TBIP: Chapter 27 Part 2

Thinking of this, Lou Xingyao felt as if a big stone had been moved in his heart. He suddenly felt a bit more relaxed.

Lou Xingyao’s cultivation had originally improved a lot due to his epiphany on the street.

During his retreat for alchemy, he hadn’t meditated but the consumption and replenishment of spiritual power during this period was particularly frequent.

This made his cultivation, which was originally close to the late stage of the sixth level of qi condensation, gain one big step up. It was to the point where he was only one step away from the seventh level of qi condensation.

Now that the mind was clear and his mood improved, a breakthrough seemed to be a matter of time.

The aura around Lou Xingyao’s body could be seen surging as it rushed into his body.

Lou Xingyao’s body was like a bottomless pit, and he didn’t refuse this aura.

In this way, after approximately one stick of incense, the surging aura seemed to have a sense of condensation. The momentum around Lou Xingyao’s body soared upwards at this moment.

This was the manifestation of breaking through to the seventh level of qi condensation.

In the past few years, Wen Hanshan had long been accustomed to Lou Xingyao’s cultivation speed that was different from ordinary people, especially after the other person had a realization on the street last time. Therefore, he already felt some expectations.

On the contrary, it was Lou Xingyao who was a bit confused after the last acupoint was opened and he successfully entered the seventh level of qi condensation. “This is… a breakthrough?”

“It was only a matter of time.” Wen Hanshan extended his hand toward Lou Xingyao’s pulse as he spoke.

This action wasn’t fast. If Lou Xingyao deliberately avoided it, he could completely let the other person’s hand catch the air.

But instead of doing this, he reached forward with his wrist, allowing the other person to hold his lifeline in the palm of his hand.

Then he felt a slightly more powerful spiritual power in his body.

Lou Xingyao was already familiar with the owner of this spiritual power. He felt a bit uncomfortable the moment the spiritual power entered his body, but he didn’t make any gestures of resistance. He allowed it.

After a short time, Wen Hanshan withdrew his spiritual power from Lou Xingyao’s body and nodded slightly. “The foundation is solid, and the cultivation is stable. If you are worried that your foundation isn’t in place, wait until after the eighth level of qi condensation where all the meridians of the body are opened up. Then carefully polish and accumulate it.”

“I bothered Brother Wen.” Lou Xingyao wasn’t dissatisfied with Wen Hanshan’s words, but his face was full of deep understanding.

Since the last time he explored the other person’s meridians, Lou Xingyao already had a goal in his heart.

He might not be able to reach the heights of the other person, but he couldn’t be too bad. This way, he would be worthy of the other person’s careful teachings over the years.

Lou Xingyao’s well-behaved appearance was very enjoyable to Wen Hanshan. His eyebrows relaxed a lot. Then he thought of the fasting pills and brought up the old matter again.

“The matter of the best-grade fasting pills can’t be said to others, but it is fine if you sell the middle and low-grade pills.”

He hadn’t forgotten the other person’s enthusiasm for making money.

The three acres of land in the backyard were almost always taken care of by the other person. Every time when going out to buy things, he would always find the shopkeeper to get a bargain.

When told that the best-grade fasting pills couldn’t be exchanged for money, Lou Xingyao’s whole mood dropped by a level and he looked very pitiful.

“We can keep the best-grade pills for ourselves.” It was a pity, but Lou Xingyao wasn’t a person who couldn’t tell what was important.

According to Wen Hanshan, the appearance of the best-grade pills would inevitably attract attention from all directions.

An ordinary person would get in trouble when possessing a treasure. He was afraid that even Wen Hanshan wouldn’t be able to protect him.

A good result was to be forcibly caught by someone to refine pills. However, if he attracted other alchemists then he was afraid his life wouldn’t be guaranteed.

Fortunately, he had a lot of pills in his hands. If he calculated it carefully, the profit was still very huge.

Thinking of this, Lou Xingyao no longer felt sorry about the best-grade pills that couldn’t be sold.

Wen Hanshan saw that Lou Xingyao understood the priorities, and his expression softened a lot. “I think you are quite talented in alchemy, but are you ready to specialize in this way in the future?”

“I can’t say that I will specialize in it, but I should study it carefully,” Lou Xingyao replied honestly.

Don’t look at the process of refining the fasting pill that seemed to be very easy, and even the next few furnaces of rejuvenation pills and yuan nourishing pills seemed to be very smooth.

Due to this, Lou Xingyao understands the vast and profound nature of alchemy.

This knowledge would only be more profound than the Chinese medicine he had been exposed to in his previous life. If he wanted to train in this path, he would naturally need to put in more effort than his previous life.

It was just that due to his family tradition, Lou Xingyao was already very interested in medicine-related knowledge. Now that he had stepped onto the path of alchemy, it was more of an interest.

He didn’t feel that the problems he encountered during alchemy were anything unacceptable. Instead, they became the driving force for him to work hard.

What Lou Xingyao didn’t expect was that his answer seemed to cause Wen Hanshan’s misunderstanding.

He saw Wen Hanshan ponder on it for a moment before nodding slightly. Then Wen Hanshan asked, “In this case, will you continue to practice the sword with me in the future?”

“Why not?” Lou Xingyao asked in surprise.

“I’m afraid it will take a lot of energy if you work hard on the path of alchemy.” Wen Hanshan’s tone didn’t change much when he said this.

Obviously, no matter what choice Lou Xingyao made, he wouldn’t have any dissatisfaction.

