Time Flies, the Twelfth Month Arrives, and Unwelcome Guests Come

The brothers only knew that it was the beginning of the month, and that Junior Disciple Brother had come out an hour or so later than usual.

They did not know that at the start of every month, Ji Boying had to go to Old Yue for a new manual, which delayed him for a while.

They simply assumed it was Junior Disciple Brother's habit to rest for an hour or so at the beginning of each month.

Sure enough, as the sun climbed ever higher, Junior Disciple Brother's frantic figure appeared once more.

They could not see any change in Ji Boying from before. All they could see was Junior Disciple Brother still running in that strange manner, still wildly swinging his sword in that strange way.

They could not see that Ji Boying's internal energy had already changed.

They could only vaguely sense that their junior brother seemed to be running faster and faster.

"Proficiency +1"

"Proficiency +1"

Ji Boying ran with great enthusiasm.

Though his Mount Hua Internal Cultivation Method no longer gained proficiency with every breath,

once practiced to profound depths, the Mount Hua Internal Cultivation Method could naturally increase one's internal energy while walking, sitting, or lying down.

Ji Boying had cultivated the Mount Hua Internal Cultivation Method to the highest realm, and his aptitude was exceptionally outstanding. With every breath, his internal energy grew at a rate far beyond that of ordinary people.

The perfected Mount Hua Internal Cultivation Method naturally also aided the circulation of the Primordial Chaos Technique.

That unceasing, continuous quality made the Primordial Chaos Technique even more seamless and unified.

Though breathing could no longer increase his technique's proficiency, running increased his Golden Wild Goose Technique proficiency, while swinging his sword increased his Rising Sun Vitality Sword proficiency.

And all these movements kept his body active, naturally increasing the proficiency of his Primordial Chaos Technique as well. His internal cultivation, swordplay, and lightness skill all improved together without delaying one another in the slightest.

Days passed one by one, and Ji Boying immersed himself in a life of rapidly improving martial arts.

During those days, Ji Boying did not cross hands with anyone again.

His Primordial Chaos Technique advanced quickly.

According to the realms recorded in the manual, he should already have reached the third level.

Yet according to the record on his own panel, the Primordial Chaos Technique had reached the proficient level.

Primordial Chaos Technique: Proficient (21/600)

Ji Boying had also tested just what level this internal cultivation was at.

According to Yue Buqun, after he had originally cultivated the Mount Hua Internal Cultivation Method to perfection,

his internal energy had already been considered profound, only slightly inferior to Mistress Ning Zhongze's.

Mistress's internal energy was undoubtedly firmly first-rate in the martial world.

After switching to the Primordial Chaos Technique, however, his internal energy had increased as soon as he entered the discipline. He was likely already no weaker than Mistress at that time.

Though his Primordial Chaos Technique had not yet reached a particularly high realm and was only at the third level, he had the perfected Mount Hua Internal Cultivation Method as his foundation. His internal energy grew with every breath, and his foundation was inherently robust.

So although his Primordial Chaos Technique was only at the third level, Ji Boying felt that he had probably surpassed Mistress by a considerable margin already.

Wanting to test just how strong his internal energy truly was,

Ji Boying drew the iron sword at his waist.

Gripping the hilt with his left hand, he extended the thumb and forefinger of his right hand and gently pinched the sword tip.

He circulated his internal energy and bent it sharply with force.

"Snap!"

A crisp sound rang out.

The iron sword in his hand broke off from the tip to a point one-quarter down the blade.

"Now I can break swords too. This is an essential skill for martial arts experts."

Ji Boying smiled as he looked at the broken sword in his hand.

Nearly every skilled martial artist could snap an ordinary iron sword in two with their bare hands.

But different levels of internal energy produced different results.

Whether one had to exert all one's strength or could do it as effortlessly as lifting a weight could be seen at a glance, so there was no need to elaborate on the difference. Only a few details were hard to distinguish.

When force was applied with both hands, the middle of an iron sword was naturally the weakest point. Snapping a sword in the middle was, of course, the easiest.

According to Ji Boying's memories, when Liu Zhengfeng of the Mount Heng Sect held his Washing Hands in a Golden Basin ceremony, he had once demonstrated his barehanded sword-breaking skill to the guests.

Though that sword had also broken in the middle, when it fell, it effortlessly pierced through the blue bricks on the ground. It was clearly a fine Precious Sword, so the difficulty was naturally different.

Mistress Ning Zhongze could instantly halt a Precious Sword thrust at her, convert its direct force into lateral force, and shatter an iron sword into several pieces.

The iron sword Ji Boying had broken was merely an unremarkable iron sword.

But he had clearly broken it with great ease. Even among those showing off by breaking swords, that put him in the upper-middle ranks.

Especially since he had not broken the iron sword in the middle, but snapped off one-quarter of it. Naturally, that was even more difficult.

"If another month or two passes, I'll probably be able to snap the sword tip right off when I break a sword again."

Snapping off the sword tip was what truly counted as impressive.

After this test, Ji Boying was satisfied with the strength of his internal energy.

He continued to devote himself to cultivation.

For the first half of the month, he ran while swinging the longsword in his hand.

After more than half a month, he finally raised the proficiency of the Rising Sun Vitality Sword to perfection as well.

At that point, Ji Boying was truly confident that he could easily defeat Mistress.

Mistress naturally had greater swordsmanship experience and knew more techniques.

But while the Rising Sun Sword was not Mount Hua's supreme sword art, it still belonged to the first-rate realm.

Ji Boying had cultivated the Rising Sun Sword to perfection, something no one else in all of Mount Hua had achieved.

Perhaps Feng Qingyang could do it, but no one knew whether Feng Qingyang had actually cultivated it to such a realm.

By that measure, Ji Boying's swordsmanship had already surpassed Ning Zhongze's, and his internal energy had long since surpassed hers as well.

He simply did not know how he would fare against his master, Yue Buqun. After all, Old Yue's Purple Mist Manual had its own notable strengths.

Still, he presumably would not be too far behind.

During the first, larger half of the month, he brought the Rising Sun Sword, which had been farther from perfection, to perfection.

During the latter, smaller half of the month, Ji Boying focused on practicing his fist technique.

By the end of the month, he had finally cultivated the Stone Splitting Jade Breaking Fist to perfection as well.

Name: Ji Boying

Skills: Primordial Chaos Technique: Proficient (325/600), Stone Splitting Jade Breaking Fist: Perfected, Rising Sun Vitality Sword: Perfected, Golden Wild Goose Technique: Mastery (348/1000), Mount Hua Breathing Technique: Perfected, Mount Hua Swordplay: Perfected

Talent: Skill Simplification. Simplification Energy Points can be spent to simplify skills.

Energy Points: 1. The system automatically restores 1 Energy Point each month. It is automatically cleared and refreshed at midnight on the first day of every month.

After a month had passed, only one internal cultivation technique and one lightness skill remained unperfected, and both would require at least another month.

Yue Buqun would not allow Ji Boying to descend the mountain, and Ji Boying now had no reason to do so either. He could only continue cultivating in seclusion on the mountain.

In the blink of an eye, another two months passed.

It was already the twelfth month, and snow had begun to fall thickly across Mount Hua.

Ji Boying merely continued as usual, asking Old Yue for one technique every month.

As he cultivated with his head down, Linghu Chong's punishment term also came to an end.

The New Year was approaching, yet a sudden disturbance arose on Mount Hua. A group of people who should not have come had arrived.