After snuggling his head in Miao Yi’s embrace for a while, Charcoal reverted back to its true nature. The fatso truly loved to eat!
Charcoal turned around and put Miao Yi out of his mind; leaping down the steps, he trotted around the courtyard, before taking to the skies and landing outside. From there, he could be heard galloping away to the lakeside to look for food.
Miao Yi and the two girls were dazed as they looked in the direction that Charcoal had run off to.
Meanwhile, Yao Ruoxian had raised his large sleeves to look at the swarm of tiny mantids hanging inside; then turned to see where Charcoal had been sleeping before; before finally glancing back at Miao Yi again. His face appeared full of curiosity.
Not to mention the h.e.l.l Mantis’ children being plenty bizarre already—now there was a dragon steed that could refine Yao Cores; a Glorious Star immortal herb that had already borne its immortal fruits; that astonishing spear arts; as well as the fact that this kid could probe into that d.a.m.n fatso’s body and examine him, whereas even he could not do so with his cultivation...
With all these bizarre events coinciding together, Yao Ruoxian felt as though Miao Yi was full of mysteries.
"Senior Yao. What is going on with Charcoal?" Miao Yi turned to ask.
‘Do I look like I’d know?’ Yao Ruoxian grumbled to himself. However, he still pretended like he knew everything and said, "Nothing is wrong with him. He just received a great boon from consuming the Yao Core."
"A great boon?" Miao Yi was stunned. It was the first time he had ever heard of obtaining a large boon from consuming a Yao Core.
Without waiting for him to inquire further, Yao Ruoxian already turned around and started shouting at the two girls, "What are you two sitting around here for? Hurry up and train some more."
Miao Yi didn’t know what kind of training they were doing, and caught sight of Qian’Er and Xue’Er shyly drawing out Inversed-Scales Spears from their storage rings.
The two girls obeyed their Teacher’s instructions. The Inversed-Scales Spears rang out with dragonic roars as they danced about while the two girls began sparring with each other.
Even though their spears were the same as Miao Yi’s, in the hands of the two girls, it was like they were swinging around a giant embroidery needle. It was too feminine, and everything was a mess. Miao Yi found it a little painful to watch on.
They would probably be able to kill an enemy with this level of spear arts; however, even though they would be able to kill the enemy, there was a chance they would injure themselves as well.
Yao Ruoxian snuck a peek at Miao Yi’s twitching expression. There was laughter in his eyes as he coughed and said, "Train slowly you two. Practice makes perfect." After saying this, he placed his hands behind his back, walked off leisurely.
As he continued watching the two girls train, Miao Yi finally found he couldn’t continue watching any longer, and shouted, "STOP!"
He strode down the steps, and made his way to the sides of the two girls; they had already drawn back their spears, and stood at attention. He held his face with both hands, and rubbed it vigorously before asking, "Qian’Er. Xue’Er. Is this the spear arts that Senior Yao taught the two of you?"
The two girls looked at each other with a little guiltily, before Xue’Er weakly replied, "Teacher never taught us any spear art."
"Never taught you?" Miao Yi furrowed his brows and asked, "Then what are the two of you doing, swinging those around like it was actually training? Are you just blindly training?"
Qian’Er bit on her red lips with her teeth as she lowered her head and replied, "It was Teacher’s idea to have us purposely practice in front of you, for you to watch."
"Practice for me to watch? What does that mean?" Miao Yi could not understand them.
"Teacher said that Master’s spear art was an exceptional spear art….."
The two girls didn’t dare to keep any secrets from him. He didn’t need to force them to say anything and they sold Yao Ruoxian out immediately, revealing everything that Yao Ruoxian said before.
After listening to them, Miao Yi fell silent. He didn’t blame the two girls. Even though Yao Ruoxian’s intentions were still a mystery, it did seem like most Masters would teach some of their skills to their personal handmaidens and treat them like trusted aides. It was bad enough that he didn’t teach them his own cultivation techniques, but if he didn’t even have them learn a little self-defense, then he would really be out of excuses to save himself.
