Chapter 2: Could he really be a prodigy?

The sudden changes in his mind gave Jiang Man, who had "just arrived," a profound understanding of what "karma" truly meant.But why would someone who demanded such a price just for performing the marriage ceremony be captured by the Old Yellow Ox's schemes?

Was the Old Yellow Ox also not simple?

Moreover, the "three days to draw qi into his body" made him even more worried.

If he failed, these three days of clarity would likely be his final moments.

Jiang Man carefully examined the fate pattern in his mind and confirmed a cruel truth: he had the fate pattern, but no corresponding talent.

Just as he was about to withdraw his gaze, he suddenly noticed another light coalescing.

Immediately after, a book so massive it nearly occupied his entire sea of consciousness slowly materialized.

Mysterious radiance emanated from the book.

Four large characters imprinted themselves in his mind—Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books.

The moment the book appeared, it resonated with the Peerless Prodigy Fate.

Then the book began rapidly flipping pages.

Finally, it stopped on the ninth page.

Rows of text appeared on what was originally blank pages.

Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books? Jiang Man was astonished that such a thing existed.

Could it record anything?

He subconsciously touched his sour-smelling clothes and tried to activate the Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books.

Sure enough, the book began flipping pages, then stopped on the final page.

Text appeared accordingly.

Then the writing disappeared.

Jiang Man: "..."

After that, he pinched his own hand and activated the Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books again.

The book flipped pages once more, again stopping on the final page.

Text appeared again.

Jiang Man: "..."

He felt genuinely offended.

Then, Jiang Man began examining the technique purple qi.

Although he didn't know what it was, he could extract it.

It should be something good.

Just as he was about to extract it, footsteps suddenly sounded nearby.

The Old Yellow Ox had unexpectedly come to his side, followed immediately by its sarcastic remarks: "Your wife is gone."

Jiang Man glanced at the other party and noticed the Old Yellow Ox looked deeply melancholy, as if disappointed by his failure.

"Don't look at me, looking at me won't get you a wife either. All my power was only enough for you to marry one wife," the Old Yellow Ox said.

"Um..." Jiang Man said somewhat awkwardly, "Something unusual happened."

In his memory, the Old Yellow Ox had been extremely docile.

Although it was an Evil God, if it wanted to harm him, it wouldn't have waited until now.

So he couldn't continue pretending to be foolish, mainly because he had questions that needed answers.

Hearing this, the Old Yellow Ox was stunned, somewhat astonished: "You're not stupid anymore?"

Then it muttered something about the wedding actually having an effect.

Jiang Man didn't pay attention to these comments, instead telling the other party about the Peerless Prodigy Fate matter, as well as the celestial maiden's intention to take revenge on the Old Yellow Ox.

He temporarily kept the strange book to himself.

Hearing this, the Old Yellow Ox seemed puzzled: "How could this so-called Peerless Prodigy Fate appear?"

Then it looked at Jiang Man with some sympathy and said, "Three days to draw qi into your body? You probably won't live long."

"Is three days very difficult?" Jiang Man asked.

The Old Yellow Ox spoke bluntly: "Not difficult. With sufficient talent and resources, one can draw qi into their body in half a day. If those prodigies are willing to spend more resources, drawing qi into their body in three breaths isn't impossible either.

But you couldn't draw qi into your body for two years. Do you think it's difficult?

Taking it a step further, even if you had exceptional talent, without resources, facing the three-day deadline to draw qi into your body would still mean certain death."

Jiang Man had left his village at sixteen and come to the Azure Cloud Pavilion.

The Azure Cloud Pavilion was in Lucky Cloud City.

It was one of the three towers and six pavilions responsible for selecting disciples for the Mist Cloud Sect.

The three towers and six pavilions belonged to the Cloud Front Division.

Jiang Man remained silent for a moment, then said: "I want to try."

"You want me to teach you?" the Old Yellow Ox asked.

"Can you teach me?" Jiang Man looked at the other party.

