Xu Chunniang's eyes swept over the bamboo basket in the girl's hand and said, "Come in with me."
The girl followed into the yard, opened the bamboo basket and presented it with both hands.
"This is a gift of money, and also a token of my appreciation."
When Xu Chunniang saw the bamboo basket full of gold and silver, a look of surprise appeared on her face.
Being able to offer so much gold and silver as dowry, it seemed that the girl's background was better than she imagined.
Although these gold, silver and other valuables were meaningless to Xu Chunniang, she still accepted them and accepted him as her disciple.
"May I have your name?"
“Shen Miaoling.”
"Can you read?"
"My eyesight was damaged by an accident three years ago. When I was young, my family hired a teacher to teach me how to read."
Xu Chunniang nodded and said, "Before you learn martial arts, I will teach you a book of martial arts. After you read it, you can ask me if you have any questions."
As she spoke, she cast a spell towards Shen Miaoling’s brow.
Shen Miaoling only felt a pain between her eyebrows, and a new technique appeared in her mind, which was the Xiaoyao Jue.
She opened her mouth slightly, looking incredulous. This method of teaching was simply unheard of.
Shen Miaoling originally thought that the person she became a disciple of was just an ordinary internal martial arts master.
Only now did she realize that this master's origins were even more shocking than she had imagined.
After the shock and joy, Shen Miaoling groped for a corner to sit down, and began to carefully read the new skills that appeared in her mind.
Xu Chunniang looked at Shen Miaoling. With her cultivation level, she could naturally tell that Shen Miaoling had spiritual roots.
She has five spiritual roots, and her cultivation speed is a little slower than others, but as long as she can cultivate to the foundation-building stage, her eyes can be cured without treatment.
Xu Chunniang withdrew her gaze and continued to practice sword moves.
The sword moves taught by the man in black robe look simple, but they are not that easy to learn.
The first sword move alone was enough to stump her.
Xu Chunniang and Shen Miaoling, one practicing sword and the other studying magic, the two of them were active and quiet, and did not disturb each other.
"Coooo..."
A subtle sound came from Shen Miaoling's stomach, and Xu Chunniang came to her senses and realized that it was already noon.
She looked at Shen Miaoling and was about to ask her if she wanted to go home for lunch, but she saw Shen Miaoling taking out the oil paper bag she brought in the morning.
She turned to look in the direction of Xu Chunniang, holding up the oil-paper bag and asked tentatively.
"Would you like some? I baked an extra pancake before I left this morning. It's a little cold, but it tastes good."
Xu Chunniang was about to refuse, but then she thought of something and nodded, "Okay."
She walked towards Shen Miaoling, took the oil paper bag from her hand, sat beside her and ate the cake together.
The cake had cooled down a long time ago, but it was still crispy and chewy when bitten.
After eating half of the pancake, Xu Chunniang remembered that she could use the fire spirit to heat it up a little, so that it would taste better.
Seeing that she didn't want to eat anymore, Shen Miaoling looked slightly apologetic, "Is it not to your liking?"
"No, I think it's pretty good. Have you finished reading the book of skills I gave you before? Is there anything you don't understand?"
Shen Miaoling was a little frustrated, “I’m too stupid, I don’t understand a lot of things, I only vaguely see that if I practice this technique, I can be free and at ease.”
"This technique is very profound. It's normal that you can't understand it for a while."
Xu Chunniang recalled that when she first came into contact with Xiaoyao Jue, she was also confused and could not understand it at all.
It was not until I listened to the lectures of my uncle who was in charge of foundation building that I gradually understood.
"There is Qi in the heaven and earth, and Qi gives birth to all things. However, these spiritual energies are invisible to ordinary people. Only those with spiritual roots can feel them when they are meditating and entering a state of concentration."
Shen Miaoling seemed to understand what he said, and vaguely realized that she had opened a door to a new world.
“First, sit in meditation and sense the spiritual energy. Try to establish a connection with the spiritual energy and guide it into your body.
When the spiritual energy has circulated along the spiritual veins for a small cycle and is absorbed into the dantian, the process of drawing the energy into the body is completed.
This process often takes from several days to several months, so don’t be anxious, take your time.”
Shen Miaoling nodded, and after eating the cake, she followed Xu Chunniang's instructions and couldn't wait to start meditating.
One of them was practicing sword skills while the other was meditating.
Three or four days passed like this, and at noon that day, Shen Miaoling excitedly told Xu Chunniang that she had sensed spiritual energy.
"There are five colors of spiritual energy. I can sense it!"
“Sensing the spiritual energy is only the first step, the next step is to harmonize the spiritual energy.
You have five spiritual roots, so you must be extra careful when blending your spiritual energy. You must blend it according to the law of the five elements."
Shen Miaoling nodded heavily. She knew that at the moment, she could only sense the spiritual energy and was still far from drawing it into her body.
Ten days passed like this, and when Xu Chunniang was practicing sword, she suddenly felt a weak fluctuation of spiritual energy. It turned out that Shen Miaoling had successfully drawn the energy into her body.
Seeing her success, Xu Chunniang curled her lips slightly.
In just half a month, Shen Miaoling successfully completed the process of guiding Qi into the body.
With her five spiritual roots, it is very rare for her to be able to achieve this.
This shows how focused Shen Miaoling is.
Xu Chunniang withdrew her gaze and was about to continue practicing sword skills when she suddenly thought of something and a look of surprise appeared in her eyes.
She actually forgot that this was a mortal city with thin spiritual energy, not the Xiaoyao Sect with abundant spiritual energy.
The amount of spiritual energy is closely related to the speed of cultivation.
If Shen Miaoling was in Xiaoyao Sect, it would be considered good if she could draw Qi into her body within half a month with her five spiritual roots.
But this is the mortal world, and the spiritual energy is relatively thin.
Logically, she shouldn't be so fast.
Shen Miaoling stood up, a look of surprise on her face, “Master, I succeeded!”
"Very good. When you were meditating, did you feel a lot of spiritual energy?"
Shen Miaoling thought back for a moment and shook her head.
"There was very little spiritual energy. I waited for a long time and absorbed a lot of spiritual energy before I was able to let them barely complete a small cycle."
"While we are waiting, won't the spiritual energy that has been harmonized run around?"
"A little bit, so I kept reconciling them and establishing a connection with them according to the method taught by my master. It took a lot of effort, but I finally succeeded."
Xu Chunniang was silent for a moment, "I understand."
Shen Miaoling was a little puzzled, and when her master said that she understood something, she didn’t dare to ask more.
"Introducing Qi into the body is the first step in cultivation. From then on, you only need to absorb spiritual energy day by day to improve your cultivation."
After Xu Chunniang finished speaking, she took her sword and returned to the osmanthus tree where she had set up the barrier. She stared at the sword in her hand for a long time without saying a word.
After practicing sword skills for many days, she has been able to use the sword moves taught by the man in black robe very skillfully.
But the sword moves she used were only similar in form and their power was mediocre.
Could it be that she didn't understand this sword move at all, so it only had the form but not the spirit
Xu Chunniang vaguely realized that sword moves were secondary.
More importantly, it is to comprehend the sword intent contained in these three sword moves.