Chapter 42

The situation had escalated and changed faster than the seniors could react. They were relieved that Jiang Mang had been able to dodge the attack while he had also withheld himself from retaliating. When they saw Jiang Mang laughing after Feng Xue's remark, they became distressed when they noticed her face distorting.

They finally intervened by explaining to Feng Xue the situation. They told her about why they needed the flower and why Jiang Mang had rejected her. They ended the explanation with "Miss Feng, let us apologize if you were offended by young master Jiang's behavior, but he has been born blind, which caused him to not be able to ascertain your status and beauty. He also doesn't know many famous geniuses and their names aside from those on the genius rankings so please forgive him for his ignorance."

Feng Xue had calmed down after their explanation and apology while Jiang Mang stopped laughing too. Feng Xue had also returned her gaze towards Jiang Mang, who smiled and said the following words: "Miss Xue, I too want to apologize for not recognizing you and embarrassing you by laughing. Unfortunately, I couldn't help it as your way of speaking in your last remark reminded me of an old friend. I am also sorry, but as I also need this herb, I cannot sell or give it to you."

These words had completely pacified her and allowed her to understand the boy's behavior. She too, however, needed that immortal daisy urgently. She invited Jiang Mang to the tea house, he wanted to visit, to discuss the herb and a probable solution to both of their needs to which he agreed. They left the store and headed back to the main square where they went inside the tea house and entered a private room without the seniors.

Feng Xue started the conversation by explaining her need for the herb. She needed the immortal daisy to concoct a pill for her alchemy advancement test to become a mid-tier alchemy apprentice. Jiang Mang thought about it and answered that he could only exchange the herb for a rarer poisonous ingredient, which is the gallbladder of a rainbow snake saint beast. This beast's poison is of the hallucinatory type and is an even better ingredient. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the connections or money to buy it.

Feng Xue was happy when she heard that Jiang Mang was willing to exchange it with another ingredient, but when she heard his request she became silent. That gallbladder is a rare ingredient in Sword capital, and only mid-tier alchemy apprentices could reserve one at the association.

She explained the situation to Jiang Mang, which made both of them feel helpless until Jiang Mang decided to do her a favor by proposing the following: "Miss Feng, you had earlier stated that you needed the immortal daisy for your advancement test. If I were to give you the herb, do you have the confidence to succeed and then later give me the gallbladder. It would well have to be a week before the recruitment."

Feng Xue was incredibly happy and assured him of her confidence to advance if she was given the herb. She accepted his proposal and promised him that she could provide him with the required herb in two weeks. She made another appointment with Jiang Mang the next day to discuss the issue of the gallbladder after she has conducted her test today.

Jiang Mang, too, left the private room but not the tea house. He seated himself with the two seniors and discussed cultivation with them while also explaining his arrangements with Feng Xue. The two seniors were happy to guide Jiang Mang while approving of his favor to her as she could become a friend or an important connection in the future.

They also guided Jiang Mang a bit about intents as they had both comprehended intent to the great accomplishment. They talked that intent at initial mastery required an increasingly complex and broad understanding of the intent to advance while to have an intent advance again requires a more profound and simplified understanding of the previous and to perfect your intent, a person has to comprehend their intent to the point that it can be engraved into the heart and be understood with a couple of words.

Intent comprehension follows the path of accumulation to a simple comprehension that becomes complex until it transforms simple again and has ultimately become part of the user's unique understanding of dao. Every person knows that every intent is roughly the same at the beginning but diverges for each person when further comprehended. There is no distinction between strong or weak intents, but only in how they are comprehended and used.

This explanation helped Jiang Mang understand intent deeper and also showed him how to further improve his already comprehended intents of illusion, charm, growth, absorption, speed, and claw. He had already comprehended illusion intent the most, and it only required Jiang Mang to redefine his understanding with all of his accumulated understandings definable through it.

He had temporarily given up on the poison intent and had decided to visit the tea house to further understand music and its capabilities. Now that he was a customer, he decided to try and comprehend all of the played music that day. At the moment there was a maiden playing the zither. She played a euphemistic song that invoked a happy feeling. Jiang Mang was able to determine that she was a musician cultivator in the manifestation realm. The songs that were played next were also all filled with a happy feeling but different kinds, and as he kept listening he started to understand the emotion of joy further and further. He noticed that his illusion intent seemed to be improving together with his understanding of the happiness emotion.

Jiang Mang decided to further understand the seven emotions and six desires to reach the small accomplishment of the illusion intent. He stayed inside the tea house listening to the music for an entire afternoon until it started closing when he started returning to the inn.