Eat My Hammer: Is this the loss of humanity, or the distortion of morality! The eldest senior brother of Xiaoyao's Sword Peak has owed me three hundred top-grade spirit stones for two years and hasn't paid me back. I am now offering a heavy reward for any Xiaoyao inner sect disciple who can help me collect the debt. If interested, click my avatar to add me as a friend.
Buy Pills From Me: For real? Any Xiaoyao disciples out there with the receipts?
Rotting Today?: @Closed-Door Sword Practice, is your eldest senior brother really a deadbeat?
Closed-Door Sword Practice (Yan Feng of Sword Peak): Eldest Senior Brother isn't that kind of person. There must be a misunderstanding.
Eat My Hammer: Where is he? Tell him to reply to my messages.
Closed-Door Sword Practice (Yan Feng of Sword Peak): I asked him. He said he paid you back long ago and that you tore up the IOU yourself.
Eat My Hammer: Fellow immortal, could you ask him why he won't reply to my messages?
Spar With Me (Yang Ji of Sword Peak): What exactly do you want?
Eat My Hammer: Why don't you like me? What's wrong with me?
Spar With Me (Yang Ji of Sword Peak): ...Your gender is the problem.
Closed-Door Sword Practice (Yan Feng of Sword Peak): Senior Brother, you like men???
Buy Pills From Me: Whoa!
Rotting Today?: Oh!
Spar With Me (Yang Ji of Sword Peak): I don't, I didn't—his name is the problem.
...
Gu Ningyun put away her identity jade token. Good heavens, that was some grade-A soap opera drama.
The expressions of her four companions were equally colorful; it looked like they had just come from the forum as well.
Martial Uncle Lu asked, "Are all the functions unlocked now?"
Gu Ningyun nodded. "Everything is fine except for the Mission Hall."
"There's nothing we can do about the Mission Hall. Sect rules dictate you must be at Qi Refining level three."
Martial Uncle Lu's tone was somewhat helpless. "If you want to earn points, you'll still have to go to Book Peak. Your Martial Aunt Yang has already cleared you; from now on, you can go whenever you want to earn points without waiting for the monthly interval."
Seeing that the others had put away their jade slips, Martial Uncle Lu continued, "The main reason we applied to unlock formal disciple privileges early was to give you access to the platforms. Once they're unlocked, you can go to Preaching Peak on your own to learn techniques, sword arts, or choose elective courses like alchemy, arrays, talismans, or artifacts if they interest you."
"A year from now, the sect will hold a New Disciple Competition. The content will cover the Almanac of Heavenly Wonders, the elective courses you took at Preaching Peak, and your overall strength."
At this point, he winked at them. "Prepare well. Once the competition is over, you'll be allowed to leave the sect for experience. There are also generous rewards for the top-ranking individuals and teams."
Gu Ningyun was curious. "What kind of rewards, Martial Uncle Lu?"
"It's different every year. Points, spirit stones, cultivation resources—anything is possible. Xiaoyao is very generous to its formal disciples."
Gu Ningyun felt a surge of motivation. She would definitely have to prepare thoroughly.
.
The next morning, after spending the early hours memorizing the Almanac of Heavenly Wonders, Gu Ningyun used the "navigation" feature to head straight for Preaching Peak.
She had been eyeing wind-based techniques for a long time.
The Technique Hall was crowded. Gu Ningyun followed the flow of people inside and found the cultivation chamber number she had reserved on the platform the previous night—Technique Hall, Room 666.
She swiped her identity token in the slot on the door. Gu Ningyun entered the chamber, the door closed automatically behind her, and the array activated simultaneously.
The building materials of these cultivation chambers were specially refined. Combined with the arrays, they could absorb the impact of techniques and convert it into energy to reinforce the chamber's protection.
While Gu Ningyun was observing the room, a steady voice rang out. "Top-grade wind spirit root, late stage of Qi Refining level one. What type of technique do you wish to learn?"
"An offensive type, Senior," Gu Ningyun replied.
