Everyone was focused while cultivating.
With such a rare opportunity, no one would slow their pace of progress.
Even the little fatty dared not slack off.
As he saw it, his own talent could be lacking, but the plan Teacher Zhao had set had to be completed.
Otherwise he'd have no way to explain himself back home.
Jiang Man found himself quite moved by the sight.
In an atmosphere like this, how did the little fatty manage to keep up his good-for-nothing mindset?
Raising your cultivation and entering a sect was the only good way forward.
With resources like that, shouldn't you work even harder?
Jiang Man never tried to talk him around; he simply kept his head down and cultivated hard.
He ran through the Qi-Linking Method again and again.
After ten rounds, the little fatty wanted a rest—but how could he, the second-to-last, hold his head up when the very last was still cultivating?
After twenty rounds.
Drenched in sweat, the little fatty looked at Jiang Man, who was still going, and said, "Little Jiang, take a break. All work and no rest is no good."
Jiang Man glanced at him and paid him no mind.
The little fatty gritted his teeth and pressed on.
After thirty rounds.
Panting hard, the little fatty said, "Little Jiang, it's done. Can we rest now?"
Jiang Man sniffed at the idea.
He kept cultivating.
Seething, the little fatty kept going too.
After forty rounds.
Tears streaming down his face, the little fatty asked, "Brother Jiang, it's over, right?"
Jiang Man dismissed it out of hand.
By then, the others were finishing their plans one after another.
But when those who finished saw the bottom two—people who should have left long ago—still cultivating, they all froze for a moment.
Had they miscounted?
Was the plan not over yet?
Only after watching it go round after round did they finally catch on.
The bottom two were making their push.
In the end even Fang Yong noticed.
He was somewhat baffled.
What on earth were the bottom two doing?
The others were starting to grumble too. What was with these two?
Who were they putting on a show of diligence for at a time like this?
And yet none of them could bear to be the first to leave.
Fang Yong said nothing. He could lose—but never to people like these.
Not until dusk did Luo Xuan, who had been cultivating the whole time, stop and walk out of the small courtyard on her own.
It was getting dark; time to head back.
At that, the others finally breathed easy.
The tension was broken at last, and everyone left as they pleased.
Someone said, "Their foundations are far too poor—that's why they have to thrash about like this. We already have our own plans; ours aren't meant to be disturbed."
Hearing that, the others nodded along. "Exactly. There's no need to be led around by the nose. They're not like us—they're not on our level.
We should stick to the original plan.
They've squandered two years. This is nothing but a passing whim."
The others nodded in agreement.
They resolved never to let it happen again.
The next day, in the afternoon.
Watching the bottom two, still refusing to leave, made their tempers flare.
Again?
They'd waited ages, and once more not a single one of them had left.
And where were those who had sworn up and down yesterday that they wouldn't be influenced, that they'd follow their own plans?
Not until dusk did Luo Xuan break the deadlock again, leading the way out.
Only then did the second day of cultivation come to an end.
Before leaving, some of them asked Fang Yong curiously, "Young Master Fang, aren't you going out with Young Master Yang and the others today? Word is they've gathered some fellow cultivators to spar at the Moonviewing Tower. Are you going too?"
The others immediately crowded in. "Really? You're going too, Young Master Fang? What's the Moonviewing Tower like?"
"I hear there are countless prodigies inside, and the spiritual qi is so thick—one day there equals ten of ours," someone else put in.
Under all the questioning, Fang Yong kept smiling. "I don't think I'll be going. I happen to have an appointment with a certain renowned teacher."
The others were disappointed and envious all at once.
Only after everyone had left did Fang Yong go—and passing Jiang Man, a vicious light rose in his eyes.
He was blaming him, no doubt, for refusing to admit fault back then.
It had made Young Master Cheng and his circle assume the two of them were friends, leaving them unwilling to keep company with him.
