Chapter 9: Color Jade

In his mind, countless muscle and tendon lines shifted and recombined.

Jiang Ding practiced swordplay, his blade gleaming like a curved arc of snow.

He trained the *Chu Ying Takeoff Sword Art*, the foundation of martial cultivation; with high comprehension, his progress surged rapidly, and his spine occasionally sent faint tingles.

Those with low talent or impoverished backgrounds still had a chance to turn their fate around.

Others may master the *Chu Ying Takeoff Sword Art*, but if you reach Minor Mastery, Major Mastery, or even Perfection, you can catch up to—or surpass—those with superior talent.

The nine sword forms passed one by one, finally settling into the Hidden Sword posture.

“Not bad.”

Zhang Ding watched for a while, amused: “You’re wasted in a cultivation sect—if you were in another world, you could’ve become a legendary martial hero.”

“Here.”

This % novel {first; release, > Please! go: to: read!

“Mm.”

Her chest was soaked in blood, her robes torn and ragged.

She sat like a statue, motionless for over ten minutes.

Gong Caiyu’s face flushed instantly; she summoned her last shred of internal energy, grabbed a sharp rock nearby, and smashed it toward the man’s head.

Calmly, Jiang Ding drew his sword and trained under the assistance of the Array Spirit computer, silver blade-light flickering and dancing.

Jiang Ding cut off her self-pity and tossed her an oral dose of Yunnan Baiyao: “Try it. You’re dying anyway.”

After two Moral Education classes, the training hall.

He needed resources to accelerate his cultivation, and manpower to collect specimens—he was willing to take some risks.

After all, a cultivation sect is still a place of cultivation.

“What kind of divine medicine is this?” Gong Caiyu widened her eyes, never having heard of it.

“Pervert!”

Light dimmed, then brightened; the view revealed endless green mountains, morning hours, birds chirping.

“One duck leg, shredded pork with green peppers, and a bowl of seaweed egg drop soup from the cafeteria—I’ll take the bus back myself.”

She barely opened her eyes and saw a strange boy pressing repeatedly on her chest.

But upon closer inspection, her chest still rose and fell faintly, once every several seconds.

【Name: Jiang Ding】

Jiang Ding wasn’t surprised; from now on, a teaching robot would strictly monitor his forty-kilometer run—unless he wanted to drop out, he had to obey the instructor’s orders.

He grabbed her robes, lifted her effortlessly, and set her down on the ground.

Jiang Ding gripped his sword hilt, no longer hesitating.

Jiang Ding rose, pulled out a small shovel, and walked toward an unfamiliar little herb; he carefully dug away the soil, extracting every thread of root.

Jiang Ding rolled his eyes—he didn’t fear this instructor like the other students: “With my Five-Spirit Root talent, where else but a cultivation sect would give me even a sliver of chance?”

……

“You’re joking.”

But his actual sword combat was terrifying—he almost felt embarrassed that his ability to seize opportunities was nearly matching his own, even with Qi Refining Level Nine spiritual sense assisting him.

Gong Caiyu felt a warm flow seep into her dantian, spreading through her limbs and meridians; her numb meridians and waist wound suddenly prickled faintly.

Li Junhao, face gloomy, handed Jiang Ding a campus card.

Gong Caiyu suddenly vomited a pool of substances: water plants, half-cooked meat, and sticky fluids oozing down her neck.

If it had no effect, then it was her fate.

This was in fact a tremendous opportunity—equivalent to the personal guidance of a disciple’s disciple’s… disciple of a Soul Transformation powerhouse; otherwise, given the near-divine difficulty of the *Chu Ying Takeoff Sword Art*, ninety-nine percent of youths worldwide could never even enter its door.

Eat, nap.

According to Jiang Ding’s knowledge, no one in the class had mastered the technique to Minor Mastery.

After eating with Jiang Yuan, Jiang Ding locked himself in his room, donned his gear, checked his medicine and drone battery, and picked up the panoramic helmet.

He touched his forehead—it was icy cold. His belly was slightly swollen; his waist bore a horrific wound, nearly exposing his organs, black and oozing a foul, rotting stench—he was clearly poisoned.

“Mm.”

Compared to two days ago, the *Chu Ying Takeoff Sword Art* had surged 19%. At this rate, he’d break through Minor Mastery in at most two weeks—then his bone-refining progress would accelerate, and breaking into the Inner Qi Realm would no longer be a fantasy.

To transform from mortal to immortal—even in a cultivation sect—was reserved for only the rarest, most exceptional prodigies. Jiang Ding wasn’t entirely mediocre, but…

Every citizen of the cultivation sect was a potential soldier; all had been trained in battlefield first aid.

“Your heart and pulse are extremely weak… your condition is dire.” Jiang Ding released her hand: “Can your internal energy expel the poison and stop the bleeding?”

Gong Caiyu gasped, made no resistance, turned her head away.

“Too conspicuous…”

Seeing she was about to speak, Jiang Ding waved to stop her.

“You still won’t give up on ascending to immortality? This path is too hard…” Zhang Ding sighed faintly.

“Is she dead?” Jiang Ding sighed inwardly—this world didn’t seem very safe.

!.

Jiang Ding’s gaze sharpened; he fixed on a corner of the screen and tapped to zoom.

Ding…

Unless it’s a spirit pill.

