Martial World

Zhu Yan fiddled with a snow-white porcelain spoon in the bird’s nest soup before him as he waited for Zhang Cang to transmit some good news to him. However at this time, a sound transmitting talisman hadn’t yet been lit.

As lunch was winding down, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in.” Zhu Yan said.

The door slowly opened, and Zhu Yan’s old servant respectfully walked over. This old servant was at the Viscera Training Stage. He bent over to whisper into Zhu Yan’s ear.

As Zhu Yan heard, his complexion abruptly changed!

Peng!

The small gold-threaded bowl in his hand was broken in half by him! “What did you say!?”

Lan Yunyue jumped in fear, but the old servant was used to these reactions. The old servant took half a step back and said once more, “Young master, Zhang Cang was defeated by Lin Ming in three moves. He was severely wounded to the point of spitting blood, and still remains unconscious.”

With such an unexpected result, Zhu Yan was startled and angry, but Lan Yunyue was completely and utterly shocked. Lin Ming actually won? And he defeated Zhang Cang in three moves? He was injured bad enough to make him spit blood?

How could this be? She had been originally been worrying that Zhang Cang would be too cruel with his hand, and did not think that the results would be so bizarre.

Zhu Yan seemed somber and terrifying. Although he had already given Lin Ming a high appraisal, he didn’t that in just one month after coming to the Martial House, Lin Ming would be able to defeat Zhang Cang who was ranked around 100 on the Ranking Stone. If he gave him more time, would this Lin Ming even climb over his own head?

Before now, Zhu Yan had only treated this Lin Ming as an amusing pastime, a cute little prey that he could tease if he were bored. Lin Ming’s talent was inferior, his strength was inferior, and even his family background was inferior. If he had just eaten some valuable and rare material or had some fortuitous encounter, he wouldn’t have thought for a second that Lin Ming could threaten him. Even when it came to coping with Lin Ming, he didn’t want to lower himself to personally doing it, so he had set up traps for him and placed obstacles in his path. None of them had stopped him! And right now, Zhu Yan had a deep, foreboding sense of crisis!

Lin Ming’s growth was just too quick! It was unimaginably fast! Four months ago, he was only at the First Stage of Body Transformation, a pathetic little martial artist who was worrying about how to obtain medicine to cure his wounds. But the next time they had met, he was already the first place candidate of the entrance exam!

Even this did not cause Zhu Yan any concern, but what he did not expect was that in just the span of one month, he had defeated Zhang Cang!

This Lin Ming absolutely had a problem!

There was no mistaking his talent; he was undoubtedly a medium third-grade martial talent.

To progress so quickly in such a short time, what kind of valuable material could he have eaten!?

Or… has he been relying on his heart of martial arts, and actually managed to comprehend a special state of cultivation?

If it was the former, then it wasn’t anything to fear. But if it was the latter…

Thinking of this, Zhu Yan subconsciously clenched his fists, and his knuckles cracked. His heart flowed with a strong sense of unease. This Lin Ming would likely become the enemy of his entire life!

“I must kill him before he grows any further! But… if he stays in the Seven Profound Martial House, even if I use my aunt’s influence, there’s nothing I can do. How should I handle this…?”

…

At the Seven Profound Martial House’s back mountains, a round and bright moon was hanging in the sky as stars twinkled around it.

It was a late autumn night, and the sky was a unique, limped dark blue. It gave one a clear and lofty feeling as they gazed at the wonders of nature.

Under the luminescent curtain of night, Lin Ming stood on a cold rock. His held a spear in one hand, and his forearm was parallel with the shaft. His elbow pressed into the spear end, and the long spear was extending horizontally from his body. This was the basic stance of the ‘Foundation Spear Technique’ – ‘Iron Bridge Blocks the River’.

However this time the spear shaft wasn’t straight, but slightly curved downwards as it trembled lightly. Lin Ming had hung a 100 jin boulder onto the end of the spear point, and it was the stone that was bending down the long spear.

Although the boulder was only 100 jins, because it hung on the tip of the spear, the true weight of it was ten times that. In addition to the weight of Penetrating Rainbow, the total amount that hung on Lin Ming’s arm was above 4000 jins. With Lin Ming’s early Third Stage of Body Transformation, supporting this weight of over 4000 jins as it was pulled down by gravity was already his limit.

As Lin Ming held the spear in his right hand, his left hand was grasping onto a true essence stone. His eyes were closed shut as he circulated its true essence throughout his entire body. This pure true essence flowed continuously into his body where it subtly transformed Lin Ming’s circulation system.

