Heaven-Defying Comprehension!

In an instant, the panel glowing red above Yuan Manzhi's head transformed into a dazzling streak of crimson light. Like a flaming arrow, it shot straight into Jiang Tian's brow.

Jiang Tian took a deep breath and summoned the panel.

[Host: Jiang Tian]

[Lifespan: 16/20]

[Realm: Manifest Energy]

[Martial Arts Mastered: Five Animals Creation Play (Subtlety) (96+/1000)]

[Entries: Innate Martial Bone (Purple) (446+/5000), Superb Comprehension (Purple) (1+/5000)]

[Momentum: Tiger in a Cage, Deer in the Snow, Bear in the Cave]

[Entry Points: 10989]

Ten thousand points!

A single red entry had given him ten thousand entry points!

Jiang Tian's eyelids trembled slightly, and his eyes brimmed with barely restrained delight.

Now, he could upgrade both his purple entries, Comprehension and Root Bone, to red.

But amid his delight, a trace of confusion stirred in his heart.

Mystic Ice Body?

There was such an entry in this world? Yet when he'd been near Yuan Manzhi in the past, he'd never felt any chill.

Besides, the words "Mystic Ice Body" sounded exactly like the name of some special constitution from the fantasy novels of his previous life...

But wasn't this a low-martial world?

He thought of how ordinary people described the Heavenly Fire Sect, calling it an "immortal sect" and its members "immortals." He'd assumed they were simply exaggerating.

But now that he thought about it...

Jiang Tian felt a storm surge in his heart.

Could the realm above Transformation Energy... really be the legendary realm of immortals?

"Hiss—"

At the thought, Jiang Tian couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.

If immortals really existed... then with this Entry System, he might be able to...

He didn't let himself finish the thought.

Since upgrading a purple entry to red might trigger a violent transformation, Jiang Tian didn't rush to do it at the Martial Arts Hall. He decided to wait until he got home that night.

When Jiang Tian returned home that evening, he froze as soon as he stepped inside.

His elder brother, Jiang Minghai, was sitting at the table, sipping wine. A small dish of peanuts and a plate of braised pork sat before him.

He looked much better than he had a few days ago. Ever since eating the healing pills Jiang Tian had brought home, some color had finally returned to his pale face.

More importantly, the lingering worry between his brows had vanished with Li Kun's death.

"Xiaotian!"

When Jiang Minghai saw Jiang Tian return, he beckoned him over and called loudly, "Come on, have a drink with your big brother."

"Sure." Jiang Tian smiled and agreed.

It seemed his brother really was happy.

With a thought from Jiang Tian, a system panel appeared above Jiang Minghai's head.

[Realm: Manifest Energy]

His injuries had nearly healed, and he'd regained the realm he'd lost.

"Little brother, how's your training been going these days?" Jiang Minghai raised his cup, took a sip, and looked at him with a faint smile in his eyes.

His injuries had completely healed, and his Manifest Energy cultivation had returned.

By rights, given his Manifest Energy realm, he should have been able to see clearly the strength of anyone below Manifest Energy.

But he'd found that he couldn't see through his younger brother's cultivation at all!

What's more, several strange things had happened in the city these past few days.

The entire Zhang Qingfeng family in the southern part of the city had been slaughtered.

Zhang Qingfeng was the one who'd taken his younger brother to the Poetry Gathering.

Their deaths couldn't have been more gruesome, and every bit of silver in their home had been looted.

Jiang Tian had brought home healing pills and medicinal herbs that, by Jiang Minghai's rough calculations, were worth at least four hundred taels of silver.

A full four hundred taels.

He knew Yuan Long, the master of the Five Animals Martial Hall.

No matter how gifted his younger brother was, with Yuan Long's temperament, there was no way he'd reward him with that much silver.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

And then there was Li Kun's death...

A daring guess had quietly taken shape in his mind.

Could his younger brother have done all of it?

