Shen Gongbao said softly, "All right, enough talk. I'll teach you an immortal cultivation method now, but you'll have to comprehend its mysteries for yourself."
Hearing this, Lu Chuan suppressed his excitement, rose, and solemnly knelt before Shen Gongbao. He kowtowed and said, "Thank you, Master, for teaching me the Dao."
"Don't celebrate too soon. I can teach you the method, but how far you get on the path of cultivation will depend on your own fortune."
Shen Gongbao smiled and asked, "Do you know why I took so long to come, even though you'd been facing that monster for quite a while?"
Lu Chuan froze. "This disciple does not know."
"There's no other reason. I was watching you, to see whether you could escape that female demon by yourself."
Shen Gongbao smiled. "Fortunately, you're quick-witted and clever enough to trick even that female demon. That shows you have not only good aptitude, but also a decent head on your shoulders..."
As he spoke, he pointed to his own head.
"You've got enough sense up here, too. I, Shen Gongbao, value not only my disciples' aptitude, but this as well."
Lu Chuan stared blankly. Shen Gongbao really was a little eccentric. He didn't play by the rules at all. Just to see whether his disciple was clever, he'd left him with a monster to fend for himself?
Of course, Lu Chuan believed that if he couldn't escape, Shen Gongbao would still have stepped in to save him. After all, Jiang Ziya had introduced him.
Still, in Shen Gongbao's eyes, he would probably have failed the test.
"I, Shen Gongbao, am not only proficient in the Five Elements and the Eight Trigrams, the Strange Gates and Hidden Armor, medicine, divination, astrology, astronomy, geography, the art of war, strategy... and so on and so forth."
Shen Gongbao smiled. "Tell me, if I took on a dull, wooden-headed disciple and brought him out into the world, wouldn't people laugh their teeth out?"
Lu Chuan listened quietly beside him, inwardly amazed. He knew Shen Gongbao wasn't bragging. He had every right to say such things.
Shen Gongbao was a rare talent to begin with, and he had studied under the mighty Primordial Heavenly Lord. His Daoist arts were profound, and he was even well versed in unorthodox techniques.
After Jiang Ziya received the List of Conferred Gods and descended the mountain, Shen Gongbao had tricked him with the claim that his head could be cut off without killing him, nearly getting his hands on the List of Conferred Gods.
And Lu Chuan knew that his master's greatest skill wasn't any of the things he'd just listed. It was his mouth.
A silver tongue that could turn black into white and persuade anyone to change their mind.
How many extraordinary people in the Investiture of the Gods had originally avoided worldly affairs and cultivated quietly in the mountains, only to be talked into coming down by Shen Gongbao—and end up on the List of Conferred Gods?
And don't forget: at first, the disciples of the Interception Sect and the Exposition Sect hadn't liked one another much. Whenever they met, they would trade barbs.
Yet Shen Gongbao was popular even among the Interception Sect. Now that was real ability!
"Master, hypothetically—this disciple means hypothetically..."
Lu Chuan ventured, "If I'd asked you to come save me just now, then..."
"Then I would still have taught you the Daoist methods and arts. After all, your senior brother entrusted you to me. But..."
Shen Gongbao's tone shifted. "Good disciple, from this day onward, you are my student. I'll teach you everything I know. How much you learn, though, will be entirely up to you."
"Thank you, Master!" Lu Chuan said with delight.
At the same time, he felt lucky he hadn't pinned all his hopes on Shen Gongbao and had instead tried to save himself. He hadn't disappointed his master.
Otherwise...
"All right. I'll teach you the method now."
As he spoke, Shen Gongbao suddenly formed a sword-finger with his right hand and jabbed it forward, stopping three inches from Lu Chuan's forehead.
Hum!
Five-colored light radiated from his fingertip and swirled above Lu Chuan's head, as if he were wearing a five-colored helmet.
Lu Chuan's eyes widened, amazement written across his face.
Then his entire body went rigid, as though he'd been immobilized.
A moment later, strange symbols glowing with five-colored light appeared deep in his eyes, one after another, and finally formed a scripture.
After a while.
Shen Gongbao withdrew his hand and circulated his energy, breathing slowly. The five-colored light above Lu Chuan's head faded, but Lu Chuan remained motionless.
Shen Gongbao glanced at the unmoving Lu Chuan. He said nothing, merely nodding softly.
After a long while,
Lu Chuan suddenly moved. His legs had gone numb from kneeling so long, and he toppled straight onto the ground.
He was drenched in sweat, and his eyes were filled with shock. For a long time, he couldn't recover his composure.
"How does it feel?"
Shen Gongbao glanced at him with a smile, then reached out and prodded the fire with a stick. "This method is called the Five Elements True Origin Formula. It's the method I use to cultivate and refine my qi. Try practicing it on your own. If you don't understand something, come ask me."
"Thank you, Master, but..."
Lu Chuan said a little sheepishly, "Master, well... this disciple can't read."
Crack!
Shen Gongbao's smile froze on his face. The stick in his hand snapped in two.
Lu Chuan: "..."
It wasn't his fault. From the time he'd awakened until today, barely twenty days had passed.
He'd spent the first half of that time struggling to learn how to speak. In the last few days, he'd put all his effort into figuring out how to get Jiang Ziya to take him as a disciple. When had he had time to learn to read?
And they were oracle bone script, no less—the ancestor of the simplified Chinese characters he'd studied in his previous life. Yet this ancestor and its descendants, separated by who knew how many generations, really did look...
"You can't read? Heh, no problem. I'll teach you."
Shen Gongbao chuckled. Lu Chuan felt a chill in his heart as Shen Gongbao pointed at his forehead again, just as before.
"Ah..." A scream rang out.
Not long after,
Shen Gongbao looked at Lu Chuan, who lay on his back, drenched in sweat and somewhat pale, and asked, "You've learned it, right?"
"Th-thank you, Master."
Lu Chuan "saw" the unfamiliar characters in his mind and answered weakly.
He'd learned oracle bone script in no time at all. This was even faster than those crash courses in legend.
But there was a price to that speed. Unlike the cultivation formula, the characters felt as if each stroke had been carved into his brain.
It hurt!
But now that he'd learned oracle bone script, he could begin cultivating. What was a little pain compared to that? It was worth it!
"Mm!"
Shen Gongbao nodded slightly.
By then, it was already the dead of night. Shen Gongbao looked up at the bright moon through the hole in the temple roof, then suddenly sat cross-legged and raised his right hand, grasping toward the moon from afar.
Hum!
The next moment, a white pillar of light slowly condensed.
Whoosh!
Shen Gongbao formed a sword-finger with his left hand. White light slowly spread from between his fingers, enveloping Lu Chuan from head to toe.
Before long, the stabbing pain inside Lu Chuan's head had vanished.
Shen Gongbao finished circulating his energy and breathed out. Lu Chuan was filled with wonder. The ability to gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and absorb the essence of the sun and moon was truly astonishing and fascinating.
But soon enough, he'd be one of them too.
"All right, it's late. Get some sleep."
Shen Gongbao closed his eyes and meditated. "Tomorrow, we'll go into Chaoge City. I'll be staying in Chaoge for a while."
"Yes!"
Lu Chuan agreed. He was still a mortal, after all. He couldn't go without food or sleep the way Shen Gongbao could.
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