Chapter 91 - So Difficult to have Breakfast
As I walk out of my tent, I am greeted by a huge amount of people staring at me, as if I am some kind of rare animal that is put on display.
"Master, everyone has talked about it last night and nobody here would like to pursue the immortal way if possible." Lang Meng Ding said as he walks up to my side.
I make a frown as I am surprised at how everyone here wants to learn how to cultivate. There should have been a few who would rather just live a peaceful life! As I look around and feel pressured by their expectant looks, one old man walked out of the crowd and kneeled and he asks, "Lord immortal, is it really possible for us to cultivate and achieve immortality?"
Everyone breath suddenly stops as they wait for me to answer the question. It seems everyone here wants to become an immortal and live forever.
I open my mouth to answer him since I do not have to think much about how I should answer and say "I never agreed to take any of you here as my disciple, nor did I agree to teach any of you here how to cultivate."
The second I said this, the entire crowded kneeled again! Damn it! Even Lang Meng Ding who is at my side fell to his knees instantly!
"Lord Immortal, please take mercy on us and take us as your disciple! We swear to forever be loyal o you and never let you down!" the crowd loudly yelled.
"Enough of this, You cannot force me to accept all of you as my disciples!" I shouted back at them.
"You do you think cultivation is simple? The road to enlightenment is long and difficult. Even the children of powerful families who have started cultivating from a young age, might not attain enlightenment or achieve immortality."
I look at the crowd and continued to shout after I let out a soft sigh, "Look at yourselves, most of you here are already adults and some are even seniors! How can I lead you onto the path of cultivation, when I know that all of you will not even have the chance to attain immortality?"
Once I said this, some of the seniors and adults start feeling bad about how they have tried to force me to accept them as my disciples, but some people did not give up.
Instead, they pushed their children forward and shouted "Lord Immortal, please consider accepting my child as your disciple! He is young and has always been smart! He will learn quickly!" several parents shout at the same time.
These children have matured after escaping from their homes. They know that their families are gone and they will never see their friends again. This is because only the strong children, who knew to not cry, insist on bringing their favourite toys or trying to stay in their comfortable homes could escape successfully from the army.
Children who even wasted a second or was hesitant in escaping would not be able to escape and might have been abandoned by their parents or caused their parents to get caught.
These children quickly kneeled down once their parents pushed them in front and shouted "Lord Immortal, please take me as your disciple! I will obey you as if you are my parents and never ask for anything!"
There aren't many children in this camp as you might expect. The only children who could escape and needed to escape would be children from big and powerful families. I take a glance around and quickly count around twenty children.
"Enough! Even if they are children, I will have to determine if they have enough talent and get to know them better before I accept anyone as my disciple. Now let us go have breakfast!" I say sternly as I wave my arm, releasing a wave of qi and pushing everyone up onto their feet and walked away.
Some of the parents stayed on their knees and tried to crawl and grab my pants while begging me to accept their child but they could not grab as I walked away quickly.
...
In the capital of the Empire, the rising sun has painted the Shang's family estate in a golden hue.
But the leaders of the Shang family have been unhappy for the past few weeks. The issue that has made them unhappy and constantly hold family meetings are the events that happened to Shang Jian Rui and his son, Shang Shi.
All of the elders have the patriarch have unanimously agreed that how General Ling had tortured Shang Jian Rui is an affront to the Shang Family's face and they must punish General Ling for his audacity. It is very clear that Shang Jian Rui is crippled and he should not have been able to put up a decent fight against General Ling and his men, so he was definitely tortured after he was captured.
It did no matter at all if Shang Jian Rui and his son had really become rebels to them! What they were arguing about was how and when they should do to General Ling.
Half of the elders are arguing to wait until Shang Jian Rui wakes up before deciding how to punish General Ling while another half are saying that they should just go and kill General Ling and all of his family members right now.
The elders who want to wait are those who see no value in creating conflict with the royal family and the military over a crippled, while the other half who want to slaughter General Ling's family immediately are those who believe that Shang Jian Rui's twins are the hope of the family.
