In a sense, the Heaven’s Path Golden Body 2-dan was the most correct method in absorbing the blood essence. As though a plant that had thirsted for several years, Zhang Xuan’s body greedily absorbed the energy within the spirit blood.
After an unknown period of time.
Boom!
With a loud bang, as though something had exploded, and Zhang Xuan’s physical body strength had broken through a bottleneck and reached a brand new level.
Hu!
Breathing out a mouthful of turbid gas, Zhang Xuan realized that his entire body was revitalized, and his skin was more compact and smooth. At the same time, his appearance looked slightly more dashing, and his figure became slightly closer to the golden ratio.
He had succeeded in the cultivation of Heaven’s Path Golden Body 2-dan!
The two drops of spirit beast blood essence which he had rubbed on his acupoints had been absorbed cleanly by his body.
“Time to test my strength!”
Knowing that it was hard to determine the growth in his physical strength, Zhang Xuan walked over the Strength Measuring Rock Pillar not too far away, raised his fist, and struck it.
Kacha!
The rock pillar shuddered, and it was nearly broken into pieces. A line of numbers slowly floated into appearance.
“9999 ding? Just a step away from reaching ten thousand?”
Zhizun realm was also known as Ten Thousand Ding realm. Given that Zhang Xuan’s strength had reached 9999 ding, it meant that he was invincible against all those beneath Zhizun realm!
“It is a pity that the amount of spirit beast blood essence is too lacking. If I have several dozen more, I might be able to reach Zhizun realm pinnacle…”
Zhang Xuan lamented.
Even though he had mastered Heaven’s Path Golden Body 2-dan, he knew that his physical strength hadn’t reached its cap yet. As long as he had sufficient blood essence, he could continue to cultivate the technique and his strength would continue to rise swiftly.
But even so, Zhang Xuan was already contented.
Lin Ruotian was stuck in Zongshi realm pinnacle for a very long time, and even after using the energy harnessed within the spirit beast blood essence, he only managed to achieve a zhenqi strength of around 9000 ding.
On the other hand, Zhang Xuan’s breakthrough was in his physical body, and his physical body strength had reached 9999 ding. The difficulty in doing so was several folds above that of the former.
One’s zhenqi could run out in the midst of a battle, but physical strength was constant. On top of that, physical body cultivators possessed nearly invincible defense in comparison to those of the same cultivation realm, allowing them to match with three to four of zhenqi cultivators easily.
But of course, this was assuming that there wasn’t a huge disparity in the skills and battle techniques of both sides.
“With this kind of strength, I’ll be able to defeat a Zhizun realm primary stage cultivator easily, and even when facing a Zhizun realm intermediate stage expert, I won’t be completely helpless!”
Previously, when Zhang Xuan’s strength was still at Zongshi realm pinnacle, he was already able to easily defeat the Half-Zhizun realm Lin Ruotian, who possessed a strength of more than 9000 ding. Given that he had managed to achieve such a huge leap in his strength, naturally, his fighting prowess rose significantly as well.
At Zhizun realm primary stage, one’s strength would finally break through the ten thousand ding mark. Then, for every increment within the cultivation realm, one’s strength would increase by another ten thousand ding, thus granting one the strength of forty thousand ding at Zhizun realm pinnacle!
9999 ding of physical body strength, coupled with 5000 ding of zhenqi strength, added up to a total of 14999 ding. With such strength, Zhang Xuan was able to rival against Zhizun realm intermediate stage experts.
Seeing the raise in his strength, Zhang Xuan heaved a huge sigh of relief.
Previously, Lin Ruotian had told him that he had informed Princess Consort Lin Long of the matter, so it was highly likely that she would send her men over. Even though Zhang Xuan acted nonchalantly on the surface, he was quite concerned over this matter.
Given that he had managed to achieve a huge leap in his strength, he could finally relieve himself of the huge worry in his heart.
Heaving a long sigh of relief, Zhang Xuan suddenly remembered that Lu Chong was still in the room. Quickly extracting his consciousness from the storage ring, he turned around to look for Lu Chong, only to see the youngster staring at him with mouth agape and eyes widened into huge circles.
The current Lu Chong was experiencing a slight breakdown.
