I Idle in the World of Immortal Cultivation
Chapter 34: Buddhist Cultivation and the Night Sky
When Lin Luo returned to the mine, Yue Long was sitting cross-legged by the spirit field. Her posture was perfect – back straight, hands on her knees, thumbs and middle fingers touching lightly. This was the meditation posture she had seen in the books the mortal left behind. The basic practice of Buddhist cultivation.
Her eyes were closed. Her rabbit ears drooped at her sides. She didn't move.
Lin Luo walked past her and didn't speak. He went to the woodshed and chopped a few pieces of wood. When he came back, she was still sitting. He went to water the spirit field. When he came back, she was still sitting. He sat down by the stone table, pulled out his phone, and checked Bone One's idle progress. When he came back – she opened her eyes.
"Master."
"Yes."
"I've been sitting for almost an hour. Nothing happened."
"The Buddhist system won't unlock for a few more hours."
"I know. But I wanted to feel it in advance."
"Did you feel anything?"
"…My butt is numb."
Lin Luo couldn't help it. The corner of his mouth twitched. Yue Long happened to look up and saw it. Her rabbit ears sprang up. "Master, you smiled! You smiled again! That's the second time today!"
"No."
"Yes! I saw it!"
"You saw wrong."
Yue Long stood up, brushed her skirt, and limped over to the stone table. Her legs were numb, so her walk was a little strange, but she didn't care. She leaned on the table, her chin on her arms, her rabbit ears drooping over the edge.
"Master, what do you think will happen when the Buddhist system unlocks? Will golden light fall from the sky? Will holy sounds fill the air? Will an old monk fly over from the heavens to pass down his teachings?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Because you're from the Idle Sect."
Yue Long thought for a moment. "A Buddhist cultivator from the Idle Sect is also an idling Buddhist cultivator. So nothing should happen – just idling."
"Yes."
Yue Long smiled. She was quiet for a while. Her rabbit ears slowly went up and turned in the air. She felt the spiritual energy in the spirit field moving faster than usual – the sect gathering array was speeding up, like a heartbeat quickening. The Glow Mushroom caps were glowing faintly. The Purple Mushroom leaves were trembling slightly. The Flamebloom buds were opening little by little.
The whole mine was vibrating. Very lightly – so light that if her rabbit ears weren't pressed against the table, she wouldn't have felt it at all.
Yue Long sat up suddenly. "Master—"
Her voice caught in her throat.
The air in front of her split open. Not the sky – the air. A thin crack opened half a foot in front of her forehead, like someone had sliced the air with an invisible knife. Golden light poured out of the crack – not blinding gold, but warm, like aged honey.
The golden light wrapped around her. Yue Long felt her body sinking – not falling down, but sinking, like sitting in a transparent boat slowly submerging, but she wasn't afraid. She just felt warm.
Her phone drifted out of her sleeve. She didn't take it out – it came out on its own. The screen lit up. She couldn't read the words clearly – the light was too bright. The characters twisted, spun, and reorganized in the golden light, turning into strings of scripture she couldn't understand.
The scripture floated out of the screen, hovering in the air like a swarm of glowing butterflies.
Then the scripture moved.
They spun, one by one, flying toward Yue Long's right eye. Not fast, but steady – like they had found their home. When the first scripture entered her pupil, she felt a warmth in her right eye. The second – warm became hot. The third – hot became burning. She bit her lip and didn't cry out.
The scriptures flew in one after another. One hundred and eight in total. When the last one disappeared, Yue Long's right eye flashed – a ring of golden lines appeared deep in her pupil, like a small formation. It spun slowly on the surface of her eye a few times, then sank deep inside. Gone.
Yue Long blinked. It didn't hurt anymore. It wasn't hot anymore. Her right eye and left eye saw the same – no difference.
But there were many new things in her mind. Not pictures, not sounds – words. Scripture after scripture, neatly arranged in her memory. She didn't know how to read them, but she knew they were there. When her cultivation was high enough, those scriptures would unlock on their own.
She also saw her spiritual sea.
