Suijun starts with the principle of rewarding diligence.

Suddenly, a boy wrapped in a gray robe approached.

Buqu was pulled to the stone lion by him, his face full of vigilance.

The young man glanced around, and seeing that no one was paying attention, he smiled heartily at Bu Qu: "We can tell at a glance that we are kindred spirits. My name is Lu Xiu, may I ask your honorable surname, brother?"

After careful consideration, Bu Qu decided to tell him the truth: "Bu Qu."

"So it's Brother Bu, my apologies for not recognizing you."

After exchanging a few polite words, Lu Xiu looked Bu Qu up and down: he was dressed in coarse linen clothes with several patches on them.

He glanced at his somewhat filthy gray robe and sighed, "I thought a person could only be this poor. When it comes to feigning poverty, Brother Bu is truly a master!"

After saying that, Lu Xiu cupped his hands in a gesture of respect to Bu Qu, looking as if he was inferior in skill and willingly admitted defeat.

This person...

I thought he had some ulterior motive towards me, but it turns out he pulled me into the corner just for this.

Bu Qu carefully examined Lu Xiu. He was about the same age as Bu Qu, a carefree young man who seemed optimistic and cheerful, as if he could talk to anyone.

"Brother Lu, you misunderstand. I'm dressed like this naturally; I didn't dress like this on purpose."

Bu Qu glanced down at his clothes, thinking, "I've always been on the water, so I haven't paid much attention to my appearance. Now that I'm going to be in the city, it's definitely necessary to buy a few sets of clothes. It's not like I'm short of money."

Lu Xiu stepped back slightly, looking as if he had already seen through the other person's thoughts:

"Brother Bu, there's no point in you talking like that."

With your shabby clothes, anyone who didn't know better would think you were a fisherman living outside the city!

Judging from your complexion, even if you're not from a wealthy family, you're at least a retainer of a prominent household.

He leaned closer to Bu Qu, nudging him with his elbow: "Brother Bu, stop pretending. I just saw you get off the carriage at the Zhong residence. You look unfamiliar; you must be a newly promoted retainer of the Zhong family, right?"

Bu Qu stared at him blankly, his face full of question marks: "Lu Xiu has misunderstood, I really am a fisherman."

"really?"

"really."

Lu Xiu nodded.

He didn't believe a single punctuation mark in what Bu Qu said.

The more Bu Qu insisted, the more professional Lu Xiu felt he was.

If you're going to act, you have to go all the way.

Even if people see through your act, you have to keep going.

"It doesn't matter if you're a fisherman," Lu Xiu smiled. "Just say you're my follower, and I'll take you inside."

"Why?" Buqu asked, puzzled.

Lu Xiu peeked half his head out from behind the stone lion and pointed at the young man guarding the gate, saying, "That guy's a snob. He likes to judge people by their appearance. He won't let anyone in who has no money or power."

Buqu also poked half his head out from behind the stone lion and rested it on Lu Xiu's head.

He glanced down at her: "Knowing he's a snob, why are you dressed like this?"

The people gathered outside the gate were mostly dressed in fine clothes. Lu Xiu's attire, however, made him appear to be just an ordinary citizen from the outer city.

Through his conversation with him, Bu Qu could easily determine Lu Xiu's identity: the young master of the Lu family, the second most prominent family in Heishui County.

The first place naturally belongs to the Zhong family.

Lu Xiu laughed, "Brother Bu, aren't you asking a question you already know the answer to? What we're doing is called 'playing dumb to fool the enemy.' I'm deliberately dressed like this, so when the venue opens, he'll definitely look down on me and won't let me in. Then, when I reveal my true identity, he'll be quite surprised!"

Bu Qu rolled his eyes, thinking to himself, "I think you've just eaten too much."

The two of them pulled their heads back.

Lu Xiu asked with a smile, "May I ask what kind of spiritual essence Brother Bu possesses?"

What is spiritual essence?

Bu Qu looked completely bewildered.

Today, the Taoist temple is opening for a spiritual reading session. Is it to test one's spiritual essence?

He tentatively asked, "Won't we only know the spiritual essence after the test?"

"Brother Bu, you're joking again. Today's test is on spiritual power. As for spiritual essence, we'll have to go to the Righteous Path Sect and complete the Spirit Opening Ceremony to find out."

"Then why did you ask?"