So he decided to test the little brother he was finding harder and harder to understand.

"Xiaotian."

Jiang Minghai called out. A flash of killing intent suddenly crossed his eyes.

Energy surged through his palm as he lunged for Jiang Tian's throat.

If Jiang Tian really could have done those things, then he must have reached at least Manifest Energy.

When a Manifest Energy martial artist faced a threat to his life, energy would instinctively rise within him. It was an almost instinctive reaction.

He even made sure to put killing intent in his eyes, to make the act more convincing.

However...

His hand reached Jiang Tian's throat without the slightest difficulty.

Throughout it all, there hadn't been the faintest change in Jiang Tian.

Jiang Tian's face went pale, his eyes full of fear and confusion, as if he'd been startled. "Big brother, what are you doing?"

"Oh." Jiang Minghai pulled his hand back and gave an awkward, sheepish smile. "It's nothing. I've had a bit too much to drink. I didn't scare you, did I, Xiaotian?"

"A little." Jiang Tian scratched his head.

He'd already sensed that his brother was trying to test him, so he'd prepared in advance, clamping down hard on the energy surging inside him until not a trace escaped.

He knew what his brother suspected: the healing pills and medicinal herbs had come from somewhere mysterious.

After this test, his brother probably wouldn't be suspicious anymore.

Still, to be safe, he'd go speak with Yuan Long tomorrow and get their stories straight.

"Come on, let your big brother pour you a drink and apologize!"

"..."

The two drank late into the night.

It wasn't until his sister-in-law, Bai Zhiruo, came to hurry them along several times that Jiang Minghai finally set down his cup, still reluctant to stop.

In the end, he got dead drunk, and Jiang Tian carried him back to his room.

It was easy to imagine how much pressure Jiang Minghai had been under lately for even a Manifest Energy martial artist to drink himself into such a state.

Back in his own room, Jiang Tian shut the doors and windows, took off his shoes, and sat cross-legged on the bed. He took several deep breaths to steady himself.

Then—

He added the points!

[Entry: Superb Comprehension (Purple) → Heaven-Defying Comprehension (Red) (1+/100000)]

In an instant, it was as if something had exploded in Jiang Tian's mind.

"Boom—!"

His consciousness was yanked beneath a boundless, vast starry sky.

Countless stars adorned the ink-black cosmic canopy. Some shone as brightly as the sun, others were dim as dust. Some revolved slowly in the distance, while others streaked across the heavens, trailing long tails of light.

Light spilled down from those stars, like countless silver threads, streaming into Jiang Tian's mind from every direction.

Each thread washed over his mind...

A day.

A year.

Ten years.

A hundred years.

Time lost all meaning here.

After who knew how long, Jiang Tian's consciousness abruptly returned to reality.

He felt as though a hundred years had passed, yet in truth, barely the time it took to drink a cup of tea had gone by.

The instant he opened his eyes, a trace of age-old weariness flickered in them. Deep in his pupils, countless rivers of stars seemed to be reflected, their depths impossible to fathom.

"Heaven-Defying Comprehension?"

Jiang Tian blinked. The strange glimmer in his eyes slowly faded, and they returned to normal.

He felt that no words could describe his comprehension now.

With that thought, he jumped off the bed.

He settled into a fighting stance and threw a punch.

The instant his fist shot out, understanding of the Five Animals Creation Play surged through his mind like floodwaters bursting through a broken dam.

Everything suddenly became clear. The true meaning behind every move was as vivid as if it had been carved into his heart.

[Beep! You possess Innate Martial Bone and Heaven-Defying Comprehension! Five Animals Creation Play +23!]

Jiang Tian's eyes narrowed slightly.

It had gone from nine to twenty-three, increasing by a full fourteen points!

He took a deep breath, suppressed his excitement, and checked his remaining entry points.

He still had plenty left.

"Add points!"

[Entry: Innate Martial Bone (Purple) → Martial Dao Sacred Body (Red) (1+/100000)]