Chapter 54 Disturbing the Venerable One

The middle-aged man shook his head with a look of utter disappointment.

"How could this happen!"

Qin Jian and Qin Yue exchanged glances, their eyes filled with utter shock and disbelief!

Qin Lang slowly opened his eyes, only to realize he had been teleported out of the secret door. Seeing the strange looks the surrounding crowd was casting at him, a sense of bewilderment washed over him. He looked at Qin Yue and Qin Jian and asked, "Why... is everyone looking at me?"

"Hahaha!"

Qin Lang's words instantly triggered a burst of roaring laughter among the surrounding disciples.

To enter the Scripture Pavilion and fail to obtain a cultivation technique!

Such a bizarre outer disciple!

Qin Lang was destined to become the ultimate joke of the entire Wind and Cloud Sect!

"You didn't... get a cultivation technique inside?" Qin Yue hesitated, asking cautiously.

"Of course I did!" Qin Lang smiled. The technique he acquired in the secret door was far from ordinary!

"Ha!"

As expected, Qin Lang's reply once again provoked a wave of raucous laughter throughout the grand hall.

"He clearly didn't get any technique, yet here he is, stubbornly putting on a brave face!"

"Qin Lang, since you claim you obtained a technique, why don't you take out the cultivation scroll and let us all have a look!"

The disciples wore mocking expressions, and one of them even brandished the cultivation scroll in his hand, his eyes filled with ridicule.

Peng Lei shook his head. He had actually considered Qin Lang the strongest rival among the outer disciples!

To not obtain a cultivation scroll yet refuse to admit it just to save face—such self-deception and willful blindness meant this person was utterly unworthy of being his rival!

"Oh? Every one of them has a cultivation scroll!" Qin Lang narrowed his eyes, finally understanding why the other disciples had reacted so strongly and mocked him.

"It seems I was the only one whose scroll automatically vanished after I learned the technique!"

Qin Lang shook his head with a smile. That was for the best anyway; at least no one else would discover that he had obtained a remnant scroll of a divine-tier cultivation technique!

Caring little to bicker with the disciples, Qin Lang waved to Qin Yue and Qin Jian, preparing to leave, when suddenly, a wave of spiritual energy rippled through the hall, and a white-haired elder materialized out of thin air before everyone.

Spiritual energy teleportation!

Utilizing one's martial soul and vast spiritual energy to instantly traverse a certain distance!

Only a powerhouse above the Martial Spirit realm could achieve this feat!

The outer disciples were overcome with excitement; they had never expected to witness a Martial Spirit powerhouse of the sect right upon entering!

This was an existence that could walk unhindered even within the towering empire!

"Exalted Elder!"

The middle-aged man sprang to his feet the moment he saw the elder, wearing an expression of utmost reverence as he bowed deeply!

The elder before him was a figure even the Sect Master had to treat with three parts respect; his status was extraordinarily unique, for he was none other than the guardian of the Scripture Pavilion!

"How could even this Exalted Elder be alarmed?"

The middle-aged man was inwardly startled. The Exalted Elder usually meditated in the topmost tier of the Scripture Pavilion and would never easily show himself unless a matter of grave importance arose!

"Hmph, a bunch of ignorant fools! Do you seriously believe that not holding a scroll means no technique was acquired?"

The elder let out a stern reprimand, carrying an unangered majesty. Peng Lei and the other outer disciples felt their hearts tremble. Submissive and timid, they quickly lowered their heads, each harboring inward astonishment. Could it be that Qin Lang had truly obtained a cultivation technique from the secret door of the Scripture Pavilion?

Qin Jian and Qin Yue looked at Qin Lang with puzzled expressions.

A thought suddenly struck the middle-aged man. As his gaze shifted back to Qin Lang, his eyes gradually widened into perfect circles. Could it be that Qin Lang had not only acquired a technique from the Scripture Pavilion, but had obtained one of extraordinary caliber, which was why it had alarmed the rarely-seen Exalted Elder?

