Days of Cultivation with the Big Beard

To be honest, I don't know if it's because Xiao Han had been catching and killing demons and fierce ghosts lately, but now every time he arrived at a new town, those monsters and spirits would flee at the mere scent of him.

This was way too absurd!

Ancient communication couldn't possibly spread this fast, right?

It had only been a little over two months since the start, and the demons already knew his reputation?

Xiao Han glanced at his mission panel in confusion. The progress bar on it had been stuck for a long time now.

Back when he was slaughtering demons and fierce ghosts like crazy, Xiao Han would sweep through every place he went like scraping the ground, hunting down monsters until they wailed and howled.

And besides increasing the mission progress, those slain fiends also provided a decent amount of Energy Value!

With the Energy Value he'd accumulated from killing demons before, Xiao Han had already upgraded several spells.

Summoning Thunder Technique—the very spell the Tiger Demon had used to strike Xiao Han earlier—after Xiao Han used Energy Value to push it to Reach the Pinnacle, he realized its power was far beyond what he'd seen.

With his cultivation base, casting this spell let him grind the Tiger Demon into the dirt.

Backed by sufficiently deep Zhenyuan, the Summoning Thunder Technique Xiao Han unleashed was countless times more powerful than what the Tiger Demon had used.

A single Thunder Dragon could blast an unsuspecting Dou Grandmaster into dust!

Then there was the Divided Spirit Technique. After Xiao Han fully grasped this spell, he discovered it could attach to various animals, insects, or inanimate objects, allowing him to control these little things for reconnaissance purposes.

Not to mention anything else, this spell was incredibly useful for scouting!

Heaven and Earth Have No Limits—Tracking for Thousands of Miles could achieve long-distance spying, but without the target's aura, that method was half useless. And keeping the tracking technique active around the clock was too exhausting; no one could handle that well.

The Divided Spirit Technique was different. Once he attached a sliver of his divine sense to something, he could leave it be. Those controlled animals would serve as his eyes. If any trouble occurred, he'd know about it immediately.

The third spell was Healing Spring Technique.

Healing Spring, as the name implied, was for healing injuries.

Originally, it could only treat external wounds, but after Xiao Han used Energy Value to push it to Reach the Pinnacle, it could now also handle internal injuries.

As for the other minor spells, they hadn't been trained to a high level yet, so he wouldn't mention them for now.

"A Han, get up and practice the sword!"

Just as Xiao Han was lost in thought, the big-bearded man beside him bellowed, yanking his mind back to reality.

"Coming, Master Yan, coming."

Xiao Han flicked his finger, and a crimson longsword appeared in his hand.

Yan Chixia looked on with some envy: "No matter how many times I see it, that treasure of yours for storing items really makes me jealous. Though I've inherited the Ancient Sword Cultivator's legacy, all I have is a Sword Case that can hold thousands of flying swords. I know nothing about the methods for refining spatial artifacts like that."

Xiao Han chuckled: "Master Yan, you may not know, but this item is called a Storage Ring, an artifact passed down from ancient Daoist cultivators. In this day and age, the method for refining spatial artifacts is lost. Even this single ring is already a priceless treasure!"

"Storage Ring, Storage Ring—could it be taken from the meaning of 'a mustard seed containing Mount Sumeru'?"

"Exactly that."

Yan Chixia stared greedily at the Storage Ring on Xiao Han's finger. This kind of treasure, which could retrieve items with a single thought, was enough to seize the upper hand on a battlefield.

Imagine two people fighting barehanded, and halfway through, you suddenly summon a sword and slash at them. With that surprise attack, even if they didn't die, they'd be severely wounded.

Seeing Yan Chixia's gaze, Xiao Han smiled.

The fish had taken the bait. Next, he just needed to gradually earn Yan Chixia's trust, and finally use the Low-grade Storage Ring on his hand as a gift to get Yan Chixia to exchange his techniques like Sword Flying Technique and Myriad Swords Technique with him. That way, his goal would be achieved.

But they had only been traveling together for a few days. Although Yan Chixia believed the little story Xiao Han had made up earlier, he still didn't fully trust Xiao Han as a person.

These past few days, while learning swordsmanship from Yan Chixia, Xiao Han had been teaching him the Cloud Crushing Swordplay he knew well through soul-telepathy, both as thanks and to raise Yan Chixia's favorability.

Sword techniques from a high-martial world naturally had their unique merits compared to those from a low-martial world. At least Cloud Crushing Swordplay, a technique that could freely spit out sword energy and sword light, was an extremely rare martial skill even in a low-martial world.

