The days blurred together as Han Wei buried himself in the sect’s libraries. The Technique Pavilion became his second home, its towering shelves filled with scrolls and tomes offering both hope and frustration.

  He forewent rest and sleep, and only occasionally ate, relying on his remaining cultivation base to support him. He returned to his quarters only briefly, to take care of his appearance and make sure he still looked the part of his old self.

  Luckily for him his robes were self-cleaning, and his past self wore only a plain ivory ring as adornment, so his appearance took very little maintenance.

  He had found what he was looking for by the end of the second day, but there was a catch that kept him researching further.

  Whispering Willow Soul Blossoming Sutra was the cultivation method that he was resting his hopes on. A weak, but all encompassing, soul cultivation method that no-one would choose as their primary cultivation method.

  It was a gentle, restorative practice that relied on harmonizing the soul with the natural flow of spiritual energy in a carefully cultivated environment. The technique was far from perfect for him, but it didn’t clash with any of his existing cultivation. And, more importantly, it didn’t require him to strain his damaged foundation or risk further harm to his soul.

  The catch, however, was the environment. The technique required a space with strong positive feng shui, a place where spiritual energy flowed freely and harmoniously. Han Wei’s spartan courtyard, with its bare packed earth and lack of all but the smallest traces of life would not serve at all.

  But his courtyard was all he had. His building complex was the only place with privacy formations strong enough to allow him to let down his Veil of Mortality technique and cultivate. He was determined to make it work.

  Han Wei was truly shocked at the speed that he could race through the scriptures. They were a mix of flowery poetry conveying truths that couldn’t quite be put into words, and dense technical language on qi use.

  The Han Wei of his previous life would have struggled to get through a single text in a full day but Elder Han found himself breezing through them - and more, remembering every detail.

  Marvelling over the phenomenon sparked a memory. A treasure he consumed. A rare Soul Structuring Vitality Yarrow Root that he had eaten decades ago to refine his soul in an effort to increase its effect on his cultivation technique.

  He could remember dismissing the improved memory as merely a useful side-effect.

  This was far more than a side-effect to the new Elder Han. This was a miracle. This would allow him to simply memorise everything he was missing, to actually stand a chance at being a successful mentor to the poor disciples who would have to suffer him as their master.

  Of course memorisation of a text is not understanding. And that is something that Han Wei found to be even more true of the cultivation world that it was in his old life.

  Half of every technique and scripture was based upon understandings that could not be truly explained but only be comprehended through bursts of enlightenment and deep meditation.

  But he didn’t need to understand everything. He just needed to understand enough.

  He scoured every text he could find on soul cultivation, cultivation theory, feng shui, formations, and natural arrays, snatching up knowledge from every relevant source he could find in the hopes that a solution would occur to him.

  Most of it was fascinating in its own right, even without the time to meditate on the koans and poetry, but any reference to talismans seemed… basic.

  It was frustrating and confusing, but it was when he found himself about to correct a manual on talisman creation that memories slammed into him with all the grace and delicacy of a freight train.

  The feeling was indescribable, like a phantom dislocated shoulder popping back into place, like his spiritual organs were tearing under the weight of the memories. Like something was being put right and killing him all at once.

  Head swimming, eyes watering, and desperately hoping that no-one entered this section of the Occupation Library while he was holding himself upright against a bookshelf. This was how he remembered that he was a talisman artist.

  It took him nearly an hour until he felt recovered enough to continue reading. By no means was he well - but he already knew that his soul was damaged. What else could he do but continue? His newly rediscovered knowledge of talismans and spiritual calligraphy was interesting, yes - but it offered no new solutions. He had to power forward.

  As Han Wei pored over the ancient texts, his mind began to make connections that felt almost instinctive. The more he read about feng shui and natural arrays, the more he realized how closely they mirrored the principles he had used in his past life as a hobby gardener.

  The idea of optimizing space for growth, of creating an environment where plants could thrive - it wasn’t so different from cultivating spiritual energy. Both required an understanding of balance, flow, and harmony.

  He remembered the small balcony garden he had nurtured in his old apartment, how he had carefully arranged pots and planters to maximize sunlight and airflow. He had experimented with companion planting, pairing species that benefited each other, and had even dabbled in hydroponics, creating a self-sustaining system that required minimal intervention.

  Those experiences had taught him the importance of designing a space that worked with nature, not against it. Now, as he studied the intricate diagrams of spiritual formations, he saw the same principles at play.

  The texts spoke of ley lines and energy nodes, of how the natural flow of spiritual energy could be harnessed and directed. Han Wei realized that his courtyard could be transformed into a kind of spiritual ecosystem, where every element - every stone, plant, and body of water - played a role in cultivating and circulating energy.

