The ruler was meditating when I came to her room, but she stopped and opened her eyes when I asked for help. Or did she stop? Even if her eyes are open, and it looks like all her attention is on me, she’s still practiced meditation for who knows how long. If I can meditate while eating, why can’t she meditate while answering my questions? “What do you need help with?”

Before I ask for help, I have to increase my chances of the ruler agreeing as much as possible. I’ll take out a small table, place it down in front of her, and offer up some tea! Old people love tea. I’m not sure why. “I want something that can help me generate my own spiritual energy, so when I go back home, I’ll have the power to protect myself.”

“Protect yourself, of course,” the ruler said, completely believing my words. She nodded at me and grabbed the cup of tea I prepared for her. “Generating spiritual energy on your own isn’t something you have to worry about. As my disciple, you’ll definitely become a transcendent beast, and during that process, all of the qi in your body will be converted into spiritual energy.”

Hmm, the encyclopedia did say something like that. He also said it was the hardest way! “What about the easier ways? Like the Immortal Fruit or Heaven Devouring Toad or those plants that can form a symbiotic relationship with me to produce spiritual energy?”

“Those are just cheap tricks,” the ruler said and shook her head. “The ability to generate spiritual energy isn’t anything special; it’ll only impress people stuck in lower realms that don’t have any ambient spiritual energy. True strength comes from one’s control over the spiritual energy around them.”

Luckily, the people I want to impress, Sophia and Softie and Ilya, are stuck in a lower realm without any ambient spiritual energy. “Sounds good to me. So, do you have any of those things, Teacher? The encyclopedias said they’re rare but easy for you to get.”

The ruler raised an eyebrow at me. “Let me elaborate,” she said. “Since your brain is no longer blocked, I can finally teach you things. The beginning steps of cultivation are all to prepare your body for the absorption of spiritual energy. You use your qi to widen your meridians. You use your qi to reinforce your organs. You use your qi to increase the space within your dantian. Once those factors reach an acceptable level, you can ascend to immortality. Being an immortal means you’re capable of using your qi to manipulate and take in the spiritual energy around you.

“Becoming a supreme immortal is achieving mastery over spiritual energy. Think of your qi as one big rope, and think of the spiritual energy around you as cows. With one rope, you can control one cow. If you split your qi and turn it into two ropes, you’ll be able to control two cows, but it’ll be more difficult because your ropes are thinner and weaker. If you’re proficient enough with ropes and cows, you could even use one rope to control multiple cows. A peak immortal is capable of splitting their qi into an uncountable number of ropes, each one controlling an uncountable number of cows until all the cows in the region are under their control. Once an immortal’s mastery over spiritual energy has achieved perfection, they can recreate their body with spiritual energy to become a peak immortal. Once their body is reconstructed, it’ll naturally produce spiritual energy on its own.”

I think that’s the longest amount of time I’ve ever paid attention to an explanation without having any of my thoughts interrupt my concentration. It makes me feel a little strange like my brain became dumber because it’s talking less. Hmm, Ilya did say wise people knew to keep their mouths shut unlike a certain talkative someone. …My brain is wise enough now to realize she was referring to me! When I finish convincing the ruler to help me out, I’ll be sure to use some spiritual energy to bully, err…, to protect my pride and dignity from Ilya. Right. Spiritual energy is for protection. “So…, in other words, generating spiritual energy on my own won’t make me stronger.”

“That’s right,” the ruler said and nodded. “In fact, it might make it more difficult to achieve mastery later on. The internal spiritual energy generated by external treasures will interfere with your qi, messing with your control over external spiritual energy. Of course, it might make you undefeatable against other immortals in regions lacking spiritual energy, but with your body and bloodline inheritance, you’re already stronger than most of your peers under those conditions. If you go back home to the lower plane, you can take a bodyful of spiritual energy with you, and that should be enough to protect you. Of course, if you use it to maintain your longevity, you’ll eventually run out, so don’t stay there too long; after all, you have such a wonderful home over here with me. Don’t you think Sophia will love it here?”

Mm, Sophia would probably like this place. There’s a problem though. “Doesn’t she have to become an immortal to come here?”

“There are ways to bring natives of lower planes to the mainland,” the ruler said. “There are dimensional-travel tools like the void dragon boat. Of course, those tools are a bit unreliable, prone to exploding in the void and killing all their passengers, so it’s better to visit the dragon clan and subdue an adult void dragon.” A twinkle appeared in the ruler’s eyes. “An ancient ruin has been discovered recently, and the younger generation of humans, demons, and beasts are congregating towards it. If you go there, not only can you find void dragons participating, but you could also find those spiritual-energy-generating treasures you were so interested in.”

Ancient ruin? Is this going to be like raiding tombs all over again? I’m already sick of that. “Will it be fun?”

The ruler rubbed her chin. “It should be fun,” she said and nodded at me. “I think you’ll like it; you can tell people I’m your master to force them to do things for you.”

Ah? That does sound pretty fun. Not that I would do such a thing! I’m a good person, geez.