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

Chapter 69 The Disciple Has Established His Foundation

"This..." Mu Feng looked puzzled and embarrassed as he replied, "I seem to have heard that the Third Princess went to the Zhou Kingdom..."

"Oh, the Third Princess has escaped... cough, gone missing."

Zhang Chengdao said tactfully.

Mu Feng was too embarrassed to pretend to be stupid any longer, so he could only nod: "I have indeed heard that the Third Princess and the Sixth Princess have both gone missing."

He only heard about this right before leaving the capital. The Ministry of Rites was in an uproar; some suggested marrying a prince's daughter and then bestowing upon her the title of princess, while others vehemently opposed the marriage alliance…

but……

Mu Feng was a little confused. Why did Zhang Xianren suddenly bring this up?
It can't be that he wants to become a prince consort, can it?

Looking at that person's full head of white hair, who knows how old they are? Princess Shang... that's unlikely!

Just as Mu Feng was lost in thought, Zhang Chengdao dropped his "trump card":
"The Sixth Princess is quite talented, so I have taken her as my disciple. She is my second disciple and is currently in Baishi Mountain. In case the Emperor misses his sister too much, I am informing you."

Mu Feng's eye twitched involuntarily.

"Longing for his sister?"
Although the current emperor can be called a capable ruler, he doesn't care about his sisters at all, and even uses them to squeeze out the last bit of profit.

The Emperor has probably forgotten what the Sixth Princess looks like!
"I never imagined that the Sixth Princess would have such great fortune! I humbly request that Immortal Zhang lend his assistance, and I, Mu, will certainly report this to His Majesty!"

Mu Feng said excitedly.

Whether His Majesty forgot about this princess before is not important; he will certainly not forget her in the future—the princess becoming an apprentice to an immortal is truly a brilliant excuse!

With his keen political sense, Mu Feng immediately grasped the implications and repeatedly promised, "Princess, you have been working hard these past few days and have truly troubled Immortal Zhang. Tomorrow I will send over the princess's allowance as compensation. Once I return to the capital and inform His Majesty, I will definitely send over all of the Sixth Princess's private property!"

"I don't care how you assign the princess to me, just don't send people to me."

Zhang Chengdao's attitude was very firm.

He still remembered the hundreds of people that the Xu family sent a few days ago. Although he successfully refused them, it was still a huge headache!
"sure!"

After making repeated assurances, Mu Feng took his leave.

After Zhang Chengdao and the others had walked far away and repaired the cracks in the earth, they turned back to observe Chang Ping'an, who was still standing and cultivating.

The spiritual energy around this kid has been completely drained, leaving the two peach trees at the entrance, which Zhang Chengdao used as decorations, somewhat withered – without spiritual energy, they'll have to go hungry for a while.

Having just established his foundation, Chang Ping'an's newly formed spiritual root is probably not stable yet, so he will likely need to cultivate for quite some time to stabilize it.

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Chengdao gave Xu Ying a few instructions and then turned and stepped into the study.

If I don't work harder now, my cheap disciple will have to leapfrog six realms of enlightenment again in a while, and I'll be trampled under his feet!

The bookstore is filled with countless magical and supernatural manuals. Since leveling up to level 2, it has even acquired some low-level miscellaneous skill manuals, such as "Elementary Talisman Illustrated Guide", "Elementary Weapon Forging Guide", and "Elementary Alchemy Recipes", etc. Zhang Chengdao has not yet had time to examine them in detail.

In particular, Zhang Chengdao had only skimmed through a few pages of the book "Elementary Forging Book," which specifically explains how to forge the most basic weapons, before agreeing to forge a weapon for Murong Ruyan—after all, Chang Ping'an already had his own weapon, and it wouldn't be good to leave her behind.

They waited until noon until Murong Ruyan returned, but Chang Ping'an was still standing there, like a statue.

Murong Ruyan was very curious and whispered to Xu Ying, who was welcoming An Che and his sister over for dinner, "What's wrong with Senior Brother? Why is he standing there cultivating like an idiot? Isn't he tired?"

Xu Ying's face no longer showed any of the jealousy that had initially arisen when Chang Ping'an was mentioned. Instead, she was filled with emotion: "He broke through! Judging from what the sect leader said, it seems he has reached the Foundation Establishment stage! He's truly a genius!"

"Senior Brother has reached the Foundation Establishment stage!?" Murong Ruyan's eyes widened in disbelief as she asked, "Wasn't he only at the second level of Qi Refining? How did he reach the Foundation Establishment stage!?"

Xu Ying explained, "This morning, the Martial Arts Envoy came to assess the sect leader's rank. Because he refused to fight the sect leader, he asked the sect leader to show off his skills. Then the sect leader rode a cloud to the sky and swung his sword down from the clouds... It was this one sword that led that kid Ping An to enlightenment!"

Murong Ruyan was filled with regret upon hearing this, and stamped her foot, saying, "If I had known, I wouldn't have gone to stake out the thief! Now not only did I fail to catch the thief, but I also missed my master's intervention!"

"Junior sister, don't be sad. With your talent, you might surpass me in a few days!"

At some point, Chang Ping'an actually finished his cultivation and woke up.

He earnestly comforted Murong Ruyan, saying, "Junior Sister, your talent is so much stronger than mine, in the future..."

Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly looked up and saw Zhang Chengdao pushing open the bamboo door. He quickly abandoned his junior sister and grinned like a fool at Zhang Chengdao, saying, "Hehe, Master, I've established my foundation! And I even have a single-color spiritual root!"

According to the Qi Refining Book, the purer the color of the spiritual root after Foundation Establishment, the better the aptitude, and the more efficient the cultivation will be—of course, this is not absolute, but only a matter of experience.

Regardless, a single-color spiritual root is still a superior spiritual root. Upon hearing this, Zhang Chengdao became interested and asked, "Oh? What color is it?"

Different colors of spiritual roots correspond to different inclinations.

For example, light gold is mostly metallic, brownish-yellow is mostly earth, water is black, fire is red, wood is green, thunder is azure, wind is cyan, and ice is grayish-white...

The mindset and insights of cultivators at the time of foundation building are different, and the spiritual roots within their bodies are also ever-changing, with no two being the same.

Therefore, if one knows the color of a spiritual root, one can roughly deduce the type of a cultivator's spiritual root.

Chang Ping'an answered honestly, "It's a somewhat dull gold..."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and drew out a stream of spiritual energy from his palm.

Sure enough, the golden light of that spiritual energy had a hint of ink, and even looked a bit grayish. Fortunately, the gold was so intense that it didn't appear dim, and overall it was indeed a single color.

"Huh? Metal with water element? Hmm, it should be a metal spiritual root."

Based on his almost non-existent "experience," Zhang Chengdao boldly declared: "In the future, I can focus on developing swords for killing, or I can also work on forging."

Chang Ping'an said, "I was not good at forging when I was at the Sword Forging Manor, so I should focus on learning swordsmanship."

"Okay, by the way,"

Zhang Chengdao suppressed a smile, a wicked thought rising in his mind.

He said to Chang Ping'an earnestly, "Disciple, when you learn the art of sword control or use a sword in the future, remember to shout 'Sword, come!'"

Chang Ping'an scratched his head in confusion: "Why?"

Zhang Chengdao casually remarked, "This is more imposing and greatly helpful for cultivating the sword!"

"Disciple understands!"

……

I fell asleep while coding, then jolted awake and got up to continue coding, but I missed it again _(:з」∠)_
I'll definitely update earlier tomorrow!

Please read on and vote with monthly tickets!!!

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(End of this chapter)