  Excitement flared within him at the idea. It was as if the fragmented knowledge he had been gathering suddenly clicked into place, forming a coherent vision.

  A cultivation garden, no, a cultivation grotto. An artificial recreation of the legendary cultivation caves and sacred sites from the ancient tales.

  He began to sketch out a design, his hand moving almost of its own accord. The central feature would be a spiral formation of stones, each inscribed with talismans to stabilize and channel energy. Around it, he would plant willow saplings, their roots drawing in spiritual energy from the earth and their leaves releasing it into the air.

  Shallow trenches would encircle the grotto and wind through it, catching rain water when it fell and acting as a conduit space for energy flow, while spiritual herbs and flowers would fill the space with vibrant life. Even the minor spirit beasts he had seen in the sect’s gardens - insects and birds - could play a role, their presence adding to the natural harmony of the space.

  The more he thought about it, the more he realized how his modern gardening techniques could enhance the traditional cultivation methods. Companion planting, for example, could be adapted to pair spiritual herbs that complemented each other’s energy.

  His knowledge of hydroponics could inspire a system for circulating spiritual energy through the grotto, creating a closed cycle. Even his experience with optimizing small spaces could help him make the most of the courtyard’s limited area, ensuring that every inch contributed to the overall flow of energy.

  It was a revelation, a fusion of ancient wisdom and modern ingenuity. For the first time since his rebirth, Han Wei felt a sense of purpose. He wasn’t just trying to survive in this new world - he was creating something unique, something that drew on the best of both his lives.

  The grotto would be more than just a cultivation space; it would be a testament to his resilience and creativity, a sanctuary where he and his disciples could grow together.

  But planning out his cultivation grotto was the easy part. After returning to his courtyard and looking at his plans with the space in front of him, he felt his stomach drop at the scale of the task in front of him.

  And he couldn’t even hire help, he had finally remembered that he could check his sect token for his contribution points and found that his past self was flat broke. It seemed like he had done the bare minimum as a guest elder and had been rewarded accordingly.

  No wonder he was being forced to take on disciples.

  The first step was to change the courtyard’s layout. He dug trenches along the edges, and wove them together towards the courtyard’s centre. These would act as the core energy pathways of the array, theoretically at least.

  With his disguise technique active, he was still cut off from external techniques so was forced to dig the trenches by hand, only using old mortal grade tools he found in a storage cupboard.

  Luckily he still had the physical benefits of his cultivation base. If he was limited to the strength and endurance of a mortal Han Wei would have despaired. As it was, once he began, he worked without rest or pause - at the ninth major stage he could push off sleep and rest for weeks.

  Next he needed to enrich the soil. The courtyard was filled with hard packed dirt, pressed down so strongly that it was closer to rock than the rich loam he required. He needed to fill the soil with nutrients, micro-organisms, fungi, and enough yin energy to feed to the strong yang growth he was aiming for.

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  He began by breaking up the compacted soil, using a simple hoe to turn the earth. Each strike of the tool sent vibrations through the ground, loosening the tightly bound dirt and allowing air to penetrate its depths.

  He had done this before and remembered it being back breaking work that had taken days - having to restart the process if it rained and recompacted the soil again. But again what was hard labour for a mortal, was a relaxing pastime for a cultivator.

  Satisfied by how his courtyard was progressing, Han Wei fetched a small spatial pouch from his desk and picked up his hand mirror to check his appearance. Quickly wiping away any trace of dirt or exertion he was ready to head out for supplies.

  Again he lamented his past self’s lack of effort in gaining contribution points with the sect. Even a small amount for an elder would have let him hire a cadre of outer disciples to do the labour and buy in the spiritual materials he needed. Still, there was no use lamenting the past, he had to make the best of it.

  He strode confidently out of the sect boundaries, projecting serenity as hard as he could, and entered the untamed forest that covered the mountainside. While Han Wei could remember that this was an area of fairly low spiritual density, and therefore shouldn’t contain anything that could threaten him (even as he was), he couldn’t remember what treasures or resources the area was known for.

  He had managed to skim an alchemy treatise on identifying spiritual herbs and plants so he wasn’t flying completely blind, but nor did he have any confidence on successfully finding true spiritual herbs. Especially with his spiritual senses currently blind.

  Han Wei paused and mentally shook himself. He had to keep a watch on himself to keep from falling into the mindset of the former Elder Han. He didn’t need to find treasures, right now all he needed was compost.

  Holding the spacial pouch lightly, he started throwing in organic debris mostly at random. Simply touching piles of leaves, moss, and fallen branches and making them vanish into its interior. He made a game of it, seeing how far he could stretch the minor treasure without his external qi and found himself seeing if he could pick up bark by nudging it with his food.

