Chapter 464: Conditions

Elder Elder Huoyun enjoyed the disciples' looks of shock and adoration with satisfaction, his gaze swept over Xu Yang, a thought stirred in his heart, and he spoke: "Xu Yang, come here."

In an instant, everyone's gaze fell upon Xu Yang.

"Disciple greets Master!" He dared not be negligent, hurried forward, and clasped his hands.

Elder Elder Huoyun nodded: "You have been on the peak for quite some time; you should have also started to cultivate the Qian Duan Jue."

Xu Yang nodded: "In reply to Master, this disciple had already started to go to Daoduanbingge to cultivate the Qian Duan Jue more than twenty days ago."

"How is the cultivation progress?" Elder Elder Huoyun smiled.

"Very difficult!" Xu Yang was concise.

In fact, he did not know at all whether it was difficult, because cultivating the Qian Duan Jue often ruined the black iron; to avoid wasting money,

when he went to Daoduanbingge to cultivate the Qian Duan Jue, he basically just put on a show, displaying to outsiders the appearance of cultivating the Qian Duan Jue.

His cultivation method was still to use the panel to improve.

"Now you try; let this Master see how your weapon-forging talent is," Elder Elder Huoyun said.

Today was actually mainly for Xu Yang; he wanted to see if this new disciple had weapon-forging talent; if so, he would focus on cultivating him in the future.

If not, naturally he would not pay attention in the future, letting him focus on practicing martial arts.

Basically, for every disciple who joined the Bairu Sect, he did this.

"Good!"

Xu Yang turned, used tongs to take a piece of heated black iron from the furnace fire, and began the first fold-forging strike.

"Bang bang..."

A dull sound echoed; strands of gang qi penetrated into the black iron upon contact.

One forge!

Two forges!

No one spoke; all gazes were tightly fixed on that piece of black iron.

"Stop; if you strike this piece of black iron any further, it will be ruined."

At the hundredth forge, Elder Elder Huoyun suddenly spoke to stop Xu Yang; Xu Yang raised hand stopped in mid-air and slowly withdrew.

"Your weapon-forging talent is average; it will be hard to achieve anything; in the future, try to focus your mind on cultivation," Elder Elder Huoyun shook his head.

After nearly twenty days of cultivation, Xu Yang had not even reached one hundred forges with the Qian Duan Jue; this showed that his gang qi was not suitable for improving the performance of materials.

A truly talented person, after twenty days of cultivation, would reach at least two hundred forges with the Qian Duan Jue; Xu Yang had not even reached half.

He had thought that since Tie Fu and Chang Chun had rejected Xu Yang, he might pick up a genius as a leftover; this was ultimately a plot from storybooks; Xu Yang, not to say he had no weapon-forging talent, but not much; in the future, even a half-spirit weapon would be hard.

"Yes, Master!" Xu Yang clasped his hands, sensing the distance in Elder Elder Huoyun's words.

He had not originally focused his mind on refining weapon-forging skills; whether weapon-forging or pill-refining, he did it to have a means to earn resources.

Elder Elder Huoyun's words stirred not a ripple in him; he had the panel; even without talent, he would master weapon-forging skills sooner or later.

However, others did not think this way; all looked at Xu Yang with pitying eyes; having no weapon-forging talent meant Xu Yang would not be valued by Elder Elder Huoyun.

Next, Elder Elder Huoyun used Xu Yang as an example to instruct this group of disciples, then waved his hand to let everyone withdraw.

"Junior Brother Xu, having no weapon-forging talent is nothing; focus on cultivation in the future; whether a weapon-forging master or a pill master, they mainly serve martial artists.

In the future, if you need weapons, I will forge them for you."

Gao Lin, worried Xu Yang would feel bad, chased up to comfort him.

Xu Yang smiled: "Then many thanks to Senior Brother Gao."

That day, the news that Elder Elder Huoyun had announced Xu Yang had no weapon-forging talent spread among the disciples of Li Hu Peak.

When Xu Yang went to Daofantang to eat, these people looked at him with eyes carrying a bit of sympathy and a bit of schadenfreude, because among them, the vast majority had also been announced by their Master to have no weapon-forging talent.

Seeing someone as unlucky as oneself naturally made them feel happy.

"Brother Xu, it is good that you did not spend that wasted money back then."

Xiong Kun strode over; it was unclear whether he was comforting Xu Yang or taking schadenfreude.

His face carried a bit of self-satisfaction; he was radiant.

Xu Yang had already heard that his weapon-forging talent was good; originally Elder Tie Fu did not favor him, but because within one month he cultivated the Qian Duan Jue to nearly two hundred forges, he gained Elder Tie Fu's attention; it was expected that within a month and a half, he could reach the minor success of the Qian Duan Jue, reaching the level of three hundred forges.

"Brother Xu, you indeed also have no weapon-forging talent." Jiang Fan appeared, a smile on his face.

