Yanshan Bandits

Lu Ming was somewhat surprised that the other party had suddenly asked this question. However, aside from the Jade Pendant, he had nothing to hide.

Thus, he answered frankly:

"Elder, firstly, I'm confident in my talent and believe I can quickly learn other martial skills, so I exchanged it for those. Secondly, the sect has treated me well, so there was nothing wrong with exchanging it."

"If you hadn't put your own interests first, and had only mentioned the second reason, I would have found it somewhat hard to believe."

After hearing this, Elder Kang smiled, then sighed and continued, "Don't blame me for being suspicious. I've guarded the Martial Skill Pavilion for so many years and seen too many disciples' thoughts."

Lu Ming could understand. However, his conscience was clear, and everything he had said was true. Time would prove everything.

"Enough, let's not talk about this. For the sake of what you just said, I won't deduct any Contribution Points for this [Iron Elephant Art]."

Elder Kang spoke again.

"Thank you, Elder." Lu Ming was delighted.

Afterward, Elder Kang gave him some pointers on the matters requiring attention when cultivating the [Iron Elephant Art], then let him leave.

"It seems cultivating an External Skill really isn't easy."

After walking out of the Martial Skill Pavilion, Lu Ming sighed inwardly. Elder Kang had just reminded him that cultivating an External Skill would not only progress extremely slowly but would also easily damage the body.

Therefore, it required medicinal support.

Those medicines probably wouldn't be cheap. Although he had plenty of Contribution Points and could use them for exchanges, he wanted to save them for martial skills.

Thus, he could only buy them with money.

At present, he had more than four thousand taels in gold notes and more than sixteen thousand taels in silver notes.

To be honest, that wasn't much for a Martial Artist. After all, a good weapon alone could cost more than ten thousand taels.

As for divine weapons, no amount of gold or silver could buy one. That was because they required another currency: origin stones.

After a Martial Artist entered the Zhen Qi Realm, the vital essence within his body alone could no longer satisfy his cultivation needs.

Thus, he had to begin absorbing the energy freely drifting through the air outside to cultivate. This energy was called Heaven and Earth Origin Energy.

Origin stones were crystals of Heaven and Earth Origin Energy. Like Storage Rings and divine weapons, they were divided into low, middle, high, and supreme grades.

Lu Ming had heard Chu Yunxiao say that sect missions awarded not only Contribution Points but also gold, silver, or origin stones.

Therefore, he planned to cultivate the martial skills he had obtained, then take on missions.

"Lu Ming, have you finished choosing your martial skills?"

Just after walking out of the Martial Skill Pavilion's grounds, he happened to encounter Cui Bai, who had arrived.

"You're really slow." Seeing Cui Bai arrive late, while he had already visited the Weapon Pavilion, Lu Ming was somewhat speechless.

Cui Bai gave an awkward smile. "You don't know this, but after I finished getting ready, I suddenly changed my mind and went to the Weapon Pavilion first to see if I could catch up with you. Who would've thought you had already finished choosing?"

Could Lu Ming say that he hadn't needed to choose? He merely smiled and said, "Then hurry inside."

Cui Bai nodded without delay. After bidding farewell, he walked inside.

Lu Ming returned directly to his own courtyard and began cultivating his martial skills.

With that cultivation session, more than four months passed in the blink of an eye. Lu Ming had four martial skills to practice in total.

The first was three forms of the Heavenly Saber Technique; the second was the movement art [Hundred Li Qi Merging]; the third was the Human-grade, high-stage claw technique [Tiger Fiend Claw]; and the fourth was the defensive External Skill [Iron Elephant Art].

After four months of practice, there was naturally no need to mention his saber technique, movement art, and claw technique. He had already finished cultivating them.

Only the [Iron Elephant Art] had progressed slowly.

Firstly, after finishing the other three martial skills, he had not had much time left for this technique;

Secondly, he had run out of money to buy medicine.

Only after cultivating it himself did he realize that cultivating an External Skill truly consumed money like water.

The [Iron Elephant Art] had three stages. The first was cultivating the sinews, bones, and skin. Once mastered, one's body would be difficult for blades and swords to injure;

The second progressed from the outside inward, generating protective true qi. It could defend against not only blades and swords but also internal force, shockwaves, and other penetrating attacks;

The third was the convergence of dragon and tiger, combining the inner and outer aspects. At that point, below the Zhen Qi Realm, it would be extremely difficult for anyone to break through the defense.

Lu Ming had only successfully cultivated the first stage. It had consumed most of the money on his person, and what remained was insufficient to buy the medicines needed to cultivate the second stage.

Therefore, he had already decided to go out and take on missions.

"Soul Chasing!"

Inside the enormous training room, Lu Ming suddenly vanished from where he stood, then swept past a training post like Floating Light, Fleeting Shadow.

Swish, swish, swish!

In an instant, several saber qi erupted from inside the entire training post before it exploded apart.

This was precisely the fourth form of the Heavenly Saber Technique, Soul Chasing Style. It had the same origin as the first form, Gale Style—both involved thrusting out at an extremely fast speed.

