"Chen Beiwu wins!" the homeroom teacher praised.
Ignoring the applause from the students below, Xu Ziqing stared straight at Chen Beiwu. "How did you do that?"
"What?" Chen Beiwu asked.
"Don't play dumb." Xu Ziqing rolled her eyes at him as she walked off the stage. "Water-Gathering Technique alone couldn't fool my perception."
Chen Beiwu smiled and spoke frankly. "Blazing Flame Pull is tricky, with seven different variations, but whenever you change forms, your Magic Power hesitates for half a moment as it passes through your Shanzhong Acupoint. Your perception drops at that moment, too."
To be fair, if Xu Ziqing hadn't trusted her Divine Sense perception so much, it would have been difficult for him to win so quickly.
"So you've mastered Water Shadow Convergence, too?" Xu Ziqing stopped in her tracks and turned back in surprise.
Water Shadow Convergence was a First Tier top-grade Variant Art of the same Tier as Blazing Flame Pull, and an advanced variation of the First Tier Upper Grade Water-Gathering Technique.
The flowing-water clone gathered by the Water-Gathering Technique had one flaw: it couldn't move.
The flowing-water clone created by Water Shadow Convergence, on the other hand, could move freely and was indistinguishable from the real person. It could also conceal the caster's aura while confusing the opponent's Divine Sense.
It had been half a month since she broke through to the Seventh Layer of Qi Refining, and she had only just managed to get started with Blazing Flame Pull. Yet Chen Beiwu had learned Water Shadow Convergence within days of breaking through to Qi Refining, and could use it skillfully in actual combat.
No wonder Teacher Wang Kui had publicly called Chen Beiwu a Spell Art prodigy, and considered him the most talented student at Shouhe No. 2 Middle School when it came to cultivating Spell Arts.
"This Spell Art isn't hard. You just have to look at it once." Chen Beiwu glanced at her in confusion, as if wondering why she would ask such a question.
Xu Ziqing's eye twitched. She nearly failed to maintain the refined bearing of a young lady from a distinguished family.
What a joke.
As the saying went, beyond seven steps, Spell Arts were fast; within seven steps, they were both accurate and fast.
Before contracting a Companion Beast, Qi Refining cultivators basically relied on Spell Arts to fight.
Whoever mastered Spell Arts and could use them flexibly in battle would claim the final victory.
But Spell Arts were difficult to master, and it was hard to draw upon the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth through them.
Immortal Alliance cultivators believed that instead of wasting time learning Spell Arts and competing for momentary wins, it was better to spend that time comprehending the Beast-Borrowing Cultivation Dao.
After all, once Qi Refining cultivators contracted Companion Beasts, they would naturally gain ways to protect themselves.
Compared with cultivating the Great Dao and attaining longevity, mere Spell Arts were utterly insignificant.
But if every cultivator had Chen Beiwu's talent for mastering Spell Arts so quickly, most Qi Refining cultivators probably wouldn't mind spending time cultivating Spell Arts, then using them in battle to enhance their Companion Beasts with all sorts of buffs.
"Not hard, huh? Fine, fine, fine. If you're so good, learn Blazing Flame Pull, too." Xu Ziqing tossed a Spell Art Jade Slip backward with her right hand, and it landed in Chen Beiwu's palm.
Chen Beiwu: "???"
He wasn't trying to show off. Comprehending Spell Arts really wasn't difficult for him.
Back when he had tried to learn the Nine-Breath Qi Ingestion Divine Ability, he had listened to a statue preach in his dreams for a full Five Hundred Years before he finally managed to enter the gates by sheer luck.
Although Chen Beiwu didn't know exactly how high the Tier of the Nine-Breath Qi Ingestion Divine Ability was, he was certain of one thing.
After receiving that instruction, what Qi Refining cultivators found difficult even to begin learning-a First Tier top-grade Variant Art-was as simple as a basic addition problem to him. One glance was enough for him to roughly understand how it worked.
As for the Nine-Breath Qi Ingestion Divine Ability, Chen Beiwu could only use it for now. He had no idea how it worked, let alone understood the Great Dao contained within it.
But he dared to say this: if learning a First Tier top-grade Variant Art was as hard as solving a simple math problem, then learning the Nine-Breath Qi Ingestion Divine Ability was as hard as deciphering an obscure and incomprehensible math Heavenly Book.
"You're really giving me Blazing Flame Pull?" Chen Beiwu asked in surprise.
