“Thumb drive……” The way Song Shuhang felt right now was almost the same as what the people in the group felt when they learned that he had used an induction cooker and a hot pot to refine pills.

Medicine Master extracted the thumb drive, then threw the shortsword to Song Shuhang, “Here, take the flying sword. Tomorrow I’ll give you Great Master Tong Xuan’s address, find some time over the next few days to send it to him via courier.”

Song Shuhang: “…… Send it back?”

“Duh, am I supposed to send it back myself?” Medicine Master questioned him in return.

Song Shuhang replied, “That’s not what I meant; can’t the flying sword just fly back on its own with a ‘whoosh’?”

“Haha, how can that be? It can’t fly back. When the sword was flying over, it required energy! When it was flying towards us, Great Master Tong Xuan could naturally provide energy to the flying sword. But there is no way for him to transmit energy from thousands of miles away to send the sword flying back, due to the distance between us. Furthermore… this flying sword is Great Master Tong Xuan’s personal flying sword, and other than Great Master Tong Xuan himself, there’s no one else who can use it. Therefore, I can’t pour energy into it either.” Medicine Master explained.

“Why the hell does it only follow the law of conservation of energy now?” Shuhang had to release the curses stuck in his throat, “Also, isn’t this sword already a sharpened weapon? Sharpened weapons can’t be passed into couriers’ hands, can they? Furthermore, even if it could be sent, wouldn’t it be bad if such a precious item was lost in transit?”

Medicine Master complacently smiled, “Don’t worry, I’ve mailed the flying sword dozens of times, there definitely won’t be a problem. Great Master Tong Xuan’s flying sword possesses a concealment array, other than the ones Great Master allows, no one can see it. Therefore, the only ones who can see and interact with this flying sword right now are you and me, since we are allowed to see it. Furthermore, there’s nothing to worry about even if it is delivered wrongly, the flying sword has the owner’s mark, if it is truly lost, it can still be located. Anyway, don’t worry about it.”

“Despite what you’ve said, I still feel that mailing a flying sword is really weird.” Song Shuhang lifted the flying sword in his hands, feeling stuffy inside.

“Don’t think about it so much. Alright, the seal on the thumb drive is released. Here’s the ?Vajra Foundation Fist Technique? and ?True self Meditation Scripture?.” Medicine Master tossed the jade thumb drive to Shuhang.

Great Master Tong Xuan had placed a seal on the thumb drive just in case, and the correct procedures had to be followed to release the seal. Forcibly removing the seal would cause both the seal and the thumb drive to be destroyed.

When Song Shuhang caught it, he saw the thumb drive’s USB port connector, it truly was a thumb drive!

“Ahem, before learning these techniques, I need to remind you of something. Unlike pills and magical treasures, techniques mustn’t be passed to others on a whim!” Medicine Master advised.

As Song Shuhang was a complete amateur when it came to cultivation matters, Medicine Master had to clarify the taboos for him.

“When you have been imparted a technique from someone or a school, you mustn’t pass it on to anybody else without permission from the source! This is taboo among cultivators! For example, if you want to pass this technique on to others, you’d have to ask the owner of the technique, Great Master Tong Xuan, for permission, and pay a certain price for his approval. The person you pass it on to has to abide by this taboo, and mustn’t pass on this technique without approval either. The approval of Great Master Tong Xuan must be acquired first, just like what I did to impart these two techniques to you.”

“If you were caught having imparted techniques to someone else without permission, then it wouldn’t matter if it’s the Nine Provinces (1) Group or the rest of the cultivation world, nobody would be willing to impart any techniques to you.” Medicine Master specifically warned.

Techniques were the roots of a school and cultivators. Nobody wished for their own or their family’s techniques to be shared everywhere, therefore privately sharing techniques was absolutely forbidden.

However, a technique you made yourself could be shared as much as you wanted, you have the freedom to do that.

Song Shuhang nodded to express that he understood. The techniques that others had expended energy to attain were their personal belongings, for someone to impart a technique to him was already an honor. If one casually passed on that technique to others, how immoral would that be?

Receiving the thumb drive, Song Shuhang’s heart couldn’t help but race.

