Days passed by quickly. Ning had become accustomed to his new surroundings. During this period, he also took on the job of taking care of the spiritual plants planted on the peak. Spirit Flower Peak was named so because of the hundred different types of flowers planted on it.

Ning took this opportunity to gain some practical experience and study different plants he had only seen in books firsthand. It was enlightening, to be honest.

Everything was so...bizarre and interesting. As Ning grew more and more familiar with different types of plants, he also moved to learn about different types of spirit animals, but he still had a lot to learn.

"Ugh," Ning stretched his hand after finishing his daily cultivation session. It had been around 20 or so odd days since he had become the inner sect disciple.

His days consisted of studying, cultivating, and comprehending, and it was very rewarding. Even his status reflected so.

"Status," Ning muttered. A translucent panel appeared in front of him:

[

Name: Ji Ning

Spiritual Root: Mid-grade Spiritual Root.

Attributes: Five Elemental Attributes

Talent: Extreme Space-Time Sensitivity

Realm: Great circle of the 3rd Stage of Qi Condensation

Cultivation Method: Pure Qi Sutra (2nd Floor: 369/400)

Martial Arts: Bone Forging Fist (Small Accomplishment: 389/400), Shadow Steps (Great Accomplishment: 469/600), Turtle Breathing (Great Accomplishment: 401/600), Eyes of the Hawk (Small Accomplishment: 276/400)

Buff: Blessing Of Heavenly Dao. Cultivation speed increased by 99%, and Comprehension increased by 99%. Duration: 8 days, 22 hours, 23 minutes, 06 seconds

]

The biggest improvement in his panel was his cultivation. He had risen a small realm.

After all, this peak was heaven for cultivation. Not only was the spiritual energy in the air abundant, combined with the blessed state where his talent would reach the level of high grade, it was only a matter of time before he reached the Great Circle of the third stage.

It also helped that he could occasionally consume some spiritual leaves as reward for taking care of the garden.

Of course, that didn't mean that he did not toil for it. He only slept for two hours daily; the rest was used for studying and comprehending the Pure Qi Technique. For these, he has not even practiced his martial arts a lot, besides the daily training.

"Turtle Breathing and Shadow Steps have already reached the Great Accomplishment. It will take a while for other martial arts to break through with just the daily training," Ning muttered slowly and suddenly vanished as if sensing something.

At this time, the door suddenly opened. It was Liu Sisi.

Liu Sisi glanced right, left, and quietly tiptoed inside the palace.

Finding no one, she let out a sigh of relief, only to suddenly see Ning appear right before her very eyes.

"E-eep!" Liu Sisi moved backward due to the sudden jump scare. "J-junior brother, what are you doing? Don't suddenly appear out of nowhere. You are learning badly from the master." Liu Sisi berated, her expression angry.

"I am sorry. I just couldn't help it after seeing senior sister sneaking inside like that." Though Ning apologized, it was hard to keep the amused smile off his face.

Batman appearing out of nowhere always led to reactions too good to miss out upon.

"Y-you!" Liu Sisi shook her flabby arms in anger.

Still, Ning knew his limits, so he quickly diverted the topic, "So, why did you sneak in, senior sister?"

Liu Sisi suddenly froze. "Aha! I just remembered something I have to do, so I will get going, junior brother."

Liu Sisi wanted to retreat at this moment.

Why?

It was very simple. This new junior brother of hers was really a demon. At first, she thought that with this seemingly gentle new junior brother, she could play a lot.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

But heavens, how wrong was she!

From the moment he was assigned to study those books, he had been making her study with him. Remembering those endless hours of questions and answers, Liu Sisi trembled.

Seeing her trying to retreat, Ning quickly cut her off with shadow steps.

"Senior sister, what's the hurry? You appeared at just the right moment."

Liu Sisi didn't give up, as she quickly made an excuse, "Junior brother, I am really in a hurry. M-my uncle's sister's daughter's aunt's son's first qi initiation is today."

"Oh really?" Ning asked his tone the blandest it could be.

"Y-yesn't." Liu Sisi couldn't look straight into his eyes.

Ning shook his head, "It seems that the senior sister misunderstood. Didn't you ask to go out and play? Let's do that today."

"Really?" Liu Sisi was full of distrust. She had been deceived by Ning's gentle temperament several times before.

Ning nodded and smiled wryly looking at the distrusting girl. Most of the books he read were extremely unfamiliar to him. His master was often busy, so he couldn't ask for advice. So, he had to turn to this senior sister of his for advice many times.

"It seems I have left a big shadow on this girl." Ning couldn't help but smile helplessly at that. So, since he had decided to go outside today, he wanted to take this senior sister along to appease her.

I still have many questions to ask you, after all.

