Chương 117: 1.113 All roads lead to Xiao Fan~

A dried bean struck Ning squarely on the forehead.

"Ouch." Ning rubbed the spot before adjusting the cloth covering his eyes. A few steps away, Ling Yinran rolled another bean between her fingers while Ning spread his spiritual sense around himself once more. He could sense her position, the ground beneath his feet, the nearby trees, and the other objects around the courtyard without much difficulty. His sensitivity toward space made their positions and distances even clearer. That familiarity had created a different problem.

Spiritual sense already fed him information about everything within its range, while his spatial sensitivity simultaneously gave him an intuitive awareness of where those things were in relation to himself. During ordinary use, the two complemented each other well. Once several things began moving quickly, however, sorting through all that information fast enough to react became considerably harder. Hence the blindfold and beans.

Ning had decided to borrow an old and remarkably clichéd training method: remove one sense and force the others to work harder. It was the sort of training that appeared everywhere. Blindfold the swordsman to sharpen his senses, make someone dodge attacks with their eyes closed, throw someone into a dark cave until they somehow learned to see in the dark... Still, clichés usually became clichés for a reason, and this one was simple enough to test. Ling Yinran flicked the bean.

Ning had originally considered using small stones, as tradition seemed to demand, but common sense had quickly pointed out that repeatedly throwing rocks at someone's head was just waiting for one unfortunate accident to happen. Hence, the beans. Ning sensed it leaving her hand. His spiritual sense caught the small object moving toward him, while his spatial sensitivity registered its position and the rapidly shrinking distance between them. His attention tried to process everything at once. Smack.

"Ouch." Ning rubbed his forehead again. There was the problem. He had received more than enough information to dodge, yet by the time his mind sorted through it and his body reacted, the bean had already reached him. Ling Yinran reached for another. This time, Ning changed his approach. He let his spiritual sense alert him to movement while relying more heavily on his spatial sensitivity to judge where it was and how quickly it was approaching. The next bean entered his awareness.

Ning tilted his head, feeling it sail past his ear. Nice. I'm getting the hang of it. Needless to say, successfully dodging one after being struck repeatedly felt quite good. Then another bean hit his shoulder.

"Senior Sister... you threw two," Ning couldn't help but complain.

"I'm increasing the difficulty since you were able to dodge one." Ning could practically hear her reaching for another. He spread his spiritual sense again, paying less attention to the stationary courtyard and more to changes within it. There was little reason to continuously examine the ground, walls, and trees when the actual threat consisted of small objects suddenly flying toward his face. Another bean came. His spiritual sense caught the movement, and his awareness of its position followed almost immediately.

Ning shifted aside and let it sail past him. The second followed a moment later. His attention caught that one as well, allowing him to twist away just before it reached his shoulder.

"Two out of two." Ning nodded beneath the blindfold.

"Significant improvement."

"You were hit by the first six," Ling Yinran pointed out blandly.

"Which makes it even more significant," Ning countered. Ling Yinran paused for a moment before asking, "Are you sure this is actually working? This is the first time I've seen someone train this way, and you've been hit quite a lot."

"Senior Sister, you're focusing too much on the failures and not enough on the upward trend," Ning replied as he felt around with his spiritual sense.

"... The upward trend?"

"Exactly. Six consecutive failures followed by intermittent success. If that isn't measurable progress, what is?" Ling Yinran stared at him. Ning couldn't see her expression, but his spiritual sense was beginning to teach him that sometimes one didn't need eyes to know when someone was making a deadpan face. Another bean struck his forehead.

"Ouch."

"Your upward trend went down.""' Tis but a temporary fluctuation." Naturally, Ning would not succumb to the dark whispers. Over the next quarter hour, Ning gradually became faster at sorting through the information reaching him. He stopped wasting attention on things that remained unchanged and focused on movement, especially anything rapidly approaching his body.

