Chapter 132: Facing the Candle

Having just contributed a wonderful competition, the instructor naturally agreed at this time, and the sitting students also applauded again, looking forward to an equally wonderful battle.

Zhang Junxue raised her head, looked at Seeing Pei Ye with slightly widened eyes, and then, under his waving greeting, walked onto the stage with her saber without saying a word, and performed the martial salute move by move first.

But the result of this battle was unexpected—Seeing Pei Ye lost in only the ninth move.

This result made many people widen their eyes, and there was whispering under the field.

The instructor smiled and shook his head after being stunned for a while.

In fact, this defeat was also within Seeing Pei Ye's own expectations—when sparring with Zhang Junxue before, the other party had steadily won against him. Now, although he had entered the Second Life Realm, it was still that sentence: the two numbers of two and four, facing "sixteen," would not have too many differences.

Then why couldn't he overcome this gap in strength with sword technique in front of Zhang Junxue like he did when defeating Xiao Qiu?

The reason was actually simple and helpless—her saber was too big.

So wide, so long.

Xiao Qiu's sword was very simple, just heavy and hard, and he had won against him by one move in dismantling moves. Facing this kind of Fourth Life whose strength was in the sword, Seeing Pei Ye could suppress the opponent's strength.

The facts were indeed so. Seeing Pei Ye relied on higher sword art attainments to contain and destroy the opponent's simple sword path, and then won in three items: combat strategy, opportunity grasp, and sword move subtlety.

But when facing Zhang Junxue, that wide saber surface made him unable to find any gaps at all, and her saber wind was not just opening and closing, but flying flexibly, without showing any clumsiness.

This led to Seeing Pei Ye being difficult to block or dodge when she attacked, and Seeing Pei Ye's attacks were often like facing an iron wall.

There was no way to find a chance to win.

So Zhang Junxue successfully won by strength.

Seeing Pei Ye withdrew his sword, and the two saluted each other.

The result of the three people winning against each other was quite interesting and worth pondering. The instructor simply used these few battles as teaching materials and gave a lesson on "the essentials of winning" to the students who were still constantly discussing under the field.

The instructor actually rarely gave pointers on weekdays, but this time he was in high spirits and spoke for more than half an hour. This section was extremely dense and rich, combining the instructor's own rich fighting experience in the first half of his life. It couldn't be said to be deep and simple, but it could be said to be solid.

Seeing Pei Ye listened carefully. This kind of fighting thinking of fist to flesh was an experience that Zhu and Ming could not provide him. Old Man Yue had this experience, and it was definitely more precious, but Seeing Pei Ye didn't have the opportunity to listen carefully.

In fact, the core of this lesson was "strength and weakness, only after fighting will you know." Cultivation and martial arts are just the cards in your hand. How you play these cards often determines the victory or defeat of the battle.

Therefore, the way to win lies in knowing yourself and the enemy. As long as you are fully prepared, the weak are not necessarily unable to win against the strong.

Therefore, our Longmen class is useful!

"Good!"

Amidst a burst of cheers, the instructor finally took out three Ginseng Pills, gave one to each, and then the students scattered and each found a sparring partner.

After the competition ended, the instructor rewrote the list according to the ranking. Seeing Pei Ye, Xiao Qiu, and Zhang Junxue were ranked in the first row, and this wooden board was hung back on the announcement wall on the side of the martial arts field.

And he promised a prize in public—next small competition, whoever defeats the other two will be given an extra ten taels of silver.

Seeing Pei Ye saw Zhang Junxue beside him suddenly raise her head, and at the same time reached out to touch a small bulge in front of her waist.

Seeing Pei Ye had noticed this protrusion on the woman's waist when they met at the inn, but only now did he look closely—wasn't this the small cloth bag with a sealed mouth that the woman didn't leave her hand?

Now it was clumsily sewn onto the belt with rough thread.

Seeing Pei Ye withdrew his gaze. At this time, the small competition ended, and the sky was already dark. Originally, there was an hour of summary improvement afterward, but the instructor had just spoken for a long time, and Seeing Pei Ye and the others had fought a few rounds before, so the time had been consumed almost completely. Everyone trained simply for two quarters of an hour, and then the class was dismissed.

The students returned to their rooms, while Seeing Pei Ye bid farewell to a few people, carried his gear, and left the martial arts hall alone.

When he left the martial arts hall in the morning, the morning air was cool, but when he stepped out of the martial arts hall at night, the summer heat had dissipated. Walking onto the street, the cool breeze was blowing, the water vapor of Zhuoyue Lake was scattered in the air, and the night sky was cold and clear, also like a lake, with a few sparse stars immersed in it.

Seeing Pei Ye stretched his tired and smooth muscles and bones.

There were very few pedestrians on the street. Seeing Pei Ye walked back to the inn and pushed open the door. The shopkeeper was again lying on the counter by the oil lamp, brushing and writing something.

