Chapter 8: Enlightenment

  For the entire morning, Xu Hua stayed in that small hill connecting to the backyard of the Xu's residence, absorbing a large amount of life energy. The amount he absorbed this time was comparable to what he had absorbed over the past month. For a moment, Xu Hua even felt his body had reached saturation.

  Opening his eyes, he revealed a pair of sparkling pupils, and immediately a faintly bitter smile appeared on Xu Hua's face. "It seems that the Devouring Life Technique also has its limits," he said. "Once the physical body is saturated with life energy, it won't be able to absorb large amounts of life energy as quickly as it did today."

  "If there really were no restrictions, then the seniors who created the 'Life Devouring Technique' would have been invincible long ago. Why would they still leave behind this secret manual? However, this is already incredibly powerful. My current strength relies entirely on this manual. If it weren't for it, I'd truly just be a novice warrior at the early stages. I should be satisfied." The bitterness on Xu Hua's face dissipated, and he once again revealed a satisfied smile.

  Now Xu Hua's true strength is comparable to that of a Martial King, although he may be slightly weaker than an average Martial King due to his martial skills. However, he can still contend with the average early-stage strong Martial Kings. After all, Xu Hua relies on the powerful recovery effect of the strong life energy in his body, as long as he is not seriously injured by a single move, it can be said that he will definitely not die last. All thanks to the "Devouring Life Technique", what else does he have to be dissatisfied with?

  After figuring it out, Xu Hua felt relieved and looked around, but suddenly his pupils contracted sharply.

  "What's going on? Why have all the plants within thirty feet of me withered and died, when I'm only supposed to be able to absorb the life energy from plants within twenty feet?"

  "Could it be that my 'Life Devouring Art' has reached a higher realm? I can already absorb the life force of plants within thirty zhang around me?"

  Xu Hua walked a few steps forward, leaving the barren land that had completely lost its vitality, and came to a plot of land where the grass and trees grew luxuriantly. He began to circulate the "Devouring Life Technique", and after trying it out, he found that he could indeed control the life energy within the bodies of the plants within a radius of thirty zhang.

  Xu Hua's eyes were filled with excitement, "Although my physical body can't absorb that much life energy, after all, the enhancement of abilities is a good thing. However...the limitations of the physical body are definitely a big problem, I must think of a way to solve it."

  Lowering his head, Xu Hua furrowed his brow in deep thought, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't think of a solution. So Xu Hua stopped thinking about it and looked at the sun which was getting hotter and hotter by the minute, wondering what to do next.

  "Gulp... gulp..."

  Xu Hua patted his empty stomach and shook his head, saying: "I didn't think I'd get hungry so quickly today. It seems that life energy can't completely replace food after all! Let's go back and eat something first, I wonder how Luo Cheng is doing?"

  Walking alone in the mountains, returning in the direction I came from.

  ……

  Xu Fu, Xiyuan, in Xu Hua's study, a very long conversation was going on.

  "...to receive...the breath of life..."

  "That's wrong, this 'dao' refers to the way of a road, the principle of a dao..."

  “……”

  Outside the study, Xuhua walked along the corridor, listening to the intermittent sound of reading coming from his own study, a wise and knowing smile spreading across his face.

  Gently pushing open the door of the study, stepping inside, Chunmei, Qiujie and Luocheng looked over, seeing it was Xu Hua, they chorused: "Young Master"

  With a smile and a nod, Xu Hua looked at Chunmei and Qiujie and asked: "How is Luo Cheng doing in his studies?"

  "It's okay, I've already recognized over 40 characters in the morning, which is pretty good. This book 'Na Qi Jue' has only over 800 words, I estimate that after ten days of practice, I'll be able to recognize all of them without any mistakes." Chun Mei responded.

  "What's in ten days?" Xu Hua frowned slightly, but before he could say more, Luo Cheng immediately knelt down and said: "I'm sorry, sir, it's my incompetence."

  Although he only recognized forty or so characters, he already knew what the two sisters had taught him. That was a martial mantra, and with it, one could absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to become a warrior. Although he had heard that Young Master wanted to teach him martial arts, he hadn't expected it to come so soon. Luo Cheng was deeply moved, his heart already devoted to Young Master, willing to sacrifice himself for him at any moment. Now, Young Master actually furrowed his brow, which made him very worried, and without thinking, he knelt down.

  "What are you doing? I didn't say anything." Xu Hua immediately helped Luo Cheng up, and the two women beside him were shocked by Luo Cheng's decisiveness, thinking to themselves: "No wonder Master would cultivate him like this..."

  Lu Cheng, who was helped up, looked at Gongzi with some guilt and said: "Sorry, Gongzi, Lu Cheng let you down."

  "You didn't disappoint me just now," Xu Hua's expression turned serious and he continued, "However... you're disappointing me now."

  Luocheng's face turned dull and he was at a loss, seeing this Qiujie intervened: "Luocheng, the young master is not satisfied with you constantly kneeling down, the young master doesn't like it."

