With nothing else to do, and no interest in the material from the classes he missed, Jin Huang got comfortable and took out the Supreme Immortal Journal.
As well as some snacks.
"Hm?" Hei Shisan noticed it and scurried over. "Cool name."
Jin Huang smirked, "This is going to be the key to my rise."
Hei Shisan squinted at the cover again, then at Jin Huang.
"Supreme Immortal Journal," he repeated. "You named it yourself, didn't you?"
Jin Huang flipped it open with dramatic flair. "Of course I did."
Hei Shisan leaned in— and immediately recoiled.
"…Wait." He leaned back in, then back out again. Then grabbed the book out of Jin Huang's hands and held it closer to his face.
"…This is your handwriting."
Jin Huang snatched it back defensively. "Obviously."
"No," Hei Shisan said slowly. "I mean it's your handwriting. The same ugly slant. The same overconfident hooks on your strokes. Even that weird way you draw horizontal lines slightly too long."
Jin Huang blinked and he looked down at the open page. "Duh."
Hei Shisan folded his arms. "So when did you write it?"
Jin Huang stared at the page, "I… don't remember."
The room went quiet for half a breath, then Jin Huang cleared his throat loudly. "Well! Obviously I wrote it at a time when I was even more brilliant than I currently am."
Hei Shisan rolled his eyes so hard they nearly left orbit. Jin Huang leaned back against the wall, propped one leg up, and began reading aloud.
The ink gleamed faintly gold under the lamplight.
If you are reading this, congratulations. You have either survived something catastrophic, died spectacularly and come back, or eaten something you shouldn't have. In any case, welcome.
Hei Shisan snorted; Jin Huang's mouth twitched.
He turned the page.
First, let us address the obvious: your Mortal Foundation is perfect. Yes, perfect. Do not argue. I would not lie to myself.
Hei Shisan choked. "You absolutely would."
"Silence," Jin Huang said, eyes scanning rapidly.
However, perfection does not mean completion.
The Mortal Foundation must be nourished properly. Not with spiritual energy. Not with the diluted scraps of heaven that ordinary cultivators scrape together.
It must be fed with Divine Vital Energy.
Jin Huang's posture straightened slightly, Hei Shisan's teasing expression faded. Their minds both returned to the Fallen Heaven realm.
Jin Huang continued reading.
Divine Vital Energy is the pure essence that comes from higher realms, condensed through sacred phenomena, divine herbs, heavenly tribulations, and remnants of immortal battles. It is rare. It is dangerous. It is delicious.
Jin Huang paused. "…Delicious?"
Hei Shisan stared at him. "Please tell me you're not going to start eating lightning."
Jin Huang ignored him and kept reading.
Consume sufficient Divine Vital Energy and your Mortal Foundation will expand beyond the limitations of flesh. It will not merely be 'perfect.' It will become inexhaustible. Your bones will remember heaven. Your blood will hum with law. Your body will no longer reject the weight of your own soul. You may even hear the voices of heavenly chefs... It weirded me out the first time.
Jin Huang's hand unconsciously pressed against his chest.
There was a faint warmth there. Familiar. Deep.
He flipped the page.
Once the Mortal Foundation is saturated—do not rush this, you impatient fool—the next step is Energy Gathering.
And here is where you must do what no orthodox cultivator would dare.
Hei Shisan leaned closer despite himself.
Energy Gathering for us does not begin with heaven.
It begins with demons.
Jin Huang's eyes flickered. The golden pulse beneath his skin gave a faint answering thrum.
He read on.
Demonic Vital Energy is chaotic, violent, and unrefined. Ordinary cultivators fear it because it corrodes weak foundations.
You, however, do not possess a weak foundation.
You possess a perfect one.
Hei Shisan slowly looked at Jin Huang. " So, you've been eating demonic air in the Abyss?"
Jin Huang coughed. "Not intentionally. Not at first."
Absorb sufficient Demonic Vital Energy and allow it to clash against your Divine-saturated foundation. The conflict will not destroy you. It will temper you.
Heaven nourishes. Demons temper.
When both have been digested properly, the energies will cease to oppose each other. They will transmute.
Jin Huang swallowed. He remembered the golden energy forming inside him after breathing in that thick demonic air. The way his injuries had vanished. The way his body had felt… complete.
He turned the page with slightly trembling fingers.
At that point, you will not 'gather energy' in the traditional sense.
You will ignite it.
Energy Gathering for the Supreme Immortal Body is not accumulation.
It is awakening.
Hei Shisan blinked. "That sounds strangely ominous."
