Tumor Sword Immortal

Chapter 38 Enlightenment into the Profession
All told, Pei Xia had only known Xu Shangxin for three days.

It seems a bit difficult to get someone to give her a guarantee within three days.

"Do you think it's possible that Xu Shangxin is lying to me?"

Pei Xia sat at the stone table in the courtyard and asked softly.

"Absolutely possible!"

A half-grown shadow climbed over the wall and fell into the yard with a thud.

Lu Li patted the grass off her clothes, walked to the table and sat down. She looked up at Pei Xia with disdain: "You're really going too far, you know? It's one thing for me to look after the kids, but now you want me to look after my wife too? How old am I? Is this reasonable?"

Pei Xia held a cigarette between her fingers, but didn't light it; she just twirled it back and forth between her fingers.

After a moment, he shook his head: "No, Xu Shangxin may lie to me, but logic won't lie to me."

"What do you mean?"

"If she were really in cahoots with the assassins, wouldn't it have been simpler to just poison Pei Xi? Why give her any tonics?"

"The tonic was her own claim, and the drug trial was also her own account. Maybe that part wasn't even there. Besides, wouldn't it be easy to detect if she fed poison?"

"So this frozen blood condition wasn't detected?"

Pear-shaped face thoughtfully considered for a moment: "...That's true."

Pei Xia continued, "Since you're already certain that you can kill with poison, why use blood poison? Anyone with a bit of knowledge who's seen frozen blood will immediately think of the Northern Border. Isn't that just asking for trouble?"

"So what do you think?"

Pei Xia tapped the cigarette on the table and said, "Think about it the other way around. Since I had no reason to use blood poison, and Pei Xi died from it, does that mean... I didn't kill him at all?"

This reasoning seems reasonable.

But Lu Li immediately shook her head: "Didn't you already investigate? Pei Xi didn't have any contact with outsiders before he died."

Yes, that's why Pei Xia kept staring at the medicine Liu Si gave Xu Shangxin.

This was the only foreign object Pei Xisheng ever came into contact with.

Neither of the two inferences makes sense. Surely there couldn't really be a stupid thief, could there?

……

It was the fourth day since Pei Xia arrived in Beishi City.

Nothing much happened when I woke up today, so I went to work at the academy as usual.

The afternoon martial arts class was unremarkable; after all, the basic things for beginners are still the same old things, which basically boil down to more practice.

He wasn't a sect leader in the city, so he had to keep things hidden and teach a little bit today and a little bit tomorrow.

As a result, he had even fewer students.

This is a good thing, so that people won't be envious and want to slap someone's face.

Young Master Xie, on the other hand, arrived right on time today and listened very attentively.

He even submitted his homework, meticulously practicing Professor Pei Xia's swordsmanship. Every detail of the movements was spot-on, showing that he had practiced diligently at home.

This left Xu Shangxin, who had been diligently working for the past few days, feeling somewhat frustrated.

"After all, he is the son of Xue Zhenguo. Those military strategists are very skilled in combat, so it's normal for him to learn quickly," Pei Xia said.

It wasn't until the afternoon that I went to pick up Lu Li and Pei Xiu and take them home.

The day in Beijing Normal University City is almost over.

Pei Xia lived peacefully for seven days in a row.

On the first day of May, the academy was closed for the holidays.

Taking advantage of her day off, Pei Xia decided to let Xu Shangxin hear about it and give it a try.

"Hearing the wind" means entering the field and trying to get in touch with the spiritual sea.

The requirements for qualifications are not high; it is more about testing whether one is sensitive to spiritual power. As for the threshold, it mainly focuses on the person being enlightened.

You need a practitioner who has already entered the cultivation realm and has mastered the control of spiritual power to help you guide the spiritual power into your body, thereby connecting with your spiritual sea.

This isn't even a one-time thing; if the first attempt fails, you can try again later. Generally speaking, the more times you try, the better your compatibility with spiritual energy will gradually improve, and you'll eventually succeed.