His spiritual sense picked up the change, while his spatial sensitivity helped him grasp its position, distance, and direction with remarkably little effort. One bean soon became manageable. Two forced him to divide his attention, and three became considerably more troublesome, especially when Ling Yinran staggered their timing or sent them toward different parts of his body. Ling Yinran finally lowered her hand.

"Well, perhaps you're right. You are improving rather quickly, especially for such a simple training method." Such was the power of clichés.

"Haha." Ning removed the blindfold and nodded profoundly.

"The eyes may deceive, Senior Sister, but once one opens the eye of the mind, the truth of heaven and earth becomes—" Ling Yinran flicked another bean. This time, however, there was qi behind it. Ning sensed it perfectly. His spiritual sense caught the movement, and his spatial sensitivity told him exactly where it was headed. Unfortunately, sensing an incoming bean and possessing the speed necessary to dodge a qi-propelled projectile were two entirely different matters. Smack. Ning rubbed his forehead.

"Was that necessary?"

"You opened your eyes." Ning's face scrunched up at that. Later, Ning sat beneath the tree with a notebook spread across his knees and recorded what he had learned. Simply expanding his spiritual sense as far as possible seemed inefficient. The farther he spread it, the less clearly he perceived everything within that area, while concentrating it closer to himself produced considerably finer detail.

Trying to consciously process everything at once also exhausted him far faster than filtering out information that didn't matter. That gave him several obvious directions for training: precision, division, range, endurance, and differentiation speed. For precision, he could practice identifying increasingly smaller objects. Division could be trained by tracking several moving targets simultaneously, something Ling Yinran could make considerably harder by flicking multiple beans from different directions.

Range and endurance were straightforward enough to improve gradually, especially if he maintained a weak field of spiritual sense during ordinary activities. Differentiation speed interested him the most. His spatial sensitivity already gave him an unusually natural grasp of position and distance, and combining that with spiritual sense meant he rarely lacked information. He simply needed to become faster at sorting through it.

If someone threw a knife at him, Ning did not particularly care about the texture of the grass beneath the attacker's feet. Ling Yinran leaned over his shoulder and briefly skimmed the page. As always, her junior brother had managed to grasp the crux of the matter remarkably quickly. At the very least, she could consider her responsibility of training him fulfilled for the day. Then she remembered something.

"Are you going to the Scripture Pavilion today?"

"That's the plan." Ning reached into his storage bag and produced a jade token.

"I already received this." It served as proof that his Seventh Stage cultivation had been officially registered by the sect and, more importantly, granted him access to the advanced continuation techniques on the second floor. Upon reaching the Seventh Stage, an inner disciple could obtain the Qi Condensation portion of one advanced continuation technique without spending contribution points or spirit stones.

It was one of the less flashy advantages of belonging to a sect, but Ning considered it among the most valuable. A rogue cultivator reaching the same point might have to spend years searching for a suitable technique, pay an absurd price for one, gamble on an incomplete inheritance, or simply make do with whatever mediocre method they could obtain.

Ning merely had to prove his cultivation and walk into the Scripture Pavilion, where generations of cultivators far more accomplished than himself had already left behind numerous tested paths.

"Since you've already decided which one you want, go," Ling Yinran said.

"There's little reason to delay." Ning stood and tucked the notebook away.

"Yes. Thank you for the training, Senior Sister." Ling Yinran glanced toward the remaining pile of beans.

"We can continue when you return." Ning's smile stiffened slightly.

"... Looking forward to it." Alas, why had no one ever told him that behind every successful training session lay a mountain of pain, tears, and dried beans?...

"You know, I really don't think there's any need to drag an old man like me out of seclusion for something like this." Elder Shen complained. He had been having such a good nap too. Ning ignored the complaining elder and handed him the next volume of the novel, which he had finished while recovering from his injuries.

"Finally!" Naturally, Elder Shen's complaints vanished in an instant. He immediately took the manuscript.

