by Gore, A. P.
Maintaining a smile on his face, he cursed inside in jealousy. But it was damn hard to not let his face fell like someone slapped him.
“Brother Wei, is something wrong?” She wiped the sweat from her forehead, and even that was somehow enticing.
He coughed, suppressing his stray thoughts. “You should absorb the next pill. See if you can break through again.”
She nodded.
He picked up a second pill and put it between his lips. A tide of pure qi rushed toward his dantian.
Half an hour later, he opened his eyes, sweating profusely. Once again, he had failed. The wood stem that was supposed to grow and sprout a lotus leaf had grown four inches out of the pure qi puddle.
What was wrong with it? According to the pill description, he should be able to advance, but there was no hint of any advancement. He had revolved the pure qi hundreds of times through his Foundation qi path, but he hadn’t reached the threshold.
Something was wrong. Had he received a faulty cultivation art? No way. If there was a problem, he would have failed to open the new qi path perfectly. He would have received backlash when he revolved the first strand of pure essence through the new qi path.
Every person had a different path to advancement in the Foundation Realm based on their cultivation art. But the end effect was the same. One had to fill their dantian and form some sort of manifestation. Some created beast images, some created trees, flowers, and whatnot. His manifestation was a qi lotus, but it required an exorbitant amount of energy.
If Sun Nuan had broken through with just one pill, that meant this pill wasn’t a trash pill. Then again, his cultivation art was different, so his requirements might be better. With that in mind, he popped another pill in his mouth and started absorbing its efficacy with fresh determination.
Half an hour later, he opened his eyes, bewildered. Even after eating three pills, his stem had grown only six inches, and he could feel the energy surging through that wood stem. In fact, if he compared it with his previous life, his dantian contained twice the amount of qi his previous self had contained at layer one of the qi Foundation Realm.
A muffled groan attracted his attention, and he spotted Sun Nuan sweating hard, but there was a smile on her face. A smile that only appeared when one archived their goal after an intense battle.
“Congratulations.” He didn’t even have to guess, as her shaky aura told him she had broken through once again.
“Brother Wei, this is a divine pill. Just two pills allowed me to break through two layers. If this pill gets out, it will cause a bloodbath.”
Wei’s face fell further, almost touching the ground. Now he was jealous of her. How could she break through twice with two pills, and he couldn’t even reach the boundary of a single breakthrough?
“Nuan. Take a break and consolidate your cultivation,” he said calmly, pushing all jealousy out of his mind. She had broken through twice, so she needed to pause and consolidate, or her foundation would remain flawed, and he didn’t want that.
“Yes, brother Wei.”
“Also, can you help me concoct more Foundation Expanding Pills?”
She arched her brows. “More?”
He smiled sheepishly, feeling like he was taking advantage of her now. “Yes. In return I’ll teach you something.” Nuan was a wood cultivator, and he knew of a few wood martial skills she could use. In fact, he would learn the same moves when he had some spare time.
“Brother Wei . . .” Seeing him shake his head, she bit her lower lip. “Okay, I’ll concoct more of them, but we only have enough ingredients left for twenty more pills. I think senior Fei had only a limited supply.”
“That should be fine.” He could have used his Yin Yang Liquid, but he only had thirty drops left. He couldn’t create more while his Physical Root was sealed up. Also, if he multiplied the ingredients, it would shock Sun Nuan and Xue Qi, and that was a secret he couldn’t let anyone know. Especially not Xue Qi. Although she’d helped him a lot, he didn’t trust her completely. He had to be careful around her.
Once Sun Nuan left the chamber, he popped another pill.
Three hours and six pills later, his body shook violently. Brown qi burst out of his body and spread in a five-foot radius before being sucked back into his body.
He had succeeded in forming the first petal of his wood qi lotus.
