Beginner? True State!

"Then try persuading him some more."

Shen Yunqing smiled, passed over the joke, and told the two of them:

"Go take a look at the stone tablets as well. Each class has limited places, and today is already the second day of our academy's admissions. In other words, apart from today, you have only one more day to study them. You two had better hurry."

Li Yuanzhao hurriedly asked, "What if Class A fills up?"

"Then you'll have to enter Class B. But don't worry. There will be a test in a month. If you're confident, you can challenge someone in Class A and switch classes."

Shen Yunqing smiled. "No matter which class you enter, you can't rest on your laurels forever. Cultivation is competition-against heaven, against monsters, and most importantly, against other people!"

"If you want the most resources and the best treatment, you must stand above everyone else to qualify."

In the Divine General Residence, as members of the direct line, their parents would prepare cultivation resources for them. At Tan Palace Academy, however, they had to compete for everything themselves.

Hearing this, Li Yuanzhao quickly pulled Li Hao toward the stone tablet that Li Yun and his sister were studying.

Clearly, that tablet held a high-grade technique.

Only a dozen or so people were studying this tablet, while the others each had twenty or thirty gathered before them. The tablets bearing mid-grade techniques drew the largest crowds. After all, although most people were confident, they still preferred to play it safe.

Li Hao glanced at the tablet. It recorded a fist technique.

Fist techniques were practically a required subject for martial artists. Once they mastered their fists and feet, learning other weapons yielded twice the results for half the effort.

He read through it carefully, and words appeared before his eyes:

Rudiments comprehended. Record technique?

Li Hao selected yes.

Soon, the fist technique appeared on his panel, but its level was neither Beginner, Perfection, nor Supreme Perfection.

[High-grade technique: Wind Severing Fist (True State)]

One step, straight to the limit!

Li Hao was not surprised.

During the five years he had spent fishing with Second Master, the old man had learned that he had not undergone Soul Inheritance in the ancestral shrine. Though angry, he had still given Li Hao pointers in fist techniques from time to time so that he could defend himself in the future.

Thus, besides Sword Dao, his panel had recorded another path:

Path of the Fist.

It had already reached... sixth dan!

Besides the Path of the Fist, Li Hao had raised the Path of the Physical Body, Sword Dao, and Imperial Dao to sixth dan as well!

Over those five years, he had kept busy every day, making tremendous progress in many arts.

Fishing, fifth dan; board games, fifth dan; cooking, sixth dan; Painting Dao, fifth dan.

Poetry and calligraphy, third dan; zither, third dan.

Altogether, these had earned him twenty-seven Art Skill Points.

He had now spent twenty-four, leaving three in reserve for a rainy day.

Li Hao had originally intended to raise a single path to its limit first, but through experimentation, he discovered that every path had a threshold at each three-dan interval.

Advancing from third dan to fourth required Heart Entry.

When his Path of Cooking reached sixth dan with a full experience bar, a prompt informed him that he needed to comprehend the culinary spirit before he could advance further.

If Heart Entry could be achieved through focus and a love that occupied one's every thought, then Entering Spirit required insight and a grasp of Dao Resonance.

In cooking, he needed to create dishes that broke with tradition and imbue them with a soul.

The same was true of board games.

Placing a piece was not merely about winning or losing. It also needed to carry his own wisdom and spiritual spark-the so-called divine move, an astonishing play, a brilliant move beyond conventional thinking and perception!

Li Hao knew this was not merely a requirement of the panel. Without it, if he cultivated normally, he would still need Heart Entry and Entering Spirit once he reached a certain level. According to Second Master, these were states of mind required to cultivate any technique.

Otherwise, he would remain a second-rate expert at best, unable to reach the pinnacle.

To become mighty, first become obsessed!

He had heard that above Entering Spirit lay an even higher realm: Sage Entry.

Yet even Second Master, known as the Fist Saint, had only attained Entering Spirit in his fist techniques, not Sage Entry.

In Great Yu, the word "saint" was supreme, representing an inviolable existence.

Neither the Fist Saint nor the Sword Saint was actually in the Saint Realm. Such titles were more a form of praise, signifying that they had reached an exceptionally high peak in a particular path and approached the level of a saint!

Li Hao suspected that when he reached ninth dan, he might need the state of mind known as Sage Entry.

It was hard to imagine what such a state would be like.

For now, though, he had yet to achieve even Entering Spirit.

Spirit was just as the word suggested: spirituality, a flash of insight, a soul!

