The Heavenly Wandering Sword

Chapter 36

The next day, Li Jian taught his morning class quickly. Due to the newer nature of the technique, the two demon students and the human student were not able to maintain the spiritual force in their tree branches for very long. The three witch elves however, were able to do so for a while which was quite impressive. In truth, infusing your spiritual essence into a sword as you fought was something which even those in the high realms had trouble with. That was also why it was an extremely powerful technique that transcended martial art forms.

“I want you all to realize that the pursuit of martial arts is really the pursuit of mastering your own spiritual force. You should all have spiritual seas at your cultivation level right?” A series of nods came from the students. “I’m also going to explain why there is such a difference between the three races in terms of cultivation potential and capabilities.” He gestured for Su Lau, Han Tian and Wu Shan to come up. “Each of you were children raised from privileged backgrounds. At the same time, all of you have cultivated since childhood. Is it really a lack of talent? Han Tian at his young age is in the Dao Seeking Realm, very close to a breakthrough to Immortal Realm. For a human child, that is extraordinary.”

Li Jian twirled a piece of chalk in his fingertips, making everyone in the room nervous. Handing the professor a roll of chalk was akin to handing a normal person a box of explosive magical talisman. “But Wu Shan is already in the Immortal Realm and so is Su Lai. In fact, Su Lai is the most powerful one of all of you in terms of cultivation. I’ll circle back to that though.”

He looked at the three students in front of him and clearly saw their meridians. The witch elf race had one more meridian while the demon race had one less. However, the meridians of the demon race were larger, and the witch elf ones much complex. “The reason the witch elf race seems to progress more is that witch elves have one more meridian than humans. Humans have eight. Demons have seven. It seems like the witch elves would be more powerful overall right?” The class nodded, the numbers seemed to make sense.

He laughed and shook his head. “Wrong. The seven meridians the demon race has are larger, and more suited to pure brute force use of spiritual force. The witch elf race have more meridians, allowing for a faster progression in cultivation and in the manipulation of spiritual force. Humans however, have a more complex meridian system. They are able to master a much wider variety of techniques.” He gestured for the three of them to sit down before he sat down on his desk and drank from his mug of peach tea. “Now how many of you understand what that truly means?”

The class stared at him. “It means that demons can use brute force like real men!” Of course Wu Shan had an answer like that. Li Jian grinned at him and held out his thumb straight up before reversing it, giving him a thumbs down.” “No Master Real Man, it means that demons do the best with martial arts that require explosive usages of spiritual force. For example, I would suggest you use a fist based martial art instead of trying to master a long ranged martial art. That also means, Master Han the human student here can practice whichever martial art he wishes, in fact if he had the time and the skills to do so he can practice three or four at once. That is also why the three witch elves were able to master sending their spiritual force into tree branches for so long.”

“Professor, doesn’t that mean then witch elves are more powerful than the other two races?” Shing Hai asked. The witch elf woman smirked over at the other three non-witch elves with a cocky grin. Li Jian shook his head and chuckled. “You didn’t finish your question. The question is also, more powerful than the other two races at what exactly. If your mother was here and I beat her in a fight, what does that mean exactly?” Shing Hai looked at him questioningly and shrugged her shoulders.

“The problem with all of your cultivating and the like is that all of you have so far missed exactly what the process of cultivation does and why you ended up with a certain strength. Let us take Han Tian for example. Come up here boy.”

The human boy stood up and walked over to the professor curiously. “Han Tian has interesting meridians and a strong foundation. The reason he is at Dao Seeking Level 9 and not at the Immortal Realm as all of you are, is because of the same reason that all of you should be stronger than you are but you are not. All of you had plenty of herbal medicine and pills as well as various treasures used. That means that at the end of the day, you have done part of your own levels by yourselves. Han Tian here will be a test dummy for the class.”

The human boy gawked slightly at the professor’s words. “Test dummy? Is he going to beat me with chalk?” He thought to himself. “Spiritual energy is a flow. It is not a sudden burst of anything. If there is no pressure then it sits still and does nothing.” Li Jian reached out and pushed him down into a seated position. “Just relax and breathe.” He quickly jabbed the two lower meridians of the boy, releasing a sudden burst of spiritual energy into his body. The spiritual energy would rush through the two lower meridians all the way up to all the ones on top, Han Tian’s body quickly becoming engulfed in a bright glow as he broke through.

“He’s breaking through just like that? He.. he is at Dao Seeking level 10 now! Wait, no he is at Dao Seeking Level 11? 12? Immortal realm!” Su Hao the male witch elf leaned forward in his chair and stared in shock. The glow of energy reached its apex before slowly calming down bit by bit. “They always tell you, after a breakthrough to consolidate the spiritual energy in your body right?” The rest of the class nodded. Li Jian shook his head. “Why do you want your spiritual sea to be still when you need pressure to get the most out of it?” Having said that, he gestured towards the boy who was still sitting on the floor. “Class assignment. All five of you, beat him mercilessly.”