Jin Huang's breathing had slowed without him noticing.
When your Divine Vital Energy has filled your Mortal Foundation sufficiently, and your Demonic Vital Energy has been refined through conflict, the two will merge into Golden Primordial Essence.
Your body will circulate it automatically.
You will no longer need to force your meridians open. They will open for you.
Jin Huang stared at that line.
That… had already happened. The golden energy in his body didn't require effort. It moved on its own, smooth, natural.
He flipped to the next section.
Signs that you have succeeded:
— Your body feels lighter despite growing stronger.
— Injuries mend rapidly without conscious effort.
— Demonic entities react "strangely" to your presence (do not question this; it is extremely amusing).
Jin Huang froze. Hei Shisan looked up slowly.
"…React strangely?"
Jin Huang shut the book halfway. "No further questions."
Hei Shisan grabbed it back open. Jin Huang continued reading quickly, cheeks faintly red.
— Your appetite increases.
Hei Shisan burst out laughing.
Jin Huang snapped the book shut and glared, "It's a highly refined physiological response."
"You just like eating!" Hei Shisan smacked him on the back, laughing uproariously.
Jin Huang huffed and reopened the journal, flipping deeper into the text. The tone grew even more carefree.
If you are reading this and none of this has happened yet, then you are either extremely unlucky or extremely stupid. In either case, try again.
Hei Shisan wiped tears from his eyes.
"This version of you is insufferable."
Jin Huang, however, wasn't laughing anymore. He turned to the final paragraph on the page.
Once Energy Gathering stabilizes, do not become complacent. You are not cultivating to become strong.
You are cultivating to become able to withstand yourself.
The room went quiet. Jin Huang stared at those words for a long moment.
"…Withstand myself," he repeated softly. The golden energy beneath his skin pulsed once.
Alive.
Hei Shisan tilted his head. "So… what does this mean for you now?"
Jin Huang slowly closed the journal. A slow grin spread across his face.
"It means," he said, standing up and stretching as golden light shimmered faintly around him, "that I've finally started doing it right."
Hei Shisan blinked. "Right?"
Jin Huang laughed.
"I've already consumed Divine Vital Energy, and then the demonic air tempered me. My Mortal Foundation is saturated, and now my Energy Gathering has begun."
He tapped the cover of the journal. "I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."
Hei Shisan squinted suspiciously. "What happens next?"
Jin Huang put the journal into his spatial ring and simultaneously pulled out another snack, taking a confident bite.
"Next," he said through a mouthful of pastry, golden energy humming in quiet agreement with every heartbeat,
"I go back there. As soon as possible."
Hei Shisan grinned, "Boy do I have a crazy one on my hands. You're going to make the worst Unteachable One yet. Even worse than me. Haha!"
Jin Huang laughed, sending bits of food flying. As they both joked, sounding like two maniacs steadily declining into insanity, a solid and loud sound came from Hei Shisan's stone slab door.
They froze and looked at one another, the echoes of their laughter still fresh.
"Who the hell could that be. Twinkle and the others never bother me unless I break out."
Jin Huang frowned, shoveling vital-energy-infused peppermints into his mouth, "This is the perfect time to test out that technique. Don't you think?"
Hei Shisan, who was about to open the stone door, glanced at Jin Huang with a mischievous smirk. "Indeed. That technique that we came up with in that place, that we initially wanted to test on that person in that place. Mwahahaha! I love the way you think, Number Fourteen."
Jin Huang scurried behind Hei Shisan, loud crunching sounds coming from his mouth as he consumed more and more peppermints. These were peppermints specially crafted by Madame Cho, designed to give even Jin Huang a powerful kick of minty freshness. As he greedily crunched down on more and more, icy winds akin to the subzero gusts of the frigid north started gushing out of his mouth and nostrils.
Hei Shisan looks back at him, nodded, and then opened the door with a sudden quickness.
Jin Huang hopped out from behind him, not even sparing a moment to identify who it was that had knocked on the door. He opened his mouth and exhaled all the frigidity of Absolute Zero and the Dao of Mint Flavor. That person was engulfed in powerful mint energy, which- strangely- started to concentrate in their eyes.
In an instant, the minty energy was sucked into their eyes, which were now bright red and sizzling.
Jin Huang paused, his mouth hanging open with tiny scraps of mint energy falling out. Hei Shisan frowned, looking down at someone he had never seen before.
Standing outside of Hei Shisan's room, Xu Ye clutched his reddened eyes and dropped to his knees, screaming into the ceiling.
"AHHHHH!!! MY EYESSSSSS!!!!!"