Chapter 355: Master Realm Heavenly Dao Technique

The potent poison invaded his bloodstream, and Luo Chong felt himself losing his mind. Intense pain flooded his mind, making it almost unbearable.

Father, Mother, sister, brother... Figures swirled in his mind, calling out to him. A powerful pull seemed to draw his soul in, threatening to drown it permanently in darkness, never to rise again.

"No, I can't pass out. If I succumb, Teacher's painstaking efforts will be wasted... How can I face Father and Mother then?" He clenched his fists, crying out internally.

For two years, he had forced himself to remain silent. It wasn't that he didn't want to speak, but his enemies were too powerful. He didn't want to be discovered and murdered before he had achieved mastery in his cultivation.

In his teens, an age when one loves excitement and company most, he had forced himself to appear like a silent, taciturn old man. The mental burden was immense.

What was all this for?

The hatred in his heart!

Father, Mother, sister, brother... His entire family of one hundred and thirty-seven had been brutally murdered. Had he not happened to be away, he would likely have become a corpse long ago.

He had thought that revenge would take many years, perhaps even a lifetime of futility. But now Teacher Liu had given him an opportunity, and he absolutely could not let it slip away!

"Persevere! I must persevere!" he roared internally. His will, honed over two years, grew even stronger. His spirit, which had been on the verge of collapsing and falling into a daze, now regained its vigor.

"Excellent!" Seeing that this fellow could endure such pain, Zhang Xuan nodded in satisfaction.

His guess was correct. The other party's willpower truly surpassed his imagination. If he continued to persevere like this, the Poison Body would very likely be successfully cultivated, and his strength would greatly increase.

"The effects of the potent poison will last all night. This entire night will be this painful. Find a way to endure it, and you will find that all your efforts were worth it!"

After giving the instructions, Zhang Xuan covered Luo Chong with a blanket and turned to leave the room.

The cultivation of the Poison Body had begun. Whether he could persevere depended entirely on himself. No one else could offer any help, and there was no point in staying, so he might as well leave.

Stepping out of the room, he realized that night had completely fallen.

He found a random place to eat something.

"Tomorrow, I need to teach Zhao Ya and Mu Xueqing sword arts and blade arts. I should practice them first..."

He had promised the two girls to teach them martial arts, but he himself didn't know them yet. He had to quickly cultivate them, mastering them completely, before he could teach them properly.

"First, the sword arts!"

Connecting his mind to the Library of Heaven's Path, he piled together all the sword arts he had seen in the Master Teacher Pavilion.

"Correct!" With a low exclamation, a complete sword art manual immediately formed.

"The sword is the king of all weapons. It dances lightly and flexibly, like a snake, like a phantom..."

The manual detailed a set of sword cultivation methods.

He picked up a twig casually, and circulated his zhenqi strictly according to the manual's instructions.

After practicing for a short while, he stopped, frowning.

"No... these sword arts still have flaws; they're incomplete..."

The martial arts techniques left in the Master Teacher Pavilion were all relatively advanced. Even the lowest-ranked ones had reached Mortal-tier pinnacle, and Ghost-tier low-grade techniques were ubiquitous.

While the techniques were profound, their number was scarce. The entire library only had dozens of sword art techniques. Even collecting all the correct ones, it was impossible to form perfect moves, let alone a Heaven's Path martial art.

"Forcing oneself to cultivate such disjointed sword arts could lead to qi deviation..."

Looking at the incomplete sword manual, Zhang Xuan felt a wave of frustration.

He had thought that since the Master Teacher Pavilion had sword art manuals, he could simply combine them to form a Heaven's Path sword art. Now it seemed he had thought too simply.

It was a good thing he hadn't taught this kind of sword art to Zhao Ya. If he had, she probably wouldn't even need to spar with others; she'd accidentally train herself to death.

"Let's check the blade arts..."

Soon after, his face grew even more melancholic.

Just like with the sword arts, too few manuals had been collected, making it impossible to form complete moves.

When others cultivated martial arts, the higher the level of the manual, the better. He, however, was different. He needed as many as possible; as for the level... it was irrelevant.

As the most formidable profession on the continent, Master Teachers naturally wouldn't bother with ordinary martial arts, and thus wouldn't collect them.

While this wasn't an issue for other Master Teachers, it was rather ridiculous for him.

"Where can I find some basic blade and sword art manuals?"

After pondering for a while, knowing there was no other way, Zhang Xuan scratched his head.

"Right, this is Tianwu Academy. There must be plenty of basic sword and blade arts in the academy!"

His eyes lit up.

It definitely wouldn't be easy to find such manuals elsewhere, but this was an academy, so there must be many items of this level.

Thinking of this, he stopped fretting. He found a student and asked for directions to the teachers' library, then strode towards it.

It didn't take long before he arrived at a massive library.

He presented his token of identity, and was soon allowed inside.

As expected of the academy's repository for books, though not as large as the Master Teacher Pavilion's library, it was still substantial. It was densely packed with all sorts of cultivation techniques and martial arts, numbering no less than a million at first glance.

The Master Teacher Pavilion's library contained many books from other professions, but here, it was mostly cultivation techniques and martial arts. Even if there were others, they were few and far between.

