Chapter 101- Journey to Qiancheng City
Leaving the pavilion, Su Ming walked down the eastern slope to the new cultivation chamber. He had become significantly stricter with his disciples over the past week, pushing their training to prepare them to handle the energy of the Sword Pool.
He had assigned Lin Yao one of the caves on the eastern slope of the White Lotus Peak as her personal Cultivation Chamber. The one he chose already sat low enough that the mountain’s cold Qi pooled naturally inside it. He had inscribed similar Yin formation arrays along its walls like his Yin garden, drawing the ambient Qi inward and purifying it until the air held a weight that pressed against the skin.
Su Ming stood at the entrance of Lin Yao’s cold chamber, his Essence Sight observing the thin, violet wisps of nether fire flickering around her shoulders. He also observed the dormant Phoenix Shadow. He was certain that it needed a huge amount of pure Yin qi to awaken. So he thought about giving her the Body Cultivation Technique. But it was not that simple, and it was technically not something he could solve by simply reversing his own Primordial Yang Sovereign Body Art.
’Reversing a Yang body art would only yield a mediocre Yin body refinement technique,’ Su Ming thought, his fingers tapping on his sleeve.
He began formulating a custom plan to design a Yin element Body Art for her, a technique that would reinforce and adapt her meridian walls to hold and cultivate the power of Yin naturally, so that it could aid the slumbering phoenix shadow.
After checking her progress, he gathered both disciples on the stone plaza outside the chambers for their daily sword lecture.
"Your progress in the forms is acceptable," Su Ming said, his voice carrying a calm weight. "But both the Cloud Dragon Sword Technique and the Sky Sovereign Sword Technique require more than physical movement. My recent breakthrough at the Sword Pool has made it clear. You need to properly develop the Will behind it. The Dragon and Sovereign wills are what you need to completely master the techniques."
The two disciples stood in silence, their eyes focused on him.
"For the Cloud Dragon Sword Technique path, the difficulty lies in developing the ’Dragon’ Will. For me, it’s a will that does not merely cut, but erases. For the Sky Sovereign path, you must cultivate a ’Sovereign’ Will. For me, it’s a presence of absolute command that commands the world to yield. Neither can be forced by raw power. You must search for the conceptual truth behind them and forge your own path."
He lectured them for two hours on the nature of wills and the transition from will to intent, the principles behind the two high-level Saint-rank techniques, correcting their theories and forms before sending them back to their chambers to practice.
Later, Su Ming climbed to the mountaintop summit greenhouses. The middle Yin-Yang Fusion Chamber was now fully operational. Under the care of Elder Bai, the chamber had become the place with the purest Qi on the peak, the Yin and Yang currents flowing in a quiet, self-regulating loop.
Su Ming walked past the rows of soil, inspecting a fresh batch of common crops they had recently planted. The Silver-Leaf Grass, Sun and Moon Seedlings, and Twin Petal Sprouts. Under his Essence Sight, he could see the balanced Yin-Yang Qi of the chamber cycling through each of their roots, nourishing them with a purity that standard soil could never provide.
Returning to his study, Su Ming turned his focus to his finances. The Grand Auction would require a staggering amount of capital. To fund his budget, he spent the next three days studying the sect’s ancient, low-level mortal-grade manuals.
Using the Halo of Insight and his Essence Sight, he spent his nights correcting their structural flaws, refining the circulation channels, and submitting the improved manuals back to the Central Library. Because these techniques were popular and were considered heritage of the sect, they awarded him massive contribution points for each manual he restored.
On the fourth day, Su Ming walked down White Lotus Peak and visited the Administrative Hall.
He liquidated all his secondary possessions. Apart from his core weapons, the Crimson Heaven and Dragon Emperor swords, and his essential defensive artifacts like the Ethereal Warding Robe, he kept nothing else. He sold everything directly to the sect, combining the points with his scriptural correction rewards.
At the exchange counter, the elder in charge stared at the ridiculous total on Su Ming’s token, his hands trembling slightly as he liquidated the points.
"Exchanging... three hundred thousand contribution points for spirit stones," the elder murmured, his voice cracking. "Peak Master Su, please wait a moment."
When Su Ming left the hall, his Deep-Void Iron Ring held a mountain of spirit stones, stacked in neat, glowing rows. It was a fortune that could easily rival the wealth of a mid-sized clan.
Returning to the peak, he changed into simple, white robes. From his storage ring, he retrieved a small jade pendant, the Mist Jade Pendant, a concealment artifact of the Mystic grade. Its function was simple. Regardless of the wearer’s true cultivation, whether Golden Core, Nascent Soul, or even Avatar Formation, it reduced the leaking aura, only to the level of an early Golden Core cultivator, to any spiritual sense that brushed across it.
Before leaving, he found Bai Qingxian in the refinement room and informed her he would be traveling to Qiancheng City for the Grand Auction. She nodded, asked if he needed anything prepared, and when he said no, she simply told him to be careful.
He gathered his disciples at the central courtyard. Lin Yao bowed and asked how long he would be away. Wang Tian said nothing, only bowed and cupped his hands. Su Ming gave them their assignments for the time he was gone. Cultivation, Sword form repetitions, and daily reading from the texts he had left on the mahogany table in the lecture hall, and bid them farewell.
He stepped onto his flying sword. The sword rose beneath him without a sound, clearing the tree line of White Lotus Peak in a single breath. Below, the familiar shape of the peak shrank quickly. He turned his gaze ahead and flew west, toward the trading city of Qiancheng, his mind fixed on the Blackstar Meteorite Core and the secrets of the upcoming Grand Auction.