Zu An’s heart skipped a beat. He knew that he couldn’t possibly fool Old Mi with the same excuse he used for Chu Zhongtian and Qin Wanru. Of everyone in the Chu Estate, the one person who knew Zu An’s circumstances the best was no other than Old Mi. The latter knew that he was just an ordinary human a month ago, only embarking on the journey of a cultivator through the cultivation technique the latter imparted to him.
“How did you raise your cultivation that quickly?” Seeing how Zu An wasn’t answering, Old Mi repeated his question once more, but his tone was much more impatient this time around.
“I think it’s because I’m still young, that’s why I’m cultivating a bit faster?” It took Zu An some effort to squeeze out an excuse.
However, Old Mi simply glared at him coldly, not bothering to respond at all.
Zu An’s face heated up. This excuse sounded ridiculous even to him. So, he pondered once again before replying, “I entered the academy. The academy distributes ki stones to each of us to use in our cultivation. On top of that, the ki in the academy is much richer, so…”
Before he could finish his words, Old Mi had already interjected once more, “Even with ki stones, there’s no way you could have progressed that quickly. Besides, the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra relies mainly on getting beaten up to raise your cultivation. Ki stones have limited effectiveness for you.”
Zu An was surprised to hear those words. Old Mi mentioned that ki stones had limited effectiveness, not that it was completely useless. Yet, why did it not work for him?
He thought about how the system had turned the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra into a series of formations within his body. Could it be that the way he was practicing the cultivation technique was different from how it was supposed to be, resulting in some divergence? As a result of that, he could only raise his cultivation through getting beaten up or consuming Ki Fruits.
Thinking deeper into it, he felt that it wasn’t too bad since Ki Fruits were much easier to obtain than ki stones.
While Zu An was distracted, Old Mi had finally lost his patience. He reached out to grab Zu An’s hand to check on his condition personally.
Zu An was still feeling gleeful at having defeated two experts on the dueling ring, but to his astonishment, he couldn’t even dodge a casual grab from Old Mi. He tried to pull his arm out, but Old Mi’s hand was like a metal claw firmly latched on.
“The hell! Just how powerful is this old man?” Zu An was alarmed.
“Hm?” exclaimed Old Mi in surprise. He flicked his long fingernail on Zu An’s fingertip and created a small incision. Then, he squeezed out a small droplet of blood.
He brought the droplet of blood up to his nose to have a whiff of it, and his body immediately jolted in shock. He looked at Zu An with eyes filled with disbelief as he asked, “Transcendent class aptitude?”
Zu An’s heart skipped a beat. He remembered the warning Jiang Luofu had given him regarding how he shouldn’t reveal his aptitude level to others. So, he feigned ignorance and said, “What transcendent class aptitude?”
However, Old Mi disregarded his words and reached out to grab his collars. He looked at Zu An with heated eyes as he asked anxiously, “What happened to you during this period of time? How did your aptitude suddenly rise by so much?”
He was certain that Zu An’s aptitude was only at lower Ding a month ago, yet it suddenly rose to the legendary transcendent class aptitude. How could he possibly not be surprised?
Zu An knew that it was impossible for him to hide it anymore, so he quickly cooked up an excuse and said, “I’m not too sure either. I think it might be related to that wild fruit I ate the last time I was at the city suburbs.”
“What wild fruit?” Old Mi asked on. “How does it look like? Describe it to me.”
“Errr…” Zu An hesitated for a moment before continuing on. “It’s oval in shape, and its exterior is red in color. The fruit is covered with scalelike protrusions with sharp tips. The fruit has a thick skin that feels a bit wax, and its flesh is red in color. There are lots of black bits embedded in its flesh…”
Picturing the fruit based on Zu An’s description, Old Mi began murmuring under his breath. Could it be the legendary Dhara Scales? No, that isn’t right. The color of the flesh is a little different. Cold it be the Redcloud Divine Fruit then? The exterior looks different though. What could it possibly be…”
Zu An almost burst into laughter there and then. You’d be a god if you could guess it. That’s a dragonfruit from my previous life! I don’t think I’ve heard of it anywhere ever since arriving in this world.
“It looks like you’ve stumbled upon a fortuitous encounter, obtaining a fruit that could alter your aptitude. However, it’s hard for me to imagine why a treasure of such a tier would actually be in the Hidden Dragon Mountain,” said Old Mi.
