Danwu Refining Spirit

Chapter Five: Unable to Find Happiness

At the Xiao family's ancestral school, in the martial arts training ground, figures moved about busily yet orderly.

The Xiao family is a prominent clan in Feiyue City, with a large population, including hundreds of direct descendants under the age of sixteen. To maintain the family's enduring strength, they also select talented young disciples from collateral branches every year to replenish their ranks.

Even children from ordinary families in the city, if they have exceptional talent, will be recruited by the Xiao family.

These disciples, if added together, number at least nearly a thousand. Therefore, the martial arts training ground in the Xiao family's academy was built to be extremely large, with a diameter of a hundred zhang.

The training ground was flat and smooth, made of bluestone, and covered with half a foot of fine sand, which was perfect for young disciples to temper their bodies and strengthen their bones.

Furthermore, because the Xiao family has passed down martial arts as their tradition, they arrange a body tempering test every month.

Disciples who can pass the test before the age of sixteen are considered to have excellent martial arts aptitude, and their families will naturally cultivate them and teach them the direct martial arts of the Xiao family.

Those disciples who succeed in body tempering after the age of sixteen, due to their average aptitude, will only be taught some ordinary martial arts skills and then sent to various businesses established by the family for training.

Of course, these ordinary disciples do not necessarily have to choose martial arts cultivation. They can also try other cultivation methods, such as alchemy, medicine making, talisman drawing, and weapon crafting.

However, compared to these other methods of cultivation, they are more accurately described as professions rather than true cultivation. In the tens of thousands of years of history of the Tianyun Continent, the number of truly remarkable individuals in these areas is extremely limited.

Although there are various cultivation methods in the Tianyun Continent, there are only two mainstream systems: martial arts and mind cultivation.

There are nine realms in martial arts, and the practitioners of each realm are called differently. From the lowest to the highest, they are: Martial Student, Martial Apprentice, Martial Warrior, Martial Master, Grandmaster, Great Grandmaster, Martial Saint, Martial Emperor, and Martial God.

Of these nine martial arts realms, the first three are called "acquired," and the practitioners in these realms still possess the skills of ordinary people.

The three intermediate realms are called the Innate Realm. Starting from the Martial Master level, cultivators can begin to grasp some of the basic rules of this world.

If a cultivator can surpass the Grandmaster level and reach the Martial Saint level, they can be called extraordinary, possessing all sorts of abilities that are inconceivable to ordinary people, and also having a lifespan that ordinary people cannot imagine.

Therefore, becoming a Martial Master is a crucial watershed moment in a martial artist's cultivation; only by reaching the level of a Genius can one truly embark on the path of martial arts practice. There's a saying on the Tianyun Continent: "Once you reach the Martial Master level, you're halfway to transcendence; only then do you realize that your fate is in your own hands, not in the heavens," which speaks to this very principle.

As for the cultivation of mind masters, it is also divided into nine realms, but it is not as complicated as the martial arts cultivation. They are simply called from the lowest to the highest, namely, first-grade mind master to ninth-grade mind master.

Ninth-rank Mind Masters are also called Divine Mind Masters. Although the word "divine" is in their names, their bodies are generally not very strong because they need to sit in meditation for many years. Even the most powerful Divine Mind Masters have a much shorter lifespan than Martial Gods. Some Mind Masters even have shorter lifespans than ordinary people because their cultivation is too mentally taxing.

Therefore, in the Tianyun Continent, being a Mind Master is a thankless and arduous task. Only those who are truly unable to cultivate martial arts but at the same time desire powerful abilities are willing to practice.

In the world of Tianyun Continent, there exists something called the Primordial Qi of Heaven and Earth, which supports various cultivation systems.

The essence of cultivation is that practitioners absorb the primordial energy of heaven and earth, transform it into primordial power, store it in their bodies, thereby improving their physical constitution and developing various abilities that are different from those of ordinary people.

However, among all cultivation methods, the practice of mindfulness is an exception. It does not transform into physical energy, but rather into a kind of spiritual power. The main means of attack for mindfulness practitioners is not physical attack. They are more adept at communication, manipulation, telekinesis, and other things that sound very abstract and mysterious.

Of course, the original intention of any kind of cultivation is to obtain a longer life, ultimately to live as long as heaven and earth, or even to achieve immortality. However, as time goes by, when more and more cultivators discover that longevity is actually an unattainable luxury, their goal changes, and they pursue greater power instead.

Power is a good thing; it can change many things. For example, it can bring about swift retribution, allow one to acquire more cultivation resources, and gain extraordinary respect, among other things.

In any world, those who possess greater power than others will always have more say and decision-making power.

The world is full of things, and life is full of complexities, but this is all there is to it.

A melodious bell rang out from above the Xiao family's ancestral school. This was the third time it had rung. Xiao Chong and the fat man rushed into the martial arts training ground.

The morning and evening bells signaled the start and end of classes in the various courtyards of the clan school. Those who failed to ring the bell three times or less were subject to a beating with the ruler; this was a rule of the Xiao family clan school, and it applied equally to every courtyard.

Looking at the numerous disciples already lined up in rows in the training ground, Xiao Chong breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that he had escaped another disaster. He exchanged a glance with the fat man and quickly joined the ranks.

Huang Tianhua also entered the training ground at this time, but he was carried in by others. After some time, his lower body began to feel numb, unlike the unbearable pain he had experienced at the beginning.

"I don't believe you can dodge the first day of the month but not the fifteenth. You'll still fail the test later, won't you?" Huang Tianhua stared at Xiao Chong with resentment, secretly hating that the other hadn't been punished with the ruler.

Although I entered the training ground at the same time as the two of them, and would also be punished with the ruler if I was late, it would be completely different.

The martial arts instructor who presided over today's body tempering test was his brother-in-law, so there's a lot to discuss here.

It's important to understand that the application of the ruler in punishment is quite nuanced. The same strike can be raised high and brought down gently, or it can be as gentle as a spring breeze while concealing deadly intent. The variations are endless and the nuances are difficult to describe, all depending on the intention of the person administering the punishment.

At the front of the line, several martial arts instructors were whispering amongst themselves, watching the disciples about to undergo body tempering tests. Upon seeing Huang Tianhua lying on a stretcher, the expression of a middle-aged man in the middle, whose face had been grim, immediately changed.

This person is none other than Xiao Banqiu, the instructor who presided over today's test, and Huang Tianhua's brother-in-law.

After learning the details, Xiao Banqiu examined his brother-in-law's injuries, remained silent for a while, then took out a medicine bottle and instructed a disciple to apply it to him.

"That was too ruthless! Although this medicine can reduce swelling and pain, and promote bone and muscle regeneration, that area is just too fragile, and even the power of medicine can't reach it. It seems that Tianhua will never be happy again."

Xiao Banqiu sighed inwardly, his gaze sweeping over the disciples in the arena. When it finally landed on Xiao Chong and the fat man, his expression turned hostile, his face darkening as if it were about to drip water.