“By the way, today is your birthday. I’ll give you ten more as a celebration for you turning 18.”
Ding Nan took the Middle-grade Spirit Stones from Ding Wen and hurried back to his courtyard.
Thirty Middle-grade Spirit Stones were exactly enough for Ding Nan to use for thirty nights.
Inside his room.
Before his bed, Ding Nan lowered the mosquito net and pressed the Jade Tablet against a Spirit Stone.
The Spiritual Qi within the Spirit Stone was instantly absorbed by the Jade Tablet.
Ding Nan suddenly felt the world spin before he collapsed onto the bed.
When he woke up again, Ding Nan looked at a row of dark bookshelves and took a deep breath.
Yesterday was his birthday.
Strictly speaking, as of yesterday, Ding Nan was already 18 years old.
Since the loss of his Spiritual Qi until now, it had been a full 8 years.
He had been a useless person for 8 years.
Recalling the moments of being ignored and looked down upon by others, Ding Nan did not wish to dwell on the bitterness of those memories.
He took a deep breath, his eyes burning with determination.
He had been a cripple for too long; it was time to increase his strength.
Ding Nan walked through the Library.
He was quite curious about the significance of the Jade Tablet’s existence.
In the novels he had read in his previous life, accessories that could store items mostly contained cultivation techniques, with only a few sentences about the past.
The Jade Tablet didn’t store manual techniques but instead held a vast amount of messy memories.
Fortunately, these memories themselves could be considered “techniques.”
Because they were in a first-person perspective, it was like being taught personally, which might even be more effective.
Although Ding Nan walked slowly, the scenery changed rapidly.
Almost like shifting shadows, Ding Nan arrived at a bookshelf labeled with the words “Xishan Sect.”
He walked to the shelf and scanned the green-gray books.
Every book had a different name on the spine.
Ding Nan reached out, his body floating upward as he took a book from the top shelf.
“Xishan Sect Origins — The First Disciple.”
Looking at the title, it was clearly a record of the Xishan Sect’s founding.
Ding Nan originally didn’t have such a strong interest in the Xishan Sect.
Even though the Xishan Sect was based in Zhongzhou and was a first-class sect—and Ding Nan believed the techniques in these memories were definitely extraordinary—it was the tragic beauty of the girl with the Frost Essence Severed Meridian that had piqued his interest.
He wanted to see what happened to that girl.
But now, Ding Nan wanted to know what kind of person Ji Lanruo was.
Ji Lanruo might appear in these memories, considering she was already 400 years old.
Hoping to regain his manly dignity through cultivation was likely a lost cause.
The Tribulation Transcendence Stage was too powerful; anything beyond that was the Immortal realm, where one completely shed mortality to become an eternal being.
Meanwhile, Ding Nan was merely at the Body Tempering Realm, nothing more than a mortal martial artist.
The peak of the Tribulation Transcendence Stage was too high; he couldn’t even see the mountainside.
To defeat someone at that stage, he would need to achieve Daylight Ascension, but how could that be possible?
He might as well just be a rich woman’s kept man.
He would submit to Ji Lanruo, but he still had to prove himself and show others he wasn’t trash.
With this spirit, Ding Nan opened the book.
In an instant, he was sucked into the pages.
—
Within his vision, Ding Nan saw a little girl in tattered clothes with disheveled hair and a grimy face.
“Ding Nan” knelt down to look the girl in the eye.
The girl’s face was dirty, but her eyes were clear.
“Little girl, I am preparing to start a sect. Do you want to join?”
The little girl looked up at Ding Nan.
“Does the sect provide food?”
“You have to farm and cook for yourself.”
As “Ding Nan” spoke, his perspective shifted downward.
He saw the girl’s arm dripping with bright red blood while she clutched a small knife, ready to stab at any moment.
“I’ll go with you,” the little girl said.
“Then let’s go.”
“Ding Nan” stood up and scanned the surroundings.
The area was lush and full of life, yet several thin corpses wearing cloth armor lay nearby.
