36 Three Thousand Spirit Stones!? (1/2)

The first month of the year passed by in a blink of an eye and Wang Lu’s daily life once again became like in the past two years: studying at Misty Peak during the day, and going back to the Non-Phase Peak to refine his bone in the evening. A simple yet fulfilling life.

After experiencing the grueling ordeal of training the first layer of the Non-Phase Sword Bone, the experience became less and less painful. At least, it was not on the level of wishing-oneself-to-die pain.

However, according to his respectable Master’s argument, the Non-Phase Sword Bone had a side effect. After cultivating the first layer, one would become more tolerant to pain the more one repeated the process. Several layers later, the tolerance of pain would reach such an alarming level that even the process of “destroying the old body and creating the new” would only feel like a mosquito bite. It was so much that if one was asleep and someone cut their p*nis, then they wouldn’t even feel it!

Hearing this explanation, Wang Lu and little Wang Lu suddenly went into shock! If he lost the ability to feel pain, wouldn’t he be like a bull terrier? But on the bright side, he wouldn’t have to feel like he was having daily menstrual pain every time he practiced this body training method. However, when he practiced it the third time, Wang Lu discovered another “side effect”.

There was no positive side effect!

Properly speaking, this kind of lower level body refining method to reach the Foundation Establishment Stage ought to increase the body’s capability compared to those mortal world’s martial arts. After reaching the third layer in a week, not to mention the divine power of Dragon and Elephant, Wang Lu should, at least, be as strong as an Ox and could run like the wind. But the result of his week-long training was actually... nothing. To make things worse, his running speed seemed to have slowed down a little!

When he asked his Master, her sincere reply was that this Non-Phase Sword Bone was broad and profound; it was impossible for it to bear fruit in the time between. She advised him to take a long-term view, and in ten years, he would definitely understand her painstaking effort.

Painstaking effort my ass!

Thus, Wang Lu “ran away from home” that night and changed his allegiance to the Lady Boss.

In response to this, the Lady Boss gladly accepted him. In her own words, to train a rare martial arts prodigy was a temptation that any martial arts master could never resist.

“Don’t worry, I will impart you all of my life’s skills. Although I don’t understand about things regarding cultivation, even if my skills are just mortal world’s martial arts, it would be enough for you to reach the Foundation Establishment Stage.”

Wang Lu had also heard about this point. The legendary top martial artists of the mortal world could defeat Qi Cultivating Stage cultivators. However, before one reached the Foundation Establishment Stage, formed the Jade Mansion core and connected the magical power inside and outside the body, mortal world’s Martial Arts were basically ineffective… But even for a top sect like the Spirit Sword Sect, it would need three to five years from forging the body to the Foundation Establishment Stage. Therefore, he would also need around three to five years of training with the Lady Boss before it could be effective. Furthermore, even if he did succeed in reaching the Foundation Establishment Stage, it would still be very difficult for mortal world’s martial arts to be effective; however, this common knowledge still had some grain of truth in it.

So, when he started to practice again, he still performed the Divine Skill of Subduing the Dragon. After all, it was a basic skill that the Lady Boss highly recommended for him. It was said that it could strengthen one’s overall physique. As long as he could learn through the first layer, he could have the strength of a tiger or leopard, and he could be comparable to a common great martial arts master.

Thus, after three days of hard training, Wang Lu finally reached the first layer of the Divine Skill of Subduing the Dragon. On the day of his success, the Lady Boss purposely made a whole pot of trotters sauce for Wang Lu to celebrate.

However, when he was eating the trotters together with the Lady Boss in between his training time, a problem suddenly arose.

“Lady Boss, according to your estimate, by now, I should be as fast as Cheetah, strong like Tiger and tough like Bison… right?”

Lady Boss nodded. “Yes, this is the standard result of reaching the first layer of the Divine Skill of Subduing the Dragon, what’s wrong?”

Wang Lu went silent for a long time before replying with, “I feel like I didn’t change at all.”

The Lady Boss was taken aback. “Impossible! I can clearly see that you have reached the first layer through the energy in your dragon vein. How could there be no effect, unless…”

The Lady Boss suddenly thought of something, causing her eyebrows to deeply furrow.

“I think I understand what’s going on. This is called the cover phenomenon.”

“Cover Phenomenon?”

The Lady Boss reluctantly explained, “This is not difficult to understand; a top rank martial art has a cover effect over a low rank martial art. For example, if you first practice Six Yang Melting Snow Skill, and over a period of time you also practice the even more profound Nine Yang Divine Skill, then your internal energy will reflect the characteristic of Nine Yang Divine Skill; The Six Yang Melting Snow Skill is already being covered by the Nine Yang Divine Skill. But now… while the Divine Skill of Subduing the Dragon is the closest martial art to the Immortal Cultivation art, but the Non-Phase Sword Bone is, nevertheless, a genuine Immortal Cultivation art, which means it covers the Divine Skill of Subduing the Dragon.”

Wang Lu nearly vomited blood upon hearing this; the Non-Phase Sword Bone was really a rip-off! “Oh, Master, I have to give it to you. You’re the only person in the world who can create this kind of ‘wonderful’ skill!”