Liu Sisi suddenly felt a shiver down her spine but didn't know the reason. In the end, she relented, "If it's to go play outside, then I have no problem with it."

Ning smiled and nodded, "Of course."

...

"So, why are we here?" Liu Sisi asked, looking at the "Scripture Pavilion" in front of her.

"To choose a new martial art," Ning spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"You think I did not know that?" Liu Sisi seemed enraged.

"Well, we are kind of outside..." Ning shut up, seeing Liu Sisi take a punching stance.

"I was kidding, of course. We will play later after I finish my task."

"If so, then okay. Let's go inside." Liu Sisi walked inside first, and Ning followed.

Walking inside the place filled with martial art, Ning saw the Pavilion Elder glancing at them.

"Greetings, Elder Shen." Ning and Liu Sisi greeted the Pavilion Elder.

"Umm." Elder Shen nodded, then glanced at the black robe Ning was wearing, "I see. You also became an inner sect disciple. It's no wonder that you have been coming to the pavilion a lot less."

Ning's eyes narrowed at that, and he produced a flask from his space pouch, "Sorry, Elder Shen. Elder Ling gave me the task of familiarizing myself with alchemy, so I have been busy lately. Please, take this, Elder."

The flask was filled with alcohol.

Elder Shen quickly took the flask, "If only all the disciples were as conscientious as you. So, are you going to window shop today too?"

"Window shop?" Liu Sisi asked in confusion.

"Yeah! Your junior brother liked to visit this pavilion a lot in his outer sect days, but he would never purchase a single martial art. He was a strange one."

Ning only smiled wryly at that. He just wanted to get some understanding of different types of martial art and never had the intention of purchasing.

He was broke most of the time, after all, but that didn't stop him from coming here whenever he was free. In the process, it was natural to come across the Elder a lot, especially since he seemed to have attracted the elder's attention for some reason.

So, seeing this, each time Ning would come to the pavilion, he brought some alcohol with him to give to the elder, and they soon became familiar.

It was Ning's small design. After all, making connections was also a form of strength. And who better to make a connection with than Pavilion Elder?

So, Ning had become quite friendly with this senior. It was quite simple really. As the cliche gods would have it, Elder Shen, like all those old op people had a great fondness for alcohol and so, the rest was history.

"Elder, we want to go to the second floor of the Pavilion." Ning finally stated his purpose.

"It's okay." Elder drank a mouthful of alcohol and said a small incantation, then he turned to Ning and spoke, "You can enter for an hour. Remember that."

Ning and Liu Sisi nodded. They walked up the wooden stairs and soon reached the second floor of the Pavilion.

"It's my first time on this floor. So, this is the second floor, huh?" Liu Sisi wandered around the floor.

"Senior Sister, you can look around and try to help me find a strong martial art." Ning just wanted to give this senior sister a small task so that she would be busy.

"Leave it to your senior sister; I would find an awesome technique." Liu Sisi patted her chest and began looking around.

Ning also did the same. Since most of his martial arts would soon reach great accomplishment, he wanted to get a new martial art to train in, especially since he had reached the great circle of the third stage.

Ning wandered around the floor, and from his observation, most of them were low-level yellow-grade techniques, but they cost an astronomical amount.

Finally, Ning found one that he liked.

[Spiral Arrow: One shot-One Kill. Coat the Arrow with Qi to enhance strength. At the highest level, can easily pierce through a boulder. Price: 990 low-grade spirit stones]

With this, Ning could further enhance his archery. Since he still had some time left, he continued to look at other martial arts until he was stopped.

"Junior Brother, look at these." Liu Sisi came to Ning with three martial arts.

Ning looked at the expectant eyes of Liu Sisi, then at the manuals.

"Senior Sister, I would give you some advice. When you start cultivating, choose a technique that doesn't sound too grandiose."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, names can be quite deceiving. For example, this Immortal Divine God Heaven Execution Sword Art you brought. In its introduction, it is said to be able to kill a golden core expert with a single swing. A low-level yellow-grade art like this can't possibly have such power; this is a scam." Ning explained 'calmly'.

It was a cliche for weak martial art to have a grandiose name and vice versa. To be honest, since it was a low-yellow grade martial art, it was probably quite strong, but only this one sentence about being able to cut golden core with a single swing made Ning give up any thoughts towards this martial art.

"Eh?" Liu Sisi was stunned and mumbled, "This martial art sounded so strong though."

Ning just ignored the small mumble and said, "I have already gotten the martial arts I wanted. So let's leave."

Ning walked towards the first floor with a grumbling Liu Sisi and then went towards a shelf on the first floor and picked something.

"Why are you picking that martial art?" Liu Sisi followed in tow.

"I just want to do a small experiment." Ning smiled and answered but didn't elaborate. In his hand, there was the fragmented black-rank martial art - Heaven Shattering Fist.