Chapter 687: The Cause of the Problem
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
No matter what, it was a necessity to go to the Sixty Thousand Mountains and visit the Earth Yin Spring in order to make a decision.
He would let the empress arrange whatever she wanted.
Regardless, he was determined to spend his time cultivating in the Earth Yin Spring that was located in the Sixty Thousand Mountains.
For the next few days, besides teaching at the academy, he devoted his time to cultivation.
After breaking through, whether in terms of strength or speed, the improvement to his body was tremendous. If he didn’t spend time cultivating, he wouldn’t be able to control his body at all.
It would be like a child holding a 50 kilogram saber.
A saber with lethal power was useless if it couldn’t be handled properly and, on the contrary, was an enc.u.mbrance.
This was the situation Ren Baqian was facing.
After cultivating for three days, Ren Baqian felt he was getting better at controlling his body and asked the empress to arrange a practice with Tong Lan.
The empress was surprised by this request because this was the first time Ren Baqian had sought out Tong Lan for practice without being forced by someone. Such a request was a remote occurrence.
“What a rare occasion! This is unlike you!” the empress said frankly.
“Your Majesty is looking down on me!” Ren Baqian said with a smile, “One can only progress quickly by competing with strong opponents. Furthermore, I can still remember the time when I woke up extremely hungry and was able to easily dodge the saber strikes from the two guards that I met on my way to the imperial kitchen. The next time I woke up, this feeling was gone and even controlling my body was tough.”
The empress looked at him and asked, “What do you think is the reason?”
Ren Baqian thought for a moment and replied, “It’s probably because I am the type who reacts according to the level of the opponent. Only under pressure will I unleash the mini-universe within me. This potential was already inside me, but it took breaking through to the Earth Wheel level to awaken it.”
The empress was shocked by his words and looked stunned.
A moment later she said, “I have a rough idea of your situation.”
“No wonder you are the empress—you can quickly figure out the things that I can’t even perceive!” Ren Baqian said happily.
The potential that was hidden inside him was finally going to be unleashed.
“I can feel it.” The empress nodded.
She could perceive it! He was realizing his potential and volunteering to practice with Tong Lan! And he was about to unleash his own mini-universe.
That afternoon, Ren Baqian wore Li Ning branded shorts as he stood on the sparring stage. Facing him was Tong Lan, the little lolita, who was dressed in white and looking maliciously at him.
The empress was sitting in a chair, eating fruit, and watching anime. Behind her, Qing Yuan and Hong Luan were attending to her. One of them was holding a parasol, whereas the other was preparing an ice basin and using a fan to direct cold air toward the empress.
Ren Baqian felt a little excited because he could finally show his strength after having been beaten up for so long.
By virtue of his speed being much faster than that of an ordinary person, Ren Baqian felt that he had a good chance of winning this time! He would definitely give this little lolita a surprise and improve his own control of his body by sparring with her.
It was a very profitable deal.
“I will put on some background music!” Ren Baqian turned to select a tune from the laptop and exciting music immediately filled the venue.
He discovered that Tong Lan was even more excited to hear such music than he was. She was bobbing her head to the beat.
“You can relax a little! After all, I have never beaten you before!” Ren Baqian said.
Tong Lan gave him a sidelong glance and replied, “I’m not nervous either!”
Ren Baqian asked, “Do you know what the biggest benefit of being an Earth Wheel expert is? I discovered it after making my breakthrough. It isn’t found only at the Earth Wheel level, but also at the Kismet Heaven level.
“What is it?” His words attracted the attention of Tong Lan.
Although she openly showed her dislike for Ren Baqian, she admired his wealth of knowledge.
Even the empress raised her head.
“It is that… it’s much stronger than Human Wheel!” Ren Baqian suddenly burst out, traversed more than 10 meters in one move, and kicked at Tong Lan with one leg.
As Tong Lan moved her hand to block, Ren Baqian somersaulted in midair. Next, he raised his other leg like a windmill and aimed at her jaw.
The instep of Ren Baqian’s foot hit against Tong Lan’s palm, resulting in a loud bang.
Tong Lan followed up with a kick that sent Ren Baqian flying away.
Ren Baqian was sent tumbling and fell heavily on the ground. He got up with a flip and no longer looked as relaxed as before.
He could detect that kick from Tong Lan, but his body wasn’t able to match the speed of his brain.
The same thing had happened when he met the guards on that rainy night as he was making his way to the imperial kitchen. The brain was responding much faster than the body. His brain could detect and knew what was needed in order to evade, but his body simply could not keep up and failed to dodge in time.
This feeling made him terribly uncomfortable. It was as if his brain was delaying the instructions to his body.
This situation was hard to uncover during cultivation, but was very obvious during a fight.
The next phases of the fight confirmed this point.
He was able to antic.i.p.ate the moves most of the time, but was unable to avoid them!
Ren Baqian was sent flying by Tong Lan more than 10 times. He only stopped the spar when he felt that his body was about to fall apart.
“No matter what you say, I have improved a lot!” Ren Baqian lay on the floor panting.
Tong Lan looked at him, then looked up at the sky and quipped, “Improvement? You are being too imaginative! There’s none—it’s nonexistent!”
Ren Baqian immediately resolved to train harder the next day!
Listening to the background music, Ren Baqian sighed as he had never achieved victory with this!
After Tong Lan had departed, he told the empress about the problem he had encountered earlier.
The empress frowned and pondered for a long time before saying tentatively, “Normally, this shouldn’t happen. After burning my essence blood, I found it hard to recover my strength within a month, and at that time, I was in the same situation as you.
Normally, the physical level and spiritual level should correspond with each other, and this is the case in every cultivation method. The situation that you mentioned seems to imply that the spiritual attainment has exceeded the physical attainment. For example, when you were a Man Wheel expert, your physical level was 5 and your spiritual level was also 5. For an Earth Wheel expert, the normal physical and spiritual values would both be 20.
However, in your case, your physical value is 20, but your spiritual value is 50. Since they don’t match, it caused this situation to arise.
It’s similar to a car that’s designed to carry 6 people, but has 10 people inside.
In my case, a.s.suming both my spiritual and physical levels are at 100, my physical value drops to 30 while my spiritual value remains at 100 after burning my essence blood. This situation, where the body and spirit are out of sync, will occur as a result.”
Ren Baqian frowned for a moment. He could easily understand what the empress was saying.
Simply put, it was like placing a sports car engine in an Alto car.
The sports car engine was powerful, but it could not be properly utilized when harnessed to an Alto car. It might even cause various problems.
“As for the reason, I’m guessing it might be due to the effects of [Ruyi Visualization]. According to your descriptions, this cultivation method will affect the spiritual level.
Do you still remember [The Ancient Scroll of Methods]? After cultivating [Ruyi Visualization] and attaining the Earth Wheel level, you can start to cultivate with it. If you didn’t train with [Ruyi Visualization], you would have to wait until you attained the Spirit Wheel level before you could start to cultivate [The Ancient Scrolls of Methods].
I’m afraid that this is the explanation.”
After listening to the empress, Ren Baqian felt that he agreed with 80 percent of her explanation.
Ren Baqian suddenly thought of one thing. If this cultivation method caused the spiritual value to surpa.s.s the physical value, then the way to fight should be different from an ordinary cultivation method.
There should be a special way to utilize the spiritual value.
The profound truth might be found here.
In that case, he had to find the next volume of the ancient manual.
Otherwise, he would become a level 60 master who had yet to master any skills.
Wasn’t he a master who whacked people with his stick?
Fortunately, this master wasn’t as fragile since his body was stronger than ordinary Man (TLC. Earth?) Wheel experts!