"Do you have any idea how many people have been asking me when the next volume is coming out? Especially after everyone found out I had a hand in publishing it." Ning's expression flattened.

"And whose fault is that?" Elder Shen's hand stopped halfway through opening the manuscript.

"How did everyone even find out?" Ning continued.

"I certainly didn't tell them." A suspicious bead of sweat appeared on Elder Shen's temple.

"Well, you see..." He cleared his throat and straightened slightly.

"After everything you did during the Heavenly Origin Tower incident, the sect naturally conducted a thorough investigation into your background. Your dealings inside and outside the sect, your sources of income, unusual connections, anything that might present a security concern after you became involved with matters concerning the sect's protecting treasure.

It would have been rather difficult to conceal a commercial arrangement involving regular payments, manuscripts passing through the Scripture Pavilion, and books being distributed under an alias, and attempting to hide it after the investigation had already uncovered it would only have made the matter appear suspicious."

"I'm still mad about it, you know." Of course, Ning knew he was mostly just venting at this point.

"Oh, come now. Is it really such a terrible thing?" Elder Shen waved a hand.

"Your reputation in the sect is already considerable. What difference does one more little matter make?"

"..." Ning simply stared at the elder. Cough.

"Young Ning, fame is merely another trial upon the path of cultivation. Whether praised by ten thousand or condemned by ten thousand, a cultivator must preserve a clear heart, remaining unmoved by the eyes of the world-" Elder Shen had apparently decided to bullshit his way out of this. Unfortunately for him, his opponent was Ning, who followed much the same Dao.

"Don't try to weasel your way out of this by sounding profound, Elder." For several breaths, Elder Shen maintained his dignified expression before finally letting out a sigh and slumping back into his chair. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Fine, fine. It was partly my fault."

"Entirely." Ning already dreaded the day his master and the others found out about it.

"... Fine. Entirely my fault." Elder Shen waved his hand impatiently.

"For this volume, I'll take a few percent less from my share. Happy? Besides, sales have gone up considerably since everyone found out, so it hasn't been all bad." Ning didn't know how to feel about that. On one hand, the whole situation was embarrassing enough that he occasionally considered changing his identity and fleeing the sect. On the other hand, sales had increased. More money. His monkey brain was unfortunately rather pleased by that part. Elder Shen clicked his tongue.

"Don't worry so much. Back in my day-""Elder. Please don't."

"Alas, where did the polite young Ning go? The one who was always so curious to hear my stories?" Elder Shen sighed, reminiscing about those apparently glorious days before Ning had learned to interrupt him. Eventually, he changed the subject.

"Speaking of your novels, aren't you planning to branch out eventually? You've done well with this one, but writing the same kind of story forever would be a waste." Ning paused. Branching out was certainly something he had thought about. In fact, he already had quite a few ideas. Maybe something like The Argonian Maid... Besides, unbeknownst to Elder Shen, Ning had technically already branched out.

My Sister Can't Be This Cute had been handed over to Xiao Qing some time ago, and Ning had decided that whatever happened as a result was now firmly Xiao Qing's problem. His ambitions didn't end with ordinary books either. Once he reached Foundation Building, Ning wanted to experiment with combining illusions, formations, and spiritual sense to create something closer to interactive stories. Perhaps even games eventually.

There was an entire market sitting there untouched, populated by cultivators who could live for centuries and still somehow considered watching two people play Go for several days acceptable entertainment. Ning could work with that. Since he had already stumbled into success as an author without really intending to, he might as well accept it and see how far he could take the whole thing.

"Ning?" Elder Shen's voice pulled him from his thoughts.

"Why did you suddenly go silent?" Ning blinked and found Elder Shen looking at him strangely.

"Nothing much. Just wondering about a few things." Ning paused before remembering something else.

"Actually, Elder Shen, there's something I wanted to ask you. Isn't Elder Shen Kuo your brother?" Elder Shen's face immediately darkened, which alone answered several questions Ning hadn't even asked yet.

