The Idle Training Method

The group followed the secret passage eastward for dozens of li before a heavy stone door barred their way. After searching around, they found a mechanism beside it, but unfortunately, it no longer worked. Clearly, someone had sabotaged it as well.

"How could a mere stone door stop the revival of our Mount Hua Sect!"

Yue Buqun snorted coldly and drew his longsword. Empowered by Houtian True Qi, it thrust out with incomparably sharp sword-qi.

The Mount Hua experts accompanying him also drew their swords and helped cut through the heavy stone door.

The stone door was enormous, a full zhang thick, but it still could not halt Yue Buqun and the others. They forcibly carved their way through.

Stepping through the hole they had carved, the group found the space before them suddenly opening up.

Before them lay a vast chamber, more than ten zhang across. Judging by the marks on the surrounding stone walls, it had clearly been excavated by human hands. Below lay a pool of water.

"Senior Brother Sect Leader, there are no other exits nearby. I suspect the exit is most likely in that pool. The water flows, and its quality matches the nearby Yellow River waterways. There are even carp living in it."

After the group quickly explored the area, one man came over to report. Yue Buqun's gaze also fell upon the pool at the bottom of the cavern.

He had the same suspicion. There had to be an underwater passage connecting it to the Yellow River outside. Only that could keep outsiders from discovering it.

Someone immediately dived into the pool and resurfaced shortly afterward.

"Master, martial uncles, there really is a waterway down there leading outside! From the outside, this place looks like a cliff!"

The young disciple shouted excitedly. With this secret passage, they could transport those treasures away without a sound. As a member of the Mount Hua Sect's hidden branch, he would benefit from those treasures himself.

"So it really is a hidden dock."

A smile appeared on Yue Buqun's face, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Given the Guan family's location, the only way to secretly sell their finished bows, crossbows, and weapons to the foreign tribes of the grasslands was to use the Yellow River.

He simply had not expected Guan Family Fort to have dug a tunnel nearly ten li long by sheer force. The manpower and resources it had consumed were unimaginable.

"That does make sense. Without this secret passage, someone would have noticed something wrong with Guan Family Fort's activities long ago. But now, it has fallen right into our Mount Hua Sect's hands."

Thinking it over, Yue Buqun realized that this secret passage was the key to Guan Family Fort's century-long career of betraying their country. Neither the iron ore and coal used for forging nor the finished weapons, bows, and crossbows could be allowed to see the light of day. Otherwise, disaster would inevitably follow.

Privately manufacturing weapons in large quantities was already a capital offense in the Southern Ming Kingdom, let alone selling them to the foreign tribes of the grasslands.

Once exposed, the entire Guan Family would be exterminated by Guanzhong's countless righteous martial artists alone, without the imperial court even having to act.

After all, their Guanzhong region bordered those foreign tribes. Beyond the Yellow River lay nothing but the grassland tribes, whose invasions they suffered year after year. Their hatred ran as deep as the sea.

"Go outside and scout the surroundings. Make sure there are no outsiders around. The rest of you, follow me and move the treasure chests. Then procure some large boats so we can transport them back gradually."

Forcing himself to calm down, Yue Buqun gave his orders.

Guan Family Fort had indeed put considerable thought into this tunnel. Not only had they shored it up with thick timbers and planks to prevent collapses, but they had also laid iron rails to make transportation easier.

Now, all those facilities had fallen into the Mount Hua Sect's hands!

Leaving aside Yue Buqun and the others' miserable toil as porters, far away at the Mount Hua Sect, Tian Hao was intensifying his arduous training.

He neglected none of his arts, whether it was the Martial Sage Dragging Saber Slash obtained from Guan Family Fort, Mount Hua's Embrace Origin Force, the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt, or the Eagle Claw Stele-Smashing Hand.

Apart from four hours of deep sleep each day, his schedule was packed full. He had even cut back his daily meteoric iron hammering routine by more than half to make time for training.

"The Innate Divine Attribute really does speed up the refinement of force."

After finishing a set of Embrace Origin Force Fist Technique boxing movements, Tian Hao let out a long breath, immensely pleased with the spirit attribute stacked from his two cheats.

