Scout Infantry

"Emergency notice: the midterm practical combat test has been canceled." Zhang Dingjun glanced at his phone. "The notice on the campus network says that the principal, who was supposed to play the opposing side in the exercise, encountered a deviation in cultivation."

"Alright, class dismissed!"

The students were astonished. It was exceedingly rare for a Foundation Establishment cultivator's body to develop problems; many of them might never have heard of such a thing since entering the school.

The crowd dispersed. Those with flying artifacts flew away, while the rest took the bus.

"Jiang Ding, stay behind for a moment." Zhang Dingjun waved from not far away.

"Alright."

Jiang Ding stopped using his inner force to nourish his meridians and reluctantly returned the blue-steel sword in his hand to the weapon rack.

"You kid, your enthusiasm for cold weapons is a little excessive. This isn't the path of an Immortal Sect cultivator." Zhang Dingjun frowned, but said no more.

"How much do you know about the scout infantry specialization?"

Jiang Ding answered honestly, "Nothing at all."

"Then let me introduce it to you. This is very important for your college entrance examination and your future career." Zhang Dingjun nodded. "The core ability of scout infantry is the Minor Breath-Concealing Technique, but that doesn't mean other abilities, such as the Vajra Seal, Thousand-Thread Guidance, and Mathematics—Formation Dao, aren't important. You must study them as well, perhaps even better than most of your classmates."

"Scout infantry is an elite profession. Better lacking than indiscriminate—no one needs a lousy scout to expose himself out of thin air."

"Therefore, the Minor Breath-Concealing Technique must be cultivated to minor mastery before you can earn any score. Otherwise, no matter how high your scores are in other areas, they will all be zero."

"Zero?"

Jiang Ding was startled. That was too cruel.

"Yes."

Zhang Dingjun nodded. "Scout infantry requires the initial investment of two high-grade artifacts. It costs far more than line-filling infantry, so the Immortal Sect does not want too many students choosing this path."

"Besides, someone who hasn't cultivated the Minor Breath-Concealing Technique properly is utterly useless at reconnaissance. Forcing them into it harms both others and themselves."

"Before you, Sun Xiao and the others tried it too, but they soon gave up. So, what do you think now?"

Jiang Ding considered it carefully for a while.

"Teacher Zhang, I still want to try for a while longer."

"Mm, make your decision as soon as possible." Zhang Dingjun said nothing else. "The longer you delay, the worse it will be for your college entrance examination."

"Understood."

On the bus.

"You're the number one person in our class at the Inner Qi Realm now, aren't you?"

Li Junhao's words were thick with sourness.

"I'm still far from that. I still can't see any hope of entering an Immortal Sect." Jiang Ding shook his head. His right hand curled around nothing, and he always felt as though something was missing, leaving his whole body uneasy.

"Ah." Li Junhao sighed as well. "If the strengths of the two of us could be combined, we'd surpass the admission score for Qianling University's School of Dao Cultivation by quite a bit."

"That's impossible."

After getting off the bus, Jiang Ding darted toward the cultivation room and pounced on the weapon rack.

Clang!

The blue-green blade slid free. He felt much more at ease.

A perfect arc manifested out of thin air, veiled in hazy white light like the full moon hanging high in the sky on the fifteenth night. Only after several breaths did it fade.

Jiang Ding was wholly unaware. Arm sword, footwork sword, organ sword, running sword, and the rest of the sword forms flowed forth like drifting clouds and running water. Sword lights appeared and vanished one after another in the air.

After a long while, the sword returned to its sheath.

His mind went blank, while countless thoughts and sword forms rose and fell like the tides.

Ding!

Only when all his thoughts had converged did the pale-blue panel slowly unfold before Jiang Ding.

[Name: Jiang Ding]

[Student ID:]

[Realm: Initial Inner Qi Realm]

[Previous training subject: <Sixty-Eighth Set of Young Eagle Takes Flight Sword Art> (Minor Mastery 32%)]

"The proficiency of my foundational cultivation method jumped by more than twenty points at once." Jiang Ding's face brightened with delight. "This counts as a small enlightenment, right?"

He noticed that a details button had appeared beneath the Young Eagle Takes Flight Sword Art.

He tapped it open.

[Unknown comprehension: Using principles of optics, sword shadows can be retained for 0.2–0.5 seconds. At the time, the circulation structure of inner force changed into... It may have originated from the texts Divine Firmament Hundred-Step Flying Sword, Great Sun Sword-Planting Sword-Refining Art, Great Sun Radiant Sword Art...]

"Sword-shadow retention... useless. It's completely just a cosmetic effect."

Jiang Ding thought for a moment, somewhat disappointed. "It would be great if the sword shadow appeared before the blade itself, or created some sort of illusion of vanishing at the wrong moment. That would be a supreme weapon for swordsmanship."

As for the reference texts, they were all materials he had read while expanding his studies these past days. Somehow, he had unconsciously used some of their inner-force circulation methods.

