Chapter 16: Progress at Last
16
Progress at Last
I
The mont Hao Zhen sat down, Tian Jin asked, There were a couple of cultivation thods in Ke Lis spatial ring, right? Can I have a look at them?
Instead of answering, Hao Zhen directly produced the three cultivation thod jade slips from his spatial ring.
What has your experience with the Blazing Light thod been so far? Good? Bad? Tian Jin asked as Hao Zhen handed him the jade slips.
Rather bad, I think, Hao Zhen said.
After giving him a nod, Tian Jin closed his eyes.
Cultivation thods were nothing more than collections of incantation and images that cultivators needed to chant and visualize in order to establish a connection with their crux, allowing them to use the spiritual power emanated by it. Like virtually everything magical, they were divided into grades, corresponding to what spiritual realm they were usable to.
In theory, the Blazing Light thod Hao Zhen was using wasnt any worse than the cultivation thods Ke Li had, as they were all red-grade, and as such could all be used up to the eleventh level of the Red Spiritual Realm. There was no such thing as sub-grades, either. All cultivation thods of the sa grade were equally effective. That didnt an, however, that they were all equally difficult to comprehend.
From what Hao Zhen had heard, a cultivator could find a particular cultivation thod incredibly easy to comprehend, easily morizing its incantation and images, and another cultivation thod of the sa grade almost impossible to morize. Because of that, it was ideal for cultivators to try using as many different cultivation thods as possible until they found the one that was right for them.
Hao Zhen didnt think his aptitude with the Blazing Light thod was outright terrible, but it definitely wasnt good. Sotis he forgot part of its incantation, and it took conscious effort to keep the chant going in his mind. On the other hand, he had heard that if he managed to find the perfect cultivation thod for him, hed be able to chant it subconsciously, without even thinking. As for the images inside it, Hao Zhen didnt even bother trying to visualize them.
Visualization was by far the hardest part of cultivation, and Hao Zhen was completely unable to reproduce even a fraction of the Blazing Light thods images in his minds eye. This was part of the reason his cultivation speed was so slow. You could only use a cultivation thod to its full potential if you could properly visualize all of its images successively while chanting its incantation. If you couldnt do so, your control over your spiritual power and the rate at which you absorbed spiritual energy wouldnt be nearly as great.
All right. Tian Jin opened his eyes. It had been less than a minute since Hao Zhen had handed him the three jade slips. This one is probably the easiest one, he said, handing Hao Zhen one of the jade slips back, and then the other two. These two are pretty similar to the Blazing Light thod, so I dont think youll have much luck with them. Tian Jins spatial ring then flashed, and a dozen or so jade slips appeared in front of him, all of which he handed to Hao Zhen. Have a look at these ones, too.
Hao Zhen looked at the pile of jade slips in front of him, then back at Tian Jin. He almost asked him where exactly he had gotten so many cultivation thods from, but then rembered who exactly he was talking to. He wouldnt be surprised even if Tian Jin said that so of them had dropped from the sky, falling into his coincidentally open and outstretched hands. Instead, Hao Zhen decided to ask sothing else. Out of curiosity, whats your affinity with these cultivation thods?
At that, Tian Jin frowned, hesitating. Finally, he sighed. About the sa, really.
That being? Hao Zhen asked. He was almost certain of the answer, but he still wanted to check.
I
Id say its about perfect.
Sure enough. Hao Zhen had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. How much did you morize of the three cultivation thods I handed you just now?
All of them, Tian Jin said, no longer hesitating now that he had already revealed the truth. He looked at Hao Zhen with a mixture of anxiousness and expectation.
Hao Zhen gave Tian Jin a blank look, and once it beca clear that Tian Jin hadnt been joking, he simply shook his head, incredulous. Tian Jins talent was even more absurd than he had thought itd be. In a couple of seconds, Tian Jin had done what took the average cultivator several years. This insane level of talent sealed the deal. If there had been any doubt left in his mind about his theory that Tian Jin was so kind of protagonist, the revelation just now had erased them. Maybe Tian Jins level of talent was common in violet-grade organizations or sothing, but in a red-grade sect like the Blazing Light Sect?
