PS: Brothers, there are really too few recommendation votes.
Old Pig, bare-backed and drenched in sweat, even his shorts soaked through, begged his brothers for recommendation votes, bookmarks, and clicks!
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Bang! Bang! Bang!
His fists thundered, and fallen leaves rained down.
Within a deserted grove of Iron Branch Pines, Ye Zhen twisted and leaped through the air. His fists opened and closed in grand sweeps, moving like thunder and settling like towering peaks. With one punch, he could snap an Iron Branch Pine as thick as a bowl.
Compared to the hard days when he had been a Menial Disciple, knocking down an Iron Branch Pine with his current cultivation was effortless.
"Ha!"
With a roar, Ye Zhen unleashed Five Peaks Sky-Breaking at an Iron Branch Pine. Surging blood qi flowed through his entire body alongside his fist force, and an imposing aura of abyssal stillness and mountain-like majesty abruptly arose.
Crack!
Amid a sharp crack, the Iron Branch Pine before him snapped apart with a boom. Yet Ye Zhen's fist had remained a full foot away from the broken trunk. At the sight, joy suddenly appeared on Ye Zhen's face.
"It worked. I've finally mastered projecting the fist force of the Five Peaks Divine Fist."
Half a month had passed, and Ye Zhen's Five Peaks Divine Fist had finally achieved some success. Yet he did not stop at once. Instead, he closed his eyes and reflected on the sensation of that punch, then seized that feeling and resumed training.
He threw more than a hundred punches in succession. Aside from the first few, which worked only intermittently, every punch afterward sent out its fist force before the fist itself arrived.
Only when the blood qi within his dantian vortex had been utterly depleted did Ye Zhen stop. He slowly sat cross-legged on the ground and began circulating the Essence Blood Origin Body Art to restore the power of blood qi within him.
After a long while, Ye Zhen slowly rose. Closing his eyes again, he recalled the sensations from his earlier training. The fist intent was now familiar; all that remained was to continue training until he could send it forth and withdraw it as freely as his heart desired.
However, Ye Zhen did not dare continue practicing the Five Peaks Divine Fist today.
There was no other reason. Before breaking through to the True Essence Realm, a martial artist consumed an enormous amount of blood qi during cultivation. Blood qi came from the body's essence blood, and excessive depletion would injure the body.
Fortunately, Outer Disciples ate exceptionally well. All manner of meat was available without limit, enough to fill them to bursting, and they could even pack some away to take with them. Otherwise, under Ye Zhen's daily high-intensity training, even if his body had not collapsed, it would not have been far from it.
After resting for a while, Ye Zhen's body suddenly shuddered, then began weaving about like a serpent. He started practicing the Snake-Wandering Steps.
His body moved like a swimming snake. Amid sharp hissing sounds of exertion, he circled a great tree in strange motions, occasionally feinting with a move from the Five Peaks Divine Fist.
Ye Zhen was practicing how to attack by combining the Five Peaks Divine Fist with the Snake-Wandering Steps.
From time to time, Ye Zhen rammed his shoulder fiercely into the tree. The instant he struck it, his body shook several times in an uncanny rhythm, and the rebounding force from the impact immediately weakened by several degrees.
This was a technique of borrowing and shedding force within the Snake-Wandering Steps, called the Slippery Snake Style. It could dissipate a certain amount of force. It was said that once mastered, it could make an opponent's attacks slide away without purchase, borrowing and dispersing force in endlessly strange ways.
Hiss!
While moving, Ye Zhen's body suddenly coiled, like a serpent king curling up. With an odd rhythm, he abruptly sprang forward, shooting out like an arrow—the Snake Springing Grass of the Snake-Wandering Steps!
Ye Zhen landed six meters away, and a bitter expression immediately surfaced on his face.
Half a month ago, Ye Zhen had selected two secret manuals from the first floor of the Scripture Depository. His progress with the Five Peaks Divine Fist had been quite good; by today, he had even cultivated projected fist force, which counted as minor mastery.
But with the Snake-Wandering Steps, Ye Zhen had trained bitterly for half a month and spent even more time on them than on the Five Peaks Divine Fist, yet his progress had been scant. He had drilled the basic footwork until it was more familiar than familiar, but techniques such as Snake Springing Grass and the Slippery Snake Style remained forever beyond his grasp.
The Slippery Snake Style could barely shed a little force, but he had not even entered the doorway of Snake Springing Grass. With one spring, he could only cover six meters.
With Ye Zhen's current cultivation and strength, he could easily leap beyond five meters. Putting in a little effort, leaping over six meters was no problem at all. Under such circumstances, Snake Springing Grass was of no use whatsoever.
