The autumn wind began to rise.
Over two months passed in the blink of an eye.
For the new students of the Daoist School, the initial novelty and excitement had gradually been replaced by the monotonous yet fulfilling routine of daily cultivation.
Chu Bai’s life, in particular, had become as precise and regular as a clock.
Every morning, as the first rays of dawn pierced the thin mist to illuminate the glazed tile roof of the Scripture Pavilion, he would appear there on time.
Not to read the scriptures, but to complete his special task.
He sat cross-legged on the flying eaves at the very top of the pavilion, letting the mountain wind whip at his robes. He was like a statue, one with the ancient architecture.
The Guiyuan Technique slowly circulated as the dense nature’s spiritual energy around him flowed obediently into his body, like streams drawn to a single point.
At the same time, the Supervisor Jade Scroll in his hand emitted a soft, steady glow, faithfully recording the minute data of his Spiritual Qi intake and output with every breath.
In the past months, he had visited nearly every corner of the Daoist School, from the bustling Martial Arts Arena to the silent Spirit Medicine Garden, from beneath the misty waterfalls to beside the dry, scorching heat of the Artifact Refining Room.
Although he had yet to discover any anomalies in the Law Net worth reporting, this inspection work had given Chu Bai a profound understanding of the subtle differences in Spiritual Qi in the school’s various environments—an understanding far beyond that of an ordinary person.
This was undoubtedly of immense benefit to his Guiyuan Technique cultivation.
Having completed his cultivation and recording for the day, Chu Bai silently took stock of his assets.
The steady income of two Daoist Merits per day made his rate of wealth accumulation terrifying.
In over two months—more than sixty days—this job alone had earned him nearly 120 Daoist Merits.
Adding the 20-point reward for placing first in combat and third overall in the first monthly assessment a month ago, plus the 15 points he had scraped together from odd jobs at the beginning...
His total income had already reached over 150 Daoist Merits.
Even after purchasing Magic Techniques, he still had some left over.
Among the new students, most of whom were still worrying about how to afford Magic Techniques costing a few dozen Daoist Merits, this amount made him an absolute tycoon.
Even the well-off Jiang Kuo would sometimes sigh, half-jokingly and half-seriously, that Chu Bai was the real hidden millionaire of their dorm, the true definition of someone quietly making a fortune.
As his thoughts drifted, Chu Bai’s feet unknowingly carried him to the Martial Arts Arena where the first monthly assessment had been held.
Looking at the familiar grounds, the intense and profound assessment from a month ago was still vivid in his mind.
That was the first time he had truly clashed head-on with the prodigies from the Prefecture City, and it made him clearly recognize his own strengths and weaknesses.
In the Realm and Magic Technique assessments, he was narrowly defeated by two people.
In his match against Lin Xuewei, the favored daughter of the Prefecture City’s Pill Medicine Family, she wielded her family’s heirloom Cold Jade Finger with mastery.
She had refined her Spirit Root since childhood with her family’s secret treasure, the Cold Pool Jade Marrow. The Magical Power she cultivated was incomparably pure and carried a bone-chilling cold.
The moment Chu Bai unleashed his Spirit Water Needle, it was frozen solid in mid-air by the cold Qi emanating from her fingertips, its power greatly diminished. In the end, Chu Bai was regrettably defeated because his Magical Power was not as pure as hers.
And his match with Tao Mingzhi, the descendant of a Military Merit Family, was a head-on battle of attrition.
Tao Mingzhi cultivated his family’s technique; his Magical Power was tyrannical and vast, like a stampeding stallion. In terms of total Magical Power, he clearly surpassed Chu Bai, who had only recently switched to cultivating the Guiyuan Technique.
However, when it came to the most crucial and most watched combat assessment, the situation took a shocking turn.
His memories shifted back to the grim arena on that day, and Chu Bai could still recall the feeling.
When his Seven Kills Fate was triggered by the desire for battle, a cold Evil Qi flooded his entire body, and the world changed before his eyes.
Tao Mingzhi’s wide, sweeping, and powerful saber strikes seemed immensely powerful to others, but to Chu Bai’s dynamic vision—sharpened to its peak by his combat intuition—they were riddled with openings.
In the end, he used just one seemingly ordinary Spirit Water Needle in a surprise attack from behind. At the precise moment when Tao Mingzhi’s old force was spent and new force had yet to be generated, Chu Bai’s needle pressed against the vital point on his back, securing victory in a single move.
That battle firmly established Chu Bai’s status in Class Three and among all the new students.
