Lingdao courtyard, banquet hall.
Nearly 600 people from three prefectures’ spiritual temples gathered together. The headmaster and elders sat at one table, and ten disciples sat at one table.
Zhao Lin sat with Dong Lingcheng, Li Sancai, Tong Mu, Zhu Cong, and five older senior brothers.
"There are so many disciples in Juyan Province!"
After sitting down, Li Sancai looked around the hall and murmured in a low voice.
Disciples from each state wear different clothes, which can be distinguished at a glance. The number of disciples in Nanhe Prefecture and Xiniu Prefecture is similar, around 150, but there are nearly 300 in Juyan Prefecture.
"Juyan State is rich in spiritual veins and has a large number of monks. It is said that there are fifty or sixty disciples with spiritual roots selected from the mortal world every year."
Zhao Lin casually replied that interest is indeed the best teacher. When he was in school, he had a headache about history and geography, but now he actively looks for books on this subject.
"No wonder!" Li Sancai was speechless.
Dong Lingcheng glanced at Zhao Lin in surprise, said nothing, picked up the spiritual tea on the table and took a sip.
After a while, Pang Zhangyuan of Dongyang County Lingdao Academy stood up and raised his wine glass, "As the host, I will prepare a small banquet today to show the friendship of the landlord. Please use it with your leisure."
After the words fell, the mortal servants brought the spiritual meals to each table.
Gold bird soup, ice fire snake meat, red-eyed whitebait, Babao Linggu duck, Huang Jingzhi soup...
“It smells so good!”
Zhu Cong sniffed and said eagerly.
The Lingshan meal was delicious, fragrant and colorful, making people move their index fingers. However, Chenghua Sect pays attention to the etiquette of respect and inferiority. Dong Lingcheng did not move his chopsticks, so it was difficult for anyone to get started.
Seeing this, Dong Lingcheng picked up his chopsticks, picked out a piece of ice fire snake meat, and said with a smile: "The taste of Lingshan is far beyond the world's delicacies, everyone should try it."
“It’s really delicious!”
"It tastes so much better than the food in this world!"
Everyone was full of praise after tasting it.
Zhao Lin took a bite of Linggu duck and felt it was extremely delicious. After taking it, spiritual energy brewed and radiated out instantly.
In fact, strictly speaking, cooking spiritual rice is also considered a spiritual meal, but it is the simplest one.
If you want to eat delicious food, you usually use spiritual animals and spiritual herbs, supplemented by special spices. It is necessary to retain the essence and spiritual energy in the food, and to remove the turbid impurities in the food, and to achieve a complete color, flavor, and taste. It has to be a spiritual chef.
There were eight spiritual meals in total, and there was a pot of spiritual wine on each table. Everyone ate and drank, and the atmosphere was quite lively.
Zhao Lin accidentally glanced at the main table and found that it was very quiet there. The three heads of the house were all sullen and silent, looking bitter and resentful.
"What's going on with the three heads?"
Zhao Lin asked Dong Lingcheng in a low voice.
"I don't know, it wasn't this stiff last year."
Dong Lingcheng also lowered his voice.
"Are you originally at odds with each other?"
Zhao Lin heard something in his words and continued to ask.
"I heard something said by my former senior brother Chuan Gong, but I don't know whether it is true or not."
Dong Lingcheng picked up the wine glass and held it in front of his mouth, "The three masters jointly pursued a female nun when they were young, so... you know."
Zhao Lin was stunned, he didn't expect such a thing to happen.
But when he thought about it carefully, it was actually normal. He had just noticed that only about 25% of the female disciples present were there, which meant that at least 60% of the male disciples could not find a Taoist companion.
When meeting a female cultivator with outstanding appearance and qualifications, it is normal for three heads to fall in love with her at the same time.
"What happened in the end, who succeeded?"
"No one succeeded."
Dong Lingcheng took a sip of his wine and continued: "That female cultivator is now in the late Zifu realm, serving as a sect-level elder and in charge of the Lingzhi lineage."
…
After the banquet, the lakeside house.
"The performance meeting lasts for two days. On the first day, we will practice Taoist skills, and on the second day, we will practice martial arts."
Zhou Hongfang did not let the disciples go back to rest. Instead, he stood in the middle of the courtyard with a gloomy face, his eyebrows raised diagonally.
