Chapter 616: Focusing on Cultivation (IV)

“Nurturing the spirits to lock the auras, locking the auras to nurture the spirits... You’re randomly scrabbling around the realm,” Yuan Shuo began his lecture. “Summoner of Spirit doesn’t look like what you’re doing. You’re making it too hard to improve your auras. Something will go wrong sooner or later! You haven’t comprehended the true meaning of Summoner of Spirit at all. Why have you incorporated your auras into the organs? For fun?

“Yes, that’s exactly what you’re doing! It doesn’t matter if you’ve incorporated them or not. If your auras are separated, you’ll still be at the same level of strength you are now. Therefore, you’re just taking off your pants to fart. You’re Summoner of Spirit in name, but this is all just amusement.”

Li Hao was tongue-tied! Surely not? He’d thought about this problem before, but he’d always thought that perhaps he could improve his auras when he reached Refiner of Spirit.

“Then teacher means...”

“Have them take root in the five organs!” Yuan Shuo furrowed his brows. “There’s no required connection between your auras and organs. The key to Summoner of Spirit lies with locking the auras into the organs, and not just for fun, but to strengthen the organs. When they are strong, so are the auras! When the auras are strong, so are the organs!

“The aura cannot be without root or origin. You must trace them to their beginnings and locate their foundations. Rooting them in the supernatural locks is also in preparation for Refiner of Spirit. You can’t just fuse them willy-nilly! You must connect aura to lock before enhancing them together. At that point, the increased strength of your lock means an increased strength of your aura...”

Yuan Shuo flicked a slightly dissatisfied glance at Hong Yitang. “You can’t be completely oblivious about this at your cultivation level. My disciple spent his days with you in my absence, why didn’t anyone warn him?”

“How am I supposed to know what your Summoner of Spirit level is like?” Hong Yitang protested innocently. “How was I supposed to know if it’s the same as our path? The only thing that Li Hao said publicly is to meld our auras into the five organs. I thought your Five Styles discipline has a special way to enhance the aura!”

“I know about what the kid announced. I thought he was just pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. So... this is what he really thinks?” Yuan Shuo rolled his eyes.

Li Hao looked around sheepishly.

Yeah, other than not talking about locking the aura, everything else was truly what I was thinking. So all of you thought I was playing a long con? Why do you think such things about me? I’d just entered White Moon City then and was very weak, very timid. How would I dare run my mouth in everything?

“Didn’t I tell you about locking the auras and nurturing them before I left?” Yuan Shuo’s head ached. “Even the name of the cultivation realm is Summoner of Spirit, how did you go off on a tangent? And here I thought you understood, so you don’t understand anything?”

“Teacher, I was just a Sunderer when you left,” Li Hao chuckled ruefully. “I didn’t know much about auras and happened to comprehend one through luck. How would I know anything of what you spoke of?”

“......” Yuan Shuo sighed.

Fine, I overestimated you.

“You need to clean up your path! You’ll still grow stronger if you continue down this road, but it’s all forcefully piled upward. You will meet with a limit as you won’t always secure treasures to help you advance. The might of an aura is the foundation of a martial master’s strength!

“Aura isn’t just mental strength, do you understand? Strictly speaking, the aura may have replaced the core origin dao of the ancient martial dao. Without ways to improve it, it’s only a matter of time before you fall behind...

“The dao of core origin vanished in the later years of ancient martial dao. There were very few who walked it in the first place. If it wasn’t for the existence of the ancient civilization and the descendants of those who trained in core origin... However, walking this path meant that one could not exceed one’s ancestors. There is a complete lack of possibility at the end.

“Some changes must have happened in the world during the ancient civilization to change the rules of heaven and earth.” Yuan Shuo looked at Li Hao. “If you continue this way, you might be able to find your way to the dao of core origin. However, that locks you into ancient martial dao for the rest of your life. You might reach your ancestor’s level at the end, but there’s not much hope to that. There is almost no possibility of you replicating your ancestor’s dao and exceeding it.”

“I, uh, haven’t thought that far yet.” Li Hao scratched his head.

“You fool!” Yuan Shuo frowned. “Your aspirations must be high even if you can’t make it to that step. If you lack even those, then what is the point of cultivation?! You might as well split up the origin weapons between the three of us and we’ll think of a way to kill Ying Hongyue for you. You can just find a woman to retire with!”

The old man seemed to be building up his rage; Li Hao smiled ruefully in response.

“I... didn’t mean it that way, teacher. Alright, alright, I’ll change!” He seemed to turn back into the clueless, naive boy that he’d once been when he was in front of Yuan Shuo. All of his previous arrogance and confidence was struck down.

But this was just as well. Li Hao did not possess a deep understanding of martial dao and lacked quite a few things. Yuan Shuo was helping him correct his deficiencies. Born of the so-called savage wilderness, the young man might be able to proceed with double the results at half the effort after this.

