Chapter 304: A Good Study Method
Fifty-nine portions of soul power swept through Xu Qing, causing 59 dharma apertures to erupt with power to suppress the power. Because there was so much, it would take time to fully assimilate. Therefore, Xu Qing dropped into a cross-legged position and began working.
Meanwhile, Master Seventh glanced around and puckered his lips.
“I can’t believe it was shrimps like this that came. How boring.” He flicked his sleeve, causing what appeared to be an ordinary dharmaskiff to appear. In shape and size, it looked very similar to Xu Qing’s, except it was slightly more dilapidated. That said, it had very strong godliness flowing through it.
Ding Xue lay on the deck of the dharmaskiff. Obviously, Master Seventh took her away before Xu Qing started fighting with the old man. Having just regained consciousness, she sat up with a dazed look on her face. Then she noticed Master Seventh down below, and her jaw nearly dropped.
“Uncle?” Then she noticed Xu Qing, sweat dripping down his face as he sat cross-legged in meditation next to Master Seventh. Seeing the invisible heat radiating off of him, she hesitated. “What happened, Uncle? W-what... what are you doing here? And what happened to Big Bro Xu Qing?”
She blinked a few times, and suddenly had a very bad feeling which manifested in a bright red blush.
No way. Don’t tell me that Uncle was following us the whole time. Does that mean he saw everything I did...?
Ding Xue’s blush grew even deeper and redder. The idea of an adult in her family seeing her act so coquettishly was absolutely mortifying to her.
When Master Seventh saw the look on her face, and her blush, he laughed heartily. He had, of course, seen everything.
“Uncle!” she snapped, stamping her foot and pouting.
Master Seventh cleared his throat. “I saw nothing! Nothing at all!”
Considering that Master Seventh had no male heir, it was no surprise that he loved spoiling his niece. Still chuckling, he flicked his sleeve to wrap up Xu Qing, then flew up to the boat. Once aboard, he tossed Xu Qing off to one side of the dharmaskiff. Then he waved his hand, causing a soul pearl to appear on his palm. Just as he was about to devour it, he noticed Ding Xue looking worriedly at Xu Qing. Obviously she was concerned with how Master Seventh had roughly tossed Xu Qing to the side.
“He’s tough,” Master Seventh said, trying to hide the sinking feeling in his heart. “Don’t worry.”
Stepping to Master Seventh and grabbing his arm, Ding Xue pouted again and said, “Uncle, don’t forget that Xu Qing is still young. He’s still growing! Can’t you be a little less rough? Okayyyy? Once we’re back, I’ll make sure to say a lot of good things about you to Aunt.”
Master Seventh looked at Ding Xue, then at Xu Qing, who hadn’t reacted at all, and was still assimilating the soul power. Finally, he sighed and mused that now he was finally starting to understand what his highest-ranking apprentice had to deal with all the time. Nodding helplessly, he took the soul pearl and pressed it into Ding Xue’s forehead, then patted her gently.
“Alright, alright. You go and work on your cultivation. That soul pearl should keep you going all the way until you reach the one-flame level.”
“Thank you, Uncle.” Looking very happy, Ding Xue sat down cross-legged next to Xu Qing, closed her eyes, and started meditating.
Master Seventh looked at the two of them and sighed a few more times. Then he walked to the prow and stood there, hands clasped behind his back. After scanning the area, he snorted coldly and then piloted the ship off into the distance.
Sometime after he left, the air distorted and two figures appeared, clad in long, golden robes. Both had fantastic sword energy swirling around them, but also bitter expressions on their faces.
“That was the sect leader of Seven Blood Eyes....”
“There’s no way we could defend ourselves against someone like him. Yet he didn’t make a move on us. Presumably it was for the sake of the coalition. And he also wants us to take a warning back with us.”
Both of these people were from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect.
