A Good-for-Nothing

91. My Husband (1)

Translator: Dragon Rider

Although it was for merely one day that Xuanqing was a master shifu to He Zheng – a not very responsible one – the handbook he had left He Zheng proved quite helpful.

Maybe because Xuanqing, before apprenticing He Zheng, had practiced divination and foreseen what kind of apprentice he would get, all the spells, Fu-craft techniques and exorcism circles recorded in the first half of the handbook were life-saving unique skills, which were not very powerful but quite practical. Cultivation methods were in the latter half of the handbook, from elementary ones to advanced ones. There were very few things that Childe He had taken seriously, but after the previous few attacks during which he had been almost totally powerless to defend himself, Childe He made up his mind that he would endeavor to learn exorcism skills.

Following the instructions given by Xuanqing, He Zheng thoroughly quit sleeping in. Every day, he got up early, did morning running with Li Zong and then cultivated. After some days, the residual foulness left by that jade was expelled from his body, and both his constitution and his cultivation base were getting better by the day.

He Zheng had even been trying drawing some of the Fu patterns during the past few days.

He still remembered vividly how Xuanqing drew that lightning Fu on that day. As He Zheng’s powers grew, his memory was getting better every day. The scene of Xuanqing drawing that Fu had been engraved in his mind all along. Finally, the night before last, He Zheng successfully finished an Advanced Lightning Fu for the first time – though merely a pattern with no internal energy imbued in it, it was still an enormous advance compared with his previous proficiency.

He Zheng had been greatly inspired by this and started working even harder, practicing all the time except when eating or sleeping.

In the normal course of events, Li Zong was occupied with either this thing or the other, but due to He Zheng’s abnormal behavior during the past few days, he had to spare some time to check on his flat-chested marriage partner.

In the training ground on the rooftop of the United Front Work Department (UFWD) of the Supernaturalism Management Bureau (SMB).

The night before, He Zheng worked very hard on Fu-craft. Though over twenty pieces of Fu paper were wasted, he got himself three Elementary Lightning Fu that were presentable, and he could also manage to draw the pattern of an Advanced Lightning Fu now, which was an improvement as well. As a result, early this morning, he took Li Zong’s entry card and went to the rooftop of that building in SMB with the intention to test the power of his lightning Fu.

The whole training ground was shielded by a protective layer of enchantment, which had been forged by a couple of top-ranking officials of SMB. Not only could it prevent magic power from damaging nearby buildings, it was transparent, so the training ground didn’t feel stuffy.

After walking out of the elevator, He Zheng felt as if he had entered Arcadia. Looking ahead, he could see a vast carpet of green grass adorned with rockeries and streams, which provided people inside with very pleasant surroundings. Compared with the plain training field that He Zheng had seen the last time he’d come here, this one was far better.

He Zheng secretly sighed in amazement that training field of SMB was so good, but in fact, it was all because his husband had abused his powers for him.

The training field of the second action group was a holographic simulation of the Taklimakan desert (a desert in Xinjiang Province, China). As regards Li Zong, when he came to this training field to practice, he would switch the scene to a simulation of a boundless ice field. After all, for a cultivator, harsh climate might be more helpful in enhancing their powers.

But Li Zong still didn’t have the heart to let his flat-chested sweetheart practice under scorching sun or against piercing wind, so he had made some adjustments to the preset simulation of surroundings.

After entering, He Zheng discovered that apart from himself, there were also some others in the training field. However, to his surprise, he could see the others practicing but it seemed that they couldn’t see him.

There were both males and females among those young people, everyone of whom was attentively cultivating without causing anybody else disturbance.

He Zheng found a quiet spot. The surroundings were very simple, with only a thick tree standing reaching to the sky.

He Zheng closed his eyes. The incantation for the lightning Fu had some time ago been engraved in his mind. And during these days’ practicing, He Zheng had felt that the probability of him invoking a thundercloud had been gradually rising, and the power of his lightning Fu had been growing as well.

That day when he was in the construction site, for example, he successfully invoked a thundercloud after using merely three lightning Fu. Zu Zhichong had once told him that in normal circumstances, the average number of Fu that a beginner like him had to use to successfully invoke a flash of lightning was several dozen.

He Zheng fished out one of his Elementary Lightning Fu. Lips moving quickly and slightly, he incanted the spell. With that, the Fu ignited spontaneously and turned into a thread of smoke which, winding and twisting, soared up into the sky.

He Zheng held his breath, waiting for the lightning to strike.

However, strangely enough, he waited several minutes but not a shred of dark cloud appeared in the sky, let alone churning thunderclouds. It was clear, bright and utterly cloudless.

He Zheng was puzzled. He had shown Zu Zhichong the couple of lightning Fu drawn by him. Though slack, Zu Zhichong could be deemed reliable when it came to Fu-craft. He had told He Zheng that these lightning Fu should be up to standard. However, this was the first one he used, but there wasn’t even a cloud invoked in the sky, not to mention lightning. ‘Did I fail?’ he wondered.

In fact, He Zheng did fail this time.

He was indeed talented, and he indeed could be deemed a genius. Among all disciples of the Qingwei Sect, nobody had the confidence to say that he or she could memorize a lightning spell after hearing it only once, and neither had any of them invoked a thundercloud when they used an Elementary Lightning Fu for the first time.

It was noteworthy that even Zu Zhichong, an inner disciple who could be counted uncommonly gifted and had been learning in the Qingwei Sect since childhood, had practiced for quite a long time before successfully invoking a thundercloud for the first time.

Besides, though he had been under magical restrictions from that enchanted yin jade for over twenty years, his endowments were still there. After Xuanqing, at the cost of his own strength, expelled the foulness from He Zheng’s body and purified his meridians, he had long ago rid himself of the influence of the yin jade and his constitution had been improved permanently, enabling him to gather spiritual energy with amazingly high efficiency. It could even be said that he could get twofold results with half the effort and advance at a tremendous pace on the path of cultivation.

However, to cast a lightning spell was to communicate with heaven and earth, and divine will was always unpredictable, so it could be said that for him, invoking a flash of lightning remained a matter of probability. Even the current sect leader of the Qingwei Sect couldn’t invoke heavenly lightning every time he cast a lightning spell.

Watching the ash of the burnt yellow Fu falling to the ground from mid-air, He Zheng was fairly annoyed. Drawing this Fu had taken a lot of doing, but it hadn’t even brought any thunder. Such a waste made his heart ache.

However, bad-tempered as He Zheng was, he knew that this was a normal thing. Not at all discouraged, he fished out the rest of his Elementary Lightning Fu and continued practicing persistently.