Journey of the Immortal Grandmaster

Han Lingyun knew that Wang Yimo’s main reason for not challenging him was not in order to please him but rather because she simply didn’t want to be ranked first. Thus, the top 11 for the next half year ended up being the following.

#1 Han Lingyun

#2 Wang Yimo

#3 Lai Meihui

#4 Liao Shao

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#5 Qi Bo

#6 Qin Mei

#7 Liao Zhenzhen

#8 Shen Lin

#9 Li An

#10 Pan Xiulan

#11. Liao Qiaolian

For the first time, Han Lingyun received the medal unique to the number 1 disciple of the promotion. And this while not even being at the qi condensation realm. Even his minor Ye Wenyan had just reached that threshold!

To stay on the topic of younger disciples, Han Lingyun had never seriously considered joining the new 1st years and to pass as one of them.

‘It would be a waste of time. And it’s not very useful except to have a good laugh at the 1st years’ reactions. This, makes me remember, I should now have a grand minor, a new member to the Shu family. Hehe I’m quite excited to meet him, or her. Actually, now that Xia Shan joined the regiments, Lan Ruoxi is the only girl in the line currently at the school. I bet she is praying for another girl to join our ranks. Anyway, I won’t be meeting my minor for now, it’s too embarrassing to be at a lower cultivation than him. I wonder if there ever was a situation where a member of the Shu family was one entire cultivation realm ahead of his major. I need to fix this anomaly fast.’

It was great that Han Lingyun had Wang Yimo to take him around on her flying sword like this. It would raise some questions if he walked to and from his cave on foot like those that were still at the body strengthening realm. With the rankings out of the way, it was time to put his foot down on cultivation.

…

Weeks started to pass by and Han Lingyun mostly cultivated in his own cave. The environment at the top of the mountain was ideal. Any disciple should be able to cultivate 50% faster at the location compared to his usual environment dure to the higher qi density. As a result, Han Lingyun didn’t find the need to move to the cultivation ground of the fire element like he was doing before the SCA tournament.

Han Lingyun was also not willing to advertise his cultivation drop, and he couldn’t just trouble his friends to give him a ride on their flying treasures every day. With time, other disciples would also realize that something was wrong. But for now, apart from Wang Yimo, Han Lingyun had only informed Shen Lin and Yang Haoyu of his situation and to his knowledge, other disciples hadn’t noticed a thing.

To be fair, Han Lingyun has always been rather discreet and hard working. Him staying for weeks at the best cave to cultivate was perfectly normal in the eyes of the other disciples.

He also avoided the fire element formations for personal preference.

Hundreds of disciples are constantly in the underground cave. It wasn’t known who started it, but someone had the idea to use this cave as a tempering tool and more and more disciples have flocked to try to put their heat resistance to the test ever since. This trend was encouraged by the cave’s characteristic, getting hotter and hotter as one travels deeper. It has thus become a sort of game for the disciples to push their limits and reach greater depths. More than a game, it had become a competition. It’s so easy to compare each other’s performances here.

‘How can I cultivate peacefully with all those maniacs putting their limits to the test? And let’s not even talk about those with a fire affinity. Lai Meihuiis probably the worst of the bunch, using this burning cave to train her martial arts like a mad woman, throwing attacks in every direction. I enjoyed much more the peace of the forest ground.’ Han Lingyun grumbled internally.

It was after finishing a cultivation session that Han Lingyun noticed elder Wen sitting patiently in front of him. Han Lingyun’s face immediately lit up.

“Teacher Wen? What brings you here? Ah don’t worry about my formation array homework; I was just temporally putting it on hold to focus on getting back my cultivation.”

Elder Wen gently admonished him. “Don’t neglect those too much, it’s your main path after all. But I’m afraid this isn’t why I’m here. Disciple, I am leaving the White Tiger School. I probably won’t be back for several months.”

Han Lingyun took a moment to process this bombshell. “What?”

“Don’t worry, it’s actually mostly good news. Again, what I’m about to tell you is an absolute secret.” Elder Wen snapped his fingers which activated a series of arrays that he had previously placed in the room while Han Lingyun was cultivating. Spying on an array formation master was a near impossible task. Assured that his words wouldn’t leave the room, Elder Wen turned back to his disciple.

