Qi Gathering Realm!

"Now, which one should I choose?"

Xu Meihua pondered quite a bit while looking at these ten different manuals. Every single one of these seems like a priceless treasure to her, so she was having quite a hard time choosing. Sweat started to drip from her forehead from nervousness as she glanced back and forth.

'Should I choose the spear? Uh, no it won't be able to handle close-range battle... Maybe daggers? Wait no, it also won't be able to handle range attacks...' she mutters incoherently.

Su Lan notices her disciple struggling and giggles,

"How about trying out the way of the sword?"

Xu Meihua perked up a bit after hearing her master's words. Now that she thought about it, it was a pretty good suggestion.

Swords are very versatile and are the most popular weapon in the current cultivation world. Due to how popular it is, sword arts are way more developed compared to other arts, so sword cultivators are usually more powerful than cultivators of other arts.

With a smile, Xu Meihua understood her master's intention. She must have wanted her to have a brighter future by cultivating the best of all arts...

'As expected of Master, her suggestions are always the best!' Xu Meihua praised in her heart.

She then nodded to her master and took out the manual that contains the Equilibrium Sword Technique. She then opened it slowly to read it from page to page, but the words and images are very complicated to follow since this technique was written long ago.

Since she can't seem to understand a single word from the manual, Xu Meihua then asked her master to help explain them to her and she agreed. After quite some time, she finally finished reading the whole book due to her master's guidance.

[ The skill, Equilibrium Sword Technique has been learned! ]

[ The skill, Sword Basics (passive) has been learned! ]

Rather than a sword technique, it is way more accurate to call these tips and tricks. It mostly consists of the best way to hold a sword, which stance is best in some situations, how to swing your sword to exert its full potential, and other basic stuff. Only the last five pages mentioned the actual sword technique.

And to be honest, although it is the very basic of all sword techniques, Xu Meihua still can't seem to wrap her head around them. The technique feels very simple but difficult to do. It feels like she has to memorize every single one of these words carefully just to be able to do them barely. But still, it's better than nothing, right?

Then, her master asked her with a smile,

"Now, shall we try to perform it?"

Xu Meihua nodded and got up. Su Lan then weaved her hand casually and a simple-looking sword suddenly appeared out of thin air, before flying into Xu Meihua's hand.

"Now, use that sword technique to destroy this boulder," she ordered, pointing to a huge rock behind her.

The boulder was shaped like a round ball. It was twice as tall as Xu Meihua with a diameter of three meters. Although it looks quite large, it was actually nothing compared to other training boulders in the Flowing Sword Sect.

Xu Meihua nodded and got into the battle stance that was stated in the book.

Both of her legs were rooted deeply into the ground as her eyes grew sharper, completely focused on this single boulder. She then clenched her hand as she held her sword tightly, before dashing towards the boulder with a downward swing!

Woooosh!

Although this technique is simple, it carries a strong force behind it. The air around her sword got blown away as her swing got faster and stronger, before eventually reaching the boulder.

Crack!

A loud sound was heard as a slash mark was formed in the middle of the boulder. For a moment, Xu Meihua feels like a badass anime character as she smiled. However, this glorious moment didn't last long as she couldn't stop her dash and landed face-first into the damaged boulder.

She must admit though, that one swing was pretty cool.

"How was it, master!?" she glanced back at Su Lan with a bright smile on her bloody face.

Su Lan though... had a massive frown on her face. This outcome was very different than what she had thought.

'That swing... was way too weak!' Su Lan thought as she facepalmed.

With her disciple's heavily trained body, The Equilibrium Sword Technique should have done way more damage to the boulder. However, the slash mark that Meihua formed with her technique was quite small, it was only about a quarter of a meter deep.

She even questioned in her mind whether or not her disciple truly listened to her explanation when she read the book to her. Her swing was way too high! Her dash was way too quick! Her movements were very clumsy! All the movements she performed had at least some errors to them, it was horrible!

But then she looked back at Xu Meihua, who was smiling brightly from ear to ear, feeling very proud of what she just did.

Su Lan's heart melted after seeing her disciple having fun like this, she hesitated whether or not she should tell her disciple that it was the worst technique execution she has ever seen. She simply cannot put her words together to tell her that her technique was terrible.

She put on a forced smile as she comforted her disciple,

"Yes, it was great..."

"Thank you, master!" Xu Meihua replied.

