Chapter 10

"Zhuang Tong seems to have made great progress in his cultivation!"

As soon as they entered the inner courtyard, Ma Yuan muttered softly, his eyes filled with doubt: "He seems to want to challenge Senior Brother, but doesn't seem very confident."

Lin Han also nodded slightly: "He must have some support! He wouldn't dare to do this before."

Zhuang Wudao was also clear in his mind. The Zhuang Tong of the past had long been subdued by him and wouldn't dare to provoke him easily. Today's actions must be backed by something.

This person's strength has likely improved significantly. It could be a spirit weapon, a medicinal pill, or a martial arts technique. In any case, the Zhuang Tong of ten days ago might not be a match for the Zhuang Tong of today.

Being from a wealthy family, this is what makes people envious. The resources Zhuang Tong can use are hundreds of times more than his.

However, Zhuang Wudao has never considered this person as a rival from the beginning. The real difficulties in entering the inner sect of Lichen Sect are far from coming.

What's the point of fighting for this position of chief disciple now? Two months later, that will be the most critical time. All previous efforts will be erased.

"He's just a minor troublemaker, no need to pay attention to him for now."

Lin Han and Ma Yuan understood and chuckled. The small competition in four days will reveal the truth.

After yesterday's battle, both of them had absolute trust in Zhuang Wudao's strength.

No matter what trump card Zhuang Tong has, it can't surpass Zhuang Wudao, who almost shattered Shi Hu's entire skeleton with one punch.

If Zhuang Tong thinks he can easily pull Zhuang Wudao off the position of chief disciple, he is terribly wrong.

According to the duties of the chief disciple of the academy, Zhuang Wudao first paid respects to the head of the academy, Li Xiangnan. This head, at the second level of the Qi Condensation stage, is an outer sect disciple of Lichen Sect. However, due to an internal injury from his early years, not only can he not advance in cultivation, but he is also bedridden and dependent on medicine.

Because of Zhuang Tong, Li Xiangnan was somewhat cold towards Zhuang Wudao, giving him a few indifferent instructions and then dismissing him.

Then, he supervised the large-scale exercises. Lichen Academy has a set of Spirit Sealing Fist. The academy disciples must practice it daily.

It does not conflict with other martial arts and is somewhat similar to the Tiger Taming Fist in the Dragon Subduing and Tiger Taming techniques, which can improve the meridians and bones and strengthen the body. However, its effect is minimal, far less significant than the Tiger Taming Fist.

However, it is said to be related to several inherited techniques of Lichen Sect. Once a disciple joins the inner sect, practicing these techniques can make their cultivation more efficient. Therefore, all academy disciples must practice diligently every day.

Zhuang Wudao has the responsibility to supervise, but he also needs to practice. At noon, under the scorching sun, he performed the Spirit Sealing Fist three times before finishing.

After the large-scale exercises, it was free time.

Originally, he could seek guidance from the knife, fist, and sword instructors in the academy. However, these instructors are at most at the Bone Marrow stage and have nothing more to teach. Although the head is a Qi Condensation stage cultivator, he rarely appears due to his illness. Zhuang Wudao can no longer learn anything in this academy.

This is also the reason why Lichen Academy is declining in Yuecheng. Despite being under the Lichen Sect, it has a quota for entering the sect. However, once a disciple joins this academy, even a genius will become mediocre, and the mediocre will be buried.

The true noble families would never let their children waste time in this academy.

The only thing that can attract Zhuang Wudao in this academy is the twenty-odd spirit rooms. When the academy was built, a spirit-gathering array was set up underneath, making the cultivation effect inside 20% better than outside.

Another attraction is the Martial Arts Pavilion of Lichen Academy, which houses 1,700 complete fist and sword techniques, as well as a comprehensive guide to all internal and external techniques, recording the names and evaluations of all techniques.

Although Zhuang Wudao only specializes in the Dragon Subduing and Tiger Taming techniques, he likes to read these martial arts books in his spare time to broaden his knowledge.

Knowing the characteristics and advantages of several techniques is always beneficial. It allows for mutual learning and prevents being at a loss when encountering them in the future.

As the chief disciple, he can enter and exit freely. Having such a privilege, he naturally uses it.

Today, Zhuang Wudao came here immediately after the large-scale exercises. According to his memory, he took out the two books, "Xingyi Liuhe Xiang Yao" and "Da Sui Bei Shou Zhen Jie."

Yesterday, his curiosity was piqued by the sword spirit Yun'er, who wanted to see what these highly praised martial arts techniques were all about.

After just a moment, Zhuang Wudao frowned. These two sets of fist techniques were just ordinary, and he couldn't see anything extraordinary about them.