"Although the exact distribution of each person's five elements of spiritual essence can only be known after the spiritual awakening ceremony is completed, as long as four out of the ten spiritual essences belong to the same attribute, one can still master some of the supernatural abilities of that attribute even without spiritual awakening."

Bu Qu pondered to himself: 'According to Lu Xiu, each person has ten spiritual essences, and each spiritual essence can contain different attributes. If four spiritual essences contain the same attribute, one can master the extraordinary properties of that attribute in advance? If that's the case, then at least four of my ten spiritual essences are water-attribute.'

He nodded to Lu Xiu: "I should be Shui Lingyun."

"Water Spirit Essence?"

Lu Xiu patted Bu Qu on the shoulder and laughed heartily: "Water Spirit Essence is not bad either. Among the five elements, metal ranks first, fire ranks second, and earth and wood are slightly behind. There are only four elements stronger than water."

So, the water attribute is ranked last?

Bu Qu rolled his eyes and asked, "The five elements interact with each other, so why are there distinctions of strength and weakness?"

"This..." Lu Xiu was asked, "I don't understand the profound meaning behind it either. Anyway, that's what the Seeker of the Dao said."

Bu Qu nodded slightly: "Brother Lu, what kind of spiritual essence do you possess?"

Lu Xiu raised his chin, adopting a noble air: "Earth Spirit Essence."

"Second to last, I suppose."

Bu Qu's lips twitched slightly, and he casually changed the subject: "Brother Lu, you seem quite confident in your spiritual power, don't you? I offer my congratulations in advance!"

"You can't celebrate this in advance," Lu Xiu waved his hand. "Spiritual power also has its rules."

"What's so particular about spiritual power? Shouldn't the higher the better?"

Lu Xiu's gaze swept across Bu Qu's face, thinking to himself, "This kid's skill is quite profound; he's really good at pretending! I can't detect a single sign of him feigning knowledge on his face. He's a formidable opponent!"

Lu Xiu was certain that Bu Qu was a retainer of the Zhong family. Naturally, he also believed that Bu Qu had long heard about the matter of cultivating Taoism.

But Bu Qu still pretended to ask him questions in front of him, which shows that this kid is a superb actor!

He's testing me!

"Okay, if you dare ask, I dare answer!"

Lu Xiu cleared his throat and explained in a serious tone: "Spiritual power is divided into nine levels. Above the ninth level is called perfection, also known as full spiritual power. It is said that the person with the highest innate spiritual power can reach the eighth level."

"Eighth level? That means you can reach full spiritual power with just a little practice?" Bu Qu said at the right moment.

Lu Xiu shook his head:

"Not so! Once your innate spiritual power exceeds the fifth level, you cannot increase it through acquired cultivation. In other words, once your innate spiritual power exceeds the fifth level, you are at your peak from the very beginning."

As the saying goes, profit and loss are from the same source. The lower the level of innate spiritual power, the higher the level of spiritual power one can achieve through cultivation.

Only by first cultivating celestial spiritual power can one perfect their spiritual power cultivation.

Bu Qu nodded: "I didn't expect that the quality of spiritual energy could be reversed."

Lu Xiu shook his head: "That's not true. Having high spiritual power also has its advantages."

"What are the benefits?"

"It saves money!"

Bu Qu paused slightly, then quickly recovered: "That's true. Reaching the peak upon debut means no need for cultivation, saving a huge amount of money."

Seeing the simply dressed teenagers gathered in front of the door, they must have come from ordinary families in the outer city.

For them, the higher their innate spiritual power, the better.

On the contrary, those young masters dressed in brocade robes and fine clothes were the opposite.

Suddenly, Bu Qu thought of something and asked, "Brother Lu, isn't there a problem with this statement?"

"What's the problem?"

"Since one cannot advance beyond the fifth stage through cultivation, does that mean one is stuck in this state for life...?"

"Eh," Lu Xiu explained.

"You can't improve your minor realm, but you can still improve your major realm."

The lower one's spiritual power, the easier it is to advance to higher realms. It just means lower potential.

For example, if one possesses innate sixth-level spiritual power, then the highest level one can cultivate to in each subsequent realm is the sixth level.

Furthermore, due to insufficient spiritual energy, it's easy to reach the upper limit of one's cultivation level.

Bu Qu pondered for a moment: "I understand. High innate spiritual power makes you an early-game hero, while low innate spiritual power makes you a late-game hero. As for innate sky spiritual power, that's for the very late game."