A sword flew out of the Skyblue Hall and made way for the new disciples’ valley.

On the sword, Wei Yuan was holding a huge sack between his arms and avoiding Zhang Sheng’s gaze. His master was wearing a blank expression and fully focused on flying the sword. The speed at which they were traveling were several times faster than when they set off for the Skyblue Hall.

The sword reached Wei Yuan’s house in no time, but Zhang Sheng didn’t descend to the ground. Instead, he grabbed his disciple by the scruff and threw him off while they were still several zhang in the air. Immediately after that, he turned around and disappeared into the horizon in the blink of an eye, not even looking back or slowing down in the slightest.

Wei Yuan was falling head first toward the ground. Having no way to arrest himself, he could only grit his teeth and prepare himself for a harsh impact. Right before he would hit the ground, a gentle energy suddenly surged out of his body and arrested his momentum. It almost felt like someone was holding him between their arms. Although he still hit the ground with a loud thud on his back, and the impact hurt like a bitch as a matter of course, he ultimately didn’t suffer any injury.

Wei Yuan grimaced in pain as he climbed back to his feet. Luckily for him, he was naturally strong-willed and didn’t cry out in fear despite panicking quite a bit during the fall. Thus, he avoided the fate of embarrassing himself before the other new disciples.

After returning to his house, Wei Yuan placed the sack on the table and pulled out three jade bottles. It was obvious at first glance that the bottles were of excellent quality. The words “Profound Clarity” were etched on one side of the bottles, and the picture of an immortal mountain on the other. It looked very impressive to say the least.

The bottles themselves could’ve sold for a handsome sum of money. Thus, the pills they contained were even more valuable. The pills stored inside the three jade bottles were none other than the Chonglou Sea Pacifying Pills. They were meant to strengthen Wei Yuan’s flimsy foundation.

Trueman Fen Hai was a blabbermouth. He had divulged the price of the three pills in just a couple of exchanges. Long story short, each pill cost over ten thousand taels of immortal silver. Considering his monthly allowance, Wei Yuan would have to fast for over two hundred years to afford them.

Besides the pills, the sack also contained a heavy bag of immortal silver. They amounted to five hundred taels. It was the pocket money he received from Trueman Fen Hai.

Finally, Wei Yuan was carrying a new jade token in his shirt—the token of Trueman Fen Hai, granting him free access to the Skyblue Hall. From now on, provided that his grandmaster wasn’t cultivating in seclusion, he could seek him out at any time.

But of course, the Skyblue Hall was suspended in the sky, and Wei Yuan couldn’t fly until he successfully cultivated his Dao Foundation. Thus, the only way he could pay Trueman Fen Hai a visit was to trouble his master. Needless to say, Zhang Sheng’s expression at the time was as ugly as it could be.

It was only now Wei Yuan had somewhat recovered from the experience. He couldn’t help but feel grateful toward his generous grandmaster. Even a couple hundred years of pocket money was nothing to him.

Alas, fortune and misfortune were two sides of the same coin. Pleasing his grandmaster also meant displeasing his shifu considerably. It was impossible to say when the man would calm down.

Wei Yuan let out a sigh, unable to understand why Zhang Sheng was so furious. Was attractiveness really that important to the man?

He grabbed a mirror and checked himself out. No matter how he looked, he couldn’t figure out what part of him was attractive.

Still, Zhang Sheng was a magnanimous man. Surely he wasn’t actually angry over such a petty matter. He would return to normal once his anger had passed, he told himself.

Wei Yuan grabbed a Chonglou Sea Pacifying Pill and entered his cultivation chamber. After he calmed his mind, he consumed the pill and began his cultivation, forgetting both himself and his surroundings in the blink of an eye.

The pill had to be taken one at a time. He had to wait at least seven days before taking the next one. There were no other precautions to note besides that.

This time, the scenery in his sea of consciousness was different from before. For one, there was now a bright red line on the jade toad’s back. Two, a drizzle was pouring from the sky and slowly expanding the ground beneath it.

Wei Yuan was seeing through the eyes of the jade toad as usual. He knew that the drizzle was a manifestation of the Chonglou Sea Pacifying Pill’s medicinal effects. It had appeared in his sea of consciousness as a drizzle because it was neither a form of natural spirit qi nor otherworldly fortune. Thus, he ignored it and focused on swallowing lunar essence.

The Chonglou Sea Pacifying Pill was as miraculous as Trueman Fen Hai claimed. When the next day arrived, and he stopped cultivating at the usual time, the image in his head had grown by over three chi and was now almost two zhang in length. The giant rock and the jade toad had also grown accordingly. Even the moon in the sky was almost twice as big as it was before.

Zhang Sheng had already explained the cultivation process of the Jade Toad Full Moon Painting in detail. The first step was manifesting his image. During this stage, the size of his image would gradually increase over time until it couldn’t grow any longer. The larger the image, the stronger the foundation; the more detailed and distinctive the image’s unique features, the higher the quality of the foundation.

