After leaving King Huai Manor, Zhang Xuan turned to Sun Qiang and instructed, “Sun Qiang, find suitable living quarters with a good atmosphere in proximity to the academy within the next two days!”
As a student of the Master Teacher Academy, he was allowed to stay at the Academic Sea. However, going by the rules, Zheng Yang and the others weren’t qualified to live there. This was also part of the reason Hong shi and the others allowed them to leave with King Huai without much protest.
While it wasn’t a problem for them to stay in the Academic Sea for a few days, complaints from the other students would arise soon enough if their stay stretched on. Rather than having to deal with the mess then, they might as well find suitable lodgings now. This way, it would be more convenient for Zhang Xuan to conduct lessons for them, and Zheng Yang and the others need not be so restrained as well.
“Yes!” Sun Qiang nodded.
As the butler, he was in charge of the miscellaneous affairs of the group. The others only needed to focus on their cultivation.
“Teacher, I think I am on the verge of a breakthrough!”
After relaying some instructions, Zhang Xuan was just about to return to the Academic Sea when he heard Wang Ying’s voice. Turning around, he saw a powerful aura flowing around the latter’s body. Her zhenqi was trembling in her acupoints, and it seemed that she would make a breakthrough at any moment!
She was currently at Yin-Yang realm pinnacle, so with this breakthrough, she would reach Transcendent Mortal 4-dan Clarifying Turbidity realm.
She had been working hard over the past month, and she had long reached the peak of Yin-Yang realm, but the impetus for a breakthrough just didn’t seem to come somehow. However, the intense emotion from the parting with Yuan Tao had resonated with her cultivation, thus allowing her to take this final step forward.
“Great Violetwing Beast!”
Knowing that opportunities for achieving a breakthrough didn’t come easily, Zhang Xuan immediately beckoned his tamed beast telepathically. Then, with a sweep of his zhenqi, the group soared into the air and landed on the back of the Great Violetwing Beast.
Several dozen breaths later, they finally returned back to the Academic Sea. After arranging for Zheng Yang and the others to stay at his room for the time being, Zhang Xuan took Wang Ying to a silent chamber and stood guard for her as she attempted the breakthrough.
In Clarifying Turbidity realm, one’s soul and physical body would be clearly divided into two. Even though Wang Ying possessed a simplified version of the Heaven’s Path Divine Art so making the breakthrough shouldn’t be a problem at all, it would still be difficult for her to maintain the consonance between her body and soul while preventing their merging.
Nevertheless, she would only benefit the greatest from this breakthrough if she were to achieve a breakthrough while enduring this pressure. Thus, Zhang Xuan didn’t intend to interfere at all.
Gugugugu!
Her acupoints furiously devoured spiritual energy from the surroundings as zhenqi rushed through her body. With a harrumph, a surge of zhenqi rushed up her Baihui acupoint and gushed out.
Boom!
The division of clarity and turbidity—Transcendent Mortal 4-dan Clarifying Turbidity realm reached!
At this moment, Wang Ying exuded an overwhelmingly powerful aura reminiscent of a sword.
‘This is… a breakthrough in her Will of Mind?’
Zhang Xuan’s eyelids twitched furiously.
Just like master teachers, cultivators could also achieve breakthroughs in their Will of Mind as well. The only difference was that the former was more sided toward the analytical aspect whereas the latter was more sided toward practicality in combat.
Even though a breakthrough to Clarifying Turbidity realm would boost one’s cultivation significantly, it still wasn’t possible for one to exude such a sharp aura. Clearly, Wang Ying had reached a higher realm in her Will of Mind!
Scarlet Heart realm!
‘This is truly a fortuitous encounter!’
Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.
In the Fighter realm, the cultivation of one’s physical body and zhenqi took priority, but beyond Clarifying Turbidity realm, the importance of Will of Mind would start to shine through.
After all, this was intricately tied to the purity of one’s soul. If one could temper their Will of Mind, their cultivation would be much smoother and faster in the future.
Humans are beings possessing sentience, and thus they are vulnerable to the disturbances around them. This made it nigh impossible for them to focus all of their attention to the task they had at hand.
However, the Crimson Heart realm allowed one to toss aside their miscellaneous thoughts to focus their efforts on cultivating. In such a state, one’s cultivation would be several times more effective than usual!
It could be said that upon reaching the realm, Wang Ying’s cultivation would only grow faster and faster, and she would eventually far surpass Zheng Yang and the others.