These two girls are his trusted aides, and it wasn’t wrong to call them his women as well. If he wanted their bodies, it was only a matter of when. He indeed needed to give them some training. In future, it would be useful for when they needed undertake tasks for him. Especially, for certain matters that he would hesitate to leave in the hands of others.
"Has Senior Yao finished refining the talisman seals for you two?" Miao Yi was rather concerned about this matter. That shameless old man was always trying to trick him into handing over his stuff.
The two girls nodded, and each of them took out ten book-sized talisman seals; they were the color of ink.
Miao Yi took them into his hands and examined them. He saw that some of the talisman seals had a ‘Destroy’ character floating on it, whereas some had an ‘Open’ character floating on it. He had never seen these kinds of things before, so he curiously asked, "What kind of talisman seals are these?"
Qian’Er replied, "This is a First Grade Mountain Destruction Talisman, it can destroy obstacles in times of danger. This is a First Grade Paralysis Talisman, it can hold enemies in place. Teacher said that First Grade talisman seals are enough to deal with White Lotus realm cultivators. It has very little use up against Blue Lotus or higher cultivators."
Miao Yi nodded. He had heard of them before, but it was still his first time seeing them.
He counted them all. Yao Ruoxian had actually refined five Mountain Destruction Talismans and five Paralysis Talismans for each of the two girls, totaling up to twenty talisman seals. He felt a little pained just thinking about them. Without counting all the other materials, a single talisman seal was equivalent to using up a single First Grade Yao Core, which was equal to a hundred low-grade Orbs of Will. Twenty First Grade Yao Cores would be equal to two thousand low-grade Orbs of Will.
Casually using a talisman seal in battle would be equal to a hundred low-grade Orbs of Will gone—just like that! This was too extravagant! This definitely wasn’t something a normal cultivator would be able to indulge in. This must be why it was so rare to see it someone use it. He had only seen the Lady Boss use it that one time, back in the Mystic Arts Temple.
He had never splurged so much on himself, but now his own handmaidens were more lavish than he was. Where was the logic in this?
Miao Yi wanted to keep a few pieces in case of emergencies, but he was a little embarra.s.sed to do so. As a Master, for him to covet his handmaidens’ belongings wasn’t right.
After returning the seals to the two girls, Miao Yi turned to walk back towards the large hall. When he reached the hall doors, he fell deep into thought again and stopped.
Eventually, he slowly turned around and walked back to the two girls. Then in a serious tone, he said, "Even if I can pa.s.s on my spear arts, it isn’t something a normal person can learn. For those practicing my spear arts, it becomes increasingly difficult to master the higher one’s cultivation is. They would have to start over like a blank canvas. In this, the two of you meet that criteria. However, if you wish to study my spear arts, you will have to endure much suffering. Can you two do this?"
The two girls were immediately ecstatic, and nodded repeatedly, saying, "We can endure it."
"That’s fine. If you can’t endure it, you can always stop training." said Miao Yi as he smiled.
Afterwards, he called Yan Xiu over and, after handing over a few instructions, brought the two girls onto Charcoal, and rode towards the mountains.
Not long after, a few silhouettes quickly flew out from the mountains. Yao Ruoxian had invoked his arts and carried the three of them together with Charcoal, to quickly fly towards the vast ocean.
Eventually, they descended onto the island that Miao Yi had brought the two girls over to cultivate before.
After examining the geography, they stopped before a waterfall within the mountains. Miao Yi stared at the waterfall as he pondered for a moment, and couldn’t help but lightly shake his head.
"What’s wrong? Is this place not suitable? We can look for another one." To the side, Yao Ruoxian looked even more anxious than the two girls.
Miao Yi shook his head again. It was not that it wasn’t suitable; rather, he was just thinking back to how Lao Bai had taught him back then. Now he could vaguely feel that Qian’Er and Xue’Er had probably pa.s.sed the optimal time to build up their bones and muscles. When he first started, he hadn’t even succeeded in creating his art source before he dug out the waterfall. In comparison, Qian’Er and Xue’Er’s cultivations were already at White Lotus First Grade.
At that time, he didn’t know the reason for it, but now he realized how much of a difference it made.
Miao Yi turned to face the two girls, "From this moment on, both of you will stop using Orbs of Will. The foundations are the most important aspect for training in my spear art. You are not to use Orbs of Will to aid in your cultivation."
