Chapter 87 - Evaluating The Pros And Cons

"Of course, he would register in the outer sect section of the disciple hall. He is after all still an outer sect disciple. Where else would he register then?"

Ma Rong felt a headache coming. "I should have told him to go to the elders directly. I can't believe he tried to register such important pills through an inner sect disciple. I can see now why you were called."

"Honestly, I don't understand how someone can be so talented in cultivation and alchemy, yet so dumb when it comes to having the most basic of sense. It's almost like he was born a month ago, or at least was born in a place where cultivation isn't a thing at all."

Lang Shun was stunned at his senior sister pretty much bashing on her disciple. Still, something she said caught his attention.

"Is he really that talented? I knew he was good from the entrance exam, but I didn't think he would be so talented to make 30+% harmony pills in less than a month." He said.

"You don't even know the half of it. If he were to break through to the True Qi realm right now, he would best you in making True grade pills in less than a month, and best me in a month after that. That's how good he is."

Ma Rong immediately changed from bashing on her disciple to praising him.

Lang Shun didn't know what to say, but the praise felt a little too unbelievable. "Do you really believe that?" he asked.

Ma Rong simply said, "You will see in a few months after he reaches True realm. Maybe it won't even take that long since I will start teaching him when half of his Qi transforms to True Qi."

Ma Rong left after that. Lang Shun just stayed there stunned as only one question ran through his mind. 'Bone tempering to True realm in a few months... Is that even possible?'

Alex, in the meanwhile, had finally returned to his residence. The entire way through, he kept practicing the Flickering Shadows technique. He didn't walk a single step from the base of the mountain to his residence. He teleported the entire way through.

He was starting to get the hang of it but still had some trouble mentally processing the instant change of environment.

'I wonder if I would be better at it if my spiritual sea were to get larger.' Gaining spiritual sea had vastly increased his mental capability, so it would go without question that he would start thinking this way.

He went to his courtyard to train some more. He learned quite a few things while practicing the technique.

The technique had features he didn't expect, but also had a multitude of limitations he hadn't even thought of.

The technique was best used during the nighttime when everything was in the shadows. He could teleport to walls, trees, or even the shadow on some things underside, and would always appear to the side or upon it depending on which was closer without harming the cultivator.

The next thing was that the teleportation was pretty much instantaneous. He threw a rock towards the pond and waited for the rock to just touch the surface. He then instantly teleported to the rock and managed to graze it with a few fingers before it sank to the bottom.

While his aim was still a little off, he did learn that there was no time between moving from one spot to another.

Another thing he learned was that there was almost no downtime between his teleports. He could teleport to one spot and immediately teleport to another spot. Theoretically, he could go around the entire city and return to this spot within a dozen seconds.

However, life wasn't always so easy. Along with those incredible abilities, the technique also came with a lot of limitations that stopped him from doing what he wanted to do.

The first and most obvious thing was that his mental ability wasn't strong enough to process where he was and where he needed to go fast enough for him to teleport without stops.

The second most obvious problem was that the ability was useless during the day, in an open ground like the training areas or desserts, or other flat surfaces where there were not a lot of shadows in general.

The more he thought about this problem, the more he found how annoying the problem was. If he were to someday fight while flying, the technique was pretty much useless as there would be no shadows in the sky.

Also, while the amount of Qi used during the teleports wasn't substantial, it would still accumulate after a while to become a moderately big factor for getting low on Qi.

Another thing that bugged him was that while it was called a 'movement technique', it more so focused on dodging and getting surprise attacks on the enemies. It would also help him to get out of traps or another enclosing.

'They should have instead called it an escaping technique, instead of movement technique. I should probably get an actual movement technique when I go to the Tiger sect.'

Still, despite all its flaws, it was an amazing technique befitting of its immortal grade. The next day, he split his day between practicing the Veiled Light technique, the Flickering Shadows technique, and making some pills to register.

His master had messaged him and explicitly mentioned that he should only find an elder in the core disciple section of the disciple hall if he wanted to register the pills.

His night went similarly as well. He started his evening going down the mountain to complete his job in the alchemy garden. Then he went to the disciple hall's second floor amongst the confused and curious eyes to register the 4 new pills he had made, each above 30% in harmony.

Then he went back to his residence to practice the Flickering Shadows technique once more. He had made massive progression in it with just days worth of practice. He couldn't wait to see how good it would be when he used it to its fullest potential.