Small Gathering

"All right. From now on, whenever I have time, I'll cast the Spring Breeze Fine Rain Technique once. Little Mountain, you just need to loosen the soil and pull the weeds from these fields normally."

After consecutively casting the Spring Breeze Fine Rain Technique and the Growth Induction Technique, and seeing the Spirit Grain seeds sprout,

Zhang Qingyuan did not continue using any spells.

The Growth Induction Technique was true to its name.

Its main purpose was to accelerate the growth of Spirit Grain and Spirit Plants,

but doing so carried drawbacks similar to pulling up seedlings to help them grow.

Using it occasionally

to aid the growth of Spirit Plants was fine.

But using it excessively would instead damage their natural growth and development.

"Yes, Master!"

Standing blankly to one side,

Hu Junshan, who had yet to recover from his shock, hurriedly came back to himself. He cupped his hands in salute and respectfully acknowledged the order.

What he had witnessed earlier deepened Hu Junshan's reverence for Zhang Qingyuan.

He still remembered the past.

Whenever his father got drunk, he would always sigh in envy of those lofty disciples of immortal sects, who could Command Wind and Rain and alter the celestial phenomenon with a lift of their hands.

Unfortunately, the road of seeking the Dao was incomparably difficult.

Having reached middle age, his father had ultimately been unable to become as he had imagined in his youth—to ride a sword through the skies, soar through heaven and burrow through earth, and become a mighty Immortal who stood above ten thousand others, free and unfettered.

The dreams of youth could only remain dreams after all.

In the end, like so many others,

he had lived an ordinary, mediocre, unremarkable life.

He had silently lived in some mountain hollow of this Cultivation World, swallowed by its vast wilderness, unknown to anyone.

Hu Junshan had never understood his father's sighs before.

But now,

he seemed to understand them a little.

Just like Senior Zhang before him at this very moment, they possessed strength and status that others could only envy beyond measure. With a wave of their hands, they could accomplish all manner of tasks that would cost him enormous effort to complete.

From the very beginning, they had stood among clouds that countless people could spend their entire lives climbing toward, only to barely touch.

Ordinary mortals like them

could only stand behind them, gazing up in admiration and longing at those lofty Immortals.

Hu Junshan's small hand

clenched tighter.

The once muddleheaded boy now understood why his father had been willing to pay such a great price to let him follow Senior Zhang.

"How has your cultivation been lately?"

After finishing the work of watering the Spirit Grain, Zhang Qingyuan asked Hu Junshan behind him.

After all, he had accepted fifteen Spirit Stones from Hu Yong'an as a fee.

No matter what, he had to responsibly offer some guidance in Hu Junshan's cultivation. Once the other party passed the Outer Sect assessment and entered the Outer Sect, Zhang Qingyuan could then accept the payment with a clear conscience.

"Immortal Master, the spiritual energy here is somewhat denser than at home, so my cultivation speed has been fairly good."

Hu Junshan scratched his head

and said hesitantly,

"It's just that there are some parts of the Cultivation Method I don't really understand."

Hu Junshan laid out each problem he had encountered in cultivation, while Zhang Qingyuan offered guidance from the side.

As a cultivator at the Late Spirit Essence Realm,

guiding a low-level cultivator at the first or second layer was no problem at all.

Moreover,

on the path of cultivation, with the panel's assistance, Zhang Qingyuan had discovered and summarized certain techniques unique to his own self-cultivation through the speed at which his cultivation proficiency increased.

Zhang Qingyuan's understanding of Cultivation Methods was fairly thorough.

The problems Hu Junshan encountered

could be pointed out by Zhang Qingyuan with a casual word.

After spending some effort guiding Hu Junshan

and resolving some difficulties he had encountered in cultivating his method, Zhang Qingyuan realized that while teaching, he had also carried out a comprehensive sorting-out of his own cultivation.

This gave Zhang Qingyuan some gains as well.

Perhaps

this was what they called reviewing the old to understand the new.

Over the next few days,

Zhang Qingyuan spent his time in a regular routine.

