Chapter 275: Seeking Guidance

Yan Buji returned to his quarters, and Nangong Ping came looking for him right away.

"Junior brother, junior brother!"

"Senior brother Nangong, what's the matter?"

Nangong Ping said happily, "I heard junior brother took first place?!"

Yan Buji laughed, "Yes, senior brother, thanks to your reminder yesterday, otherwise I might really not have been able to deal with Liu Ruhua."

Nangong Ping, with a satisfied look, said, "You are still tough enough yourself... but did you see Senior Sister Feng today?"

"I saw her; she was in the audience."

Yan Buji didn't quite understand why Nangong Ping kept gathering information instead of going directly to see, perhaps because he had a reason he couldn't leave Accumulation Device Peak?

Nangong Ping nodded: "So she also saw junior brother's splendid performance... which indirectly proves Accumulation Device Peak's ability to train disciples, and also indirectly proves my capability as senior brother to teach junior brother, hehe."

Yan Buji: "....."

Haba.

Yan Buji was too lazy to scold him, and asked directly, "Senior brother, since you're interested in Feng Zhenchuan, why not go over...."

Nangong Ping shook his head: "No, no."

"Ah? Is the Peak Master not letting you leave Accumulation Device Peak, or is there some other problem?"

Nangong Ping stammered, fidgeting: "I... I don't dare to look at Senior Sister Feng; I get nervous as soon as I see her."

Yan Buji closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

Nothing to say.

Dealing with someone like this, the best approach is to establish some connection with Feng Zhenchuan, so asking him for favors will become much easier.

"Oh right, I heard you're going to the Qian Dao Huang Du Offering Hall for work?"

"Ah? Senior brother, where did you hear that?" Yan Buji looked puzzled, feeling uneasy.

Does Nangong Ping have such far‑reaching information channels even without leaving Accumulation Device Peak?

"It's an arrangement from the sect; I heard Xuan Qiandao caused some incident, pulling people from the Huang Du Offering. Among the three slots of Qing Shan Gate, there's one for a Lianqi disciple, and with this Lianqi Grand Competition, the winner like you must have caught the Elders' attention."

So he wasn't sure.

Yan Buji said suddenly, "I see, but if you really go to the Huang Du Offering Hall, I don't know what you'd have to do."

"It won't be for long; the Qian Dao Huang Du is important, and Xuan Qiandao's removal of people is only for this short period, at most a year, after which you should return," Nangong Ping said.

"Yes, junior brother understands."

"Well, since that's the case, do you have any cultivation difficulties, um... consider this as my way of showing concern as your senior brother." Nangong Ping thought of himself as a senior brother now.

But Yan Buji knew that it was his own effort as a disciple of Accumulation Device Peak that earned the peak face in the Lianqi Grand Competition; otherwise Nangong Ping couldn't have acted this way.

Yan Buji smiled and said, "Senior brother, come in and speak."

"Um."

Both sat on the ground. Yan Buji said, "Senior brother, I was a lone cultivator before, so I have little experience; I've been following the Five Elements Technique path and have also incorporated some Wind‑Thunder attributes, so now I'm at Lianqi eight layers. My biggest problem is that I don't know whether there are good suggestions for the final two techniques to choose."

"Five Elements Technique plus Wind‑Thunder Technique? Then are you following the generating or overcoming cycle of the Five Elements?"

"Generating."

Nangong Ping thought carefully and said, "The Five Elements Technique is hard to practice; although the basic Five Elements Technique doesn't require high talent, judging by your abundant magical power you likely have some special destiny and have mastered powerful methods. But if you want to establish a Foundation, using the Five Elements as a base and following the Wind‑Thunder Ba Gua path is feasible."

"Wind‑Thunder Ba Gua?" Yan Buji looked bewildered; it was his first time hearing of it.

"Your magical power should have passed the power‑harmonization hurdle; you probably follow the Dao of Heaven‑Earth‑Man three talents, which shows your foundation is quite solid. However, the Wind‑Thunder Technique cannot be easily merged into the Five Elements Technique, so my suggestion is to complete the Wind‑Thunder into Ba Gua, embed the Wind‑Thunder into the trigrams, then integrate that into the Five Elements Technique. But this will test whether your three‑talent Dao's core is sufficient to bear the power of the Five Elements Ba Gua."

Yan Buji listened and thought it was indeed a viable path, but Ba Gua Technique differs from the Five Elements Technique, involving more to learn.

"But if I were to overlay Ba Gua onto Five Elements, I first need to find a technique that links the two different systems. I've never heard of such a technique; do you have any suggestions, senior brother?"

Nangong Ping looked up and thought, "I recall Xuan Qiandao might have such a technique; I once saw it on a Xuan Qiandao cultivator."

"Ah?"

"However, this is just a suggestion; the choice of technique is still up to you. Even if you don't use this method, you can simply seek secondary paths, pick two auxiliary cultivation techniques to deepen the Five Elements, fill the gaps, and at the Lianqi pinnacle complete the Qi‑Fusion Spiritual Method." Nangong Ping said.

Yan Buji nodded; this was also his initial thought.

"Alright, thank you for the instruction, senior brother."

"You're welcome, I'll be on my way then."

"See you off, senior brother."

Nangong Ping waved his hand and left; Yan Buji stayed in the room, pondering.

"Never mind, I'll first take a look at this Void‑Evading Gate manual."

Yan Buji took out the Void‑Evading Gate technique; its usefulness was unclear, but since he had it, he might as well examine it first.

What if he could actually understand it?

He placed the jade tablet on his forehead, and his spiritual awareness resonated for a moment.

Yan Buji frowned and set the jade tablet down.

"Why does the description here feel... strangely familiar?"

The Void‑Evading Gate technique doesn't explain how to channel magical power; it merely records many chants for contemplation. Yet some sentences, when Yan Buji imagined the scene, always felt familiar.

"Law has no fixed nature; only emptiness summons itself."

Yan Buji fell silent for a moment, then took out a stone sphere.

"Is it referring to something like the stone sphere's spatial‑traversing ability?"

Yan Buji's expression turned odd; it probably isn't that, right?

If any Lianqi Phase or Foundation Establishment Stage practitioner could master a space‑traversing technique, the cultivation world would have already advanced several levels.

But this Void‑Evading Gate seems specifically for cultivating a technique that allows traversal of a certain place, essentially the technique itself is like a carriage and a key; only after mastering it can one go there.

Yan Buji pondered for a while and attempted to cultivate it.

A stone sphere emitted faint fluctuations, and Yan Buji, relying on those fluctuations, gradually adjusted his magical energy flow, cultivating the technique according to his own understanding.

For several consecutive days, Yan Buji still had not found a way to begin.

This made Yan Buji feel a bit at a loss; it seemed almost the same, but perhaps his talent was truly poor— even with the stone sphere helping him perceive the spatial fluctuations, it was still hard to find a way to cultivate.

He was pondering when, suddenly, a sound rose again outside the door.

"Brother Huang?"

"Senior brother Hu?"