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

Chapter 205 Can Immortal Cultivation Be Done Without Spiritual Energy?

The Hundred Forging Sect is indeed not well-known, or rather, it's not that it's not well-known, but rather that it has a bad reputation in the martial arts world. For example, the Hundred Forging Sect was not even invited to the Martial Arts Tournament held by the Sword Casting Manor, such a grand martial arts event. This shows its reputation.

This is because the real power behind the Hundred Forging Sect is actually the Southern Chu Kingdom's court.

The Southern Chu Kingdom also had an institution for managing martial arts sects and controlling numerous martial artists, called the Zhenwu Bureau.

Under the Zhenwu Bureau, each prefecture had a Wuzheng Division, each county had a Wulu Division, and the directly governed prefectures had a Wuji Division.

The division between departments is very detailed, which also manages the martial artists in the martial arts world to a very good standard. As long as you are a martial artist, you must register with the Martial Records Department or the Martial Discipline Department, and your martial arts cultivation and rank must be re-verified every three years.

The determination of ranks was handled by personnel appointed by the Military Affairs Department. Local Military Records Departments were not authorized to determine ranks. This design was intended to prevent collusion between officials and military personnel.

As for the ranking of martial artists in the directly administered prefectures, it was handled by personnel from the Zhenwu Bureau.

Of course, all the expenses required for ordering a product must be paid and borne by the martial artist who needs to order the product, and ordering a product is not an option.

If you don't specify the items or register them, then the Zhenwu Bureau has grounds to convict you.

Why would a martial artist not register? Does he harbor rebellious intentions? Is he preparing to revolt?

What? No? Do you think it's up to you to decide whether it's there or not? I don't care what you think, I care what I think!

In short, anyone who hasn't registered is considered to be plotting a rebellion!

Such an unreasonable system meant that the Southern Chu Kingdom did not revere martial artists as much as other countries such as the Xiao Kingdom. As a result, many martial artists from poor families who made unexpected breakthroughs had to keep a low profile, fearing that they would be arrested and forced into the army because they could not afford to register their ranks.

Under such circumstances, the combined power of all martial arts sects in the entire Southern Chu Kingdom was less than that of a single state in the Xiao Kingdom. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand why the most famous and seemingly most prosperous sect, the Hundred Forging Sect, was so "special" because it was controlled by the imperial court.

How can a sect that excels at forging weapons allow the martial world to run rampant?
The emperor of Southern Chu harbored deep sarcasm towards the Northern Xiao Kingdom for not trying to control the Sword Casting Manor, which was also skilled in forging.

Such laxity towards martial arts forces is a recipe for disaster!

It is precisely because everyone knows that the Hundred Forging Sect is backed by the government of the Southern Chu Kingdom that the major sects have never been very close to the Hundred Forging Sect. Only the Ye family, the richest family in Jiangnan and the number one martial arts force in Jiangnan, can be invited by the Hundred Forging Sect to be their guest.

Ye Hanxing only saw the Mirror Abyss Cold Pool when he visited the Hundred Forging Sect with his senior brothers and sisters last time.

There are quite a few cold pools in the world.

Not to mention far away, there is one in White Stone Mountain, but that cold pool is small in scale and not as special as the Mirror Abyss Cold Pool, so it is not only unknown, but it doesn't even have a name. It's just that the disciples of Sword Casting Manor used to like to go there to search for rare minerals.

Besides Jingyuan Cold Pool, other well-known "cold pools" include Jingpo Lake in the Bohai Kingdom, Black Pool in the Jinsha Kingdom, and Luojia Lake in the Dachanghe Kingdom.

These lakes or pools all share a common characteristic: the water is extremely yin and cold. If one practices techniques related to ice and cold, one can utilize its properties to temper the body and cultivate, which is of great benefit. They are natural treasures.