Chapter 77
Wood Monarch’s Embrace
Five days flew by like an eagle traveling over a distant desert without looking down. Li Wei rushed through the tall woods, dripping sweat on the grass and soil. For the last five days, his routine had remained the same. At night he cultivated, and during the day he practiced his martial skills in the Martial Comprehension Chamber and ran through the forest to practice his Basic Movement Art.
So far it had been beneficial to practice in the Martial Comprehension Chamber, where he could get twice the work done in half the time. After consistently practicing for five hours each day, he had merged the first six moves of his One Sword Strike together, increasing his powers by another level. After superimposing each new move, the time required for the next merge increased and required him to concentrate more. If he didn’t have the support of the Martial Comprehension Chamber, it would have taken much longer. Superimposing a new move required him to study it first, and then find the common points between the previous moves and then superimpose them.
It reminded him of Earth Grade Two-Fold Arrays. Two-Fold Arrays were beasts in and of themselves. One could spend months learning how to understand them. Just learning the array diagram wasn’t enough; one had to learn the source point and power point fluctuations and match them on opposite sides. Even then, it wasn’t a straight line. One could find fifteen matching fluctuations and points, but then on the sixteenth point one could find the first point was wrong, making them redo the whole thing.
Just thinking about it made him skip a step, and he almost fell on his face. Stabbing his fingers into the closest trunk, he forcefully steadied himself. When he’d first learned the Two-Fold Array, his master had thrown him in a stone chamber and locked him in until he’d carved a perfect array. It had taken him a whole year, and that was the worst period of his life. Maybe it was the first time he’d spent so much time in seclusion. But it had helped him in the future where he’d spent almost ten years in a secret realm alone.
Grabbing his knees, he stopped and calculated his speed. Today he had achieved forty-two miles per hour, and he could run for fifty minutes without depleting his wood qi. When he felt drained, he sat down and replenished his energy using the metal token and his speedy cultivation. After cultivating to layer three of the qi Foundation Realm using pills, his wood qi was endless, and he could use it to strengthen his legs for fifty minutes straight.
But as he slowly walked toward the palace, he realized why no one could practice this martial skill before reaching the Bone Baptization Realm. No one had enough qi to practice this martial skill until then. In fact, his previous life’s Foundation Realm qi well was utterly insufficient when compared to his current wood qi. The Five Elemental Way was finally showing its majesty in the Foundation Realm. Not only did he have immense wood qi present in his body, but his essence energy absorption and qi conversion speed was terrific. Seeing the immensity of his wood qi, he anticipated what he would face when he reached the Heart Blood Realm. After that, he had to go back to the Ancient Ruins and find the next cultivation art. Now that he thought about it, he also had to start the analysis of the Devour Bloodline Art he had received from the Mother Fox. She’d kept her promise and let him study it for three hours, but even ten minutes was enough for the system to store it in its entirely.
Sun Nuan walked out of the palace’s front gate, and after glancing at him she pulled a water skin from the storage ring Xue Qi had gifted her with. Apparently, they had gotten closer in the last few days. “Brother Wei, are you planning to participate in the national running championship? It’s for mortals.”
; Showing no curtesy, he grabbed the leather skin and poured cold water into his mouth. “No,” he gasped and savored the taste. “I was practicing my Basic Movement Art.”
“Basic Movement Art . . .” She brushed her nose. “Why does that sound familiar? I think . . .” She looked at him. “I think I’ve seen two tomes that had similar names. Advanced Movement Art and Peak Movement Art. Are they part of a set?”
Her words stirred Wei’s mind. How did she know about these books? “Nuan, where did you find these books? Are they in the imperial treasury?”
“No.” Her face turned unsightly, as if she remembered something she didn’t want to. “It was in my dead guard’s pouch. Tiang Chi—the bastard—killed Juan Gu at the Alchemy Comprehension Tower. I’ll make him pay one day.” Her shoulders tightened.
His mind shuddered like a tsunami had washed over him. “Juan Gu. I remember him. He was from Black Alley Town, right?” He controlled his facial expression carefully, concealing his emotions.
