Chapter 178: The Conference
Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
At the Green Peak spiritual land.
The fog scudded and separated, revealing a giant eagle.
"Chirp!"
At the cliff, a silhouette of the Red-eyed White King Bird appeared. Behind it, there were numerous small white birds following behind. As they saw someone approaching, they all became excited.
"Whoosh!"
A streak of white light flashed past; it was the Flower Fox Ferret.
"I'm back!"
Fang Yuan, who was riding on the eagle's back, was emotional as he saw his spiritual beasts.
His Iron-tailed Black Eagle was not only transporting him, it was carrying a huge metallic box with its claw and in the box was the spiritual king fish.
As for the other types of fishes like the spiritual fish and Drunken Fish, they were not as lucky as all of them had either been mashed up or dried up and stored in the Mountain River Pearl.
The treasure left behind by Yang Fan may seem useless on the outside, but when it came to storing things, it had brought much convenience to Fang Yuan and it would make things easy for him if he had to travel in the future.
"No place can compare to my own comfortable home!"
Fang Yuan ordered his Iron-tailed Black Eagle to land and exclaimed as he went to look for the Red-eyed White King Bird and the Flower Fox Ferret.
Of course, if the location of his secret house was made known to others, the royal family of the Xia and Wu Countries would be eyeing for it as well.
To him, his appointment as the Secluded Mountain Prefecture Master was incidental. How could that be more important than the spiritual land at the Green Peak?
"Clang! Clang!"
There were loud clanging noises coming from the metallic box continuously.
"You still have so much energy even though you have been locked up inside for such a long period!"
Fang Yuan touched his chin and said, "Alright…...there is a small pond below this cliff. It shall be yours once it has been expanded!"
Since he was already into farming, how could he not be having fishes as well?
The pond below the cliff was a suitable location to rear the fish there.
No matter how strong the spiritual king fish was, without the freedom it used to have in the big river and ocean, it would slowly become less fierce.
"I guess I am considered rich now….."
After he returned to the spiritual land, Fang Yuan started to stocktake the assets he had.
The spiritual medicine garden was the most important, but the Flame Jade Rice was not to be neglected as well.
The Green Peak spiritual land now had the protection of the Bewildering Fog, Sickle Grass and Serrated Flower surrounding the Green Peak. Internally, the farm was patrolled by the Flower Fox Ferret and the Red-eyed White King Bird, making it extremely peaceful. The crops in the farm and the plants in the spiritual medicine garden were thriving. Fang Yuan was able to harvest a season's worth of tea leaves, and even the seed of the Vermillion Fruit was growing pretty fast and had grown into a strong and small tree.
"I had revealed my abilities a little while I was in Zhu Country and it had likely gathered some attention. I had better remove the suspicion on me!"
After he returned to the straw cottage, Fang Yuan sat down with his knees crossed and let out a long sigh.
The mistakes and experience of the previous Secluded Mountain Prefecture Master Liu Yan was a timely reminder for Fang Yuan.
Liu Yan was only having a slight possibility of breaking through the bottleneck of the Elemental Opening Realm and had already encountered so many problems. What would the even more talented Fang Yuan face?
As a precautionary measure, he would have to remain mysterious and not appear too many times in front of others as they might target him.
"Hit and run, hmm… When did I become a guerrilla fighter?"
As Fang Yuan thought about this, he chuckled and gave a cold look. "IT seems…..I have to destroy their hopes!"
To do that, he could either stay where he was or he could progress and breakthrough to the Elemental Opening Realm!
"In this pathway of a dream master, I have reached the peak level of the Elemental Gathering Realm. This breakthrough will be very difficult. My mind can affect the physical matter, to actualise an object from the dream world….. How is it an easy task?"
"For this, I can only wait for an opportunity. Next up is to focus on the pathway in martial arts!"
"Since I have attracted much attention from the Zhu Country, I should stay in the Green Peak for a period of time to self-cultivate….."
Fang Yuan looked at his stats window and seemed to have a thought.
