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

Chapter 10 The Invisible Wall

Chang Ping'an threw the pale-faced fat man's body off the cliff.

The cliffs of Baishi Mountain are extremely steep, and the valleys are rarely visited by people. As any murderer knows, this is an excellent place to dump a body.

After doing all that, neither of them had much of an appetite. Even Zhang Chengdao looked at the 10 sets of [meat buns] he had just opened in his backpack and felt that they weren't so appealing anymore.

However, Zhang Chengdao was worried about something else: "Will your Sword Forging Manor send someone to look for him?"

He kept making plans in his mind.

If only a few people come, it's manageable; with his special abilities, he shouldn't be unable to defeat them. But if a whole group comes, things will be different.

Chang Ping'an shook his head. He thought it was because of the trouble he had caused that his master was getting impatient, so he quickly explained, "That person is an outer disciple of the Sword Forging Manor. There are two or three hundred disciples like that in the Sword Forging Manor. No one would notice if one of them were missing. Besides, it's the dead of winter now. Even if they noticed someone was missing, the managers and elders wouldn't send anyone to look for him at this time..."

Zhang Chengdao hummed in agreement and said nothing more.

Although the apprentice said so, it is a very unreliable idea to pin the possibility of a crisis on luck and convention.

We still need to make some preparations before the next danger arrives.

Thinking of this, Zhang Chengdao picked up his building and crafting panel and searched through it.

There is a decorative building in the game called the "Bamboo Fence".

In the original game, besides being aesthetically pleasing, the bamboo fence also serves as a barrier for villagers. For example, villagers cannot enter spaces enclosed by the bamboo fence. Even during storylines involving monster invasions, the monsters must first destroy the fence before they can enter.

If the effects in the game can be carried over to some extent in reality, then this [bamboo fence]... should also be able to defend against enemy invasions, right?

To confirm his conjecture, Zhang Chengdao specially made more than a dozen bamboo fences to enclose a closed space in the open area, and then revoked Chang Ping'an's access rights so that his cheap apprentice could try to enter.

The effect of the bamboo fence was even more useful than Zhang Chengdao had imagined. Like an invisible wall in a game, Chang Ping'an was blocked outside by an invisible wall. When his palm touched the top of the fence, he could even see a twisted ripple, like a wave on the surface of water, slowly undulating in mid-air.

Zhang Chengdao also reached out to test it, but found nothing.

It was indeed a problem with the permission settings!

So he re-added Chang Ping'an's building access permissions and had him try it again.

This time, like Zhang Chengdao, Chang Ping'an was also unable to touch that invisible "wall".

Being a young man at heart, Chang Ping'an was very curious about that strange "wall" and asked, "Master, what was that just now?"

Zhang Chengdao also wanted to know what it was!
Although he understood that this was due to the issue of building access rights represented by the Golden Finger, he couldn't answer what it was at all. He couldn't very well say it was an "invisible wall," could he?

After a moment's thought, he found a more fitting explanation and replied, "It's a barrier."

"A barrier? So this is the barrier mentioned in the Qi Refining Manual!"

Chang Ping'an stared wide-eyed and reached out to try and probe the "air wall" that had long since disappeared.

The "Elementary Qi Refining Book" doesn't just explain cultivation techniques; it also records a lot of introductory knowledge about immortal cultivation. Not to mention the complete three-style sword technique, it even touches on basic talismans, weapon crafting, and alchemy, not to mention formations, which are indispensable in the immortal cultivation system.

Barriers are a concept in array formation cultivation.

Seeing that his cheap apprentice was having a good time, Zhang Chengdao readjusted the permissions, leaving four small spaces enclosed by bamboo fences for his apprentice to play with invisible walls. Only then did he begin to create a large number of bamboo fences, preparing to enclose the entire area he had set up. Making a bamboo fence is very simple, requiring only 20 units of bamboo strips, and one can be made in 6 seconds.

Yesterday, Chang Ping'an cut down a lot of bamboo, enough to make a bunch of bamboo fences, so Zhang Chengdao only spent a few minutes setting up the yard.

After working for a while, Zhang Chengdao felt a bit hungry. He glanced at the sky, then made a set of table and chairs out of wooden planks and placed them next to the campfire, inviting Chang Ping'an, who was still touching the invisible wall, to eat.

……

My apprentice is a good-for-nothing.

Before long, Zhang Chengdao stared at the steamer with only one bun left in the third drawer and began to question his life.

A basket of buns contains five buns! Buns bigger than a fist. Chang Ping'an ate three baskets in one sitting, and still seemed to want more.

Zhang Chengdao ate one of the three baskets of steamed buns. He had just finished the last bite when there was only one bun left in the three baskets.

And it seems that Chang Ping'an was too embarrassed to continue eating, so he left some.

Zhang Chengdao swallowed hard and said, "Well, if you can still eat, then eat the rest of this too. If it's not enough, I'll have more. In short, you need to be well-fed to cultivate..."

"That's enough! This disciple is full!"

As Chang Ping'an spoke, he picked up the last steamed bun, swallowed hard, and wolfed it down.

Zhang Chengdao confirmed repeatedly that Chang Ping'an's status bar on the character panel was indeed normal, but...

Why does this cheap apprentice always look like he's been starving for eight hundred years?
"Master, your steamed buns are absolutely delicious!"

Perhaps out of embarrassment, Chang Ping'an explained, "I've never eaten such delicious steamed buns before!"

Is it that delicious?

Zhang Chengdao recalled the taste of the steamed bun he had just eaten, and it seemed... just so-so?
It's delicious, but not this delicious.

This silly child must have eaten so badly before!

After the master and disciple finished their meal, they each went to a separate room and began their respective cultivation practices.

Perhaps due to some kind of cheat-like feature, Zhang Chengdao discovered that whenever he entered a meditative state, a countdown would appear, similar to that in a game. He hadn't noticed it when he was drawing in Qi last time, but this time, as he advanced from the first to the second level of Qi Refining, he realized that a small notification would pop up from the bottom of his field of vision every time he opened his inventory.

[Upgrading realm, remaining time: 2:58:29.]

The number following the remaining time is constantly changing.

Unfortunately, Zhang Chengdao lacked the ability to multitask. Whenever he focused on those small characters, his cultivation would stop, and the remaining time would be stuck. However, once he resumed his cultivation seriously and observed those characters again after a while, he would find that the remaining time had changed significantly.

It's a bit like an idle game. As long as you cultivate for three hours, you can smoothly advance from the first level of Qi Refining to the second level of Qi Refining. The restrictions mentioned in the "Elementary Qi Refining Book" such as spiritual energy concentration and talent seem to be non-existent for him. As long as he spends enough time, he can naturally "level up", just like in a game.

This is too cool!

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(End of this chapter)