bookbashuk Chapter 33 Another Path
Chapter 33 Another Path
Zhong Xiu glanced at her, a slight smile playing on her lips: "It's nothing. The sect leader gave me some pointers on cultivation."
Su Shoujing looked at her suspiciously, feeling that something was wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
Zhong Xiu didn't explain further. He went straight to his bed, sat cross-legged, and began his daily evening study.
Su Shoujing scratched his head and followed her inside.
That night, Xu Ping lay in bed, staring at the dark ceiling, unable to fall into a meditative state for a long time.
He recalled the sect leader's words: "Outside, Foundation Establishment cultivators can crush you with a flick of their wrists. Only in Qingyun can I guarantee your safety."
He recalled the three winters he had spent in the dilapidated temple, huddled in a corner, wrapped in a tattered cotton quilt, listening to the wind and snow outside, thinking he would freeze to death like a stray dog on some night.
He never imagined that anyone would consider him a "foundation." He never imagined that anyone would tell him, "You are the stable foundation of the Qingyun Sect."
Xu Shouzhen turned over and buried his face in the pillow.
In the other female disciple's room, Fang Xue was also awake. She repeatedly stroked the blue cloud pattern on her cuff, over and over again.
The sect leader bestowed upon her the name Shourou. The highest virtue is like water, which overcomes the strong with gentleness, never striving for dominance, yet enduring through time.
If it weren't for Shen Qing, he might have been sold into a brothel or into a wealthy family as a maid, becoming a commodity to be manipulated at will.
No one had ever praised her like that before, and no one had ever thought she was valuable.
Fang Shourou buried her face in the quilt and cried silently. She wasn't sad; it was the first time she felt that her life had meaning.
In another room, Zhong Shouhuang sat cross-legged, her spiritual energy slowly circulating through her meridians, but a voice echoed in her heart:
"Hold fast to your phoenix form, and let your glory shine in the heavens. I hope that one day you will be like a divine phoenix in the heavens, flying out of this small Qinghe County to see the world outside for me."
Zhong Xiu opened her eyes and looked out the window.
The moonlight, like water, spilled over every corner of Qingyun Mountain. This mountain was small and poor, and its spiritual energy was pitifully thin.
But some people here treat her like a human being, some know her secret but don't ask, and some tell her, "You are the future hope of the sect."
That's enough for her.
She closed her eyes and continued cultivating, her spiritual energy circulating faster than usual.
For the next few days, Shen Qing's life remained the same, half of which was spent tempering his body with spiritual energy and the other half cultivating with spiritual energy.
Once he had mastered the Body Refinement Realm, Shen Qing began to attempt to open up all the meridians in his body and break through to the Martial Arts Meridian Opening Realm.
Even with Shen Qing's extravagant cultivation methods, he still felt that this was a very difficult stage. Each of the twelve main meridians and eight extraordinary meridians needed to be repeatedly cleansed and connected with pure spiritual energy.
Shen Qing calculated that at his current pace, it would take at least two more months for him to achieve the Great Perfection of Meridian Opening.
Although Shen Qing was somewhat anxious, he understood that the strength of his physical body was related to his future cultivation achievements.
So, after a few days, Shen Qing's heart gradually calmed down.
At the same time, Shen Qing did not forget another group of disciples.
The group of Class C disciples, led by Wang Shouzhou, have been on the mountain for nearly four months.
However, their aptitude for cultivation was extremely poor, with four-attribute pseudo-spiritual roots or even five-attribute useless spiritual roots. After nearly three months of cultivating the "Qingyun Qi Refining Technique," most of them had barely managed to touch the Qi sensation and had not even broken through to the first level of Qi Refining.
Wang Shouzhou benefited from the generous reward for having the highest Immortal Affinity Value, making him the fastest progresser among them, but he had only just touched the threshold of the first level of Qi Refining.
Investing Qi Gathering Pills in them is actually very inefficient.
Giving Zhong Xiu a Qi Gathering Pill would increase her cultivation speed by 30%, while giving it to Wang Shouzhou would at most allow him to sense a few more strands of spiritual energy, which is better than nothing.
