Condemning the Heavens

Lan truly did as he had promised. He and Xue Wei spent the rest of the day where Xue Wei continuously released one attack after the other, only to be told by Lan how to make the flow of Qi within his meridians change.

Xue Wei learned how to enhance the strength of his attacks further; he learned how to control the accuracy of the attacks better than before and how to control much energy he wished to use on the attack.

He was learning how to control the flow of Qi within his body perfectly. Previously, he had been using full power every single time he released an attack, but now he could fully control that strength.

"You are learning fast!" Lan praised him with a grin on his face. "Now onto the last thing I am going to teach you today."

"I will teach you how to overdraft your energy," Lan said seriously. Lan’s usual manner of joking and teasing was suddenly gone, replaced by a solemness that made Xue Wei observe him seriously.

"I hate fake snakes, but for some reason, you happen to be a deviant in this case," Lan said. "You are interesting, and you have a dantian I want."

"So please remember, what I am about to teach you is something that you can only use when you are in imminent peril. This is something you can use if you are sure you will die, as the overdraft is very bad for your body and meridians."

"Still, it is a life-saving measure, so I will teach it to you." Lan then began teaching Xue Wei on how he could absorb more energy from his dantian in a short period of time. The amount would be too much for his meridians to handle, and they would start breaking apart if he did it for more than a short moment.

Xue Wei began to do as Lan had instructed him, yet he was stopped moments after. "I told you only to do it during imminent peril, and now you were about to do it right away? Isn't that a little premature?"

Xue Wei realized that Lan was correct and paused. "If I can't try it, then how can I know how to do it?" Xue Wei asked curiously, but Lan just shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "It’s all about knowing the theory and then hoping for the best."

Xue Wei was a little perplexed as he looked at Lan. "So I will not know if I am capable of doing it – and since I cannot try it, all I can do is hope for the best?"

Xue Wei understood that trying it out now would be a very bad idea. If he ended up wounding his meridians and body, it would take him an extended period of time before he healed. In that case, he would be incapable of reaching the Earth Warrior rank soon, and even less likely to learn other useful skills from Lan.

"Okay, teach me the basics, please." Xue Wei finally reached the conclusion that it was better to know about it than not knowing about it.

"It is not that difficult," Lan explained. "Force your Qi to leave your dantian in a faster and larger quantity. You will need to be able to control the amount of Qi you use before you can do it, but I already taught you how to regulate the Qi flow within your body. When I told you how to limit the amount of Qi you send out, you just do the complete opposite and request for more to be transferred through your meridians."

Xue Wei contemplated a bit as he sat down. He limited the amount of Qi that roamed his body, and felt how he became sluggish. He then increased the flow of Qi within his body, from a small drizzle to a steady stream, and he instantly felt the difference.

"Oh, I see!" Xue Wei nodded his head as it made sense to him. He finally managed to understand what it was like, but he also understood that it would be dangerous to attempt it, which was why he stopped right away.

"See, it is not so hard is it?" Lan asked with a smile, and Xue Wei completely forgot that he was cross with the prophet and gave him a beaming smile to display his happiness and gratefulness. This trick, although not tested and tried, was clearly a useful trick that could one day save his life.

"That was it for today," Lan declared as the sun had begun setting in the sky. The other experts were also leaving the field with their tutors, and Xue Wei suddenly realized that the entire day had gone by in a flash.

"We skipped out mid-day meals, so we need to go and get our dinner now," Lan said as he started moving towards the city of tents once more.

"Tomorrow, I will teach you something fun," the prophet said with a mysterious smile on his face, and Xue Wei could not help but look with big eyes filled with focused impatience.

He had already learned so much from Lan, but he could learn even more? This was truly a blessing. Even if everyone thought he had become the plaything of this mysterious and rather odd prophet, Xue Wei did not mind, as he was getting the most insightful training that he had ever before experienced, and he could feel himself progress by leaps and bounds.

The rest of the evening went on as the day before. Lan was gone most of the night before he arrived in the tent and claimed the bed while looking at Xue Wei, who was in the midst of his training, and nodded his head in silent praise.

The energy in the air was disrupted by Xue Wei’s constant absorption of some of it, and slowly it got more and more chaotic as Xue Wei absorbed more and more into his body while his dantian kept swelling and shrinking in rapid succession as it absorbed the energy.

The azure gleam given off by his dantian was getting stronger and stronger; soon it no longer looked like a pearl but more like an azure bead.

