Chapter 273: Chapter 240: Observatory Master

The bamboo huts where the Outer Sect Disciples live aren’t actually that big, so Chu Huaixu’s room is really close to Xiaoxu’s.

With him being like a giant furnace next door, it’s certain Chu Huaixu’s room gets affected, too.

To be precise, the living conditions in the Daoist Sect are honestly pretty decent—everyone gets their own standalone little villa, and the bamboo hut is a single-person dwelling.

The hut Xiaoxu lives in is basically just a utility room.

“Why am I starting Body Tempering too?”

Chu Huaixu glanced at his own body, sensing the Body Tempering Qi surging within him.

If Xu Ziqing is currently sitting smack-dab in the blazing center of the Heaven and Earth Furnace, then Chu Huaixu is more like hovering around the rim.

The Body Tempering effect isn’t as strong as what Xiaoxu gets, but it’s still something.

As for that burning sensation, with Chu Huaixu’s pain threshold, he pretty much just ignores it.

Right now, it’s as if he gets over a hundred Cultivation Technique Experience Points every so often.

Doesn’t seem like a lot, but a whole night adds up nicely—probably several thousand points.

The important thing is: it all adds up, day after day!

“Looks like the effect is about the same as my Body Tempering Jade Pendant—maybe even a little better,” Chu Huaixu muttered, glancing at the jade pendant hanging from his waist.

Chu Huaixu simply got up, pushed open his own door, and headed toward Xiaoxu’s room.

As soon as he stepped outside, that burning feeling intensified.

But his gained Cultivation Technique Experience jumped from 105 to 179 points.

“What kind of public Body Refining furnace is this?!” Chu Huaixu couldn’t help but sigh.

Xiaoxu’s Heaven and Earth Furnace could actually be used as a communal furnace!

In other words, anyone refining their body just needs to practice around him, and they’ll get the Body Tempering effect—their progress speeds up a whole level!

Of course, first you have to be able to stand the endless agony of sitting inside a fire pit.

Other Body Refiners don’t have nearly the freakish pain threshold those two do.

Anyway, no one else would torture themselves like that at the Acupoint Opening Stage—the way these two brothers do.

Chu Huaixu ran a rough calculation: as long as you use Xu Ziqing’s Heaven and Earth Furnace as the center, the Body Tempering boost within ten meters is pretty impressive.

To put it bluntly, Xiaoxu, in a way, is like his own special Furnace Cauldron…

After running a circulation, Xu Ziqing—skin flushed red all over—slowly opened his eyes.

In his pupils, a searing flame flashed by for a moment.

He was thoroughly satisfied with his current Body Tempering efficiency.

He still had blood debts to avenge, and he craved power desperately!

Besides this, he already knew the dangers lurking in the Origin Spirit Realm. He wanted another shot, hoping to surpass his senior brother—then he could take on the risk himself.

If there were rewards inside, it’d all go to senior brother! How he used it was up to him!

“Still too weak. I’m still way too weak!” The handsome young man looked unconvinced, reminding himself to push even harder.

But soon, Xu Ziqing sensed his senior brother standing just outside his door.

Thanks to the faint connection between the two of them.

“Xiaoxu,” Chu Huaixu called out.

“Hey, senior brother!” He immediately got up, skipping the cooldown, and rushed to open the door.

Looking at him, Chu Huaixu couldn’t help but feel Xiaoxu was radiating fire.

“Grab your meditation cushion,” he instructed.

“Okay.” The young man didn’t ask anything, and hurried back inside to take his cushion.

Chu Huaixu pointed at the space outside his own door, saying, “Put it there.”

Xiaoxu quickly ran over and set the cushion down at his senior brother’s doorway.

“From now on, anytime you use Body Refining Divine Techniques for tempering, come do it here,” he said.

The handsome youth didn’t bother asking why—senior brother always had his reasons—so he just agreed on the spot:

“Okay!”

After speaking, Chu Huaixu was about to head back in.

But when he saw that Xu Ziqing was about to sit down and start training again, he stopped and quickly said, “Don’t practice tonight.”

“Tomorrow I’ll have an Array Master add a First-Layer Restriction to our bamboo huts, otherwise one of these days your big furnace will burn the house down!” Chu Huaixu said with feigned annoyance.

Xiaoxu, completely oblivious to how OP he was, looked a bit embarrassed and could only duck his head, thinking to himself:

“I come home and immediately give senior brother more trouble…”

…

…

Daoist Hall, everyone gathered.

They’d come together again—all because of Chu Huaixu and company.

The reason was simple: Han Shuangjiang had already broken through to the Third Realm.

And with Chu Huaixu’s crazy cultivation speed, it wouldn’t be long before he hit the Third Realm too.

Honestly, everyone there believed that whenever this kid wanted Third Realm, he’d just become Third Realm. Totally up to his mood.

If he wants Third Realm, then he’ll be Third Realm—just like that!

As for the final savior foretold by the Daoist Ancestor’s Proverbs—the Sword Attendant, Xu Ziqing—his talent was kind of lousy, and his cultivation speed was slow, but with his pill-popping Sacred Body, he shouldn’t take too long to reach Third Realm either.

By sect rules, Outer Sect Disciples who reach Third Realm meet the basic requirement to enter the Inner Sect.