Right before a kick in the face from Shing Hai and a punch to the stomach from Wu Shen Bao connected, Han Tian cursed his luck at having met a human professor who was far crueler than a demon or a witch elf. After a solid half an hour of Han Tian being beaten to within an inch of his life, Li Jian held a hand up and jumped down from the desk, crouching down beside the boy. “Oh good, he’s alive. Now, anyone know why I wanted you all to beat him?”

Wu Shan raised his hand eagerly. “Is it because real men shouldn’t look at other men the way he does?” Li Jian placed his head in his hand cursing the fact that he got a broken rooster for a student before sending Wu Shan flying into a wall with a wave of his hand. “It is because of tempering. You consolidate your breakthrough, and that is fine. It makes it easier to breakthrough to the next level. But what is the point of breaking through to the next level if you have no pressure, no external force that will cause your spiritual sea to constantly rise and fall with power? Student Han, activate your spiritual force. How do you feel?”

Han Tian coughed up some blood and looked up out the window. “Perhaps one day on this journey of life I will find peace.” He thought to himself right before Li Jian dropped his empty mug on his head. Han Tian finally activated his spiritual force and found that the amount of spiritual force he was able to now use was much much more than before. “I.. professor you’re a genius!” Han Tian said, jumping up as he looked at his hands. His aura had become much more solid and powerful even for someone who just stepped into the Immortal realm.

“Wu Shen Bao, Su Hao, you two come here and sit down.” Li Jian’s face was smiling quite darkly. The younger demon student sat down nervously while Su Hao could only cry unrequited tears towards the heavens for the suffering he was about to endure.

“Su Hao is powerful but it always seems that witch elf males are less powerful than witch elf females. Does anyone know the reason for that?” The class stared at him blankly. “It’s because witch elf females so far all seem to be born with a different body type than males. However for Su Hao, unless he was to meet a great hero who recognizes it, he will have to cultivate through the standard method. Luckily for him…” Li Jian looked down at him quite evilly before conjuring a ball of spiritual fire and with a single gesture, sent the spiritual fire into Su Hao’s body.

“Perhaps in my next life there will be less suffering.” Su Hao thought to himself before his mind was engulfed by pure fire. He felt himself burn up from the inside, his eyes and mouth drying up unable to comprehend anything beyond the sensation of pure heat. With a loud woosh, a massive flame erupted out from Su Hao’s body as he broke through to level 2 of the Immortal Realm. Li Jian watched while the witch elf boy burned for a few more moments before the flames calmed down inside of him. “Witch elf males seem to be born with an imbalance of yin and yang. The yin side grants them the power to brutally cultivate through sheer clever manipulation but it also means that an infusion of spiritual flames are needed every so often to restore the balance from cultivating in an unbalanced manner.”

“Herbs and pills are great to help you breakthrough but the spiritual energy from them are not ones generated in your own body. If I mix some water into a cup of wine, the cup will still be full but how much of the wine will be left?” He looked at the students who nodded in understanding. “Now as for Wu Shen Bao, the demon body is unique in that the meridians are less but larger. This also means that the more powerful a demon gets, the much harder it is for them to raise to a higher level. That is because there is less external pressure to force them to progress.”

”Saints and sinners alive suffer in this world.” Student Wu Shen Bao said to himself as his professor placed a hand a few feet above from his head and sent a short burst of spiritual energy towards him in the form of sheer pressure. This was not just pressure that could be generated by ones level, it was an innate understanding of gravity force. In the case of Li Jian, it was a manipulation of void force. “Try to resist it best you can.” He said before increasing the pressure. Wu Shen Bao would feel the pressure of more than 50 thousand kilograms on his body now, his meridians compressing from the force itself as he clenched his teeth. However, in the compressed state of his meridians, his spiritual sea suddenly stormed and energy burst forth through all of his meridians until his body was infused by a large swathe of light. “Another breakthrough!” Shing Hai called out as indeed Wu Shen Bao broke through to the next level.

“Brother you’re a real man now!” Wu Shan said, holding out his hand in a thumbs up gesture. Once the light slowly faded, Li Jian ceased the pressure on the boys body. “All of you, consider carefully cultivation is. Your homework is to try and cut off a tree branch with your own tree branch infused with spiritual force. Bring the cut tree branch to class tomorrow.” He waved the students out, lazily using his spiritual powers to float two mugs over to the peach tea samovar to fill both mugs before retrieving the mugs with his spiritual force, setting them down on his desk. “You can come out now.”

Fu Rong appeared in the doorway, a smile that hinted more towards annoyance than anything else. “How long did you realize I was here for?” She asked just a bit too sweetly. Li Jian drank from his mug of peach tea and stretched out his arms with a casual grin. “Well I didn’t think you would stay for the whole class.”

The principal picked up the second mug from his desk and sipped from it with another one of her overly nice smiles. “Master Li, you seem to be doing quite well as a professor here. Who would have thought that you would be able to teach so well?” Li Jian snorted into his mug. “Sister Fu, why must such a young beauty have such a venomous tongue? You’re the one that wanted me here.” She laughed and placed the mug down on his desk before walking away. “At the end of the week, the parents of these students will be visiting. I hope you are ready for them.” He just waved his hand casually towards her. “Worst comes to worst I can just quit and live on the street as the most handsome urchin in the Kingdom.”