Lying Low and Stirring Up Trouble

One dark night, Lu De was sleeping soundly in bed.

But at that moment, the jade pendant on his chest flickered and emitted a wave, forming a hidden communication Technique Method.

This Technique Method is almost impossible to detect in this world because the Technique Method it employs surpasses the imagination of everyone in this world. Even if there are traces, it would be impossible to separate it from a mass of noise.

"Boss, how's the situation on your end lately?" A message was sent via a communication Technique Method.

The Technique Method received a message: "Everything is going smoothly on my end. I've built a few underground ruins and am currently decorating them. Once you've tricked someone, you can bring them over directly. They'll be terrified and become die-hard loyalists of our organization."

Stone continued to send messages, "That's good. By the way, I've also noticed that the situation here seems a bit turbulent lately. It seems to be because of our landing. These people are a lot more nervous and think that the other side is behind it. It seems like a fight is about to break out. Be careful on your end."

Li Shiwei replied, "I'm in the wild, so they can't hit me if they fight. You should be careful to hide and not be discovered by the strong people of this world, or it will be troublesome."

Stone sent. "Understood, then I'll cut off the call for now. The kid I found is quite clever, he'll definitely be a great help. By the way, we're not here to rob and kill, are we?"

Li Shiwei replied after a while, "Of course, we just want to collect the Civilization History. How much wealth do these people have that we can scheme against? This world isn't worth much money anyway. You'd better be careful about killing people. The Civilization History is more important."

"Okay," Stone said, then closed the communication.

Lu De didn't wake up; he was still fast asleep, after all, he was just a child.

And the stone fell silent.

Soon, it was morning.

In the morning, Lu De woke up. The young man with short brown hair rubbed his face and then clutched the round jade pendant with strange patterns carved on it to his chest.

He found this jade pendant by chance while collecting those tools.

Entrusted by Teacher Jin, he was responsible for collecting equipment for the high-level instructors and purchasing those 'Divine Communication Artifact,' which were said to be used in sacrificial rites to communicate with the gods.

During an acquisition, he inexplicably bought this stone that looked beautiful but was actually worthless.

It is indeed very beautiful, but it is not any kind of gemstone. Although it is round and smooth, it is not transparent.

In some countries, it is generally believed that the more transparent a gemstone is, the more valuable it is. They also like to cut gemstones into polyhedrons to improve their optical properties and make them more dazzling.

Although the yellowish-brown stone was beautiful, its low transparency led it to be considered a worthless piece of junk. It was even polished into a round shape, making further cutting impossible.

But Lu De still felt a strange attraction to this broken stone, so he spent a little money to buy it as well.

Who would have thought that this strange, broken stone would contain the soul of an ancient high-ranking mentor! However, this high-ranking mentor was extremely weak, and his physical body had already died, but he had not become a ghost.

The other party refused to reveal their name, but offered Lu De a deal.

Lu De helped the other party rebuild their physical body, thus enabling them to be resurrected.

The other party will then grant Lu De knowledge, the knowledge that all those on the path of truth crave.

Lu De was very skeptical, so he didn't agree at first, but the other party offered some small pieces of knowledge as a way to verify it.

After that, Lu De used this knowledge in many places, and even received commendation from senior mentors and praise from Teacher Jin.

So, just yesterday, Lu De finally agreed to the deal.

He didn't want to continue being a poor country boy ignored by others, and he didn't want to be unable to afford even research equipment.

He needs knowledge because knowledge is everything. Knowledge can be exchanged for wealth, status, and power. In the pursuit of truth, knowledge is everything.

Seemingly sensing Lu De's determination, Shi Tou said, "Are you ready? I remember, in ten days you have a very important test, which will determine whether you can enter the research institute's project..."

Lu De interrupted Shi Tou, saying directly, "I won't rely on you for the test. Cheating won't get me anything. I'll earn my qualification to participate in the project on my own."

"Okay, that's good, but I'm not going to let you cheat. What I mean is, I can help you catch up on lessons during the ten days of testing so you can learn something useful," Stone said.

