Chapter 43

The next day Jiang Mang woke up at sunrise. When he left his room, he was informed that they would depart at sunset and that Chu Lingxin was still trying to comprehend the sword slashes on the sword wall. Jiang Mang planned to spend the rest of the day listening to the music inside the tea house while waiting for Feng Xue and their appointment.

Jiang Mang headed to the tea house from yesterday and started to further his comprehension. The two accompanying seniors spend their time chatting and playing chess while enjoying the environment. The music that was being played still had that happy feeling but it was now performed by another zither player. This allowed Jiang Mang to compare the invoked emotion of joy of yesterday and today.

His comprehension was increasing with each hour until it reached a bottleneck at the moment when he felt that he would comprehend the emotion of joy to completion. He then returned to his senses and was informed that three hours had passed, and another two were remaining before the appointment. Jiang Mang spends the remaining time playing chess with the seniors, which brought him a sense of peace that he hadn't experienced during the last five years.

Feng Xue arrived two hours later and invited Jiang Mang back into a private room. She began the conversation by thanking him as she had managed to pass the advancement test. She had already reserved a rainbow gallbladder with the alchemy organization's branch, where the recruitment venue was scheduled in one and a half months.

Feng Xue would also take part in the recruitment and would thus also travel towards the venue where they could meet again and finish their transaction. Jiang Mang was happy that she managed to keep her word and congratulated her for advancing. The appointment was now finished, but they didn't part as both of them were free for the entire afternoon. They decided to spend their afternoon together while listening to music and enjoying the tea.

They discussed the martial dao at the beginning and were intrigued by the understandings the other person had to offer. Jiang Mang specialized in many different areas and had a high comprehension ability, while Feng Xue was a genius alchemist and fire cultivator, who had a high comprehension of the fire element. Their discussion had enlightened the duo about many of their doubts, which brought joy to both of them. This moment of rare and genuine joy allowed Jiang Mang to complete his understanding of the first emotion of joy.

After their discussion, they started telling about their journeys and experiences. Feng Xue was a noble girl born in the Feng family who governed the continent next to the Sword continent ruled by the Sword empire. This continent was called the Firebird continent as the hereditary profound spirit of the Feng family are mostly fire elemental fowls. She is the top genius in her family due to her phoenix profound spirit. She elaborated that she had mostly spent her time training indoors while also preparing to start learning alchemy when she reached the saint stage. This was completely different from Jiang Mang's experiences from his birth to the academy to his five years of training and gaining Jianghu experience. His story had captivated the one year older girl, and he had managed to earn her admiration.

They had spent the entire afternoon together. During their conversations and discussions, both of them had grown closer to the point that they started calling each other big sister and little brother. Feng Xue has told him about her goal to become an alchemy grandmaster while Jiang Mang had told her about his mastery of six intents and that he was comprehending a seventh. This had shocked her for a moment but she accepted it after learning about all of his experiences and talent. They had become close friends after just an afternoon due to having an inexplicable trust in one another. When it was his time to depart, he was quite unwilling, so he invited her to travel with him and Chu Lingxin towards the recruitment venue as she was headed there too. She hesitated as it wouldn't be polite, but she too didn't want to split with him. She felt that they had a connection, and she didn't want to sever that connection even temporarily. She accepted his proposal by giving the excuse that she could easier give him the gallbladder if she traveled with him.

She took a maid and protector, who were both at the peak saint stage to come with her before she followed Jiang Mang, Xiao Lu, and the two seniors towards senior thunder eagle. The two seniors welcomed Feng Xue to travel with them as this could create a connection between the Chu empire and the Feng clan. When they arrived at the assembly point where Chu Lingxin and the others were waiting, Jiang Mang introduced Feng Xue and gave the same excuse, why she would accompany them, as she had given.

Chu Lingxin was surprised but welcomed Feng Xue as she was approved by Jiang Mang and also because she wanted to gain a female friend for the journey. Feng Xue was quite a social person and quickly integrated into the group. Even senior thunder eagle welcomed her after being gifted with a pill, which improved his chances of breaking through.

They all boarded senior thunder eagle's back and departed towards their last destination before the recruitment venue, which was located on an uninhabited island. They were going to visit Sky city, which was the greatest trade city in the outer domain. Sky city was also the closest city to the recruitment venue, and they would stay there for a month before arriving a week earlier at the recruitment venue on the island.

Jiang Mang and Chu Lingxin had originally planned to seclude themselves in sky city but the duo was now accompanied by Feng Xue while also having both reached a bottleneck that couldn't be resolved by secluding themselves. Chu Lingxin had gained comprehension through a sword slash into a soft sword technique. This technique was self-derived and allowed her to comprehend her soft intent to the small accomplishment. The technique was called the yin sword art and perfectly suited her yin sword profound spirit. She had now comprehended two intents to small accomplishment while having also reached the mid saint stage.

Jiang Mang, on the other hand, had still not comprehended his poison intent. While he had just started to comprehend the seven emotions and six desires to advance his illusion intent. At the moment he had only comprehended the emotion of joy.

Feng Xue was the weakest out of the three by having understood the scorching intent to initial mastery and only having an early saint stage cultivation. It should well be mentioned that she had spent less time in the saint stage than Jiang Mang but had managed to become a mid-tier alchemy apprentice in only a month, which showed her greater alchemy talent than her already high martial talent.