Starting My Cultivation With Time Management

After crossing a vast rainforest, there lay the Southern Sea.

The Southern Sea was vast and boundless with no end in sight. Two sword lights sped through hurriedly when suddenly behind them, the Vajra Dharma Aspect rose, standing a hundred zhang high, with three heads and six arms, wielding many weapons, and heavily smashing down towards the sea surface below.

As the weapons hit the sea, the water that splashed up was like a dense volley of arrows, instantly engulfing the two sword lights in front, the sound of breaking through the air was incessant.

After the splashes fell, the two sword lights were unharmed and continued to rush forward at full speed.

Though it seemed effortless and without harm, only Ling Yunpo and An Zhisu knew the immense pressure they faced within.

The water arrows were so dense just now that both he and An Zhisu had to stop controlling their swords in unison and used the Cloud-Parting Eight Trigrams Step to move within a small area, precisely dodging the aftermath of each attack under the high pressure.

A slight misstep, nicked by a water arrow, would result in flesh being torn and even bones broken—the two of them had not cultivated the disgusting Iron Vein secret technique that immunized against physical attacks.

Huh? But that's not entirely true.

If Senior Sister An weren't here, he could switch to the Long Long template, and he should be able to withstand a few hits head-on... but indeed, only a few.

In the end, it was still a matter of being overwhelmed by sheer disparity in cultivation realm and strength.

This Iron Vein Elder not only cultivated body refining secret techniques to amp up his defenses, making the Immortal Sword unable to break through, but he also cultivated stepping techniques to increase speed, leaving even Sword Immortals who practiced Man-Sword Unity unable to escape, so it's no wonder he was called the "Shushan nemesis" by the outside world.

If an ordinary Demon Path Cultivator dared to use this nickname, they would've been killed by the brutes of Shushan with a few stabs long ago.

"Junior Brother, be careful!" An Zhisu suddenly said, her figure shifted as if to block the damage for him.

Without a word, Ling Yunpo decisively embraced Senior Sister An like lightning, twirling her in his arms as if dancing a waltz, just barely evading the Demon-Subduing Pestle smashing down beside them.

Another water column shot up into the sky, nearly a hundred zhang high, causing Ling Yunpo's body to tremble from the shock.

With such a terrifying force, if they had failed to dodge just now and got directly hit, wouldn't they have been reduced to bones and ash?

An Zhisu also wore a face filled with lingering fear, fully aware that just now both she and her junior brother had narrowly brushed past the reaper.

She pressed her lips together in thought for a moment, then quickly made a decision, biting her teeth determinedly and calling out:

"Junior Brother, you first..."

Seeing her expression, Ling Yunpo knew what she wanted to say and interrupted her incantation:

"Senior Sister! You go first! I'll hold off this demon monk for you!"

An Zhisu: ???

"Since when does a junior brother lay down his life for his senior sister!" she called out, ashamed and angry.

"Oh, so you know it's going to one's death!" Ling Yunpo retorted.

Trying to steal my unyielding character explanation, I think Senior Sister you are the one not making any sense!

Ge'ermu, who had cultivated the Heavenly Ear Technique, had exceptionally good hearing, and caught every word of the couple's conversation, leisurely halting his attack and chanting with one hand up:

"Amitabha. You owe me a life, I repay your debt, through this cause and condition, across hundreds of thousands of kalpas, always amidst life and death. Your love for my heart, my pity for your form, through this cause and condition, across hundreds of thousands of kalpas, always entangled."

Ling Yunpo: .........

Although he didn't understand Buddhist principles, he could more or less detect the monk mocking their 'entangled predestined relationship,' and immediately scolded:

"You monastic, utterly ignorant of propriety! To kill is to kill, discussing others' private matters is hardly the way of Buddhist Sect, right?"

"The benefactor misunderstands," Ge'ermu said with a smile, "Moved by the moment, I chanted a few phrases from the 'Stern Sutra,' it's nothing to concern oneself with."

With that said, his tone shifted leisurely as he continued:

"Observing the stepping technique you both used just now, it seems to have some affinity with Buddhism..."

Upon hearing this, Ling Yunpo stiffened, immediately realizing what the other was up to.

Silently circulating the mental method in his Dantian to quickly restore True Yuan, Ling Yunpo verbally responded:

"Well said, since there's an affinity with Buddhism, Senior Sister and I will return, transcribe the stepping technique onto scripture scrolls, find a temple, light incense candles and burn it, offering it to the Buddhas of the Western Paradise."