  After all, Chunmei and Qiujie have been with Xu Hua for many years, so they understand Xu Hua better than ordinary people. Luo Cheng slightly opened his mouth, wanting to say something but stopped, then firmly looked at Xu Hua and said: "Young Master, Luo Cheng knows he was wrong."

  "It's good that you know your mistake. Follow Chunmei and Qiujie to learn well, and you must finish learning all the words in this book within ten days. After ten days, I still have a task for you." Xu Hua said, then looked at Chunmei and Qiujie: "Today was a good exercise, but now we're a bit hungry, help me prepare something to eat, one of you continue teaching Luo Cheng to recognize characters, and the other go help me get some food!"

  "Alright, young master, I'll go then. Chunmei will continue to teach Luo Cheng to recognize characters here." Without waiting for Xu Hua's response, Qiuju quickly pushed open the door and left.

  In the study, Luo Cheng continued to recognize characters, but perhaps because of Xu Hua's presence, his speed in recognizing characters accelerated significantly.

  ……

  After eating the pastries brought by Qiu Ju, Xuhua left the study and headed towards the South Garden of Xu Manor.

  "Shi Shi Quan" was just a low-level martial skill of the Yellow Rank, which could no longer meet Xu Hua's needs. In the past, he didn't like martial arts and wasn't serious about practicing martial skills, so he hadn't practiced "Shi Shi Quan" much. He remembered that the last time he practiced "Shi Shi Quan" was probably two years ago, and today he had already grasped it after a good practice session. It seemed that his martial talent was actually quite good, but he just hadn't discovered it before.

  Now he no longer had any aversion to martial arts, Xu Hua's talent for martial arts immediately emerged, so he prepared to go to the library in the Xu family to find some stronger martial skills.

  The Xu family's library is located in the south courtyard of the Xu mansion, with a total of two floors. The first floor only has some low-level martial skills and miscellaneous talks, while the second floor is the true treasure trove of the Xu family.

  The first floor of the library, the sons and daughters of the Xu family, guards, and maids all have the qualifications to enter and watch. However, the second floor is different. As a place of importance for the Xu family, there are also old monsters guarding inside, such as Xu Huayeye's generation, except for his grandfather and a few other uncles who are still alive besides him.

  The Tianxuan Continent, due to the presence of spiritual energy, ordinary people can live up to 80 or 90 years old. Those who cultivate martial arts can live even longer. Warriors and masters can basically live up to 100 years old. The Wu Wang has opened the Tian Di Xuan Guan, allowing them to control their breath and fly, already surpassing ordinary people by a lot, able to live up to 150 years old. After becoming a Wu Wang, one can live even longer. It is said that when reaching the level of Wu Huang, one can live up to 200 years old, while a Wu Zun can reach 300 years old. A Wu Di, an existence far beyond ordinary people's understanding, can even live up to 500 years. As for Wu Sheng and Wu Shen, they are even more terrifying. However, nowadays there is no martial artist who can reach this level, so not many people understand it. Even some ancient books that have been passed down from the distant past have records of it, but it's not something that a small family like Xu Hua's can comprehend.

  Xu Hua was only fourteen years old, and his father Xu Lin was only in his forties. Due to his cultivation of the Martial King, his lifespan exceeded 150 years, making him look very young. As for his grandfather's generation, they should not have exceeded eighty years old. As Xu Hua's grandfather's generation, even if they did not become a Martial King, they must have been absolute strong masters among martial artists. How formidable they were was unclear to anyone. Having them guard the second floor of the library was absolutely foolproof.

  The second floor of the book pavilion is a sacred place for the Xu family, and even the children of the Xu family cannot enter at will. Except for the time arranged to enter one of them every month, they can only exchange entry time with contribution value in the family. However, as the third young master of the Xu family, Xuhua has more rights in this regard than they do, but he hasn't gone to understand the specific rights over the years, so he's not very clear now either.

  Entering the first floor of the library, he found that there were some people reading books, most of whom were very serious and did not notice Xu Hua's entry. However, a few people saw him, but Xu Hua often came to this floor, and the strange stories and legends of this floor had been very interesting to him before, so he became a regular here. All these people found that it was Xu Hua after discovering him, and they no longer paid attention to him, continuing to read books.

  After sweeping his gaze over the floor, Xu Hua withdrew his attention and looked towards the staircase leading to the second floor in the corner of the wall. He walked slowly over and stepped up directly.

  "Step, step"

  Although Xu Hua's footsteps on the bluestone stairs were very light, everyone in the library was reading books, so the first floor remained very quiet. Suddenly, the sound of someone stepping up the stairs gathered everyone's attention to Xu Hua who stepped up step by step.

  "Whoa..."

  "Isn't that Xu San? How did he get to the second floor? Didn't he dislike martial arts?" Three consecutive questions revealed this person's intense surprise.

  "What a strange thing! Xusanshao, who has never liked martial arts, actually went to the second floor. Is this the first time?" A person closed the book in his hand, with an expression on his face as if he had seen a mother pig climb a tree, full of surprise and astonishment.

  "Isn't Xu San Shao going crazy?" a weak voice sounded.

  The whole scene fell silent at once, with everyone's expression different.

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