NOVEL NEXT Chapter 148
I could barely believe my senses, replaying the final moment over and over again to understand what had happened. Not my sight, because that was unreliable when it came to these matters. My spiritual senses recreated it perfectly, allowing me to see the way the winning disciple had clutched triumph from the looming jaws of defeat.
Teng Sheng had slipped while throwing a punch at his opponent. With how little space they had—owing to Wang Ren's enclosing Glaive Intent—it was inevitable. His slip had given the other disciple a perfect opportunity to strike the finishing blow.
Which was exactly what he'd done. The boy thrust his sword—admittedly a weak thrust, given the limited range of motion—yet it would have been enough to knock Teng Sheng out.
Right before the sword struck the former young master's shoulder, however, his skin suddenly turned a silvery-grey colour. The sword crashed against his skin, but instead of piercing his shoulder, the blade bent and then snapped in half.
The sword-wielding disciple barely had time to widen his eyes in surprise before a metallic-looking fist was planted in his face. He crashed against the barrier of Glaive Intent, earning himself a few nasty cuts over his back before Wang Ren cancelled the technique.
Then, the sword wielding disciple fell to the ground, unconscious. Teng Sheng stood there as his skin reverted back to a pale, fleshy colour. He was panting for breath, but a triumphant smile emerged on his sweaty visage and he raised a fist to the sky.
I still didn't understand how he'd managed to block the sword strike. It had to be related to the change in his skin, but what kind of technique was that and when did he learn it?
Those questions were ones I was sure the boy would answer soon enough, so I simply watched as he basked in the roaring cheers of the crowd and his fellow disciples. The final preliminary round ended with Teng Sheng's victory, earning him the sixteenth spot in the knockout tournament.
I was proud of the kid. He had come a long way from the timid child I'd met the first time I visited the Three River City Lord's palace. In a way, I was responsible for changing his fate. As long as he wielded his newfound strength for great purposes and deeds, I would be satisfied.
There was going to be another break before the tournament began. The first two rounds would be held today, bringing the total number of disciples down from sixteen to just four.
Then, the semi-finals and the final would take place after the healing competition. In a way, it might take away from the healing competition as being the main event, but I didn't think so.
What was most important to me was that the first inner disciple of the Grasping Life Sect was a healer. All the disciples had their value to the sect, but it was healing that we would use to change the world. Showing that was essential.
While I was interested in who would win this martial competition, I had already seen my fair share of battles today. My mind wandered towards the ancient healing tome and the problems I'd been facing in my own cultivation recently.
Figuring there was no use wasting time, I simply took the book out of my spatial ring and started studying it as the first battle began. Unlike the preliminary rounds where five groups would fight at the same time, the matches in the knockout tournament took place one at a time.
Interestingly, I found the first section of the text incredibly easy to comprehend now. Then again, having dissected it thoroughly hundreds of times over the past year, it would be ridiculous if I couldn't.
When I'd first sensed my own spiritual body and begun mapping it, I felt that it was a separate entity to my physical body. In a sense, that was true—but it wasn't the whole picture.
The connection that existed between the two in my dantian was something I still didn't quite understand. How was it that the spiritual and physical could coexist in the same space; be part of the same person, yet also not.
I'd been stuck on a few things for this past year. The sect's development was booming, but after everything I'd accomplished in the Blossoming Heavens my own progression had stalled. Now, watching my disciples fight for glory and for their sect, idly reading a text I'd read endlessly in the past, something finally clicked.
My physique had been stuck in the refining process of the fifth and final organ of the first layer—my brain—for quite a long time. Nothing I'd tried had brought it to completion: using higher grade natural treasures, cultivating while refining the brain, meditation, and even asking Senior Guan Jin for advice.
However, sitting there in the stands of the arena at the base of Million Flowers Celestial Peak at an unremarkable moment in time, my accumulated knowledge suddenly came together to give me an epiphany.
The first layer of the Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique involved refining five vital organs using medicinal energy derived from natural treasures, dense sources of spiritual energy, or even toxins such as the lake which had first sent me down this path. It was, in essence, the stage where I turned my impure mortal body into a true vessel of medicinal energy and healing.
When it refused to finalise the refinement of my brain, thereby completing the first layer, it seemed as though my physique was attempting to tell me something. A message I couldn't understand until I deepened my knowledge of the spiritual body that all cultivators possessed.
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The second layer of the Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique must require more than simply refining my physical body. To reach it, I needed more than the simple methods I'd been using until now.
I fell deeper into thought as I contemplated this. It was one thing to realise that reaching the second layer would require me to more deeply connect my physical and spiritual body, but it was another entirely to actually do so.
First I needed to figure out what was missing.
In the first place, each of the five organs played a vital part in my healing techniques and my ability to produce medicinal energy. They weren't purely physical anymore, thanks to the refining process turning them into a true 'forge' of medicine.