Zu An chuckled in response, “I guess dumb people are compensated by their luck.”
A frightening smile surfaced on Old Mi’s aged face. He patted Zu An’s shoulder and said, “Wonderful. The higher your aptitude, the more heartened I am.”
“Thank you for your concern, elder,” replied Zu An. He looked at this still bleeding fingertip as he reassessed his evaluation of Old Mi. All along, he thought of Old Mi as a ‘grandfather gift pack’ accorded to newbie transmigrators so as to kick them off on their journey. However, it looked like he was sorely mistaken here. There was no one who would selflessly impart their teachings to a stranger for no good reason…
“You didn’t use the Sunflower Phantasm in the tournament today, right?” asked Old Mi.
“I didn’t. I used the modified version you imparted to me, and it looks like it was more than enough.” Had it been before, Zu An might have just confessed that he had used a move from the Sunflower Phantasm at the very last instant in order to deal with Yuan Wenji, but he felt that he couldn’t trust Old Mi anymore.
“That’s good,” replied Old Mi with a nod. He also thought that his movement skill would be more than enough to deal with most low-level cultivators, so he didn’t harbor any doubts toward Zu An’s words. “Alright, you should rest for now.”
After saying those words, he began staggering his way out. Despite his seemingly slow movements, it took only a few moments for his silhouette to completely vanish from view.
Zu An finally heaved a long sigh of relief. Somehow, being in Old Mi’s presence made him feel incredibly pressured.
It looks like I need to prepare a countermeasure against Old Mi…
There was a problem here though. The pressure that Old Mi exerted on him earlier was even greater than what he had felt from Yuan Zhengchu and the others when they charged at him earlier today. This proved that Old Mi was indubitably an incredibly powerful cultivator, and this only left Zu An’s heart feeling even heavier.
Heaving a deep sigh, he closed his door.
As per usual, he started off with washing his hands and face. Now that he was a bit more well-to-do, he even bought from fragrance and joss sticks in order to upgrade his ritual. As they say, the Goddess of Luck shines on those who are prepared.
Once all preparatory work was completed, Zu An dived into his lottery. He had accumulated a total of 58,835 Rage points thus far. Most of it had come from the splash damage he had dealt upon the spectators. Indeed, a good performance needed to be enjoyed by a huge audience!
Should I try to hug Jiang Luofu’s leg in public next time?
Zu An quickly dispelled that thought from his mind. While he would surely make a killing out of his Rage points, he might just end up dead from that.
He drew the lottery as per usual, but he didn’t obtain anything special. His total loot was only 59 Ki Fruits, which was pretty disappointing though it was within expectations. He swallowed the Ki Fruits and filled the fourth formation by roughly a third.
Seeing this, he couldn’t help but sigh deeply. He was only at the fourth step of the third rank, but the amount of Rage points he needed to make a breakthrough was already an astronomical sum. He couldn’t imagine how he could possibly rake up enough Rage points for subsequent breakthroughs.
All of a sudden, someone knocked on his door, and Cheng Shouping’s fawning voice sounded, “Young master, let’s go redeem the bet paper. It’s 1,000,000 silver taels!”
Zu An’s eyes immediately lit up as his low spirits cleared up in an instant. There had been too many things going on that he nearly forgot about this.
“Let’s go!”
Zu An charged out of the door, only to quickly return back in. “No, this won’t do. I need to find someone to accompany me.”
While his winnings this time around wasn’t as exaggerated as what he had earned from the Silverhook Casino the last time around, it was still no small sum. Just the few guards from the Chu clan might not be sufficient to get the matter done. He needed to find a reliable backing here.
In the end, he felt that his wife was still the most reliable one of all. After the previous incident, she had experience handling things relating to the casino now.
…
Meanwhile, Chu Chuyan was in the midst of circulating her ki through her body to recuperate from her injuries. All of a sudden, an unnatural tinge of redness filler her face, and she abruptly lurched forward and sprouted a mouthful of blood. Shockingly, there were a few small shards of ice in her blood.
Confusion flickered across her face as she murmured in disbelief, “How could this be…”
“Honey, honey~” It was then that a familiar, light-hearted voice sounded from the outside.