Not yet a month, he had already given up cultivating the Qian Duan Jue; before, it was just on a whim; he learned the Qian Duan Jue, found it boring and a waste of time and money, and gave up after persisting for about ten days.

"I have no talent; is Brother Jiang very happy?" Xu Yang smiled.

Whether Xiong Kun was taking schadenfreude, he could not judge, but Jiang Fan absolutely would not have such thoughts.

Jiang Fan spoke seriously: "Weapon-forging is not the only path; with Brother Xu's talent, practicing martial arts is the proper way; what pill masters, weapon-forging masters, are they not all serving the strong?"

These words made Xiong Kun's face darken; he was self-satisfied because of his considerable weapon-forging talent; hearing these words now, it was as if his talent would only serve others in the future.

However, seeing the speaker was the Little Marquis, he could only hold his nose and endure, daring not to refute.

"Brother Jiang, you truly dare to speak!" Xu Yang smiled.

Only the Little Marquis would dare to say that pill masters and weapon-forging masters are all serving the strong.

Jiang Fan shook his head: "I am only speaking the truth; with your talent, not dividing your mind elsewhere, in the future you might not be unable to ascend the dragon a second time.

If you can ascend the dragon a second time, on this Li Hu Peak, who knows how many weapon-forging masters would be willing to be your followers; there is really no need to waste time and wealth learning weapon-forging skills."

Xiong Kun could no longer hold back: "Little Marquis, you are surely overestimating Xu Yang; just him, wanting to ascend the dragon a second time?"

His ranking on the Ten Heroes List was higher than Xu Yang's; even he, let alone Han Feng who ranked higher, had no certainty of ascending the dragon a second time; on what grounds did Xu Yang?

A genius capable of ascending the dragon a second time, even in a place like the Ziyang Sect, might not produce one in several years.

"Whether it is overestimating him, the future will show," Jiang Fan smiled.

Xiong Kun was somewhat surprised; why would Jiang Fan evaluate Xu Yang so? Or was it that he and Xu Yang had a good relationship, deliberately creating momentum for Xu Yang here?

"Could Jiang Fan have already seen through my true talent?"

Xu Yang was secretly startled but kept his expression calm, saying, "Brother Jiang, I have heard people mention 'Second Ascension to the Dragon' many times, but I truly do not know what it is; please enlighten me."

He had always known that the so-called Ascension to the Dragon was not merely joining the Ziyang Sect; the Ziyang Sect was only the first stop on the path of Ascension to the Dragon.

But what came after specifically, he did not know.

He had no background or lineage; although he had taken Elder Elder Huoyun as his Master, Elder Elder Huoyun did not even instruct him on his cultivation base, let alone chat with him about things unrelated to Wu Gong.

"You actually do not even know what the Second Ascension to the Dragon is?" Xiong Kun widened his eyes.

He was already an inner disciple of the Ziyang Sect; how could he not even know such things?

Jiang Fan also showed a hint of surprise: "Ascension to the Dragon naturally means ascending the path of shedding the mortal form to become a dragon. Although the Ziyang Sect is the only Men Sect in the nearby Liuxian, for the entire Great Xia, this place is merely a rural backwater; how could it have the capability to let one shed the mortal form and become a dragon.

Only by leaving the Ziyang Sect and entering a far grander stage can we continue the path of becoming a dragon."

"A rural backwater?" Xu Yang murmured to himself.

In the surrounding area, the Ziyang Sect could be said to exist like a local emperor; the resources and talents of the nearby Liuxian were at its disposal, yet in Jiang Fan's mouth, it was merely a rural backwater.

How magnificent must the world ahead be? How many geniuses were there?

Although he had always been extremely cautious, that did not mean he did not wish to witness a grander stage; although he was already immortal, he also knew that without entering a place where the martial arts were more flourishing, he would ultimately just be wasting his time.

"Although I am reluctant to admit it, this place, not to mention relative to the entire Great Xia, can even be said to be a rural backwater relative to this Yunzhou."

Xiong Kun sighed: "Yunzhou has thirty-six commanderies; my Fufeng Commandery is among the most backward. The entire commandery has thirteen counties, with a total population of only around three million.

Those great commanderies have populations above five million, and the strongest few commanderies have populations approaching ten million."

Xu Yang heard this and sucked in a sharp breath.

According to Xiong Kun's words, the Great Xia alone had a population in the entire Yunzhou reaching a staggering hundreds of millions; how many geniuses and heroes must have been born from this, and to what level of prosperity must a dynasty managing such a vast territory have reached.

"How many provinces does the Great Xia have!" he could not help but ask.

"Nineteen!" Jiang Fan said: "Among the nineteen provinces, Yunzhou belongs to the middle-to-lower tier."

With hundreds of millions of people in one province, the population of nineteen provinces could not be less than ten billion.