"It took me three days?" Zhao Yao let out a huge sigh, after finishing the meal his Master made for him. "Why did it take me that long?"
The meal was tasty like nothing else, but it still couldn't make him forget his disappointment.
"You broke through fast." Immortal Lu consoled him.
"Fast?" Zhao Yao looked at his Master skeptically. "You consider three days fast?"
"Yes. Kid, it took me years to become a cultivator." Immortal Lu said with a smile. "I wasn't even a cultivator at your age."
"What?" Zhao Yao shook his head. "Master, do you realize that cultivators of this age breakthrough 1st level of Qi Gathering in a day, some talented ones within hours."
"Is it? Everyone is talented these days. But if it due to using techniques like the one I burned, then they won't reach higher realms." Master was unfazed.
"Master, when did you break through the Core Establishment realm?" Zhao Yao asked suspiciously. If his Master took years to breakthrough 1st level, then how long did he have to cultivate.
"Hmm. If I remember correctly, it took me almost two decades. I broke through in my late forties."
"Master, but you look like you are in your twenties." Zhao Yao felt a barrage of various emotions. Confusion, amazement, and jealousy.
'So, you are an old fart, who changes his appearance to look young, how annoying.' From what his Master said so far, Zhao Yao could guess that his Master used the 'Snail' technique, and that made sense why it took him that long to breakthrough. But it also confused him about how his Master survived enough to reach his current realm. People had a limited lifespan, and it became harder to cultivate the longer it took them.
"You will know once you reach my realm. You will also get a naturalized appearance." Master said.
Zhao Yao wasn't in a mood to explore further on how his Master became handsome. He was already confused and annoyed by his Master, pushing him to use a slow technique.
He had to make his Master understand the importance of speed in cultivation.
"Master, I don't know about the way you cultivated, but speed is everything in cultivation now. Cultivator's fame and respect in society is determined by how fast they cultivate."
"Fast cultivation? That's absurd. Perfecting your foundation with accuracy is very important than speedy cultivation." Master replied with a frown. "If the foundation is not steady, you will fall apart before you reach the top."
Zhao Yao understood his Master's logic, but he clearly knew how important combat efficiency and cultivation efficiency is to face slapping and to become a legend.
"Fufu..." Zhao Yao didn't have the time or energy to continue this conversation. He had to plot his revenge, and he only had one day for it.
First, he had to retrieve the treasure he hid in the house.
After his father's death, the original Zhao Yao knew he will get kicked out from North Mansion soon, and he had to live in the current house. So, he moved all his father's private skill collection into a treasure chest and hid it in the backyard.
Zhao Yao felt proud of his so-called reincarnation and the way he handled it. He feared if he hid it in the foundation of the house, cultivators could find it. The house digging done by Zhao Ji proved his intuition correct.
This house had a new waste pit at that time, and Zhao Yao made a tunnel from the bottom for about 3 feet and hid it underneath a tree, between its roots.
'Quite clever, but how the hell am I going to recover it.' Zhao Yao didn't think he could dig a huge hole without getting Zhao Ping's lackeys to notice.
The waste pit was filled with trash now, so it's disgusting even thinking of recovering it the way he hid it.
"How...That's right." Zhao Yao, who was pondering a solution, remembered his ready-made problem solver. His Master. After all, he considered his Master as his cheat.
"Master."
"What is it?" Immortal Lu asked as he laid on the carpet.
But the thing that made Zhao Yao's jaw dropped was, the carpet was floating.
The carpet was hovering in midair with his Master on top of it like he was f***ing Aladdin or something.
"I had a treasure chest hidden underneath the tree in the backyard. I want Master's guidance on retrieving it without anyone knowing." Zhao Yao summoned his poker face and said.
"Treasure chest, huh." Master rubbed his jaw in thought.
"Yes, it's deep in the soil, between the tree's roots. I can't keep it here since we are leaving after the Selection contest." Zhao Yao expectedly looked at his Master while praying inside.
'Please don't ask me to dig.'
"Let me see." His Master disappeared after saying that. The hovering carpet slowly fell down.
Zhao felt naughty and stepped on the carpet.
As he expected, nothing happened.
"Fly...Open Sesame. Fly Sesame...I forgot. That phrase is from a different Arabian story."
"Muaaahhh." He heard Merry cry.
"Hey Merry, How are ya doing?" Zhao Yao turned to Merry and greeted her. But what he saw made his smile disappear.
"You know Merry. I am not going to clean up your sh*t or p**p or manure or whatever it's called." Zhao Yao shook his head. "Clean it yourself."
'And my Master wants me to raise her to take a human form.' Zhao Yao thought.
"Muaaahhh."
"Nevermind. Do whatever you want, I am going to leave this house anyway." Zhao said without turning.
"So, you do have a soft corner towards her. Haha." Immortal Lu appeared while laughing loudly. "Acting so tough on the outside...Haha."
Zhao Yao ignored his Master and asked what he worried the most. "Master, did you get it?"
His Master didn't have anything in his hand, making Zhao Yao feel disappointed.
"Is this your treasure?" A plain treasure chest appeared in Immortal Lu's hand out of nowhere.
"That's the one." Zhao Yao excitedly grabbed the chest.