However, Shen Qing did not give up on them, not because they could contribute much spiritual energy, but because they represented the majority of the seventy-three disciples of Qingyun Sect.
Abandoning them is tantamount to abandoning the future "mass base" of Qingyun Sect.
Since cultivating immortality was not an option, Shen Qing decided to pursue martial arts.
Shen Qing passed on the Body Refinement Chapter of "True Explanation of Mortal Martial Arts" to all Class C disciples.
To his surprise, these disciples' martial arts talent was far superior to their aptitude for cultivating immortality.
Wang Shouzhou, in particular, already possessed a robust physique honed through years of hard work at the docks. Having previously consumed Qi-gathering pills and diligently practiced Qi cultivation, his internal meridians were significantly stronger than those of ordinary people.
When Shen Qing began teaching martial arts techniques, his progress was astonishingly fast.
In just ten days, he reached the initial stage of body refinement, and his punches could make the wooden dummy vibrate.
Although the other Category C disciples were not as good as Wang Shouzhou, they also made progress in their own way.
On the training ground, shouts and cheers echoed daily as the disciples sweated profusely, their spirits and energy far surpassing what they had felt when practicing the Qi cultivation method.
That evening, Shen Qing summoned Wang Shouzhou to the back mountain alone.
As dusk settled, Wang Shouzhou followed behind Shen Qing, feeling somewhat uneasy.
The sect leader had never summoned him to the back mountain alone before.
"Keep your simple ways." Shen Qing stopped and turned to look at him.
"Your disciple is here." Wang Shouzhou quickly bowed.
Shen Qing looked at him and remained silent for a moment.
This man, who came from humble beginnings, was one of the least talented among his first batch of disciples.
With five pseudo-spiritual roots, his talent for cultivation is practically nonexistent.
However, he was one of the most diligent disciples, always the first to arrive at the training grounds and the last to leave. His Immortal Affinity ranked first in the entire sect, and his loyalty was as high as ninety-seven.
He did whatever Shen Qing asked him to do, never asking why, and never slacking off.
Looking at the shills she had carefully cultivated, Shen Qing suddenly felt a little guilty.
He always regarded Wang Shouzhou as a tool for the system to extract spiritual energy, as a "shill" in the pyramid scheme, and as a model to inspire other disciples.
He bestowed a name upon Wang Shouzhou, rewarded him, and gave him important positions, not because he genuinely respected him, but because he was useful. But Wang Shouzhou was unaware of all this.
Wang Shouzhou only knew that the sect leader thought highly of him, so he was determined to live up to the sect leader's respect.
"Shouzhuo, I have summoned you here today because there is something I need to tell you."
Wang Shouzhou straightened his back: "Sect Master, please speak."
"Starting tomorrow, I will assign you to the outer sect."
Wang Shouzhou's face turned pale instantly. What did outer disciples mean? It was the place where the disciples with the worst aptitude and lowest status stayed.
He couldn't understand why he was suddenly demoted to the outer sect when his Immortal Affinity Value ranked first in the entire sect and the sect leader had personally bestowed upon him a name.
Wang Shouzhou's voice trembled, "Sect Master...disciple...disciple, have I done something wrong?"
Shen Qing felt a pang of sadness when she saw his pale face.
"You did nothing wrong."
Shen Qing's voice was gentle, "I'm sending you to the outer sect not to belittle you, but to give you an important position."
Wang Shouzhou was puzzled upon hearing this. "To be given an important position?"
"You spent four months practicing the Qi cultivation method within the inner sect before you could even grasp the feeling of Qi. But in these ten days of martial arts practice, your progress has been astonishing. You must have felt it yourself; you are naturally suited for martial arts, not Qi cultivation."
Wang Shouzhou opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.
Because what Shen Qing said was true. When he was practicing the "Qingyun Qi Refining Technique", he meditated and breathed every day, but he could only sense very little spiritual energy. His progress in cultivation was so slow that he was desperate.
But since he switched to martial arts, he felt like a different person. He could feel his body getting stronger with every move and every stance, whether he was practicing stances, punches, or sparring.
That tangible sense of progress was something I had never experienced when practicing Qi cultivation methods.