"Ah, then there's nothing we can do...," the four old men grumbled dejectedly.
But Xiaokai added, "However..."
"However what?" The four old men perked up!
"However, we can make a trade," Xiaokai grinned mischievously. "I'm not a narrow-minded person. If you can offer me enough benefits, I can teach you this incredibly mysterious mahjong array."
Xiaokai wasn't worried about what problems would arise if the four old men learned the array. After all, these four old men were clearly trapped inside the Wordless Heavenly Book, unlike Xiaoguan, who could come and go freely. These four old men were imprisoned and didn't know when they would be released. Moreover, their unique skills would be very useful to Xiaokai.
"Agreed, agreed," the four old men nodded repeatedly. "It's a deal. What do you want?"
"I want treasures," Xiaokai stated plainly. "And, I want to learn cultivation."
The four old men suddenly fell silent, exchanging peculiar expressions, looking at each other without saying a word.
"What's wrong? Is it not possible?" Xiaokai became a little anxious. "I know you are very powerful, and I don't want to learn your secret techniques. I just need you to teach me some basic cultivation methods."
His plan was going quite smoothly. Since the four old men had once fought against the Demon Lord and were undoubtedly experts from a thousand years ago, based on the information he had gathered over these few days, the strength of cultivators a thousand years ago was at least ten times higher than it is now. In other words, a second-rate expert at that time would be a top-tier master today. Besides, the person imprisoned in the Wordless Heavenly Book was surely not an ordinary individual, and these four old men, even a thousand years ago, were undoubtedly formidable figures. Whatever he learned from them would likely not be inferior to the cultivation methods of the six major sects.
"Ah, my friend, you are unaware," an old man sighed, "The cultivation method we practice is not something worth keeping secret. Just by looking at the profoundness of this mahjong formation, it far surpasses our cultivation method. What troubles us is only the immortal tool..."
"You...don't you..." Xiaokai swallowed and said, "I heard that cultivators have many treasures. I think Master Songfeng's Demon Refining Furnace is quite cool. As senior practitioners, you shouldn't have nothing, right?"
"Of course we had them before," the old man's tone was hesitant and somewhat lost. "In fact...we don't even know what state we are in now...Our current bodies don't seem to be our original ones...you see, the four of us look exactly the same now, but it wasn't like this before..."
"What were they like?" Xiaokai was also confused and asked.
"I think our current bodies should have been re-cultivated," the old man frowned, showing a pensive look, and said slowly, "If I'm not mistaken, we should have used a very long time to cultivate these bodies with our own vitality. And our original bodies, long ago, had already been destroyed."
The old man looked at Xiaokai, who was speechless, and said, "In other words, in fact, a long time ago, we had only the soul left."
"Yes, it should be like this," another old man took over, "Logically, if there's only the soul, it will disperse at any time. But the place we are in now is very strange. Any immortal aura and soul aura cannot penetrate it, so our souls are forcibly imprisoned by it and preserved. Moreover, this place can even generate very weak immortal aura out of nothing. It's with this immortal aura that we slowly accumulated and built up, I don't know how many years passed, anyway, up to now, we finally managed to condense our bodies again."
The third old man took over and said naturally, "Therefore, although we had many treasures in the past, now, we have nothing left."
After the four old men finished speaking, they looked helpless, but the uncontrollable eager look on their faces easily betrayed them. Although they couldn't produce immortal tools, they were full of longing for Xiaokai's mahjong formation.
"So that's how it is," Xiaokai nodded, "Can't you craft your own tools? I remember that cultivators craft their own treasures. At the very least, you should have a flying sword."
"That's true," the four old men nodded, "But now we don't have any treasures for crafting, and no crafting materials, so we can't craft any treasures."
"Alright, alright," Xiaokai realized, "Immortal tools cannot be forced. Having a cultivation method is already good, at least it solves the problem of our basic cultivation. I don't want to be the chosen gate master and go to the six major sects to seek advice on the basic cultivation method, that would be very embarrassing."
