Chapter 56: Gathering Disciples

  The morning sunlight had just spilled over the earth, and Zhang Huaming, who had been meditating all night, opened his eyes, a gleam of light flashing in his gaze, then stood up and walked out of the room.

  "Brother!"

  "En." Zhang Huaming nodded, a smile on his face as he glanced at the two little Taoists following behind Karyn: "Can either of you tell me what happened in the city?"

  A determined look appeared on Bing Wu's small face as he took a step forward, then suddenly knelt down with a thud and said: "I beg of you, Big Brother, to accept me as your apprentice."

  Bingling saw her brother's action and followed suit, kneeling on the ground with a hint of shyness on her adorable little face, her sparkling eyes fixed on Zhang Huaming.

  "Get up and let's talk."

  Bing Wu and Bing Ling, the two young ones Zhang Huaming With this swing, his body automatically stood up, but Bing Wu knelt down again without hesitation as soon as his body stood up: "No, if Big Brother doesn't accept me as a disciple, I'll kneel forever."

  Zhang Huaming saw Bingwu's action and slightly frowned.

  Bingling saw Zhang Huaming's actions and immediately knelt down in front of him, saying in a soft voice: "Please, big brother, accept my brother as your apprentice. You can rest assured, my brother is very obedient and will definitely listen to you."

  "Haha!" Zhang Huaming couldn't help but laugh when he heard Bingling's words.

  "Big brother, did you agree to take my brother as an apprentice?" Ice Spirit saw Zhang Huaming smile and thought he had agreed to take her brother as an apprentice, so the two of them wouldn't have to wander around anymore.

  "Smelly brat, take these two little ones." A voice sounded in Zhang Huaming's heart, making him swallow the words of refusal that were on the tip of his tongue.

  "Zhu Lao, you're awake? Why did you take in these two kids? You know it's not easy to teach them how to kill people, and I'm not exactly qualified for this sort of thing!" Zhang Huaming felt a mix of emotions - he was happy that Zhu Lao had woken up from his coma, but at the same time, he was worried about being asked to teach others how to kill. He himself was only half-competent in these matters, so how could he possibly teach an apprentice?

  "You numbskull, these two little guys, one is the Earth Spirit Pulse and the other is the Water Spirit Pulse. You little brat really doesn't know what kind of demonic luck you have, to actually bump into such good little guys. You still don't take them in?" Old Zhu appeared in Zhang Huaming's mind as an old man, blowing his beard and glaring with wide eyes, scolding loudly.

  "What's the use of the Earth Spirit Pulse? Ah, Old Zhu, what's the function of the Earth Spirit Pulse?" Zhang Huaming asked, revealing his inner doubts. Because when he followed Xuan Tianba to Yu's house earlier, it seemed that Yu Xian was a Fire Spirit Pulse physique, which caused Xuan Tianba and Tian Wang to fight over her, even resorting to violence.

  "What's the point?" Old Zhen's eyes widened, with a look of frustration: "You little scoundrel, you don't even know this basic thing, do you know what every cultivator should do first when they start cultivating?"

  "I know this, I need to choose the attribute of the cultivation technique."

  "That's it? The Earth Spirit Vein, as the name suggests, cultivates earth-attribute techniques three times faster than ordinary people. Moreover, if someone else is also cultivating earth-attribute techniques and stays near a cultivator in the Earth Spirit Vein, their cultivation speed can increase by another factor of one. Is this physique good or not?"

  "Damn it!" Zhang Huaming cursed silently in his heart, this was simply a bit too much, it was as if he had become invincible like a cheat code in his own online game.

  "But people with such a physique are very dangerous." Pearl Old suddenly spoke up.

  "Danger? Why?" A huge question mark appeared in Zhang Huaming's mind.

  "Alas!" Zhu Lao suddenly let out a long sigh, his face filled with emotion. "Such a heaven-defying physique can be said to be a freak among cultivators, and naturally there will be those who are jealous and envious. And the heavens are also fair, generally speaking, people with such physiques who have not broken through to the Martial Emperor realm by the age of 20 will have their lives disappear, some due to natural death, while others will be captured and raised in captivity, waiting for them to break through to the Martial Emperor cultivation before killing them and taking away their innate attribute pearl."

  "What's this 'Destiny Attribute Pearl'?" Zhang Huaming asked in confusion.

  "That's right, people with this physique will have a life-attribute bead at the Upper Dan Tian. If you don't believe me, Xiaozi, go and take a look for yourself."

  "Benming Pearl?" Zhang Huaming's face was filled with confusion as he released his spiritual sense to scan the two small dan Tian in front of him. His face revealed a surprised expression, because he indeed saw a tiny yellowish-brown pearl in Bing Wu's upper dan Tian and a tiny milky white pearl in Bing Ling's upper dan Tian, just like what Zhu Lao had said.

