Chapter 43: Ours
After examining hundreds of scrolls, Yu Nianzhen chose ten sword arts.
’I can’t relax with a master like this.’ He thought as he recorded the name of the last scroll.
"Where do you want to go?" Yu Nianzhen asked after he finished recording.
"The soul refining section."
While gliding from the third peak, the two spoke about their experience in the ten-storey pagoda.
After listening to Yu Nianzhen’s experience, Jiang Yue knew that their gains were very different.
Yu Nianzhen had improved his qi cultivation while his soul had grown stronger.
From this, he could vaguely feel that his soul was important for his future cultivation.
The soul refining section was at the back of the martial hall.
Unlike the sword section, which had several hundred manuals, this section had six manuals.
"Soul refining is too difficult." Yu Nianzhen sighed and grabbed the first manual.
The manual he grabbed was called the soul weaving technique.
This technique could refine the soul into nets that increased the soul’s monitoring distance.
The first rank of the manual was a silver rank soul refining technique and would allow a cultivator to achieve the entry stage of soul refining.
Yu Nianzhen returned the manual and picked another to check.
The technique was called the ethereal soul refining technique.
This technique would give the soul an ethereal quality, allowing it to seamlessly integrate with qi techniques.
Like the soul weaving technique, only the first rank was available on the first floor of the martial hall.
"What do you think about this one?"
Yu Nianzhen handed the technique to Jiang Yue.
He felt that the technique was especially appropriate for Jiang Yue, who had an illusion origin.
If he could refine an ethereal soul, his soul power could integrate with illusion qi causing his illusion attacks to be more potent.
Jiang Yue took the scroll and began to read it, while Yu Nianzhen took the third scroll to read through.
The third refining manual was called the soul purifying technique.
This technique did not give the soul any unique attributes. Instead, it focused on purifying the soul, which helped to improve a cultivator’s perception.
The fourth manual was called the soul condensing technique.
This technique was both a soul refining technique and an attack art. It refined the soul by condensing it, and a cultivator could condense soul nails to attack an opponent’s soul.
"You are right, this technique is suitable for me." Jiang Yue said happily.
"I thought so."
"What about you? Have you found a technique that you like?"
"Wait a minute." Yu Nianzhen perused the two remaining techniques that he had yet to check.
Afterwards, he grabbed the soul purifying technique manual and the soul condensing technique manual.
He thought about it for a long time and then returned the soul condensing manual.
"I think that the soul purifying manual is more suitable for me."
Rather than use his soul to attack, Yu Nianzhen wanted to increase his perception.
This way, it would be easier to comprehend sword arts and move further along on the Sword Dao.
"These soul refining manuals are too costly and can only be exchanged using the one-time tokens." Jiang Yue lamented.
Sword arts could be exchanged for as little as one thousand contribution points, but soul refining techniques were different.
The cheapest was ten thousand contribution points while the most expensive needed forty thousand contribution points.
Jiang Yue’s ethereal soul refining manual needed thirty-three thousand contribution points while Yu Nianzhen’s needed thirty thousand.
"We won’t have tokens when we need to exchange the second and third ranks."
Jiang Yue shivered when he heard that.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if the second rank of the soul manual cost more than a hundred thousand contribution points.
"We have to take missions as soon as we get promoted to the origin forging realm."
"It’s impossible to leave the mountain in our first year." Yu Nianzhen poured cold water on Jiang Yue.
Jiang Yue rolled his eyes, "there are a lot of missions within the sect."
Yu Nianzhen didn’t continue to argue.
"You are not going to exchange anything else?"
Jiang Yue sneered when he heard that.
"Do I dare to exchange anything else?"
"Why don’t you dare?"
"We only have ten thousand contribution points. We need to buy talismans in the resource hall and save a few points for rainy days."
Yu Nianzhen was happy to hear that Jiang Yue referred to his contribution points as ’theirs’.
