Awareness

Liu Dingchun shook his head. "No more."

Hearing that, Li Sheng relaxed slightly. Aside from the three of them, no one in the Ninth Army's Ninth Camp should know that Ding Chen was Ninth Prince Ning Chen.

Of course, the Grand General of the Ninth Demon Suppression Army also knew Ding Chen's identity.

Though Pei Menglong was formidable, he probably had never seen the Ninth Prince.

"You just said there's a three-thousand-strong demon army in Blood River Forest, led by a Demon Man?" Li Sheng raised his brows.

Liu Dingchun nodded. "That's right. Pei Menglong said it himself. He even wanted our Head Chef Army to wipe out that group of demons, but I refused."

"Why refuse!"

Li Sheng shot Liu Dingchun a glance. "This young master still needs to earn merit. Go find Pei Menglong and tell him the Head Chef Army will send a hundred-man unit to assist them in exterminating the demons."

"All right."

Liu Dingchun nodded, but the matter felt strange to him, and he could not help asking, "Young Master Sheng, forgive me for saying one more thing."

"Go on."

"I don't know how Ding Chen offended you, but he's just a nobody. Why are you targeting him so fiercely?"

"Brother Liu, you'd best not be too curious." A cold gleam flashed through Li Sheng's eyes as he continued, "If there's any news of demons ahead, just send someone to inform this young master. As for everything else, help this young master report his military merits."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Liu Dingchun nodded repeatedly.

Though his official rank was higher than Li Sheng's, he could not suffer in the military camp forever. Sooner or later, he would retire from the army and return to the capital to take up another post. By then, he would still have to climb step by step from some small position.

If he built a good relationship with Li Sheng, he could avoid many twists and turns.

Cook Soldier camp.

Ding Chen went to Liao Zipeng to collect seventy-four healing pills, giving one to each person.

No one was willing to take them. They carefully tucked them away, planning to use them only when they were injured on the battlefield next time.

Afterward, Ding Chen and Chen Xian sent the thirteen severely wounded Cook Soldiers to the Disabled Soldiers Camp.

Once the thirteen recovered from their injuries, they could apply to retire from the army.

After returning to camp, Ding Chen did not idle around. He immediately led the sixty men in training.

It was not until evening that Liao Zipeng had Second Lieutenant Lu send over thirty-nine men.

The situation was the same as last time.

All thirty-nine were injured, but their arms and legs were intact. Once they recovered, they could still return to the battlefield.

After assigning them their places, Ding Chen led everyone in blood-moving cultivation.

Chen Xian went to Ding Chen and pulled him aside, asking, "Brother Ding, what realm comes after the Jade Sea Realm?"

Ding Chen looked surprised. "You don't know?"

Chen Xian nodded awkwardly.

Ding Chen was even more astonished. This guy did not even know the cultivation realms—how had he reached the Jade Sea Realm?

"I only know Awareness, Dao Foundation, and Soaring. I don't know anything beyond that."

"Awareness, Dao Foundation, Soaring?"

Chen Xian repeated the words. The reason he had come to ask Ding Chen was to gain some direction first. That way, deducing the later techniques might save him some Experience Points.

Ding Chen nodded. "I don't understand Awareness or Dao Foundation too well either, but I heard that once Dao Foundation is formed, one can tread through the void, even stand suspended in the air and look down upon a whole region."

"As far as I know, among the Great Ning Dynasty, only one in ten thousand can reach the Soaring Realm."

Chen Xian said in surprise, "That's still quite a lot, isn't it? The Great Ning Dynasty has ten billion people."

Ding Chen shook his head. "They say ten billion, but there are actually only a little over seven billion. And I meant one in ten thousand among martial cultivators."

Chen Xian: "...!"

If it was one in ten thousand among martial cultivators, then the number truly was not that great, though it was not small either.

The Great Ning Dynasty revered martial arts, and there were more than two billion martial cultivators.

By that calculation, more than two hundred thousand had reached the Soaring Realm.

Ding Chen nodded. "There are indeed over two hundred thousand, but they aren't all at Demon-Slaying Pass. They're in the court's Demon Suppression Division, local city defense forces, martial sects, and elsewhere."

"In front of Demon-Slaying Pass, there are at most fifty thousand who have truly reached the Soaring Realm."

Chen Xian frowned. "Is the Soaring Realm that difficult?"

