Cultivation: Starting from a Fighting Cock

Chapter 94 Where Did the Cockfighting Go? (Please Subscribe)

What was supposed to be a joyous family dinner was turned upside down by Zhao Kun's comment about being a "lone star."

Ji Cheng's acting skills forced Zhao Kun to leave the room, winning the sympathy of the Zhao family. In this round of the game between him and Zhao Kun, he won a great victory.

Afterwards, led by Master Zhao and Cui Sheng, they deliberately steered the conversation in a cheerful direction.

The gloom and sadness at the banquet were quickly swept away.

Then, the conversation inevitably turned to martial arts. Master Zhao said that Zhao Qian was a martial artist at the early stage of internal strength, and that Er Gou could ask Zhao Qian for advice if he had any questions about practicing martial arts in the future.

Zhao Qian smiled and nodded at Ji Cheng, indicating that if Er Gou asked, he would definitely teach him everything he knew.

Ji Cheng was naturally grateful. He knew the Zhao family's character well, and they were not just saying this for show. If he needed anything, the Zhao family would help him as long as they could.

Then, the conversation turned to the Demon Forging Sect. Master Zhao said, "I've heard that the Demon Forging Sect has extremely strict requirements for recruiting disciples. Brother Cui, Er Gou, could you tell me more about it?"

With two martial artists in the family, Zhao Qian and Zhao Yan, Master Zhao still harbored some illusions.

Cui Sheng glanced at Ji Cheng, who nodded and said, "Uncle, apart from those with innate spiritual roots, there are two major restrictions on the martial artists recruited by the Demon Forging Sect: one is to cultivate to the point of mastery of internal strength before the age of twenty, and the other is to complete a blood transfusion."

Currently, Ji Cheng is still unclear about what this blood transfusion is all about; he only knows that Zhao Qian's two consecutive blood transfusions have failed.

He plans to ask the owner of the beef restaurant later when he has the chance.

Upon hearing this, Master Zhao murmured and repeated the two conditions, then looked at Zhao Qian.

Zhao Qian sighed deeply: "Alas, meeting the requirements for the Demon Forging Sect to accept disciples is harder than ascending to heaven. Anyone who can cultivate to the peak of internal strength and complete a blood transfusion before the age of twenty is a martial arts genius, one in a thousand. Even in Zishui City, they are few and far between!"

He has lost his ambition. He is about to turn twenty, but he is still a long way from mastering internal strength.

He added, "Being able to join the Demon Forging Sect as a martial artist is no less rare than having a congenital spiritual body whose spiritual root has been detected."

People generally believe that martial artists are everywhere, and that you can hit a lot of them by throwing a brick at random.

But those were all martial artists with ordinary aptitude.

Because of its low barrier to entry, many people without spiritual roots can practice martial arts.

In reality, martial arts geniuses are extremely rare; it's difficult to find even one out of a thousand martial artists.

Take the conditions for the Demon Forging Sect to accept disciples as an example. If one can achieve great mastery of internal energy and complete a blood exchange before the age of twenty, it means that this person has the potential to cultivate to the perfection of the Meridian Opening Realm, clear the blockages in the meridians throughout the body, and become an acquired spiritual body.

It can be said that its value is no less than that of someone whose spiritual root has been determined.

With Zhao Qian's talent, he could only be considered one in a hundred at best, and no matter how hard he tried, he would find it difficult to meet the threshold for the Demon Forging Sect to accept disciples.

Zhao Yan is even more out of the question; she has only just broken through to the mid-stage of Qi and Blood, and it is still unknown whether she can cultivate internal strength before the age of twenty.

"That Er Gou is seventeen years old now and only just started learning martial arts, so he only has three years left?"

Master Zhao was taken aback. He looked around at the people present, his unspoken message being: how could Tu Ergou possibly join the Demon Forging Sect?

Zhao Qian remained silent, deliberately looking away, not wanting to say anything that would hurt Ji Cheng.

Zhao Yan bit her lip, hesitated for a while, and finally said, "Maybe Er Gou is a martial arts genius who is one in a thousand. I saw him learning boxing quite quickly today."

