Qin followed Shopkeeper Wu to the entrance of a secluded courtyard within the Qinghong Inn. Several martial artists, men and women, had arrived in a rush from outside Qingzhou that afternoon seeking lodging. When Shopkeeper Wu entered the courtyard and explained the situation to these guests, hoping they might vacate the space, it immediately sparked considerable displeasure among the martial heroes.

“Shopkeeper Wu, we have already secured this courtyard. On what grounds are you asking us to move out? Could it be that the name of our North Twenty Guild carries so little weight that it escapes your notice, Old Shopkeeper?” Several figures, dressed like wandering swordsmen and swordswomen, emerged from the courtyard.

Among them, a woman in red with a sword strapped to her back regarded Shopkeeper Wu, and the young man behind him, Ye Qin, with a cold voice. Beside her stood a composed middle-aged man, his hands clasped behind his back, silent. Furthermore, behind these two were several sturdy men in tight clothing, who appeared to be ordinary guild members.

“The North Twenty Guild?”

Shopkeeper Wu started, a sheen of sweat breaking out on his brow. These people were heroes from the North Twenty Guild? He hadn't known before; had he, he would never have dared to approach them so casually.

Qingzhou was a significant prefecture within the Southern Liang Kingdom, teeming with various factional powers.

The northern counties of Qingzhou were home to two major guilds. They had originally been scattered, but six years prior, several commanding figures suddenly emerged, unifying the twenty martial guilds of northern Qingzhou into one of the most formidable guild alliances within the territory.

Shopkeeper Wu, managing such a large inn in Qingzhou City, was known to be well-informed. This North Twenty Guild had been expanding aggressively in recent years and cast covetous eyes upon Qingzhou City. Such martial figures could not afford to offend them in the slightest.

Yet, the young guest behind him also required considerable accommodation. He had intended to seek Ye Qin’s guidance on the insights of the Immortal Path—a matter crucial to cultivation.

Shopkeeper Wu was in a terrible bind. He glanced back at the impassive Ye Qin; it seemed if the young man was dissatisfied, he might leave immediately. Gritting his teeth, he offered a strained apology to the martial guests: “Distinguished guests, I am truly sorry. Might I ask you to consider switching? The establishment still has two superior guest rooms and several standard rooms. If you wouldn't mind, please grace those accommodations instead.”

The woman in red knitted her delicate brows and was about to speak.

The middle-aged man suddenly spoke, raising a hand to stop her. He said lightly, “Sister Lian, when we travel the martial world, making things convenient for others ultimately makes things convenient for ourselves. If we switch, we switch. Staying in standard rooms is no different.” With that, he clasped his hands toward Ye Qin and smiled, “Since this brother here favors the courtyard, letting him have it is no trouble at all. My surname is Zhang. If you require anything, Brother, you may seek out my sister and me.”

Ye Qin paused for a moment, then smiled faintly and nodded. He had no intention of forcing the issue; had these people refused to change, he would have simply left. Since they agreed, it was naturally for the best.

Shopkeeper Wu was overjoyed. It seemed the members of the North Twenty Guild were quite reasonable after all. He quickly summoned several stable boys from the inn to clean up the courtyard inside and out. Several maids were assigned to serve in the courtyard to prepare it for Ye Qin’s stay.

The middle-aged man, the woman in red, and the others were moved to the superior side rooms on the main floor of the Qinghong Inn.

The woman in red grumbled angrily, “Third Brother, why did you give the courtyard away to that boy with just a single word? Does that kid have a higher standing than our North Twenty Guild?”

The middle-aged man pondered, “Don’t you find that this person bears a strong resemblance to Big Brother?”

“Resembles Big Brother? Big Brother is an immortal cultivator, one in ten thousand. That boy…” The woman in red trembled at this point. Hearing the middle-aged man say that, she genuinely noticed a similarity, especially the detached expression and bearing, showing not the slightest deference to them, the martial travelers. For an ordinary person, achieving such an aura would be difficult.

