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Ch152 - Training 1. Qifu Zhao




Midsummer approached.
Wendao Academy’s graduation training would take place west of Wuque Ridge.
Su Hansheng prepared early, stuffing magical artifacts into his storage ring, humming as he set off for training.
In his final year, Su Hansheng worked diligently. Even if he fooled around with Chongjue until late at night, he’d still force himself up early for class the next morning. His absences were few and far between, shocking the entire disciplinary hall.
He carefully calculated his points. If he could wildly earn eight points winning the training championship, then score another championship on the final written exam, he might erase his deducted points and graduate on the spot.
Su Hansheng was extremely excited, eyes shining bright from early morning.
Chongjue was brewing tea, saying calmly: “This training will likely be fraught with difficulty. With no instructors accompanying you…”
“I know.” Su Hansheng’s excitement didn’t diminish. “That’s what makes it challenging! Eight points, here I come!”
Chongjue felt helpless about his blind confidence, shaking his head.
Su Hansheng rushed forward to kiss him, grinning: “You can start preparing for registration now. When I return victorious, I’ll gloriously marry you through the door!”
Chongjue chuckled: “So confident?”
“Of course!” Su Hansheng raised an eyebrow proudly, casually grabbing some pastries. “I’m off. Don’t miss me.”
This training had no instructors. Disciplinarian Chu Fenghan would lead everyone aboard the tower ship.
Su Hansheng had arrived at the academy on this very ship. Now graduating with the same vessel—beginning to end.
Thanks to Zhuang Dog’s heroic suggestions, this year’s graduation training was much harsher than before. The tower ship would drop students in a barrier-sealed deep mountain, with championship determined by the number of beast cores hunted.
In just half a year, Su Hansheng had reached Nascent Soul stage. Sharpening his blade for the beasts, he planned to show his prowess.
Chu Fenghan glanced at the excited students, a flash of pity in his cold eyes.
Let them be happy for a while.
The tower ship pierced through clouds, reaching the training grounds in half a day.
Students clustered in groups of three to five, chattering endlessly. Su Hansheng had learned Chongjue’s tea-brewing technique, sitting cross-legged on a cushion showing off to Yuan Qian and Wu Baili.
Just as the tea finished brewing, Su Hansheng suddenly felt his body suspended in air. Bewildered, he made an “ah” sound. Maintaining his cross-legged posture holding teapot in one hand and teacup in the other…
He plummeted straight down from ten thousand feet.
Su Hansheng: “???”
Not just him—everyone’s position seemed barrier-sealed. All simultaneously fell from the tower ship, screams rising in waves, including several curses.
Chu Fenghan stood on the ship’s railing against the wind, backlit as he watched the students, saying calmly: “Training begins.”
Everyone: “…”
“Ahhhhh!”
“Zhuang Dog, I’ll kill you…”
“Help—! I’m scared of heights!”
Su Hansheng’s teacup water splashed all over his face with the momentum of the fall. He spat a few times, tossed the cup away, and cursing, formed hand seals to ride the wind.
Throwing people from ten thousand feet up—what kind of person does this?
Fortunately, Su Hansheng had reached Nascent Soul stage and mastered wind-riding. Hugging his spirit sword, he rode the wind plunging into the endless deep mountains below.
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Too lazy to walk, Su Hansheng sat on a swing chair the companion tree lowered, swinging through the dense forest. After sweeping with his divine consciousness and detecting beast auras, he whistled sharply.
The spirit sword whooshed out under his control, shooting through the lush forest straight up.
Moments later, the blood-stained sword leisurely returned, a beast core covered in black demonic breath perched on the tip, offering it like treasure.
Su Hansheng raised his hand to accept it, placing it in the training-specific belt pouch.
The disciple seal made a “zzz” sound. Looking down, he saw the blank listening wall had started a quantity ranking.
Su Hansheng ranked… dead last, with only one beast core.
The top position was Wu Baili, who somehow in mere moments after landing had already hunted ten.
