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

Chapter 247 The Great Dao is myriad, and Your Excellency is also one of them.

Only Qiao'er Zhao remained calm and composed, even sensing the unspoken meaning in Zhang Chengdao's words. She glared at her little apprentice and scolded, "What kind of behavior is this, all jumpy and alarmed! The distinguished guest spoke of 'above the Grandmaster level,' and all you can hear in your tiny ears is 'Grandmaster'?"

The junior disciple was stunned by his master's scolding. After his mind came to a head, he stammered even more, "Master, you, you mean, this, this person... no, no, this, this distinguished guest, is, is a Grandmaster!? A Grandmaster!?"

"Silence!"

Qiao'er Zhao glared at her young disciple again, feeling rather embarrassed. She scolded him again before turning to Zhang Chengdao and saying politely, "Please forgive my rudeness, my little disciple has grown up with me since he was a child. He comes from a humble family and has never seen much of the world."

Qiao'er Zhao was also shocked. He didn't believe it at first, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that it was somewhat believable.

Since the emergence of the "White Stone Immortal" from White Stone Mountain in Baozhou, all sorts of strange and unusual things, used or eaten by immortals, have flowed out, causing martial arts to flourish all over the world. In Daming Prefecture alone, it is said that two Grandmasters and more than a dozen Venerables have broken through in succession recently. It is also said that Grand Tutor Qi, who has retired from Xiao Kingdom, lamented the great prosperity of martial arts a month ago when he celebrated his birthday, saying that it had both advantages and disadvantages.

If it were a grandmaster who had made some new breakthrough, it wouldn't be hard to understand, but it seems like there's no word of it in the martial arts world...

Wait, Baishi Mountain in Baozhou...

Thinking of this, Qiao'er Zhao hesitated and carefully examined the distinguished guest in front of her who seemed to be a "Grandmaster".

He was tall and straight, and even when he sat upright in a folding chair, his posture was as beautiful as a pine tree. He exuded a kind of temperament that was different from others. It was not a noble temperament, nor a scholarly temperament, nor the sharpness of ordinary martial artists, but a temperament that transcended the mundane world and was detached from worldly affairs, as if this person did not belong to this world!

What puzzled him most was that, judging from the man's build and physique, he couldn't tell his age...

Or rather, you can tell his age is around twenty, but is it possible for a grandmaster to be around twenty?

Qiao'er Zhao previously said that he had some knowledge of face reading, but that was a conservative statement. In fact, he was a well-known face reader. Once he started reading, he was always right!
Having mastered this art to such an extent, he naturally understood how to judge bone structure and skin appearance, and could be certain that the person before him looked to be only in his early twenties!

A grandmaster in his early twenties...

Although Qiao'er Zhao only had a rudimentary understanding of the most common martial arts techniques in the martial arts world and barely managed to reach the eighth rank of cultivation, this did not mean that he did not understand martial arts!

As someone who frequented the lowest of professions, Qiao'er Zhao considered himself to know quite a bit about martial arts—he had never heard of a grandmaster in his twenties!

Even a grandmaster couldn't do that!
Or, even if the person in front of you is actually a Venerable One who lied and claimed to be a Grandmaster just to boast, it's impossible!

Not to mention that it's pointless for the other party to tell such a lie—for low-class craftsmen like them, who are at most at the eighth or ninth rank in cultivation, any martial artist of the fifth rank or above is someone they have to look up to. There is no difference between being a Venerable, a Grandmaster, or a Great Grandmaster.

Moreover, while one can disguise one's face, one cannot use techniques to shrink one's body shape, can one?
Is this to avoid trouble or to hide from enemies?

If this physique and bone structure are untouched, and he truly appears to be in his early twenties as he sees it…

This person is definitely not a Grandmaster! Nor is he "above Grandmaster"!
They came from Baozhou...

Qiao'er Zhao was suddenly startled.

Perhaps going even further, this person is not a martial artist at all! Nor is what he cultivates the martial path!
Thinking of this, Qiao'er Zhao hurriedly beckoned to her eldest disciple and said, "Go, take all your junior brothers to the backyard to paste paper. You stay in the courtyard and don't let anyone come near them!"

Seeing that his master was unusually serious, Liu Ba immediately responded and led his fellow disciples to retreat to the backyard.

The youngest disciple, however, seemed reluctant to leave. Perhaps he had never seen a grandmaster or great grandmaster before, and being a young man, he admired martial arts the most. Having finally encountered a legendary "grandmaster" or even a "great grandmaster," he was unwilling to obediently step down.
He wouldn't budge an inch, but Liu Ba grabbed him and dragged him away.

After the room was cleaned up, Qiao'er Zhao Fang stood up and respectfully cupped her hands to Zhang Chengdao, saying, "Honorable guest, you are probably not a grandmaster or great grandmaster, but a disciple of the White Stone Immortal Sect, right?"

