Chapter 39: The Real Monster
Xue Forgetfulness looked at Li Daoji's slightly trembling lips, unable to believe that this was true.
"Monster..."
Only after several breaths did he calm down and spit out these two words.
In the Scripture Scroll Cave, Nangong Caiyang and several students from the Green Vine Sword Academy were also trembling lightly, looking at Ding Ning with the gaze of one looking at a true monster.
How was this possible!
In their impression, in the rumors known to the outside world, from the early years of Yuanwu to the present, only two monsters, An Baoshi of the Spirit Void Sword Sect and Pure Liuli of the Minshan Sword Sect, had managed to do so, and even the Sword Fiend Fang Xiumu had taken dozens of days to achieve Xuanxuan.
Knowing that this was a fact that was happening in front of her eyes and not a false image in her perception, Nangong Caiyang, who was in the midst of intense shock and disbelief, still couldn't help but look at Ding Ning, who was in the midst of opening his eyes, and asked in a trembling voice, "You've already opened up the Sea of Qi?"
Ding Ning did not answer her question at first.
He frowned slightly as he felt the flow of the five qi in his qi sea, vaguely sensing that this top level gongfu of the Selfless Palace followed an extremely domineering route.
Then he noticed the beam of light that fell in front of him.
The beam was still soft and bright, yet it had changed slightly from before, whereas the previous beam was more like pure sunlight that had been filtered, the current beam was clearly tinged with the light of gemstones.
He then reacted to the fact that night had fallen outside.
"I can't believe it took this long."
He muttered to himself.
This statement of his was completely and genuinely felt, and it was definitely because the flow of the five qi in this sect, the "Chopping the Three Corpses and the Selfless Innate Elemental Nerve", was very different from the vast majority of gong methods, or else in the case of his qi sea actually already existing, it wouldn't have taken so long at all to guide the five qi into the qi sea.
And it was only half a day's cultivation, the five qi had just been injected into the Qi Sea, and at the moment, he had some feeling of weakness in his hands and feet, such exertion made him understand that this gong method did have something very unique, the true qi and true essence formed in the future would definitely contain a more violent power than ordinary gong methods.
If it was an ordinary gongfu, he was afraid that he would be able to pass through the Xuan in less than even half an incense burner's time.
It was just that this sentimental whisper of his at the moment fell on the ears of Nangong Caiyang and the others, but it had a very different meaning.
"It took so long?"
Nangong Cai Beans' body shivered, and she couldn't help but stretch out a single finger to point at Ding Ning, "If you really have already passed through Xuan, and have already opened the Sea of Qi...do you know how long it takes for the average cultivator to get to this point?"
Ding Ning looked at her one trembling white finger, not knowing what to say.
I'm not an average cultivator?
Although this sentence was true, at the moment it fell on her ears, she was afraid that it was a little too arrogant and pretentious.
Looking at him with a slightly furrowed brow, Nangong Caiyang was the one who began to sober up.
"Could it be that you are also a true monster like those of the Minshan Sword Sect and Spirit Void Sword Sect?"
She breathed deeply, retracted her trembling fingers, and said with mixed emotions, "You chose a technique like the Spirit Source Great Dao True Explanation because it's the easiest for you to understand, the simplest, and allows you to break through the realm of cultivation very quickly?"
Ding Ning smiled apologetically, he felt that there was simply no way to explain these things to her like that, and that the cultivation itself of any cultivator was supposed to be a strictly kept secret.
However, as Nangong Caiyang looked at his apologetic smile, she was of the opinion that this was because he was sorry because his talent exceeded theirs by too much. In her own mind, she also found an explanation for the reason why Ding Ning had chosen such an ordinary technique as the True Explanation of the Spirit Source Great Dao. Because of Ding Ning's physical problems, because his lifespan wasn't as long as other people's, he had to choose this relatively simple gong method that could progress a bit faster as much as possible.
"It seems that you are indeed a true monster."
She lowered her head in a somewhat sad and disheveled manner, "It seems that I shouldn't have doubted your abilities from the start and didn't have to meddle at all."
Among the several Green Vine Sword Academy students behind Nangong Cai Beans whose faces were all slightly white, a teenager who looked the most dignified flickered his gaze, and just couldn't help but move his steps.
"Deer End Dragon, if you want to gain some goodwill from this person...I advise you not to step forward." However, right at this moment, a teenager beside him who was the shortest and had a loose cloak of black hair, but in a voice that only the two of them could hear, he softly said, "It's already too late to express some friendliness now."
Upon hearing these words, the body of the teenager named Deer End Dragon immediately froze, his heart filled with remorse.
He knew that the other party was right with these words.
Although this wine store teenager was young, yet he seemed to possess calm eyes that saw through everything, outside the mountain gate, when Nangong Cai Beans had stood up for him, they didn't think much of this teenager, and now, because of the horrifying talent that the other party had demonstrated, if they went back to befriending him, they thought that they wouldn't be able to gain any friendship from the other party.
For them, some polite words on the surface, simply meaningless, might as well not fall their own face.
......
Several students from the Green Vine Sword Academy continued to start searching for the cultivation knowledge and experience they wanted, and in order to throw away as much as possible of the complex emotions of shock, loss, and remorse that were intertwined with each other, they even deliberately moved further away from Nangong Caiyang and Ding Ning.
