The upgraded Growth Technique was now completely unrecognizable. It had beco the Flowering Jade Demon Vine.
This Technique was now even more powerful than many people’s Rune Core Techniques.
Moreover, this Vine Technique had already developed a hint of spiritual wisdom.
It could be considered a plant-based Summoning Technique and could even link with the Spirit Nurturing Summoning Technique. This also settled the matter of the Magic Rune for his Tai Chi One Life breakthrough.
He checked the energy in his repository. rit: 1.2, Qi Fortune: 17.2.
Zhang Deming closed the editor and opened his palm. A vine resembling jade sprouted from his hand.
The vine didn’t look like a plant at all. It was fantastical, like a segnt of pure jade.
Zhang Deming tested it for a long ti before stopping.
He got up, left his room, and went to the side of the pool. He settled in to loaf around, enjoying a rare mont of leisure.
...
The next morning, Zhang Deming checked his schedule. It was a public lecture day again.
He hadn’t attended a lecture in a while. If he wanted to lie low, he still had to show up at the Dharma Transmission Hall every so often.
Even if it was just to keep up appearances. Otherwise, he’d run into problems during the background check when it was ti to enter the Inner Sect.
Seeing it was almost ti for the lecture to start, Zhang Deming set off imdiately.
By the ti he arrived at the Dharma Transmission Hall, the lecture was less than fifteen minutes away, so Zhang Deming randomly picked one of the last few halls that weren’t full.
But as he reached the halls numbered in the teens, he was surprised to find they were no longer full.
Today’s lecture was on Spiritual Shield. Shouldn’t all thirty Dharma Transmission Halls be nearly packed?
Why was the attendance even worse than for the Agility Technique?
’Right,’ he thought, ’the entire Outer Sect has seed a lot quieter these past few days.’
Even soone like Zhang Deming, who rarely wandered around the Outer Sect, had noticed it.
When it was ti for the lecture to begin, the instructing senior brother arrived, and Zhang Deming’s brow furrowed slightly once more.
’Why is it Dang Jin again?’
For the better part of the last year, Zhang Deming had been living a low-key life. Although he spent most of his ti in Celestial Spirit City, he made sure to co back once or twice a month to avoid raising suspicion.
He had co eight tis in the last six months, always choosing one of the last halls.
But for the last five of those eight tis, Dang Jin had been his instructor.
Whenever he switched halls, the other man seed to switch right along with him.
This was no coincidence. Dang Jin used to exclusively teach in the first ten halls.
His brow furrowed. After pondering for a long while, Zhang Deming still couldn’t figure out the reason.
After loafing his way through the morning, Zhang Deming went to the dining hall.
Just as he got his food and found a place to sit, soone ca up beside him.
Zhang Deming looked up at the newcor and said, "Senior Brother Dang, here to eat as well?"
Dang Jin was as suave and charming as ever, a perfect gentleman. He smiled and said, "That’s right."
Zhang Deming looked at him, paused, and said, "It seems we’re quite fated to et. I only co once or twice a month, but lately, I run into you every single ti, Senior Brother Dang!"
Dang Jin’s movents faltered for a mont. He smiled. "Isn’t that the truth? If you hadn’t ntioned it, I would’ve thought you’d gone to Steward Luh and had him pull so strings in our Dharma Transmission Hall."
Hearing this, Zhang Deming also paused.
’Does that an he’s been wondering about it too?’
Zhang Deming smiled and replied, "You’ve got quite a sense of humor, Senior Brother. How could an ordinary disciple like have the reach to arrange sothing like that?
"By the way, I heard that for the less crowded halls at the back of the Dharma Transmission Hall, you don’t need to swipe your Identity Card if you aren’t saving a seat, right?"
Dang Jin glanced at Zhang Deming and nodded. "Yes, that’s right. The card swipe for the seats was set up specifically to prevent people from fighting over them mid-lecture.
"If you’re not planning to fight for a seat, you don’t have to swipe your card. You can even sit at the front without swiping, but you risk soone taking your spot."
Zhang Deming nodded and didn’t say anything more. A silence fell between them.
They finished their lunch in silence. Zhang Deming then got up and left.
After leaving the dining hall, Dang Jin returned to his private break room and activated a light screen.
On it was so of Zhang Deming’s basic information, along with so other data.
In the assessnt field, he wrote: Personality: cautious. Heart: excellent, but overly content to drift.
Considering the lingering conflicts from Spirit Nurturing Peak and his poor talent, there is no need to specially recruit him into the Dharma Transmission Hall.
Given that he has beco aware of the observation, I request to conclude the preliminary assessnt.
After completing the entry, he closed the light screen.
During the afternoon lecture, Zhang Deming continued to loaf around.
He decided he wouldn’t be coming to the Dharma Transmission Hall for a long ti. He had originally co here to lie low and develop his skills, but now that he had sohow attracted attention, it was becoming counterproductive. He might as well just stay away.
...
After returning to Qingyou Pool, Zhang Deming reflected on the day’s events and realized he had underestimated the Sect’s intelligence-gathering capabilities.
He didn’t know where he had slipped up, but he had definitely been noticed.
Regardless of what went wrong, with a Spirit Root like his, Zhang Deming had no intention of sticking his neck out.
If soone with his Spirit Root were to stand out, he would attract a high level of attention, even drawing the gazes of many high-ranking mbers. Under that kind of scrutiny, many of his secrets would be exposed.
He should never assu his actions were seamless and underestimate the intelligence capabilities of an Upper Sect, especially one that has existed for tens of thousands of years.
This was especially true for anything related to Spirit Nurturing Masters. The Spirit Nurturing Technique was originally a Tier Four Technique, but for various reasons, it had been reclassified as a Tier One Enlightennt Dao Technique.
But the difficulty remained the sa. Normally, only Three Talents Great Cultivators should even attempt it, and even for them, reaching the entry level was extrely difficult.
A Duality Cultivator who could learn it would be a genius among geniuses.
Soone at the Tai Chi Stage learning it would be a demon fiend, the kind of existence who could beco a top Saint Son or Saintess in the Spirit Nurturing Holy Land.
As for an Apprentice?
Forget the Celestial Spirit Sect—there might not be a single one in the entire Hongng Realm. At least, Zhang Deming hadn’t read about any in the year he’d spent cramming general knowledge.
Therefore, if he were discovered, it would be no simple matter.
Given that activating the Body Disc Talisman could fundantally change his true appearance, he didn’t have to worry about being recognized.
Zhang Deming thought for a long ti. Since this identity was his foundation, he decided that from now on, he would have the "Zhang Deming" account lie as low as possible.
He was going to make an alt!
Having set this new course, Zhang Deming contacted Qin Shizhong. His materials were almost depleted.
After half a year of developnt, Qin Shizhong had already opened a proper shop in the stall area, though he hadn’t given up his street stall either.
It was clear how much he had expanded his business in the last six months by riding on Zhang Deming’s coattails.
Even now as a shop owner, he still maintained a very humble attitude toward Zhang Deming, coming whenever he was called.
Moreover, Zhang Deming had looked into it and found that despite his own bulk purchases of materials, Qin Shizhong was taking very little profit, dead set on latching onto him.
It was precisely for this reason that Zhang Deming hadn’t bothered finding a second supplier to compare prices.
Of course, the bigger reason was that a point of light representing Qin Shizhong had already appeared in his Spirit Nurturing Space.
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