Martial artists usually cultivated the body, rather than their true essence. True essence was water, and the body was a reservoir. Martial artists would constantly cultivate by forging their bodies to build up their strength. Their true essence capacity would then become increasingly large. Therefore no matter how one consumed true essence, even if it was to the very last drop, it would not affect cultivation. As long as they cultivated for one or two days, their body would be restored to peak condition. However, as for the body, once the body suffers damage, then there would even be the possibility that their martial arts cultivation would drop an entire stage.

If Strength Training and Flesh Training stage martial artists’ bodies were like small water puddles, then Viscera Training stage would be comparable to a pond. Altering Muscle and Bone Forging would be like a lake, and after that would be the Pulse Condensation Period, where the meridians would condense, and true essence circulation would accelerate, and the body would be like roiling rivers and raging streams. If all the true essence of the body gathered together and flowed at the same time, it would turn into a vast ocean. This would be the Houtian and Xiantian stages.

With the true essence stone’s true essence transforming the body, it was just like a reservoir that had water forcefully poured into it. This would broaden and expand the reservoir. This sort of cultivation method had far less side effects than using pills, but the difference was that it was much slower, and the requirement of resources was much higher.

In two days, Lin Ming had already used three true essence stones. As Lin Ming’s cultivation grew, the rate at which he would consume true essence stones would only become faster and faster, and it was possible that not even the Seven Profound Martial House could sufficiently supply enough.

“Even if I was a Heavenly Abode disciple like Ling Sen or Ta Ku, who are the top ranked, I might still not have enough true essence stones to cultivate.”

According to the regulations of the Martial House, new disciples of the Seven Profound Martial House would receive true essence stones according to their results on the entrance exam. Afterwards it would depend on one’s rank on the Ranking Stone. If one’s rank was lower than 150, one could receive one true essence stone each month. Rank 120 to 150 would receive two true essence stones per month. Rank 100 to 120, three essence stones per month, and rank 72 to 100, four true essence stones per month… even at the rank of Ling Sen and Ta Ku, they would only receive a dozen or so every month. Although it was many more than an ordinary disciple, if one wanted to depend on true essence stones to cultivate, they would not have enough for daily use.

“How many true essence stones would a core disciple like Qin Xingxuan receive per month? How many can a true disciple of the Seven Profound Valleys receive?

To the common folk of the Sky Fortune Kingdom, a large sect such as the Seven Profound Valleys was simply like a distant mirage, and equally as elusive. This distance from Sky Fortune Kingdom to the Seven Profound Valleys was said to be 100,000 miles. With such a vast distance between them, even if one rode a top-quality horse day in and day out, and swapped horses at every location, it would still take more than half a year of time to cover!

To the common folk who depended on their feet to travel the wide world, a distance of 100,000 miles was enough for them to walk an entire life.

Shaking his head, Lin Ming no longer thought about such remote matters. He had to concentrate on his immediate concern; the next Ten Thousand Killing Array assessment. Lin Min would certainly participate and strive for a good result. The higher he was, the more resources he could attain!

There were only three days left until the ranking war would begin. To sharply increase his strength in these next three days was unrealistic, unless… Lin Ming ate the Crimson Gold Dragon Marrow Pill.

If Lin Ming wasn’t planning on using the medicinal inscription symbol to increase the effects of the Crimson Gold Dragon Marrow Pill, then he would have already eaten it. But if the medicinal inscription symbol were placed on, the Crimson Gold Dragon Marrow Pill’s efficacy would multiply several times over. Lin Ming had taken the Golden Snake Scarlet Pill and the efficacy hadn’t been fully absorbed and wasn’t completely purified yet. If he ate the Crimson Gold Dragon Marrow Pill during this time, then a light consequence would be that the drug efficacy would be wasted. A heavy consequence would be that the true essence he refined would not be pure, and it would cause the foundation of his cultivation to destabilize. It wasn’t worth such a dangerous risk just for a ranking assessment. He intended to use the few days he had left to consolidate the realm of Strength Training’s ‘Flow like Silk’. He continued to practice his spear skills. As for tempering his body with true essence, he would first reach as high a ranking as he could to receive more time at the seven major killing arrays, and then he would decide how to proceed.

Bang!

Lin finally couldn’t hold it any longer, and the 100 jin boulder dropped to the ground, forming a dust cloud as it hit. Lin Ming grabbed ahold of the spear with his left hand, aimed at the boulder, and thrust his spear forwards!

Peng! There was a loud bang as the metal struck stone. An incredible scene occurred; not only was the boulder pierced by Lin Ming’s spear, but the boulder was also shattered into pieces, as if explosive gunpowder had been detonated in the center of the stone. The stone blew up into tiny fragments and scattered all around!