"... What do I have to give in return?" Lu De asked warily.

Stone calmly replied, "I don't need anything. I just hope you grow up quickly so you can help me revive my body sooner."

Upon hearing this reason, Lu De seemed somewhat surprised.

After a while, he nodded and then said in a low voice, "Well... thank you."

"No need, go wash up and eat," Stone replied.

Ten days later, Lu De took the exam.

During those ten days, he almost forgot to eat and sleep, using all his energy to learn about Shi Tou. Shi Tou didn't hold back anything, answering almost every question and helping him get the only spot.

However, during this exam, he ran into that noble classmate with platinum blonde hair again, who also seemed determined to succeed.

Both sides are determined to win, so the only way to prove them right is through skill.

That was truly a... fierce battle.

Yes, 'war'. The conflict wasn't limited to written exams. After two people scored full marks on three consecutive written exams, the aloof high-ranking instructor directly announced that they would put their abilities to the test through combat.

Upon hearing this, Teacher Jin immediately went to persuade the institute's only senior mentor, saying that both of the excellent apprentices were quite good and there was no need to compete. Apprentice resources were also limited, so why not just give them both spots?

But the senior mentor didn't even look at it, turned around and left, only casually leaving behind the words: "I only need one."

So, the only option left was to fight.

On one side are noble scions who have received combat training since childhood, perfecting both their theoretical and practical skills.

On the other side is the ugly duckling from the countryside, a country bumpkin who even crammed for theoretical knowledge.

The result is obvious.

He does know a lot of theory, but combat training is very expensive, and he doesn't have that much money to buy courses.

Without training, they'd definitely get thrashed and beaten.

Lu De was beaten so badly that he could barely move. His injuries were so severe that he needed to stay in bed for more than a month. He had Root Bone, and in the end, his opponent almost killed him.

One reason they survived was that Teacher Jin stopped the fight in time, and another reason was that Stone intervened and stopped the aftershocks.

After the battle ended, Teacher Jin announced the opponent's victory, gave the spot to them, and then quickly carried Lu De to the doctor's office.

At the doctor's place, Teacher Jin didn't know what to say to comfort the old man, so the old man simply offered a few words of encouragement, telling him not to take it to heart and not to worry about the money, as he had already paid for the consultation and medicine.

Afterwards, Lu De said to Teacher Jin, "Don't worry... Teacher Jin, I know. My strength is in learning. Combat is not something that can be learned in a short time. I will work harder in the future and make up for it after I pass the exam to become a mentor. It won't delay my current work."

Teacher Jin breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's good that you think this way. Don't worry. You two are in different circumstances, but your future achievements will not be lower than his. Don't give up on yourself."

"I know." Lu De nodded with difficulty, forcing himself not to groan.

It hurts so much, it's the fracture site.

Teacher Jin didn't stay long; after all, he was very busy, and he left quickly.

Lu De was left lying in the hospital bed.

He lay on the bed for a full Chen, without saying a word or sleeping, just staring wide-eyed.

A Chen later, he grasped the jade pendant on his chest.

"I want your knowledge," he said.

"Our deal was struck in ten days. I haven't been stingy with the knowledge I've given you, have I?" Stone said, with almost no emotion.

"I will give you all those crystals. How can I convert them into energy that you can use?" Lu De asked again.

However, Stone did not continue to deceive, but said seriously, "Don't let anger cloud your judgment. Without a calm Dao heart, you will not be able to find what you truly want. If you can't find what you truly want, then cultivation and learning will become pure torture for you."

"Learning and spiritual practice are joyful things in themselves, but when you are forced to do them by emotions or life, they become extremely torturous and painful. This kind of pain will make you lose your heart to pursue the path and ultimately lead to mediocrity."

Lu De was taken aback when he heard what Shi Tou said.

After another silence, Lu De asked in a tone he had never used before, "Are you really a high-level mentor?"

"Or you could say I'm stronger than any of the high-level mentors in this world, and more qualified to wear this title," Stone replied earnestly.

