Ancient Martial Arts Trial, First Contact with the Inheritance

The matter between Jiang Yuan and Song Xi had been settled, and he did not linger in their tenderness for long.

When the first ray of dawn pierced the darkness, he was already fully dressed. With the inconspicuous wooden box on his back, he strode out of the old apartment building.

Just as he turned onto the only road leading to the martial arts center, a figure silently appeared beneath the streetlamp ahead of him.

It was Ling Feng.

He was dressed as usual in ordinary sportswear, yet his entire presence carried a calmness utterly out of place with his surroundings.

"I thought you'd at least wait until daylight before coming out."

"The matter was settled. Naturally, it was time to leave." Jiang Yuan's reply was concise.

Ling Feng walked forward several steps and fell into stride beside Jiang Yuan.

"You should already know about Chu He's ambush plan. With your current strength, forcing your way through head-on doesn't give you much chance, especially against those two Meridian Opening Realm experts who underwent deep modification."

"So you came to offer me another path?" Jiang Yuan stopped and turned to look at him.

Ling Feng nodded, a trace of solemnity appearing on his face.

"More or less. But that path won't be easy either. In exchange, once we reach New Star, I hope you can do me a favor. It concerns the Ancient Martial Arts Association."

"Fine." Jiang Yuan agreed with exceptional decisiveness.

He knew that whatever an inheritor of ancient martial arts like Ling Feng was pursuing would likely overlap with the clues his father, Jiang Xiaotian, had left behind.

Half an hour later, on the outskirts of the city, at the abandoned Third Machinery Factory.

Ling Feng led Jiang Yuan around several collapsed factory buildings with practiced ease and arrived beneath a massive abandoned cooling tower.

He reached out and knocked nine times against a rust-covered metal wall in a peculiar sequence.

"Rumble..."

A dull tremor rose from the ground, and a set of alloy stairs leading underground slowly emerged.

"This is a trial chamber left on Old Star by the predecessors of our lineage. No one has successfully passed it in decades." Ling Feng explained as he took the lead down the stairs. "There are three trials in total, each the ultimate test of a martial artist's different abilities. If you can pass them, I guarantee that Chu He's arrangements will be as good as useless before you."

Jiang Yuan followed him down. As they descended deeper, an ancient, weathered aura rushed toward him.

The first trial chamber was a vast underground cavern. At its center lay a bottomless black pool, above which stood more than a hundred densely packed plum-blossom stakes, each as thick as a bowl.

"This is the Heavy Water Formation. The pool does not contain ordinary water; its density is more than ten times that of conventional liquid. Any object that falls in will be crushed instantly by the immense pressure. These plum-blossom stakes are made from century-old iron birch. They appear sturdy, but their insides have long been corroded by moisture. Each can only withstand the force of a single normal foothold from a Body Tempering Realm martial artist."

Ling Feng pointed toward the exit on the opposite shore.

"To cross, you must use the most exquisite movement technique and pass through this field of stakes without damaging a single one."

Jiang Yuan swept his gaze over it, then shook his head.

"Too troublesome."

Ling Feng was about to ask what he meant when he saw Jiang Yuan take a deep breath. His bones erupted with a series of crackling pops.

The perfected Baxia · Stone-Metal Body activated at full force!

The next instant, Jiang Yuan did not step onto the plum-blossom stakes at all. Instead, he took one step directly into the black pool!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

With every step he took, the heavy water beneath his feet exploded under the tremendous force, forming towering columns of water. The iron birch stakes beside him merely caught in the waves shattered one after another, exploding into splinters that filled the air!

Ling Feng stood where he was, watching the scene that resembled a demolition site, and the corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.

He had just... waded straight across in the most barbaric way possible?

"You pass the first trial, then." When Ling Feng followed over, there was a hint of helplessness in his tone.

The second trial area was much smaller: an enclosed darksteel chamber with three pitch-black humanoid puppets standing silently in the center.

"These are Darksteel Puppets, each at the Body Tempering Peak. Their bodies are forged from high-density darksteel, and even conventional A-rank martial techniques can barely leave a mark on them. Their only weakness is the core node hidden inside their chests." Ling Feng's expression became grave. "You must destroy all three core nodes within one minute of their activation."

