UGB Chapter 100 Seeking the Path
Chapter 100 Seeking the Path
The mountain wind blew through the forest, and the entire place was silent. The children listened quietly to the teachings. Even if they could not fully understand the profound meaning, they could all feel the headmaster's painstaking efforts. They all straightened their backs and listened attentively.
"From this day forward, you are no longer despised country children, but proud students of my academy. The path to defying fate is always rugged and arduous, and you will inevitably face trials and tribulations. Only by persevering and studying diligently can you move forward."
"As long as you do not give up on yourselves, Qingyun Academy will never abandon you!"
"Have you all kept this firmly in mind?"
"We will keep the headmaster's teachings in mind!"
Led by the senior students, the students shouted in unison, their clear and firm voices echoing throughout Qingyun Mountain.
Shen Qing looked at the group of spirited young people below the stage, seeing the enthusiasm burning in their eyes, nodded slightly, then stepped aside from the high platform and handed over the position of leader to Sun Wenyuan.
Sun Wenyuan stepped onto the stage and calmly read out the academy's rules and daily course regulations. His old-fashioned and strict tone was completely different from his passionate and impassioned speech just now, but it still made all the students listen attentively and abide by the rules.
Shen Qing stood to one side, the system notifications ringing in his mind one after another.
The loyalty of the seventeen senior students who plummeted last year due to his faked death has now rebounded.
The forty new students all had loyalty scores exceeding sixty. These children, who had suffered poverty since childhood, had long heard about the transformation of the academy's students and were already filled with longing. Today's admonition further ignited their aspirations.
With the disciples' cultivation improving daily and the addition of forty young children, the total amount of spiritual energy that the system can absorb each day has already exceeded one hundred strands.
After the academy opened, Shen Qing entrusted all the affairs of the academy to Sun Wenyuan and devoted himself to the spiritual fields in the back mountains.
On the third day of the academy's opening, everything was back on track.
Now that Shen Qing's cultivation has reached the Foundation Establishment stage, he can faintly hear the sound of reading coming from the direction of the academy, even from the back mountain.
Now, besides receiving the spiritual energy extracted by the system every morning, Shen Qing spends his time observing the changes in the soil by the fields.
Under the guidance of the spirit-guiding array, the earth's energy slowly seeped into the soil, making the soil darker day by day and its texture softer.
Shen Qing made a ruler out of dead wood and stuck it in the corner of the field. Every other day, he would dig up a small piece of soil to check the depth of the spiritual energy.
From its initial size of an inch, it has now seeped in to a depth of more than half a foot.
On the 29th day of the first lunar month, Shen Qing went down the mountain to the county town.
The shop in Qingyunfang had been open for several days. Zhao Shoucheng was behind the counter, using an abacus to keep accounts, while Lin Shouwei and two outer disciples were greeting customers in the front yard.
The shop sells ordinary rice, noodles and other sundries. Occasionally, neighbors come in to buy incense, candles and paper money. Business is not booming, but it is still quite stable.
Shen Qing looked around, gave a few instructions, and then went to the west of the city.
Wang Shouzhou's escort agency has also been officially established, and its name was finally adopted according to Su Shoujing's suggestion: "Qingyun Martial Arts Agency".
Wang Shouzhou was leading several martial arts disciples in practicing their boxing in the courtyard when he saw him arrive. They quickly stopped practicing and bowed.
Shen Qing inquired about the preparations of the escort agency. Wang Shouzhou said that he had already accepted a small escort job to a neighboring county and would set off in two days.
"Everything is difficult at the beginning."
Shen Qing said, "The first escort mission must be handled carefully; do not overexert yourself."
Wang Shouzhou patted his chest and agreed.
Shen Qing didn't linger in the county town. He went to a narrow alley in the south of the town and stopped in front of an inconspicuous old house.
Zhou Bo was squatting by the door chopping wood when he saw Shen Qing arrive. He stood up and patted the wood shavings off his knees.
"Sect Master, is everything alright in the mountains?" Uncle Zhou asked.
"Everything is fine."
Shen Qing looked at the old man and said, "Uncle Zhou, I've come to take you back."
Uncle Zhou nodded, neatly stacked the chopped firewood, went inside to pack a few personal belongings, and then followed Shen Qing out the door.
