Chapter 29

In the midst of cherry blossoms dancing in the wind, Misaki opened the old diary and read the words of the promise written there.

The Daoist Academy's Sutra Hall was not without profound techniques for cultivating the Foot-Jueyin main qi meridian, available for disciples like Ge Tong, who wore purple robes, to practice. However, the cost was not ordinary.

Like the second form of the Spirit-Stirring Halberd, the Ten Thousand Flames Demon-Slaying, although only a fragment of the original technique remained, cultivating it to perfection could still stimulate the circulation of essence and qi through the Foot-Jueyin main qi meridian. However, to exchange for the complete technique, one needed to pay 10,000 points of sect merit.

The most suitable technique for Ge Tong to cultivate, the Frost-Blazing Spear, as a profound technique for the Spirit-Opening Realm, required 18,000 points of sect merit to obtain.

Ge Tong had practiced at the Iron Stream Ridge Daoist Academy since his youth for ten years, then served as a military officer in the Iron Fragment City military camp, accumulating military merit and being promoted to the rank of Deputy Captain of a Hundred Warriors before returning to the Daoist Academy to practice. Over the course of more than twenty years, he had accumulated a total of only 4,000 points of sect merit. This was far from enough to cultivate either the Spirit-Stirring Halberd's Ten Thousand Flames Demon-Slaying or the Frost-Blazing Spear.

Shen Kun and others, who were friends with Ge Tong, wanted to pool their sect merit to exchange for the Frost-Blazing Spear technique, so that Ge Tong could start cultivating it and not miss the final opportunity for a breakthrough.

However, Shen Kun and others were from humble backgrounds, with limited resources, and were all on the verge of breaking through their cultivation bottlenecks. How could Ge Tong bear to let Shen Kun and others make such a great sacrifice?

Moreover, even if he cultivated the Frost-Blazing Spear technique, the chance of successfully opening the Spirit Sea Secret Palace would not exceed 50%. If he failed to open the Spirit Sea Secret Palace, he would owe them a debt he could never repay in this life, and would also destroy the cultivation hopes of so many people!

"Fish Transforming into Dragon?" Upon hearing that Chen Hai had received a foundation-building technique from a mysterious person in his childhood, which included the secret to cultivating the Foot-Jueyin main qi meridian, Ge Tong's face showed an incredible joy and disbelief.

Ge Tong had a straightforward personality, but after years of struggling to break through, he could not help but show his joy.

When Chen Hai initially taught Shen Xiu, Zhou Qingyun, and others the Tiger Crouching Secret Form, Zhou Jingyuan, Shen Kun, and others only considered it a regular foundation-building technique, hoping that Shen Xiu, Zhou Qingyun, and others could lay a foundation before officially entering the Daoist Academy to practice, without missing the best age for foundation-building.

Especially since Chen Hai's own cultivation had stagnated, failing to smoothly enter the Profound Realm, Zhou Jingyuan and others did not particularly expect the foundation-building technique taught by a mysterious person to be extraordinary.

However, after practicing with Chen Hai, Shen Xiu, who had the best aptitude, showed signs of breaking through the Foot-Shaoyang main qi meridian and cultivating true essence in less than half a year, which truly shocked Zhou Jingyuan, Shen Kun, and others.

Shen Xiu's talent was not bad, but such a terrifying cultivation speed was extremely rare even among the children of noble families. Occasionally, a talented person like Kong Tong from a humble background would emerge, causing a great stir in the various Daoist Academies of the Taiwei Sect, and could be considered a once-in-a-century occurrence.

Zhou Jingyuan and Shen Kun even feared that the rapid progress of Shen Xiu, Zhou Qingyun, and other young boys and girls would attract too much attention, leading to the Daoist Academy intervening and temporarily interrupting their supply of elixirs to slow down their cultivation speed. They advised them to read more poetry and literature to cultivate their character and to study more combat techniques, planning to have them start practicing after they officially became Daoist soldiers in the Daoist Academy to avoid drawing attention.

Compared to the supreme foundation-building techniques passed down only to the direct descendants of noble families, Zhou Jingyuan and Shen Kun could not compare the strength of the Tiger Crouching Secret Form, but they knew it was of great significance for those from humble backgrounds.

Although Chen Hai said he had only mastered three or four secret forms of the foundation-building technique he received from a mysterious person in his childhood, besides the Tiger Crouching, the other two or three secret forms actually involved the cultivation of the Foot-Jueyin main qi meridian, which was an absolute surprise and delight for Ge Tong and others.

"I have only 4,000 points of sect merit accumulated. To learn this Fish Transforming into Dragon technique from Junior Brother Yao, it is still insufficient. Can Junior Brother Yao allow me to owe the rest?" Ge Tong asked with a hearty laugh.

"Senior Brother Ge, if you fail to cultivate it, don't blame me for tricking you..." Chen Hai laughed.

Just as when Chen Hai taught the Tiger Crouching Secret Form to Shen Xiu and others, he received 400 points of sect merit as a "teacher's gift," he could not teach the "Fish Transforming into Dragon" to Ge Tong for free.

Apart from needing to exchange some sect merit to support his subsequent cultivation, the main reason was that completely free favors would not be cherished.

If he did not charge any fees and taught the Fish Transforming into Dragon secret form to Ge Tong, would Shen Kun, Zhou Jingyuan, and others teach it as well? If they did not, it might lead to a sense of imbalance and resentment towards him.

This was human nature.

Similarly, Chen Hai could not casually teach the martial arts secret forms to others without any restrictions.

