[Good news, good news!
Tianyang Martial Dao Academy urgently seeks ten second-year teachers. Applicants must have cultivation above Seventh Rank, regardless of gender, and an exceptional understanding of internal cultivation, whether in theory or practice. Generous compensation, meals and lodging included, and opportunities to study the Tianyang Sect's martial arts manuals...
Address: Tianyang Sect outside Phoenix Cry City, Tianyang Martial Dao Academy.]
"What's this?"
After seeing the recruitment advertisement, the martial artists who had bought newspapers that day all began wondering: what was a second year?
The rest was easy enough to understand. They were hiring teachers, with generous compensation, and most importantly, a chance to study the Tianyang Sect's martial arts manuals!
In Goldfish City, Chu Yunshen sat in his courtyard, a long saber and a cup of clear tea resting on the table before him.
Reading the recruitment notice in his newspaper, he began muttering inwardly.
Over half a month ago, news of the Tianyang Sect recruiting disciples had flooded everywhere. He already knew about it.
He had never expected that barely half a month later, they would be hiring teachers too.
The recruitment notice called for a distinctive understanding of internal cultivation.
My understanding is plenty distinctive!
Back in the Cloud Mountain Sect, I found my sense of Qi after cultivating for less than an incense stick's worth of time. Within half a day, I could circulate my internal power through a full cycle. Who didn't call me a genius back then?
In just half a year, I passed through the Eighth-Grade Realm and reached Seventh Rank.
Even the Cloud Mountain Sect's sect leader wanted to take me as his disciple personally. Everyone who saw me called me the future hope of the Cloud Mountain Sect.
And I understand the patterns of internal power circulation perfectly. I can even create my own internal cultivation methods. The one I practice is my own creation.
Just because my internal power couldn't transform into True Qi, every last one of them looked down on me. Fucking hell, Heaven really is jealous of talent!
After several wasted years, he had left the mountain and fallen into wandering the jianghu.
At that thought, Chu Yunshen picked up the saber on the table.
"Just because I can't do it doesn't mean my methods are wrong! Tianyang Sect, wait for me!
"I'll prove to everyone that I simply can't transform True Qi, but I'm not trash! I'll teach the greatest disciples!"
Outside Treasure Dragon City, a middle-aged man who made his living as a bounty hunter was escorting a prisoner to the authorities to collect his reward.
Passing a newspaper stand, he bought a paper as usual.
These days, the Tianyang Daily carried plenty of news and was well informed.
Every issue carried sections on happenings across the jianghu, reporting things like where mountain bandits had appeared or who had been put on the wanted list.
Lately, he had relied on the newspaper to quickly learn where wrongdoers were and head out to catch them sooner.
Bounty hunting was hardly easy work, but calling it hopeless wasn't right either. There were prospects, though the risks were great.
Flipping through that day's newspaper, he too spotted the recruitment notice.
Second-year teachers?
The prisoner he had caught craned his neck to look and said with a grin, "Third Brother, I think you'd be perfect. Look at you, working as a bounty hunter, chasing people down, eating in the wind and sleeping in the dew all day. How exhausting.
"The Tianyang Sect has become famous throughout the world lately, with over two thousand disciples. Why not go teach them martial arts? It says here they want cultivation above Seventh Rank. You're in the Sixth-Rank Realm, and you have a distinctive understanding of internal cultivation.
"You can even improve your family's cultivation method. With talent like that, it'd be a waste not to teach. Surely it beats catching me."
His name was Zhou Lei, nicknamed Three Stones. He had a modest reputation in the martial world and went by Third Brother.
Zhou Lei mulled it over and felt there was something to it.
The prisoner continued, "Third Brother, I really must talk some sense into you. As a bounty hunter, you only catch people like us. I'm a thief. Catching me will, at most, keep me from committing crimes for a year or two and protect a few wealthy merchants' money.
"But those disciples need you. They need a great hero like you to guide their cultivation, teach them to do good, and raise them into capable people.
"The more you train, the more experts like you there'll be in the jianghu someday. Once your students blossom like peach and plum trees all over the world, where will people like us have any room to survive, right?