"He still hasn't paid my invoice," Ning continued.

"I was wondering if you could use some of your influence."

"Influence? What influence do I even have?" Ning raised an eyebrow.

"He's your brother."

"Brother is a generous way of putting it. We merely happen to share the same parents," Elder Shen huffed. Ning laughed hollowly. That might have been the most sibling-like answer he had ever heard.

"In that case, would you be interested in helping me inconvenience him?" Elder Shen's expression changed slightly.

"... I'm listening." Ning proceeded to explain the rather unconventional arrangement he had reached with Ge Xuan, from the terms of their agreement to Shen Kuo's unfortunate position as the one ultimately responsible for paying him. By the time he reached the invoice he had sent to the Treasury, Elder Shen was staring at him with an increasingly peculiar expression. Then, slowly, a grin spread across the old man's face.

"You..." Elder Shen leaned forward.

"You actually have a legitimate claim on his spirit stones?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you."

"Why didn't you start with that?" Elder Shen slapped the counter and immediately brightened.

"You've come to the right person! No one in this entire sect knows better than me how to get spirit stones out of that bastard."

"..." Ning blinked. Elder Shen was already becoming more excited by the second.

"And this time it's even legitimate! Hah! This is going to be fun. Do you know that miser actually told me the last time we met that he would never give me another spirit stone for as long as he lived?"

"... He said that?"

"Those exact words! Can you believe it? His own elder brother!" Elder Shen shook his head indignantly.

"He's always been far too stingy." Ah. Ning understood now. Simply put, Elder Shen was a bum. A highly accomplished cultivator and respected elder of the Pure Qi Sect, certainly, but apparently also a bum who regularly asked his younger brother for spirit stones until the man had blocked his communication talismans and begun fleeing whenever he approached. Suddenly, Elder Shen Kuo's behavior made considerably more sense.

"Hah, just leave it to me." Elder Shen rubbed his hands together with entirely too much enthusiasm.

"I've been looking for an excuse to visit that bastard anyway. If he refuses to pay a legitimate debt owed by the Treasury, I'll make sure he hears about it every single day." Ning's confidence in this plan immediately diminished.

"... Please remember that the goal is for me to actually get paid."

"Of course." Elder Shen cracked his knuckles, his eyes practically shining.

"And preferably without Elder Shen Kuo developing a lifelong hatred of me."

"Don't worry, don't worry. I know exactly how to handle my brother." Elder Shen patted his chest confidently. That was, somehow, the least reassuring thing Elder Shen could have said. Ning could only offer a silent apology to Elder Shen Kuo in his heart. Senior, please forgive me. Still, spirit stones were spirit stones.

"Anyway, Elder Shen, I also came for this." Ning had not forgotten the main reason for his visit. The teasing expression on Elder Shen's face faded as soon as he recognized it.

"Finally reached the Seventh Stage, huh?" Elder Shen picked up the token and examined it briefly before nodding.

"Then congratulations are in order. You've reached the point where the Pure Qi Sutra has done everything it was meant to do." Elder Shen returned the token and gestured toward the staircase at the far end of the hall.

"Normally, I'd tell you to take your time, read through your options carefully, and not make a decision you'll regret later." He gave Ning a flat look.

"But considering how many times you've pestered me about the techniques upstairs, I doubt there's anything left for me to tell you." Ning smiled.

"Your guidance over the years has been invaluable, Elder." Elder Shen waved him away.

"Go on. You've researched enough. Make your choice."

"Yes, Elder." With a nod, Ning turned and made his way toward the staircase leading to the second floor. Elder Shen watched him go for a moment. Slightly over six years. That was how long it had taken Ning to reach the Seventh Stage. For someone who had entered the sect with no background and only a Mid-grade spiritual root, his progress was remarkably fast, already comparable to many disciples from major cultivation clans or those with High-grade spiritual roots.

