Chapter 18

Yao Xing had previously received a Qingyun inner armor from Chen Lie, which was an extremely rare spiritual armor. He fell from a cliff several hundred meters high and collided with sharp rocks several times, but the spiritual armor eventually couldn't withstand the impact. Otherwise, the Qingyun inner armor could withstand a full-force attack from a Spirit Opening Realm disciple.

After being expelled from Jianyun Cliff by Chen Qing, in addition to the chi dragon paperweight, inkstone, and other items, Chen Hai also brought the damaged Qingyun inner armor with him.

Although the Qingyun armor was damaged and no longer had its former miraculous properties, it was still much better than the standard Daoist soldier armor issued by the Dao Academy when worn as a soft armor close to the body.

Chen Hai thought that he had to participate in the disciple competition in a little over a month. He could only practice the Wind and Cloud Leg technique more proficiently, but without protective footwear, it would be foolish to fight with bare feet against others' real weapons.

Since Zhou Jingyuan was willing to make a pair of Wind and Cloud Boots for him, it was naturally the best option, but Chen Hai insisted on paying 50,000 Da Yan coins as a fee.

The iron chain boots worn by the military soldiers were mainly to prevent cuts and arrow shots, but the Wind and Cloud Boots Chen Hai needed also had to facilitate the full power of the first move of the Wind and Cloud Leg technique, the Ten Thousand Juns Hammer Kick. The boots needed to be extremely sturdy but not too heavy, so as not to affect the speed of the kick.

Such a pair of boots, though not a magical artifact, required extremely strict material standards. 50,000 Da Yan coins were not overly extravagant; this also illustrated how difficult it was for the children of poor families to cultivate.

At this moment, he couldn't take advantage of Zhou Jingyuan; he had to let Zhou Jingyuan take advantage of him. This way, he might be able to pull the calculating Zhou Jingyuan onto his boat, so that he wouldn't be too weak in Tieliu Ridge in the future.

If he could pull people like Ge Tong and Zhou Jingyuan onto his boat a day earlier, Chai Rong might not dare to kick open his courtyard gate so easily.

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After drinking in the market, Chen Hai asked Zhou Jingyuan to exchange for fifty Essence Yuan Pills and then returned to his residence to continue his closed-door cultivation.

Ge Tong's residence in the Dao Academy was not far from Chen Hai's. To show respect, Zhou Jingyuan insisted on sending Chen Hai and Ge Tong back. He planned to formally propose to Ge Tong after a while, to have Qingyun serve as his medicine field attendant.

As they climbed the steps, Chen Hai saw his courtyard and almost turned green with anger.

The eastern wall and the main house had collapsed, the medicine field was trampled into a mess, and the few remaining spiritual herbs were completely eaten by some beasts. The spirit spring pond was also filled with several piles of feces, making the clear, spirit-filled water filthy...

Seeing this, Zhou Jingyuan's scalp tingled, and he felt a sense of fear, wondering if he had been too hasty in wanting to share prosperity and adversity with this fallen "Xing Gongzi."

Chai Rong's methods clearly aimed to crush this "Xing Gongzi" to death. The Chai family might be worried that the Yao family would interfere in the affairs of the Tieliu Ridge Dao Academy through Yao Xing?

"If the Chai family only has these despicable means, it shows they are afraid of me,"

Chen Hai had already cursed the Chai family's ancestors and their women, but he couldn't lose his composure in front of Ge Tong and Zhou Jingyuan. He had just managed to trick them onto his boat and couldn't afford to lose his composure and make them hesitant or retreat.

He could only suppress his anger and casually brush aside the matter, smiling at Ge and Zhou,

"Please, Senior Brother Ge and Senior Brother Zhou, waste two days to help me clean up here."

Seeing Chen Hai remain so calm, Zhou Jingyuan was secretly amazed.

Ge Tong, a man of passion, was already angry at the Chai family's bullying. Now, he was even more furious, holding his pine-patterned sword in front of him, his forehead veins bulging as he angrily shouted,

"The Chai family is too overbearing. If I can't catch him today, I'll stay here to guard the medicine field and see if he dares to act openly and recklessly again!"

Ge Tong's voice was exceptionally loud, and he was about to secretly observe the disciples and spread the word.

