Weakling Holy Son and Weakling Holy Maiden

"You're so hard to find! Sometimes the marker shows up in the east, sometimes in the south, sometimes in the north, and sometimes you can't be found at all, as if you've vanished without a trace!"

The Kunlun Sacred Land was too far from Chang'an City, and Zhang Xuezhou was also far from the emperor's reach. Over time, he had little concern for the place where he had found to learn his skills along the way.

However, Zhang Xuezhou still held the Emperor and Empress, these top-level cultivators, in high esteem.

Moreover, he occasionally learned fragmented information from Ren Anran, so he didn't have any particular worries about her.

Time flies like an arrow; four or five years have passed since he left the Kunlun Sacred Land.

Listening to Cai Ma's incessant complaints, Zhang Xuezhou could only shake his head repeatedly.

"I am ashamed to say that I have been seriously ill for the past few years and have been seeking medicine, which is why I have not been able to return to the Sacred Land to visit my revered teacher!"

Zhang Xuezhou looked sincere.

He wasn't wrong. Not to mention these past few years, he was already ill before he even debuted and had been seeking medical treatment.

No explanation can compare to the fact that the person is ill.

Cai Ma looked annoyed, but her voice quickly fell silent when Zhang Xuezhou explained the reason.

"If you're sick, you're sick, but couldn't you leave a clue in Chang'an City? That would save me the trouble of wandering around casting spells," Cai Ma whispered a reminder. "Besides, food and lodging are expensive here, and I've run out of money."

"This... this is mainly because I don't know how," Zhang Xuezhou hesitated for a moment before saying, "I haven't learned the technique of leaving a trail; what I learned in the Sacred Land was the technique of avoidance!"

"Oh dear, that's really difficult. Maybe it's your evasion technique that's causing the trouble. I've tried to use my technique repeatedly but I still can't run into you," Cai Ma said with a sudden realization.

"What tracking technique did you use on me?" Zhang Xuezhou asked with great interest.

"The art of fate—as long as I know your birth date and time, or possess your Essence Blood, I can trace your origins!"

"Fate manipulation?"

Zhang Xuezhou had always been interested in tracking techniques.

He had been away from the Kunlun Sacred Land for many years, yet he was still caught and tracked down by Cai Ma on the street. This tracking skill was undoubtedly very strong.

Zhang Xuezhou asked with interest, and Cai Ma didn't hide anything, directly revealing his abilities.

"You're cultivating fate?" Zhang Xuezhou asked curiously.

"I cultivate my acquired destiny," Cai Ma nodded repeatedly.

"It seems there's an innate destiny involved," Zhang Xuezhou said with a smile.

"One's innate destiny is shaped by the times; one can only cultivate oneself in the corresponding era. Since we are not in that era, we can only strive to catch up and pursue what we can achieve through acquired means!"

The era of cultivating destiny was not because the time was particularly suitable for cultivating destiny arts, but because that era possessed the resources to cultivate destiny arts.

As the number of practitioners increases, these resources will be exhausted, and it will become increasingly difficult for anyone to cultivate the life-sustaining techniques according to the corresponding methods.

When Cai Ma talked about his cultivation, he couldn't help but sigh a little, clearly indicating that he had suffered a lot in this kind of cultivation.

"That's really too difficult!"

Zhang Xuezhou looked at Cai Ma with sympathy and quickly abandoned the idea of learning from her.

"Kunlun is tens of thousands of miles away from Chang'an. You have come all this way to see me, so there must be something important to discuss?"

Through conversation, the two became acquainted, and Zhang Xuezhou fully determined the other party's identity, choosing to directly inquire about relevant matters.

"It's very important, but not so important either," Cai Ma said listlessly. "The Emperor sent me down the mountain to check on your cultivation!"

"I never expected my teacher to care about me so much!"

After hearing Cai Ma's words, Zhang Xuezhou couldn't help but ponder them.

One possibility is that the Emperor genuinely cares, while Zhang Xuezhou could weep and wail, claiming that his skull had been opened and seeking the Emperor's elixir to heal the bridge between heaven and earth.

Another possibility is that it was the Emperor's scheme: once Zhang Xuezhou lost his value, the other party would treat him as a Zhang Xuezhou to be discarded.

Having interacted with Ren Anran and the Emperor for so many years, Zhang Xuezhou was well aware that the Emperor was also pushing forward the Mental Strengthening Chapter.

He undoubtedly leaned towards the second interpretation, after all, he had only spent a short time with the Emperor, and it was hard to say that he was particularly affectionate or caring towards him.