Cui Sheng continued, "Yes, Er Gou's martial arts aptitude is higher than all of ours, otherwise he wouldn't have been chosen by Brother Situ to be his disciple. He cultivated his inner strength to the peak and completed a blood transfusion in three years. Although it sounds quite magical, it's not impossible."

Zhao Qian nodded in agreement, saying that Er Gou still had a sliver of a chance to join the Demon Forging Sect.

Ji Cheng realized that these people were all encouraging, but they didn't really believe that he could meet the Demon Forging Sect's requirements for accepting disciples in just three years.

Ji Cheng didn't offer much explanation or proof, only stating that he would strive to cultivate and do his best.

After finishing his meal, Ji Cheng went to greet Master Zhao.

Master Zhao did not sit at the table. He sat in the courtyard until dark, then a servant escorted him back to his room to lie down. His meals were also brought to his room by maids to feed him.

Perhaps because he had just heard Madam Zhao say that Tu Ergou and Zhao Yan seemed quite well-matched, Second Master Zhao didn't give Ji Cheng a friendly look and even rolled his eyes at him a few times.

"Just ignore him..."

Zhao Yan pulled Ji Cheng out, afraid that Ji Cheng would get spat on by her father later.

Previously, when a servant failed to take good care of Master Zhao, Master Zhao verbally abused and spat at him, which shows that he was in a very bad mood and was throwing a tantrum.

Of course, when he's in a good mood, he's quite human, not making a fuss or causing trouble. He can sit quietly in a rattan chair for a whole day. Once, Zhao Yan went over and asked him what he was thinking about, and he replied that he was reminiscing about every cockfight he participated in with the ever-victorious general.

This man is old, and he can spend a long time just sitting there reminiscing about the past, so there's no fear that Master Zhao will get bored.

Zhao Yan pulled Ji Cheng into the courtyard. The two looked at each other, somewhat embarrassed, and then looked away.

Cui Sheng and Master Zhao were still drinking, while Madam Zhao went back to her room to rest. Zhao Qian stayed at the table with the two elders.

"sit."

Zhao Yan brought over a small stool and asked Ji Cheng to sit down.

She walked to the old persimmon tree, bent down and patted Big Yellow's head, and Big Yellow wagged its tail happily at her.

Ji Cheng sat down and watched this scene, a smile appearing on his face.

After a while, Zhao Yan also carried a small stool and sat down next to Ji Cheng. "Actually, my father wasn't like this before. It was because of a fighting cock..."

Zhao Yan tossed her hair and began to tell Ji Cheng about her father, Second Master Zhao's, life story, which was quite legendary.

Master Zhao was a complete scoundrel in the first half of his life, utterly unworthy of being human, and almost lost Zhao Yan to the Green Bamboo Gang.

But one day, Master Zhao bought an inconspicuous fighting rooster, and from then on, his life took a huge turn.

"My father named that fighting rooster 'Ever-Victorious General,' and it truly was undefeated. I can't even remember how many consecutive matches that rooster won. During the most difficult times for our Zhao family, we survived thanks to the silver won by that fighting rooster..."

"Look, that's the cage. The ever-victorious general was kept in that cage before, and I even caught a lot of grasshoppers for him to eat."

Ji Cheng's gaze softened as he looked in the direction Zhao Yan pointed.

He asked, "And then what happened?"

"Later, a blind old Taoist priest broke into my house and insisted that General Changsheng was a demon beast. My father was almost beaten to death by the blind old Taoist priest in order to protect General Changsheng. Fortunately, Fairy Su was there and saved my father's life in time. That's how my father ended up like this."

Zhao Yan rested her chin on her hand. The accident happened in this backyard. After a moment's recollection, the scene from that day immediately came to mind.

Ji Cheng remained silent; the events of that day had indeed taken him by surprise.

He thought that the blind Taoist priest would give up once he couldn't see that he was a demon beast, but who would have thought that the blind Taoist priest would rather kill the wrong person than let him go, and still tried to kill Ji Cheng.

