Chapter 19: Peerless Divine Skill
Han Shuangjiang and Chu Huaixu parted ways after returning to their respective bamboo houses.
The fox-faced man entered the room and sat cross-legged on the bed, attempting to cultivate the Sword Refining Art.
He was a little curious how much experience he would gain from “auto-cultivation.”
As of now, Chu Huaixu had spent 79 experience points, with 121 remaining.
Breaking through the second acupoint required 140 experience points.
It was worth mentioning that his character panel displayed “Freely Distributable Experience Points.”
The experience gained from cultivating the Sword Refining Art could only be used to upgrade that specific Cultivation Technique.
It could not be used to upgrade other Cultivation Techniques or [Skills].
After adjusting his state, Chu Huaixu took a deep breath, preparing himself mentally.
“It’s going to hurt, won’t it?” he thought.
Upgrading with experience points was like compressing numerous cultivation sessions into one, yielding results in an instant.
The previous excruciating pain, akin to being repeatedly run over by a motorcycle, was the sum of all the pain from those delayed cultivation sessions experienced all at once.
Chu Huaixu was now simply curious: “What does normal cultivation feel like?”
Mind you, he wasn’t addicted.
The Sword Refining Art began to circulate within him, drawing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth towards his body.
The Meridian-Opening Stage wasn’t considered a proper stage for Cultivators because one couldn’t retain Spiritual Power within their body, nor generate it.
At this moment, the Spiritual Power entering his body served only to help open his acupoints.
Once all nine acupoints in the body were open, one could unlock the Xuanhuang Secret Treasure within and enter the path of cultivation!
Throughout the entire Meridian-Opening Stage, the most noticeable improvement was in physical fitness, which was why it was also called the Acupoint-Opening Body-Tempering Stage.
At this very moment, as Chu Huaixu began to circulate the Cultivation Technique, his body couldn’t help but tremble slightly.
He started to feel pain.
“How should I put it? It feels like countless hands are twisting my flesh?”
“Every single piece of flesh on my body!”
Damn it, was I getting rid of all the dampness in my body?
As soon as Chu Huaixu’s thoughts began to wander, he immediately felt the gathered Spiritual Power starting to dissipate.
This made him realize why the Sword Refining Art had such poor reviews—either “Don’t practice” or “Listen to advice.”
“So, I have to stabilize my mind throughout the entire cultivation process?”
You have to endure it the whole time, or it’s all for nothing!
If he didn’t, all the previous pain would have been in vain.
Chu Huaixu immediately gathered his thoughts, trying his best to adjust.
As the cultivation deepened, he clearly felt the pain index increasing.
This exhilaration! It felt like those countless invisible hands weren’t just twisting his flesh.
After twisting the flesh, they were wringing it from side to side.
Chu Huaixu had expected to gradually become numb as time passed.
But strangely, he didn’t!
Just completing one cycle of circulating the technique felt like an eternity.
He began to miss his days as a player.
Damn it, give me back my pain adjustment function!
As a result, when Chu Huaixu got agitated, the surrounding Spiritual Power once again tended to dissipate.
“…”
By the time he successfully completed one cycle and abruptly opened his eyes, he could only prop himself up on the bed with one hand, gasping for air.
“My nickname wasn’t wrong at all. This ‘Painful Scripture’ is killing me.”
“I can’t cultivate on the bed anymore. I should meditate on a cushion on the floor. Damn it, I’m covered in sweat, I’ve dirtied the mattress!” This virtual male model was quite clean.
He even thought about practicing naked to avoid excessive sweating and potential odor from clothes, since he was too lazy to wash them.
Putting aside these distracting thoughts, Chu Huaixu checked the experience points he had gained for his Cultivation Technique.
“9 points?” The corners of his mouth twitched slightly.
This was even with the benefit of 1 point of [Spiritual Embryo Attribute], otherwise, his cultivation speed would have been even slower!
“Your Sword Refining Art is really quite shabby!” he gritted his teeth.
He calculated that after circulating the technique twice more, his total experience points would reach 139.
The experience points required for upgrading the Cultivation Technique was 140.
