“Senior?”
The mouths of the three master teachers twitched and their bodies swayed.
The twist came too abruptly.
They were thinking of accepting the other party as their apprentice when all of a sudden, he had become their senior.
To call a fellow who isn’t even twenty their senior?
The three master teacher felt dizzy. They found the relationship extremely peculiar.
However, the bizarre expression on their face merely flickered on their faces for an instant. Agitation and excitement took over their expressions.
“Does Yang shi mean that… you are willing to accept us?”
Liu Ling suddenly came to a realization. Trembling in agitation, his face creased so tightly together that it seemed to be able to squeeze a mosquito to death.
Since Yang shi had told them to address Zhang Xuan as their senior, doesn’t this mean that he is willing to accept them as his student?
“Thank you, Yang shi!”
Zhuang Xian and Zheng Fei immediately knelt to the floor.
Even though the other party hadn’t expressed his intentions clearly, he wasn’t objectionable to the issue. If they don’t hurry up and the other party changes his mind all of the sudden, won’t they cry themselves to death?
“These two fellows…”
Seeing his old buddies react so quickly, Liu Ling quickly followed suit and knelt down as well.
Zhang Xuan didn’t turn around, and his expression remained completely calm. “Since you have all become my students, I will assist you with your cultivation. However, I am used to wandering about and I won’t be staying here for long. Even though Zhang Xuan is my direct disciple, he is way too young and his cultivation is still immature. He might require your assistance.”
“Teacher, rest assured. Since we’ve come under your tutelage, we will definitely follow your rules. Given that Zhang Xuan is our senior now, as long as it is within our capabilities, we will make sure to assist him.”
Liu Ling and the others expressed their sentiments.
There is a set of rules that when a master teacher accepts a disciple.
A direct disciple is a rank higher than that of normal students. That is to say, even if the direct disciple is the youngest of the lot, before the other students, he is still considered the senior. Even though it sounds peculiar, there had been many of such exceptions in the Master Teacher Pavilion, so it isn’t anything significant.
Since they had decided to acknowledge Yang shi as their teacher, Zhang Xuan would naturally become their senior. Thus, as juniors, they wouldn’t spare any effort to assist him.
“Un, show me your battle technique.”
Having confirmed the teacher-student relationship with the trio, Zhang Xuan nodded his head in satisfaction.
“Yes!”
Knowing that Yang shi was going to guide them on their cultivation, they stood up immediately and excitedly. It didn’t take long before the rustling of wind sounded in the room as the trio displayed their battle techniques.
After an unknown period of time, the trio clasped their hands and took their leave. Even though they were still Half-Zongshi and they had yet to achieve a breakthrough, the excitement on their faces was almost impossible to hide.
Actually, Zhang Xuan was capable of helping the trio reach Zongshi realm on the spot, but if he were to do so, his pure zhenqi and low cultivation realm would be exposed. This could have potentially led to countless troubles in the future.
After some contemplation, he decided to simply point out the flaws in their cultivation.
In his words, having pointed out their flaws, and it is a trial to the trio to achieve a breakthrough with the new knowledge. As 1-star master teachers, if they are unable to achieve a breakthrough even after knowing all these, it would show that there are fundamental flaws in their talents, and he would have to reconsider his decision to accept the trio as his students.
Hearing those words, the three master teachers didn’t dare to say anything. They listened attentively to the flaws the other party spoke of, afraid that they would mishear anything.
However, now that they know where their mistakes lie, given their knowledge and comprehension on cultivation, reaching Zongshi realm becomes only a matter of time.
“Old master, Emperor Shen Zhui is waiting outside.”
Zhang Xuan was about to rest after dealing with the three master teachers when Sun Qiang came in with the report.
“He’s here? Can it be…” Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up. “Have him enter!”
“Yang shi!”
Soon, Emperor Shen Zhui walked in, clasped his hands, and bowed. His gaze was filled with passion and reverence.
