Ning stood before the shelf, surrounded by martial arts manuals whose titles were striking, to say the least.
[Heaven-Piercing Palm]
A single palm capable of shaking heaven and earth. Each strike unleashes a powerful gust of wind.
Price: 500 spirit stones.
[Nine Heavens Burning Blade]
Summon blazing qi upon your blade and bring fiery ruin upon your foes.
Price: 450 spirit stones.
[Sixty-Nine Heavenly Thunders]
Harness the might of heavenly thunder to strike as fast as lightning in the boudoir.
Price: 2,690 spirit stones.
Ning stared at the last one for several seconds.
Then he silently put it back.
Yup, not gonna touch that with a thousand-foot pole.
After the fifth or sixth manual, with each title somehow grander and each description more outrageous than the last, Ning rubbed his temples.
It was finally dawning on him.
He had stumbled upon
the trope
.
The ancient, time-honored curse of xianxia worlds: the cooler the name sounded, the more mundane the technique probably was.
After all, most of the manuals here were only mortal-rank techniques. No matter how enthusiastically the descriptions claimed otherwise, a five-hundred-spirit-stone palm art was not actually going to pierce the heavens. At best, it would probably knock someone backward and make their robes flutter dramatically.
From what several senior brothers had told him, the exaggerated names were practically a trap for inexperienced disciples. With grander names, the probability of disciples with no foreknowledge purchasing them increases drastically.
Alas, information asymmetry was truly dangerous.
Ning continued browsing until he found, tucked away in an inconspicuous corner, a manual whose title was almost painfully mundane by comparison.
[Turtle Breathing Art]
Conceals the user's breath and presence. At the highest level, the practitioner can suppress their vital signs to the point of feigning death.
Price: 600 spirit stones.
Ning's eyes immediately lit up.
It was love at first sight.
There was an old saying in the martial world:
Only speed is unbroken.
As long as one was fast enough, one could remain undefeated through a hundred battles.
That wasn't necessarily true in the cultivation world, where someone sufficiently powerful could probably flatten the entire area you were trying to run through, but at Ning's current level, the principle was sound enough.
Fortunately, he already had Shadow Steps, so another movement technique would be redundant. Turtle Breathing, however, filled an entirely different role.
Concealment.
Once he became an outer sect disciple, leaving the sect on missions would become inevitable. There would be demon beasts, bandits, hostile cultivators, and probably all sorts of other things Ning would rather notice before they noticed him.
Shadow Steps gave him mobility. Turtle Breathing would give him concealment.
The two complemented each other almost perfectly. If he could hide his presence while moving quickly and quietly, he would have far more control over whether to fight, flee, ambush, or simply avoid trouble altogether.
After all, the safest enemy was the one who never realized you were there.
Unfortunately, there was one small problem.
Ning could only choose a single technique with his reward.
He reluctantly returned the Turtle Breathing Art to its place.
As useful as it was, Jade Skin and Icy Meridians took priority. Strengthening his body was already important, but strengthening his meridians would become even more valuable as his cultivation advanced. More importantly, the technique normally cost ten thousand spirit stones.
Ten thousand.
Without the sect's reward, Ning wouldn't be able to afford something like that anytime soon.
Still... that doesn't mean I can't get both.
Ning gave the Turtle Breathing Art one last thoughtful glance before moving on.
He continued browsing, and before long, something else caught his attention. Mixed among the complete mortal-rank manuals were fragments of higher-ranked martial arts—mostly spirit-rank, with even the occasional earth-rank fragment appearing here and there.
The techniques Ning currently practiced were both mortal-rank.
As far as he knew, martial arts followed the same general hierarchy:
Mortal → Spirit → Earth → Heaven.
Mortal-rank martial arts were the foundation. Most were essentially sophisticated mundane martial arts at lower mastery, only revealing their true value once the practitioner became skilled enough to properly incorporate qi. Upon reaching Great Accomplishment, many would develop a true qi-infused killing move.
Spirit-rank techniques went considerably further, possessing more sophisticated methods of circulating and releasing qi, often with several specialized moves built into the art.
As for earth-rank and heaven-rank techniques, Ning's knowledge became much less reliable.
He hadn't even seen a complete earth-rank manual yet, much less a heaven-rank one.
Still, he was certain the sect possessed them somewhere.
