Chapter 73: I’ve restricted my cultivation. Now you can use your technique again
Additional chapter for 200 PS.
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“Young master Xie Qing, this is the place where disciples can buy knowledge and exchange their inventions for contribution points, which can then be used to purchase equipment, items, and other useful things!” explained Li Yuilan, acting as a guide. She pointed to a tall pavilion and said, “That is the Pavilion of Achievements. It records the achievements of the Starry Stream Sect and its disciples. If your contribution to the sect is significant enough, you can earn the right to leave a mark on the tablets inside the pavilion.”
“How amazing. I can see why the Starry Stream Sect has lasted until now and remains one of the greatest,” murmured Xie Qing, shaking his head. “Here, everyone is focused on inventing rather than relying on the achievements of the previous generation.”
“Of course. I also admire how the Master uses the minds of her disciples. She encourages them to invent rather than rely on the achievements of the past generation. To quote her words,” said Li Yuilan, imitating Zhang Mei’s indifferent face and emotionless tone: “We must respect the work of the previous generation and build something new on that foundation. If we cannot change the soil, then we will change the fruits.”
“Ahaha… that sounds just like her,” Xie Qing laughed when he heard Li Yuilan imitating Zhang Mei.
“T-thank you…” Li Yuilan smiled shyly.
“I guess you forgot about me…” thought Xie Yu, but seeing her older sister laughing and smiling more frequently, she remained silent. Although she was jealous, Xie Yu was happy to see that there was someone else, other than the Master and herself, with whom Li Yuilan could communicate freely.
And so, while explaining the sect to Xie Qing, Li Yuilan led him to the Pavilion of Wisdom, which served as the residence of the sect leader. After his token was checked, they entered and climbed up the floors until they reached the tenth floor, where Zhang Mei’s office was located.
“We are not allowed to enter, as the Master wants to discuss something privately with you,” said Li Yuilan, and then shyly added, avoiding eye contact with Xie Qing: “W-when you’re done, I’ll take you to the guest room. Call me in your mind by pouring Qi into the guest token and I’ll come to you.”
“Of course. Thank you for your help, young Miss Li,” Xie Qing said with a gentle smile.
“Yup…”
Li Yuilan nodded absentmindedly and smiled shyly, then left with Xie Yu, leaving Xie Qing in front of the door. He pushed the door open and walked inside.
“You’ve arrived,” came a cold female voice.
“Greetings, Sect Leader Zhang,” Xie Qing greeted her with a friendly smile.
“Sit down somewhere, I’ll finish up my paperwork.”
Xie Qing nodded and sat down on a chair, resting his chin in his hand as he looked at Zhang Mei. He couldn’t help but notice how beautiful her face was – expressionless and emotionless, cold and mature. Her features were neat, with sharp purple eyes and beautiful gray hair tied back in a bun. Her long lashes fluttered as she read the text on the papers, and her breath was calm. Her thin and delicate lips were devoid of lipstick.
Despite the lack of makeup, Zhang Mei’s beauty was undeniable. Xie Qing observed her for a moment, then looked away, thinking he had stared at her enough.
Of course, Zhang Mei noticed this gaze on her and felt a little uncomfortable, but she was used to the attention paid to her appearance. It was strange, but today’s work was progressing much more efficiently. Zhang Mei couldn’t help but remember her youthful days with Xu Mei when she worked as an accountant and was accompanied by a restless girl who helped her with her work.
“Well… they are master and disciple. I guess their auras should be almost the same,” Zhang Mei thought, and then her expression became strange as she remembered Xu Mei’s words: “And if I’m being more precise, they’re lovers. Seriously, I don’t understand what she’s thinking. It’s a taboo, one of the worst ones.”
Relationships between masters and disciples were considered sacred, especially in ancient times when wars were fought every day and yesterday could be the last day of a cultivator’s life. The one who was noble enough to pass on their knowledge to the next generation created the holy image of a master who gave part of their soul. Zhang Mei also believed in the purity of such relationships.
However, now Xu Mei had declared her love for her disciple. As a woman with strict boundaries, Zhang Mei did not approve, but she did not act aggressively to try to prevent it. She could only sigh. If Xu Mei had gone so far, she must have had her reasons.
“And besides… she found a lover before me… tsk!” Inside, Zhang Mei was burning with jealousy and anger. “Why doesn’t anyone approach me? Am I that scary? What, just because I have a cold expression on my face? I’ve had it since I was young!”
Struggling with her emotions, Zhang Mei nevertheless managed to maintain her apathy on her face. She did not want to show her inner world to Xu Mei’s disciple, not wanting to be teased later.
When all the documents were half finished, ten minutes had already passed. Zhang Mei tried to finish as quickly as possible, but this task was too tedious and required a lot of attention.
“Sect Leader Zhang, would you like me to help you? I had many lessons in paperwork as a child, so I’m good at it,” suddenly a voice sounded behind her, right next to her ear.
“Eek!”
“Huh?”
Zhang Mei let out a loud shriek and clutched her left ear, where the sound had come from. She glared angrily at Xie Qing, who was smiling awkwardly at her. Hiding her red ear, she looked him up and down, then nodded.
“Alright. I’m sorry for making you wait, but this is important work. Here, there are three stacks of papers that just need to be stamped.”
“As you wish~” Xie Qing said with a teasing smile, remembering her cute shriek, but in response, he met only her cold purple eyes.
Shaking his head, he sat down at a table in the corner and began stamping the papers. Zhang Mei finally turned away, feeling her face grow a little warm.
“What was that ‘eek’? How embarrassing!”
Zhang Mei felt ashamed, but the work was more important. Thus, very soon the room was plunged into silence, and only the sound of a goose feather pen scratching against paper and the stamping could be heard.
