Three Entries

[Your heart has always been narrow-minded.]

Yun Shou: "What nonsense are you talking about?"

[After winning the "Martial Arts Tournament to Choose a Spouse" without any suspense, you followed the Lin Family steward into the Qingyu Tower beside the arena and saw the female lead of this match: Lin Youbai.]

[Upon meeting, you looked at her with a gaze reserved for personal property, then quickly turned that look into one of boredom.]

[Using the unique arrogance and disdain of a young prodigy, you said: "Why is she so old? I don't want an old woman!"]

Yun Shou: "What a thrill!"

Take that for looking down on me last time!

[This was different from the last simulation: you were the one to refuse first, and the Lin family escorted you out with unpleasant expressions. They didn't cause trouble only because you were a young talent, so there was no compensation to be had.]

[But you didn't care about that; you were satisfied as long as you got your enjoyment.]

[In the 270th year of Da Qing, you settled in Qingcheng, adopting the persona of a young wandering swordsman, regularly extracting pocket money from some of the city's lawless gangs.]

[In one year, you not only recovered the 1% foundation consumed by starting the simulation, but your martial cultivation also advanced rapidly. Extreme Viscera Enhancement pushed forward by a full 20% in just that short time!]

[You began to gradually make contact with Zhu Baowen, the hall master of "Hun Yuan Sheng Mie? Children's Martial Arts Hall." To learn the ultimate truth of the Martial Dao sooner, you shamelessly claimed that he looked just like your master.]

[That mysterious master of yours, who, after passing on his skills to you, resolutely chose to be buried in the 800-li Green Lake, his body sinking to the bottom to be devoured by fish and shrimp in a water burial—his origins and name completely unknown.]

[Zhu Baowen: "..."]

Yun Shou: "That's right, the key point is that there's no corpse to verify, and no remains left."

Zhu Baowen didn't suspect anything, or perhaps he simply couldn't be bothered to care. Under your relentless, shameless onslaught of daily flattery and attempts to take him as a master, he reluctantly agreed to accept you as a half-disciple, a registered disciple.

[In the 271st year of Da Qing, Extreme Viscera Enhancement reached 70% completion. That same year, you went to participate in this session's Young Talents Grand Competition, with the destination being "Hengduan Cliff."]

[Hengduan Cliff is a strange peak within the Ning Kingdom, standing six hundred zhang tall. However, based on its slope and terrain, the peak should have been eight hundred and fifty zhang. Yet, at the six-hundred-zhang mark, it seemed as if a single slash from the heavens had sheared it off, leaving a jagged, uneven cross-section.]

[Below Hengduan Cliff lies the "Meteor Sect." For a sect to be established, it must have at least one Grandmaster. If no new Grandmaster emerges within decades after one falls, the sect loses its status and is downgraded to a martial arts hall.]

[Over a month and a half, you rode nearly three thousand li on horseback, crossing some mountainous regions on foot using your Lightness Skill. Though exhausting, it saved a great deal of time.]

[Because of your reckless and unbridled travel, you encountered six or seven groups of bandits and robbers along the way. But the strongest among them rarely exceeded the Second-rate level, and none were a match for you in a single exchange.]

[You arrived at Hengduan Cliff.]

[This session's participating "Young Talents" numbered no fewer than five hundred, none below the Second-rate level.]

[More than half came from various sects, many from martial arts halls, and only a few were "Rogue Martial Artists," who had grown this far through chance encounters with martial arts.]

[This was because most sects and halls regularly sent people to wander towns and villages. When they found someone with clearly extraordinary bone structure, they would take them away on the spot, further reducing the number of "Rogue Martial Artists" among the common folk.]

[The registration conditions for the Young Talents Grand Competition were very "low." It required neither a recommendation from a renowned figure nor excessive background checks (just confirming you weren't a major wanted criminal, without digging deeper). It only looked at bone age and martial cultivation.]

[You arrived at the small town below Hengduan Cliff, registered, and waited there for over half a month. Finally, the competition began.]

[At the opening, a Grandmaster from the Meteor Sect gave a speech. This Grandmaster was extraordinary, his voice like a great bell. You knew he was using "Gang Jin."]

["Gang Jin" can be understood as an upgraded version of Vital Energy, but not every Grandmaster can use it. Just as a First-rate Martial Artist has bones harder than many refined metals—but only after passing through the "Vital Energy Infused into Bone" stage.]

[A Grandmaster must complete Bone Marrow Forging with Vital Energy to fundamentally elevate their Vital Energy from the inside out, transforming it into Gang Jin.]

[The competition began with a qualifying round. First-rate Martial Artists didn't need to participate, so you didn't care about the specifics. You only knew you had another five days of leisure, after which you and the other sixteen First-rate Martial Artists of this session, along with the eighty-three selected Second-rate Martial Artists, entered the next stage.]

[Then came a five-day round-robin tournament, followed by five days of alternating group battles. Finally, the top ten were decided, and this time, you were among them!]

[That former weakest First-rate was dead. You would reclaim the dignity of the one named "Yun Shou"!]

"He really is dead, though—died of old age in his sleep, a peaceful end." Yun Shou added.

[From the initial five hundred-plus, the best of the best were selected over a grueling fifteen days to produce the current top ten, with no small number injured or crippled along the way.]

[And just to determine the rankings among these ten, another two days of fighting were required.]

[Your talent aptitude had caught up to the foremost group of prodigies, but your martial arts depth was only at Minor Accomplishment. You didn't dare use the matching combat techniques of the "Flowing River Technique" in public. Against opponents with Grandmaster-level martial arts at Major Accomplishment and suitable techniques, you were still a step behind.]

[Your greatest advantage was your age. A sixteen-year-old First-rate Martial Artist was indeed outstanding to an absurd degree, with few peers your age to compare. But others reached First-rate at twenty or twenty-three, with more developed bodies than yours.]

[The competition ended, and you placed sixth.]

[Though you didn't win a Grandmaster-level martial art as a prize, the large amount of Martial Dao Resources and medicinal supplements still netted you a huge profit. You marveled at whoever first proposed holding the Young Talents Grand Competition.]

[It was a godsend for a wild-path martial artist like you! No responsibilities to bear, only benefits to enjoy.]

[Of course, the sects hosting each session didn't lose out either. They greatly boosted their reputation and, to some extent, built goodwill with the most outstanding rising stars of the future martial world.]

[In the 272nd year of Da Qing, with the aid of abundant Martial Dao Resources, you pushed through the final 30% of Extreme Viscera Enhancement in just one year, fully strengthening your internal organs.]

Yun Shou: "Last time at this point, my Extreme Viscera Enhancement progress was... about 35%?"

This talent aptitude growth is way too terrifying, isn't it?!