The Pure Qi Sect was a Golden Core sect, after all. A heaven-rank technique suitable for Qi Condensation might be exceptionally rare, but a sect of this level couldn't possibly have survived for generations without possessing some truly high-level inheritances.
But for him currently, they could only be dreamt about.
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Even if there were a Heaven-Splitting, Earth-Shattering, Immortal-Murdering Supreme Divine Art sitting somewhere in the sect, Ning doubted they would let a spiritual farmer wander in and borrow it.
After satisfying his curiosity, Ning headed down to the first floor and spent another twenty minutes searching for books related to inner demons. Unfortunately, unlike the technique floors, the ordinary books were far less organized. He searched through several shelves without finding anything particularly useful.
Eventually, he gave up.
There would be time to investigate that later.
For now, Ning returned upstairs, retrieved Jade Skin and Icy Meridians, and carried the manual toward the elder overseeing the Scripture Pavilion.
“Excuse me, Elder. I would like to choose this technique.” Ning respectfully presented the manual to the elder seated behind the counter.
“A body-tempering technique?” The elder glanced at the title and gave an approving nod. “Not bad. At least you know how to choose something worthwhile.”
Jade Skin and Icy Meridians wasn't the most expensive technique available in the pavilion, but at ten thousand spirit stones, it ranked fairly high among the body-refining methods accessible to disciples at Ning's level. More importantly, it had no troublesome prerequisites.
“It’s all thanks to the sect’s teachings,” Ning replied with a polite smile.
“Hmph. I haven't seen those teachings take root in many disciples.”
The elder had watched far too many young disciples receive the opportunity to choose a valuable technique, only to waste it on something with an impressive name and mediocre usefulness. Some became obsessed with powerful-looking offensive arts they weren't suited for, while others inevitably wandered toward the more... questionable dual-cultivation manuals.
Young people. They simply didn't understand the value of an opportunity given freely.
Still, the pavilion could advise disciples, not make their decisions for them.
The elder recorded Ning's choice before handing the manual back. “You may borrow it for seven days. Return it before then. If you're late, you'll be fined according to the pavilion's rules.”
“I understand.” Ning accepted the manual, but instead of leaving, he remained by the counter.
The elder raised an eyebrow. “Something else?”
“Yes, Elder. I wanted to ask about something.” Ning hesitated briefly before continuing. “If a disciple possesses a martial art that isn't recorded in the Scripture Pavilion, can they contribute it in exchange for another technique?”
That was something Ning had begun wondering about while browsing the shelves.
He still possessed the two martial arts he'd brought from home: Shadow Steps and Bone Forging Fist. Despite searching for both earlier, he hadn't found either among the pavilion's manuals. With the sheer number of techniques stored here, that didn't necessarily mean they weren't present, but if even one of them was genuinely missing...
“It depends.” The elder stroked his beard thoughtfully. “The pavilion has no use for another copy of something already in its collection. What techniques do you have?”
“Shadow Steps and Bone Forging Fist.”
The elder's brows furrowed as he searched his memory.
“Bone Forging Fist... yes, we have something by that name.” After another moment, he shook his head. “Shadow Steps, however, doesn't sound familiar. Bring the manual here, and I'll have it verified. If it truly isn't in our records and the technique has some value, the pavilion will compensate you accordingly.”
Ning's mood immediately improved.
“Thank you, Elder.” He cupped his hands respectfully.
He hadn't been particularly confident about the idea. The Scripture Pavilion had accumulated techniques for generations, so the chances of two ordinary mortal-rank martial arts being completely unknown to it couldn't have been very high.
But judging by the elder's reaction, Shadow Steps might actually qualify.
And if it did, Ning's thoughts immediately returned to a certain unassuming manual sitting quietly on one of the shelves upstairs.
Turtle Breathing Art.
His eyes brightened.
Perhaps he wouldn't have to choose after all.
...
Jade Skin and Icy Meridian Technique.
The name alone sounded like something designed specifically for
jade beauties
, yet another species that seemed to exist in abundance throughout the cultivation world.
And, to be fair, Ning wasn't entirely wrong.
The technique was particularly popular among female disciples because of its cosmetic benefits. Tempering the flesh gradually purified the skin and improved one's complexion, while the icy qi helped preserve a youthful appearance. But dismissing it as some glorified beauty technique would be foolish. Its ability to temper the flesh and, more importantly, strengthen the meridians made it one of the more practical body-refining methods available to Qi Condensation cultivators.