“Xu Qing is already extraordinary on his own. But with backing like this.... It’s only going to get harder and harder to deal with him. Besides, after this, you’ll never be able to tell if he’s really alone. You’ll always wonder if there’s some powerful expert hiding out ready to help him.”
After exchanging a glance, the two shook their heads and departed.
Sometime after they left, another area rippled, and more auras spread out. There were several figures that appeared, and all of them exchanged glances and sighed.
Unlike the previous two cultivators who had appeared, these were not members of the coalition. Instead, they were rogue cultivators native to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture. They had been given information that the Eight Sect Coalition’s two-lamp disciple Xu Qing was going outside of the sect, and had hurried over in the hopes of taking advantage of the situation. However, now that they knew the details of Xu Qing’s background, none of them would ever dare to casually make a move on him. What they had seen had frightened them to the core, and they were thinking the exact same thing as the two cultivators from the Soaring Cloud Sword Sect.
“So this is how Seven Blood Eyes does things....”
“They were sending a warning to everyone secretly watching.”
“Besides, the Eight Sect Coalition recently announced to all of their protectorates that... if anyone kills Xu Qing, they’ll pay an astonishing price.”
“Life lamps are great. But when it comes to your actual life, you only have one.”
With such thoughts on their minds, they dispersed. And of course, it wouldn’t be long before they started spreading stories about what just happened. This was the protection that Master Seventh was giving to Xu Qing. And it was also a warning to everyone.
Time passed. Seven days later, in the evening, Xu Qing opened his eyes. He was still on the dharmaskiff. The moment his eyes opened, 60 of his dharma apertures surged with fire, and rumbling like thunder filled his mind.
Right now he had souls packed into half of his 120 dharma apertures. As a result, his cultivation base had advanced. What was more, that fire had changed. His balefire now had something mournful in it, which was the agony and rancor of the souls that were constantly burning. It was none other than the Stygian Flame, a mighty fire that contained emotions. Once it began to burn an enemy, it would affect their emotions, causing fluctuations and potentially destabilizing their soul.
“How do you feel?” Master Seventh said coolly from the prow, looking over his shoulder at Xu Qing.
“Many thanks, Master!” Xu Qing said, getting to his feet and bowing with clasped hands.
“Going forward, you’ll be a lot safer when you go out. And now, there’s somewhere else I want to take you, which is the real purpose of this outing. I’m going to give you... a Gold Core technique.”
Hearing that, Xu Qing’s expression turned very serious.
“Unfortunately it’s not completely ready yet, so don’t get anxious. I still need to put some finishing touches on it.” With that, Master Seventh glanced at Ding Xue, who was still meditating off to the side. Waving his hand, he created an extra level of protection around her, then stepped off the dharmaskiff. “Come with me.”
Xu Qing followed, and the two of them descended toward the mountainous forest below.
They weren’t in the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains, but the land was still rugged, and given that evening was falling, everything seemed particularly sinister.
From above, it was just possible to see a sect within the trees. It wasn’t a large sect, but it still had three mountain peaks within its borders. There were currently a variety of disciples hurrying about from peak to peak.
“This is the Heaven Spirit Sect,” Master Seventh said. “They’re not part of the coalition. They’re just an average sect, not too strong, not too weak. That said, they have some very unique techniques.” Master Seventh led Xu Qing toward the sect.
A curious expression appeared on Xu Qing’s face as his Master led him right through the sect’s defensive spell formation. Once inside, they would occasionally pass some of the sect disciples, except none of them reacted. It was as if the disciples couldn’t see them.
Master Seventh led Xu Qing to the sect’s Scripture Pavilion. There were two Gold Core cultivators standing guard, who seemed oblivious to the two people who walked right past them. Once inside, Master Seventh went straight to the high-level section that ordinary disciples weren’t allowed to enter. None of the warding spells in this place seemed to work on him. Apparently, they couldn’t even detect him. Master Seventh seemed very at-home in the pavilion as he waved his hand, causing jade slips to float out from the shelf. One by one, he examined their contents.