“Our purpose in coming to Qingzhou City is to establish a forward position, to secure Qingzhou City and lay the foundation for the Zhang family’s hundred-year legacy. Whether this person is an immortal cultivator remains uncertain. However, since he appears in Qingzhou City, we must not easily offend him. We should report this situation to Big Brother, and let him handle it.”

Following a minor dispute that caused barely a ripple, Ye Qin settled temporarily into the private courtyard at the Qinghong Inn.

What he found amusing was that after preparing the courtyard, Shopkeeper Wu, with a face full of ingratiating smiles, began asking him for guidance on the insights of the Immortal Path, startling Ye Qin so much he nearly blurted something out.

Shopkeeper Wu was the most ordinary of secular mortals. How could he possibly understand the Immortal Path? Could it be that the entire Southern Liang Kingdom practiced immortal arts?

Ye Qin was filled with astonishment.

However, after questioning Shopkeeper Wu for quite some time about what the Immortal Path entailed, Ye Qin finally understood the true nature of what Shopkeeper Wu referred to as the “Immortal Path”—it was vastly different from what he had imagined.

To true immortal cultivators, the path of immortality was fundamentally about refining the body—enhancing lifespan and mastering divine arts through the cultivation of the physical form and the primordial spirit, thereby becoming an immortal transcendent of the mundane world.

But ordinary mortals lacking spiritual root aptitude could not absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and thus found it utterly impossible to cultivate their physical bodies, let alone pursue the Immortal Path.

Yet, there were countless mortals in the world who longed for immortality every waking moment.

With the path of physical refinement cut off, their so-called insights into the Immortal Path were actually about cultivating the heart—refining one’s state of mind. Cultivating the heart did not require the barrier of a spiritual root, as physical refinement did; anyone could cultivate the mind.

The current of Immortal Path philosophy ran strong in the Southern Liang Kingdom; ordinary secular people favored this pursuit. If one had not cultivated their state of mind, they would hardly dare claim to be a believer in the Immortal Path.

Shopkeeper Wu, seeing that Ye Qin possessed the air of a true master of the Immortal Path, was eager enough to risk offending the North Twenty Guild just to curry favor. What he sought to learn was precisely this cultivation of the mind.

After hearing Shopkeeper Wu’s explanation, Ye Qin was utterly stunned.

Based on his experiences in Xian Yuan City and the Qing Dan Sect over the years, immortal cultivators placed little emphasis on heart refinement; nearly all their effort was directed toward physical refinement. In the cultivation world, matters concerning the state of mind were largely limited to the distinction between the Righteous Path and the Evil Path.

Cultivating immortality through conventional methods was the Righteous Path. Achieving personal advancement by poisoning living beings and harming other cultivators was the Evil Path, which would invite annihilation by cultivators of the Righteous Path.

Beyond that, cultivators occasionally accumulated inner demons that obstructed their progress. However, the appearance of inner demons was an exceedingly rare occurrence.

Other than these, there was no other aspect of mind refinement discussed.

Shopkeeper Wu asking Ye Qin for guidance on heart refinement placed Ye Qin in an extreme predicament, as he himself had never cultivated his state of mind. Had Shopkeeper Wu not asked with such solemn gravity, Ye Qin would likely never have paid any attention to the cultivation of the heart at all.

There was a reason the Lingwu Cultivation Realm prioritized body refinement over mind refinement.

The path of physical refinement, over tens of thousands of years, had been developed by countless predecessors with exceptional talent. The stages—Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—all had discernible steps. As long as one practiced steadily and diligently, cultivation could advance step by step.

But the path of heart refinement lacked a clear methodology?

Was it reliant on a sudden enlightenment of the mind, allowing one to achieve enlightenment and become an immortal overnight?

If a cultivator at the Qi Condensation stage publicly declared that simply by thinking in his mind and achieving a sudden mental breakthrough, he could become a Nascent Soul cultivator, every other cultivator would laugh their heads off, deeming him a madman obsessed with reaching the Nascent Soul stage. Relying on the state of mind to advance cultivation—even to raise it by a single minor degree—was considered impossible.