Among the techniques accessible to disciples at his level, three were especially popular:
Jade Skin and Icy Meridians
, the
Hundred Treasure Body
, and the
Blood Refining Technique
.
Ning's reasons for choosing the first were simple.
The
Hundred Treasure Body
was powerful and remarkably balanced, but its cultivation required refining a hundred different spiritual materials into the body before reaching completion. Even reading the list of required materials had made Ning's wallet ache.
The
Blood Refining Technique
, meanwhile, focused almost entirely on qi and blood. It offered impressive physical strength, but demanded a naturally robust physique, abundant vitality, and a frankly unreasonable tolerance for pain. Ning had no particular desire to discover exactly how unreasonable.
There were, of course, other options.
The infamous
Sunflower Technique
, for instance.
Ning had read exactly one line of its requirements before calmly returning it to the shelf.
To cultivate this art, one must first sever the root, shedding the distinction between yin and yang...
Nope. Some opportunities in life were simply not meant to be.
As for the strongest body-refining technique available to Qi Condensation disciples, that title belonged to the
Heavenly Lotus Body
. Its description alone placed it far above the others, but there was a rather significant problem: cultivating it required a Heavenly Lotus, an extraordinarily rare spiritual treasure that was nearly extinct in the region.
The moment Ning read that requirement, he had quietly crossed it off his list.
A nearly extinct heavenly treasure required to cultivate an unusually powerful technique? That had
protagonist opportunity
written all over it.
Thus, after comparing cost, requirements, future potential, and availability of resources, Jade Skin and Icy Meridian was the obvious choice.
Besides, having fairer skin and a brighter complexion wasn’t going to
hurt
him, right?
With his decision made, Ning carefully studied the manual until he had committed its instructions to memory.
The first floor consisted of thirty-six movements accompanied by a specialized breathing method. None of the movements appeared particularly difficult on their own, but once performed in sequence, Ning quickly realized why body refinement was considered its own path of cultivation.
He began slowly.
His breathing alternated between short, controlled breaths and long, measured inhales, each synchronized with the extension and contraction of his body. As he moved from one posture to the next, his muscles gradually tightened and heated. Subtle cracking sounds came from his joints, followed by a faint vibration that seemed to travel deeper, through flesh and bone alike.
The real change, however, occurred within his meridians.
With every completed cycle, the breathing method drew a faint thread of cold qi through them. It wasn't enough to hurt, but the repeated circulation left behind a persistent chill, as though icy water were slowly washing through his channels.
By the time Ning completed the thirty-sixth movement, sweat covered his body despite the cold sensation running beneath his skin.
He tried beginning another cycle.
His trembling legs immediately informed him that this was a terrible idea.
“Damn... this is tiring.”
Ning dropped onto the floor and spent several moments simply catching his breath. His muscles ached, his limbs felt strangely heavy, and a tingling cold continued spreading through his meridians.
An hour.
That appeared to be his current limit.
A familiar panel appeared before his eyes.
[Jade Skin and Icy Meridians: 1st Floor (1/100)]
Ning's exhaustion immediately became a little more tolerable.
One point from his first proper training session wasn't bad. At the very least, it confirmed that his physique wasn't particularly unsuitable for the technique.
Then his stomach growled in protest.
Ning sighed.
That was another difference between body refinement and ordinary qi cultivation. Strengthening flesh, bone, and meridians required actual nourishment, and the more intensely one trained, the more resources the body consumed. Ordinary food could replenish some of that expenditure, but spiritual ingredients were far more effective.
Jade Skin and Icy Meridian was even more particular. As he progressed, he would need increasing amounts of ice-attributed spiritual materials to nourish his meridians and support the technique's tempering process.
This brought him back to the same problem as always.
Resources.
“Alas... I really need to reach the fourth stage soon.”
Once he entered the fourth stage of Qi Condensation and became an outer sect disciple, many restrictions currently placed on him would disappear. More importantly, he would finally gain access to seeds for several ice-attributed spiritual plants.
And unlike most disciples who would have to buy the resulting herbs at market price, Ning had ten acres of farmland waiting for him.
...
Thanks for reading~