Chapter 339 - Both a Practitioner and a Cultivator

After deciding to not adhere to the personality of 'Yu Jin' too tightly anymore, Leng Jin Yu naturally wouldn't just stop there. He had always felt that the younger generation and with them a sect would come the farthest if those older than them shared their experiences and views. Guarding those things like secrets when you had already attained a higher level … Wasn't that too selfish?

The sect gave to those people so when they achieved a higher stage they should naturally give back through teaching the younger disciples. At least that was always what he had believed and what he had done before his ascension. He would do the same now as much as he could even if Zhong Jing Yi couldn't be allowed to become a high-leveled cultivator.

"You're probably not too suited for fights so the other benefit I mentioned might be more important to you. You started studying alchemy, didn't you?"

Jing Yi nodded. "Mn. I had to do something while we were on that mission in the Hei Dian Sect and I thought that alchemy would be the right thing since I wouldn't need to follow any … evil techniques." Jing Yi frowned slightly. Actually, he had never seen any evil techniques or something like that while being in the Hei Dian Sect. They had seemed exceedingly normal to him.

In all honesty, if he compared how he had been received in the Hei Dian Sect with how he had been treated in the Yun Zou Sect the latter probably wouldn't do that good. On one hand, Niu Hai had immediately shown him around and Yue Lin had even taught him how to read, while on the other the disciples had often dumped more than one of their tasks on him. How was the former an evil and the latter a righteous sect? Didn't this just show that on both sides there were good and bad people? In the end, everyone decided for themselves what kind of person they wanted to be.

Leng Jin Yu nodded. "That was a good decision. Alchemy is something that relies on spiritual energy. Only a cultivator would be able to learn it and someone with wood spiritual veins would be especially suited to it. So, in your case … learning alchemy really isn't a bad decision." Leng Jin Yu smiled slightly.

Jing Yi froze and stopped walking. Had … senior martial brother Yu just smiled at him?

Leng Jin Yu also stopped walking and turned around with a puzzled expression. "What is it?"

"Uh … Oh, nothing." Jing Yi hurriedly stepped closer again.

Leng Jin Yu just turned back and continued to walk forward, without thinking about it further. "Just like with the spirit veins that are needed to learn alchemy, becoming a practitioner will also be necessary if one wants to choose some paths. Beast taming and weapon forging are reliant on the sword energy you gather as a practitioner. So, naturally, if you are a cultivator, as well as a practitioner, you will have more possibilities to learn."

"So, you can't learn these things without becoming a practitioner?"

Leng Jin Yu nodded. "More or less. It's like with alchemy: In the beginning, it won't make a difference. Nobody needs to be a cultivator or practitioner to understand the theory and there will always be some simple things that can be done even without the corresponding energy. But if you want to attain greater heights on one of those paths, then you will have to choose the corresponding side in the beginning."

"I see." Jing Yi nodded. "Thank you for telling me."

He had never thought about learning any of these things. It wouldn't have been possible anyway. Where would he have gotten the opportunity after all? Even learning alchemy was something that had just arisen out of the situation his relationship with Qiu Ling caused. It was already lucky for him to have achieved a little bit on that path.

"So … What have you learned? If you're both a practitioner and a cultivator, then you had all possibilities, didn't you?"

Leng Jin Yu nodded. "Yes, I did. Well, back when I just started …" He smiled and thought back to those days long before his ascension.

He, too, only had full spirit veins so nobody had had any hope that he would ever become a successful cultivator. His physique was quite suited to become a practitioner though.

"It actually wasn't as straightforward as you might think. I started out as only a practitioner and I concentrated solely on that. Later I became interested in forging weapons since that was something that would benefit me as a practitioner, too. After all, what is a practitioner without a sword?" He smiled again. "That was also the reason why I finally started cultivating. It's true that you need to be a practitioner if you want to reach the higher stages of weapon forging but having metal and fire spirit veins is definitely a huge boon, too."

He sighed and looked up at the patch of sky that could be seen through the treetops. "Ah, I was naive back then. I didn't know much about cultivation and thought that I could just cultivate those two spirit veins and ignore the rest. Well, it was quite the surprise when I reached the peak of the seed stage and couldn't proceed further regardless of how I tried. I never would have thought that they were actually dependent on the other spirit veins."

"So what did you do?" Jing Yi couldn't help but wonder. Listening to him it was obvious that Yu Jin had already reached the third stage at the very least and partly shed his mortal body. But how had he done so if he started out late and also had full spirit veins? Wasn't it said that the peak of the root stage was the farthest one could go with that kind of aptitude? How had he reached the sprout stage?

"I started to cultivate my other spirit veins, too. What else could I have done?" Leng Jin Yu shrugged elegantly.

Back then he had already been called a genius disciple among the practitioners of his sect. Starting to learn about weapon forging was something his master accepted because it would help him on his way. When he who only had full spirit veins wanted to start cultivating his master didn't want to hear any of it though.

Only two of his spirit veins would have been useful but only cultivating to the peak of the first stage wouldn't make much of a difference. In that case, he might as well invest the time into weapon forging or practicing the sword arts.

"My master was livid when I insisted on cultivating. But I guess he started to feel different when I really managed to reach a high level."

Jing Yi frowned. "I don't understand. If the sect master himself is both a practitioner and a cultivator, then why would he be against you doing the same?"

Leng Jin Yu froze. Ah. Right. They had been talking about Yuchi Bing Xia. Right now, thinking back to how he had begun he had actually thought of his old master and just told the truth.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He had to be more careful from now on.