As soon as he passed the Lin Clan’s storage ring over, his teacher had started to go into a daze. After a long moment, he suddenly leaped up, as though suffering from a stroke, and struck the Strength Measuring Rock Pillar…
Then… the pillar displayed 9999 ding of strength!
What in the world happened?
His teacher had only whipped out a jade bottle, dabbled some crimson liquid on his body, fell into a daze, and his strength immediately surged. Not only did he achieve a breakthrough, he even nearly reached Zhizun realm…
How in the world did he do it?
All along, Lu Chong thought that he had improved swiftly through the poison tempering, but after seeing his teacher, he realized that… it wasn’t a big deal at all.
Other people would die of old age trying to reach the Half-Zhizun stage, but his teacher only had to fall into a momentary daze to do so… And not to mention, that daze brought him right to the peak of Half-Zhizun realm… If word were to spread out, those self-proclaimed geniuses would probably die of shame.
This was no longer the feat of a genius, but… a monster!
Just as he was overwhelmed by shock, he saw his calm teacher looking at him with glowing eyes, “Right, do you still have any enemies? Why don’t I… help you get back at them as well! If not, help me ask Mu Xueqing and the others if they have any…”
After which, Zhang Xuan started counting on his fingers, “If there are a few more such clans, I’ll surely be able to obtain a lot of treasures and secret manuals. If so, I’ll have truly struck it rich…”
“…” Lu Chong.
Teacher, aren’t you an enlightened expert who have seen through material possession?
Aren’t you a genius who couldn’t care less about those crude objects?
Exacting vengeance for others… to confiscate wealth?
Why do you seem more and more unlike an enlightened expert, but a greedy ruffian instead?
In an instant, Lu Chong felt that he had to reevaluate his opinion of his teacher…
But it was no wonder why Zhang Xuan was so excited. Initially, he only went against the Lin Clan because he felt indignant for Lu Chong. Who knew that he would suddenly attain such a huge wealth.
Putting everything aside, if he could find a few more drops of spirit beast blood essence, through the Heaven’s Path Golden Body 2-dan, he would be able to break through the bottleneck constricting his physical body and reach Zhizun realm!
By then, even if he were to head to Xuanyuan Kingdom, there would be nothing for him to fear. He would be able to stand tall and mighty there too.
While waiting for the other party to respond, the sound of someone knocking on the door suddenly echoed in the classroom.
“Is Liu laoshi inside?”
“Lu Chong, you should rest by the side first!”
Bringing back his authority as a teacher, Zhang Xuan waved Lu Chong away and sat upright. Then, he replied impassively, “Is it Sun laoshi? Please enter!”
He could recognize the voice of the person outside; it was Mo Hongyi, who was disguised as Sun Cheng.
It seemed like the poison in his body had been neutralized, and he had recovered from its effects already.
Ji ya!
As soon as Zhang Xuan said those words, a figure immediately rushed in and glared at Zhang Xuan furiously. With a questioning tone, he bellowed, “Liu laoshi, you should know that your tea is poisoned, right?”
“I only knew after that incident. Honestly speaking, I’m a victim here too…”
Seeing the other party’s look, Zhang Xuan consoled, “Someone must be trying to kill me, and you only happened to step right into it and accidentally consumed the poisoned tea that such a matter happened… Don’t worry, I’ll definitely look into the matter and return your redress your grievance!”
“Redress my grievance? Victim? Victim my head…”
Hearing Zhang Xuan’s words, Mo Hongyi’s hair stood on ends, as though a cat who had his tail stepped on, and he erupted into rage.
The heck you are a victim! In the end, didn’t you end up well? As the number one genius, not only did I get poisoned, I even fell into the fecal drain…
More importantly, redress my grievance? How in the world are you going to redress my grievance when it’s your student who poisoned me?
“What’s wrong?” Seeing the other party getting angrier and angrier, Zhang Xuan was perplexed.
No one likes to get poisoned, and honestly speaking, how could I know that you would drink the tea from my room…
“You… Alright!”
Knowing that this fellow was indeed a victim, and he was ignorant of the matter, Mo Hongyi suppressed his rage and harrumphed, “There’s no need for you to investigate! I already know who the culprits are!”
“Who?”
Frowning, Zhang Xuan’s face turned grave.
