Amidst a vibrant forest of trees adorned with crimson leaves, a lone man wearing a strange wooden mask was currently sitting on a boulder. He sat with his legs crossed and was deep in meditation.
The atmosphere in the air was tranquil as only the sound of the wind rustling the leaves could be heard. Like that, the sun shifted across the horizon until the orangey glow made the entire forest of rest a mesmerizing sight.
However, as the light dimmed, the tranquil scene quickly changed.
The sound of insects buzzing around filled the entire area, and the scent of death followed.
The young man wearing the mask remained unperturbed, deep in meditation until a swarm of insects approached. As the buzzing grew louder, Wei Ping finally decided to take action.
He revealed the claws fitted to his hands and quickly swung them around. Each time he did so, a sharp gust of wind was emitted from them, slicing through the air toward the insects. The attack turned a portion of them into a mist of blood, but the insects continued their way, undaunted.
Before Wei Ping could strike again, the insects suddenly spread out. As a cultivator now at the peak of Energy Gathering, his acute senses could see that it wasn’t so simple. The insects weren’t just spreading out, but were multiplying, as if they could clone themselves in an instant.
They swarmed toward the lone man without fear, causing Wei Ping to quickly escape. Taking advantage of his nimbleness and speed, he used the numerous trees in the forest as footholds. He jumped from tree to tree without pause, occasionally sending out a few attacks to hold the swarm at bay.
He did this for half the night until he was finally out of the forest.
He sighed to himself while looking back into the treeline. Eventually, he stopped and made his way back toward the nearby town on the edge of the forest.
The town wasn’t large, but it still had proper walls erected around the city. However, it was apparent it wasn’t a wealthy place, as many beggars could be seen throughout the entire settlement.
Wei Ping walked briskly through the narrow streets, navigating through them like a local. His destination turned out to be a dirty alleyway on the side of the main road. Many people walked by without caring about the messy beggar lying sprawled on the ground there. Everyone except for Wei Ping.
The man seemed to ignore him until he blocked his view of the main streets.
“You again? Get out of my way already. I already did what you want, right?”
“I-I’m still struggling with it. Can y-you please show me again?”
“Look kid, if it was so easy then it wouldn’t be worth much, right?”
“But Senior, I’ve spent h-half a year on it but to no avail.”
“I told you it’s not something a mortal should be able to grasp. Now get out of the way. If you want to bother someone about it, try turning to Yongjun.”
Seeing how the stubborn old man didn’t seem to budge in the slightest, Wei Ping could only give up and walk away. As the beggar had suggested, he went to search for the next best person who could help him.
He went through the busy streets until he came upon a large manor near the center of the town. They had a set of splendid wooden gates with a large sign that indicated it was the property of the Wang family.
Wei Ping knocked on the gates without hesitation and waited for some time. Eventually, an old man peeked out of the door, wearing a dark green robe that shone with a silky texture.
“Caretaker He, I’ve c-come to find your master. Is h-he home?”
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“You again. I thought I told you to try not to come if you can help it. Is it important?”
“Umm—it is i-important to me. Please. I k-know your master is busy with his training, but I’ll o-only take a few moments of his time.”
The old man sighed, but suddenly, a voice could be heard, carried by the wind.
“Invite him in,” it whispered.
Hearing this, the old man’s demeanor changed, and respectfully welcomed Wei Ping into the estate. They walked by the carefully maintained garden and a small pond filled with colorful fishes. They only stopped on the other side of the house, where a young man could be seen in a small grassy clearing. He was moving with slow and deliberate movements, going from one martial stance to another.
“Sorry f-for bothering you, honorable Whispering Half Saint. But I n-need guidance in mastering the Lingering Impact technique.”
“No need to be so formal. Although that old man never officially takes on disciples, since he decided to teach you, we can be considered half-disciples.”
The young man, who was apparently the master of the Wang family, proceeded to warmly welcome Wei Ping. It wasn’t their first meeting, as the old beggar had once sent Wei Ping to beg for money from this family. This was all done to satisfy the eccentric expert who passed the time acting as a beggar, so Wei Ping never regretted it.
He believed the technique he had inadvertently learned about was vital for his future, and also something that could push him through the final bottleneck of the Energy Gathering Realm.
He believed that once he had mastered it, it would be time for him to return to his friends.
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Back in Emberglow City, two full years had passed since Li Lang’s trip to Nightshade Valley.
The training with the students Li Lang accepted had proceeded well, with each showing amazing progress. This was especially so for the few who had grade two aptitude.
The children were made to forgo many techniques of both martial and Qi nature. They were tasked with solely focusing on their cultivation, which resulted in them almost catching up with their mentors!
While the gap in their cultivation narrowed, the difference in strength was still vast.
On the clearing inside their modest estate within the Southern Dark Spot of Emberglow, Li Lang was currently deflecting every blow from three attackers. All three of them were in the late stages of Energy Gathering, but they were being toyed around with like they were powerless children.
“Teacher Li, I can’t go on any longer. Please go easy on us,” Xiao Dong, an earnest and straightforward boy, declared without any shame.
“You’ll have to learn to persist even when you’re exhausted. A real enemy wouldn’t care about your condition.”
“I’m sure if I’m locked in a life-and-death situation with an opponent, I may be able to tough out this burning feeling in my lungs. But right now, I feel like if I did that, my lungs would definitely burn!”
“If you can’t do it in training, what makes you think you can do it in a real situation? I can tell you that in a real fight, you’ll only be able to perform up to a portion of your abilities in training. The nerves usually make you perform worse.”
“That—I understand we’ll have to go face these challenges ourselves sooner or later, but still. Give me a break for today.”
Li Lang could only shake his head upon seeing his student keel over. The other two, Shi Yan and Chu Qinghe, seemed to be in a similar condition, but they didn’t complain. They silently tried to catch their breath off to the side.
“Fine. Take a minute or two if you want. Just know that the next time you venture outside, neither Long Yi nor I will accompany you. You’ll be responsible for your own safety.”
After a moment of thinking it through, Xiao Dong pathetically tried to get to his feet. After a few stumbles, he succeeded and began to charge at Li Lang again.
This was a common scene throughout the year. Peaceful training was never an option. It bred too much complacency. Cultivators needed to exercise their abilities in order to stimulate growth. Li Lang had to occasionally send out his students to fight real battles against Qi beasts for that reason.
What he was doing now was just preparing them as best he could.
His motive, however, wasn’t so simple. He not only wanted what was best for his students, he was also impatiently waiting for them to catch up to him in cultivation. It was because he needed more samples to study how one broke through to the Foundation Establishment Realm.
Throughout the past year, Li Lang had tried to break through himself a total of three times. Every single time, it ended in failure, wasting three Foundation Pills in the process.
Two years ago, he had gotten some inspiration in a research direction that could help people with low aptitude like him break through. It was the result of observing the mechanics of the Ascension Pill, but he needed subjects to test his methods first.
He would’ve done it himself if he had it his way, but he knew it wouldn’t be possible to make an objective assessment that way. A sample size of one was too small to be useful, anyway.
That was why he planned to wait for his students to catch up to serve as his subjects!
With that in mind, he couldn’t help but revisit his memories about the time he experimented with the Ascension Pills.