It had been a few days since Fang Hu's arrival, they had long since decided on the terms of the trade with the sect. Fang Hu would trade Jiahao's 'Way of the Solar Breath' along with everything Hu knew about the solar dao. The sect would trade a top-tier fire technique along with what they knew about the solar and flame daos. This had ruffled a few of the sect elder's feathers. Well, it ruffled their feathers until Fang Hu showed his hand. The cultivation method was substantial enough that, with the Song Clan's assistance, he was able to snag a proper fire technique. Our hero didn't need the Song Clan's assistance to close the deal on the knowledge trade off. His knowledge of the solar dao was deep enough to both eclipse what the Subtle Scroll Sect knew and get them to divulge their secrets on the dao of fire.

That was all well and good, but the best news Hu received while on this compound was by far the knowledge of Dai Yi's bloodline. Little Yi had almost burst out crying when she heard the news: It wasn't anything special! That might sound like a let down, but the fact that his little girl's bloodline wouldn't kill her if she made even the simplest of mistakes was a godsend. When combined with the new cultivation method she would be receiving, she would be able to kick start her cultivation like Jiahao had.

Speaking of the old man, Fang Hu has high hopes that he has solved the 'old age' problem as well! The information he had obtained from the sect, while not of much note when compared to Fang Hu's understanding of the solar dao, was still different. He had to verify that the information he had received was correct, cross-reference his notes and identify what was new. However, that was the easy part, checking to see how the previous scholar had come to his revelations, following their logic, and combining his logic with the scholars to bring forth new information, that was the hard part. As with everything, the hardest part is usually the most rewarding. The rewards should be so sweet that it could give Jiahao all the push he needs to ascend into immortality. Failing that, Fang Hu would probably just start a campaign to gather large amounts of spirit stones and catapult the old man where he needs to be.

Mission accomplished right? Why is Snake Boi still at the Quiet Papyrus Group? Well two reasons, first off, he doesn't have much of a goal. He knows that eventually he'll want to get out of Wonton Fields, but he doesn't know when. Hu figures that the people with OP powers would gather in qi rich areas, system granted or not. With them many things would follow, things like spiritual treasures that can replace the technology he had in his past life, things like good food, and things like society in general. Fang Hu would kill for the internet, and he wouldn't kill for much. He has only had meat on three occasions in all this time, and was tired of pretending like all of these huts and shacks were satisfactory. Even the good places reminded him of medieval times!

The second and less melodramatic, reason for Fang Hu's continued presence here was a lot more substantial. Song Guanyu had offered Fang Hu a position as a sparing partner! He would receive a spirit stone for every ten sessions of sparring. Hu didn't know if that was good or not, but it did give him a great excuse to hide out in the Silent Paper Gathering compound. Most of the people that had attacked him were still out there, after all. He had asked his host for news on what happened to his antagonists. He had been informed that Heavenly Fan Sect had been destroyed by Liuxain the city head, however, it is rumored that the sect leader and his son survived the encounter. The auction house had paid monetary reparations and received a slap on the wrist. The unknown cultivator had probably gotten away scot-free, the tribes were already in conflict with the city, and he didn't even have a name.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The two bouts that Fang Hu had with his new isekai buddy were much more in line with common sense. Guanyu was a madman, he had been analyzing the fight in the middle of the battle, and Fang Hu had shown all of his cards. His amulet wasn't charged, his hits were dodged with more ease than before, and if Fang Hu wasn't going crazy, then Guanyu was starting to control his intent. If that wasn't enough, Guanyu was actively becoming better. He wasn't lying about his dao improving when he fought with Fang Hu. Our hero knew the process, but couldn't do it himself. It just took too much work to do. You would engage in combat against someone who either had an unfamiliar dao or was much more studied in their dao. In this case Fang Hu is both. You would then watch how you reacted to your opponents dao and how they reacted to yours. You then repeatedly go over each battle in your mind. Using the data you obtained from that, you can then obtain the best ways to use your dao, and then afterwards you can hopefully find out more about the true nature of your dao.

There's also the 'natural talent' way of doing things. You engage opponents like the first one, then that's it. Your body and subconscious do the rest for you. This method is insane, and only one in a million geniuses can do it. That being said, there's a lot more than a million people on this planet. The less impressive version of this is the 'muscle memory' method. It is just the 'natural talent' method but instead of doing it one time, you do it thousands of times.

It didn't really matter which method Guanyu was using, but he was able to do it in a single fight, and that's insane. What really begs the question is why was Guanyu's dao pillar so low before? It was clear that with how good Guanyu was at this he could easily get better dao pillars better than Fang Hu's. The only answer Fang Hu could come up with is that Guanyu didn't know what he was doing. Otherwise, he would be requesting matches from all the elders in the sect. If that was the case, then Fang Hu wouldn't be the one to tell him, Fang Hu was a scholar, he didn't give information away for free.

If that was the case than Fang Hu knew how:

Power: Dedication

Makes all of your actions result as if you put in several hours of effort into them.

Fang Hu would call that power OP, if that didn't make him feel like the pot calling the kettle black.

Fang Hu chided himself, he needed to focus on cultivation, foundation establishment wouldn't reach itself.