My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

Seeing Uncle Jiu's arrogant look, Jiang Li naturally flattered him, and then asked with a smile, "Master, do you know any way to quickly improve your cultivation?"

When Uncle Jiu heard this, his face immediately fell and he said, "Did Wencai tell you something? I told you not to take shortcuts. If you do that, your foundation will be unstable. Be careful that decades of cultivation will be lost."

Jiang Li looked at Uncle Jiu's serious expression, and resolutely said with a smile, "That's not what Senior Brother said. I was just thinking about the Dharma Ending Age that Master mentioned. I was just curious whether we cultivators still have any chance of becoming gods or immortals."

Uncle Jiu sighed and said, "It's easy to become a god, but it's really hard to become an immortal."

Jiang Li immediately became excited when he heard this and asked, "How can one become a god? What abilities do gods have? Can they live forever?"

Uncle Jiu did not answer but asked, "What do you think are gods and immortals?"

Jiang Li was stunned for a moment and thought, "Aren't gods and immortals the same kind?

Uncle Jiu shook his head and said, "Like the land gods and city gods, they are gods. The source of their energy is the faith of mortals, which is a combination of human thoughts."

"And immortals are made through cultivation. As the saying goes, they absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and bring great power into their bodies. So there is an essential difference between them."

Jiang Li asked, "That is to say, gods are all souls without physical bodies, while immortals are high-level cultivators with physical bodies."

Uncle Jiu shook his head and said, "That's right and wrong. Immortals are like this, but if the immortal's body is damaged, it is also a soul body. Spirits are supported by mortals' incense and offerings, and they also have physical bodies when they obtain the status of gods."

Jiang Li nodded and said, "So as long as someone worships him, he can become a god. Did someone like Zhang Jiao in the late Han Dynasty become a god?"

Uncle Jiu said, "When a mortal's body protects his soul, it also restrains his soul, so a mortal cannot become a god. Only the soul that abandons the body after death can receive the power of incense. This is the case with our ancestors of Maoshan."

Jiang Li said, "That means we cultivators should first try to cultivate the immortal path, and if the immortal path fails, then we can try the divine path, is that what you mean?"

Uncle Jiu nodded and said, "Indeed."

Jiang Li asked again, "Then in this Dharma Ending Age, the path to immortality is difficult. Is there really no shortcut at all? I'm talking about the kind of shortcut that has many restrictions but won't cause an unstable foundation."

Uncle Jiu was stunned and said, "Yes, there are more than one kind, but they are either very expensive or have many restrictions."

Seeing that Uncle Jiu had finally taken the bait, Jiang Li immediately asked, "Master, can you tell me something so that I can give up?"

Uncle Jiu sighed and said, "Well, it doesn't hurt to tell you. I have a medicine refining technique in Maoshan, which is to refine various precious medicines that are hundreds or thousands of years old with special techniques."

"Taking it can absorb the essence of these precious medicines to assist in cultivation, but these precious medicines are hard to come by and are extremely valuable, so most people can't afford them."

"The second is to raise spiritual beasts. The so-called spiritual beasts are wild beasts with spiritual intelligence, which are also called monsters."

"Capture these monsters, and then use the secret method of Maoshan to refine them to remove most of the evil spirits in their bodies. This way, you can get docile and intelligent spirit beasts."

"After that, you can take a little blood of spirit beasts each time, and combine it with various medicines to make pills. Taking them can quickly improve your cultivation. The above two methods are considered shortcuts and will not cause your foundation to be unstable. However, these are not something that ordinary people can do."

Jiang Li realized that it was indeed not easy. One or two of those century-old precious medicines might be possible, and he might be able to get them in his lifetime, but more would be difficult to obtain.

This spiritual beast is even rarer. One has to capture it alive and then tame and raise it, which is also quite difficult. Moreover, it also requires medicine. Even if it is not a century-old precious medicine, it must be a top-grade medicinal material that is 10 to 20 years old. Just thinking about it makes me feel like it will cost a lot of money.

So Jiang Li continued to ask, "Can this spirit beast only be caught in the wild? Can't we cultivate it ourselves?"

Uncle Jiu looked at Jiang Li and said, "That's possible, but even if you have a spirit beast, I don't have many pill recipes here. If you don't have a suitable pill recipe, you still can't make pills. If you want to find a pill recipe, you have to go to Maoshan and ask the seniors in the sect to copy it."

Jiang Li didn't care about making one more trip to Maoshan. What he cared about was that the spiritual beasts could be raised artificially. Then, wouldn't the shortcut to cultivation be right before his eyes?

He immediately asked, "Master, if you don't have the recipe, then you should have a method to train a spirit beast!"

Uncle Jiu felt embarrassed and angry when he saw Jiang Li's expression that said "No way, no way, you can't even not have this".

He searched in the bedroom for a while, then took out a tattered thread-bound book, waved it in front of Jiang Li and said, "This is the method of training spirit beasts."

Seeing Uncle Jiu's smug look, Jiang Li didn't pour cold water on him. He just asked, "Master, can you tell us what kind of spiritual beast we are most likely to cultivate? It doesn't matter how much it costs. Anyway, we are just thinking about it, not really going to raise it."

Uncle Jiu looked at Jiang Li's eager face and did not let him down, and began to search carefully.

After a long while, Uncle Jiu suddenly said, "I got it. Right now, the easiest spiritual beast for us to cultivate is a rooster. If we can find some special roosters, we will have a chance to cultivate them into spiritual chickens with the help of secret medicine."

Jiang Li said happily, "What do you mean by special? I have more than a dozen roosters at home. Are they special?"

Uncle Jiu said unhappily, "What do you mean by special? It means it's different from other chickens. It's either taller, or has brighter feathers and thicker combs, or it lives longer. In short, it can't be the same as ordinary chickens. Which one of these do your chickens have?"

When Jiang Li heard this, he immediately became depressed and said, "It seems that there is really nothing special about them."

But Jiang Li asked again, "If it becomes a spirit chicken, what magical powers will it have? Can it fly?"

Uncle Jiu said unhappily, "These roosters are born to face the rising sun. Their blood has the effect of warding off evil spirits and driving away ghosts. The blood from the comb is even stronger."

"If it becomes a spirit beast, ordinary ghosts won't dare to approach it as long as it stands there. Which do you think is stronger, flying or not?"

Jiang Li thought for a moment and said, "So this spiritual chicken is really good. It seems I have to get one to raise if I have the chance."

Uncle Jiu said unhappily, "You just think about good things all day long. Go and help your senior brother cook."

Jiang Li happily went to the kitchen, and soon a table of simple food was ready. After eating, Uncle Jiu began to teach Jiang Li to read.

Early the next morning, Jiang Kaishan came in a donkey cart, because Jiang Li had asked before that his father come once every seven days to bring some food and take Jiang Li home to stay for two days, otherwise his mother Wang Chunhua would be worried about him.

I helped my father put thirty kilograms of coarse grains and a dozen eggs into the kitchen, then said goodbye to Uncle Jiu and went home with my father.

As soon as he got home, his mother Wang Chunhua asked him all kinds of questions. Jiang Li couldn't handle it, so he said to her, "Mom, I'm hungry. Can you cook something delicious for me?"

Wang Chunhua wiped her eyes and said, "Okay, I'll go cook something good for you right away."