“I don’t know where he was from, but he served in the royal guard for many years.” She sighed. “Hua’er trusted him a lot, but he died in vain.”
Wei’s mind went blank for a moment. Something was wrong. In his previous life, Juan Gu was a resident of Black Alley Town, and he worked as an herb worker. No one knew how he had obtained the two new tomes of the Basic Movement Art, but everyone knew of him because the idiot wrote his daily diary on the blank pages of the supreme martial skill. So, everyone knew his story. That was such a waste. But he had already left the world, so no one could do anything about it.
But how could history change in this life? Wasn’t he reincarnated as his previous self? Even if he’d caused a change in the future, Juan Gu had had nothing to do with him, so Wei shouldn’t have caused Juan Gu’s story to change this drastically. From an herb worker to a royal guard. And this wasn’t the first time he’d spotted an anomaly like this. Fei’er cultivation was another anomaly. When he woke up in this life, she had already reached layer one of the qi Refinement Realm. In his previous life, she’d never cultivated.
Anyway, he didn’t have any control over these anomalies and he would cater them whenever necessary. “Can I see those books?”
She smiled sheepishly. “Sorry, Hua’er took them to the capital in the storage ring. They were thick tomes, and I didn’t have any interest in them, plus I wanted to I travel light.”
Wei sighed. One of his goals in coming to Black Alley Town was to find those tomes, but now he would have to make a trip to the capital. “Anyway, why were you looking for me?”
“The final ten pills are ready for you.” She placed a thick jade box in his hand.
A smile grew on his face. Ten more pills. That meant he could reach layer four of the qi Foundation Realm. Then he should be able to run fifty miles per hour. “Thank you. And, as promised, I’m teaching you this.” Putting a finger on her temple, he imparted a wood-type martial skill to her. Wood Monarch’s Embrace.
Chapter 78
Destiny Mirror Sect Inheritance
Sun Nuan gasped for breath when brother Wei’s finger touched her forehead and something poured into her mind. Information exploded in her mind like a volcano, stretching her mind to the limit. For a moment she thought her head would explode, and she clenched the sleeves of her robe instinctively.
Then everything calmed down, as if nothing had happened.
But her back was drenched in sweat, and the cold air coming from the forest sent a shiver down her spine.
“I’ve transferred a wood qi martial skill to you. This should be useful for you.” Brother Wei smiled softly. That smile contradicted his rugged face after a run through the forest, but it warmed her heart that he trusted her.
The world stopped again, and new information appeared in her mind. This time it was sorted, and she realized it was a martial skill. No, a martial skill set. But how did brother Wei put this information into her mind? Only Houtian Realm cultivators could send information like this, and brother Wei wasn’t there yet. Even her father couldn’t do it; he had only told her about this weird method of mind-to-mind transfer.
“Brother Wei?” She raised her gaze to look in his clear blue eyes, and a calm emotion sprouted in her heart. She didn’t know why, but being with him gave her a strange sense of dependability. Being with him always made her feel safe. When the Mother Fox had asked her to take an oath, she hadn’t had any qualms about being his follower.
“You have two days to cultivate in the Martial Comprehension Chamber. Use it wisely. I’ll break through and then carve some arrays.” Smiling, he left for the palace.
Nodding, she followed him, and while walking, she considered the information brother Wei had given her.
Wood Monarch’s Embrace.
Her steps froze and her hands shuddered.
How could it be?
This was a legendary inheritance martial skill set of the Destiny Mirror Sect. How could big brother Wei have this information? Even Tiang Fu wouldn’t have access to this information. Only preferred disciples who were chosen by the sect master were taught this skill set. These disciples were groomed to become Houtian Realm experts and reach the Martial Realm. Only those had a chance to access the actual skill information, and they were asked to take an oath of life to prevent it from slipping outside.
Seeing his strong back from a distance, complex emotions surged in her mind. Once again, she wondered if he was the child of destiny.