Yao Ruoxian didn’t bother understanding, and immediately instructed the two girls, "Do the two of you understand that? Remember your Master’s words. From this moment on, the two of you are not to use Orbs of Will anymore. It will not be too late to use them once you two have mastered the spear art." After he said this, he turned back to politely asked Miao Yi, "Was this what you meant?"
"That’s exactly what I meant." Miao Yi nodded, before adding, "From this moment on, when the two of you are cultivating—do it under this waterfall. Invoke your arts and try to endure the relentless torrent of this waterfall." Pointing towards the waterfall, he didn’t mention at what point they would be considered to have succeeded.
"Understood!" The two girls nodded in response.
To the side, Yao Ruoxian’s eyes were shining as he quietly committed those words to memory.
‘Who was he kidding? He had his eyes set on Miao Yi’s spear art long time ago. However, he knew that these kinds of hidden trump cards wouldn’t easily be revealed to outsiders. Now that the opportunity had presented itself, how could he miss out?’
Afterwards, Miao Yi brought them before a few rocky mountains, and personally carved two wooden spears before tossing them to the two girls. Pointing at a mountain, he said, "Use the wooden spears in your hands to break them apart. You are not to use any other methods or tricks to help you succeed. When the rocky mountain has been crushed, and your wooden spears are still intact, only then will you have succeeded."
With that, from that day forth, the two girls’ harsh, and austere training days began.
To these two delicate girls who were strangers to heavy labour and always had their needs provided for them in East Arrival Cave, it was definitely a great torture. The two beautiful girls were tossed about like beggars—it was truly a pitiful sight.
Even Yan Xiu found it difficult to watch on after seeing how miserable they looked. To a cultivator, the most important goal was to raise their own cultivation. He had never seen such a training method before.
Women adored beauty the most. When they saw their own snow-white skin begin to turn rough and dark from the sun; as well as how they couldn’t stop their hands from developing thick and b.l.o.o.d.y calluses even whilst using transcendence energy to shield them; every time they were faced with those ma.s.sive mountains that would take who-knew-how-long to break apart; and thought about how the chaotic torrent of the waterfall would crash onto them every time after their stamina had been thoroughly exhausted—the two girls cried an uncountable number of times, and began to have thoughts of giving up.
Throughout the ordeal Yao Ruoxian was always by their sides encouraging them, despite his heartache. "You two silly girls. This opportunity is difficult to come by, you must endure. Some skills, once you learn them, will benefit you for life."
He looked towards Miao Yi as he said this. Miao Yi didn’t ask about them at all, and quietly cultivated by himself within a mountain cave. He would occasionally come out to check on the two girl’s progress.
Miao Yi would never have expected that ever since the day he instructed the two girls at the start of their training, Yao Ruoxian had also quietly stopped using his own Orbs of Will.
When the two girls were working on the stone mountains within the mountain range, Yao Ruoxian would quietly sneak under the waterfall, and sit down cross-legged to cultivate.
However for him, he could barely feel anything from the waterfall crashing down on him. He would often raise his head to look up, until he finally concluded that it would be possible for him to sit under the waterfall for his whole life—a mere waterfall’s torrent couldn’t hope to move him at all. Forget about trying to knock him off his feet, he wouldn’t even be soaked by a single drop of water.
Nonetheless, he still quietly sat under the waterfall and tried to experience what it was like to have it crash onto him as he awaited the day that he would reach enlightenment.
One night, when the exhausted Qian’Er and Xue’Er were seated cross-legged under the waterfall and cultivating, Yao Ruoxian quietly made his way to the other side of the island. He crafted a wooden spear in secret, and started a vicious attack on one of the stone mountains in front of him.
With his cultivation, forget about wooden spears; even if he used his head to b.u.mp into the stone mountain, he would be able to reduce it to rubble. With just a single wooden spear, he had reduced the entire stone mountain into a plateau.
As he looked at the undamaged wooden spear in his hand, Yao Ruoxian was a little lost for words. If the stone mountain crumbling while the wooden spear was intact would be considered a success, then did this mean that he had succeeded?