Chapter Seventeen: Ruthless Means

  "The status of a practitioner is not high, but it's extremely special!" Wang Bicheng looked at Wang Guanlan's puzzled expression and sighed, "I think you've also heard many rumors about practitioners. That's because you're in the palace and know more than ordinary people do. Some hidden books in the palace describe practitioners too. But to ordinary people, practitioners are just a legend. Many spend their entire lives without seeing one. They only know about warriors. As for why practitioners are so rare, there are two main reasons. One is what you already know: the entry requirements for practitioners are extremely high, and those who can meet them are one in ten thousand. The second reason is that the inheritance of practitioners is even rarer. Each lineage's transmission, even if it's incomplete, is enough to make some aristocratic families flock to it!"

  He paused for a moment, "The magic of the Taoist and the source of the cultivation method mainly come from the Five Classics. Among the Five Classics, the most well-known are the 'Tai Chi Wu Xing Jing' and the 'Yuan Shi Yin Yang Jing'. As for the other three classics, I only know about the 'Wanxiang Tianhen Jing', while the other two classics are even more mysterious, only those at the top of the Taoist world can understand them. Now, all the magic and cultivation methods in the world have evolved from these five classics. On one hand, there are few Taoists, on the other hand, in many things, warriors cannot replace Taoists, and for some other reasons, the status of Taoists has become special!"

  "In the upper echelons of our Great Qin Dynasty, the figures of Taoist priests are not uncommon, but they are also not numerous. For example, in my Ning Wang Fu, apart from myself, this half-baked Taoist priest, there is also a Mr. Jiufeng, who is not only wise and knowledgeable, and is the crown of our Ning Wang Fu's staff, but also a mid-ranking Taoist priest!"

  "Mid-tier mage?!" Wang Guanlan was shocked in her heart, although she had already secretly suspected that there were mages in the mansion, but she didn't expect the number to be so small, and there was only one, and it wasn't even a high-tier mage.

  In his impression, the rank of a practitioner and that of a martial artist correspond to each other. Compared with the complex boundary division of martial artists, there are only three major boundaries and nine minor boundaries for practitioners before becoming a great practitioner. The nine minor boundaries are divided into first to ninth ranks, with every three ranks forming a major boundary. For example, Wang Guanlan is just a low-ranking practitioner who has just entered the first rank. When he reaches the fourth rank, he will be promoted to mid-ranking, and when he reaches the seventh rank, he will be high-ranking. Above the ninth rank is the great practitioner.

  It is precisely because of this that almost everyone thinks that the strength of a low-level mage should be equivalent to that of a martial artist in the Refining Qi stage, a mid-level mage equivalent to a martial artist in the Condensing Qi stage, and a high-level mage equivalent to a martial artist in the Controlling Qi stage. However, it now appears that this is not the case.

  "If well-prepared, a low-ranking cultivator can easily kill an unsealed Qi-refining stage martial artist, while a mid-ranking cultivator can even kill a late-stage master of the Ninth Layer of Refining Qi. As for high-ranking cultivators, it goes without saying. Of course, this is relative."

  Everything is built on the basis of a practitioner having sufficient preparation, like Wang Guanlan, who has just entered the threshold of a practitioner and only understands one low-level technique, it's impossible.

  But from Wang Bizheng's words, Wang Guanlan still clearly felt the weight of the two words "technician".

  "This time you can turn a disaster into an opportunity, which I didn't expect!" Wang Bizheng said to Wang Guanlan, "However, the cultivation of a Taoist is different from that of a martial artist. He pays more attention to spiritual cultivation, and spiritual cultivation is more mysterious than martial arts cultivation. If one is not careful, it can lead to very serious consequences. So, when cultivating, you must be careful!"

  Yes!

  "Also, there's another thing, I don't know if it was mentioned in your lineage!" Wang Bizheng said.

  "What's going on?!" Wang Guanlan asked with some confusion.

  "The practitioners attach great importance to inheritance." Wang Bizheng said, "Every practitioner has his own inheritance, and prying into others' inheritance is a taboo. Now that you are already a practitioner, it's inevitable that you will interact with other practitioners in the future, so remember this point and don't casually pry into other practitioners' inheritance!"

  Wang Guanlan felt that something was off, and it wasn't just the cultivators who attached great importance to inheritance. The warriors also placed a high value on it. Why did Wang Bizheng need to emphasize this?

  However, Wang Bicheng didn't elaborate and continued, "Compared to warriors, the relationship between cultivators is also very subtle. Later on, when you interact with other cultivators, you must be especially careful!", saying this, he suddenly thought of that Mr. Jiufen from earlier, perhaps originally Mr. Jiufen didn't pay much attention to Wang Guanlan, but now that Wang Guanlan has become a cultivator, even if it's just a first-rank cultivator, it's enough to make Mr. Jiufen look at him with different eyes, hopefully Wang Guanlan's ambition isn't too big, otherwise in the future, Ning Wang Fu will truly be a place of dragon and tiger fighting.

  "By the way, you've been missing for many days and your mother is very worried. Go back first, come see me again tomorrow!"