"Would I dare teach you, and would you dare learn?" The Old Yellow Ox said with a serious expression: "Immortal path techniques are uniformly distributed and revised by the immortal sects, containing unique auras to verify identities. To prevent the events of three hundred years ago from happening again, the immortal sects' control is stricter than you imagine.

Once abnormalities are discovered, they can brand you as a demonic heretic.

Even if you accidentally obtain ancient techniques, you still need to consider whether to cultivate them. Once you appear within the immortal sects' jurisdiction after cultivation, you'll definitely be detected.

If you're lucky, you'll be captured alive; if not, you'll be eliminated as a demon."

Jiang Man had heard some rumors about the so-called events of three hundred years ago. According to legend, over three hundred years ago, peerless experts had clashed, not only shattering mountains and rivers but also draining all nutrients from the soil and much of the spiritual energy.

For the following two hundred years, crops failed completely, and starving corpses filled the land.

Even cultivators couldn't escape the disaster—spiritual herbs and spiritual trees ceased growing.

Until one hundred years ago, when the four major immortal sects jointly introduced a new cultivation system, established various cultivation facilities, guided people in cultivation, and sent personnel into villages to provide instruction.

Since then, cultivation was no longer limited by innate talent—everyone could cultivate. This allowed them to use spiritual energy to irrigate the barren land, barely growing some food to enable the surviving humans to eke out an existence.

This has continued until today.

And Jiang Man was currently within the jurisdiction of the Mist Cloud Sect, one of the three subsidiary sects under immortal sect governance.

However, he hadn't expected technique control to be this severe.

"Is the three-hundred-year rumor true?" Jiang Man asked curiously.

"Half true, half false," the Old Yellow Ox answered casually. After pondering for a moment, it continued: "If you want to learn, you can study the Azure Cloud Pavilion's 'Simple Qi Refining Method'."

As it spoke, it glanced toward the corner of the table.

Jiang Man saw that there was indeed a book being used as a prop there.

When he was foolish, he really would do anything.

Taking out the book, Jiang Man looked at it while asking: "Senior, who is that celestial maiden? Where does she come from? Will she really appear at any time?"

The Old Yellow Ox's bell-like eyes looked at Jiang Man and said: "Let's talk after you survive these three days of mortal peril."

Drawing qi into the body in three days is as difficult as climbing to heaven for ordinary people.

Even for heaven's favored children, it requires resources and foundation.

Going from zero to something.

There's too much to learn.

Jiang Man briefly glanced at the qi refining method and found that even the Simple Qi Refining Method would require considerable time to master.

Especially since the qi refining method had nine layers.

Who knew how much time it would take to completely master it.

Then Jiang Man thought of the Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books.

He immediately looked inward to his sea of consciousness and indeed saw the book again.

Then he opened it to the ninth page.

He could indeed extract one wisp of technique purple qi.

If he extracted it, would that count as drawing qi into his body?

"Is drawing qi into the body in three days really that difficult?" Jiang Man looked at the Old Yellow Ox.

The latter looked at Jiang Man and said: "That depends on whether you're a peerless prodigy or not."

"What if I am?" Jiang Man said.

Hearing this, the Old Yellow Ox looked at Jiang Man, smiling without speaking.

"Under immortal sect governance, geniuses are countless—why can't I be one more?" Jiang Man spoke again.

The Old Yellow Ox still looked at him, maintaining its silence.

The meaning was clear enough.

Don't dream.

Seeing this, Jiang Man didn't dwell on it further.

Instead, he opened the Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books and without hesitation chose to extract the technique purple qi.

Then a wisp of light descended from the Heavenly Mirror Hundred Books.

In the blink of an eye, it merged into his meridians, flowed downward, and settled in his dantian.

A wave of spiritual energy immediately emanated out.

From the inside out.

This was precisely the manifestation of drawing qi into the body.

Witnessing this scene, the Old Yellow Ox stood frozen in place.

Its eyes widened even more like bells, even doubting whether it was seeing correctly.

Drawing qi into the body instantaneously?

Had it missed some crucial action?

For a moment, an absurd thought emerged: Could he actually be a peerless prodigy?

Just then, Jiang Man's voice suddenly came: "Senior, can I touch you?"