Zhang Chengdao had just seen Qiao'er Zhao's arrangements and knew that he might have revealed something. Now, seeing Qiao'er Zhao's words, although he was puzzled about where he had revealed anything, he nodded calmly, which was taken as tacit agreement.

So be it, he's a disciple of the White Stone Immortal Sect. As long as no one suspects that he is the real White Stone Immortal, he will still have face when he comes to his disciples in the future!
Zhang Chengdao's inner thoughts were not revealed to outsiders, but Qiao'er Zhao was quite excited to see him tacitly agree.

He took several deep breaths to calm himself down before bowing deeply and saying, "Please, Immortal Master, do not hesitate to teach me. The White Stone Immortal Sect was founded by immortals and should be capable of everything. Why did you come to Daming Prefecture to learn how to make paper figures from this old man?"

At this point, Qiao'er Zhao's doubts deepened, and she couldn't help but add, "Besides... could these paper figures possibly be related to cultivating immortality?"

"Immortals are not omnipotent, of course. They are also humans who have cultivated themselves... Well, there are also other spirits, monsters and demons who have cultivated themselves, but let's not talk about that for now."

Zhang Chengdao replied with a smile, "Let's start with the so-called Dao of Immortality."

"The path to immortality is the great path attained through enlightenment and the blessing of Heaven."

"There are countless great paths in the world, and no immortal can be omnipotent."

"It is already difficult to be fortunate enough to cultivate one path to immortality, so there are naturally no immortals who cultivate thousands of great paths together."

"Among the immortal paths, there is a path called 'Puppet Art,' which is the art of crafting puppets. Although it originated from the art of weapon crafting, it is so complex and rich that it has become a path of its own, and there are many practitioners."

"Among the 'Puppet Techniques,' there are many branches such as 'Paper Puppet Techniques,' 'Wooden Puppet Techniques,' 'Iron Puppet Techniques,' and 'Corpse Puppet Techniques.' What I wish to learn is the 'Paper Puppet Technique.'"

"Although this method is not difficult, it relies heavily on skill. The White Stone Immortal Sect has not studied it much, so it is naturally inferior to Your Excellency. As the saying goes, the expert is the teacher. Since there is no one in the sect who is skilled in paper-making, I really have no way to learn it. So I had to ask around and find Your Excellency here."

Upon hearing Zhang Chengdao's explanation, Qiao'er Zhao's eyes lit up. She felt as if she had grasped something, yet it was like trying to find flowers in the fog; she couldn't make sense of it all. She murmured, "The Great Dao is infinite... Paper... Puppet Technique..."

Seeing Qiao'er Zhao's attitude, Zhang Chengdao thought for a moment and then changed his words, saying, "If Your Excellency has no interest in gold or silver, perhaps we can make an exchange."

Upon hearing this, Qiao'er Zhao's heart pounded so hard it almost jumped out of his throat—he could even clearly hear his own heavy breathing!
He stared intently at Zhang Chengdao, his eyes unblinking, and uttered four words: "How to exchange?"

“You taught me the art of paper-making, and I will teach you the art of paper puppetry, what do you say?” Zhang Chengdao smiled, and before Qiao’er Zhao could respond, he added, “Although the art of paper puppetry does not require a high level of cultivation for practitioners, it still requires entering the path of immortality. I can also teach you the method of guiding Qi into your body. Once you become a Qi Refining stage cultivator, you will be able to learn most of the paper puppetry techniques.”

The art of weapon crafting and talisman making has this advantage: it doesn't require cultivators to have high cultivation talent. As long as one can draw qi into the body, one can achieve minor success. If one can establish a foundation or even form a core, achieving major success is not a problem. In the cultivation community, it is also a way out for cultivators with poor cultivation aptitude.

Qiao'er Zhao still couldn't believe it: "This...this immortal technique can really be taught to outsiders?"

This time, it was Zhang Chengdao's turn to be puzzled: "Your Excellency, have you not heard of the 'White Stone Immortal's Book'?"

This brings us to the fact that although the three books on basic cultivation of immortality, namely "Bai Shi Xian Dao Shu", "Bai Shi Gan Qi Shu" and "Ji Bu Yin Qi Ru Ti Lun", have different names, they are all passed down from the Bai Shi Immortal Sect and are secret manuals for beginners in immortality. Therefore, they are collectively called "Bai Shi Xian Dao Shu". However, "Bai Shi Xian Dao Shu" is simply referred to as "Xian Dao Shu" to distinguish them.

Furthermore, although these three books were compiled by Zhang Chengdao's disciples at his instruction for use by students of Baishi Immortal Dao University, he did not prohibit their circulation. In fact, he was happy to see these books widely spread among the people below.

