Zhuge Tao's Surprise!

Seeing Luo Feng's puzzled expression, Zhou Ze continued, "What I mean by tempering is usually something you do when you hit a bottleneck—it's like life-and-death training."

"Between life and death lies great terror and boundless drive. It's like the instinct to shut your eyes when a needle comes at them! Facing a life-or-death crisis, every cell in your body instinctively struggles, even your genetic material accelerates its evolution! The terror of life and death pushes your body and soul into an unimaginable state of advanced evolution!"

"In that state, it's easier to comprehend, easier to evolve, easier to boost your strength!"

Zhou Ze spoke with ease, but Luo Feng looked confused. "Teacher, if what you say is true, isn't that a good thing?"

"Foolish!" Zhou Ze scolded. "True experts cherish their lives. Only by living is there hope. Those who delude themselves into thinking they can improve by courting death are either forced into it or habitually go to extremes, forgetting that you only have one life. Once you're dead, it's over."

"You don't have any pressure to risk your life right now, so why would you? That's being irresponsible to yourself and your family, and it's not the mindset of a true expert."

Luo Feng said sheepishly, "Teacher, I'm not trying to risk my life. I just plan to go to 0231 County to train my blade technique and footwork. Almost all the monsters there are soldier-level, with very few commander-level ones, and most of those are low-level commanders. Mid-level commanders are rare."

"With my current strength, there's no real danger."

Zhou Ze snorted. "I knew you'd think that way. But the way you're trying to improve is just fooling yourself—thinking that the harder and crazier you push, the faster you'll grow."

"Is that wrong?" Luo Feng asked awkwardly.

"Right and wrong." Zhou Ze looked at Luo Feng's constipated expression and laughed. "Think carefully. What was your biggest gain from this trip to the wilderness?"

Luo Feng thought for a moment. "The tempering in the wilderness taught me about the darkness of human hearts, and I also made several hundred million Hua Xia dollars!"

"And what about your Ninefold Thunderblade?" Zhou Ze said quietly.

"Uh, in the wilderness, I didn't have time to practice, but I used the Ninefold Thunderblade every time I killed a monster," Luo Feng said quickly.

"So you were only using the first layer of the Ninefold Thunderblade, never comprehending the second layer..." Zhou Ze said flatly.

Luo Feng felt as if an invisible hand had clamped around his throat, leaving him speechless.

"Let me give you an example. Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth..." Zhou Ze continued. "But you know practice is the final step. Where does the truth before that come from? Truth is like your daily hard training. Once you can master it skillfully, that's when you need to practice."

"Don't get the order wrong. If you're practicing and tempering every day, when do you have time to train? Isn't that going against the grain?"

Luo Feng froze, his mind racing through Zhou Ze's words. Soon, realization dawned. "I understand, Teacher."

"Good. But you do lack real combat experience, especially experience facing things alone. This time, someone else took you along. You can go to 0231 County and fight a bit to get your fill, then spend more time practicing the second layer of the Ninefold Thunderblade. When you get bored of training, go fight again. But remember, don't put the cart before the horse!"

"I understand." Luo Feng nodded seriously, then suddenly thought of something and quickly said, "Teacher, this trip was just like you said. There were some things I felt weren't quite right, but after real combat, I quickly worked them out."

"But about what you said—using the heart to control it—I still have no clue."

"Take it slow. First, practice the second layer of the Ninefold Thunderblade." Zhou Ze reminded him, "Go back and spend more time with your family. Once your strength improves, you might not have much time."

With that, Zhou Ze flashed a strange smile. The nation's most tragic 'living widow' female lead, tsk tsk.

Limit Hall headquarters.

In the director's office, a middle-aged man in a Tang suit sat at his desk working. Just then, a beautiful woman dressed as a secretary knocked and walked in.

"Director, there are some unusual developments in Yangzhou City."

"Oh?" Zhuge Tao raised an eyebrow slightly, took the report, and immediately noticed that for two consecutive months, the number of prospective martial artists in Yangzhou City had increased significantly.

"According to the investigation and report from the Yangzhou City Limit Hall curator, the reason for the noticeable increase in prospective martial artist exam passes is that a mid-level warlord named Zhou Ze has been teaching there."

"Most of these prospective martial artists come from the Yi'an District Limit Martial Hall, and many others have specifically gone to the Yi'an District Limit Martial Hall to seek Zhou Ze's guidance. They all agree that this mid-level warlord's instruction has been extremely helpful to them!"