Of course, there are also some elders with ulterior motives, such as forcefully adopting the twins once Shang Jian Rui dies, and making the twins indebted to them for avenging their father. Some elders also want to create a personal relationship with Ning Ming, who has been living in the Shang's family courtyard ever since he brought Shang Jian Rui and his grandson to the Shang family. Since he is living in the Shang's family guest courtyard, he cannot refuse their visit if they come personally because it would be seen as rude and a few of the elders have been visiting him often.
Ning Ming has been living in the guest courtyard and he would only teach his grandson some martial arts and direct him in cultivation, then head to look at Shang Jian Rui and give some pointers to the martial arts of the twins. He does not teach them how to cultivate or any new martial arts because they have their mother who is overseeing their education. This has been his daily routine for the past few weeks and it has not changed, aside from entertaining the Shang family's elders when they visit.
Shang Jian Rui has been in a coma ever since he has returned. At first, when Ning Ming rescued him, Shang Jian Rui was still groggy and kept on asking him to search for his son. But without any clues and Shang Jian Rui in a critical condition, Ning Ming decided to bring him back to the Shang Family first.
Shang Jian Rui had been praising Shang Shi as a smart kid and a genius in martial arts, so Ning Ming believed that Shang Shi should be able to fend for himself since he had already escaped by the time he arrived. He had planned to return to search for Shang Shi once Shang Jian Rui woke up and gave him some clues but unfortunately, Shang Jian Rui never woke up...That is, until today.
Chapter 92 – Shang Jian Rui
Meng Zhi Rou has been at Shang Jian Rui's side whenever possible ever since he returned. When she saw his badly tortured body, she felt light headed and almost fainted in shock, but the cries of Shang Jin Long and Shang Qing Shan quickly brought her back to her senses. She quickly ordered the maids to bring the children into their rooms and take care of them while she led Ning Ming who was carried Shang Jian Rui into her bedroom.
After examining Shang Jian Rui, Meng Zhi Rou realized that she needed an immortal grade pill to completely heal all the injuries that had been inflicted on him. An immortal grade pill just means that either the pill effects or its refinement are above the capabilities of a mortal.
While it is difficult to obtain in the mortal world, it is not something that is precious in the world of cultivators. As a result, many families with people who have joined the immortal sects would often send these pills back, in case someone in their family requires such a pill. These pills are never sold, but sometimes traded among these families for other precious goods, so the Shang family should have a good amount of these pills.
When Meng Zhi Rou first asked for the pills to heal Shang Jian Rui, she could see that the elders were hesitant because they were aware that Shang Jian Rui was a cripple and these pills would not be able to restore his cultivation. However, when Meng Zhi Rou threatened to take Shang Jian Rui and her children to her parent's home, hey quickly gave Meng Zhi Rou all the pills she waned.
While the pills healed his body, Shang Jian Rui did not wake up and Meng Zhi Rou, who was also worried about her son, Shang Shi, could often be heard crying alone by the servants and the twins.
She had also secretly sent letters home, pleading for her parents to help search for their grandson but has not received a reply from them yet.
...
Just like that, several weeks has passed.
Today is just like another morning and Meng Zhi Rou is sleeping on the side of Shang Jian Rui again. Her face has several water marks and it has become obvious that she cried to sleep again.
She feels a rough and warm hand touching her face, and rubbing the water marks away and slowly opens her eyes to see Shang Jian Rui awake and his rough hands rubbing her face.
Meng Zhi Rou feels happiness for the first time in weeks, and jumps into the bosom of Shang Jian Rui, and starts crying immediately.
"I'm sorry..." Shang Jian Rui weakly said.
Meng Zhi Rou does not say anything but starts crying louder and hugs him tighter.
"Ow ow ow, don't hug so tight. My whole body aches." Shang Jian Rui says in a joking manner, but Meng Zhi Rou quickly lightens her grip on him and asks in a concerned tone, "Are you okay? Does it still hurt?"
"I'm fine. It must have been hard on you, taking care of me and Shi er. How long has it been since Ning Ming brought me here?" Shang Jian Rui says gently while patting Meng Zhi Rou's back.