Thinking back to the unremarkable young disciple who had first wandered into the Scripture Pavilion all those years ago, Elder Shen couldn't help but smile. The kid had certainly come a long way. Then his gaze fell upon the manuscript Ning had brought him earlier, and his smile widened. Well, enough reminiscing. He had a new volume to read.... Ning had thought choosing a cultivation technique would be simple. Of course, he began to doubt that the moment he ran into the protagonist.

"Xiao Fan. It's been a while." Ning nodded in greeting. Xiao Fan was holding a jade slip in one hand while reading the introduction engraved on the shelf beneath it, his brows drawn together in concentration. From the faint spiritual fluctuations around him, Ning could immediately tell that something had changed since the last time they met. Hearing his name, Xiao Fan looked over and raised an eyebrow.

"Ning? What are you doing here?" Ning glanced around at the shelves filled entirely with cultivation techniques.

"What do you think?"

"Fair enough." Xiao Fan's gaze lingered on him for a moment before his spiritual sense extended outward, brushing directly against Ning's. His eyebrows rose slightly.

"Looks like you've made some progress too." Ning gave him a flat look.

"I hope you remember that doing that to other people is considered rude." He couldn't help but add, "I'm beginning to understand why you're always getting hounded by someone." Xiao Fan let out a hollow laugh.

"You don't know the half of it. My spiritual sense became much stronger after my breakthrough, and it's been a pain to control ever since." Ning looked at him blandly. Oh no. My spiritual sense is too powerful. Whatever shall I do? Next, perhaps Xiao Fan would complain that his steak was too juicy and his lobster too buttery.

"Anyway, I'm here to choose a cultivation technique." Ning sighed and waved him off.

"Don't mind me. You were looking through something, weren't you?"

"Yeah." Xiao Fan glanced back at the jade slip in his hand.

"I'm still deciding."

"Then carry on." Ning left him to it and headed deeper into the shelves. The shelves around them contained generations of continuation techniques derived from the Pure Qi Sutra. Although all shared the same foundation, the paths they took afterward varied enormously, from greater reserves and stronger meridians to elemental transformations, spellcasting, and preparation for Foundation Building. Ning walked past several shelves without slowing, stopped before one of them, and took out a jade slip.

Then he turned around, apparently ready to leave. Of course, it was never that simple when the protagonist was around.

"Aren't you going to look through the other techniques first?" Xiao Fan frowned. That didn't fit the usual image he had of Ning at all.

"I already found what I wanted." Ning showed him the jade slip containing the Sevenfold Pure Origin Art.

"I've done plenty of research beforehand."

"What?" Xiao Fan's expression went blank. Ning gave him a strange look.

"I've been reading descriptions, asking around about the different lineages, and comparing their requirements, advantages, weaknesses, and compatibility for quite a while." Ning raised the jade slip slightly.

"Surely everyone researches something this important before choosing." Xiao Fan's gaze shifted away. The hand holding his own jade slip quietly moved a little closer to his side. Ning stared at him for a moment before understanding dawned. This guy was actually choosing his cultivation technique on the spot without doing any research beforehand. Well, it certainly fit the image Ning had of Xiao Fan.

With the luck of the heavens practically following him around, Xiao Fan could probably browse the shelves today and somehow walk away with something perfectly suited to him. Ning wasn't willing to trust his own future to that kind of optimism. He had to choose carefully. And it hadn't been an easy choice either. There were several continuation techniques Ning had seriously considered, some of which were arguably more impressive at first glance.

The Great Circulation Pure Qi Art expanded the cultivator's meridian throughput and emphasized enormous reserves, while the Five Elements Pure Transformation Sutra allowed the neutral Pure Qi cultivated during the first six stages to transition smoothly between the five elemental attributes, making it particularly attractive to someone with Ning's balanced Five-Element spiritual root.

