Receiving the mantle, unafraid of wind and rain! What if I happened to be that one-in-ten-thousand genius?

The prelude to secret martial arts—the Tortoise Snake Great Pillar!?

Hiss!

What a bluffing name!

He recalled how Lu Hongyu had spent the past few days showing him around Lu Manor.

On top of that, Lu Chengfeng thought highly of him. Seeing that he had yet to Nourish Blood or Forge Tendons, he had kindly given him a few pointers, intending to pass down a volume of Lu Manor's blood-nourishing Pile Stance.

It was not as though he knew nothing of Pile Stances for the Toughening Tendons Realm.

The Pile Stances collected at Lu Manor were all compiled into books from fine bamboo slips and recorded in volumes.

There were only a handful in the entire manor.

In Anning County,

they were first-rate inheritances, surpassed only by the closely guarded secret teachings of the Three Great Gangs and Four Great Halls.

He had heard that if one opened a school and taught disciples with one such Pile Stance, they could charge one or two hundred taels of snowflake silver!

A martial art for Entering Force often cost anywhere from a dozen to several dozen taels.

And these concerned one's own transformation, forging a body of mercury blood and steel sinews—the very foundation of one's life. Naturally, they were more expensive, and that made sense.

But

Ji Xiu had once browsed the catalogue of bamboo books recording Pile Stances. Most were things like "Tiger Crouching Pile," "Returning Origin Pile," and "Vajra Pile."

Not a single one

was as grand and imposing as the Silk Book Duan Chenzhou had taken out!

And—

"Master Duan wants to take me as his final disciple?"

Ji Xiu's heart trembled.

Among the Daoist Temples and schools of this world,

serving tea and bowing before a master was called becoming a "Registered Disciple."

As the name implied, one merely registered under their name and received martial instruction.

If one later made a name for oneself, it meant the master had taught well, and one would still bear the name of that Daoist Temple or school.

If one failed to amount to anything, they were left to fend for themselves. Even if they starved or froze to death, it only meant they lacked the ability to rise above the rest.

After becoming a Registered Disciple,

came "taking a seat and being ranked"!

Only by truly having one's name entered under the master, taking a seat, and entering the inner hall

could one be considered a disciple favored by the master, someone who would receive special instruction and the true teachings.

The one ranked first among the seats was called the face of the school, also known as the "First Disciple," representing the honor of that inheritance and enjoying boundless prestige.

He had heard that the "First Disciples" of Anning County's Four Great Halls—Fist, Spear, Saber, Sword—were all masters who had completed Bone Forging, invulnerable to blades and spears, extraordinary through and through.

And beyond all that,

there was another kind.

They were called "final disciples"!

A final disciple—

either belonged to a martial expert whose craft had reached its peak and who felt he could advance no further,

or to an old martial artist, frail and declining, with one foot already in the coffin, unwilling to let a lifetime of skill be buried with him.

Only then would they take in the last disciple of their life!

They would close their doors and their school, wash their hands in a golden basin, and never again concern themselves with worldly affairs.

By all reason,

such a final disciple would often inherit the most exquisite mantle, even the very foundation of an entire school!

Ji Xiu had only come today hoping to gain the status of a "Registered Disciple." He had never expected the twists and turns to send him soaring three ranks at once, becoming the sole seedling under Duan Chenzhou!

Thinking of Lu Yu, who had served for nearly three years without even earning a name, Ji Xiu realized that the title of final disciple and true inheritor might carry mountain-and-sea pressure, with tangled complexities and all manner of hidden secrets behind it.

Yet he did not hesitate in the slightest. He broke the seal on the Hua Diao Wine, filling the courtyard with its fragrance, strode forward in a few hurried steps, and filled the bowl before Duan Chenzhou to the brim.

Then he looked at the volume of "Tortoise Snake Great Pillar."

His fingertips brushed it. Without a trace of hesitation, he clenched it tightly in his palm, as though gripping Fate by the throat!

A poor boy like him had no choice.

With a road to the heavens laid before him, if he refused to tread it, unwilling to take even a little risk,

then this was all his life would ever be!

"Master Duan, this disciple is willing to learn!"

"Life is already full of hardships. What is a road of no return?"

Ji Xiu offered the wine and bowed, his voice ringing like iron:

"Spending an entire lifetime fallen in these muddy alleys—that is the road of no return."

"Master Duan once helped me set my aspirations, telling me just how wide and vast the great path of a martial artist truly was."

"And the road lies beneath my feet. How far I can go depends entirely on myself."

"Since a Pile Stance capable of laying the foundation for superior sinews and bones lies before me—"

"If, because of the 'dangerous calamity' Lord Gu and Master Duan spoke of, I cower in fear and dare not move forward—"

"Would that not be a betrayal of a martial artist's original intent to advance with courage and vigor?"

Detected that the Ordination Master has acquired the superior Pile Stance "Tortoise Snake Great Pillar." This stance is divided into upper and lower volumes: the Blood-Nourishing volume, "Mystic Tortoise Great Toad Form," and the Tendon-Forging volume, "Soaring Serpent Chasing Cloud Form."