"Shi er...isn't back yet..." Meng Zhi Rou said softly with a sad expression.
"Not back yet? Shi er is not back yet?!" Shang Jian Rui says in shock, and once the words get into his head, he quickly tries to crawl out the bed and would have had fallen on the ground if Meng Zhi Rou did not catch him in time.
"What are you-" Meng Zhi Rou says but before she could finish her sentence, Shang Jian Rui struggles and tries to stand up while says "I must save him!"
"You can't even stand up straight right now! Just lie down on the bed and rest! First, tell me what happened that day." Meng Zhi Rou says with concern as she helps Shang Jian Rui get back on the bed.
Shang Jian Rui looks at his wife with sorrow and said, "We were framed. It was General Ling who set us up!"
Shang Jian Rui then started telling Meng Zhi Rou what happened at Lu Wang city.
...
After a few minutes, Shang Jian Rui had finished telling Meng Zhi Rou what had happened and just looked at her sadly.
"So you have no idea why General Ling decided to frame you?" Meng Zhi Rou asked.
"No. But now that I have told you what happened, it feels as if he had wanted to kill Shang Shi, and not me." Shang Jian Rui said frustratedly.
"You're right. From what you told me, General Ling had many opportunities to kill you but he did not. He was also aware that killing you would result in the Shang family retaliating, and did not kill you even after he had captured you but decided to torture you instead. "
"Torturing you and making an enemy of the Shang family gives him no benefits so what he wanted must have been Shi er's life. This can be inferred from how he sent his soldiers after shi er, instead of taking you down at the church." Meng Zhi Rou calmly analyzed what was told to her and shrewdly came to a conclusion.
"There is only one thing I cannot figure out, which is why he wants to kill Shi er. That Mo Di, is he reliable?" Meng Zhi Rou worriedly asks.
"Do not worry, I had all of the guards and the other judges who travelled with Shi er vetted, and they are good people. Mo Di was an orphan and became part of the rangers quickly. Speaking of my men, are they fine? Did General Ling..." Shang Jian Rui asked with concern.
"They are fine. They were all arrested and imprisoned once General Ling ordered the attack, and placed them under house arrest once they were all brought back to the capital. Their trial will be held after yours...If you are found innocent, they will be fine but..." Meng Zhi Rou said worriedly.
"It's good that they are fine...A rebel huh? And also the crime of treason...After everything that's happened to us...not to mention that it is with the Agostic barbarians...hah!" Shang Jian Rui laughs in irony.
"General Ling claims that you joined the Agostic barbarians in poisoning the entire city, and was going to kill everyone that did not submit with them. He also said that you were accepted into their ranks mainly because of how powerful you are when you fought without qi and felt at home with them due to your injuries..."Meng Zhi Rou said with disgust, but the disgust was directed towards the lousy lie that General Ling cooked up.
"Ah, Brother Ning rescued me, didn't he? Is he still here?" Shang Jian Rui suddenly recalled that foggy memory he had of Ning Ming saving him. He was barely conscious when it happened and had difficulties remembering what happened after he was tortured by General Ling in the church.
"Ning Ming has been living in the family's guest room with his grandson for the past few weeks. I will get a servant to inform him that you have awakened and ask him to join us for dinner. You should rest now." Meng Zhi Rou said as she tucked him in and watched him return to sleep.
Once she watched her husband fall asleep, she walked out of the room quietly. Her expression slowly changed from a gentle and loving wife to that of a fierce and angry war goddess as she walked towards their living room. Once she entered the living room, she pointed at one of the servants and ordered the servant to get her the most detailed map of the area around Lu Wang city and to demand all of the information on General Ling from the elders have collected so far.
The servant could feel some sort of pressure coming out from Meng Zhi Rou as she gave her orders and she was afraid because she had never seen the madam look so fierce and talk with such a harsh tone. The servant made sure not to say anything unnecessary and took note of the orders that she was given and quickly ran out to perform them.
Meng Zhi Rou was sure the Shang family already had information on the general who is in charge of the capital province and would have investigated more in-depth once he touched a member of the Shang family.
