14 Cultivation Technique

It wasn’t easy for Zhang Xuan to arrange everything properly with fatty and send him away. Only then did he realize that the sun was already setting in the west and it was about to turn dark soon.

"Looks like I'll only have five students!"

He shook his head.

Today was the last day to recruit students. Judging from the current time, it was probably the end of the recruitment.

Initially, he thought that he wouldn’t even recruit a student. He didn’t expect that he would end up pulling five students in. For a teacher who scored the worst in the Teacher Qualification Examination, it wasn’t a bad result.

Closing the doors to the classroom, Zhang Xuan followed the path back to his room based on his memory.

As a teacher of the academy, he had a dormitory room of his own. However, it was only a small room of around a dozen meter square large.

Soon, he reached the dormitory. Pushing the door open and looking at the sight within, he couldn’t help but sigh.

His previous self really had it bad. Not mentioning how the room was small, it was extremely humid. Mold was growing on some of the bedding and such. He really had no idea how that fellow managed to survive like this.

"Let’s forget about this first. Lessons are going to start tomorrow so I have to first ascertain my level of cultivation and try training a bit!"

Since he wasn’t hungry now anyway, Zhang Xuan followed the method he recalled in his memories and sat with crossed legs on the bed.

As a transcender, although he had inherited the memories of his previous self and wasn’t foreign to cultivating, he was still quite excited at the thought of growing stronger.

After he was done with the recruitment, it was about time for him to solidify his cultivation. No matter what, in this world, strength reigned supreme.

The Library of Heaven’s Path was capable of identifying other’s mingmen and flaws, allowing him to easily break through the defenses of opponents of the same level. However, if his enemy was much stronger than he was, even if he was able to identify the gaps in their attacks, he would be unable to keep up with them speed-wise. Before he could injure his opponent, he might already have been severed into multiple pieces like a lab rat.

Thus, even though the Library of Heaven’s Path was formidable, it didn’t ensure his invincibility. If he wanted to become stronger, cultivation was the way to go!

"The cultivation technique of my previous self is called the Hongtian Nine Dan Formula! It is a skill created by the founder of Hongtian Academy. The skill consists of nine dans, with each of the dan corresponding to the cultivation realm of the cultivator!"

He recalled the skill memorized in his head.

There were nine dans to a cultivator and every level opened up a new realm. The higher one climbed, the harder it was to cultivate.

Hongtian Nine Dan Formula was one of the most common cultivation technique in Hongtian Academy. It also consisted of nine dans which corresponded to the cultivator’s nine dans.

"Right now, I am the weakest of all of the teachers in the academy!"

In the academy, almost all teachers have reached Fighter 4-dan, leaving him to be the only 3-dan. Thus, he had to train harder to catch up to them.

Following the exhalation method in his memory, he focused his concentration.

In an instant, countless bright particles appeared before him as he slowly inhaled and exhaled while absorbing them. Gradually, the zhenqi within his dantian enriched.

After cultivating for an unknown period of time, Zhang Xuan opened his eyes and shook his head.

"This is way too slow!"

Even though he had inherited the memories of his previous self, his consciousness still remained that of an earthling. He found it difficult to be sitting still to cultivate for long periods of time.

Especially upon viewing the process of the gathering of zhenqi, he felt even more helpless.

Gathering zhenqi referred to the action of pulling and gathering in of the spirit particles in the air and suppressing them together. Just like the stacking of logs, they would be accumulated to form a river.

This was an extremely huge project. There were some cultivators who persisted in it every day without fail and filled up their dantian within three years to break into higher realms.

It was a work that required accumulation over time.

To cultivate so blandly for multiple years?

You might as well kill him!

"Oh, that’s right! Although the Hongtian Nine Dan Formula is the most popular cultivation technique in the academy, it isn’t the strongest one. I can use the Library of Heaven’s Path to seek out its flaws and find a way to correct them. Once I correct the flaws, won’t my training be much more efficient?"

A thought popped into his mind.

There were different tiers to cultivation technique as well. Better cultivation technique allowed one to cultivate faster while the weak ones caused one to cultivate at a slower pace. Could it be that the better cultivation technique had fewer flaws, causing the difference between the two?

Other people might be unable to improve their cultivation technique, but Zhang Xuan was different. With the Library of Heaven’s Path on hand, he could make use of it to seek out the flaws in it and think of a way to correct them. If he were to create a cultivation technique where even the Library of Heaven’s Path was unable to find a flaw in, wouldn’t his cultivation speed soar significantly?

At this point, Zhang Xuan stood up, placed the Hongtian Nine Dan Formula on his palm and started flipping through it.

Hu!

Just as he expected, the library in his mind jolted and a book with the exact same name appeared in it.

Opening the book gently, he realized that there were countless flaws on the Hongtian Nine Dan Formula on it, numbering more than a thousand!

"This is the skill that I was training with a moment ago?" Zhang Xuan was shocked.

Just a simple 3-dan and there were countless flaws in it, wasn’t this way too much!

It was just like eating a vegetable full of worms! Zhang Xuan felt that it was already incredible that his cultivation hadn’t disappeared after training in that skill.

"What about the other cultivation techniques?"

As a teacher, there were quite a few books in his room, "Supreme Four Inscription", "Heaven Meridian Technique", "Lotus Acupoint Breakthrough Might"… As he casually picked each of them and flipped through them, the library would automatically compile a corresponding book on it that recorded all kinds of flaws in the skill. For these skills, the flaws that were recorded exceeded 3000!

