The Journey of Projection Upgrading
Chapter 193: Practitioner

Only those who have nothing will practice martial arts.

This sentence stunned Chen An at the time, leaving him silent in place for a long time, unsure of what to say.

Then he understood where the martial arts skills of the Liu family master and others came from.

They took drugs.

Yes, they took pill drugs.

In this world, there are not only cultivators, but also many practitioners who refine pills.

And purely in terms of effectiveness, they are much stronger than the pills in the Great Liang World.

For example, the cultivation of the Liu family master and others was achieved by taking drugs. They didn't suffer any hardships throughout the process and never seriously practiced martial arts. They just took drugs directly and became powerful.

This really made Chen An envious.

He, on the other hand, although he spent most of his time cheating in his martial arts training, he still suffered a lot. At least, the sweat he shed was real, without any faking it.

Even when he could spend money on source energy for cheating, he accumulated it bit by bit on his own.

Unlike the people of the Liu family, who could directly improve their cultivation by taking drugs.

Seeing this, Chen An suddenly felt that the decline of martial arts in this world seemed to have some basis.

Compared to cultivation, martial arts practice is tiring and time-consuming, with a limited ceiling. In this world, one can only cultivate up to the level of body forging.

As for those related to immortals...

They don't even need to be practitioners themselves. They just need to have some connection with the practitioners to obtain pills through those relationships, effortlessly improving their cultivation.

Who would be willing to practice martial arts hard laboriously?

Chen An sighed quietly to himself, then his face returned to normal.

A moment later, led by the Liu family master, they walked to the other side.

It was a grand hall, very close to the location of the city lord's mansion.

There were people already counting in front of the hall.

"Three from the Chen family, two in the lower grade."

Voices drifted over, sounding like they were counting the number of people.

"Isn't this the Liu family master?"

Seeing the person responsible for counting, the Liu family master politely bowed and then led Chen An and the others forward.

"Two from the Liu family, one in the intermediate grade."

The hoarse voice continued to echo in place, pausing slightly when it reached the intermediate grade.

And as this voice echoed around, all eyes turned towards Chen An, focusing on him.

Even with Chen An's senses, he could easily feel the faint discussions going on around, despite being weak.

Many of the prestigious families in Jiulin City had a fair idea of Chen An's presence.

After all, the uproar caused by Chen An previously was quite significant.

However, they were somewhat surprised by Chen An's final choice of the Liu family. They even found it somewhat astonishing. Among the prestigious families, the Liu family's power was not particularly strong, just a rising star.

"Congratulations, Master Liu."

Glancing at Chen An, the announcer soon turned his gaze to the Liu family master, showing a smile. "It seems that this time, Master Liu will definitely receive a reward."

"A talent of intermediate grade, I wonder what rewards will be given."

His tone sounded envious.

The Liu family master, however, remained calm and just smiled apologetically, "Where, where, it's just luck, I dare not ask for rewards."

"Alright, please proceed inside quickly."

Nodding, the announcer let Chen An and the others enter.

As for the Liu family master, he was left outside and couldn't follow them in.

Chen An was not surprised, just leading the two behind him to walk forward.

Special servants came forward to guide them.

After a while, they entered the hall.

Many people were already standing inside.

A rough estimate revealed about fifty to sixty people, and the number was still growing.

These should be the immortal seedlings gathered by the various prestigious families in Jiulin City.

The numbers seemed to add up.

Chen An nodded inwardly, then was guided to the front by the servant.

The two children behind him instinctively wanted to follow but were held back and stood at the back.

Although there were many people here, there was still a basic order.

The fewer people up front, the more at the back.

As for the criteria for sorting, it seemed to be based on talent?

Chen An pondered, then, unconsciously, found himself at the front.

Looking up, except for those standing behind, there were no people on either side at the front.

This startled him.

Could this be possible?

How is this place organized, leaving only one person in the real talent, even in the intermediate grade?

He looked behind, feeling a sense of absurdity.

He was well aware of his talent and it was definitely not top-notch.

Back in the Great Liang World, the Empress Luoshan had evaluated his talent and deemed his martial arts talent top-notch but his cultivation talent mediocre. He was just an ordinary choice.

At that time, Chen An was a bit discouraged, feeling that he might never escape the curse of mediocre talent in his lifetime.

But now, looking at it...

