Is There a Secret Behind Basic Stance Cultivation?

When he left Azure Cloud Residence,

Li Yun was in an entirely wonderful mood.

Even Zhang Chu kept chattering excitedly beside him, saying that at this rate, it probably would not be long before Li Yun became the Rank Ren Chief of the Outer Sect.

Li Yun had indeed become somewhat interested in this Rank Ren Chief.

If Gu Yunzheng, the chief of Rank 95 Academy, had merely been someone Xu Qing had favored from the start—a position deliberately established to spur on the disciples of Rank 95 Academy, and not actually recognized by the sect—

then the Rank Ren Chief Zhang Chu spoke of was different.

This was a title recognized by the sect and granted certain privileges by it. There were only ten such chiefs in the entire Outer Sect.

It was just that the Outer Sect disciples of Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui had all entered only this September. They were all newcomers, and the four great chiefs had yet to be decided.

But without question, anyone who wished to become one of these four great chiefs would have to produce achievements or advantages weighty enough to convince everyone.

That would not be easy.

Each Outer Sect rank had a hundred academies, and each academy had a hundred disciples—that made ten thousand disciples.

To rise above ten thousand disciples and truly be appointed chief—the difficulty was plain to see. The fierce competition behind it was beyond ordinary imagination.

Still, Li Yun was quite confident about becoming the Rank Ren Chief.

With the system at his side, he had only been in the sect for a little over a month, yet his strength had already surpassed others by a wide margin. If he still could not become chief, would he have any face left to show?

Of course, nothing in this world was absolute.

As a transmigrator, he also knew that competitions involving reputation and benefits were often difficult to make absolutely fair.

He was not afraid of competing through strength, but if some shadowy hand truly manipulated things from behind the scenes, there was nothing he could do—unless he went all out and resorted to underhanded tricks himself, making a mountain out of the matter.

Still, there was no need to worry about that yet.

For the moment, Li Yun did not need to think any further about it. What was truly urgent for him was how to use the million Cognition Points he had just obtained more reasonably.

In his view, the four Martial Skills he had just learned definitely needed to be upgraded first. All four could improve his current raw strength, and more importantly, raising them all to the Perfection Realm would not cost many Cognition Points.

What he hesitated over was Basic Stance Cultivation and the Reverse Fate Art.

These two martial arts were now the real devourers of Cognition Points.

Basic Stance Cultivation still contained eleven True Intents that had not been elevated. Elevating them all would require fifty thousand each, for a total of six hundred and fifty thousand Cognition Points.

There was even less need to mention the Reverse Fate Art. Entry Realm cost ten thousand, Initial Accomplishment Realm cost a hundred thousand; one could imagine that it would consume even more Cognition Points afterward. It would absolutely be an astronomical figure.

And the fact that the Reverse Fate Art could improve aptitude was even more important.

Li Yun had already vaguely realized that the stronger his aptitude was, the more Cognition Points he gained while observing. In turn, fewer Cognition Points were consumed when upgrading martial arts.

Perhaps the rise from Rank 5 Aptitude to Fifth Grade Middle was not especially obvious at the moment, but in the long run, it would be completely different.

"Damn it..."

"This is giving me a headache. I thought a million Cognition Points would let me swagger around for a while, but it still isn't enough..."

"Hmm, Boss, what are you thinking about?"

"We're almost there!"

Suddenly, Zhang Chu waved a hand in front of his eyes and looked at Li Yun with a face full of confusion. "Boss, are you okay? Why do you seem so absent-minded the whole way?"

"Uh... nothing. I was just thinking about Basic Stance Cultivation."

"Basic Stance Cultivation? What is there to think about? Haven't you already comprehended the first stance True Intent? Then you should obviously keep comprehending them until you understand all Twelve True Meanings!"

"Heh, you're right. Given the chance, I definitely want to comprehend all the True Intents of Basic Stance Cultivation. But I'm considering one question."

"Is it worth it?"

"Worth it?"

Zhang Chu froze for a moment. "Boss, why would you ask that?"

Li Yun said, "It's obvious. Basic Stance Cultivation is ultimately just the most basic martial art. It has no offensive power whatsoever. Whether you cultivate one True Intent or all of them, you can still easily reach the Body Tempering Ninth Level."

"But what about afterward?"

"Once you enter a higher realm, this stance cultivation will basically be useless. Wouldn't spending so much time and effort on it be wasted?"

Zhang Chu's expression immediately turned strange.

"Boss, you've got that wrong. Cultivating one True Intent and cultivating all Twelve True Meanings lead to completely different results."

"What? Could there be some special trick to it?"

Zhang Chu hurriedly looked around, his eyes somewhat wary.

"Boss, there's no one here. I'll quietly tell you a secret, but don't tell anyone else."

"Basic Stance Cultivation really does hide a secret. As for what that secret is, I don't know either. But I heard my sister mention that when the Celestial Martial Sect was first established, during its first hundred years, newly initiated Outer Sect disciples did not actually cultivate Basic Stance Cultivation."

"Instead, they cultivated other beginner martial arts that could temper the body. In some respects, those martial arts might have been even more effective at Body Tempering than Basic Stance Cultivation."

"But the higher-ups of the Celestial Martial Sect forcibly changed the rules back then. Every newly initiated martial artist had to cultivate Basic Stance Cultivation uniformly. Boss, tell me—could there be no issue hidden in that?"

"Now that you put it that way, there really might be..."

Li Yun fell into thought.

"But the specific details..."

"But I don't know the specific details, or rather, I'm not qualified to know. Still, since you've already cultivated the first True Intent, you might as well cultivate all Twelve True Meanings."

"Perhaps, Boss, you'll truly blaze a trail for the Celestial Martial Sect!"

"By then, you might be qualified to learn the secret behind Basic Stance Cultivation. And besides, Boss, I have great faith in you!"

Li Yun immediately rolled his eyes at that.

"Get lost!"

"You make it sound so easy. Do you know how much effort it took me to cultivate Basic Stance Cultivation..."

Zhang Chu: "..."

"Boss, that's going too far!"

"I have every reason to suspect you're showing off!"

"How long has it been since you entered the sect? Just over a month, and you've already cultivated the first True Intent. At this rate, within a year... no, at most half a year, you'll probably finish them all."

"And you're saying this? Compared to everyone else, who exactly is the one having a hard time?"

Li Yun sighed helplessly.

He really wanted to say that what he had spent was indeed not effort, but Martial Cognition Points. When he thought of the six hundred and fifty thousand Cognition Points still required to fully complete the Twelve True Meanings of Basic Stance Cultivation, his heart bled.

But after Zhang Chu put it that way,

he made up his mind. The Reverse Fate Art was enough for now, so he would first cultivate the remaining eleven True Intents of Basic Stance Cultivation!