Chapter 8

Feiyun Peak, a mountain peak outside the Qingyun Sect.

Ye Chen sat cross-legged on a cliffside stone platform at the peak, his hands forming the seals of a cultivation technique, deeply immersed in his practice.

Beside him lay a fine steel sword, and not far ahead was the vast sea of clouds, where the mist swirled and changed unpredictably.

After selecting a cultivation technique from the Martial Arts Pavilion, Ye Chen had been diligently practicing his true qi and techniques here every day.

It was now the twenty-second day since he had started his cultivation here.

After sitting in meditation for a long time, Ye Chen suddenly felt a tremor in his body. Countless threads of true qi from the heavens and earth rushed toward him from all directions, forming a vortex and pouring into his body, eventually converging into his dantian.

After a long while, Ye Chen exhaled a turbid breath, opened his eyes, and stood up. As his eyes opened, a sharp light flashed in his pupils and then vanished.

"Twenty-two days, and I have finally successfully broken through to the fourth level of true qi!"

Ye Chen raised his hand, and a green true qi shot out from his palm, causing a pile of rocks at the cliff's edge to scatter in all directions.

Then, he flipped his palm, and the four true qi vortices in his dantian suddenly trembled, releasing a massive amount of true qi that shattered the scattered rocks into fragments.

Ye Chen retracted his palm, and the pale green qi light re-entered his body. At this moment, a breeze blew through the cliff, making his long hair flutter and his clothes rustle.

Under his clothes, his once slender body had become perfectly proportioned, filled with immense strength.

In just twenty-two days, he had advanced from the third level of true qi to the fourth level. If this news spread, it would shock countless formal disciples of the Qingyun Sect!

"This is truly an unparalleled divine technique. The first level of the 'Meridian Cultivation Technique' is simply too powerful!"

Ye Chen looked at his palm and then at the rocks that had been shattered into fragments, muttering to himself.

During these twenty-two days, he had diligently practiced and successfully completed the cultivation of the eight extraordinary meridians and the first five of the thirty-three wheel meridians.

On the day he completed the cultivation of the eight extraordinary meridians, Ye Chen clearly felt a qualitative leap in his physical condition.

His hearing and vision were sharp, his mouth was moist, and he could sense the breathing of the plants and trees within a few meters even with his eyes closed.

This was a manifestation of his body reaching an excellent state!

Not only had his physical condition undergone a qualitative leap, but after unblocking the eight extraordinary meridians, his true qi cultivation had also brought unexpected benefits.

Not only did the amount of true qi he cultivated daily increase, but the speed at which his true qi recovered after depletion also increased several times.

Because of this, he could practice for longer hours each day, achieving better results, and thus breaking through to the fourth level of true qi in just twenty-two days!

The more advanced the true qi realm, the more true qi was required for further advancement. However, Ye Chen was now confident that he could break through to the fifth level of true qi, and even the sixth level, before the Qingyun Sect's outer sect disciple assessment.

"Unblocking the eight extraordinary meridians has such an effect."

"I wonder what new changes my body will undergo when I completely cultivate the first level of the 'Meridian Cultivation Technique' and unblock all thirty-three wheel meridians, allowing the 'Qi Meridians, Eight Extraordinary Meridians, and Thirty-Three Wheel Meridians' to operate together."

Ye Chen was eagerly looking forward to this day.

He was even more eager to re-enter the Star Tower and obtain the second level of the 'Gangyuan Chapter' technique.

He wanted to see what other incredible cultivation methods he would learn after the 'Meridian Cultivation Technique'.

After experiencing the changes in his body upon reaching the fourth level of true qi, Ye Chen picked up the fine steel sword beside him.

He began to practice the 'Torrential Rain Sword Technique'.

The 'Torrential Rain Sword Technique' was a partial technique, with the latter part of the manual clearly torn away, leaving only a small portion of the pages.

These pages recorded three sword techniques: 'Torrential Rain Falling', 'Torrential Rain Splashing', and 'Torrential Rain Covering the Sky'.

Through his practice over these days, Ye Chen had thoroughly understood this middle-grade yellow technique.

In the introduction of the 'Torrential Rain Sword Technique' in the Martial Arts Pavilion, it was stated that this technique originally belonged to the upper-grade yellow category, but due to only the first three techniques remaining, it was classified as a middle-grade yellow technique. This technique had the strongest offensive power among all the techniques in the second floor of the Martial Arts Pavilion.

After genuine cultivation, Ye Chen realized that this statement was not exaggerated.

The first technique of the 'Torrential Rain Sword Technique', 'Torrential Rain Falling', alone felt as powerful as a middle-grade yellow technique.

This was a swift killing technique, with extremely fast sword movements. It required seven strikes in the blink of an eye to be considered fully cultivated.

As the saying goes, "There is no invincible martial art except speed." Being able to strike seven times in the blink of an eye meant that the opponent might not even react before dying from the sword.

This was a true killing technique, like a torrential rain falling from the sky, striking with lethal force.

The technique's immense power meant that it was also extremely difficult to cultivate. After practicing, Ye Chen finally understood why the Martial Arts Pavilion's guardian elder had said that this technique was very difficult to cultivate, and many Qingyun Sect disciples had gained nothing after a month of hard practice.

This killing technique was indeed very difficult to cultivate.

Even with the unique insight Ye Chen had after his soul fused with this body, it still took him thirteen days to fully cultivate the first technique, 'Torrential Rain Falling'.

