BoW: Martial World c22

Lin Fengyun internally could not believe the quality of these cultivation methods!

Xiao Tian Long gave her three! The foundational Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians was an art that helped her cultivate True Essence and improve her body.

It makes her True Essence purer and more potent. The next one was Soul Force Tactics, a technique that cultivates her Soul Force, allowing her to perceive the flow of True Essence. It's what she needed to become an Inscription Master.

However, it’s not just that, as this art cultivates one’s soul. Something Lin Fengyuan never believed was possible in the first place!

Lastly, the Sword Heart Mantra is a heart cultivation art that improves comprehension when it comes to swords!

The girl realised she could achieve the same sword intent as Xiao Tian Long had shown in that duel!

Then… apart from the jade slips, she opened the leather bag, and it was full of pills separated into bottles.

She could see soul gathering pills and some other ones that she had never seen before…

“Let me explain.” Seeing her confused expression, he began to explain to her.

“Soul Gathering pills are for accelerated cultivation.” He pulled the first small bottle away, then the next one.” These are for the recovery of your depleted True Essence.” He then pulled the other ones and explained them one by one.

“...H-How much gold did you spend on these…” The girl was certain that her Lin Family couldn’t even buy half of these!

Instead of explaining, he placed his finger on her lips.

“That is a secret. For now, focus on your cultivation.” 

Lin Fengyuan slowly nodded as she didn’t dare to question him.

“Start with the body transformation manual. I have things to do. Tomorrow we will have a ranking war, and I need to prepare.”

The girl nodded as she swiftly collected all of the items from the table.

“Take the bed, I will be going outside and preparing an array for my hut. I need to expand this place and add some things to assist in cultivation.” 

With that said, he left the hut. The girl was baffled to hear that! He can lay down arrays!? Isn’t that something only Xiantian can do!?

Truth to be said, yes, but Xiao Tian Long knows how to cheat. 

All he needs to do is make arrays gather True Essence from the air. Eventually, they will be self-powered. They won’t be as impressive as the ones powered by Essence Stones in the martial house, but they will be good enough to help him cut cultivation time.

As he left the hut, he began to look for corners where to start. 

It's not that hard to pick, as there are ancient-looking trees and boulders in the distance, and there is a pond.

The pond is giving him ideas about creating essence stones.

Essence stones are crystallised True Essence, or as they say, Qi.

So, how to achieve that? Well, water pressure. All he needs is an array in the depths of this pond, but that depends on the pond’s depth. 

Well, he can test that out once he has the initial array set up.

So he went over to one of the trees and began to weave with his Qi. Midway, he pulled out some of the resources as his true essence levels were far too low.

Once he finished with the corner, he went to another tree, then another, before placing the fourth one on a boulder. Lastly, for the final ‘anchor,’ he needed to improvise, so he took an average-sized boulder and rolled it into the hidden spot.

With everything set, he went to the middle area, just north of the hut, and began to lay the master control array.

It lasted for a while as it was a considerable size of an array. Which, upon completion, shrank and became much smaller and far more manageable.

This spot will be part of his hut, one of the rooms, as the next thing he did was an array that can be built. 

There is more than enough dirt to make extensions. This dirt will be refined and become solid construction material without any of its ugliness.

Midway, he needed to consume soul gathering pills as he would end up drained, but eventually morning arrived, and he heard a familiar voice.

But the first thing that happened was that slender fingers blocked his eyes.

“Guess who?”

“A gorgeous princess who wants my attention.”

“Hmph! Is that all you think?” Qin Xingxuan pouted as she removed her hands, walked around, and stood before him.

Her hair was prim and proper now. She had a couple of hair ornaments and was wearing white robes. She looked gorgeous.

“Are you saying that you are not my princess?” He asked with a serious scoff. 

“...T-That’s not…” His response was something she didn’t expect!

Xiao Tian Long rolled his eyes as he got up from the ground, walked over to her, and kissed her on the lips.

“My princess, so shhh, don’t complain and accept it.”  He teased her while whispering in her ear. 

“O-Okay…” The girl caved in very quickly. There were people who called her the Princess of the Qin family, but she never put emphasis on such a title. However, it’s different when it comes to Xiao Tian Long.

It makes her all flustered.

After a morning kiss, the girl looked around. Sensing a change in the air…

And something peculiar!

“...Is the ground moving? I can see dirt building up…” Qin Xingxuan was surprised to see that the dirt was moving on its own.

“There is an array that is building up what I have designed.” He stood up and motioned towards a circle next to her.

“There is an array that is collecting True Essence.” 

His darling looked in a direction. There was a small surprise on her face. She didn’t expect this to appear here!

Did he spend all this doing this? She thought he did things to Lin Fengyuan!

“As the Qi is gathering, the array builds up what I designed. And that is a house, or more like an extension to my hut.” He explained to her. His explanation made her slowly nod. 

This was the first time she saw him build an array, something he kept commenting on that he did, but she never expected to see it so soon, like this.