  "What's so special about this pearl? Why would someone kill these people with innate properties to get it?" Zhang Huaming still couldn't figure out what use such a pearl had.

  "You little brat, you only know how to cultivate every day, and you don't even bother to look at the knowledge I left in your mind. Fool! The attribute bead is self-explanatory, it's the essence of attributes. And it's impossible for someone to cultivate a single attribute skill completely. Simply put, if you take this attribute bead, you can freely add an attribute energy without any obstacles. Now do you understand?"

  "My goodness! Bride's Dress Divine Skill?" Zhu Lao's words suddenly reminded Zhang Huaming of an ancient cultivation technique, a somewhat evil technique that simply put was stealing others' cultivated powers.

  It's no wonder that others would do such evil things, after all, in the Martial Continent, cultivating two different attribute techniques is extremely difficult. Firstly, one must cultivate before breaking through to the Wu Zun stage, otherwise, if they wait until their cultivation is higher and then try to cultivate again, the risk of going crazy and losing all their cultivation is extremely high. After all, the higher the cultivation, the greater the gap when re-cultivating, and the two different attributes will collide and devour each other, leading to a series of aftereffects. But with an attribute soul pearl, all these problems would be solved.

  "Little one, I can only tell you one thing. If you want to cultivate the Longevity Technique to its ultimate level in the future, you must find five people with innate pearls around you to cultivate together. Otherwise, your Longevity Technique will absolutely not be able to reach its ultimate level, let alone achieve great success." The old man's voice sounded again, this time his tone was extremely serious.

  Zhang Huaming heard Zhu Lao's words and slightly frowned: "Zhu Lao, I can't do this."

  "You little rascal, damn it! I didn't tell you to kill these five people. Don't worry about so much, when the time comes, I'll teach you how to cultivate. In short, it's absolutely not going to make you kill these five people and take out their innate attribute pearls. However, if you don't accept these two little ones, I can guarantee that the consequences of these two little ones will be killed by others and their innate attribute pearls taken away." The old man said with a very affirmative tone.

  Zhang Huaming's expression changed several times before he spoke up: "Zhū Lǎo, but I really don't know what kind of skill would be suitable for those two!"

  "Ah, young one, you can rest assured. I just so happen to have two sets of techniques here, one is an earth attribute technique and the other is a water attribute technique. How's that? Am I being generous enough?"

  Zhang Huaming saw Zhu Lao's appearance and showed a disdainful expression, saying: "Zhu Lao, if I'm not mistaken, you should still have three sets of skills, one is fire attribute skill, one is gold attribute skill, and the other is wood attribute skill, right?"

  "Ah!" Old Zhu heard Zhang Huaming's words and was taken aback for a moment before blurting out, "How did you little scamp know that?"

  "Cut." Zhang Huaming blinked his eyes in his mind, and then brought his consciousness back to his body. He looked at the two kneeling in front of him with a serious expression: "I can take you in, but there's one condition."

  Bing Wu heard this and immediately exclaimed with joy: "Big brother, you say it! As long as I can do it, I will definitely agree."

  "If I were to take on an apprentice, I'd want to take your sister too."

  "Eh!" Bing Wu heard Zhang Huaming's words and was slightly stunned, a look of confusion on his face. Because in the previous moment, his own brother didn't even want to accept him as an apprentice, so why would he suddenly want to take his sister as an apprentice too? Was there some kind of conspiracy behind this? Although Bing Wu was young, being from a poor family made him mature early, and when it came to thinking about problems, he wasn't inferior to adults.

  Zhang Huaming saw Bing Wu's melancholy appearance, as if he had seen through the thoughts in this little guy's heart. He smiled and said: "Little guy, if I wanted to harm you two, do you think you two can beat me?"

  Bing Wu heard this and thought for a moment, immediately throwing away the messy thoughts in his mind. He looked at his sister and said, "Sister?"

  "Brother, I'm willing. Ling'er will study hard the martial arts taught by Master, and later won't need brother's protection anymore. Can even help brother beat up bad people and avenge Father and Mother." Ice Spirit's voice became softer and softer, and when she said the last part, mist appeared in her eyes.

  "Disciple Ice Wu greets Master." Ice Wu knocked three loud heads towards Zhang Huaming.

  "Disciple Bingling, paying respects to Master." Although Bingling was still young, she had begun to understand things and, seeing her brother's actions, also learned from him and paid respects to the master.

  "Alright, let's get up! From today on, you two are my disciples, Zhang Huaming. Kayan, take these two little guys to familiarize themselves with the surroundings first. Tomorrow, I will start teaching them to cultivate."

  "Alright, brother." Karyn responded with a smiling face. In fact, in his heart, he also hoped that his master would accept these two little ones. Although Karyn's age was at least over a thousand years old, his mind remained like that of a ten-year-old child, so being alone in the Forest of Death every day was still very lonely for him. Now it was good, finally having two companions, and from now on, when his master went into seclusion, he would not be so bored by himself.