Heavenly Dao Opportunity to Advance to the Grandmaster Realm

He twisted the lid with his palm and applied a slight force.

Crack—

The iron box opened, revealing an irregular jade-white bead the size of a broad bean.

This was a relic?

It looked flawless and jade-white, smooth to the touch like bone.

It resembled both stone and jade, yet was neither stone nor jade.

Holding the relic in his palm, several streams of light flickered around Zhang Yuan.

He infused it with qi and blood, but received no response.

When he poured in true essence, there seemed to be a reaction, but no useful information came through.

Since it was a Buddhist treasure, perhaps he should try Buddha Origin power?

A faint golden radiance enveloped the relic, and a hint of astonishment and delight appeared on Zhang Yuan's face.

Buddha Origin entered the relic like a clear stream flowing into the sea, stirring wave after wave.

This relic actually contained unimaginable power, only it was drawn inward and could not be sensed by external force.

After he shattered a Buddha Origin Bead and wrapped the relic in Buddha Origin power, it turned into a mass of gentle white light, merged into Zhang Yuan's body, and settled in his dantian, bobbing upon the sea of true essence within.

Refine it!

Only cultivation treasures rare in the world possessed spirituality and could be refined.

A relic was left behind when a Buddhist expert comparable to a Martial Way Grandmaster passed away. It was the condensation of a lifetime of cultivation and inheritance, and one kind of cultivation treasure in this world.

Zhang Yuan had simply never expected that, as a Martial Way cultivator, he could refine a relic through Buddha Origin power as well.

Drawing upon the power within the relic with the true essence in his dantian, Zhang Yuan lightly clenched his fist, unable to hide the joy on his face.

The power of this relic could actually be added to his body, becoming part of his physical strength!

The physical strength limit of the Late Xiantian Realm was nine oxen, eighteen thousand jin.

To raise one's combat power further required the enhancement of true essence, combined with the power of cultivation techniques.

Zhang Yuan had cultivated Mountains and Rivers Move to Great Perfection, allowing his combat power to double. With a single strike, he could unleash thirty-six thousand jin of tremendous force.

Among those at the same level, he was already one of the rare strong ones.

He had thought this was his limit.

Yet now, after this relic was refined into his dantian, the power it added increased his physical strength by another two thousand jin.

With a Great Perfection-level Martial Way combat skill, his combat power would double, making a single strike worth forty thousand jin of force.

He was not far from the legendary one-elephant strength of the Grandmaster Realm.

It was said that the Grandmaster Realm possessed the strength of dragons and elephants. Upon entering the Grandmaster Realm, one would possess the strength of one elephant—fifty thousand jin of immense force.

The first level of the Grandmaster Realm was known as the Dragon Elephant Realm, also called Dragon Elephant Grandmasters.

From the nine oxen and eighteen thousand jin of the Late Xiantian Realm to fifty thousand jin, the gulf between Xiantian and Grandmaster was plain to see.

Becoming a Grandmaster was an exceedingly difficult matter in this world. Between the Xiantian Realm and the Grandmaster Realm lay a gulf like heaven and abyss.

As he felt the changes in strength brought by the relic, golden light flashed through Zhang Yuan's mind, and the Chaos Screen rose.

Zhang Yuan

Identity: Great Qin Luyang Prefecture Eighth-Rank Black Robe Guard Zhang Yuan, Black Ice Platform Black Armored Captain Black Tiger, Bounty Hunter Black Tiger, Crimson Fox Caravan Commander Red Fox, Lord of Eighteen Green Mountains Strongholds Zhang Erhe

Cultivation: Late Xiantian Realm. Advancement requires 843 Vitality Beads, 356 True Essence Beads, Grandmaster Tribulation, Heavenly Dao Opportunity (for example, if one switches to Buddhist cultivation techniques to enter the Grandmaster Realm, a relic can serve as the opportunity)

Martial Way Cultivation: Mountains and Rivers Move Great Perfection, Iron Body Skill Minor Accomplishment. Advancement requires 8 Vitality Beads. The power of the relic can transform it into the Buddhist Golden Body Skill; at Golden Body Skill Great Perfection, one can condense a Buddhist Golden Body

Battle Formations: Azure Wolf Formation Great Perfection, Tiger Walk Battle Formation Great Perfection

Chaos Space: 3,630 Vitality Beads, 810 Insight Beads, 590 True Essence Beads, 221 Demonic Qi Beads, 36 Buddha Origin Beads

Chaos Auxiliary Battle: Not Activated

Heavenly Dao Opportunity!

So this was what a Heavenly Dao Opportunity meant!

Only now did Zhang Yuan understand that a Heavenly Dao Opportunity was actually a cultivation treasure.

A treasure on the level of a relic was a Heavenly Dao Opportunity. This Heavenly Dao was damn straightforward.