With his inner force completely exhausted, Jiang Ding swallowed a Hundred Essences Transform Qi Pill and silently circulated his cultivation method to recover it. At the same time, he used stillness cultivation to temper the ten major meridians of the Pericardium Channel of Hand Jueyin, the second regular meridian.

He shook the empty pill bottle.

"There's only one bottle of Hundred Essences Transform Qi Pills left. If I want my cultivation speed not to decline, I'll have to search for pill ingredients again." Jiang Ding thought silently. "Now that I've broken through into Inner Qi, I can be a little bolder."

While cultivating, Jiang Ding opened the cultivation inheritance for the Minor Breath-Concealing Technique. Comparing it against the annotations left by his predecessors, he did not demand immediate understanding and merely committed it to memory.

Knock, knock!

Huang Deyou lightly knocked twice on the back courtyard door and waited quietly.

He had already developed an understanding with this employer, who rarely left the house. Every morning, he would come to the door and call out a routine greeting. If there was no response, he would leave on his own and begin the day's business.

"Come in."

Huang Deyou pushed open the door and entered.

What met his eyes was a handsome, refined youth in Azure Garment, his bearing like jade, holding a brush and drawing something on the desk. Huang Deyou glanced at it and saw densely packed lines that made his head ache just looking at them.

Huang Deyou lowered his head, not daring to look again.

Jiang Ding's inner force surged like a tide as he laboriously drew the final stroke.

Hum!

The pale-yellow talisman paper trembled slightly. A tiny, nearly invisible flash of golden light flickered and vanished. The paper talisman seemed to have become much harder.

Sharp Metal Formation!

Jiang Ding's inner force was nearly exhausted. He let out a long breath and sat down.

Ever since he had successfully inscribed the Hundred-Step Flying Sword version of the Sharp Metal Formation in his previous mathematics class under the teacher's protection, he had inexplicably gained some insight into basic formations. After pondering it for several days, he had finally succeeded in drawing a standard Sharp Metal Formation.

My mathematics score should rise by five to ten points at least. As long as I successfully master the five major basic formations, I should be about able to pass, right?

Jiang Ding thought to himself.

Cultivation was a discipline where practice and theory came together. With inner force, this low-level form of energy, the difficulty of learning knowledge such as formations and cultivation-method theory—things that had once been hard to comprehend—had fallen somewhat.

Putting away the Sharp Metal Formation diagram, Jiang Ding looked at Huang Deyou.

The diagram's only use was that, if placed somewhere rich in spiritual qi for several years, it might turn into a metal plate. It was of no real use.

"Good morning, Master!" Huang Deyou said respectfully. "These are the shop's account books for this period."

Jiang Ding took the account books and swiftly entered the various income and expenditure records into the display projected by his contact lenses, using the spreadsheet in his miniature computer to calculate and verify them.

Thirteen copper coins did not add up.

It probably was not embezzlement. Huang Deyou had not originally been an accountant, so minor errors and omissions were unavoidable.

Jiang Ding pointed out the discrepancies and told him to correct them when he returned. Then he praised him. "Manager Huang, the progress in collecting plant and animal specimens over the past few days has been several times faster than before. Well done. If you can keep it up, I'll give you another red envelope at the end of the month."

"It is only this servant's duty."

Huang Deyou was delighted. Although this employer kept a close eye on the accounts, he was generous with his money. He absolutely would not be like Huang Deyou's former superiors, who merely made empty promises.

After hesitating for a moment.

"Master, most of this is thanks to Han Lin, the worker you brought back. His grandfather used to work for the Seven Profound Sect, and he has many ready-made connections. He knows quite a few herb gatherers."

The Seven Profound Sect had previously been a major martial arts sect and had an enormous demand for all kinds of herbs. Thus, it maintained a large team of herb gatherers, and Han Lin's grandfather had been one of them.

"Besides that, when he gets off work, he wants to study martial arts at the newly opened Seven Profound Martial Arts Hall."

"Ever since the Flying Snow Fairy returned and reestablished the sect, she issued new policies. As long as someone was formerly part of the Seven Profound Sect, they could study martial arts at the Seven Profound Martial Arts Hall for free. If they achieved something, they could enter Seven Profound Mountain and become an official disciple of the Seven Profound Sect."

There was some anger in Huang Deyou's voice.

In his view, this employer had saved that boy when he was nearly starving to death and given him food to eat. He only had to work four hours a day, received two days off every seven days, and was paid well. What tremendous kindness was that?

Yet not only did he fail to appreciate it, he even wanted to climb a higher branch. What a wolf's heart and dog's lungs!

"If he wants to go, let him go."

Jiang Ding said indifferently, "As long as he works seriously while on duty, then when he is off duty, so long as he doesn't break the law, stir up trouble, steal chickens, or pilfer dogs, don't care what they do."

"This... yes."

Huang Deyou was stunned and could not quite understand.

.