Before, she couldn't see it. She only knew there was spiritual energy in her dantian, but she never knew what it looked like. Now she saw – a round space, like a calm lake. Above the lake floated four clusters of light. Each one was different.
One was pale gold – Buddha's light.
One was green – demon beast aura.
One was dark red – demonic energy.
One was white – human spiritual power.
The four clusters hovered in their own orbits, not disturbing each other – like four galaxies of different colors spinning in their own paths. Their center was empty. Nothing there.
Yue Long stared at the four clusters for a long time. She didn't know why there were four, or who the empty space in the middle was for. But she memorized the image.
Her phone floated back into her hand. The screen lit up. A line of text appeared.
[Buddhist cultivation system unlocked.]
[Current Buddhist cultivation: Essence Gathering Layer 1 (Buddhist Cultivation · Essence Gathering).]
[Idle Cultivation automatically started.]
Yue Long tapped into the Buddhist interface and saw a chibi figure sitting on a meditation cushion, holding a small wooden mallet. A wooden fish was in front of him. The figure had its eyes closed. The mallet rose and fell. Each time it hit the wooden fish, a muffled "dong" sound came out. A small line of text appeared at the top of the screen.
[Merit +1.]
Hit again.
[Merit +1.]
Hit again.
[Merit +1.]
Yue Long stared at the numbers jumping up. Her rabbit ears slowly went up. She looked up at Lin Luo and held the phone in front of him.
"Master, look!"
Lin Luo glanced at the screen. "Idling and hitting a wooden fish. Merit goes up automatically."
"So I don't need to go out and carry water for people, move things, watch kids, or find lost cats?"
"No need. Just idle."
Yue Long's rabbit ears sprang up, then slowly drooped again. She turned the phone over and looked at the chibi figure on the screen, hitting the wooden fish again and again. Merit +1, merit +1, merit +1 – like a heartbeat. Not fast, not slow, steady.
"What about the sect mission? One good deed a day – does it still give rewards?"
Lin Luo looked at his own phone. "Yes. One good deed a day gives an extra merit +10. Not doing it doesn't stop idling."
Yue Long thought for a moment. "I'll still do it. It's better than doing nothing."
She flipped the phone back and opened the Technique Hall. A new technique was inside – Fudo Myoo's Resolution. She tapped it.
[Fudo Myoo's Resolution · Buddhist Guardian Divine Technique.]
[Training method: Idle Cultivation. Automatically absorbs Buddha's light to temper the Dharma form. When trained to minor completion, the Fudo Myoo Dharma form will appear, wrapping around the body for both attack and defense. When trained to great completion, the Dharma form can leave the body and fight independently.]
[Current progress: 0%. Idle cultivation in progress.]
[Note: This technique does not consume merit points. Merit points are only used to raise basic Buddhist cultivation and exchange for magical tools.]
Yue Long stared at the phrase "wrap around the body" for several seconds. She remembered the Buddhist guardians in the mortal's books – golden giants, bodies covered in flames, eyes wide with fury, stepping on evil spirits under their feet. Would the Fudo Myoo Dharma form look like that?
"Master."
"Yes."
"Fudo Myoo's Resolution – I can train it by idling?"
"Yes."
"Doesn't cost merit?"
"No."
"Then all my worrying about not having enough merit to train it was pointless?"
"Yes."
Yue Long took a deep breath. "Can you not say 'yes' every—"
"Yes."
Yue Long pressed the phone to her chest and stopped asking. She crouched back by the spirit field and played with the Glow Mushrooms. She noticed that her right eye could see the spiritual energy flowing in the mushrooms – pale gold light rising from the soil along the stems, spreading out at the cap edges. The sect gathering array's spiritual energy appeared in her eyes as a thin film of light covering the whole field.
She took out her phone and opened the idle interface.
[Bone One (Demon Cultivation · Body Refining Layer 3) – In battle.]
[Blood One (Demon Cultivation · Qi Gathering Layer 8) – Hidden.]
[Rat One (Beast Cultivation · Spirit Gathering Layer 6) – Sleeping.]
[Yue Long (Human Cultivation · Foundation Establishment Layer 2) – Idling.]
