Reconnaissance Infantry

"Emergency notice: the midterm practical combat test has been canceled." Zhang Dingjun glanced at his phone. "The notice on the campus network says the principal, who was supposed to play the opposing side in the exercise, suffered a slight deviation in cultivation."

"Alright, class dismissed!"

The students were surprised. It was exceedingly rare for a Foundation Establishment Cultivator to develop physical problems; many of them might not have heard of such a thing since entering school.

The crowd dispersed, those with Flying Magic Tools flying away while the rest went to catch the bus.

"Jiang Ding, stay behind for a moment." Zhang Dingjun waved to him from nearby.

"Alright."

Jiang Ding stopped using inner qi to nourish his meridians and reluctantly returned the Green Steel Sword in his hand to the weapon rack.

"You brat, your passion for cold weapons is a little excessive. This isn't the path of an Immortal Sect Cultivator." Zhang Dingjun frowned, but said nothing more.

"How much do you know about the reconnaissance infantry path?"

Jiang Ding answered honestly, "Nothing at all."

"Then let me introduce it to you. This is very important for your college entrance examination and future career." Zhang Dingjun nodded. "The core ability of reconnaissance infantry is the Minor Breath Concealment Technique, but that does not mean other abilities, such as the Vajra Seal, Thousand Threads Pull, Mathematics—Formation Dao, and so on, are unimportant. You must study them as well, and perhaps even better than most of your classmates."

"Reconnaissance infantry is an elite profession. Better lacking than indiscriminate; no one needs a lousy scout to expose himself out of thin air."

"Therefore, the Minor Breath Concealment Technique must be cultivated to minor mastery before it can earn any score. Otherwise, no matter how high your scores are in other areas, it will all be zero."

"Zero?"

Jiang Ding was startled. That was far too cruel.

"That's right."

Zhang Dingjun nodded. "Reconnaissance infantry requires an initial investment of two High-grade Magic Tools. Its cost is much higher than that of line infantry, and the Immortal Sect does not want too many students choosing this path."

"Moreover, anyone who has not cultivated the Minor Breath Concealment Technique properly is of no use whatsoever in reconnaissance. Forcing them into it would harm both others and themselves."

"Before you, Sun Xiao and the others tried it too, but they gave up very quickly. So, what do you think now?"

Jiang Ding thought carefully for a while.

"Teacher Zhang, I still want to try for a while longer."

"Mhm. Make your decision as soon as possible." Zhang Dingjun said nothing else. "The longer you drag it out, the more disadvantageous it will be for your college entrance examination."

"Understood."

On the bus.

"You count as the number one person in the Inner Qi Realm in our class now, right?"

Li Junhao's words were dripping with sourness.

"I'm still far from that. At present, I still can't see any hope of entering the Immortal Sect." Jiang Ding shook his head. His right hand closed around empty air, and he always felt as though something was missing, leaving his whole body uncomfortable.

"Sigh." Li Junhao sighed as well. "If the strengths of the two of us could be combined, we could beat the admission score for Spirit Veil University's Cultivation Department by quite a bit."

"That's impossible."

After getting off the bus, Jiang Ding rushed to the cultivation room in a flash and pounced on the weapon rack.

Clang!

The blue-green blade slid free from its sheath, and he felt much more at ease.

A perfect arc appeared out of nowhere, hazily glowing with white light like a full moon hanging high in the sky on the fifteenth night. Only after several breaths did it fade.

Jiang Ding noticed none of it. Arm sword, step sword, organ sword, running sword, and the rest of the Sword Moves flowed from him like drifting clouds and flowing water, sword lights appearing and extinguishing one after another in the air.

After a long while, he sheathed his sword.

His mind blanked out, countless thoughts and Sword Moves rising and falling like the tide.

Ding!

Only when all his thoughts had drawn back in did the pale blue panel slowly unfold before Jiang Ding.

[Name: Jiang Ding]

[Student ID: 1246215]

[Realm: Initial Inner Qi Realm]

[Previous Training Subject: Sixty-eighth Set of Eagle's Takeoff Sword Art (Minor Mastery 32%)]

"The proficiency of my Fundamental Cultivation Technique jumped by more than twenty points at once." Jiang Ding's face revealed delight. "This counted as a small enlightenment, didn't it?"

He noticed that a detailed button had appeared beneath Eagle's Takeoff Sword Art.

He tapped it open.

[Unknown Comprehension: Can use optical principles to retain sword shadows for 0.2–0.5 seconds. At the time, inner force altered its circulation structure into..., possibly derived from the literature Divine Firmament Hundred Pace Flying Sword, Great Sun Seed Sword Refining Art, Great Sun Bright Sword Art...]

"Sword-shadow retention... useless. It's completely just a visual effect."

Jiang Ding thought for a moment, somewhat disappointed. "It would have been nice if the sword shadow appeared before the blade itself, or created an illusion of vanishing at the wrong moment. That would have been a devastating weapon in swordsmanship."

