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"Did I hear you right? Master? Tian Ye's already broken through to the 2nd Layer? In just 2 weeks?"
Sun He's mouth gaped in shock.
After all, Tian Ye took more or less one whole year to break through from a mortal to the 1st layer and now, he broke through again from the 1st Layer to the 2nd Layer within two weeks? How does that make sense?
The Second Elder, Qin Fu, looked at Sun He's reaction in amusement, although they had known each other for two weeks, he had never seen his disciple react like this before.
"Master, please tell me how he did it!" Sun He pouted, acting like a spoiled child, his hands tugging and pulling onto his master's white robes.
Qin Fu just grinned and replied, "To be more accurate, he broke through last week, so he broke through from 1st Layer to 2nd Layer of Qi Refinement Realm within 1 week."
"What? You're kidding, right? Master?" Sun He muttered in disbelief, and was even more shocked when heard this. It's not two weeks but one?!
Qin Fu snorted in displeasure, "How could I lie to you? Am I the kind of master who lies to his disciple?"
Sun He looked down and apologized, "I was wrong, master. I'm just… curious…"
Qin Fu laughed out loud the next second, replying playfully, "Alright, I won't tease you anymore, it's just that your reaction is too amusing. I've never seen you react so shocked before, you always seemed thoughtful and mature."
"Master!" Sun He shouted angrily. After being taken care of by Qin Fu for a while, his relationship with him was that of a close grandfather-grandson pair, so shouting like a spoiled grandson was nothing between them and could even be said to be welcomed by Qin Fu.
"Alright! Alright!" Qin Fu decided to finally tell him, "He broke through from 1st to 2nd Layer of Qi Refinement Realm using 7 ten-year old spiritual herbs throughout a week."
"Spiritual Herbs!" Sun He exclaimed as he heard the answer to Tian Ye's cultivation.
He then turned to his master with an expectant look, only to be met by Qin Fu's shake of head.
"No, Disciple Tian has already given you three the most perfect foundation which is to break through to the 1st Layer with manual absorption of spiritual qi. You should continue this way to create a stable foundation for your cultivation. Spiritual herbs can be considered a heretic way of absorbing spiritual qi. It's fast because it's clumped, but it's impure because it's absorbed from another lifeform even if it's just a herb. He'll likely spend the rest of his month or two, refining his impure qi to pure qi causing him to take more time in refinement instead of qi absorption. If he cultivates for an entire day, he might be able to do it in 3 weeks or less but can you do that? I've seen you cultivate, you get fidgety after 3-4 hours, the only reason you've not fallen back in cultivation before is because you saw Disciple Tian's hard work and was there to motivate you, if he's not here to cultivate with you, what will you do?"
Sun He looked at his master with an embarrassed look as he replied shyly, "It's not my fault that I'm easily swayed the people in my surrounding..."
Qin Fu then scolded, "If you have time to be envious about Disciple Tian's cultivation, you should go and cultivate in the way you know how! It's exactly because I know that you're lazy deep inside that I'm here spending my time to watch you cultivate personally or who knows when you'll break through to the 1st Layer unlike Disciple Tian's original prediction of 1 month later than him?"
Sun He immediately entered the meditative state to escape his master's scolding.
Qin Fu just laughed lightly, "I say, you won't be able to keep up with that brother of yours. He'll be far beyond your reach if you keep going at your current pace and the most you'd see is his back."
Sipping tea at the 4th floor of the Elder's Pavilion, Qin Fu looked out the window and saw flashes of light, flickering at the top of the mountain. Seeing this, he couldn't help but mutter in disbelief, "He's already teaching Disciple Tian the third form of the Flowing River Sword Style? That means he's already done with the first form or maybe even the second… What a monster… Sun He, Sun He, my good disciple, if you take your time, you won't even see his shadow let alone his back."
He just sighed slightly and also cultivated to increase his cultivation, motivated by the youths' cultivations that were rushing towards his level at an insane speed.
…
Going down the mountain, Tian Ye, with his 9-year old body, laid powerlessly at the back of Han Yi.
Feeling Tian Ye move slightly as he carried him on his back, Han Yi asked gently, "Are you awake?"
Tian Ye then realized what had happened and then said embarrassingly with a weak voice, "Sorry for making you worry, master."