The cultivation of the mind was truly an ethereal concept, difficult to pin down a pattern for. Its utility was negligible, bordering on the superfluous; this was why the cultivation world did not value it highly.

Ye Qin truly knew nothing about cultivating the state of mind and dared not speak carelessly to mislead the man. He could only remain silent.

Shopkeeper Wu, however, showed no sign of complaint. On the contrary, he became even more convinced that Ye Qin was a master of the Immortal Path who was simply unwilling to easily divulge his insights. When he had sought counsel from the Daoist priests in various temples across Qingzhou City, the priests, too, rarely shared any genuine insights on the Immortal Path with him. Shopkeeper Wu had long since revered Ye Qin as a high master of the Immortal Path; merely receiving a single word of guidance would satisfy him immensely.

Shopkeeper Wu hesitated for a moment and then inquired, “Esteemed Daoist friend, near the end of every year in Qingzhou City, the Prefecture Office organizes a grand Dueling Assembly. I wonder if you plan to attend this assembly? If so, I can make preparations for you.”

“Oh? A Dueling Assembly?”

“Indeed. The various Immortal Path sects within Qingzhou territory send their experts to compete. This event carries significant weight, and the struggle for the championship is exceptionally fierce. The temple that wins the Dueling Assembly each year sees its number of believers swell.” Shopkeeper Wu sounded rather animated.

Ye Qin offered no definite reply. If it were a true duel between immortal cultivators, he might consider watching to gain experience from their fighting styles.

But this Dueling Assembly concerning the heart refinement of secular mortals had little bearing on his own cultivation; attending or not attending made no difference.

Seeing that Ye Qin offered no further comment, Shopkeeper Wu did not press the matter.

After Shopkeeper Wu departed, Ye Qin could only offer a wry smile and shake his head. It seemed this mundane world held many curious things. A simple question about the Immortal Path from Shopkeeper Wu had stumped him, a dignified Foundation Establishment cultivator. This journey outside his sect for experience was proving quite enlightening indeed.

The courtyard settled into quietude, and Ye Qin finally had sufficient time to examine the two items he had obtained from the maze in the Xian Yuan Hall: a lentil-sized perpetual flame, and a Treasure-Gathering Gourd.

In the Fire Palace of the Xian Yuan Hall, he had been rushed because Deputy Hall Master Wei was pursuing him, leaving him no time to consider how to safely take the perpetual flame. Thus, he had been forced to hastily store it within his Purple Mansion.

Reflecting on it afterward, Ye Qin found himself amused. Taking the perpetual flame was actually surprisingly simple; the key lay with the treasure box. The box itself held no special characteristics, but its most notable feature was that it was crafted from Fire Jade, a material capable of containing the perpetual flame. Otherwise, True Man Guangyu probably could not have stored the flame within the Fire Palace.

After arriving in Qingzhou City, he had browsed the largest jade shops in the city and managed to locate a piece of palm-sized Fire Jade, reportedly a prized treasure, which he promptly purchased.

This Fire Jade was a type of gemstone imbued with faint Fire Spirit Energy. To secular mortals, it served as superior jade for warding off evil spirits by suppressing yin and malevolent energies, but for immortal cultivators, it served no particularly significant function. It was usually made into a box to store fire-attribute spiritual items, achieving good results.

Ye Qin retrieved the palm-sized piece of Fire Jade from his storage pouch and fashioned it into a small box. He then moved the perpetual flame out of his Purple Mansion and placed it inside the Fire Jade box. Indeed, it could contain it, confirming his hypothesis was correct.

Ye Qin smiled, beginning to ponder the uses of this mass of perpetual fire. True Man Guangyu supposedly brought this fire back to Xian Yuan City from some subterranean abyss. He must have recognized its benefits, or he wouldn't have bothered retrieving it. (To be continued. For future developments, please log in to www**m, where more chapters are available to support the author and genuine reading!)