"If you mention my name, they probably won’t rip you off. It’ll save you a lot of trouble, and it’s not like you were going to sell it off piece by piece anyway," Zhang Deming said after a pause.

Li Shifan paused for a moment. "Right, I’ll remember that."

Zhang Deming said no more and turned to leave.

"Old man, are you sure you didn’t see wrong?" Li Shifan muttered to himself as he watched Zhang Deming’s retreating back, his voice low enough that only he could hear.

In the palm of his left hand, a miniature scroll vibrated faintly, and a voice immediately sounded in his mind:

"There’s no mistake. If he hadn’t just advanced, his Cultivation not yet fully stabilized, and if I didn’t have some prior knowledge of him, I wouldn’t have been certain either."

"That Concealment Technique of his is barely adequate for hiding his physical form, but his ability to conceal his aura is exceptionally refined."

Hearing this, Li Shifan stood stunned for a long while before abruptly getting up, hoisting the Demon Beast onto his shoulder, and heading for the stall Zhang Deming had mentioned.

’This persona of a struggling, stall-running Cultivator should be enough to deal with any future investigations!’

At the same time, he muttered to himself, "Old man, that hellish training you mentioned... let’s start tomorrow. I don’t want to wait anymore. A year seems too long."

The voice in his mind clearly paused for a moment before replying, "Have you made up your mind? There’s no turning back if you regret it later."

Li Shifan looked up in the direction where Zhang Deming had disappeared and said with determination, "I’ve made up my mind."

...

Having obtained the Sword Control Skill, Zhang Deming planned to go back and immediately edit it into a Technique.

Just as he returned to the Qingyou Jade Pavilion, Zhang Deming’s expression faltered.

His consciousness turned inward, arriving in his Spirit Nurturing Space. In the chaotic sky, a star-like point of light was currently shining brilliantly.

With a beckoning gesture, Zhang Deming summoned the point of light directly before him.

’What is this?’

Within the point of light, a scene was currently flashing.

It was a Cultivation Room. Judging by the style, it had to be within a Spirit Vein Cave Mansion of the Celestial Spirit Sect.

Feng Mingyou, his face pale, was directing a mass of Essence Qi to continuously assault a blurry ball of light in front of him.

As the Essence Qi and countless motes of Spiritual Light poured in, a Rune began to slowly take shape inside the blurry ball of light.

At first, it was a lively stream of water, but as it solidified, the stream gradually transformed into a transparent leaf.

Every detail of the leaf was distinct, filled with Spirituality, and made entirely of water.

Finally, as the spiritual leaf fully formed, a powerful Spiritual Power Sea Absorption manifested in the cave.

The leaf trembled and, under the surge of Spiritual Power, was finally completed.

It flew into the space between Feng Mingyou’s eyebrows, forming a specific Rune.

In that instant, another Spiritual Energy Sea Absorption occurred. The two events, one after the other, created a considerable absorption phenomenon.

With that, the scene in the point of light ended and began to loop again.

Zhang Deming’s expression shifted. ’Looks like Feng Mingyou, that slacker, has reached the Tai Chi Stage.’

What surprised Zhang Deming was that he had actually reaped a reward from Feng Mingyou achieving Foundation Establishment with the Spirit Water Technique—and it was even more than what he’d gained when he first mastered it himself!

In his inventory, he had gained five white Qi Fortune Light Balls, and five balls of Golden Merit as well.

As Zhang Deming looked at all this, he was pleasantly surprised. ’Why did I get so much?’

’Will I get this much every time someone uses my Technique for Foundation Establishment, or is this a special case?’

Gazing at the ten light balls, Zhang Deming’s expression flickered; he leaned more toward the "special case" theory.

The main reason was the five Merit Light Balls. He knew that since his ’golden finger’ had activated, he hadn’t accumulated this much Merit in total.

Clearly, five Merit Light Balls was no small amount of Merit.

’So why was there so much?’

’My previous interactions with Feng Mingyou didn’t yield such an absurd amount of Merit. This is completely over the top, far exceeding what I got from my number one prospect, Li Shifan.’

’Compared like this, Feng Mingyou’s destiny seems even more extraordinary than Li Shifan’s.’

’Wait a minute!’

’Destiny?’

’Could it be because of... the legendary Destiny Alteration?’

’Originally, Feng Mingyou had no hope of reaching the Tai Chi Stage, but now he’s done it. And given his disposition, he might even become unstoppable.’