After all, she herself was from one of the most powerful families on this continent, and this family was strong enough to pressure the Shang family.
Chapter 93 – Bunch of Ordinary People
Breakfast wasn't enjoyable. Where ever I sat, people would constantly try to curry favour with me. if we were not hiding in a forest, they would have probably given me gold or their valuables. But out here in the middle of a forest, the only thing they could give me was the meat that was allocated to them.
It took less than a minute for my bowl to be full of meat and every time I reduced the amount of beat on my bowl, the people would place more in my bowl. They would also stare at me with a huge and creepy smile on their faces as if they were waiting for me to thank them.
Eventually, I just lost appetite and took my bowl with me into my tent, since leaving my bowl filled with meat and stomping off in anger would be disrespectful.
Inside my tent, I was thinking about how to help everyone here take their first step on the path of cultivation. I am still reluctant to take everyone here as my disciples, but there is really no harm in helping them reach the realm of qi flow.
Of course, to advance even a step in the realm of qi flow would require a cultivation technique, and I am not going to share with them my self-created cultivation technique for several reasons.
The first is of course, that my cultivation technique creates twenty meridians and is probably the ultimate cultivation technique of this world. There's really no need for any other reason besides this one, but I can also probably create new and unique cultivation techniques since I know where all the meridians in the human body are located at.
There is one problem, however, that I am unsure if my self-created cultivation techniques will result in them exploding, or going crazy due to cultivation deviation. I would probably feel guilty if they did...
I push open the tent's window slightly and take a look at everyone going about performing their designated duties. Right now they have already dismantled all the fences and towers outside and also made sure to leave no trace that they were ever there. Even the soldiers would not notice anything as long as they don't enter the tunnel where everyone is.
Maybe I should teach them how to fight first since I have no clue how to help them absorb qi from the heavens and earth. They could be like me who had no clue about fighting and had to be taught by my mother the basics of fighting. Since the Six Harmonies Eight Methods Boxing belongs to the Ying family, I cannot teach that to them.
Oh! I know! What if I taught them drill punch and Zap punch, and then make them practice Chinese kickboxing with each other as partners? Chinese kickboxing is a self-defence system and combat sport. It is not really a style and everyone teaches it as part of wushu on Earth.
Unfortunately, I only learnt the combat sports where there are all kinds of rules and do not really help you in a real fight. All I did during practice was just stand opposite a partner and continuously take turns to exchange blows.
What if I removed all the rules and make them fight each other seriously? Would they...blow themselves up with drill punch...? I take another look at the people outside and feel depressed.
"How am I going to get back home?" I mutter to myself...
Lang Meng Ding told me earlier during breakfast that everyone here has agreed to give all the spirit stones to me, regardless if I accept them as my disciple or not.
Should I use all these spirit stones and fill myself up with qi, hoping to enter the meridian forming realm?
Looking at the pile of spirit stones that they have dumped in a corner of the tunnel, and remembering that they told me that it's all mine.
I feel an urge to just dive in and start absorbing them all. With twenty qi whirlpools, I should be able to finish up this pile quickly.
Fuelled by my greed for power, I slowly leave my tent and walk towards the pile of spirit stones. I know I shouldn't use the spirit stones that everyone mined out painstakingly but, this pile of spirit stones is all mine...
I have been stuck in the peak of qi flow for such a long time. Every time I tried to fill my body with qi, I would start losing qi faster than I can absorb and would not be able to completely fill up my qi pathways with enough qi to enter the realm of meridian forming.
Maybe, I just need these spirit stones. Looking at the shiny spirit stones, I slowly stretch my arm out and grab a spirit stone. It is a spirit stone with much more qi than those I used before.
If I had to take a guess why the spirit stones here had more qi compared to the ones I used at home, I would guess that it contained much more qi simply because it was not processed or cut into smaller stones yet. Since the Empire uses spirit stones as a hard currency, processing them and cutting them into similar sizes and shapes is required so that its value is constantly. However, if we are just using the amount of qi that is contained in the spirit stones to determine its value, then these here definitely are more valuable.
