Chapter 49 Hidden Humility

  Gan Ping's eyes widened as he stared at Zeng Qi, who then said something that made Gan Ping smile wryly. "This servant disciple can be promoted to outer door or outer door to inner door, but it's not this method. If a named disciple's cultivation reaches the Condensed Mind Realm, regardless of age, they can be promoted to an inner door disciple. Similarly, if an outer door disciple has achieved the Liquid Transformation stage in their cultivation, they can also automatically promote to an inner door disciple."

  After hearing Zeng Qi's words, Gan Ping couldn't help but smile bitterly. If one's innate talent is not good, they might be stuck at the Foundation Building stage for their entire life, let alone entering the Inner Sect. As for the Condensing Mind stage, even the eldest senior brother in the hall, who looked to be over twenty years old, was only at the middle stage of Qi Refining. This first method would definitely not work. If they had to wait until he reached the Condensing Mind stage, it wouldn't be until twenty years later. By then, interacting with outer sect disciples in their teens would be truly pitiful.

  After a moment of thought, Gan Ping asked: "Has no one in the sect raised any objections to this method? If some disciples enter the sect too late, won't they miss the opportunity for the first kind?" Zeng Qi shook his head when he heard this and said: "The elders of the sect don't care about your reasons. If you haven't reached the peak of refining energy by the age of 20, the sect won't spare so many spiritual elixirs and stones to cultivate you, because your value itself is not great." When Gan Ping heard this, he nodded as if he had gained insight, indeed, the world of cultivation was no different from the secular world, both put profit above all else. No matter what the reason, if you have no value, the sect won't spare the cost to invest in you, who still cares about whether it's fair or not?

  At this time, Zeng Qi's curious gaze turned to Gan Ping and asked: "Speaking of which, you are a registered disciple from which place? I've never seen you before." Gan Ping replied honestly: "I am a registered disciple of the Earth Fire Temple on Mingyun Peak." This time it was Zeng Qi's turn to be surprised. He looked up and down at Gan Ping for a long time, seeing that Gan Ping was being stared at in an unnatural way, so he smiled and said: "I thought you would be a disciple of Chaoyue Peak or Yinhuan Peak, but I didn't expect there to be such a skilled disciple like you from the Earth Fire Temple on Mingyun Peak."

  That Zhenfeng is where the outer disciples live, and all the servant disciples there learn a few spells or martial arts. As for that Huixuan Peak, it's even more so the main peak of the Miao Cheng Sect, with many guardian disciples, and the servant disciples also learned a lot from it. If Gan Ping was a disciple of these two peaks, Xian Qi wouldn't be so surprised, but since Mingyun Peak's Fire Temple is full of good-for-nothing people, Gan Ping having such skills is indeed puzzling.

  Zeng Qi originally had no good impression of those idle and mediocre disciples in the Earth Fire Hall, but unexpectedly, there was Gan Ping, an exceptional one among them. He couldn't help but look at him with new eyes. Gan Ping was speechless for a moment, not expecting that his own sect's Earth Fire Hall would have such a notorious reputation within the sect. It was also quite frustrating, as even the eldest senior brother Gu Senran couldn't change this situation. All he could do was hold on to his own heart and not slack off with them.

  Gan Ping smiled and said, "Before I joined the sect, I learned some superficial martial arts outside the mountain. They were not impressive, but when I saw Li Xing'an use his swift hands earlier, I took a chance to try it out. Unexpectedly, I succeeded! It seems that Li Xing'an must have been exhausted at that time, otherwise he wouldn't have failed to block even this one move. It was indeed a lucky coincidence."

  A soft sigh, Gan Ping gazed at the distant mountain peaks, his eyes wandering, and said: "When I was at the foot of the mountain, I always thought that this mountain was where the immortals lived, but I didn't expect that there would be such evil things as bullying fellow disciples." Zeng Qi heard Gan Ping's words and sighed, saying: "Actually, there is no difference between this mountain and the secular world, there are also high and low, noble and humble distinctions. In the past, I thought that by entering the mountain gate, I could become a legendary immortal, but unexpectedly, it was still just struggling in the red dust, and things not going as one wished were eight or nine out of ten." As he spoke, he let out a long sigh, as if the endless resentment in his chest was all released in this one sigh.

  Gan Ping's heart skipped a beat, and he asked: "Zeng Shixiong, have you also been bullied by that Li Xing'an?" "It's not just bullying, it's simply a life worse than death. Even... even the token of love my fiancée gave me was snatched away by them, who knows where it ended up? From that night on, I told myself: Zeng Qi, even if I die, I must enter the inner door and hold my head high with pride. If I continue to suffer this humiliation every day, what kind of man am I?" As he spoke, he turned his face away, and Gan Ping clearly saw tears welling up in his eyes. It seemed that back then, he had indeed suffered a great deal of injustice.

  I don't know how to comfort him, so Gan Ping just said: "The token is lost, let's forget about it. When you've made progress in your cultivation, you can go down the mountain and bring your fiancée back up. Who knows, maybe you'll even become dao companions. Brother Zeng, you're also about to enter the condensation realm, maybe next year you'll be able to go down the mountain for training." As soon as he heard this, Zeng Qi suddenly turned his head around, and Gan Ping was shocked to discover that this iron man who had just bitten his teeth and resisted dozens of spells with brute force was actually crying.

  "She's dead, long dead. It was on the way to the sect that we were together. The token of our engagement was my only thought, but Li Xing'an and his men took away all my personal belongings, including the token. That night I stood naked outside the door, shivering with cold and crying all night." Gan Ping stared at Zeng Qi's eyes, which had long since turned blood red, and couldn't help but feel stunned. He never thought it would be like this. "At that time, I comforted myself by thinking that fortunately, Xiao Lian didn't follow me into the sect, otherwise wouldn't I have failed to protect even my own fiancée? I can only regret..."