He had to accomplish something beyond the ordinary and exquisitely ingenious to possess his own flash of insight, just as... a Heaven and Man Grandmaster possessed his own grandmaster's path!

Once the panel successfully recorded it, a flood of information about the Wind Severing Fist poured into Li Hao's mind. He merely closed his eyes briefly and soon absorbed it all.

It was as though he had trained diligently in this fist technique for fifty years. He knew every move like the back of his hand and had surpassed Supreme Perfection. Not only had he remedied its flaws, but he had also gained a profound understanding of the true meaning at its core.

As its name suggested, his fists could sever and cleave the wind like blades and swords, possessing destructive power beyond ordinary punches and kicks!

In his hands, this high-grade technique could unleash power comparable to a peak technique.

Li Hao withdrew his gaze from the tablet and looked at the dozen or so people around him. All wore focused expressions as they stared intently at the stone, carefully studying it. Some moved their lips, seemingly reading along with the descriptions and savoring each phrase as they sought its meaning.

Some technique descriptions were obscure and difficult; simply understanding the words was a challenge. But most people who could come here had martial aristocratic clans behind them. Having been steeped in the Martial Dao since childhood, they could understand even certain uncommon terms that encapsulated broader concepts.

Li Hao saw that Yuanzhao was also absorbed in reading beside him, his small eyes moving back and forth along the lines on the tablet.

He did not disturb him. With another glance, he spotted Li Yun and his sister crouching before the tablet, their expressions solemn. They alternately pondered and frowned, their wrists turning slightly as though rehearsing the moves in their minds. They were so engrossed that they had not even noticed his and Li Yuanzhao's arrival.

What a hardworking bunch of children... Li Hao sighed inwardly and turned away.

Even more people stood before the other two tablets nearby. Some gained a little insight and began practicing in the open space, but their movements were awkward. Before long, they felt that their actions did not match what they had pictured in their minds and returned to the tablets to continue studying.

Li Hao did not squeeze through to record the techniques on those tablets. Techniques below high grade were the last thing the Li Family lacked.

As his gaze wandered, Li Hao suddenly spotted Shen Yunqing, who had brought him here earlier, in a corner at the edge of the square.

Before him was, to Li Hao's surprise, a game board.

Li Hao paused, then his eyes immediately lit up, and he walked over.

"Let's see how you escape this time!"

"Heh, didn't see that move coming, did you?"

Opposite Shen Yunqing, the Gray-Robed Elder could not help laughing heartily. He had seized an overwhelming advantage on the board, leaving no possibility of a comeback. This game was in the bag.

Shen Yunqing sat cross-legged, ignoring his old friend's gloating as he scratched his ears and head, racking his brains. In the end, he slumped in defeat and said helplessly, "Fine. We'll call it your win."

"What do you mean, call it my win? I won fair and square!" the Gray-Robed Elder snapped.

Then he held out a hand and said leisurely, "Hand it over. The Drunken Wind Brew-you promised!"

Shen Yunqing reluctantly pursed his lips, took the wine gourd from his waist, and handed it to his old friend. "We agreed on one mouthful. Go easy."

"I'm not like you. I keep my word," the Gray-Robed Elder said irritably. Then he opened the wine gourd, tilted back his head, and poured it down with a series of loud gulps.

Alarmed, Shen Yunqing hurriedly snatched it back and shouted angrily, "We agreed on one mouthful!"

"This is one mouthful. I haven't swallowed yet."

"Does it go straight through you?!" Clutching his gourd with an anguished expression, Shen Yunqing peered through its opening, and his heart sank halfway.

"I've still got that earlier game on your tab."

The Gray-Robed Elder chuckled. Suddenly sensing something, he turned and saw a handsome, graceful youth standing nearby, with rosy lips and pearly teeth. His exquisitely luxurious brocade clothes radiated nobility.

"Hmm? A young master from the Divine General Residence?"

The Gray-Robed Elder recognized the pattern on his sleeves and his jade pendant. His expression grew restrained and serious, and the reprimand on the tip of his tongue changed course.

"You're playing a board game," Li Hao said with a cheerful smile.

Having lived two lives, he knew that for someone of a mature mind, an opening remark was often a pointless statement of the obvious-nothing more than a fuse to set the conversation going.

"Why aren't you studying the techniques?" Beside him, Shen Yunqing looked at Li Hao in surprise.

Everyone else was racing against the clock to study the tablets, yet this boy actually had the leisure to stroll over here.

Could this boy be hoping we'll secretly give him a few pointers?

(End of chapter)