Chapter 38: Astonishing Beauty

Having finished all his tasks, Lin Dong returned to his room and immediately began studying the mantras for the Imperial Reality Realm. The mantras were dry and difficult to understand. Word by word, sentence by sentence, Lin Dong studied them until his head spun, finally grasping only a rough idea of their meaning. This Imperial Reality Realm focused on techniques for using various weapons. Delving deeper, however, left Lin Dong confused and unable to comprehend further. Fortunately, since understanding wasn’t necessary for practice, he wrote down the equally complex energy movement diagrams before standing up and scanning the room. There weren’t just no weapons—there wasn’t a single piece of furniture made of metal. Since it was just a trial, Lin Dong casually picked up a bench and stepped outside.

In the courtyard, he saw Yun Lan teasing a silver rabbit by a stone table. “How’s the little rabbit?” Lin Dong asked with a smile.
“It still needs time to recover,” Yun Lan replied indifferently.
Lin Dong nodded and glanced at the blue sword on the table. After hesitating for a moment, he gave up the idea of borrowing it. Scanning the courtyard and finding nothing suitable, he carried the bench to a corner. Taking a deep breath, he directed all the spiritual energy in his dantian along the prescribed energy movement path through his meridians. When it reached his palms, it suddenly surged into the bench. With a fierce swing, he sent the bench flying at the courtyard wall, which already had some green moss on it.

Bang!
With a loud noise, the wall shattered like thin paper wherever the bench passed. Bricks flew everywhere, and dust billowed toward Lin Dong. Amid the dust, Lin Dong widened his eyes, his astonished gaze shifting between the bench in his hands and the broken wall. After a long while, he reached out and tried to pry at the broken corner, but the bricks didn’t budge at all—extremely solid.

“In combat, unless your life is in danger, the worst thing you can do is exhaust all your spiritual energy in a final desperate strike,” Yun Lan’s voice came softly, much louder than usual. “When practicing spiritual techniques, you shouldn’t go all out either. Otherwise… you’ll only be able to practice one or two moves a day.”
“Uh…”
Lin Dong mumbled in embarrassment. He had only intended to test the power of the Imperial Reality Realm with a full-force strike, not expecting it to exceed his expectations so greatly.
“Stop making noise! Thankfully, the old man just woke up after a good sleep. If you make such a racket again when practicing spiritual techniques, don’t blame me for not being gentle.”
With a creak, the door opened, and the old man stepped out, still groggy.
“Got it, got it. My mistake. I’ll be more careful next time!”

Lin Dong nodded hurriedly. He hadn’t yet grasped the mantras of the Imperial Reality Realm, yet just imitating the cultivation diagram already yielded such power. Before reaching the other three realms, Lin Dong wouldn’t dare upset the old man under any circumstances.
“Hmm! That’s better. I’m going to drink.”
The old man nodded in approval, thinking the boy was teachable. As his gaze fell on the bench in Lin Dong’s hands, his right leg hung in midair, his expression showing surprise.
“Is this bench your weapon?”
Lin Dong nodded reluctantly. Since he couldn’t find a proper weapon, he would have to make do for now and arrange for all eighteen types of weapons to be bought later.
“Yun Nv, do you know the old man’s identity?” The old man looked at Yun Lan with hope. It must be Yun Nv who taught him; otherwise, how could this kid master the Imperial Reality Realm in just one night?
Yun Lan shook her head. She was naturally indifferent and never liked to hear about the powerful experts that others were so keen to discuss. So, despite the old man’s uniqueness, she knew nothing about him.
“Did you show the mantras to Yun Nv?” Old Ding became furious, his eyes flashing with murderous intent.
Lin Dong was startled by the old man’s gaze and quickly shook his head, becoming wary as he prepared to kick this suddenly hostile old man out of the inn at any moment.
With Yun Lan by his side, who knew if the old man might possess some supernatural skill like attacking from afar?
Pfft…
Not only Lin Dong but even Yun Lan’s eyes widened slightly. Seeing Lin Dong shake his head, Old Ding spat out a mouthful of blood. A thick cloud of blood instantly covered him entirely.
“Elder…”
Yun Lan moved swiftly. Before Lin Dong could even see her move, she appeared behind Old Ding, pressing her palms against his back.
It took a long time before Old Ding could catch his breath. His gaze toward Lin Dong was filled with complex emotions.
“Good boy. Your cultivation talent isn’t outstanding, but I never expected your ability to master supernatural skills to be so strong. It takes a month for an old man to fully master the Imperial Reality Realm, a year to master the Aerial Realm, and ten years to master the Boundless Realm. Though I still haven’t reached the Heavenly Realm, my master already called me a genius. Who would have thought… you could master the Imperial Reality Realm in just one morning?”
“Huh?” Lin Dong was completely confused. What was Old Ding talking about?
“I never expected it!” Old Ding sighed. “I gave away the Heavenly Mantra casually, not wanting it to be lost due to my failure, thus avoiding becoming a traitor to my sect. I never thought it would be further developed by its successor. Who would have thought… giving it away casually would result in a natural genius with even greater mastery skills than I do.”