‘Didn’t he say it was Xiantian level art?’ 

Yet, here he was doing it…

“I see… “ she replied before reminding him of something he needed to do. “The ranking war is happening today. You need to participate.” 

“Right.” Xiao Tian Long slowly nodded. She reminded him about that!

He got up and dusted himself before popping a Soul Gathering pill.

“Well, I got my True Essence going. I don’t need to warm up.” The Outworlder joked before looking at her.

“I thought you spent time with Lin Fengyuan!” If she had known that he was working instead, she would have arrived sooner and watched him do his magic!

“I did, she is cultivating in the hut.” 

“Oh.” Qin Xingxuan walked to the hut and opened the door. Sure enough, she saw the Lin girl sitting on his bed cross-legged cultivating.

“Fengyuan.” The Marshal’s daughter began to speak. “Long needs to attend the ranking war. We are going there.”

“Okay.” The girl stopped practising as she got up and stretched out before starting to fix her looks. Qin Xingxuan joined her and helped her up.

…

…

…

‘How long do they need?’ He sighed as he used that moment to recover and adjust to his weapon.

‘Women…’ 

After a bit more, they left the hut, and Xiao Tian Long got up and walked over.

“Lead on, Xuan’er.” He motioned to lead, and the girl nodded in turn. However, before that, he grabbed his right hand. 

“You can take his other hand," She instructed the other girl as if it were a must.

Lin Fengyuan looked at this before slowly moving her hand to him. However, it was where he just took her and pulled her closer.

Midway, the girl blushed at his actions; she didn’t expect him to pull her like that!

“Let’s go.”

~~~

In a bamboo forest, there was a large clearing. In the middle of it, there was a stone platform. Next to the platform, there were several stone tables. These stone monuments were the rankings of the Seven Profound Valley Martial House. The stone platform itself was a huge Ten Thousand Killing Array. It was an illusion-based one where practitioners showed the results of their training. 

The Ranking War happens every month simply from the sheer amount of resources it needs to run.

To enter, one needs to offer an essence stone. The very same stone one gets per month.

For normal martial artists, it’s a lot as they only get one anyway.

Well, Mortal Hall members get one, Earth Hall receives more, and Heaven Abode members get even more.

Heaven’s Abode starts from Rank 76. If one scores above 76, they have the right to challenge anyone in Heaven Abode.

Though 99.95% challenge the lowest member to take their spot.

Challenge someone like Ling Sen to be suicidal. Newcomers, especially, would rather wait for some of them to graduate. Each year, a large chunk of Heaven’s Abode members graduate. Only a few true geniuses reach Heaven’s Abode early and stay there until graduation…or, if lucky, become Core Disciples.

Now, Core Disciplines are truly the cream of the crop. They are the ones who will move to Seven Profound Valleys to join the main Sect. These are the ones who are destined to reach Houtian 100%! Maybe even have a chance to that mythical Xiantian.

Xiao Tian Long arrived with two girls occupying his hands. When the martial artists saw this, they were shocked… to say the least!

Who does this!? Who treats Seven Profound Valley Martial House like it's a holiday destination!? Everyone comes here to practise, to chase immortality, to achieve greatness! Yet, this guy… is treating this whole thing like it's nothing!

The spies who used their connection to enter the ranking tournament could not believe what they were looking at!

Is this… womaniser what their Crown Prince is interested in? There is no way! But then they saw one of the girls… 

Was it Qin Xingxuan? The girl with Grade Six talent? The one who is destined to reach the lofty Seven Profound Valleys…

Honestly, it made no sense to them at all! Is it great that he can treat this like a game? Is it possible?

The Tenth Prince’s spies were thinking the same thing. They can’t understand what they were looking at.

As Xiao Tian Long arrived, there were many more people in the area. The top two rankers, Ling Sen and Ta Ku, were here. They wanted to see what Xiao Tian Long was all about.

After beating a 109-ranked student on his first day, it was something that had never happened before—people who care about their competition. Everyone who is in Earth Hall and Heaven’s Abode cares about such things very much.

They wanted to see… Xiao Tian Long, who could use Sword Intent. What they didn’t expect was him having girls in each of his hands.

“Who is that other girl?” One of them noticed the other girl. 

“No idea.” The martial artists began to whisper among themselves, trying to figure out how quickly this guy works to get his second woman, and so quickly.

Is it here for Martial Arts or women!?

As they whispered, more curious people gathered. Two of them were gorgeous women: Murong Zi and Bai Jingyun. Both were extraordinary talents close to Grade Five.

And both were in the upper levels of Heaven Abode. Murong Zi was rank 36 and Bai Jingyun was 26.

Murong Zi has been here for over two years, and Bai Jingyun has been here for over three years now.

However, they were not here to participate but to confirm a rumour that the elusive Qin Xingxuan, the greatest talent of Sky Fortune Kingdom, was all over a guy.

Now they see, they want to know how good this guy is for her, a Heaven-chosen talent, to be fawning over.