"Can you teach me?" Lu De asked.

"Teach me" and "give me knowledge" may seem similar, but they are actually worlds apart.

Stone understood the unspoken meaning, so he replied, "You are not yet qualified to be my apprentice. I will not be stingy with my knowledge, but this is just a transaction."

"You are much more honest than I imagined, not like a devil who bewitches souls," Lu De exclaimed.

"I never was, and my purpose was very simple," Stone said.

Lu De nodded slightly, but immediately grimaced from the pain.

Without realizing it, he became less wary of the stone and even started to grin and show his teeth in front of it.

After he calmed down, he said, "I didn't believe it before, but... now I'm starting to believe it."

Stone neither confirmed nor denied this attitude, but continued, "It's good that you believe me. Your current condition is too bad. If I really made you lie in bed for a month, I'm afraid I would have lost consciousness by then. I'll teach you a method, which is about luck... cough cough, it's a method to control the blood in your body, which can accelerate your body's healing and also improve your physical condition."

"Okay, what do you need to do?" Lu De immediately agreed.

He didn't want to actually lie in bed for a month.

"Follow my instructions. First, find your lower Dantian, which is in your lower abdomen, but not the actual lower abdomen... Don't be fixated on the physical body. You need to know that our body actually corresponds to another small world, just like a kingdom. In this place, there is the vital energy of true life, born by destiny. Do you know about the embryo during pregnancy? It is the life force contained in the fetal stage, the starting point of all life." And Stone began to explain slowly.

To translate the world's methods of fortune into the language of this world, some translation skills are still needed, and the stone also needs some thought.

And so, the lesson began.

Stone taught him some methods of cultivating luck from all over the world. These were genuine cultivation Cultivation Method, and although they were not of high quality, they were much, much better than the primitive meditation methods of this world.

The method used by the world is to store the required Qi in a specific way according to their own Dao. This storage method is the Qi that they release at will, and the amount of Qi is the depth of their cultivation.

This isn't like accumulating something in a warehouse; it's a very difficult task. How to stuff more air in without making it chaotic is a skill in itself. Many people who don't do this properly die from their bodies exploding.

As for the specific storage limit, it depends on the development level of the Cultivation Method and the perfection of the Dao. Generally speaking, the cultivation level that cultivators in the world can store is 10,000 to 100 million times more than that of the natives.

This is no joke; there really is such a huge gap. However, cultivation level does not represent combat power; Divine Ability and Technique Method are the true indicators of combat power. The natives generally have their own special skills, but the gap in combat power between them and cultivators from all over the world is still quite obvious.

Of course, in worlds of grade three or above, people would not call them 'natives', because worlds of grade three or above are actually quite powerful. They generally have autonomy and are not simply resource-rich worlds. The strong and geniuses produced in them can also show their faces in the world.

As for this Seventh Rank World... their primitive meditation method is truly... extremely primitive.

It's almost brutal; you train your soul by building muscle. You squeeze your soul to the point of near death, then sit and wait for your body to slowly recover, and that's how you gradually become stronger.

After the soul becomes powerful, forcibly seizing the various 'qi' from the surrounding environment and temporarily piecing them together into a Technique Method completely ignores the existence of the microcosm within the human body, resulting in extremely low efficiency.

They hardly utilize the microcosm within their bodies, and their cultivation level is almost equivalent to the energy density of their surroundings.

However, when comparing combat strength at lower levels, the advantage of cultivation level is immense.

Shen Shuibi once told Li Qi that cultivation level and Divine Ability are actually a 'base number' and a 'coefficient'; these two numbers determine the level of combat power. (See Chapter 165 for details)

And this moment, when one is not yet at the rank of cultivation level, is precisely when the base value of cultivation level has the greatest effect.

Shi Tou felt that he could actually cultivate a local big shot.

(The wound hurts, and the back of my head is cramping.)

(It's almost the end of the month, please vote for me with your monthly tickets, everyone! I'll add more on the Number One after I get 1000 votes, I already have over 700.)