The Path of the Brute Was the True Kingly Path

Roar!

A tiger's roar that shook the soul did not come from the outside world, but thundered through his spiritual realm.

Within his body, an incomparably sharp surge of force erupted on its own, slicing through the surrounding air with soft hissing sounds.

The fallen leaves in the courtyard stirred without wind, ground into powder by that invisible force.

Shen Che slowly raised his hand, his fingers held together like a blade, and lightly slashed forward.

A translucent, visible blade-like force flew from his hand, leaving a scratch half an inch deep on the stone table three feet away.

"Is this... Saber Intent?"

Even Shen Che was stunned.

Saber Intent was a realm countless saber wielders dreamed of attaining, the crystallization of talent and bitter cultivation.

Ordinary martial artists might not even touch the threshold of Saber Intent after mastering a saber technique to perfection.

This thing was profoundly mysterious, hinging upon a single word: "comprehension."

Yet he had comprehended it after pressing a few buttons?

This system was utterly unreasonable.

He opened the panel.

[Host: Shen Che]
[Time Value: 480]
[Martial Arts:]
[Black Tiger Saber Technique (Sixth Layer) (Cannot be improved for now)]
[Golden Bell Shield (Thirteenth Layer) (Cannot be improved for now)]

Sure enough, the words "Cannot be improved for now" had appeared behind both martial arts.

It seemed that both the Golden Bell Shield and the Black Tiger Saber Technique had reached their limits at his current realm.

If he wanted to advance any further, he would have to break through to the True Meridian Realm.

The key to breaking through to the True Meridian Realm was cultivating true qi, then using it to nourish and open the body's twelve primary meridians.

Right now, he had nothing but brute strength, yet lacked a method to cultivate true qi.

"I need to get an internal cultivation manual."

Shen Che made up his mind.

As the violent enforcement arm of the Great Jing Dynasty, the Demon Suppression Division surely possessed no shortage of cultivation manuals and secret techniques.

The next day, at the hour of the dragon.

Following the map within the division, Shen Che arrived at the Scripture Pavilion of the Demon Suppression Division.

It was an ancient three-story pavilion. At its entrance sat a white-haired old man with grizzled hair, slowly and methodically polishing a walnut in his hand with a soft cloth until it gleamed with oil.

Shen Che stepped forward and handed over his Probationary Demon Suppressor token.

The old man did not even raise his eyelids. In a hoarse voice, he said, "Probationary Demon Suppressors may only enter the first floor."

"You may choose one cultivation art. You may copy it down or memorize it, but the original may not be taken out of the pavilion."

"Once you have chosen, come register with me."

"This opportunity is rare. You get one every three months, so think it through."

Having said that, he spoke no more and resumed turning his walnut with complete focus.

Shen Che took back his token and pushed open the door.

The first floor of the Scripture Pavilion was spacious, its rows upon rows of bookshelves filled with all manner of secret manuals.

He passed over those External Martial Arts techniques and headed straight for the internal cultivation section.

There were over a hundred internal cultivation arts on the shelves here.

Fire Devouring Art, Azure Wood Art, Frenzied Battle Art...

Shen Che casually flipped through several books.

These arts were much the same: basic beginner cultivation manuals. The true qi they produced was of poor quality, and their efficiency was agonizingly slow.

According to their descriptions, even someone with decent talent would need three to five years to cultivate their first thread of true qi.

That was it?

By the time he cultivated it, the daylilies would have long gone cold.

Shen Che was somewhat disappointed. Just as he was about to leave and look through other sections, his movements suddenly stopped.

His gaze had been caught by a dust-covered manual in the corner of a bookshelf.

The book was thin, its cover made from some kind of beast hide. Three ancient characters were written upon it.

Iron Shirt.

He was all too familiar with that name.

Like the Golden Bell Shield, it was a renowned body-tempering External Martial Art from his previous life.

He took down the manual, blew away the dust, and began to read.

Unlike the Golden Bell Shield, which specialized in the internal organs and vital blood while following a path of pure yang force, Iron Shirt followed the path of yin softness.

It focused on training the skin, flesh, tendons, and bones. At profound levels, one's bones would become as tough as iron and one's skin as pliant as cotton, able to shed the force of heavy blows layer by layer.

One yin and one yang, one hard and one soft.

One ruled the inside, the other ruled the outside.

If he could cultivate both of these body-tempering arts to perfection, then his physical body...

Shen Che's heart skipped several beats against its will.

What internal cultivation manual did he need?

Forge his body into copper walls and iron ramparts, make it indestructible as diamond—who cared about true qi or demonic arts? One punch would shatter them all!

The path of the brute was the true kingly path.

He closed the manual. Without the slightest hesitation, he took Iron Shirt and walked out of the Scripture Pavilion.

"Chosen already?" The old man finally raised his head, his cloudy eyes sweeping over the book in Shen Che's hand.

"This one."

Iron Shirt? Interesting." The old man tugged at the corner of his mouth as though trying to smile, but failed. He took out brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. "Name and number."

Shen Che gave him his information.

After registering it, the old man returned his token. "Remember the rules. You may only read the manual; you may not take it away. Burn it after reading."

Shen Che nodded, found a spot nearby, memorized every word of Iron Shirt, then tossed the original into the brazier.

After returning to his small courtyard.

Shen Che closed the door and immediately opened the system panel.

Sure enough, a new line of text had appeared beneath [Martial Arts].

[Iron Shirt (Not Yet Initiated)+]

"System, max it out for me!"

[Do you wish to consume 30 Time Value to raise Iron Shirt to the First Layer?]

From initiation to perfection, it actually required ten layers.

Each layer cost 30 points.

"Yes!"

[30 Time Value consumed. Iron Shirt raised to the Second Layer.]
[30 Time Value consumed. Iron Shirt raised to the Tenth Layer!]

A string of notifications swept past his vision.

A total of three hundred Time Value had been consumed.

The number on the panel finally stopped at 180.

A sense of power entirely different from the Golden Bell Shield erupted from the depths of his marrow.

It was a numb, itching pain, as though hundreds of millions of ants were gnawing at his bones.

He could clearly "hear" the crisp crackling of every bone in his body, as though they were being repeatedly hammered and compressed by an invisible sledgehammer.

The density of his bones was increasing at a terrifying speed.

Their original bone-white color gradually took on a metallic texture, ultimately becoming a bright silver that seemed indestructible.

At the same time, the skin and flesh over his body began to writhe, becoming denser and tougher.

The cultivation gained through decades of bitter practice merged into his body in that instant.

When everything finally settled.

Shen Che slowly opened his eyes.

He activated the Iron Shirt he had just cultivated to perfection.

Beneath his black robe, his muscles bulged as though cast from molten steel. His entire body had grown a full size larger, brimming with explosive power.

He casually threw a punch at the empty space before him.

He used no technique whatsoever, only the pure strength of his physical body.

With a dull explosive boom, the air before his fist burst apart instantly, forming a powerful current of air that slammed the door in the distance shut with a bang.

Shen Che slowly withdrew his fist, sensing the ocean-vast strength within him.

A swing of one arm carried the divine force of ten thousand jin!

Though he was still only in the Body Tempering Realm and did not possess even a thread of true qi,

in terms of pure physical strength, he was already comparable to experts who had opened all twelve primary meridians and reached the peak of the True Meridian Realm.