Free Web NovelChapter 325: Chapter 202: The Son-in-law Would Never Collude with an Evil God (Part 2)
There was no doubt about it—the bead was now absorbing his Spirit.
It primarily absorbed Qi and Blood, supplemented by Cultivation and Spirit.
This bead was vicious!
Jiang Man sighed. This was a serious problem. He didn’t have a Body Refining Skill.
In the end, Jiang Man sought out Zhao Qiu.
"Senior Brother Jiang, you were looking for me?" Zhao Qiu’s heart pounded nervously.
’Could he know I’m from the Zhao Family of Wind and Rain City?’
’That shouldn’t be possible. I haven’t let anything slip.’
’Most of the people here are from the Evergreen Sect, so no one recognizes me.’
’And even if they did, they wouldn’t know that Jiang Man had asked which Zhao Family I belong to.’
"Do you know the Simple Body Refining Technique for the Golden Core Stage?" Jiang Man asked.
Zhao Qiu froze for a moment before replying, "Yes, I do."
Jiang Man said, "Teach me."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Qiu felt he must have misheard.
’A prodigy strong enough to flatten me with a single slap doesn’t know the Simple Body Refining Technique?’
He hesitated for a moment before asking, "Senior Brother, you haven’t started cultivating a Golden Body Skill yet?"
A Body Refining Skill for the Golden Core Stage was meant to make one’s physical strength match their Golden Core Power.
A mismatch would easily create a bottleneck, making it difficult to advance.
Moreover, one’s power could not be fully unleashed.
To say nothing of birthing a Primordial Spirit.
A weak Physical Body couldn’t withstand the formation of a Primordial Spirit.
That was why after reaching the Golden Core Stage, all three types of cultivation skills were almost always practiced in tandem.
A cultivator at the Middle Stage of Golden Core who didn’t know a Golden Body Skill was rather bizarre.
’But without a strong Physical Body, how could he have beaten me so badly?’
’Is this the true caliber of Jiang Man, the number one in the Outer Sect?’
Jiang Man didn’t hide the truth. If he dragged this out any longer, the Spiritual Qi in his Cultivation Gourd would be completely drained.
It might even drain him back down to the Early Stage of Golden Core.
What a waste of Spiritual Source that would be.
The Simple Skill could be practiced by anyone.
Although he hadn’t officially received it from the Sect yet, Jiang Man was still permitted to cultivate it.
Even with the Sect’s restrictions on him, Simple Skills could be practiced freely.
Therefore, having Zhao Qiu teach him wouldn’t cause any issues.
The Simple Skill was indeed very simple. Zhao Qiu explained it for just a day, and Jiang Man had it completely memorized.
He even offered Zhao Qiu a few pointers from time to time.
The complexity of the cultivation skills he practiced and the depth of his understanding far surpassed Zhao Qiu’s.
Even if his own foundations in this area were weak, his insight into any given cultivation skill was not affected.
The more Zhao Qiu explained, the more confused he became.
He couldn’t tell if he was teaching Jiang Man, or if Jiang Man was teaching him.
The term "Celestial Pride" flashed repeatedly in his mind.
In the past, he had considered himself a Celestial Pride.
First in the Yunqian Bureau, first in the Foundation Establishment Courtyard, in the top thirty of the Outer Sect.
But before the man in front of him, he felt like a firefly trying to compare its light to the bright moon.
It was a feeling of powerlessness and despair.
’I really should just secretly join the Qiuye City branch of the Zhao Family.’
’Otherwise, I’m afraid my life is going to be miserable.’
Finally, he spoke from the heart, "Senior Brother, your talent is so astonishing that I can no longer even feel a trace of jealousy."
All that remained in his heart was shock and reverence.
When someone was better than him, he would feel jealous and resentful.
But when someone was on a completely different level, he could only feel admiration and respect.
Jiang Man was already somewhat accustomed to these inexplicable changes in attitude.
For instance, people would often thank him out of the blue.
He never knew why they were thanking him, but he had learned to just accept it.
There was, of course, a reason why others could no longer feel jealous of him.
Ultimately, it had to be because he was an Unparalleled Celestial Pride.
Once he accepted that, everything else made sense.
Afterward, Jiang Man began his Cultivation.
He didn’t even need to spend much time understanding the Simple Golden Body Technique; he grasped it as soon as he tried.
After practicing it over a hundred times, he reached the Sixth Layer of the Simple Skill.
Then, he started cultivating External Skills to condense his Qi and Blood.
After a hundred repetitions, he found the bead was still absorbing it.
This was even after activating the power of the Flawless Chao Yuan Glaze Pill.
He had to practice another fifty-eight times before it finally stopped.
But if he continued to cultivate, the energy would still be absorbed. Even his Cultivation was being absorbed.
Jiang Man sighed. At this rate, he couldn’t improve at all; everything was just being fed to the bead.
And once the power of the Flawless Chao Yuan Glaze Pill was depleted, he would have to start consuming Elixirs.
His cultivation was truly being capped by his Unparalleled Celestial Pride Fate Chart.
’So that’s its game. It absorbs as much as I cultivate.’
「Two days later.」
Jiang Man had cultivated the Simple Skill to the Ninth Layer.
Compared to his All Rivers Flow into the Sea technique, his progress was incredibly fast.
Now, he needed to practice one hundred and sixteen times before the bead would stop absorbing his Qi and Blood for the day.
He didn’t dare cultivate any more, just in case the requirement reset the next day. That would be a waste of both Elixirs and time.
His time now was better spent expanding the Array.
