Jiang Qiao's Return
RD: There should've been a chapter before this, but I lost interest in writing Chen Xiang's banquet, so here's what y'all get.
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Yu Tao returned to the central palace to resume training and cultivating.
There wasn't much to do in Chen Xiang's banquet after feasting on the delicacies served to him, meeting Chen Xiang and the rest of the Chen Family, and ending it with a banger by knocking-out/traumatizing the man's nephew with minimal effort, if it could even be considered as effort.
In order to make up for his five hours of leisure at Chen Xiang's banquet, he plans to multiply his training's intensity by five in the next five hours.
As he neared the training hall, he noticed the lack of people in the area and a foreign, concealed presence in the training hall.
Yu Tao concealed his emotions and continued heading towards the training hall. But as he entered the section where the training hall was located, he noticed the lack of guards and servants, and an unfamiliar person inside the training hall.
For a split second, he thought that there was an intruder, but denied that thought faster than it was formed.
The clan's recruitment methods are too strict to let enemies in, even senior members are tested from time to time. Plus, an intruder won't be able to break into the central palace to begin with. It's too difficult to escape Grand Elder Morning Owl's sight.
The most logical conclusion would be that the person in the training hall is a member of the clan.
If that was indeed the case and the lack of guards and servants were taken into consideration, then he must be being tested.
However, for Yu Tao, as one of the clan's geniuses, to undergo this test, the person in the training hall should be one of the clan's top experts. Perhaps it was even one of the grand elders.
Opening the doors, Yu Tao headed to his spot to start cultivating. He sensed that the clan member wasn't showing signs of movement and was more fixated in watching his actions.
In an attempt to bait the clan member into coming out of hiding, he lowered his guard and then sat in a lotus position.
His Meteor Whale Martial Spirit emerged behind him and he resumed cultivating.
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Five hours.
Seven hours.
Ten hours.
In the ten hours that have gone, Yu Tao reached Mid Early-3rd Order Houtian Realm.
The Blood Spirit Art and the Exquisite Tree Art complemented each other as well as he had wanted to.
The Blood Spirit Art's ultimate flaw was that it requires thrice more concentration and time to practice because the only way to use it is to cultivate one's physique, soul, and qi simultaneously.
As he was told, Huang Zhong and Huang Ling themselves don't use the Blood Spirit Art as their main cultivation technique. The siblings instead use the Blood Spirit Art to deepen their attainments in cultivation.
Before going into seclusion, Huang Qide had advised Yu Tao to use their method.
Yu Tao, however, didn't follow Huang Qide's advice, and used the Blood Spirit Art in conjunction with the Exquisite Tree Art.
The Exquisite Tree Art is a qi-type cultivation technique that births a tree, known as the exquisite tree, within one's qi sea that then extends its branches and roots throughout one's meridians. Through the branches and roots, the tree nourishes and strengthens the meridians, increasing cultivation speed, the amount of qi that can be taken in, and decreasing the effects and chances of a backlash.
Moreover, one won't have to actively cultivate to attain decent results because as long as they still have life force flowing through them, the tree will continuously and passively nourish and strengthen the meridians.
And while the Exquisite Tree Art is primarily a qi-type cultivation technique, it also passively strengthens the physique as only a strong physique is required to practice the later stages of this cultivation method.
To use the Blood Spirit Art in conjunction with the Exquisite Tree Art, it was a matter of engraving the minor steps of practicing the Blood Spirit Art to the tree and the tree's branches and roots.
In doing so, he won't have to concentrate too much on minor steps, cutting the concentration and the time required to half of the original.
Still, Yu Tao is far-off from perfecting this method.
For now, however, he has to deal with the matter at hand.
Swish!
Yu Tao moved his head to the right to dodge a metal pole thrown at him. Standing up, he proceeded to dodge more metal poles that came from different directions.
While dodging the metal poles, he used the near-invisible tentacles to get ahold of a number of the metal poles and throw them back to the direction they came from.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The metal poles he threw collided with oncoming metal poles, intercepting them.
'Where are you?' Yu Tao thought while continuing to evade and return the projectiles.
The person throwing the projectiles was invisible, so he couldn't target them… Or that would be the case if he wasn't himself.
The meteor whale that was above him released an ear-shaking roar.
'Found you!' Yu Tao turned around and ran north-east of him.
