Immortal Mortal

Lightning bolts landed once again in the lightning tempering room, and Mo Wuji could only guide them to attack the 101th meridian. Identical to what happened with the 100th meridian, guiding the lightning bolt to strike the blocked meridian only increased his suffering, yet not causing the blockage to budge a smudge.

At this point, he just downed all remaining bottles of channel opening solution, and just as expected, he opened up to the 108th meridian. However, Mo Wuji knew that these 108 meridians were really only 99 meridians. 9 of them were still blocked and could not be considered meridians. Blocked meridians could not be used for spiritual energy circulation, and did not allow spiritual energy to flow through. As long as they were not cleared, it was as though they were never opened in the first place.

Regarding this, Mo Wuji was not that concerned. While he did not manage to open the 100th meridian, he still advanced to Channel Opening Stage Level 10, which meant that he had the chance to progress to the Extreme Mortality Stage.

Two more hours passed by, and the lightning bolts eventually stopped. He cleaned himself up, then opened the doors to the lightning tempering room. His dishevelled appearance was a total misrepresentation of the happiness he hid. Being able to open 99 meridians and advance to Channel Opening Stage Level 10 had placed him ahead of 99% of the cultivators with spiritual roots.

Now what he needed most was to take some lessons in cultivation, and prepare for the Spirit Building Stage. After this, he had to make a trip to the Pill Pagoda too, to take a look at Yan’Er, and hopefully speak with her for awhile.

As Mo Wuji just left the Immortal Training Tower, Cen Shuyin opened the doors of her ice tempering room. When she arrived four hours ago, lightning tempering room C had a jade token inserted into the groove outside, but now the immortal training tower jade token had been taken away, meaning that Mo Wuji, who had cultivated here for over a day, had just left.

Hence, Cen Shuyin quickened her pace, wanting to catch up with Mo Wuji, but by the time she reached the first floor of the Immortal Training Tower, Mo Wuji was already far far away.

...

"Apprentice brother Mo, you’re finally back. Elder Dai is lecturing on spirit channels today, are you going to listen to him too?" Before Mo Wuji even reached his house, he met the approaching Chao Buheng. As for Mo Wuji’s constant dishevelled and wounded appearance, Chao Buheng was already used to seeing it.

"Of course, let’s go. I’ll go with you." Without returning to his house, Mo Wuji decided to attend a lecture with Chao Buheng immediately.

Upon receiving Mo Wuji’s favourable reply, Chao Buheng responded excitedly, "Apprentice brother Mo, let me tell you, Elder Dai Zhu is an expert of the Yuan Dan Stage, and his research into spiritual roots and spirit channels is the deepest in his field. Everytime he lectures on spirit channels, the location will be bursting with people, hence we better reach earlier. For us outer disciples, we have 10 opportunities to attend lectures for free. Once we exceed the 10, we will have to spend contribution points."

"Thank you apprentice brother Chao." Mo Wuji gave Chao Buheng’s shoulders a heavy pat. While Chao Buheng was cowardly, he possessed a thirst for knowledge. Since he had arrived at the Heaven Seeking Palace’s outer sect peak, Mo Wuji spent most of his time opening meridians. On the other hand, most of Chao Buheng’s time was spent on cultivating and attending lectures. He probably almost finished using his 10 free lectures by then.

...

The location where Heaven Seeking Pagoda’s disciples went for lectures was the Heaven Seeking Skill Technique Block, a half an hour journey away from the outer sect peak.

Indeed, Chao Buheng was early, and Mo Wuji followed him to register his identity jade token at the Technique Block. When they entered the Technique Block’s lecture hall, there were only two or three people around.

"Apprentice brother Mo, let’s sit here." Chao Buheng chose a seat at the back corner and sat down. Puzzled by his actions, Mo Wuji pointed at the seats in the center of the hall and asked, "Apprentice brother Chao, sitting there will naturally allow us to listen to the lecture more clearly, and we can ask any questions that we may have immediately, why should we sit at the back instead?"

Chao Buheng quickly explained, "Even if we were to sit there now, we’ll have to give them up eventually. The people here are all experts, and once you don’t give up the seat, they will attack you. Only those who are at the peak of Channel Opening Stage dare to sit in front, and also some Channel Opening Stage geniuses from the inner sect..."

Slightly surprised, Mo Wuji questioned, "Apprentice brother Chao, aren’t there any Spirit Building Stage disciples coming to listen to the lecture?"

It was not surprising for inner sect Channel Opening Stage disciples to come for the lecture. Mo Wuji could remember that most of the outer sect disciples that climbed the sky staircase were Spirit Building Stage cultivators, unless those people did not attend lectures?

Explaining the situation, Chao Buheng spoke, "This is where Channel Opening Stage disciples go for lectures, but since it’s Elder Dai lecturing on spirit channels, perhaps there will be Spirit Building Stage disciples around . However, all of us only have 10 chances to go for lectures for free,so I guess many Spirit Building Stage apprentice brothers won’t likely waste that opportunity."

Mo Wuji nodded in agreement, "Apprentice brother Chao, let’s just sit in the center."

Listening to a lecture as different from climbing the Sky Staircase. Mo Wuji could lie low while climbing the Sky Staircase, because he was afraid it would affect his safety and interests. However for something like listening to a lecture which also affected his own interests, he definitely would not keep quiet.

What if he sat at the back and missed or misunderstood what the technique lecturer was saying but did not have the chance to clarify? It would be such a waste.

Fighting for seats seemed rather ridiculous though, couldn’t it be based on first come first serve? Mo Wuji would be coming for lectures very frequently in the future, so once he sits at the back one time, he would be fated for the back forever. Moreover, this was the location of lectures for Channel Opening Stage disciples, and as a Channel Opening Stage Level 10 cultivator, none of the other Channel Opening Stage disciples scare him.

