Since he couldn't practice martial arts for the ti being, Han Xuhan put the entirety of his focus back on his cultivation of Mystic Arts.
He couldn't cultivate the third layer of the Skeleton Monarch Technique because he lacked the desired skeleton model of a rattlesnake. But he still had two other techniques to study.
One was the combined manual of two law techniques—Force type and Cause and Effect type laws.
His theoretical foundation on the language of laws was being enhanced after every lecture given by Xuanyuan Zhou and every et-up with Qian Yun in the secret realm of laws.
But in terms of practical cultivation, he still had so setbacks to overco before the official initiation. The letters of chaotic law fragnts occupying his foundation tower had to be cleared, and it was a highly ti-consuming process.
The other technique was a recent purchase. He had co across it in the Archives so ti ago while looking for illusion-type Mystic Arts. Such techniques were directly useful in combat without demanding much physical activity from the practitioner's body. Naturally, he found the path rather intriguing.
Back then, this manual in particular had caught his eye for one reason. It could allow the practitioner to create slides of mories and plant them into the mind of his opponent.
With a skillful enough manipulation, even fake mories could be created and planted in another person's mind, completely fooling them into believing false narratives, turning them on their own allies, and flipping the balance of a battlefield in one move.
However, the reason why Han Xuhan was attracted to it was because he had thought of a different use for this technique.
Couldn't such slides of mories be used to enhance the speed and quality of education?
If he cultivated it, he didn't need to waste half of his day teaching his minions the complex chanisms behind their cultivation thods. These minions already had ssy mories due to their 'rebirth' into their current undead forms. They didn't understand many common things, and couldn't often recall what he taught them.
This technique could step in to redy their forgetfulness. Han Xuhan could simply keep spamming lecture content and his own gains from various sources.
Conversely, if Zhanxian and Tun Shi Tian also cultivated the technique, they could transfer their own mories of practicing other cultivation techniques into Han Xuhan's mind.
There was another aspect to it that Han Xuhan hadn't explained to his minions. A lower-level practitioner of the technique couldn't fool a higher-level practitioner with fake mories.
This ant that he could keep tabs on every secret activity of his minions. If they ever sched against him, he'd be able to catch them easily by asking to see their mories.
With this intention to trap his minions forever, he had purchased the first volu of the manual a week ago. But he hadn't gotten the ti to study it in depth or start practicing due to his busy schedule.
The only thing he had done with it so far was to erase the section of the manual that would expose the trap to his minions.
Now, for the next few days, Han Xuhan had a lot of ti on his hands. Basic classes for the outer court disciples were suspended to protect the junior disciples from being suddenly ambushed by harmful fog. Even morning assemblies and compulsory minor tasks were halted until the bulk of the fog was cleared.
Sitting inside his hut, he supervised Zhanxian and Tun Shi Tian's cultivation. Under his guidance and generous funding, Tun Shi Tian finally reached the peak of the second layer of the Artificial ridian Creation technique.
At the sa ti, Zhanxian advanced further in his journey of adding a layer of solid qi over his bones. Both of his palms were almost covered in a layer of crystalline blue armor made of qi.
They tested out how effective the qi armor was by having Zhanxian punch the strength testing apparatus. But he was so weak that even after punching dozens of tis with full force, he couldn't make the rods behind the plate shrink more than a few inches.
With a strength that would lose to an ordinary farr, Zhanxian definitely had no hopes of testing the true defensive capacity of his qi armor. So Tun Shi Tian cleverly suggested another way.
The owl's proposal was to start smashing various things on Zhanxian's hands, slowly going from ordinary materials to sturdy objects. Even though he didn't feel any pain, Zhanxian scread his way through the tests like a spoiled kid. But that only made Han Xuhan and Tun Shi Tian more enthusiastic.
It turned out that the armor wasn't as impressive as he had hoped it would be. Deep cracks appeared on the surface after they smashed so bronze dinnerware on them.
"Big loss! I've suffered a big loss! Not only is this armor almost useless, I have nothing to eat dinner on now!"