The Lady Boss bitterly smiled. “Don’t dwell too much on it. Although I don’t understand much of the Non-Phase Sword Bone, I still do know some of it. Although it does have shortcomings at the beginning, it deserves its name as an Immortal Cultivation Skill, not something that Divine Skill of Subduing the Dragon can match.”

“Lady Boss, rather than consoling me with this nonsense, you might as well advise me to masturbate by fantasizing my Master being gang raped…”

Seeing that her sympathy talk was invalid, the Lady Boss immediately said, “It’s okay if you can’t practice this Divine Skill of Subduing the Dragon. In any case, it’s just a basic body refining method; we can still practice the fighting method… and I happen to have several sets of sword skill that are suitable for you.”

Wang Lu shook his head. “Just let it be, my Master has a set of Non-Phase Sword Knack waiting to rip me off.”

“... Em, yeah, you’re right. How about this, let’s practice your footwork! This will not be a problem because Wang Wu consistently ignores this kind of skill; there are no such thing as lightness skill in her Non-Phase Method. So let’s practice this!”

“Footwork? Dodging and breaking away?” Although this skill would be useless once he succeeded in Immortal Cultivation in the future, but prior to Foundation Establishment Stage, even those Inner Court Disciples wouldn’t know how to fly.

“It’s enough if I can use this until I reach the Foundation Establishment Stage. Oh, Master Lady Boss, please accept my respect once again!”

Wang Lu then paid obeisance to the Lady Boss.

The next few days, Wang Lu spent his time practicing his footwork under the Lady Boss’s guidance. Strangely, the footwork was neither the legendary “Graceful Steps Upon the Waves” [1], nor was it the “Ghost Shadow Steps” which could use afterimages to confuse the opponent. Instead, it was the “Winding Step”, which needed amazing balance and toughness to cast out, and could even be called as uncanny and fantastic footwork.

As the name implied, the main feature of Winding Step was the word “winding”. As soon as the person with this Winding Step wound around the opponent, the opponent wouldn’t be able to break away no matter what, like a chewing gum stuck on someone. This skill didn’t emphasize on dodging nor the ability to break away; instead, in a one-on-one combat, it could work wonders.

Wang Lu was unclear on why the Lady Boss purposely taught him this footwork, but unlike his real Master, she never tried to cheat him. Thus, he paid attention to her teaching, seriously learning this Winding Step.

And so it went, Wang Lu began his triple training of the Cultural Education, Non-Phase Sword Bone and Winding Step. Every day, after finishing his morning long distance running, he soaked himself in the super dosage medicinal concoction and trained the Non-Phase Sword Bone. At noon, he would go to the Misty Peak to attend the Cultural Class to earn sect credits. After the lesson, he would go down the mountain to look for the Lady Boss and train the Winding Step. In the evening, he would go back to the Non-Phase Peak to rest.

Two months later, he had mastered the Winding Step. Although he couldn’t fly nor create afterimages, after he grasped the essence of this footwork, he didn’t think that it was less amazing than those footworks.

As it happened, there was a situation where Wang Lu could fully display the ultimate power of this miraculous footwork. This situation happened when, in the past, Wang Lu failed to climb the Non-Phase Peak when he tried to look for herbs or plants. Previously, when he looked for herbs or plants at the Non-Phase Peak, Wang Lu would often have to turn around and run away with his tail between his legs when he was bullied by wild monkeys, hare or pheasant, wild boar or wolf and so on. Now, equipped with this Winding Step, although he still hasn’t learned any offensive martial arts and his Master’s Non-Phase Sword Bone was especially deceptive, he would still have a chance to put out a fight even when encountering a ferocious beast.

In order to prove himself, on the third day after he mastered the Winding Step, Wang Lu went into the deep wilderness area of the Non-Phase Peak to find his two years old nemesis: the One-eyed Black Bear.

For two years, whenever Wang Lu went into the wilderness to look for herbs, the most hateful thing for him was this damn bear that occupied the area where the spirit grass grew. The other party was not some kind of high level monster who could control forces of nature, but it was one lazy, stupid clumsy bear. However, due to animal’s sensitivity on the convergence of the spiritual energy on the Spirit Sword Mountain, the stupid bear instinctively knew the growing spot for the spirit grass and its benefit. Thus, everyday, the stupid bear would behave like a gardener who patrolled the mountain to protect the spirit grass from being taken away by Wang Lu who would then sell them for money. Therefore, this stupid bear became Wang Lu’s sworn enemy.

Over the past two years, whenever he encountered this stupid bear, Wang Lu could only turn around and run away. In any case, he could always come back later. Plus, relying on his dexterity and endurance, he wasn’t afraid that he wouldn’t get the spirit grass or be eaten by the bear. Nevertheless, his money making plan had been repeatedly blocked. But now, with his newly mastered Winding Step, Wang Lu had the confidence to subdue that bear. Furthermore, since he had the heart to take revenge, he wouldn’t want to wait until a chance encounter with the stupid bear; he wanted to crash into that black bear’s cave.

That day, Wang Lu set off on his mission very early in the morning when the sky was yet to brighten up. The black bear was sleeping inside his cave with mouth dripping with saliva; it must’ve been having a good dream. Without any preamble, Wang Lu directly kicked its nose!