Cultivation techniques below the Grandmaster realm were useless to Zhang Xuan, so he skipped them directly and looked for sword arts.

Before long, he found manuals on sword arts, a whole large row, no less than several thousand books.

He recorded all the books into his mind.

"Correct!" The sword art that appeared this time was complete and flawless, making it easy to cultivate.

Not in a hurry, he found the blade arts again, and recorded them into his mind as well.

"Hmm? Grandmaster realm cultivation techniques?"

As he walked along the shelves, recording many other martial arts manuals, his eyes suddenly lit up as he spotted a row of books.

They were... Grandmaster realm cultivation techniques!

According to the rules of Tianxuan Kingdom, manuals of the Grandmaster realm were incredibly precious and should be kept in a separate library, only accessible to elders. He hadn't expected them to be available in a library open to any teacher.

He casually picked up a book, flipped it open, and immediately shook his head with a wry smile.

He had thought Tianwu Kingdom practiced universal education, where elders and ordinary teachers were equal. Only after reading did he realize... he had overthought it.

Although these were manuals that could lead to the Grandmaster realm, what was piled here were the most ordinary, lowest-grade ones. In terms of level, they were only around Mortal-tier mid or low-grade.

With cultivation techniques of this level, even with extremely high talent, one couldn't expect to advance even a single rank without ten to eight years.

It seemed that truly powerful techniques were still kept in a separate library. What was left here could be considered dispensable and useless.

It would be a pity to throw them away, but if kept, virtually no one would practice them.

However, for Zhang Xuan, these were the best things.

His finger swept across them, and he quickly absorbed all the techniques into his mind.

"Correct!" He had already collected many Grandmaster realm techniques in Honglian City before. Now with these added, a Heaven's Path Grandmaster realm cultivation technique immediately formed within the library.

"First, I'll go out, then cultivate!"

Resisting the urge to cultivate immediately, he circled the library once more. Finding nothing else he wanted, he then turned and left.

Returning to the classroom, he saw Luo Chong still fighting the potent poison without any slackening. Zhang Xuan nodded inwardly, entered the small classroom, and sat down cross-legged.

He casually opened the Heaven's Path Grandmaster realm cultivation technique, and closed his eyes to cultivate.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

As his zhenqi circulated, the spiritual energy in the surrounding air immediately surged over, flowing into his meridians along the path.

"Hmm?" After cultivating for a while, he opened his eyes.

This time, cultivation didn't seem as smooth as before. Instead of advancing like drinking water, he felt a sense of drowning. It was as if he was a greedy patient, constantly wanting to consume things, but what was before him was too scarce, simply not enough to satisfy him.

"It's spiritual energy..." After pondering for a while, he understood.

For the first seven levels of martial arts—Gathering Breath, Dantian, Zhenqi, Skin and Bone, Dingli, Aperture, and Tongxuan—the demand for spiritual energy was not high. For example, the Aperture realm only required opening apertures to increase strength; the Tongxuan realm was merely about clearing meridians, and the Dingli realm focused on cultivating the physical body...

It was different upon reaching the Grandmaster realm. It was about the capacity for zhenqi and the accumulation of spiritual energy.

Each advancement required a massive replenishment of spiritual energy.

If the Grandmaster-level dantian was considered a pond, and spiritual energy a flowing stream, then to fill it, the larger the stream, the better.

Advanced cultivation techniques would make the stream larger. A Heaven's Path technique, like a vast river flowing into a pond, would certainly be much faster than a small stream... But the prerequisite was that the river must have water.

Without enough water, even the widest river would not be much faster than a small stream.

In other words... there was nothing wrong with the Heaven's Path technique. It was just that relying solely on absorbing spiritual energy from the air to advance was simply too slow.

It was no longer possible to break through a major realm in an hour, as before.

"Given the scarcity of spiritual energy in the air, if he cultivated like this, it would be difficult to reach Grandmaster pinnacle without three to five months!" Zhang Xuan pondered.

Although the Heaven's Path technique was still powerful, unfortunately, there was too little spiritual energy in the air. Relying solely on this absorption method, it would take at least three to five months to accumulate the power of Grandmaster pinnacle, which was truly too troublesome.

Of course, if others knew his thoughts, they would absolutely want to kill him.

Reaching Grandmaster pinnacle from the initial stage in three to five months was already terrifying, wasn't it? And he was still not satisfied...

"Never mind. Tomorrow, I'll go to the Apothecary Guild to see if I can find some spiritual energy-containing pills. With the help of these items, I should be able to advance quickly..."

Knowing that cultivating this way would be slow, Zhang Xuan was no longer anxious.

If spiritual energy was insufficient, it could be replaced with pills. The Apothecary Guild had many medicines containing rich spiritual energy.

Instead of cultivating the Grandmaster realm technique, Zhang Xuan focused his attention on sword and blade arts, slowly studying them.

Two hours later.

He casually picked up a long sword from the classroom's weapon rack, and following the zhenqi circulation method recorded in his mind, he lightly thrust.

Swish!

His zhenqi shot straight out, forming a dazzling sword glow at the tip of the sword, which pulsed unceasingly.

With a light slash!