Zhao Yao learned about some of the awesome abilities of his Master, like teleportation, and storage space before. So he wasn't surprised.
The chest didn't have any intricate designs, but its lock was unique. It had a movable block on the top, and he needed to move it in the secret pattern to unlock it. Scouring his memories, Zhao Yao remembered the pattern and soon moved the block to open the chest.
His eyes glistened, seeing the multicolored twenty-plus skill manuals that appeared in front of him. The color of the manuals represented their levels. Each level had a minimum cultivation realm requirements.
Tiger Palm, Flickering Steps, Serpent grappling technique, Fire Blasting Sword, Mist Slash, Hammer Fist, Space Encapsulation Palm, and many more.
Zhao Yao gently picked them up, and he recognized some of these skills as they were used by his father. Some high-level skills were just part of his father's collection.
During his childhood, he looked at these skills without any hope of cultivating them.
He could finally use them. But as the 1st Qi Gathering Realm, he could barely use level 1 skills.
Tiger Palm and Hammer Fist were the only level 1 skills in the chest. He didn't have possession of the clan's special skills since he was a well-known cripple.
Taking Hammer Fist, Zhao Yao tried to control his Qi to his fist to practice the skill. It felt natural to him like he knew it all along.
"BAM." Without even realizing it, Zhao Yao perfectly executed the skill in his first try. Other than the sound it made, the fist made a powerful punch.
'How?' This skill was known to be used by the Founder Ancestor himself.
'Founder Ancestor knew this technique, does that mean I knew it too as his reincarnation?' Zhao Yao thought of muscle memory and considered what he did as something like a 'soul memory.'
Zhao Yao didn't have Qi reserves to practice the skill many times.
"What all these?" His Master asked from the side.
"These are all the skills my father collected." Zhao Yao felt embarrassed as he acted selfishly without thanking his Master, who did the work for him and brought the skills. "Thank You, Master, for helping me."
Immortal Lu nodded acknowledging his thanks and then asked. "Skills? Like cultivation manuals?"
"No." Zhao Yao didn't like where this conversation was going. "These are fighting skills."
"Fighting skills? What's that used for?" Master asked cluelessly.
'Darn it.' Zhao Yao tried his best not to go on a rampage.
"To fight, of course. Cultivators need to protect themselves. How come you don't know this?" Zhao Yao felt like he was explaining to a child.
"There were no skills during the time I started cultivating. Why do cultivators waste time learning how to fight, when they should focus more on reaching higher realms?" Immortal Lu said with his hands crossed. "Can I take a look?"
"You didn't have any skills in your time?" Zhao Yao asked in surprise.
"Soldiers trained in Martial arts, but cultivators didn't waste time learning fighting arts. Time was very precious, after all."
"Don't burn it, please." Zhao Yao warned before letting his Master take a look. He kept the Hammer Fist, wanting to read it, but his mind was in chaos.
'No skills during his time? Does that mean...Why didn't I think of this before?' Zhao Yao finally had a guess about his Master's strangeness.
Immortal Lu told him that he was alive for more than 500,000 years.
The Golden Age of Cultivation started after that. After the Ancient Era of mortals, the rise of the first Martial God gave rise to the Cultivation Era.
Almost all of the skills are developed in this Era. Cultivators replaced Mortal Kings and became soldiers.
If his Master was from the Ancient Era, then he could have an entirely different outlook on cultivation.
Zhao Yao understood why his Master was adamant about slow and steady cultivation.
He was on the 'turtle' group, who advocated slow and steady wins the race, against a rabbit.
This logic could work perfectly during the Ancient Era, where they only had few techniques like the Eternal Seeker. But with a plethora of cultivation techniques, faster cultivation was the only way one could survive during this Era and in most cultivation novels.
Zhao Yao had more to learn about his Master than he thought.
"Interesting, If you make these changes, this will produce better results." Immortal Lu said as he studied one of the skills.
Zhao Yao jerked up in surprise to look at his Master. "Master, you can improve these skills? But you never learned any skills."
"Haha. Why should I even learn these child's plays? Of course, these are interesting but have many faults. If you have my cultivation, skills were not needed at all." Immortal Lu laughed.
"Master, do you think you can improve this?" Zhao Yao gave the Hammer Fist in his hand and watched with great hope.
"Oh, this one. Interesting. If you make these changes to the way you channel your Qi, this skill won't cost much Qi. And try layering to get more power behind the fist." Immortal Lu summoned a brush and wrote on the manual.
Zhao Yao heart palpitated watching it.
Receiving the corrected manual back, Zhao Yao didn't hesitate and used it with the changes made by his Master.
The changes were simple, the main one was how the punch can be made stronger, but it took a long time to execute.
"BAAMM"
"This is much stronger." Zhao Yao exclaimed. "Master, can you improve all these skills?"
"I think so."
Zhao Yao felt great. The newly improved Hammer Fist could give a punch as strong as a level 2 skill could.
No. It shouldn't be called a hammer anymore.
This was his newly improved....' Sledgehammer Fist.'
Looking at his smiling Master, Zhao Yao felt like hugging him, But he stopped himself as he remembered his vow to only hug beauties.
His arms are only to hold beauties and cuties.
But he was right. His gamble was correct.
His Master was so strong with great abilities and he was someone who could improve any skills.
'My Master is my cheat.'