The qi in my body starts flowing faster and I unconsciously start causing the qi to flow faster in my body. I can feel the amount of qi in my body rising!
Each and every of the qi whirlpool I have starts to spin faster and faster, but somehow they are blowing qi out of my whirlpools! Is this why I could never absorb enough qi to breakthrough? Damn! It is because I formed twenty qi whirlpools that I cannot break through! I had completely extracted all of the qi out from the spirit stone in a few minutes and once I was not absorbing the qi from the spirit stone, I could feel the qi leaving my body!
I quickly tossed the drained spirit stone aside and grabbed two more spirit stone from the pile! This time, the qi whirlpools in my body were already spinning quickly and my body automatically extracted the qi from the spirit stone.
Why the heck is it draining qi, only to expel it? Are the qi whirlpools operating like a fan?!
Each time I completely drained a spirit stone, I would quickly toss it aside and picked up two more.
Soon, people started to notice what I was doing and gathered around me. Two people became five, five people became ten. And the crowd slowly attracted everyone in the camp.
It did not matter how many people were watching me and I did not pay attention. No, it was more accurate to say that I could not pay attention to my surroundings anymore.
5 spirit stones drained, 7 spirit stones drained, 11 spirit stones drained.
After a while, I stopped counting because I lost count.
I could feel myself sweating, but it wasn't because my body was burning, but because the temperature in the area went up. My lips started to crack and my skin became dry. It was almost as if I was sun tanning in the middle of the desert.
Soon, I regained my sense as my qi whirlpools started to spin slower, and I could hear a group of people counting.
"Six hundred and sixty-five!" the crowd around me exclaimed.
Chapter 94 – Coagulation
I look around and see the crowd standing far away from me. But they are still constantly moving backwards. The area around me has become so hot, that I can see visible heat waves. My skin has cracked and I am bleeding, yet I feel no pain. It's not only pain that I do not feel. In fact, I do not feel anything at all right now besides the flow of qi and my qi whirlpools slowing down.
While my qi whirlpools have slowed down, the flow of qi in my qi pathways has not slowed down at all. It is still flowing quickly throughout my body. Before I can completely extract all the qi from the two spirit stones in my hand, I start feeling an excruciating pain from the locations of all my twenty qi whirlpools and fall onto the ground. I am in so much pain that I curl my body up in a fetal position simply because my entire body hurts so badly.
My qi whirlpools are now somehow, moving in a reverse direction and every time it moves, it feels as if someone is rubbing sandpaper against the most delicate and soft areas of my body. It is so painful that I cannot even scream or faint simply because the pain keeps me awake and prevents me from fainting!
What the qi whirlpool is doing, is applying intense fiction on the qi that is flowing in my body. All of the qi that is pouring into all of my twenty meridians as the qi whirlpools slowly grinds them down into some sort of gooey liquid is causing me intense pain.
I am unsure if everyone feels this pain, but I am sure that because I have twenty qi whirlpools constantly grinding and placing so much pressure on the qi that is flowing into the whirlpools, my pain is probably double or tripled what other cultivator experience!
The crowd watching me squirming and wriggling like a worm on the ground in pain is worried and concerned about me. They whisper among themselves "Is the Lord Immortal going to die?"
Lang Meng Ding hears these whispers and quick say "Lord Immortal is going through a breakthrough! I have seen my patriarch undergo a breakthrough once but he did not look like he was in much pain. My patriarch did however tell me that all breakthroughs in cultivation realms are painful because you are reforming your body! If you want to be strong, if you want to stand above other people, you must be strong!"
After hearing Lang Meng Ding speech, the crowd only watched with reverence because they know that if you want to do great things, you must always sacrifice something.
Physical pain is nothing compared to the pain that you feel from losing someone dear to you. Everyone here knows this and everyone here is willing to throw away their lives for their loved ones. Everyone here is living because their loved ones died to give them a chance to escape.
Nobody wants to feel that kind of hopelessness anymore. They would all rather be pierced and slashed a thousand times, than watch someone die on their behalf for them!