“The missing 1 point is the most infuriating! I’m so sick I could puke!”
Furious, Chu Huaixu quickly picked up the booklet to vent his frustration.
He turned to the third page and, next to his comment “Peerless Divine Skill,” added another large exclamation mark for emphasis.
“Whoosh—!”
In the adjacent bamboo house, Han Shuangjiang, who was also diligently cultivating, opened her beautiful eyes and let out a long sigh.
Her generously sized chest rose and fell slightly with the exhale.
At this moment, she was sitting cross-legged on the bed, her slender legs crossed, a breathtaking sight.
This woman was naturally gifted with wide hips and a perfect golden ratio waist-to-hip proportion, with a beautifully rounded and full posterior. Sitting on the bed now, the pressure from her body caused her gluteal muscles to spread slightly to the sides, stretching her robes taut as if her plump flesh was about to overflow.
The sect leader of the Joyous Sect, a woman with a large posterior, admired this aspect of Han Shuangjiang the most, feeling as though she had found her successor.
—She could teach the Guanyin sits on lotus posture, to enlighten all beings.
At this moment, a hint of joy flickered in Han Shuangjiang’s beautiful eyes.
With every cultivation session, she felt a profound sense of comfort and ease throughout her body.
More importantly, she had easily broken through the second acupoint.
Opening acupoints was indeed incredibly effortless for her.
“It’s a shame that after opening each acupoint, my body needs some time to adapt.”
“Perhaps I’ll only be able to attempt the third acupoint tomorrow,” Han Shuangjiang speculated inwardly.
Today, she had reached an agreement with Chu Huaixu to live and cultivate together for the time being, striving to break through the Meridian-Opening Stage and become a proper Cultivator as soon as possible.
“I thought with the unreasonable prices of the outer sect, a hundred taels of silver wouldn’t be enough, and time would be very tight,” she thought.
“Now, it seems I worried for nothing.”
She had never considered Chu Huaixu’s cultivation progress from the beginning.
In her opinion, since he was brought to the mountain by the Sixth Elder along with her, he must not be lacking.
“However, I still need to be frugal with money.”
“Cultivation requires wealth, Dharma, companions, and environment.”
“While the channels for earning money will increase in the future, the expenses will only grow,” Han Shuangjiang possessed this common knowledge.
After much thought, she felt it would be much better to start a fire herself and cook her own meals.
“It also takes quite some time to walk to dine there, and with that time, I could have already prepared a meal,” she reasoned.
She felt it was even more important to be frugal with other people’s money.
From Chu Huaixu’s clothing and demeanor, Han Shuangjiang could tell that his family background was likely ordinary, and that his demeanor was merely refined.
“Perhaps this hundred taels of silver is his parents’ savings?” she could only guess.
Even more reason to be frugal with money earned through hardship by others’ parents.
Every coin and tael painstakingly saved was a testament to their earnest hopes for their child.
Upon this thought, her eyes, which had been sold into a brothel by her parents in her childhood, dimmed slightly.
She glanced down at her fair, jade-like ankle, which was bare.
Han Shuangjiang knew that some of the older sisters in the brothel would tie a red string around their ankles.
Many patrons found this red string extremely beautiful during their intimate moments, adding a touch of allure to their delicate feet.
But only those in the know understood that a red string tied to the ankle symbolized lingering attachments.
This was because some women of pleasure were trafficked, or their families had fallen into trouble.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step; a string tied to the foot, do not forget the way home.
But for her?
Not even such a simple thought remained.
As noon approached, Han Shuangjiang walked out of her bamboo house, deciding to have a good talk with Chu Huaixu about her money-saving strategies.
Chu Huaixu opened the door after hearing a knock.
He glanced at her and felt that she seemed different somehow.
Chu Huaixu immediately cast an [Information Probe] at her, and the system provided information that Han Shuangjiang had already opened her second acupoint.
“You broke through?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied with a slight nod, wondering how he could tell, as if she truly had no secrets from him.
“Coincidentally, I just broke through as well,” Chu Huaixu leaned against the door, appearing nonchalant.