Seeing Ge Tong's clear stance, Zhou Jingyuan knew that if he backed out now, he would offend both Ge Tong and Xing Gongzi.

He gritted his teeth, thinking that whether it was a blessing or a curse, he had to take a chance. After making up his mind, he first accompanied Chen Hai to Ge Tong's courtyard to rest, and then sent people to hire help from outside the mountain to clean up the mess.

Zhou Jingyuan also knew that if this scene fell into the eyes of Chai Rong and other Chai family disciples, and if Ge Tong couldn't stay in Tieliu Ridge in a couple of years, and Xing Gongzi didn't shine, he would have no place to stand in Tieliu Ridge.

To prevent any accidents with Qingyun, he directly had Qingyun serve as Ge Tong's medicine child. Ge Tong, not only a Purple Robe Daoist soldier disciple, also had a high reputation among the children of poor families. With Qingyun serving him, Chai Rong wouldn't dare to take any drastic actions in secret.

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With Ge Tong personally overseeing, the courtyard became much calmer, and a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Under Ge Tong's direction, hundreds of spiritual herbs and trees were quickly transplanted into the medicine field.

In addition to green lingzhi, fu-ling, purple perilla, nine-sun grass, and iron wire vine, Ge Tong also transplanted a batch of spiritual trees, including three extremely rare dragon blood trees, even in the Dao Academy's medicine fields.

These spiritual herbs and trees were either directly purchased by Ge Tong on behalf of himself and Chen Hai, or transplanted from other disciples' cultivation, which lacked the spirit spring irrigation and could not thrive. Transplanting them here would ensure future harvests, and the benefits would be shared among the three parties.

This also showed how high Ge Tong's prestige was among the children of poor families; otherwise, no one would easily transplant the spiritual trees they had cultivated for years into someone else's medicine field.

Chen Hai took the opportunity to rebuild the courtyard, tearing down the walls and expanding the medicine field to the two stone gullies on either side.

Thinking that the Qiyun Courtyard was managed by the Medicine God Hall, Chen Hai named his courtyard "Pharmacist Garden," hoping to attract more children of poor families to transplant their spiritual herbs here.

To facilitate Ge Tong's personal supervision, Chen Hai added two more courtyards behind the Pharmacist Garden and carved out four stone rooms in the cliff next to the courtyard as secret chambers for cultivation.

With the efforts of Chen Hai, Ge Tong, and Zhou Jingyuan, the abandoned courtyard on the hillside was transformed into an excellent garden with lush spiritual trees in less than a month. The large number of spiritual herbs and trees also locked in the spirit energy from the spirit spring, making the courtyard filled with spirit energy, greatly benefiting cultivation.

Although no one asked about Chen Hai's construction for the time being, it was still a handle. Later, Ge Tong simply moved his residence over, and the two of them officially occupied the open space in front of the cliff.

In addition to Zhou Qingyun, Ge Tong had already taken in three attendants to manage the courtyard, and they all moved in to take care of the medicine field, making the small courtyard lively.

Zhou Jingyuan also completed the Wind and Cloud Boots before the disciple competition and brought them to Chen Hai.

In addition to the Wind and Cloud Boots, Chen Hai also chose a pair of short halberds as his close-combat weapons.

The reason Chen Hai chose halberds as his close-combat weapons was that he found a pair of sturdy bones in the pile of corpses in the Blood Cloud Wasteland, which were the right size and shape for military halberds. After grinding them on a rough stone, they became a pair of excellent bone halberds.

He thought that if any demons or ghosts intruded, the puppet clone would be at a disadvantage without weapons, and having weapons would increase the chances of victory.

However, while the Dao Academy had many halberd techniques, at least 70 to 80 points of sect merit were required to exchange for them.

The most prominent halberd technique, the "Divine Shock Halberd," had only two incomplete scrolls in the Taowei Sect, and even the first move, the "Divine Break Kill," required over a thousand points of sect merit to qualify for cultivation, which Chen Hai could not afford at the moment.

Chen Hai couldn't accumulate so many sect merit points in a short time, so he could only learn the basic halberd combat techniques first. Although they were not related to profound techniques and could not be broken down into martial secrets, they could still enhance his close-combat skills when combined with the Wind and Cloud Leg technique.