Ding Chen said, "More than difficult—it's extremely difficult. Do you know Pei Menglong, the Little Hegemon of our Ninth Camp?"

Chen Xian nodded. "I've heard of him."

Ding Chen said excitedly, "He's a martial cultivation genius. He's twenty-five this year, at the Soaring Realm, a major general of the Ninth Camp, commanding three thousand Demon Suppression Army soldiers. His terrifying strength is hot on the heels of a lieutenant general's."

"If you can reach Awareness, forge your Dao Foundation, and attain the Soaring Realm, then once a lieutenant general learns of it, he'll at least promote you to commandant."

As he spoke, he patted Chen Xian on the shoulder. "Work hard."

Chen Xian was currently at the Jade Sea Realm. His hopes of reaching the Soaring Realm in the future were very great.

If he reached the Soaring Realm before this battle ended and obtained the post of commandant—

When the army returned triumphant to the capital, he would certainly receive Emperor Ning's commendation.

Returning to a local post as a military official would still be mighty impressive.

As for Ding Chen himself, he might not be able to make anything of himself.

Watching Chen Xian's retreating back, Ding Chen sighed inwardly.

He lowered his head to look at the thumb-sized Jade Gourd in his palm and muttered, "Jade Gourd, Jade Gourd, why has my Ning... why has my fate been so full of hardships?"

Inside the tent.

Chen Xian sat cross-legged and summoned the panel.

His Ox Demon Golden Flame Technique had now reached perfection, and so had his Jade Sea Realm. If he wanted to enter the Awareness Realm, he had to continue deducing the Ox Demon Golden Flame Technique and derive the subsequent cultivation method.

After one hundred months of painstaking deduction, your subsequent Awareness technique for the Ox Demon Golden Flame Technique deduction has failed.

After three hundred months of day-and-night study, you have gained a clue regarding the subsequent Awareness technique of your Ox Demon Golden Flame Technique.

Chen Xian's eyes lit up. He had been pondering Awareness all along, and after spending four hundred months, he had gained a clue.

If he had not asked Ding Chen about it, then had he blindly deduced it himself, even a thousand months might not have yielded a clue.

Finally, after spending 3,000 Experience Points, Chen Xian deduced the Awareness Realm cultivation technique. Its name had only been slightly altered, becoming the Ox Demon Spirit Flame Art.

Martial arts: Ox Demon Spirit Flame Art (Not Initiated)

Experience: 3776 points

Staring at the panel, Chen Xian finally let out a breath of relief.

He studied the technique's contents displayed on the panel carefully and quickly understood.

So-called Awareness meant opening the upper dantian—the sea of consciousness between the brows—and producing spiritual awareness.

This allowed one to observe inwardly and outwardly.

Inwardly, one could observe the Jade Sea, meridians, tendons, bones, skin, and flesh within the body. Outwardly, it was like having eyes that could inspect places beyond one's line of sight.

There was danger in the process of awakening spiritual awareness. At best, one would suffer intermittent mental instability; at worst, one would become an idiot outright.

The gate to the sea of consciousness was rather sturdy. It needed to be forced open with Origin Qi. Too much force would injure the sea of consciousness and the mind, while too little force could not break through Awareness, making it impossible to enter the next realm.

Thus, this realm required grinding away at it. It was truly a water-dripping-through-stone endeavor.

Chen Xian had the panel, so he did not care. He began raising the Ox Demon Spirit Flame Art.

In the blink of an eye, he added 2,000 Experience Points to the technique. It reached the Initiated realm, but his cultivation realm did not improve, and the gate to the sea of consciousness between his brows had not been broken open.

However, the amount of Origin Qi in his Jade Sea had doubled. Overall, it was still progress.

Martial arts: Ox Demon Spirit Flame Art (Initiated)

Experience: 1776 points

Looking at his remaining Experience Points, Chen Xian gritted his teeth and spent another 1,000.

After one thousand months of diligent cultivation, the gate to your sea of consciousness has begun to loosen.

Before Chen Xian could even read the prompt, a deafening shattering sound erupted from between his brows.

Immediately afterward, a three-dimensional human figure appeared in his mind. A crack appeared in the round door at its brow, like a mirror.

The shock left Chen Xian's head somewhat muddled. He swiftly rubbed between his brows, then fixed his gaze on the remaining 766 Experience Points and poured them all into the Ox Demon Spirit Flame Art.