[Yue Long (Buddhist Cultivation · Essence Gathering Layer 1) – Idling. Merit points: +1+1+1… (accumulating automatically).]
[Fudo Myoo's Resolution – Idle cultivation in progress. Progress: 0.01%.]
She stared at the 0.01% for a moment, then turned to Lin Luo. "Master, I'm going out."
"Where?"
"Outside. Outside the Cangxuan Sect. One good deed a day."
"Doesn't idling take care of it?"
"Idling is idling. Doing is something else." Yue Long put her phone away. "Merit +1 comes from idling. Merit +10 comes from the mission. That's ten times more."
Lin Luo didn't speak.
Yue Long tugged his sleeve. "Come with me. I don't want to go alone."
Lin Luo looked at her. "You don't dare?"
"I don't dare."
"Last time you went to the market, you ran faster than me."
"That was to buy things. This time is to do good deeds. It's different."
Lin Luo stood up and brushed the wood chips off his sleeve. "Let's go."
Yue Long froze. Her rabbit ears sprang up. "Really?"
"Yes."
"Master, why are you being so agreeable today?"
"Good mood."
"Why?"
"The lightning didn't kill me."
Yue Long opened her mouth, then closed it. She jumped up, brushed her skirt, and started to tuck her rabbit ears into her hat – then stopped halfway and pulled them back out. She didn't feel like hiding them today.
"Let's go!"
---
The sun had already sunk behind the mountains. The last traces of dark red light remained at the edge of the sky. The Cangxuan Sect's mountain gate looked especially tall in the dusk. The spirit stone lamps on the gate pillars lit up one by one, their warm yellow light falling on the blue stone path.
Yue Long walked ahead, her steps light, her rabbit ears bobbing in the wind. Lin Luo followed behind, his hands tucked in his sleeves. He didn't walk fast, but each step was steady.
When she reached the mountain gate, Yue Long suddenly stopped.
"Master."
"Yes."
"The day Sister Xiao left – it was also this time of day."
Lin Luo didn't speak.
Yue Long looked back at him, smiled, and turned around. "Let's go. Sister Xiao will come back."
She turned and walked out of the gate. Lin Luo followed behind her. The moonlight stretched his shadow long and long.
Outside the gate, the trees on both sides of the official road had turned into black silhouettes in the dusk. In the distance, the lights of Suihuang City were starting to appear, scattered like bits of gold sprinkled on the ground.
Yue Long tugged Lin Luo's sleeve.
"Master, do you think anyone at the market will need help?"
"Yes."
"How do you know?"
"Every day."
Yue Long thought for a moment, her rabbit ears turning. "Then starting tomorrow, I'll go to the market every day and walk around. To see if anyone needs help. Carrying water, moving things, watching kids, finding cats – anything."
"Yes."
"The merit points will grow faster, and Fudo Myoo's Resolution will train faster. When I have the Dharma form, I can protect you."
Lin Luo looked at her. "I don't need protecting."
"I know. But I need to."
Yue Long said it, then smiled at herself. She let go of his sleeve, ran ahead two steps, turned around, and walked backward, facing Lin Luo.
"Master, what do you think Sister Xiao is doing right now?"
"I don't know."
"Do you think she's looking at the moon too?"
"Maybe."
"Then do you think we're looking at the same moon?"
Lin Luo looked up at the sky. The moon had just risen in the east. It wasn't big, but it was bright. The lights of Suihuang City colored the edge of the sky dark orange. The moon hung above that dark orange glow like a glowing pearl.
"The same one," he said.
Yue Long turned around and walked forward. Her rabbit ears shone faintly silver in the moonlight. She hummed a tune – very soft, one Lin Luo had never heard before. Maybe the mortal taught her. Maybe she made it up. He didn't ask.
Insects chirped in the grass on both sides of the road, the sounds rising and falling with her humming.
One behind the other, the two walked into the lights of Suihuang City.
