chapter 35 The First Task

It was a bright morning, just right for a day of work at the farm lands. Wu Ming had come out to the hut for breakfast as usual but was shocked to see that the other two had already had their breakfast and were heading out to work holding farming tools.

Wu Ming had recently realized that the so-called farm work was actually cultivation lessons. Zhang Jian had been teaching Wang Yan his own cultivation techniques and Wang Yan had started to gain more and more strength by doing something that could only be called as jumping over the cultivation stages because there had never been someone that had cultivated so fast in the Synthesis Stage, at least not according to his knowledge.

Anything taught by a master like Zhang Jian couldn't be valued with all the gold and cultivation materials in the world. Wu Ming had basically been living the life of a hermit for quite some time but when he saw how much work Zhang Jian had been putting into teaching Wang Yan, he began to feel a little jealous. He wanted to learn from Zhang Jian as well but couldn't quite bring himself to ask especially when it was already a huge favor, just letting him into his home without asking anything in return.

He said good morning to both Zhang Jian and Wang Yan who were heading out for cultivation.

"We were going to cultivate a little earlier than usual today so we decided not wake you up before. Have your breakfast and meet us out back in the fields."

Zhang Jian was able to see a little blame in Wu Ming's eyes and deduced that he must have felt bad that they had had their breakfast without him so he explained why they didn't wake him up for breakfast earlier.

Wang Yan had improved a lot since she had come to the hut. Her endurance especially had come a long way. Zhang Jian smiled with satisfaction and appreciation at the same time seeing her work as efficiently as him while working the field.

Unlike before when she could not even take a step before breaking into a sweat, she could now work straight till lunch without any trouble.

Zhang Jian was immensely proud of her achievements since he had been the one to teach her from scratch. He knew how much work she had put in to learn how to survive at her own.

The only thing that had been eating him up from the inside was that he had been working her too hard. Earlier at breakfast, Zhang Jian had noticed all of a sudden the condition she was in. She had not put up even a little bit of weight after she had come here. All the nutritious food that he thought he had been feeding her had not managed to plump her up even the slightest. She was the same as she had been when she had arrived if not weaker. There wasn't the slightest fat on her. Seeing that, Zhang Jian felt ashamed that he had been working her too hard and decided to feed her more meat nutritious food to make up for all the lost energy.

Wang Yan on the other hand couldn't have been any happier. First of all she was a girl and no girl liked to put on any weight; Wang Yan was obviously the same. She had not only lost weight, but she had exuviated impurities twice during her stay with Zhang Jian. She had been quite excited the first time it happened but the second time it happened, she was shell-shocked. It had to be known that exuviation was not easy to come by at all. There was only like a one-in-a-million chance of that happening and that too only in a cultivator's dreams; which meant almost negligible chances.

There was only a slim chance of that happening using body-nourishing heavenly treasures which were even more impossible to come across on Earth.

Even if it was a shock to her, it was definitely a welcome one. She had relieved her body of all the impurities twice which had caused her to not only lose weight but also helped her strengthen her body and advance her cultivation by several stages.

What she did not know was that the exuviations could only occur when the body had a lot of excessive qi which the body was unable to absorb. This qi had to be expelled from the body in order to prevent it from exploding inside. This expelled qi was in fact responsible for taking out the impurities from the body by exiting through the pores on the skin leading to the completion of the exuviation process.

This could only be attributed to the fact that the amount of potential elixirs Zhang Jian had been feeding her on a daily basis under the disguise of common vegetables had been innumerable.

Not to mention that not allowing her to use her cultivation at all had not only made her body stronger by developing her foundation but had also given her body an additional exit for the impurities to be discharged with the help of sweat.

It had to be known that cultivators normally didn't sweat. Each cultivator; even the weakest ones would normally avoid sweating since it made them feel like commoners. Wang Yan also hated it but couldn't disregard the warning she had been given on her arrival.

After she did some thinking, she came up to the conclusion that everything that she had been doing until then at the hut and in the fields, no matter how unreasonable it looked, had led her to her current strength. Her work in the fields would have had no effect on her physique and her cultivation if she had been capable of using her strength. This had once again reassured her faith in the strength of her master Zhang Jian and his teaching methods. Although most of the times she was confused as to what he was telling her to do, the results were in front of her and they compelled her to keep doing what Zhang Jian ordered.

She had been improving on a daily basis and the results at the end of the day renewed her vigor every coming day. As a matter of fact, she had been the one to ask Zhang Jian to increase their cultivation lesson duration by waking up even earlier. She wanted to make full use of the heaven defying opportunity that she had been given by progressing even further on the path of her cultivation.

"Can I do something to help?"

Wu Ming had just had his breakfast and had come out to the fields looking for an opportunity to listen to Zhang Jian's teachings. He had asked the question wishing that Zhang Jian might allow him to join their cultivation lesson.

"Well, we are good here at the moment but I do have something urgent that I need your help with. If you help me do that maybe I wouldn't mind the extra help out here."

Zhang Jian had openly rejected him but Wu Ming could see his sliver of hope in Zhang Jian's words. It seemed to him that Zhang Jian was testing him by giving him another job to complete and the results of the test would prove whether he was worthy of joining them or not.

How could poor Wu Ming have known that Zhang Jian only cared about efficiency of cultivation and had no intention of evaluating him at all. Zhang Jian thought that the fields weren't very big in size and three cultivators working the field was a waste of effort and would also give Wang Yan lesser chance to work out like she wanted.

"We don't have any meat left for lunch. Why don't you go and bring back some meat for us to cook for lunch. If you come back early you can join us here for cultivation so make it fast."

"I will definitely not betray your expectations for me. I will definitely come back with a large haul." Wu Ming patted his chest with his fist while saying this and confidently walked away.