Chapter 80: Chapter 80 The Sorrow of Jade

Feng Jun blinked and asked with confusion, “Didn’t you say that it wouldn’t be

a problem even if a normal person took it?”

“When I said it wouldn’t be a problem, I meant there wouldn’t be any serious consequences,” Lang Zhen explained with an agonized suck of his teeth, “But… it’s going to hurt, how could it not? Especially since you haven’t even found your qi sensation.”

Feng Jun was stunned for a while before asking doubtfully, “This medicine… how long does it take for the pills to work?”

Lang Zhen was suddenly taken aback, and after a moment of surprise asked,

“You mean… it’s not hurting now?”

Feng Jun had swallowed the Body Tempering Pill for a full half an hour but hadn’t felt anything unusual.

Lang Zhen’s face was filled with an incredible amount of strangeness, “That s not right, the Body Tempering Pills should take effect within five breaths of ingestion.”

Then he stared at Feng Jun and waited for almost another half hour before actually reaching out to touch Feng Jun’s forehead.

After touching his forehead, he grew even more astonished, “Why aren’t there

any impurities coming out?”

Upon hearing this, Feng Jun suddenly realized something, secretions of impurities? I’ve done that countless times already.

After observing for a while longer, Lang Zhen sighed deeply, touched by the realization, “Cultivators are indeed cultivators.”

Although he hadn’t cultivated before… it was quite possible that he had long been a body without impurities.

Seeing his shocked expression, Feng Jun was certainly quite proud inside, but after this incident, his attitude towards cultivation had also become much more cautious.

He didn’t know whether he was completely immune to the Body Tempering Pills, but he was very clear that before reaching the rank of martial master, he could at most consume eight more Body Tempering Pills.

Given this, he naturally had to be sparing with them, “Old Lang… can I start practicing this Tai Chi Breathing Technique now?”

“It’s best not to practice it right now,” Lang Zhen’s body jerked, immediately offering his advice, “Being a cultivator, you might learn it faster, but this place really isn’t secretive enough. If someone sees you, it could affect your cultivation.”

Feng Jun heeded his words and had to give up his plans to try it immediately, while also inwardly cautioning himself: now that he had obtained certain resources, he couldn’t be too eager. There would be plenty of time in the future to remain patient.

Compared to being trapped in a valley by two Spirit Beasts two months prior, his situation had improved significantly.

However, when he looked up at the sky and felt it was only around seven o’clock, he thought time was passing exceptionally slowly.

It was a good opportunity to ask another question, “What do you think of the ‘Mystic Element Sword Technique’?”

Lang Zhen’s eyes suddenly widened in alarm, “What did you say… this secret manuscript is the ‘Mystic Element Sword Technique’?”

As a man who couldn’t read, he knew only that there were four characters written on the manuscript.

But when he learned that this manuscript was the ‘ Mystic Element Sword Technique’, he truly couldn’t remain calm anymore. This swordsmanship was quite famous throughout the Donghua Continent, ranking as one of the four great weapon techniques.

The four great weapon techniques are the ‘Mystic Element Sword Technique1, ‘Firestarter Spear Technique’, ‘Endless Sword Technique’, and ‘Tyrant Spear

Technique’.

Interestingly, within the top ten sword techniques, the Mystic Element Sword Technique isn’t listed, and the reason is quite simple: it’s too difficult to master.

It is said that to practice this sword technique, not only is a powerful Divine Sense required, but also an incredibly resilient will, along with a higher level of sawiness than ordinary people.

The Mystic Element Sword Technique became renowned because a thousand years ago, using this technique, the Sword Saint Wu Yixiao fought a historic battle against the Sword Emperor on the Ice Plains, ultimately inflicting severe injury on the Sword Emperor and attaining martial enlightenment.

This is one of the four recorded instances of attaining martial enlightenment throughout history and the only case in nearly three thousand years. Martial enlightenment means relying on formidable martial strength to become a cultivator.

Generally speaking for cultivators, attaining martial enlightenment isn’t the best option. If one starts cultivating the Immortal Family’s techniques from a young age, building a foundation would be much easier, at least much more so than achieving martial enlightenment.

However, for ordinary people, the opportunity to become an immortal is extremely rare. While martial enlightenment is even more elusive, it is, after all, a possibility within the reach of ordinary people.

Moreover, there is a rumor in the martial world that cultivators who have attained martial enlightenment possess combat strength far surpassing that of those who built their foundation using immortal techniques.

Regardless, once the news of the Sword Saint’s enlightenment spread, the Mystic Element Sword Technique instantly became widely recognized, and countless martial artists and martial masters began to practice it.

Soon, a large number of cultivators went mad from forcibly practicing this technique, with the less afflicted completely losing their martial arts and the more seriously affected turning into idiots or even dying. Some even went on killing sprees, slaughtering the innocent in their madness.

Subsequently, this technique was classified as a forbidden martial art, and officials actively destroyed the relevant manuscripts.

