1 month later. A few kilometers outside the capital to the west.
Pearl dashed from the left and used his White Tiger's Golden Claws. Alex dashed from the right and slashed with his poison sword.
Shen Jing simply put up a finger in each hand and diverted the attacks elsewhere.
Pearl used his golden threads to try and bind him. The threads wrapped around Shen Jing and it looked like it would stop him.
Shen Jing smiled and waited for Alex to attack.
Alex sent out a strong metal slash at Shen Jing with all of his power.
Shen Jing's body started shining golden all of a sudden and it spread out in a wave until it was a circular barrier around his body.
The golden threads that Pearl had wrapped him with broke apart like they were mere spiderwebs, and Alex's attack didn't even make a strong sound when it disappeared after hitting the barrier.
Even his Sword Qi which was supposed to keep attacking didn't remain for longer than a moment.
"Not bad," Shen Jing said. "You two have definitely grown better. Here's a little reward for you then."
Shen Jing put up his index finger and made a simple swipe. Suddenly, Alex had a feeling akin to the wind rustling his clothes.
He quickly looked down and saw part of his robe fall to the ground.
"What?" he exclaimed. "I didn't see your attack."
"That's because I didn't attack you," Shen Jing said. "The world did."
"Dao?" Alex asked.
"Yes," Shen Jing said. "I wanted to show you examples of some other Dao that you might want to learn about."
"Since you use a sword, you will learn it sooner or later, so I am showing you it here today."
Shen Jing swiped his fingers again and another part of Alex's robe was torn off. "This is the Dao of Sharpness. It's a Metal Dao that had its roots in Sword Dao as well."
"Since I'm not a swordsman, I can't put it into my attacks, but I can directly attack with it," Shen Jing said.
"You can't teach me that, right?" Alex asked.
Shen Jing shook his head. "That would defeat the whole purpose of learning Dao on your own, won't it?" Shen Jing asked.
Alex nodded.
"Here's another one, although not very useful in battle," Shen Jing said. "Give me your sword."
Alex threw his poison sword at Shen Jing. Shen Jing then started pouring in his Qi as the world around him put Qi as well. Slowly, Alex saw the metal deform.
It wasn't much, but his sword started getting thinner and thinner. Shen Jing stopped once it was thinner by at least a third of its original thinness.
"Phew! That really takes a lot out of me even for a True grade sword," Shen Jing said and passed the sword back to Alex.
Alex looked at his sword and was surprised at just how sharp it was now.
"Dao of Malleability," Shen Jing said. "I can make metals thin without breaking them regardless if they would break under normal circumstances or not."
"Where did the rest of the metal go?" Alex asked. The sword was thinner now, but it wasn't longer or wider.
Shen Jing smiled. "Dao of compression. I compressed your sword so that while it is sharper, it is not any less weak. I wouldn't have dared to make your sword thinner if I hadn't learned this Dao before," Shen Jing said.
"Woah, what other Dao do you know, brother Shen?" Alex asked.
"Well, there's the Dao of Ductility, Dao of Conduction, Dao of Shine, Dao of Rust, and some minor Daos that aren't very useful on their own," Shen Jing said.
"Dao of Conduction, I think I've learned that too," Alex said.
"You did? When?" Shen Jing asked.
"About a week ago," Alex said. "I was making some pills when I realized that I understood how heat went from one body to another. So, I wondered if it could go in the opposite direction too."
"After a bit of thinking, I learned a new Dao and now I can transfer heat from cold body to hot body too," Alex said.
"Great!" Shen Jing said. "That's a really good Dao, but it's not Dao of Conductivity. It's the Dao of heat Conductivity."
"To truly learn the Dao of Conductivity, you need to learn the Dao of lightning Conductivity too and mix those two Daos to learn the higher one," Shen Jing explained.
"Ah, I see," Alex said. Lightning… where was he supposed to learn about those from?
'Maybe I can use the electricity back in the Central continent. That might work,' Alex thought.
"Will Pearl ever learn some Dao?" Alex asked.
Shen Jing made a weird, hesitating face. "Yeah, I'm worried he might reach the peak of Saint realm too quickly and not learn any Dao. So when the Tribulation lightning does come eventually, he will definitely fail and remain as a false Immortal."
"What? He will fail?" Alex asked in surprise.
"If he doesn't learn a Dao. He's too young for that. Which is why I am not pushing you to get him to evolve, even though it would be faster."
"Being fast would only hurt him in this scenario. He needs to mature before grasping Daos," Shen Jing said.
"I see," Alex said. "That does make sense."
"Alright, come. Attack me some more," Shen Jing said and the three of them got to fighting again.
After an hour or so of fighting, Shen Jing finally left and Alex returned back to the Capital and went to the Palace.
In the last month, he had already made a lot of pills and medicinal pastes for the royal family. He was sure that he didn't need to do anything for them for the next 3 months or so.
He had also already learned a lot of the things he wanted to learn regarding sickness and diseases. Of course, there was a lot more to learn, but he had managed to learn most of the books in the Royal archives.
If he wanted to learn more, he would have to go out and find books of his own.
Alex checked the twenty thousand true spirit stones in his storage bag and thought to do something with them.
He had so many of those medicinal pastes, and yet they were being wasted by simply sitting in a storage bag when there were so many out there that needed its help.
The royal family, especially the princess only cared for the Lightsworns and cared that they were never hurt or injured from their missions.
If they were, they would get their treatment. Other than that, she may care for her family. She had a duty to her family and people.
However, Alex didn't. His only duty here was providing aid in their transition. Which, he had done for the next 3 months.
So, for 3 months, he was free to help those he wanted to. Thus, Alex decided to go make the medicinal pastes for those that would require them.
The common folks.
For that, he would need to become a well-known doctor. Which meant Alex needed to open up a clinic of his own.
Fortunately, he had plenty of money for that.
