The once-every-three-years Sect Internal Competition had drawn to a close, and Ye Xiwen's dark-horse upset victory had become the biggest news!
No one had expected it—not any of the people they had originally anticipated, but Ye Xiwen, someone they had never even heard of before. From this day onward, however, they would etch this name firmly into their hearts.
After the Sect Internal Competition ended, the Ye Family finally gathered together for dinner again.
Aside from Ye Feng, who was in seclusion, Ye Ruxue had also come together with them.
The whole family was beaming with joy. Ye Xiwen had actually taken first place in the Sect Internal Competition. Though both Ye Feng and Ye Ruxue had risen to become Core Disciples as champions of the Sect Internal Competition back then, they had been geniuses from a young age, so such results were hardly surprising. Ye Xiwen, however, had always seemed utterly ordinary. Yet this time, without a sound, he had suddenly erupted and taken the championship, leaving the entire Ye Family astonished.
"Wen, hadn't you only just broken through to the Houtian Fourth Stage before? In barely a month, you've actually reached the Houtian Sixth Stage Peak. And that saber technique of yours is a mid-grade martial art, isn't it? To train it to your level, you've already surpassed many Core Disciples!" Ye Kongming asked.
"I don't know either. It just seems like something suddenly clicked, and then I improved very quickly!" Ye Xiwen had long considered how he should answer if Ye Kongming asked. After all, anyone would have doubts. If it had been Ye Feng or Ye Ruxue, no one would have questioned it, but Ye Xiwen's previous performance had simply been too mediocre.
"Something clicked!" Ye Kongming frowned, but he did not suspect Ye Xiwen of lying to him. He had watched Ye Xiwen grow up and knew his character well.
Still, this matter of suddenly having something click was indeed rather inconceivable. Yet it was not without precedent; such things simply could not be explained.
"Good boy!" Ye Ruxue patted Ye Xiwen on the shoulder. "Tsk, tsk, you even knocked that arrogant brat Dongfang Bai flat!"
Ye Xiwen was somewhat helpless. Ye Ruxue seemed to be younger than Dongfang Bai, didn't she?
"Though you won the championship, don't become arrogant. There are still many experts among the Core Disciples. What's more, the world is vast, and geniuses are countless. Remember never to grow complacent!" Ye Kongming warned, not wanting Ye Xiwen to become proud and self-satisfied because of this.
"Yes!" Ye Xiwen said.
"Three months from now, the Core Disciple Competition will be held jointly with the Zhang Family. You three siblings must support one another in the Blood Origin Realm!" Ye Kongming said.
"Don't worry, Father!" Ye Ruxue said carelessly. "We'll definitely help Big Brother take first place!"
"I'm not worried about your big brother. I'm worried about you being so careless!" Xia Chunxue interjected.
"Your big brother has gone into seclusion. You should enter seclusion tomorrow as well and strive to take another step forward in three months!" Ye Kongming said.
"Got it!" Ye Ruxue said with a pout.
After dinner, Ye Xiwen did not linger. He returned directly to his small courtyard and immediately began cultivating.
The rewards for winning the championship this time were exceedingly generous. He had received a full two thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones, and from then on, he would receive a monthly stipend of three hundred more. Compared to his time as an Inner Disciple, it was a leap forward by bounds and leaps.
Besides the two thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones, the most important reward was a Three Revolutions Golden Pill. The Three Revolutions Golden Pill was a highly renowned medicinal pill within the Yi Yuan Sect and had an extremely remarkable effect on advancing one's Houtian realm cultivation. It was usually awarded only to geniuses among the Core Disciples. Among the five disciples promoted to the core this time, only Ye Xiwen had received one.
Ye Xiwen planned to raise his strength first. With his current strength, he could already reign supreme among the Inner Disciples, but he also understood that there were many geniuses among the Core Disciples. He would certainly face even more challenges in the future. No matter what, raising his strength was the foremost priority. As long as he possessed enough strength, he could respond to ten thousand changes with constancy.
Ye Xiwen took out a small porcelain bottle, poured out a yellow medicinal pill, swallowed it, and entered that mysterious space at the same time.
The Three Revolutions Golden Pill quickly transformed into a stream of heat that merged into Ye Xiwen's body.
A stream of heat rose from his dantian, and the true energy throughout his body immediately began circulating madly. Ye Xiwen's face also started turning red.
As the true energy within Ye Xiwen's body circulated wildly, his originally stable realm began to loosen bit by bit.
All sorts of insights into the Ming Yu Gong surged into Ye Xiwen's mind, deepening his understanding of martial arts still further.
"Boom!" Who knew how much time had passed, but Ye Xiwen's originally stable realm was finally toppled by the torrent of energy.
Houtian Seventh Stage.
Borrowing the terrifying energy of the Three Revolutions Golden Pill, Ye Xiwen directly advanced from the Houtian Sixth Stage Peak to the Houtian Seventh Stage. Having broken through another realm, his strength also rose at a furious pace.
Ye Xiwen, whose strength had already been close to twenty tigers' worth of Tiger Strength, directly broke through that threshold this time and soared all the way to thirty tigers' worth of Tiger Strength, more than doubling it in a wild surge.
This was all thanks to the power of the Monkey Wine, which had caused Ye Xiwen's strength to skyrocket.
Seeing that it was still early outside, Ye Xiwen threw himself back into cultivation.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, more than a month had passed.
Within a forest in the back mountain of Green Peak Mountain.
"Crescent Moon Slash!" With a low shout, a figure darted through the woods. Saber qi crisscrossed the air, and the surrounding trees toppled one after another beneath it.
"This Crescent Moon Slash has finally reached the stage of entering the hall!" Ye Xiwen used his true energy to automatically dry the sweat from his body.
Over the past month or so, Ye Xiwen had devoted himself to cultivation and finally trained Crescent Moon Slash, the second move of the Cold Moon Slash, to the minor success stage. There was still some distance to go before major success, but even without reaching that stage, his combat power had greatly increased.
Unlike the wide-area attack of New Moon Slash, Crescent Moon Slash was a single-target attack. One slash followed another, each move identical, but every slash was more terrifyingly powerful than the last. At major success, nine slashes could be layered together, increasing its might tenfold.
For now, Ye Xiwen had only reached the stage of entering the hall and could layer at most five slashes, but even so, its power could be magnified more than threefold.
In more than a month, Ye Xiwen's cultivation had steadily risen from the early Houtian Seventh Stage to the Houtian Seventh Stage Peak. As his strength soared to fifty tigers' worth of Tiger Strength, every slash he delivered carried the weight of a thousand jun. Each blow held tremendous power. Combined with the Heavenly Immortal Steps, which he had fully cultivated to major success, and the Crescent Moon Slash at minor success, Ye Xiwen was confident he could defeat any Houtian Eighth Stage expert. Even against a Houtian Ninth Stage expert, he could contend for a move or two.
It was not that he did not want to continue cultivating, but his Spirit Stones had been depleted once again. All four thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones had been consumed in cultivating the Heavenly Immortal Steps and Crescent Moon Slash.
He was poor as a church mouse again, with nothing left!
With the aid of that special space, his martial cultivation advanced at a tremendous speed, but his consumption of Spirit Stones was equally enormous.
Now, he had to find a way to earn Spirit Stones.
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