Dragon Emperor, Martial God

It was after lunch.

Ling Yun brought Tang Meng and Tie Xiaohu back to Mansion Number One. He had Tie Xiaohu memorize the two sets of skills he had written down and pulled Tang Meng out to make a Healing Talisman for him.

Truth be told, even without Ling Yun’s reminders, Tie Xiaohu hadn’t put the pages down since he got his hands on them. He barely even ate his lunch and was vigorously flipping the pages.

Tie Xiaohu was a nerd for martial arts to a ridiculous extent.

The Raging Waves Internal Skill and Dragon Elephant Divine Force were even harder to learn than the Stellar Condensation Technique that Ling Yun had taught him initially.

Despite its unbelievable effects, the Stellar Condensation Technique was, after all, purely a physical training technique, which was incredibly easy to learn. However, it had a stringent prerequisite — unrivaled physical conditioning.

Among the Five Elements, bodies with metal attribute or earth attribute were best suited for the cultivation of the Stellar Condensation Technique, and Tie Xiaohu possessed exactly these two attributes!

This was the reason why Ling Yun was appreciative of Tie Xiaohu’s talents when he first saw him.

As long as the physical attributes were compatible, getting the hang of the Stellar Condensation Technique was a piece of cake. However, cultivating it and getting the hang of it were completely different matters. The technique had seven major realms, forty-nine minor realms. The strength of the technique became exponentially stronger with each breakthrough of a minor realm, as did the difficulty of cultivation and breakthroughs!

Simply put, 1 to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 8… to the 49th power of 2, which was the number 2 multiplying itself by 49 times! What then was the value? 562 trillion!

Moreover, this was just a simple exponential increase for power, which included only 49 minor realms. It must not be forgotten that between every seven minor realms stood a difficult major realm!

Past a major realm, the growth of the power of the skill wasn’t as easy as adding one more exponent!

Even Ling Yun was stuck at the second major realm of the Stellar Condensation Technique. Even for a genius like him, breaking through to the third major realm would be impossible without specific conditions and sufficient time!

As it was easy at entry and brutally hard at later stages of cultivation, many super-genius practitioners of the Stellar Condensation Technique in the Cultivation World never made it past the fourth major realm. As a result, they had to resort to quitting and switching to a new technique.

In the eyes of a million practitioners, making it to the final realm of the Stellar Condensation Technique was no less than an impossible dream.

In the Cultivation World, even if Ling Yun trained until the Tribulation Stage, he would have barely made it to the fifth realm of the Stellar Condensation Technique. The difficulty in the later stages of cultivation was evident.

Once one had broken through the seventh major realm of the Stellar Condensation Technique, their body would be divinely powerful. Needless to say, it was an astronomical feat; otherwise, deities would have roamed the streets easily, and tribulations would have been common.

In other words, the barrier of cultivation for the Stellar Condensation Technique was within the technique itself! Anyone could get their hands on the technique, but 99% of the people would come to a complete stop upon reaching a minor realm!

For cultivators at the same stage, only one in a hundred could break through to the next minor realm. In other words, the elimination rate of each minor realm was 99%!

Tie Xiaohu and Qin Dongxue were both in the same realm, the fourth minor realm of the Stellar Condensation Technique.

It was Ling Yun who taught the technique to Qin Dongxue, who had the metal and fire attributes. As for an all-rounded cultivator like Ning Lingyu, who possessed all five elements, the water and earth attributes were of greatest prominence. Nonetheless, the fire and metal attributes within her body were not any less than Tie Xiaohu’s.

The innate spiritual body lived up to its name — it was way too overpowered and could only be matched by Ling Yun.

Focus was Tie Xiaohu’s main advantage in cultivation. Ling Yun once said that hastiness was the major obstacle that jeopardized cultivation. With Tie Xiaohu’s focus cultivating the Stellar Condensation Technique, he was training with a speed that awed even Ling Yun.

However, despite being top-tier skills, the Raging Waves Internal Skill and the Dragon Elephant Divine Force were different from the Stellar Condensation Technique. They were a thousand times weaker.

The later stages of cultivation were even more incomparable. Consider the final stage of cultivation. Even if one could decimate a large mountain with just a punch, could they shatter a star with the same punch?

The skills had a high barrier of entry but a relatively gentle learning curve. Once one had grasped the essence of the skill, the rest of the refinement was just a matter of time. As for the speed of cultivation, the deciding factors were one’s innate ability, speed of learning, and the amount of cultivation resources.

Therefore, it was apparent how Tie Xiaohu could comprehend the essence of the Stellar Condensation Technique in hours but take days to even get started with the two skills.

It would take a great deal of talent to even learn it in a few days. It was the highest tier of martial arts, as it required the sensing of spiritual energy in the energy center, then letting the air flow freely in the meridians. It was significantly more difficult than simply sitting down and absorbing the essence of the sun and the powers of the moon and the galaxy.

“Damn, Tie Xiaohu seems pretty idle. Sigh…”

Tang Meng made trip after trip into the kitchen to transport medicinal herbs of various kinds. Being greeted with dozens of sacks, each containing medicinal herbs with labels, gave him a major headache.

Every time he made his way out, he would see Tie Xiaohu sitting cross-legged, chanting to a few thin pieces of paper. Tang Meng couldn’t help but sigh each time he saw it.

