Chapter 490: Training with Bai Ning!
"Show me how much you have improved during the month I have been gone!"
"Yes master!"
Standing at the training ground together with Bai Ning, Xuan Hao patiently watched as Bai Ning began demonstrating a simple palm technique with his strength at the Seventh Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm.
Whoosh!
So Weak… Looks like he hasn't really been spending any time learning any combat techniques over the past month. Only learning one of the simplest Mortal Rank Palm Techniques.
Shaking his head as he watched the sad display on Bai Ning's part, Xuan Hao realized that he would need to spend some more time with his younger disciple and encourage him to improve his cultivation and combat techniques… Because without it, he would focus all of his energy on blacksmithing!
Even if the Unformed Mantra that he was cultivating helped him improve his cultivation realm while forging, it did not help him improve his combat techniques in the slightest.
What Xuan Hao wanted was not for Bai Ning to focus all his energy on increasing his combat strength, but instead just spending some time so he could protect himself in the future…
"Master, how was it!?"
Walking over to his master with a nervous expression on his face after having finished his demonstration, Bai Ning obviously knew that his performance was not up to par as he asked this.
"…"
Looking down on the nervous Bai Ning waiting for his judgment, Xuan Hao was just about to say a few kind words of encouragement to the young boy, but quickly stopped himself before doing so.
If he really just said a few encouraging words and tried to be kind, Bai Ning would likely just return to focusing only on improving his blacksmithing skills every time he left him alone! This was not something Xuan Hao wanted to see happen, as even if Bai Ning became a renowned Blacksmith like Yi Min, he still needed to have the ability to protect himself!
"The execution of the palm technique was sloppy, and I could clearly tell that you at most practiced it four or five times before today! Did you really not practice anything else during the last month…?"
"I-I d-didn't…"
Watching how nervous Bai Ning was as he answered while lowering his head shamefully, Xuan Hao could not help letting out a quite sigh inside his mind as he watched this.
"For now, let's forget about this and start practicing the palm technique you learned."
Not wanting to stress out the young boy anymore after having confronted him about his lack of practice in regard to combat techniques, Xuan Hao didn't ask any more questions regarding his cultivation realm, his progress on his Unformed Mantra and so on. After all, he already knew the answer to these questions.
In the end, it looked like Bai Ning understood how disappointed he was after finding out how little he had improved in his cultivation realm and qi techniques…
"Y-yes master…"
Nodding his head even more nervously than before, Bai Ning began following the guidance of his master, as he slowly began improving his understanding of the palm technique that he had learned over the past month.
On Xuan Hao's side, helping his disciples learn a simple Mortal Rank Palm Technique was as easy as breathing.
Even without seeing the technique itself, he could easily see through it after a simple demonstration by Bai Ning and help him understand the technique. Even improving the technique, itself during the process was an easy thing with his current cultivation realm.
Towards the end, this had resulted in the palm technique transforming from a simple Mortal Rank Technique to an Earth Grade Technique!
"M-master, is this enough for today… I-I don't think I can keep going for much longer…"
Bai Ning, who had no idea that his Mortal Rank Palm Technique had actually been transformed into a brand-new Earth Grade Palm Technique under his master's constant changes along the way, collapsed exhaustedly on the ground after close to two hours of practice.
"I guess that is fine, but we will continue where we left off tomorrow morning!"
Seeing the exhausted expression on Bai Ning's face, Xuan Hao reluctantly agreed to let him go. After all, he was still only in the Qi Condensation Realm and his endurance was not much different from a normal person. Not to mention he had been training a Qi Technique the entire time…
"Thank you master!"
Whoosh!
Not even waiting for his master to say anything more, Bai Ning sprung up from the ground before escaping into the pavilion only a short distance away from the training ground. Clearly not planning to give his master a chance to regret his descension of letting him go.
"Hah… This kid… Does he really think I would go back on my word and make him continue practicing the palm technique for another two hours?"
Muttering this to himself, as he shook his head with a small smile on his face, Xuan Hao could not help finding the figure of Bai Ning running away quite funny. Especially when thinking about the fact that he had supposedly collapsed exhaustedly on the ground just a short moment ago.
Well, what should I do now…? I probably won't be able to train Bai Ning any more today and it's a little late to start training now that it has already started growing dark…
Thinking this to himself as he looked out over the edge of the training ground down towards the busy elders and disciples still moving around in the sect below, Xuan Hao suddenly felt that the sect seemed way livelier since a year ago.
The main reason for this, was the fact that Elder Song had started putting both the elders and disciples to use over the past few months.
Using both parties to stabilize the Flying Sword Sect's territory and at the same time building up several new branches for the Flying Sword Sect all across the territory under them.
At this point, it would not be wrong to say that the strength of the Flying Sword Sect was rapidly expanding, as the north of what had once been the Heavenly Sky Kingdom completely came under the Flying Sword Sect's control.
Even the few strong sects still remaining inside this territory with a Nascent Soul Realm Expert or two to back them up pledged their allegiance to the Flying Sword Sect.
However, compared to the allegiance that they had pledged to the Heavenly Sky Kingdom in the past, they were way more genuine when it came to the Flying Sword Sect. The main reason for this, being the fact that the Flying Sword Sect now had someone in the Domain Lord backing them up!
After all, in the eyes of the surrounding powers. The strongest expert had only reached the Peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, a Domain Lord was nothing short of a legendary existence in their eyes!
Submitting to a Sect with a Domain Lord protecting it, was not something shameful at all! Instead, it provided these sect's a lot of comfort in knowing that they were now under such a powerful sect.
This was not even mentioning the fact that there were quite a lot of rumours spreading around about the Flying Sword Sect and the Spring Flower Sect merging together in the future. Coupled with the rumours that the sect master of the Spring Flower Sect had also reached the Domain Lord Realm, it was easy to see this sect was inevitable!
Even Xuan Hao was quite surprised when he had heard the rumours about Shu Yao reaching the Domain Lord Realm, but had not yet gotten a chance to confirm the rumours yet…
Having one Domain Lord was more than enough to establish oneself as a known force inside the Sky Empire. Having two Domain Lords on the other hand, was enough to make even the powerful forces of the Sky Empire unwilling to act against them!
After all, the last thing one wanted, was to end up having a revengeful Domain Lord not caring about their reputation trying their best to inflict as much damage as possible to them…
Only the three great forces of the Sky Empire, the imperial family, the churches, and the large noble families, would have the ability to attack a power like that without a worry in the world… Of course, that was only a given if the Domain Lord's of the Flying Sword Sect were around the earlier stages of the realm…
Thinking about all of this just looking out over the sect and the busy elders and disciples below, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly to himself.
The main reason why he knew about all of this, was because of the book that Yi Min had given to him.
Inside the book, it very clearly warned him about not offending these three great powers of the Sky Empire, consisting of the imperial family, the large noble families, and the churches!
In the end, Xuan Hao had only felt himself growing more curious about these three great forces after reading about them, as the book didn't really mention anything about them outside of this…