Master Jingzhi!

"How many levels of the Chiming Nine Heavens Map have you mastered?" After his brief surprise, Master Jingzhi asked.

"The fourth. I've just entered the Xiantian stage," Zhou Hao replied.

"The fourth..." Master Jingzhi shook his head. "What a pity."

"What's there to pity?" Zhao Hu asked, bewildered. He looked at Master Jingzhi in confusion.

"The Chiming Nine Heavens Map has a major hurdle every three levels. Brother Zhou has already broken through the bottleneck at the third level and become an Xiantian Lifeform. He'll face no further obstacles until he reaches the Xiantian peak; he'll only need to spend some time on it. How could that be a pity?"

Zhou Hao nodded too, unsure what Master Jingzhi meant.

"Do you know what day it is tomorrow?" Master Jingzhi didn't answer. Instead, he smiled and asked them both.

"What day? Tomorrow is the Green Flood Dragon Army's monthly martial competition," Zhao Hu said, still confused. "What does that have to do with which level of the cultivation method Brother Zhou has reached?"

"Then do you know how many Xiantian Lifeforms are currently in the Xiantian Battalion?" Master Jingzhi asked again.

"Some new people have joined over the course of this year. There should be more than five hundred, maybe close to six hundred," Zhao Hu said uncertainly after thinking it over.

The Xiantian Lifeforms in their Xiantian Battalion were organized into squads of five, platoons of five squads, and companies of five platoons.

Ordinary missions were usually carried out by a squad. Five Xiantian Lifeforms were enough.

There were few occasions in a year when they might send out a platoon of twenty-five Xiantian Lifeforms, let alone a whole company.

Even the monthly martial competition was aimed at ordinary members of the Green Flood Dragon Army. Xiantian Lifeforms from the Xiantian Battalion weren't required to take part, so Zhao Hu didn't know the exact number.

"Not close to six hundred. Including this young fellow, there are exactly six hundred and twenty," Master Jingzhi said with certainty. "The military command hasn't issued the order yet, but you'll receive it later. The general will be at tomorrow's competition too. What do you think that's about?"

"Could it be... could they be adding a new commander?" Zhao Hu's eyes lit up. "There were rumors earlier that they'd add another company to the Xiantian Battalion's roster, but Jade Dragon City has been quiet, and nothing came of it. Has it really been decided this time?"

Though he phrased it as a question, Zhao Hu knew that if Master Jingzhi was telling him, it had probably already been settled and simply hadn't been announced yet.

"Jade Dragon City isn't as peaceful as it seems." Master Jingzhi shook his head, clasped his hands behind his back, and walked into the Martial Arts Hall. "Wait here. I'll get the cultivation method."

"Not as peaceful?" Zhou Hao watched Master Jingzhi's retreating figure, thoughtful.

"No, I need to tell Boss Cao and the others. I'll have to save some energy tonight." Zhao Hu seemed to realize something and turned to leave, but after only a couple of steps, he remembered Zhou Hao was still there.

"Uh, Brother Zhou, are you staying at the barracks tonight or going back to your tribespeople?"

"Once I get the cultivation method, I'll go to my people. Don't worry about me."

Iron Ox and the others couldn't freely enter the inner city and were still over by West Gate Market. Zhou Hao had asked the restaurant owner, Zhu Da, to look after them.

Now that Zhou Hao had joined the Xiantian Battalion, and with Cao Rong and the others putting in a good word for him, the female soldiers had worked quickly. In less than half an incense stick's time, they had obtained a Tribe Decree to settle his people.

Even with the Tribe Decree, he couldn't find a suitable place outside Jade Dragon City for their camp today, so he needed to get everyone settled first.

"Fine, just don't forget tomorrow's competition." Zhao Hu tossed out the words and hurried off.

I hope he still makes it in time... Zhou Hao thought.

Just then, Master Jingzhi came out of the Martial Arts Hall, carrying a book with a blue cover.

"Since you've cultivated the Chiming Nine Heavens Map to the Xiantian stage, you can control water and fire. So the best qi-refining method for you would also belong to the water-and-fire elements."

"This Water Source Sutra is a qi-refining method that only outer disciples of the Jade Dragon Sect are allowed to learn. It's much more rudimentary than what inner disciples cultivate, but it still surpasses the clan-protecting methods of those minor tribes outside."

As he spoke, Master Jingzhi walked up to Zhou Hao and handed him the book.

"And rudimentary methods have their advantages too. At the very least, they make it easier to break through to the Purple Mansion stage. If you can enter the Jade Dragon Sect's inner sect later, you can switch to another method then."

At last, he could refine qi and cultivate as an immortal!

Zhou Hao held his breath as he took the book, then eagerly flipped it open. To his surprise, the first page didn't contain a cultivation method, but an oath.

"This is an oath to the Heavenly Dao," Master Jingzhi said beside him.

"The cultivation methods of every immortal sect are never passed on to outsiders. Naturally, anyone who wishes to learn one must first swear an oath."

