Chapter 3: The Most Suitable Cultivation Method for a Lazy Person

Su Han had no idea what his own parents had discussed on their way out.

Otherwise, he would have likely sighed, 'I'm definitely their biological son. With parents like that, what's to stop their kid from ending up in jail?'

Of course, that was assuming any prison would dare to lock him up, the Crown Prince Jing.

After watching his father, the Prince, and his mother, the Princess Consort, depart, Su Han glanced at the great tree where the flames were gradually dying out. He discovered that the Skill Tree only showed as "lit" when it was completely engulfed by the flames.

In other words, he could only acquire a skill from a Skill Tree after it had been fully lit.

Of course, this wasn't an issue. As long as the Skill Tree was lit, obtaining the skill from within was merely a matter of thought.

What he really wanted to understand was where exactly this Skill Tree had come from.

Why, out of the dozen or so trees in his courtyard, was only this great tree a Skill Tree?

What was so special about this tree? Was it simply because an ancestor had planted it with his own hands all those years ago?

'Do trees also care about pedigree and background? Is a tree planted by the founding emperor automatically more badass than other trees?'

Su Han felt... that couldn't be all there was to it. But the question of how a Skill Tree was formed was something that required further investigation on his part before he could reach a firm conclusion.

For that, he would need to find more Skill Trees to experiment with and study.

However, Su Han also knew his immediate priority wasn't to figure out how Skill Trees were formed. Even without knowing their origin, he could tell if a tree was a Skill Tree with a single glance, and that didn't stop him from lighting them.

Right now, the most important thing was to study the skill he had just obtained from his ancestor's Skill Tree.

This Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace was hyped up to be incredible, yet it was only an incomplete Cultivation Method.

The word "incomplete" was rather frightening to think about.

If it was just missing the latter parts, meaning he could only cultivate to a certain realm before he'd have to find or create the subsequent technique on his own, that wasn't a huge problem.

After all, he had no cultivation base at all right now; he could worry about the future later. What if one day he got incredibly lucky and lit a Skill Tree that had the subsequent Cultivation Technique?

But if "incomplete" didn't mean missing subsequent parts, but rather that the Cultivation Technique itself had major, fundamental flaws, then he had a serious problem on his hands.

Many incomplete Cultivation Techniques had side effects.

If the side effects were minor things, like an increased appetite or chronic sleepiness, Su Han could accept that.

But if the prerequisite for cultivating this Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace was the infamous warning: "To master this Divine Skill, one must first castrate oneself."

Su Han figured he'd have to pay a visit to his ancestor's tomb and have a 'nice long talk' with him.

Muttering to himself, Su Han gave a few instructions to the traumatized Su Xiao'Er before returning to his room and shutting the door tightly.

Assuming the proper posture, he sat cross-legged on his bed with his eyes closed. Su Han then tried to immerse his consciousness into his Sea of Consciousness.

He tried for a good while, but couldn't get in.

Su Han was completely lost. He'd read so many books from the Prince's Residence collection, and every single one on cultivation started with phrases like "Mental Guarding of the Sea of Consciousness" or "Qi sinking into the Dantian."

But not a single one of them explained *how* to actually do it!

'So... all those legendary heroes from the stories, the ones who pick up a Supreme Divine Skill and manage to master it without any instruction, then immediately go out and crush all opposition—how in the world did they actually cultivate?'

'Could it be that geniuses born with innate knowledge actually exist?'

Su Han didn't know if such geniuses existed, but he was certain he wasn't one of them.

"Su Xiao'Er."

'Fortunately, while I may not be a genius, I have money and connections!'

He shouted toward the door, and Su Xiao'Er's voice immediately responded from the other side.

"Crown Prince, Su Xiao'Er is here. What are your orders?"

"Su Xiao'Er, I've hit a bottleneck in my cultivation. Go and bring me the Chief Instructor of the Prince's Residence's eight thousand Purple Armored Warriors. I have some questions for him."

"Yes."

The sound of receding footsteps came from outside the door; Su Han knew Su Xiao'Er had gone to fetch the man for him.

Getting off the bed, since he had zero foundation in cultivation, Su Han decided to stop pretending and gave up on the cross-legged posture.

Since his understanding of cultivation was currently limited to what he'd read in books, Su Han didn't dare experiment and risk his own life.

Sitting in a chair by the table with his eyes closed, Su Han carefully reviewed the information about the 'Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace' in his memory.

After a moment of inspection, Su Han had a startling realization:

His Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace had already become a passive, talent-like ability. It didn't require any of the standard cultivation practices like 'Qi sinking into the Dantian' or 'focusing on the Dantian'; he could use it directly.

His Cultivation Method wasn't the typical process of breathing in Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi and circulating it through his body along fixed pathways.

All he needed to do was continuously add "furnace fire" to the furnace. The Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace, now a passive ability, would then use the Furnace-Nurtured Hundred Scriptures technique on its own, allowing his strength and realm to steadily climb.

After this epiphany, Su Han was ecstatic, a huge grin spreading across his face.

Born in Prince Jing's Residence, as Crown Prince Jing, with a status in no way inferior to that of other princes and princesses, why was Su Han still an ordinary person at sixteen years old?

The reasons...

First, he wanted to understand why, in the thirteen hundred years of Jing Country's history since the time of the founding imperial ancestor, not a single person had broken through to the Perfection of the Divine Sea realm.

Was it a human failing, or were there other, unavoidable factors at play?

Otherwise, what was the point? Decades of arduous cultivation couldn't even match a single Divine Sea Pill.

Second, he was also a bit lazy.

If he couldn't figure out the underlying reason, he'd just be like his predecessors, toiling his entire life only to get stuck at the Divine Sea realm.

As Crown Prince Jing, with access to more than half of Jing Country's resources, he could just rely on popping pills to advance later. After all, if the ultimate ceiling was just the Perfection of the Divine Sea, why bother?

But now, the ability to light Skill Trees and the Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace seemed to have cleared all the roadblocks from his path of cultivation.

Just think about it: a way to get stronger without daily secluded, arduous training, simply by lighting Skill Trees to acquire new skills and add "furnace fire" to the Heaven and Earth Melting Furnace. Could there be a more enjoyable method of cultivation?

Who wouldn't want to cultivate in a way where you didn't have to painstakingly practice your techniques every day? Where you could just keep lighting Skill Trees, instantly gain a variety of skills, and use them as if you'd spent years in bitter training?

Whether anyone else would like it or not, Su Han knew he certainly did.

Just as Su Han was reveling in his good fortune and this alternative path to cultivation, a knock came from the door.

Wiping the smug look off his face, Su Han turned his head and called out, "Come in."

CREAK~

The door was pushed open, first revealing Su Xiao'Er's youthful face. Standing beside him was a powerfully built, stern-faced middle-aged man nearly seven feet tall.

"Crown Prince, I've brought Instructor Lin."

Su Han nodded to Su Xiao'Er and rose from his chair to greet them at the door.

"This is a matter concerning my cultivation, so I had to trouble Su Xiao'Er to fetch you. My apologies for making you come all this way, Instructor Lin. I hope you don't mind."

Instructor Lin shook his head and said he wouldn't dare be offended, but the pleased smile he couldn't quite suppress at being shown such respect betrayed his true feelings.

Any slight annoyance he might have felt at being summoned by a young servant vanished at Su Han's polite words.

Su Han smiled and gestured him into the room. "Please, Instructor Lin, come in. I have some questions about cultivation and was hoping you could enlighten me."

Instructor Lin nodded with a smile and stepped inside.

"Crown Prince, please ask whatever you wish. If this subordinate knows the answer, I will hold nothing back."