Wu Long woke up refreshed, as did the others since they were able to release the pent-up desire that they accumulated when Wu Long was not with them.
This time, he increased his cultivation base and easily broke from the 5th level of the Qi Condensation Realm to the 6th level and was then able to breach the watershed barrier between the 6th and 7th levels where he stopped not to progress too fast and destabilize his foundation again, and instead tremendously improved his Spiritual Qi. Thus in this little less than a month stay here, he was able to increase his strength in all aspects dramatically.
His Spiritual Qi in particular received a massive boost as the Yin Qi released by the four of them was incredibly potent, not to mention the two who possessed Extreme Yin Qi.
Ye Ling was surprised to find out that even if she was now a Foundation Building Realm practitioner she still benefited from dual cultivating with him as his Yang Qi allowed her to break through. Shen Min was also able to breach a watershed level and advance to become a 4th-level Revolving Qi Realm practitioner while Luo Mingyu and Hua Ziyan who were both in the initial stages of Qi Manipulation Realm received the biggest benefits, both entering the 5th level. Hua Ziyan would have been able to receive an even more incredible boost to her cultivation since she was initially a Dual Cultivator, and Dual Extremes Infinite Union Art was now her main cultivation technique instead of auxiliary like everyone else but she chose to improve her Spiritual Qi as that was now a crucial aspect of her strength.
Wei Lan knew that Wu Long would be busy consuming the Neidan. Although she found the idea absurd, there seemed to be a lot of mysteries around him so she did not argue with him about it. She of course did not know that the others were for the last day not busy protecting him like they were in the beginning but were moaning in throes of passion.
So she was just quietly spending these days in peace. But for some reason, she could not properly meditate, and the usual meals were not as fun as they used to be. She was shocked to find that she had become incredibly used to being in their company in these few weeks. Which was why, when they finally all appeared she was incredibly excited. Ye Ling smiled at this sight, seeing how easily she became accustomed to them.
After a delicious breakfast, they all sat down for a new discussion. If the theme of the last one was their gains, the theme for this one was a correction of their shortcomings.
This was part lesson and part discussion. Wu Long stood before Shen Min and Hua Ziyan while Ye Ling, Luo Mingyu, and Wei Lan were to the side, also ready to comment or add on to the discussion.
“To be honest, you did quite well, and there are not any major problems. But there were minor mistakes, nine of them to be ex…”
“Pu…puhahaha”
As Wu Long was starting up the discussion, Hua Ziyan suddenly could not hold in her laughter, and the more the others looked at her with confusion the more her laughter escaped her control as tears started coming out of her eyes because of it.
Wu Long, unlike everyone else, understood why “nine mistakes” produced such a reaction from her, and could only sigh with a wry smile. He had already forgotten the incident with Zhao Wuji in the rain, but now he regretted being so careless at the moment.
After calming down a little, she looked at Wu Long who shrugged his shoulders indicating that it is ok, and she explained to the others. Tinkling laughter resounded in the garden they sat in while Wu Long shook his head a little at how his air of a mysterious and powerful practitioner was visibly withering away. He did not really mind, and it was a lot more rewarding to see five beauties laughing, but there was still a small pang of lament as he bid farewell to that image.
They then went on to the discussion of mistakes and then trained for some time. Wei Lan was also training, as when she heard that the Clear River Art she was regarding as the sect’s legacy was actually a skill named Silver River Staff from Wu Long, and saw him use it, she asked him to teach her as she could not bear using the skill that was camouflaged.
Wu Long did not really think much of it since it was the same skill essentially, but there were a little unnecessary steps woven in, and nothing else was different, thus not impeding her from utilizing it in combat, but since she cared so much he taught her the skill and she was busy retraining herself to not instinctively use the Spiritual Qi manipulation methods to camouflage the technique of Clear River Art that were deeply ingrained in her.
Meanwhile Wu Long and Ye Ling first supervised their training a little, after which they went to the training field next to the one others used.
“I want to see your real sword, not the lukewarm one you used to awaken the memories of my sword, but the real thing”
Ye Ling said, looking serious. She could not teach Wu Long everything in the time they had together, and that was one of her biggest regrets. Now she wanted to see, what level of sword he reached. It was to get rid of that lingering regret, as she knew that he reached heights she could not even imagine at her level, and also since she was curious.
“I cannot show you… since my body cannot endure it… and besides, you know. My sword is…”
“A killing sword, I know”
Ye Ling nodded with understanding. ｂ𝚍𝚘𝚟ｌ.ｎｔ
Wu Long’s battle instincts were forged in the chaotic battlefields of his youth where one wrong move, one moment of hesitation, and one single thought of mercy to the enemy meant one’s death. In his later life as a rogue cultivator, his battles were always real combat, as he never engaged in ‘exchanging pointers’. And even as he learned to control his instincts and became more skilled, allowing him to spare enemies or spar, to show his real sword or any real battle skill Wu Long had to go with an intent to kill.
In the past, when she was a lot stronger than him, she was able to handle it with ease even if he went completely all out. She even had to force his real sword out for the training to be effective by pressing and injuring him since he refused to potentially hurt her. But now, she would not be able to not just force it out, but hold out against it.
If they were to spar, having a real competition right now, both fighting with the intent to win, Ye Ling would win. Her cultivation base was higher, thus she was able to unleash more of her real abilities than he was able to.
But if they were to have a fight where the goal was to kill the opponent, she was sure that there was no way for her to survive. He was extremely deadly in a real combat.
It did not bother him that he was quite a lot weaker in a competition since holding back from killing an opponent was not his forte, and he never was eager to engage in meaningless fights with people he did not intend to kill.
“I will show you what I can… since I can handle a little more now”
Wu Long sighed as he wanted to show her, since it would have been immensely beneficial to a Sword Cultivator like her, but could not, so he could only show her a little glimpse. He just tempered his body and increased his cultivation base, so he was finally able to unleash a little more than before, but even that part, if utilized not for killing but demostrating the sword would be quite lukewarm.
Just as a sword appeared in his left hand and he grabbed the handle with his right to unsheathe it, his pupils shrank, and he turned in the direction of the sect’s entrance.
A smile appeared on his face next.
“Looks like you are in luck, Ling’er. A few volunteers have come and selflessly offered their help to let me show you the full extent of the sword I can handle right now”
Hearing this, Ye Ling motioned to the others in the distance, and they assembled to the training field Wu Long and Ye Ling were at. Not very long after, dark blurry figures appeared and swarmed the place, surrounding the group.
Once the blurry figures stopped moving it was possible to see people in black tight clothes with this swords over their backs and silver demon face masks covering their faces.
“Such nice people”, Wu Long chuckled at the selfless effort of these men and women to show up here at this time.
“Bahshi Assassins?”
Ye Ling raised her eyebrow.
“Hehe, I might have become a little entangled with them”
Wu Long wryly smiled at her questioning gaze and she rolled her eyes at this troublemaker who managed to piss off the few people in this fractured world who could go against him.