-The Monkey Show!-
The Fang patriarch's discontentedness was shown only for a second before he hid it away with a smile. It would be too embarrassing for him to get angry over a juniors misbehavior. Hence Fang patriarch let it go for the time being. Stroking his beard, he threw a glance at everyone present and spoke "I heard Jiang Tao had reached 1st Soul Tempering realm? Is that true?"
"haha! About that, how can my family's Tao'er be compared to the pearl of Fang clan? Our Tao'er only reached the 1st stage of Soul Tempering realm at the age of 20." Jiang patriarch smilingly said. Although he sounds humble, one could still feel happiness from his voice. So what if he couldn't compare to Fang ZhiLing? Not everyone was born to be equal?
"Haha! Patriarch is too humble. It's just a coincidence that our family's Ling'er could promote to Soul Tempering layer. Just coincidence." Fang patriarch said while puffing his chest out. One could see how much happy he was for ZhiLing's talent.
'Coincidence, my ass! Coincidence can happen once…how can it happen repeatedly?' although Jiang patriarch thought of this, he still smiled genially at the old man.
This conversation attracted the attention of everyone present. Especially, Jiang Tao who puffed his chest in pride after hearing what the Fang family's old man just spoke. Thinking of taking the initiative, he stepped forward and looked at Fang patriarch respectfully before bowing to him once more.
"Patriarch, I have just learned a sword dance called, Shadow Moon's Reflection and achieved minor success with it. If it is possible can I invite Ms. ZhiLing to accompany me for a round or two?"
'Fuck!' the other three brothers swore when they heard Tao's proposal. The second young master's eyes gave off chilling light as he glared at Tao's back as if he was looking at his nemesis. The first young master, Jiang Long, clenched his fist in anger, making 'taktak' sound as his bones' joints were tensed under pressure. Jiang Chen, the son f fourth concubine also glared at his back, but among all the concubines, Tao's mother's status was high, so he could only swallow the anger. He was also not as strong as him to fight with Tao, head on.
"Haha! Good good. I heard Shadow Moon's Reflection is a bronze level martial technique! Coincidentally, our family's Ling'er also learned a bronze grade martial technique and had achieved minor success. You can compare notes with each other if you like." Stroking his beard, the Fang patriarch agreed to his proposal. After that, he looked back at the veiled woman named Yun LingLing, as if to ask for permission. Seeing her didn't say anything, he stealthily breathed in relief.
Nobody saw this except for Jiang patriarch, who also frowned, but for a different reason. If ZhiLing, enters Misty Pearl Pavillion, the Fang family would formally form a tie with a 6-star sect. In contrast, just a concubine of an outer sect elder of a 4-star sect was nothing. They couldn't be compared at all.
"What! Small success in bronze grade Martial techniques! These guys are very talented…when I am of their age, it took me 1 year to achieve a small success realm with a bronze grade martial technique." An old elder from the Jiang family sighed as he heard of Fang patriarch and Jiang Tao's conversation.
"I took 8 months though!" a Fang family's elder of equal status as the one before, spoke with a sneer.
"Who are you tricking Fang Bai, if it was not for those experience notes you stole from somewhere, how can you advance so fast? Your talent even worse than me." The Jiang family elder snorted at Fang Bai's boasting while giving a retort of his own.
Other than this two old man, all the others marveled at the talent of these two youngsters, especially Fang ZhiLing who was only 13 years old. Martial techniques are unique ways by which one could use their cultivated qi to achieve various results. It can be used for both attack and defense. These martial techniques were of many grades, starting from bronze to ending with platinum.
Depending upon the stage of one's cultivation, they have to use a grade of martial technique. Each grade of martial technique had three versions, low to high. A Soul tempering stage cultivator could only use bronze level martial techniques. Each martial technique, when cultivated had 3 stages, minor success, Major success, peak.
Under everyone's gaze, Jiang Tao walked like an arrogant dragon among snakes and stood in front of ZhiLing. Bowing a little, he smiled with his eyes half closed and spoke: "Can I have the honor?"
ZhiLing stared at the man before her coldly for a few seconds before standing up and coming down. Seeing this, Jiang Tao was very thrilled inside his heart. Hiding his excitement, backed away step by step until he was just in the middle of the hall, in front of everyone.
ZhiLing also stood opposite to him with her ever-present cold face. There was not a single ripple of emotion could be seen on her young face.
"Then, I will start. Careful, Ms. Ling." With a polite warning, Jiang Tao pulled out a shining silver like saber from his back as he held it his hands delicately. Suddenly, his sword moved in an anticlockwise motion, as an apparition of a small silver moon created from his sword's end. The moon looked dazzling, lighting the whole room with its brilliance. This caused a huge uproar among the crowd.
"Manifestation! The young master had reached manifestation level of his Shadow Moon's Reflection!" an elder from Jiang family rejoiced as he saw the moon in front of Jiang Tao. After forming the full moon, Jiang Tao pulled his arm back and lightly touched the created moon with his sword tip. As if attached with a propeller, the moon suddenly gained speed as it zoomed at ZhiLing.
Shadow Moon's Reflection was an exceptional technique, even among bronze ranked technique. It affects the opponent in two stages. First the moon apparel, that would press down on the opponent, making them feel like a real moon was pressing on them. After that, the shadow of the moon that cast upon the opponent would cause further damage to the opponent.
After one break through the bottleneck of 9th stage body tempering, they would open the sea of consciousness in their mind and started to store the qi in there. The sea of consciousness was nothing but a bridge that connected the body and the soul. Through that bridge, the qi would repeatedly temper the soul, making it more powerful and extraordinary.
It was a common thing that after one breakthrough Core formation realm, they would experience a 'Baptism by Thunder' from heavens before forming their Nascent souls. This Baptism of Thunder also had another name, its called Heavenly Tribulation. One who survives the heavenly tribulation would no longer be a mere mortal. He would, from then, formally set foot on the road to immortality.
To survive that tribulation, not only a healthy body but also a strong soul was needed. That's why the first two stages of cultivation were body tempering and soul tempering respectively.