I Issue a Task to Myself

Lu Yi wolfed down the buns in a few bites, took his longsword to the small courtyard, assumed a stance, and began practicing the White Cloud Swordplay.

As an immortal cultivation sect, even though it was merely a basic technique, the White Cloud Swordplay was far more exquisite than the sword techniques of the mortal martial world. It captured the elusive, ever-shifting essence of drifting white clouds; its movements were unfathomably changeable, yet flowed like moving clouds and running water.

Lu Yi's White Cloud Swordplay was at lv2. That was the system's rating, while by the standards of the cultivation world, it counted as the Minor Accomplishment Realm. As his sword forms flowed, they stirred up sharp gusts of wind.

While Lu Yi practiced the White Cloud Swordplay, Lu Gaoyang and Wang Siqi finished breakfast as well. They walked out of the hall and watched Lu Yi diligently practice his sword in the courtyard, both wearing faint smiles.

Wang Siqi said softly, "Yi'er's talent for techniques is truly quite good. He has already cultivated the White Cloud Swordplay to the Minor Accomplishment Realm. If he can reach the Great Accomplishment Realm, he might even make it into the top five thousand in the competition."

Lu Gaoyang smiled somewhat proudly. "And whose son do you think he is?"

Wang Siqi shot Lu Gaoyang a glance and sneered. "Could you have given birth to him without me?"

Lu Gaoyang gave an awkward laugh. "Of course, the credit belongs mostly to my wife."

Only then did Wang Siqi nod in satisfaction. "All right, go get busy. Don't disturb Yi'er's cultivation."

As Outer Sect Elders, Lu Gaoyang and Wang Siqi naturally had plenty to do.

Lu Yi was immersed in the White Cloud Swordplay and did not notice that Lu Gaoyang and Wang Siqi had already left.

After completing one round of the White Cloud Swordplay, Lu Yi took a look and found that the task progress had become 1/10.

A little excitement stirred in his heart, and he continued practicing.

Round after round, Lu Yi quickly completed ten rounds.

After ten rounds, Lu Yi was drenched in sweat and collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily. Even though he was already at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer, practicing the White Cloud Swordplay ten times in a row was still exhausting. But at the thought of the task reward, he was filled with motivation and did not pause for even a moment.

Current task:

Practice the White Cloud Swordplay ten times (Progress: 10/10)

Reward: White Cloud Swordplay level +1

Completed.

Claim reward: Yes/No

Lu Yi was a little excited and hurriedly chose yes.

As Lu Yi made his choice, a vast amount of information suddenly appeared in his mind. It was information about the White Cloud Swordplay: how to wield the sword, how to circulate Spiritual Qi, how to regulate his breathing, how to bring out the swordplay's power to the fullest...

This information seemed to have been carved into Lu Yi's mind, becoming as instinctive as breathing.

Once he had digested the information, Lu Yi opened his eyes and casually swung his sword.

Hiss!!

A faint sound of something slicing through the air rang out. Lu Yi saw a wisp of Sword Qi appear over the surface of his longsword. As the Sword Qi swept past, it left a sword mark on the stone-paved ground.

Lu Yi's eyes widened.

What terrifying power! This was far stronger than his previous lv2 White Cloud Swordplay. This should be close to the Great Accomplishment Realm White Cloud Swordplay, right?

Lv3 White Cloud Swordplay was already this strong. Then what about lv4 or lv5? Would it surpass the Great Accomplishment Realm White Cloud Swordplay?

Transformation Realm? Return to Simplicity?

And if it reached an even higher level, would the White Cloud Swordplay still be the White Cloud Swordplay?

Lu Yi's heart brimmed with anticipation. If he had his father issue him a task every day, then within a month, he should be able to raise the White Cloud Swordplay to a very high level. When the sect competition came around, perhaps he could even achieve an impressive ranking...

If he directly entered the top ten, Lu Yi could join the inner sect right now. That would be far sooner than he had originally expected.

Not only that, the rewards for that Outer Sect Competition task would probably be excellent as well!

At that moment, Bai Lingling walked over and said, "Young Master, it is time to eat."

"Oh, all right." Lu Yi stopped thinking about it. He had practiced the White Cloud Swordplay for an entire morning and was exhausted to death. He would rest first, recover his strength, then continue cultivating in the afternoon.

