After school in the afternoon, Alex was undoubtedly blocked at the door by Lina.
"Was it fun to tease me?" The girl slightly raised her head, looking angry and ready to confront him.
Alex glanced at her and roughly understood the situation.
He sighed inwardly, having thought her talent was average, but not expecting it to be so bad.
Even with his help in gathering spiritual energy, she still couldn't reach the threshold of entry.
"You're just too dumb," Alex stated bluntly.
"You.." Hearing this casual evaluation, Lina instantly trembled with anger. She covered her chest with one hand and pointed at Alex with the other, shaking.
When had she ever been associated with the word dumb from childhood to adulthood?
Her talent was even praised by top sects like Shady Mountain, but today she was mocked by an ordinary person with no cultivation?
And not just once, but three or five times!
As for Lina's reaction, Alex expressed his understanding.
Lies won't hurt people; the truth is the sharp knife.
But he had always been kind, so he wouldn't say anything more to upset her.
"Come with me" He dropped a sentence and walked ahead.
Lina clenched her small fists tightly in her sleeves and stomped her feet as she followed.
She had secretly decided that if Alex didn't give a reasonable explanation, she would let him know that her breathing technique was not practiced in vain.
Using it to beat up an unarmed ordinary person shouldn't be too much of a problem.
The two quickly walked away.
Behind the classroom door, a boy with a fashionable middle part stared at their retreating figures, his eyes flashing with regret, frustration, jealousy, and many other complex emotions.
He couldn't help but fantasize in his head that if he had been a little braver that day and chose to face the difficulty head-on instead of handing that love letter to Alex...
Maybe he, Dimitrios, would be the one laughing and joking with Lina now.
'Damn it!'
Dimitrios spat in a low voice. Even though he had ten thousand unwilling thoughts, he could only watch helplessly as he handed the goddess over to someone else.
Until now, he still thought it was the problem with that love letter.
Little did he know that the love letter had long been lying in some garbage heap, and no one cared about it at all.
...
...
The usual place, the school rooftop.
Alex turned around and pointed to the ground, "Try again"
"What?" The girl behind him looked confused.
Alex looked at Lina and sighed "Try meditating like you did on the field"
Even though Alex didn't say a word, Lina could still sense his strong disdain
A flicker of embarrassment crossed the girl's face as she said, "Alex, you're still pulling this trick, aren't you?!"
"I won't listen to you!"
She said, raising her small fist, "If you don't give me a satisfactory explanation, I won't be polite"
But Alex didn't explain much and just looked at her quietly.
He softly uttered two words from his mouth.
"Trust me"
Inexplicably, as soon as Lina met those distinct black and white eyes, she had no intention of making a fuss.
She stammered, her lips opening and closing as if she wanted to say something.
After a long time, she finally sat down with a plop, listened to Alex, and began to meditate obediently.
'Sigh'
'Either way, there is no loss'
Lina thought to herself, after all, this so-called Qi drawing technique was indeed marketed as pure and natural, pollution-free.
She closed her eyes and followed what her master had taught her. Her breathing gradually became steady, and with each inhale and exhale, there was a subtle rhythm.
This was the unique breathing technique of Shady Mountain.
Not only could it lay a solid foundation for those with the talent for cultivation, but even ordinary people who practiced it could prolong their lives and strengthen their bodies.
Alex turned around, no longer looking at Lina, but raised his head to look at the sky.
He stood still, his sleeves moving without wind.
Strands of spiritual energy that were difficult for ordinary people to perceive began to gather on the rooftop.
They entangled above the rooftop, like a huge tornado, sweeping all the spiritual energy within nearly a hundred miles, whether willing or unwilling, all of them crumbled instantly.
In an instant, the small rooftop became the place with the most concentrated spiritual energy in the world at this moment.
...
...
Shadehaven City, southern suburbs.
There was an endless mountain range here, with mild winters and cool summers all year round, clear wind and water, a rare feng shui treasure.
Shady Mountain was located among them.
At this moment, in the deepest part of the Shady Mountain Taoist temple, an old man with white hair and beard slowly opened his eyes.
He seemed a little puzzled, looking confused, and muttered to himself.
"Hmm… Something is wrong…"
"How come the spiritual energy is getting thinner and thinner..."
Areas with abundant spiritual energy had always been the foundation of sects, but now something seemed to have gone wrong, and more than half of it had disappeared for no reason.
The spiritual energy in the world had always been ownerless and couldn't possibly have an owner. They were born as part of the world, so how could there be such a large-scale decrease.
"?..."
Feeling the rapid loss of spiritual energy, the old Taoist couldn't help but tug at his beard, thinking that this was not a decrease, this was simply blatant robbery!
He furrowed his brows deeply.
Such a situation had never been recorded even in the sect's scriptures.
The only thing slightly similar seemed to be the legendary gathering spiritual energy technique.
But this technique should have been lost long ago. Even Shady Mountain had not left any inheritance, so how could other places possibly have it?
Moreover, even if we take ten thousand steps back and say that someone really learned this technique and happened to collect the materials needed for gathering spiritual energy with a heaven-defying fortune...
It still couldn't possibly cause such a big commotion!
The scriptures clearly recorded that the gathering spiritual energy technique used high-grade spirit stones as a medium, hundreds of top-grade spiritual materials as a guide, and then used formations to drive it, in order to make the spiritual energy in the world slightly converge and achieve the effect of gathering spiritual energy.
But no one had ever heard of anyone being able to forcibly seize it directly.
'Could it be... that spiritual energy was about to start disappearing again?'
In this instant, countless guesses flashed through the old Taoist's mind.
Cold sweat poured down his back, and a chill rushed straight to his heart, frightening him so much that his blood nearly froze.
He was the old patriarch of Shady Mountain, capable of moving mountains and overturning seas with a raise of his hand. What scene had he not seen before?
But he was also deeply shocked by the scene before him and didn't dare to act rashly.
Just as he was hesitating whether to chase after the direction of the disappearing spiritual energy to investigate, the turbulent spiritual energy around him suddenly quieted down again, returning to its usual state.
"…"
'Really strange!'
The old Taoist scratched his head, wanting to take a step several times but forcibly suppressing his curiosity.
After much thought, he still felt it was not safe enough.
So he took out a smartphone from his Taoist robe.
"Hello?"
"Patriarch?!"
The person answering the phone seemed to be greatly startled, and then said in an extremely respectful tone, "Patriarch, please give your orders"
"Take a few people and go to the city.."