Instructor Song replied, “I will not intervene until one’s life is in danger. This is the principle of being a guide. This is related to your true intentions of going on the Ascetic Road—to hone yourself and break through in difficult situations. This is crucial for you to set the foundation for your advancement to the stage of a Mystical Warrior. Although you have been beaten repeatedly by them, it has become one of the reasons that made you stronger… How could you have become stronger, with your physical strength skyrocketing, without the experience of being bullied by others the past few days?”

 1Xu Yang was dumbfounded. Did he just say that one could become stronger by being beaten up? The original Xu Yang’s soul had already disappeared! If it were not for his existence, the useless Xu family’s Young Master would have really turned up dead and become one of the corpses on the Ascetic Road.

 Xu Yang connected the scattered pieces of memories in his head. He knew that Instructor Song was telling the truth. There were a total of fifteen teenagers in this team at the beginning. Four of them had died from being eaten by ferocious beasts and stung by poisonous insects, now only eleven remained. The passing line for an instructor was that at least ten ascetics survived the journey. Instructor Song was now close to the margin of disqualification. He would definitely not stand idly by if that were to happen due to internal fighting.

 “I will not hold back if anyone dares to provoke me again.” Xu Yang looked around with his chilling eyes and warned the rest. The teenagers whose gazes met his lowered their heads, including Liu Zishan—who was the most delighted when the fight ensued.

 2It was not even funny anymore. Even Lu Song was injured heavily, who would dare to provoke Xu Yang again?

 Xu Yang went to the deepest parts of the valley by himself. He sat quietly and breathed slowly. He converted the natural Mystical Qi into his own Mystical Qi. Returning to this time in the past ten thousand years ago with rich Mystical Qi made him feel that everything was surreal. All he wanted to do was to seize every minute and every second to extract Mystical Qi.

 Xu Yang chose not to use the Dynamic-Static Combined Qi-Introducing Technique because he did not want anyone else to know about its existence. This was the fruit of the wisdom of Mystical Cultivators all through the next ten thousand years. Xu Yang would not reveal it easily as its value was inestimable.

 5During practice, Xu Yang was extremely conscious of his surroundings and was wary of other people’s presence. He did think of leaving the ascetic team but he was not familiar with the route they were on. Besides, it was known that there was existence of some ferocious beasts in dangerous areas of the Python Mountains. He would die easily if he were to meet any of them with the current strength he possessed. He would not even be able to run from danger. Therefore, he decided to stay with the team before returning to Lin Yuan City.

 When Xu Yang had calmed down and absorbed some Mystical Energy, he was surprised.

 The mystical veins of various attributes in this body were extremely balanced and there was not even the slightest difference—as if they were measured using a ruler!

 There were a total of eight extremes in the Mystical Continent. They represented the eight attributes of Mystical Qi—Light, Dark, Thunder, Ice, Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind respectively. The first four were stronger ones called Four Upper Extremes while the last four were called Four Lower Extremes.

 Most people had these eight attributes in their bodies but they were not suitable for cultivating Mystical Qi as they were so uniformly balanced out. There were only those with physiques in which one extreme Mystical Vein was much stronger than the others who were qualified to cultivate Mystical Qi. Some geniuses were even born with only one extreme Mystical Vein without any impurities. It would be sensational news on the land once someone was born with this physique. It was not an exaggeration to call it a divine body or a holy body.

 However, there was an influential force called the Celestials. All of them were Mystical Cultivators and many of them were proficient in various extremes.

 This secret was finally revealed thousands of years after the Mystical Energy had dried up and the Celestials had waned.

 It turned out that there was a sacred scripture, Zhenwu’s Eight Sceneries Scripture. The s was inherited from the ancient times within the Celestials. According to the scripture, ordinary people with eight uniform attributes could also practice Mystical Qi with the said method. They could cultivate the eight extremes together all at once.

 In the era when Mystical Energy was rich and many great people were born, this scripture was treated as the clan’s treasure. There was absolutely no possibility of the contents being leaked. However, the Celestial waned after Mystical Qi had dried up. At that time, the clan that Xu Yang was in used the price of half a piece of a graded elixir to buy the scripture.

 “Eight balanced extremes, it is definitely the most suitable physique to practice Zhenwu’s Eight Sceneries Scripture!” No wonder the previous Xu Yang’s cultivation was so low. It was not suitable for this body of his to practice common techniques. This might be one of the reasons why he was treated in such a way by Lin Yuan’s Xu family.

 “I have already used the Mystical Qi in my Star Ocean to refine my body, and now I have reverted the level of the Star Ocean to the stage where it had just been opened. It will be good for me to cultivate Zhenwu’s Eight Sceneries Scripture from the very beginning.” Xu Yang began to recall the essentials of the scripture and the context of cultivating it. Then, he opened his mouth and inhaled.

 Eight extremes of Mystical Qi flowed in through the eight Mystical Veins in Xu Yang when he inhaled. They were refined along the way and finally became pure Mystical Energy at the Star Ocean. They were divided into eight colours, representing eight attributes.

 Xu Yang slowly exhaled a turbid gas, and then opened his mouth again to inhale Mystical Energy.

 Inhale—exhale—

 Looking at Xu Yang who was in cultivation mode, Liu Zishan’s face turned pale. He looked at Lu Song, whose body was curled up like a prawn and was coughing from time to time, feeling anxious.