However, he was ashamed to eat soft rice as soon as they joined the sect.
’I need to work harder to support my dao companion.’
Jiang Yue snorted when he saw Yu Nianzhen’s determined look, but he didn’t say anything.
In fact, he didn’t mind supporting Yu Nianzhen.
Their relationship didn’t need these clear lines.
What each had was theirs, and when one lacked, the other would make up.
The two found the martial hall elder near the exit.
"Let me see what you have chosen." The elder said.
Jiang Yue handed over his identity jade.
"Don’t you need a cultivation technique to break through to the origin forging realm?"
"This disciple has already prepared a cultivation technique."
"I see."
The elder took Jiang Yue’s token and deposited it in a box which was placed next to him.
"What about you?"
Yu Nianzhen handed over his identity jade, and the elder took a deep breath when he saw the records.
His face creased in a frown, and his eyes hardened as he looked at Yu Nianzhen.
"Young boy, you have chosen ten sword arts and a soul refining technique. Are you aware that the sword arts cannot be practised until you break through to the origin forging realm?"
"This disciple knows."
"Even if you break through to the origin forging realm, does it make sense to cultivate ten sword arts at once?"
"Are you taking cultivation too lightly?"
The elder was clearly angry, but Yu Nianzhen remained expressionless.
What could he do?
His master had let him exchange ten sword arts.
When the elder saw that Yu Nianzhen did not react, he snorted angrily.
However, he could not prevent a disciple from using their contribution points.
He took Yu Nianzhen’s token to exchange the soul refining technique and deducted ten thousand contribution points for the sword arts.
’New-born calves do not fear tigers. He will converge when he encounters difficulties.’ The elder thought as the two left.
After leaving the martial hall, Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen went to the resource hall.
They exchanged two guardian talismans for four thousand contribution points and then left without buying anything else.
"Let’s go to Yang Mountain."
"Your master won’t object?"
Instead of answering, Yu Nianzhen handed over the mountain token.
"Refine it with a drop of blood, and you will be able to enter and leave as you please."
Jiang Yue was excited when he heard that.
He dripped a drop of blood on the token, and it flashed red before it returned to its normal bronze colour.
"Let’s go."
The two flew on the wind glider and arrived at Yang Mountain several hours later.
"The third peak can’t compare to this place."
Jiang Yue was once again jealous.
Master Yang was eccentric and black-bellied, but he had the capital.
If he could cultivate on Yang Mountain, Jiang Yue wouldn’t mind having him as a master.
"You are very lucky." Yu Nianzhen said.
"Why?"
"You can live here without paying rent."
Jiang Yue thought about it and realised that Yu Nianzhen was right.
He could come as often as he wanted, and Yu Nianzhen would be the one to suffer his eccentric master.
"You are right."
His mood immediately improved, and he pulled Yu Nianzhen to walk around.
"Master lives in the south courtyard, and we will live in the west courtyard. The north and east courtyards are idle."
"Is there a metal element cave on the mountain?"
They had walked around for a long time, but Jiang Yue had yet to see an element cave.
Element caves were caves built at the mouth of an element vein.
When breaking through to the origin forging realm, Yu Nianzhen would need a lot of metal qi.
Although it was possible to break through using general heaven and earth qi, it would take a long time, and the probability of failure was high.
Even in the mundane world, wealthy cultivators would use a qi gathering array to increase the chance of breaking through.
In Jiang Yue’s case, the third peak had several element veins.
As the peak master’s true disciple, Jiang Yue could use a high-grade water element cave to break through.
"There is a metal element vein in the mountain, but master never had a reason to build a cave. We will build one before I am ready to break through."
"What grade is the vein?"
"It should be a mid-grade vein."
Jiang Yue frowned, "..., or you could apply to use the sect’s high-grade metal element cave."
"Master says the effect will be the same or better if we arrange a qi purifying array within the cave."
"Don’t worry, although master looks unreliable, he won’t mess with my future."