Everyone here right now, burned this imagine of Shang Shi squirming and wriggling like a worm into their minds. Making a vow to never forget and always remember that if you want to protect your loved ones in this world, you must always get stronger!
After two hours, the pain slowly subsides and my entire body was devoid of qi. All the qi in my body had been ground into some thick liquid and the qi whirlpools had completely stopped. Not only has the qi whirlpools disappeared, but my body has also stopped absorbing qi on its own.
This meant that from now on, I had to consciously create a flow to regain qi. This time, not only have all my senses been improved, but I could also feel as if my mind has become a lot clearer. I can now think faster and probably learn faster. When I told my mother that my eyesight had improved after entering the realm of qi flow, my mother said that my next breakthrough might also improve one of my senses as well.
She did not specify why this was happening to me, but I can guess that it should have something to do with my cultivation. Especially since my cultivation techniques are more perfect and more advanced than every other technique I had heard of in this world so far.
I wonder if my father actually realized that when he forgot to teach me how to absorb qi from the heaven and earths and only taught me how to absorb qi from spirit stones, it had allowed me to fill up my body with more qi than everyone else in the world.
Right now, I can guess that through that method, I had managed to fill my entire body with qi and it has led to me developing a qi pathway that is unheard of in this world.
This method to absorb qi from spirit stones should be a method to allow qi to enter parts of the mortal body that cannot normally be filled up by absorbing qi from the heavens and earth. By practising this method only, you can completely fill up the mortal body with qi and achieve qi pathways that are on par or even better than the heavenly pathways!
As I slowly recover and stand up, I look at the puddle of drool that dripped out while I was twitching in pain. I look at the crowd and sigh.
"So shameful", I mutter to myself softly...
My body right now feels superb. I feel as if I can slap a mountain and send it flying off into the sky right now. I put some strength into my palm and pat my clothes to remove all the cracked skin that dropped off my body during the breakthrough and a loud thunder sounds out.
*BOOM*
The crowd of people quickly kneeled and yelled, "Lord Immortal is almighty!"
"Lord Immortal is almighty!"
"Lord Immortal is almighty!" They yelled thrice.
The impact of my pat on my ordinary clothes shredded the robe I was wearing into pieces. It was a beautiful scene that nobody but me saw, since pieces of cloth and cracked skin slowly flaked onto the ground.
I was stunned at my own power and I quickly ran towards my tent naked so I could get dressed.
...
Once I recover my qi, I will teach everyone how to fight. We will start with drill punch, and then Zap Punch. I can use drill punch to judge the amount of qi they have in their body, just like how my father used it to determine my talent.
I will also teach everyone a weapon technique. I will probably teach them the Staff Intent form that I learnt on earth. The Staff Intent form is different from the Staff Intent form that is in the Ying family's Six Harmonies Eight Methods Boxing since it is missing all the moves that require qi to execute.
But I hope that it can still be used to direct qi around their body and maybe, absorb some qi from the heavens and earth. After all, it was still created on earth as part of the Six Harmonies Eight Methods Boxing.
Chapter 95 – Training
The Staff Intent form that I learnt on Earth is similar but different from the Ying's family Staff Intent form. The Ying family's Staff Intent form is part of the Harmonies Eight Methods Boxing and should be its perfect or original form, as it includes many powerful moves that will manipulate qi when executing it.
I had originally decided not to teach the Staff Intent form because I had already treated the Staff Intent form that I learnt on Earth as something incomplete and believed that that learning it might cause problems later on. Since I am going to teach them martial arts, I should be responsible even if I will not become their master.
However, after my entering the realm of meridian forming, my mental capacities seemed to have increased tremendously. Once I thought about what I should teach them, I realized immediately that the Staff Intent form from Earth had actually evolved into something completely different. While it had many similar strokes and moves, it was had actually evolved into a staff form that contained spear intent.
The Staff Intent form on Earth must have been lost and moves from the Spear Intent Form was used to rebuild it, which is why the Staff Intent form of Earth is more offensive and contain many more moves that aim to disable or kill compare to the Ying Family's Staff Intent form.
The Ying family's Staff Intent form is much more defensive in nature since its main purpose should self-defence and it's not meant for life and death fights.