Pushing those thoughts to the back of his head for the mont, Hao Zhen picked up the first jade slip and sent his spiritual power into it. morizing it was only made harder by the fact that, at the sa ti he was going through its contents, he had to keep the chant of the Blazing Light thod going, and paying attention to two things at the sa ti wasnt quite the easiest thing. After a while, he had an idea.
When the sect gave new disciples a jade slip containing the Blazing Light thod, they also included a small booklet in which the incantations of the Blazing Light thod were written. After all, new disciples didnt have a cultivation thod, so they couldnt control their spiritual power, and that ant they couldnt use jade slips. Then, after morizing the incantation on the booklet, theyd be able to use it to use to control their spiritual power, and then access the cultivation thod jade slip so that they could start morizing the images of the Blazing Light thod.
Tian Jin, Hao Zhen said, opening his eyes. Would you happen to have so pen and paper?
I dont think so? Tian Jin said, shaking his head, a slightly surprised look on his face. He had probably been expecting sothing about his aptitude for cultivation, and not this seemingly random question. Why?
Hmmm. They could probably find so pen and paper if they asked around or even co up with an alternative way of writing down the incantation, but maybe there was sothing else they try could try first
Would you mind chanting out loud the incantation of one of the cultivation thods?
Er
Sure? Tian Jin shrugged, still a little confused. Words then started coming out of his mouth, but they sounded vague and indistinct, muffled. After a while, Tian Jin stopped. How about it?
Hao Zhen smiled to himself, pleased. The reason why cultivation thod incantations were so hard to morize was that they had magical properties that made reading and rembering them much more difficult than normal texts. He didnt know how exactly that worked, considering these incantations were also written in the Common Tongue, but right now wasnt the ti to ponder how the world worked. What mattered was that since, when spoken out loud, cultivation thod incantations had similar magical propertiesexcept, in this case, they werent hard to read, but to hearant that they could be transmitted orally.
He then explained the situation to Tian Jin, who quickly understood what he wanted from him.
You want
to recite the incantations for you? Tian Jin asked.
Just once or twice of each one, Hao Zhen said, so that I can pinpoint which one I find easiest to understand. Then we can look for pen and paper, and you can write down the incantation of that cultivation thod so that I can work on morizing it. We should be able to save a lot of ti that way.
Tian Jin didnt need to consider his plan long before agreeing to it, and about an hour later, Hao Zhen had his new cultivation thod: the Drifting Moonlight thod. It was one of Tian Jins cultivation thodsnone of Ke Lis worked for himand although Hao Zhens aptitude with it wasnt perfect, it was good enough that they ended up not needing to even procure a pen and paper. Hao Zhen managed to pretty accurately rember the incantation after the second ti Tian Jin recited it, so he asked Tian Jin to repeat it a couple more tis, and before long he had all the words morized.
His affinity with it wasnt perfectit still took him about half an hour to finish morizing itbut it was much better than his affinity with the other cultivation thods, and once he viewed its jade slip, using its incantation to control his spiritual energy, he saw that he could easily see its images, and although it would probably take a while, he was confident hed be able to morize them given enough ti.
With that out of the way, they moved on to Ethereal String Puppetry.
Are you sure its fine? Hao Zhen asked Tian Jin. They were still on the stage in Tian Jins courtyard, standing up and facing each other, much like they had been before they started sparring.
You dont need to worry about , Tian Jin assured him.
All right, then, Hao Zhen said. He also didnt think there would be any problems with it, but considering what happened last ti soone used Ethereal String Puppetry in Tian Jin
well, he just wanted to make sure the other boy was completely fine with the idea.
He then started channeling his spiritual power into the Ethereal String Puppetry skill seed in his crux. Feeling the connection between himself and the spiritual skill strengthening, Hao Zhen conjured an Ethereal String with a thought, watching as it extended out of his chest and burrowed into Tian Jins. Tian Jin stayed still. The Ethereal String was visible only to himself, and even if Tian Jin could see it, he wouldnt have dodged anyway, since the whole purpose of this was him trying out the spiritual skill.
The next mont, he felt so kind of connection between himself and Tian Jin. It felt as if he had just gained an entirely new bodyone that he could move just as naturally as his own. With a thought, he tried to move Tian Jins arm. Nothing happened, however.