As time went on, Xu Meihua kept on practicing The Equilibrium Sword Technique nonstop under Su Lan's guidance until she told her to take a rest. After observing for a while, Xu Meihua's techniques are still terrible and Su Lan knew that the main problem lies in her disciple's natural talent, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Everyone was born with different talents and whether it was good or bad, it was their destiny. Unless they met some kind of heavenly emperor, all they could do was just work hard and do their best. And now, all Su Lan could hope for was that her disciple's hard work could make up for her talent.

Without anything else to do, they then return to the modest house as Su Lan tried her best to hide her disappointment.

'If her talent was indeed this terrible, then it might make things a lot more difficult for this last month of training...' Su Lan thought in her head.

After Xu Meihua finally fell asleep, Su Lan breathed a sigh and pat her disciple's head. After practicing and observing for a while, she could confirm that her disciple truly has no talent in swords. Su Lan had a sad look on her face, she was afraid that she may not be able to pass down her signature sword technique to Xu Meihua.

Due to her disciple's talent, Su Lan could tell that she was destined to walk a different path from her, all she could do now is to support her until she could find a better master than her. Still, after living with her disciple and watching her grow, she has gone quite attached to her. She has become reluctant to separate from her, but she restrained her feelings for the sake of her disciple.

'I shouldn't be too selfish as to force her to walk the same way as me. Tomorrow, I should make her train other arts to find out her true talent...'

She must change her method of training.

With that thought, Su Lan walked away and the day ended peacefully.

...

...

...

...

...

Xu Meihua woke up early in the morning with a perplexed expression.

Instead of being welcomed by the pleasant warmth of the morning sun, she was greeted by her master shoving three different books into her face. Every single one of these books looks old and decrepit, to the point she could smell the dust particles lingering on it from five miles away.

"Good morning, my disciple. Read these books until dawn, then head to the training area to train." Su Lan ordered with haste, before disappearing from Xu Meihua's sight.

"..."

Xu Meihua stared with blank eyes.

'...what the hell?'

She was left alone in her room, still confused and groggy after her ten hours of sleep. Her hair was still messy and her eyelids still felt heavy. She then took a look at the book her master gave her.

"Cloud Steps Technique, Heaven and Earth Palm Technique, and The Gate of Ten Thousand Laws..." she muttered.

All of these technique sounds overpowered, maybe her master has some kind of plan for her?

She then quickly changed into her training robe and quickly do her daily routine, before opening the book with the name 'Cloud Steps Technique'.

It was a movement technique that makes the user move faster than the wind and as light as a cloud. Whoever masters this technique can travel long distances without breaking a sweat and outrun cultivators with higher cultivation than them.

The next one was the Heaven and Earth Palm Technique. It was a technique made by an ancient cultivator who dominated many large sects with his palm. This palm attack would ignore any sort of armor and will directly damage the enemy's internal organs. So unless the enemy has heaven-grade armor or has significantly high cultivation, Xu Meihua will crush them in a fight.

And finally, The Gate of Ten Thousand Laws. Out of all the other techniques, this one made Xu Meihua's heart pump the most. The reason was that this technique makes the user capable of learning many different laws at the same time!

What is a law?

Laws are basically elements, including sword, fist, palm, fire, water, wood, and others. If one mainly uses sword techniques throughout their cultivation journey, then they would be called a Sword Law Cultivator. If one mainly uses water techniques, then they would be called a Water Law Cultivator!

However in this world, cultivators can only cultivate a single law. Only unparalleled geniuses or those who are gifted by the heavens (Holy Physiques) can cultivate two laws and that's because different laws conflict with each other.

If one cultivates water law and fire law, then the fire law will suppress the water law to the point that it could only express half of its original power, and the same will happen to the latter.

Also, cultivating a single law is already very hard for most people. Most geniuses can only reach the nascent soul realm after cultivating a single law for their whole life, let alone with two or more.

This explains just how priceless this Gate of Ten Thousand Laws actually is.

Now back to the present.

Xu Meihua quickly flipped through each of these books as she tried her best to comprehend them. The sun rises and descended to the west as time passes like the wind. After a long time has passed, she finally managed to read through them.

Phew...

'Thank god my master taught me how to read old writings yesterday otherwise, I would have been doomed...'

These three manuals that her master gave her were very complicated. It took her a whole morning and noon just to read them once and yet her understanding of these techniques was still next to nothing. That's probably why the system has not notified her of any new skill being learned.

However, she cannot relax just yet. She must train these techniques with her master now.

'I must ask Master to demonstrate it and help me train these techniques. Otherwise, I probably won't ever understand them my whole life...'

With that thought, she set off to the field to meet her master.