Thanks to the unlucky King of Poison, Jie Wuming, Fang Yuan had come up with not just the idea of his new technique and had progress in coming up with the general movement of the technique.
...
Half a month had passed.
Fang Yuan was full from his meal and he took a sip of the spiritual tea. He then came to the courtyard.
Breathe in…..and out...
With just the simple act of breathing, there was a stream of air flowing around the courtyard. The spiritual energy had gathered to form a whirlpool. All of these made it seem like there was a huge beast inside his body.
"The Qian Kun Giant Spiritual Technique from the Yang family is built upon one's foundations! The breathing technique focuses on strengthening the digestive system, and can be further improved with an intake of large amounts of spiritual objects…..I have plenty of spiritual rice, spiritual tea, spiritual flowers and spiritual fruits!"
Those who learnt this technique from the Yang family might not be able to enjoy the luxury of these resources, and therefore, Fang Yuan can accelerate his progress on the cultivation of this martial art technique much more than usual.
"With strong foundations comes a strong elemental force, which will be above that of the average human. At the stage of Wu Zong, one would have giant spiritual strength….My Eagle Claw Iron Skin Technique is based on the rough breathing technique and it helps to strengthen my Eagle Claw. Therefore, this compensates for the lack of internal cultivation in this technique!"
Originally, there had always been a limit for the Eagle Claw Iron Skin Technique and the highest one could achieve was the peak of the 12th Gate.
Fang Yuan was then able to break through the limit of the peak in the dream world, of which no one in the past had been able to do so. The limit was pushed to the 13th Gate for him to be able to attain Wu Zong. Hence, his version had already varied quite a bit from the original one.
After encapsulating the essence of the Qian Kun Giant Spiritual Technique into it, the difference became appalling.
"With the experiments, I have made in the dream world and the complement of being a Wu Zong in the real world, opening the first spiritual meridian and the concentration of the spiritual meridian to breakthrough to Grade 14 shouldn't be a big problem. This sublime version of the Eagle Claw Iron Skin Technique will no longer be the original one. I shall name this new technique the Giant Eagle Metal Body Technique!"
With this thought in his mind, the letters of the Eagle Claw Iron Skin Technique in his stats window started to become blurred and the entire name changed.
"Name: Fang Yuan
Essence: 12
Spirit: 12
Magic: 9.9
Profession: Dream Master
Cultivation: [Dream Master (Peak of Elemental Gathering Realm)], Wu Zong
Technique: [Giant Eagle Metal Body Technique (Grade 1) (99%)], Bewildering Spell, Shadowstep
Skill: [Medicine (Level 3)], [Botany (Level 5)]"
"Giant Eagle Metal Body Technique - It is a unique technique which is formed from the combination of the Eagle Claw Iron Skin Technique and the Qian Kun Giant Spiritual Technique. This technique is initiated from elemental force and strengthened with giant spiritual strength. Defence is strengthened. Poison capabilities are strengthened. Energy is strengthened. Yin properties are strengthened. Current progress is 99% for the first spiritual meridian!"
All these were written based on the proficiency points but there was a bottleneck for the last step.
"If I am able to concentrate the first spiritual meridian successfully, I will be a Meridian Opening Realm martial artist and I will be powerful enough to suppress anyone in this land….."
Fang Yuan's muscles tensed up like a giant spiritual god's. His skin was as tough as iron but on the surface, it looked like any other person's skin. These were the changes after he had encapsulated the Qian Kun Giant Spiritual Technique into the Eagle Claw Iron Skin Technique.
"Now my breathing is deep and my strength is superb! This is indeed one of the top techniques in the Da Qian Empire!"
Fang Yuan slowly explored the features of this new technique. Suddenly, a streak of spiritual light appeared on his body, like a small snake. The streak of light was moving about and it looked illusionary.
This was the first spiritual meridian he had concentrated. However, since it was not yet stabilized, therefore, it appeared illusionary.