"What do you mean you're sorry for making me worry? Me worrying about you is my responsibility as your master." Han Yi chuckled as he replied.
Tian Ye, hearing his master's words, couldn't help but feel warm in his heart so he just nonchalantly, and comfortably, laid his head back down on Han Yi's back, "Is that so? Then, I won't hold back, master. Please bring me back to the Seclusion Cave so I can continue increasing my cultivation, master."
"Why do I feel that you're treating me like some sort of horse right now? But… In any case, just relax. Your body right now is riddled with injuries due to your recklessness. You should watch that, you didn't know when to stop when we fought. If I didn't purposely make you faint, you wouldn't have stopped fighting. What would you do if I was an enemy?" Han Yi asked as he went around the mountain slowly, into the Seclusion Cave.
Tian Ye then chuckled, replying cheekily, "I only went that far because master wasn't an enemy, if it was an enemy, I would have conserved my strength more. Me fighting like that is a last resort, with the sole purpose of trying to kill my enemy, no matter what price I had to pay. I knew even before we fought that I was not a match for you, master."
"Is that really the case? That last feint was good, I almost died." Han Yi playfully replied.
"Enough kidding master, I've heard it before from the 2nd Elder… 3rd Elder… Or is it the 4th? I forgot who said it, but the elder said that the sword could cut down a 7th layer, meaning that the lethality of my sword was enough to kill a 7th layer but not a 9th layer. Meaning that there was no chance of me killing you." Tian Ye grumbled in complaint.
Han Yi just smiled and continued to head to the Seclusion Cave, "Who knows, maybe I would have really died."
In another minute or two, they reached the Seclusion Cave and Tian Ye climbed down from Han Yi's back, whilst Han Yi instructed seeing Tian Ye walking towards the box filled with fasting pills. "I won't be giving you any medicinal herbs, do you know why?"
Grabbing a fasting pill from the pill box inside the cave, Tian Ye crushed it with his teeth and replied as he sat down in a lotus position, "Of course, it's to practice the physical body's recovery rate by absorbing spiritual qi just like refilling the spiritual qi within the body if it's used up. Whilst circulation of spiritual qi helps purify the qi… I've noticed that as it circulates… it also helps with recovery of the injured body…"
Seeing Tian Ye who was answering completely, then subconsciously as he entered the meditative state, Han Yi just laughed and praised, "Brilliant."
He then walked out of the cave quietly, as to not disturb Tian Ye anymore with his cultivation.
…
Inside the spacious fifth floor of the Elder's Pavilion, Sect Leader Yang Feng laid down on the couch sideways reading an obscene book.
He soon laughed in a perverted manner, "Hehehe~"
As he did, the obscene book that he was reading was grabbed by Han Yi, who then scolded him, "Sect Leader! Please pay attention to your image! What if a disciple or servant saw you reading such obscene books?! Wouldn't they look down on you?! You're the Sect Leader yet you spend your time on such things."
"Oh, Old Han, how was your disciple's injuries?" Yang Feng without any shame, ignored Han Yi's scolding and asked about Tian Ye.
Han Yi, who was used to the Sect Leader's attitude just sighed and gave up, saying, "He's fine, he's now practicing how to speed up the recovery of his physical body's injuries through qi circulation."
"Hm…" Yang Feng just made a sound knowingly and brought out another book out of his spatial ring and threw it towards Han Yi, "Here you go."
Han Yi caught the book flying towards him like instinct, and asked, "This is…?"
Yang Feng, picking on his nose, said with a grin, "It's a Fire Elemental Cultivation Technique."
Reading the characters [Burning Heart Technique] on the cover, Han Yi was dumbfounded, "There's a cultivation technique based on elements?! Why haven't I heard it before?"
Laying down on the couch comfortably, Yang Feng answered as he covered his face with another obscene book he pulled from his spatial ring and answered, "Of course you haven't, I only found it by chance in my journey… Remember how I talked to you about spiritual qi hints of difference like hotness, coldness, windiness, and such before? It seems like there are elemental cultivation techniques, his element is fire unlike me who's wind… what a pity I haven't found a cultivation technique that fits my element…"
As he finished answering, Yang Feng began to snore but Han Yi was too lazy to pay attention to him and began studying the book before giving it to Tian Ye by next week so he can focus on physical body's recovery.
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