Hu Lianfeng heard Ye Wudao's words and froze on the spot.
After a long while, he asked in disbelief, "You mean you didn't deliberately cultivate, but your cultivation art was operating on its own?"
Ye Wudao nodded. "It does feel that way!"
"I don't have to deliberately cultivate. The art runs on its own."
Hu Lianfeng was stunned. He hurried over to Ye Wudao and grabbed his right hand, the one that wasn't in a cast.
The next second, he froze.
There was indeed a faint stream of true qi inside Ye Wudao's body, flowing slowly.
Normally, true qi only traveled through the meridians along the cultivation art's pathways while someone was practicing.
The rest of the time, true qi was stored in the dantian.
The so-called Body Tempering Realm involved absorbing spiritual energy from the air, converting it into true qi, and using it to temper the body again and again.
But this process only worked while cultivating.
Ye Wudao hadn't even entered a meditative state, yet true qi was circulating through his body. It was beyond anything Hu Lianfeng could understand.
He looked at Ye Wudao and asked softly, "When did you first notice this?"
Ye Wudao played dumb. "It's been like this ever since you taught me the Northern Dark Divine Art!"
Hu Lianfeng was completely stunned. He let go of Ye Wudao's hand and muttered repeatedly, "Could this really be the legendary Martial Saint Body?"
"A Martial Saint Body? I actually ran into someone with this kind of constitution?"
"Has Master's spirit appeared?"
When he came back to himself, he looked at Ye Wudao and said solemnly, "I can't be sure what's going on with you. We'll have to wait for Elder Qin to come back and take a look."
"Elder Qin is knowledgeable and a cultivator at the Xiantian Minor Accomplishment. He should know what's happening."
Ye Wudao nodded without a word.
He knew perfectly well what was going on.
What Martial Saint Body?
He'd never even heard of one.
He'd just gotten a cheat!
Hu Lianfeng glanced at Ye Wudao, returned to his bed, and fell into a daze.
With nothing else to do, Ye Wudao sat on his bed, stared at the system panel, and zoned out too.
About half an hour later, another notification appeared on the system panel.
[Your Northern Dark Divine Art has reached minor accomplishment. You are in high spirits, accelerating automatic cultivation. Art proficiency +80/minute, realm experience +8/minute.] [Your Northern Dark Divine Art has reached minor accomplishment. Realm experience +200!]
The Northern Dark Divine Art had advanced from beginner to minor accomplishment, and its automatic cultivation efficiency had increased again.
However, the proficiency required for the Northern Dark Divine Art had also gone from ten thousand to one hundred thousand.
At its current cultivation speed, the Northern Dark Divine Art would reach major accomplishment in twenty hours.
At the same time, he felt a huge wave of warmth well up in his abdomen. It began coursing through his body along his meridians.
The warm current was clearly much thicker than before. As it passed, his body trembled faintly.
After a while, the powerful currents of warmth all returned to his dantian.
"Mm..."
The sensation was so pleasant that he couldn't help letting out a soft moan.
At the sound, Hu Lianfeng turned to look at Ye Wudao.
When he saw the faint spiritual energy around Ye Wudao's body, he froze.
"Y-you've reached minor accomplishment?"
He stared at Ye Wudao and cried out in astonishment.
Hu Lianfeng cultivated the Northern Dark Divine Art himself, so he knew that when it broke through to minor accomplishment, the meridians couldn't yet handle the powerful true qi, causing it to leak out.
This only lasted a minute or two. Once all the true qi returned to the dantian, the true qi on the body's surface would be absorbed.
"Five hours! Minor accomplishment!"
When the thought crossed his mind, he felt like the world had turned upside down!
He'd cultivated for half his life, and his Northern Dark Divine Art had only reached major accomplishment. He was still a long way from perfection.
But Ye Wudao had only been cultivating for five hours.
If Ye Wudao's reaching beginner level in the Northern Dark Divine Art had been a fluke, then reaching minor accomplishment was pure Martial Path talent.
Beginner and minor accomplishment weren't even in the same league.