The moment he finished speaking, red light flared within the three puppets' eye sockets. They moved to surround Jiang Yuan in a triangular formation, swift and lifeless.

Jiang Yuan neither dodged nor retreated. He charged directly at the puppet in front of him.

Bang!

His straight punch crashed into the puppet's chest. It merely swayed, while his own fist went slightly numb from the recoil.

It really was tough.

Just as the attacks of the other two puppets were about to reach him, Jiang Yuan suddenly lowered his body. His hands formed palms and pressed against the front puppet's arms in an eerie posture.

Profound Heaven · Shattering Bone Hand, Spiral Hidden Force!

"Crackle..."

An invisible spiraling force entered through his palms. It did not damage the puppet's hard outer shell, but bypassed every defense and precisely coiled around the core node inside it.

Crack!

A faint sound of shattering came from within the puppet. The red light in its eyes instantly went out, and it froze in place.

Jiang Yuan repeated the process. His body flashed between the other two puppets, and his hands touched their chests before separating at once.

In less than ten seconds, all three Darksteel Puppets had become scrap metal.

"The force technique you use truly is extraordinary." Ling Feng praised him sincerely. He was now certain that the ancient martial arts Jiang Yuan cultivated were absolutely older and more complete than his own lineage's inheritance.

"Let's go. The final trial."

The third trial was a narrow passage a hundred meters long. Both walls were covered in dense launch ports, within which dim red lights flickered erratically.

Ling Feng's expression was more serious than ever. "This is the ultimate test of movement technique and reaction speed. If you are hit, even a Meridian Opening Realm expert will suffer severe injuries. Are you sure you want to attempt it?"

Jiang Yuan stood at the entrance and focused his gaze ahead.

In his vision, countless crimson beams as thin as hairs crisscrossed the passage, forming a net of death without a single blind spot.

At his current speed, it was impossible for him to get through.

Just then, the familiar notification sounded in his mind.

[Ding!]

[Detected the operating trajectory of the incomplete lightness movement technique *Wave-Treading Step*. Conditions for recording have been met!]

[The system is consuming achievement points to deduce and complete it... Completion successful!]

[Would you like to receive the infusion?]

"Yes!"

A vast torrent of information surged into Jiang Yuan's mind in an instant. It was an unfathomable movement art. Countless phantom figures rapidly practiced within his consciousness, engraving every detail of the Wave-Treading Step into his instincts.

Jiang Yuan closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his entire aura had subtly changed.

He said one sentence to Ling Feng.

"Watch carefully."

Before his words had faded, his figure suddenly blurred. Then an afterimage remained where he stood, while his true body had already entered that web of death rays like a ghost!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

His body moved through the airtight net of beams with agility beyond human limits. Every twist and every sidestep was exquisitely precise, narrowly evading every lethal attack.

In Ling Feng's eyes, it was as though three Jiang Yuans had appeared in the passage at once—one in front and two behind. The three overlapping afterimages formed a line and crossed the entire hundred-meter passage in an instant at an inconceivable speed!

By the time Jiang Yuan came to a stop on the opposite side, the first afterimage he had left behind had only just begun to fade.

The Wave-Treading Step had reached perfection the moment he learned it!

"This..." Ling Feng no longer knew what words could describe how he felt.

"It seems the secrets you carry are even greater than I imagined." Ling Feng was the first to recover. He took an antique bronze token shaped like a broken sword from his chest and handed it to Jiang Yuan.

"This is the token of my lineage. Take it with you. Once you reach New Star, go to the Ancient Martial Arts Association. They will tell you everything about the 'Martial Emperor' and the complete inheritance."

Jiang Yuan accepted the token. It was ice-cold in his hand.

At daybreak, Jiang Yuan walked out of the abandoned factory.

In one hand, he held the storage device Song Xi had given him containing Chu He's ambush plan. In the other, he idly played with the antique bronze broken-sword token.

The newly acquired Wave-Treading Step had raised his speed and agility by more than a full level. Combined with the perfected Metal-Stone Body and Shattering Bone Hand, those two so-called Meridian Opening Realm experts no longer posed any threat in his eyes.

He looked up at the pale light spreading across the horizon, and a cold curve formed at the corner of his mouth.

Since all of you wanted to play, then let's make it simple.

"I'll take them all out together."