Life at the Qingyun Sect was as peaceful as an autumn pond.
Xiao Zhan has been feeling incredibly stifled these past few days.
As a former bodyguard of the Empress, he was used to seeing the appearance of powerful figures—either in seclusion, cultivating diligently and growing stronger day by day, or commanding the world with an aura of authority. But this Master Lin Zhou spent his days lying in the sun, or carrying a hoe to the vegetable garden to plant some vegetables and radishes. Occasionally, he would give Xiao Chen and Jiang Li a few pointers, but he was too lazy to even use his spiritual energy the rest of the time. He didn't have the demeanor of a powerful figure, nor even the diligence of an ordinary cultivator.
He did nothing but eat and drink. I even doubted whether he was just an ordinary person. Was my cultivation level too low? Could it be that I couldn't tell?
"Your Majesty, is this Lin Zhou... really reliable?" Xiao Zhan couldn't help but mutter to Jiang Li in her mind. "With him wasting his days like this, his cultivation must have stagnated long ago, right? If we really encounter a Void Refinement Elder from the Xuan Tian Sect, can he protect you and Xiao Chen?"
Jiang Li was organizing the annotations to the "Emperor's Sword Scripture" given to her by Lin Zhou when she heard this and said calmly, "Don't speculate about Master's affairs." Although she also thought that Master was casual, she knew how terrifying Master was—he could casually take out a pill to break her seal and set up a killing array that could even kill high-dimensional projections. He was definitely not as simple as he seemed on the surface.
Xiao Zhan, however, couldn't contain himself. As a soldier, he believed in the supremacy of strength and couldn't bear to see Lin Zhou's "lazy and complacent" attitude. Finally, one afternoon, seeing Lin Zhou dozing off in the rocking chair again, he couldn't help but solidify his soul, walk up to Lin Zhou, and ask in a deep voice:
"What exactly are your abilities, sir?"
Lin Zhou was woken up by the noise. He rubbed his eyes, yawned, and said lazily, "Skill? I don't think I have any."
"No?" Xiao Zhan was furious. "Then what makes you think you can be His Majesty and Xiao Chen's teacher? Just because you know how to sunbathe and grow vegetables?" In his eyes, Lin Zhou was a fraud. If it weren't for Jiang Li's respect, he would have taken action long ago.
Lin Zhou ignored him and didn't care much. Instead, he called out to the outside of the courtyard, "Eldest disciple, second disciple, come here."
Xiao Chen and Jiang Li had just come out of the cultivation room, holding cultivation manual jade slips in their hands, and hurriedly came in when they heard the shout.
"Master."
"I feel like I can't quite condense the spear intent in the seventh move of the 'Wildfire Spear Scripture'," Xiao Chen said, pointing to the diagram on the jade slip, his brows furrowed. He had just broken through to the Nascent Soul stage and was still not proficient in controlling the spear intent of his new realm.
Lin Zhou glanced at it, then casually picked up a nearby branch and drew a simple circle on the ground: "The essence of the spear is not in the spear itself, but in the 'heart'. You are too fixated on the momentum of 'wildfire' and have lost the power of 'control'. Try to draw the essence of the spear back three-tenths and use the power of 'control' to bring the momentum of 'wildfire'."
Xiao Chen was stunned. He lowered his head and pondered for a moment. Suddenly, his eyes lit up: "Disciple understands!" He picked up the rusty iron spear and practiced in the open space of the courtyard. Sure enough, the spear intent no longer radiated outwards. Instead, it condensed at the tip of the spear. It seemed to be restrained, but it revealed a sharp "ready to be released" kind of power. The meaning of the seventh form was suddenly understood, and the aura of the early stage of the Nascent Soul stage became more stable!
"And what about the 'Slash' technique in my 'Emperor's Sword Scripture'..." Jiang Li hurriedly asked, as she was stuck at the threshold of the mid-stage of the Void Refinement realm and always felt that her sword intent was missing something.
Lin Zhou glanced at her, then at Xiao Zhan, who was trembling with anger beside him, and casually said, "You take the identity of 'Empress' too seriously. A sword is a sword, why so many rules? If you want to 'cut' something, then cut it there. Don't let the words 'Emperor's Way' bind your hands and feet."
Jiang Li was taken aback, then suddenly realized! She had been trying to conform to the majesty of the "Imperial Way," which had actually hindered the fluidity of her sword intent. She drew her rusty iron sword, clearing her mind of all distractions, focusing solely on severing the withered tree outside the courtyard. With a single strike, a flash of red light illuminated the withered tree, which snapped in two with a smooth cut. Her sword intent was several times more potent than before, and the barrier of her mid-stage Void Refinement realm even began to loosen!
"Thank you, Master!" Jiang Li was both surprised and delighted, her eyes filled with even deeper gratitude.
In the short time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Xiao Chen mastered the spear techniques, and Jiang Li touched the barrier of their respective realms, both making tremendous progress.
Xiao Zhan, standing to the side, was already dumbfounded, his mouth agape, unable to utter a word.
He couldn't understand Lin Zhou's guidance—there were no profound theories or complex deductions, just casual remarks like a chat, yet it precisely hit the bottleneck for Xiao Chen and Jiang Li, more thorough than any combat technique explanation he had ever heard before!
Is this... is this still the same "lazybones" who only knows how to sunbathe and grow vegetables?
Especially Lin Zhou's words to Jiang Li, "Don't let your identity bind you," seemed casual, but they were like a thunderbolt, shattering his preconceived notions about the "Empress"—yes, Your Majesty is Jiang Li now, not the Empress of the past, so why be bound by your past identity?
“You…” Xiao Zhan looked at Lin Zhou, his tone of doubt having turned into shock and a hint of awe.
Lin Zhou ignored him, waved his hand to let Xiao Chen and Jiang Li go and cultivate on their own, then lay down again, closed his eyes, as if nothing had happened.
The sunlight shone on him, yet he remained languid.
Xiao Zhan stood there, watching Lin Zhou's retreating figure, then glancing at Xiao Chen and Jiang Li diligently practicing outside the courtyard. He finally understood—this master's "ability" lay not in arduous cultivation, nor in his imposing presence, but in this profound understanding of the "essence of things." Seemingly doing nothing, he could inadvertently awaken others from their confusion.
This level of understanding is far superior to those so-called "cultivators" who constantly talk about "cultivation."
He silently retreated into Jiang Li's jade pendant, no longer daring to question it.
Meanwhile, in a small mountain village on the northern border.
A young man dressed in a blue scholar's robe walked slowly along the ridge of the field, holding a scroll in his hand and muttering to himself, "I remember it was right here that I met my master... He even stole half of my cornbread..."
The young man was Lin Zhou's third disciple, a scholar whom Lin Zhou had picked up from a mountain village years ago, who later went to the Northern Regions to gain experience.
"My training is almost over. I heard that my eldest brother and second sister have returned. I should also go back to the sect to pay my respects to our master." The scholar closed his book, looked up at the south, and smiled. "I wonder if our master's vegetable garden is full of radishes and greens?"
With a swift movement, he transformed into a streak of green and sped off towards the Southern Region's Azure Cloud Sect.
The wind in the mountain village carries the scent of wheat, blowing across the ridges of the fields and also towards the Qingyun Sect, where a master with "no real skills" and three disciples, each with their own extraordinary adventures, are hidden.
Life seemed to have returned to a peaceful routine.
But no one knows how much quietly growing power is waiting to bloom beneath this calm.
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