The Immortal Alliance Official Website contained knowledge from sects across the world, even collecting the Immortal Arts of the legendary Five Great Grotto-Heavens, but cultivators had to spend Spirit Origin to exchange for them.
Ordinary cultivators who wanted to obtain Spirit Origin recognized by the Immortal Alliance had to take Spirit Stones to a local Immortal Alliance Bank and exchange them at a one-to-one rate. In other words, one Low-Grade Spirit Stone was worth one Spirit Origin.
Blazing Flame Pull was a First Tier Fire Element top-grade Spell Art. Its exchange price on the Immortal Sects' official website was as high as five hundred Low-Grade Spirit Stones per person.
That's right. The genuine Spell Arts collected by the Immortal Alliance Official Website could only be learned by the person who exchanged for them. They couldn't be passed on privately.
If the person's family wanted to learn them, they had to spend Spirit Stones to exchange for them on the Immortal Alliance Official Website.
Those who took chances and dared to break the rules generally died under the Immortal Alliance Laws.
That was precisely why the Immortal Alliance could obtain huge quantities of Spirit Stones from cultivators every year without doing anything but sharing knowledge of cultivation.
As the Immortal Alliance's rule grew longer, Spirit Origin gradually replaced Spirit Stones, becoming the most trusted currency for transactions between cultivators.
Still, there were always cultivators who refused to be controlled by the Immortal Alliance. More accurately, they were cultivators driven to ruin by Cultivation Loans. They went around bare-assed and unafraid of death, preferring to shoplift rather than pay with Spirit Origin.
Some particularly extreme cultivators even fell into wicked cultivation, causing disturbances throughout Heaven's Abyss Star, until they were ultimately suppressed by experts from the Law Enforcement Bureau.
Chen Beiwu definitely didn't dare to shoplift. Every First Tier Spell Art he knew had been taught at Shouhe No. 2 Middle School, with the school's Spell Art teachers as witnesses.
As Teacher Wang Kui's prized student, Chen Beiwu could often get extra lessons and study First Tier Variant Arts that his classmates couldn't even access, but they were limited to Water and Wood Element arts with little killing power.
Blazing Flame Pull, however, was widely regarded as the most compatible, most destructive, and most versatile Spell Art among First Tier top-grade Fire Element Spell Arts.
Its advanced Spirit Art, Blazing Dragon Shatter, was even more remarkable. Its power was immense; if it landed a direct hit, it could even break through the flawless defenses of a Foundation Establishment Late Stage expert.
Even for Xu Ziqing, who came from the Fallen Dragon Xu Family, a Blazing Flame Pull was a rather precious gift.
"Of course." Xu Ziqing's eyes were like water as she looked at Chen Beiwu with a beaming smile.
Chen Beiwu didn't refuse. He thanked her.
He wasn't a blockhead. In their everyday interactions, he could sense the goodwill Xu Ziqing and Xu Lingling showed him.
An ordinary person who had two beautiful women with distinct charms and impressive family backgrounds approach him with friendly intentions might be torn, not knowing which one to choose.
But Chen Beiwu was different. His way of handling it was simple: he never made the first move, and he never turned anyone down.
As long as he didn't explicitly reject them, no girl would get hurt, much less grow to hate him out of love.
The only reason Chen Beiwu was so cautious was that cultivation clans were not to be trifled with.
Cultivation Lineages could be strong or weak. Three generations made a family of standing, five a Financial Clan, nine a Foundation Establishment Lineage, and only after more than twenty generations could one be called a Golden Core Aristocratic Clan. (The Immortal Alliance counted a hundred years as one generation.)
A Foundation Establishment Rogue had a lifespan limit of between three hundred and five hundred years.
If a clan could raise another Foundation Establishment Rogue within four or five generations-that is, before the clan's Foundation Establishment expert died-it could continue to bless four or five more generations, and be called a Foundation Establishment Lineage.
A Golden Core Aristocratic Clan was even more formidable. It needed a Golden Core True Person at its helm, and its lineage had to continue for two thousand years. Such a force was a giant in a small place like Far Sky County.
Although Xu Ziqing wasn't a direct descendant of a Golden Core Aristocratic Clan, but was Born of a Concubine, she could still rely on the clan's reputation to make many cultivators work for her and do things ordinary people couldn't imagine.
For example, make a genius Qi Refining cultivator disappear without anyone knowing.
Before you continue