Jiang Ding sat cross-legged, his body drenched in sweat, his face pale.
Lung Channel of Hand Taiyin, first branch vein (100%)
Lung Channel of Hand Taiyin, tenth branch vein (100%)
…
In his inner view, the ten main branch veins of the Lung Channel of Hand Taiyin had been fully refined and were translucent, with faint white Inner Qi flowing through them.
"Ten meridians, two days' time, that's with the continuous use of Replenishing Vitality and Qi Pills," Jiang Ding calculated silently, "That's quite fast. If it were the top-tier Cultivation Methods practiced by people like Gong Caiyu from Jianghu, with a thousand meridians, I could achieve Inner Qi Perfection in at most two months and begin working towards breaking through to Xiantian."
"Hah, even super geniuses are only so much."
He mused to himself.
That was to be expected.
Elixirs, Ginseng Flower Stabilizing Qi Pills, unremarkable, labeled by the education system as 'cheap and barely usable', but if introduced to Jianghu of Yue Nation, they would be divine pills rarely seen even by the royal household.
Teachers like Mr. Lao have them, varieties of herbs over a hundred years old they have, but they do not have the privilege to enjoy such high-grade elixirs.
The services Fairy Gate Citizens could get just by sending an express delivery, which contain an extremely high labor value, can fairly be described as converting stones into gold.
The gap in Cultivation Methods and teaching resources is even greater.
"What a pity, 'Eagle Taking Off Sword Technique', 108,000 meridians!" After a moment of daydreaming, Jiang Ding felt a sudden heaviness in his heart.
"One day to nurture and refine five meridians, it would need 21,600 days!"
"Fifty-nine years!"
Having quickly calculated the outcome, Jiang Ding felt an internal shock that he could not calm.
"I'm not even considered slow."
"A Minorly Accomplished 'Eagle Taking Off Sword Technique', Hundred Essence Qi Pills refined from ginseng aged over ninety years, these are advantages normal students don't have. All things considered, even with reduced aptitude, my cultivation speed should be at least twice that of an ordinary student!"
"Hiss—"
No wonder Li Junhao easily gave up cultivation, with such good academic performance he must have known these facts, and it's no surprise that Jiang Chaoyang had only achieved Great Achievement of Chuying Inner Qi despite striving for most of his life.
"To become immortal from the mortal, only the geniuses can achieve it."
Jiang Ding regained his calmness and thought rapidly.
"I must not belittle myself; when the nurturing and refinement of the meridians reach the stages of Micro Circle of Vital Energy, Small Circle of Vital Energy, Large Circle of Vital Energy, and when the twelve primary meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians form a circulating whole, the speed of Refining Essence into Qi will leap dramatically."
"It's not so difficult; it's not yet time to despair."
After resting and regulating his breathing for a moment, Jiang Ding stood up and walked over to the equipment rack.
Compared to before, a semi-transparent camouflage suit and a two-meter-long firearm had appeared at some point, with the Array Spirit providing annotated instructions.
Scout-1 Camouflage, a top-grade special magic tool, woven with an embedded First-order Law Fracturing Formation, requires the use of 'Minor Concealing Breath Technique'. When practiced to a minor accomplishment, it can shield against Divine Sense Scanning from a ninth layer Qi Practitioner, and also shield against the First-order vehicle-mounted radar scanning of a tank.
If a Practicing Qi monk cultivates a divine sense scanning spell of the same level, it can shield against secret techniques of divine observation of one rank lower.
For those below Xiantian, it reduces by one more rank.
This means that now, using the Greatly Accomplished 'Minor Concealing Breath Technique' with the Scout Camouflage can only shield against secret techniques of divine observation known to classmate practitioners.
Jiang Ding had some understanding of this as well.
Practicing Qi monks of Xianmen have always taken little interest in magics like fireball spells or ice arrow spells with ranges of several tens of meters, but there is one magic that is essential.
'Electromagnetic Induction Wave Technique'.
The core of Xianmen cultivators' battle system, this spell creates electromagnetic waves of specific frequencies which are used for detection and scanning, with a starting range of over a kilometer, far surpassing the hundred-meter limit of Qi Practitioners' Divine Sense.
When coupled with the Spirit sonar of Xianmen, the search range and precision are greatly enhanced.