‘Even though this lass is reticent, it seems like she possesses great determination…’
Zhang Xuan shook his head with a bitter smile.
Wang Ying’s talent was not on par with Zhao Ya, her resilience was not on par with Lu Chong, her flexibility was not on par with Zheng Yang, her cunningness was not on par with Yuan Tao, and her worldliness was not on par with Liu Yang… But even so, she still managed to stand her own ground and shine among them. And now, she had even comprehended the Crimson Heart realm!
It seemed like meticulousness and composure were the strongest factors influencing the advancement of one’s cultivation!
“Given her rate of cultivation, it won’t be long before she requires a Consonant Spirit realm cultivation technique. However, I don’t have one at the moment…”
Since Wang Ying was already past the crucial period, there was no need for Zhang Xuan to stand guard anymore. While he was heartened by Wang Ying’s breakthrough, another new problem cropped up, and he pinched his glabella.
While Zhang Xuan had reached Consonant Spirit realm pinnacle, he had only managed to do so due to the assistance of the white-robed lady and the means of a soul oracle. He still didn’t have a Consonant Spirit realm Heaven’s Path Divine Art manual in the Library of Heaven’s Path yet.
He had to quickly search for it, or else Wang Ying might find her cultivation stagnating very soon.
Thus, after leaving the secret chamber, he immediately headed toward Hong shi’s room.
Upon finding the other party, Zhang Xuan asked, “Hong shi, do you know where I can find Consonant Spirit realm and Cosmos Bridge realm cultivation technique manuals?”
“Cultivation technique manuals? I can find a few for you, but… how many do you need?” Hong shi was slightly startled by Zhang shi’s request.
“The more the better,” Zhang Xuan replied.
“Give me a moment, I’ll take a look…”
Saying so, Hong shi walked out of the room. Not too long later, he returned with several dozen books.
“I was able to find forty Consonant Spirit realm cultivation technique manuals, but I could only find three for Cosmos Bridge realm!” Not knowing what the other party intended to use the secret manuals for, Hong shi tried to gather as many books as he could.
The fifty geniuses from Huanyu Empire were all Consonant Spirit realm cultivators. Thus, it wasn’t too difficult to gather some cultivation technique manuals from them. However, gathering Cosmos Bridge realm cultivation technique manuals would be tricky.
Only Feng shi and Luo shi had some in their possession.
“Forty…” Zhang Xuan brushed his fingers through them and shook his head.
Forty books might already be an impressive collection to others, but to Zhang Xuan, it was far from sufficient from meeting his goal.
Passing the books back to Hong shi, Zhang Xuan asked, “Where can I find more cultivation technique manuals? The quality doesn’t matter, I am only interested in the quantity.”
“Then… how many books do you need?”
Hong shi was stunned to hear that even forty books were less than sufficient.
Even he would have to take several months before he could finish reading and comprehending those books. Yet, Zhang shi actually said that it wasn’t enough. How many did he need then?
“At least a thousand!” Zhang Xuan replied.
“A thousand?”
Hong shi staggered and nearly fell to the ground.
Even though all kinds of cultivation techniques appeared in the world after the establishment of the Master Teacher Pavilion as though flowers blooming with the onset of summer, finding a thousand different cultivation technique manuals was still an extremely difficult feat!
After all, there wasn’t a single cultivation technique that came to the world just because one willed it to. Each of these cultivation techniques contained the crystallization of an expert’s comprehension of the cultivation realm and their relentless effort to refine it.
“That’s right. Do you know where I can find them?” asked Zhang Xuan, oblivious to the shock going through the other party’s mind.
“This…”
Seeing that the other party didn’t seem to be joking, Hong shi rubbed his glabella and said, “The Master Teacher Academy will surely have plenty of books there. I think you will be able to easily find tens of thousands of the books you want there…”
The Master Teacher Academy was a place which gathered the talented master teachers all over the world. Over many millennia of heritage, many cultivation techniques and secret arts had been left behind by generations of geniuses, thus forming an impressive collection. However, as Zhang Xuan had yet to become an official student of the academy, not to mention that he didn’t have any academic credits either, he would be unable to access the books there.
“Right!”
Suddenly, a thought came to Hong shi, and his eyes lit up. “There will be a bazaar for the freshmen over the next few days, and there will surely be some who are selling cultivation technique manuals too. You can go over to take a look. Given how many freshmen there are in the Academic Sea, it shouldn’t be a problem for you to find a thousand books!”
