"So how are the levels of martial artists divided compared to those of cultivators? For example, what level of a cultivator corresponds to the True Qi Realm?"
Wu Ming had long been sitting on a pile of questions. How could he let the chance slip when he'd met Feng Han, who seemed to have some experience?
Feng Han frowned. "Martial arts and Daoist Arts are two completely different things. Why insist on matching their levels?"
Wu Ming felt stumped. "Then isn't there some kind of commonly accepted ranking of levels?"
"Of course not!" Feng Han's voice was icy. "The true ranking is strength... When two Grandmasters fight to the death, the one who survives is naturally stronger than the one who dies! Every powerful expert whose name shakes the world today has fought their way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood."
Wu Ming nodded. "I understand. True strength lies in making proper use of the right time, place, and people. There's no superior or inferior method, only stronger or weaker practitioners!"
Feng Han nodded, seeming to think Wu Ming was a promising pupil.
I was too attached to the idea...
Wu Ming had no idea that inwardly, he was wryly smiling. "The Great Zhou World is real! It isn't a game... There's no need for so-called equality! There's no need to balance spellcasters against physical fighters, either... If you have good aptitude, talent, and resources, naturally you can choose a stronger path. The gap is there from the very beginning! And the difference between you and ordinary people will only grow wider, never shrink!"
"And there aren't any equivalent levels between the various paths, either. You won't know how strong someone is until you fight them!"
"Come to think of it... this 'Samurai' class I chose is far too common. Catching up to those heaven-blessed prodigies will inevitably take more blood, sweat, and effort, yet yield half the results. Anyway, I have the Main God Hall backing me. Should I consider changing classes and trying something else?"
That former spoiled heir might have lacked the talent to take any path but martial cultivation, but Wu Ming now had the Main God Hall behind him. As long as he had enough merits, basic Daoist Arts, incantations, and even shamanic magic and Gu Art were all within reach. There was no reason he couldn't forge the path best suited to himself.
Poor Feng Han. He'd seen Wu Ming as a decent piece of timber and thought he'd found a promising student.
He had no idea that Wu Ming was already considering how to escape the quagmire of being a meat-shield Samurai and throw in his lot with another school.
If Feng Han had known, he probably would have brought down an eagle claw strike on him long ago.
After a morning of practice, Wu Ming's appetite had opened up. At noon, he ate three large bowls of fragrant millet rice, chewed through half an oily sesame chicken, polished off a bowl of tender, melt-in-your-mouth braised pork that was rich but not greasy, and had several servings of vegetables. Then, munching on fruit for dessert, he strolled off to find Wu Qing.
"This meal probably cost as much as an ordinary family's living expenses for ten days or half a month..."
As he walked, Wu Ming continued mulling it over. "I'm already eating two or three times as much as an ordinary man, and I can't go a single meal without meat. What ordinary family could afford to feed me? No wonder the saying goes, 'A poor man can study, but only the rich can practice martial arts; cultivating the Dao can bankrupt a family.' It seems the cost of these three pursuits increases in that order!"
"I heard from Feng Han that you've already broken through to the True Qi Realm. Excellent!"
Wu Ming entered Wu Qing's boudoir. The faint, elegant scent of pine incense drifted around him, and only then did he feel the slightest bit uneasy.
Wu Qing, however, didn't seem to notice at all.
There was only a pot of clear water before her, along with fresh fruit like pine nuts. Clearly, her Daoist Arts had reached a profound level, and she was even beginning to experiment with fasting. Wu Ming felt a flicker of alarm.
"Now that you've reached the fifth layer of Body Refinement, the Turtle Breath Technique is no longer suitable for you. Here's the follow-up, the Spirit Turtle Qi Cultivation Technique! It'll take you all the way to the Transformation Realm. Read it first. If there's anything you don't understand, ask Feng Han!"
Wu Qing let out a quiet sigh. "Your sister has been away for three days. I have to return to the Dao Academy."
"The Spirit Turtle Qi Cultivation Technique?"
The ancient book felt warm in his hands and carried a faint fragrance. Wu Ming's heart stirred, but he quickly collected himself and asked, "I think Feng Han is a talented man. Could I win him over with this technique?"
"Of course. He comes from a clean background, but he lacks any foundation. It would be a good thing if you could recruit him. But techniques must never be passed on lightly. Remember that."
Wu Qing nodded indifferently.
Wu Ming's expression turned solemn. He knew that in this world, the nine layers of Body Refinement were: Heart Settling, Skin and Flesh, Sinews and Bones, Internal Strengthening, True Qi, Innate, External Gang, Internal Gang, and Transformation.
The first four layers were all about understanding one's mind and nature, tempering the skin, flesh, sinews, bones, and internal organs—in other words, laying a foundation.
From True Qi to Innate and then Transformation, it was all about cultivating changes in one's True Qi.
One copy of the Turtle Breath Technique and one of the Spirit Turtle Qi Cultivation Technique were enough to cultivate all the way to the peak of the ninth layer! Wu Qing had paid a great price to obtain them. Even for an ordinary small lineage, they would be precious enough to pass down as heirlooms. An ordinary person who mastered them could rise from the mud and change the course of their life.
Although Feng Han had already settled on his own Qi Circulation Cultivation Method and couldn't easily switch, he could pass it on to his family and descendants. It might even become the turning point that revitalized his lineage!
