Chapter 30
Baek-Cheong’s daily life had become so peaceful that boredom began to seep in.
Yak-seon’s Pill Refining classes grew more familiar day by day, and the sensation of handling qi and Divine Sense became ingrained in her body.
The time it took to finish her assignments also noticeably decreased, granting her quite a bit of leisurely personal time in the afternoons.
Her cultivation to fill her Dantian with spiritual energy and the task of consistently posting on the Nameless Forum were also proceeding smoothly without a hitch.
However, to the dopamine-addicted Baek-Cheong, a peaceful daily life simply meant unbearable tedium.
Instead of the thrill of trolling, writing a diary every day for nearly a month in the exact same format was slowly starting to get tiresome.
“I need something new and stimulating.”
Baek-Cheong rolled around on her bed, pondering a solution.
Since she had reached 4th-Stage Qi Condensation, it was now the perfect time to start learning various Techniques in earnest.
Since the defensive Five Elements Shield was the only one she had learned, securing a decent Offensive Skill or some versatile techniques wouldn’t be a bad choice.
If she asked her father, she could easily obtain Access Rights to the 2nd floor of the Hundred Scriptures Pavilion or acquire a powerful 1st-Grade High-Tier technique from the Clan’s Treasury.
However, the fantasy of a romantic fortuitous encounter - something one ought to experience in a Xianxia World - squirmed inside Baek-Cheong’s mind.
“Discovering a worn-out manual in the corner of the dusty first floor of the Archives that no one pays attention to, only to find out it’s a Peerless Secret Manual from the Ancient Era, I should get at least one fortuitous encounter like that.”
Harboring silly expectations, Baek-Cheong directed her steps toward the Hundred Scriptures Pavilion.
Elder Baek Un-Ho, who guarded the Hundred Scriptures Pavilion, opened the Barrier without a word.
On one hand, the fact that a cultivator at the Late Foundation Establishment Stage was guarding the Hundred Scriptures Pavilion heightened her faint sense of anticipation.
“Hehe…”
The first floor of the Hundred Scriptures Pavilion was poorly maintained, giving off a strong smell of dust.
Because of that, the anticipation swelled even more within her small chest.
“Fortuitous encounter, Dao Friend… you can come out now…”
She spread her 15-zhang Divine Sense wide like a net and began to thoroughly scan the tens of thousands of books on the first floor.
However, there was nothing that looked like a special secret manual.
The vast majority were just Basic Technique manuals scribbled with ink on ordinary paper, along with miscellaneous books like the history of the Cultivation World or herbal compendiums.
“I figured as much.”
Even after poking into every nook and cranny with her Divine Sense, she couldn’t find a single trace of special energy or hidden formations.
It was a truly ordinary first-floor Archives.
Disappointed, Baek-Cheong pouted and was about to turn back when a bizarre yet amusing idea flashed through her mind.
“The techniques here are all 1st-Grade Low-Tier basics anyway. Their structures are simple, and even if I fail while casting them, there’s no risk of Qi Deviation.”
Baek-Cheong’s eyes sparkled as if she had discovered a fun game.
“Then shouldn’t I just learn every single technique on the 1st floor?”
It was undoubtedly a crazy idea that defied common sense.
A normal cultivator would choose a single Basic Technique to Master and focus on increasing their proficiency with it.
It was an iron rule of the Cultivation World that learning multiple techniques shallowly would lead to a Dispersion of Cultivation, rendering them completely useless in actual combat.
But such common sense did not apply to Baek-Cheong.
She had no reason to fight in actual combat in the first place, and it was merely an excellent game to test her overflowing 15-zhang Divine Sense and the Qi Control abilities she had honed through Five Elements Pill Refining.
“Let’s do it right now.”
Baek-Cheong wandered around the bookshelves and gathered all the slotted technique manuals into one place.
Flame Projectile, Water Stream Art, Earth Wall Art, Wind Blade, and so on.
From basic elemental techniques to miscellaneous skills that would enrich daily life, like the Illumination Art and Purification Art.