“Bazaar?” Zhang Xuan was taken aback.
“Un! The freshmen from the various empires have brought along the local specialties from their own empires, as well as their own unique cultivation techniques. By conducting this bazaar, the freshmen will be able to get acquainted with another, trade resources, and share their own views and experiences on cultivation. This way, everyone will be able to raise their fighting prowess to some extent, thus increasing the overall chances of clearing the entrance examination!” Hong shi said.
“Alright. Where is this bazaar conducted? I’ll go and take a look!”
Upon hearing that there was such a gathering, Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up.
“It is conducted on the center ship in the middle of the Academic Sea!”
Hong shi pointed.
At the center of the Academic Sea was a gigantic lake. Zhang Xuan had thought that it was just for scenery purposes, but who knew that the bazaar would actually be conducted there?
Zhang Xuan left the residence and walked toward the lake. It didn’t take him too long to arrive at his destination. Even though spring had already set in, the frigidity of winter had yet to dispel entirely. The slight breeze sweeping across the surface of the lake carried bone-chilling intent with it.
Gazing toward the center of the lake, Zhang Xuan saw a gigantic vessel floating at a distance of several thousand meters away. A bustling crowd was gathered on it.
“There are small boats over there to row participants of the bazaar over…”
The vessel floated in the middle of the lake, and there was no path leading to it. After scanning the surroundings, Hong shi noticed a small rowing boat not too far away, and the duo immediately walked over.
Hong shi walked up and asked, “How much does it cost to get to the Great Bazaar?”
The elderly rower raised his droopy eyes and replied, “A middle-tier spirit stone!”
“A middle-tier spirit stone? This is daylight robbery!” Zhang Xuan widened his eyes in shock.
Even a low-tier spirit stone felt extravagant for a journey this short, and yet, this old man wanted a middle-tier spirit stone. Wasn’t he taking advantage of their situation!
“Daylight robbery? If you find it expensive, you can traverse across the lake yourself! But let me warn you, there are plenty of Transcendent Mortal 7-dan and 8-dan spirit beasts in the Academic Lake, so do try not to get eaten!”
Seemingly used to this scene, the old man shrugged off Zhang Xuan’s words with a smirk.
Since there were land-bound and aerial spirit beasts, naturally there were aquatic spirit beasts as well. In fact, they were even more numerous than land-bound spirit beasts.
Considering the size of the lake, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there were plenty of powerful spirit beasts in it.
Having reached Consonant Spirit realm, even though one was still unable of flight, stepping across a body of water wouldn’t pose a problem. Just that… if there were spirit beasts in the water, one would have to think twice before doing so. Who knew if an aquatic spirit beast would be waiting with widened jaws under the next step one took?
On the other hand, the boat seemed to be imbued with some kind of formation that deterred the aquatic spirit beasts.
“This…” Hong shi hesitated. Just as he was still considering whether to take the ride or not, a middle-tier spirit stone was thrown into the hands of the old man, and with a blur, two silhouettes landed on the boat.
“Set off!”
Taking a closer look at the two figures who had just appeared on the boat, they were the young man and Senior Feng, whom Zhang Xuan defeated with just a single finger before.
Upon receiving the middle-tier spirit stone, the elder grabbed his oars and dipped them into the lake. Slowly, the boat began to advance toward the vessel at the center of the lake. The young man glanced at Zhang Xuan derisively and said, “Why bother going to the bazaar when you can’t even fork out a single middle-tier spirit stone…”
Even though Senior Feng didn’t say anything, contempt could be seen in his eyes as well. Zhang shi had defeated him with a single finger before a huge crowd. While the other party had gone easy on him, it was still inevitable that he felt humiliated by the matter. As such, he still felt some degree of hostility to the other party.
Therefore, he couldn’t help but feel a little gleeful when he saw that the ‘great’ Zhang shi was unable to fork out even a single middle-tier spirit stone.
But at that moment, the two men standing by the shore abruptly leaped into the sky.
Hu!
They landed on the back of a giant Great Violetwing Beast.
The massive spirit beast flapped its violet wings, creating a powerful gale that created huge waves on the surface of the water. Even the boat also began to rock violently before the powerful gale. In the blink of an eye, the Great Violetwing Beast was already halfway through the journey to the vessel in the middle of the lake.
Scarlet Heart realm -> This is one of the words with multiple meanings in Chinese. On the literal aspect, it means Scarlet Heart, but it could also mean ‘an earnest heart’ or ‘ a focused mind’.
