Setting Off

"After cultivating for so long, it's time to move."

Putting away the letter, Zhao Ping'an got up and headed towards South Ridge City.

After half a year of continuous cultivation, his status panel was now vastly different from before.

[Name: Zhao Ping'an]

[Realm: Eighth Layer of Great Grandmaster]

[Body Cultivation: Fourth Layer of Martial Venerable]

Arts:

[Jade Armor Art (Profound Grade Art): 268/1500 (Fourth Layer, Simplified) Hitting an iron pillar 500 times consecutively with the body increases training progress by 1 point]

[Primordial Chaos Art (Yellow-grade Art): 980/1000 (Eighth Layer, Simplified) Meditating and absorbing world energy for ten minutes increases training progress by 1 point]

Martial Arts:

[Nine Forms of Hegemonic Saber (Profound Grade Martial Art): 300/1500 (Mastered, Simplified) Swinging a steel saber weighing over 20 kilograms 500 times consecutively increases training progress by 1 point]

[Soaring Dragon Void Steps (Yellow-grade Martial Art): 1000/1000 (Perfected, Simplified) Can be deduced!]

[Purple Light Ghostly Eyes (Yellow-grade Martial Art): 896/1000 (Mastered, Simplified) Staring intently at the square hole in the center of a copper coin 20 meters away for 1 minute increases training progress by 1 point]

[Five Thunders Sky Severing Palm (Yellow-grade Martial Art): 879/1000 (Mastered, Simplified) Slapping an iron pillar 100 times consecutively with both palms increases training progress by 1 point]

[Phantom Flying Dagger (Yellow-grade Martial Art): 987/1000 (Mastered, Simplified) Hitting a target with a 1-meter diameter at a distance of 30 meters with pebbles 100 times increases training progress by 1 point]

[Deduction Points: 48%]

(Method of obtaining Deduction Points: Omitted)

Besides the increased difficulty in cultivating Profound Grade Arts and Martial Arts, the training progress for Primordial Chaos Art was also too slow.

Even with him absorbing world energy for a full five hours a day, he could only gain thirty points of training progress, taking over a month to advance one layer.

On the other hand, the body cultivation art Jade Armor Art, which had already advanced to a Profound Grade Art, was progressing rapidly even though its proficiency had increased by five hundred and its cultivation difficulty had quintupled.

With his physique and body strength, hitting the iron pillar felt like nothing, and he had to control his strength to prevent accidentally sending the iron pillar flying.

As for the speed of impact, it was only two strikes per second, all due to his restraint. If he went any faster, he feared the iron pillar wouldn't hold up.

Even so, excluding rest time, it would take about a month to advance one layer.

This was faster than Primordial Chaos Art, which was merely a Yellow-grade Art.

If he hadn't neglected Jade Armor Art for three months in the middle and had also hastily practiced Primordial Chaos Art in the morning, his body cultivation and realm would likely be more than a full major realm apart.

Finally, there were [Deduction Points]. As his Body Cultivation broke through to the Martial Venerable realm, the total amount of [Deduction Points] increased again.

This left Zhao Ping'an, who had lost the source of improvement from spiritual medicine, to rely on consuming large amounts of demonic beast meat daily to obtain a small amount of [Deduction Points].

Averaged per day, it was only a little over 1%.

For a full half year, besides consuming 75% of his [Deduction Points] to advance the God Slaying Saber Strike to the Profound-grade martial art Nine Forms of Hegemonic Saber.

The remainder each consumed 40% of his [Deduction Points] to advance the three Human-grade martial arts Soul Capturing Mystic Pupil, Void Splitting Palm, and Absolute Shadow Flying Blade all to Yellow-grade martial arts.

Combined, it wasn't even 200% of his [Deduction Points].

"I haven't seen a Fourth-grade Spiritual Medicine yet. I wonder how many [Deduction Points] a single plant can provide me?"