Jiang Ding stared at her silently. “My Seven Mystery Sect has thrived for a thousand years… yet now…”

After bidding farewell to Li Junhao, Jiang Ding squeezed onto the school bus with his classmates.

In the drone’s view, the terrifying scene of nearly a hundred men scouring the mountains had vanished; the forest returned to its original calm.

With cultivation techniques from the sect and Array Spirit computer assistance, such a situation simply wouldn’t occur.

“Hm?”

So-called bottlenecks are merely due to insufficient understanding, or issues with muscles, spine, hidden injuries, etc., caused by inadequate training that one fails to recognize, thus getting stuck at a certain realm.

“Keep going! Even if you miss the college entrance exam, someone has still succeeded in cultivation.” Zhang Ding encouraged.

After digging for over three hours and seeing the woman seated cross-legged on the ground still unconscious, Jiang Ding walked to the shallow riverbank and stood still.

【Last Training: *Sixty-Eighth Set Chu Ying Takeoff Sword Art* (Proficient 51%)】

The woman was three or four kilometers away—she may have held her breath underwater long enough to evade the black-cloaked pursuers.

It was worth a try; Yunnan Baiyao was a widely used medicine, effective for external wounds, detoxification, antibacterial action—all decent, but none exceptional.

A dying person’s every second was a lifeline; seeing her still babbling, Jiang Ding said nothing, pinched her cheeks with one hand and poured the oral Yunnan Baiyao into her mouth with the other.

They got ahead because their talent surpassed Jiang Ding’s, and they had access to various tonics—even spirit pills—so their cultivation progress naturally differed.

“Ah…”

Thus, even if cultivation techniques occasionally leaked, other cultivation realms could never replicate them.

“She’s alive!”

Remember, this wasn’t mere martial arts—it was a cultivation sect technique, harder than most low-grade cultivation arts; for a mortal to practice it raised the difficulty by another order of magnitude.

Jiang Ding sheathed his sword; this guy had been hunted nearly to death—his extreme reaction was understandable.

【Student ID: 1246215】

*Clang!* A gleaming longsword appeared out of nowhere, slipped past her limp arm, and pressed against her throat, halting her motion.

“Wah!”

Jiang Ding shook his head, tucked the medicine bottle bearing its brand and instructions into his pocket.

Gong Caiyu snapped back to awareness, dropped the rock, stammered: “Thank you… again for saving me.”

He guessed that, for this world, this might be a completely new detoxifying agent—pathogens had no resistance, so the effect was unusually potent.

Jiang Ding stared at the pale blue screen before him, a hint of delight crossing his face.

Gong Caiyu glanced at him gratefully, sat cross-legged, closed her eyes, and began restoring her internal energy.

The sun rose higher, its light glinting off the sweat on his face.

“No… no strength… ” Gong Caiyu mustered a sliver of internal energy; despair flickered in her eyes as she said calmly: “My meridians are severely damaged, my internal energy nearly gone, and I’ve been poisoned by the Corpse Poison of the Golden Knife Sect—I’m dying. Thank you, Young Master, for saving me.”

After hesitating, Jiang Ding set her down and switched to contact lenses.

He grasped her limp hand and sensed for a moment.

“Rest. Heal.”

Jiang Ding no longer hesitated; he cleared the debris from her mouth and nose, placed several stones under her belly, and began pressing her chest with medical first-aid technique, repeating the motion continuously.

"Thank you for your kindness," Gong Caiyu whispered. "But the poison has already seeped into my bones and blood—I cannot be saved... sobbing..."

Alone, one could accomplish nothing.

【Realm: Peak of Bone Refining】

The *Chu Ying Takeoff Sword Art* was mediocre at best—roughly on par with his classmates.

“Two more vertebrae have been refined…” Jiang Ding glanced at the pale blue humanoid figure below the panel.

After collecting a dozen unknown plant specimens, Jiang Ding continued exploring outward.

He moved cautiously, constantly watching for targets the drone might miss—luckily, no incidents occurred.

Soon, twelve o’clock; the fourth bell rang. Zhang Ding left first; other students returned to campus, those nearby went home.

“Eat this.”

A white dot appeared on the screen, rapidly expanding—a woman in a white dress lay unconscious by the river, pale-faced, drifting in from somewhere, caught by the bushes on the bank, unable to float further.

“What do you need? Should I come pick you up?”

“Young Master, I’m sorry, I just… ”

He regarded this person as similar to an injured female classmate, without any improper thoughts.

As expected, among the 24 vertebrae, the five lumbar bones, one sacral bone, and one coccygeal bone had already been refined; only twelve thoracic vertebrae and seven cervical vertebrae remained to complete the entire Bone Refining stage, naturally allowing him to break through to Internal Qi.

After uprooting one, he went to search for the next.

But Jiang Ding had only one — the Heaven-Saving Pill his mother had bought with half a year’s salary.

There was no bottleneck.

Several minutes later,

Clang! Suddenly, a streak of sword light flashed, piercing straight through a carp as thick as an arm; no matter how it struggled, it could not escape.

“Such abundant resources.”

Jiang Ding sighed, gently flicking his sword; the carp flew into the air. Three more sword flashes cut through it — scales, gills, and internal organs scattered everywhere, and he casually scraped off a layer of black membrane.

He skewered the carp with his sword and dragged back a dead tree trunk the size of a bowl.

(End of Chapter)