Gong Caiyu

Countless lines of muscles and bones combined and shifted in his mind.

Jiang Ding practiced his sword, its gleam snow-bright as an arc.

He practiced the Fledgling Eagle Takes Flight Sword Art, the foundation of martial cultivation. Bolstered by his high comprehension, he progressed rapidly, and faint tingling sensations occasionally ran through his spine.

Those of poor aptitude and humble family circumstances were not without a chance to turn their fate around.

Others could only become proficient in the Young Eagle Takes Flight Formula, but if he could cultivate it to minor mastery, major mastery, or even perfection, he could catch up to—and perhaps surpass—those with exceptional aptitude.

The nine sword forms flashed by one after another before finally returning to the Hidden Sword Form.

"Not bad."

Zhang Dingjun watched from the side for a while, then said with interest, "You brat were wasted being born in the Immortal Sect. If you had been in another world, you might have become a wandering hero whose name shook the land."

The Young Eagle Takes Flight Formula was one thing. It was merely passable, about on par with his classmates.

But his practical swordsmanship was somewhat terrifying. Zhang Dingjun was almost too embarrassed to say that Jiang Ding's ability to seize opportunities was nearly catching up to his own, even with his ninth level Qi Refinement divine sense assisting him.

"You're joking."

Jiang Ding rolled his eyes at him. Unlike the other students, he did not fear this instructor. "With my Five Spiritual Roots aptitude, where besides the Immortal Sect would give me even the slightest chance?"

"You still haven't given up on ascending to immortality? That road is far too difficult..." Zhang Dingjun sighed faintly.

Turning from mortal to immortal—even in the Immortal Sect, only the very finest and most outstanding few heavenly geniuses were qualified. Jiang Ding was not entirely mediocre either, but...

"Keep it up! Even if you miss the college entrance examination, there have still been people who successfully cultivated immortality."

Zhang Dingjun encouraged him.

Ding-ling...

Not long afterward, the fourth dismissal bell rang at noon. Zhang Dingjun left first, while the other students returned to school or, if they lived nearby, went home.

"Here."

Li Junhao wore a miserable expression as he handed Jiang Ding a campus card.

"What do you want? Do you need me to pick you up?"

Jiang Ding was not surprised at all. Starting now, teaching robots would strictly supervise this fellow's forty kilometers. Unless he wanted to drop out, he had to carry out the instructor's orders.

"One duck leg, shredded pork with green peppers, and a bowl of the cafeteria's complimentary seaweed egg-drop soup. I'll take the bus back myself."

"Mm."

After bidding Li Junhao farewell, Jiang Ding squeezed onto the school bus with his classmates.

He ate lunch and took a nap.

After two classes in ideology and morality, he went to the training room.

Jiang Ding stared at the pale blue light screen before him, a trace of delight appearing on his face.

[Name: Jiang Ding]

[Student ID:]

[Realm: Peak Bone Refinement Realm]

[Previous Training Subject: <Sixty-Eighth Set of Young Eagle Takes Flight Sword Art> (Proficiency 51%)]

Compared to two days ago, the Fledgling Eagle Takes Flight Sword Art had surged by 19%. At this rate, he would reach minor mastery in two weeks at most. By then, his Bone Refinement progress would accelerate considerably, and breaking through to the Inner Qi Realm would no longer be a fantasy.

One had to know that this was not some martial art of the jianghu. It was an Immortal Sect cultivation technique, and even more difficult than most low-level immortal cultivation techniques and spells. Practicing it with a mortal body raised the difficulty by another great step.

As far as Jiang Ding knew, not a single person in the class had cultivated the technique to minor mastery.

The reason they had gotten ahead was, first, that their aptitude was better than Jiang Ding's, and second, that they had supplemented themselves with all sorts of medicinal tonics and even spirit pills. Naturally, their cultivation progress was different.

"Two more vertebrae have finished being tempered..." Jiang Ding looked again at the pale blue lined human figure beneath the panel.

Just as expected, among the twenty-four vertebrae, five lumbar vertebrae, one sacrum, and one coccyx had already been tempered. Only twelve thoracic vertebrae and seven cervical vertebrae remained. Once he completed the entire Bone Refinement Realm, he would naturally break through into Inner Qi.