And that had cost him the chance to go to the Moonviewing Tower and see that cultivation for himself.
Jiang Man only glanced over and didn't care. His whole mind was on cultivating.
On the changes these two days of practice had brought.
Tonight he meant to push for the ninth layer of the Qi-Linking Method.
Ever since reaching the eighth layer yesterday, he had wanted, every waking moment, to raise that final layer.
When training in the small courtyard ended, he went back to see to the stable work, then kept cultivating.
On into the dead of night.
Jiang Man sighed.
He still couldn't enter the ninth layer.
But it felt close now.
It was far too late; he had to rest.
He greeted the old yellow ox at the door, went inside, and lay down.
He'd hardly been lying there, though, before the ninth layer kept circling in his head.
He was still young. Facing a technique on the verge of rising to its highest level, how was he supposed to fall asleep?
In a flash.
Jiang Man sprang up.
Back to cultivating.
Watching Jiang Man come out, the old yellow ox was a little startled. "What are you doing?"
"Cultivating," Jiang Man replied.
"It's the middle of the night. What's there to cultivate?" the old yellow ox asked.
"Never seen it? Well, now you have," Jiang Man said offhandedly.
And he got straight back to it.
The old yellow ox frowned, but didn't think much of it.
Only when a faint glow gradually began to rise from Jiang Man's body did it realize what the person before it was doing.
This pace of advancement... was rather fast.
The sky was barely lightening.
A faint glow settled over Jiang Man.
At that moment his Qi-Linking Method was running furiously.
Not that it was fast—it was turning of its own accord.
That was the mark of the ninth layer of the Qi-Linking Method.
"A little over three days, and the ninth layer of the Qi-Linking Method?"
The old yellow ox felt its understanding being washed away, bit by bit.
"Do you still think, Senior, that I can't meet the second requirement of the peerless prodigy fate?" Jiang Man asked as he finished his practice.
The old yellow ox just smiled and said nothing.
Jiang Man frowned. Even this couldn't change its mind?
Afterward, Jiang Man found a spare moment to run his technique at full power and began absorbing spiritual qi.
As the external cultivation technique turned, the spiritual qi around him started flowing into him.
At the same time, the pill in his dantian was drawn under the technique's cover.
The technique ran one full circuit; a great deal of spiritual qi gathered in his dantian, and some of the pill's medicinal power was spent.
If the first layer of Qi-Linking were seen as a gourd being filled with water, then the spiritual qi had now unstopped this gourd and begun filling it—there was even a thin film of moisture at the bottom.
The instant the "gourd" opened, Jiang Man felt as though a spring of life had been poured into his body, brimming with vitality, strength flooding his hands and feet.
The fatigue was receding fast.
Feeling his body change, he was completely different from before.
He had entered the first layer of Qi-Linking.
But only the lowest tier of it, the first layer.
By his rough estimate, with the pill's aid, it would still take another two hundred runs of the technique to fill this "gourd" to the brim.
Then, perhaps, he could try opening the second gourd.
"I'm at the same level as the little fatty now. A few days and I'll pass him."
"Though I wonder what cultivation the people ahead of me have."
"I need to find out what layer of Qi-Linking Fang Yong is at. Surpass him, and I get the qualification."
As of now, he had a hundred-odd days left.
There was still time to spare.
But today, on his way to the Sixth Courtyard out back—
Fang Yong blocked his path.
"Something you need, Young Master Fang?" Jiang Man asked.
Fang Yong looked at him and said evenly, "Today is the day the old courtyard gets cleaned. You'll need to go."
Jiang Man's brow creased. "Why have I never heard of this before?"
"It used to rotate. This time it falls to the last place—and as it happens, the last place is you," Fang Yong said, looking at Jiang Man.
He paused, then went on: "Next month, the one cleaning the courtyard will again be the last place. I wonder whether that will still be you."
Jiang Man: "..."
Wait until next month, and you'll find out.
Chapter 8