After seeing the prompts, Matt noticed that Xue and Liu’s faces were now in his disciple window. When he clicked on them he could see all their statics, how far they were into their cultivation what skills they had learned, and how well they knew those skills. They all had the usual low, mid, high and perfect grading, so it was easy to figure out.
Zhang clan being a Clan based in a city full of springs made them mostly have water techniques, maybe this was the reason why the Tsai clan that was fire types hated their guts so much. Now he would have to make a decision, to either buy new water-based techniques for the kids or just teach them what he had already. He didn’t think there was a reason to do the earlier, as his cultivation method was superior to the other ones. He also had many resources dumped into his lightning Dao way, that it wouldn’t really make sense unless the kids didn’t have the aptitude for it.
First, he needed to change their main cultivation method, only after that could he start teaching them his techniques. Then, he might need to get them a better body tempering skill, he didn’t want to give them his as it was far to resource-heavy. Maybe it would give them an initial boost as the first levels would be easy, but later on, when the resources get scarce it would become a problem. They had no system to help them craft weapons that they could absorb, this type of technique was only good for people that were loaded.
“Take a seat you two.”
He beckoned them over, letting them sit down while he stood up, brows furrowed slightly before he began speaking.
“Qi Condensation, you take in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from the surroundings, to temper your body from the inside. You prepare your body for your foundation. You two have already started, but luckily it is not yet too late.”
“The breathing techniques that you have learned allow you to extract Qi from the surroundings, filtering out the water elements and then storing them inside of your body. My cultivation method is a bit different.”
Zhang Dong said as he stuck out his index finger and pointed it at his new disciples. After a moment the two could see a Qi bubble forming in front of it, but it was a bit odd. It was weaker than normal and didn’t seem to have any elemental energy inside. But after a moment it started crackling, turning a deeper shade of blue as it appeared in the form of a small lightning bubble.
“You don’t just gather the spiritual energy, you transform it, feel the heavens around you, bend them to your will!”
He kind of recited what the knowledge in his head was telling him, it sounded like hogwash but the two kids were eating it up. He also had to agree with it because he was actually pulling out heavenly lightning from thin air. But he didn’t plan on making many speeches though, as he took that handy Impartation of Knowledge technique. He did have the books on him, but he didn’t want to explain everything like a math teacher when he could just upload stuff directly into the brain. Also, the skill had a small bonus of already giving the one that was receiving it some proficiency in it. The first steps were always hard, so this was a big plus. He also could spend points to upgrade it later, so that the impartation would let the pupil learn more from the get-go.
“I’ll impart my cultivation technique for the Qi condensation level to you, but also another technique. It’s called the Tranquil Mind, I want you to study it first before you attempt cultivating my Lightning Qi Cultivation Art.”
He thought that the bonus from the tranquil mind technique would aid the kids in keeping a calm mind, so they wouldn’t make a blunder during the cultivation period. The two were giddy with anticipation as their Master walked over and placed his index finger on Liu’s forehead. The two didn’t know what Zhang Doong was doing as they have never seen a teaching technique like this.
“You might feel a tiny bit of pain… so endure.”
Before Liu could nod he felt information rushing into his head, he could feel discomfort penetrating his mind and sweat going down his forehead. He never felt something like this before, the knowledge of the tranquil mind, the cultivation art and even the Dao of lightning was getting shoved into him. The whole thing didn’t take long but the poor teenager almost passed out during it. The Dao of lightning was probably the hardest to comprehend, as it was the absolute principle of lightning.
*Uh, maybe it’s too much information at once? I managed to survive that info dump… they should be okay, it’s a lot less info than what I had to endure.*
He went over to the girl that was shivering slightly now but there still was determination in her eyes. She survived the headache but was rubbing her poor forehead while on the ground trying to process the information.
“I have imparted the basic teachings to you two, you can head back and start cultivating after you rest up. Also, take these and copy them down, don’t show them to anyone else, then return them to me.”
He handed them the cultivation manuals with the techniques as well, the impartation skill wasn’t perfect they might need the techniques in written form for reference and the system didn’t have a copy function. The two teenagers wobbled out of his chambers while grasping their heads, he might have overdone it but he smirked a bit as he wasn’t the only one who had to endure migraines while learning new things.
*Haha, you two are young you can power through it.*
*I think that should take them a while to process before I have to teach them other things, but I sure would like to have a body refining technique for them… one that lets them get to the nascent soul at least…But those would be in the heavenly grade, those don’t come cheap.*
He had spent most of his points now, he wondered if he could get Zhang Jin to fork up some spirit stones that he could absorb, or maybe he could get their mom to do it, but she was a widow now so he thought that would be inappropriate.