Twenty minutes passed. Zhang Mei read through the papers relaxed, and those that required answers, she wrote letters for. All of this was a formality, and the rest could have been done by passing the work on to the elders, but Zhang Mei preferred to take on all the work herself to ensure that everything was going well. This was her character – to work hard and rely only on herself.
Ironically, this was related to the fact that her group members in the past were so unreliable that all the work was done by Zhang Mei.
One way or another, Xie Qing finished his work after twenty minutes, and Zhang Mei only ten minutes later. She neatly arranged all the documents and placed them in a drawer, then nodded to the young man.
“Thank you, and once again I apologize for burdening you so rudely with work,” Zhang Mei said, fixing her hair behind her ear.
“No problem. I was just looking for something to do, and it turned out to be helpful,” Xie Qing replied nonchalantly, waving his hand. Then he started a new topic: “In your message, you asked me to come here and finally fulfill part of my promise. Are you referring to wanting to examine my body? Do I need to undress?”
“…no, there’s no need to undress, just come over here and let me check your spiritual channels,” Zhang Mei said with a stern face and cold voice.
“What a shame…” Xie Qing sighed and did not pay attention to Zhang Mei’s cold gaze.
Approaching Zhang Mei, Xie Qing extended his arm and exposed his wrist. Just like with ordinary veins, there were also spiritual veins here, so Zhang Mei touched his wrist without hesitation and closed her eyes, pouring in her Qi.
When her Qi entered through the skin and touched the walls of the spiritual channels, she immediately opened her eyes in shock. Even her Qi dispersed because she lost control over it.
“S-such pure Qi! No impurities!” she made a shocking discovery for herself.
“Ugu,” Xie Qing simply nodded, not knowing what to say in this situation.
However, Zhang Mei did not pay attention to him and decided to check his spiritual channels again, this time maintaining control over her emotions. Her eyes sparkled with curiosity as she sensed several factors:
Xie Qing’s spiritual veins were very strong, twice as strong as usual. The Qi flowing in the spiritual channels was extremely pure and powerful, and his strength reached the peak of Core Formation and was one step away from Soul Nascent.
“Amazing! This cultivation technique truly deserves to be legendary!” Zhang Mei thought, and her mind was filled with envy, but then she shook her head: “Never mind, it’s too late when I found this cultivation technique. It’s probably for the better that Xu Mei’s disciple was able to use it to its full potential.”
The Nine Golden Dragons Technique. An ancient technique obtained from the Ancestral Caves with the help of Li Yuilan. She shook her head.
“You truly are an outstanding cultivator. You were able to unlock the full potential of the cultivation technique you received. I won’t lie if I say that you are the greatest genius of all time,” Zhang Mei praised Xie Qing, who felt a little strange. Zhang Mei also noticed this: “What’s with that expression: ‘You can praise too?’… wipe it off.”
“Hahah… no, I knew you were a very good person, just not good at expressing your thoughts,” Xie Qing said casually with a smile.
“Hmph!”
Zhang Mei snorted and released the young man’s wrist, stepping back. She did not explain anything and simply sat back down in her seat, then said, “I need you to reveal a little about the technique. I tried to decipher it and even found a fragment of the dragon language, trying to learn their language, but even so, I couldn’t read the technique.”
“Eh? Well, I don’t even know how to explain it. In fact, I learned this technique by just looking at a few pages,” Xie Qing answered, scratching his head. He thought for a moment and replied, “If I had to summarize, the description of this technique was only a few words: ‘Conquer the Heavens, Subdue Chaos.’ What it means, I don’t know.”
“Hmmm?”
Zhang Mei raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. How could so many pages of text be reduced to just these words? She narrowed her eyes, but then understanding came to her.
“So it’s just a trick… the cultivation technique chooses its own master. This is rare, but not impossible. So that’s how it is…”
She began muttering something to herself, and Xie Qing remained silent. He also pondered these words, and although he understood what was meant by conquering the heavens, what was chaos? And every time he tried to figure it out, his head exploded with pain. He frowned and shook his head.
“I think it’s best not to think about it right now. I’ll just be wasting my nerves.”
***
After that, they discussed the Nine Golden Dragons Technique, and Xie Qing demonstrated his power and achievements. He also showed skills related to the cultivation technique, which surprised Zhang Mei.
“Dragon’s Gaze? Well, this is indeed an existing Dao technique, but it has never been used by a human. It’s because of the limitation of race, and dragons do not spread this technique to other people.”
“I’m not sure what to say, Leader Zhang. I gained this knowledge in one day when I broke through to the Core Formation stage,” Xie Qing replied, hiding the fact that the technique was obtained from the system.
“Well… that’s logical. Considering the rarity and difficulty of the cultivation technique, it has bonuses for its owner,” Zhang Mei accepted Xie Qing’s explanation and nodded: “Alright, I think I’ve gained some knowledge about this. I’m curious to see how this technique works… demonstrate it.”
“Do you want me to activate the Dragon’s Gaze on you, correct?”
“Yes.”
Seeing Zhang Mei’s nod, Xie Qing did not object and simply used the technique.
On her end, Zhang Mei saw only that Xie Qing’s eyes turned golden, and then darkness began to thicken around her. But before the darkness could fully take shape, it shattered under the influence of her Qi.
“Hm… it seems I’m too strong for this,” Zhang Mei mused and looked at Xie Qing, who was suffering from the backlash of the skill. She became a little worried: “Are you alright?”
“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine… I just instinctively poured in too much Qi, and it caused pain.”
Zhang Mei nodded and thought for a moment before doing something. Her cold and detached aura disappeared, and she seemed to descend from the heavens to the earth.
“I’ve temporarily restricted my cultivation. Now you can use your technique again.”