Ignoring those thoughts, she walked to the Martial Comprehension Chamber and read through the martial skill set. This was a Gold Grade martial skill set. A skill set was a set of martial skills that built on top of each other. The first skill was the Wood King’s Sword, a mid-tier Silver Grade martial skill. It allowed one’s wood qi to enter their sword and produce a sword image filled with wood attribute. It was very lethal, and one could attack with it from ten feet’s distance.
The second martial skill was the Wood Emperor’s Strike, a high-tier Silver Grade martial skill. The third was the Wood Sage’s Attack, a low-tier Gold Grade martial skill. The Wood Monarch’s Embrace was a complete skill set that contained information about combining and building these martial skills on top of each other. Even core disciples of the Destiny Mirror Sect could only read information on the Wood King’s Strike.
This was insane, and it would increase her power rapidly. If she’d had this martial skill before, she wouldn’t have had to fear Tiang Chi.
Sitting in a lotus pose, she began circulating her wood qi through her meridians, forming the initial path for her Wood King’s Sword.
Chapter 79
Trouble Arrives
Li Shua struck with his palm, and a trace of fire enveloped his fist. When his fiery palm hit the hundred-year-old Iron Oak Tree, it broke in two, the upper part flying away and crashing in the distance. A smile popped on his face at the sight of the small cloud rising in the distance. Power surged through his body and made him smile like a child finding candy. Finally, he had achieved mastery of the third level of his Fire Beast Palm, the Li clan’s ancestor martial skill.
But he sighed inwardly. His daughter ‘Min’er’ had mastered it in the Foundation Realm, but he had been stuck for so many years and needed to reach the Bone Baptization Realm first. With the pills master Wu brought, he had finally broken through to the Bone Baptization Realm, and since then he had been constantly practicing this martial skill.
He’d taken a lifetime to reach this realm, and he couldn’t stop smiling about it. Reaching the Bone Baptization Realm had not only increased his life span, but it would also allow him to continue his heritage and marry a woman to continue growing the Li clan. Li Tang wasn’t a good man, and Li Ti was too naïve, so he needed to grow his lineage. And moreover, he could suppress the Du clan now.
“Father, your powers grow every day.” Li Tang walked into the backyard forest where Li Shua worked and bowed deep.
Seeing his son, Li Shua sighed inwardly. There was no reverence or pride i
n Tang’er’s eyes, only fear. He also sensed a strange foul smell from his son, like he had hidden something rotten inside his body. After reaching the Bone Baptization Realm he’d discovered this new sense and was bewildered at first, but he’d realized later that the Bone Baptization Realm had improved his senses. His gut now told him that something was wrong with Tang’er.
“Don’t worry. You’ll have a chance too.”
“Father, what chance do you have going against Du Tenjua? I received word that he has reached layer five of the Bone Baptization Realm.”
Li Shua stared at the forest growing behind the Li clan compound. Being at the base of a mountain, he always saw natural scenery. “The Bone Baptization Realm is not the same as the Foundation Realm. One can jump through layers by refining qi into their dantian, but in the Bone Baptization Realm one must refine qi into their bones. Each layer has a separate meaning, and with my current power I can’t go against him.”
Li Tang’s forehead broke into black lines. “Then . . . What are we going to do?”
“Don’t worry.” He chuckled. “We will win this fight, but do you have any news of Wei’er?”
Ridicule flashed in Tang’er’s eyes. “No, Father. I think he ran away and is living a happy life somewhere far away.”
Li Shua felt like thrashing Tang’er, his narrow-minded son. How could he slander their clan’s lifesaver? If it hadn’t been for Wei’er’s master, they would all be dead by now, and he wouldn’t be a Bone Baptization Realm cultivator. They owed a lot to Wei’er and Min’er. Something he couldn’t repay, not even with his life.
Li Ti ran out of the courtyard with a pained expression on his face. “Father, Dan Kuang has arrived, and he has permission to start the Devil Cicada Challenge anytime.”