He also needed to recruit more people to see if he could obtain the Thirty-Six Array Patterns of the Hall.
By now, his Array covered an entire forest, and before it lay a barren grassland that stretched into the distance.
「June 25th.」
After about ten days, Jiang Man finally saw a change in the bead. A small amount of liquid Qi and Blood had appeared inside.
It was less than a tenth full.
At this rate, he feared it would take three hundred days to fill it completely.
And for more than a hundred of those three hundred days, he would need to rely on consuming Elixirs.
This...
This was even more ruthless than the Sect’s restrictions.
In other news, the tree at the center of the Array had grown into a towering giant.
However, it had not yet begun to bear fruit.
The number of people who had joined his Array had reached thirty-six.
So far, there had been no problems.
They hadn’t encountered anyone from the other two arrays.
On this day, just after Jiang Man finished reinforcing the Array, he suddenly felt the ground begin to tremble.
RUMBLE!
It wasn’t just the earth; everything around them was shaking.
The Array itself teetered on the verge of collapse.
It felt like it could fall apart at any second.
Inside the Array, Zhao Qiu and the others looked up with worry.
They could clearly see the mist in the sky above them churning violently.
If it did, that would mean the Array had shattered.
Then they would be back where they started, lost in the mist.
They would be forced to wander aimlessly once more.
He truly did not want to return to those days of being lost in a fog so thick you couldn’t see your own hand in front of your face.
Fortunately, though the shaking was violent, it didn’t break the Array.
A few breaths later, the tremors subsided.
Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief.
At that moment, a brilliant light blossomed from the great tree.
The surrounding Spiritual Qi was rapidly absorbed, and fruits began to appear one by one.
Red, orange, and green.
The three colors of fruit were interspersed among the branches.
With a single thought, Jiang Man counted the fruits.
There were ninety-nine in total.
He stood beneath the tree, looking at the duck-egg-sized fruits, and an idea came to mind.
According to Shangguan Lingyue, these fruits could temporarily boost a person’s Cultivation, Physical Body, or Spirit.
Although each person could only eat one type of fruit, the boost they provided while inside the Array was real.
’So...’
’If I eat a fruit that strengthens the Physical Body, will the bead absorb that power?’
At that moment, the people who had remained to guard the Array gathered around, their eyes filled with eagerness.
Zhao Qiu was one of them, but he didn’t dare make a move without Jiang Man’s permission.
WHOOSH!
Someone leaped into the air, reaching for a fruit.
They believed this was their lucky chance.
Zhao Qiu moved in an instant.
He appeared directly in front of the man who had made the first move.
He struck out with his palm.
BOOM!
Both men were pushed back a few steps.
"What do you think you’re doing, Zhao?" the man roared, furious that Zhao Qiu had ruined his opportunity.
"I’m trying to save you," Zhao Qiu replied, his intentions good.
"You’d better stay out of my business." With that, the man lunged forward again.
The others watched intently. If he succeeded, they would all follow his example.
However, the instant the man neared the fruit, Jiang Man appeared beside him as if from nowhere.
A faint glow enveloped him before he could react.
POW!
A heavy, solid fist slammed into the man’s cheek.
CRACK!
The sound of a cracking skull echoed.
Then, with a sickening thud, the man’s head, followed by his body, slammed into the earth.
His head was driven directly into the soil, and blood began to pool around him.
His entire body twitched uncontrollably on the ground.
Jiang Man landed slowly, looking at his fist in surprise.
’The power in that punch felt off.’
’My body must have been strengthened somehow after that second tremor.’
’A reinforcement from the Array.’
Ignoring the horrified gazes of the others, Jiang Man plucked an orange fruit and began to eat it.
As soon as he swallowed it, the fruit instantly transformed into power that began to nourish his Physical Body.
But it wasn’t long before the bead stirred, beginning to absorb this new surge of power.
The corners of Jiang Man’s mouth curved upward.
’It worked. It really worked.’
Then he began to pluck and eat one orange fruit after another.
After he had eaten all thirty-three of them, Jiang Man found that the liquid Qi and Blood inside the bead was now close to being a tenth full.
This meant the bead could be filled in about twenty days at most.
The fruits grew once a day.
According to Shangguan Lingyue, there would be no shortage of fruits; the only limit was how many a person could handle.
Afterward, Jiang Man had Zhao Qiu pick the remaining fruits, telling him that if Shangguan Lingyue and the others didn’t return by the end of the day, they should divide the fruits among themselves.
He also informed him of the rules.
These things couldn’t be wasted.
For the days that followed, Jiang Man spent his time expanding the Array and eating fruits.
「Ten days later.」
Jiang Man found that the liquid Qi and Blood inside the bead had reached the halfway mark.
’Right now, I just want to fill this thing as fast as possible. Once the bead transforms, then even if the power from this place disappears when I leave the Immortal Mansion, it shouldn’t be able to revert back to its original state, right?’
’My Unparalleled Celestial Pride Fate Chart still can’t keep up with me.’
Just as Jiang Man was looking forward to filling the bead with fruit, he suddenly noticed the surrounding scenery begin to change.
A river appeared, flowing toward him.
Not only that, but the environment around him was also rapidly being overlaid by a new landscape.
Then, a stone stele appeared in the distance and rapidly approached.
It came to a halt right in front of Jiang Man.
On it were inscribed several lines of text:
Beneath the Magpie Bridge lies the Endless Immortal Lake.
Those who enter shall find fortune or death by their own fate.
For a moment, Jiang Man was stunned.
’The Magpie Bridge is open?’
’It can open inside an Immortal Mansion?’