If they satisfy a few more conditions, they can go from Outer Sect Disciple to Inner Sect Disciple.

And if they get picked by an Elder Level or higher to become a disciple, they can leap straight to being a True Disciple inside Junzi Temple!

Today, everyone gathered in the main hall was here to discuss who Xu Ziqing and Han Shuangjiang should take as their masters.

These three are all definitely coming into Junzi Temple, and all will be groomed as the spearheads of their generation.

Chu Huaixu’s “affiliation” had actually already been snatched up by Seventh Junior Sister and Little Junior Sister, who called dibs ahead of time.

Now, this guy’s just a bit too monstrous—his future is limitless, maybe even as legendary as the next Dao Ancestor!

Which means everyone wants to claim him as a disciple.

There’s a saying: a mother’s status rises with her son’s.

In the cultivation realm, it’s often more like the master’s status rises with the disciple’s achievements.

Righteous cultivators mostly chase fame.

To be recorded in history—how sweet is that?

What’s more, Chu Huaixu’s going to face off in the East and West Continent Competition at Third Realm. If he wins first place, what a feat would that be?

Who doesn’t want a champion disciple? Talk about bragging rights!

Unfortunately, all anyone can contest for now is the honorary title of “Third Master”—and have to bow and scrape to Little Junior Sister, who’s already claimed “Second Master.”

Everyone familiar with Chu Yinyin knows exactly what kind of attitude she’ll have then!

So all anyone can do is reluctantly call it quits.

That leaves Han Shuangjiang and Xu Ziqing—the two saviors in the Daoist Ancestor’s Proverbs—as the real prizes for the “battle for disciples.”

Xiang Yan cleared his throat—he’d already filled his quota of True Disciples, and as the Sect Leader, it was his job to oversee things.

“Han Shuangjiang is now at Third Realm; Xu Ziqing is nearly there, too. Anybody want to take them as direct disciples?”

But surprisingly, it was Chu Yinyin who chimed in first.

The old girl sat on a big chair, her little short legs dangling nowhere near the floor, swinging back and forth as she spoke:

“Both of them use swords, and in our generation, only me and Seventh Senior Sister use swords, so I think they should both become our disciples—me and Seventh Senior Sister should teach them.”

Everyone instantly got mad when they heard this.

“Little Junior Sister! You have Chu Huaixu already, isn’t that enough?!”

“That’s just greedy, Little Junior Sister!”

“With your measly Sixth Realm Sword Dao cultivation, I could teach, too!”

Chu Yinyin was instantly flustered.

Here we go again with the classic personal attacks!

It pisses her off—Sixth Realm isn’t good enough for you guys?!

The scene immediately turned into complete chaos.

No help for it—the Daoist Sect’s top brass just have zero dignity behind closed doors.

Zhao Shuqi, that squinty-eyed guy, opened his eyes wide, and his golden pupils gleamed for all to see.

“My Pupil Technique can observe every detail of their cultivation. If I teach them, even the Dao Ancestor’s spirit would be at ease.”

Nangong Yue started working her female angle: “Xu Ziqing is whatever, but I think Shuangjiang should have a female master.”

“Plus, I noticed she’s interested in Artifact Refining—she’s been borrowing basic books on it from the Library Pavilion.”

“More importantly, my branch actually traces back to Second Generation Observatory Master, Yan Shen.”

Everyone chattered back and forth, still arguing endlessly.

Xiang Yan and Lu Pan—both full up on True Disciples—just exchanged a smile, though they were secretly pretty jealous inside.

Shouldn’t have filled up disciples so early—regret’s really hitting hard!

Finally, Jiang Zhi couldn’t help but grunt coldly, “Enough!”

He kind of wanted to join the hunt himself, but by sect rules, cross-generational discipleships aren’t allowed.

Since Xiang Yan’s generation is in charge now, only they can take direct disciples—as the next batch of successors.

Jiang Zhi swept his gaze over the crowd and said, “Since so many of you want to take on disciples, I guess all three kids can join Junzi Temple.”

“But by the rules, they don’t meet all requirements yet, right?”

Great Elder Lu Pan, also serving as Law Enforcement Elder, replied, “They still need to finish ten Outer Sect support missions.”

These support missions basically mean that when Outer Sect Disciples go down the mountain for sect assignments and run into crisis situations, they need to help out as backup.

Since backup is needed, those missions are definitely dangerous.

And those sent for support are always the Outer Sect’s elite.

To move up to Inner Sect, you need at least five support missions; for True Disciple, ten missions.

Xiang Yan said, “Outer Sect missions probably aren’t hard for them.”

“But their prestige among peers needs to be built, one successful mission at a time.”

If we want these three to be future leaders of the Daoist Sect, they have to earn respect among their own generation.

After all, the ones sticking by their side aren’t us old fogeys—it’s their fellow disciples.

Just winning placements in the East Continent competition isn’t enough.

There’s a real difference between those two things.

“Especially Chu Huaixu—he should take on more support missions,” Xiang Yan said.

Everyone pretty much agreed, silently, already.

Chu Huaixu’s whole situation makes him the perfect candidate for future Observatory Master.

The position of Junzi Temple’s Master has been vacant for years.

And no one minds keeping it open a few more years for him.

…

(ps: First Chapter of the day, begging for monthly tickets!)

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