Chapter 17: Gaining the True Method

  A more advarue Method”?

  As soon as Instructor Li said these words, everyone around who heard them looked up in surprise or delight at An Jing, and the training field immediately burst into chatter.

  “gratutions, Senior Brother!” “Wow, as expected of Brother An!” “Does this mean Senior Brother already finished mastering those two cultivatiohods and martial arts? So quickly?!” “Of course!” “He’s our senior brother, after all…”

  For a moment, the eraining ground filled with gratutory excmations. Everyo genuinely happy for An Jing.

  After all, he had already proven that whenever he learned a eique, he willingly shared what he knew with others—whether or not they were able to grasp it was another matter, but he never held back his knowledge.

  So if An Jing received the True Method early, why would anyone mind? If their talents were insuffit, it made no differeo them. But if they were skilled enough, and An Jing lear first, he could guide them iure. In fact, it was best for An Jing to learn it in advahat way, he would have more experience whe his younger peers!

  Of course, some people did feel jealous.

  But jealousy ted for nothing in martial arts. If you lost a fight, you lost—no amount of words could ge that, and if you tried tue, you would just get beaten again.

  In respoo everyone’s enthusiasm, An Jing cupped his hands in thanks. Then, looking half-pleased, he followed Instructor Li toward the Medie Pavilion.

  He was indeed pleased—because Fag the Abyss to Nurture Qi Stand Armor-Pierg True Force were not especially difficult for him and had already reached mastery, nearing perfe. Now he had the ce to obtain an even higher-level True Method to improve himself. How could he not be happy?

  Yet another part of him felt plex—mixing curiosity, worry, doubt, and caution.

  He had never expected the manor to favor him so highly, which threw his pns into disarray.

  Still, pns could be ged, and this was also an opportunity.

  From the moment he heard that strange voiear the Medie Pavilion st time, An Jing had been paying close attention to this core building of Hanging Fate Manor.

  Unfortunately, his five-day health checks were too brief, and he had to lead others during them, leaving no time to observe things closely. Maybe he would have a proper ce this time.

  An Jing also khat all the savage beast meat and medial solutions i the Medie Pavilion. They underwent rough processing there before being delivered to the kit for final preparation.

  By his calcutions, today happeo be one of their “meat days,” which meant there was a good ce he would see firsthand the raw ingredients for both the beast meat and the medial cos.

  It was time for some answers.

  Before long, Instructor Li went to request an audieh the Manor Lord, while An Jing waited at the entrao the Medie Pavilion.

  “Well now, isn’t this our little champion?”“gratutions, kid. There aren’t many who get taught the True Method before the trial.”“Nicely done!”

  Several apothecaries ing in and out of the pavilinized him. More than a feersonally examined An Jing in the past, so they were quite familiar with him, and they greeted him with friendly smiles.

  Iurn, An Jing responded politely to each greeting while pretending to gnce around casually, the apothecaries and the enviro.

  There were only seven apothecaries in total, studying uhe Medie Manor Lord. They came a quite often, mostly heading outside to collect herbs dryihe pavilion, then carting them baside.

  An Jing reized many of those herbs as the primary ingredients in the medial solutions everyone drank. Some of them he didn’t reize; he had no idea what they were used for.

  Aside from that, the empty spa both sides of the pavilion held a number e water vats. An Jing did not find this odd—there were no modern plumbing systems in this world, so st rge quantities of water for medial purposes was only natural.

  While he waited, An Jing watched as a group of servants brought some of these water vats out from ihe pavilion, then carried different ones in.

  What struck him as unusual was the strong, cloyingly sweet and bloody medial aroma that g to these vats.

  And some of them were swaying, obviously very heavy, apparently filled with something.

  “Could these vats be used to hold medie?”

  At first, An Jing found the idea hard to picture, but then recalled that the cos here had to supply hundreds of people. Perhaps using giant vats was only practical.

  Hmm?

  As An Jing made a mental note of the herbs he had seen—intending to ask Gu Yeqi for help identifying them ter—he suddenly stopped his observation.

  Frowning slightly, he she air. He caught a familiar st of “meat.”

  They had arrived.

  Rumble… a rge shadoeared in the Medie Pavilion’s main doorway. Two sweating apothecaries and three instructors pushed a huge, heavily loaded cart out the frorance, ting in unison to coordiheir effort.

  A dense, meaty aroma wafted from it. An Jing took a closer look and was stunned.

  Because the cart tained nothing other than bones.

  A massive quantity of meticulously stripped beast bones of every variety!

  “What kind of beasts are these?”

  An Jing could distinguish wolf boiger bones, jackal, leopard, and even a pair of giant bull horns, plus the wing bones of some bird. All were scraped perfectly , piled into a small mountain that required multiple men to push it along on that cart.

