Chapter 476: Living Together with Guan Yun

It was hard to say whether Bodhisattva Guan Yun actually had any talent for Martial Arts Training.

The so-called Ancient Immortal Martial Arts was not ordinary Martial Arts, nor was it like any of the Martial Arts from the novels Xu Lei had read on Earth.

Ancient Immortal Martial Arts involved the Cultivation of Willpower. According to legend, humans possess Three Souls and Seven Spirits, and these Seven Spirits were scattered throughout the body.

It was by cultivating the power of these spirits that one could grant their body extraordinary abilities—even regenerating a Broken Arm, reattaching a severed head, or allowing one’s physical body to fly.

If it were some ordinary form of Martial Arts, there would be no question of talent; anyone with a body could practice it. But that kind of Martial Arts was nothing more than showy, impractical posturing, completely incomparable to the Ancient Immortal Martial Arts of today.

If Ancient Immortal Martial Arts were just some ordinary form of Martial Arts, it wouldn’t have been enough to change the very era. Cultivators from the last age, like Xu Lei, could have swept through the world with just a little Magical Power.

But things were different now. For a Cultivator from the previous era like Xu Lei to kill an Innate Powerhouse—like that bully he had dealt with earlier—he had to expend Magical Power that had taken two years to accumulate!

Back in the previous era, when Xu Lei fought people in the mortal world using his Magical Power, he could launch numerous attacks without consuming much of it. He could fight for quite a long time.

But that was because his Realm was still relatively low back then. When one’s Realm was low, the amount of Magical Power consumed by an attack was also comparatively small.

Now that Xu Lei had reached the Bodhisattva Realm, the strike he used to kill that bully actually consumed even more Magical Power. What looked like a casual blow was, in fact, an all-out attack.

After all, the bully had the Cultivation of an Innate Powerhouse of Ancient Immortal Martial Arts and possessed a special Ancient Martial Immortal Body Technique.

In the past, after the Cultivators of the previous era underwent Ascension, they almost all arrived at the Celestial Palace. In an environment like the Celestial Palace, any Magical Power they used could be recovered.

In that kind of environment, going all-out was no big deal; after all, the power was recyclable.

Even when they occasionally used their power in the mortal world, they didn’t need to go all-out. A simple, minor technique would suffice.

And even if they did go all-out and used up a significant amount, there was special Spiritual Liquid available to help them recover.

But now, because of the Celestial Palace’s explosion, there was no more Spiritual Liquid, and the unique environment of the Celestial Palace was gone.

Cultivating Magical Power in the mortal world by absorbing Spiritual Qi to recover was an incredibly slow process.

This was the changing of an era, just like the mobile phone industry back on Earth.

At first, Nokia dominated the world. But when the smartphone era arrived, Nokia could only retreat from the stage and watch as the world changed around it.

It didn’t die out completely—a starved camel is still bigger than a horse, after all—but it had certainly withdrawn from the center of the world stage.

Just then, Xu Lei saw a notice posted outside the clinic where Bodhisattva Guan Yun worked. They were recruiting apprentices.

‘Maybe I can give it a shot,’ Xu Lei thought. ‘See if I can stay here.’

He was, after all, only a little over twelve years old and not yet an adult. If he were to pull silver taels out of his Qiankun Cloth Bag to buy a house and set up a business, it would probably be a bit too conspicuous.

The current social climate was still unstable, not yet fertile ground for a business to survive.

Of course, every city still had its share of merchants and shops, but they were all controlled by various Martial Artist factions.

Xu Lei had arrived in this city as a refugee. He had no connections and no backing. If he tried to jump straight into business to make money, he would likely step on someone’s toes or be seen as a fat sheep ripe for the slaughter.

Of course, Xu Lei wasn’t afraid of people looking for trouble. After all, he could still kill an expert like that bully with a single blow, so he certainly had the power to fight back.

However, if incidents like that happened a few more times, his Magical Power would be depleted, and that would be a disaster.

That was why he wanted to become an apprentice here.

For one, he could get closer to Bodhisattva Guan Yun and see how she was doing. He wanted to understand her current situation and learn what she had gone through in the decades since the Celestial Palace’s explosion.

For another, the role of an apprentice was inconspicuous. He might even be able to learn medicine from Bodhisattva Guan Yun. In two years, when he was a bit older, if the world had stabilized by then, it would be a more appropriate time to leave the clinic and start his own business.

After all, sometimes in business, it’s not enough to have a good product or a nice shop. You also need a solid reputation among the people, so they’ll be willing to give you their business.

Working at a clinic was perfect for this. Many people needed medical treatment, and by interacting with them as they came and went, he could make his face familiar. This would be beneficial when he started his own business later.

With these thoughts in mind, Xu Lei waited outside the clinic. Only after Bodhisattva Guan Yun had finished treating her current patient did he walk inside and announce that he wanted to apply for the apprentice position.

From his earlier observation, Xu Lei had also noticed that the clinic didn’t actually have many staff members. Most of them were women.

They were likely poor souls from these chaotic times, hired by Bodhisattva Guan Yun.

The first person to interview him wasn’t Bodhisattva Guan Yun, but a middle-aged woman.

She gave him a simple check: Was he literate? How well could he read? What was his physical condition? Was he capable of hard work? And so on.

After an initial round of screening, Xu Lei and two other young men made it to the final interview.

This time, Bodhisattva Guan Yun herself came out to conduct the interviews.