Tian Buyi Was Stunned!

Great Bamboo Peak's dining hall.

"What are you all looking at me for?"

"Eat your food."

Seeing everyone staring at him,

Ye Xuan stuffed the peeled egg into his mouth and mumbled through a mouthful.

Was this really about eating?

That was the fifth level of the Yuqing Realm!

Not his fifth steamed bun!

Song Daren felt as if his whole worldview had crumbled.

He looked at his rough hands and thought back over the years he'd spent cultivating.

The first level: half a year.

The second level: three years.

The third level: several more years.

He'd struggled for decades before finally making it this far.

And then?

This ten-year-old junior disciple brother sitting right in front of him.

He'd only been up the mountain for half a year!

Half a year!

The kid was rocketing upward like he'd strapped himself to a rocket, while Song Daren was crawling through a muddy swamp like a tortoise!

"This... how is this possible..."

"Did Junior disciple brother grow up eating immortal pills?"

"Even with an Innate Dao Body, this is ridiculous, isn't it?"

Sixth, Du Bishu, muttered to himself.

The person hit hardest was undoubtedly Tian Ling'er, seated beside Ye Xuan.

The chopsticks in the girl's hand were nearly snapped in two.

She'd always considered herself a genius.

She'd cultivated ever since she was little, guided by her parents.

When she'd lost to Ye Xuan at chopping bamboo, she hadn't been convinced, but she'd just thought he was stronger and luckier.

Over the past few months,

she'd trained from dawn to dusk every day to catch up with Ye Xuan.

At long last,

after all that effort,

she felt the spiritual energy within her growing abundant. She seemed close to breaking through to the second level.

She'd even been thinking about telling her parents the good news after dinner.

And maybe showing off a little in front of Junior disciple brother, to let him see what his senior sister could do.

But what happened?

He was already at the fifth level!

They weren't even in the same league.

This was a complete dimensional crush!

Tian Ling'er looked at Ye Xuan's young but composed face, and her eyes instantly reddened.

The immense gap between them shattered the confidence of the proud little girl who'd grown up thinking so highly of herself.

"I'm not eating!"

Tian Ling'er shoved her bowl away, jumped down from her chair, and ran off crying.

"Ling'er!"

Su Ru hurriedly called out, starting to rise and follow her.

But Tian Buyi waved a hand and sighed.

"Let her go."

"She's had everything go her way since she was little and hasn't faced many setbacks."

"It's not a bad thing for her to learn that there's always someone better."

Then,

Tian Buyi glared at the disciples who were still staring in a daze.

"Look at Seventh, then look at yourselves!"

"You're all decades old!"

"And you can't even compare to a ten-year-old child!"

"Starting today, everyone doubles their training!"

"If anyone dares slack off, don't blame me for showing no mercy just because we're master and disciple!"

The dining hall instantly rang with groans.

The senior brothers looked at Ye Xuan with a mixture of admiration and resentment.

Junior disciple brother,

you didn't come here to cultivate immortality.

You came to Great Bamboo Peak to be the biggest grind in the sect!

Ye Xuan finished breakfast in a few bites and wiped his mouth.

He was completely immune to his senior brothers' "resentment."

What could he do?

That was the loneliness of being a genius.

He hopped down from his chair and cupped his hands toward Tian Buyi.

"Master, I'm full."

"When do we start learning that... impressive spell?"

Tian Buyi looked at the disciple he both loved and loathed, and rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"What's the rush?"

"Come with me to Shou Jing Hall behind the mountain!"

The woods behind Shou Jing Hall.

Few people ever came here. Ancient trees towered overhead, and the place was quiet and secluded.

Tian Buyi stood atop a boulder with his hands behind his back.

The mountain breeze stirred his broad Daoist robe, lending him the air of a grandmaster.

That is, if you ignored his round figure.

Ye Xuan stood below him, eager and expectant.

At last, he was going to learn something substantial.

Basic Daoist magic was useful enough, and after his God-tier Comprehension had improved it, it was even more powerful.

But it was still rather limited.

If he could learn the Qingyun Sect's profound Daoist magic and combine it with his system and Dao Body,

his combat strength would increase exponentially.

"Seventh."

Tian Buyi turned around, his expression serious.

"Your cultivation is fairly impressive."

"But you haven't gone down the mountain to seek materials for a magical treasure, so you don't have one yet."

"So today, I'll teach you a technique that uses qi to take form and the spirit to command magic."

As he spoke,

Tian Buyi formed a hand seal.

The air around them suddenly grew thick.

"Watch closely!"

"This technique is called Crimson Flame Body Protection. It's an advanced defensive art among fire-based Daoist magic!"

A brilliant red glow flared around Tian Buyi.

It wasn't a simple flame like the one produced by the Fireball Technique.

Countless tiny flame runes whirled rapidly around him, weaving together into a crimson suit of fiery armor.

Waves of heat rolled outward, yet the flames remained contained.

The plants nearby showed no sign of scorching.

That showed how close to perfection his control over spiritual energy had become.

"This technique can protect you, and at a critical moment, it can even rebound an enemy's attack."

"Watch carefully. The spiritual energy flows through seventy-two points in this technique..."

Tian Buyi demonstrated as he explained every detail.

He'd assumed

that with a spell this complicated, Ye Xuan would need to hear the explanation three or five times and ponder it for a day or two before he could grasp the basics.

After all, it involved complex spiritual energy formations and control of one's divine sense.

However,

after he'd finished the demonstration and was about to ask Ye Xuan how much he'd remembered,

he saw Ye Xuan standing motionless with his eyes closed.

Yet the aura around him was faintly shifting.

"Hm?"

"Has he already started comprehending it?"

Tian Buyi nodded, quietly praising him in his heart.

The boy really was diligent.

Even if he hadn't understood, he was still trying to think it over.

Who would have guessed

that a mere three seconds later,

Ye Xuan suddenly opened his eyes.

In his clear black-and-white eyes, two flames seemed to flicker.

"Master, is it like this?"

Ye Xuan raised a small hand and gently tapped the air with one finger.

"Vmmm!"

The air trembled.

A stream of crimson light burst from his body.

Then,

the light didn't dissipate. Instead, as if alive, it quickly flowed over Ye Xuan's body, weaving together.

One second.

Two seconds.

A suit of fiery armor appeared on Ye Xuan, much smaller than Tian Buyi's but identical in structure!

Not one of the seventy-two spiritual energy nodes was out of place!

"Crack!"

The boulder beneath Tian Buyi's feet split apart.

The force of his uncontainable shock had shattered it.

He stood there with his mouth agape, his jaw almost hitting the ground.

Looking at the little monster wreathed in flames,

Tian Buyi felt his head buzzing.

After seeing it once?

Just once?

And he'd already learned it?

And on top of that, he seemed to have made a few adjustments to improve it?

"This... this..."

Tian Buyi felt that his centuries-old understanding of cultivation had been repeatedly ground into dust over the past two days.

He'd planned to teach the technique in three days, if all went well.

But the boy had learned it in the time it took to take a leak?

This wasn't teaching a disciple.

It was taking a beating!

Tian Buyi was stunned.

He stared blankly at Ye Xuan.

Was this the power of an Innate Dao Body?

Good heavens.

You didn't just give him a meal.

You chased him around shoving food at him, then chewed it up and fed it to him yourself!