Apprenticeship Ceremony

"Whew!" Liang Bo let out a long breath, a trace of excitement in his eyes.

"I never expected that after raising my proficiency in a Heaven-tier martial skill, learning a new ordinary martial skill would only take ten days to get started. Previously, I could gain 3 skill points in roughly twenty days on average, but now I only need ten days to gain 3 skill points. In other words, I'm gaining skill points twice as fast as before!"

It was now the tenth day since he had entered the True Martial Sect. Over the past few days, while cultivating a new ordinary saber technique, he had discovered in surprise that he reached 1 point of proficiency much faster than before. This gave rise to a suspicion: after his saber techniques had reached a certain level, cultivating new low-level saber martial skills had become easier.

The reasoning was easy to understand. For example, someone with no cultivation might need ten or twenty days to get started with an ordinary martial skill. But if it were a Heaven Origin Realm expert, perhaps a single glance would be enough for them to master it completely.

Liang Bo naturally could not learn something with a single glance yet, but he could shorten the time needed for cultivation.

He estimated that at 3 skill points every ten days, he could gain around 60 skill points by next year's sect competition. If he invested them all into Wave Stacking, he should be able to cultivate it to the fifth level.

Of course, he also needed to invest skill points into his movement technique to ensure its level could keep up with his saber techniques. Furthermore, if possible, he needed to cultivate more secret arts.

Aside from practicing his saber, during these ten days, he had also made time to begin cultivating the Profound Yellow Body Tempering Art.

Cultivating this body-tempering technique primarily required the use of all kinds of spiritual herbs, each of them extraordinarily precious medicinal ingredients. Fortunately, the herbs needed for the initial stages could be bought in some of True Martial City's apothecaries, and they could be purchased with silver rather than requiring points.

Over these days, Liang Bo had spent more than three hundred thousand taels of silver buying medicinal ingredients for cultivation. Before each session, he transferred his skill points to the Profound Yellow Body Tempering Art and cultivated with full proficiency, so his efficiency was naturally extremely high.

In just ten days, his body-tempering realm had reached the peak of the seventh rank. His physical strength had surpassed two thousand jin, and with the force generated by an eruption of inner force, his total strength was now close to six thousand jin!

Yes, as mentioned before, a martial artist of the first martial rank generally possessed around five thousand jin of strength, while an early Human Origin Realm martial artist generally possessed around ten thousand jin. However, that referred only to the strength produced when their inner force erupted; it did not include the physical strength of body-tempering experts.

Liang Bo cultivated both inner force and body tempering, so he undoubtedly held a tremendous advantage in terms of strength.

Of course, other martial artists who had the means would generally also choose to cultivate both inner force and body tempering. The old disciples who had spent many years in the True Martial Sect were basically all like this. As for what achievements they could attain, that was difficult to say. After all, not everyone could temper their body with full proficiency like Liang Bo.

After Liang Bo's body-tempering cultivation reached the peak of the seventh rank, breaking through to the sixth rank required spiritual herbs that were difficult to purchase with silver. He had to exchange points with the sect to obtain them.

Thinking of his utterly empty store of points, Liang Bo could not help but smile bitterly.

"Young Master, hurry up! Don't delay the apprenticeship ceremony!" Xiao Qing's voice came from outside.

Liang Bo quickly called out, "Got it, I'll be right out." After saying that, he hurriedly changed into a new set of clothes, opened the door, and walked outside.

Today was the day the newly inducted disciples of the True Martial Sect would hold their apprenticeship ceremony. Liang Bo naturally could not miss it.

Though he could directly alter martial skill proficiency, that did not mean he had no need for a good teacher's guidance. For one thing, a good teacher could steer him away from crooked paths; for another, they could give him someone to rely on, allowing him to act with greater confidence in the future.

Thus, Liang Bo also felt a faint anticipation for today's apprenticeship ceremony. I wonder who my master will be?

When he left the main hall, Zhao Wu, Xiao Qing, and Xie Jia were already waiting outside. As attendants, they were not qualified to take a master, but they could still follow along and watch the excitement.

Seeing Liang Bo, Xiao Qing came forward and said, "Young Master, someone from Young Master Du Chi just came with a message. He won't be attending today's apprenticeship ceremony and told us to go by ourselves. Young Master, what do you think is going on with Young Master Du Chi? Why isn't he attending the apprenticeship ceremony?"

"He's not attending?" Liang Bo was stunned for a moment, then said thoughtfully, "Mm, he must have another opportunity awaiting him. Forget it, we needn't worry about him. Zhao Wu, Xie Jia, Xiao Qing, how many points short are you three of exchanging for Human-tier cultivation techniques?"

Over the past few days, Liang Bo had mostly been in seclusion cultivating, while Zhao Wu, Xiao Qing, and Xie Jia had gone to the Demon Suppression Hall.

The Demon Suppression Hall was a trial ground the sect provided for martial artists who were still at the ninth martial rank. A great number of low-level demon beasts were imprisoned within. When martial artists trained there, they received 5 points for every demon beast from the ninth to seventh rank they killed, 10 points for every demon beast from the sixth to fourth rank, and 20 points for every demon beast from the third to first rank.

This could be considered a convenient method the sect provided for low-level disciples to obtain points. However, one could earn no more than one thousand points this way. After reaching that number, killing demon beasts would no longer yield points.

As attendants to direct disciples, Zhao Wu and the other two could only receive the treatment given to outer disciples. After entering the sect, they had neither received gifted points nor obtained high-grade inner force cultivation techniques. They had to rely entirely on their own efforts to earn points before exchanging them for cultivation techniques from the sect.

Liang Bo had originally planned to exchange a Human-tier cultivation technique for each of them after entering the sect. However, he had not expected his points to be spent so quickly. On top of that, there was the pressure of next year's sect competition, so he no longer had spare points to help Zhao Wu and the others. They could only rely on their own efforts.

Over these days, Zhao Wu and the other two had been killing demon beasts in the Demon Suppression Hall to accumulate points.

Hearing Liang Bo's question, Xiao Qing frowned and complained, "Young Master, these points are far too hard to earn. I'm still more than a hundred points short."

"I'm short by twenty points," Xie Jia answered.

Zhao Wu smiled. "I'm still short by fifty points. What, Liang Bo? Are you planning to sponsor us with some points?"

Liang Bo shook his head with a bitter smile. "Me? I don't even have a single point right now. How could I sponsor you?"

"I wasn't counting on you to sponsor us anyway." Zhao Wu smiled.

The group chatted as they headed toward the hall for the apprenticeship ceremony, quickly arriving at their destination.