Seeing Pei Ye walked over and took a look. This time it was not a ledger, but the book that registered his information last night. The shopkeeper was moving the records one by one to a new book.

Seeing Pei Ye leaned over: "Shopkeeper, what are you busy with this time?"

"Copying the book, aren't I? It has to be handed in the day after tomorrow."

"Hand in where?"

"Hand in to the prefecture government, where else?"

"Oh, this has to be handed in all the time? I thought only when something happened would someone come to check."

"It was indeed like that before." The shopkeeper dipped in ink, lowering his head and copying while saying, "It changed three years ago. You have to hand it in every two months. But to be honest, it's reasonable. The prefecture government keeps a backup, so as not to have any cases, and then suffer destruction and alteration."

Seeing Pei Ye nodded: "That's true."

The shopkeeper looked up: "Do you have anything? The room money for tomorrow night hasn't been renewed yet."

"Renew." Seeing Pei Ye took out a small grain of silver and put it on the counter, then leaned over and asked curiously, "I just remembered something. Shopkeeper, you said last night that those with Cultivator's Credentials don't need to register. What if the ones who commit crimes are them?"

"Registration is to fear the flow of people without origin. Those who hold Heroic Credentials are all recorded after verification by the Immortal Platform. What serious business can't they find? Why would they commit crimes?"

"But there are always those who commit them." Seeing Pei Ye said, "If these people run to other places to commit crimes, wouldn't they come and go without a trace?"

"Maybe."

"Then what should be done?"

The shopkeeper sighed and pointed to his face with his finger, "Do you think I look like the Inspector?"

"... I thought you might know."

Seeing Pei Ye walked upstairs. Just as he took a step, he suddenly retreated, knocked on the counter, and looked at the shopkeeper who frowned and looked up.

"By the way, shopkeeper, I'm in the Second Life."

——

Back in the room, after washing up, Seeing Pei Ye sat on the edge of the bed and took out the Ginseng Pill.

This was a yellowish-brown pill. If the definition of dietary pill was expanded wide enough, then it could even be listed among them.

But no matter from the quality, purity, repeatability of taking, or the energy contained, alchemists would not admit that this kind of rough thing had any relationship with the "Wind and Dew Pill" that they pursued for immortals to eat.

"Clouds and mists knead the white moon, evening glow weaves dew light." If this sentence describing dietary pills were placed on the pill in Seeing Pei Ye's hand, it would probably only leave the word "knead."

But this kneaded pill did indeed possess a small function. Seeing Pei Ye swallowed it with water as the instructor said, and soon a heat flow rose from his abdomen.

But the effect of this pill would not be so immediate. It had to melt in the stomach, gradually diffuse into the flesh and blood, and then after being refined by the body, would it be absorbed by the meridian tree.

This process might take one to three days.

Seeing Pei Ye touched his warm belly, and then moved down to pat his dantian.

Second Life.

From a small sprout to a small seedling.

Just as every time the god-seed meridian tree that nurtured the Dragon Lord in his abdomen proliferated, the efficiency of absorbing the mysterious Qi of heaven and earth would rise by a section. At this time, the Second Life's endowment in the dantian was also different from the First Life.

At that time, the god-seed was a guest in his abdomen, and he couldn't understand how this mechanism operated. Now that the endowment grew as a part of his body, he could clearly perceive the reason for this synchronous growth of efficiency.

Very simple, because the absorption of mysterious Qi by the endowment is in units of "branches."

With the meridian tree as the system's cultivation, in the First Life Realm, it needs to supply the growth of two branches. In the Second Life Realm, it needs to supply four branches. And when it reaches the Third Life, there are eight branches waiting to be fed.

So for normal martial artists, the further they go, the slower the progress, because although the efficiency of the body providing "nutrients" also grows slowly with cultivation, the "shortfall" of the meridian tree is constantly doubling.

The growth rates of both sides are completely disproportionate.

And for the endowment that can cultivate itself, this situation has been greatly alleviated.

When the endowment is in the First Life, there are two branches that need to grow. While they are demanding from the body, each one will absorb the mysterious Qi of heaven and earth itself; when it reaches the Second Life, there are four branches that need to grow. Similarly, each of them will absorb the mysterious Qi of heaven and earth itself.

Of course, the cultivation speed will still slow down with the improvement of the realm.

Because in the First Life Realm, when the endowment used mysterious Qi to cultivate to 10% progress, Seeing Pei Ye might have already completed the remaining 90% for these two branches.

Under the efforts of both sides, the promotion is easy.

But when it reaches the Seventh Life, the endowment can still use the same time to reach the same progress, but what Seeing Pei Ye has to complete is 128 branches.

At that time, maybe he has to wait for the endowment to cultivate to 90%, and Seeing Pei Ye can rely on his own cultivation, swallowing pills, eating Qi, and other means to complete the remaining 10%.

