunlun Mirror replied somewhat irritably. "I even have a method to scan the entire Cultivation Realm. Do you believe that?"

"You're not allowed to lie, warning you twice." After disciplining Ah Jing, Qiu Changtian turned back to the cabin room to start reading the information Xu Yinglian had brought alone.

The entire Xiang River is more than two hundred miles long, and a carpet-style search would be impractical. Evidence must be sought elsewhere to narrow down the investigation scope.

According to records provided by the Xu Family, the traitor's name is "Xu Zhi," a bad seed with a festering head and rotten sores on his feet, having betrayed the family due to a so-called rebellious bone behind his head... What kind of mess is this?

Qiu Changtian read the records carefully, and beyond the heavy political smearing, there was actually not much valuable information.

For example, why Xu Zhi decided to betray the Xu Family is only mentioned in a few places, suggesting that he rebelled and fled south after failing to secure power within the family.

Of course, if you think about it, shouldn't a cultivator be focused on cultivating immortality? Why would they be involved in power struggles?

Can organizational power structures even compare to the strength of self-won cultivation levels?

It's clear that overly intense political strife led to the current Xu Family leader's inability to tolerate Xu Zhi, forcing the latter to flee.

Xu Zhi originally possessed excellent talent for cultivation within the family and was also one of the core high-level members. Otherwise, he would not have had the qualifications to enter the Feng Tong ancestral tomb.

At the time, The Xu Family of Southern Heaven seemed unprepared for his defection, or they misjudged the timing of his escape, leading to the discovery of his disappearance and the tomb raid only half a day later.

After leaving the Xu Family, Xu Zhi first flew on his sword to Jiangling City (there were many witnesses, confirming this), then disguised himself as a mortal to blend into the city and continued southward along the river.

In a world without identity cards and cameras, once a cultivator uses disguise and blends into the vast sea of people, it's nearly impossible to be discovered, which is why the Demon Cult's Six Paths have always survived despite being hunted by the Three Pure Orthodox Sect.

The reason it's "nearly" impossible is because in this world there is a line of secret techniques known as "Art Calculation."

In any case, The Xu Family of Southern Heaven asked for assistance from the Jian Family of Qingzhou and, through Art Calculation, confirmed that Xu Zhi continued southwest along the river by boat, reaching and passing through Dongting Lake into the Xiang River, and then his trail went cold.

In Art Calculation, "losing the trail" can mean many things, such as using a shielding technique to hide from the Art Calculation, or being involved in deeper secrets of heaven that make it impossible to calculate, or entering another realm beyond the reach of Art Calculation, and so on.

So, the Xu Family set up a large number of people around the Xiang River for investigation, but strangely Xu Zhi vanished like a stone sunk into the sea, leaving behind no trace or clue... All information and intel came to an abrupt halt.

Where did Xu Zhi plan to go? Qiu Changtian flipped through another book, "Water Records of the Divine Land," found the map, and saw that Xu Yinglian had already made some markings on it.

Southern Heaven, Jiangling City, Yangtze River, Dongting Lake, Xiang River—if these points are connected in a line, one could see that Xu Zhi has always been heading southwest.

What's in the southwest? The Hundred Thousand Mountains of the Southern Border, this location was circled by Xu Yinglian with a vermilion pen.

Perhaps it is to join the Eastern Emperor Path, or maybe to find a place to seclude himself, but it's highly probable that Xu Zhi's destination is the Southern Border.

Though the Southern Border is distant from the Central Plains, it harbors many remnants of the Witch Clan and various heterodoxies, including quite a few evil techniques capable of shielding from Art Calculation. That's why those in the Central Plains, if pursued by enemies and wanting seclusion undisturbed by the world, often choose to go to the Southern Border to find local tribes, or to the Tibetan Plateau to seek out foreign monks, rather than fleeing to the deserts beyond Great Wall, or to the East Sea or Southern Sea.

But if this is the conclusion, then Xu Zhi most probably does not possess the ability to shield from Art Calculation; otherwise, why make such a determined effort to head for the Southern Border?

This leads to the thought that by some chance he stumbled into some secret realm, causing the trace of his Art Calculation... even his existence in this world to completely vanish, which then becomes the most likely of the many possibilities.

However, where exactly is the entrance to this secret realm? With no clues to go on, isn't it a needle in a haystack?

After much thought, Qiu Changtian finally heaved a sigh and asked the Kunlun Mirror,

"Ah Jing, you mentioned before that you have a method to scan the entire Xiang River, right?"

"I suggest you directly travel back to the era when Xu Zhi betrayed the family and follow him to see where he went. That might be a more reliable approach," suggested the Kunlun Mirror.

"That might work..."

"Forget it! It's impossible!"