At first, Xiao Han didn't understand why Yan Chixia said his sword practice was terrible, until Yan Chixia suddenly had an epiphany on the spot after receiving Cloud Crushing Swordplay.

Seeing this, Xiao Han didn't dare disturb him and quietly moved aside to guard.

After twenty breaths, Yan Chixia suddenly opened his eyes wide in fury!

"Ha!"

With a low roar, a powerful sword intent mixed with sword energy burst forth in all directions! Feeling the sword intent erupting from Yan Chixia, Xiao Han realized that all his months of sword practice had been wasted!

Stirred by the sword energy, the leaves on the big tree fluttered down chaotically, but as soon as those leaves drifted, they were shredded by Yan Chixia's outburst of sword energy, instantly crushed into fragments floating in the air!

Then, Yan Chixia perfectly demonstrated every single move of Cloud Crushing Swordplay from start to finish!

The same Cloud Crushing Swordplay, in Yan Chixia's hands, was more than ten times more powerful!

If Xiao Han hadn't known that his Cloud Crushing Swordplay was just a trash-tier Yellow Rank High combat skill, he would have thought he'd given Yan Chixia a Heaven Stage High sword technique to practice!

"Hahaha—!! Hahahaha!!! Good! Excellent! Yan has practiced the sword for decades, but never felt as free and unrestrained as today!"

After finishing the swordplay, Yan Chixia looked up and let out a long roar, a bold and unbridled aura radiating from him. At a glance, he seemed like a peerless divine sword, exuding sharpness.

Yan Chixia turned to look at Xiao Han and patted him on the shoulder: "Good lad, I only taught you a few basics of swordsmanship, and you've given me such a precious sword technique in return."

(?′ω`?)...

Xiao Han felt a bit awkward: "Master Yan, is that sword technique of mine really that strong? I feel like it's just so-so."

"That's because you don't have a foundation of sword intent, you brat! The same sword technique in your hands is a huge discount, a waste of a treasure!" Yan Chixia glared at Xiao Han and said.

"No helping it," Xiao Han shrugged. "These past few months I've been fumbling along all by myself, without any systematic sword training or anyone to teach me. I've just been blindly practicing from the manual on my own."

"That's exactly why I said you haven't even developed your sword intent."

Yan Chixia shook his head. "Kid, since you're this sincere, I naturally won't hold anything back. All the insights I've gained into swordsmanship over the years, I'll pass on to you without reservation. It just depends on how much you can learn!"

Xiao Han's face lit up. "Thank you, Master Yan."

Yan Chixia took a gourd from his waist, gulped down some wine, and shook his head again. "A Han, don't call me Master Yan. I don't like that title.

To be honest, I never intended to take on a disciple. If I didn't see potential in you, I wouldn't bother guiding you.

Besides, you've passed on such a precious sword technique to me. Let's just treat each other as equals."

"Then I'll follow Hero Yan's wishes."

Xiao Han clasped his hands in salute.

"Oh, one more thing."

Whether it was from the wine or not, Yan Chixia's face, framed by his thick beard, was slightly flushed. "I know you want to slay every evil spirit under heaven, but the two of us have killed too many demons—our Killing Qi is too heavy. The moment we step into a town, those monsters and fiends will be too scared to show their faces.

Do you have any method to conceal our auras?"

"Conceal our auras?"

Xiao Han's mind stirred. He searched his memory and actually found a spell he'd overlooked before.

"Concealment Technique: after use, it hides all traces of your aura, including Spiritual Sense, scent, Killing Qi, murderous intent, etc. If the opponent's strength far exceeds the caster's, there's a risk of being seen through."

Xiao Han used Energy Value to boost Concealment Technique straight to the Reach the Pinnacle realm. The moment he activated it, Yan Chixia was startled.

"Good! A fine spell! If I weren't clearly seeing you standing right here, I'd think I'd run into a ghost! Your technique can wipe away all presence in an instant, as if you don't even exist!"

Yan Chixia marveled. "Kid, if you had such a skill, why didn't you use it sooner? If you'd used it when we first met a few days ago, I wouldn't have mistaken you for a demonic cultivator from the Demon Sect!"

"Uh, I guess I forgot."

With an awkward smile, Xiao Han transmitted the Concealment Technique into Yan Chixia's mind through soul-communication. Once he had the new spell, Yan Chixia happily started playing around with it.

"I've had my eye on a group of Demonic Cultivators for a long time. Once you've polished your basic swordsmanship, I'll take you to butcher those demonic scum!"