The Dao Academy strictly prohibited private teaching of profound techniques, but private sparring between Zhou Jingyuan, Ge Tong, and Chen Hai was not restricted. Chen Hai gained a lot of practical combat experience, and the day of the disciple competition soon arrived.

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The Daoist soldier disciple competition was held every six months to assess the disciples' cultivation.

The initial competition was for the junior Daoist soldier disciples. The Dao Academy had over 1,400 junior Daoist soldier disciples, and the Merit Hall's officials would first draft the competition lists for the first three rounds based on the previous rankings.

After the first three rounds of the junior Daoist soldier disciples, those who were eliminated or injured and could not participate in the subsequent rounds would be reduced to less than 100, and they would compete with the Dark Robe disciples at the same time.

At this time, the four major officials of the Dao Academy, Merit Elder Zhang Huaiyu, Supervision Elder Zhao Ruhui, Heavenly Punishment Elder Jie Kun, and Armament Elder Li Xianghai, and even the inner sect of the seven peaks of the sect, would send people to the Dao Academy to observe the disciples' cultivation and to identify promising young talents for focused cultivation.

This was a grand event held by the Dao Academy every six months.

Due to the issue of cultivation resources, the disciple competition was usually a showcase for the disciples of the noble families, but occasionally, a disciple from a poor family would surprise everyone...

In the later stages of the disciple competition, the competition for fame was closely monitored by officials at the Enlightenment Stage, and there were rarely any accidents.

For the first three rounds of the junior Daoist soldier disciples, although there were many rules and protective measures, the highest-ranking official present was usually at the Spirit Opening Stage. If any accidents occurred, it would be difficult to provide timely assistance, and injuries were inevitable.

The Dao Academy was responsible for cultivating qualified grassroots military officers for the Wuwei Army, and the cultivation of Daoist soldier disciples emphasized practical combat and the encouragement of their martial spirit.

Therefore, during the disciple competition, as long as the rules were not deliberately violated, any accidental injuries or even the death of a disciple would not be pursued by the sect. As a result, the first three rounds of the junior Daoist soldier disciples became a stage for open and covert struggles, and were quite bloody...

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On the day of the disciple competition, Chen Hai got up early, brought the blue sparrow seal to verify his identity, and accompanied Zhou Jingyuan and others to the top of the main peak on the eastern slope of Tieliu Ridge.

In front of the Merit Hall, a spacious square had been set up with over a dozen Daoist soldier competition platforms made of giant wood.

Apart from the market in the southern valley, Chen Hai had never seen such a lively scene in front of the Merit Hall on the mountain top.

The junior Daoist soldier disciples in the Dao Academy, along with some Dark Robe Daoist soldier disciples who came to watch, gathered in front of the Merit Hall, making the large square seem crowded.

Ge Tong had to stay at the foot of the mountain to guard the medicine field. When Chen Hai heard his name, "Yao Xing," called out, he and Zhou Jingyuan squeezed to the nineteenth Daoist soldier platform and saw Chai Rong waiting at the thirty-second Thunder Platform, with the giant demon, Tielu, standing like a tower behind him.

In theory, each disciple competition platform should be presided over by a Yellow Robe official, but the Merit Hall, under Zhang Huaiyu, had fewer than ten official-level instructors. At this time, they could only borrow Purple Robe Daoist soldier disciples to supplement the shortage of personnel.

At the nineteenth Daoist soldier platform, a young man of about fifteen or sixteen was already waiting for him.

Recalling the name he had just heard, Chen Hai knew that the young man was Kong Tong. Seeing his slender body and the nearly man-sized wooden box on his back, he didn't know what weapon it contained. Ignoring the noisy crowd outside the platform, he stood quietly at the bottom of the platform.

As Chen Hai approached, the young man only looked up calmly.

"Kong Tong, the dual halberd user!" Zhou Jingyuan, recognizing the opponent Chai Rong had arranged for Chen Hai, his face changed abruptly. In a hurry, he pulled Chen Hai, who was about to climb onto the platform, "It's better to admit defeat in this match. You must not fight with this Kong Tong..."

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