Tian Jin was frowning. Was sothing wrong?
Tian Jin?
Oh, Tian Jin said, breaking out of his daze. Right. Sorry. I forgot. I think I resisted just now. Try again.
Hmmm. Hao Zhen narrowed his eyes. It looked like Tian Jin wasnt all that fine with this, after all. Still, Tian Jin didnt seem too bothered by it, and Hao Zhen really need to get so practice with the skill, so he decided to continue. Once again, he willed Tian Jins arm to move, and this ti there was no resistance as Tian Jins arm rose up to chest level.
Hao Zhen then tried moving Tian Jins other arms, then both arms at the sa ti. Through it all, Tian Jin had a strange expression on his face. Instead of going any further, Hao Zhen decided to check whether Tian Jin was still okay. Everything all right?
Yeah, Tian Jin said, looking up at him. It just feels a bit weird, my body moving on its own, now that Im not resisting it. You can keep going.
Nodding his head, Hao Zhen went on to try to move Tian Jins legs, and before long he had Tian Jin walking around the stage.
Over the next few hours, Hao Zhen explored the limits of what exactly he could do with Ethereal String Puppetry, also trying out so commands instead of direct controls, which were required if he wanted to also control Tian Jins ability to use his spiritual power. As it turned out, he could use Ethereal String Puppetry to make Tian Jin do virtually anything Tian Jin could do himself. The mont Tian Jin started putting up even the smallest amount of resistance, however, Hao Zhen found himself completely unable to affect his actions in any way.
They had already expected this, however. Even Ke Li, who had been a level higher than Tian Jin couldnt fully control him, so there was no way Hao Zhen, who was a step lower, would be able to pull it off. Nevertheless, Hao Zhen spent so ti practicing his ability to fight back against Tian Jins attempts to resist, and although they didnt make much progress on that front, they did make so.
They had to take a couple of breaks for Hao Zhen to recover his spiritual stamina, and after the fifth one, Hao Zhen decided to call it a day. Even though Tian Jin seed like he could still go for a couple of hours, Hao Zhen had also expended quite a lot of ntal stamina trying to impose his will on Tian Jin. Moreover, Hao Zhen was already quite pleased with how the day had turned out. Considering how pathetically he had perford earlier, when Tian Jin tried to test his combat ability, it felt nice to make progress in other areas. He wasnt a lost cause, after all.
Hao Zhen also didnt want to hog all of Tian Jins ti. After all, Tian Jin also needed to cultivate and do his own training.
In their breaks, Hao Zhen showed Tian Jin the swords, pills, and talismans in his spiritual ring, and they went through them one by one. As it turned out, the swords were indeed magic artifacts of the lowest quality, only barely better than mundane weapons. Tian Jin also recognized all of the talismans and explained each of their uses. As for the pills, only so of them were familiar to him, so they decided to ask Duo Lan about them later, as she was supposed to be so kind of alchemy genius.
Duo Lan being brought up reminded Hao Zhen of the matter with Bao Yun, and now that they were done for the day, Hao Zhen decided to broach the subject. He hadnt been able to think of the right way to put it yet, but he figured that it wouldnt be wise to delay this conversation any further.
What exactly do you think of Bao Yun? Hao Zhen asked, directly, not bothering to skirt around the subject. He already figured that being straightforward was for the best with Tian Jin.
They were still on the stage, sitting down, having been there all morning already.
Senior Sister Bao? Tian Jin repeated. He frowned, confused. What do you an?
Well, Im pretty sure she
Tian Jin suddenly went still. Give
a mont, he said. He then stayed quiet for a few seconds before saying, Duo Lan just sent
a sound transmission. He stood up. She has sothing important to tell us, and wants us to head over to her place right now.
Sothing important
Frowning, Hao Zhen also got to his feet. Did she say what it was about?
No, Tian Jin said, but she didnt seem particularly worried or concerned. Anyway, you were saying sothing about Senior Sister Bao?
We can talk on our way, Hao Zhen said, shaking his head.
Yesterday, Tian Jin had said that Bao Yun ntioned that there was sothing important she had to prepare forsothing Tian Jin would learn about soon. Now Duo Lan had sothing important to tell them. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but maybe
They set out, heading to Duo Lans house.
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