Yan Sea looked at the student who was slightly taller than him. His eyes were clear and his expression firm, radiating the characteristic vigor of youth.

’What a promising talent!’ Yan Sea thought to himself.

’Maybe I really have gotten old over the years!’ Then he let out a carefree laugh.

"Haha... Good!"

"Yu Fei, come over here. Let me tell you about the Cultivation Technique of the Tribulation Sword lineage!

The Cultivation Technique passed down by my master is called the Tribulation Sea Formless Sword Manual, and its introductory method is a Contemplation Skill called the Cyan Lotus Sword Cultivation Skill.

This dark cyan longsword is the Cyan Lotus Sword!

Come here, I will teach you the Cyan Lotus Sword Cultivation Skill.

Before cultivating the sword, you must first master the Cyan Lotus Sword Seal. A first-realm Martial Artist has no Inner Qi, and their Spiritual Power can’t be manifested externally, so how are you supposed to control the Cyan Lotus Sword for contemplative cultivation?

First, you need to perform a crude blood offering to refine the Cyan Lotus Sword. This will establish a faint connection with you, its wielder.

As for practicing the Cyan Lotus Sword Seal, the ’sword seal’ is actually a method of controlling the force of the Qi Blood in your body to influence the Cyan Lotus Sword, which in turn aids your cultivation...

Once your Cyan Lotus Sword Seal is proficient, you can begin refining the sword and nurturing your Sword Intent...

The Cyan Lotus Sword Seal has six forms in total. They don’t have special names, but are divided into Move, Stop, Accelerate, Command, Turn, and Withdraw. Functionally, it’s actually somewhat similar to controlling a drone..."

Yu Fei became lost in Yan Sea’s explanation, gradually becoming engrossed.

This was a mysterious world he had never encountered before—mystical, magnificent, and vast, filling him with a sense of longing.

"In short, that’s the cultivation method for the Cyan Lotus Sword Seal. This part isn’t actually difficult; the real challenge of the Cyan Lotus Sword Cultivation Skill comes later. Do you have any other questions?"

"Uh... I have one more question..."

"If you have a question, spit it out! What’s with the hesitation?"

"Then I’ll be bold and ask... it’s about my master’s master, um... the story of the eighth-realm Grandmaster. You didn’t finish it earlier..."

Yu Fei asked cautiously; he was extremely curious about it.

"Get lost! You missed your chance. When you’ve established the foundation for the Tribulation Sword lineage, I’ll tell you. You’ll have earned the right to know by then.

And another thing, don’t call yourself my disciple. I haven’t accepted you. I’m just giving you a chance right now. Don’t you be so shameless, trying to leech off my connection to an eighth-realm Grandmaster!"

"Yes, Teacher!"

Yu Fei readily complied.

"Sigh..."

Yan Sea shook his head. He didn’t know if choosing Yu Fei was the right call. ’Talent aside,’ he thought, ’the kid is shameless and cunning, but he’s also fundamentally kind and has incredible willpower. People like him are survivors; they don’t die easily!’

He actually knew Yu Fei had given last month’s Vitality Elixir to Du Mingxuan and Li Mengyao.

He wasn’t concerned about Li Mengyao—he couldn’t be bothered with the affairs of young men and women—but giving the elixir to Du Mingxuan was an act of gratitude and friendship. That was an excellent quality.

Since ancient times, it’s been said that cutting off someone’s source of wealth is like murdering their parents, and obstructing their Dao path is an unforgivable sin.

Few people are able to consider righteousness when their own cultivation resources are at stake. But what many don’t realize is that to ascend to the Grandmaster realm, a perfected state of mind is absolutely essential.

However, when it comes to cultivating one’s state of mind, advice from others often backfires. Countless cultivators at the peak of the sixth realm are trapped by mental imperfections, too afraid to take that final, crucial step. Some of these mental flaws can never be mended, and a single missed opportunity can derail their entire cultivation path.