He rose early every day and spent more than six hours repeatedly cultivating various Martial Skills and spells.

Practicing and casting them again and again,

though it was repetitive and dull,

the sight of the slowly rising proficiency on the panel spurred his slackened spirit back into effort. His cultivation, almost unchanging day after day over the past two years in the Outer Sect, had long become Zhang Qingyuan's habit.

At night,

he meditated for at least one hour every day before sleeping.

It was precisely because of this arduous cultivation, this ability to endure loneliness, that Zhang Qingyuan, with his utterly ordinary aptitude, could raise his Cultivation Strength at a speed nearly comparable to certain geniuses.

During this time,

Zhang Qingyuan had not abandoned the development of Combination Skills.

Using the operational route of Collapsing Mountain Modified as a template,

he attempted to apply the fourth layer of the Water Origin Art to the other moves of the Nine Refinements Bone Forging Fist. He also tried to see whether he could use the Spirit Essence of the fourth layer Water Origin Art in conjunction with Silver Shadow to greatly strengthen the Cloud Water Thirteen Sword Styles.

Though this road was fraught with difficulties,

after several days of research, Zhang Qingyuan still made some gains. At the very least, through repeated training, his control over the circulation of his own Spirit Essence had become much more practiced.

The attention he had gained from defeating Yao Ping at the gathering

gradually spread as time passed.

Some speculated

that based on the strength Zhang Qingyuan had displayed that day, his true strength was at least among the top fifteen of the Seventeenth Branch!

This was simply monstrous.

Since entering the Seventeenth Branch two years ago, he had risen from the very bottom step by step, climbing into the upper ranks of the branch. That was no simple feat.

The Separate Courtyard disciples ranked between tenth and twentieth

all felt an urgent pressure. They gathered themselves and cultivated diligently.

For a time,

the atmosphere throughout the entire Separate Courtyard seemed to have been stirred into change.

At the same time,

not long after,

Zhao Yuanyang, ranked second in the Separate Courtyard, came to visit and invited Zhang Qingyuan to gather at the Lake Pavilion.

Zhao Yuanyang came from the Zhao Family of Three Waters Commandery. At least within Cloud Water Sect's sphere of influence, it was a Lineage that could be counted among the notable ones.

They were considered descendants of a great aristocratic family.

The purpose of this gathering

was to cultivate ties with the Separate Courtyard disciples ranked near the top, those who had a chance of entering the Inner Sect.

Perhaps it was to gather strength and allies for his Lineage,

or perhaps it was intended to expand his Connections in the Cultivation World.

Upon receiving the invitation,

Zhang Qingyuan pondered it carefully.

Originally, he had not intended to go.

After all, in those fantasy novels from his Previous Life, gatherings like this always had villains show up, crazily mocking people and getting Slapped in the face.

Then there would be a plot that went on for tens of thousands of words,

followed by beating up the small ones and provoking the big ones.

Inner Sect Senior Brothers targeting him, Deacons handing down unfair punishments—Zhang Qingyuan could drag such things out for hundreds of thousands of words.

But after thinking it over carefully,

although he had transmigrated, he clearly did not seem to be the Protagonist. Such chaotic nonsense probably would not happen.

Besides, Zhao Yuanyang had personally come to his door.

Zhang Qingyuan also did not intend to walk the path where, apart from a harem of girls, the rest of the world became his enemy.

So Zhang Qingyuan agreed to Head to the gathering.

The next day,

he attended the banquet on time.

Present were

nine people in total.

They were all Top Students within the Seventeenth Branch. Six of the top ten had come. Zhao Yuanyang's social skills truly seemed quite impressive; he had befriended no small number of elite Disciples.

Among those present, aside from one Disciple ranked eleventh,

only one other person stood outside the top ten.

That was Zhang Qingyuan, who ranked at the bottom.

Yet just as he had expected,

even so, no one at the gathering spoke up to mock or provoke Zhang Qingyuan for being unqualified to enter their circle. Naturally, there was no scene of anyone getting Slapped in the face either.