Not only did he save the dying old ancestor, he even helped him reach Zongshi realm. Those feats are something that even a 2-star master teacher would find hard to accomplish.
Perhaps… The person standing before him is a 3-star master teacher, or even someone much more incredible.
Even the emperor of a Tier 1 Kingdom would find it hard to meet someone of his caliber.
“Reporting to Yang shi, I have managed to gather the Tongxuan realm secret manuals that you had me collect…”
Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.
His condition for treating Shen Hong was for Shen Zhui to collect these Tongxuan realm cultivation technique manuals in his stead. It has been a few days since then, and given the influence of the royal family, collecting thousands of such books wasn’t any issue.
“Yang shi, please look through them!”
As Shen Zhui gestured with his hand, thousands of books stacked up in a pile before him.
He brought all of the books in his storage ring.
“Un!”
Walking forward to pick up a few books, Zhang Xuan quickly flipped through them, placed them down, and proceeded to do the same with other books.
From the very start, when Yang shi had made such a request, Emperor Shen Zhui was already perplexed why such an incredible master teacher would need Tongxuan realm secret manuals. Upon seeing this situation, his confusion worsened.
If the other party opens the book and reads through them, Emperor Shen Zhui could have attributed the matter to him studying. But to flip through them just like that… What is he doing?
Even though Emperor Shen Zhui was perplexed, he didn’t dare to mention anything. He stood obediently by the side, quietly observing.
Hualala, hualala!
In a single go, Zhang Xuan flipped through the thousands of secret manuals.
Even though the manuals gathered were rather average in standard, the quantity more than made up for it. Given that Zhang Xuan possessed the Library of Heaven’s Path, it is the best situation that could have happened.
“Correct!”
With a jolt of his mind, the books converged to form a single entity in the library.
Tongxuan realm Heaven’s Path Divine Art!
“Alright, I’m done. You can take them away!”
Zhang Xuan casually waved his hands.
Since he had already created replicas of all of the books in the library, there was no need for him to keep the physical copies.
“This…”
Emperor Shen Zhui was taken aback.
In order to gather all of these secret manuals, he had paid quite a substantial amount. Initially, he thought that Yang shi would at least take a look. In the end, he simply casually flipped through them and returned them to him…
“Are these books not to your liking? If so, I can search for more…”
After hesitating for a moment, Emperor Shen Zhui couldn’t help but ask.
“There’s no need. I’m already done reading these books, you can take them back.” Zhang Xuan casually waved his hands.
“Done… reading these books?”
Emperor Shen Zhui nearly fell to the ground.
You… you… what can you possibly have read like that?
Casually flipping through those books like that, and you say that you are done reading them… Do your eyes grow on your hands?
“Yes!”
Even though he felt so stifled that he could spurt blood, he dared not to question any further. He kept all of the books in his storage ring, clasped his hands, and said, “Then, I’ll be taking my leave…”
“Un!” Zhang Xuan casually waved him away.
Emperor Shen Zhui returned back to the royal palace immediately after leaving the mansion.
“Have you passed the books to Yang shi?”
Old Ancestor Shen Hong walked over.
“I passed him the books, but… he didn’t want them and… he gave them back!” Even until now, Emperor Shen Zhui had maintained his confused expression.
“Gave them back? Is Yang shi unsatisfied with the books?”
“That’s not it…”
“Then, has he finished reading them?”
“He didn’t read through them at all…”
“Didn’t read through them at all? Then, what did he want the books for?” Shen Hong was perplexed.
“He… He… simply fiddled around with it…”
“Fiddled?”
Shen Hong blinked his eyes.
I can understand if you wish to fiddle around with beautiful ladies, but why did you fiddle around with those books?
“Indeed, it is impossible for us to understand the minds of geniuses…”
After a contemplating over the matter for an extremely long time, they finally arrived at this conclusion.
……………………
After Emperor Shen Zhui left, Zhang Xuan told Sun Qiang that he would not be seeing anyone else, before returning to his room.
“Time to cultivate!”
