A Mortal's Journey to Immortality

With ample medicinal herbs available, Zhou Ping, like a donkey pulling a millstone, diligently began his cultivation.

Although he was young, he was very clever. The Jin Clan spared no expense to help him cultivate the Qingyuan Technique.

If he shows even the slightest sign of slackness, he will certainly not be happy.

He didn't want his hard-earned status as a formal disciple to be affected, as it concerned the future of him and his father.

To please Jin Jingtian and the Jin clan, Zhou Ping devoted most of his time to cultivation.

Nourished by special herbal decoctions and soaked in medicinal baths for a long time, his meridians became more and more resilient, and the time he spent practicing Qingyuan Gong every day became longer and longer.

Under Jin Jingtian's control, very few people came to Cuifeng Villa in the days that followed. Even Jin Yan, who lived next door, had not shown her face for a long time.

That's good, so as to avoid being disturbed during cultivation.

Zhou Ping was immersed in tedious meditation, repeating this monotonous life day after day.

As his Qingyuan Gong improved, his long years of cultivation tempered his youthful and restless nature, making him increasingly calm and resilient.

Three years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Zhou Ping has grown from a naive child who first entered the Green Bamboo Sect into a slender young man with slightly dark skin and a calm personality.

Judging by appearance alone, he was no different from any other small-town boy.

He has an ordinary appearance, neither handsome nor dashing, the kind of person who would go unnoticed in a crowd.

With Jin Jingtian's generous support, Zhou Ping finally broke through to the third level of Qingyuan Gong not long ago.

Because he couldn't practice other martial arts techniques, besides meditating and cultivating, he would also spend his spare time, with Jin Jingtian's tacit permission, learning some medical knowledge.

During his practice of Qingyuan Gong, he came into contact with many medicinal herbs that were rarely seen by ordinary people, which greatly improved his understanding of pharmacology and provided him with considerable assistance in his future cultivation.

After taking the herbal decoction, Zhou Ping, with the support of his pharmacological knowledge, became increasingly calm and steady in his cultivation, and his control over the medicinal effects became more adept.

In the past year, without Jin Jingtian even lifting a finger, he was able to categorize the herbs sent by the Pharmacist Hall and select the ones suitable for his cultivation to brew into medicinal soups.

Jin Jingtian was very satisfied with Zhou Ping's hard work and eagerness to learn, which made him feel much more at ease, but Zhou Ping dared not slack off in the slightest.

After cultivating the Qingyuan Gong to the third level, his five senses became extremely sensitive.

Zhou Ping noticed that every time Jin Jingtian inquired about his cultivation progress, due to the slow pace and the tortoise-like progress of his cultivation technique, a complex look of disappointment or coldness would subtly appear in the other's eyes. Although the latter was well hidden, Zhou Ping still keenly caught it.

After many attempts, Zhou Ping finally dismissed his own illusions. It seemed that Jin Jingtian really did have some unknown scheme against him, and this feeling grew stronger and stronger.

On several occasions, he could even detect obvious impatience and bloodlust in the other person's eyes, as if he were a lamb to the slaughter in their eyes, and the other person was eager to swallow him whole.

"Huff! Huff!"

Zhou Ping suddenly woke up from his dream. He had dreamt of that terrifying scene again: a ferocious beast with a gaping maw was chasing him in his dream. Its appearance was extremely blurry, with only a pair of bloodthirsty and ferocious eyes staring at him. It was exactly the same as the hidden look in Jin Jingtian's eyes!

Zhou Ping tried to calm himself down, constantly telling himself that it was just a nightmare. He thought that he might be a little tired from cultivating recently, which would make him feel listless and cause him to have wild thoughts and poor sleep.

Fortunately, after Zhou Ping reached the third level of Qingyuan Gong, Jin Jingtian seemed unable to accurately perceive the true state of his Qingyuan Gong. He could only roughly judge which stage Zhou Ping was at through frequent inquiries and vague true qi sensing. Therefore, he wouldn't really do anything to him. He just needed to cultivate step by step and didn't need to push himself too hard.

This discovery also surprised Zhou Ping greatly. He never expected that the Jin Clan Chief, whose martial arts cultivation was extraordinary, would be unable to see through the cultivation level of a mere young boy!

This Qingyuan Gong is truly bizarre, revealing strangeness in every aspect, and it has nothing in common with the many martial arts techniques that Zhou Ping knows.