"So, friend, do you agree to the exchange?" The four old men looked pleasantly surprised, "Rest assured, friend, we will definitely pass on everything we have learned in our lives and not keep anything secret!"
"Hehe, hehe," Xiaokai felt proud, "Don't waste time, I'll write down the usage method of the mahjong formation for you now, just wait for it." He rummaged through the room and surprisingly found a pen. Using a piece of paper as a writing pad, he began writing the "Comprehensive Rules for Winning at Mahjong."
As for the "Comprehensive Rules for Winning at Mahjong," it is essentially a collection of various methods for winning at mahjong, as well as the requirements for winning at mahjong. These things are very simple to any modern person. Xiaokai completed the writing in one go, probably taking only ten minutes. As soon as he put down the pen, he heard a urgent knocking at the door, accompanied by Xiaolin's eager voice: "Xiaokai, Xiaokai, come out quickly!"
Xiaokai hurriedly threw his work into the Book of No Words, then put the book in his arms, opened the door, and joked, "Hey, I am the chosen gate master, how can you just call me by my name? I will tell your master about it."
"Tch, don't get cocky, you're in big trouble," Xiaolin looked indifferent and said coldly, "Come with me, your master is waiting at the Cloud Mist Grand Hall to take care of you!"
"Why does he want to take care of me?" Xiaokai was startled.
"Just come," Xiaolin immediately replied, "Lie down, on a stretcher."
Xiaokai stuck out his tongue and didn't say a word.
The Cloud Mist Grand Hall of the Yellow Mountain is the main conference hall of the Yellow Mountain Sect. When Xiaokai walked in, it was already crowded with people.
Master Songfeng sat in the middle of the hall, with a frosty expression. On his left and right were the leaders of the other five major sects. At the moment, Master Feihe from the Kunlun Sect and Qingyou from the Qingcheng Sect had smug looks on their faces. Mr. Greenbrows of the Shushan Sect had an indignant look, while the head of the Meiren from the Liuyun Shuixie sect still had a calm and composed appearance, giving the impression of not caring about worldly affairs. Under the hall stood dozens of disciples of the Yellow Mountain Sect. At a rough count, there were at least forty to fifty people. When they saw Xiaokai come in, all eyes turned towards him.
"Ahem," Master Songfeng cleared his throat and said, "Since the chosen gate master is here, let us begin."
"What's going on?" Xiaokai was scared when he saw the room full of people. "What do you want from me?"
"Humph, how dare you ask what's going on," Mr. Greenbrows, the head of the Shushan sect, didn't disappoint with his righteous indignation, and was the first to speak out, "Not only did you disrupt the once-in-a-hundred-years gathering of the cultivation world yesterday, but you also severed the millennium-old spiritual vein of the Yellow Mountain. Don't you think you've gone too far?"
Master Songfeng took a deep breath and said solemnly, "Master Xiaokai, I, Songfeng, am not someone who makes trouble for no reason. It's just that the spiritual vein of Yellow Mountain is the most crucial support for our place in the six major sects. With all six sect masters present, I, Songfeng, have no need to conceal the fact. The truth is, the Yellow Mountain's cultivation method is indeed inferior to those of Emei, Shushan, Qingcheng, and Kunlun. The reason why we have been able to stand firmly among the six major sects for thousands of years has been entirely due to this spiritual vein. Now that you and Master Xuefeng have destroyed our spiritual vein, although I know that it was not intentional, I must still give an explanation to the thousands of Yellow Mountain disciples."
This statement was quite reasonable. Xiaokai looked around and saw countless Yellow Mountain disciples looking at him with great indignation. Even his usually friendly senior sister Xiaolin wore an angry look and clenched her fists, looking as if she wanted to punch Xiaokai's cheek. Strangely, all the gazes of these people were directed at him, and no one was looking at Xuefeng. Xiaokai couldn't help but feel uneasy and unkindly thought to himself, "Did Xuefeng blame all the faults on me?"