Fresh red blood still seeped from the bodies.
This was a wild forest outside the city.
Those lying on the ground were starving bandit soldiers.
The one who killed them wasn’t the little girl, but “Ding Nan.”
“Ding Nan” looked down at the girl again.
She was equally skin and bones, her face sallow from hunger.
“My name is Ji Yang. What about you? Do you have a name?”
“Ding Nan” reached out his hand.
“Ever since my parents abandoned me here, I haven’t had a name.”
The girl raised her eyes and her hand, grasping “Ding Nan’s” hand.
The memories in the book were very realistic.
As the one experiencing them, Ding Nan could feel the coldness of the girl’s palm and the protrusion of her tiny hand bones.
Ding Nan felt that such a small hand could be easily crushed if he used just a little force.
“Uncle, what is your name?”
“My name is Ji Yang. I’m only 25 years old. Also, from now on, you must call me Master.”
“Can Master give me a name?”
“You’ll take my surname. How about Lanruo?”
“Master, I like that name.”
At those words, Ding Nan froze for a moment.
‘Ji Lanruo was the first disciple of the Xishan Sect? Has the Xishan Sect been established for such a short time?’
The scene before him shifted rapidly.
While Ding Nan was dazed, his body—Ji Yang—steered a flying boat down into a valley.
The valley was surrounded by mountains on three sides.
A waterfall cascaded down from above, forming a mountain stream.
The stream overflowed, winding its way through the valley and flowing out past the side without mountains.
In the center of the valley was a piece of man-made clearing containing a few thatched farmhouses. Several farmland plots were distributed nearby.
Outside a farmhouse, a little girl dressed in plain cloth with a blue ribbon tying back her hair was lugging a bucket of water.
Her face was flushed red as she headed toward the house.
She held the full bucket with both hands.
She looked up, brushing aside the messy hair blocking her vision, and the eyes on her chubby face gradually lit up.
As soon as Ji Yang put away the flying boat, she crashed into his arms, her tanned little arms tightly hugging his waist.
Her small face was filled with childhood innocence.
Then, the scene shifted again, as if a video had been crudely edited.
Ding Nan saw the girl sitting seriously on a chair inside the farmhouse.
“It has been two years since you became my disciple. You now know how to read and write, and your health has been restored. It is time to teach you cultivation techniques.”
“I have created a cultivation manual and a sword technique myself.”
Hearing this, Ding Nan immediately focused.
The martial arts training didn’t start right away.
Ji Yang first explained various issues regarding the circulation of Qi through the body and the precautions for practicing the technique to Ji Lanruo.
Ding Nan spent the entire night in silence.
In the morning, before Luo Yao arrived, he woke up early.
After resting for a bit and waiting for the stinging pain caused by the Jade Tablet to subside, Ding Nan stood up.
Having finished washing up, he walked to the courtyard.
He took a step forward, spread his arms, and thrust his palms out.
As his legs moved and his sleeves snapped, the sound of breaking air rang out.
*Whoosh*
In that instant, he felt the Spiritual Qi surging within him, and his heart felt peaceful.
As he practiced his punches, he absorbed the Spiritual Qi from the Middle-grade Spirit Stones in his pocket.
The realm that had been stagnant for a long time suddenly loosened.
In just 15 minutes, Ding Nan broke through Level 3 of the Body Tempering Realm and entered Level 4.
Immediately after followed Level 5, then Level 6.
In the blink of an eye, as the purple mist rose from the east, Ding Nan’s cultivation stopped at Level 8 of the Body Tempering Realm.
Ding Nan was extremely happy.
True confidence comes from being strong.
Becoming more powerful was always something to be joyful about.
“The Flowing Cloud Manual and the Sunset Cloud Sword… these are techniques from the Xishan Sect?”
Ding Nan, immersed in his training, completely failed to notice that outside the door, Luo Yao was tilting her head, her eyes fixed deeply on him.
Her slender, pale fingertips were digging into the wood of the serving tray.