Watching the Mountain

Chapter 219: Chapter 151: A Hundred Years, Ye Shu’s Sword

Although Qin Yufeng had spoken of reshaping the world and had even visited the Demon Race, presumably to set some plans in motion, there had been no news of any activity.

The Cultivation Realm was the same as ever. It was a cycle of entering Secret Realms, leaving them, and then entering them again. The daily routine for the Major Sects was to obtain resources from these Secret Realms, recruit new disciples, train them, and finally arrange for them to enter the Secret Realms.

As for the New Domain, ever since the Secret Realms appeared, disputes had all but vanished. The Major Sects quickly set aside their previous conflicts. Following the territories demarcated by the last New Domain Grand Tournament, they each established branch sects to begin development.

The simultaneous appearance of two new territories, the New Domain and the Secret Realms, had one major consequence: the Major Sects were severely short on manpower.

They needed people to stay behind in the Cultivation Realm’s native lands to maintain and develop existing resource industries. The branch sects in the New Domain had vast, undeveloped resources waiting to be exploited, and the Secret Realms held an abundance of opportunities.

The Major Sects now regretted ever setting recruitment standards for disciples. They should have just opened the gates to cultivation and given everyone in the world a chance to step onto the path.

Now, within the Cultivation Realm, anyone with even a sliver of aptitude who wasn’t too old to cultivate was fiercely fought over. Countless battles even broke out over recruiting promising individuals.

For ordinary mortals, this was undoubtedly the happiest of times. Previously, one had to pass an assessment to even hope to cultivate, and the failure rate was extremely high. Parents constantly worried their children wouldn’t make the cut.

But now, things were different. Soon after a child was born, if they tested positive for cultivation potential, they would be claimed early on. If their aptitude was even slightly better than average, multiple sects would vie for them, leaving families unsure of which to choose. It was truly a happy problem to have.

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Xu Ran’s plan to have Zhang Zhentian as a sparring partner finally came to fruition after a few twists and turns.

Back then, Xu Ran had sparred with Zhang Zhentian for a month, helping him comprehend the True Will of Life and Death Reincarnation.

This time, Zhang Zhentian declared he would spar with Xu Ran for a whole year.

However, Xu Ran called a halt after just over a month. Fighting Zhang Zhentian was certainly engaging. His opponent suppressed his Cultivation Realm, and both went all out, giving Xu Ran a rare taste of the thrill of battle.

But he felt that achieving Enlightenment Dao through combat wasn’t right for him. It wasn’t that the month of training yielded no gains, but the gains were minimal. Compared to his progress in cultivation, he had learned far more about Magical Combat.

As for Shen Wuchen, although he was willing to spar, it proved extremely difficult in practice. Their fights were either a one-sided victory for Xu Ran, or Shen Wuchen would use his higher Realm to crush him and win quickly.

The Flying Immortal Stream and the common cultivation methods of the Cultivation Realm were fundamentally two different paths. It wasn’t a matter of simply restricting one’s Cultivation to keep them evenly matched. Besides, what Xu Ran needed was to temper his Mental Realm and his Dao.

This left Shen Wuchen feeling quite dejected. ’The fights between Master Xu and Senior Brother Zhang were so thrilling,’ he thought. ’Why doesn’t it work when it’s my turn?’

After finding sparring to be of no use, Xu Ran returned to his usual cultivation routine, while also continuing his work on creating his own Cultivation Technique.

After three years of study and contemplation, he successfully created the general outline for the technique. However, he felt it was still too complex compared to the Blank Board Technique he envisioned.

So, he started over from scratch to simplify it. Another seven years passed. After dozens of revisions, he finally created the world’s simplest, attribute-less Blank Board Technique.

After creating the Cultivation Technique, he had originally planned to find Teacher Qing Xuan. However, Teacher Qing Xuan happened to be away. After some thought, he went to find Senior Sister Yue and asked her to take a look.

”It discards all complexity, retaining only the purest form of cultivation, yet allows you to add any characteristics you desire at will.”

Yue Qingyu commented after she finished reading the technique. Then she slowly raised her head, her beautiful eyes resting on Xu Ran for a long moment before she spoke softly.

”The Ten Thousand Laws return to one. Junior Brother, you have touched upon the very essence of cultivation.”

She smiled faintly as she continued, ”When I first met you, I said you lacked Spirituality and Comprehension, and I asserted that you wouldn’t go far in your cultivation. Later, you used the token to join the Sect, proving that I had misjudged you.”

”Now, with this Cultivation Technique you’ve presented, you have completely overturned my initial assessment.”

A ripple seemed to pass through her eyes as she smiled radiantly at Xu Ran and said:

”Junior Brother, you can now be called a grandmaster of your generation.”

”Grandmaster?” Xu Ran was slightly taken aback. ”Senior Sister, isn’t that a bit of an overstatement?”

Yue Qingyu gently shook her head, her expression serene as she said, ”Not at all. It’s you, Junior Brother, who underestimates yourself.”

She looked directly at Xu Ran, her face full of admiration as she spoke.

”Junior Brother, you might think you’re mediocre because of your poor aptitude and slow cultivation speed.”

”And if we were to judge by cultivation speed alone, perhaps that would be true.”

”However, the world always has its exceptional outliers. Their cultivation paths are different from the norm, but they ultimately reach an extremely high Realm.”

”In my eyes, Junior Brother, you are one such person. Your slow cultivation speed isn’t a sign of mediocrity. It’s simply that the path you’ve been on until now isn’t right for you.”

”What you need to do is continue on in your own way and forge your own path.”

When she finished, she gave Xu Ran a slight nod, offering a smile of encouragement.

”Junior Brother, don’t sell yourself short. You are more extraordinary than you think. Keep working hard. I hope to walk alongside you on the Great Dao in the future.”