By that time, maybe Seeing Pei Ye's own cultivation has no great significance—leave it all to the endowment itself; he might as well use this time to learn a few more sword arts.

But that is a long time later. At this stage when the meridian branches can be counted on one's fingers, what determines his cultivation progress is not the efficiency of the endowment absorbing mysterious Qi.

Nor is it his own training intensity.

What really determines his cultivation progress today is the absorption of the dragon blood in the Heart-Slicing Glaze.

——This thing is really too fast!

Seeing Pei Ye broke the seed and generated Qi only seven or eight days ago, and he has already reached the Second Life Realm.

And this is entirely because those dragon bloods are too solidly condensed, and time was spent on dismantling. If he were allowed to swallow them openly, he could jump realms one after another within a few breaths.

Although this kind of good thing cannot be obtained now, there is a similar piece of good news.

After the Second Life of the endowment, this sturdy meridian tree has also become more powerful.

Seeing Pei Ye opened the sword case, released the Heart-Slicing Glaze, and placed his hand on the sword body. Immediately, a strong force was transmitted from his abdomen to his hand. The Heart-Slicing Glaze trembled slightly, as if there was a slight "click," and a dark blue crystal block twice as large as before was peeled off from the inside of the sword body.

The absorption is more powerful.

Seeing Pei Ye carefully incorporated it into the dismantling, turning it into energy that made his whole body comfortable.

He can take dietary pills, and he can also absorb mysterious Qi, but only this thing can make him produce comprehensive pleasure from flesh to spirit.

Truly a delicacy without equal in the world.

Seeing Pei Ye closed his eyes and exhaled lightly, lifting his hand to change to another position.

At the same time, the good news from the glaze side is that with the consumption of the outer dragon blood, the structure of the whole dragon blood seems to be a bit loose. When Seeing Pei Ye absorbed it, he obviously felt a bit easier.

Seeing Pei Ye sat cross-legged on the bed, his hand on the glaze, and was quiet for a while.

The Cicada Sparrow Sword had already been read, and he couldn't think of anything else he could do by the way for a while.

In fact, excluding yesterday's check-in, this was his first night settling down in the prefecture city, and life here was far from forming inertia.

He remembered that there was a book "Recognizing Spirits" in the package that he hadn't opened yet, but he just went through it in his mind and didn't have the interest to read it for the time being.

He had been immersed in cultivation all day today, and he was already a bit tired. After all, he was not a cultivation machine that could run forever.

So he simply didn't ponder anything else. Seeing Pei Ye leaned back against the wall, closed his eyes, and began to recall this fulfilling day.

Today he practiced the "Cicada Sparrow Sword" for the first time, and the progress was far beyond his expectations.

In more than an hour, he learned three moves of the Cicada Sword and consolidated that one Sparrow Sword.

The so-called treasure of the hall was nothing more than this.

Seeing Pei Ye curled his lips slightly.

And then he defeated the top of the list in the naming competition upon entering the martial arts hall—a Fourth Life martial artist who could be called a strong hand. Later, Zhang Dingyun told him that he was the top sword talent in Zheng Shou County in recent years.

The subtlety of his sword technique in the Clumsy Realm was fully embodied by him in this battle.

He fought really well in this round, and it was also very good-looking.

If it were in the Mid-Autumn Martial Meeting, it would definitely be to the extent of making the whole field cheer.

And what he didn't even guard against was that at the moment of withdrawing his sword, stepping back, and bowing after the battle, a long-lost tremor climbed onto his skin.

At that moment, his waist bent down, but his heart was lifted high. What made him have to tightly purse the corners of his mouth was the long-lasting applause that followed.

The Longdao Martial Arts Hall Longmen class, can it be considered a gathering of talents from the entire Bowang Prefecture?

Who is the winner of the entire Bowang Prefecture?

Who could have imagined that an unknown person from a remote deep mountain would take first place?

Suddenly, something was spraying out in his heart. Seeing Pei Ye opened a pair of bright eyes, straightened his waist from the wall, and opened his mouth slightly with a smile.

He looked around the room and closed his mouth again.

The small room was dim, only an oil lamp was crackling, and the night was as quiet as a shadow.

The emotions slowly fell back. Seeing Pei Ye leaned back against the wall again. This time he didn't close his eyes, but just looked quietly out the window. Under the window lattice, a small black cat was squatting quietly with its eyes closed, bathing in the moonlight.

Seeing Pei Ye had long known that the taste of swallowing sorrow alone was very uncomfortable. Now it was the first time he discovered that it turned out that the feeling of collecting happiness alone was also not very beautiful.

Thanks to the leader of Qilixiang live for the reward! Thanks to the leader for the support! I was too anxious to update yesterday and forgot to thank you.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 133 =====