Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 183 Innate Sword Physique
Chang Ping'an smiled and said, "Fellow Daoist, don't worry. Consider this Immortal Dew Grass a gift from me in recognition of your calling me 'Senior Brother'!"

"Oh dear! Well, I won't stand on ceremony!"

Seeing that Chang Ping'an was truly sincere in giving the gift, Dai Liang stopped being coy and secretly vowed to repay him in the future before accepting the Immortal Dew Grass. He said excitedly, "I'm so grateful to Senior Brother Chang for spending so much!"

Chang Ping'an learned the term "fellow Daoist" from a book. He had specifically consulted his master about it beforehand. His master said that if both people are cultivators but not from the same sect, they would address each other as fellow Daoists out of politeness, regardless of gender.

In martial arts, even if people are not from the same school, they usually address each other as fellow disciples, which doesn't sound as grand as "fellow Daoist"!
Since you've chosen to cultivate immortality, you should abide by the rules of the immortal path, and of course you should address each other as "fellow Daoist"!

So, under Chang Ping'an's influence, the people of Taiyue Sword Sect began to address each other as fellow Daoists. However, they felt that calling each other "fellow Daoist" directly was too formal, so they created a strange new way of addressing each other. For example, Dai Liang now calls Chang Ping'an "Brother Chang, fellow Daoist".

Well, it's strange yet somehow reasonable. It sounds much more intimate than simply calling someone "fellow Daoist." However, Chang Ping'an was too embarrassed to call him "junior brother"—he already had enough junior brothers and sisters in his own sect to call, so how could he call an outsider "junior brother" or "junior sister"?
Moreover, if he were to truly acknowledge these "junior brothers and sisters," wouldn't he be a generation below Master Qu Zhiweng?
In short, in this strange yet genuine atmosphere, the Taiyue Sword Sect has actually discovered their own unique way of cultivating immortality—sword sensing!
In other words, first sense your own natal sword, and then, like Dai Liang, let your natal sword help guide spiritual energy. In this way, it will take no more than ten days to draw energy into your body. The efficiency is even far greater than some of the outer disciples recruited by the White Stone Immortal Sect at the Immortal Fate Conference!
However, there are disadvantages to doing this. For example, the first step, "sensing one's natal sword," is very difficult and has blocked most of the disciples of the Taiyue Sword Sect.

In the martial arts path, although most people refine their natal weapons, and the Taiyue Sword Sect only refines precious swords, it still takes at least two to six months to truly refine a natal weapon, and the refining speed is often related to the quality of the precious sword.

Of course, this is not absolute.

For example, there was a disciple of the Taiyue Sword Sect named Li Zhi, who was said to be the last disciple of the sect leader Qu Zhiweng. He had only been a disciple for less than a month and had not yet cultivated any true qi, let alone any natal sword.

But Li Zhi, who was completely clean, inexplicably sensed the Taiyue Sword and successfully drew Qi into his body with the help of the Taiyue Sword!
Qu Zhiweng felt both gratified and heartbroken about this.

What to do? The Taiyue Sword, the sect's most treasured artifact passed down by the Sword Saint, seems to have its own agenda. It's already found a new owner before the Sword Saint even passed away! Urgent! Waiting for help online!
He hasn't even drawn qi into his body yet!
However, Qu Zhiweng soon breathed a sigh of relief.

Because this junior disciple named Li Zhi, who hadn't learned anything before the sect closed down, hadn't "refined" the Taiyue Sword, it seems he...

It can sense any sword!

Whether it's the "hero" sword of the eldest brother in the sect, or the swords of other senior brothers, sisters, and elders, as long as it's a precious sword that helps its master successfully draw qi into his body, Li Zhi can sense it!

He even often utters strange and unusual phrases—

"Senior Brother, 'Hero' wants you to wrap it in a cloth next time you sleep with it, because you always drool in your sleep, and it all gets on 'Hero'! The worst part is you don't even realize it when you wake up, making 'Hero' feel like it smells terrible every day!" "Uncle-Master Wang, 'Wait,' thinks the name you chose is too awful, so it doesn't want to help you continue cultivating lately! It wants you to change its name!"

"Oh, and Senior Sister Song, 'Bright Moon' wants the white sword tassel because it matches her name better. She doesn't want the green one because it's too unlucky..."

Upon realizing this, Qu Zhiweng nearly plucked out his own white beard, and incredulously told Chang Ping'an about his discovery, seeking clarification.

Chang Ping'an was also startled, but then he remembered the content about sword cultivation that he had read when he was learning a book called "Breaking the Void Sword Techniques".

Some talented individuals awaken various talents and physiques when they embark on the path of immortality. The most common ones are pure yang physique and pure yin physique. Basically, one or two out of less than ten thousand cultivators can produce such a person—although there are probably not even ten thousand cultivators in the entire world here.

However, there is a type of physique, or talent, called "natural sword body". People with this physique are born with a sense of swords. If it is a spirit sword, it is as if they can talk to the spirit sword and sense its emotions.

According to the examples recorded in the book, there was a cultivator in a certain place who was born with a sword body. Because his cultivation level was too low and he didn't want to work hard, he opened a shop and called himself "the natal spirit sword communicator". He provided services to sword cultivators and made a fortune, which was the envy of many.

Unfortunately, this kind of business is unique and cannot be imitated by others, because the "natural sword body" physique is too special, and there may not be one in 100,000 cultivators.

"In fact, before I took Zhi'er as my disciple, I had resolved never to take on any more disciples. Firstly, I am getting old and my energy is failing, making it difficult to devote my time and effort to guiding new students. Secondly, the sect is declining, and we simply don't have enough resources left to train any more personal disciples..."

At this point, Qu Zhiweng sighed with difficulty, but when he mentioned his young disciple, he was extremely proud and explained the reason for taking him as a disciple: "But Zhi'er is really special. I saw with my own eyes that he had never practiced martial arts and had no true qi at all, yet he was able to wield my Taiyue Sword and perform a set of our sect's sword moves!"
"At first, I thought he had stolen the skills, which is a big taboo in the martial arts world. But I didn't expect him to perform twelve sets of sword moves in a row, each of which was almost identical to the sword moves in the sect. Even if he did steal the skills, I will accept it! Such a genius, with proper guidance, will surely become a great talent in time!"

"But I never expected that after repeated questioning, I learned that Zhi'er had never been to the Taiyue Sword Sect and had never seen those sword moves. He told me that these sword moves were actually what the 'Taiyue Sword' wanted to do, and he was just following the Taiyue Sword's instructions!"

"He's only thirteen years old, how could he lie?"

"I felt at the time that this child was no ordinary person. Even if the Sword Saint himself were reincarnated, he might not have such amazing talent!"

"After I took him into my fold, I was truly glad that I had impulsively agreed when a child asked me for the Taiyue Sword to 'play with.' Otherwise, I probably would never have met such a hidden dragon!"

(End of this chapter)