Xu Qing watched quietly, not saying a word.
Master Seventh turned and glared at him. “What are you staring at? I created an entire magical technique myself, years ago, just to help me study!”
Xu Qing nodded, then quickly grabbed a jade slip and started going through the information on it.
Thus, Master and apprentice immersed themselves in study on the top floor of the Heaven Spirit Sect’s Scripture Pavilion. Master Seventh studied hard. Xu Qing studied even harder. In fact, when Xu Qing found some jade slips that pertained to plants and vegetation native to Emperor-Receiving Prefecture, he became completely immersed in knowledge.
A few days later, Master Seventh finished with the final jade slip he wanted to examine. He sighed. “Not bad. Not bad at all. As it turns out, this Heaven Spirit Sect has some marvelous ways of controlling dharma force. It’s too bad they’re so horrible at everything else.”
Xu Qing nodded in agreement. He had found a lot of information about plants and vegetation, but unfortunately, none of it was very clear or detailed.
“It’s the same with the medicinal codices here,” he said. “It seems that some years ago, they had some cultivators skilled in the dao of medicine. But after that time, few people cared to expand on their knowledge. There are almost no supplementary notes in any of the codices. That said, at least I know a bit more about the local plants and vegetation.”
Master Seventh nodded, his eyes shining in admiration. “A love of knowledge is a good thing to have.”
Clasping his hands behind his back, he led Xu Qing out of the Scripture Pavilion.
On the way back, Xu Qing hesitated briefly, then asked, “Master, I really do love knowledge and learning. Is there any chance you could teach me that magical technique related to study?”
Master Seventh glanced at him, and the admiration in his eyes grew even stronger. He nodded in satisfaction. “Yes, but your cultivation base isn’t high enough yet. Once you’re in Nascent Soul, I’ll teach it to you. Now, let’s hurry back. There are some more sects I want to take you to visit. I’ve been doing a lot of research about your Gold Core technique. The plan is to go to all of these sects and combine various ideas into something solely for you. Going forward, I want to see you really work hard!”
Xu Qing nodded. With that, he followed Master Seventh out of the sect, then up in the air and back onto the dharmaskiff.
Once back at the prow, Master Seventh beckoned at Xu Qing. “However much we cultivators learn and study, we should never forget to be grateful. Remember that. Now, come. Let’s offer respect to this sect for the help they’ve provided by means of their Scripture Pavilion. This way, if we ever become enemies in the future, we can kill them with a clean conscience.”
With that, Master Seventh clasped hands and bowed deeply to the sect below.
Xu Qing was struck by how seriously his Master took these matters. Taking his words to heart, he also clasped hands and bowed deeply.
With that, they left.
When they arrived, no one noticed them. When they left, it was without a trace.
The dharmaskiff zipped through the sky and disappeared over the horizon. A few days later, they stopped at another sect. Master Seventh yet again took Xu Qing down to the sect’s Scripture Pavilion, where they focused completely on studying.
Time passed. Bit by bit, the dharmaskiff headed east, eventually entering the Supreme Arbiter Salvation Mountains.
Along the way, they stopped at one sect after another.
When they were in the forty-seventh Scripture Pavilion, Master Seventh looked at Xu Qing immersed in study, and couldn’t help but say, “To people like us, there is no horizon on the sea of learning. You’re doing excellent, Fourth Sib. Back when I took your Third Elder Brother on a trip like this, that ignoramus proved that he hates studying. And your Eldest Brother is the same. All he did was keep a record of all the treasures in the sects we visited. Only you, Fourth Sib, have proven to be like your Master!”
Xu Qing wasn’t one to react excitedly to praise. Upon hearing his Master’s words, he put down the jade slip he had been looking at. After a moment of thought, he quietly said, “Master, do you know of any sects in Emperor-Receiving Prefecture that specialize in the dao of poison? I’m very interested in studying more about that.”