Isn't this still good?

What Luoshan the Empress called mediocre, in this place, was almost a downgrade.

With a glance, he realized that even in the group behind him, there were fewer people than there were in the intermediate grade, let alone the primary grade, accounting for only a third of all.

The rest were all lower grade talents.

Could it be this way?

Chen An felt speechless. At that moment, he understood why the Liu family treated him so well and protected him like a treasure.

He had felt a bit embarrassed before.

But now, it seemed he was naive.

In the eyes of these people, he was truly a treasure.

Indeed.

At this moment, Chen An stood there, essentially the core and focus of everyone.

If this wasn't being treated like a treasure, then what would be?

Ignoring the gazes from all around, he couldn't help feeling awkward.

It's hard for me to get used to this.

He silently complained in his heart, but his expression remained unchanged, always maintaining a calm demeanor, exuding a sense of being indifferent to honor or disgrace like a great general.

After a while, Chen An wasn't the only one standing there.

A girl walked in from the outside, looking proud with her head held high. She was dressed in a red robe, resembling a proud phoenix displaying her colors, garnering attention from all around.

"This is Liu Roujun, the eldest daughter of the City Lord's family."

Chen An listened to the whispers around him. "I didn't expect her to come this time."

The eldest daughter of the City Lord's family?

Chen An had this thought in mind and followed the gaze of the others.

As his gaze fell on her, the girl walked forward, and then, to Chen An's somewhat surprised gaze, she walked up to him.

This daughter of the City Lord, turned out to be an intermediate-grade talent.

And judging by the reactions and whispers of those around, she wasn't just any ordinary talent like Chen An but an upper-tier intermediate-grade talent.

In other words, this daughter of the City Lord was just one step away from being a top-tier talent, with a noble background, making her a precious daughter of heaven.

It seemed the girl sensed Chen An's gaze, turned around, nodded at him, and then moved to the side, not showing any interest in talking.

Chen An smiled in return but then, seeing her lack of interest in conversation, he didn't want to embarrass himself and kept quiet, just standing quietly to the side.

In a way, the arrival of this daughter of the City Lord finally made Chen An less awkward.

Earlier, being the first in the front row was really chilling.

Now, he finally had someone to share the pressure with him. Wasn't this a good thing?

Time passed slowly.

About half an hour later, people started to enter from outside.

Then, some walked into the hall.

It was a middle-aged man with a serious face, wearing a gray Taoist robe, looking serious overall.

He stood in front of the high platform, gazing at the people beneath and didn't say much. He simply said, "Everyone, follow me."

With that, he left directly.

Behind, Chen An and the others exchanged glances and then walked forward without hesitation.

Leaving the grand hall, they approached a row of carriages.

Chen An was somewhat surprised.

He originally thought that practitioners like them, although not making a big scene, would have different modes of transportation than ordinary people, right?

To his surprise, they ended up using carriages.

But even though he was astonished, he didn’t say anything on the surface. He just sat neatly inside the carriage.

The treatment of an intermediate-grade talent took a hit again.

Around them, others shared carriages with six or seven people, but in the case of Chen An and Liu Roujun, it was just the two of them.

There was no choice. It was because they were the only two intermediate-grade talents.

The man seemed to distribute them straightforwardly.

Before entering the carriage, Chen An looked back at the middle-aged man and curiously pondered.

This was the first time he had seen the lifestyle of practitioners, apart from Bai Qing.

Although Bai Qing was also a practitioner, in the Great Liang World, due to the nature of that world, many of the peculiarities didn't manifest, making it seem just like before, with no difference.

Compared to that, the practitioner before him was more worthy of study.

"Strength roughly equivalent to internal energy?"

Chen An glanced at him, the thought crossing his mind.

The man was not a martial artist, so his strength could not be assessed based on martial arts characteristics.

However, as a Grandmaster of the Pre-Natal Sect, his own Qi sense was still strong. By sensing the other party's strength, he could understand it roughly.

And after sensing it, the man's strength seemed to be roughly equivalent to a Grandmaster of Internal Energy.

This strength didn't seem like much to Chen An, but here it was quite remarkable.

After all, the highest level a martial artist could cultivate to was the peak of body forging.

In that case, a practitioner with the strength equivalent to a Grandmaster of Internal Energy was a considerable advantage here.

(End of this chapter)

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