Chapter 8 Stealing and Learning Skills, Successive Frustrations

'It's a good thing that it's a small bird with no spiritual cultivation, if it had been a spirit beast, with the little bit of soul power that I've only begun to accumulate, it wouldn't have been enough at all.' Untangling the long rope and placing down the magpie bird that was no longer struggling, Lin Manshan shook his head, "For the time being, I can only control these two."

When he opened the window, with a few flaps, the magpie bird pecked up the spider and flew away directly.

Through the perspective of the magpie bird, Lin Manshan could clearly see the houses and trees that were constantly passing by.

The magpie bird's flight speed was not bad, and he soon saw the familiar barren house.

"Clang, clang, clang" came the loud hammering sound, looking down, it was Tang San who was constantly swinging his hammer and hitting the iron blocks.

Not far away from him was Tang Hao, sitting on a small stool and basking in the sun, occasionally glancing at the forging table.

Controlling the magpie bird to go around the house, he swooped out and landed on the edge of the house which was near the back room, put down the spider, and when the spider plopped inside through the window hole, Lin Manshan controlled the magpie bird to fly up again, circled around and landed on the tree closest to the forging table.

Tang Hao, who had a keen sense, opened his eyes and glanced at the magpie bird, then continued to close his eyes and fake sleep.

At the beginning of spring, it was the best time for birds to return to nesting and breeding, so it was normal to see magpies.

Seeing that Tang Hao didn't care, Lin Manshan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, as he was really worried that this bastard would come to beat the bird for extra food.

Moving to a suitable angle, Lin Manshan began to watch attentively.

'Is this the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer technique? Using the legs to carry the force from the waist, the waist to carry the back, and the back to carry the arms, borrowing power to exert force, it's quite subtle.' He had inherited the most precious ten years of cultivation memories of the 'Act Against the Sky', and he fought and comprehended almost every day, so he could naturally see the subtlety of the hammer swinging technique used by Tang San, "However, this Tang San should have just learnt it as well, and his movements aren't very skilful."

Lin Manshan recalled, indeed, that it was only after Tang Hao knew that Tang San had awakened the Clear Sky Hammer martial soul that he taught him the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer Technique.

'When I have the chance in the future, I can try to get a private blacksmith shop myself. Blacksmithing is an extremely physically demanding activity, especially after utilising the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer Technique, it has a very good effect on arm strength, back and waist strength, which is beneficial to me as well.'

To swing a sword, it required arm strength, as well as back and waist strength.

'Tang San was able to defeat Feng Xiaotian the first time he displayed the Clear Sky Hammer at the Spirit Master Tournament, and it couldn't be achieved without the pre-existing experience of beating iron. After all, practice makes perfect.' Lin Manshan watched again, gave the magpie bird a quick command, and disconnected the link.

"Kiki." The magpie bird cried a few times, flew down the tree, pecked up a few twigs from the ground and flew back again, by the looks of it, it was preparing to build a nest.

'It's pretty good, it can establish a connection from so far away, and you can still see everything, It's worthy of being a Dark Art that the Dark Ones has specially developed to use for reconnaissance.' Lin Manshan smiled, got up and walked out of the door, carried over a small bench and the hardwood he brought back earlier and sat down, summoned the green hatchet martial soul and began to carve, he could not summon his martial soul for a long time yet, and was prepared to carve a wooden hatchet to practise his knife skills.

***

In the morning, he took the wooden hatchet and went out for a run, went to the open space outside the village to practice with the hatchet, went home for lunch, cultivated his soul power in the afternoon and evening, and read the memories of his "Eyes" before going to bed. Lin Manshan quickly passed through a month with this tight schedule.

At night, in the bedroom, Lin Manshan slowly opened his eyes with a bitter expression.

'No wonder Bai Cai remained a battle scum in the grand finale, the human physique is just too weak. The speed of the physical body's improvement is completely unable to keep up with the cultivation speed of the soul power, obviously, my soul strength is still more than enough, but my physical body can't withstand it yet.'