Ling Yun, previously immersed in brewing the medicinal herbs, was disturbed by Tang Meng’s incessant sighing. “Haha, how about I write you a chapter now, and you can join him over there.” Ling Yun said with a smirk.

“Spare me, Big Brother Yun! If I had to sit idle like Tie Xiaohu, I’d be bored to death!” Tang Meng said wittily with a smile.

“Then don’t complain and do your work…” Ling Yun lectured.

Be it the medicinal herbs or the yellow paper he had bought long ago, all of it had been stored in Mansion Number One for over a month, absorbing plenty of spiritual energy within the house. The brewed medicinal herbs and the crafted talisman were much more effective than before now that they radiated spiritual energy.

The ink and talismans made from these, coupled with the blood of several ferocious black dogs in the yard, ensured Ling Yun that he was all set to construct the level four talisman charms.

As the Ordinary People’s Clinic would open tomorrow, he only made Healing Talismans and Water Wood Talismans in case of emergency.

If only the Emperor Brush could come help! Ling Yun envisioned.

Despite possessing the divine sense and the Wisdom Brow, his divine sense was still too weak to even detect the presence of Emperor Brush, let alone summon it.

Ling Yun knew that it would be impossible for him to control the Emperor Brush and Earth Emperor’s Book without reaching the later stages of Qi Cultivation.

Ling Yun had crafted hundreds of Healing Talismans from level two to level four in just one afternoon. As for the level one talismans, Ling Yun didn’t bother as it would just be a waste of time.

Ling Yun stored the talisman charms into his spatial ring after he had dried and bundled them up.

With the Healing Talismans, even if the clinic was met with a gravely wounded man, Ling Yun could heal him as long as he was still alive.

When I’m free, I should try making level five talismans, or maybe the Level Four Fire Talismans.

The Level Four Fire Talismans could instantly reduce a body to ashes. Its speed and convenience made it a must-have for assassinations.

Or maybe medical pills for big bucks, haha…

The Shennong Cauldron is finally going to be put to use!

Before the Shennong Cauldron could be used, two questions remained, its location and the type of fire.

Concocting medical pills had four main requirements — medicinal herbs, furnace tripod, fire, and of course, concocting techniques.

Ling Yun fulfilled all of the requirements, especially with his incredible concocting techniques, except one — fire.

The use of Fire Talismans wasn’t a long-term solution, as Ling Yun’s spiritual energy would soon deplete. His spiritual energy was still mainly for cultivating his own abilities and breaking through to the next realm.

The Samadhi Real Fire is impossible to cast now, so I’ll just settle for some wood and charcoal… Ling Yun lamented.

Only naked flames could be used for concoction, so Ling Yun had to create an enclosed room for the sole purpose of concocting medical pills. The room removed outside distractions and attention so that Ling Yun could focus.

Once the crafting of talisman charms was completed, the sun was about to set. Ling Yun and Tang Meng cleaned the place up.

Ling Yun arrived at the living room with a smile. Seeing Tie Xiaohu still working his butt off to memorize the skills, Ling Yun couldn’t help but nod.

His focus thoroughly moved and satisfied Ling Yun.

“How’s the learning going?” Ling Yun interrupted Tie Xiaohu and asked with a smile.

“Uh… Big Brother Yun, what are you talking about?”

Tie Xiaohu was so immersed that he missed Ling Yun calling him twice. Only when Tang Meng threw a kick at him did he raise his head hurriedly.

“Did you burn your brain? Big Brother Yun is asking how your learning is going!” Tang Meng exclaimed jokingly.

The pent up frustration he had from doing chores for the entire afternoon could only be transferred to Tie Xiaohu.

“Oh, I have memorized the Raging Waves Internal Skill…” Tie Xiaohu said apologetically, scratching his head.

“And for the Dragon Elephant Divine Force?”

“Didn’t touch…” Tie Xiaohu let out an awkward laugh.

But Ling Yun was satisfied. Patience and perseverance weren’t enough for cultivation, focus was indispensable. Tie Xiaohu’s focus was unbelievably rare and intense.

Ling Yun had Tie Xiaohu rise and stretch his body. With a peaceful state of mind, he sat back on the carpet.

Ling Yun sat behind Tie Xiaohu, hands pressed onto his back.

“Hold your breath and focus, I’ll show you workings of the spiritual energy within the meridians. See for yourself.”

Soon enough, Ling Yun directed a weak trace of Yang Qi from his energy center into Tie Xiaohu’s body and guided the qi current for a minor cycle.

After more than ten minutes, Ling Yun retracted his palms.

He moved around to Tie Xiaohu’s front and asked with a smile, “How did it feel?”

“My entire body feels warm and fuzzy, really comfortable!” After a while, Tie Xiaohu opened his eyes and said with astonishment in his voice.

“I’m asking if you felt the flow of qi through your body.” Ling Yun was a little speechless.

“Yeah, it felt magical!” Tie Xiaohu exclaimed, nodding profusely.

“Just focus on cultivating the Raging Waves Internal Skill for now. As for the Dragon Elephant Divine Force, just memorize it, as it’s too early to train it now.”

“You can train here tonight, I’ll help you get started,” Ling Yun said with a bright smile.