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Facing the Practicing Qi monks of the Fairy Gate, Outer Realm Cultivators of the same order often couldn't even see their enemy and would be overwhelmed by gunfire and bullets coming from who knows where.
Jiang Ding briefly glanced over the provided "Minor Concealing Breath Technique" by the Array Spirit, finding it abstruse and difficult to understand. Its difficulty and effectiveness were on par, in no way inferior to the "Electromagnetic Induction Wave Technique."
He looked at the next piece of equipment.
The 03-style anti-materiel sniper rifle, a top-grade special magic tool, caliber 12.7x108mm, length 2124mm, weight 89KG, the barrel engraved with a first-order Concealment Formation and a first-order Law Fracturing Formation; it could breach the defense of a Qi Practitioner of the ninth layer with one shot, consuming some (5% - 10%) mana of foundation-building cultivators.
Note: Xiantian Martial Artists need to input three minutes of Inner Energy, Inner Qi Realm Martial Artists need to input over ten minutes of Inner Qi to activate a single shot, or it cannot be activated.
Two top-grade special magic tools!
Jiang Ding held his breath.
Unlike the mass-produced half magic tools such as the heavy machine guns he had previously practiced with, the creation of a magic tool required the consumption of various spirit mine alloys, and only Qi Practitioners could manufacture them with the aid of industrial machines.
The price of each magic tool is easily a hundred times more than an ordinary weapon and they are military supplies that can't be purchased without having served in the army.
Just these two magic tools alone make the value of a reconnaissance infantryman surpass that of an ordinary infantryman by who knows how much.
Still, despite this, none of the ten or so Inner Qi Realm students in the grade chose the reconnaissance infantry direction; there seemed to be some insurmountable barrier there.
…
The third and fourth periods were the language exams.
From the back row, Jiang Ding held his ballpoint pen, deep in thought, and after a long time, wrote down an answer with some trepidation, utterly different from his spirited performance in the moral education class.
For the language subject, the main examination was on the principles of cultivation methods, talismans, and the use of spiritual script, which can express more cultivation information, and so on.
Although this was the case, compared to before, after gaining an increase in aptitude from the rusty sword tip and having Inner Qi as a concrete reference, his progress in this period was still significant.
Dingling dingling!
"The exam time is up, please turn in your papers," the teacher said.
The two hours flew by, and Jiang Ding barely finished the spiritual script writing; glancing at the still empty two major questions, he sighed and let the teacher collect his paper.
"Alas, I messed up this time..."
Following the crowd out of the classroom, Jiang Ding glanced at Li Junhao beside him, his face filled with bitterness.
"Heh."
Half an hour to eat, half an hour to sleep.
Jiang Ding opened his eyes, sat up beside the bed, and closed his eyes to regulate his breath.
His next cultivation goal was to achieve the 'Micro Circle of Vital Energy' so what he needed to practice next was the second meridian of the three Yin meridians of the hand, 'Hand's Jueyin Pericardium Meridian,' focusing on the ten main meridians.
Each of the Twelve Primary Channels needed to be thoroughly refined to nurture the ten main meridians with connections provided in the "Eagle Taking Off Sword Technique" array diagrams to form a solid and stable circulatory system.
Only then could one say that the Inner Qi channels have been preliminarily stabilized, and the speed of cultivation would greatly increase.
The Inner Energy emerged from the Lung Channel of Hand Taiyin and surged into the starting node of the adjacent Hand's Jueyin Pericardium Meridian, spreading towards the ten main meridians.
The sensation was slightly prickly, and he allowed the Inner Energy to fill a bit before retracting.
After waiting for more than ten minutes, Jiang Ding once again controlled his Inner Energy to surge into the previously nurtured meridian, repairing and progressing steadily, without pause.
The afternoon was for the math exam.
Tomorrow would be the combined sciences and humanities exam, followed by the assessment of cold and hot weapons, and finally practical combat.
Practical combat methods varied: some were one-on-one under the supervision of a teacher, donned in full equipment, engaging in combat assessments with the reduction drug.
Some were in squad form, generally with the objective of completing a certain task, such as stealth, assassination, and so on.
The last was in the form of battle campaigns, usually involving students from multiple classes and grades collaborating, forming battalions to besiege a foundation building cultivator using Outer Realm combat tactics, and so forth.
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