The voice paused for a moment, and a waist-high stone pillar appeared before her. "An attack pillar."
Gu Ningyun thought for a moment, condensed a wind sword, and used her divine sense to control it, thrusting it toward the pillar.
The wind sword was absorbed the moment it touched the stone. The voice spoke again, "Spirit energy density meets the standard. You may learn the offensive technique: 《Taiqing Astral Wind Art》."
Immediately after, a green jade slip floated in front of her.
"Follow the practice," the voice said before vanishing.
Gu Ningyun sent her divine sense into the jade slip. Inside was a space resembling an illusion.
A golden silhouette sat cross-legged before her, repeatedly forming hand seals.
Gu Ningyun quickly followed along. Once she became proficient, the silhouette stopped.
Then, the silhouette began the hand seals again, but this time every movement was slow, and green spirit energy trajectories appeared within the figure.
As the final seal was completed, the silhouette released a green wind blade.
The blade was razor-thin yet radiated a terrifying power. It was incredibly fast, cutting through the air in total silence—a spine-chilling sight.
Next, the silhouette's speed increased until the hand seals became mere afterimages. The time taken to fire the wind blade shortened until it was nearly instantaneous.
After the demonstration, two lines of text appeared above the silhouette: "Teaching for the first form of the 《Taiqing Astral Wind Art》 is complete. Practice."
Then, the silhouette began repeating the initial teaching sequence once more.
After memorizing the hand seals and the spirit energy flow, Gu Ningyun withdrew her divine sense from the jade slip.
It seemed she would have to master the first form to the point of instant casting before she could unlock the next one.
After practicing for a while, Gu Ningyun left the Technique Hall in frustration.
The reason was simple: her cultivation was too low. She had fired a single wind blade, and her spirit energy had been completely drained. She had spent the rest of her time meditating to recover.
No wonder her cultivation and spirit energy density were tested before the technique was matched to her. If she hadn't been compressing her spirit energy during her usual cultivation, she probably wouldn't even have been able to learn a technique of this caliber.
However, that single wind blade had been remarkably strong. Its power and speed were at least ten times greater than her previous basic spirit energy attacks.
She decided to go back and break through to Qi Refining level two before returning to the Technique Hall to practice instant casting.
When she stepped out of the Technique Hall, it was still a while before noon. Gu Ningyun made a detour to the Resource Management Hall on Governing Peak.
Yesterday, after soaking in her last skin refining spirit herb pack, she had completed the skin refining stage.
She had tried nicking her arm with a cleaver; while it still cut her easily, the wound healed much faster than it would have twenty days ago.
Gu Ningyun checked the body refining manual and realized the limitation was indeed her low cultivation.
The defensive power and recovery speed of her skin would increase as her cultivation level rose.
The next step after skin refining was muscle refining, which required two months of spirit herb baths. Once completed, it would improve her impact resistance, increase muscle strength, and enhance her self-healing abilities.
Of course, these effects, like skin refining, were also influenced by her cultivation.
Gu Ningyun went to the Resource Management Hall to collect the spirit herbs for the muscle refining stage.
There were several windows in the hall. Gu Ningyun picked a line that seemed slightly shorter.
"Ningyun."
Gu Ningyun turned at the sound. "Jun Luo! Are you here for your medicinal bath herbs too?"
"Yes." Jun Luo stepped in line behind her. "What are you planning to learn first?"
"Techniques. You?"
"The sword."
Recalling Jun Luo's control over his ice blades, Gu Ningyun understood his choice.
The technique she was practicing consumed too much spirit energy; mastering instant casting in the short term wasn't realistic.
If she did nothing but meditate to break through, her cultivation would rise, but she wouldn't be able to handle that power properly, leading to an unstable foundation.
It might be better to learn some sword arts as well to have another way to deal with enemies. The offensive power of a sword cultivator was quite impressive.
So, she asked Jun Luo, "If I'm learning sword arts for the first time, are the cultivation requirements high?"
Rate on N.U.
