Chapter 56 - 37: Cultivation Aspiration, Honing Sword Technique

Chapter 56: Chapter 37: Cultivation Aspiration, Honing Sword Technique

Within the meditation room where the Temple Master of the Jade Altar Temple cultivated, Meng Yu knelt respectfully before her master.

The Temple Master of the Jade Altar Temple was a woman who appeared to be in her early forties, with faint traces of time at the corners of her eyes. Unlike the perpetually cold-faced Meng Yu, the Temple Master might not always wear a smile, but she at least lacked that unapproachable aura of indifference that pushed people away. Right now, facing the disciple she had raised from childhood, a trace of maternal affection unconsciously appeared on her face.

"Yu’Er, why are you back early? Are you not used to life as a Shopkeeper in the store?" The woman set down the Array Map in her hands, looking at her disciple comfortingly. "I know with your temperament, you wouldn’t like managing business affairs. But since you will take over the Jade Altar Temple from me in the future, you must gain this experience ahead of time."

Meng Yu shook her head. "I’m doing well at the shop. You don’t need to worry, Master."

"Then why have you suddenly returned?" the woman asked, puzzled.

"I came back because I have something to ask," Meng Yu said.

"Are there things you don’t understand about your arrays or cultivation?" the woman asked affectionately.

Meng Yu shook her head. "I met a cultivator from an obscure Daoist Temple, and I’m very curious about his temple."

"Curious about his Daoist Temple?" The woman paused, then a subtle, knowing smile touched the corners of her mouth. "Oh? Yu’Er, are you really curious about the Daoist Temple, or the cultivator himself?"

Meng Yu’s gaze darted away slightly.

The woman chuckled lightly but remained silent. She simply stared straight at Meng Yu, her smile growing more pronounced and distinctly teasing.

Suddenly, Meng Yu spoke up. "He should be about two years younger than me."

"Mhm." The woman nodded in response, indicating she was listening, her lips curling up even further.

"He’s... extremely handsome," Meng Yu’s voice lowered a bit, her earlobes tingeing a faint red. "More handsome than any man I’ve ever seen."

"Mhm, mhm!" The woman nodded as she listened, a teasing glimmer now reaching her eyes.

"I was commissioned by him to help build a small Spirit Refining Array at his Daoist Temple," Meng Yu continued.

"That should be a piece of cake for you," the woman nodded with a smile. "Ah... I mean the array-building part, of course."

With her disciple’s current Array Dao Mastery, she could even attempt to preside over the construction of a large-scale Spirit Refining Array. However, if they were talking about other matters... she still needed more practice.

"After arriving at his Daoist Temple’s mountain peak, we encountered people from the Yellow Crane Temple stealing their Spirit Charm," Meng Yu continued.

The woman blinked. She wondered, "Wait, isn’t the conversation going off track? This isn’t what I care about!"

"Then, without using a single Magical Artifact, he took down a cultivator whose cultivation was slightly higher than mine and who wielded an Upper Grade Magical Artifact. All he used was the White Blade Skill and Artifact Manipulation Skill," Meng Yu stated calmly.

The woman’s eyes instantly widened.

"Are you sure? Is that person really a few years younger than you?" she pressed. "Did he truly defeat his opponent so effortlessly, using only the White Blade Skill and Artifact Manipulation Skill?"

Meng Yu nodded earnestly. Although Li Yinsheng’s White Blade Skill and Artifact Manipulation Skill were so powerful it seemed unnatural, she wouldn’t go so far as to misidentify these two types of magic.

The woman picked up a teacup, her brow furrowing slightly. "Young, exceptionally handsome, and with cultivation much higher than yours... I haven’t heard of any Daoist Temple producing such an outstanding talent in recent years. However, with such aptitude and cultivation, it’s highly likely that one of the top-ranking Daoist Temples has produced another prodigy..."

She lowered her head to take a sip of tea. Before she could even swallow, Meng Yu spoke again.

"His Daoist Temple is called Xuanzhen Temple," Meng Yu said immediately, hearing her master mention temples. The main reason for her return this time was her curiosity about the Xuanzhen Temple.

"COUGH COUGH COUGH..."

Caught off guard and choking, the woman quickly set down her teacup, circulating her Magical Power to soothe her breathing.

"Xuanzhen Temple?! Are you sure?!" her voice cracked slightly.

Meng Yu nodded, looking at her master with a somewhat strange expression. She thought, "How could I not be sure? To build the core part of the array, I had to actually enter their temple."

"Xuanzhen Temple... Impossible, it doesn’t make sense. It could be any temple, but it can’t be Xuanzhen Temple..." the woman muttered to herself, her brows knitted tightly.

"Why can’t it be Xuanzhen Temple?" Meng Yu asked.

Taking a light breath, the woman didn’t answer. Instead, she reached into her Qiankun Bag and pulled out a rolled-up portrait. Using her Artifact Manipulation Skill, she hung it up and unrolled it before her disciple.

The painting depicted an incredibly handsome and elegant man dressed in a simple, pure black Daoist Robe, his face as fair as jade.

Suspending the portrait in the air, the woman asked her disciple, "Is the cultivator you mentioned named Li Yinsheng? Does he look like this?"

Meng Yu nodded instinctively. The brushwork of the painting was exquisite; the Li Yinsheng in the picture looked exactly like the one she had met, only lacking a tiny fraction of his actual spirit.

Then, she suddenly snapped to her senses. She looked up at her master, her eyes brimming with confusion. "Master? How do you know Li? And why do you have a painting of him?"

The woman’s expression stiffened. She paused for a moment before replying, "Uh... a friend of mine who is obsessed with painting gifted it to me."

"Then why did your friend paint Li?" Meng Yu grew even more puzzled.

The woman’s expression grew even stiffer. She thought, "Why? Why else could it be?"

Of course, it was because Li Yinsheng’s portrait had long since become wildly popular in the circles of female cultivators practicing Dual Cultivation Techniques within the Zhengyang Dharma Vein!

Female cultivators who practiced Dual Cultivation Techniques mostly enjoyed scouting for handsome Dao Companions. Portraits of good-looking male cultivators within the Dharma Vein were frequently passed around among them.

A few years ago, a portrait of a phenomenally handsome man suddenly emerged from the hands of a female cultivator. It immediately took the circles by storm. In just a short month, no one knew exactly how many copies had been traced and replicated.