---
(End of Chapter 34)
Current Status (End of Chapter 34)
Main Account · Lin Luo
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Layer 3 (Displayed: Qi Refining Layer 1)
Nine Cycles Mystic Art: Second Cycle (bottleneck update in progress)
Lightning Prison Indestructible Body: Second Layer
Defense: 850
Attack: ~400
HP: ~600
Spiritual Energy: ~20%
Spirit Stones: ~4750
Possessions: Spirit Recovery Pill ×4, Life Extension Pill ×0, Bone Mending Pill (below top-grade) ×3, Antidote Pill ×3, Light Talisman ×4, Mountain Pass Token ×1, Drunken Immortal Residence VIP card, Myriad Treasures Pavilion VIP card, Realm-Breaking Talisman (authentic), half a broken sword, pale green jade slip, beast-hide map, Spirit Vein Heart, Secret Realm Core Spirit Stone, spirit plant purchase contract
Skill: Spirit Eye Technique
Disciple: Yue Long
Sect Members: Yue Long, Su Xiaoxiao (temporarily away)
Alt Account · Bone One
Cultivation: Body Refining Layer 3
Status: Idle battle · Ancient battlefield, target Nascent Soul Layer 1 demon beast (severely wounded), win rate 12%, war of attrition in progress
Alt Account · Blood One
Cultivation: Qi Gathering Layer 8
Status: Hidden – Demon Abyss second layer
Alt Account · Rat One
Cultivation: Spirit Gathering Layer 6
Status: Spirit field at mine land
Sect · Idle Sect
Sect Leader: Lin Luo
Members: Yue Long, Su Xiaoxiao (temporarily away)
Level: 2
Idle Bonus: +15%
Special facilities: Sect Gathering Array, High-grade shield formation
Idle Sect Disciple · Yue Long
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Layer 2 (Human) + Essence Gathering Layer 1 (Buddhist)
Status: Heading to Suihuang City market
Buddhist idle: Merit +1+1+1 (accumulating automatically), daily good deed mission gives extra +10
Fudo Myoo's Resolution: Idle cultivation in progress, progress 0.01% (can summon Dharma form, minor completion needed to manifest)
Spiritual sea vision: Four clusters of light (Buddhist, beast, demon, human), empty space in the center
Personality: lively, talkative, can't keep secrets, acts cute, goofy, walks backward, hums tunes
Spirit Stone balance: ~1100
Possessions: disciple-dedicated phone, low-grade storage pouch, Zixiao Sect inheritance token, Greenwind Sword (repaired)
Idle Sect Disciple · Su Xiaoxiao (temporarily away)
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Layer 1
Status: In spatial passage, three days to the Divine Phoenix Ruins
Idle Cultivation: ~48h to Foundation Establishment Layer 2
Message received: Lin Luo reminded "Destination is the Divine Phoenix Ruins, not the Phoenix Kingdom. Be careful."
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Appendix: Special Cultivation Systems for Lin Luo and His Alt Accounts
Immortal Cultivation (Main Account · Lin Luo):
Qi Refining → Foundation Establishment → Core Opening → Fusion → Heart Movement → Golden Core → Nascent Soul → Soul Departure → Spirit Separation → Body Integration → Cave Void → Great Ascension → Tribulation Transcendence
Demon Cultivation (Alt Accounts · Bone One, Blood One):
Qi Gathering → Body Refining → Core Condensation → Desire Embodiment → Devouring → Demon Infant → Soul Departure → Sense Separation → Body Fusion → Void Break → Great Ascension → Tribulation Transcendence
Beast Cultivation (Alt Account · Rat One):
Spirit Gathering → Intelligence Awakening → Body Tempering → Bone Refining → Beast Core → Transformation → Soul Condensation → Spirit Roaming → Body Purification → Void Training → Great Ascension → Tribulation Transcendence
Buddhist Cultivation (Yue Long):
Essence Gathering → Mortal Liberation → Core Mind → Will Dispersion → Clear Mind → Relic → Soul Movement → Void Transcendence → Pure Spirit → Void Passage → Great Ascension → Tribulation Transcendence
Note: The above are the exclusive cultivation systems for Lin Luo and his alt accounts. Everyone else (side characters, enemies, etc.) uses the traditional system: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation, Void Training, Body Integration, Great Ascension, Tribulation Transcendence.
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(End of Chapter 34)