Chapter 13: Technique Transmission to the Family

At daybreak, Chen Jiankang left the sect with Pang Xiaolei. The experience of passing through space left Pang Xiaolei amazed all over again.

The two of them then hurried to the car at a pace that was practically a run. They found someone in the village who could drive and had him take them down the mountain.

Neither of them noticed Wang Pingyuan, the Wang family’s fourth son, standing on the third-floor balcony and watching them leave with an ugly expression. After one last glance in the direction they had come from, he grabbed a freshly steamed bun, clamped it between his teeth, and crept nervously out the door.

He searched around in front of the terraced fields, even making his way to the orange grove. He kept circling the area until eleven in the morning before finally leaving in dissatisfaction.

The moment Wang Pingyuan left, Chen Yi emerged from the orange grove.

Without wasting a second, he headed for the cemetery on North Mountain.

Unless his senses had been wrong yesterday, something was going to happen there. As a precaution, he had deliberately chosen to climb the mountain at noon, when yang energy was at its strongest, and made several rounds among the graves.

Perhaps because it was daytime, the cemetery was completely peaceful. There were even people weeding and planting vegetables beside it.

That was simply how things were in the countryside. People feared cemeteries, yet they could still work and live beside them. After all, North Mountain had gentle slopes and fertile farmland.

Chen Yi noticed nothing unusual. Seeing that the mulberries and nectarines on the mountain were ripe, and that the wild trees were left untended, with fallen fruit lying uncollected on the ground, he looked around to make sure no one was nearby. Then he climbed to the treetops and picked the highest, largest, and sweetest fruit, planning to bring it back for the children to try.

Carrying a shirtful of fruit, he passed another seven or eight graves on his way back. Chen Yi sniffed hard, but he truly could not smell anything foul. In the end, he had no choice but to leave.

When he returned to the sect, it was only twelve o’clock. Xiang Lan was cooking porridge for the children, while Da Huang and Big White Goose played with them.

The ground in front of the Sect Main Hall was still bare earth. The children had mud all over their faces from playing, which left Chen Yi a little worried.

Children could start kindergarten at three years old. The original owner had already begun looking into schools, but the divorce had delayed everything. Now the responsibility had fallen to Chen Yi.

Kindergarten began in September, but registration had already taken place in May. It was June now, and they had missed the enrollment period. Never mind whether he could still get them into a good kindergarten—could he truly manage to drop them off and pick them up every day?

Chen Yi could not help thinking that once he turned the sect system over to the state, his first wish would be to build a kindergarten inside the sect. Ideally, the state could assign an excellent kindergarten teacher to work there. That way, he could stay with the children every day without betraying his original intentions, and he could properly teach them the right values.

The first lesson was that they could not take things that did not belong to them. Instead of coveting what others had and trying to snatch it away, they should work hard and earn things through their own ability.

So while Chen Yi was washing the fruit, he saw the two children crouching nearby with greedy little expressions, clearly waiting to be fed. But when he finished washing it, instead of placing a piece beside their mouths, he popped it into his own.

“Ah!”

His daughter stared at him eagerly. Her mouth had already fallen open, only to close again in disappointment.

Her brother smacked his lips and asked, “Is it good, Daddy?”

“Mm. It’s good.”

“Where did you buy it?”

“I picked it on the mountain. Fruit tastes especially good when it comes straight from the tree.”

“Oh…” After thinking for a moment, his son asked, “Can I go pick some?”

Chen Yi’s expression softened into a smile. “Of course. I’ll take you both.”

Picking fruit themselves would not only give the children a sense of accomplishment, but also strengthen their bond with him in the process.

That was Chen Yi’s thinking.

When Xiang Lan saw that Chen Yi was taking the children out, she wanted to come along.

Chen Yi stopped her. “You should cultivate.”

Xiang Lan laughed. “Why would someone my age cultivate? It’s not as though I can go onto a battlefield.”

Chen Yi said, “Do it for yourself and for us. At the very least, you should be able to protect yourself. Besides, cultivation can make people younger. It truly can extend your lifespan.”

Xiang Lan thought it over and agreed. Persuaded, she stayed behind.