It neither practices boxing nor kicking, it neither lightens its body nor possesses great strength; when it comes to cultivation, it does nothing but sit in meditation.

Zhou Ping racked his brains but still couldn't figure out what was so special about this technique that made the powerful Jin Clan and the high-ranking Jin Jingtian value it so much.

This problem has been troubling Zhou Ping for a long time. As he gets older, he feels more and more that he is trapped in an unknown vortex.

Although he had no clue whatsoever, he felt as if he had received some kind of guidance, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of wariness towards the Jin Clan, Jin Jingtian, and even Qing Yuangong.

........

With the waist token he obtained from Jin Yan, Zhou Ping could freely travel between Jin Yuan and Qing Zhu Men.

Besides the pharmacist's hall he frequented, after several intentional or unintentional attempts to probe, he discovered that after returning from the inner gate, no matter where he went, he would not encounter any special attention from the guards at Jin Yuan.

So, Zhou Ping took advantage of the opportunity to study at the Pharmacist's Hall to secretly retrieve the "iron nail" that he had left at the Hsinchu Institute.

In the Golden Garden, he overheard conversations among other members of the Golden Clan and learned by chance why the Green Bamboo Sect was recruiting so many disciples.

Another martial arts force bordering the Qingzhu Sect, the Longquan Sword Sect, suddenly launched a full-scale war against the Qingzhu Sect.

In the past, although there were occasional frictions between the two sides, they were relatively restrained due to their similar strength, and there was never a large-scale battle.

This time, for some unknown reason, the Longquan Sword Sect adopted a "it's either you die or I live" attitude, completely abandoning all pretense of civility.

After several clashes, both sides suffered losses, but overall, the Longquan Sword Sect gained the upper hand.

If it weren't for the Jin Clan's secret intervention, the Green Bamboo Sect would likely have suffered heavy losses.

Although the situation was temporarily stabilized, the sect suffered considerable casualties, and the Green Bamboo Sect urgently needed to replenish its ranks with fresh blood, which led to the subsequent recruitment of new members.

After learning this news, Zhou Ping dared not leave the "iron nail" at the Hsinchu Institute any longer.

The conflict between the two sides will not end in a day or two, and there will be continuous losses of disciples and followers.

If the Green Bamboo Sect were to recruit disciples again someday, he wasn't sure if the hidden "iron nails" would be discovered by the new disciples.

Therefore, once he found a suitable opportunity, he brought it back without hesitation, lest things get complicated.

As for the conflict between the two sects, Zhou Ping only needs to remain vigilant in secret; he doesn't need to worry too much for the time being.

His Qingyuan Technique has absolutely no practical combat ability; even if all the disciples of the Qingzhu Sect were to die, he wouldn't even have a chance to fight.

Given how much the Jin clan values ​​him, if the Longquan Sword Sect were to actually attack him and take him up the mountain, there would likely be someone specifically assigned to protect him!

During this time, Zhou Ping also heard an interesting piece of news that happened to be related to him.

After he mastered the Qingyuan Technique and was chosen by the Jin Clan to become their formal disciple.

This caused a great uproar among the outer disciples, and many disciples, in shock and envy, once again devoted themselves to the cultivation of the Qingyuan Technique.

They all hoped to become as lucky as Zhou Ping, which sparked a craze for practicing the Qingyuan Gong among the outer sect members.

This matter lasted for nearly a year, and with no one able to complete it, the higher-ups of the Green Bamboo Sect finally couldn't bear it any longer and took action.

The disciples' fervor for the Qingyuan Technique severely hampered their martial arts training.

Left with no other choice, the head of the Transmission Pavilion personally intervened and stopped the crowd's frenzied behavior.

He also ordered all outer disciples that if they did not make any progress after three months of practicing the Qingyuan Gong, they must stop practicing and refocus on martial arts.

Those who disobey the order will be expelled from the Green Bamboo Sect.

Only after this order was issued did the cultivation turmoil caused by the Qingyuan Gong gradually subside.

While everyone was disappointed, they envied Zhou Ping, the only lucky one, even more.

After learning about this, Zhou Ping was filled with emotion for a long time.

He originally thought that his mastery of the Qingyuan Technique was the result of his own hard work and had nothing to do with his talent.

But this incident made him realize that whether or not one can master the Qingyuan Technique has little to do with how hard one works.

Without the corresponding talent and potential, even if one puts in several times the time and effort, it will still be to no avail.