Although Chen Hai wished to teach the Tiger Crouching Secret Form to all Daoist soldier disciples, even if he charged 50 points of sect merit as a "teacher's gift" for each person, he could accumulate at least 50,000 to 60,000 points of sect merit. However, if he did so, he would be competing with the Daoist Academy and the Taiwei Sect, and the sect would not tolerate it.

Even the noble families that had been rooted in the various counties of the Hexi region for hundreds or thousands of years had strict limits on the number of commoners or slaves they could recruit as retainers and teach their family foundation-building techniques.

For example, the Chen family had a quota of 1,000 retainers or slaves, and exceeding this number would be considered raising a private army with ulterior motives.

Under normal circumstances, the family's secret techniques could be privately taught to a maximum of ten people, and the sect would turn a blind eye.

To teach more people, and without Chen Hai having accumulated enough merit to be promoted to a Thousand Warrior Commander, or having the formal qualifications to establish a clan and recruit retainers, the sect would forcibly incorporate the secret technique as a sect technique, preventing it from being privately taught.

This was the rule; unless Chen Hai one day had a power and influence greater than the Taiwei Sect, he could not break this rule.

Of course, Chen Hai's main goal was to help Ge Tong successfully open the Spirit Sea. Therefore, they agreed that Ge Tong would pay 4,000 points of sect merit to exchange for the cultivation secrets of the Fish Transforming into Dragon.

Chen Hai would first take 2,000 points of sect merit, and the remaining part would be owed by Ge Tong, to be repaid after he truly opened the Foot-Jueyin main qi meridian and was not so financially strained.

******

Ge Tong did not expect to obtain the profound technique for cultivating the Foot-Jueyin main qi meridian so easily, and was overjoyed. Zhou Jingyuan also congratulated Ge Tong and praised Chen Hai for his righteousness and generosity.

Chen Hai remembered that his divine soul had stayed in the Blood Cloud Wasteland for two months, and he had missed the year-end Daoist Academy disciple competition. He asked, "I missed the competition. Did Chai Rong come to cause trouble or provoke me?"

"Chai Rong opened the Spirit Sea a month and a half ago and has already entered the Inner Gate of the Upper Seven Peaks for cultivation. He probably doesn't have the time to come and trouble you, Junior Brother Yao," Zhou Jingyuan said.

"Oh..." Chen Hai did not expect Chai Rong to have entered the Spirit-Opening Realm. He thought that even if Chai Rong left the Daoist Academy, with many Chai family disciples still around, no one would specifically target him. Given his previous disciple ranking, missing one or two disciple competitions would not result in his expulsion.

Shen Xiu, Shen Kun's son, who served as a medicine boy in Chen Hai's courtyard, brought a bowl of medicinal soup, a snake soup made from the Daoist Academy's golden ring snakes, emitting a rich aroma. Chen Hai, who was famished, felt his spirit and energy greatly replenished by the aroma. He took the blue porcelain bowl from the young Shen Xiu and said to Ge Tong and Zhou Jingyuan with a smile, "The Essence-Refining Pill is not as effective as this snake soup in replenishing essence and qi!"

At this point, Zhou Jingyuan and Ge Tong should have left, but they remained seated. Chen Hai smiled and said, "I have just emerged from my seclusion, and my body is still in need of recovery. I won't be able to cultivate for a while, let alone demonstrate the Fish Transforming into Dragon secret form to Senior Brother Ge. Don't you worry that I might renege?"

"I'm not in a hurry!" Ge Tong laughed. "Does Jingyuan have something to say to you?"

Chen Hai looked at Zhou Jingyuan, who was hesitating to speak, and asked, "Senior Brother Zhou, what is it?"

"Can Shen Kun and I also cultivate the Tiger Crouching Secret Form?" Zhou Jingyuan said, gritting his teeth. As a higher-ranking black-robed disciple, he had always wanted to be close to Chen Hai, but directly asking to cultivate the Tiger Crouching Secret Form was somewhat awkward.

Although the Daoist Academy's Sutra Hall had various low-level profound techniques involving the cultivation of the Foot-Shaoyang and Hand-Shaoyang main qi meridians, and Zhou Jingyuan and Shen Kun, as black-robed disciples, had already cultivated these meridians and refined them into spirit meridians with true essence, different profound techniques, even those involving the same main qi meridian, had vastly different effects.

Shen Xiu and others, after cultivating the Tiger Crouching Secret Form, had made significant progress in half a year. Zhou Jingyuan and Shen Kun naturally knew that their previous cultivation techniques, such as the Iron Bone Fist and the Five Tigers Secret Fist, could not be compared to the Tiger Crouching Secret Form.

Cultivating the Tiger Crouching Secret Form to perfection required only two simple forms to stimulate the circulation of essence and true essence within the body. This meant that in combat, one could immediately unleash their full strength, gaining a decisive advantage over the opponent.

"I was wondering what it was," Chen Hai smiled and said, "but I still need to collect the teacher's gift..."

"Of course, I can't take advantage of Junior Brother Yao like Qingyun and Shen Xiu. I don't care how much Shen Kun is willing to pay, but I will pay 400 points of sect merit. Is that acceptable?" Zhou Jingyuan said.

"..." Chen Hai shook his head.

"What do you mean, Junior Brother Yao?" Zhou Jingyuan asked.

"When I first met Senior Brother Zhou, you were about to sell two copper artifacts left by Master Gu Yijing 500 years ago to Senior Brother Ge. I wanted to learn how these artifacts were aged to look like they were 500 years old," Chen Hai said.

Page break for ads

Page break for ads