Advance the upper volume: Mystic Tortoise Great Toad Form?

After advancing it, repayment condition: perform the Mystic Tortoise Pile, circulate qi through the hundred meridians, and exhale in one breath, thirty times in total, to achieve completion.

Upon fully cultivating "Tortoise Snake Great Pillar," the Ordination Master may use the Primordial Dao Talisman to seize its "trait" and keep it upon their person!

Lines of tiny characters, like molten gold, floated amid the Dao Talismans gathering drop by drop.

As Ji Xiu touched the Silk Book, neither Gu Baichuan nor Duan Chenzhou noticed anything within his sight.

Once he had taken in every piece of information,

Ji Xiu lowered his brows. To outsiders, it looked as though he had deliberately paused for a moment before saying:

"If some outside force is obstructing this—though I do not know exactly who or what great power has made Lord Gu speak so obscurely, or made Master Duan live secluded in this small courtyard, ignoring worldly affairs—"

"But—"

"Call me wildly ambitious if you wish, or say I do not know my place."

"Since I have entered this school—"

"Then if something changes, Master Duan need not stand in the way."

"The ailments that have lain deep through the ages—"

"I, Ji Xiu, will bear them on one shoulder!"

"At worst, it is only one life!"

Whoosh!

Gu Baichuan abruptly rose from the stone table.

"You brat—"

"Hah."

"The ignorant truly know no fear."

He shook his head, feigning drunkenness as he chuckled and carried his sheathed Embroidered Spring Saber, swaying as he walked.

"Not looking, not looking, not seeing, not seeing—"

"Once one enters the true essence and touches upon the path of Secret Martial Path, even catching a single breath or a single movement—"

"Friends may turn into enemies someday!"

"I'm leaving, I'm leaving!"

With that, he picked up a jug of the Hua Diao Wine Ji Xiu had brought and strolled off alone.

At the threshold, he suddenly turned back and snorted.

"You invited me here as a witness?"

"I heard your old enemy rose to power, and your heart turned to ashes. You intend to make sure your path does not end after you are gone, so you asked me to 'look after' this boy a little, didn't you?"

"Hmph. Duan, you've been stubborn your whole life. If you had known to lower your head back then, how would things have come to this?"

"Fine, fine. When you can no longer hold this umbrella, it would not be impossible for me to prop it up for your line for a little while."

"But this Secret Martial Path—with so many rules and so many step-by-step paths before one can even glimpse the threshold—"

"Are you so certain this boy can make it?"

He shook his head.

Then he stepped away.

Only Duan Chenzhou remained. He stared at Ji Xiu and smiled.

"The ailments that have lain deep through the ages... You will bear them on one shoulder?"

A trace of reminiscence surfaced on his face.

"You are stubborn by nature."

"But since you have become my disciple, I must say this to you."

"Sometimes, do not be so high-spirited. If you do not know how to yield to the rules or bend yourself to please others, sooner or later you will suffer a great loss."

"Within the county, it is not so bad. They are all rough men and local tyrants—who is nobler than whom? But once you leave this five-hundred-li stretch of Anning, you must rein yourself in a little."

"Some people cannot stand seeing such 'spirit' in you."

"In this vast Great Xuan, among countless hundreds of millions of living beings, how could there be merely tens of millions of martial artists on the Human Immortal Martial Path?"

"Yet some are born with horns upon their brow, ranked among the nobility, riding the tide of an era."

"Others must endure wind, frost, blades, and swords all the way, tramping through mud and marshes as they claw their way toward a future."

"Life is bitter to begin with, and opportunities are so few. One misstep, and beneath you lies a boundless abyss."

His voice suddenly sank.

But after Ji Xiu rose and listened, he pondered for a moment, then shook his head.

"But if I bent myself to please others and flattered those above me, would Master Duan still have accepted me and passed down the true teachings?"

Duan Chenzhou had just lifted his wine.

He had been about to imitate a master's manner and offer some earnest instruction, but as he looked at the clear wine and heard those unexpected words, he suddenly froze.

Then he frowned, took a sip, and only after a long while said:

"No."

He watched the black-clad youth tightly clutch the Silk Book in his hand. After a long silence, he sighed.

"Fine. I cannot argue with you."

"But—"

"You do not understand what Secret Martial Path represents."

"Nor do you know that this 'Tortoise Snake Great Pillar,' though merely the most basic and introductory prelude of my lineage, is still exceedingly, exceedingly difficult."

"Even if I teach and guide you hand in hand, I do not know whether, after one or two months, you will manage no more than its outward form."

"If you still cannot make the slightest progress after so long, then for the sake of not delaying your advancement in the Toughening Tendons Realm, it would be better to give up early."

Listening to Duan Chenzhou's sighing words, which seemed to describe the difficulty of this method,

Ji Xiu held the secret Silk Book and looked at the advancement prompt of the Primordial Dao Talisman. The wind stirred the hair at his temples, and he suddenly smiled as though making a joke.

"But what if—just what if."

"Master Duan."

"What if I am that one-in-ten-thousand genius?"