"A little of your time, happiness for ten thousand homes!"
Zhou Lei narrowed his eyes at the fellow. He did have a point.
He really did have a distinctive understanding of internal power and its cultivation.
But he worried whether a great sect like the Tianyang Sect would let him come.
Sword Immortal Zheng was a Third Rank expert, while he was only Sixth Rank. Would he do?
"Am I up to it?" he asked hesitantly.
The thief was so anxious his teeth ached. He wished he could tie him up and take him there, though he couldn't beat him in a fight.
"Third Brother, doesn't it say right there? They want above Seventh Rank. At Sixth Rank, you meet the requirements perfectly." Afraid he would keep hesitating, the thief added, "Besides, they said generous compensation, meals and lodging included. Isn't that better than eating in the wind and sleeping in the dew like this?"
Zhou Lei was tempted. Besides, his True Qi cultivation had been relatively slow these past few years because he lacked a good cultivation method. The Tianyang Sect could also provide Tianyang cultivation methods to practice. It truly was charcoal delivered in the snow.
"Then shall I give it a try?"
"Try it! Hurry over. They're only hiring ten people!"
"All right."
Seeing him agree, the thief hurriedly smiled. "Then get going, Third Brother. It's a long way from here to the Tianyang Sect. If you're late, you might miss your turn."
Zhou Lei grabbed the thief. "You little rascal. I was wondering why you were being so nice, urging me on and on. So you wanted to escape?"
"Aren't I looking out for you?" the thief said aggrievedly. "You can't have both the fish and the bear's paw. If you take me to the authorities first, you'll be late getting there.
"So many people read the newspaper. If you don't hurry, what chance will you have?"
"No!" Without hesitation, Zhou Lei dragged him onward. "If I let you escape, how could I set an example as a teacher? Move faster. Don't delay my job application."
The thief was speechless. What a stubborn fool.
Gu Qianshan stared intently at the words in the newspaper.
Both practice and theory count?
He was not a martial artist. He was a physician.
He did not want to be a physician. His childhood dream had been to practice martial arts.
But his constitution left him unable to condense internal power. Every time he found his sense of Qi, his meridians rejected it before he could condense it into internal power.
For this reason, he studied meridians and the dantian every day, hoping to cure his own condition.
He most enjoyed treating martial artists with internal injuries, precisely so he could examine different meridians and the circulation patterns of different kinds of internal power and True Qi.
Although a physician could not heal himself, all these years of research had given him an exceptional understanding of and experience with the paths of the various meridians and the cultivation of various kinds of internal power.
He felt he lacked only an opportunity, a chance to put his theoretical knowledge into practice.
Although I can't cultivate myself, I can put my theories into practice through other people.
But the requirements printed there called for cultivation above Seventh Rank.
He did not know whether he would qualify.
After hesitating for a long time, he felt he ought to make the trip.
He only hoped someone at the Tianyang Sect would hear him out!
Inside the Tianyang Sect, in the recruitment room.
Zhang Qingyuan and Li Moran sat in chairs, with a small table before them and another chair across it.
Ever since the recruitment notice had been published, applicants had streamed endlessly into Tianyang Martial Dao Academy.
But most were merely passing themselves off as qualified. Finding genuine talent was like fishing a needle out of the sea.
"Hello. Please tell us your name, age, martial cultivation, and your understanding of internal cultivation."
"Uh... my name is Zhao Dashan. I'm forty this year, in the Seventh-Rank Realm. As for internal cultivation, well, you just practice what's in the manual."
"Mm. Anything else?"
"You just practice. Find your sense of Qi, then gather that sense of Qi into your meridians and dantian..."
Zhao Dashan gazed at the two of them expectantly, his eyes clear.
"Then how would you tell which cultivation method suited a boy?"
"Who would know that!"
"All right, you may leave."
"Sure thing."
Watching him walk out, Old Fifth slapped the table and looked at Zhang Qingyuan. "'Sure thing'?"
Zhao Dashan, who had just stepped outside, returned and asked blankly, "Did I pass?"
Old Fifth said, "No!"