“Wait, there are those upgradable skills… maybe I can buy one that starts at the Qi Condensation stage but I can upgrade it all up to the Nascent soul stage… maybe even higher.”
That was the good thing about those upgradeable skills, they might end up costing more in the end but you could use them at a lower level. A person at the Qi Condensation level couldn’t use Core formation skills even though they were of a higher grade, they required just too much Qi to use. But not like someone with no body refining skill would be weak. Qi cultivators were more of a mage class, while body refiners were more akin to warriors. The strongest people cultivated both, but most of the time one path was the main one while the other was just a bonus.
Like Zhang Dong mostly used his Qi cultivation instead of his body, but that was mostly due to his body refining being behind his Qi cultivation but now it had finally caught up. So he would probably win against someone with a similar Qi cultivation if their body refining level was low, as he would take less damage and tire himself out less.
His Qi cultivation was of a high level, so the kids didn’t need a super hard to learn body refining technique more or less something to add to their repertoire would suffice. But he still wanted it to be somewhat good. There were a lot of techniques that could be upgraded and had skill trees to them, but none of the attack ones he had. That kind of evolved as he upgraded his cultivation technique. He also had a skill tree for his body refining technique, but he couldn’t up the grade but instead, he had attacks that he could unlock.
The copper body skill let him choose a grasping technique, his fingers would become metallic and his griping power would increase exponentially. He had already gotten that and tested it out, it also got a free buff when he rose his level of cultivation. The silver body let him deliver explosive strikes with his fists and legs, as they also changed to metal. He could also raise his defense past his cultivation realm for a brief moment. The golden body let him go into a special state he would perceive time slower while moving faster, so it was more or less a boost in speed and reaction time. All in all, it let him fight better at close range while using up his stamina instead of his spiritual energy.
*But wait, the upgraded skills work on me as I have the system, can I upgrade them if someone else learns it…”
He didn’t take that into account, he was the person with the system. He could buy skills but he had to use them himself to get the required knowledge to pass on. So he checked out his cash shop and found another way. Some skills could be bought a tome at a time if needed. So he could buy the first tome of the skill and pass it on, then when they were done with it just get the second tome without having to pay the whole price for the skill or technique upfront.
So while his new disciples were bumbling with their cultivation efforts, Zhang Dong took his time in examining the body refining skills. He also was really close to becoming the Patriarch, he sure hoped that nothing wrong would happen during the ceremony.
| Behemoth Body (Tome 1) | 2000 | Cultivator absorbs demon beast cores to enhance the body. Gains monstrous strength can transform body parts like nails into claws. Practitioners might experience violent tendencies. |
| Profound Physique (Tome 1) | 2900 | Through rigorous training, tempering and absorption of heaven and earth energies the cultivator can transform their body into the perfect weapon. Mostly focus on defense and power. |
| Devil’s Frame (Tome 1) | 3500 | By performing specific rituals, the practitioner can gain the body of a devil, it boasts high regenerative abilities. |
| Sylph Physique (Tome 1) | 2850 | Suited for female cultivators, it focuses on speed and evasion instead of resistance. While still giving a moderate increase in defense and regeneration. |
He didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, the Behemoth Body seamed good as it only needed beast cores but the violent tendency part was a bit iffy. The Devil one was out of the question, he didn’t want his disciples slaughtering infants. The profound one looked like your regular body refining skill, with no downsides besides being hard to learn. It looked like it would boost the cultivator’s skills without the mental or moral downsides. The Sylph one would probably suit his female disciple, while the profound one would be better for the male one. He would give those later to his disciples, maybe he could even give it to some other clan members as those looked to be good high grade all around refining techniques. Plus it was just for the Qi condensation level, so they was rather cheap.
There was also one other thing he learned while he was examining the cultivation manuals that he got from the core formation cultivators he defeated. When he examined it with his system out, he noticed that he could actually refine the cultivation techniques. Also, the costs were lower. He would pay less for upgrading a low earth graded skill to a high earth graded skill than to buy a new high graded skill. So maybe if he got his hands on those water cultivation tomes that the clan had, he could upgrade them. It would be probably better to learn a better version of a technique you were already familiar with than to start practicing a new one.
For now, he didn’t have many points left so he just resumed his daily activities the day of the ‘coronation’ was coming.