In fact, after learning that Lou Xingyao’s success rate in alchemy could reach 100% and he could even refine the best-grade pills, Wen Hanshan felt that the other person’s talent shouldn’t be wasted.

In this case, even if the other person wanted to give up the practice of the sword and focus more time and energy on alchemy, then this was the most suitable choice to make after weighing the pros and cons.

“This doesn’t mean I don’t have the energy to learn swordsmanship. There will always be some energy to be squeezed out.” Lou Xingyao obviously had a different opinion on this. “Besides, on the path of alchemy, I will lack self-protection ability even if I reach the peak. It just so happens that swordsmanship can complement this.”

Lou Xingyao didn’t forget why Wen Hanshan had asked him to learn swordsmanship in the first place.

Wasn’t it because he fought in a disorderly manner and was prone to suffer losses?

Alchemy wouldn’t increase his strength. Why did he have to choose between one of the two?

Seeing Lou Xingyao’s serious expression, Wen Hanshan didn’t say anything else and only nodded. “If that is the case, you aren’t allowed to give up halfway in the future. I won’t show mercy to you.”

He didn’t say that he could carefully protect Lou Xingyao.

This didn’t mean he had no confidence in himself, but even a beast had to nap. He couldn’t guarantee that he would always pay attention to the other person.

Moreover, Lou Xingyao had an eagle in his heart. The best protection for him was to let it fly, rather than cutting off his wings and incorporating them into Wen Hanshan’s wings.

“I will do my best.” Lou Xingyao nodded, his expression as firm as ever.

He naturally understood the meaning of Wen Hanshan’s words. Today, Wen Hanshan asked him if he would give up the sword due to alchemy. Since he gave a negative answer, he shouldn’t use this as an excuse to give up practicing the sword in the future.

Now that the decision was made, Wen Hanshan didn’t say much. He didn’t even give Lou Xingyao time to prepare, and directly took him to train.

The first thing necessary was to review his previous knowledge.

The three month seclusion still had some impact on Lou Xingyao.

The tracking leaves that could’ve been easily avoided seemed to become erratic again.

Once the hourglass stopped, the corners of Lou Xingyao’s clothes were already stained with white marks.

It wasn’t obvious, but its presence was there.

There was no need to hear Wen Hanshan’s words. Lou Xingyao had already used his spiritual power to re-raise the leaves on the ground. He started dodging the leaves again.

Lou Xingyao, who was bent on avoiding the leaves, didn’t see the satisfied emotion in the eyes of Wen Hanshan not far away.

Lou Xingyao just concentrated on how he felt before.

Fortunately, Lou Xingyao worked hard enough at the beginning and already carved the feeling of being as light as a swallow into his bone marrow. After doing it two or three times, he gradually regained his former understanding.

The flying leaves of the tracking tree barely had an effect on him.

Once he stopped again and made sure that there were no extra white marks on his body, the corners of Lou Xingyao’s lips couldn’t help curving upward.

“Very good.” Wen Hanshan said at the right time, giving a compliment. Then the conversation changed. “I said last time that you should enter the next stage.”

Lou Xingyao naturally knew why Wen Hanshan would specially remind him.

After a suitable period of time, his high concentration among the leaves of the tracking tree made him feel a trace of fatigue.

But according to the original progress, he should’ve moved onto the next stage of study at this moment. Wen Hanshan meant that exhaustion wasn’t an excuse for procrastination.

“As it should be.” Lou Xingyao nodded and replied.

“The next step is to learn the basic moves of swordsmanship,” Wen Hanshan said. Then he took out a sword from the storage bag and put it in front of Lou Xingyao.

“This is…” Lou Xingyao couldn’t help being a bit surprised when seeing the long sword in front of him.

It was just because this long sword was no different from the one Wen Hanshan often used. If it wasn’t for the fact that Wen Hanshan still had the sword in his hand at this moment, Lou Xingyao would even suspect that Wen Hanshan gave him his own sword.

“When I first started, I couldn’t control the strength in my hand very well. It was always easy to damage the sword, so I simply asked the refiner to customize a batch of identical ones for replacement at any time,” Wen Hanshan explained in a low voice.

It didn’t seem hard for him to talk about the embarrassing matter of damaging his sword from time to time.

“I see.” Lou Xingyao nodded slightly as he reached out and took the sword.

After starting, Lou Xingyao had a general understanding of the sword in his hand.

It was just the lowest-level first-grade magic weapon. If there was anything different, it was that in terms of weight, it was slightly heavier than an ordinary first-grade long sword.

Lou Xingyao sensed this and was even more surprised in his heart.

After all, from Wen Hanshan’s words, he could know that this long sword might not be the one Wen Hanshan usually used, but it was customized by the same refiner from the same batch. It shouldn’t be much different.

Let’s not mention Wen Hanshan’s dedication and love for swordsmanship. The other person was once the eldest son of the Zhou family. How could such a mediocre sword match him?

Wen Hanshan saw what he was thinking at almost a glance, and said indifferently, “The Zhou family did find a good sword for me, but they took it back in the name of the family’s assets after I was injured.”

Lou Xingyao frowned slightly. He was no longer indignant about what the Zhou family had done, but he still couldn’t help feeling disgusted by the other party’s behavior of using people.

“A good writer doesn’t use the pen. The quality of swordsmanship has nothing to do with the sword. With my current cultivation, this level of magic sword is still handy.” Obviously, Wen Hanshan didn’t really care about what the Zhou family did.