  It turned out he could though the few drops of qi required caused an unpleasant burning in his chest in a sensation not unlike heartburn.

  Just as he was musing on whether there was a way to manage the feat using less qi, he heard something. Voices? He pushed forward in that direction without thought.

  Peering through the foliage, he saw three figures - a young man in the robes of an outer disciple, flanked by two lackeys, confronting another outer disciple. The one standing alone was a slight boy with a nervous demeanor who clutched a small pouch to his chest, his face pale but defiant.

  “Hand over the spirit stones,” the lead disciple demanded, his voice dripping with arrogance. “You don’t need them anyway. Someone like you will never amount to anything.”

  The boy shook his head, his voice trembling but firm. “I earned these stones. They’re mine.”

  The two disciples flanking both chuckled, their laughter harsh, mocking, and fake. Their leader stepped closer, his expression darkening. “You don’t get it, do you? In this world, the strong take what they want. And you? You’re nothing.”

  Elder Han’s jaw tightened as he watched the scene unfold. His first instinct was to intervene, to put a stop to this blatant bullying. But then he hesitated. He was far weaker than he should be and on top of that his qi was locked deep inside his spiritual body.

  How could he intervene without revealing his weakness? And even if he did intervene, sect elders were not supposed to meddle in the affairs of outer disciples. If word got back to the sect it could raise questions and questions were not something he could afford right now.

  But as he watched the lead disciple shove the boy to the ground, something stirred within him. This wasn’t just about strength or weakness - it was about justice. The boy being robbed had done nothing wrong. He was simply trying to survive in a world that favored the ruthless. If Elder Han turned a blind eye now, what did that say about him?

  Not intervening wouldn’t just be cowardly, it would be unrighteous.

  Even recognising that this feeling came from the previous Elder Han and not from him, Han Wei was powerless to stop himself from stepping into the clearing.

  His presence immediately silenced the bullies and the lead disciple turned, his sneer faltering as faint recognition flickered in his eyes.

  “E-Elder Han!” he stammered, quickly bowing. His lackeys followed suit, their bravado evaporating under the elder’s piercing gaze. Thank the heavens he recognised me!

  The boy on the ground looked up, hope flickering in his eyes. “Elder…?”

  Elder Han nodded to the boy, his expression still fierce. “Are you hurt?”

  The boy shook his head, clutching his pouch tighter. “No, Elder. Thank you.”

  Dismissing him and turning his attention to the lead disciple, Elder Han’s voice was calm but laced with authority. “What is your name, disciple?”

  The young man hesitated, his face pale. “I… I am Zhang Wei, Elder.”

  “Zhang Wei,” Elder Han repeated, his tone measured. “Do you believe that strength gives you the right to take from others?”

  Zhang Wei shifted uncomfortably, his lackeys glancing at each other nervously. “Elder, I was only teaching him a lesson. The strong take from the weak - that’s the way of the world.”

  “Is it?” Elder Han asked, his gaze unwavering. “And what happens when someone stronger than you decides to take from you? Will you accept it as the natural order of things?” He paused to let his words sink in before continuing.

  “I am stronger than you. Would it be right for me to take from you?”

  Zhang Wei opened his mouth to respond but found no words. His lackeys looked down, their earlier confidence replaced by unease.

  Elder Han stepped closer, his voice low but firm. “We are not beasts fighting for scraps. To cultivate is to rebel against the fate that the heavens have ordained for you. It is to seek to reach the heavens themselves. To ascend and to declare ‘I am worthy’ for all the planes to hear.

  “A cultivator who preys on the weak is no better than a common bandit. Is that what you aspire to be?”

  Zhang Wei’s face flushed with shame, his bravado crumbling. “No, Elder.”

  “Then reflect on your actions,” Elder Han said, his tone final. “Return to the sect and consider what it means to be strong, what it means to be a cultivator. If I hear of you bullying others again, there will be consequences.”

  The disciple bowed deeply, his voice barely above a whisper. “Yes, Elder.”

  As Zhang Wei and his lackeys hurried away, Elder Han turned back to the boy, who was still on the ground. At his raised eyebrow the young disciple scrambled to his feet and bowed.

  “Thank you, Elder,” the boy said, his voice filled with gratitude.

  “You stood your ground,” Elder Han said flatly, trying and failing to gentle his tone. Something inside him demanded that the bullying juniors be punished and not simply left to go free. “That took courage and determination. Both traits that will take you far in cultivation if you nurture them.”

  The boy nodded, his eyes shining with newfound determination. “I will, Elder. Thank you.”