Not only did they fall short of the top martial arts, but they were also far behind the Dragon Subduing and Tiger Taming techniques he practiced, at best being third-rate.

However, Yun'er also mentioned that the true transmission of these two techniques might have been lost due to a great calamity.

As for the great calamity and the seven or eight tribulations Yun'er mentioned, Zhuang Wudao was completely confused and didn't understand.

He only knew that the Tianyi nations had a history of ten thousand years, with disasters and human misfortunes every year, but nothing could be called a great calamity.

"Seems it's not much. Well! Let me memorize it first. I'll ask the sword spirit for guidance in my dreams tonight!"

After settling his thoughts, Zhuang Wudao began to focus on memorizing the content of the books. He had a natural talent for remembering things, being able to memorize all books after reading them once or twice. He could also remember the movements of others' martial arts and sword techniques after seeing them once or twice, with no errors.

In his childhood, relying on this talent, Zhuang Wudao secretly listened to the启蒙夫子 (启蒙夫子 means启蒙 teacher,启蒙 means enlightenment, so it can be translated as enlightenment teacher) lectures, gaining a basic understanding of classics and developing a good literary talent. As an adult, he secretly learned the essentials of martial arts.

The instructors always held back, only fully teaching when they encountered generous disciples like Zhuang Tong, who were willing to invest in them.

However, Zhuang Wudao memorized every movement of these instructors' demonstrations. He studied them carefully in private, which led to his current achievements.

Every life-and-death struggle in the city streets could also become his nourishment, continuously improving his martial arts.

The two martial arts books totaled 17,000 characters, accompanied by over a hundred ink drawings. Zhuang Wudao memorized them in just fifteen minutes. Then, he visualized the content in his mind, ensuring he remembered every word correctly before putting the books down.

Next, he walked to the "Horizontal" section. The Martial Arts Pavilion is divided into eight sections: Sword, Fist, Palm, Leg, Knife, Spear, Horizontal, and Miscellaneous. The bookshelves marked with "Horizontal" house all the horizontal cultivation techniques.

Yun'er had mentioned that in addition to the Great Sui Bei Shou and Xingyi Liuhe, he needed to practice a horizontal external technique.

The best would be the Golden Bell Cover, but if not, any other suitable horizontal external technique would also work.

"Golden Bell Cover? There really isn't one—"

After scanning the bookshelves, Zhuang Wudao shook his head slightly. Then, he took out several first-rate horizontal external techniques, memorizing them one by one. Even the Golden Armor Black Gang Body that Shi Hu practiced was among them.

Actually, he had seen these before. He only needed to glance through them to recall everything.

Then, Zhuang Wudao's gaze shifted upwards, focusing on the top shelf of the bookshelf.

In fact, Lichen Academy does have the most top-tier martial arts. There are two sets. One is called the Armor-Piercing Sharp Finger, and the other, in the "Horizontal" section, is called the Bull Demon Yuanba Body. Once cultivated, it not only makes one invulnerable to blades and swords and difficult to approach with divine powers but also grants the strength of a thousand bulls, making it a technique that directly points to the Golden Core stage.

However, these two techniques have a common feature: they are extremely difficult to cultivate. The Armor-Piercing Sharp Finger requires medicinal herbs worth tens of millions of silver to refine the finger bones.

The Bull Demon Yuanba Body is an earth-element external technique, cultivated by borrowing the magnetic earth qi. It requires decades of hard practice to even enter the cultivation stage. It is completely unrelated to talent; one just needs to persist, and it can be cultivated.

However, if one cannot find a suitable magnetic earth vein, it might take thirty to forty years to even reach the Qi Condensation stage, missing the best time for cultivation between the ages of twenty and thirty.

Zhuang Wudao speculated that it was precisely because of the harsh cultivation conditions that Lichen Sect was generous in distributing these two top-tier external techniques to various academies. After all, no one in the world could meet these conditions.

In the past two years, Zhuang Wudao had almost read through the entire Martial Arts Pavilion, but he had never even glanced at these two techniques. Since no one could practice them, they were not useful for reference, and reading them would be pointless.

At this moment, however, he inexplicably took out this long-forgotten martial arts book from the bookshelf.

Only when the book was in his hands did Zhuang Wudao suddenly wake up. After being surprised, he laughed wryly.

It's fine to memorize it. He really wanted to see how Yun'er would make him cultivate the Bull Demon Yuanba Body in three months. Once he could enter the cultivation stage, it would indeed bring many benefits, equivalent to wearing nine layers of iron armor. If he wore another two layers of armor, even cultivators at the first or second level of the Qi Condensation stage, holding the best spirit weapons, would find it difficult to break through his body. He could even resist Dao techniques, such as fire spells and wind blades, which would not be able to harm him.

It would not affect his agility, and he would have the strength of