Her master was sitting in the same place as she did on her first day of meeting her. She sat in the middle of the field, but unlike the first time in which she showed a gentle expression, this time her expression is way more open and casual.

She opened her eyes as she asked,

"There you are, have you read the books as I instructed?"

"Yes, master."

"Good job, Meihua. From now on, you will be training with those three techniques for the remaining time we have left this month. Without further ado, let's start with The Gate of Ten Thousand Laws Cultivation Technique. Now sit as comfortably as you like..."

"Huh? Weren't you supposed to sit in a lotus position to cultivate...?" Xu Meihua asked with confusion.

"Huh? Who told you that?" Su Lan replied, even more confused.

'What the hell...'

So people don't have to sit in a lotus position to cultivate? That's another lie about cultivation from her previous life!

"Uh, nobody..."

Her gaze shifted around uncomfortably as she tried to ignore her master eyeing her suspiciously. Either way, she still sat in a lotus position since any other posture would rub her the wrong way, and her master simply nodded.

"Close your eyes and sense your surroundings. Don't think or imagine anything, just let your mind be empty while you do it..."

Xu Meihua followed her master's order and closed her eyes. She tried to clear her mind out of any imagination, but she failed miserably. In her mind, random images inside her memory kept appearing instinctively. She furrowed her eyebrows as she realized, her mind is really restless!

'Damn it! Clear your mind, Xu Meihua! Wait a minute, I saw something... Is that among us? Wait, no! Clear your mind!' she screamed on the inside.

After a few minutes, she finally managed to barely maintain some serenity in her mind. And then, she finally felt something.

It was some kind of energy that felt very soothing and pleasant to the touch. It is present everywhere around her and flows around without a destination. Xu Meihua's heart jumped when she felt this,

'This... Is this what cultivators call the energy of heaven and earth? Just a moment ago, I couldn't feel it. But now after my mind reached serenity, I could it everywhere around me!'

She extended her hand to reach out to the energy. When her hand came in contact with them, they sank into her palm before coming out shortly after.

Xu Meihua was fascinated after seeing this, but she doesn't want to waste time. She immediately followed the instruction from the Gate of Ten Thousand Laws book as all of the surrounding energy was slowly absorbed into her body. Time passes quietly as her body was slowly being filled with energy to the brim. Eventually, when she sensed that her body couldn't absorb more, she immediately stopped.

'Now that I managed to absorb them, I must somehow keep these energies from leaving my body. I must... hold it in!'

With her pure willpower, every energy that entered her body was locked in, without a single strand leaking out.

Su Lan saw that her disciple was able to hold in the surrounding energy inside her body in just a few minutes and she smiled,

'Yes, you're doing great, Meihua!' she cheered in her heart.

Su Lan then sat behind her and put both of her hands on Xu Meihua's back.

"Now, follow my strand of energy and memorize it. Remember, do not think of anything else and simply focus!" Su Lan said sternly.

All of a sudden, something entered Xu Meihua's body. It was a tiny strand of energy that belonged to her master and flowed in a specific pattern throughout her whole body. Su Lan tried her best to circulate it as slowly as possible so Xu Meihua could follow her, and it seems to be working.

Xu Meihua quickly controlled the energy that she recently absorbed and follow her master's strand of energy to the blood vessels, muscles, organs, and finally her dantian. The process repeated for a whole hour before something changed...

Fwoong...

Xu Meihua then opened her eyes with a smile. She has unclogged her first meridian. She has reached the first stage of Qi Gathering realm!

[Congratulations player Xu Meihua for breaking through the Qi Gathering realm! ]

[ Strength has improved by 10 points! ]

[ Agility has improved by 10 points! ]

[ Stamina has improved by 10 points! ]

[ Intelligence has improved by 10 points! ]

[ Qi has improved by 10 points! ]

[ The skill, Gate of Ten Thousand Laws has been learned! ]

[Level up! ]

[Level up! ]

...

Her mind became a lot clearer and her body feels stronger and lighter. Unlike before, she could now feel the energy inside her body and fully under her control.

'status.'

[--------------Status-------------]

<Level 23: Xu Meihua>

Title: Transmigrator

Cultivation: Qi Gathering - 1st Stage

Stat Points: 39

Skill points: 13

Strength: 19

Agility: 27

Stamina: 24

Intelligence: 15

Charm: 30

Qi: 10

Skills:

- Equilibrium Sword Technique Lvl 1

- Sword Basics (Passive) Lvl 1

- Gate of Ten Thousand Laws Lvl 1

[----------------------------------]