Sending Tun Shi Tian out to buy so plates, Han Xuhan studied the manual again and realized that the qi armor would have to go through nurous refinents alongside the expansion process.
Only when Zhanxian's cultivation of the technique reached the later layers would he be able to punch through walls and iron plates without a scratch like they had envisioned.
While supervising his minions, Han Xuhan didn't forget to make the most of his free ti. Whenever he wasn't studying the manuals and texts in his collection, he would make a trip to his foundation tower, morize so law letters on the walls, and later redraw them on his spawn point in the artificial realm of laws.
Qian Yun reviewed them one by one and told him which letters he could keep and which he had to cleanse from his foundation tower.
Since most of the law fragnts inside the stadiums of the Holy Land belonged to the Cause and Effect type, Han Xuhan had assud that he wouldn't need to expel much from his foundation tower. But the reality proved otherwise.
"Don't be ridiculous, brother Xuhan! Wouldn't learning the art of law manipulation be far too simple if one could cultivate using the letters injected into his spiritual world by forceful thods?" Qian Yun had said in disdain when Han Xuhan expressed his doubts.
"It's true that most of the letters inside your foundation tower belong to the Cause and Effect category. But they also happen to be letters of a much higher grade than what an Alphabet Acolyte can master.
"You barely count as an Alphabet Acolyte yourself. So don't even dream of retaining these letters inside your foundation tower."
"Then how did I help you activate the displacent technique?" Han Xuhan had asked suspiciously.
"First of all, you had no role in the operation of the Displacent Technique other than being the anchor. The main workload for the technique was on . And secondly, all the letters that you drew in your backyard are the lowest possible grade in their categories!
"That's the only reason your qi worked on them. Do you know how much trouble I had to go through just so that a rookie like you could anchor the displacent technique using low-grade law letters?"
It made sense. So Han Xuhan stuck to the basic cleansing routine, even though the process was too slow for his liking.
A couple of days later, Han Xuhan felt like he was ready to restart his martial training routine. After a visit to the infirmary confird it, he went over to Xuanyuan Zhou's hut to train under her tutelage again.
To his surprise, she handed him three fresh booklets and said, "These are so martial arts from my family's library. Consider them a gift. You don't need to waste money buying the expensive manuals from the sect's archives for now. Let's see how many moves in these manuals can help you generate vital energy."
"You're giving away the treasures of your family so casually?" Han Xuhan was a little shocked and touched at the sa ti. Xuanyuan Zhou snorted at his sentints.
"Well, it's not as if you'll be able to master any of them whole. So no one's ever going to see you make a martial move from these manuals and accuse you of stealing them."
"...." Han Xuhan didn't know whether to feel insulted or delighted. He could only thank her and start trying out the moves in the manuals.
Picking up the first booklet, he went through a few pages and realized that it probably wasn't a random martial art she had picked on a whim. The pictures, diagrams, and theoretical discussion looked sophisticated. His own manual, the Lightfoot Swallow Art, was not this complicated.
Generating vital energy from unfamiliar martial moves was no easy feat. Rather than talent or affinities, this process demanded extensive experience with a variety of martial arts. Even with Xuanyuan Zhou correcting his stances and movents, Han Xuhan took a long ti to execute the first move properly.
But unfortunately, it didn't generate vital energy. Clearly, his body wasn't fated with this move.
"Stop making that miserable face and move on to the next page. We'll train until we find sothing for you," Xuanyuan Zhou said, appearing even more spirited than Han Xuhan ever was.
"Rember, you'll have to master at least enough moves to defeat the disciples who bullied you. You have to make them grovel at your feet with sheer martial prowess!"
He gave her a strange look. "Martial Sister Zhou, do you think I need to wait that long to teach them a lesson?"
"I know you have many other ans," Xuanyuan Zhou replied with a shake of her head. "But I want you to do this through the martial path and recover both of our dignity."
"Who says I can't do that now?"
"...What are you trying to say?"
"You'll see soon. Just have a little patience, Martial Sister," Han Xuhan said with a malevolent grin.
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