Da Ming: The system granted me immortality; I clock in every day.

He stood up, brushed the sawdust off his blue shirt, and decided to go to the tea stall at the alley entrance to buy the cheapest bowl of coarse tea. He would then make do with the half-eaten cold cornbread left over from last night.

The early summer sun shines through the old locust trees in the alley, casting dappled light and shadow.

Li Changqing was carrying an old purple clay teapot and waving a mottled Xiangfei bamboo folding fan, slowly strolling through the bustling city.

Today, instead of staying in the courtyard to carve the giant sandalwood ship, he surprisingly took a break and came out to see the "new look" of the city in the Ming Dynasty.

Along the way, the changes in the capital city were quite interesting to this centenarian.

The man selling sesame cakes on the street, Wu Dalang, no longer relied solely on brute force when kneading the dough. Instead, he used long, even breaths, and with each press and knead, there was a faint trace of the "Initial Chapter of Breathing Exercises".

The flatbread stuck to the oven became increasingly crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

The street performer who used to break large stones on his chest no longer shouts those江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the world of martial arts and outlaws) chants. He closes his eyes, concentrates for a moment, and then strikes with his hammer. The stone shatters, but the man underneath doesn't even break a scratch.

The onlookers cheered and threw coins into the gong.

When celestial arts are touched by the dust of the mortal world, they are no longer lofty, unattainable palaces in the clouds, but rather become a tangible part of the lives of ordinary people.

Li Changqing stopped in front of an open-air tea stall with a cloth shed.

"Shopkeeper, bring me a pot of finely crushed grains and half a pound of spiced melon seeds."

He put away his folding fan and found a clean corner by the street to sit down.

Although these broken tea leaves are sifted from tea shops, they are prized for their strong flavor and are most popular among ordinary people.

The tea was served quickly. Li Changqing poured himself a cup, gently blew away the foam, and savored the bitterness and sweetness of this mortal world.

Just then, Shen You walked into the tea stall with his head down and a dejected expression, and sat down on a bench at the table next to Li Changqing's.

"Uncle Liu, have a bowl of large-leaf tea."

Shen You placed the three copper coins on the table.

The old man at the tea stall shook his head, brought over a bowl of steaming hot coarse tea, and handed over a dish of pickled vegetable dumplings.

"Scholar Shen, are you tinkering with those wooden blocks of wood at home again? Take my advice: the Imperial Academy for Immortal Cultivation is for rich young masters or the children of craftsmen from the Imperial Observatory. We commoners can't even afford a decent piece of iron, so how can we take the exam? We should just diligently study the Four Books and Five Classics and wait for next year's autumn examination."

Shen You gave a wry smile, took a bite of the cold cornbread with the pickled vegetables, and found it tasteless.

"Uncle Liu, the autumn imperial examination tests the eight-legged essay, which is about governing the country and maintaining peace, but that governs the old world. Now, the emperor and the Grand Tutor want to create a new world with vast horizons."

If I can't find a way out through these rune formations, I'll be nothing more than a poor, pedantic scholar for the rest of my life.

While chewing on his cornbread, Shen You subconsciously dipped his finger in the tea in the bowl and drew the incomplete "Water Gathering Array" pattern on the mottled wooden table.

"But... why can't this ordinary wood bear the essence of water?"

Shen You stared at the water stains on the table that were gradually drying, his brows furrowed, lost in a deep, almost obsessive thought.

Li Changqing sat to the side, cracking sunflower seeds, his gaze seemingly casually falling on Shen You's fingers.

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Although the watermarks that formed the array pattern were rough and the brushwork was immature, the direction and design of the array pattern made a barely perceptible glint flash in Li Changqing's eyes.

This young scholar is quite an eccentric genius who came from humble beginnings.

Instead of copying the standard formation issued by the Qintian Pavilion, he attempted to forcibly distort a portion of the water-gathering formation's patterns, following the grain of the gears.

However, at the crucial finishing point, the force was not smoothed out, causing a conflict of energy, which led to the wood cracking.

Li Changqing picked up his teacup and slowly took a sip.

"The wood grain on this table grows from south to north. The water pattern you drew, however, cuts horizontally from east to west. When water encounters wood, if it cuts against the flow, the water becomes like a knife or axe. How can ordinary wood not be cut?"

A gentle, leisurely voice suddenly rang in Shen You's ears.

Shen You was jolted awake, and as if waking from a dream, he raised his head and looked at the middle-aged scholar in a blue robe at the next table.

The man looked ordinary, without any air of wealth or arrogance, but his eyes were so deep they seemed to hold the entire night sky.

"Sir..." Shen You swallowed hard, stammering, "You...you understand formations?"

Li Changqing gently placed the melon seed shells in his hand on the corner of the table and pointed with his folding fan to the old square table in front of Shen You.

"I only know the basics."

Li Changqing's voice was neither too loud nor too soft, conveying a sense of peace that comes with having experienced many hardships.

"Yu the Great's approach to controlling the floods emphasized channeling rather than blocking. The formations drew upon the energy of heaven and earth, just like the waters of the rivers. Wood has its own structure, and iron has its own sinews and bones."

"Since your gears are made of jujube wood, which is tough and has a dense grain, why do you insist on adhering to the square and regular rules in the diagrams when you are carving the array patterns?"

Why not follow the natural grain of the jujube wood, slightly shifting the base of the water-gathering array, allowing the vital energy to flow and permeate the wood like spring rain seeping into the mud?

Shen You sat there, dumbfounded.

Li Changqing's words were like a thunderbolt from the heavens, exploding in his mind, which had been troubled for a whole month.

Go with the flow!

Carve the array along the wood grain, making the wood's own texture a part of the array's energy flow!

He had always been thinking about how to use formations to subdue that piece of wood, but he had never thought about making the formations adapt to that piece of wood!

Such a brilliant and even unorthodox idea is something that even the most high-ranking array masters in the Qintian Pavilion might not have, let alone someone like him who has learned this unorthodox method!

"Following the grain..."

Shen You's lips trembled as he stared intently at the wood grain on the table, damp with tea. His eyes grew brighter and brighter, as if a raging fire had been ignited within them.

He stood up abruptly, nearly tipping the bench over because he did so too quickly.

"Thank you so much for your guidance, sir! I have learned a great deal!"

Shen You bowed deeply to Li Changqing, not even bothering to pick up the half-eaten cold cornbread on the table. He turned around and rushed out of the tea stall like a whirlwind, running wildly towards his dilapidated alley.

The old man at the tea stall sighed as he watched Shen You's crazed figure disappear into the distance, muttering to himself as he tidied up the table.

"Sigh, what a fine scholar he was, he's really gone mad."

Li Changqing watched Shen You's figure disappear around the corner of the alley, a leisurely smile playing on his lips.

"What the Ming Dynasty had in abundance was these kinds of stubborn, obsessive people."

He placed a few copper coins on the table, stood up, dusted off the hem of his blue robe, waved his mottled Xiangfei bamboo folding fan, and continued strolling towards Chang'an Street.

The common people are indeed full of hidden talents.

The imperial decrees are just a passing breeze; what truly allows this giant tree called "Cultivation of Immortals in the Great Ming Dynasty" to blossom and bear fruit are the millions of ordinary people like Shen You, rooted in the soil of the city.