Zhang Xuan immediately turned his attention to the 7-dan Heaven’s Path Divine Art which was just formed.
“The opening of acupoints, the connecting of the meridians, allowing zhenqi to flow without any hindrance, that is Tongxuan…”
The words appeared clearly in his mind.
As this version of Heaven’s Path Divine Art was formed by compiling thousands of secret manuals together, there were no problems with it all. Zhang Xuan read and cultivated via the method explained within simultaneously.
Pure zhenqi began to circulate within his body, and according to the unique cultivation method written in the perfect manual, the zhenqi revolved unceasingly.
Boom!
With just a single circulation, he had barged through the bottleneck and spiritual energy in the air surged into his body with hysteria. His zhenqi and strength improved exponentially.
Tongxuan realm primary stage!
Tongxuan realm intermediate stage!
…
In no time, he had achieved Tongxuan realm pinnacle!
“Along with the rise in my cultivation, my speed of improvement is slowing…”
Feeling that his cultivation had reached another bottleneck, Zhang Xuan stopped.
As Zhang Xuan had to deduce the correct acupoints one by one in Pixue realm, it wasn’t an accurate gauge of his cultivation speed. On the other hand, when he was at Dingli realm, cultivating via the complete version of Heaven’s Path Divine Art, he took around two hours, but now…
“It took a whole ten minute longer. Looks like the higher one’s cultivation reaches, the more difficult it is to cultivate!”
Zhang Xuan lamented with a grim expression.
If anyone else were to know his thoughts, they would definitely want to strangle him to death.
You call an additional ten minutes difficult?
Even top-notch geniuses, with the augmentation of countless treasures, to cultivate from Tongxuan realm primary stage to pinnacle would take a minimum of ten years of hard work. Yet, you only took ten minutes more than two hours and you think that your cultivation speed has slowed…
The heck, why don’t you go and die!
“I should check out how much my strength has improved…”
Zhang Xuan stood up and walked over to the Strength Measuring Rock Pillar. Using just the strength from his zhenqi, he sent his fist into it.
Weng!
A line of numbers slowly floated into view.
“600 ding!”
A look of delight immediately appeared on Zhang Xuan’s face.
At Pixue realm pinnacle, he had opened 108 acupoints, granting him an additional 108 ding of strength. In addition to the previous 20 ding, he possessed a total of 128 ding of zhenqi strength.
Now that he has achieved a breakthrough, his strength increased by several folds.
Usually, a Tongxuan realm expert would possess 100 ding of strength at primary stage, 200 ding at intermediate stage, 300 ding at advanced stage, and 400 ding at pinnacle.
With a zhenqi strength of 600 ding, Zhang Xuan is able to match up to a Half-Zongshi.
A Zongshi expert wields tremendous strength, and their blows easily exceed a thousand ding. Those who possess strength between 400 ding and 1000 ding are known as Half-Zongshi.
If he were to add the 90 ding of strength from his physical body, his strength would almost reach 700 ding. With such strength, his prowess would be the top few even among Half-Zongshis.
“Finally, I possess the power to protect myself!”
Now that he has such commensurate and mighty power, coupled with his Library of Heaven’s Path ability to see through flaws, he can finally stand against top-notch experts within the country. Zhang Xuan heaved a sigh of relief.
Even since he noticed the poison aura within his body, the fear that someone is trying to kill him had been plaguing his mind.
Without sufficient strength, if the enemy were to make another attempt, he definitely won’t be able to resist. Now that Zhang Xuan holds strength comparable to a Half-Zongshi, he finally regained his sense of security.
After reinforcing his cultivation and adapting to his newfound strength, Zhang Xuan walked out of the room.
Unknowingly, a day had passed, and the sun was rising slowly from the east. Its radiance spilled over the horizon and scene of tranquility formed in the city.
“To think that it is already dawn…”
Looking at the rising sun, Zhang Xuan realized that the Freshmen Tournament and the Teacher Evaluation which he had waited for half a month…
Has arrived!