Once it is time for dinner, I leave my tent and head to the dining area. This group has a rule, a rule that Lang Meng Ding set the moment they set up camp. Lang Meng Ding made it compulsory for everyone to eat dinner together unless they are on guard duty because he was afraid that some the group would eventually separate due to different ideologies.
This rule also cemented his position as their leaders unconsciously since he would take the initiative to make speeches to give everyone hope before they start eating. Perhaps it was due to his previous job as a steward at he knew exactly what to do to keep this group together. Everyone here has lost people precious to them and can never return home.
Everyone here has been framed and they are all now rebels. They all know that they will only die if they try to return yet I do not see anyone wallowing in a depression here. Everyone here is living a day at a time and it seems like my arrival has given them hope again.
Since I had made it clear that I will not accept disciples even if they go on their knees and beg me, only the parents of a few children are on their knees right now. it is frustrating but I guess it was better than breakfast.
I look at the parents kneeing down and let out a soft sigh, and say, "I will teach everyone a Staff Intent Form the day after. Tomorrow, everyone will stop mining and craft their own staff. If you do not have a staff, you will be unable to learn properly and I do not want to waste my time teaching you."
I look at Lang Meng Ding to see if he has reactions to me giving orders and taking the role of the leader away from him, but he only seems to be excited right now and does not seem to care about how I casually snatched the role of leader away from him.
Since he does not seem to care, I continue giving orders and say, "We shall practice the staff form at dawn daily. The people who are heading out to hunt animals should not try to use the staff form until I allow you to and before dinner, I will teach everyone here how to fight."
I look around at everyone who is now silly with excitement and once they realized that I had stopped talking, Lang Meng Ding quickly knelt down and shout "I give thanks to Lord Immortal!"
His actions caused everyone here to kneel down as well and yell the same words he did.
Now, in order to cement the image of me, being the immortal that they all envy and make them follow me without question, I smile and say, "Everyone stand up. I will test your talent now. I will teach you a simple punch. If you can execute this punch, it means that you are able to cultivate and if you cannot execute this punch, it means that you will be unable to cultivate."
Since almost everyone in this world is born with qi, there was nobody in this group who was devoid of qi and all of them executed the Drill punch immediately. There were several people who did not understand the punch and required me to explain the punch to them repeated, but they too executed it after several tries.
I had initially said that once you had executed the punch, they should go have their dinner but everyone insisted on waiting for everyone to finish and today's dinner was an extremely happy dinner for everyone.
...
After that day, several weeks passed quickly. Under Lang Meng Ding's management, this group of rebels were harmonious and united. The only problem was that the hunters were having difficulty getting more prey since the small animals learnt to stay away from us and I had forbidden them from going too far from the tunnel.
The adults and children quickly became proficient with the staff intent form since they had nothing to do besides practice all day long. Everyone had also entered the realm of Qi Flow since they had already accumulated enough qi in their bodies and just by absorbing one or two spirit stones, a breakthrough occurred without their knowledge.
Their breakthrough into the realm of qi flow was unlike mine or what I had heard about from Judge Cui and the guards.
I guess this was because their bodies had already adapted to the qi in their bodies. Since almost everything in this world has qi, they would be absorbing tiny bits of qi every day even if they eat and drink normally.
I tried to ask them about their qi pathways, but none of them knew what it was nor did they feel that their bodies were different. Eventually, I tried to send a strand of qi into their bodies and found out that their qi pathway was thinner than a strand of hair! It was no wonder why they could not feel the qi cycling around their bodies!
Unfortunately, they also did not experience a significant increase in strength after their breakthrough since it was similar to how a person who ate potent tonics every day would only get healthier over time. The only evidence that they had broken into qi flow was that they managed to cause a louder with Drill Punch and that their attack power increased while executing the Staff Intent Form, but this made them happy.
Only the children achieved a normal breakthrough and had normal qi pathways. When they were having their breakthroughs into the realm of qi flow, they too, felt pain just like me. However, it was not as bad as mine and these children are as strong as the grown men in the camp right now.