The two walked along the official road toward Qingyun Mountain. Along the way, Shen Qing briefly recounted the progress of the spiritual field development, the smooth enrollment of students at the academy, and Zhao Yuanlang's allocation of grain.
Uncle Zhou listened quietly, nodding occasionally.
"Uncle Zhou," Shen Qing suddenly asked, "what supernatural powers did you awaken after reaching the Divine Realm?"
Zhou Bo paused for a moment, then took a deep breath.
In an instant, Shen Qing sensed that Zhou Bo's true essence suddenly began to circulate, and a very faint metallic luster appeared on the surface of his skin, which then disappeared.
"A body of copper and iron is nothing special. When one circulates true essence, the skin and flesh become as hard as iron, and ordinary swords and blades cannot cut through it. A cultivator who has just entered the Foundation Establishment stage and has not yet had time to learn supernatural abilities and techniques can withstand it for a while. But when encountering a true cultivator, it is still useless."
Shen Qing nodded slightly. Copper skin and iron bones are considered the most basic type of martial arts supernatural abilities, and cannot be compared with his sword control and sword concealment techniques.
But Uncle Zhou is right. It's better to hold off for a while than nothing.
Shen Qing didn't say much, only saying, "After you go back, you should stay at the sect. I'll take care of the spirit fields myself."
Zhou Bo did not refuse. He knew that although his cultivation had reached the level of a god, he was getting old and his vital energy was beginning to decline.
There are only so many things we can do, but being able to do something for the sect is already a great achievement.
When the two returned to Qingyun Mountain, it was already close to dusk.
After arranging accommodations for the elderly man, Shen Qing headed towards the back of the mountain.
The shed has thick bamboo pillars and thatched roof, with an old bamboo mat and a futon inside.
The shed faces the sacred field, where a faint mist rises from the fertile soil in the twilight.
That's the moisture produced when the earth's energy mixes with the soil, carrying the unique fresh, earthy smell.
Shen Qing sat cross-legged on the futon and closed his eyes.
The twelve-grade flawless Dao platform in his dantian slowly rotated, causing the spiritual energy around him to surge endlessly.
Shen Qing did not rush to cultivate. Now that everything was on the right track, he finally had time to explore the inheritance imprinted in his soul.
Since he established his foundation, the spiritual energy he has been drawing from the system every day has been steadily increasing, but for his current perfect spiritual root of the five elements, the speed of cultivation is not fast, and can even be described as very slow.
During the Qi Refining stage, eighty strands of spiritual energy were enough to support his rapid breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment stage. However, after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, he received the Sword Sect's inheritance, which perfected his spiritual root's five elements, thus slowing down his cultivation speed.
Moreover, the demand for spiritual energy increases several times over after Foundation Establishment.
In particular, the twelve-grade flawless Dao platform requires far more spiritual energy to operate than an ordinary Dao platform.
Although the cultivation levels of Zhong Xiu, Xu Ping, Fang Xue, and others were steadily improving, and with the spiritual energy contributed by the academy's children, Shen Qing could only maintain the cultivation progress of an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator.
What truly gave him a completely new understanding of cultivation was the transformation he experienced during the process of opening up the spiritual field.
From the mundane to the spiritual, from death and silence to life.
Although the soil is still the same soil, it has undergone a qualitative change under the repeated influence of the energy of heaven and earth.
This gave him a sense of enlightenment, but he still felt as if there was a thin veil between them.
Tonight, Shen Qing will seek a way to break through this thin veil.
He had already mastered the four supernatural abilities in the Lingyun Sword Manual: Sword Control Technique, Illusion Technique, Five Elements Escape Technique, and Sword Concealment Technique, but these were still only at the level of "techniques".
Techniques are ultimately just branches and leaves; the Way is the foundation.
No matter how lush the branches and leaves are, without the nourishment of the roots, they will never grow into a towering tree.
What he was looking for was a cultivation method that could truly support him through the Foundation Establishment and Golden Core stages.
Within his sea of consciousness, countless scriptures formed from sword lights floated in the void.
Some scriptures are gleaming and within reach, while others are like looking at flowers through a fog, with the words unclear and indistinct.
Shen Qing's divine sense slowly swept over these scriptures, not touching those obscure and difficult-to-understand advanced sword techniques, but patiently exploring them.