Chapter 42 - Insight (2)

The truth is that their families could afford a thousand taels of gold a gram and would surely seek any opportunities to buy it. This level of tea leaf [the highest form of Wisdom Leaf] was highly sought by high-level masters and even the Emperor! Sadly, the supply was scarce and the demand was extremely high, a thousand taels would be the market price and reaching two thousand in auctions. There were countless previous examples of ordinary people rising into prominence when they offered these kinds of things as a tribute to great sages of mountains or the Emperor himself.

Anyway, if they could get this lucky and poor disciple's experience of drinking tea and immediately breakthrough, a few hundred gold coins or ten taels would still be too cheap for them.

"Cough. Cough. Cough. This kind of price is justified by its effects and rarity but what we used were normal Wisdom leaves which were carefully cultivated by experienced gardeners. You see, its name come from ancient times where disciples would drink tea made of Wisdom leaves to help them concentrate and understand the master's monthly teachings. Its effects are varied but as long as one understood the basics nothing bad would happen. Today, however, Wisdom Trees are a dying species. During the battle between the Flame Emperor and Wind Emperor, their battle affected two hundred species, including Wisdom Trees, in their 7 days and 7 nights battle across the Mountainous Region to the Mudi Sea." Master Gu Ze paused. It was clear that many battles claimed the lives of so many plant species.

"With qi is in its decline and human factors, the quality and abundance of magical plants worsened over time to the point that three hundred years ago, there were ten times more than today. Three hundred years ago, the last renaissance to date of martial arts, countless heroes stood out and fought. It destroyed many, many species but humanity gained living masters, Paragons as a result."

"Renaissance ?" Although many people here were pretty much more experienced than Tang Ling on the matters of this world, it was clear from their frowns and mutterings that they didn't know any better than him on the 'renaissances of martial arts'.

But clearly, Shangdong's Rose knew a little in the subject and explained away :

"It's not a forbidden knowledge but it's usually restricted to great families and sects. When I was twelve, my father and I visited the Imperial Repository of the capital to pay respect to the imperial family and chanced the book discussing the phenomena. Throughout history, after the ancient times, there were peaks and low of qi in the heaven and earth. Every three hundred years or so, qi stored underground gush out their centuries acc.u.mulated qi and the concentration increase by three folds."

THREE FOLD ?!

Someone had their eyes opened!

What was three-fold qi concentration? It meant three times the cultivation speed! It meant that even breathing, one could get a small circulation done!

...

...

Three hours passed in a blink of an eye.

Three hours would be the standard time which Tang Ling worked as a temporary contracted worker. He would be endlessly bored in that period of time but this time, the session was finished but Tang Ling wanted more. But time waited for no one, Master Gu Ze who taught them much knowledge in simple words and the noble lady kindly supplementing basic informations for country bumpkins captivated him.

Country bumpkins included Tang Ling, Feng Ci and Feng Cai. The others had experience and well-taught so they didn't need basic information that Nangong Xinyue provided; they directly understood the concepts that he explained but three dumb people coming from a backward place needed an update or a simplification of the matters.

Honestly, although they admired Wandering's master and noble lady's knowledge, sometimes it was annoying to hear "stupid" questions from country bumpkins and Nangong Xinyue wasting her time adding more relevant information only available to the elites, answering. But they would never complain about that; questioning the format would be offending the provider and she may never add more knowledge again but also offend the family on her back.

Even if they had powerful families, it wasn't worth it to offend such a large family for such small issues. The two young masters behind her, for example, came respectively from the Ji and Yu Family of the Northern Lands. They were considered upper-middle-class noble families and were sent here to court Nangong's second heir or to become her followers. Such is the power of one of the ruling hemegons of the North.

"The seance is over. This is the basic introductory class of our sect. You can come every week to attend and the next one is in three days. Your seniors will be here so it will a little bit crowded but you should bear with it. Next is the Martial Library, we pack quite a few things in there so even a week wouldn't be enough to read everything, you can come visit-"

BAM !