  At this point, the big man suddenly burst into tears and cried out loud. Gan Ping also felt that Li Xing An's actions were indeed a bit excessive. "I've entered the inner door now, but I still can't do anything to him. You saw it earlier, I was still powerless. Xiao Lian, I'm sorry..." His voice was mournful, enough to make those who heard it feel sad and those who saw it shed tears. Gan Ping quickly stepped forward and helped Zeng Qi up from the ground, where he had fallen and was crying out loud. Looking at his red and swollen eyes, he said in a deep voice: "Zeng Shixiong, since we've entered the mountain gate, we may not have anything else, but we have plenty of time. That Li Xing An is not even worthy of being a disciple, he's just relying on his family's power. If it doesn't work out in a year, then ten years, if not ten years, then a hundred years... Even if it takes a thousand years, we can wait for the people who are protecting him to fall. By that time, who will still be able to stop you?" When Zeng Qi heard Gan Ping's words, the sorrowful look in his eyes gradually faded away, and a determined expression slowly emerged.

  On the way back, Gan Ping's heart was heavy with a big knot. The words he had just spoken were only to comfort Zeng Qi, but in his heart, he knew that it would be impossible for him to overcome the demon of longevity and live forever. Even if he fell, he must have made thorough preparations for future generations. What he said to Zeng Qi was just self-deception.

  He touched the ring hanging from his chest and felt a lot more at ease. Fortunately, he hadn't encountered the same situation as Zeng Qi. His token had been stolen, but it was just a keepsake of his thoughts. If this black lacquer ring on his chest were to be stolen, Ling'er's body and soul would still be inside, and Gan Ping couldn't imagine how crazy he would go if something like that happened. "Those Li Xing'an and those outer sect disciples are lucky today. If they dare do the same thing to me as they did to Zeng Shixiong, I'll use the Tianmo Huaxue God Knife to turn them into dust, never to be reborn again, even if it means risking being hunted down by the sect."

  But thinking about it, however, one can't just rely on this killer move; improving one's own cultivation is the most crucial thing. If one has reached the peak of Qi Refining, they will definitely be recruited into the inner sect of their school. At that time, who would still dare to provoke themselves? In the end, it was this black robe that brought trouble.

  Back at the Earth Fire Temple, it was already evening, but inside the temple, people were still surging in and out, making a racket like a marketplace. As Gan Ping passed by the temple gate, he couldn't help but shake his head. He hadn't expected that these so-called immortals would also be haggling over the position of a dan furnace like commoners in a market. This opened Gan Ping's eyes wide, but after experiencing the unexpected events of the afternoon, he was no longer surprised by such things. Since there were already cases of fellow disciples fighting each other to the death, these petty squabbles were nothing out of the ordinary.

  He bypassed the front hall and returned to his small room in the back, looked at the arrangement on the door when he left, nodded satisfactorily, it seemed that no one had entered his room. He laid out the Three Talents Returning to the Origin Gathering Spirit Array again, Gan Ping helplessly stared at the few pieces of spirit stones that had dimmed a lot, shook his head lightly, and indeed, after the integrity of the spirit stone was destroyed, the leakage of spiritual energy also accelerated a lot. It seemed that if he laid out the array ten or so more times, these fragments would dissipate their spiritual energy and become ordinary stones. If he had low-grade spirit stones in hand, he would not have done such a wasteful thing, but now it was also helpless.

  Gan Ping calculated the number of fire-type spirit stones in his hand and was shocked to find that he barely had enough to last until the year-end exam. This made him think deeply about it. If he only cultivated, these spirit stones would be sufficient, but he also wanted to make some preparations for entering the outer gate. After all, he had offended Li Xing'an today, and if he became an outer gate disciple, he would have to face him every day without any preparation, which would put him at a disadvantage. However, the spirit stones were not enough. Thinking about it over and over again didn't lead to any solution, so Gan Ping could only stop thinking about it. At worst, when he became an outer gate disciple, he could exchange some of his other attribute spirit stones for fire-type ones. If he was cautious, it shouldn't be a big deal.

  He sat cross-legged, his five hearts facing the origin, and began today's lesson. He first ran the Controlling Fire Ignition Heart Method on one side, and the speed of the method was much faster. Indeed, after breaking through the Tai Chong Channel Liver Fire Meridian, the speed of the method also increased greatly. It was just unknown whether the control over flames had also doubled, and it could only be tested when the barrier to the fifth floor of the Earth Fire Temple opened, and he went with Wuyan Sublime Elder to refine the elixir.

  After running the Controlling Fire and Pulse Heart Method, Gan Ping stopped the operation of the technique. He knew that if he rushed, he would not achieve his goal. Yesterday, he had just opened up the Taichong Channel of the Liver Fire Meridian, and if today he were to open up another meridian with a single effort, it wouldn't be impossible. With Gan Ping's current physical strength, opening up another meridian would only take one night. However, Gan Ping was afraid that if he made progress too quickly, his foundation might become unstable, so he decided to proceed step by step in a stable manner. In fact, Gan Ping was also worried that if he made progress too quickly, it would attract the attention of the elder Wuyanzi. At that time, it would be difficult for him to keep the secrets of the precious treasure and the ultimate technique that he possessed. Having experienced many things, Gan Ping had come to understand the principle of "carrying a jade symbol and inviting guilt". With his current level of cultivation, he was fundamentally unable to protect himself, so he could only hide his abilities.