  As the boy left the clearing, Elder Han watched him go, a sense of unease passing through him. Yes he had made the right choice and it was satisfying to stand up for what is right.

  But the sense of… righteous fury that had come upon him was not solely his. And he didn’t think that it was just a remnant of the old Eldar Han echoing in his psyche.

  No, this felt like some kind of cultivation deviation. And worse, one that had been going on far longer than his injuries. He tried and failed to not worry about this as he finished his gathering and headed back to his courtyard. This is a long term problem, he kept saying to himself. I have immediate problems that I must solve first.

  Pushing his dark thoughts to one side by sheer force of will he began to empty his pouch and fold everything into the earth. Piles of decaying leaves, heaps of harvested grasses, fallen branches, and clumps of moss - all tilled into the soil to enrich it.

  He held some back, enough for a layer of leaves, grass, and bark pieces to serve as both a protective blanket and a source of future nourishment for the soil, locking in moisture and encouraging the growth of microorganisms and fungi.

  As worked, he couldn’t help but visualize the network of life it would foster - tiny creatures breaking down the organic matter, fungi forming symbiotic bonds with future plant roots, and the soil itself becoming a living, breathing entity.

  But he couldn’t rest even as the sun dimmed and another day ended. He pulled out a large selection of stones he had gathered and after sorting them by size began the slow process of inscribing each of them with a complex talisman glyph designed to help stabilize and guide spiritual energy.

  It was painstaking work, and his hands trembled from the effort that such precision required. But he pressed on, driven by necessity.

  And once he was done he placed them reverently in a spiral throughout the courtyard, saving the largest for last to sit in the exact centre. This last stone had the most complex calligraphy - it was practically a small array by itself - but he was confident that it would work as intended.

  The bones were there, now he just needed to fill it.

  He planted willow saplings in lines along the lines of the trenches. He may have gone overboard with the willow hedging, but willow was just so easy. The tree was so fertile all he had to do was stick a long cutting in the soil and it would more likely grow than not - and that was in his old world, the spiritual energy in this one would only boost this further.

  With slender branches swaying gently in the breeze, these miniature trees would serve as anchors for the array I was working on. Their roots would draw in spiritual energy from the earth and release it from their leaves into the air and their leaves would draw in spiritual energy from the air and release it into the earth.

  Activating the qi gathering array on his residence finally gave him the privacy to let down his disguise technique and use his divine sense again. It felt like removing shackles and he hated the thought that he would have to reactivate the technique soon - the privacy the array afforded him was on a timer.

  The gathering array was efficient and worked by forming a barrier that qi couldn’t leave from while also slowing its passage through the material realm, but it still needed spirit stones to run and he didn’t have any to replace the ones currently installed.

  He had calculated that if he only activated it for a few hours a day then he could just about run it until he got his disciples, and with them his contribution points. Contribution points he could spend on more spirit stones.

  With his divine sense finally free, Han Wei quickly scanned the plants he had haphazardly gathered, and mentally sorted them by spiritual aspect and how they would fit into his plans. He planted ferns and undergrowth gathered from the forest, grasses from clearings, a small clump of what he was sure were wild strawberries, and many more plants that he couldn’t easily identify.

  Planting them in tight clusters to encourage competition and growth left many empty spaces for further plants, but even so the transformation was startling. He knew that seasons of growth would be needed for it to fulfil its true potential, but even so he could start to see what it would be.

  He added rotting wooden logs covered in moss, lichen, and mushrooms in a careful pile. A place for beetles and bugs to breed - a place for yin energy to gather above ground. Everything was carefully and meticulously planned, but planned to grow wild and free.

  A manicured garden would never work for the grotto he imagined. Of course a lot of maintenance would still be needed but he hoped that the natural design would truly balance the energies here. It would be his own personal sanctuary.

  His final task saw him gently pouring water into the dug trenches from a huge barrel he had found behind his property. The trenches would hold the water and let it seep slowly and evenly into the ground. Soon they would be filled by rain, but until the wet season came he would have to ensure enough moisture was added to the soil.

  It was only the end of his second week in his new life and the courtyard was unrecognizable. What had once been a cold, lifeless expanse of stone was now a thriving cultivation grotto, brimming with spiritual energy.

  Han Wei stood at the center, breathing in the fresh, invigorating air. For the first time since his rebirth, instead of fear he felt hope.

  But his work was far from over. The grotto was only the beginning. He still needed to master The Whispering Willow Soul Blossoming Sutra and begin the slow, arduous process of healing his soul.

  And then there were the disciples - young cultivators who would soon look to him for guidance. He had no idea how he would manage it all, but he had no choice. He would find a way.