’If so, does that mean I fundamentally changed a slacker’s fate?’

’If that’s really the case, is my future path to become the man behind the ’underdog’?’

’The figure behind the protagonist?’

After pondering for a long time, Zhang Deming still had no answer.

He would only be able to find out for sure when the next person achieved Foundation Establishment using a Spirit Nurturing Bead.

Still, it was a pleasant surprise. He was even happier that, regardless of the reason, it seemed he had found another source of income besides the one from technique Enlightenment Introductions.

It offered a potential solution for his increasingly tight Energy reserves.

Composing himself, he looked at the more than eight white light balls, then directly spent two units to begin editing the Sword Control Skill.

"Ordinary Energy: 2. Small plug-in can be edited.

Editing conditions met!

..." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

He skillfully created the code. The Sword Control Skill didn’t cause any strange issues, so Zhang Deming edited it conventionally.

’If (possess a certain amount of Spiritual Power AND cast Sword Control Skill)

{Then, Sword Control Skill cast successfully}

Else {Then, Sword Control Skill cast failed}.’

As the ball of light flew into his Dantian and condensed into a small sword, a wealth of insights about the Sword Dao flooded Zhang Deming’s mind.

The Sword Control Skill was actually divided into two parts: Swordsmanship and Sword Control.

At Tier Two, the focus was still mainly on the Swordsmanship stage. Among the insights, many were Sword Techniques and moves.

As for Sword Control, that was an ultimate move saved for last.

After internalizing the insights for a moment, Zhang Deming had officially gained his first semi-melee ability.

He checked his inventory: Merit 7.4, Qi Fortune 6.2.

For the time being, Zhang Deming needed to save up Energy. He closed the panel, went out into the courtyard, and began to practice his swordsmanship.

After running through a set of basic forms, he found it was indeed countless times better than the generic fitness routine he used to practice.

After taking care of a few matters, Zhang Deming left Qingyou Pool again and returned to his Cave Mansion in Celestial Spirit City.

Three hundred thousand Experience Points would take over six hundred days of just idling, so it still required a long and patient effort.

Of course, even for a Celestial Spirit Root Cultivator with an eighty- or ninety-point Spirit Root, this speed would rank them as a genius among geniuses.

After all, for many people, the units of time in the Tai Chi Stage were measured in decades.

In the Apprentice Stage, the theoretical lifespan was 120 years.

After advancing to the Tai Chi Stage, that number doubled to about 250 years, and this was only for those who had just entered the stage.

Condensing each Branch Rune Skill for a Rune Core added another fifty years, which was why they were called "lives."

In other words, the increase from one "life" in the Tai Chi Stage was equivalent to a mortal’s entire lifetime.

Tai Chi Three Lives amounted to a total of one hundred and fifty years.

A Peak Tai Chi Cultivator, therefore, had a lifespan of four hundred years.

...

Back when Qu Qizhong’s father was alive, he had been quite influential in the main family, at least when it came to business.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been handling single transactions worth hundreds of Spirit Stones.

Because of this, the Celestial Spirit City Blue Sky Branch was a sizable, three-story establishment.

Originally, the first floor sold common goods, but now the second floor had gradually been converted into a VIP area.

The third floor served as his living quarters.

But in the last two days, things had suddenly changed.

After Zhang Deming contacted him, he had started spreading the word to prepare for an in-store auction in three days.

In the middle of his preparations, Zhang Deming sent him a message to come and pick up the merchandise.

But when he returned with over forty Spirit Nurturing Beads, everything was different.

When Qu Qizhong arrived at the shop, he saw several of his clerks standing meekly to the side. A middle-aged man was seated in the middle of the room, and his uncle was standing beside him, serving him attentively.

The atmosphere in the entire shop was rather delicate.

The moment he saw his uncle, Qu Qizhong’s expression changed. "Uncle, what are you doing here again? If I recall correctly, we’ve already settled things between us."

"This Blue Sky Branch has nothing to do with you."

"That was all made perfectly clear in front of numerous family members back then."

Qu Qingxian, sitting in the main seat, watched Qu Qizhong’s reaction. He raised an eyebrow and glanced at Qu Xiaojun beside him.

As a fringe member of the Qu Family, Qu Qizhong’s uncle, Qu Xiaojun, was already treading on thin ice and acting with extreme caution in the presence of his own ancestor.

Now, spurred by Qu Qizhong’s words and noticing the ancestor’s glance, beads of sweat instantly dotted his forehead, and his legs began to tremble.