Cultivating internal arts required continuously tempering internal power, internal qi, true qi, and the like with one's intent, making them steadily more refined and transforming them.

Cultivating force through external arts also required intent, and intent was linked to the Innate Divine Attribute. A powerful spirit attribute helped refine and control internal force while increasing cultivation speed.

He had originally thought the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt would be the first to break through. Who could have guessed that, bolstered by his Innate Divine Attribute, his Embrace Origin Force would advance by leaps and bounds instead? In two months at most, it would reach the major attainment realm of Embrace Origin Guarding the One.

"That does make sense. Embrace Origin Force may be easy to learn and hard to master, but it tests comprehension more than anything. Comprehension is clearly linked to the Innate Divine Attribute. With greater comprehension, training naturally yields twice the results for half the effort."

Tian Hao soon understood the key to it and was not particularly surprised.

There were shortcuts to cultivating certain martial arts, such as the Ming Cult's Heaven and Earth Great Shift. Just look at how miserably its successive cult leaders had struggled to practice it.

Even Comrade Yang Dingtian, whose name sounded the most imposing of all, had suffered cultivation deviation and died because of a scene of cuckoldry played out before his very eyes. He was truly a disgrace among the Ming Cult's leaders.

But look at Comrade Little Zhang. He had perfected it in just a few hours, slapping the faces of every previous cult leader until they were swollen.

By the same principle, cultivating a gently practiced external art like Embrace Origin Force placed greater emphasis on comprehension. With high comprehension, one could likewise achieve twice the results for half the effort.

Though his progress was nowhere near as outrageous as Comrade Little Zhang's cultivation of the Heaven and Earth Great Shift, it was still far from slow.

As a result, Embrace Origin Force, originally the hardest art to cultivate, might very well become his first external martial art to reach major attainment. When that happened, his strength would surely soar.

"You damned rat, do you dare fight me?"

As he was pondering this, a sharp young woman's shout rang out.

A masked girl had appeared before him at some point, holding a sword in one hand and radiating murderous intent.

The newcomer was none other than Yue Lingshan. As for why she had covered her face...

There was nothing she could do about it. Practicing the Hot-and-Cold Body Tempering Method had completely killed the surface layer of her skin, turning it black. It was so hideous that she could not bear to show her face to anyone and could only keep it covered.

"Wait a moment."

After a brief silence, Tian Hao turned and went back into the cave. He put on the new piece of equipment he had forged, then walked out carrying the Meteoric Iron Greatsword over his shoulder.

"You... you're cheating!"

Seeing the suit of Chainmail on him, Yue Lingshan trembled with anger.

It was just a spar! Did he have to be this shameless?

"Enough talk. Come fight!"

Dragging the Meteoric Iron Greatsword behind him, Tian Hao assumed the stance of the Martial Sage Dragging Saber Slash and gestured for the girl to attack.

He had specially forged this suit of Chainmail to cover his torso, limbs, and head, using nothing but meteoric iron.

In fact, if the imperial court had not forbidden commoners from making or wearing armor, he would have wanted to get himself a suit of meteoric iron plate armor.

"I'm not who I used to be!"

Speaking bitterly, Yue Lingshan flicked the Jade Water Sword in her hand. Internal qi coiled around it, making the air surrounding the blade distort slightly.

"Internal qi! You've broken through!"

After a moment of stunned surprise, Tian Hao was overjoyed.

His junior martial sister cheat was another step closer to an upgrade. This also proved his conjecture correct: resisting extreme heat and cold over long periods really did aid the cultivation of internal arts.

If developed further, it could even allow one's internal art to circulate continuously for all twenty-four hours of the day. That would amount to cultivating internal arts every single moment, with an efficiency ordinary people could scarcely imagine.

It was practically a martial arts version of an idle-training cheat!

And the inspiration had come from a certain one-armed hero who could clip his own fingernails-the one who wandered around with a giant eagle all year round.

Although he lacked a treasure like the Cold Jade Bed, making a budget version posed no problem.

He simply had not expected Yue Lingshan to break through so quickly. It seemed the results were quite good.

"Take my sword!"

Without another word, the girl thrust her sword swiftly forward. It was White Rainbow Pierces the Sun from Mount Hua Swordsmanship, another killing move with astonishing power.