"Thank you, Brother Liu!"
After pushing through the crowd, Zhao Huaian stood behind Liu Bohu without a trace of guilt and thanked him.
Liu Bohu waved a hand, unconcerned. "What's the big deal? None of them are as gifted as we are. They're definitely not going to cultivate as fast as us, so they should give way to us."
As he spoke, Liu Bohu grinned and shook his fist. "Besides, those little bastards tried to put me in my place at noon, when there were so many people around. They didn't know I'd trained in martial arts since I was a kid. No matter how many of them there were, how could they possibly be a match for me?"
"I see. Brother Liu, your martial skills are truly impressive."
Zhao Huaian nodded and smiled as he praised Liu Bohu.
But inwardly, he shook his head. He felt Liu Bohu was a little too boastful, and that might not be a good thing for him in the future.
Of course, honest advice was hard to swallow. Zhao Huaian and Liu Bohu weren't close enough for him to earnestly try to talk him out of it.
Perhaps it was a boyish streak, but after hearing Zhao Huaian's praise, Liu Bohu's smile grew even broader. He eagerly bragged about how he'd beaten those people down.
Zhao Huaian simply smiled and played along, nodding again and again. He offered nothing but praise, never contradicting him.
Before long, after the first dozen or so people had received their cultivation arts and supplies, it was Liu Bohu and Zhao Huaian's turn.
"This is the Greenwood Sect's cultivation art, the Azure Wood Art. It's only an introductory-level art, and every member of the Greenwood Sect has a copy, but it can still take you to peak Qi Refining.
"Of course, if you earn a large number of Spirit Stones in the future, you can also go to the Cultivation Arts Pavilion and buy more advanced arts."
The man in charge of handing out the cultivation arts was burly, with a faint heat radiating from him. He was clearly a fire-attribute cultivator.
After handing the art to Zhao Huaian and Liu Bohu, the burly man took four Low-grade Spirit Stones and two bottles of Grain Abstinence Pills out of his Storage Bag.
"Each of you gets two Low-grade Spirit Stones and one bottle of Grain Abstinence Pills. There are twenty pills in each bottle. One pill can keep you from needing food for three days, so you should be able to survive at least two months. After that, you'll have to figure things out yourselves."
He handed their shares to Zhao Huaian and Liu Bohu, then impatiently waved them away. "All right, next!"
"Thank you, Senior!"
Zhao Huaian and Liu Bohu exchanged glances, both of them visibly excited as they left the line.
Clutching their Spirit Stones, Azure Wood Art, and Grain Abstinence Pills, they wished each other well, then hurried back to their rooms.
Once back in his room, Zhao Huaian didn't study Medical Skill any further. Instead, he quickly leafed through the Azure Wood Art.
The characters flashed through his mind one by one, and Zhao Huaian became absorbed in them.
The Azure Wood Art was only a few pages long, and there weren't many words on each page. Altogether, it was no more than a thousand characters.
After the time it took for an incense stick to burn, Zhao Huaian had quickly committed the entire Azure Wood Art to memory.
As he memorized the whole Azure Wood Art, a faint green glow flickered within the Heavenly Tome.
Feeling the change in the Heavenly Tome, Zhao Huaian's spirits instantly lifted, and excitement surged through him.
He didn't dare hesitate for even a moment. He immediately concentrated, directing all his attention to the Heavenly Tome in his mind.
Golden light shimmered across its pages as lines of small text quickly appeared.
Name: Zhao Huaian
Lifespan: 15/98
Cultivation: None
Cultivation Art: Azure Wood Art (Beginner 0/100)
Skills: Medical Skill (Grandmaster 2933/3200), Flying Needles (Grandmaster 128/3200), Gentle Breeze Footwork (Great Accomplishment 1398/1600)
"Just as I thought, the Heavenly Tome can absorb cultivation arts, too. As long as I work hard from now on, I can use proficiency to improve my cultivation and the level of my art even faster."
Looking at the panel displayed by the Heavenly Tome, Zhao Huaian's eyes lit up.
He'd raised his Medical Skill to the Grandmaster level within a year. With enough diligent practice, surely he could improve the Azure Wood Art just as quickly.
Once he raised the level of the Azure Wood Art, would he be able to absorb Spiritual Energy much faster?
The more Zhao Huaian thought about it, the more excited he became.
Without hesitation, he took a deep breath and calmed himself. Then Zhao Huan immediately sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and carefully circulated the Azure Wood Art, trying to absorb the Spiritual Energy of the world around him.
As he circulated the Azure Wood Art, tiny wisps of Spiritual Energy soon appeared inside Zhao Huaian's body.
Feeling the Spiritual Energy emerge within him, Zhao Huaian was thrilled. He circulated the Azure Wood Art with even greater effort.
"What? The entire Lin Family was wiped out?"
In a courtyard of the Greenwood Sect,
Lin Zihao stared at Chen Feifeng in disbelief, his eyes wide.
Chen Feifeng was one of the people in charge of recruiting Outer Disciples for the Greenwood Sect this time.
Before this, Lin Zihao had asked him to look after the members of the Lin Family who were coming to take the entrance exam.
Now, he hadn't expected that not only had no one from the Lin Family joined the Greenwood Sect, but the entire family had been wiped out.
Looking at the disbelieving Lin Zihao, Chen Feifeng nodded and sighed. "Junior Brother Lin, I'd originally set aside a spot for someone from your Lin Family. But when the exam began, no one had shown up. I asked the boys from Wind Sand Island who'd come to take the exam, and only then did I learn that the Lin Family had been wiped out on the eve of their departure."
"This... Did my Lin Family offend someone on Wind Sand Island? Don't they know I'm a cultivator of the Greenwood Sect?"
Lin Zihao's eyes widened. Even now, he couldn't believe his entire family had been wiped out overnight.
"I can't say. I only asked around a little because you gave me those fifty Low-grade Spirit Stones. As for anything else..."
Chen Feifeng shook his head, indicating that he didn't know the details.
"But... sigh, thank you for telling me, Senior Chen!"
Furious, Lin Zihao clasped his hands to Chen Feifeng, then rode a Flying Sword toward the Mission Hall at high speed.
Outer Disciples weren't allowed to leave freely before reaching late-stage Qi Refining. If he wanted to go to Wind Sand Island and uncover the truth behind the Lin Family's destruction, he had to accept an outing mission from the Mission Hall.
"Damn it! Some mere mortals dared to touch my family. I'll make sure their entire family is wiped out!"
"Ice Grass! Ice Grass! This is crucial to my breakthrough to Qi Refining Layer Seven. It absolutely can't fall into someone else's hands!"
"Damn it, damn it!!!"
Lin Zihao grew angrier by the moment, and his Flying Sword sped up.
It was just hard to tell how much of his anger was for his family's lives, and how much was for the Ice Grass that was crucial to his breakthrough to Qi Refining Layer Seven.
Time slipped by.
The sun shone down, and the snow melted.
Three days soon passed.
Zhao Huaian sat cross-legged on his bed. As he circulated the Azure Wood Art again and again, a moment came when the tiny wisps of Spiritual Energy inside him began to slowly gather and merge.
As the wisps of Spiritual Energy gathered and merged, a faint green glow began to emanate from Zhao Huaian's body.
Soon, the faint green light enveloped Zhao Huaian, and the tiny wisps of Spiritual Energy within him all gathered and fused together.
"Qi Refining Layer One!"
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