Chapter 102: Deputy Director

  "This is the Sword Master Realm."

  Qin Tianji slightly extended his hand, and in the center of his palm, a stream of liquidized true yuan flowed continuously, like a drop of crystal clear water.

  This water, if condensed into a solid, can even penetrate gold and iron objects with one thrust. With one slash, it can open mountains and split rocks, bursting forth with full force, and can even cause small rivers to change course.

  "Swordsmen, in Wanxia County, are stunningly powerful. Any top-notch swordsman in Wanxia County is a dominant figure who can found their own sect and control the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. In the entire Wanxia County's martial arts world, for over a decade, no swordsmen have emerged except for Beiyue... To those cultivators, the Swordsmen realm seems like an insurmountable barrier blocking their path, but now, this barrier has been easily shattered by me."

  At the slightest movement of his mind, the true yuan had already been easily dispersed by Qin Tianyi.

  His spiritual strength of 2.7 made him, although he had just entered the Sword Master realm, not inferior to any veteran sword master in terms of his control over True Yuan.

  "The cultivation of the Sword Master realm has three stages. The first stage is to condense the True Origin, the second stage is to transform into a True Vortex, and the third stage is to ignite the True Fire. These three stages are also known as the initial, intermediate, and advanced stages of the Sword Master, or the First-Order, Second-Order, and Third-Order Sword Master. Currently, I am in the first stage, and once my body's true energy is fully liquefied, I will begin to condense it into a vortex. Once the True Vortex is successfully condensed, it will be equivalent to entering the second stage of the Sword Master."

  The practice methods of the three stages of Jian Shi are not a secret, and they are completely open to the Shenvirtual Academy. In fact, there are even detailed records in the classics of Yunlai Sword Sect.

  "After ingesting the Ninth-Grade Return to Origin Spirit Pill, for others it would be fraught with danger, but for me, the risk has been minimized. Next, I'll spend another half month taking two more Ninth-Grade Return to Origin Spirit Pills, which should allow my body's true energy liquefaction rate to reach 70%. With a 70% liquefaction rate, there shouldn't be any possibility of a boundary reversal. At that time, I can slowly cultivate until I fully liquefy my true energy into true yuan and advance to the peak of a First-Grade Sword Master. However, considering the timing, the one-month deadline for collecting the Heavenly Dragon Grass is almost up, so I'll have to temporarily postpone converting my true energy into true yuan."

  Time is tight.

  Although Qin Tianyi had intended to spend some time thoroughly stabilizing his Sword Master realm, he could only temporarily end his closed-door training and leave the courtyard.

  He had just left the hospital when he received a message and Liang Zhongyang immediately came out of the hospital to welcome him.

  Seeing the change in Qin Tianyi's spiritual appearance compared to before, Li Zhong was slightly taken aback, but quickly reacted and congratulated him with a bow: "Congratulations, Senior Qin Tianyi, on successfully entering the Sword Master realm, truly stepping into the door of the strong. From now on, as long as you can stabilize your realm, even if it's several months later, during the Shenxu Sect's entrance examination, I'm afraid there will be a place for Senior Qin Tianyi."

  "I merely borrowed the power of the elixir, I believe that if you also had a Void-True Cultivation Elixir, entering the Sword Master realm would not be difficult."

  "Qin Tianyi is being overly modest, even if I were to take the Virtual True Creation Spirit Pill, my chances of advancing to the Sword Master realm would be no more than 60%. If I fail, even if I don't die from exploding, I'm afraid the backlash of true energy would still damage my meridians, and it would be difficult for me to recover within a few years. How could I possibly have Qin Tianyi's remarkable talent?"

  Qin Tianyi smiled slightly and didn't continue on this topic.

  "I don't know if the 16th Princess is available, I've already stayed at her mansion for quite some time, and I also need to return to Shenvu Academy, so I have to bid her farewell."

  "Sister Xue returned to Shenxu Academy yesterday after being summoned by Vice President Xia Ruyan, likely due to the matter of Shenxu Sacred Mountain. Since you were in closed-door cultivation at that time, Elder Qin Tianyi, she didn't dare disturb you."

  "That's alright, we can meet again in the Divine Void Sect anyway."

  As they spoke, Qin Tianyi glanced at Lisi: "The Divine Void Holy Mountain? Counting the days, it's just around this time. I'll see you then."

  "Great, I'm eager to witness Qin Tianyi's strength after breaking through to the Sword Master realm."

  "There will be opportunities naturally."

  Qin Tianyi nodded and left the capital of Dashu under Li's escort, heading towards Shenyuan Academy.

  The capital of Dashu is not far from the Shenyuan Academy, and this section of the road is also a key maintenance area for both the Dashu Kingdom and the Shenyuan Academy, so there's hardly any danger, and Qin Tianyi isn't worried about encountering any trouble.

  At nightfall, Qin Tianyi had returned smoothly to Shenxu Academy.

  Shenwu Academy, everything remains the same.

  After taking a look at the task scroll, this task belongs to a specially issued task. The issuer of the task comes from the Dean's Institute and is not settled in the Task Hall, but in the Dean's Institute.

  Near where several deans lived, a middle-aged man immediately came up to greet him.

  This middle-aged man, despite being just a guard patrolling this area for safety, exuded an overwhelming sense of oppression from head to toe. This kind of oppression surpassed that of a sword master and was only something Qin Tianji had felt from strong masters of the Great Sword Master level.

