Chapter 35: Cultivating Qi Realm, Tenth Layer

  P.S: Recommendations wanted!

  Standing upright in the center of the martial arena, Ye Chen's figure was like a sharp sword, an unsheathed sharp sword.

  "This guy is really scary. If beating Huang Bingwen proved his super strong fighting power, then beating the genius Zhang Haoran can only prove that he's a freak."

  "That's right, a genius skipping levels isn't scary, what's scary is that the one being defeated is also a genius, just like someone challenging Master Sister."

  "This is impossible, in the Tianfeng Nation's younger generation, no one can surpass Master Sister."

  "I'm just making an analogy!"

  On one knee on the ground, Zhang Hao Ran's left hand supported his fractured right arm, he lifted his head, his lips were filled with fresh blood, and slid to his chin. He said viciously: "No one can defeat me, Zhang Hao Ran, you can't either, Ye Chen. Wait for me, within five months, you must become an inner disciple, at that time I will come to challenge you again."

  Everyone shook their heads, Ye Chen was only at the 9th layer of Qi Refining Realm and could already defeat you, what chance would you have when he becomes an inner disciple?

  Ye Chen somewhat admired Zhang Haoran, this man although arrogant and self-righteous, thinking no one can compare to him, but his unyielding determination is astonishing, never knowing what retreat means. On the other hand, Huang Bingwen was far inferior, after one defeat he would hide in the crowd, who knows what evil plans he might be making behind people's backs, this kind of temperament cannot achieve great things.

  "Alright, I'll give you a chance to challenge me. And within five months, I will definitely become an inner disciple." Facing someone with determination, Ye Chen didn't utter any sarcastic remarks.

  With a sudden movement, Zhang Hao Ran stood up and looked at Ye Chen deeply, "You are very strong, I, Zhang Hao Ran, lost to you without regret, but wanting me to yield is impossible."

  After finishing speaking, he walked down from the stage with strength.

  "Hmm, a proud and arrogant attitude, not bad!" The martial arts stage was surrounded by spectator stands, which extended upwards in layers to a height of six zhang. On the outer edge of the high platform, a young man wearing green clothes was leisurely fanning himself with a fan.

  Next to him, a young man holding an iron sword in his arms said faintly: "At the age of 13, becoming a condensed true realm warrior should be among the top five in Liuyun Sect for ten years."

  The green-clothed youth nodded, "When he grows up, he will be our opponent. As for the other one, I'm very curious, how does he have such great power, even surpassing Xu Jing, a core disciple."

  "He's not worth worrying about. After reaching the realm of condensing truth, physical strength can no longer dominate victory or defeat. Instead, his defense is a bit tricky, and I've never seen it before."

  "Everyone has their own secrets, didn't you also learn a sword technique in Ghost Wailing Forest?" The green-clothed youth smiled and said, "Let's go! We're too idle."

  The young man with a sword nodded and left the Martial Arts Square with the green-clothed youth.

  If someone saw these two, they would definitely recognize their identities. The young man with the sword was one of the top ten inner disciples of Liuyun Sect, named Li Kuang. His swordsmanship could make ghosts weep, and he had the reputation of "Ghost Sword" in the northern part of Tianfeng Country. The green-clothed youth was named Pei Shaqing, ranked above Li Kuang. Although he looked young, his attitude and aura were extremely ruthless, and when fighting with others, it was either injury or death.

  Two people had just returned from completing a sect mission outside and saw that there were many people on the Martial Arts Square, so they came over to take a look, not specifically to watch the martial arts competition.

  On the way back to their residence, Wu Zongming looked at Ye Chen with a puzzled expression, "Ye Chen, your progress is too great! Now you've even surpassed me by a wide margin."

  Ye Chen couldn't explain everything that was happening to him and said: "Is it a big improvement? I don't feel anything."

  "Think about it, when you were in the Wooden Man's Lane, you were still at the sixth level of Qi Refining Realm. Now, you're already at the ninth level of Qi Refining Realm, and not just any ordinary ninth level of Qi Refining Realm. Who knows what kind of monster you'll become once you advance to the Condensing Reality Realm."

  "Hmm, maybe I just had an epiphany!"

  At this, Wu Zongming unexpectedly nodded his head, "What you said isn't unreasonable. Some people are mediocre at first but suddenly rise to prominence in the middle period. You might be that kind of person."

  Ashamed of myself.