After lunch, Lu Yi returned to his room to rest.

The task of practicing the White Cloud Swordplay was complete, while he could not do the Outer Sect assessment task yet. It seemed that he needed to find a few more tasks for himself.

Wait... At that moment, Lu Yi had a bold idea.

Lu Yi clenched his right hand into a fist, coughed by his lips with a solemn air, and spoke to himself. "This afternoon, I will practice the White Cloud Footwork ten times."

As soon as Lu Yi's words fell, the panel before his eyes changed once more.

Task:

Practice the White Cloud Footwork ten times (Progress: 0/10)

Reward: Improved comprehension of the White Cloud Footwork.

Accept: Yes/No

Well, damn!

Looking at the task prompt, Lu Yi felt as though the doors to a new world had been flung open: he really could issue tasks to himself?!

This fucking worked?!

A number of bold ideas immediately surfaced in Lu Yi's mind. He cleared his throat. "Next, I will step forward with my left foot first!"

Lu Yi stared at the panel expectantly. After a stretch of silence, the panel showed no reaction at all and did not issue a task for stepping forward with his left foot first.

Still unwilling to give up, Lu Yi said again, "My next step will span two meters!"

...After a long silence, the panel still did not react.

Lu Yi was disappointed. He had originally wanted to issue tasks for his everyday actions too. It seemed the task panel did not recognize them. He did not know whether they were too simple or unrelated to cultivation.

But after being disappointed for only a moment, Lu Yi became broad-minded again. No matter what, being able to issue tasks to himself and complete them already made him very happy. A man's heart was never satisfied, like a snake trying to swallow an elephant; greed would invite Divine Retribution.

At that moment, Lu Yi also noticed something was not quite right: when he practiced the White Cloud Swordplay ten times that morning, his White Cloud Swordplay had directly risen by one level. Yet now, practicing the White Cloud Footwork ten times only improved his comprehension; it could not directly raise it by one level.

Lu Yi thought it over and quickly understood the difference: his White Cloud Footwork was lv3, a little higher than the White Cloud Swordplay's original lv2. Practicing ten times was the same, but the improvement it brought would naturally be different.

Put in gaming terms: raising a skill's level required experience. The higher the level, the more experience was needed to level up, and the greater the difficulty of leveling up. If identical tasks granted identical experience, then it was perfectly normal for low-level skills to level up while high-level ones could not.

With that thought, Lu Yi understood that if he relied on self-issued tasks to improve his techniques, the higher the technique level became, the harder it would be to improve, and the more practice sessions he would need to complete.

But no matter what, it was still far faster than relying on his own comprehension.

From today onward, I, Lu, am an unparalleled genius!

Lu Yi was quite satisfied with that.

After resting, Lu Yi began practicing the White Cloud Footwork.

The practice task was not difficult, only somewhat tiring. After an afternoon of practice, Lu Yi easily completed the task.

That evening, Lu Gaoyang and Wang Siqi returned. Bai Lingling had already prepared dinner, and after the three of them ate, they returned to their rooms to rest.

In the world of cultivators, nighttime was generally used for cultivation. The same was true for Lu Yi and the other two.

After returning to his room, Lu Yi sat cross-legged and issued himself another task: cultivate the "White Cloud Qi Guiding Art" ten times.

Since the "White Cloud Qi Guiding Art" was also lv2, its task reward was the same as the reward for practicing the White Cloud Swordplay that morning: the "White Cloud Qi Guiding Art" would rise by one level.

Qi refinement required controlling Spiritual Qi to form a cycle within the body, drawing the Spiritual Qi of the outside world into oneself. Generally speaking, the greater one's talent, the stronger one's cultivation technique, and the deeper one's mastery of that technique, the more efficiently one could absorb Spiritual Qi.

Lu Ming's White Cloud Qi Guiding Art was only lv2. Completing one circulation took quite some time, but cultivating ten times in a single night was not too difficult.

As he circulated the "White Cloud Qi Guiding Art" again and again and absorbed Spiritual Qi, Lu Yi could feel his cultivation slowly rising. By the time he completed ten cycles, dawn was nearly breaking.

The task was complete, and Lu Yi chose to claim the reward.

At once, all sorts of information about the White Cloud Qi Guiding Art surfaced in Lu Yi's mind, and his comprehension of the White Cloud Qi Guiding Art began to rise rapidly.