Chapter 719: Trade Fair

"Sun Qiang, find a place to stay in the next couple of days. Make sure it has a good environment and isn't far from the academy!" Zhang Xuan instructed Sun Qiang as they stepped out of Prince Huai's mansion.

As a student of the Master Teacher Academy, Zhang Xuan could live in the Scholars' Sea. Zheng Yang and the others were different; ordinarily, they weren't qualified to stay there. This was precisely why Master Hong and the others readily agreed when Prince Huai extended the invitation.

A short stay of a few days was fine, but a longer one would certainly invite criticism. Rather than encountering trouble later, it was better to prepare in advance. This would also make teaching more convenient and allow them to feel more at ease.

"Yes!" Sun Qiang nodded.

As the butler, all matters concerning their food, clothing, housing, and travel in a new place fell under his responsibility. The others simply needed to focus on their cultivation.

"Teacher, I feel like I'm about to break through!" Just after giving his instructions and about to return to the Scholars' Sea, he heard Wang Ying's voice. He turned to see her body radiating energy, her zhenqi surging from her acupoints, on the verge of a breakthrough!

She was at the peak of the Yin-Yang realm; once she broke through, she would reach the fourth level of Mortal Transcendence, the Turbid-Clear realm.

For over a month, she had cultivated diligently, reaching the peak long ago but never finding the right opportunity. Now, knowing her teacher's distress, her spirit was stirred, and she was on the verge of breaking through this barrier.

"Heavenly Ferocious Beast!" Knowing that breakthroughs depended on opportunities and couldn't be delayed, Zhang Xuan's spirit stirred, communicating with the spiritual beast in the sky. With a grab of his zhenqi, everyone rose into the air and landed on the beast's back.

Within dozens of breaths, they returned to the Scholars' Sea. He arranged for Zheng Yang and the others to stay in his room first. Only then did he stand by Wang Ying, guarding her breakthrough.

In the Turbid-Clear realm, the soul and physical body separate into clear and turbid components. Although he had a simplified version of the Heaven's Path cultivation technique, breaking through itself wouldn't be an issue. However, achieving smooth and unified zhenqi, where spirit and flesh merge yet remain distinct, still presented some difficulty.

Knowing that only by enduring pressure during the breakthrough could she gain the greatest benefits, Zhang Xuan did not intervene, merely guarding her.

As zhenqi flowed through her body, all her acupoints opened, continuously absorbing spiritual energy. Wang Ying suddenly let out a cold snort, and a powerful aura erupted from her Baihui acupoint, located at the top of her head.

Boom! The clear and turbid separated, and she successfully reached the fourth level of Mortal Transcendence, the Turbid-Clear realm!

Upon reaching this realm, it was as if she had been reborn. Wang Ying herself transformed, like a long sword drawn from its sheath, emanating an astonishing aura.

"This is... a breakthrough in her state of mind?" Zhang Xuan's eyebrows twitched.

Just like master teachers, cultivators also experienced breakthroughs in their state of mind. A master teacher's state of mind leaned towards understanding principles, while a cultivator's leaned towards combat.

Normally, even with an increase in cultivation strength after breaking through to the Turbid-Clear realm, one wouldn't possess such a sharp aura. Clearly, this was a breakthrough in her state of mind, reaching a higher level!

Pure and clear as water, innocent as gold! The Pure Heart realm!

"What a great opportunity!" His eyes lit up.

In the cultivation realms, the physical body and zhenqi were crucial. However, after reaching the Turbid-Clear realm, the state of mind became very important.

This involved the purity of the soul; a sharp increase in the state of mind. From then on, cultivation would be like a dragon entering the sea, becoming smoother and faster.

Humans are creatures of thought. Whether in cultivation or daily life, with distracting matters, it's impossible to remain single-minded and fully focused.

The Pure Heart realm was precisely about casting aside all distracting thoughts, unifying one's mind and spirit, and cultivating with complete dedication. In this state, cultivation speed would increase not just severalfold, but much more!

It could be said that with Wang Ying reaching this realm, her future cultivation speed would increase exponentially, far surpassing Zheng Yang and the others.

"Though this girl doesn't like to talk much, she's incredibly stubborn and focused..." Zhang Xuan shook his head, a wry smile on his face.

Among his many students, Wang Ying's talent was inferior to Zhao Ya's, her perseverance not as good as Lu Chong's, her thinking not as agile as Zheng Yang's, her cunning not as sharp as Yuan Tao's, and her social skills not as refined as Liu Yang's... Yet, she had always made the fastest progress, and now she had even comprehended the Pure Heart realm!

It seemed that meticulousness and a calm, stable demeanor were the greatest talents for cultivation progress!

"Her cultivation is getting faster and faster; she'll soon need cultivation techniques for the Spirit Unification realm, but I don't have them yet..." Knowing that her cultivation was now on the right track and no longer required his direct protection, Zhang Xuan rubbed his temples.

Although he was at the peak of the Spirit Unification realm, he had only reached this level through the assistance of the lady in white and the use of his witch soul. A Heaven's Path secret art for this realm had not yet formed in his mind.

He had to quickly find one; otherwise, if Wang Ying broke through again, he, as her teacher, would have no cultivation technique to impart.

No longer bothering the students in cultivation, he stepped out of the room.

"Master Hong, have you been able to find any cultivation techniques or secret arts for the Spirit Unification realm and Heavenly Bridge realm?" Zhang Xuan asked, having found Master Hong.

"Cultivation techniques? I can find some... How many do you need?" Master Hong was startled.

"The more, the better!" Zhang Xuan nodded.

"Wait a moment, let me check..." Master Hong left and returned shortly with dozens of books.

"There are forty sets of Spirit Unification realm secret arts in total, but only three for the Heavenly Bridge realm!" Although he didn't know why Zhang Xuan needed these secret arts, he had still gathered some.