 The originally useless young master that everyone bullied for pleasure had changed completely. The master and slave roles had been reversed! Was the unfortunate Lu Song the future image of Liu Zishan?

 Instructor Song had lit a bonfire. The teenagers were sitting around the blazing flames. They took out the solid food in their leather pouch, applied some oil and baked them on the fire.

 Someone wanted to send a piece to Xu Yang who was cultivating not far away as an act of kindness. But when he glanced at Lu Song who was still lying on the ground, his heart skipped a beat and was too afraid to approach Xu Yang.

 After eating their food, the teenagers did not play around as usual but took the initiative to look for their own spots. They sat on the ground and practised improving their cultivation.

 The strength shown by Xu Yang that day had deeply shaken them. Everyone had the desire to improve their strength and abilities.

 The night soon passed, and the sun shone softly in the early morning.

 Xu Yang stood up slowly and released turbid gas that came from his Star Ocean after going through the Mystical Veins.

 “Zhenwu’s Eight Sceneries Scripture is absolutely superb. The speed of Qi-cultivation is amazing! I’ve restored my cultivation to that of an Early Mystical Learner before I tempered my body with just a night of cultivation. My physical strength should be close to ten juns now.”

 “Now I have eight kinds of Mystical Energy in my Star Ocean. Each of them are separated and do not interfere with each other.” Xu Yang looked into his Star Ocean. He saw the eight-color mist of the Mystical Energy that had been separated distinctly and clearly.

 One of the advantages of Zhenwu’s Eight Sceneries Scripture was that it could cultivate the eight extremes at the same time. It improved the introduction rate of Mystical Qi. This made the one who cultivated to have the richest Mystical Qi in the same realm. However, there were a lot of barriers to overcome when cultivating it.

 The first barrier was when one were to advance from a Mystical Learner to a Mystical Warrior. One would have to convert his Star Ocean from being virtual to reality and form a core of Mystical Power. Plenty of the old Celestials were forced to stop at this stage and was not able to advance to higher stages.

 Xu Yang withdrew his turbulent thoughts. As a Mystical Learner, it would be faster and easier for him to improve his cultivation. The deeper the accumulation, the greater the potential.

 “Instructor Song, how many days are we away from Lin Yuan City?”

 Instructor Song answered, “We generally need two months on the Ascetic Road, and so is our route. For now, we have walked for more than half the journey. The time needed to return to Lin Yuan City could be as short as ten days or as long as twenty days.”

 Xu Yang nodded in response. The starting point and the final point of the Ascetic Road were the same, Lin Yuan City. The journey that they were on was based on circling the Python Mountains as they underwent training.

 Some lucky people on the Ascetic Road could find some elixirs at the halfway point which helped to set up the foundation for the advancement as a Mystical Warrior. It would increase the chances of success when forming a Mystical Core. This would be seen as a blessing or an opportunity.

 The team led by Instructor Song was unlucky as no one had found any herbs or elixirs. Certainly, the other teenagers were jealous as they thought that Xu Yang had obtained the blessing. They believed that the improvement Xu Yang displayed was credited to spirit herbs.

 The group continued to move forward. The unlucky Lu Song had not healed from his injuries and could barely walk. His follower, Du Ming, seeing that Lu Song had been humiliated, refused to help Lu Song. His actions made Xu Yang feel slightly scornful. If Du Ming could take the risk of offending Xu Yang to help Lu Song, Xu Yang might still give him some respect. Such was the cruel reality, where only the strong ones would be respected. The moment you were seen as weak, you would be left behind to fend for yourself.

 Everyone on the road kept their eyes peeled along the way, full of energy, in hopes of finding either one or two graded elixirs like Xu Yang who was lucky enough to find one. However, even at the richest times of Mystical Qi, an elixir was still not something that could be easily found by the roadside. The teenagers walked all morning but did not find a single herb.

 “It’s a good camping ground, but it’s noon right now. It’s not worth wasting an afternoon here.” Instructor Song who had quite a lot of experience on the Ascetic Road said to Xu Yang.

 Xu Yang nodded. He had obtained a lot of information about Lin Yuan City that was not in his memory along the way.

 Lin Yuan City was a seaside city of Dong Lai Kingdom. The Python Mountains were situated behind the city which was facing the Eastern Sea. Aside from the Lin Yuan’s Jun Li family, which had been given honor by the emperor of Dong Lai Kingdom, the three other strongest families were the Xu family, the Yu family, and the Ge family. Xu Yang was from the Xu family.

 In addition to the three major families, there were small and medium-sized forces. The disciples of the team were from a Mystical Cultivation Dojo called the Vast-Gate Dojo in Lin Yuan City. Instructor Song was also a member of the dojo. He was an experienced guide who guided teenagers on the Ascetic Road three times a year.

 “How much is your wage as a guide at the Vast-Gate Dojo?” Xu Yang asked. He was interested in the currency in this era.

 Instructor Song took Xu Yang’s questions as attempts at small talk. He replied indifferently, “Ten Wolf Coins per month, just enough to cover my daily expenses… oh, if I can advance as a Mystical Master, I can be a Dojo Master. I would then be able to get ten Leopard Coins, but sadly… I’ll most probably live my whole life as a Mystical Warrior.”

 Wolf Coins and Leopard Coins were the currency of the mainland. Ten Wolf Coins could be exchanged for one Leopard Coin.

 Xu Yang spoke softly, “Mystical Warrior is already a stage that can’t be reached by a lot of people… Hmm, it seems like there’s something there?”