"Good! Very good! Extremely good!"

Ignoring the rest of the crowd, the elder fixed his gaze upon Qin Lang and burst into a hearty laugh, the ravines and wrinkles on his aged face deepening significantly.

"The technique you have acquired is enough to make even me covet it. This is a supreme fortune of yours! You must never speak of this matter to anyone!"

The elder's lips did not move, yet his voice suddenly resounded within Qin Lang's mind. Clearly, the elder was transmitting his voice via divine sense.

"Understood." Qin Lang nodded solemnly.

Qin Lang was well aware of the principle that an innocent man treasuring a jade ring becomes a target of crime.

A divine-tier cultivation technique, even if it was only a remnant scroll, was enough to make countless individuals' hearts race!

Even this powerful Exalted Elder before him had admitted to coveting it. Once others found out that he possessed the Scorching Heaven Divine Fire Art, a hundred lives wouldn't be enough to keep him alive!

Another ripple of spiritual energy swept through the space, and the white-haired elder vanished from the spot out of thin air, as though he had never been there at all!

The moment the elder left, the entire hall erupted like a boiling pot of oil.

"Who knows what kind of good fortune Qin Lang stumbled upon to have such a powerful Exalted Elder step out to speak on his behalf!" said an outer disciple with a sour tone.

"So what if he did? A technique without even a scroll surely can't be all that powerful!" another outer disciple retorted with disdain, and the surrounding disciples nodded in agreement.

"Not all that powerful?"

With a cold chuckle, the middle-aged man watched Qin Lang's departing figure, slowly shaking his head as a look of self-mockery crossed his face.

To be able to rouse the Exalted Elder into making an appearance, the technique Qin Lang obtained must undoubtedly be extraordinary! None of the techniques any of them had acquired could possibly compare to it!

Of course, since the Exalted Elder had not specified the grade of Qin Lang's technique, the middle-aged man was certainly not foolish enough to ask and make a fool of himself.

Inside Qin Lang's room.

"I wonder what kind of speed I can achieve practicing with the Scorching Heaven Divine Fire Art?"

Sitting cross-legged, Qin Lang suppressed the excitement within his heart, gathered his focus, and began to channel the spiritual energy in his dantian to circulate through his meridians according to the descriptions of the Scorching Heaven Divine Fire Art.

Instantly, the ambient spiritual energy of heaven and earth surged frantically toward Qin Lang, quickly forming a vast expanse of milky-white mist around him!

Spiritual energy atomization!

If any other martial artist had been present, they would have been utterly shocked. This was the phenomenon that occurred when spiritual energy gathered at such a terrifying speed that the body could not absorb it all in time, thus forming a spiritual fog!

Such was the terrifying speed of Qin Lang's cultivation. If someone were to sit beside him and cultivate borrowing this spiritual fog, their own speed would likewise increase by several folds!

"Hoo!"

After completing one major circulation of the cultivation technique, Qin Lang abruptly opened his eyes, his pitch-black pupils filled with an irrepressible tide of ecstatic joy!

If his previous cultivation speed could be compared to a flowing brook, his current speed was like a roaring, rushing river, dozens of times faster than before!

"A heavenly-tier cultivation technique, coupled with the dense spiritual energy of this place, and adding the Spirit Condensing Pill on top of that—won't my cultivation speed reach an even more terrifying realm?"

Qin Lang popped a Spirit Condensing Pill straight into his mouth, closed his eyes, and centered his mind. As the pure spiritual energy dispersed throughout his body, the Scorching Heaven Divine Fire Art began its circulation once more, and a milky-white fog of spiritual energy swiftly condensed around him again!

Five days later!

As the very last wisps of spiritual energy from the fourth Spirit Condensing Pill were absorbed by Qin Lang, a series of popping sounds echoed from within his body, and his aura surged violently upward!

"Second-stage Martial Disciple!"

Qin Lang slowly opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing through his pupils!