“So long as you correct your mistakes!” Yuan Shuo inclined his head. “Li Hao, you must understand that it’s only been twenty years since the development of the supernatural domain, but they already have powerhouses of the sixth level. Development of the supernatural path is quite clear cut. All they need to do is resolve the issue of conflict between the five organs and they’ll quickly enter the seventh, eight, and ninth levels!

“There are at least three locks to break in the five organs, which means their way to the ninth level is very apparent! There is smooth sailing ahead for them so long as they resolve the clash between their five organs. We may deride them as trash, but we can’t really think so. This is called tactical contempt, but strategic importance!

“Someone as strong as Xu Qing may not have measured up to the sixth level existences. People like you and I have even less right to disdain supernaturals! If the supernaturals can then resolve the problem of their outside energy and bring it into the body... Then our paths might be the same despite our systems being different!

“And if they can make external energy part of themselves, then you must understand that the path of martial masters... is actually not as clear and definite as the supernatural way!”

Li Hao nodded continuously. He’d killed countless supernaturals during this period of time. That, combined with their lack of an ability to unseal themselves meant that he really had developed some scorn for these types of superhumans. But after his teacher’s lecture, he felt that he’d been too careless.

There had been premier powerhouses even among the path of energy in the ancient civilization. Some were even mentioned by name in books. In the early years of the ancient civilization, energy practitioners had been the biggest enemy. They were still grave threats in the late years and never fully declined out of existence.

In the modern world, martial masters grappled with a murky path while their supernatural counterparts could see clearly how to proceed.

“Alright, that was an overall organization of theory.” Yuan Shuo smiled radiantly after a round of weighty admonishment. “You can do as you see fit with the details. And now... pick up the pace and continue cultivating. Produce some more sword energy, it’s been so long since I’ve absorbed it! I’ll take whatever shortcuts there are to save a lot of time.”

Li Hao had nothing to say in response. Off to the side, Hong Yitang and Light Sword also wordlessly remained in place.

You’re so rich now, so hurry up and don’t drag things out. We want a cut of the good stuff too!

Although Yuan Shuo hadn’t spoken of specific cultivation methods, they didn’t need those at their level. Organizing things from a general perspective was enough. They had their own goals after that. Perhaps they would all end up at the same destination, but they didn’t need to completely follow Yuan Shuo’s ideas for the moment.

Li Hao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. But since he had a lot of mysterious power stones at the moment, he didn’t care about this expenditure. Shards of broken stones soon piled up at his feet.

His most pressing need was to build the five bridges and then have the auras take root in his organs according to his teacher’s words. After that, he would saturate his supernatural looks and meld his auras into the locks. There was a long way ahead of him.

This time, Li Hao didn’t absorb sword energy. He left it for the other three while he began attempting to craft temporary bridges.

Panther was trying as well. The dog felt that its rate of progress wasn’t fast enough through simply relying on its bloodline. It might be able to grow stronger through learning with humans.

Vast sums of mysterious power stones continued to break. The quartet vanished from the outside world. Whatever theatrics rose outside had nothing to do with them.

Yuan Shuo improved the fastest. He’d previously enhanced his organs at a slower rate. Now that there was a shortcut, he didn’t mind taking it since his path ahead was clear. He swiftly took in sword energy to strengthen his locks. He wanted to enter Refiner of Spirit as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, Hong Yitang was also attempting to break through to Refiner of Spirit. He wanted to fuse his sword aura into his locks and build true bridges between his organs. For that to occur, nine of his supernatural locks needed to be saturated.

Yuan Shuo sensed something in the middle of his cultivation and opened his eyes for a glance. Hong Yitang happened to look back at him, which made the old man’s eyes sharpen with battle intent. This guy had hidden himself well over the years! Based on his categorization, the guy was almost at the second step of Refiner of Spirit!

Yuan Shuo was outclassed by Hong Yitang in his current stage, but that might not continue to hold true.

Hong Yitang grinned and closed his eyes again, ignoring the other. Yuan Shuo was the fount of inspiration that goaded everyone to greater heights. The old man had felt no pressure before, but he did a little bit now. If he quickly entered Refiner of Spirit, he might soon overtake Hong Yitang again since he had five auras.

Light Sword’s goals were much simpler—absorb sword energy and saturate her supernatural locks. She’d only filled two to capacity, there was a very long way to go.

......

While they cultivated. Near East Shore.

He Yong looked with a tragic expression.

Where was everyone?

I got here as soon as I could, but I didn’t get here in time! No!! Li Hao grabbed so many treasures and he’s got to be holed up somewhere to cultivate. I’ve lost out on so much!!

He Yong’s grief was indescribable. He knew that these bastards must be cultivating; he’d made his way to the east as soon as he received word. But he was still a step too late and failed to find Li Hao and the others. He knew that he’d missed out on a massive opportunity!

𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

“They must be within five hundred kilometers of me, but they’re not responding!” His bronze armor could contact his compatriots, but they were ignoring him. How pitiful was this!