In doing so, the number of projectiles that were being thrown at him tripled.
Instead of backing off to focus on projectiles, he strengthened and extended the near-invisible tentacles to grab the oncoming projectiles.
He spun on his heel, with the intercepted projectiles spinning with him, and after gathering enough momentum and getting the correct position, he released his hold on the intercepted projectiles.
The projectiles shot back at their owner in augmented speed.
Clang!
As if a force field was erected, the projectiles bounced off mid-air.
"Tch," Yu Tao sounded out.
Then for the following hour and a half, Yu Tao and the examiner, as he had nicknamed the person, exchanged blows.
In the end, however, it was the examiner that dealt the most damage for reasons that need not be said.
Exhausted, Yu Tao forfeited the test. He sat on the floor and used thin near-invisible tentacles to close-up the open wounds he gained from not evading the examiner's attacks in time.
"You are Grand Elder Iron River, no?" Yu Tao inquired.
"Indeed, I am," an imposing and tall woman, who wore an amused smile, said as she materialized out of thin air.
This imposing woman is Jiang Qiao, she is the Huang Clan's Grand Elder Iron River.
Jiang Qiao was the adopted daughter of Guang Cheng, otherwise known as Grand Elder Morning Owl, and she was born with a Low Grade 10 Iron River Martial Spirit. Because of that, she became the first member of the Huang Clan to attend the Cosmic Star Academy.
There, Jiang Qiao showed what it meant to be a true genius.
At the age of 10, Jiang Qiao ranked third in her division of the academy's annual competition, and received a suitable cultivation technique that evolved her Low Grade 10 Martial Spirit to a Mid Grade 10 Martial Spirit.
At the age of 14 to 16, Jiang Qiao became the first person in over a decade to achieve three consecutive wins in the kingdom's forging competition for Houtian Realm cultivators.
At the age of 17, she went into seclusion.
At the age of 20, Jiang Qiao broke through to 10th Order Houtian Realm and evolved her High Grade 10 Martial Spirit to a Top Grade 10 Martial Spirit.
Jiang Qiao's name resonated throughout the Luo Tong Kingdom. She brought great prestige to the Huang Clan and forced the clan's enemies to change their stance and attitude.
Then, at the age of 25, Jiang Qiao broke through Xiantian Realm and evolved her Top Grade 10 Martial to a Low Grade 11 Martial.
It caused a great sensation throughout the Luo Tong Kingdom and the neighboring kingdoms, as Jiang Qiao was the first in the past ninety-five years of Luo Tong Kingdom to break through Xiantian Realm while evolving her martial spirit into a superb grade martial spirit.
A banquet was held in her honor in the king's palace.
In that banquet, Luo Tong Kingdom's top echelon and delegates from neighboring and/or allied kingdoms attended.
King Lu Zhe conferred Huang Qide the noble rank of grand duke, a hereditary title, as Grand Elder Morning Owl rejected it.
At that point, the enemies of the Huang Clan and Jiang Qiao had no choice but to forget their grievances and make amends to them.
Not long after that, Jiang Qiao entered the pseudo-discipleship of Marshal Hao Tian for the Broken Blade Youth Tournament¹ held in the Broken Blade Imperial City.
Then at the age of 27, Jiang Qiao, with her former fellow students who won the right to participate in the tournament, were sent to the Broken Blade Imperial City.
There, her reputation soared to greater heights.
Jiang Qiao didn't place at the top, not even near it, but the results that she attained were more than enough to prove her worth.
After a decade since her last visit, she had now returned to the Luo Tong Kingdom.
"It's great to meet you, I'm Yu Tao," Yu Tao said, pointing at himself with his thumb.
"Yu Tao, one of our clan's top geniuses. Your title is well-deserved," Jiang Qiao said.
Bowing his head, Yu Tao said, "I'm honored, Grand Elder Iron River."
Jiang Qiao smiled, amused. She said, "I won't bother you any longer than I already have. I wish you well in your cultivation."
With that, she vanished from the training hall.
'What a cheapskate. She could've given me a healing pill or something… Oh, well. I guess I'll just have to deal with this. Or perhaps this is another test? Eh, how annoying...'
Yu Tao returned to cultivating.
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*1 - Broken Blade Youth Tournament is known as the Imperial City Battle in the novel. The difference between the two, aside from their names, is... going to be revealed in the future.