Technique?

Inside the council hall, sandalwood smoke curled faintly.

Lei Qingyang stood on the stage, laying out the detailed arrangements for the sect-wide competition in a long-winded speech.

Chen Xian sat in the very front row, listening until drowsiness nearly overtook him.

Sure enough, leadership speeches—whether in his past life or this one—all sounded more or less the same.

Something about solid advancement, orderly coordination, unified cooperation, joint execution...

Unable to bear it any longer, he simply let his eyes watch his nose, his nose watch his heart, and summoned the system panel in his mind.

code
[Realm: Dao Disciple Sixth Layer (Dogged Sword)]
[Lifespan: Two years, nine months]
[Technique: None (original mortal skills have been folded > can be viewed)]

"Hm?"

Chen Xian's spirit, slightly weary from half a month of bitter cultivation, instantly perked up.

He remembered clearly: half a month ago, his lifespan was two years and seven months. Now, not only had it not decreased, but it had actually increased by two months?

"Drinking that Hundred Spirit Flower Fruit Tea every day, plus taking the blood-nourishing and pulse-protecting pills the Sect Master gave me recently—could it actually be working?"

Chen Xian mused inwardly. Though the gain was small, he was still delighted. Who would ever complain about living longer?

His gaze moved downward, and he noticed that the skill column in the system panel had somehow changed to [Technique: None].

He figured it was because those mortal skills were no longer presentable, so the system had folded them away.

"Mystic Cloud Dao-Guiding Art doesn't count as a technique?"

Chen Xian was briefly stunned, then quickly understood.

Though the Dao-Guiding Art looked like a technique, it offered no real enhancement.

For a cultivator, the Dao-Guiding Art was more like an instruction manual—guiding beginners to step onto the path of Dao cultivation suited to them, then teaching them how to convert Dao Qi into Dao Power.

It was the most basic, foundational theory of cultivation.

No matter how proficient you were, your speed of drawing Qi into the body remained the same; only one's bone constitution could alter the initial cultivation speed.

As for true techniques, those involved changes in arts, sword control, and methods of killing enemies.

For example, according to the rules of cultivation, only after truly breaking through the third stage of Dao Disciple (seventh layer and above), beginning to refine Dao consciousness, and touching upon tool control, would one be qualified to cultivate a real technique.

Like the Sword Control Technique he had always longed for—that was a real technique.

Releasing Dao Power externally and flicking a finger to shoot a bird? That didn't count!

"I need to break through the third stage faster. Old man, I don't want to spend all my days just flicking my fingers to tease bugs and shoot birds."

Chen Xian took a sip of tea, muttering to himself.

Just then, Lei Qingyang on the stage shifted his tone, as if tossing a bombshell into the crowd.

"This year's sect-wide competition, the number of selection slots for the families of Ask-Dao City will be increased to one hundred."

As soon as these words were spoken, the previously silent council hall erupted into chaos.

"One hundred? In previous years, wasn't it always fifty?"

"Doubling the slots—the Sect Master is really opening the gates wide!"

The elders of the Yuan and Xie families seated below showed ecstatic expressions, their breathing quickening.

Doubling the slots meant that those younger generation members in their families who had previously fallen short of the threshold might now enter the Xuanyun Sword Sect for cultivation.

Every additional cultivator in a family meant more say in Ask-Dao City.

It was by no means unimportant.

However, Lei Qingyang's next words left everyone present stunned.

"Furthermore, the sect will establish an additional Martial Dao Hall among the outer disciples, recruiting a batch of outer disciples who practice martial arts. If anyone has suggestions, you may raise them to me."

The council hall fell silent.

The Sword Peak Elder was the first to speak, his tone laced with confusion: "Sect Master, mortal martial arts... are ultimately a lesser path."

"So-called tempering skin and flesh, inner and outer force—even if those people desperately cultivate to Grandmaster, they barely rival a Dao Master of the ninth layer."

"The upper limit of martial arts is too low. Taking these martial artists into the sect might drag down our Sword Sect's foundation, don't you think?"

The crowd nodded in agreement.

In their eyes, mortal martial arts simply couldn't be taken seriously.

Lei Qingyang's expression remained calm, completely unmoved: "This is an order from the Saint Hall. The sect need only comply. If anyone has objections, you may raise them to me, and I will present them to the Saint Hall."

At the mention of "Saint Hall," the hall fell utterly silent, all voices of doubt receding like a tide.

Chen Xian, seated at the head, felt a slight stir in his heart.

Lately, in his spare time, he had been reading historical records extensively, gaining a basic understanding of the myriad races on the Boundless Continent.

The Saint Hall, composed of human Saints, was the supreme hall of the human race, steering the trillion-strong ship of humanity as it pushed forward through the waves of the Boundless Continent.

The Saint Hall governs two branches: one handles mortals, the Mortal Elder Pavilion, and the other handles cultivators, the Dao-Guiding Hall.

He hadn't delved deeply into the Mortal Elder Pavilion yet, but he understood the Dao-Guiding Hall.

Because all sect promotions and advancements were assessed by the Dao-Guiding Hall.

Thirty years ago, the Mystic Cloud Sword Sect's promotion to the Xuanyun Sword Sect was approved through the Dao-Guiding Hall's evaluation.

Now, the Xuanyun Sword Sect was merely a "Sect"-ranked entity in the Saint Hall's Dao-Guiding Hall registry.

If they achieved great merits or the sect's overall strength improved, they could apply for promotion to Grand Sect, Heavenly Sect, or even Saint Sect.

To Chen Xian, this system felt like the university rankings from his past life.

Vocational college to junior college, junior college to second-tier undergraduate, second-tier to first-tier...

The Xuanyun Sword Sect was currently a top-tier vocational college, excelling in the Sword Path, but mediocre in fields like alchemy and artifacts, not yet qualified for comprehensive undergraduate status.

Now the Education Bureau (Saint Hall) had decreed that all major schools must recruit sports-specialized students (martial arts disciples), and the lower-tier institutions naturally dared not utter a single complaint.

At least the Xuanyun Sword Sect had no right to refuse.

So this was a notification, not a consultation.

Establishing a new cultivation direction was no easy task. The peak elders and stewards pondered how to proceed, while the clan elders considered whether there was profit to be made. The meeting adjourned in a complex atmosphere.

The crowd filed out, but Chen Xian and Liu Yunshu were kept behind by a glance from Lei Qingyang.

The doors boomed shut, leaving only the three of them in the council hall.

Lei Qingyang's expression was stern; he did not speak first.

With a sweep of his sleeve, a dense surge of Dao Power shot straight toward the hall's dome.

A rumble echoed overhead. Chen Xian looked up and realized the council hall's dome was actually a massive mirror artifact.

"Rise!"

Above, a bronze mirror carved with ancient thunder patterns slowly rotated, its surface rippling like water.

"Uncle-Master, Elder Liu, behold the Heart-Reflecting Mirror."

As Lei Qingyang tapped the air with his fingertip, faces from the meeting began to appear in the mirror's surface.

Mirror light flowed, and most faces showed nothing unusual, passing by in a blur.

Suddenly, the mirror emitted a faint hum, and the image froze.

The once-calm scene twisted instantly. The mirror fixed on several faces, and atop those faces, a dense red light flickered!

Bathed in that thick red glow, the originally kind and harmless expressions of those individuals twisted into something distorted and ferocious.

"Hmph, these venomous insects hide deep indeed."

Lei Qingyang grunted, staring at those faces.

"Elder Liu, memorize these people and investigate them in secret."

Chen Xian's gaze sharpened, because one of the faces radiating red light was not only familiar to him—it was someone he knew well!