In the short term, Yu Fei giving away the Vitality Elixir delayed his cultivation. But if he aims to become a Grandmaster in the future, who’s to say whether, for his state of mind, this one Vitality Elixir will become the straw that breaks the camel’s back!

Life is unpredictable, and things rarely go as planned!

With a wave of his hand, Yan Sea dismissed Yu Fei. But just as Yu Fei turned to leave, Yan Sea suddenly called him back. His expression was conflicted, and he seemed hesitant to speak.

"Teacher?"

"Um... a piece of cultivation advice. Preserving your primal Yang will help with your breakthrough to the Inner Qi Realm. The same holds true for women. The reverse is also true!

Well, that’s it. You can go now!"

...

Yu Fei froze. ’Is Teacher Yan Sea warning me? He has to be!’

’So being a virgin increases my chances of breaking through?’

Yu Fei understood Yan Sea’s meaning. He was worried Yu Fei wouldn’t be able to restrain himself—after all, the way Mr. Li was acting was a bit frightening.

’But... do I even count as a virgin? Mentally, I lost that title a long time ago. After all, there’s my past life to consider, so...’

Yu Fei scratched his head in frustration.

’This isn’t something I can just go around asking people!’

"So much to learn when it comes to martial cultivation!" Yu Fei sighed.

...

Spring temperatures are notoriously unstable. It gets hot enough to pack away the winter coats and long johns, only for a cold snap to hit a few days later.

For many, the most frustrating part was having washed their down jackets for nothing.

The March wind was cold, and pedestrians hurried along the streets.

The last traces of the New Year’s festivities had vanished. The money saved up from the previous year was all but spent after the holidays, and the specter of poverty loomed equally over every wage slave at the bottom of the ladder. And so, the great machine of society spun up to full speed.

Anju District was a resettlement housing project the government had only finished two years ago. Not many of the actual owners had moved in; most of the units were rented out to parents whose children attended nearby schools.

Di Yunliang and his group had rented two four-bedroom apartments here to serve as their base of operations. This was what had been keeping them busy lately.

In addition to the apartments in Anju District, they had also rented several storefronts and a few unused courtyard homes in the surrounding townships. Their cover story was that they just wanted places where they could play cards without being disturbed.

Now that they had finished the initial work of setting up their strongholds, they gathered to discuss their next steps.

Inside Unit 504 in Anju District, a four-bedroom apartment with over 140 square meters of floor space, the living room still felt crowded with eight adults in it.

The living room was thick with cigarette smoke, and everyone was lounging about casually.

Di Yunliang lowered his head and sipped his tea, then casually spat the tea leaves into the trash can.

"Pah! This tea is crap! Mr. Cheng, you must’ve bought a counterfeit!"

"Probably. Or I could just go kill the owner of the tea shop tonight," the middle-aged man replied without even lifting his head from watering the flowers.

CLICK!

Di Yunliang lit a cigarette.

He took a long drag. "PFFFT... Sure, go ahead. After you kill him, hang his head on the gate of the county government building. We’ll even set off some fireworks and put up a banner to celebrate!"

Cheng YuanYu heard this and put down the watering can, carefully turning to ask: 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"You’re joking, right, Mr. Liang?"

"You’re the one who was fucking joking first!"

Di Yunliang shot Cheng YuanYu a look, rolling his eyes. He pulled five cigarettes from the pack, tossing one to Cheng YuanYu before passing the rest around.

He then slumped onto the sofa, propped his feet on the coffee table, and flicked his ash before speaking in a lazy drawl:

"Our mission this year is to lay low. It wasn’t easy for any of us to make it here. A lot of people died. Feiji, Laopao, Laodeng... They’re all gone. We’re the only ones left."

There was a note of sorrow in Di Yunliang’s voice, and the others shared his sentiment.

The Divine Sect had suffered a near-catastrophic blow last winter. Over seventy percent of the organization’s forces had been wiped out. A loss this devastating was almost unheard of in the sect’s history.