That was even scarier than the Hongtian Nine Dan Formula!

"This… Won’t I die out of exhaustion while searching for a way to correct all of those?" After taking a look, Zhang Xuan felt like he was about to go mad from frustration.

It was hard to find a correct path when there were more than a thousand flaws in a secret manual. It was like having a thousand different paths before you and each of which have countless divergence to them. Even if the Library of Heaven’s Path was capable of ascertaining whether the path is right or not, finding the most accurate path would definitely tire him to death!

"Right now, my cultivation is at Fighter 3-dan Zhenqi Pinnacle, just a little bit away from breaking through. Right now, I only have to find the flaw in the secret manual regarding this aspect and correct it!"

Upon seeing the countless mistakes in Hongtian Nine Dan Formula, he knew that it was impossible for him to resolve them in a short period of time. Thus, he flipped the manual to the very last page.

It was difficult to train in the Fighter 3-dan, but the last step to breaking through was significantly easier.

As he expected, there were only ten flaws in this page.

"Error in the method in sensing the spirit in the air, error in manipulating the flow of spirit particles, error in guiding the gathered spirit to flow through the Yangwei Meridian…"

The ten flaws written here were detailed clearly.

The Library of Heaven’s Path only recorded flaws, it didn’t list methods on resolving them. It wasn’t easy to search for the correct path one should take.

"Right! It seems that the parts of the Fighter 3-dan breakthrough method in the other books have different flaws from this!"

A thought flashed through his mind as he recalled what was written in the other secret manuals. Thus, he flipped through the other books to view the portion of it about breaking through the Zhenqi realm.

It was indeed as he recalled. Although there were mistakes in those as well, their errors were in different aspects.

"If it isn’t demarcated as an error, then it should be correct…" Zhang Xuan’s eyes lit up. He immediately grabbed pen and paper and jotted down the correct portion of each of them. Soon, a new cultivation method appeared before him.

"Let’s see if there are errors in this!"

With a faint smile, he grabbed the book that he had just written and the Library of Heaven’s Path jolted once more. A similar book appeared, just that this time, there’s only one error in it.

After researching for a moment longer, he corrected this final error and used the Library of Heaven’s Path to ascertain once again. Indeed, all of the errors have been filled up and it was in its perfect form.

"This is the most precise method to break through the Fighter 3-dan realm! Let me give it a try!"

Looking at the contents he wrote himself, Zhang Xuan nodded his head excitedly. He hurriedly got into position and started to cultivate.

"Relax my body and allow my pores to open, as though I am sinking into a tub of spirit air. Every single pore of mine is a complete lifeform by itself, breathing by its own will…"

Tzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Cultivating through this method, although he wasn’t very used to it at the start, it didn’t take long for him to feel the spirit in the surrounding surge into him. The spirit absorbed by a single pore might not be much, but when all of the pores of a body were undergoing the same process concurrently, the absorption speed was one to behold.

The spirit in the air gathered like a flowing river, forming a giant flood in his body and rushing towards his dantian.

Boom!

An explosion echoed from his spirit sea. Initially, he was just a step away to breaking through his bottleneck. At the current moment, zhenqi overflowed from his dantian and coursed through his entire body, enriching his muscles and bones, generating a refreshing sensation.

Fighter 4-dan, Pigu realm!

"This… this is too fast!" Zhang Xuan’s eyes widened.

Based on what was recorded on the Hongtian Nine Dan Formula, he would need to take at least three to five months to break through, and this would still require a certain amount of luck. After slightly modifying the skill to correct the flaws on it, how long did he take in comparison?

Ten minutes? Five minutes?

Probably, he didn’t even take three minutes to successfully achieve a breakthrough!

This…

Furthermore, despite only correcting the breakthrough method for Fighter 3-dan Pinnacle, the purity of the zhenqi he absorbed was incomparably pure, containing much more power as compared to the ones he cultivated in the past!

If the zhenqi he cultivated in the past was sloppy mud, then this wave was a clear spring water without any impurities in it.

There were also different tiers to zhenqi, superior, intermediate and inferior. The higher the quality, the more clear it would be and the further one would be able to climb in the future! In the past, the zhenqi he cultivated was murky and probably of inferior quality.

The ones he was cultivating was so clear that you could see through it. Most probably, it was zhenqi of superior quality.

"Didn’t they say that… if one wants to cultivate superior zhenqi, they would require a God or Saint cultivation technique?"

There were different tiers to a cultivation technique as well, namely God, Saint, Spirit, Phantom and Mortal. In each tier, they were classified further into inferior, intermediate, superior and pinnacle.

Based on rumors among cultivators, one would need at least a saint cultivation technique in order to cultivate superior zhenqi.

Hongtian Nine Dan Formula was the lowest mortal cultivation technique, so how could it cultivate zhenqi of such quality?

"It is the Library of Heaven’s Path!"

Zhang Xuan clenched his fist.

He was still cultivating the Hongtian Nine Dan Formula, but as he managed to avoid the mistakes recorded on it and followed the correct path upwards, he was able to gather superior zhenqi.

[It seems that… what is recorded on the Library of Heaven’s Path is accurate. The Hongtian Nine Dan Formula is indeed too far from perfection.]

"If so, with the help of the Library of Heaven’s Path, can it be possible for me to create a book of saint or even god cultivation technique?"

Zhang Xuan’s eyes twinkled.