Wang Yanqing, who oversaw the printing of the books, figured out Zhang Chengdao's intentions and also promoted the books very vigorously. Some time ago, he even heard from his third apprentice that the books had spread to the Southern Chu Kingdom...

The news should have spread much earlier in the nearby Xiao Kingdom!

"I've heard of it, I've heard of it..."

Qiao'er Zhao smiled sheepishly and explained, "It's just that this old man doesn't know many characters, so even if I bought it, I wouldn't be able to understand it. Therefore, I never even considered it..."

Zhang Chengdao nodded in sudden realization.

No matter how famous Qiao'er Zhao was, she was still one of the Yinmen craftsmen, a low-class profession, so her literacy rate was naturally not high.

"That's alright. Guiding Qi into the body isn't difficult, and I can explain it verbally."

After all, Zhang Chengdao was a Nascent Soul cultivator, and he had listened to many lectures given by Chang Ping'an and Murong Ruyan to the outer disciples. With reference to the contents of "Bai Shi Immortal Dao Book", "Bai Shi Qi Sensing Book" and "Basic Qi Guiding Theory", it was not difficult for him to orally transmit a set of Qi sensing methods.

Having said all that, Qiao'er Zhao was naturally more than happy to accept, but he simply couldn't believe it—

Using low-class, unsavory skills to exchange for immortal techniques!

"This...this can really be exchanged?"

Qiao'er Zhao had always been arrogant to outsiders, and had never been so "humble" in her life.

Even his former "arrogance" was a form of inferiority complex.

Where is the "arrogance" in the lowest of professions? It's just that they hold onto their pride, believe they earn their living with their skills and are worthy of their abilities, and are unwilling to accept the fact that their profession is looked down upon.

But the truth is the truth. Qiao'er Zhao also acknowledged her "lowly" status deep down, otherwise she wouldn't have asked Zhang Chengdao so repeatedly.

Zhang Chengdao patiently replied, “In all trades and professions, those who are skilled are the first to succeed. Now that spiritual energy is scarce, all trades are not prominent. If spiritual energy recovers in the future and the world becomes full of spiritual energy, people with such superb skills as Your Excellency may very well be able to truly establish their own path of ‘immortality’ in their life’s pursuit. I have only brought this change forward a little.”

This wasn't Zhang Chengdao trying to comfort the other party.

Many fantasy novels with weak logic tend to favor the past over the present, claiming that the mansions of powerful beings from tens of thousands of years ago are filled with countless rare treasures and cultivation manuals, any one of which would attract countless cultivators. They completely ignore the fact that these powerful beings obtained such rare treasures and cultivation manuals from their own time.

Admittedly, some works are based on the premise that spiritual energy and the immortal path have declined generation after generation, but the main reason for this is that it is easier to write.

As for the logic...

Since you're reading novels, why are you worrying about overly rigorous real-world logic?

However, based on the "common sense" that Zhang Chengdao had learned during this period of working day and night, spending his time either cultivating or slacking off reading various books, he knew that spiritual energy was not entirely stable in many worlds—whether it was a large world or a small world. Therefore, there were many records of the spiritual energy gradually becoming scarce during the so-called "end of Dharma era" and the current situation of spiritual energy revival, and he had summarized a lot of knowledge in this regard.

Of course, this process of change is actually very long. Under natural conditions, it is mostly measured in tens of thousands of years, and sometimes even hundreds of thousands or millions of years.

In short, according to the records in these books, during the revival of spiritual energy, outstanding individuals from all walks of life will inevitably emerge. Due to various accidents, they will embark on the path of cultivation, combining it with their original professions to form a new "path of immortality".

The various strange and wonderful manuals that Zhang Chengdao drew from the member's red envelope and found in the [Academy] after each upgrade were all "accidental" extensions of these strange and wonderful professions.

These "accidents" were both unexpected and inevitable.

In any profession, once you reach the pinnacle of expertise, you've found the way.

Upon hearing Zhang Chengdao's words, Qiao'er Zhao suddenly felt boundless courage and determination.

He was already in his fifties, almost old enough to be buried, yet he suddenly felt young, still able to…

Try it.

"Since the immortal has said so, it would be ungrateful of me not to agree!"

Qiao'er Zhao seemed to have regained her status in the paper-making business. She straightened her back, cupped her hands and said, "If you don't mind, Immortal Master, please stay here. What kind of paper-making skills do you want to learn? I will teach you everything I know to be worthy of your words!"

Zhang Chengdao breathed a sigh of relief: "Then I shall respectfully comply."

Finally, I can improve my worrisome paper crafting skills and no longer need to activate Plan B before the Immortal Destiny Conference!
(End of this chapter)