The Emperor most likely wanted to check his cultivation progress in order to gain insights for reverse deduction.

"My cultivation is just so-so right now," Zhang Xuezhou said. "The environment here lacks Spiritual Qi and there aren't any powerful cultivation elixirs, so it's very difficult to make rapid progress!"

"That's right, I knew it was difficult to cultivate outside. Finding you a year or two later wouldn't have made much of a difference," Cai Ma said happily. "You don't know that I did a good deed on the way back and even got scolded by the Empress when I ran back to the Sacred Land. Only then did I focus on my journey and travel all the way here. If your cultivation level is just average, it won't have caused any delay!"

"You mean it's better if my cultivation level is lower?" Zhang Xuezhou asked doubtfully.

"If your cultivation level is low but you still want to improve, the Empress says you can come back to the Sacred Land with me," Cai Ma said. "Our Sacred Land has no shortage of medicine; I guarantee you'll reach the Sixth Realm without any problem!"

"Even Sixth Realm cultivation level isn't high, is it?" Zhang Xuezhou said.

"How can the Sixth Realm not be high? It's just one step away from the Seventh Realm. Once you enter the Seventh Realm, you can Spirit Transformation and transcend from mortal to godhood," Cai Ma said. "You haven't experienced this realm, so you have no idea how important it is. I've cultivated diligently for decades, and my dream is to step into the Seventh Realm!"

"You haven't even reached the Divine Ability Realm?"

"What? You haven't even reached the Divine Ability Realm? Your cultivation is so mediocre, how dare you be so arrogant?"

Zhang Xuezhou looked at Cai Ma.

He didn't see any signs of strong Law Power power in Cai Ma.

Zhang Xuezhou had previously thought that Cai Ma's cultivation level was too high, which prevented him from seeing through her. Now, realizing the truth, Zhang Xuezhou felt that Cai Ma didn't actually have any Law Power in her body, but rather a different kind of cultivation 'life force'.

One's destiny is intertwined with two fates; the arts of cultivating destiny and fate are both extremely mysterious.

No one else could tell that Zhang Xuezhou had practiced the art of destiny, let alone judge his level of skill. It was quite normal that Zhang Xuezhou couldn't see through Cai Ma's destiny-telling techniques.

Moreover, Cai Ma's cultivation must have been extremely unorthodox. In order to ensure that his Divine Ability powers were focused on life techniques, he most likely did not cultivate any other techniques.

"So, Cai Ma traveled from the Kunlun Sacred Land to Chang'an City?"

He argued with Cai Ma for a while, and after understanding the situation, he realized that Cai Ma had extraordinary perseverance, as he was able to come to Chang'an City alone from thousands of miles away.

"Didn't the Emperor help you reach the Divine Ability Realm?" Zhang Xuezhou asked casually.

"This level is unpredictable. Besides, I cultivate the art of life, and neither the Emperor nor the Empress has any special experience with it. I can only rely on myself to slowly explore and improve!"

Cai Ma has a bit of a temper, but whenever Zhang Xuezhou asks her a question, she answers quite quickly, completely disregarding the previous disagreement she had with Zhang Xuezhou.

"That's really too difficult!"

Zhang Xuezhou sighed. He thought about Zhu Shiyin, the holy son of the Xieluosi River Holy Land, then about the many Buddhist disciples of the Western Sect, and then about the holy maiden of the Kunlun Sacred Land. He felt that the Kunlun Sacred Land was indeed getting worse with each generation. The strength of this holy maiden was simply not up to par. She would be nothing more than cannon fodder among a group of Sacred Land successors.

"My cultivation is special and difficult, but yours isn't as difficult as mine," Cai Ma said happily. "The Emperor wants you to cultivate faster. If it really doesn't work, you can return to the Sacred Land. When the Hundred-Year Agreement begins, it will be up to you to earn some face!"

"What century-long agreement?"

"Every hundred years, the major Sacred Land select their most outstanding sons and daughters to fight each other," Cai Ma said. "I'm no longer capable; everything depends on you!"

"What can I do?" Zhang Xuezhou asked in surprise. "I've only been learning martial arts in Kunlun for half a month. How can someone like me be allowed to participate?"

"But the Emperor designated you as the Holy Son, so it's definitely you who should step up, right?"

"I'm the Holy Son of the Sacred Land? Are you kidding me? What kind of Holy Son is so pathetic? Are you looking for a scapegoat to die in this battle?"

Zhang Xuezhou originally had some ulterior motives about returning to the Sacred Land to seek some benefits, but after Cai Ma revealed some things, he completely lost any desire to return to the Kunlun Sacred Land.