When the gathered manuals were counted, there were roughly over two hundred of them.
“Let’s do a quick estimate.”
Baek-Cheong randomly picked up a manual and opened it.
As she read through the manual using her Divine Sense, she instantly engraved the Meridian Manipulation Method into her mind.
Closing her eyes, she gathered her qi to the tips of her toes and lightly kicked the floor, causing her body to float up like a feather.
The time it took to understand the manual’s contents and actually cast the technique to the beginner stage was merely a little over two ke (about 30 minutes).
Baek-Cheong’s lips curled up at the faster-than-expected progress.
“If it takes two ke for one, it’ll take quite a while doing it this way… In that case.”
Baek-Cheong intended to fully utilize her multitasking abilities.
She split the Strands of Divine Sense she had meticulously controlled during Pill Refining into her maximum limit of ten and spread them out.
She simultaneously plunged her Divine Sense into ten manuals laid out on the floor.
She rapidly memorized ten different Meridian Manipulation methods and incantations.
As soon as the memorization was complete, she divided the Five Elements Qi in her Dantian into ten strands and simultaneously manipulated her meridians all over.
A bizarre spectacle unfolded as a small flame bloomed at her fingertips, dirt and dust swirled beneath her feet, and clear water droplets formed above her head.
About three kes passed.
Breathing heavily, Baek-Cheong succeeded in learning all ten techniques up to the beginner stage.
“Haa, haa. This is the absolute extreme of multitasking. Still, if it’s three ke for ten manuals…”
After doing the math, Baek-Cheong smiled with conviction.
At this speed, she calculated that even amidst her daily routine of going back and forth between the Pill Room and her Abode, she could spare enough time to reach the beginner stage in all two hundred-plus techniques within three days.
“It’s definitely worth a try.”
* * *
From that day on, Baek-Cheong temporarily halted even her consistent posting on the Nameless Forum and devoted herself to learning techniques.
Even while watching the pill furnace in front of Yak-seon, she secretly chewed over the contents of the technique manuals and simulated the qi.
Even when practicing Meditation in her Abode, her fingers constantly formed incantations, alternating between dozens of techniques.
The two hundred-plus basic techniques were helplessly conquered in the face of her overwhelming Divine Sense and the qi that encompassed all of the Five Elements.
.
.
.
On the night of the third day, as she finished the Meridian Manipulation for the final manual, the Illumination Art, Baek-Cheong achieved the spectacular Feat of reaching the beginner stage in every Basic Technique on the first floor.
“I did it!”
Baek-Cheong flicked her fingers, deploying the techniques one after another.
Handling over two hundred formulas in a short period was rather complicated, but since they were basic techniques, it was at a manageable level.
Having tasted a sense of accomplishment, Baek-Cheong set her next goal.
It was to log into the Nameless Forum she had neglected for three days, boast about her achievement, and enjoy the bewildered reactions of the dao friends.
Baek-Cheong posted majestically on the Chat Board.
“Dao Friend (913.14): [Cultivation Journal Day 30] Learned over two hundred Techniques in three days.”
[Since I reached 4th-Stage Qi Condensation, I figured I should learn some proper techniques, so I raided the first floor of the Clan’s Archives. They’re basic techniques, but I reached the beginner stage in all two hundred-plus books. It was tough having to memorize them directly instead of using jade slips, but 3 days was plenty.]
As soon as she registered the post, the dao friends who had been waiting for a while for news of Baek-Cheong rushed in and began leaving replies.
However, the reactions were quite different from Baek-Cheong’s expectations.
[Dao Friend (11.23): You finally got hit by a heavenly tribulation and lost your mind.]
[Dao Friend (88.4): Retribution for Sins of Speech is real. The Old Monster of the Qi Condensation Stage was finally struck by a heavenly tribulation and went crazy.]
[Dao Friend (201.9): You weren’t around for a few days, so I thought someone tracked down your realm and ground you to dust. As I see you spouting nonsense, you seem perfectly fine.]