Lin Dong was speechless. The old man’s words left him feeling awkward and dizzy. Why did Old Ding think he was a natural genius? It was just a courtyard wall broken with a bench—something achieved by exhausting all his spiritual energy. Could it be…

A bench!

An idea flashed through Lin Dong’s mind as he suddenly remembered the latter part of the mantra: “Thick needles within a circle, method within the needles.”

Before this, not to mention those most profound lines, Lin Dong couldn’t even understand the earlier ones. But now, he seemed to grasp something.

Ignoring the old man, Lin Dong took the bench to the corner of the courtyard, closed his eyes slightly, and slowly gathered a trace of spiritual energy in his empty dantian, then directed it through his meridians toward the bench in his hands.

With a loud shout, Lin Dong thrust forward abruptly, and one corner of the bench’s surface firmly pierced the red brick.

With a loud crash, vicious cracks suddenly appeared within twenty or thirty centimeters around the spot where the bench had pierced the wall.

“Method within the needles—he has truly mastered the Real Control realm!” Old Ding couldn’t help but feel like vomiting blood again. If he had understood those most profound lines, then naturally, he had mastered the entire Real Control realm.

Lin Dong grinned. He hadn’t understood the earlier parts, but he truly understood the latter ones. Otherwise, such a tiny amount of spiritual energy couldn’t have produced such great power.

Any spherical weapon could be used like a sword, as every point on a sphere is protruding. Sword-like weapons could also be used as shields, as the tip of a sword, when enlarged infinitely, becomes flat as well.

All weapons share the same origin!

Suddenly recalling another line, Lin Dong looked down at the bench in his hands and understood—it must mean that all weapons are the same. Lifting, thrusting, sweeping, chopping, slicing… any weapon could do these things.

“Shopkeeper…”

As Lin Dong carefully recalled the mantra of the Real Control realm to see if there was anything else he could understand, Liu Xiu ran into the backyard.

Seeing the courtyard wall torn open and looking at the weak Old Ding, Liu Xiu was confused at first and choked on his words.

“What’s the matter?” Lin Dong asked.

“Well… those tigers refuse to leave. They want to see you,” Liu Xiu said, his face slightly flushed. Failing to handle such a simple task was truly a shame for the shopkeeper.

“Refuse to leave?” Lin Dong was stunned for a moment before asking puzzledly, “Have you found out why?”

“Yes, yes!” Liu Xiu nodded hurriedly. “The maid said her mistress suffers from palpitations and can’t get angry; she needs to stay relaxed. After staying in our inn for a few hours, her mistress didn’t have a single episode of palpitation, so she’s reluctant to leave.”

Lin Dong frowned. This was no easy task! Considering that the “tiger mother” was the county magistrate’s wife, letting her stay for one day meant losing one day’s worth of experience points—so far so good. But judging by the situation, it might not be just one day! If they tried to force her to leave, and she really got angry… the inn would never be able to operate again.
“Owner…” Liu Xiu hesitated.
“What is it?” Lin Dong asked.
“I don’t know why you call that lady a ‘tiger mother,’ but I think she’s quite pitiful. To keep sitting in our inn, she even stoops to speak to me, a mere servant, in a humble tone.” Liu Xiu murmured, “She’s willing to pay twenty taels of silver per day. What do you think…”
“I’ll think about it first…”
Lin Dong waved his hand to interrupt Liu Xiu. Silver wasn’t important, and even her status as a “tiger mother” wasn’t that useful—what mattered was experience points. After thinking for a moment, a glimmer of joy appeared in Lin Dong’s eyes as he ordered, “Tell her no need to see me; I don’t have time. Say that if she’s willing to change tables every half hour, she can sit here for twenty taels a day. As for why half an hour between tables, figure that out yourself.”
“Okay!”
Liu Xiu was overjoyed and nodded quickly. Changing tables every half hour would solve the problem of experience points, and with the “tiger mother” staying in the inn, many troubles that couldn’t be resolved with force should be reduced. In this light, the “tiger mother” could even be considered a valuable guest.
Lin Dong called out to Liu Xiu, “Take good care of them. Oh, and…” He remembered an even more important guest and glanced at Old Ding, instructing, “Starting today, you don’t need to worry about other matters in the main hall. Just take care of Old Ding’s daily needs and meals, and also attend to the ‘tiger mother’.”
“Mm!”
After Liu Xiu left, Lin Dong greeted Yun Lan and Old Ding. Too embarrassed to explain that he was using benches simply because he had no weapons, he rushed into his room to study other mantras.