Ding Ning was already feeling hungry.
He had even smelled the aroma of food outside of the Scripture Scroll Cave.
He was stunned, and then whirled around to smell that natural faint virginal fragrance of Nangong Caiyang's body.
A trace of slight astonishment surfaced in his heart, and he immediately reacted that this should be the other changes brought about by the "Chopping Three Corpses and No Self Native Origin Nerve".
This top-ranked technique of the former Great Han Dynasty had already sharpened his perception of color and fragrance when he had only just passed through Xuan.
He did not reject this change in perception, and after taking a deep breath, he was about to stand up and walk outside the Jing Shi Cave to eat, for him, today's cultivation had already come to an end.
If the White Sheep Cave didn't have any special arrangements, he would choose to will the Sycamore Fall's wine store.
However, right at this moment, he noticed the tome that Nangong Caiyang was turning over in his hands.
He hesitated slightly and looked at Nangong Cai Beans, who had her head hanging low, and said softly, "What's the big problem above your cultivation?"
Nangong Cai Beans, whose emotions were still somewhat unsettled, had her body slightly shaken as she raised her head and looked into Ding Ning's eyes as she said with some skepticism, "You want to help me?"
"Everyone's cultivation is different." Ding Ning looked at her and said seriously, "At most, I will discuss this with you, as to whether it can be useful to you, that is something unknown."
"It doesn't matter even if it can't help me." Feeling Ding Ning's true goodwill, Nangong Caiyang instantly became inexplicably happy. Young girls of her age tended to have the best imaginings of friendship, and she was afraid that most of her loss just now no longer lay in the difference between Ding Ning's talent and hers, but rather in the fact that in the face of her goodwill, Ding Ning had maintained an attitude of respect and distance.
"There's something wrong with my senses ." Thinking that the other party was a true monster again, having passed through Xuan in half a day, and that she had even decided to pick her own techniques, she became a little more energized again, quickly adding.
"Is it a problem with the perception of Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi?" Ding Ning looked at her glowing eyes and asked seriously.
"Yes." Nangong Cai Beans also nodded seriously, "My cultivation has already reached the second realm of Upper Grade Marrow Replacement, and when I reach this realm, I can manage to perceive heaven and earth yuanqi, and I have done so, because from the second realm of Qi Refinement realm to the third realm of True Elemental Realm, the key to breaking through the realm lies in whether or not you are able to identify the yuanqi that can merge with your own body's True Elemental Qi from the heaven and earth yuanqi in your surroundings, and luring the heaven and earth yuanqi into your body is the key, as long as one is able to draw some Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi into the body, there won't be any problems with the fusion of True Qi and Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi."
Ding Ning glanced at the tome spread out in front of her, "Do you not feel the existence of heaven and earth yuanqi at all, or is it a completely chaotic mess if you can't feel the difference between heaven and earth yuanqi?"
Nangong Cai Beans shook her head and said softly, "If that was the case, I'm afraid that my master teacher and I wouldn't have been in that much of a hurry, I do feel the existence of heaven and earth yuan qi, and I can even feel that each and every heaven and earth yuan qi is different as well, yet in my perception, it seems as if each and every heaven and earth yuan qi is resisting me, as if each and every heaven and earth yuan qi is not close to me. "
"Maybe it's because of the problem with the physique, when my father cultivated, he had the same problem as me. He was stuck in the second to third realm for seven years." After a pause, Nangong Cai Beans then said in a worried voice, "It was because of this concern that he did not allow me to cultivate the Ten Thousand Waves True Water Skill, which he specialized in, and instead, he allowed me to cultivate the Green Tree True Skill of the Green Vine Sword Academy. However, I'm still experiencing the same problem as him, I broke through from the first realm to the upper grade of the second realm, the fastest within the students of our Green Vine Sword Academy, it's just that if I were stuck at this stage for seven years as well, I'd probably be slower than the vast majority of the people."
Ding Ning nodded as he reached out his hand and closed the tome in front of Nangong Caiyang, "Subtle Discriminations of Yuan Qi Types," he softly read out the name of this tome before frowning and asking seriously, "So you came to the White Sheep Cave Scripture Scrolls Cave because you wanted to see whether or not the tomes and some of the notes here could give you bring some inspiration?"
Nangong Cai Beans nodded, "My father's broken realm didn't have any special enlightenment either, he just naturally felt the heaven and earth yuan qi enter his body at a dangerous juncture of a battle, if I can't find out some reasons, perhaps what awaits me is a miserable encounter that will last even longer than seven years."
If one was stuck in the second realm for seven years, this would indeed be tragic.
Especially looking at the individuals beside him surpassing them and leaving them far behind, one might simply despair.
Ding Ning pondered carefully.
"There seems to be a lot of unique insights in these two notes, take a closer look?"
He quickly stood up and flipped through more than a dozen volumes, eventually picking two and placing them in front of Nangong Caiyang, saying earnestly, "Take your time to look at them, I'll go out and get something to eat first, and then I'll have the possibility of going home."
Notes of the Master of Bashan Banana Pond, Treatise on the Enlightened Heavens
Surprised, Nangong Cai Beans looked at these two volumes of what seemed to be just random notes and flipped them open.