Su Hansheng thought for a moment, lips twitching slightly.
Wu Baili… didn’t fall directly into a beast den, did he?
Too unlucky.
Su Hansheng wasn’t worried. After all, the training lasted three days.
The training mountains were vast. Though many students fell in different directions, after wandering for quite a while, Su Hansheng hadn’t seen a single fellow academy student.
Until sunset approached, the companion tree suddenly anxiously pressed forward, rubbing vines against Su Hansheng’s face, leaves rustling.
Su Hansheng’s brow furrowed. Toe tapping, he silently landed atop a towering tree, squinting toward the southwest.
Some student from some unknown academy seemed even unluckier than Wu Baili, having fallen into a beast tide. A casual glance revealed nearly a hundred ferocious beasts with savage faces besieging him.
The lead person seemed to be at Nascent Soul perfection, not yet breaking through the Spirit Transformation barrier. Fending off so many beasts was too difficult—after a while he clearly struggled.
Su Hansheng frowned, whistling softly.
The companion tree’s roots obeyed, drilling into the ground with rustling movements.
Too far away with so many beasts—Su Hansheng didn’t dare approach, instead controlling his talisman-laden spirit sword to whistle straight out.
Sensing spiritual energy, the nearly exhausted person’s eyes suddenly brightened.
“Reinforcements—wait!”
Bang—!
The spirit sword charged through. The talisman instantly exploded with bang-bang-bangs, blasting open a bloody path, nearly exploding the central figure too. Ash covered his face—couldn’t even see his features.
Flames ran wild. Just as the beast tide hadn’t reacted, roots suddenly burst from underground, wrapping around his leg and dragging him down.
“Mmph…”
The student instantly vanished, leaving only a dark hole.
The beast tide froze.
In the distance, having just saved someone, Su Hansheng immediately shrunk the companion tree, riding the wind to escape while dragging the person up from underground, quickly saying: “Quick, ride the wind! Don’t get caught!”
Covered in mud with a face blackened by explosions, the person spat out the soil. Seeing Su Hansheng, his eyes suddenly brightened with a crisp “Ah!” He quickly circulated spiritual energy to ride the wind, following Su Hansheng forward.
With the companion tree scouting, they narrowly escaped danger, finally finding a tree hollow to hide in before sunset.
Nighttime seemed when beast tides moved in groups. Not wanting to be surrounded by hundreds of beasts again, they could only temporarily avoid confrontation—simply put, hide.
Su Hansheng set out his researched talisman artifacts at the hollow entrance, activating barriers to cover the surroundings, preventing discovery by nighttime beasts.
After finishing arrangements, he turned to find the rescued student staring at him with shining eyes, looking ready to pounce any moment.
Su Hansheng watched him warily.
Did a beast kick this person’s brain? Why so strange?
The student said happily: “Young Lord, your life-saving grace—I have no way to repay, so I’ll simply offer myself!”
Su Hansheng was shocked: “Why repay kindness with enmity?!”
That person: “…”
Su Hansheng sat cross-legged. The more he heard this voice, the more familiar it seemed. Hesitantly asking: “Which academy are you from?”
The student said eagerly: “Young Lord forgot me?”
Su Hansheng was baffled: “Who are you?”
The student silently covered his heart, but quickly rallied, still holding a last shred of hope, wanting Su Hansheng to remember him spontaneously: “Looking at my face, Young Lord doesn’t find anything familiar?”
Su Hansheng made an “oh” sound, whistled, saying: “Show Charcoal Pot Brother a mirror.”
The companion tree extended a vine tendril, bringing over a water mirror and standing it before the student.
The student had been confident, but casually glancing at the mirror, he instantly froze.
The mirror showed someone with a pitch-black face, clothes covered in mud—even his own mother couldn’t recognize who this was.
He quickly formed a cleansing mudra to instantly remove all filth. No longer displaying peacock-like ostentation, he coughed dryly and honestly said: “I’m Xu Cezhi from Jianliang Academy. Last year at the Wendao competition, I defeated the Young Lord.”