From then on, a subtle hierarchy formed within Class Three. When it came to the sophistication of Magic Techniques and the depth of family heritage, everyone deferred to Lin Xuewei, whose Cold Ice Technique was preternaturally skillful. When it came to vast Magical Power and domineering frontal assaults, no one could match Tao Mingzhi.
But when it came to life-or-death combat skill and a chillingly sharp battle intuition, no one dared to underestimate Chu Bai.
The three of them thus subtly began to lead the rest of the class.
His thoughts returned to the present.
On the Magic Technique practice field, Instructor Jii Yu was guiding the students as they attacked specially made puppet targets. The puppets were made from hundred-year-old Iron Wood with a Spiritual Power Core embedded in their chests. Only a precise and powerful strike could destroy them.
"Hah!"
With a loud shout, Tao Mingzhi stepped out from the crowd.
Magical Power surged from his hand, forming a foot-long, searing Light Blade—the Fiery Sun Saber!
He chopped forward fiercely. The Light Blade, carrying a wave of scorching heat, accurately struck the puppet’s chest.
With a sharp CRACK, the hard Iron Wood puppet was cleaved in two, the cut edges charred black.
"What a great Magic Technique!"
A wave of cheers immediately erupted from the crowd.
A smug smile appeared on Tao Mingzhi’s face. He basked in the crowd’s attention, but his gaze habitually searched the crowd, finally landing on a calm-faced young man not far away.
Chu Bai.
His true rival.
Chu Bai walked slowly to an intact puppet, his expression serene and unflappable.
He wasn’t as ostentatious as Tao Mingzhi. He simply raised his right hand, brought his index and middle fingers together, and pointed.
It was still the same Spirit Water Needle that everyone was familiar with.
But in Tao Mingzhi’s eyes, this move made his pupils shrink.
He was horrified to discover that the seemingly ordinary Water Needle had a visible, high-speed Spiral Force rotating on its surface, like an indestructible micro-drill, emitting a faint, high-pitched whistle as it tore through the air!
A nearly inaudible sound.
There was no earth-shattering explosion, no flashy light effects.
The Water Needle, carrying the Spiral Force, completely ignored the tough armor on the puppet’s chest that could block ordinary swords, and like a hot knife through butter, it instantly pierced through and accurately shattered the Spiritual Power Core that served as its energy source.
The light in the puppet’s eyes dimmed instantly, and it became an ordinary wooden doll.
"This... this power... it’s more than twice as strong as it was during the monthly assessment, isn’t it?"
"How did he do that? What kind of technique is that Spiral Force Dao? Why have I never seen it in the scriptures?"
The crowd below immediately broke into a flurry of discussion.
But Chu Bai didn’t stop, as if that stunning strike was just a casual move.
He then switched to practicing another Magic Technique that no one had ever seen before.
He spread his five fingers, and Magical Power pulsed from his palm, forming a large, invisible hand that easily lifted a hundred-pound training stone lock from the side.
The invisible hand would gently toss and catch the stone lock like a willow branch swaying in the breeze, then suddenly clench like a goshawk seizing a rabbit, causing the hard stone lock to emit the sound of cracking under immense pressure!
Seeing this, Tao Mingzhi’s heart was thrown into turmoil.
’Dammit! How did his Spirit Water Needle get so much stronger? What the hell is that Spiral Force? In terms of just the sophistication and piercing power of that one strike, it’s... it’s already no worse than my Fiery Sun Saber!’
An unacceptable thought surfaced in his mind.
’And that invisible hand... it integrates offense and defense, and it’s so versatile. Getting caught by that move in a real fight would be a nightmare! This guy... has he actually caught up to me in terms of Magic Technique proficiency?’
’Could it be that Chu Bai is no longer beneath me?’
Just as his mind reeled and he began to see Chu Bai as a formidable rival on his own level, Instructor Jii Yu, who was on the platform, smiled and spoke.
Her voice wasn’t loud, but it clearly reached the ears of everyone on the practice field, like a giant boulder dropped into a calm lake.
"Excellent. Chu Bai, your Spirit Water Needle has entered the Mastery Realm."
"Mastery?! Impossible!"
Tao Mingzhi felt as if he had been struck by lightning, his mind going completely blank.
His own family’s ultimate technique, the Fiery Sun Saber, which he had painstakingly cultivated for years, was only at the ’skilled’ level. He was still a long way from the threshold of Mastery.
He had thought that this monster from the countryside had merely caught up to him, but he never imagined that in the very field he was most proud of, the other party had already left him far, far behind!

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