There was also the Clear River Returning to Sea Sutra, which excelled at forming and expanding the Spirit Sea, along with several established lineages renowned for their stability during Foundation Building. None of them were bad choices. That was precisely what had made choosing difficult. Xiao Fan leaned slightly closer to inspect the jade slip Ning had taken.

"What does this one do?" Ning handed him the introductory slip. Xiao Fan scanned it for several moments before his expression became slightly puzzled.

"It doesn't seem that special." Xiao Fan continued reading for a few more moments.

"I mean, it's good across the board, but it feels a little bland."

"Well, that's not necessarily a bad thing." Ning shrugged.

"It's one of the more commonly practiced continuation techniques in the sect, and plenty of cultivators have used it successfully over the years. It wouldn't be this popular if it were bad." The Pure Origin Scripture was an orthodox continuation of the Pure Qi Sutra, and unlike some of the more specialized lineages, it did not grant any particularly dramatic advantage. Instead, it focused on the cultivation system as a whole.

Its Qi Condensation portion, the Sevenfold Pure Origin Art, was divided into seven successive Folds. Beginning with the cultivator's qi, each Fold gradually incorporated another aspect of their cultivation—meridians, dantian, body, spiritual sense, and eventually the Spirit Sea—bringing them into increasingly greater harmony. The result was improved circulation, control, stability, recovery, and efficiency across the board.

In that sense, it was the continuation that most closely resembled the Pure Qi Sutra itself, carrying the same emphasis on stability and compatibility into the later stages. If Ning had to describe it simply, it was basically Pure Qi Sutra Plus. The first few Folds were relatively straightforward, but maintaining that harmony became increasingly difficult as more parts of the cultivation system were incorporated.

Most practitioners were perfectly satisfied reaching the middle levels before Foundation Building, while completing all seven was considerably rarer. Xiao Fan finished reading and handed the jade slip back.

"So why this one?" He was genuinely curious. Ning rarely did anything without thinking it through first, and considering how quickly he had chosen, there was obviously more to it.

"Compatibility." That mattered considerably more to Ning than whether a technique looked impressive on paper. There had been a period after creating the Infinite Circle when Ning had wondered whether he should simply develop his own cultivation technique instead. Know Thyself gave him an understanding of his body that most cultivators could only dream of, and he had already proven that he could create something genuinely useful. Then he thought about it properly.

He understood Qi Condensation because he was currently experiencing it. Foundation Building? He had never reached it. The techniques stored in the Scripture Pavilion had been created and refined by cultivators who had reached realms Ning couldn't currently touch, often after decades of experimentation and correction. Ignoring all of that because he had successfully created one esoteric art would be rather stupid.

Infinite Circle had never been intended to replace his cultivation technique, and the Sevenfold Pure Origin Art's emphasis on continuous circulation and harmony seemed unusually compatible with it. Ning already had a few ideas. Whether they worked could wait until he actually began cultivating the art. More importantly, the Pure Origin Scripture preserved the neutral nature of his qi rather than pushing his entire cultivation base toward a particular element or specialization.

That suited the various techniques he had accumulated far better than several of the alternatives. The technique was already good. Ning simply suspected that, in his hands, it could become considerably better. And if he eventually wanted to create a cultivation path of his own, there was no reason to rush. Before building his own road, Ning would rather learn how the proven ones were made. Ning explained the gist of it. Xiao Fan blinked.

"You've really given this a lot of thought." Once again, Xiao Fan found himself contemplating the mysterious benefits of preparing beforehand. Once Ning confirmed his choice with Elder Shen, the pavilion would provide him with the actual inheritance. The corresponding Pure Origin Foundation Art would remain sealed to him until he reached Foundation Building.

"Anyway." Ning finally turned toward Xiao Fan.

"What did you choose?" Ning was already set on his own choice, but he was curious what Xiao Fan had settled on. Considering this guy's luck, whatever caught his attention would probably suit him suspiciously well. Ning certainly wouldn't mind taking a look before making his final decision. Xiao Fan hesitated. That was immediately suspicious. Ning's gaze dropped toward the jade slip Xiao Fan had been quietly keeping beside his leg throughout their conversation.