However, there were still some parts of the process that were lacking. They had gradually formed a cycle that fed itself—the liver stored energy, the heart purified it, the lungs refined it, and the stomach was the crucible that turned the spiritual into the physical.
I had utilised them together in the past, but never had I formed a complete cycle of them all. Of course I hadn't—I had yet to refine the final organ. A second epiphany came to me.
I now understood how to complete the first layer of the Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique and finish refining my brain. I reached out with my spiritual senses, preparing to take the most potent natural treasure I'd harvested in the Blossoming Heavens out of my spatial ring.
That was when I felt a hand on my arm and my trance-like focus was broken. I looked to my left and saw Wang Ren looking at me with a concerned expression.
"Are you alright, Sect Leader? You've been spaced out since the first battle began. I felt your qi stirring just now," he said.
"I'm fine, I just got a little distracted and ended up having some epiphanies regarding my cultivation," I replied. I glanced down into the arena and saw that there was no one fighting. One disciple was walking off the stage while another was being tended to by the healing disciples. "I guess I missed the first battle."
Yu Chun began giggling wildly. I raised an eyebrow, only for Wang Ren to join her a moment later. "The first battle? Sect Leader, that was the fourth and final battle of the quarter-finals. We are finished for the day," he explained in between bursts of laughter.
"What!?" I exclaimed, looking up at the sky to see that it was painted in hues of gold and indigo. The sunset neared.
My brief moment of introspection had stretched out for a few hours. It wasn't actually that surprising, considering that some cultivators could spend years and years in secluded meditation on a single subject, but it was the first time such a thing had happened to me involuntarily.
"Did anyone notice?" I asked, glancing around the crowds. "Apart from the two of you, of course."
"I doubt it. Most of them were glued to the battles. There were some chaotic upsets taking place. Truly, the final four are not the disciples I expected. Tomorrow will be interesting," Wang Ren said.
I breathed out a sigh of relief. It wouldn't do for people to see the Sect Leader of the Grasping Life Sect seeming to not watch his own disciples compete.
I was slightly frustrated that I'd been interrupted right on the cusp of what would have been my greatest breakthrough in an entire year, but I hadn't exactly lost anything. I would return to it later that evening.
"So, who made it to the semi-finals? I'm curious after hearing your reaction, Ren," I asked.
"Yu Jin made it through by the skin of his teeth. He did much better than his brother due to that body refining technique. Yu Bao didn't seem to take it too badly, but I'll check on him later. Teng Sheng made it to the quarter-finals but lost to Pei Kexin. It was a good showing from him, considering she had five star-realms on the brat," Wang Ren began to recount the events I'd missed.
"She is the one who used the ice and wind techniques to defeat him in the preliminaries, right?" I asked for clarification.
"The very same. She's exceptionally talented. I wouldn't be surprised if she won the whole competition and became the first martial inner disciple. Fate may have other plans, however, so I won't say more," he said with a smirk and a glance towards the heavens.
"The last two disciples who made it through to the semi-finals were Shu Luyao and Wen Guanbo. Luyao is a one-star Qi Gathering cultivator who wields twin kama, while Guanbo is a peak Body Tempering practitioner who wields a saber. Both are promising talents. I would be happy with any of the four emerging victorious and becoming an inner disciple."
I nodded my head as I took in all the information. I would remember these names well. They were going to be the future guardians of the sect. The warriors who would protect the healers of the Grasping Life Sect. I would ensure they were nurtured well, provided they continued to work hard.
Yu Chun seemed to take even more notes than I. I wondered how many jade slips she'd used up during the competition so far. Ten? Twenty?
They weren't too expensive, so I didn't begrudge her information gathering habits. It was all in service of the sect's growth and development, after all.
"Well, it's a shame for young Teng Sheng. Yu Jin is performing exceptionally well, however, and I look forward to seeing his battle tomorrow," I said. "Although I am eager to finally witness the progress of our healing disciples first."
"I'll have to find something to do between now and the semi-finals," Wang Ren muttered.
"Don't you think that's a little disrespectful to the disciples who've been hard at work for the past year, Ren?" I scolded him.
"Oh, because you were so invested in the martial disciples' performance, Sect Leader. So invested that you managed to find time to cultivate while watching," he retorted with a raised eyebrow.
"Fair point. As long as you turn up and don't run off to train somewhere on the mountain instead. You really are becoming more like your old master…"
He sighed wistfully at that remark, then a fire of rage flickered behind his eyes. "Don't worry, I'll get my training done tonight and be on top form for tomorrow."
With that, he stepped up to the front of the box and announced the end of today's competition to the gathered crowds. There were thousands and thousands of people around the arena now. A makeshift town had formed at the base of the sect in the mere two days it had been going on. I wasn't sure what I would do about it once the competition was over, but that was a worry for another day.
I would be spending the rest of today putting my two epiphanies to work. Finally, after almost two years of effort, it was time to complete the first layer of the Fivefold Medicine Forge Physique.