“My cultivation has progressed tremendously during the last two years. You played a bigger part in this than you could imagine, my fantastic disciple. Old Yi has also greatly opened my mind. As a result, I will go into seclusion to attempt to breakthrough to the Nascent Soul realm. This might take several months. However, I’m afraid that no matter if I succeed or not, the sect will call me on the regiments of the White Tiger Sect’s side afterwards.

It appears that occasions to see each other again will become scarce.”

Han Lingyun found himself more mentally affected than he would have imagined. He realized at this point that Elder Wen had become a pillar of support and a guiding light in his first cultivation years.

With slightly teary eyes, Han Lingyun kneeled on the ground and kowtowed three times to his teacher. “Master, I will be rooting for your success. And the help you have provided me in 2 years will forever be in my heart.”

“Please stand up, my disciple. Your words are the best encouragements I could have hoped for. Now, now, I’m leaving the school but it’s not like I won’t leave you anything behind.”

Elder Wen let out a light chuckle of pride.

“First of all, if you turn around, this pile of books should occupy you with formation arrays until your 16th birthday without doubt.

And here is one of my finest creations, the Wen Multipurpose Formation, or WMF for short.”

Elder Wen handed proudly a series of arrays, disks and other tools to assemble the formation. “The WMF is capable of hiding a surface of 5-meter radius from the eyes and spirit sense of Core Formation Elders. Plus, it should be able to hold off the attacks of Late Core Formation Elders for an hour!

It’s only issue, is the power source…”

Elder Wen suddenly appeared a bit more embarrassed as he took out a near see-through qi crystal, with a multitude of colors being reflected and refracted from its patterns. Han Lingyun tried to contain his laugh as he found that Elder Wen was acting like a naughty child that had just been caught cheating.

“The formation needs a top-grade crystal to be powered. I only have this one on myself, so keep it well and take good care of it!”

A top-grade crystal. Above the medium grade was the high grade, and the top grade was the next level! Han Lingyun made a rapid mental calculation.

‘If one high grade crystal is worth 10 000 low grade qi crystals, and a top-grade crystal is worth 100 high grade crystals, then this single top-grade crystal is worth 1 million low grade crystals! And that’s just by considering the amount of qi stored inside. In reality, top grade crystals are even more valuable due to its rarity and usefulness for storing extreme qi quantities in such a small volume.’

Han Lingyun was holding the resplendent crystal with shaky hands as he looked back up at his teacher’s face.

“Master, I don’t deserve all this.”

“Hahaha, but you do, disciple Lingyun. I still feel indebted! If it bothers you, just think of it as my goodbye gift, or as a reward for achieving the number 1 rank while being so weak. Hahaha, this gave us Elders a good laugh! But you were quite lucky to not be challenged. For the promotion of your minor for example, the number 1 disciple receives challenges during every ranking! Well, this one is truly deserving of his rank; he very well might bring home the first place at the SCA competition for 2nd year disciples this year.”

The master and disciple then took another good hour to talk about various matters. After everything was said, Elder Wen stood up, looking ready to depart.

“Oh, before I forget. My disciple, I also provided to you all those books because I don’t want you to join the Array Pavilion, it’s a place full of arrogant and entitled Elders, that might try to hamper you because they grow jealous of your talent. You have what it takes to self-study anyway.

Rather, I recommend that you join the Forging Branch during the year. It’s a complementary discipline to array formations and the atmosphere is much more genuine on that side. I have good friends over there as well; they shouldn’t mistreat you.”

“Disciple understands.”

Elder Wen nodded approvingly and picked up the formations he had laid around. “Then, I wish you well my disciple, this is my goodbye. May our paths cross again.”

“Goodbye, teacher.”

With a gust of wind, Elder Wen was already gone.

Han Lingyun stood up and walked out of his cave. He suddenly felt the impulse to admire the view from above, or perhaps he just wanted to catch one last glimpse of his teacher.

---End of Book 2: The SCA competition. ---