Naturally, precisely because of that, Wu Ming wasn't foolish enough to give it to him outright.
Not accepting something for nothing was one reason. Another was, if he gave such a lavish reward now, what would he offer him in the future?
"Don't worry, Sister. I understand."
Wu Ming answered with a faint smile.
For some reason, looking at her younger brother—who understood when to advance and when to retreat, knew what to gain and what to give up, and seemed to have suddenly grown up—Wu Qing's face took on a trace of melancholy. She suddenly brought out a plain-looking, glossy black ring and slipped it onto Wu Ming's finger.
"This is... a magical artifact?!"
Wu Ming's pupils contracted, and he exclaimed in astonishment.
He knew what he was looking at. Though the ring was dull and black on the outside, the layers of cloud patterns were arranged with great precision, and its inner band was covered in fine runes.
Most importantly, the moment he put it on, the True Qi in his dantian began to stir. How could he not recognize its value?
"This is the Black Gold Ring, a low-grade magical artifact. It can wound people from a distance. Lin Qi died by it that day. It needs True Qi to activate, which is why I didn't give it to you before. Now there's no problem..."
Wu Qing said it lightly, but Wu Ming was deeply shaken.
A magical artifact! Even the lowest grade was worth far more than the fire-art thumb ring he'd received before.
"Sister... You've given this to me. Then what do you have on you...?"
Magical artifacts weren't exactly common. Wu Ming even suspected this might be the only one Wu Qing had.
"Don't worry. No one in the Dao Academy can make things difficult for me right now!"
Wu Qing waved her hand with an air of authority, then softened her voice. "Just keep it! Also... I've been making arrangements these past few days to get you into the Dao Academy. That Spirit Turtle Qi Cultivation Technique was derived from Daoist Incantations and is in harmony with nature. You absolutely must not slack off..."
"...Thank you, Sister!"
Seeing the resolve in Wu Qing's eyes, and knowing she always kept her word once she'd given it, Wu Ming didn't refuse. He accepted the gift and silently committed it to memory.
Though I'm no longer the Wu Ming I used to be, you've treated me with sincerity, and I'll repay you in kind. I'll protect you, no matter what!
Wu Ming had always believed in the idea that "when one man attains the Dao, even his chickens and dogs ascend to heaven," and that "a drop of kindness should be repaid with a gushing spring."
Naturally, he couldn't tell Wu Qing the great secret of the Main God Hall. But once he grew strong enough, he would surely repay her kindness.
After all, he'd taken her younger brother's name and accepted so many benefits for nothing. If he didn't repay her, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.
Of course, he was still weak right now, so there was no point in being coy. He simply accepted the gift.
Night fell.
Wu Ming lay on a soft couch, sent the servants and maids away, and rested his head on his folded arms. He closed his eyes and called for the Main God Hall.
[Ding! Reincarnator Gengshen 69 detected. Main God Apostle requests connection. Authorization verified. Connection approved!]
In an instant, Wu Ming felt himself connect to an immense, mysterious space that seemed to exist everywhere at once.
Ordinary Reincarnators could only passively receive the Main God Hall's summons. How could they treat it like home, coming and going whenever they pleased?
But Wu Ming had special authority and could return at any time, from anywhere.
"If one day the Main God Hall can let me cross over in the flesh, that'll be my greatest trump card! Then, vast as the world may be, few will be able to do anything to me!"
As long as he could keep his physical body in the Main God Hall, it would be practically the perfect refuge.
Unfortunately, the Main God Hall didn't have that function yet. When Reincarnators went on missions, their physical bodies in the real world were instead their greatest weakness.
[Ding! Low-grade magical artifact detected in Reincarnator's possession. Would you like to spend fifty Minor Merits to bring it in with you?]
"Damn! It's charging even me?!"
Wu Ming felt rather annoyed, and immediately chose no.
He really wanted to have it appraised, but there'd be plenty of time before the next reincarnation mission began. Merits were precious; he couldn't waste them like this.
With a flash of light, Wu Ming returned to the vast, white space. He gazed up at the magnificent, colossal Main God Hall high in the heavens.
"I'm already a little annoyed. Those cultivators, especially the ones entering for the first time, must be crying their eyes out..."
Although the martial arts instructor Feng Han was biased, Wu Ming had asked around and combined what he'd learned with his own experience. He knew that in the Great Zhou World, Daoists, mages, shamans, and other spellcasting professions were the true rich and handsome elite!
Of course, that was precisely why these spellcasting professions relied heavily on external tools, especially at the beginning, when they were building their Dao Foundations!
At this stage, Daoists and mages were just like Confucian scholars who hadn't yet achieved mastery and couldn't travel the world. They spent every day reading scriptures and cultivating their energy. If they wanted to cast spells, with their pitifully little magic power, they had to rely on talismans and magical artifacts!
Yet the Reincarnators who had just entered the Main God Hall didn't have a single Merit to their names...
"This is a trap that kills you without even leaving a corpse..."
Wu Ming opened the exchange list and looked at the equipment category again. "The exchange prices for magical artifacts and all kinds of equipment are high, and some even require Great Merit or Heavenly Merit. Is that because the Main God Hall is currently only a mental world, and so it discourages people from exchanging for physical magical artifacts?"
Drawing on his past-life experience, Wu Ming made a bold guess. He felt he was beginning to grasp the workings of the Main God Hall.
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