The only difference was that while thrusting, the Soul Chasing Style could shoot out several streams of saber qi.

Looking at his handiwork, Lu Ming was very satisfied. He stood with his saber sheathed, and it seemed the technique's effects after completion were truly remarkable.

Next, he took an ordinary long saber worth more than a thousand taels from his Storage Ring.

He held it with his left hand, then injected true qi into it.

With a buzzing sound, the saber instantly became incomparably sharp. Lu Ming's expression did not change as his right hand suddenly formed into a claw and reached toward the long saber.

Crack!

In an instant, the long saber covered in true qi was crushed into fragments by a single claw of his.

"The power of this claw is indeed pretty good."

After testing the [Tiger Fiend Claw], Lu Ming tried out his movement art as well. With one step, the [Hundred Li Qi Merging] could leap up to two hundred meters, while he could currently leap only one hundred and seventy meters.

It was not that he could not cultivate it to the peak in one go, but that the true qi within his body was not abundant enough.

Although he had not neglected cultivating internal techniques every day during this period, his true qi had not increased by much. It had only reached roughly the middle segment of the early stage of the Zhen Qi Realm.

He had also asked other people about this and learned that cultivation became slower the further one progressed.

Normally, failing to break through for a year or two was perfectly normal.

Take Cui Bai, for example. He was still stuck at the initial segment of the early stage.

Lu Ming no longer paid it any mind. He calmed his heart and continued cultivating until today.

Now that he had successfully cultivated his techniques, it would be difficult to make much progress in the short term. Therefore, he planned to end his cultivation and take on missions to earn money.

"Lu Ming, are you going out?"

When he arrived outside the courtyard, Cui Bai happened to pull open the door and come out.

"I'm planning to take on missions."

Lu Ming did not conceal it.

"You're a freak. You finished cultivating all the martial skills you obtained in only four months."

During this period, Lu Ming had not practiced entirely alone. He would sometimes spar with Cui Bai, exchanging pointers and relaxing in the process.

Thus, Cui Bai basically understood Lu Ming's cultivation progress.

"Where are you planning to go?" Lu Ming smiled and did not continue dwelling on the subject.

"Where else could I go? The [Hundred Refinements Profound Technique] I chose is also a huge money sink. Fortunately, I spent half a year in the Wuji Mountain Range last time, or I wouldn't have been able to hold out either."

Cui Bai spoke with some distress.

Lu Ming naturally knew about the other party's situation. Continuing with his previous style, he had still chosen a cultivation technique that cultivated both the inner and outer aspects.

Moreover, it was Human-grade, peak-stage.

He had originally not planned to choose this way. However, the moment he saw the [Hundred Refinements Profound Technique], he could not tear his eyes away.

Therefore, he had exchanged his entry benefits and two Human-grade, high-stage martial skills he had obtained by chance in the Wuji Mountain Range for it.

Because cultivating an External Skill required tempering the body with blows, the two of them had beaten each other quite often during this period.

"Then we happen to be taking the same route."

The two traveled together afterward. They parted at the crossroads, and Lu Ming headed toward the Mission Hall amid Cui Bai's repeated admonitions to be careful.

The Mission Hall remained extremely lively. Some people were discussing mission situations, some were discussing mission information, and others were recounting interesting things they had encountered during their missions.

In short, one could hear all kinds of information.

"Have you heard? Senior Brother Feng Chao, ranked eleventh, accepted a five-star, two-grade mission by himself."

"What? Even those Core Disciples don't dare casually accept a five-star mission alone, let alone a five-star, two-grade mission."

Following this news, the surrounding people immediately began discussing it. Lu Ming could not help pricking up his ears to listen.

"What exactly is the mission?" someone asked.

"I know. It's to exterminate the Yanshan Bandits roaming Iron Horse Plain. I heard that these bandits robbed a Lineage's goods some time ago. The bounty was probably posted by them."

"The Yanshan Bandits? I heard the bandit chief is at the late stage of the Zhen Qi Realm. Under him are several deputy chiefs at the early and middle stages of the Zhen Qi Realm. There are also no fewer than twenty bandits at the Nei Qi Realm. Can Senior Brother Feng Chao handle them alone?"

"Since he accepted it, he naturally has confidence. I heard he has mastered an extremely formidable leg technique."

Everyone chimed in with their own opinions. Some admired him, some were worried, and some thought it unwise.

"Let's go. It seems Feng Chao has started exerting himself. At the next Inner Sect Tournament, he'll definitely force his way into the top ten. We can't fall behind and get pushed out."

Two unconventional-looking youths stood at the entrance of the hall, and Lu Ming happened to be standing beside them.

"That isn't exerting himself. He's clearly gone mad." The other person gave a bitter laugh.

The two then left, apparently having been provoked.

"These two should be among the Inner Sect's top ten."

After hearing their words and sensing their cultivation realms—the late stage of the Zhen Qi Realm—Lu Ming made this guess inwardly.

He gave it no further thought. Having heard so much information, he too had been provoked, and directly entered the hall.