"It's not just cultivation methods. When you join an immortal sect, they'll also require you to swear a blood oath upon entering the sect. Otherwise, with no restrictions at all, disciples could betray their masters whenever they pleased. That would be a joke."

"Are oaths actually binding?" Zhou Hao asked doubtfully.

In his previous life, and even before he'd transmigrated in this life, he'd heard plenty of people treat their oaths like farts.

"For ordinary people, they mean nothing. But for cultivators, they're absolute vows that cannot be broken."

Master Jingzhi's expression was solemn. "Cultivating immortality is an act of defying Heaven. One must follow the Heavenly Dao and endure the trials of the three calamities and nine tribulations. If you go against the Heavenly Dao, disaster will strike at once."

"I see." Zhou Hao nodded. He skimmed the book and saw that the oath merely forbade him from passing on the cultivation method. Since there were no other requirements, he read it aloud, word for word.

"May the Heavenly Dao bear witness..."

As Zhou Hao said, "May the Heavenly Dao bear witness," his keen divine sense detected an ancient, indescribable presence descending and circling around him.

That made him even more solemn.

"I, Zhou Hao, swear never to pass on the cultivation method I learned today... Should I break this oath, may I suffer nine layers of thunder tribulation and die, never to be reborn for all eternity."

After he finished the oath, Master Jingzhi nodded with satisfaction. "All right. You can only read the cultivation method here. You can't take the book with you."

"Understood." Zhou Hao's soul was powerful, and he had long since gained a photographic memory. This was naturally no trouble for him.

Still, a cultivation method was far too important. After reading it, he recited it from memory once more as he checked it against what he'd read. Only after confirming he'd memorized every word did he return the book to Master Jingzhi.

"Mm." Master Jingzhi took the book, but didn't hurry to put it away. He watched Zhou Hao as if the young man were a child looking at a new toy. "I see you don't even know about oaths to the Heavenly Dao. Did your tribe not have any cultivators before?"

Not only did we have no cultivators, but if I hadn't come to this world, I wouldn't even have known how many years I had left to live.

"Yes. I only got my body-tempering method by chance."

I guess killing someone and looting their corpse counts as a stroke of luck.

"That's great." Master Jingzhi brightened, then saw Zhou Hao's puzzled look and quickly corrected himself. "I mean, you can't afford to be ignorant about cultivation. Even with a cultivation method, improper practice can ruin your foundation at best, or destroy your body and soul at worst. By the time you regret it, it'll be too late."

"..." Zhou Hao looked at Master Jingzhi.

Are you sure that's what you meant just now?

Master Jingzhi ignored the suspicion in Zhou Hao's eyes and led him toward an open space nearby.

From the looks of it, he was afraid Zhou Hao might run away.

Besides a reclining chair, the open space had a stone table and several stone stools.

Master Jingzhi pushed Zhou Hao down onto one of the stools. "Sit here and listen carefully while I explain."

As he spoke, he casually waved a hand. A black stone slab, one zhang long and one zhang wide, appeared in the open space, and a white stone was suddenly in his hand.

"Th-this is... a blackboard and chalk?" Zhou Hao stared in astonishment.

"First, let me tell you about the seven major realms of cultivation. You already know the first, Post-Heaven, and the second, Xiantian."

Master Jingzhi's expression turned solemn. He wrote the words Post-Heaven and Xiantian on the black stone slab, then continued.

"The third realm is Purple Mansion, known as the 'Purple Mansion Cultivator.' Its practitioners live for five hundred years."

"The fourth realm is Myriad Phenomena, known as the 'Myriad Phenomena True Person.' Its practitioners live for eight hundred years."

"The fifth realm is Primordial Spirit, known as the Primordial Spirit Daoist. Those who reach this realm have no fixed lifespan, but they're constantly beset by the three calamities and nine tribulations, and may still meet an untimely end."

"The sixth realm is Void Return, also known as a Land Immortal, or an 'Earth Immortal.' At the very late stages of Void Return, one must endure the test of a heavenly tribulation. If one fails, the body and soul are destroyed. Those lucky enough to escape with their Primordial Spirit intact and survive become Loose Immortals."

"The seventh realm is Celestial Immortal. At this stage, one is free from the three calamities and nine tribulations. Only then can one be said to have leaped beyond the Three Realms and escaped the Five Elements..."

As Zhou Hao watched Master Jingzhi talk until spittle flew, the blackboard behind him filled up in no time. Then he swept his sleeve across it, cleared it, and started writing again. A sense of foreboding suddenly came over Zhou Hao.

...Outside the barracks.

"Oh, no." Zhao Hu suddenly stopped. "I forgot to tell Brother Zhou to leave as soon as he got the cultivation method. He absolutely mustn't get caught by Master Jingzhi for a lecture."

The reason the Martial Repository was so quiet, with even the patrolling soldiers taking a detour around it, was that Master Jingzhi loved lecturing—and once he started, he wouldn't stop until he'd had his fill.

"If I go back now, I might get caught too..." At the thought, Zhao Hu quickened his pace even more.

Sorry, Brother Zhou! It's not that I, Zhao Hu, hold a grudge.

Haha, you're on your own.