First to Shaolin Temple, Then Fight Black Wood Cliff

[In the spring of the twenty-third year, half a year had unknowingly passed once more.

Over these past six months, you lost count of how many people you fought and how many different martial arts techniques you witnessed.

However, your Dugu Nine Swords advanced with astonishing speed. Not only did you successfully grasp the Qi Breaking Form, which had eluded you until now, after studying a vast number of internal energy cultivation methods, But you also reached the Minor Accomplishment stage in all seven forms other than the General Principle Form and the Qi Breaking Form.

Especially the Sword Breaking Form; you felt that you were only one step away from Great Accomplishment.

However, this one step was like an insurmountable chasm, firmly blocking your path. No matter how many sword techniques you knew, you couldn't break through.]

[You knew this was because Postnatal-level martial arts were no longer useful to you. If you wanted to raise the Sword Breaking Form to the Great Accomplishment level, you would have to find more Innate Realm sword techniques.

To this end, you challenged all of the Five Great Sword Sects and Wudang, one of the leading figures in the martial world.

Unfortunately, these sects lacked sufficient foundation, and even combined, they didn't have many Innate Realm sword techniques, which limited their usefulness in improving your Sword Breaking Form.

And if you were to talk about which had the deepest foundation in the entire martial world, Shaolin Temple would be second to none.

Including the Sun Moon Holy Cult, which was the number one power in the martial world.]

[In May of the twenty-third year, after challenging almost all the famous and influential forces in the martial world, you officially set foot on the road to Shaolin Temple.]

[Three days later, you arrived at Shaolin Temple and challenged all its experts.

You were no longer the nobody you once were. After successively defeating countless experts and killing numerous powerful figures, your reputation in the martial world was second only to Dongfang Bubai, the Demonic Cult Leader. Countless people were constantly watching your every move.

Therefore, you did not come to Shaolin alone; you were followed by hundreds of martial artists.

Some were your defeated opponents, some were relatives and friends of those you had killed or crippled, and others were simply there to watch the excitement.

The purpose of these people following you, apart from a small number seeking revenge, was to see the limits of your strength and to see who was stronger between you and Dongfang Bubai, the Demonic Cult Leader who had dominated the martial world for more than a decade?]

[You did not disperse these people, but forbade them from approaching within a hundred meters of you without reason, or they would be killed without mercy.

The reason you did this was to use these people to put pressure on the martial arts sects you challenged.

You should know that the most important thing to a sect is its reputation. If its reputation stinks, it is not far from disbanding.

Therefore, those sects that you challenged had no choice but to accept your challenge if they did not want to be labeled as cowardly and timid, otherwise they would become the laughingstock of the entire martial world.]

[Now, Shaolin Temple was in this situation; even if they were unwilling, they had no choice but to accept your challenge.

And you didn't challenge these sects without conditions.

All the sects you challenged had to bet their own cultivation methods and martial arts techniques against your Star Absorbing Great Method and the various sword techniques you knew. If you won, you could obtain the Star Absorbing Great Method and the various sword techniques you knew, and if you lost, you would naturally have to compensate with your own cultivation methods and martial arts techniques.

As for refusing to admit defeat after losing?

It wasn't that no one had done it, but those people ultimately died or were crippled, without exception.]

[The strongest person in Shaolin Temple was Master Fangzheng, the abbot.

His strength had reached the peak of the mid-stage of the Innate Realm, and he was proficient in Yi Jin Jing, Thousand-Hand Tathagata Palm, Vajra Zen Lion's Roar, and many other Shaolin secret techniques.

His combat experience was extremely rich, even stronger than Ren Woxing, making him the undisputed number one expert of the righteous path.

Of course, Feng Qingyang, who did not care about worldly affairs, and Linghu Chong, who had learned Dugu Nine Swords and Star Absorbing Great Method, were not included.]

[However, your current strength was much stronger than when you killed Ren Woxing.

Therefore, without any accident, Master Fangzheng lost.

And the price of losing was that you were allowed to read all the cultivation methods, martial arts techniques, and Buddhist scriptures of Shaolin Temple.

With Shaolin Temple's foundation, they would not have agreed to your request so easily. After all, that was the foundation that Shaolin had accumulated over hundreds or thousands of years. If you read it and spread it around at will, Shaolin would be ruined.

But Master Fangzheng agreed to your request very easily.

Anyone with a discerning eye could see that this was not normal, and the martial artists who watched the battle discussed it for a long time, but they couldn't figure out why.

You naturally heard those people's discussions, but you were unmoved.

Because you had already guessed Master Fangzheng's purpose!]

[You had a long history with Shaolin Temple. In the Wong Fei Hung world, you had learned more than sixty of the seventy-two Shaolin secret techniques, and your knowledge of Shaolin martial arts was far beyond that of those laymen.

Shaolin martial arts are strong, but they have a fatal flaw, which is Buddhism!

Most Shaolin martial arts require corresponding Buddhist scriptures to regulate one's state of mind in order to cultivate.

Once one forcibly cultivates them randomly, one's meridians will be damaged, one's cultivation will regress, or one will become possessed and lose one's life.

And if a person recites Buddhist scriptures a lot and knows their truth deeply, the consequences are self-evident. Not to mention becoming a monk, at the very least, one's temperament will change drastically and one will wholeheartedly turn to good.

This was Master Fangzheng's purpose.

If he couldn't beat you head-on, he would use Buddhism to influence you.

Unfortunately, what he didn't know was that you were not using Shaolin's cultivation methods and martial arts techniques to cultivate, but as nourishment for your Dugu Nine Swords. You would not cultivate them at all.]

[Three months later, as time came to August of the twenty-third year, you left Shaolin after staying there for a full three months.

This time, you didn't challenge anyone else, but rented a courtyard in a small city called Yongcheng and lived there.

In these three months, you only read thirty-six cultivation methods and martial arts techniques in Shaolin, but each one reached the Innate Realm.

Although most of them were only Low-Grade Innate Realm, they were enough to improve your Dugu Nine Swords a lot.]

[Now, all nine forms of your Dugu Nine Swords have reached the minor achievement stage, and the Sword Breaking Form has even just entered the major achievement stage. Your strength can be said to have greatly improved.

In addition, after observing the Yi Jin Jing, a high-grade Innate Realm cultivation method, you finally know how to find and open the last Yin and Yang Two-Dimensional Meridians within your Eight Extraordinary Meridians!

The reason you're staying in this nameless Yong City now is to break through to the peak of the Innate Realm.]

[With the help of the Star Absorbing Great Method, your Innate True Qi has long since reached the limit of the late Innate Realm, and you have long possessed the conditions to break through to the peak of the Innate Realm. All that was lacking was the method to break through.

Now that the method has been found, you naturally begin to break through without hesitation.

The day you emerge from seclusion will be the day you ascend Black Wood Cliff to challenge Dongfang Bubai!]