Su Hansheng: “…”
Su Hansheng’s face turned sickly green: “Oh.”
“Many thanks to the Young Lord for saving me today.” Xu Cezhi thanked him again. No longer saying flirtatious things, he said seriously: “Tomorrow I’ll give you half of all the beast cores I hunt.”
Su Hansheng yawned, saying listlessly: “No need. Just doing what anyone would.”
“Yes, yes I must.” Xu Cezhi said. “Beast tides are no ordinary matter. If the Young Lord hadn’t saved me, I’d probably have been torn apart.”
Too lazy to argue further, Su Hansheng leaned boredly against the tree wall, playing with his disciple seal.
Xu Cezhi was secretly thrilled.
Last year at the Wendao competition, because Yuan Qian and Wu Baili interfered, he hadn’t even gotten a chance to be alone with Su Hansheng. Now with perfect timing and circumstances—Heaven was helping him!
Xu Cezhi tried to appear calm, about to strike up a conversation with Su Hansheng.
But Su Hansheng made a surprised sound, hooking a vine and asking doubtfully: “Really?”
The vine bobbed up and down.
Su Hansheng quickly formed hand seals to close the artifact, poking his head out of the tree hollow. Seeming to see something, his bored expression immediately showed a smile.
He said happily: “Over here.”
Xu Cezhi was still confused when someone whooshed over, instantly drilling into the tree hollow.
Su Hansheng reopened the artifact, eyes smiling: “What are you doing here?”
The newcomer removed a dark hood, revealing a stern face.
Qifu Zhao seemed to have just fought his way out of a beast tide, blood still on his cheek, his violent aura not yet fully contained. Seeing Su Hansheng, he instinctively showed a gentle smile—appearing extremely bizarre.
“Young Lord, I hope you are well. I came here to gather some spirit herbs.”
Su Hansheng was extremely happy.
Earlier he’d kept eight hundred li away from Xu Cezhi, practically plastering himself to the tree wall. But when Qifu Zhao arrived, completely unconcerned by the blood on his body, he sat close and intimate with him.
“What a coincidence! This morning on the tower ship I was telling Baili about you. Never expected to meet you tonight.”
Qifu Zhao smiled at him.
Xu Cezhi’s heart lurched, remembering the “Dao Companion” Su Hansheng may or may not have mentioned dismissively before. He asked carefully: “Young Lord, who is this?”
Only then did Su Hansheng remember Xu Cezhi: “This is my friend, Qifu Zhao—this is Xu… Xu Cezhi, from Jianliang Academy.”
Qifu Zhao smiled and nodded to Xu Cezhi.
Xu Cezhi returned the courtesy, breathing a sigh of relief.
At least not a “Dao Companion.”
Thinking about it, if the Young Lord really had a Dao Companion, Wendao Academy couldn’t possibly have no word of it.
The tree hollow was spacious. With the long night and nothing to do, Su Hansheng simply took out a pile of food, brewing tea while chatting idly with Qifu Zhao.
Xu Cezhi also brought out pastries, eagerly offering them to Su Hansheng: “Young Lord, please try this…”
Before finishing, Qifu Zhao suddenly smiled and draped a cloak over Su Hansheng, saying gently: “The night is cold. Young Lord should be careful not to catch cold.”
Xu Cezhi: “?”
Xu Cezhi persisted, bringing out spirit fruit worth a fortune from Jianliang Academy: “Young Lord, please try…”
Qifu Zhao: “That looks like a spider… Young Lord, don’t be afraid. Come sit over here.”
Xu Cezhi: “Young Lord, you…”
Qifu Zhao: “Is Young Lord feeling sleepy?”
Xu Cezhi: “Young…”
Qifu Zhao: “Young Lord, Young Lord.”
Xu Cezhi: “…”
Xu Cezhi silently hugged his spirit sword, nearly crying out loud.
He’d thought without Yuan Qian and Wu Baili interfering he could make progress. Never expected someone even more troublesome!
Is everyone from Wendao Academy sick?!
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