  ……

  Days passed by one after another, Ye Chen didn't live up to everyone's expectations of being high-profile, instead he stayed indoors all day long, and even when he went out, it was only to his training location - the cliff.

  During this period, Zhang Haoran and Wu Zongming officially became inner disciples.

  Inner disciples have their own waist cards, the back of which is written with their names. With it, they can freely enter and exit the Wuguan Pavilion, top-level secret books, and also accept sect missions to travel the world and make a name for themselves.

  Of course, traveling the world of martial arts has its dangers. In the past decade, many inner sect disciples of Yunwu Sect have died, some were secretly attacked by petty thieves, some were killed by top masters of the dark way, some were ambushed and killed by disciples of other sects, and some completely disappeared without a trace, their bodies never found.

  Despite this, the upper echelons of the Flowing Cloud Sect still did not take any measures to reduce the casualties among their inner sect disciples. To them, even the most beautiful flowers in a greenhouse could not withstand the wind and rain, and could not become great vessels. They had to let them go out into the world to struggle and grow strong, in order to lay a solid foundation for the future.

  However, Zhang Hao Ran and Wu Zong Ming do not need to go on a mission for the time being. As an inner door disciple for half a year, the high-level allows them to focus on cultivating martial arts, increasing their strength, and after half a year, they can rely on this big grindstone of Jianghu to hone their will and martial arts talent.

  While everyone else is working hard, Ye Chen works even harder.

  Every day, apart from practicing the third move of the Jade Tempering Technique, he would also use spirit stones to cultivate.

  After Ye Chen absorbed the spiritual energy from the Xiantian Blue Jade, he no longer needed to absorb jade energy. What remained was his mastery of the technique, which allowed every inch of flesh and blood in his body to be connected. Once this connection was established, defense became imperceptible, with no weaknesses whatsoever.

  It has to be said that the strange fish's flesh helped Ye Chen a lot, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to practice the third move of the Tempering Jade Strong Body Technique to this level so quickly. Even a cultivator in the early stages of the Condensing True Realm would find it difficult to harm him in the slightest.

  As the strange fish's flesh was about to be consumed, Ye Chen's strength stalled at 10,000 jin. From then on, every additional 10 jin of force required a hundredfold or thousandfold increase in effort, almost reaching the limits of his physical body. To continue increasing his power, he had to make a breakthrough.

  At night, a bright moon hangs high in the sky.

  The bright moonlight shines through the window, casting a hazy glow on the room. Outside, the shadows of trees are attached to it, adding a sense of mystery and depth.

  Ye Chen sat on the bed, his hands each grasping a piece of spiritual stone, embracing Yuan Shouyi.

  Originally, Ye Chen did not dare to use two pieces of Ling Stone for cultivation. Although this would double the speed of his internal energy improvement, the vast and powerful Ling Stone aura would burst his meridians, rendering him a useless person. However, since his physical quality had greatly increased, and he was close to mastering the third move of the Tempering Jade Technique, using one piece of Ling Stone for cultivation was now child's play. It wasn't until he used two pieces together that it felt just right.

  As a large amount of spiritual energy transformed into internal energy, the whirlpool in Ye Chen's dantian continued to expand, finally filling it to the brim. Fortunately, the Tempering Jade Strengthening Technique had the effect of strengthening the dantian, and the monster fish's flesh also enhanced the dantian's resilience; otherwise, problems would have easily arisen.

  Buzz!

  The cyclone suddenly compressed by a third and became the same size as before.

  Ye Chen opened his eyes and slowly exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, "Finally reached the peak of the 10th layer of Qi Refining Realm. Breaking through to the Condensing Reality Realm is even harder than I imagined."

  Advancing to the Condensing True Realm requires liquefying internal energy into true energy, a process that is extremely difficult. The further one goes, the more difficult it becomes to compress internal energy, and there may even be backlash. In comparison, Ye Chen's breakthrough has become much simpler, as the pure yuan skill's internal energy is renowned for its purity, making it easy to control and never leading to situations where one's heart has extra power but lacks sufficient strength.

  It's just that when the time comes to officially break through, you can't continue to refine the spiritual stone yuanqi. After all, even if the external yuanqi is refined, it still needs a period of time to grind with the internal qi in the body, which has a great adverse effect on advancing to the condensing true realm.

  He stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the night sky. "The Ye family gathering will start in half a month," he muttered to himself, "it's time to go home."