Nowadays, it’s hard to find the Mystic Element Sword Technique in the market. Only a few major martial forces retain it, and anyone who wishes to learn this technique must be under supervision and sign a life-and-death agreement— should anything go wrong, others are authorized to execute them on the spot.

In a nutshell, this saber technique is extremely notorious and particularly unorthodox; it’s practically impossible for the average person to even come across it.

Upon hearing it was the Mystic Element Sword Technique, Lang Zhen struggled to hide the excitement on his face, but in the end, he still forcibly suppressed, the longing in his heart, “This technique, it’s honestly better left unlearned.” Feng Jun was also startled, he wasn’t afraid of taking risks, but it had to be worth it, so he ruefully shook his head and sighed, “The Gu Family’s guts are definitely not ordinary.”

Lang Zhen, however, snorted nonchalantly, “Big clans are like that, it s normal… How can they become major clans if they don’t engage in some shady dealings?”

Feng Jun nodded silently, thinking to himself that there’s original sin in capital accumulation, and it seems that the martial path is no different.

In the time that followed, he perused the Tai Chi Breathing Technique. Although he couldn’t immediately start cultivating it, looking it over more couldn’t hurt-in fact, despite his extensive literary foundation, he was unable to recognize all the seal characters.

And this breathing exercise was the foundation of cultivation; a single mistaken character could lead to very serious consequences.

As the number of characters he didn’t recognize grew, he couldn’t help but ask Lang Zhen for help.

Lang Zhen didn’t recognize the characters either, but he had his own method, which was memorizing the Basic Breathing Manuscript by heart.

The Basic Breathing Technique and the Tai Chi Breathing Technique had many differences in the details, yet in some aspects, they almost completely overlapped, and the related text could be used as a reference.

Throughout the entire day, Feng Jun guessed and learned more than twenty seal characters, and now there were only about twenty in the entire secret manual that he didn’t recognize.

As dusk approached, Lang Zhen made a suggestion, “Take your time to figure out this breathing exercise. For the characters you don’t recognize, we can go to the mansion’s city to ask those learned scholars.”

Feng Jun had intended to buy a dictionary on seal script after returning to the Earth Realm, but upon hearing his suggestion, he felt it was a good idea, “Hiring a scholar is certainly possible. Money is not an issue… but secrecy must be ensured.”

Lang Zhen replied with a smile, “Rest assured, after all these years in the pugilistic world, Lang hasn’t just learned how to eat.”

Feng Jun nodded, then noticed another issue, “Did you say… there are the stones I need near the mansion s city?

“There are some near the mansion’s city, but not many and the quality is quite average,” Lang Zhen replied seriously, “Past the mansion’s city, moving west toward Zhige County, on Mount Zhige and the riverbed below, these stones are plentiful.”

Feng Jun’s eyebrows knit slightly together, “Are they cheap? I mean… can they be picked up casually?”

“Why bother picking them up yourself?” Lang Zhen asked back with a chuckle, “Picking up a few stones locally is fine, but if you need more, just buy them. It’s a good way to let them sort it out for us.

Buying directly… wouldn’t that easily result in inflated prices? Feng Jun was startled for a moment, then he realized, “Are the stones really cheap?” “Of course, they’re cheap,” Lang Zhen said with a strange expression, “Very cheap. Some local wealthy families build walls for their mansions with these stones because they look more appealing… I’m really curious, what do you want these stones for?”

You actually use jade to build walls? Feng Jun was at a loss for words.

After a pause, he spread his hands and answered frankly, “You said it, they look good… Isn’t that reason enough?”

Lang Zhen’s expression turned quite strange as he chuckled bitterly, “Is it just because they look good?”

“Certainly,” Feng Jun responded confidently, “These things are of no use to cultivators’, and if you don’t believe me, you can buy some and hoard them too… I want to buy them just because they look good.”

At this moment, he had a vague sense of why jade was so cheap here and so expensive on Earth.

The reason was simple; this place was still in a phase of resource scarcity, with basic needs yet unmet. Decorative luxury goods only mattered to a small number of wealthy families.

Does jade look good? Truly, it does, but aside from that, what practical use did it have? Not really—except it was quite sturdy, making it ideal for building walls.

The situation was different on Earth, where most people had solved their basic needs, and some had the leisure to pursue beauty and spiritual satisfaction. As a result, with people’s pursuit, the price of jade kept skyrocketing.

in other words, considering only its aesthetic appeal, jade prices on Earth were highly exaggerated, whereas in this realm, its luxurious traits hadn’t been tapped into, so the price was within the normal range.

However, to explain this to Lang Zhen wasn’t something that could be conveyed in a sentence or two.

But to his surprise, after a long moment of being stunned, Lang Zhen nodded slowly with an odd expression, then murmured to himself, “I should have thought of it; this thing, it’s just good-looking, so… it should be valuable. At his words, Feng Jun blinked, his eyes filled with questions, “Do you really understand?”

“I really do,” Lang Zhen said with a wry smile, “Let me put it this way, the stones near the mansion1 s city were also plentiful before being increasingly picked over, mainly because the wealthy families are buying them…