Taking deep breaths, he opened his computer, then disconnected from the internet and did a virus scan on his computer.

There weren’t many things on his computer, so the antivirus took less than a minute to complete the scan.

After that, he carefully inserted the thumb drive into the computer.

Medicine Master quietly stood behind Song Shuhang, nodding with satisfaction. Even though Shuhang was very excited, he didn’t lose his calm. Maintaining this personality would be very beneficial to his future path of cultivation.

Song Shuhang opened the thumb drive and found two folders inside.

?Vajra Foundation Building Fist Technique?

?True self Meditation Scripture?

Opening the ?Vajra Foundation Building Fist Technique? folder revealed a total of eighteen images, and every image contained a different picture scroll.

With a tap of his finger, the first image was opened.

Although ?Vajra Foundation Building Fist Technique? was a rather ordinary name, it didn’t matter as long as it was strong. Moreover, martial arts were generally like the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms; every move and stance would have an extremely badass name, like Dragon Seen in the Fields and Divine Dragon Swishes its Tail, right?

[TL: The Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms is a fictional wuxia martial art created by Jin Yong.]

Shuhang was full of anticipation and excitement.

Then he looked at the name of the move.

‘Foundation Building Fist Technique One.’

The words were all in traditional characters.

[TL: For those who don’t know, chinese is written in two main forms, Simplified which China had switched to during the 1950s, and Traditional which is still standard in Taiwan.]

That was all.

There was no kickass ‘Vajra Subduing Demons’ or anything like that, just a simple Foundation Building Fist Technique One.

Song Shuhang turned to the second image, Foundation Building Fist Technique Two.

Unwilling to give up, he flipped to the third image. Foundation Building Fist Technique Three.

“……” Alright, Song Shuhang knew that he no longer needed to continue looking.

Next was ‘Foundation Building Fist Technique Four’ then on and on till ‘Foundation Building Fist Technique Eighteen’.

Medicine Master watched Song Shuhang quickly flipping through the images, and asked curiously, “What are you doing?”

“Looking at the names of the moves,” Song Shuhang replied, “I never thought that the names of the moves would be so simple.”

“It’s more practical this way, things like names would make it easier for people to identify them, putting an order to them is enough.” Medicine Master resolutely said.

That make sense, it’s practical that way. Song Shuhang nodded, but why did he feel slightly depressed inside?

He imagined for a moment what it would be like for him to duel with someone at the Forbidden Purple Peak.

The opponent snorts, soars into the air, unsheathes his sword, and shouts with an elegant posture, “Immortal Flying Over The Heavens!”

Then he makes a grunt, steps forward in a heroic manner, and releases a punch with his right arm, “Foundation Building Fist Technique Three!”

It would be a great loss for him just in terms of charisma.

“Alright, stop dilly-dallying on the names of the moves. Those things are useless, if you really want them to be different, just alter their names in the future.” Medicine Master paid no heed to the matter, “Here, I’ll first explain the early stages of cultivation and the purpose of foundation building.”

Song Shuhang promptly sat upright, then concentrated on listening.

“On the path of cultivation, there are three thousand great Daos, countless techniques, and each school and sect has their own way of cultivating. However, it doesn’t matter whether they are Daoist cultivators, Buddhist cultivators, Ghost cultivators or Devil cultivators, every cultivator’s first step is virtually the same: temper the body, and thicken the power of qi and blood in the body. This step is called foundation building.”

“The first step of foundation building is to strengthen the body externally with fist, kicking, and sword techniques and so on, which tempers the body. This leads to blood thrumming throughout the body in abundance. Next is to strengthen the body internally with meditation techniques, harvest the overflowing power of qi and blood, and funnel it into the heart. In normal circumstances, no pills are required. Be hardworking in practice and it’ll take approximately a hundred days; the artery to the heart would be crammed with qi and blood, the liquid reaches the channels and the Qiao acupoint will be opened. Once the artery to the heart is open, all of the accumulated qi and blood would transform into a sliver of qi and blood energy. This is foundation building, also known as opening the artery.”

“Once the heart’s artery is open, one would truly have entered the profession of being a cultivator, transcending mortals. This is known as the 1st Stage – Beyond Mortal Realm.”