Provocation

After a bit of training, Liang Bo added Wave Stacking to his character panel. Then he activated the modifier and transferred all the proficiency from Purple Lightning Blade over. His character panel immediately became:

Liang Bo—

[Cultivation]: Martial Arts Fourth Grade

[Technique]: True Martial Canon 1/40 Mysterious Yellow Body Tempering Art 0/10

[Martial Skills]: Wave Stacking 20/30 Flowing Light 15/20 Vast Sky Fist 0/30 Meteor Arrow 0/20 Cloud Dragon Evasion Method 0/20 Crane Form Fist 0/10

[Secret Arts]: Eye of Truthpiercing 20/20

[Skill Points]: 0

With that, his movement technique had reached the realm of minute subtlety, while his blade technique remained at the level of blade and man as one. At the same time, Wave Stacking had reached its second layer.

"Let's see how effective this power stacking is!" Liang Bo rose to his feet and headed for the training room beside the main hall.

This palace had been assigned by the True Martial Sect for direct disciples to cultivate in. Besides a spirit-gathering formation, it naturally contained other auxiliary facilities as well.

Liang Bo entered the training room and walked up to a formation for testing strength. After activating it, he did not use the Wave Stacking martial skill at first, relying only on his base strength as he slashed with all his might at the target in the center of the formation.

"Bang!" The target shook violently, and then the formation projected a message into the air: 3,700 jin.

Next, Liang Bo used the secret method within Wave Stacking and slashed at the target once more.

This time, the formation projected: 9,600 jin.

Liang Bo was overjoyed. The increase in power was actually this great—an entire 2.6 times his original strength! It was even higher than the maximum second-layer boost mentioned in the booklet!

"Hahaha... A heaven-tier martial skill truly deserves to be called a heaven-tier martial skill. This power-enhancing effect alone can raise my strength by a huge margin." Liang Bo nearly threw back his head and burst into laughter.

Setting aside factors such as combat experience, a martial artist's strength depended on nothing more than power and technique. Now that Liang Bo's strength had increased to 2.6 times its original level, it also meant that his overall strength had risen by at least 2.6 times.

Still, he was not satisfied. He wanted to test the power boost of the third layer.

However, his skill points were limited. At present, all of them were concentrated on the secret art Eye of Truthpiercing, as well as the two martial skills Flowing Light and Wave Stacking.

The secret art Eye of Truthpiercing only worked when its proficiency was maxed out. Without its assistance, his strength would undoubtedly drop by a great deal, so the proficiency invested in this secret art could not be changed.

Other than that, he could only work something out between the two martial skills, Wave Stacking and Flowing Light.

After some experimentation, Liang Bo ultimately decided to keep Flowing Light at 11 proficiency points and Wave Stacking at 24 points.

That way, his movement technique would still remain in the realm of "minute subtlety," while his power boost would reach 2.9 times—10,700 jin of strength!

One had to know that in this world, even a Martial Arts First Grade martial artist usually possessed only around 5,000 jin of strength, while an early Human Origin Realm martial artist typically possessed between 10,000 and 20,000 jin.

In other words, after stacking his strength, Liang Bo had already reached the standard of an early Human Origin Realm martial artist. His blade technique and movement technique had likewise reached the usual standard of Human Origin Realm martial artists. Taken together, he could absolutely fight an early Human Origin Realm martial artist!

"Right, I remember Du Chi saying before that clearing the first floor of the True Martial Tower earns a reward of a thousand points. My strength has increased greatly now, so this is the perfect time to give it a try."

Liang Bo immediately stood up, preparing to challenge the True Martial Tower, but then gave up on the idea. It was not that he lacked the confidence to clear it. Rather, he felt that he had only entered the sect today, yet had already solved the question left behind by the Wine Daoist. That was already conspicuous enough. If he also cleared the first floor of the True Martial Tower, it would be far too high-profile. No matter what, he should wait a few days.

So Liang Bo decided to challenge the True Martial Tower only after taking a master.

He sat cross-legged atop the spirit-gathering formation, transferred all his proficiency to the True Martial Canon, and began cultivating his inner force.

His inner force cultivation was currently around the middle stage of Fourth Grade. If he continued cultivating at this pace, he estimated that he would break through to Third Grade in another two or three months.

Just as Liang Bo closed his eyes to cultivate, within the Demon Suppression Hall of True Martial City—

"Screech!" A flash of sword light tore through the air like swift thunder, carrying a piercing howl as it slashed toward a huge gray bear.

"Roar!" The gray bear howled in pain and fury. As if driven mad, its two thick, powerful claws wildly battered everything around it. Every tree swept by its claws toppled at once, while the massive rocks on the ground shot outward like fallen leaves tossed up by a gale.

Yet the sword light did not weaken in the slightest. Instead, it continued slashing toward the gray bear's vital points.

"Pfft!" The sword pierced the gray bear's heart, and its enormous body gradually lost all strength.

"Liu Xiong, congratulations! Your swordsmanship has grown stronger again!" At that moment, a hearty laugh came from nearby.

The owner of the sword light turned around, glanced at the newcomer, and frowned. "Song Qian? What are you doing here? Did you also accept a mission to clear out demon beasts?"

The one called Song Qian was a cheerful youth dressed in white.

He glanced at the gray bear lying on the ground, barely clinging to life, and smiled. "That's right. If you can accept missions, then naturally I can too. Tsk, tsk, tsk. A demon beast at the peak of the Human Tier, yet you dealt with it so quickly. With your strength, you should be able to become a direct disciple in next year's sect competition, right?"

Liu Xiong raised a brow. "I don't know whether I can become a direct disciple, but I'm confident I can defeat you."

Song Qian did not mind, merely smiling. "What use is defeating me? You need to defeat those other direct disciples and inner disciples. Speaking of which, among the True Martial Sect's martial artists under forty, only those four have passed the fifth floor of the True Martial Tower, while only eighteen have passed the fourth floor. There are more who have passed the third floor—at least forty or fifty. With your current strength, you should already be able to pass the fourth floor, right? Yet you've kept it under wraps all this time. If I hadn't just seen your swordsmanship, I wouldn't have dared believe you had become this strong."

Liu Xiong looked at him in silence.

Song Qian continued, "Oh, right. I just heard an interesting piece of news. Are you interested in hearing it?"

"What news?" Liu Xiong frowned.

"A direct disciple who just entered the sect has already solved the question left by the Wine Venerable in the Treasure Pavilion and taken the treasure within for himself."

At those words, Liu Xiong's gaze immediately turned sharp. "The seventh branch hall?"

"That's right!"

Liu Xiong's expression darkened slightly as he slowly asked, "What is his name?"

"I heard he's called Liang Bo." The smile on Song Qian's face deepened.