An image basically served as a framework for the body-tempering process. It wasn’t until one had fully manifested their image within their sea of consciousness that the actual body-tempering commenced. The ground corresponded to the flesh, the rock corresponded to the blood, the jade toad corresponded to the bones, and the moon corresponded to the mind. Whenever a stage of the body-tempering process was complete, the corresponding part in the image would become vibrant with life and spirit. When all of the stages were completed, the image would naturally gain its own spirituality, at which point a Dao Foundation could be condensed.

Centuries had passed since the six universal cultivation methods were invented. The Palace of Absolute Beginning had long accumulated an ample amount of case studies. The fastest recorded cultivation of the Jade Toad Full Moon Painting was creating an image in three days, and forging an Earth-tier Dao Foundation in half a year. On the other hand, the cultivator holding the record of most solid foundation and highest achievement had taken thirty-six days to manifest a twelve-zhang long image, and five years to forge an immortal foundation.

It wasn’t until he completed his cultivation that Wei Yuan realized just how potent the Chonglou Sea Pacifying Pill was. Just one pill had expanded his image by over three chi, so three pills would probably expand it by a zhang at the minimum.

During the aptitude test, it was discovered that Wei Yuan had a foundation of eight chi. It was outstanding, but nothing special. Accordingly, a foundation of eight chi would produce an image that was eight zhang long. However, the three Chonglou Sea Pacifying Pills would increase his foundation by an entire chi. After he used them all up, whether he could improve his foundation further was dependent on how much fortune he could convert into foundation.

Anyway, today’s class was Dao Foundation Theory. He had already read through the introduction of each course and so knew that Dao Foundation Theory was really a class on cultivation. It was a class on how to forge their Dao Foundation, mend its flaws, attain perfection, and generally leave no regrets behind. It was a class that helped a disciple to walk further along their immortal journey.

Upon arriving at the Enlightenment Hall, Wei Yuan immediately saw a piece of jade paper and a pill resting on his desk. The usual praying mat had also been switched out for a green one. The piece of paper recorded a method titled Origin Returning Qi Pacifying Art. He picked it up and gave it a look over.

The contents of the method was very simple. It was a method to measure one’s foundation. To make a comparison, if the method used during the aptitude test was an ink-wash painting, then the Origin Returning Qi Pacifying Art was a fine-brush bird-and-flower painting[1]. The result it produced was finer and more in-depth.

The name of today’s instructor was also recorded on the piece of jade paper. A small commotion broke out among the students when they saw it.

“Oh! Hsu Henshui is our instructor!”

“Who?”

A girl exclaimed in surprise, “You didn’t know? He’s the skip-generation direct disciple of Wu Qi True Lord of the Mother Nature Monastery. His shifu is nominally a Trueman, but he was really taught by a True Lord! It’s said that he is as handsome as his cultivation is potent. What’s even more special is that his Dao Foundation is said to be an orchid!”

However, a lot of students instantly lost interest when they heard this. “An orchid? Isn’t that just a bottom-of-the-pile Dao Foundation? I can’t imagine anyone in our class producing something on the level of a Human-grade Dao Foundation.”

The girl snorted. “Ignorant fool. Instructor Hsu’s orchid is literally one-of-a-kind in the entire world! His Dao Foundation is unquestionably an immortal foundation!”

Another girl approached the group and asked, “Sooo... how handsome is he?”

“Do you even need to ask? You can see for yourself later!”

The kids were still chatting happily with each other when suddenly, the side door to the Enlightenment Hall creaked open. Everyone immediately fell silent and stared at it. Even Wei Yuan, a boy who was naturally indifferent about such things, could not help but feel curious about their latest instructor. He wanted to see just how extraordinary the famous Hsu Henshui was for himself.

The first thing that entered through the gap was an aqua blue shirt. The gentleman himself entered an instant later. However, to everyone’s surprise, the gentleman was covering his face with a fan!

Although his face was covered, his figure alone was beautiful enough. His aqua-colored sleeves swayed without a breeze like he was wearing water, not clothes. The very first step through the door was a subtle but flawless match with nature’s rhythm—light, graceful, and perfectly poised. It brought them an indescribable sense of serenity and relaxation like a whiff of something pleasant. It was such a step that even Wei Yuan grew curious about his instructor’s face.

Everyone was filled with anticipation when suddenly, a smooth, slender hand with fingers that looked as delicate as an orchid grabbed the scruff of the instructor’s neck. The next thing they knew, he vanished through the door.

“Step aside—I’ll be the one to teach this class!” A formidable, domineering voice boomed out.

“But—”

“No buts! My decision is final!” The voice brooked no argument.

“What are you doing? Stop—” The instructor let out a surprised cry, but his voice faded at a surprising speed. It became inaudible in just the blink of an eye.

The next second, a woman stepped into the Enlightenment Hall and slammed the door behind her. She then gave the full hall of stupefied students a smile.

It was a smile that brightened Wei Yuan’s whole world.

1. Generally speaking, one is colored and one isn’t; one is more conceptual and one is more detailed. My artistic sense is in the negatives so if I made a mistake in my interpretation, apologies. Here’s the link to the Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird-and-flower_painting. ☜