As for the reference literature, it was all material he had read in his extended studies these past days. Some methods of circulating inner force within them had unknowingly been used by him.

His inner force was completely exhausted. Jiang Ding swallowed a Hundred Essence Qi Transforming Pill and silently circulated his cultivation technique to recover his inner force. At the same time, he used stillness practice to temper the ten main meridians of the second regular meridian, the Hand Jueyin Pericardium Meridian.

He shook the empty pill bottle.

"There's only one bottle of Hundred Essence Qi Transforming Pills left. If I want my cultivation speed not to decline, I must search for pill ingredients again." Jiang Ding thought silently. "Now that my realm has broken through to Inner Qi, I can be a little bolder."

During his cultivation, Jiang Ding opened the technique inheritance of the Minor Breath Concealment Technique. Comparing it with his predecessors' annotations, he did not demand immediate understanding, merely committing it all to memory.

Knock, knock!

Huang Deyou lightly knocked twice on the back courtyard door and waited quietly.

He had already formed an understanding with this employer, who rarely left the house. Every morning, he would come to the door and call out a few routine greetings. If there was no response, he would leave on his own and begin the day's business.

"Come in."

Huang Deyou pushed open the door and entered.

What met his eyes was a handsome and refined Youth in Green Robes, graceful as jade, holding a brush and drawing something upon his desk. Huang Deyou glanced at it and saw densely packed lines that made his head ache just by looking at them.

Huang Deyou lowered his head and did not dare look again.

Jiang Ding's inner force surged like the tide as he laboriously drew the final stroke.

Buzz!

The pale yellow talisman paper trembled slightly. A faint gleam of gold, almost too tiny to see, flashed and vanished, while the paper talisman seemed to have hardened considerably.

Sharp Gold Formation!

Jiang Ding's inner force was nearly depleted. He let out a long breath and sat down.

Ever since he had successfully inscribed the Hundred Pace Flying Sword version of the Sharp Gold Formation under his teacher's protection during the last mathematics class, he had inexplicably gained some insight into Basic Formations. After pondering over it for several days, he had finally succeeded in drawing a standard Sharp Gold Formation.

My mathematics score should improve by five to ten points at least. As long as I successfully master the five major Basic Formations, I should more or less be able to pass, right?

Jiang Ding thought to himself.

Cultivation was a discipline that combined practice and theory. With low-level energy such as inner force, knowledge that had once been difficult to comprehend—formations, cultivation technique theory, and the like—became somewhat easier to learn.

Putting away the Sharp Gold Formation diagram, Jiang Ding looked at Huang Deyou.

The diagram's only use was to be placed somewhere rich in spiritual qi for several years, where there was a chance it would turn into a metal plate. It was not much use.

"Good morning, Employer!" Huang Deyou said respectfully. "Here are the shop's account books for this period."

Jiang Ding accepted the account books and swiftly entered the various income and expenditure figures into the display projected by his contact lenses, checking the calculations through a spreadsheet in the miniature computer.

Thirteen copper coins did not add up.

It probably was not embezzlement. Huang Deyou had not originally been an accountant, and minor mistakes were unavoidable.

Jiang Ding pointed out the discrepancies and told him to go back and correct them. Then he praised him, "Manager Huang, the collection progress for animal and plant specimens has been several times faster than before these past few days. Well done. If you can keep it up, I'll give you another red packet at the end of the month."

"It is simply this lowly one's duty."

Huang Deyou was delighted. Although this employer kept a close eye on the accounts, he was generous with his money. He absolutely would not be like Huang Deyou's former superiors, who merely made empty promises.

After hesitating for a moment.

"Employer, most of the credit belongs to Han Lin, the worker you brought back. His grandfather used to work for the Seven Profound Sect and has many established connections. He knows many herb gatherers."

The Seven Profound Sect had once been a major martial arts sect, with an enormous demand for all kinds of medicinal herbs. As such, it had maintained a huge team of herb gatherers, and Han Lin's grandfather had been one of them.

"Besides that, after work, he wants to go learn martial arts at the newly opened Seven Profound Martial Hall."

"Ever since the Flying Snow Fairy returned and reestablished the sect, issuing new policies, any former member of the Seven Profound Sect can learn martial arts at the Seven Profound Martial Hall for free. If they achieve something, they can enter Seven Profound Mountain and become formal disciples of the Seven Profound Sect."

Huang Deyou's tone carried some anger.

In his view, the employer had saved this brat when he was nearly starving to death, given him food to eat, and only required him to work four hours a day. He even had two days off every seven days, with high wages besides. What enormous kindness was that?

Yet not only did Han Lin fail to reflect on it, he even wanted to climb a higher branch. What a wolf's heart and dog's lungs!

"If he wants to go, let him go."

Jiang Ding said indifferently, "As long as he works seriously while on duty, that is enough. Once work is over, as long as they do not break the law, violate discipline, or sneak around stealing chickens and dogs, don't concern yourself with what they do."

"This... yes."

Huang Deyou was stunned and did not quite understand.