A smile had been on Ge'ermu's face, but upon hearing the latter half of the speech, his expression darkened immediately as he raised his palm and said:

"Since both benefactors still cling to earthly attachments, let this poor monk relieve you two of them..."

Before his words had settled, he flipped his hand and struck another Great Hand Seal, its force stirring up a hundred-yard-high tsunami that pounded down like the heavens collapsing.

Such was the terror of a Nascent Soul's power! Even a casual attack seemed like a natural disaster, impossible to withstand!

Ling Yunpo felt despair in his heart and thought to himself:

Since you only know to bully the weaker with your higher Cultivation Realm, then I won't bother talking to you about martial honor.

Ah Jing! Help me deal with this person!

The Kunlun Mirror sighed, as expected.

Ever since it had helped Wei Dongliu escape the Ziwei Master's pursuit last time, this guy knew that my Illusion Technique could conceal one's presence from a Nascent Soul Cultivator's Perception.

With such meticulous thoughts, I need to be more careful in the future to avoid arousing his suspicion.

With that in mind, the Kunlun Mirror sighed and immediately put all its effort into activating the Illusion Technique.

Ge'ermu was about to continue his pursuit when suddenly, he saw the world turning upside down, the boundless sea water plummeting down like torrential rain, and fierce suns crashing down like meteors, causing the surrounding sea water to rapidly boil and evaporate… Frightened, Ge'ermu lost his composure entirely and quickly activated his life-saving secret technique, escaping towards the Divine Land Continent in the north.

Hmph, trash.

Ling Yunpo, supporting An Zhisu, calmly stood atop the sea surface and heard her ask confusedly:

"That person... why did he suddenly run away?"

"There's a saying, 'Don't chase a poor bandit." Ling Yunpo calmly said, "He probably suspected that we were luring him deeper into the Southern Sea, worried about some trap, so he turned tail and ran."

Hearing her junior brother's explanation, An Zhisu uttered an understanding "Oh," abandoning further thought:

"Shall we go back then?"

"Let's head back to Shushan," Ling Yunpo nodded and said.

Even with his strong reasoning abilities, he could only guess that the Asura Path was launching a counterattack near the plateau and that he and his senior sister were simply caught up in it, unaware that Shushan too was now surrounded…

The two thus took a detour through the Southern Sea, re-entering the Divine Land Continent from the direction of Qiongzhou, then returning to Shushan from the Xiang-Gan region.

No sooner had they entered Sichuan Shu along the Yangtze River than they sensed something was amiss.

Why were there so many Demon Path Cultivators flying around in the open air, making no attempt to hide?

Ling Yunpo quickly lowered his Sword Control flight altitude and pulled Senior Sister An into a small grove, exclaiming:

"Senior sister, something's not right here!"

"On a normal day, even if one or two Demon Path Cultivators appeared, they would have already been hunted down and killed by our Shushan Cultivators."

"From this, it can be deduced that Shushan must be facing some sort of crisis, leading to the inability to purge the Demon Path Cultivators within its territory!"

Such an obvious inference was naturally agreed upon by An Zhisu, who then carefully advised Ling Yunpo:

"In that case, the closer we get to Shushan, the greater the hidden risk."

"Junior brother, wouldn't it be better if you…" Before she could finish, Ling Yunpo interrupted her:

"Wouldn't it be better for Senior Sister to find a place to hide for a while, while I go ahead to scout the situation? Then I'll come back to find Senior Sister once I have a clear understanding."

An Zhisu pursed her lips forcefully, feeling annoyed that her junior brother had preempted her words for the third or fourth time, definitely not endearing, and sighed:

"Since when does the senior sister rest in the back while the junior brother goes out to brave the dangers and scout?"

Ling Yunpo then said with a smile:

"But when has a man rested in the back, letting a woman go out to face danger and scout?"

"What woman? I'm your senior sister!" An Zhisu said, frustrated.

Seeing that further teasing might make his senior sister explode in anger, Ling Yunpo immediately laughed and said:

"In that case, how about Senior Sister and I scout together? If we encounter any danger, we can cover for each other."

These words, when they fell into An Zhisu's ears, automatically transformed into "If we encounter any danger, I can protect my junior brother," and she nodded demurely.