The days settled into peace once more, and Tang Jie cultivated quietly every day.
Unlike before, the Spirit Gathering Plate now had enough spirit stones to power it, increasing the speed of Tang Jie's Boyhood Art cultivation by more than threefold.
Aside from going to the Martial Arts Arena once every month, Tang Jie stayed home and cultivated the Boyhood Art. Under such grueling cultivation, Tang Jie's progress was astonishing!
Time passed. Winter gave way to spring, and a year had gone by since his encounter with Black Cliff. It was winter once more. Tang Jie sat beneath the great tree in the courtyard, cultivating with his eyes closed.
Heavy snow drifted down from the sky, covering Tang's body, yet he remained completely unaware of it.
Before long, a thick layer of snow had accumulated on the ground, and Tang Jie's body was buried beneath the white snow.
"Rumble!"
Inside Tang Jie's body, his true qi circulated at an exaggerated speed. As it continued to flow, it seemed to break through some boundary. In an instant, mighty true qi surged forth from Tang Jie's dantian and meridians. His original silver-white true qi underwent a qualitative change, beginning to glow red!
Whoosh!
A violent red radiance burst forth, dazzling as a small sun. It illuminated the dim evening courtyard as brightly as day.
That brilliant red light radiated scorching power, causing the snow on and beneath Tang Jie to begin melting.
Within a three-meter radius around Tang Jie, the snow melted into water, which was then completely evaporated, revealing the dry ground!
That surging true qi was enough to make any martial artist pale with terror and regard him as a heavenly being. No one would have imagined that a martial artist's power could reach such a frightening level!
The true qi inside Tang Jie's body swelled to its limit, making him feel as though his body would burst apart. Yet under Tang Jie's constant compression, the swollen true qi slowly became denser.
The originally thin true qi increased in quality more than tenfold, transforming into red gang qi!
Refining Qi into Gang—the highest realm of the Boyhood Art! The Red Sun Art was complete!
"Finally... I did it!"
Tang Jie opened his eyes, and an indescribable joy mixed with complicated emotions appeared on his face.
Tang Jie had begun cultivating the Boyhood Art at the age of ten. After nearly ten years of arduous cultivation without a single day of slacking, he had finally succeeded today in pushing the Boyhood Art to its highest realm: the Red Sun Art!
"Whoosh!"
Tang Jie exhaled toward the branches above his head.
Whoosh!
A streak of red qi condensed into an arrow and crossed the two or three meters between them. Wherever it passed, falling snow evaporated into mist. The red streak of qi slammed into a branch as thick as a thumb.
"Crack!"
A crisp crack rang out. The branch snapped and shattered under the impact, as though it had been struck by a bullet, and fell to the ground.
Exhaling Qi into Arrows!
"So this is the Red Sun Art? My power has surged nearly tenfold. Refining Qi into Gang, Exhaling Qi into Arrows—I can kill an enemy from more than thirty feet away! This is the realm of a Martial Arts Grandmaster!"
Tang Jie's face was full of unconcealable excitement and wild delight.
Powerful—far too powerful! It was completely incomparable to the past!
After cultivating the Red Sun Art, Tang Jie's power had soared. In terms of internal-force cultivation, he was already comparable to a Martial Arts Grandmaster!
A Martial Arts Grandmaster was the highest realm of martial artists Tang Jie knew. Once one reached that realm, one's cultivation had already transcended the ordinary. Exhaling Qi into Arrows and moving as swiftly as the wind, a Grandmaster was far beyond what ordinary martial artists could compare with.
A Martial Arts Grandmaster could establish a sect. In this world, Grandmasters were few and far between, and every one of them was renowned throughout an entire region!
Tang Jie was only twenty years old, yet he had already entered the realm of a Martial Arts Grandmaster. This was undoubtedly horrifying—a feat rarely seen even throughout history!
Name: Tang Jie Martial Arts: Boyhood Art (Fifth Layer, Red Sun Art 1%), Iron Cutting Saber Art (Transcendent 31%), Basic Flying Knife (Peak Perfection 20%) Potential Points: 25
Tang Jie opened his stat panel for a glance. After the Boyhood Art entered the Red Sun Art realm, his Potential Points had soared to twenty-five, and his cultivation talent had become even more monstrous.
"Could the Martial Arts Grandmaster realm be the ultimate destination of martial arts?"
Tang Jie fell into thought. He did not believe that the end and limit of martial arts lay here. Martial artists surely had even higher realms. The fact that no one had seen them did not mean they did not exist!
"I must reach that realm no one else can reach!" Tang Jie clenched his fists, determination and excitement gleaming in his eyes. Martial arts meant surpassing one's limits!
Just because others could not reach a realm did not mean he could not!
To Tang Jie, the Martial Arts Grandmaster realm was not the end, but the beginning.
After calming himself, Tang Jie looked over the empty courtyard blanketed in snow. Flakes drifted down one after another, yet before they could land on him, the scorching gang qi radiating from his body evaporated them into nothingness.
"Father still hasn't returned this month? He's been gone for more than a month."
Tang Jie scratched his head. Tang Tianhao had been away for a long time this time.
Still, fortunately, Tang Jie had nearly grown accustomed to it. They were all adults, each with their own matters to attend to.
"I have to go to the Martial Arts Arena tomorrow. I should get some rest." Having finally pushed the Boyhood Art to its highest realm, the Red Sun Art, Tang Jie relaxed considerably. He decided to rest for the night and go to Lingyue City tomorrow to participate in the martial arts tournament.
The following evening, in a hall of Lingyue City's Lingwu Martial Arts Arena.
Tang Jie silently looked at Manager Mu before him.
Manager Mu said apologetically, "Tang Jie, please say farewell to everyone after today's match... I'm sorry."
"I understand." Tang Jie smiled and said nothing more.
Today was Tang Jie's final martial arts match at the arena. It was not that Tang Jie was unwilling to participate anymore; rather, the Lingwu Martial Arts Arena no longer wanted him to participate.
The reason was simple. As the arena's champion, Tang Jie had brought it an enormous flow of visitors, but gradually, he had also caused the arena to suffer losses.
The most important reason was that Tang Jie had won every one of his hundred battles. Whenever he took the stage, there was no suspense whatsoever—he defeated his opponent effortlessly with a single strike, one hundred percent of the time!
This resulted in everyone betting on Tang Jie to win. Although there were some who bet on an upset, they were few and far between. Betting on Tang Jie meant certain victory, which meant the arena was certain to lose money!
And that was without mentioning that Tang Jie's appearance fee for a single match had now reached the terrifying sum of five thousand taels of silver!
As time went on, practically everyone bet on Tang Jie to win. Although the arena lowered the odds as far as possible, it still could not stop the losses.
The arena had previously approached Tang Jie and asked him to hold back appropriately so that it could profit. However, Tang Jie was unwilling to participate in such fixed matches. Thus, today, Manager Mu had asked Tang Jie to terminate their partnership.
In other words, today was Tang Jie's final match at the Martial Arts Arena!
Tang Jie understood. After all, all under heaven bustled for profit.
"Let us welcome the undefeated champion of our Martial Arts Arena—the Bull Devil King!"
At that moment, the host's booming voice rang out across the arena.
"Bull Devil King! Bull Devil King!"
The frenzied cheers surged like a landslide and a sea roaring together.
"Go on. Say farewell to everyone." Manager Mu sighed. He had never seen a martial artist as outstanding as Tang Jie.
"Mm." Tang Jie nodded and put on the Bull Head Mask.
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