Reaching beginner level meant only gaining an initial grasp of the art's circulation pathways, and the art ran relatively slowly.
Minor accomplishment meant the art had become thoroughly familiar. One could enter a cultivation state at any time, and the results of cultivation would improve greatly.
As he looked at Ye Wudao, one thought filled his mind: Have I wasted my whole damn life?
He turned to glance at the clock on the wall and said softly, "Elder Qin and the others should be back in about five hours."
Then he looked at Ye Wudao again and asked solemnly, "Can your martial skills cultivate automatically too?"
Ye Wudao didn't hide it. Since he was pretending to be a genius, he might as well make it convincing.
He nodded. "It seems like my martial skills are cultivating automatically too. I have this feeling that after a while, the essentials of a martial skill appear in my mind."
"But I don't know if that means the martial skill is cultivating automatically!"
Hu Lianfeng stared at him, dumbstruck.
He said excitedly, "Show me the Eight Extremes Fist. I want to see how far you've gotten with it."
But when he saw the casts on Ye Wudao's hands and feet, he hurriedly shook his head. "Never mind. We'd better wait until you're healed!"
Then he looked up at the ceiling and muttered, "Master, has your spirit really appeared? Did you send this freak to me?"
Ye Wudao looked at the muttering, rambling Hu Lianfeng, speechless.
After a while, he said softly, "Master, I'm a little sleepy. I'll take a nap."
Hu Lianfeng hurriedly said, "Go to sleep! You're injured, so you need to rest properly."
Ye Wudao nodded, slowly lay down, and closed his eyes.
He'd been through a lot today and really was a little tired.
He'd been transferred from the detention center to prison, awakened his system, been taken on as Hu Lianfeng's disciple, and gotten hurt in the Rift World.
He felt that this one day had been more eventful than all the eighteen years of his life.
As he thought about it, he drifted off to sleep.
"Apprentice... wake up..."
He didn't know how long had passed before he heard Hu Lianfeng calling him.
He opened his eyes, and three faces appeared in front of him.
Hu Lianfeng was calling to him, while Zhang Hankuang looked at him with curiosity.
Qin Tianlong had a hand on his wrist, his brows tightly furrowed.
"Strange! Very strange!"
"Even while this kid is sleeping, his art keeps circulating, and his body is constantly being strengthened by true qi."
"I've lived all these years, and this is the first time I've ever encountered anything like it."
When Qin Tianlong saw Ye Wudao wake up, he let go of his wrist and continued muttering softly.
Hu Lianfeng looked anxiously at Qin Tianlong and asked, "Elder Qin, is this a Martial Saint Body?"
Qin Tianlong shook his head. "To be honest, I've never seen a Martial Saint Body either."
"This kind of constitution only exists in ancient texts and legends."
"But the Martial Saint Body described in those texts just makes cultivation easy, and martial arts and techniques easy to grasp. They don't mention anything like what's happening to him."
"An art cultivating automatically? This is the first time I've seen it. I'd never even heard of it before."
"Could it be some kind of special constitution?"
Hu Lianfeng felt a little helpless at Qin Tianlong's answer.
Even a Xiantian Realm expert like Qin Tianlong had no idea what was going on. Hu Lianfeng didn't dare make any wild guesses either.
Qin Tianlong looked at Ye Wudao, who was still bleary-eyed, and asked softly, "Kid, is anything bothering you?"
Ye Wudao nodded. "My arm and lower leg still hurt a little. The scrapes have scabbed over, but it's nothing serious."
Qin Tianlong gave Ye Wudao a helpless look and said sternly, "I'm not asking about your injuries from falling. I'm asking if anything feels wrong when you cultivate!"
Ye Wudao shook his head. "No! I feel great!"
Qin Tianlong gave Ye Wudao a careful once-over, then patted Hu Lianfeng on the shoulder. "Old Hu, you've struck gold."
"Though I don't know exactly what's going on with him, compared to him, a Martial Saint Body is nothing!"
"Automatic cultivation of martial arts and techniques—I've truly never heard of such a thing!"
"Just goes to show, the world is vast, and there are all kinds of wonders!"
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