What surprised him even more was that Second Master Zhao blocked the attack for him.

In reality, Ji Cheng could easily dodge that spell attack; it would only reveal his identity as a demon beast.

"It's not worth it for Second Master for a fighting cock!" Ji Cheng shook his head and sighed.

Zhao Yan laughed self-deprecatingly: "My father's life was worthless anyway, what's wrong with that?"

"Everything he has is thanks to that fighting cock. Money, reputation, status, fame... he won it all through the fighting cock. If he lost that fighting cock, he would lose everything. Of the more than twenty people in the Zhao family, only my father knows best how important that fighting cock is."

Zhao Yan never blamed the fighting rooster; she could understand why Master Zhao risked his life to save it.

Ji Cheng nodded without comment, and asked, "Where did that fighting rooster go afterward?"

This question left Zhao Yan looking bewildered.

She shook her head: "I don't know. One day I woke up and the fighting rooster was gone. Some people said it was caught and eaten by monsters in the mountains, while others said it was killed by the blind old Taoist priest at night... In short, the fighting rooster disappeared completely."

In the end, Zhao Yan couldn't hide her disappointment as she stared blankly at the chicken coop.

Under the old persimmon tree, listening to the conversation between the two, Big Yellow was also very sad and depressed. Brother Chicken, where did you fly to?
Ji Cheng comforted Zhao Yan, saying, "Is it possible that the fighting rooster left on its own, and maybe one day it will come back?"

Zhao Yan turned her head and stared into Ji Cheng's eyes for a long time.

Ji Cheng felt a little guilty under her gaze before she finally spoke, "There's a reason why you can hang out with that idiot A Niu."

"what?"

Ji Cheng looked completely bewildered. What did that mean?
……

After bidding farewell to the Zhao family, he returned to the Cui family.

As usual, Ji Cheng took a hot bath to wash away the fatigue from martial arts training.

While taking a bath, he pondered the unique "Bull Demon Fist" of the Niu Family Martial Arts School, and at the same time practiced the Bull Demon Breathing Technique.

If you master the "Bull Demon Fist" to its fullest extent, you can unleash the strength of nine bulls, each bull being a thousand catties of force. What does that mean?
Even a cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refining, could he withstand the power of Niu Jiu?

"In the early stages, the martial artists seemed to be stronger..."

Since Ji Cheng started practicing martial arts these past few days, he has been comparing the strength of demonic beasts to that of martial artists and has always felt that martial artists are really strong.

Their physical strength is comparable to that of demonic beasts. Combined with various fist techniques, martial arts skills, and all kinds of weapons, it's no wonder that most demon hunters are warriors who form the main fighting force.

Ji Cheng shook his head. He didn't have any other ideas at the moment. In human form, he would first cultivate the two fist techniques, "Tiger Roar Killing Fist" and "Bull Demon Fist".

After taking a bath and returning to his room, Ji Cheng transformed back into his chicken demon form.

After shattering the title of "Golden Rooster Stands Alone," he obtained a martial arts technique called "Golden Rooster Stands Alone," which has three levels. Ji Cheng has already cultivated it to the second level.

This is the most suitable cultivation method for cultivating the Golden Chicken Bloodline, but Ji Cheng still felt that the cultivation progress was slow, so he lacked interest.

It seems that the Golden Rooster bloodline is too low-level, and its sensitivity to the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is too low.

Ji Cheng was too lazy to waste time on arduous cultivation. He would rather use that time to practice his [Feather Blade] talent and the spell "Fire Serpent Transformation".

change!
With a thought, Ji Cheng transformed into a peregrine falcon and flew out of the window.

He first went to the big poplar tree near the Zhao residence, stared at the Zhao residence for a while, and then the light in Zhao Yan's room went out.

Then, Ji Cheng saw the Azure Flame Spirit Rabbit appear in the wild.

The demon hunters left, and the Azure Flame Rabbit, the Bull Demon, and the Flower-Faced Fox met up by the river, chattering about their experiences over the past few days.

(End of this chapter)