"I have already reached the bottleneck for martial arts as a dream master. After this, I can no longer improve by cultivation and hard work alone….."
Fang Yuan murmured to himself and called out for the Red-eyed White King Bird. "It's time to go and manage the matters in the Secluded Mountain Prefecture and look for opportunities to improve!"
...…..
In the Secluded Mountain Prefecture City.
Inside the Prefecture Master's mansion, people were squeezing about.
Zhou Wenwu, Yu Xinlou and the others now had stable spiritual auras. They had matured quite a bit and were handling the matters of the Secluded Mountain Prefecture together with Zhang Qingfeng.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
Suddenly, a series of chirps was heard and their faces were filled with joy. "This chirp…..The Prefecture Master is back!"
They immediately went out to the courtyard and indeed, a strong gust of wind accompanied the descent of Fang Yuan and the Red-eyed White King Bird.
"Greetings, Prefecture Master!"
All of them cleared any thoughts that they had in their minds as they greeted Fang Yuan.
"There is no need for the formality. Gather everyone for a meeting in the main hall!"
Fang Yuan waved his hand.
"Yes, Master!"
No one dared to disobey his order. After a while, the main hall was filled and Fang Yuan went to his seat.
Niu Dingtian, Zhang Qingfeng and a few newly appointed capital officials, Zhou Wenwu, Yu Xinlou, Huang Fu Renhe and…...familiar and new faces were all present here. Oh, and the two disciples, Chen Ziying and Lanruo, together with a middle-aged man who had a long moustache. This man was the father of Chen Ziying, Chen Qing. Together, they bowed and greeted Fang Yuan, "Long live the Prefecture Master!"
"Please rise!"
Fang Yuan lifted his right hand and everyone rose against their own will. Even Niu Dingtian rose as well and felt a little frightened.
'The person with the greatest power!'
With such ability, even if he distributed his power among his men, it was only a matter of an order before effortlessly consolidating his power back again.
Of course, Fang Yuan would not trouble himself and was just trying to demonstrate his capabilities.
"I have been focusing on my cultivation. Did anything big happen here?"
He skipped the introductory speech and went straight to the point.
"After some reorganisation, we now have 30,000 soldiers and there are no enemies. It has been quite peaceful!"
Niu Dingtian was the first to report.
"Regarding the people, prices of commodities are stable. The sufferings caused by the previous war is slowly disappearing. Even though the citizens did not mention that they are living a good life, they are still able to survive. My next step will be to gather all the refugees to move to the barren land!"
Zhou Wenwu reported calmly in a clear and logical way.
However, Yu Xinlou hesitated a little in his report. "There is another matter. Princess Xie Lingyun from the Xia royal family has brought the letter of credence, and had requested to see you! Since you were not here, I have arranged for her to stay in the guest hall."
"Xie Lingyun?!"
Fang Yuan frowned.
He felt that she was only here because of something.
"Why is she here?"
"She has written the purpose of her visit on the letter of credence. It's about the Yuan Wu Conference!"
Zhou Wenwu replied.
"The Yuan Wu Conference?"
Fang Yuan was a little shocked. He felt a sense of familiarity with that term and recalled that he had seen it in a book before.
With the explanation of that term from one of his subordinates, he then fully understood it.
This conference was similar to a conference between countries.
Logically speaking, disbanding of old countries and forming of new countries would only be formally recognised by every other country if the issue was highlighted and approval obtained during the conference.
Previously, Yuan Country's influence was at its peak. However, among all the other countries, Wu Country was the strongest. Hence, this conference was formed as these two countries had taken turns to host it, and it had since become a tradition. This was why it was called the Yuan Wu Conference.
"This conference is, in fact, a platform for every country to display their armed forces!"
Zhou Wenwu looked a little worried as he mentioned that. "If we are unqualified to enter the conference, we will not be able to avoid war, and this has been proven many times in history!"
'Isn't this a platform for nomads and farmers to display their strengths?'
Fang Yuan's eyes glittered and came to a conclusion.