  "Yes!"

  …………

  …………

  Ningwang Mansion, Qing Song Garden

  Bright and radiant

  "You child, don't ever do this again! You said you'd be back in a few days, but it's almost been a month and I haven't heard from you at all. It's driving me to death with worry!"

  Wang Guanlan was somewhat embarrassed to be held in Xu's arms, and he was not used to this feeling. At this time, Xu didn't care about his feelings at all, but only felt that her son had come back, and she couldn't let him leave again.

  She clung to Wang Guanlan and cried for nearly half a day, before Wang Guanlan finally extricated herself from her arms. "Mother, it's getting late, you should rest too!"

  Mrs. Xu nodded with tears in her eyes, and under the support of Green Lotus, she returned to her bedroom. As Mrs. Xu's figure disappeared into the bedroom, the warm smile on his face slowly faded away, a hint of coolness floated up to the corner of his mouth. Standing beside him, Lian Xin suddenly felt a chill in her heart, and her complexion also gradually turned pale.

  "Alright, Lianxin, let's go take care of things!"

  "Yes, young master!" Lotus Heart replied softly, "Just now, Master Guanchao and Master Ganzhuang..."

  "Don't mind them!" Wang Guanlan waved her hand, a cold glint flashing in her eyes. The backyard of Qing Song Garden was also brightly lit at this time, with over ten servants holding torches and surrounding a circle. Inside the circle were four people dressed as servants from the Wang Manor, and one young girl in a flower-patterned dress.

  "Fourteenth Young Master, spare my life! I won't dare again!"

  "Fourteenth Young Master, let me go! I'm a person of Seventh Young Master, you can't treat me like this!"

  …………

  …………

  "Wang Guanlan, you madman! How dare you treat me like this? I'll kill you, I'll kill you!"

  The girl's delicate face revealed an extremely resentful expression, struggling frantically, her eyes seeming to want to tear Wang Guanlan apart.

  Wang Guanlan sneered, his eyes scanning the four servants dressed up, "Don't worry, I won't kill you, of course, if you can make it through. Come on, these four, one hundred lashes for each, whether they live or die, depends on their luck!"

  "Yes, young master!"

  The surrounding green pine garden servants all showed excitement on their faces, you know, in the past few days, these members' lower people have been holding a bellyful of anger because of Wang Guanlan's affairs.

  In a noble family like the Ning Wang Fu, the fate of these servants is closely tied to that of their masters. In recent days, due to Wang Guanlan's disappearance, life in Qing Song Garden has not been easy. Although Wang Guanlan rose suddenly in the mansion, his foundation was not deep and he had a somewhat nouveau riche air about him. Moreover, in this process, his relationship with several powerful figures in the mansion was not good, and some were even sensitive. When news of the Bai Du Men sealing off Wu Yin Gorge and killing the warriors inside spread, almost everyone thought that the good days of this Ninth Young Master were over. The wind direction in the mansion changed immediately, especially among those who had previously been at odds with Wang Guanlan. At first, it was just cold words and phrases, but as time passed and Wang Guanlan still did not appear, these cold words and phrases escalated into formal provocation. Among them, Qi Furen's side took the lead. Since news of the incident in Wu Yin Gorge spread, Wang Guanchao could be said to be one of the people most concerned about this matter in Ning Wang Fu. After searching the entire gorge without finding Wang Guanlan and concluding that he had already fallen into the gorge, his actions became even more intense, to the point where he directly came knocking on doors. These four servants were caught off guard by Wang Guanlan's gun when they encountered him returning to Qing Song Garden. They were seeking trouble in Qing Song Garden at the time and were immediately ordered to be tied up by Wang Guanlan. The woman, however, had some connections - she was Wang Guanchao's cousin, or rather, Qi Furen's niece.

  This woman was even more arrogant than those servants, if it wasn't for Wang Guanlan arriving in time, she would have slapped Wu Shi's earlobe, now her swollen face was the result of being slapped by Wang Guanlan.

  Although this woman was not born in the palace, her family was also a number one figure in the local area. Especially after Seventh Lady became King Bi Cheng's concubine, her status and position immediately rose with the tide. She had always been used to giving orders and never suffered any grievances. Moreover, in the mouth of her cousin Wang Guan Chao, this little brat called Wang Guan Lan was just a lucky upstart who couldn't compare to his own aunt's status in the palace. Therefore, even when she was tied up by Wang Guan Lan, she was still very arrogant and kept shouting non-stop.

  "Fourteenth Young Master, Ninth Young Master has been waiting in the front hall for a long time and wants to take Miss Biao back!"

  "Is that so?!" Wang Guanlan sneered and glanced at Lian Xin, while in the distance, the sound of wooden sticks hitting buttocks echoed with a loud "slap", fortunately, the mouths of those four were gagged, otherwise, who knows how many miserable cries would have been heard.

  "Is that Miss Whatever-her-name-is, this woman?!"

  "Yes, Young Master Fourteen!"

  "Alright, bring someone over and cut out this woman's tongue, then send it to Ninth Master!"