Chen Yi left the sect with the children and Da Huang.

He had not forgotten Big White Goose, either. He had found a chance to ask whether it wanted to join the sect, but Big White Goose merely flapped its wings and ignored him. When he asked a few more times, it waddled toward him with its toes pointing inward, honking as it tried to peck him.

Clearly, it had not awakened its intelligence and still counted as ordinary livestock.

Sooner or later, it was going into a stewpot!

Chen Yi chased away Big White Goose when it tried to follow, then returned to the outside world with the children.

The afternoon sunlight was bright, bathing them in warmth. Only then did Chen Yi realize that the light inside the separate space had no temperature.

The terraced fields were filled with water that reflected the sunlight. They resembled rows of green waves pouring down from the sky. Compared with the beautiful scenery inside the sect, this was a different kind of refreshing, open landscape.

Chen Yi took the children straight to North Mountain without the slightest hesitation.

Children in the village learned early to regard cemeteries as a natural part of life. After all, the people buried there were their own ancestors, and they hoped those ancestors would protect them and help their lives improve.

Chen Yi knew the way well and soon arrived at the mulberry tree.

The mulberry trees on the mountain grew wildly, reaching the height of a three-story building. Their thick branches were sturdy enough to climb. Among the emerald leaves were green, red, purple, and fully ripened mulberries.

Chen Yi placed the children on a branch and let them try reaching the nearby mulberries themselves. Whenever one was beyond their reach, he bent the branch toward them.

His daughter plucked one and put it into her mouth. Her eyes lit up, and the adorable look on her face was almost too much to bear.

Her brother, however, picked one that was only half-ripe. After eating it, his whole body shuddered, and his little face scrunched up from the sourness.

“Woof!”

Da Huang stood upright, bracing his front paws against the trunk as his tail wagged.

Chen Yi picked a mulberry and tossed it over. Da Huang caught it in one bite, and his tail wagged even more enthusiastically.

Just then, a ding sounded in Chen Yi’s mind.

Spirit-Charge Fist: Proficient!

While entertaining the children, Chen Yi divided his attention and studied the idling system.

For martial techniques placed into Cultivation Technique Idling, it took three hours to reach Skilled and six hours to reach Proficient.

Sword Manipulation was only fifty-five percent of the way toward Minor Mastery. In other words, the required time doubled with each advancement.

Minor Mastery required twelve hours.

Major Mastery required twenty-four hours.

Expert required forty-eight hours.

Master required ninety-six hours.

Transcendent Mastery required one hundred and ninety-two hours.

Reaching the maximum level would take sixteen days in total.

Was sixteen days a long time?

Don’t be ridiculous!

Sixteen days of idling was enough to reach the absolute maximum level. This was practically a gift falling from the heavens!

He could become proficient in every kind of martial art without even getting out of bed. What was there to complain about?

Mental cultivation arts, however, seemed to use a different calculation method, one that depended on the individual’s aptitude.

The entry stage alone made that obvious. Chen Yi had entered the art in one hour. Pang Xiaolei had taken less than three hours. His father had needed roughly four hours, while his mother had already exceeded five.

This mental cultivation art did not require a particular spiritual root. Anyone with a functioning brain could cultivate it. The only difference lay in aptitude. It was somewhat like universal education: everyone could be taught, and getting started was relatively easy, but whether someone truly had talent and how far they could progress were separate matters.

His son was very bold. After sitting on the branch for only a short while, he began testing whether he could scoot farther out.

Ahead of him was a large, dark mulberry hidden behind the leaves.

He stretched out his short, chubby hand.

He reached and reached, but could not quite grasp it.

Then the reckless little boy lunged forward.

He reached the mulberry—and fell.

Hey!

Before he even had time to feel afraid, a powerful hand shot out and caught him around the waist. A moment later, he was pulled against a broad, solid chest.

He looked up and saw his father smiling at him with great gentleness.

The boy smiled too. He raised his little hand in front of his father and opened it.

“Daddy, for you.”

Chen Yi looked at the mulberry in front of him. It had already been squeezed until juice ran from it. Without changing his expression, he lowered his head and actually ate it from the child’s hand.