With one spring, he had to cover at least ten meters before Snake Springing Grass could be considered mastered. According to the secret manual, if he cultivated Snake Springing Grass to great mastery, one spring could carry him twenty or thirty meters at minimum.
"Could it be just as the Old Deacon at the Scripture Depository said—that the Snake-Wandering Steps aren't something an Outer Disciple can master?" Ye Zhen felt somewhat discouraged.
But then Ye Zhen resumed his bitter training. "I refuse to believe that if I put in enough hard work, I still won't be able to master these Snake-Wandering Steps."
After training for some time, noon was approaching. With his Snake Springing Steps still making no progress, Ye Zhen prepared to return to East Arrival Peak for food.
That was one of the benefits of being an Outer Disciple. Their daily meals were supplied by the sect, with unlimited meat at every meal. Even their clothes were specially washed by a Menial Peak staffed entirely by female Menial Disciples. Outer Disciples did not need to worry about a thing.
Compared with Menial Disciples, Outer Disciples were masters, while the others were servants!
It was noon, and many Outer Disciples were returning to their peaks to eat. Having trained all morning, Ye Zhen was starving, so he walked in great haste.
Suddenly, a figure flashed across his path and blocked him dead.
Ye Zhen's face darkened. Thinking it was someone else looking for trouble, he was about to bark out a curse when he saw that the person blocking his way was Steward Liu, the peak steward of East Arrival Peak.
"Ye Zhen greets Steward Liu," Ye Zhen hurriedly said.
Steward Liu snorted through his nose, his face as black as the bottom of a pot. "Ye Zhen, let me ask you: have you completed this month's Sect Mission?"
"Sect Mission? Ah!" Ye Zhen slapped his forehead. "My apologies, Steward Liu. I've been too absorbed in training these past few days and forgot about it. I'll take care of it right after eating."
"Hmph. On all of East Arrival Peak, you're the only one whose Sect Mission requires my reminder. You have two and a half days left. If you fail to complete a Sect Mission within those two and a half days, don't even think about receiving next month's pill supply!" Steward Liu said with a dark face.
What else could Ye Zhen do? He could only keep smiling apologetically and agreeing again and again, which finally eased Steward Liu's black face a little.
"Remember, this is the first and last reminder to complete your monthly Sect Mission. If there is a next time, your sect pill supply for the following month will be deducted directly. Handle it yourself." With a cold snort, Steward Liu flicked his sleeve and left. Ye Zhen remained where he was, smiling bitterly. He had actually forgotten such an important matter.
After eating, Ye Zhen hurried toward the Sect Main Hall, where Sect Missions were issued. This was no joke—if the sect withheld his pill supply for a month, he would truly suffer a tremendous loss.
Perhaps because he had not taken it seriously before, Ye Zhen only realized after arriving at the Sect Main Hall and examining the Sect Missions available to Outer Disciples that things were bad. Sect Missions were not as simple as he had imagined, something one could casually complete.
For example, there was the Sect Mission of collecting ten zhang of spider silk from Back Mountain Magic Pattern Spiders. It was rated ordinary mid-grade in difficulty and rewarded fifty Sect Contribution Points, suitable for an Outer Disciple like Ye Zhen.
But according to the Sect Deacon, among the sect disciples who had completed this mission in the past, even the fastest had taken five days.
There were other Sect Missions suitable for Outer Disciples as well, such as patrolling the Back Mountain Spirit Herb Garden, helping villagers at the foot of the mountain hunt vicious beasts, or temporarily managing a Menial Peak for several days while its supervisor was away on business.
Even the least demanding of them took eight or ten days to complete, while some required as long as half a month.
Ye Zhen did find several Sect Missions that could be completed in one or two days, but those missions either involved hunting Monster Beasts or gathering spirit herbs in areas where Monster Beasts roamed. Their difficulty was at least human mid-grade, and only Inner Disciples had the ability to complete them.
Ye Zhen could not help feeling deeply vexed. He had been far too careless. Did this really mean his sect pill supply for next month would be deducted?
Unwilling to accept it, Ye Zhen continued leafing through the list of Sect Missions, trying to find one he could complete within a day or two.
When he turned to the final page of the Sect Mission list, just as he was about to give up, Ye Zhen's eyes suddenly lit up. At the very bottom of the list was a mission with no difficulty rating, one that anyone could complete.
And the person who had issued that no-difficulty Sect Mission, which anyone could complete, was surprisingly Fairy Caiyi, whom Ye Zhen had met once before!
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