However, these were all relatively large and intensely cold pools. The one belonging to the Peach Blossom Sect, in terms of both size and coldness, was nothing special, and naturally, it had never had a chance to spread. If Zhang Chengdao were here, he would understand at a glance that this cold pool was a water source no less valuable than a spiritual spring. Unfortunately, these disciples, who had only recently joined the sect, knew nothing about such things. Therefore, they could only huddle together and chatter, discussing whether this small patch of "cold pool water," which resembled the Mirror Abyss Cold Pool, could replace the spiritual spring water, and whether the medicinal herbs in the Peach Blossom Sect's herb garden had gained life because of this "cold pool water."

Feng Guang suggested, "In any case, why don't we register it first, and then send it to the sect leader so that Manager Xu can make a judgment!"

"Master Xu's cultivation level is almost the same as mine, so what kind of judgment can he make!"

Zhong Hui pursed his lips and muttered something under his breath, but did not refute Feng Guang's suggestion.

Qin Jiang, on the other hand, first frowned and remained silent, but then, while the others were discussing, he suddenly started taking out books one by one from somewhere.

He first pulled out two books, "Zonghua's Personal Bodyguard" and "Going to Be a Furnace in the Initial Saint Hehuan Sect," then with lightning speed, he turned these two books over to cover the titles, before pulling out some books that looked much more normal:

"Ten Lectures on Spiritual Energy," "The Help of External Sources to Cultivators in Immortal Cultivation," "The Five Elements and Spiritual Energy"...

Zhong Hui's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets: "Junior Brother Qin, you...you actually brought all these books with you on this trial mission?!"

Sun Ping looked on with longing: "Junior Brother Qin, so many books must have cost a lot of spirit stones, right?"

At first, the sect shops in the sect market only had the most boring book, "Elementary Qi Refining Book". Not long after, it was said that the third senior brother had found the Ye family's printing crew and printed out many books, so the number of books in the shops increased.

From serious cultivation books to all sorts of frivolous stories, there's something for everyone. I heard the most popular one lately is "Serving as a Furnace in the Initial Saint Joyful Union Sect," which nine out of ten outer disciples have read, even myself...

"Ahem, Junior Brother Qin, you actually read that book called 'Cauldron'? I don't even read books like that!"

Sun Ping coughed a few times, looking disgusted.

Qin Jiang, his face flushed, put the two books he had accidentally taken out back into his Qiankun bag and emphasized, "I don't have them, they belong to my roommate!"

"Actually, I think it's quite good, definitely better than 'Zonghua'!" Unexpectedly, Zhong Hui also read this kind of book, and enthusiastically stepped forward to say, "'Zonghua' is too weak! I heard the whole set has dozens of volumes, and only one volume has been released so far!"

The most composed of them all, Feng Guang, frowned and stopped their unreliable talk: "You lot, stop with the idle chatter, let's get down to business!"

"Oh right, right!" Qin Jiang quickly picked up the book "The Five Elements and Spiritual Energy," flipping through it as he said, "I remember this book mentioning that the cultivation of immortality doesn't necessarily require spiritual energy. There are also some special things that rely on spiritual energy, among which is 'yin and cold energy'!"

Zhong Hui was shocked by Qin Jiang's words: "Cultivating immortality doesn't require spiritual energy?!"

Ye Hanxing, standing to the side, suddenly seemed to recall something and said, "I did hear Headmaster Xu mention in a classics class that the true qi cultivated in martial arts used to be something that relied on spiritual energy. However, because it was a mixture of internal energy cultivated through various techniques, it was particularly impure, which is why it conflicted with the path of immortality. As a result, if a martial artist wanted to cultivate immortality, they had to refine their true qi first..."

Feng Guang reasonably speculated: "So, the reason why this cold pool can nurture spiritual medicinal herbs is because of some kind of 'yin and cold energy'?"

Qin Jiang finally turned to the section in the book that explained "yin and cold energy," then spread the book out in front of everyone and grinned: "Indeed!"

(End of this chapter)