There was no such thing as a bottleneck.

So-called bottlenecks merely meant insufficient understanding, or problems with the muscles, spine, hidden injuries, and the like. One had not trained enough without realizing it, only to become stuck at some realm.

With an Immortal Sect cultivation technique and the Array-Spirit Computer's assistance, such a situation naturally would not exist.

After calming himself, Jiang Ding drew his sword and cultivated with the Array-Spirit Computer's assistance. Silver sword light danced and flickered.

This was in fact an immense stroke of fortune, equivalent to being personally instructed by an incarnation of an incarnation of an incarnation... of a Spirit Transformation mighty figure. Otherwise, given the terrifying difficulty of the Fledgling Eagle Takes Flight Sword Art, whose effects were comparable to creation itself, ninety-nine percent of youths in the world would not even be able to enter its gate.

Thus, even though cultivation techniques occasionally leaked out, other immortal cultivation worlds had no way of replicating this.

After eating with Jiang Yuan, Jiang Ding locked himself inside his room, put on his equipment, checked his medicine and drone battery, and picked up his panoramic helmet.

After hesitating for a moment, Jiang Ding put it down and changed into contact lenses.

"The helmet is too conspicuous..."

The light dimmed, then brightened. Before his eyes once more stretched vast green mountains. It was early morning, and birds chirped noisily.

After habitually collecting more than a dozen unknown plant specimens, Jiang Ding continued exploring outward.

He could not accomplish anything alone.

He needed resources to speed up his cultivation, and he needed people to collect specimens. For that, he could take a little risk.

From the drone's perspective, the terrifying scene of nearly a hundred people searching the mountain had not reappeared. The forest had returned to its former tranquility.

"Hmm?"

Jiang Ding's gaze sharpened. He paused at one corner of the image and tapped to enlarge it.

A white speck appeared in the picture and rapidly expanded. A woman in a white dress lay unconscious by the riverbank, her face deathly pale. No one knew where she had drifted from. The shrubs at the bank had stopped her from floating farther downstream.

A large patch of blood stained the clothing over her chest, and her dress was torn to tatters.

"Is she dead?"

Jiang Ding silently wondered.

This world did not appear very safe.

The woman was three or four kilometers from here. She might have held her breath underwater for a long time to evade those men in black.

This woman may have information about the outside world that I need.

Also, she seems severely injured. That's good. It means she has no power to resist and will be easy to control. If she's hostile, I can kill her directly... That doesn't seem right, does it? Killing is illegal.

Jiang Ding considered it.

No.

It was not illegal.

The Immortal Sect Law clearly stipulated that if an extraterritorial lifeform attacked an Immortal Sect citizen, the penalty was death. This was one of the most fundamental legal provisions.

Jiang Ding gripped his sword hilt and stopped hesitating.

He traveled cautiously, constantly watching for targets the drone might overlook. Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened.

Grabbing her dress, he lifted her without much effort and laid her on the ground.

He touched her forehead. It was icy cold. Her abdomen was slightly swollen, and there was a horrifying wound at her waist, deep enough that he could nearly see her internal organs. It was blackish and gave off a fishy, rotten stench. She had clearly been poisoned.

But upon closer inspection, her chest was still rising and falling faintly, moving only once every several seconds.

"She's still alive!"

Jiang Ding no longer hesitated. He cleared the foreign matter from her nose and mouth, found several stones to prop beneath her abdomen, and pressed repeatedly on her chest with both hands using medical first-aid techniques.

Every Immortal Sect citizen was a potential soldier, and they had all received training in such battlefield first-aid methods.

Several minutes later,

"Bleurgh!"

Gong Caiyu suddenly vomited out a heap of things: waterweed, half-raw meat, and some sticky sludge that ran down her neck.

She barely opened her eyes and saw an unfamiliar youth continuously pressing on her chest.

"Lecher!"

Gong Caiyu instantly flushed red. She mobilized the last thread of her inner force and randomly grabbed a sharp stone with her left hand.

"Oh?"

At that moment, the youth in green stared at her.