*Whoosh!*

On the cliffside stone platform of Feiyun Peak, Ye Chen, holding the fine steel sword, moved his wrist slightly, and the sword shot out like lightning.

At the moment of the strike, the tip of the sword trembled, and the sword light instantly bloomed like starlight.

*Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!*

Seven sword sounds echoed as the fine steel sword pierced the cliff wall at an incredible speed, instantly creating seven small holes.

These seven holes were identical, piercing the cliff wall with extreme precision and depth.

This was a manifestation of perfectly concentrated force, with no waste, all forming lethal power.

Looking up, one could see many such holes on the cliff wall, all created by Ye Chen's practice over these days.

After practicing the first technique, 'Torrential Rain Falling', Ye Chen changed his sword technique, and the sword movements became fluid.

*Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!*

This time, he did not limit himself to seven strikes per sword, but rather, the sword moved without a trace, striking from the left and then the top in the next moment.

'Torrential Rain Splashing', rain falling in all directions, wherever the raindrops fell, the sword followed!

This was the second technique of the 'Torrential Rain Sword Technique', 'Torrential Rain Splashing'.

This technique seemed to be a random series of strikes, but the sword movements were bizarre and the speed even faster and more astonishing than the first technique, 'Torrential Rain Falling'.

In the manual of the 'Torrential Rain Sword Technique', it was stated that when this technique was fully cultivated, ten sparrows flying out of a bag in all directions could be killed with a single strike.

The difficulty of cultivating this technique was even greater than the first technique, 'Torrential Rain Falling'. Ye Chen spent seven days without fully understanding it.

It was only on the day he unblocked the eight extraordinary meridians, with his body's sensitivity to the external environment greatly increased, that he entered a wondrous sword technique realm and completed the cultivation of this technique.

This wondrous sword technique realm, called 'Sword Following the Heart', was one of the three realms of sword cultivation.

The first realm was 'Learning Techniques by Seeing', where many sword cultivators spent decades still in this state.

The second realm was 'Sword Following the Heart', where the sword pointed was the technique, fully integrating the sword technique into one's understanding. Each move had no fixed form but achieved the best sword technique effect.

Ye Chen had entered this realm by chance, successfully cultivating the second technique of the 'Torrential Rain Sword Technique'.

The highest realm of sword cultivation, the third realm, was 'Understanding Sword Intent'. In this realm, one could transcend the sword technique itself, reaching the essence of the sword. In this state, everything could be transformed into a sword and a sword technique.

This extremely high realm of sword cultivation was said to be achieved by very few 'Spirit Sea Realm' experts, and among 'True Qi Realm' cultivators, it was one in ten thousand.

Although Ye Chen had reached the 'Sword Following the Heart' realm, he was still far from 'Understanding Sword Intent'.

On the cliff, Ye Chen, practicing the 'Torrential Rain Splashing' technique, made his fine steel sword seem to disappear, with only sharp sword lights visible on the entire cliff platform.

After practicing for half an hour, Ye Chen stopped and began to practice the second technique, the middle-grade yellow technique, the 'Surprised Swallow Step'.

In the following days, Ye Chen continued to practice on Feiyun Peak.

The days of practice were short, and before he knew it, a month had passed.

The day to return the two technique manuals to the Martial Arts Pavilion finally arrived.

After breakfast, Ye Chen left the courtyard, crossed the mountain gate square, and headed toward the Martial Arts Pavilion.

Just as he saw the Martial Arts Pavilion from a distance, a figure blocked his path: "Ye Chen, Senior Brother Wang Yuan has called you to his courtyard. Hurry up and go!"

The speaker was a horse-faced youth whom Ye Chen recognized as Ma Jiu, one of Wang Yuan's lackeys.

Ma Jiu was at the third level of true qi, and he usually followed Wang Yuan around, being extremely arrogant and a bully among the nominal disciples.

The old Ye Chen had suffered a lot from Wang Yuan and Ma Jiu, but now that Ye Chen had cultivated to the fourth level of true qi and mastered the first two techniques of the 'Torrential Rain Sword Technique', even the third technique, 'Torrential Rain Covering the Sky', had some progress. Ma Jiu was no match for him, let alone Wang Yuan.

"That Wang Yuan has a good memory, even sending you to wait for me here!"

Ye Chen looked at Ma Jiu and sneered.

He remembered that a month ago, when he came to the Martial Arts Pavilion to select a technique, he had encountered Wang Yuan, who had said that he would use him as a human punching bag after a month.

Now that the day to return the manuals had arrived, Wang Yuan was indeed persistent, coming to find him.

"Go when you're called, why are you talking so much! Senior Brother Wang Yuan has just finished cultivating a technique and needs you to feed his moves. If you keep talking, I'll loosen your bones first!" Ma Jiu rubbed his fists and walked toward Ye Chen.

Ye Chen gave Ma Jiu a cold look: "Get lost. If Wang Yuan wants me to feed his moves, let him come himself."

Both of them had selected new techniques from the Martial Arts Pavilion a month ago. Ye Chen also wanted to test his skills against Wang Yuan, both to avenge being used as a human punching bag and to test the power of the 'Torrential Rain Sword Technique'.

Ye Chen's attitude made Ma Jiu furious: "You fool, telling me to get lost? You have no idea how high the sky is and how deep the earth is!"

*Slap!*

Ma Jiu's hand clawed at Ye Chen, but just as his hand was about to touch Ye Chen's body, Ye Chen did not dodge. Instead, he slapped Ma Jiu's face directly.

*Slap!*

This slap sent Ma Jiu flying several meters away, knocking out a few of his teeth.

Ma J