"Originally, the fight was just a competition, and the victory or defeat didn't matter. But I learned something today. Some people are too unruly!"
The disciples looked at each other, their hearts tightening.
The headmaster is always smiling and doesn't get angry easily, let alone speak so eloquently, but I don't know what happened to make him so angry.
Zhao Lin's heart moved when he heard the word "fighting skills".
The purpose of the performance meeting is to showcase Taoist skills. In order to increase the viewing pleasure, the three spiritual Taoist academies will each select two disciples with powerful magic skills to compete in a duel after the performance.
As time goes by, the battle of wits gradually becomes the highlight.
There is no first place in literature and no second place in martial arts. How can a show of Taoism be as exciting as a fight?
Zhao Lin was very excited when he learned about the fighting skills, and wanted to earn rewards for his good deeds with his martial arts prowess.
However, after asking the elders who passed down the martial arts, I found out that the battle mainly involves a competition of spells. It would be suspected of cheating if a martial artist joined the competition, so the Spiritual Dao Academy selected two disciples who had practiced Taoism for three years to appear.
Just listen to Zhou Hongfang continue: "I just learned at the dinner that there is a sword cultivator among the disciples of Lingdao Academy in Juyan Prefecture, and there is a physical cultivator in Xiniu Prefecture!"
hiss……
There was a sound of inhalation.
The disciples all thought: No wonder the headmaster is so grand, those two spiritual academies simply don't follow the rules!
The journey of cultivating the Taoism requires step by step, but there are three types of monks who stand out from the rest.
Martial arts, physical fitness, swordsmanship.
Needless to say, martial arts cultivators have the highest starting point. The strength of Xiantian realm warriors is not inferior to that of monks in the middle stage of Qi refining, which is about between the fourth and fifth levels.
Especially since the fighting takes place in a limited space, martial arts practitioners who are good at close combat have an advantage.
Physical training infuses spiritual energy into flesh and blood, gaining a tyrannical body and great strength. In the early stages of training, it has the advantage of crushing legal training.
There is a common saying in the world of immortal cultivation that the first to fifth levels of body tempering need to be converted into legal cultivation combat power by adding two. In other words, the physical strength of the first level of body tempering is equivalent to the third level of Qi refining.
The third level of Qi refining here is a rough estimate. The strength of the same third level of Qi refining may be very different.
Sword cultivators focus on attacking and killing. Although they belong to legal cultivators, they are an anomaly among legal cultivators.
Because sword cultivators practice almost no other spells except the most basic ones. They focus on swordsmanship without any distractions and can defeat all spells with one sword.
Sword cultivators also have the ability to leapfrog challenges.
These three types of monks are not mainstream, but in the early and middle stages of cultivation, they all have the ability to suppress monks of the same level. Only when they reach the later stage of Qi cultivation in Dharma cultivation, can they gradually even out the gap when they are at the same level.
However, there are gains and losses. The further these three types of monks practice, the harder it is to improve their realm. They can only rely on killing to accumulate good deeds, and the casualty rate remains high.
Lingdao Academy generally does not send these three types of monks to fight. The reason is very simple. Fighting is a fight. How can it be considered a fight if you don't cast spells? However, these three types of monks hardly use magic.
After hearing the news, many people looked at Zhao Lin.
"Since these two spiritual temples do not respect martial ethics, then what should we worry about?"
"Yes, we have ready-made martial arts."
"Interesting, martial arts, body cultivation, sword cultivation, which one is more powerful..."
The candidates for the battle have already been decided. They are two disciples who have been in Lingdao Academy for three years. One is named Yun Jingda and the other is Yue Shengluan.
The two of them were at the fourth and fifth levels of Qi refining respectively, and their magical attainments were among the best among the disciples.
Zhou Hongfang said in a deep voice: "If that's the case, then we won't be polite, Yun Jingda!"
Yun Jingda came out of the queue and responded: "Disciple is here!"
"Originally I sent you to fight, but there is a better candidate in terms of combat ability, so I have to change the person."
Yun Jingda's expression darkened when he heard this.
"The second day's battle..."
Zhou Hongfang's eyes swept across the crowd, and finally landed on Zhao Lin's face.
Zhao Lin guessed the master's intention and looked back boldly.
"Zhao Lin, come on!"
(End of chapter)