Zhuge Tao smiled as he read the report. "A mid-level warlord holed up in a branch of a Limit Martial Hall? Interesting. Yangzhou City has been seeing a surge of talent lately. First Luo Feng, now Zhou Ze."

"I understand. You may go."

"Yes, Director."

Zhuge Tao looked at the data in the report. It was very detailed, recording the specific punch strength, speed, and neural reaction speed of all the prospective martial artists.

"Senior Zhou Ze... I didn't expect him to be holed up in a district branch of a martial hall in Yangzhou City..."

He still had some impression of Zhou Ze. Back when he wasn't even a martial artist, he'd heard his story. Unfortunately, his talent was limited. He never expected Zhou Ze to have such skills.

"I'll observe a bit longer." Zhuge Tao had an idea in mind, but it would have to wait until next year's martial artist practical exam.

Days passed one after another.

Just now, Luo Feng called to tell Zhou Ze that he had broken through to the second layer of the Ninefold Thunderblade and was now integrating his blade technique, footwork, and guidance technique. His physical fitness had already reached the level of a low-level warlord.

This made Zhou Ze grumble. It was one thing for the Ninefold Thunderblade to progress quickly, but why was his physical fitness improving so fast too?

The next moment, Zhou Ze found the reason—the guidance technique. Luo Feng had obediently followed his advice, combining blade technique, footwork, and guidance technique. Every slash he made activated the guidance technique. Coupled with his daily frenzied fighting, which consumed a lot of energy, he absorbed far more cosmic energy than others every day. Such progress was only natural.

"This progress is way too fast. No, I can't be stingy with money. I need to buy the sixth layer of the Ninefold Thunderblade." Zhou Ze gritted his teeth and placed the order.

His comprehension was good. Although his base punch strength was only at the mid-level warlord stage, his explosive punch strength surpassed that of a high-level warlord. Combined with the integration of the three techniques, ordinary high-level monster commanders were no match for him.

Several billion was something he could still scrape together.

"If I'd known this would happen, I should have collected more monster materials," Zhou Ze said helplessly. Back then, to break through, he'd slaughtered monsters like crazy. To save time, he barely bothered to cut materials, wasting who knows how many high-level monster commander materials.

"Damn it. If worst comes to worst, I'll just go to the wilderness and hunt. My strength is good enough now. Killing a few monster commanders will earn me money..." Zhou Ze was speechless. He'd taken on a disciple hoping to coast along, but instead, he was being forced to improve.

What could he do? If he couldn't answer his disciple's questions, it would be too embarrassing.

Another stretch of time passed, and Luo Feng called again to say he had mastered the second layer of the Ninefold Thunderblade and was starting on the third. This once more put pressure on Zhou Ze.

"Should I just lie flat and give up? This is only the beginning—once he enters the Elite Training Camp, how the hell am I supposed to teach him? Not to mention he'll become an Invincible War God before long and receive Hu Yanbo's legacy..."

"Damn it, I'll just slack off. Actually, I wanted to slack off from the start..."

"There's nothing shameful about a student surpassing his teacher..."

Even so, Zhou Ze didn't refund the money. He waited for the manual for the sixth layer of the Ninefold Thunderblade to arrive and began studying it.

What Zhou Ze didn't know was that he had already sparked intense interest in Zhuge Tao.

In the main office of the Limit Hall headquarters, Zhuge Tao was reviewing this month's preliminary martial artist exam pass rates for Yangzhou City. Not only that, he had specifically requested detailed intelligence on the advanced trainees of the Yi'an District Limit Martial Hall branch.

"Incredible. Amazing. How does he do it?"

As one of the four directors of Jiangnan Base City, he had seen countless geniuses rise, but someone with such astonishing teaching talent—this was his first encounter.

Zhuge Tao, who always placed great importance on geniuses, had become thoroughly invested in Zhou Ze. And as a Limit Hall director, he had access to quite a bit of higher-level information.

So what if his physical talent was lacking? Dragon Blood and Spirits of Plants could stack it up. So what if his arm was broken? Check out the Water of Life.

"This is no small matter. Zhou Ze is truly no small matter!" Zhuge Tao lost his composure slightly. "I never expected Luo Feng to be his disciple!"

Before even passing the martial artist exam, he already possessed a Conceptual Blade Art and a Micro-level Movement Technique. In the past, he would have assumed it was all due to Luo Feng's own talent, but now it seemed that aside from Luo Feng's genuine aptitude, Zhou Ze's guidance as a teacher was absolutely not to be underestimated!