But that texture…

His brow tightened slightly, and he hurriedly swallowed without letting anything show.

“Delicious. Qianqian, you did a wonderful job.”

Chen Yi praised him and placed him safely back on the branch. He let the children continue climbing without worrying that they might fall and be hurt.

He would always catch them.

The first thing he wanted to teach his children was not to be afraid. They should pursue what they wanted bravely, because no matter what happened, their father would be there to support them.

Children raised with abundant love and a strong sense of security would grow up open-minded and confident. They would not spend their time coveting what other people possessed.

The children continued picking fruit and quickly learned which ones tasted better. They stopped touching the green and red mulberries.

That was the importance of firsthand experience.

Next, they began climbing higher. Chen Yi followed beneath them, occasionally reaching out to steady them. He watched them climb farther and farther with a smile in his eyes.

They played for more than an hour.

When the children grew tired, Chen Yi carried them down the mountain while Da Huang walked ahead.

As they returned, Chen Yi continued searching for traces of the aberration, but he still found nothing.

He did not believe that he had mistaken the smell last night.

He remained intensely vigilant toward the abnormalities of this world.

Even though he could now kill an early-stage aberration with a single finger, he still hoped to discover threats sooner and destroy them sooner.

Especially when the danger was right beside his home.

He would not allow any hidden threat to remain.

Chen Yi decided to return to North Mountain after dark once his Qi Refining cultivation reached the third tier and Sword Manipulation achieved Minor Mastery.

And if reaching the third tier allowed him to place Gale Legs into the AFK slot, he would wait until Gale Legs reached Skilled before leaving.

One could never possess too many useful skills.

Safety came first.

At the orange grove, Chen Yi made sure no one was nearby before flashing into the sect.

The children were growing sleepy. Chen Yi wanted to test an idea, so he took them directly to the Scripture Pavilion and placed them on meditation cushions.

His mother was cultivating on the same cushion she had used earlier. Chen Yi moved quietly so as not to wake her.

Seeing this, Da Huang climbed onto another cushion and sat down.

Chen Yi discovered that an additional meditation cushion had appeared inside the Scripture Pavilion.

Did the number of cushions inside the Scripture Pavilion correspond to the number of sect members?

If so, his guess was probably correct.

With that thought, Chen Yi sat cross-legged on the lotus cushion at the head of the room. He opened the water mirror, studied it for a moment, and selected the Technique Transmission function.

The nearest cushion—the one beneath Da Huang—began visibly releasing dense spiritual energy. Da Huang was very intelligent. After turning around twice on the cushion, he lay down and remained still.

Chen Yi studied the function.

Technique Transmission lasted approximately one hour.

It consumed one spirit stone.

It could transmit to multiple recipients at once. However many cushions were present, that was how many people could receive the transmission.

It did not reduce Chen Yi’s own experience bar.

Its exact effects were still uncertain.

He also did not know the maximum number of recipients or whether the function had a cooldown.

And this Scripture Pavilion was extraordinary. Those seemingly unremarkable meditation cushions were apparently powerful artifacts in their own right.

Chen Yi could not leave during Technique Transmission. Since he had nothing else to do, he simply closed his eyes and began cultivating his mental cultivation art as well.

Idling and active cultivation at the same time.

Double the pleasure.

The progress bar shot upward.

By the time the hour ended, the Spirit Nurturing Art had already reached sixty-five percent. If he continued cultivating, he would probably reach the third tier before nightfall.

Once he entered the third tier, he would have reached the peak of the early stage. In any other cultivation novel, that would be enough for him to make a grand entrance and start showing off.

Chen Yi had no interest in that.

Wasn’t the feeling of leveling up satisfying enough?

He simply could not stop!

Technique Transmission ended, and the button disappeared. The function had entered cooldown.

Seeing the three people and one dog sitting in meditation and sleeping soundly, Chen Yi closed his eyes again and continued enjoying this extraordinary cultivation speed.

When the progress bar reached eighty-nine percent, a sound inside the building startled Chen Yi awake.

His father poked his head through the doorway. Seeing that Chen Yi was awake, he said, “Youngest, Little Pang brought someone here, but they’re outside and can’t get in.”

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