On the road from Wu'an Mountain to South Ridge City, Zhao Ping'an sat in the carriage, his thoughts wandering.

He had also asked his Master, Zheng Hetong, to help collect Fourth-grade Spiritual Medicine, but unfortunately, more than half a year had passed with no news.

He knew the reason: South Ridge City was too small. Once a Fourth-grade Spiritual Medicine appeared, it would be acquired at any cost by forces with Grandmasters, and would never be transported here. The various forces within South Ridge City couldn't afford it.

As for the area within a hundred miles of South Ridge City, Fourth-grade Spiritual Medicine simply couldn't be found. There was no other way but to search in larger cities.

"Sir, we've arrived at the workshop."

After an unknown amount of time, Zhao Ping'an, who had been closing his eyes and absorbing the world's spiritual energy, heard the driver's report from outside the carriage.

"Mm."

Zhao Ping'an opened his eyes and responded softly in a calm tone.

He wasn't afraid of being disturbed while absorbing the world's spiritual energy. He was merely drawing the ubiquitous spiritual energy in the air into his body, not circulating any major or minor heavenly cycles.

Moreover, it wasn't limited by the concentration of world spiritual energy, making it extremely convenient. If his method of cultivating and improving his strength were known, the entire world would likely fall into madness.

"Little Junior Disciple? It's not the end of the month yet, why are you here?"

As soon as Zhao Ping'an, who had just alighted from the carriage, entered the workshop, he bumped into his Second Senior Disciple Brother, Cui Kang'an, who was walking towards him.

"Second Senior Brother, the City Lord has something to discuss with me. I'm just stopping by to take a look. You don't need to mind me."

Zhao Ping'an greeted him with a smile.

Initially, when they learned his cultivation had reached Grandmaster Peak, his Senior Brothers and Sisters were very reserved when they saw him.

Especially the usually boisterous Third Senior Sister, Mu Yunmeng. The thought that she had once dared to pull the ear of a Grandmaster expert made her want to find a hole to crawl into.

But they soon discovered that Zhao Ping'an was still the same Zhao Ping'an. Apart from revealing his true strength, his attitude towards them was no different than before; he was still as gentle.

However, his Senior Brothers and Sisters, including his Master Zheng Hetong, who knew Zhao Ping'an's true strength, could never go back to how things were. They always held a trace of respect for the current Zhao Ping'an, but it was infinitely better than the initial awkwardness.

The only exception was Mistress Zhao Xiuyun, whose attitude towards Zhao Ping'an never changed from beginning to end.

Zhao Ping'an quickly toured the Alchemy Workshop. He only saw three Senior Brothers and Sisters and did not see Master Zheng Hetong.

He didn't mind. He had only come to the Alchemy Workshop out of boredom. Including the land deed and property deed, everything was in his Master's hands. When his strength improvement slowed down, he would leave this place. These two properties would be the retirement fund for his Master and Mistress.

As Third-grade Spiritual Medicine no longer had an effect on Zhao Ping'an, he gave the Third-grade Spiritual Medicine he had collected over the past six months to his Master, allowing his stagnant strength to rapidly increase again.

As for the three Senior Brothers and Sisters, they could not yet withstand the medicinal power of Third-grade Spiritual Medicine and could only take Second-grade ones.

After some more time, Fourth-grade Spiritual Medicine would likely be useless to him. At that time, he would help his Master collect some Fourth-grade Spiritual Medicine so that his cultivation could break through to the Grandmaster Realm. Then, he would no longer have to worry about their safety.

In this remote South Ridge City, the Grandmaster Realm was everything.

Seeing that it was getting late, Zhao Ping'an left the workshop and walked towards the Zhao Residence. He had already sent someone to inform Mistress that he would be back for lunch.

After a sumptuous lunch that was both visually appealing and delicious, Zhao Ping'an chatted with Mistress for a while longer. It wasn't until two in the afternoon that he set off for the City Lord's Mansion.