To call him talented with the bow wasn’t right. He never hit his target in the intended way, but he’d always hit something he wanted to hit. If there were multiple targets, he’d hit one at random, always through the most ridiculous ways.

One arrow missed the first dummy, then hit the wall behind the targets, bounced off straight up in an angle that made no sense, hit a roof shingle, which became loose and fell onto the second dummi’s head.

If he fired in a different direction, completely off the target, the outcome would vary. Sometimes, it would bounce in a way that made it hit the intended target, in some cases it would do nothing special, but in a few cases, the arrows seemed to actively try to hurt him by bouncing in a way that made them come back to him.

It was as if nearly every arrow would harm, even if it never did so in the intended way.

His uncle, meanwhile, had the time of his life. He was sitting on the wall and laughing at every single new ridiculous way the arrows would find their way to some target.

In the end, he grinned at Joseph with something approaching pride.

“Bao-zi, I don’t know you managed to learn that, but it definitely doesn’t come from our side of the family.” He clapped Joseph on the shoulders.

“But as fun as this was, I have a date with Fenfen soon and need to prepare. See ya, boy!”

In his typically chaotic manner, he vanished by tilting backwards while sitting, falling behind the wall and out of sight.

Joseph exhaled. While he could tolerate his uncle, it was always a stressful experience for him. He still wished the old man good luck.

It was somewhat weird. Instead of getting the scrappy arc were the main character slowly works their way through the sect from outer disciple to core disciple, slowly making their way to higher and higher realms until they eclipse their first sect completely, he started as basically the son-in-law to the sect master.

But all the advantages that he had in theory wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t solve his more pressing issues.

First off, he wanted to discover more about his ability with the bow. He’d need to confer with Mo Li Bei about this. The skill was clearly not of normal origin, and Jing Baos’ past might have an answer. He had noticed some other incongruences with the old man, too. One of the first things he had said to him was about teaching Jing Bao a sword technique. Later on, Mo Li Bei had spoken about not knowing anything about martial arts at all. Either the old ghost was lying, or something wasn’t right.

“Coffee for Mo Li Bei? Coffee for Mo Li Bei?”

“Brat, what is this Ko Fi you are talking about?” The green translucent head rose angrily from the ground.

“It’s a hot beverage similar to tea.”

“But I can’t drink. I’m a ghost.”

Joseph smirked. “Exactly.”

The head threw him an exasperated look. “Let’s get this over with. It’s rare for you to need my help twice in a single day.”

“Tell me about the sword technique you taught Jing Bao.”

“Oh, it’s about that? Yeah, the idiot was cursed or something. Whenever he used a weapon, it was like a circus act. He didn’t believe me when I told him it was a curse, so at some point I pretended that the Pills of Vanquishing Evil I instructed him to make were part of a martial art and boost sword comprehension. Without that, he would’ve probably lost against you in that duel back then.”

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The more he heard about the original Jing Bao, the more he thought that guy wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. He had an uncle with the power to produce giant craters with his fist, but instead of learning from him, he’d gone out of the way to use weapons he could never use properly.

To be fair, Joseph had done the same thing. And he still didn’t want to learn martial arts from his uncle. Based on what he knew, Joseph bet he’d be a horrible teacher.

But he had found a way around it. He was still wondering where it had come from, though.

“How many people did Jing Bao kill in total?”

“What’s up with you, and why does it matter? As far as I know, Jing Bao only killed my great grandson and you. There might’ve been some stuff before that, but that’s all I know. I was only with him for a few months. I know basically nothing about him. He wasn’t a very social guy beyond his sycophants. Never met his parents either, and his uncle visited him only once or twice.”

Joseph thought there was only one explanation for his skill with the bow. If Jing Bao had killed someone with a cheat level of accuracy with bows, he’d gotten the skill, too. It wouldn’t be too farfetched that Jing Bao never had discovered this, since he was so focused on swords.

If the hypothetical cheat and curse were fighting each other, it made sense that the outcome could be weird. If that was the case, then he could use the same pills that Jing Bao had previously used to actually be an excellent archer.

“Do these Pills of Vanquishing Evil have any side effects?”

“Yeah, they make you go mad. I only gave them to the guy because he didn’t want to sign the contract. I hoped that he would die that way, which would free me from his spirit and I could wait for my next descendant. Then you came along, which made change plans.”

He spit at the floor again, still unable to hit it before it vanished into ectoplasmic nothingness.

“Which you then crossed.”

So he couldn’t use the pills. It wouldn’t matter too much, since he could still use the bow, even if it was awkward. And to further enhance his skills, he should get a proper martial art too.

But to use a martial art effectively, he had to advance his cultivation further.

“Okay, that isn’t very helpful. Can you explain to me how to perform meridian cleansing? If I have a few weeks to prepare, I should seek every advantage I can get”

“I was wondering why you hadn’t asked me earlier. While body cleansing is mostly achieved through intense exercise, meridian cleansing is mostly meditation. The typical way to do this is to circulate your Qi through the clogged meridians, slowly pushing them to your lungs to breathe them out. It is one of the most basic types of meditations, and at its core, it is nothing more than breathing in the Qi of the world and exhaling impurities.

“You won’t be using that basic method. Tell me, if you want to build a tall pagoda, with as many levels as possible, what is the most important part?”

“Structural stability? The used materials? Having a good statics guy?”

“What does someone standing still have to do with pagodas? The question was rhetorical, brat. You need a proper foundation. Every subsequent level can only be as large as the previous one. So build a large and strong foundation to build a high pagoda. Or in your case, do whatever is needed to get the most out of the early realms instead of rushing ahead. Many cultivators think that cultivation speed is the only thing that matters, but the truth is that the true advantage of faster cultivation is the ability to build a stronger foundation.

“You already are ahead of most cultivators who are trying to build a proper foundation. Most are forced to cleanse their meridians twice. Once to get the initial impurities out, the second time to get the essence they used to aspect the meridians out. You skipped the first cleansing with your baby meridians.”

While it was true what Mo Li Bei said, calling them baby meridians felt somewhat hurtful.

“The twice cleansed meridians is the typical way of building a sound foundation, but you will go a step beyond.

“Instead of the normal cleansing method, you will push all impurities into your dantian. This pollutes the dantian even further, making the dantian cleansing stage ever so harder, but the more impurities, the better. First, just like with your meridians, it will expand the dantian, even if the advantage is a lot less than the same process done with meridians. Second, I will instruct you in a technique to burn the impurities in the dantian cleansing realm, and if you are diligent enough, you might be able to ignite them to create your own true alchemical flame.”

Joseph had read about alchemical flames. Typically, they were a special type of flame that made alchemy more effective and were a must have for all proper alchemists. He was kind of giddy to start progressing now, since that was the first time something truly magical was in his reach. A superior body was nice, but it didn’t have the same image as the ability to summon flames at will.

Still, there was one thing he needed to ask.

“And let me guess, your version is extremely painful?”

“How did you know?”