This azure bead was now more than twice the size it had been when Xue Wei started his cultivation that night.

On the bed, Lan looked at Wei, and a smile spread across his lips. "Well done, brat," he praised with a low voice. "Seems like I did not need to give you a helping hand this time... your ability to cultivate is far above anyone else I've seen, and even my uncle could not match your speed."

Xue Wei did not hear anything that Lan said, as he was too busy consolidating his foundations, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

The entire energy in the surroundings was filled with turmoil, and from this others could also sense that someone was breaking through.

The more curious people in the tent city decided to exit their tents and follow the energy to the epicenter of where it was most chaotic to see who was breaking through.

They were curious to know, as they had to know if another monster of the third layer had appeared in the camp.

When they arrived at Xue Wei's tent, they all looked at one another and frowned.

Knowing that Xue Wei was residing within the tent, all of them were suddenly feeling complicated.

Some of them were relieved by the fact that it was Xue Wei. He would at most become a one layer Earth Warrior, making one more Earth Warrior emerge in their camp, but if it had been someone who reached the third layer rank, then it would have been much different.

Others were not too comfortable about it because they knew that as an Ordinary Warrior he had the strength of an Earth Warrior, yet now that he had become an actual Earth Warrior, who was to say that his strength had not multiplied greatly?

Xue Wei was completely unaware of the audience he had attracted outside the tent; he was solely focused on his cultivation base and the consolidation of his new realm.

Lan had long since noticed the people that had come to scout Xue Wei, but after seeing that he was not being disturbed, Lan quickly relaxed again.

The group quickly dispersed. No matter what they thought about Xue Wei breaking through, all of them realized that they could do nothing about it, and all they could do was to return to their own tents.

The rest of the night passed followed by the sun rising in the sky, yet Xue Wei was still absorbing the Qi from the surrounding air wantonly as if his body was an empty reservoir that was being filled with water.

The sun rose to the middle of the sky, shining down on everyone, but Xue Wei showed no intention of awakening from his meditation. It was not before the sun was starting to set again that Lan could feel how the absorption of Qi was slowly dwindling down to a reasonable level.

Xue Wei opened his eyes, and a beam of light shot out from within. A breath of foul air escaped his lips.

"Well done, you made it to Earth Warrior already!" Lan praised him while clapping his hands.

Xue Wei, forgetting that he was not too keen on this prophet, sent him a beaming smile and nodded his head. "Thanks!" he exclaimed, filled with excitement. Lan looked at him, seemingly contemplating something.

"Well. I was going to teach you about the different ranks when you became an Earth Warrior, so I'll tell you about it now," Lan decided.

"I was planning to teach you something awesome, but considering that it is already getting late, I have a feeling that it is not the most suitable time to go to the fields. We will simply not have enough time!"

"Your body should be nourished from the Qi you absorbed into your flesh and body, so going to the dining hall tonight can be skipped,"

"But it is filled with medicinal properties," Xue Wei complained, "I need them to increase my strength, especially now when I have just reached the Earth Warrior rank!"

"Open your mouth," Lan ordered, and hesitatingly Xue Wei did as he was told.

Lan flicked his fingers, and a small red bead-like thing entered Xue Wei's mouth and went straight down his throat, almost choking him in the process.

Just as Xue Wei was about to cough, he felt that the small bead transformed into liquid and fell down his throat, into his stomach where a wave of heat started radiating through his body.

"What's this?" he asked in amazement as he felt the impurities in his body being eradicated by this heat, burnt to a crisp and forced out of his system.

"It was a Scarlet Corpse Pill. A pill that is concocted from Corpse Grass and Blood Ginseng. It is very mild in nature, and this one had a purity of a hundred percent, so you don't have to worry about pill toxins. Since you turned into an Earth Warrior, you should just barely be able to consume it."

Lan spoke as if it was natural for him to hand out medicinal pills of such caliber like candy, but Xue Wei was horrified. Pills were a rarity in the Kingdom of Heping, and especially pills of one hundred percent purity.

To randomly give away such pills like this was enough to shock him, but at the same time, he started to feel grateful to this prophet.

"Maybe I misjudged you at the start," Xue Wei said with a small smile on his face, but Lan just grinned.

"I can give you much better stuff if you promise to join my collection," he tempted, but Xue Wei just shook his head wordlessly.

"You said that you would tell me about the different ranks that come after the Warrior ranks?" the younger man changed the subject elegantly, to which Lan chuckled before he began to explain.