  “It’s stuck!” Halfway dowh, the cart jammed against a slight dip at the edge of the pavilion steps. Seeing this, An Jing realized it was his d hurried forward to help.

  “You sure about this, An Jing?” The instructors initially inteo push it themselves, but when they saw An Jing approag, they ughed. “Don’t hurt your baow.”

  “Don’t worry.” Getting closer, An Jing sehese bones were no ordinary remains. Even their smell carried a peculiar vitality that provoked a surge of agitation in the heart. Suppressing the feeling, he gathered his strength.

  He unleashed his Armor-Pierg True For one swift motion, lifting the whole cart slightly so it slipped free of the rut.

  “Impressive!” Even the instructors could not help praising him at that point. “Your Armor-Pierg True Force has reached a deeper level—no longer limited to your arms and legs, but radiating through your whole body. No wohe Manor Lord wants to teach you the True Method.”

  “All right, we’ve still got work to do. You’re a lucky kid.”

  An Jing watched them push the cart away. He noted how the instructors themselves looked quite envious whehey mentiohe “True Method,” and he wondered, “Could it be that none of these instructors ever learhe plete True Method?”

  It was certainly possible they were those who had trained in martial teiques but never fully mastered them—and were ultimately eliminated. Even Instructor Li might not have had access to the plete method.

  It ossible, but An Jing didn’t dwell on it.

  After all, in that brief moment of proximity, he had discovered something genuinely peculiar about the beast bones.

  There were patterns…

  He murmured inwardly, recalling the straails on those bones. “They had extensive gray-bck, oddly shaped markings. One look made me feel a little dizzy…”

  He also felt a sudden, inexplicable rage rise within him, which then quickly faded. Armed, An Jing thought, “Could those markings be the source of that ‘r fury’?”

  If one failed to rein in the madriggered by these bohey would be cast out of Hanging Fate Manor?“This absolutely isn’t normal savage beast meat! I’ve seen savage beast meat before, and it was never like this… Could it be a demon? Or… a demonic beast?”

  He was still puzzling over it when Instructor Li returned.

  “Go on.”

  That single eye held obvious envy. “The Manor Lord is waiting for you.”

  An Jing collected himself at onodded, and climbed the stairs.

  Normally, the Medie Manor Lord did not stay in the Medie Pavilion all day, but traveled around to check herb growth on both sides of the manor and often visited the children’s training. Only on physical-exam days or the day of meat distribution would he remain in the Medie Pavilion from m till night.

  An Jing also knew many instructors addressed the Medie Manor Lord as “Deputy Medie Envoy.” Hanging Fate Manor was a branch of a much rger anization, and the Manor Lord was a ranking member of that group. Apparently, “Medie” was not his sur his title.*

  “Deputy Envoy” implied there was a “Main Envoy” as well. Apart from cultivating young talent, the manor’s principal fun was also to refine medie.

  Before long, An Jing reached the fifth floor.

  “Little An.”

  The Medie Manor Lord sat at a desk, approving some requests. Oable stood a strange, dark-gold vessel with a wide opening, giving off a mysterious gleam.

  Seeing An Jing at the door, he looked up and spoke casually, “e in, have a seat.”

  When An Jiered and bowed respectfully before taking a seat, the Medie Manor Lord could not help noting, “You really are calm. We told you that you’re about to learrue Method—yet you don’t look that thrilled? You hardly act like a child.”

  “Because, Manor Lord, I know that greater gifts e with greater expectations.”

  An Jing ined his head slightly, half-serious. “I am, of course, happy that you and the instructors believe in me, but I also uand it’s a weighty responsibility that I must handle carefully.”

  “Mm.”

  Showing no ge in his expression, the Medie Manor Lord pulled a pin-looking booklet out of a drawer and ha to An Jing. “Take a look.”

  An Jing g him and then picked up the booklet.

  《Imperial Heaven’s Unified Spirit One-in Qi Cultivatiohod》**

  (End of Chapter)

  *If you fot or didn't notice, the titles “Manor Lord” (庄主), “Medie Manor Lord” (药庄主), and “Deputy Medie Envoy” (药副使) all refer to the same individual. Here, the character “药” (“medie”) is not a sur an honorifidig his role as head of the medial operations at Hanging Fate Manor. I went bad checked on all previous mentions of the titles and in the end, I decided not to ge it and keep it as is, rather than transliterating it as “Yao,” to clearly vey his fun.

  **Depending on how often this is used I may shorten it to just "Imperial Heaven's Qi Cultivatiohod" iure, as long as there isn't any other teique that might get fused with this one.