145 Devoted to Cultivation
At the Tiger Subduing Dojo in Heyuan City, fireworks lit up the sky. It was their grand opening and a crowd had gathered to partake in the festivities.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, a burly middle-aged man walked out of the Tiger Subduing Dojo. After demonstrating a few techniques, he bellowed to the crowd, “I’m Li Si, a first-class martial artist at his peak. Today, I’m opening this martial arts school in Heyuan City. Please support us. Those who are interested in learning martial arts can sign up.”
After saying a few words, the burly man turned around and returned to the martial arts school, leaving only a few hired martial artists to entertain the crowd.
“We’re almost done setting up.”
In a hall inside the school, Jiang Ming smiled as he completed a painting. He called a young martial artist to send it to be framed and hung in the main hall.
Wang Ji, one of the martial artists, complimented his piece.
Jiang Ming shook his head and smiled. As soon as he announced he was opening a martial arts school, dozens of martial artists applied to be a part of it.
“In two weeks, I will teach you the second-class martial arts technique, the Tiger Subduing Fist!” Jiang Ming said lightly and then strode out.
It had been more than a month since Jiang Ming had come to Heyuan City. This time. he did not ask the Nameless for their help. He opened more than a dozen different shops in secret, covering a range of demographics.
With these precautions, he was sure the immortal cultivator here would never find him.
“I’ll wait for a few decades and slowly try to get in touch with him. If I still can’t get him to talk when the fire cloud grass appears, it won’t be too late to try to use force to solve the issue. By then, I would be even stronger.”
In fact, Jiang Ming had estimated that he could defeat the immortal now. However, he chose to be cautious.
* * *
In a secret underground vault, Jiang Ming was sitting cross-legged with three items placed in front of him—the Jade Slip, a dagger, and a jade pendant.
Jiang Ming first picked up the jade pendant of the Fire Lotus Valley. The light on his fingertips flowed slightly, and an extremely vague rune appeared.
There seemed to be a vague kind of power he could not grasp yet.
“The Spirit Restriction Seal is quite hard to learn!” Jiang Ming shook his head.
“Since I can’t seal this jade pendant, I must destroy it,” Jiang Ming muttered to himself. It could have some sort of tracking function, after all. It was a ticking time bomb.
With this in mind, he crushed the pendant.
Jiang Ming’s eyes were calm. He picked up the thin Jade Slip and tried to put it on his forehead.
According to the information he had gathered, if this item really was a Jade Slip, a cultivator would need to use their soul to examine it in order to browse the information within.
However, there were very few Qi Refinement Realm immortal cultivators who could release their soul, so they could only stick it to their forehead to browse the information.
“Is this a map of the red pine snowfield?” As soon as the Jade Slip touched his forehead, he could browse through all the information recorded within.
It recorded the situation of the snowfield outside North Peace City, such as where there was a path to the world of immortal cultivation and where the laws of the world did not apply. The snowfield’s name was actually the Red Pine Snowfield as well.
“It seems that the Red Pine Snowfield is indeed a place that leads to the world of immortal cultivation. However. perhaps it’s because it’s located at the boundary between the worlds, the laws of this world are not stable there. No wonder the people of the Fire Lotus Valley asked me to go to the red pine snowfield to seek an audience. They’re quite cautious!”
Jiang Ming smiled. It seemed that these people also knew that immortal cultivators were not omnipotent in this world.
In addition, Jiang Ming also found out that the Red Pine Snowfield was extremely vast.
However, danger lurked in the depths of the snowfield. Not only was the terrain difficult, but there were also fierce beasts lurking everywhere. Even a Grandmaster might be in danger, and it was impossible for anyone below the Grandmaster realm to walk out alive.
“This is good news for me!” Jiang Ming smiled. He was worried that he would be discovered on the way to the world of immortal cultivation, but now it seemed that there was no need to worry.
He then picked up the last item, the dark green dagger.
It was heavy in his hand.
However, when Jiang Ming tried to inject the spiritual energy in his body into the dark green dagger, he suddenly felt that something was eating his spiritual energy.
The dark green dagger suddenly trembled and flew into the void from Jiang Ming’s hand.
At the same time, Jiang Ming could also feel that there was a faint connection between his mind and the dagger. His eyes lit up in realization.
“It’s the legendary flying dagger!” Jiang Ming’s eyes lit up and he tried to control the flying dagger. “Go!”
The dagger turned into a ray of green light and suddenly shot out. It sank into the wall with a bang, leaving only the hilt outside.
Jiang Ming’s face also turned pale in an instant. This attack alone had completely sucked out his spiritual energy.
At the same time, there was a sharp pain on the surface of his body. Sharp cuts suddenly appeared all over his body.
The origin light shook slightly, and those wounds disappeared.
Jiang Ming gasped for air. After a while, he pulled the flying dagger from the wall and frowned slightly, “It’s not that powerful.”
However, he was not disappointed. On the contrary, this confirmed his guess. Immortal cultivators were not necessarily stronger than martial artists.
“Maybe it’s because I didn’t pour enough spiritual energy into it,” Jiang Ming muttered to himself. He had just entered the first level of the Qi Refinement Realm. If his cultivation was stronger, the dagger’s power might be greater.
He had to practice harder to become stronger!
* * *
Autumn had arrived. After a few years, the Tiger Subduing Dojo had gradually become a well-known martial arts school in the city.
Jiang Ming’s other business ventures were also doing well.
He was making steady progress in his cultivation of immortal techniques.
However, the cultivation of the Five Elemental Arts was still difficult.
Ten years passed and he finally broke through to the third level of the Qi Refinement Realm.
As he broke through to the third level of the Qi Refinement Realm, the speed of his cultivation became slower and slower. In fact, it felt like his progress had even come to a halt over the past few months.
Moreover, Jiang Ming’s need for spiritual energy was also greater every time he advanced to the next level. However, the Blood Spirit Technique that he obtained in the past could not sustain his increased demand for spiritual energy.
With no results from his cultivation, Jiang Ming simply left home and continued to stroll around the city.
He looked at the calendar and realized it was time for him to recruit new apprentices.
When Jiang Ming arrived at the martial arts school, he saw that there were already many new apprentices standing in the courtyard.
“What?”
Jiang Ming’s face was expressionless. However, he was actually very shocked.
The person he had come here to find was now here to learn martial arts from him.