  "Hello, this is a task I received a month ago, please review it."

  Qin Tianji slightly brought a hint of respect, and handed over the task scroll.

  The middle-aged man took over the task scroll, looked at a mark below, nodded and said: "This is the mark of Dao Yuan Institute, come with me."

  As they spoke, he was already leading the way ahead.

  As the residence of the nine deans of Shenzu Academy, the environment is extremely elegant. The entire area is covered with dense forests, and roads or stone paths extend from the main road into the depths of the forest. In the depths of the forest, you can occasionally see clusters of buildings of varying sizes.

  The residents of these buildings are the nine deans of the Shenwu Academy and their relatives and students.

  A middle-aged man took Qin Tianyi all the way forward, after passing through four building groups, he entered a rather secluded small path, walked for about 200 meters, and finally arrived at a large courtyard at the end of the small path.

  The entire courtyard is in the shape of seven stars and a crescent moon, with seven small courtyards on the periphery and a large one in the middle. The area of the courtyard exceeds 10,000 square meters, and people's shadows can be vaguely seen moving inside.

  When the two arrived at the courtyard, an old man came out from inside to greet them. Seeing the old man, the middle-aged man slightly bowed his hands: "Old Di, this student has come to deliver the task previously issued by Dean Dao Yuan."

  "Thanks for your hard work."

  "Chu Ci Guan Jia will take you to find Dao Yuan Institute Director."

  The guard named Zhan Yue finished speaking and bid farewell before leaving.

  "Thank you."

  Qin Tianyi nodded and followed the old man named Chu Ci to the center of the courtyard, not to the study, but to the martial arts arena.

  In the martial arts arena in the center of the courtyard, an elderly man who looked like he was already past his prime was correcting the sword technique of a boy around eleven or twelve years old. Next to them, a girl of sixteen or seventeen was quietly listening in.

  Qin Tianyi himself didn't care about the young man, but when his strong spirit faintly sensed the power of the lungs in the young man's breathing, his expression changed slightly.

  In this brief moment of breathing, he suddenly heard a sound like thunder rumbling.

  This is clearly a sign that the true breath has been refined into the lungs.

  "Eleven or twelve years old, and yet he's already cultivated to Swordsmen Eighth Level!?"

  Qin Tianji's heart was stern and unyielding.

  At the age of sixteen, he had cultivated to the eighth level of swordsmanship and was known as the number one genius in Wanxia County. Compared to his current achievements and this young face with a hint of childishness, it's not even worth mentioning.

  "Director, this student says he's here to hand in his assignment."

  Chu Ci arrived at the side of that seemingly aged old man and respectfully handed over the task scroll.

  The elder Dao Yuan waved his hand, letting the young man go to cultivate. Only then did he take the task scroll handed over by Chu Ci and glance at it before nodding slightly: "I understand."

  "After saying that, he glanced at Qin Tianyi again: 'From now on, you'll follow me and be my student.'"

  Seeing that Dao Yuan didn't even need to hand over the task items himself, Qin Tianyi couldn't help but pause slightly: "Director, the Tianlong grass..."

  "If you haven't gathered enough Tianlong grass, I reckon you wouldn't have the guts to come here and hand in your task either. Let me introduce you to a few of your seniors..."

  Daoyuan said, his gaze returned to the young man's body, just about to speak, but at this moment, he seemed to have noticed something, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, and turned back to Qintianyi, carefully sizing him up: "You've advanced to the Sword Master realm? It doesn't seem like you relied on your own cultivation to break through?"

  "I was able to break through after swallowing the True Spirit Transformation Pill."

  "Swallowing Dan medicine?"

  The tone of the words was laced with a hint of dissatisfaction: "Although the cultivation at the Swordman stage is easy, this stage is the foundation of foundations. A high-rise building starts from the ground, and whether the foundation is solid or not directly affects the cultivator's future progress. Moreover, this point can also reveal a person's willpower. Perhaps you want to show off your skills on Mount Shengxu, or maybe it's for the exam quota of the Shengxu Sect in a few months, but these are not enough to justify your use of elixirs to rush into the Sword Master realm."

  At this point, Deputy Dean Dao Yuan seemed to have thought of something and didn't give Qin Tianyi a chance to speak. He slightly waved his hand: "Forget it, in any case, we must give face to Master Han's sister. I will publicly explain one lesson on the first, middle and last days of each month. You can come and listen at that time. Now, follow Chu Ci to get a set of clothes and leave."

  "Miss Han?"

  Qin Tianyi thought for a moment and suddenly understood.

  The reason why Vice President Dao Yuan gave himself a test task was actually because of Han Yue.

  He also found it strange that he had only been in the academy for a few days and was already noticed by a deputy dean-level giant, who gave him a task to test his abilities. It turned out that all of this was due to Han Yue's influence.

  Han Yue, although only a special-grade instructor, was only twenty-four or five years old and had already cultivated to the realm of a great sword master. The probability of impacting the Sky Sword Master was extremely high, and in the future, she even had hopes of contending for the position of the King. Therefore, even if Dao Yuan's deputy dean was a Sky Sword Master, he would still give her face.

  Thinking of this, he had previously thought that Qin Tianyi, who had defeated He Jiaoyuan and gained recognition after breaking through the Divine Communication Stage, could only shake his head in dismay.