He had been contemplating over this matter for a very long time. He didn’t offend anyone in this identity of his, so why in the world would someone want to poison him? If he knew who the culprit was, he would definitely pursue the matter!
“It’s… Zheng Yang and the others! I saw them do it personally last night!” Oblivious to Zhang Xuan’s thoughts, Mo Hongyi harrumphed coldly.
“Zheng Yang?”
Just as Zhang Xuan was thinking about how he should teach the other party a lesson, Mo Hongyi’s words caused him to stagger, and he nearly fell to the ground.
It was his own students who poisoned him?
What in the world is going on?
Zhang Xuan was shocked, but it didn’t take him long to deduce the entire matter. His complexion immediately darkened.
“Those little bastards…”
Roaring furiously, Zhang Xuan stood up abruptly with rage blazing within him.
The students of the other teachers were so obedient, yet what was with the students he taught? When they weren’t fighting or causing trouble, they were poisoning their own teacher…
The heck!
If I don’t teach them a lesson, I am not Zhang Xuan!
…
“Zhao Ya, what’s going on? Given how arrogantly Mu Xueqing acted just now, why didn’t you teach her a lesson? In any case, it’s Liu laoshi, and not her, that’s formidable, so what rights does she have to be acting so gleefully?”
On the way back to the residence, Zheng Yang kept questioned Zhao Ya in displeasure.
Zhang laoshi’s reputation has been completely pushed down by that Liu laoshi. As his student, even if you don’t speak for your own teacher, how can you compliment the opponent’s teacher? Is there something wrong with you?
“Teach her a lesson? I think you should think about how you can avoid punishment first!”
Seeing how the fellow before her had yet to grasp the situation, Zhao Ya replied helplessly.
“Avoid punishment? What punishment?”
Zheng Yang asked doubtfully. At the same time, Liu Yang and Yuan Tao also looked over curiously.
They were sharp-witted, but regardless, they were only fifteen to sixteen-year-old children. There were many things which they needed someone to point out to them before they could understand it.
“Wang Ying, you should explain the situation to them. I’ll try to think about how we can apologize to teacher…”
Zhao Ya grabbed her forehead in frustration.
Her original intention was to guard her teacher’s honor and bring eminence to him, yet… She did manage to make her teacher’s name known, but as soon as his true identity was declared in public, he would definitely become a laughingstock.
What in the world was this!
To think that such a matter could happen.
She truly didn’t know how to face Zhang laoshi in the future.
“Wang Ying, what’s wrong?”
Sensing that this was a huge matter, Zheng Yang looked at her anxiously.
“This…” Wang Ying’s face turned red. “I suspect that… Liu laoshi is Zhang laoshi in disguise!”
“Liu laoshi is Zhang laoshi?”
Zheng Yang and the others were stunned.
“Indeed. When fighting against the head of the Lin Clan, Liu laoshi executed Heaven’s Path Movement Art and Heaven’s Path Leg Art. I’ve seen it clearly, and there’s no mistake about it! On top of that, the technique that he used after borrowing Zhao Ya’s sword is Heaven’s Path Sword Art which grandteacher passed down to Zhao Ya… Furthermore, given how he treated us…”
Seeing the disbelieving looks of the trio, Wang Ying explained.
“Liu laoshi is Zhang laoshi?”
“Then… The person we poisoned is Zhang laoshi?”
“And we even scolded him so happily…”
…
Yuan Tao, Zheng Yang, and Liu Yang trembled in shock. Their faces turned pale, and they were on the verge of breaking down.
If that was true, then what in the world did they do in the past few days?
Teacher had done so much for them, yet all that was on their minds was how they could do him in…
The trio felt so stifled that they might spew blood.
“I want to go to Tianwu Academy to apologize to teacher…”
After a long moment, Zheng Yang slowly said with a pale face.
“I’ll go with you!”
“Same here!”
Yuan Tao and Liu Yang hurriedly nodded.
“Alright…”
Upon making a decision, the group hurriedly headed toward Tianwu Academy. Knowing that they had to face it sooner or later, Zhao Ya and Wang Ying also tagged along with them.
Dong!
Before they could reach the academy, the sound of a deafening bell rang.
“It’s from the Master Teacher Pavilion…”
The group couldn’t help but turn toward the source of the ringing.