Feeling the filling sensation of his body swelling up and ready to crack, Lin Manshan was helpless, 'It's possible to transfer the excess soul power to the martial soul to complete the Soul Gear in advance, but that would cause the martial soul's form to change drastically, and it would be difficult to explain it at all at that time.'

'If I were to be seen as having a twin martial soul, another twist would be inevitable. Given my civilian status, and my strength today, I really can't afford a toss and turn, so it's better to keep a low profile. It seems that I can only stop nurturing my soul power for now, and shift my focus to spirit power cultivation. For the past month, I've been cultivating my soul power to solve my headache, but my spirit power is still at level three, so it's really time for me to cultivate it as well.'

"Now that my headache problem has been solved, cultivating spirit power shouldn't cause any more impact on my body." Lin Manshan subconsciously touched his chin, 'After absorbing the first spirit ring and my body is strengthened, I can continue to cultivate soul power. Or, I can find a way to make money and spend money to buy some medicinal herbs to be refined using my dark art to strengthen my physical body and maintain the cultivation of my soul power.'

"Damn, Ice and Fire Well, I admit I'm greedy." Lin Manshan muttered. When it comes to refining herbs, ordinary herbs do not have the outstanding effect of immortal herbs, 'In my current situation, I'm not even qualified to approach Dugu Bo, let alone risk being killed on the spot to gain trust and obtain the immortal herbs. With Dugu Bo's character of being both good and evil, it's too risky to act rashly.'

"Let's raise our strength first and think of a way later."

"But cultivating spirit power, hey," Tang San's daily arrangement was very regular, early in the morning he went to the top of the mountain to cultivate Purple Demon Eye, went home to cook, and after eating he began to beat the iron to practice Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer Technique, and at night he practised Mysterious Heaven Skill.

He had the magpie bird follow Tang San up to the mountaintop every day and also had the spider on the beam at night for close observation, but regarding the Mysterious Heaven Skill, so far he had learnt nothing. Mysterious Heaven Skill is an internal skill, qi travels through the meridians, so he can't observe it at all by controlling the magpie bird and spider. It is also the same with the Purple Demon Eye, apart from being able to see purple light coming out of his eyes, there was nothing else to be gained.

On the contrary, Tang San's practice of hidden weapon techniques, Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track Technique, Controlling Crane Catching Dragon Technique and Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer, he had gained quite a lot. As for the mechanical hidden weapons, Tang San hadn't even completed the hammering task on the piece of raw iron Tang Hao had given him yet.

Without having access to the materials, it was natural that he hadn't started manufacturing it yet.

'If there's no Mysterious Heaven Skill, then there is none. It's time to practice or cultivate' Thinking of this, Lin Manshan immediately closed his eyes and meditated.

Daily cultivation continued in an orderly manner, and another two months passed without him realising it.

Early in the morning, when the sky was still light, Lin Manshan got up and pushed the door out, facing the cold morning wind to do morning exercises.

Not long after, the doors of other rooms were pushed open one after another, Miao Ni was the first to come out, turning her head and seeing Lin Manshan, her face immediately revealed a smile, "Xiao Wu, you're up so early again. You wait first, Mum will go and make you breakfast. Eat before you go out to exercise."

After saying that, she turned around and walked towards the kitchen.

And right at this moment, a loud shout suddenly came from outside the house, "Old Jack!"

"Who is it!" From the other side, Old Jack, who had just walked out of the room, rubbed his eyes and glanced up to look over.

"Tang Hao?" As if he thought of something, he immediately looked happy and yelled, "What, have you figured it out?"

"Hmph, I just don't want to waste a free spot that doesn't cost anything. I also want to have a sound sleep tomorrow morning, so if you want to come over and take Xiao San away, don't yell again to disturb my peace of mind." Tang Hao finished in a flat tone and turned around.

"This Tang Hao finally did the right thing." Old Jack shook his head.

Before, he had said that no means no. What a pretence. Looking at Tang Hao's departing back, Lin Manshan skimmed his lips.

After eating breakfast and bringing his wooden hatchet with him, Lin Manshan ran towards the outside of the village with small steps, continuing his daily practice.

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