The fifty geniuses from the Illusion Feather Empire who had passed the assessment and come here were mostly in the Spirit Unification realm, so finding techniques of that level wasn't difficult. However, Heavenly Bridge realm techniques were much harder to come by.

He had only managed to find a few from Master Feng, Master Luo, and others.

"Forty sets..." Zhang Xuan waved his hand, shaking his head.

For others, forty sets would definitely be considered a generous amount. But for him, it was far from enough to form a Heaven's Path cultivation technique.

"Where can I find more? The more, the better!" Returning the books to Master Hong, Zhang Xuan couldn't help but ask.

"You... just how many do you need?" Seeing that forty books weren't enough, Master Hong was startled.

With so many cultivation techniques, even he would need several months to read and comprehend them all. Yet, it still wasn't enough? Just how many did he want?

"Over a thousand!" Zhang Xuan replied.

"A thousand?" Master Hong stumbled, almost falling over.

Although various cultivation techniques had emerged like bamboo shoots after a spring rain since Master Kong founded the Master Teacher Pavilion, finding over a thousand *different* ones was extremely difficult!

After all, each set of cultivation techniques was the culmination of a cultivator's painstaking efforts. They weren't like cabbages, which grew abundantly if there were enough seeds and someone to tend to them.

"Indeed. Do you know where I can find them?" Disregarding Master Hong's shock, Zhang Xuan asked.

"This..." Seeing that Zhang Xuan wasn't joking, Master Hong rubbed his temples. "The Master Teacher Academy definitely has them. Not just thousands, but tens of thousands can be found..."

The Master Teacher Academy, gathering master teachers from all over the world, possessed an ocean of cultivation techniques and secret arts. Thousands, even tens of thousands, could be found there. However, Master Zhang was not yet an official student of the academy and had no academic credits, so he certainly couldn't access them there.

"Ah, right!" After pondering for a moment, Master Hong's eyes suddenly lit up. "There's a trade fair for new students these few days. They'll also be selling cultivation techniques and secret arts. You can go and take a look. With so many new students in the Scholars' Sea, it shouldn't be difficult to find a thousand or so!"

"A trade fair?" Zhang Xuan was taken aback.

"Yes! New students from various empires generally possess their own cultivation techniques and also carry specialties from their respective countries. In the days leading up to the assessment, this kind of trade fair is held, firstly, to allow everyone to get acquainted, and secondly, to exchange goods and cultivation experiences, enabling everyone to improve and better pass the assessment!" Master Hong explained.

"Good. Where is this trade fair held? I'll go take a look!" Hearing about such a grand event, Zhang Xuan's eyes lit up.

"It's on the trading vessel in the middle of the Scholars' Sea!" Master Hong pointed.

The Scholars' Sea had a huge lake in the middle, which Zhang Xuan had initially thought was just for aesthetics. He hadn't expected the trading venue to be located on it.

Stepping out of their courtyard, they walked towards the lake and soon arrived at its edge. Although spring had arrived, the chill of winter hadn't completely dissipated, and a biting cold wind swept across the lake's surface.

Looking inward along the lake, they indeed saw a massive multistory vessel several thousand meters away, moored in the middle. From a distance, people moved like shuttles, countless in number.

"There's a small ferry boat over there..." With a distance of several thousand meters and no visible path, Master Hong glanced around and immediately spotted a small ferry boat. The two of them walked over.

"How many spirit stones to get to the trade fair?" Upon arriving, Master Hong asked.

"One mid-tier spirit stone!" The ferryman, an old man, lifted his eyelids.

"One mid-tier? Are you robbing us?!" Zhang Xuan's eyes widened.

For such a short distance, even one low-tier spirit stone would feel expensive. To demand a mid-tier one, this fellow was simply too greedy!

"Robbing? If you don't think it's expensive, you're welcome to walk across the water! This is Scholars' Lake, and it's teeming with Spirit Beasts of Mortal Transcendence seventh and eighth realms. Don't blame me if you die, I've warned you!" Seemingly accustomed to such scenes, the old man smiled faintly.

While there were spiritual beasts on land, there were even more in the water, and their types were even more complex than those on land.

In such a massive lake, possessing numerous high-level spiritual beasts, including those of Mortal Transcendence seventh and eighth realms, was nothing unusual.

For cultivators at the Spirit Unification realm, even if they couldn't fly, walking on water wasn't difficult. However... if there were spiritual beasts inside, they wouldn't dare to do so. A slight mishap could easily lead to being swallowed, making even immortals unable to save them.

"This..." Master Hong hesitated, wondering whether to take the ferry, when he saw a mid-tier spirit stone land in the old man's hand. Immediately after, two figures flashed and landed on the boat.

"Boatman, set sail!" Looking closely, they were none other than Senior Brother Feng, whom Zhang Xuan had defeated with a single finger earlier, and the young man.

Standing on the boat, watching the old man's oar cut through the water, moving slowly forward, the young man looked over with a sneer, "Can't even spare a spirit stone, yet wants to go to the trade fair..."

This Master Zhang had defeated his Senior Brother Feng with a single finger in front of everyone. Although he had held back, it had caused Senior Brother Feng to lose much face. Thus, the young man held a significant grudge against him.

Now, seeing that a Master Zhang of such power was unwilling to spend even one mid-tier spirit stone, he immediately mocked him.

However, before he could finish speaking, he saw the two figures on the shore leap into the air.

They landed on the back of a huge Heavenly Ferocious Beast.

The enormous spiritual beast flapped its purple wings, causing ripples to spread across the water's surface. The air current made the small boat shake violently, nearly capsizing it. In a blink of an eye, the beast disappeared from sight, flying towards the multistory vessel by the lake.