There were no threatening words, much less killing intent. It merely seemed as though certain legal provisions had begun operating, about to carry out something entirely lawful—a small matter an Immortal Sect citizen ought to do.

A chill abruptly ran through Gong Caiyu's heart.

"Lecher... where?"

Her little hand unconsciously moved away from the sharp stone. She revealed an exceptionally sweet smile, looked around, and said in surprise, "Young master, I just saw a lecher, but I can't find him now. Did you see him?"

Jiang Ding looked at her indifferently without speaking.

"Since you didn't see him, then forget it."

"Young master, thank you."

Gong Caiyu pressed her hands together and said, "Thank you for saving me again."

"Mm."

Jiang Ding sheathed his sword.

He grabbed the hand she had lowered and sensed it for a moment.

"Ah..."

Gong Caiyu cried out but did not resist, turning her head away.

"Your heart and pulse are both extremely weak... Your condition is terrible." Jiang Ding released her hand. "Can your inner force expel the poison from your body and stop the bleeding?"

He viewed her as something like an injured female classmate and had no messy thoughts.

"No... I have no strength..." Gong Caiyu circulated a little inner force, despair appearing in her eyes. Calmly, she said, "My meridians are severely damaged, my inner force is nearly gone, and I've been poisoned by the Golden Saber Sect's Corpse-Rotting Poison. I'm going to die. Thank you, young master, for saving my life."

"My Seven Profound Sect has endured for a thousand years, yet now it..."

"Eat this."

Jiang Ding interrupted her self-pity and tossed her an oral dose of Yunnan Baiyao. "Try it. You're going to die anyway."

It truly was just a try.

Yunnan Baiyao was a broadly used medicine. It could treat external injuries, detoxify, kill bacteria, and had all kinds of effects, but all of them were average. Its effectiveness was difficult to judge.

Unless it was a spirit pill.

But Jiang Ding only had one: the Heavenly King Life-Saving Pill his mother had bought with half a year's wages. He could not give it to a stranger.

If the Yunnan Baiyao did not work, then that would be her fate.

"Thank you for your kindness, young master."

Gong Caiyu revealed a sweet smile and softly said, "Sadly, the poison has already seeped into my bones and blood. There is no saving me now... Ugh—"

For someone on the verge of death, every second was a lifeline. Seeing that she was still prattling on, Jiang Ding said nothing. One hand pinched her cheeks while the other opened the oral Yunnan Baiyao and poured it in.

Gong Caiyu only felt a warm current melt into her abdomen and spread through her limbs and bones. Her numb meridians and the wound at her waist actually began to sting faintly.

"What miraculous medicine is this?"

Gong Caiyu's eyes widened. She had never heard of it.

Jiang Ding shook his head, put away the medicine bottle printed with a trademark and instructions, and slipped it into his pocket.

He guessed that perhaps, for this world, it was an entirely new antidote. Their pathogens had no resistance to it, which was why it worked exceptionally well.

After all, the Immortal Sect cultivated immortality.

"Rest and heal."

Seeing that she was about to speak again, Jiang Ding waved to stop her.

This person had intelligence value. He was extending her grace in order to ensure that her future information would be more accurate.

Gong Caiyu looked at him gratefully, sat cross-legged, and closed her eyes to restore her inner breath.

Jiang Ding rose to his feet, took out a small shovel, and walked toward a blade of grass he had never seen before. He carefully pushed aside the soil and dug out every last thread of root bit by bit.

After digging up one plant, he went to search for the next.

The sun gradually rose, sunlight falling on his face as beads of sweat reflected the light.

After digging continuously for more than three hours, Jiang Ding saw that the woman sitting cross-legged on the ground had yet to awaken. He walked to the shallow water by the river and silently stood still.

Like a statue, he did not move for more than ten minutes.

Clang!

Suddenly, a streak of sword light flashed, piercing straight through a carp as large as an arm. No matter how it struggled, it could not escape.

"The resources are so abundant."

Jiang Ding sighed. With a light flick of his sword, the carp flew into the air. Three more streaks of sword light flashed, sending scales, gills, and innards flying away, while he casually scraped off a handful of black membrane.

He skewered the carp with his sword, then found a dead tree as thick as a bowl and dragged it back.