If Zhang Yuan were willing to switch to Buddhist cultivation techniques and enter the Grandmaster Realm, he could use the relic's power to trigger the Grandmaster Tribulation, then have a chance to undergo the tribulation and become a Buddhist Grandmaster.

Unfortunately, Zhang Yuan had no such plans.

Great Qin had no Grandmasters who cultivated Buddhist techniques. If he entered the Grandmaster Realm through Buddhist cultivation techniques, he would likely have to cultivate in Liangyuan Region from then on.

He came from a Martial Guard family and would never betray Great Qin.

Although it was a pity that he could not use the relic to its fullest and charge into the Grandmaster Realm, its ability to add the strength of one ox was still a pleasant surprise.

Besides, the relic could elevate the Iron Body Skill into the Golden Body Skill. Cultivating it to Great Perfection would allow him to condense a Buddhist Golden Body.

For others, cultivating a single technique to Great Perfection might take sixty years, even a century. Zhang Yuan had no such need at all.

Inside the tent, Zhang Yuan's expression gradually calmed, while his qi, blood, and true essence flowed slowly through his body.

Now that he knew Heavenly Dao Opportunities were cultivation treasures, all he needed to do was search for treasures related to the Martial Way Grandmaster Realm.

Two days later, Sergeant Qian Mu and Yong'an County Lieutenant Xu Xianzhong returned with the Martial Guards who had been patrolling the Guangji River.

This time, they had cleared several water bandit strongholds along both banks of more than a hundred li of river upstream and downstream, captured or killed over thirty water bandits, destroyed three water forts, and seized intercepted goods worth more than three hundred taels of silver ingots.

Together with their previous gains, this operation had yielded quite a harvest.

Zhang Yuan registered four head-count Military Merits, placing first in this mission. Behind him was Qi Junliang with three merits.

Chen Wu and Huang Sanliang also had three merits, while even Feng Cheng had gained two.

In large-unit operations, aside from individual merits such as leading the charge or decisive kills, much of the credit was divided equally among the team.

As the leader, Zhang Yuan had in fact distributed some of his kill credit to the martial soldiers in his squad.

This method of tallying merits made one's subordinates more loyal.

They were true comrades-in-arms who had shared life-and-death; even merits earned by sacrificing life could be shared.

Of course, even if a commanding officer did not act, his unit's Military Merit gains would still grant him a share.

There were quite a few people in the army who coasted on Military Merit this way.

On the road back, several recruits wore delighted expressions as they loudly discussed what they would use their Military Merit rewards for.

Great Qin valued Military Merit. The rule that one merit could be exchanged for five taels of silver ingots had endured unchanged for countless years.

Five taels equaled three months of pay for a Ninth-rank Black Robe Guard, or a year's expenses for an ordinary commoner family.

Military Merit could be exchanged for more than silver; accumulating it was also a hard requirement for promotion.

Nine merits made one rank, and each rank had three promotions.

To advance from a Ninth-rank Black Robe Guard to Eighth-Rank required saving up nine merits.

To advance from Eighth-Rank to Seventh-Rank required the merits of three promotions—three sets of nine merits.

Most Eighth-Rank Black Robe Guards could not accumulate three sets of nine merits.

Government promotions were not calculated solely by head-count merit. Missions, garrison duty, years of service, and many other methods could also earn merit.

For example, in Yong'an County's bandit suppression this time, even Martial Guards without head-count Military Merit could receive half a merit. It was simply useful only for promotion and could not be exchanged for silver.

On the return journey, Qi Junliang, Zhang Yuan, and Sergeant Qian Mu all rode warhorses, traveling abreast for the rare occasion.

Mainly because the mission had gone well, the sergeant was in a good mood and was willing to ride alongside Zhang Yuan and the others.

"In recent years, the Martial Guard Bureau has rarely had such an opportunity for tempering."

Riding on horseback and watching the soldiers ahead, Qi Junliang spoke in a low voice.

The battle achievements and mission completion this time were naturally satisfactory, but from intercepting the bandits by the riverbank, to the bandits' night raid, to the later river campaign against the bandits, the Martial Guard Bureau had suffered no small number of casualties.

Three had died, four were severely wounded, and more than a dozen had suffered light injuries.

That was with their military armor fully equipped.

Had they not formed ranks in armor, the Martial Guard Bureau's soldiers would have held no advantage against an equal number of jianghu martial artists—and might even have been inferior.

"Too many recruits. Their combat strength still needs improvement." Zhang Yuan nodded and looked toward the martial soldiers, whose aura had risen considerably after this battle.

"Erhe, the Martial Guard Bureau will be expanding again soon. If it reaches five hundred soldiers, more Commandants and Captains will have to be established. This time, you cannot refuse again." The sergeant's voice sounded, making Zhang Yuan and Qi Junliang both turn their heads.

"I'll be transferred elsewhere before long," the sergeant said in a low voice as he looked at Zhang Yuan. "There isn't much more I can do to help you."