Physician Wu was extremely satisfied with the amount of effort Xu Su had dedicated to his cultivation.
However, he still felt that Xu Su's rate of progress at breaking through to the next layer in the oracular chant was too slow.
These past few years, the illness Physician Wu was suffering from had been getting more serious. He would cough countless times a day, with the bouts of coughing getting more and more frequent while lasting longer and longer.
As the condition of his body worsened, Physician Wu started to pay more attention to Xu Su's cultivation. From his relentless urging, one could see the anxiety in his heart.
For some reason, Physician Wu attached an enormous amount of importance to Xu Su Not only did he increase payment in terms of silver, Physician Wu's gaze was even filled with a tender and caring emotion as if he were examining a rare treasure.
Despite this, Xu Su, who had reached the third layer in the oracular chant, noticed an underlying truth with his extremely acute senses. Xu Su inadvertently discovered that behind Physician Wu's warm and friendly gaze was a trace of coldness and extreme greed, which made Xu Su feel extremely uncomfortable
That gaze that Physician Wu threw at him actually caused Xu Su to be frightened from the tips of his hair all the way to the marrow in his bones. He felt that Physician Wu saw him more as an object instead of as a living being.
This made Xu Su felt puzzled. What could he possibly have that Physician Wu desired?
"Of course, there's nothing I have that he would be interested in," Xu Su assured himself after thinking deeply.
There were even times when Xu Su thought that he was overly tired from cultivating the nameless chant, and he would shake his head in shame. He could not help but blame himself; after all, berating Physician Wu behind his back was an ungrateful act.
However, he did know the exact reason why, in the deepest recesses of his heart, he still held a feeling of caution whenever he interacted with Physician Wu. As time passed, this feeling of caution got stronger and stronger.
Currently, Xu Su was facing a huge problem. He had already reached the bottleneck of the third layer, but Physician Wu's stock of precious herbs had already run dry.
Obviously, Xu Su was not a genius by any means. If it wasn't for the assistance of the medicinal herbs, his cultivation progress would have long since stagnated.
Every time he met Physician Wu, Xu Su could not help but to feel a sense of shame.
Physician Wu had practically spent all of his fortunes to painstakingly aid Xu Su in his cultivation, creating favorable conditions for Xu Su, and yet… Xu Su was unable to satisfy his request.
This made Xu Su extremely unwilling to meet Physician Wu's gaze whenever there was an inquiry by Physician Wu regarding his state of progress.
Strangely enough, for who knows what reason, the highly skilled Physician Wu was unable to know Xu Su's progress without being told by Xu Su. Thus, he was kept in the dark regarding the problem of Xu Su's bottleneck.
However, not long ago, the guilt in Xu Su's heart caused him to seek out Physician Wu and confess about the bottleneck he faced in his cultivation.
After Physician Wu heard that in the past year, there had not been the slightest progress in Xu Su's cultivation, his normally expressionless face became extremely unsightly.
To Xu Su's surprise, Physician Wu did not rebuke him. Instead, he told Xu Su that he would be gone from the valley for a period of time to gather the necessary herbs and reminded Xu Su to continue devoting his efforts into cultivating the oracular chant.
Two days later, Physician Wu brought along a case filled with tools needed to extract herbs and left the Seven Clouds Sect.
After he left, Xu Su was all alone in the Green Eye Valley.
As for his good friend, Zhan Yue, he had already cultivated to the third layer of the "Way of the Armored Rhino" two years ago and had disappeared without a trace. Zhan Yue only left a letter of farewell, stating that he wanted to explore Jung Hu. This incident caused a great disturbance in the sect. After that, there were rumors that Zhan Yue's family was spared from punishment after Physician Wu pleaded on their behalf.
Xu Su felt that the entire matter was extremely bizarre, and after thinking about it, he was sure that there was more than met the eye regarding this matter. Regardless, Xu Su held no position of importance in the sect; thus his words were ignored, and this matter had long since been swept under the rug. After contemplating, Xu Su thought, 'Could it be that Zhan Yue was so afraid of the backlash caused by the fourth layer of his martial skill that he ran away?'
Putting his thoughts of Zhan Yue aside, Xu Su cultivated for a few days inside the valley but was still unable to make the slightest bit of progress. Since he was a hot-blooded male, he decided to explore the Celestial White Mountains instead of staying cooped up in the Green Eye Valley.
As he walked along the mountain paths, the paths that he knew so well actually held a tinge of unfamiliarity; he could not help but feel slight traces of sadness in his heart.
These past few years, because of his cultivation, it was as if Xu Su was staying in a prison, unable to take a single step outside the valley.
The disciples of the Seven Clouds Sect should have already long forgotten his existence.
On the roads, Xu Su met a few disciples that were under patrol duty. From their perspective, this stranger wearing the robes of an Inner Disciple filled them with suspicion. It was only after much explanation that Xu Su managed to convince them that he was indeed a disciple of the Seven Clouds Sect.
To avoid any more situations like that, Xu Su decided to traverse along the small trails that were separated from the main road.
As expected, he met no other disciples, and this enabled him to travel faster with no interruptions.
Looking at the beautiful scenery and listening to the birds chirping, Xu Su felt that, for that moment, it was as if everything that was troubling him had melted away.
Suddenly, the sound of weapons clashing rang out as the air erupted with a cacophony of cursing voices emitted from the ravine of a nearby mountain.
'What? There are so many people gathered in such a remote location?'
Great curiosity arose in Xu Su's heart, and no longer fearing the questions of other disciples, he followed the noises and sought out the source of the sound.
What a big crowd! Xu Su stared mutely in shock.
The ravine, completely hidden by the forest, was a small area. Despite this, there was a total of a hundred people crowding together in the ravine! There were also people standing on the branches of giant trees.
Two groups of people were staring at each other, and a thick sense of enmity emanated from both groups.
The group of people standing on the left side consisted of a total of 12 people while the group on the right side consisted of 7 people.
Xu Su discovered that these two groups were of similar age as him! All of them were about 15 to 20 years old.
A slight smile hung on his lips as he thought, "What a coincidence!"
From this group of people, Xu Su could pinpoint a few familiar faces.
"Feng Yu Bao, Zheng Da Lu, Ma Yun, Sun Lei Song…., Ai! Fatty Wang is even more obese than the last time I saw him! This person is… Metalhead Liu. Ze! Ze! He was actually so tanned back then. To think that his skin is so fair and white now, has he become someone that lives on the earnings of a woman so he can sit and be lazy the whole day?" Xu Su sniggered as he climbed the huge tree as he began to lose himself in his memories.