The threshold doesn't seem high.

In reality, ordinary people may never encounter more than a few spiritual practitioners in their entire lives.

Moreover, even if you were to receive guidance ten or eight times and eventually enter the field, your achievements would likely be quite limited.

Those who lack sufficient spiritual energy during their breathing may never complete the transformation and tempering of a particular part of their body throughout their lives; such cases are not uncommon in Kyushu.

"Actually, this also depends on the skill of the person who enlightens you."

Pei Xia patted her older brother on the shoulder: "Relax. You used to practice swordsmanship and had a lot of contact with magical artifacts, which can help increase your chances of success to some extent."

Xu Shangxin sat upright in the chair in the middle of the courtyard, looked up at Pei Xia and asked, "How much better?"

"About one in a thousand."

Xu Shangxin said with a straight face, "One in a thousand, that's too..."

Before she could finish speaking, Pei Xia raised a finger and poked her forehead.

A drop of pure spiritual energy seeped through his muscles and bones, directly entering Xu Shangxin's meridians and dantian.

This spiritual energy was exceptionally condensed and incredibly active. Xu Shangxin wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she even felt as if it had formed a knot in her meridians...

In fact, even when Pei Xia was at his strongest, controlling spiritual power was not his forte.

This was only after shedding "martial arts" and changing his "physical body," and learning the techniques of Master Su from his master's wife, and slowly becoming proficient.

Especially because of the Calamity Pig, he couldn't advance to the fifth realm of Su Shi, so he could only work hard on manipulating spiritual power in the fourth realm.

On this point alone, only his master's wife could surpass him in the entire Weishan region.

As spiritual energy entered her body, Xu Shangxin slowly began to feel a different kind of sensation. It was as if a gentle breeze was blowing in front of her, where there should have been nothing.

Gradually, the breeze began to feel heavier and heavier. This intangible thing seemed to slowly take shape, clinging to her side intimately and gently.

"Open your eyes and look?"

Pei Xia's voice reached her ears. She opened her eyes and saw not the scenery of the Prime Minister's residence, but a crystal-clear jade-colored lake.

“There is… a lake,” she said.

Pei Xia nodded and withdrew her finger.

All the strangeness vanished instantly.

Xu Shangxin suddenly snapped back to reality, blinking blankly, "What was that just now?"

“It’s a spiritual sea,” Pei Xia clapped his hands, walked to the side and picked up the teapot. “Everyone’s spiritual sea is different because of their different aptitudes. The lowly can only hear the wind, while the high-level can see the sea. The fact that you can see a lake means that you have good aptitude.”

Of course, qualifications are one thing, but they don't determine the final outcome.

Xu Shangxin looked at her palms in disbelief: "Is this what it means to have entered the industry?"

"Okay, I'll teach you daily breathing exercises and methods for strengthening your muscles and bones with spiritual energy later. If you want to transform into a healthy body, you'll need to put in some hard work."

"Didn't you say before that physical cultivation should be unrelated to spiritual power?"

“It is true that you cultivate physical strength,” Pei Xia didn’t know how to explain the difference to her for a moment, so she could only say simply, “But aren’t you cultivating the twelfth realm of martial arts?”

Xu Shangxin understood the implication in his words: "What, is it that what you're repairing isn't what you're doing?"

Feeling the internal energy within her body, Pei Xia smiled and said, "It wasn't like that before, but it is now."

Xu Shangxin's aptitude is indeed quite good, as she was able to enter the profession after just one guidance. However, she started learning a bit late, and if she wants to achieve something, she will probably have to practice diligently.

Speaking of rigorous training, it doesn't seem to fit well with Beishi City or the Prime Minister's Residence.

However, on the other hand, Xu Shangxin's approach to martial arts is essentially the same as her approach to studying: she believes in learning as many things as possible. As for diligence, it's simply her personality.

She didn't study for the imperial examinations, and she probably didn't learn martial arts to kill people.

This is unlike Pei Xia; it's more like the senior brother.

(End of this chapter)