The cultivators snorted, dismissing Baek-Cheong’s post as the absurd delusion of an Old Monster of Qi Condensation Stage.
This was because learning over two hundred techniques was a fiction beyond miracles that could absolutely never happen within the firm common sense of a cultivator.
“Why don’t they believe this?”
Baek-Cheong pouted and examined the continuous stream of mocking replies.
In the midst of it, a reply from Dao Friend (55.19), who had previously driven the narrative that she was an Old Monster of Qi Condensation Stage, caught her eye.
[Dao Friend (55.19): If by some one-in-a-million chance those words are true, then it’s certain that Dao Friend (913.14) is a Qi Condensation cultivator, not an Old Monster of Qi Condensation Stage.]
Baek-Cheong’s eyes shot wide open as soon as she read the reply.
Her heart pounded at the thought that this might finally be her chance to clear her name of the tiresome stigma of being an Old Monster of Qi Condensation Stage.
However, unable to guess the reason, she left a reply urgently to ask.
[Dao Friend (913.14): Why do you think that? Isn’t it good to learn a lot of techniques?]
A moment later, Dao Friend (55.19)'s explanation was posted.
[Dao Friend (55.19): A cultivator who has accumulated experience at the Foundation Establishment stage or higher wouldn’t brag about such an ignorant act. Having a large number of learned techniques is completely useless in actual combat. Rather than knowing a hundred miscellaneous techniques, delving into a single technique to the extreme and reaching the stage of great perfection is the correct path.]
[Dao Friend (55.19): Above all, even if one has learned hundreds of techniques, the number of techniques that can be handled simultaneously is extremely limited due to the structure of Divine Sense and meridians. The limit of techniques that can be deployed while preventing a Qi Collision is two or three at most. Trying to mix and use any more than that will result in a Meridian Entanglement, causing one to collapse on one’s own. This is clearly the immature bluffing of a Qi Condensation novice, seeing you confidently spout such ignorant nonsense.]
At Dao Friend (55.19)'s clear and logical barrage of facts, the public opinion in the replies instantly tilted toward mockery, saying, [So it was just a Qi Condensation Cultivator who knew nothing].
“I’m shedding the Old Monster image like this?”
Baek-Cheong stared at the Nameless Forum with a dejected expression.
She had intended to improve her image by consistently writing posts, but she never imagined a situation where it would transform so abruptly.
And to think after learning over two hundred techniques she was being ignored and told it was a useless act.
“Two or three at the same time are the limit?”
Baek-Cheong harbored strong doubts about the last passage in Dao Friend (55.19)'s reply.
She had split her 15-zhang Divine Sense into 10 strands to read the manuals and handle her qi.
She had never felt any side effects like a Meridian Entanglement or a Qi Collision.
“There’s no way that’s true.”
Baek-Cheong stood up from her Seat, her competitive spirit triggered.
Flicking her fingers, she randomly picked out five from the numerous techniques stored in her mind.
Flame Projectile, Water Stream Art, Earth Wall Art, Wind Blade, and Illumination Art.
Dividing her Divine Sense into five strands, she simultaneously drew up the Five Elements Qi from her Dantian.
She utilized different incantations, independently operating her meridian channels.
Fwoosh! Swoosh! Rumble! Swish! Flash!
Hot flames surged from her right hand, and a cold stream of water swirled in her left.
A solid Earth wall rose from beneath her feet, and sharp blades of wind sliced through the air behind her back.
Above her head, an illumination orb as bright as the sun lit up the room.
Five completely different basic techniques were perfectly deployed under Baek-Cheong’s control, without a single margin of error or Qi Collision.
The room instantly became a bizarre melting pot with all sorts of energies tangled together, but Baek-Cheong herself was so calm that she didn’t shed a single drop of sweat.
“What…”
Baek-Cheong looked back and forth at the techniques flashing in her hands and beneath her feet, blurting out with a bewildered expression.
“It’s easy, though?”