"Come on. It can't be that bad."

"... Yeah." Xiao Fan sighed and finally held it out. Ning took the jade slip and read the title. Hundredfold Broken Origin Scripture. Ning went silent. Of all the techniques in the entire pavilion, Xiao Fan had somehow picked this one. Among the many continuation techniques derived from the Pure Qi Sutra, the Hundredfold Broken Origin Scripture occupied a rather infamous position. It wasn't obscure, nor had it fallen out of favor because it was weak. Quite the opposite.

The few cultivators who had taken it far enough were renowned for possessing exceptionally strong foundations. As for why it was so infamous? After reaching the Seventh Stage, the practitioner constructed an Origin Lock, deliberately restricting their liquid qi and creating an artificial bottleneck. They then had to break through it themselves.

The breakthrough tempered the dantian, meridians, and qi, but instead of allowing the practitioner to keep all that advancement, the scripture required them to perform a Return, unraveling most of the newly gained cultivation while preserving the tempering produced by the breakthrough. What remained was an Origin Scar. Then they created another Lock and did it again.

At one hundred Origin Scars, the accumulated tempering would supposedly form the legendary Hundredfold True Origin, providing an extraordinary foundation for the Spirit Sea and eventual Foundation Building. On paper, its potential was outrageous, but the problem was that no normal human being would willingly cultivate like this. A cultivator could spend months accumulating qi, construct an Origin Lock, struggle for weeks to break through it, finally succeed...

and then deliberately throw away most of the progress they had just suffered to obtain. Worse, every success made the next cycle harder. The stronger the cultivation base became, the stronger the next Origin Lock had to be to properly temper it, turning what was already a slow process into an increasingly unreasonable grind. The scripture was infamous enough that stories about its practitioners had become something of a cautionary tale among inner disciples.

One particularly memorable record described a disciple who had stubbornly persisted until his thirty-seventh Origin Scar. By then, several disciples who had entered the inner sect alongside him had already advanced an entire stage beyond him. After spending nearly three months breaking his thirty-eighth Origin Lock, the man had apparently stared at his cultivation for an entire night, walked into the Scripture Pavilion the following morning, and exchanged the technique for something else. Ning couldn't blame him.

And time wasn't the technique's only requirement. The technique was also brutal on the dantian and meridians, making a resilient constitution or powerful body-refining art almost mandatory for anyone attempting the later Origin Scars. That, at least, wasn't a problem for Xiao Fan. Between the Heavenly Lotus Body and his demonic beast bloodlines, his body had long since departed from anything resembling normal. The greater problem was cost.

Every Return required Returning Origin Spirit Fluid, and both the quantity and quality rose sharply with each Origin Scar. Even then, money could only buy resources. Every artificial bottleneck still had to be broken personally. That was ultimately why almost nobody chose the Hundredfold Broken Origin Scripture. Everyone knew it was powerful, perhaps even exceptional, but cultivating it was essentially shooting yourself in the foot and then spending years learning how to walk better because of it.

No one in the sect's recorded history had ever cultivated the technique to its fullest potential, and most disciples with any common sense steered clear of it entirely. Ning looked at Xiao Fan. Of fucking course. Someone had actually created a cultivation technique based around repeatedly putting walls in Xiao Fan's way and telling him to break them, complete with a legendary final state no one had ever reached. If there was ever a technique designed for an unreasonable protagonist, this was it.

"You really never take the easy path, do you?" Ning couldn't help but say. Normally, Xiao Fan would have immediately defended his choice, but this time his expression shifted slightly. He glanced down at the jade slip and remained quiet for several breaths before finally sighing.

"Actually, there's something I need to talk to you about regarding that." Ning's amusement faded.

"Huh?" Well. That wasn't ominous at all.... Thanks for reading~