When he saw Mo Wuji sitting down at the best seat in front, cold sweat dripped down Chao Buheng’s forehead. However he wasn’t that close with Mo Wuji, so he couldn’t just pull Mo Wuji to the back.

Seeing that Chao Buheng did not move with him, Mo Wuji did not bother with him anymore. Both of them were merely neighbours at District D, so he could not force Chao Buheng either.

A few cultivators arrived next, and they seemed rather surprised to see Mo Wuji openly sitting at the best seats. They were soon waiting to watch a good show to happen. From what they saw, Mo Wuji would eventually crawl off the seats obediently.

Another hour passed before people began to stream into the Technique Hall. By then Mo Wuji was already in admiration of Chao Buheng’s attitude towards learning, which was to the point that he would arrive much earlier for a lecture.

The first thing that cultivators saw when they entered was Mo Wuji, who was an outer disciple with a head of messy hair, some scars on his face, and most importantly, was sitting in the best seat in the first row.

Some of the cultivators even chuckled as they passed Mo Wuji, and greeted him, "Junior apprentice brother, I admire your courage."

Half an incense’s time later, when most of the hall was full of people, five yellow robed inner sect disciples walked in. The guy in front was a youth with a tall physique, and a rather handsome appearance. By Mo Wuji’s estimates, this youth was no more than 16 years old. He was obviously the leader of those five, and he walked straight in front of Mo Wuji. After staring at Mo Wuji for a good while, he lifted up one leg, and stepped on the seat beside Mo Wuji, pointing to the area below him, "New guy, crawl through here, and I’ll forgive your insolence this time."

As the leader was speaking, the other four yellow robed inner sect disciples had closed off all possible escape routes for Mo Wuji.

The whole hall fell silent, and everyone’s eyes were drawn to Mo Wuji, wanting to see if Mo Wuji would crawl off, or be beaten to a pulp before he got forced to crawl away.

Regardless how events panned out, to everyone in the Technique Hall, Mo Wuji was sure to end up crawling between the youth’s legs.

By then, Chao Buheng was panicking, those guys were the top few out of the inner sect disciples, and each of them had a strong backer, even more so for their leader. Once Mo Wuji really crawled out, he would be destroyed.

Mo Wuji slowly stood up, from what he observed, these few guys were at Channel Opening Stage. He would definitely not give up this seat, as he had heard of the story of Hong Yun before. Old Man Hong Yun was stripped of his status as a saint because he gave up his seat in the Purple Cloud Palace, and even lost his life in the end. Of course, this was just a Chinese legend, but the principles behind it was the same.

"Are you deaf? Didn’t you hear me..."

"Slap!" Before the youth could finish raging, he received a tight slap across his face from Mo Wuji, and flew backwards. At that moment, he felt as though he was struck by lightning, with buzzing sounds filling his head, and stars dancing in front of his eyes. Then, he hit the wall of the hall.

The whole Technique Hall grew dead silent. After a few breaths, the few other yellow robed cultivators reacted, and pounced onto Mo Wuji wildly, some even drawing their swords.

With a swift motion of his arm, Mo Wuji drew his sword out too.

"Cling cling...Clang clang..." Sparks flew as the swords connected, and both men wielding swords felt a large wave of elemental energy flowing over. This was something they couldn’t even hope to resist.

During the time gap when all four yellow robed disciples were stunned, Mo Wuji threw out four kicks in quick succession.

"Bang Bang Bang Bang!" All four of the yellow robed guys flew like sandbags, being kicked to tens of meters away by Mo Wuji, and hitting the wall of the Technique Hall. Two of them had blood stained chests, because they could not draw their swords in time, and were hurt by Mo Wuji’s sharp blade.

Mo Wuji was completely surprised by this. After advancing to Channel Opening Stage Level 10, he was not sure how strong he was. Now that he had exchanged blows with five Channel Opening Stage cultivators, he could clearly sense how much strength he possessed.

When facing these five so-called Channel Opening Stage experts, he had crushed them without any doubt. If he did not hold back, those two cultivators that did not draw their blades would have had their hearts sliced into two.

The hall remained quiet. While these people were not the strongest Channel Opening Stage cultivators in Heaven Seeking Palace, but they were definitely in the ranks of Channel Opening Stage experts. When did such a strong outer disciple appear? Defeating the five inner sect disciples in seconds? Could he be in Spirit Building Stage? But that’s not right, this guy did not have any spiritual energy disturbances around him, so how could he be a Spirit Building Stage disciple?

Mo Wuji took his time to proceed to the side of the yellow robed youth, who had a face full of fear and disbelief. How could there be such a strong outer sect disciple? It can’t be, this guy must be a Spirit Building Stage expert.

Squatting down, Mo Wuji pat the yellow robed youth a few times on the face, "Do you know why I won’t ask you to crawl between my legs?"

The yellow robed youth shook his head, and the few others that were blown over by Mo Wuji did not dare to utter a word either. Although it was a simple exchange just now, but they knew that even the five of them combined would not be able to stand up to a few kicks from Mo Wuji. Luckily this was inside the Technique Hall. If it were outside, perhaps they would have been wiped out by now.

Mo Wuji laughed coldly, "Because I’m afraid you’ll dirty my pants, you idiot. Next time you better stay far away from me, otherwise I’ll beat you up every time I see you. Don’t just lie there, scr*w off to the side."

He asked them to go to one side because he was also worried about the lecturer seeing all these guys lying there like dead pigs and scolding him to no end, which would get in the way of his learning.